Mobile Recruiting-Apps for Smartphones not so smart?

As I found myself with a great lack of time for the regular check-up on the job market I also found myself at lost for the proper "findings". Even, or maybe especially, LinkedIn and XING are hardly any help. Other Portals turned into app is seldom setting my HR-heart on fire.

Ralf blogged last week on how mobile recruiting-apps are of hardly any relevance according to a recent published study by trendMonitor. It stated that 81% of the persons asked are prefering other methods besides mobile recruiting. 

I took a look on the other side of the world for better answers to my question. What is about it anyways. 

(from blogg.careercloud.com)

And one gets it. To follow current job-offers via smartphone on platforms like InstaJob is awesome. To apply with it directly? Meh, not so. 

As HR I rather have applicants who pay attention and effort in their cover-letter/ -mail and résumé rather than having not-well-structured profiles thrown at me via wordless mail. And as HR I also advice my applicants to put some more work in it when they mean to work for a company for real. 

It leaves recruiting apps to only get the message and employer brand out there. Sometimes it is the only thing that's needed. 

By the way, if you wanna browse a little regarding all kinds of recruiting apps, this might help.

Nan

Minimum Wage for Interns?!

Translated from Ralf Junge's blog entry: "Mindestlohn für Praktikanten!?"

"Shaping Germany's Future“ – that is the title of the coalition contract, which has been signed last week. The contract also regulates the nationwide minimum wage. It says: "Good work has to pay off and secure existence. On the other side, productivity and wage level has to correspond accordingly, so employment subjected to social insurance contribution remains."

Quelle: dpa

In the previously published draft it still said, a minimim wage won't apply to interns. In the final contract, however, this sentence has been scratched out as wished by the social democratic party SPD. 

What does it mean now? Is a minimum wage for interns coming up? This would mean interns are going to receive a wage of approximately €1,400 a month when working 40h/week. 

Yesterday, at the Day of Interns, I talked about this subject with representatives of different companies, interns and the Project Manager of the Initiative Fair Company.A great part agreed with the introduction of the minimum wage, are afraid, nevertheless, offers of open interships to be drastically reduced. Interships would be more expensive, automatically costs of recruiting would considerably increase.

Attention! There is already a loophole: The minimum wage only applies to young people with vocational graduation. Interns, who ought to complete an internship in line with their eductaion (while enrolled at college/university) are considered to be in a training relationship not in an employment, a work relationship. So no minimum wage for those interns. 

Does this mean we are going to have interns of first and second class? Will there only the best to receive an internship? Does this create a new wave of youth unemployment? Is it possible for interns to be forced to work/perform even more due to the receiving of such high wage, eclipsing the actual learning? 

Many questions came up which we couldn't resolve all while the discussion, either. Actually even more questions came up. At the moment we just can assume and have our own interpretation of the coalition contract. Precise details of this will be announced with the concrete legislative procedure.

Ralf Junge

Shitty Job? Why are we just so unhappy?

Translated from Ralf Junge's blog entry: "Scheiß Job? Warum sind wir nur so unglücklich?"

Every day and some even at night we are doing our job - often we don't even ask what we actually do and why. Be silent about asking wether the job resembles our conviction. 

How often do you reflect your job and how often do you sort your job into the overall concept of your company? Is your work fun? Or do you even see a deeper sense in it? 

Monster in connection with the GfK published a Study regarding this very subject. It shows clearl, in comparison to other countries Germans are unhappy with their jobs. Especially job-starters and Young Professionals aren't too convinced of their jobs. Look at the British - here every 10th ist that happy he would do his job even without the salary. So what is it with us, that we are just so uncontent?

I found a great short film which shows quite meek jobs:

Does a job always have to be fun? Or is it enough the salaray is paid? This is something everyone has to decide for himself. Personally, I find it very important to have a meaning behind my job and to know exactly what I am doing. This means, my job has to complete me and I like my job. And this is exactly why I do pick my employment. In the end, employer, the job and its tasks and I have to match. I want to attribute to the company's success and be aware of my responsibilities as well as how to be successful. A well mix of responsibility, significance and fun is important.

Why I write all these things? Well, in my hitherto professional career I often worked with people who didn't know why they are doing the job they do and why they actually should come to work every morning. If this ever happens to me, not finding the meaning and fun in doing my job, I would (have to) change this situation immediately. Changing the job within the company or finding a new employer. 9-to-5 Jobs aren't my thing. For this I am too much of a dissedent. What matters to you in a job?

Ralf

Employer Fail: WalMart collecting canned goods for WalMart Employees

As if it cannot be even worse with the Employer Image misere of Walmart, it gets even worse.
You may have seen it in the news already if not online, the grand food drive.

