What is worse for your business – an empty chair or a chair with the wrong person sitting in it?

What will the employment marketplace look like in the first half of 2010? As business confidence improves it looks like it will favour the workers. In other words there will be more positions than qualified candidates, with the result that employers will struggle to create and retain the teams they crave for. Often out of desperation it is all too easy to install the wrong person with catastrophic results.

Candidates, especially professionals, increasingly pose a new question of their potential employers … What’s In It For Me?

So what do candidates want? – increasingly, financial return is not the leading priority. You need to offer much more than this.

“I want advancement, mentoring and inspirational leadership”.
“I want interesting work, flexibility and a respectful and relaxed atmosphere”.
“I prefer to work in a results-driven environment”.
“I need to work in an organisation whose morals and ethics match mine”.
“I want variety and challenges”.
“I need to know that my efforts are valued and stand for something”.
“Where will I be in 1, 3, 5 years … will I stay that long?”

Candidates insist on the truth. An employer’s eloquent and persuasive description of their company and employment opportunity must match the experience of the candidate when they start work. An employment experience is viewed as a transaction – productivity and knowledge traded for a promise.

If the position does not live up to their expectations from day one, if promises are not kept, should anticipated objectives not be achieved, then the deal is off. There is little remorse or loyalty, because other options are coming available. In short, employers are in danger of wasting a lot of time and money in the process of recruiting, hiring and training good people, only to see them walk out the door.

If the keystone to any successful business or enterprise is its people and their combined input, productivity and knowledge, then few things can be more destructive than ‘poor fit’ employees – individuals whose core values, visions, standards and objectives (either personal or professional) do not match those of the business and its leaders.

What has this to do with branding?

What is worse for your business – an empty chair or a chair with the wrong person sitting in it? Creating an effective employer brand, marketing it and believing in it can help minimise or remove both from your list of worries.

A canny employer has to think beyond the traditional job advertisement which details a salary, hours and job description or even relying on a recruitment consultant to solve your problems.

A well considered and executed employer brand will attract the right type of candidate rather than a volume response. It will help market and promote your organisation and add value to your marketing and promotional spend and activity.

Tell the truth. Work out what is truly positive and unique about your employment offer. What do you offer other than a salary and a desk? When they get home, how do you think your employees feel and talk about their day at work? How do they express your brand to family, colleagues and friends?

For many organisations employment branding is a brave step. It requires of them to look within, analyse the truth of who and what they are, listen to the positives and negatives and build a promise around the deliverables. Don’t however promise the earth if you can’t deliver it. People will leave – it will cost you time and money and your business will suffer.



Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au