Bought Employer Reputation - the value of Employer Seals

 Translation from Ralf Junge's blog entry: Erkaufte Employer Reputation – der Wert von Arbeitgebersiegeln

Have you noticed that the (official) Fair Company seal must be paid for in Germany, starting in August?

On request I was told that students were skeptical of so many companies carrying the seal. The selection of companies as well as the missing transparancy were criticized here, also. So they introduced a new quality control with which the opinion of the intern(s) of the particular company builds the basic step for granting the seal.

Till here it is absolutely acceptable. After all such process handling means a certain effort involved which is not always naturally nor understood. Not for nothing it is claimed to be a "seal of surplus value" . So I read  the rules of membership held under the title Media Data. 

I was taken aback bout this matter here for the first time. At the end of the data a nice paragraph declared as "costs of membership" with two different Fair Company packages is stated - combinations with seal of data bank booking and seal of (job-)ad booking for €750 or €1,200. 

Oh yea, since so many companies bought the seal but didn't book anything, the seal now is also supposed to push the ad sales for career portal of the Handelsblatt, a German newspaper. Of course all in front of the background of a new quality management process being introduced anew. With this kind of jumble the seal certainly has a weird flavor . Yet, it isn't the only employer certification or - seal involving costs as these. 

I ask myself a couple of questions here: Is the Employer Reputation purchasable? What is such seal worth then? How credible and valid are such audit procedures? Do career starters actually know and use these seals for orientation for choice of employer? 

Considering the last question especially, I stumbled upon several companies publically displaying such seals but never explaining anything themselves nor linking them to the explanation by the seal's public site. Basically making this whole thing redundant!

My request to you hereby is: Ask your applicants and new colleagues, if they actually know the seal or are influenced by it.

RJ