Walmart workers have set out storage containers for canned goods etc to be collected for COWORKERS and their families in need,not being able to provide for a holiday dinner. Now as this isn't a big pill to swallow already - it was a Walmart-union in Ohio that organized this collecting to take place. Let's get back to the problem though. There wouldn't be the need for all of this, IF Walmart cared for its workers enough to be out of need due to proper payment instead of ridiculously small paychecks for their associates.

It has been aired a googillion times how bad it is for Walmart employees. By on an average less the 25K p.a. even paying for the regular things such as the utility bill every month turns into an eat or be in the dark question. Sending their kids to college their like? Dream on, sugar!

Now though, whatcha know about this?:



(Mahalo to The Other 98% for this image)

Considering that the CEO of Costco is having a smaller salary than most executives and Costco had a total compensation package of about 4.8 million Dollars 2012, the salary of WalMart's CEO eyeballing $19+ MILLION p.a. in 2012 not only makes me wonder for how long WalMart employees are allowing their employer to continue to be that ugly of an employer. Yes Costco itself is smaller compared to the WalMart chain, but that doesn't mean it's lost its values and dignity as caring employer.

According to this article by Megan McArdle, WalMart won't ever be like CostCo as they would not dare to give up on costumers nor wide low-priced product range in order to increase payment for their employees. However, the short twitter feud between Ashton Kutcher and WalMart sure is worth watching, too.

That doesn't keep me from asking myself, when do even giants like WalMart understand that there are people with (family) lives working for paying to live by keeping the company running, and not for the next increase of the CEO's salary?! I find it disgusting to look at how modern economic slavery partially replaced the loyal an trust-filled bond between employer and employee which originally included a fiduciary- not a exploitation duty.

Considering a study showed that even the US government creates more low-waged jobs than WalMart shows where the priorities of the oh so highly praised world reigning US economy are.

What a shame. It is time to change and act right!

Why isn't HR mobile yet!

From Ralf Junge's blog entry: "Warum sind wir nicht mobil?"

My smartphone and I are like Bonnie & Clyde - inseperable, it is an essential part of my life. So much as wenn I don't have it with me, panic attacks almost occur. Technically my entire schedule is organized on my phone. Since I am looking for a new job, I am using my phone for my job search as well. But this, hardly is any fun.

Trying to look at job-ads via mobile I fail. Honestly: the up and down scrolling as well as the constant mini and maximizing is a pain. Actually, it is a pitty. Shouldn't it be logical to have a job search enabled to run via mobile phone.?! Survey results show quite clearly, web access via smartphone are increasing. And users demand a mobile optimization, for job-ads also.

Current studies affirm the saddening truth. Only a handful of companies are publishing actual mobile optimized job-ads. At least Monster.de released a pioneering announcement at this years Zukunft Personal - an annual fair for HR. 'Job-Ads are to be published with a responsive design.' We will see how long it will take companies to notice this trend.

I admit, mobile accessibility is not compellably required for every company. But when it comes to reaching the young, technology and web-affine target group as employer mobile optimization is needed. Especially as employers compete in the race for talents.

So what are we going to do now? Employers pretty much get the next target group directing innovation or channel served on a silver platter. Considering the current speed of innovations in HR, I strongly assume the Zukunft Personal 2015 it is called: "Recruiting is mobile now".

Personnel Marketing on Spotify: The German Army does it right!

Translated from Jannis Tsalikis' blog post : "Personalmarketing mit Spotify: Die Bundeswehr macht es vor!"

These were the days. As Teenager, sitting in front of my radio, I tried to record all the good and cool songs on cassette. There weren't too many ways to find new music back then. Sure didn't have the money for many vinyl plattes, later CD's, either. Accordignly my Walkman became my personal holy grail. Well, at least untill that stupid thing broke.

Today there are a felt googillion possibilities to get to hear the sound of time. You could listen to the radio still, but you also can listen to any kind of radio worldwide on radio.de. Technically it is even possible to manage one's own radio station, via Spotify for instance. Just like Soundcloud, Spotify allows you not only to selectively listen to music, but also for your friends to follow you and listen to the same you listened to.

Technically, Spotify is not only more than a radio station, it is a complete Social Media Channel where music is the common denominator. Naturally, more and more channels with music as basic are popping up, for example ampya, tape.tv, vevo ...

What does that have to do with Personnel Marketing?

Well, it is a simply another channel where companies and HR can reach potentials. In its "free" version on Spotify follows a spot of about 30 seconds after every second song. Here, companies can use these 30 seconds to place themselves, also, and use it for Personnel Marketing purposes. The German Army is apparently one of the first "employers" who use the communication channel this way.

Klicken, um zu vergrößern!

The German Armed Forces used the so called Audio Ad. When the spot is played on Spotify a click-able image in the cover area is displayed. You can see it in the left bottom corner of the image above. Additionally, a running text is causing another Call-to-Action (gray board at the bottom). 
You can say what you want about the Ad of the armed forces, but using this channel is  truely "ahead of the curve". Herefor it gets a star behind the name on the board!

