I had coffee this week with one of the strongest practitioners in the Employment Branding space, Heather Polivka at UnitedHealth Group. Heather is a great example of the Marketing meets HR competency needed to get effective Employment Brand strategy the top down support and traction necessary to have some significant long term impact on the business. What kind of impact?

-Increase in hew hire satisfaction
-Increase in Hiring Manager satisfaction
-Significant reduction in recruitment marketing spend
-Dynamic and growing talent networks through the recently launched social media strategy

The foundation of this  2 year journey was based on a significant research and discovery initiative to determine the unique, differentiated and compelling EVP that now serves as a foundation for all of the tactical deployment and communication both inside and outside the organization.  Driving consistency across such a large and complex organization is both a significant undertaking and accomplishment.

Her extraordinary work effort and contribution to her own employer is being recognized by Electronic Recruiting Exchange where UHG is a finalist for Best Employment Brand (winner to be announced during the upcoming Spring ERE Expo).

I am sorry I won’t be in San Diego to witness the well deserved recognition firsthand but enjoyed Heather’s insights and perspective this morning around how she has achieved success, the recently deployed UHG social strategy and what is coming next!  Her words of wisdom follow:

Posted in Brand, Communications, Recruiting, Social Media

I typically don’t walk away from conversations about Employment Branding and Employee Engagement blown away.  I have a pretty decent perspective on the industry and its evolution.  Friday’s conversation with Polly Pearson, VP of Employment Brand and Strategy Engagement for EMC was the exception.

Polly is a progressive communications executive with vision for the impact EB initiatives can have on culture.  She is a no BS, brand from the inside out thought leader and our conversation confirmed for me the impact and significance having the right leader in the EB role can have on business outcomes.

We talked a bit about the misconception that EB was a strategy specific to talent acquisition.  From her perspective, that is the easy stuff.  The hard part is “winning over the hearts and minds of their people.” Banking on the idea that people inherently want to be successful and contribute in meaningful ways to meaningful work at some level it means simply removing the barriers that inhibit potential – and just getting out of the way.  It also means being forward thinking enough to let people do more of what they love and not being confined to the limitations of job titles, policies and procedure.

EMC is clearly winning with a culture of “collaboration and connection”…..and you can learn more about how she drives this initiative and her ideas for 2010 at her blog Building and Branding Careers, Culture and Cool (and yes, they are hiring!).

Employment Branding isn’t all about image.  It’s about execution and experience. Polly delivers and provides keen insight and best practices that other organizations can learn from and leverage to make some real progress in the talent engagement arena.

If you get the chance she is definitely a webinar or conference keynote worth watching!

Posted in Brand, Communications, Employee Engagement

Remember the movie, Meet the Parents?  Where Gaylord Faucker was hopelessly left outside his soon to be father in law’s magic circle of trust despite his every effort and very best of intentions. Once he was outside the circle it took quite the herculean effort to get back inside.

TRUST is a major issue in the workplace today.  Employee engagement has waned and the prevailing feeling in so many organizations can only be described as anxious and trapped.  It matters little whether the marketplace is talent rich, if the talent on the team isn’t aligned to the objectives and invested in the outcomes.  And invested just enough not to get fired doesn’t count.  I know a lot of passive jobs seekers, working and waiting for something better to come their way.

Sales and Marketing have a Circle of Trust with their customers.  So does Recruiting and Leadership with their employees. And trust and engagement are never higher than the moment someone says YES!  Once the big decision is made the trust should solidify and escalate into endearing loyalty and evangelism.  But it usually doesn’t.  The circle breaks down.

When interest is elevated and engagement is high its a violation if the ‘experience’ doesn’t meet the ‘expectation’.  Brands (and employer brands) that can deliver an experience, that exceed expectations consistently (exceed once and fail twice and you’ll drive people crazy and right into the hands of the competition) build loyalty and have the opportunity to drive evangelism.

Transparency and Authenticity are the new mandate.  You better BE what you SAY.  I read a great quote about this on the Edelman site last night.

“Audiences expect companies to interact with authenticity and transparency. Companies need engagement. Both will only achieve these if driven by compelling content that courts, plays and engages with credibility and professionalism. As Peter Whitehead wrote in the Financial Times, Web 2.0 is a world in which anyone can have a go at generating content; Web 3.0 is where professionals take the lead in shaping that content.  And those professionals are the production experts and the multichannel, multimedia engagement experts. A new world, needing a new marketing offer. It’s all for the taking.”

Content is everywhere.  Quality is another matter entirely.  And better communication inside and outside the company is imperative.  And experience is what really counts.

Authentic, Sincere, Transparent, Timely and Relevant Communication builds TRUST. With employees and customers.

