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