Jannis

5 Questions to HR - Becoming a true Business Partner

Strategic work in HR seldom gets the appreciation as many still may connect HR to be the great task of hoarding personnel files, being a meany to applicants and not caring what employees feel and think about. Today I would like to introduce to you a dear colleague of mine: 

Nathalie works at MSLGROUP in Paris and is always on the bus when it comes to strategic change in personnel work within the global network. Personally, I admire her for her straight forwardness and positivity no matter how slow and agonizing a task or the process within a worldwide network is.

I asked her five questions about her work and how she views HR. Check it out and be inspired.

1.) Five words to describe your field/job/tasks?
Employee Engagement & Employer Branding

2.) How do you help your co-workers turning a frown upside down?
I have experienced that passion and enthusiasm is communicative, so this is how I'm trying to energize people who are working with me. If you keep a positive attitude, positive things will happen.


3.) Is there a task in HR which you dislike? 
Not really!


4.) Do your friends ask you to redact their résumés? 
HR has always been my passion even before it became a real job for me. I was on Monster and then LinkedIn long before I graduated. I've also been through so many student jobs that I have quite an extensive experience of applications and job interviews! Hence my friends have always came to me spontaneously for advice. I have never written anyone's applications though, I think it doesn't help the applicant nor the recruiter at the end of it! 

5.) What does or should HR stand for? 
I think there has never been a more interesting time to work in HR. With more and more admin issues dealt with externally, we can really focus on the Strategic Part of the job. Also, with employees jumping regularly from one company to another, the relation you have with Talent has changed drastically. On the Employee side it means making sure people are constantly inspired and energized in their work. On the Company side, it means becoming a true Business Partner to your Managers to help them navigate this change and build the best teams that will eventually deliver great business results. It's a win-win situation!

Thank you Nathalie. It was a great pleasure. 

Amazons at War for Talents

From Jannis Tsalikis's blog post: Amazonen im War for Talents

Coming Up! The golden Mangel of HR Communication is awarded December 4th, 2013.
Awards will be given to the winner of the greatest disturbings of external HR Communication. In the categories: The most discouraging job-ad, the most horrible career-video, the most unattractive career site, the worst social media presence. 

Be there, when employers send their amazons to the war for talents and other senseless wonder works on the world wide web are shown and celebrated. For now, here is the promised and newest anonymously sent in video.  

The Countdown is running!  Till November 15th you can mail your entry to pfuipfuipfui@goldene-runkelruebe.de. Exact time and place for the award will be announced in time. Save the date and stay tuned!

Jannis

Internship 2.0 - Abolish the internship-ery

Translated from Ralf Junge's blog post: "Wir schaffen das Praktikum ab"

Do German companies need or want interns?

Bild: Sean MacEntee 

Approximately nine years ago the generation internship came to life. Young professionals were literally ripped off. Working like an employee employed for years already but not receiving an appropriate salary, many even without any at all. And career perspectives - well those existed basically from internship to the next, as hardly ever. This created a great and grand outcry. Associated were founded, dealing with this very issue and demanding transparency of employment of each company. At some point politicians added their two cents to it also and created guidelines and contract samples. Considering everything so far one would think companies have learned from their mistakes, especially as the competition, or war, for talent became quite noticeable.

Yet, current studies and comments on employer rating portals show clearly there are companies still which literelly haven't done the change, be silent about noticing an issue present. Why don't we stop these long lasting (yeeeeears) and nerve-wracking discussion by abolishing the whole intership all itself !?!OR, we keep talking about the subject "work conditions of Young Professionals". Let's create a new internship model - Internship 2.0. Maybe, let's just institute a dissuasion department for bad companies and declare prohibitions and requirements for advertisment of internships.

December 2nd in Berlin's Axel-Springer-Hochhaus, the nationwide Day of Interns topics as above are discussed. The best employees for interns will be praised. So will the Interns of the Year be elected. Therefor you still can make suggestions right here www.tag-der-praktikanten.de. 

Ralf


Editor's Note:

It is about time actually!!! Especially in countries like the U.S. were situations like this and the following video keep occurring....

Today is Boss Day - how do you celebrate?

Translated from Ralf Junge's blog entry: "Heute ist Boss-Day - wie feiern Sie?"

"The way you work I would like to have vaycay."

"Flu is the weakness of character."
"You won't like me but I don't give a ****" 

„Our intern wanted to call it a day before I do. We both laughed.“

You might know more of those phrases? These were just a few selected examples of mean Boss statements, which the German site  BADASS BOSS for instance collects and publishes. I had to chuckle and laugh a couple of time when reading such statements. But. Actually, it is quite saddening to have a proof of such boss-attitude still existing. An attitude of arrogance and dictatorship. I for myself already got to know specimen like these - especially the first sentence was merely preached at my first job after graduating. 

