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Is Employer Branding Best Practice or BS? #TChat Preview

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Originally posted by Matt Charney on MonsterThinking Blog

The average worker today has more brands to deal with than a Texas cattle rancher, but one that most never really give a whole lot of thought to, at least compared to the ubiquitous (if ambiguous) concept of “personal brand” is that of employment branding.

Which makes sense; after all, many talent acquisition and HR professionals don’t pay a whole lot of attention to it, either, with many companies often outsourcing or ignoring this brand management function.  By contrast, other employers spend millions of dollars a year building and managing carefully crafted and focus group tested campaigns that look more like a Super Bowl ad than a classified employment listing.

With practitioners seemingly split on the importance, or even existence, of employment brand, it begs a few questions: which side are you on?  What side should your company be on?  And, most importantly: does it matter to the workers to whom these efforts are targeted in the first place?

We’ll be exploring these questions, and their implications for the evolving world of work, in tonight’s #TChat: “Is Employer Branding BS?” No matter which side of the fence you’re on (or, like most, neutral or undecided), if you’ve ever visited a company career page or read an industry blog (like this one), you’ve been exposed to employer branding – that is, if it really exists.

Join moderator Meghan M. Biro (Twitter: @meghanmbiro) of @talentculture along with #TChat co-hosts @kevinwgrossman @monsterww @monster_works and @focus tonight at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT and let us know: is employer branding B.S.?

#TChat Questions & Recommended Reading (07.12.11)

To help prepare, and inform, your participation in tonight’s conversation (or even if you can’t make it), here are the questions we’ll be discussing, along with some recommended reading designed to give you background – and perspective – on employer and company culture branding.

Tonight’s sure to be a lively discussion; we look forward to seeing you (and your brand) for #TChat at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT!

Q1. What’s your definition of company or employer brand?

Read: The Employer Brand Experience by Dr. Jesse Harriott & Doug Hardy

Q2. How does employer brand differ from a consumer brand?  Personal brand?

Read: Why Employer Branding Matters More Than Ever by Bob Kelleher

Q3. What makes a strong employer brand?  A weak one?

Read: The Taylor Guitar Story: Fine Tuning A Successful Corporate Brand by Bob Taylor

Q4. How does employer brand play into talent acquisition?  Retention?

Read: Attract the Right Candidates With Consistent Company Branding by John Rossheim
Q5. What effect does social media have on employer branding?

Read: How to Use Social Media To Build Your Brand by Susan Kuchinskas

Q6. Who controls employer brand: the company, employees, public, etc.?

Read: Tactical Corporate Transparency: Build Your Brand From The Inside Out by Shel Holtz & John C. Havens

Visit www.talentculture.com for more great information on #TChat, as well as other great resources on careers and hiring.

Monster’s social media team supports #TChat’s mission of sharing “ideas to help your business and your career accelerate — the right people, the right ideas, at the right time.”

Recruitfest! Join Us. The Future of Talent Starts Here

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I’m very excited TalentCulture is a corporate sponsor for this event Thursday, Oct 7th. Look forward to seeing everyone. We will also be present at the TweetUp – Here is today’s guest post from Eric Winegardner, Vice President, Client Adoption, Monster Worldwide.

This week promises to be the highlight of my year.  In just two days, nearly a year’s worth of brainstorming and planning will come to fruition and illustrate the possibilities when two organizations partner around a common desire of moving the Recruiting industry forward.  Of course, I am talking about Recruitfest!

I had the opportunity to attend RecruitFest! in-person last year in Toronto. I had skipped the inaugural event the year before and to this day consider it a professional miss.  What I experienced over those two days was a truly unique, transformative recruiting event that I knew I wanted to be a part of- and quite honestly wanted Monster to be involved in.  The first day had not even wrapped, and the wheels of partnership were in motion.

There’s something about the RecruitFest! brand that attracts the best and brightest minds from our industry.  Some credit the casual environment where people can participate in the conversations that matter to them.  Others say it is the design of the agenda that encourages speakers to lead conversations around topics rarely discussed, but critical to moving our profession forward.  I think it is a combination of the two- great people having passionate conversations about the possibilities inherent to the evolving world of work.

While this year’s RecruitFest! agenda is a bit more structured, it is still built around voicing opinions (however controversial) and exploring possibilities with the objective of transforming the conversation from theory into practice.   Our collective goal for the day is that everyone walk out (or log off) of RecruitFest! excited about being a part of this amazing community and reminded that what we do is perhaps one of the most noble professions on the planet: finding great jobs for great people.

Most importantly, we want you to have an experience that changes the way you think about recruiting and makes you a stronger, better informed professional equipped to serve the people who really matter: your clients and your candidates.

The Recruitfest! agenda is designed to tackle the business of recruiting holistically. We know that it’s not all about sourcing, or interviewing, or compensation, or benefits or any of the hundreds of tactical responsibilities involved in placing the right candidate in the right job.  It’s about how all of those elements can work together to position you and your talent organization as strategic business partners.

This year, we’ve selected a group of world-class leaders to steer the conversation.  Just check out this line-up!  Some are familiar names, others will be.  They all have one thing in common, wicked-smart and passionate about the business! What’s cool is we’ve grouped them together to facilitate conversations about topics that while they may be experts in require examining perspectives that they- and you- might not have thought of before or even entirely embraced.

More interestingly, the track leaders will be joining the audience of recruiting professionals at the event for the duration, participating in and adding to the dialogue as peers, not “influencers” or “thought leaders.”  That means that you get to hear from some of the most influential minds working in talent today, talking about the topics that really matter, in a completely spontaneous, unscripted, and unrehearsed format.  More importantly, they want to hear what you think.

The biggest learning opportunities and most valuable takeaways at RecruitFest! happen in real time. That’s because the conversation informs the content, instead of the other way around.  And that’s where you come in.

I truly believe that the best ideas and the brightest minds in recruiting don’t necessarily spend their time publishing blogs, joining me on the conference circuit or even sharing their insights and ideas with others in the recruiting community.  Why? You’re too busy recruiting!

October 7 is the day that all changes.  That’s because RecruitFest! has redesigned the un-conference experience it introduced to the recruiting space.  We will be utilizing cutting-edge tools and technologies to create a true “un-conference” experience whether you’re in Boston, Baltimore or Beijing.  You don’t just get to watch the stream at your desk, you get to participate in the conversation! The Recrutifest! virtual experience will allow you to converse with other participants, ask questions of the presenters and in-studio attendees, and evolve the conversation- all from the convenience and comfort of your own desk.

I encourage you to check out the schedule, speaker bios and session descriptions and start thinking now about how you can lend your voice to shaping the success of RecruitFest!  Register for the FREE virtual event today, and join during every available moment you have on Thursday!

As the emcee of the event, it’s my job not only to introduce our amazing speakers and awesome topics, but to keep the dialogue flowing.  That means it’s my responsibility (and my promise) to show no preference to any attendee because of how they are hearing and seeing the conference.  I don’t care where you are.  I care what you think.  And it’s not every day that a recruiter hears that.