Viewing September, 2009 Archive

Zero Sum Game

One of the systemic errors that I see corporations and Recruiting departments making is that they are treating hiring as a “zero sum game”.

The name comes from the fact that there are some games where the sum of the player’s payoffs at the end of the game sum to zero. Poker is a good example. Imagine you and I play head’s up poker. If at the end of the night I’m up $20 then, by definition, you are down $20. Our payoffs, plus $20 and minus $20, sum to zero. The point being that in zero sum games my wins define your losses (and visa versa). Continue reading

A Brand or a Temporary Tattoo?

Ok, I’m from the west.  Born in Boulder, Colorado and raised in ski country so to me, a “brand” is a borderline cruel way to mark your livestock – and mark it PERMANENTLY.

You’d never find a steer branded  “rocking H” wandering the stables at the “lazy M”.  A brand means something very REAL in livestock.  It means commitment.

And in Corporate life, a “brand” can mean commitment; commitment to quality, commitment to innovation, commitment to community etc.  

But come down another layer to the “employment brand” the whole subject gets pretty “squishy”. 

All of a sudden, the term “brand” means more of an aspiration than a commitment.  You would never see a steer not living up to it’s “brand” and rarely do you find a company not tied inextricably to it’s corporate brand but in “employment branding” there is way too much gray area.  But why?

The essence of employer branding is to attract talented individuals and ensure both they and existing employees identify with the organization – and its brand and mission –  to produce desired outcomes for organizations.

The discourse occurs when image triumphs over substance and what is publicly proclaimed is in conflict with reality.  Here, employees both tenured and new find the organization lacking in “brand” integrity.

So how do you avoid the “temporary tattoo” employer brand?  Simple.  Be real.  Inspect your brand; what keeps your star employees at your company and what attracts new ones?  What causes game changers to leave?  Do the analysis, be willing to be challenged and then set programs and culture changes to fix what is broken.  In short – live up to what your brand IS, not what you want it to be.  In the end you’ll attract and retain the talent you can and not the talent you think you should be.

No War for Talent

After attending ERE last week, I’m convinced that there will never be another “war for talent”. 

Having lived through the first war for talent of the mid to late 90’s during the dot.com boom, I can tell you that we were hiring as fast and as furious as possible.  Companies were offering 6 month leases on Ferrari’s as signing bonuses and the “war” was on.  As employers, we literally battled at offer time against one another – upping the ante’ until one of us blinked and lost the candidate.  The emphasis was on closing candidates and building companies.

Fast forward to the recovery of 2010-2011 and you’ll see a very different recruitment scenario.  One based, not on fast and furious recruitment but one based on engagement of talent. 

We won’t be building companies at warp speed.  Most organizations will add strategically instead of rabidly. Continue reading