Such behavior by superiors are hardly tolerated without having corresponding consequences. Since there are employer rating platforms and social media channels, frustrated employees are able to counter. And what day would be best than todays Boss Day!?

The Boss Day was declared in 1958 in the USA by Patricia Bays Haroski. She chose the birthday of her father who was, according to her, the examplary boss. Todays this day is seen as occasion to thank the own boss or tell him what the deal is.

Sudies show, the behavior of boss'/superiors to be one of the strongest factor regarding employees motivation, as well as being a base of overall employee satisfaction. However, we hear of bad working atmosphere too often, branded by fear of ones own boss, who loves sitting nose-up-ed on his thrown, losing the connection to his employees. For observers only, such "The office"-boss might be funny. It seems as if some boss's haven't cought the irony of the show just yet and adapted to the main character. Unfortunately, such behavior is cruel reality to too many employees still. So, why not considering  todays Boss Day as a reason to make a change. 

How do you celebrate the Boss Day? With flowers for your boss or a negative rating on the internet?

Ralf

Storytelling in HR

Everybody talks about Storytelling these days. And for brands storytelling is a well-working tool to gain and retain costumers. Especially as storytelling allows a brand to be presented in more than 6sec commercial "break".

The ads streaming prior to videos on sites like youtube.com are allowed to be skipped. While my daughter loves to click the skip button I find myself actually enjoying those ads as they are capturing an evolving story as grand visual play. It also allows the tool to be repeated within a self-marketing campaign without it getting annoying or old. So is Chanel's current storyboard for Coco which had me sucked in Chanel-World for 6 episodes of about 3-4 minutes each. Here is one to give a taste.




One big question popped up then: Why in the world does no employer gain and retains his employees via this tool?! 

(I haven't found one - but I am sure this would go more than viral.)

The assumed answer(s) to my question:
-  a lot of employers have not understood they are a brand on the job-market
-  most companies have not understood how emotions and motions can be used for HR
- HR and self-PR/Marketing does not get that big of a pot to finance an elaborated story
- HR has not understood that storytelling not only works for training purposes


Or maybe the world hasn't grown old and tired (and sick, personally) from carreer-rap-video-awkwardness
I would like you to spare from. But even videos like this one below is leaving a blah-feeling and makes me quote my cousin who loves to say "you cereal?!"




Nan

Factor: Industry Image - The Ad Industry and its aweful Employer Image

Translated from Jannis Tsalikis' blog entry: Faktor Branchenimage - Beispiel: Die Werbebranche und ihr schlechtes Arbeitgeberimage

In many Employer Branding - Models the industry image plays as actually quite contributing factor a smaller role for the Employer Image of companies. A mistake. It is obvious that the industry image influences the attractivity of corporate brands, and with it its employer brand. (For instance, if fluent in German, check this University paper, page 28, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Burmann, Das Branchenimage als Determinante der Unternehmensmarkenprofilierung, 2005).

Important "Players" for a good image of an industry are the big, well-known companies of the industry itself as well as the regarding associations, as they are the ones who has the take care of the very industry.

How you should not do it, well, that shows one industry as best, erm worst example: the ad industry.

Since working in this industry (for over 10 years) hardly anything has changed on the fact of "advertiser" being one of the most unfavored vocation.  The image is not new...
Certainly, the in August open letter released by a couple of students from University Pforzheim from Werbeliebe, an association who actually love advertising, is not the first warning to the ad industry. But instead of becoming active and cope with the situation finding a proper solution, the GWA, the association of advertisment agencies reacted (with an attitude *EN), demanding a definition of "appreciation"

Is advertisment really like this!? 39,90 

Last evening, in preparation for this blog post, I started a mini survey (anonymous, 2 questions), asking HR Manager I know. The seven well-experienced colleagues from well-known agencies asked all agreed with me. All answered regarding the sentence: "The GWA engages noticeably for the employer attractivity of the industry, especially regarding winning young talents" with the same - not aggreeing. If the GWA actually understands the signs in this content (this was the second question) is questionable. Here HR's are at odds.

But what to do when the association doesn't do anything? Resign the membership like Serviceplan did? Surely saves a lot of money but won't help solving the problem. 

Catastrophy as a chance? You cannot really free yourself from the industry image. With good Personnel- and Self-PR, however, singly companies can strive and steer against it. This means, though, companies will have to face and appreciate critics and not talk/make them small. In doubt, this means to walk new paths boldly.

Jannis

What if the elevator at work had this option too?

Most of us know it. The elevator that takes forever and stops at every storee there is. Preferably you work on storee "all the way up". Having stopped three times while you are in a hurry and eventually late leaves you opening the company door all pouting. Not to forget the endless fussing about all the stoopids who cannot use the stairs to the fourth floor.