How is your company doing?  Are they inside your circle?

Posted in Brand, Communications, Employee Engagement, Recruiting, Sales, Uncategorized

Tags: Trust

An outstanding week followed by a miserable weekend offered some interesting considerations for the work I do.

I attended HR Connect, a networking event co-sponsored by SHRM, SmartBrief and RecruitingBlogs.  The event and a few meetings around it provided an outstanding opportunity to catch up with clients, colleagues and friends who are passionate about HR and Recruiting.  The ‘Tweet-Up’ (my 2nd official happy hour focused on people connected on Twitter meeting up) affirmed the real desire that people have to connect face to face, with other people, who share a passion for their profession (I wasn’t the only one who got on a plane and flew in for the event).  Using social media makes events like this more rewarding for me and strengthens my network.  But the secret to social media is really all about the relationship.  And its clear to me the conference/event model is far from dead.  To the contrary, people have a deep need and desire to connect live, in person and learn, share and grow.  So, while formats may evolve, good conferences with progressive content aren’t going to be extinct anytime soon.  Social media is simply an accelerator.

I attend a lot of HR conferences.  Often, I am speaking.  Always, I am interested in meeting new people and having meaningful conversations. And while so many of the conferences provide valuable content and connections the HR event circuit can be a bit insular.  And its valuable to gain outside perspective specific to the work you do.  I attended a non HR workshop/event in my hometown a couple weeks ago.  The focus was on social media for business and the audience was comprised of mostly business professionals.  Marketers, Entrepreneurs, Consultants etc. looking to learn more about leveraging new tools/technology.  And part of the workshop general discussion the topic of recruiting and social media was raised.  I was a bit surprised by what happened next.

A gentleman in the audience stood up (not required as part of the discussion format), looked around at the 200 or so people in the room, and in an elevated tone suggested that, “Recruiting is absolutely the most disrespectful business process…..ever.”  He had my attention now. And went on to explain how it was simply unconscionable for companies to treat candidates the way they do during the job search.  Some of it was what you might expect.  Lack of communication.  No feedback.  Minimal, if any human contact.  Horrendous turnaround time.  He was angry to be certain.  And had it stopped there, you could write it off as one disgruntled person having a hard time with a job search.  But it didn’t.  What it did was open the dialogue, all affirming stories acknowledging the problem.  The snowball could have turned into an avalanche had we not had facilitation and the discussion was closed on the story from the candidate, who 30 days after he was hired and started working for his new employer, received an automated email from the recruiting organization updating him on the status of his resume.  Oops.

Sometimes it pays to get perspective outside of your profession.  And it was clear to me this snapshot of dialogue offered some indication that companies have a long way to go with respect to how they respect candidates during the recruiting process.  Some of it comes right down to bedside manner.  And I think some recruiting organizations could learn a lot from Dr. Black.

Dr. Black was my personal weekend Physician.  Heading back from DC Thursday evening I had slight pains in my chest and side.  Writing it off to bad airport pizza I gutted out Friday’s work day with the pain worsening a bit.  By Friday night I knew something was definitely wrong and I ended up in the ER.  EKG, discussion of blod clots, fluid in my chest and lungs, worsening pain and an escalating fever.  No fun. No diagnosis.  Nobody quite sure what exactly is wrong.  Enter Dr. Black.

She offered clear and concise communication with a personal touch.  She explained herself.  Her thoughts about what might be wrong.  What they wanted to rule out and why.  She patiently answered questions.  And stopped back an hour later just to see if I had any more.  And under the circumstances I actually felt so much better having her around.  It wasn’t so much what she said, as the way she said it.  I trusted her.  And because of her I felt good (and still do) about the entire hospital/organization. Dr. Black circled back around and amid my ailment we chatted a bit about work, passion and bedside manner.  I learned that although she had been practicing in this very ER for 11 years she didn’t necessarily think medicine was her true calling.  She is a full time mother and very part time artist.  And would love to have more time to create. We talked about the danger/trap of getting really good at the wrong thing…..and she knew she was good at her job.  Real good.  And her confidence and charisma carried over into a bedside manner that absolutely elevated the patient experience.  Although this might not have been her true passion, her sense of purpose to serve never wavered.  I’ve been to the ER before.  And I have never had a Doctor follow up with 2 phone calls to me personally the next day.  Of course, I wasn’t in the care of Dr. Black.  People make the business.  And the brand.

When you are in the business of saving lives (or starting careers) its easy to put the human element on auto pilot.  But the best in the business don’t.  They remember that it isn’t just what you do, but the way you do it that often makes the difference.  And doing it with elevated communication, care, compassion and consideration make all the difference in the world.

Antibiotics and rest will get me better.  Likely pneumonia or a really bad infection.

