Tomorrows work place >>> why it’s changing                          

By 2020 Millennials (Gen Y)will account for 50% of the global workforce, attracting their talent to your organisation is imperative for your survival.

But how are you going to compete with the world? We’re not just talking about the U.K we are in fact talking about the world because this generation see the world as a much smaller place and will have no hesitation in leaving the U.K. Millennialls actually think it’s their right to go and work abroad & experience different cultures. 

China, Russia and India want our talent and considering we already have a shortage of it, how will we make sure we do not lose anymore from the U.K? 

I see that two things must happen

1. Know your Employment Brand 
2. Know how to communicate with Millennials

Your Employment Brand has never been so important. If you don’t know what it is then you need to find out quick and how do you do that? Ask your employees, they own your employment brand. 

I say more about employment branding here but just ask yourself about your own company “why would I want to work here?” 

Look at it’s culture,it’s story, the ethics, what training you provide, the environment, the support, the opportunities.

Having a good employment brand will attract talent even before they’re on the job market. Children as young as 12 already say that they want to work for Google or Apple or are joining the XBox Live talent community

If you’re thinking that these are attractive because they’re technology companies then you’re right, millennials love technology. If you think you can’t compete because of that you’re wrong because others have, you just need to know their language and be able to communicate.

So what do you do with a Millennial that is obsessed with technology, you offer them more technology! This is a shock to some organisations because I hear horror stories of technology being limited, social media being banned. Millennials have grown up with the ipad, laptops, smart phones, social media xbox, instant information, this is what makes this generation unique, if you take it away from them they wont be working for you for too long. 

If you’re worried that an employee isn’t going to be productive then you have an employee issue it’s not because of technology. Millennials shiny stuff is their technology the more you make it available to them then them more attractive the proposition is to them.

Working environments need to change to adapt to a collaborative style of working, they are digital creatives and love to brainstorm. Millennials will work hard but will feel stifled in a boring rigid office, you want them engaged so you need to offer a stimulating atmosphere.

Millennials are committed to personal growth and learning so you have to give them the ability to learn. They will learn quickly and they will expect to grow quickly, they will be looking to climb the career ladder in months not years so you have to be prepared for that. 

If you don’t invest in them they will have no hesitation in going to work with your competitor or even set up themselves and do it their way, as they’re very entrepreneurial. They’re high achievers and are natural leaders so you must plan for that, even if it’s a simple earn your stripes system, Millennials have to see that they are climbing the career ladder.

If you expect your employees to clock in and out then you want be attracting any Millennials.They will produce more work in shorter hours and they will question why do they have to start at 9am when they’re more productive from 10am. They want respect and trust, if they can get the work done whilst at home then they will ask “why do you want me to travel all the way in?”  which they won’t ask over the telephone but with a tweet! 

Whatever you promise them then make sure it’s honoured, to a millennial a promise means so much, they trust you not to break it, if you do then there’s always social media! 

Millennials really value mentors and that is the best approach is to mentor them, rather telling them what to do. You can learn a lot from them and in return they want to learn about leadership, industry, leadership, self management.

Every talented Millennial is a passive candidate unless you can give them reasons to want to stay. 

Follow me on Twitter  @jobhopjulie

Julie Bishop  Founder of JobHop  

We talk about employers building talent communities but what if you’re a job seeker, what does it mean for you?      

A talent community is literally a community of talent that are communicating with each other, swapping information and engaging in conversation with an organisation. Wikipedia describes it as a “network of candidates, contacts, alumni, employees and job seekers allowing a productive two way communication between contacts”  This organisation maybe somewhere you would like to work and the more you chat with them the more you may want to work there. That is the plan, you get to chat to their employees in this community, even their suppliers are here chatting openly. Being part of the conversation should make you more aware of what type of employee they look for, what roles are available throughout the organisation, their culture, do they all go bowling together at the week end?, does the company offer flexitime?, what type of training do they offer?

Talent communities are a great way for employers to keep recruitment costs down as they don’t have to start advertising job roles, hiring recruiters or head hunters, they can go straight to their community and invite the people they’ve been sharing information with and participating in conversations with.

Employers benefit big time from talent communities, not purely on the cost effectiveness of    having one but it builds brand loyalty and it helps the employer in the retainment of staff.

So what do you do to get into a talent community? The first thing is to know what it is you want to do and the younger you can start the better. My 13yr old son has made himself known within the talent community of Microsoft. He has made up his mind that he’d like to work for them and is now chatting regularly with them and absorbing as much information as possible. Who do you think will get an interview at Microsoft in a few years? The younger you can join these communities the better.