For a little while already SoulPancake has been my inspiration for life and HR. Technically HR determines my life, so consider them as one being, why won't you ;) What I wanna show you now has rather less to do with HR but with a great idea that can be applied to occasional work days as frequent improvement.

Scrolling through the SoulPancake Channel I found this. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Joy Bomb Sing-a-long on the elevator cheering you up?




Have a joyful week, y'all.

Nan

Applicants apply at employer always, right? WRONG!

Check out what Andrew Horner, an applicant for Tech in spe did: http://reversejobapplication.com/

Nice idea and yes, much better than LinkedIn or XING. BUT - yes here we go again - as HR headhunting for fitting candidates we all love our profiles which are composed in an equal way. This way we can see what sticks out the most. Imagining reading through a bunch of websites such as these may make us feel closer to the person behind the résumé but it will munch our time away like MyLittlePony Shows my evening. (Yes, this show is stealing my delightful evening plan. Always.)

So, will this reverse application thing become a movement? Especially since more and more companies realize, that they don't pick applicants, but applicants pick employers (when and if they can). Latest when the third applicant rejects an offer for the same position, employers notice that. Walking you talk as company has never been so important as now in the times where CSR and Employer Branding has become a market in themselves.

The thing is, it will NOT become a movement. We, the HR, will not have to look through a googillion of website based vitas. Yes, we admit, one page as CV is almost nothing to see how the person ticks and acts. YET, that is what interviews are for. That's why companies torture their applicants by runnign them through assessment centers. That is what trial period is for. And in the end, it is just less time and as cost efficient as letting HR eyes scan over oh so many resume-ed sites.

It will be interesting on how Applying actually will change in the future. Back then references was everything, now even pre-fixed resumes like the Europass ain't the best. LinkedIn/XING Profiles meh. Jeanne Meister for instance suggests, that there won't be CV's at all one day.

It definitely will be HR-evolutional.

Change of Work - Visionairies arise from Crisis

From Ralfs Junge's blog entry: "Der Wandel der Arbeit – Visionäre in der Krise"

It was easy to recruit, back in the days. Well, everything was better back in the days. Employers offered incentives like a company car, cell phones (both, for private use also), and company pension plans. In some branches this workes today, still. The larger part of young professionals however, is rather imaterial expectations. It is about self-realization and finding the purpose in one's own work.  

While taking a time out from the job I travelled to Lisboa. I wanted to know what expectations young people have regarding their job. Especially in context to the current financial crisis. So I met with some of the youths, quite a lot of them were entrepreneurs. 

I met Lina and João from Daring Project, an associatation of young entrepreneurs, who are eager to create a new and sustaining concept of and for work. Important to them is the high degree of liberty as well as job-security. Just like in Germany the goal is to fulfill a purpose and have fun. You see, the Portuguese generation of young professionals is not too different from the German one. 

However, with their visions and project the young Portugueses want to cause a general change. The individuum is supposed to be at first place. It is about the question: How do I want to work and by that what can I/we do for our country? Every employee, no matter if self-employed or hired, should be conscious about doing his/her own part for the country. And do so, too.

Both see a great chance within the crisis. A chance to create (the) change. Of course, both know, there is a risk attached. However, this is much better than doing nothing. "We got to wake up and help rebuilding. We have the opportunity to create our own future. We should use that opportunity", Lina and João both agree.

I miss the visionary attitude here. We are driven by numbers by now - KPI's and revenue got to be right. But for creativity abnd visions the time is missing. Don't get me wrong, without profitable revenue a company cannot exist. We cannot lose ourselves in dreams, I am aware of that. Yet, we should find a proper and healthy balance, and manage a new and better work quality. This, too, is an incentive. Even a very important incentive for gaining new employees.

Ralf Junge

Not War, but Race for Talent!

Translation of Jannis Tsalikis' blog entry: "Nicht War, sondern Race for Talent!"

When googeling "Race for Talent" you already have approximately 163,000,000 results. The thought of Race for Talent definitely is not that new. Nevertheless, I became concious of this thought once again just recently. It was when having an intense and interesting conversation with Klaus Mantel, COO of Experteer. We discussed different HR subject when Mantel mentioned, it isn't about "War for Talents" anymore, rather "Race for Talents". And he is right!

Race for Talent expresses exactly what it is about. Being fast in recruiting.

Not only in Ingeneering there are more open positions than there are applicants - but, essentially, who isn't the fittest, or the fastest in this case, looses the run for High-Potentials. Applicants who have the choice of employers will decide for the employer who does best caring bout him/her AND who is reacting rather quickly. Employers who send a note of reception after having waited for three weeks after application entrance are definitely M.I.A. in the hunt for good candidates.