Dr. Black’s bedside manner made me feel better when it really mattered.  A great lesson.

Posted in Communications, Leadership, Recruiting

Tags: Human Resources

Do you need Social Media to be successful?  In your job?  As a business?  The answer is, it depends.

I have a very close personal friend who is extraordinarily successful.  By all accounts.  He owns his own business.  And owns his time.  He is financially independent and works because he loves what he does, not because he has too.  He also chooses who he works with and has built his business with partners, colleagues and clients he counts among his closest friends. He has terrific balance, perspective and never fails to take time to enjoy life and share it with those closest to him.  And he is very generous with his time and resources.

He doesn’t have a Twitter, Facebook or Linked In Account.  He doesn’t need them.  Not in his business.  And not in his personal life.  His secret to success?  Having some insider perspective, I’d say its the quality of his relationships.  He loves the phone and face to face meetings.  He is heavy on email but doesn’t let too much time pass without a real conversation among those in his circle of influence.  Because that builds a much deeper connection than he could with 140 characters.  That doesn’t interest him.  What does is meaningful, trusted relationships that have reciprocal value for years.  A more narrow universe of quality, coveted and nurtured relationships. He doesn’t want to be famous.  He wants to be fulfilled.  For him that is doing what he loves, with people he loves, his own way.

Conversely, I realize value from participating in my expanding social structure everyday.  I am invested because it’s afforded me opportunity, insights and introductions that without participating I otherwise wouldn’t have received.  But the secret to making it successful isn’t all that different.  The secret is still in the relationships.  And personally and professionally I have found tremendous value in and opportunity to expedite relationships that begin online, in my social universe and move beyond.  And certainly for the work I do it keeps me in touch, informed and able to offer my own ideas related to how new tools and technology can impact a business.

Time is a precious resource and determining where to invest will usually impact your outcomes as a company or in your career.  New tools and technology, when leveraged appropriately and efficiently can provide tremendous value.  Every business and every individual needs to determine the opportunity cost of how and where to spend it. And that should get determined by staying aligned to your outcome objective.  Begin with the end in mind.  And that certainly applies for a Social Strategy as well.

The secret is the relationship.

Posted in Communications, Social Media

With another year passing and new decade upon us comes a moment of opportunity unlike most any other throughout the year.  It’s a time that mandates real reflection.  Individuals and organizations taking inventory of decisions and assessing opportunity on the horizon.  A fresh start.  Clean slate.  Optimism.  And for many of us that means resolutions.  Find a new job?  Quit smoking?  Balance my work/life?  Lose 10 lbs?  Grow my business?  Some of the more popular choices that typically make the ‘wish list’.  I’ve been a “Resolutioner” – setting ambitious personal/professional targets and sprinting out of the gates January 1 only to lose momentum by the time the snow melted (that would be late April in Minnesota).  And I know that I’ll see the Resolutioners out in droves packing the health club next week.  It usually thins out again mid March. Why the fall off?  My own self assessment related to both personal and professional/corporate objectives is lack of process and planning.  Turning resolutions into results requires a game plan.  A clearly defined strategy.  What I am referring to this year as ‘Resolve 2010‘:

Review:  Change requires an honest inspection and assessment.  What specific decisions lead to the destination?  And the critical component of a good resolution review is accountability.  As a leader/manager, individual contributor or in your personal life its best to focus inward.  Take stock of the I that impacts the “we” or “they”.  Understanding where you’ve been is critical to help you get where you want to be going.

Reinvent:  2010 is a time for reinvention. Your company, your strategy, your brand/marketing and your career.  In fact, the entire Jan/Feb issue of Harvard Business Review is devoted to this concept and offers a great read for the recalibration that is going to be required for many of us coming out of this recession.  Transformation requires BIG ideas.  But this is the exciting part.  Change.  Business models being ripped apart and reconstructed.  Customer expectations evolving.  Value propositions being reset.  A global marketplace.  New skills and competency required to compete. Opportunity that is now a constant moving target.

Reset:  What I like to refer to as adjusting to the new normal.  A faster pace.  Constant change. Continuing education.  A climate that mandates real authenticity and transparency to earn trust.  Where BOLD innovations are required to stay even.  Real reinvention requires working a different way.  And communication and competency are critical components of execution in an environment where what you say is openly evaluated against what you do on a daily basis. When you hit reset as an organization you have a clearly articulated strategy and alignment around mission – vision – values.  These guiding principles are clear in the minds of stakeholders and create a culture of engagement, performance, accountability and trust. And the organization of ME, Inc. can apply those very same principles.