You’ve decided what you’d like to do and what company you’d like to work for, or perhaps theres a few companies you’d like to work for so start tapping their names into google and see where they are and what they’re doing.

The trick is to find something you love and you know you can do it well. Next find the companies that do what you love to do,learn about the company, set google alerts so you receive all the updated news about them. 

Once you’ve built relations with key people within the organisation online a good tip is to turn up at their industry events and cement that relationship by meeting them face to face.

By this time it will feel like you’ve known them for forever, who do you think they’re going to think of when a job becomes available?

Still wondering why you should join a community?

• Exposure  By participating regularly in the communities you increase your exposure
• Advice   Theres so much advice going back and forth within communities
• Meeting your potential work team ... Chatting with employees from the organisation will build relationships prior to you getting a job there. They  may even help you to get your foot in the door.
• 65% of job placements are made based on recommendations ...it pays to get connected 
• Saves you hours of looking at job boards and adverts ..you have immediate access to jobs through your community, spend time on building relationships.
• Learn and keep up with the trends in your chosen profession. Being in a community will have you constantly learning about trends and industry related news
• No more CVs just falling into a black hole 
• No more wondering if you’ll get feedback from the company 

How do you find out about Talent communities?

• Search companies web sites and see if they have follow us on Fb twitter linkedin. Switched on organisations will have the follow buttons, click through and start joining in the discussions and in the groups.
• Go straight onto the social networking sites and search for the companies you’re interested in and see where the action is.
•  Does the company have a blog? Read it and add valuable comments regularly to it. 
• Can you subsribe to them on Youtube? 
• Does the company hold industry related webinars that you can attend? This is a great one for getting known, attend regularly and always make sure that you give some valuable input to the discussion.

Follow me on Twitter  @jobhopjulie

Attracting Talent using Social media

Employment Branding 

Attracting talent using social media 

When job seekers want to find out more about your company, do you know what they do?

If you said they go to the company website then you’re a little bit right because a few might tap in the whole URL address into a search bar but the majority will GOOGLE your company name! And yes, you’re web site should come up in the search ( if it doesn’t tut tut!) but now anything being said about your company can appear. Google isn’t just a search engine anymore it’s a social search engine and relies on relevance. If relevant people are saying relevant things about your organisation then it will appear in the search rankings. 

So what will a strong employment brand mean? 

It will mean that your organisation becomes like a magnet, attracting top talent 

It will mean no more pushing jobs

It will mean reduced recruiting costs

It will mean saving time 

It will mean not being bombarded with unsuitable C.Vs

It will help you with retaining talent 

It will mean a good message is being heard 

What do people think of your organisation when they hear the name?

Would it receive the same reaction as Google, Apple, Innocence, a cool place to work? 

Virgin, Zappos, Sheraton, adobe, America Express, Starbucks, Microsoft, KPMG, all of these companies have talent scrambling to get in.

So why should top candidates work for your company? 

Find out from your own employees why they love working for you, is it the flexible working hours, the great training, the fantastic career prospects, the creche facilities, the company ethics?

Survey your employees and start building case studies, if you get any negative feedback then use this opportunity to turn your employees into ambassadors. Every employee that talks about their experience whilst working at your company contributes to your employer brand.

"Employees have always owned the brand; they just haven’t had the tools to broadcast their opinions to large audiences as they do today."  Dr John Sullivan 

Your employment brand is not owned by you it flows from your employees and is spread by them and with social media it will spread faster than you’ve ever known it. 

You must let all your employees know that they are brand ambassadors and that they must represent the company brand when they're at work and when they’re not at work. 

When candidates source information about your company and come across positive comments from employees,it’s becomes apparent that they’ll be joining an organisation that they can trust. 

A couple of tips that help with employment branding and to give candidates a better insight to the organisation are:

1. Have a culture Blog

Where employees can blog & vlog about their work activities, company social events,    fund raising days, anything that is done in the name of the organisation.

Zappos does this brilliantly check them out http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/inside-zappos 

1. Video Tour

Video is so powerful and your candidate will emotionally connect with your organisation if you do it well. Take them on a tour round the company, have different employees chatting, go to different departments, show how your employees unwind..you might have a TV room or have a gym. Show the environment, are you surrounded by lovely countryside or are you lucky enough to have a station across the road and a convenient bus stop.

So remember ask yourself the question “Why should top candidates work for your company?”