On Social Media Networks you will find the so called "Active Sourcing". Many HR Manager, still, have not understood, the era of Instant / Real-Time Dialogues has started. This means Real-Time Recruitment action. Yet, there are still HR Manager moving in such networks not answering requests by applicants. That's kind of like not talking to each other in an interview. Absolutely ridiculous!

Who wants to win in Recruiting has to keep moving. Back off the comfort zone, get into the dialogues and contact to applicants. Hurry!

Anecdotes from the Assessment Center: The Stress Test

Jannis already posted it on here.

Personally, I don't think Assessment Centers in the traditional ways bring a lot unless you have a bunch of people for one position. And personally, I think an interview should already have some kind of stress test in it. (If it isn't all stress enough already to stress the important stuff ;)) Enough word games. 

Check out what LG did in Chile:

I'd either pray or curse as much as one of the candidates did.
But we still wonder, who got the job?

Employer Branding and Social Media - still a long way to go

Translated from Ralf Junge's blog entry: "Employer Branding und Social Media – ein weiter Weg."

How does Social Media support the Employer Branding at YOUR company? This is the question of one's master theses I was allowed to read the other day. The subject is quite exciting. After all Social Media has not arrived in HR works completely yet. Very exciting especially with this study is, predominantly only Employer Branding Referents from middle class companies have been asked. 

The use of Social Media in regard of Employer Branding has, as expected, become a top priority in recruting new talents for the own company. Secondary,  the respondents stated their perception as employer, the attraction of matching candidates as well as the development of "employer of choice". Nothing new. More interesting, however, are the named hyrdles coming with the introduction of Social Media:

1. The implementation IN the company (culture)
2. The establishing of an authentic Employer Brand
3. The resourcing of relevant content
4. The difficulty of measuring the "success"
5. The integration of the staff
6. The missing personnel resources, and
7. The missing strategy

On further research I came to find more interesting things. According to to the Social Media Index, ASMI, only 16 % of German companies have a Social-Media-Strategy for their Personnel Management. That's the snag! I find this number alarming! Social Media definitely is nothing new anymore. Be silent about its effeciency when used - as proven. And this, especially while the younger target group is available mainly and less complicated via Social Media, also.  I am not wondering anymore why sensible and benefitting use of social networks in terms of Employer Branding are NOT working, after all.

By now, the success of the use of Social Media can be measured by KPI. In terms of the study's goals, prior mentioned, HR's named five important indicators, also: The amount of entered applications because of Social Media Communication is one main indicator for activities functioning. The quantity of applications as well as the interaction with the target group show how the company is perceived. On the other hand, in the quality it (should) show, if relevant talents are addressed (properly). The reputation of the company displays clearly, if social media presence influences candidates choosing the company as employer of choice. It is suggested to involve, and even to embrace, the candidates' feedback, also.

All in all, the master thesis does not show any scandalous or pioneering findings. Nevertheless, it shows clearly that it is a long road ahead for successful use of Social Media in terms of Employer Branding. Companies have to work considerably more than what they already did! I suggest we are going to discuss this at the following HR BarCamp in early March of 2014. Maybe we can come up with some useful tips and tricks for all To-Do's. 

Ralf Junge

Part-Time over Full-Time for better time

So the other day I came across this video below, check it out:



The hosts say the average working time in Ol' Germany was 30 hours a week (and I assume they have just seen the numbers provided by the state department for statistics, cause I sure know most are working way more *winkwink*). The dutch accordingly actually work 4 days a week on average with the same pensum of approx 50 hours a week. And they don't call them workoholics?!

But for all intents and purposes working past six hours without an essential break. The body and primarily the brain - and there goes my science-fable - decreases its ability to focus rapidly once the maximum span of attention payed and worked reached or when the break seems so far away. Hypothecally making us then a toddler with the attention span of 15 minutes. This just can result in nonsense and mistakes at work can't it?!

So why not voluntarily work only 30 hours in the first place? Well, your bank account will thank you - not. Our payment system is a mess. There I said it. We get payed a certain amount based on 40 hours assuming we truely are spending it all to our holy employer and are as productive as Einstein's theory of relativity allows. That most of us actually lose ourselves in work rather than in freetime we would have 10 hours more a week when 30 hours a week job taken is another phenomenon. And this has nothing to do with being from the so called Generation Y, X, Z or whatever. Honestly, though, I endorse being payed for commitment and the productive ideas given and created for the employer than for being there at least the amount of hours mentioned in the working contract. Isn't that much better for the interdependent success?

What do you think?

Personnel Marketing in the streets

Translation of Jannis Tsalikis' blog entry: Personalmarketing auf der Straße oder "Das geht mir doch am Auspuff!"

No, it is not exactly what the headline tells you. Well it is but not exactly the streets streets. Jeesh, let's just start:

On this blog we posted several times about the AIDA Concept and its criterias for good communication. Rather seldom we discussed the many opportunities or options which open up to HR Managers in regard to Recruting Communication. About the possibility of implementation. A great example of Recruiting Communication is right in front of us - on the street.

I saw two examples of it. One here, in Cologne (found at Ring, Köln, last week):

And another example from Berlin (found at Liesenstraße, Berlin, today):



And, what do you see?

Exactly. The company which is looking for hires in Cologne is not really looking for Johnny Head-in-Air. Rather down-to-earth realists who looks in the right direction. Jokes aside. Obviously, the subject Personnel does not have too high of a priority. Title: nice thought bad executed. It is not even clear what they are looking for in the first place. 

And the second example? It says: "Du hast den Plan! Wir den Job." ("You got the plan! We got the job!") Does that mean the R+S Group has no plan?! Anyway, it is obvious here that effort has been put into the matter. The theme is definitely visible even when stuck in traffic jam. On top of that, thanks to the theme you can expect different kind of handcraft jobs are offered. Awesome! You can apply by SMS even. Not bad. But how is that gonna be like? Like...SMS: "Hi, this is Fred, I am a handy man and wanna work for you. Looking forward to a SMS-reply."?!  

Doesn't matter. We do not want to discuss the quality of these two examples. BUT: You can see, you definitely have more options than "just" publishing a job-ad.

Jannis Tsalikis

What does the job as Employer Branding Ambassador look like, Mrs Krämer (SMS Meer)?

Translated from Jannis Tsalikis's blog entry: Wie ist das Arbeitsleben als Arbeitgebermarken-Botschafterin, Frau Krämer (SMS Meer)?

Experts reccomend winning employees to be a representant or ambassador for an employer brand. Reasonable, since employees display an authentic and a somwhat of a live image of the company when being employed there.

At many companies there are still objections and many questions to be answered. I.e., when employees get in contact with applicants, what is being said about the company? Or how can things be redacted or steered then?

The SMS Group does not worry about it at all. The opposite. New is the grant offer and choice of  so called "Karrierebotschaftern" (Career Ambassadors) (also check Stefan Brindt / BPM Blog).

Jannis had the chance to check with Sarah Krämer, talking about her experience as Career Ambassador:

Dear Mrs. Krämer, how did you become an ambassador of and at SMS Group?  

The colleagues responsible for this project asked me. Up front there was an intern selection process where I was suggested. Then all colleagues from different firms and divisions who were asked, also, were invited to a first "GetTogether". There the campain was introduced and our future role and tasks to be were explained to us. Pretty quick after that I decided to be a part of the campaign.

Did co-workers asked you regarding your "new" profile? What's been the feedback? 

Yes, definitely! In the developing phase whith film and photo shoots I was asks frequently for what all this was good for and if there is something new in the making. The feedback was through out positive. My colleagues find this path to be the right and support us as Career Ambassador.

On the site you are automatically invoted to contact you on XING. Does being contacted there happen often? How much work time do you spend on answering applicant requests? 
As of now it is still manageable. The campaign runs on the medial wave which is noticed in the amount of contacts via XING and Mail. Especially when we consult students personally at fairs the contact flow gets stronger. 

Could you tell what is asked usually? And do you answer all questions yourself? 

Most questions are about regular things, such as the hiring procedure or the particular jobs [offered]. Thanks to back-up from the HR division we, Career Ambassadors, can answer the questions ourselves well. Some, however, has to be forwarded to the HR division.

What about spam-request? Is there any? 

No, there has not been any yet.

In a short note: How is it to be ambassador of the SMS Group? 

I am proud to be chosen, and it is nice to give young alumnis something to take with from it.

Mrs. Krämer, thank you for the interview! 

Job-Ads from the other side

Last month, being on XING, I noticed a fun written job-ad by BFFT, a (not so well known to me) automotive engineering company. The Job-Ad was for a an Internship in Personnel Marketing who obviously belonged to the Pinky and Brain Generation. It sounded truely like fun to me, however, it was "just" an Internship. For career starters of three years working experience for instance, such ads appear disappointing. 

Nevertheless, this kind of ad actually made me think about why a probably not young staffed company would start or at least try to speak the language of current all age 17-25...

Three days later I came across the job-ad by Lululemon seeking for a new CEO on Hawai'i. Businessweek wrote about it. Now this company is surely no nine day wonder. In fact Lululemon is a grant success in regards to Yoga-Fashion.

Companies trying to speak the "young ones language" is okay. However it has to walk the same talk as the corporate culture does! Having a frumpy or very old-fashioned corporate culture does not make you morally eligable to display a wrong image of a younger company on job-ads. After all, Job-Ads are the first thing that intrigues potential employees to apply for the job. The only acception is a total image change has happened, which is usually only done when the company is in trouble or merged with another firm.

Lululemon did it right tho. And boy, that ad went offline quickly, too. Their somewhat healthconscious hippy target group naturally speaks as the ad did. And if the company is supposed to be lead just as it was or as easy-going" as before it is surely right and fun to portrait such image via job-ad. If you need a CEO to be a firefighting leader, however, employers should reconsider the language in their job-ads. Especially when you write the ad all fun, but you are a stick-in-the-mud company, things are going to be a waste of time for both sides. 

Dearest companies, please, act accordingly - or like the old Hawai'ian would say: ho'opono.

HR Innovations - Whatcha Got?

In regard to Ralf Junge's blog entry: Innovationen in der HR-Arbeit – Was? Wer? Wie? Warum?

Last week, Ralf was requesting, well actually demanding rightfully, more progress in HR. This request certainly met open ears of plenty which made Ralf check for more input regarding the key: Innovations. 

Now a lot of companies have tried all kind of existing techniques in HR, went back and forth and eventually got stuck on the level they are now. Most companies even run the, in my opinion, completely wrong way of outsourcing. After all, sites like hr-innovations.com promote it. The from outsourcing being an HR innovation we consider to be truely innovative and less... how to say, culture destroying, is another thing to be discussed. One day folks, one day. ;) 

Back to the actual matter. Ralf knows it from his studies still, and me from my vocational school and the terror of final exams too. The theory "Diffusion of Innovations" by Everett Rogers. The theorem shows and describes the characters and spreading process of innovations. According to Rogers innovation is an idea which is apprehended as "new" to an individual. Over a certain period, this new idea is spread via several channels meeting the members of a social system/ community. That's the diffusion of innovation, or as we Germans would say: innovation diffusion. Yea, say that three times out loud, fast.  But it is easier understood when seen:

Depending on the types shown and the social community targeted, implemetation of such ideas can be approached accordingly. I am not gonna get into this much now. Let's call it suppression. But you definitely should check out the Adoption Lifecycle to find out what kind of "adaptor" you are (English/German)

But I searched for more detail. Again, suppression makes one nosey to find more, differently. And I came across this blog featuring the study by futurestep with the very informative list: 

• Over three-quarters expect employers to be innovative in the way they retain and engage their staff.
• 72% expect employers to be innovative in the way they develop people, but only 36% think that their current company is innovative in those fields.
• 79% agree that innovative approaches to engagement and development would make them more likely to perform better in their jobs.
• 49% say they would be more likely to take a job advertised or offered in an innovative way, and 51% believe that innovative approaches to recruitment would make them feel more positively about that company overall.

Basically saying: If you (the employer) are not innovative, you loose. 

For more pretty picturized stastics, check this link.

So after Ralf's last weeks request we wanna know: What kind of HR-innovations works best for your company, how was it introduced or applied and why is it working, or not working? 

Who are the Innovators and Early Adopters in HR? Ralf is going to find it out and report for sure. Stay tuned.

EMBARASSING: 300,000 employees not enough - Vacation and Sick Leave totally overrated

From Jannis Tsalikis's blog entry: Ich finde es peinlich und Herr Frank Sennhenn (Vorstandschef DB Netz) findet das irgendwie auch! Fakt ist: 300.000 Mitarbeiter sind einfach zu wenig!

Ladies and Gentlemen, what a ham. Kind of a surprise ham with extra madness on top.
The Deutsche Bahn, biggest company of Germany when it comes to transportation system throughout Germany and a company of 300,000 employees and counting, was totally surprised by, guess what, employees taking vacation days off. Or, awfully rude and inacceptable for calculations obviously, also get sick AND stay at home then. Now the Bahn came to the astonishing conclusion: Without employees, no operation.

Result: Hardly any long-distance train stopping at Mainz since Friday! 

Many Online-News titled - not without the necessary malice (lol) - i.e. the Fokus: "Der Bahn fehlt Personal – Noch weit entfernt vom Top-Arbeitgeber" (Bahn missing personnel - far away from top-employer still). Rightfully, if you ask me. How dare the Bahn to act like some mom-and-pop store? And I'm sorry, Mr. Sennhenn (Chairman of DB Netz), but your whiny apology, erm excuse: "Ja, es ist mir peinlich. Ich möchte mich ausdrücklich bei den Fahrgästen entschuldigen" (Yes, it is embarassing to me. I would like to apologize to all passengers), is ridiculous too.  Have you ever heard something about contractual staff?! What a pitty image this all causes for the Deutsche Bahn. Again.

(For German speakers here the report at SWR)

With such way of acting the laborly built image (pun intended) is torn down in a heart-beat. The million-heavy campaign "Kein Job wie jeder andere" (no job is like the other) was well done...for the trash bin. 300,000 employees are obviously not enough. Mainz needs at least 10 more station inspectors, doesn't it?