Relationships:  The most essential aspect to my own professional reinvention has been relationships.  And a big part of my own Resolve 2010 plan is to do some real relationship inventory and focus on renewing and respecting the important relationships I have.  It’s an essential ingredient to success.  As a speaker, consultant and novice blogger I am fortunate to have collected new and increasingly important relationships over the last 12 months.  It’s likely that people I didn’t know 12 months ago will read this, comment, offer a word of counsel, support or constructive criticism.  That is a gift.  And as the former Chief Strategy Officer for a division of a Fortune 500 enterprise, success was directly attributed to the strength of my relationships with colleagues, customers and the community (industry) we served.  As a Manager, I was responsible for driving results for an organization that required a massive commitment from the team.  As a Leader, I was responsible for serving and guiding others so they could realize their full potential personally and professionally.  I’ve been in the Relationship Business a long, long time.

Resolve:  This is the most essential ingredient for turning a resolution into reality.  The elevated sense of discipline and commitment required to see it through to result and the understanding that effort and results are two very different things.  It also means focus and clarity.  Deciding what not to do and where not to spend time are essential ingredients to staying the course. If you want to accomplish a BIG thing personally or professionally in 2010 it requires alignment of a lot of little things along the way. And the elimination and avoidance of unnecessary and irrelevant distractions.  In the words of legendary football coach Vice Lombardi you have to “plan your work, and work your plan.”  What gets eliminated from the game plan is just as essential as what stays in.

I know that I am solely responsible for making my own Resolve 2010 plan a reality.  But I am lucky that I’ll get by with a little help from my friends along the way.

Happy New Year!

Posted in Communications, Employee Engagement, Leadership

Enjoyed a great conversation today with Employer Brand International Corporate Advisory members Kerry Noone, Marketing Communications Manager at Sodexo and Heather Polivka, Director of Employer Branding & Marketing at United Health Group.  The conversation covered top of mind territory around Employer Branding as business strategy (and not just recruiting strategy) and the cost/benefit analysis and opportunities specific to leveraging social media for talent acquisition.  Kerry and team Sodexo have built brand ambassadorship and a clearly defined social strategy that includes active participation/engagement and adheres to some of my general best practices (participation drives relevancy; transparency equals trust; listening is more important than talking; define the objective; and validate).  I am sure she’ll be sharing valuable insights around the Sodexo journey on panel at the Social Recruiting Summit later this month in NYC.  Heather (and Heather) at team UHG have a carefully vetted and clearly defined EVP leveraged across a variety of key internal/external Talent initiatives including the deployment of their new content rich careers portal.

Both are world class practitioners delivering for organizations that have strong leadership support for bringing new ideas and innovation to the talent function (which is certainly key to expedite transformation).  And both are HR transplants that come to the discipline with a marketing background and competency.  A new trend?  Will more companies adopt these titles & roles embedded into the HR/Talent function?  Is there an opportunity for more cross functional collaboration between HR/Marketing/Communications and PR in support of talent?  Perhaps…

Today’s conference call would have offered valuable lessons for anyone in sales/marketing. That is certainly part of the new talent acquisition competency.

These are two Talent Innovators bringing Passion AND Purpose to the profession.  Fun to watch!

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Posted in Brand, Communications, Recruiting

I am putting the finishing touches on my preso for Mega Session Monday – where I’ll have an opportunity to speak about the trend line and evolution in HR Communications and branding for talent  (Employment Branding 2.0) at the Garden State SHRM Annual Conference.  It should a great event.

The conference is appropriately titled Blueprint for a Changing Reality.  They nailed it.  The business of Human Resources is in the midst of transformation and will need to look very different coming out of this recession than it did going in.  While products, services and technology evolve at a pace that minimizes differentiation and signals more commoditization in the marketplace TALENT moves to the forefront as the key competitive business advantage.  Its heavy on the mind of any C suite exec that has his/her eye on the prize and whose vision exists beyond the next quarterly earnings report.  You can shed until your dead or game plan to win with a TALENT first strategy.  The future of HR will be about building readiness and responsiveness to meet the evolving TALENT needs of the organization.  And I look forward to hitting this topic hard Monday afternoon with the tremendous HR talent in New Jersey.

My hats off to GSCSHRM for organizing a Conference 2.0 style event.  They did it right with a strong web presence, linked in group and twitter hashtag (#gsc09) to build community around their lineup of first class content.  For the Practitioners that opt in they will have a more robust conference experience and build stronger networks faster that aid in the sharing of best practices and cultivation of relationships across industries and disciplines.   For a speaker like me it’s provided an awesome opportunity to share some of my relevant content/articles etc. in advance of the event in an effort to create some expectation around the experience I intend to deliver on Monday.    And I likely won’t have to wait for the conference evaluations to know if my experience met with audience favor.  We’ll live tweet the session and I will know real time if my message resonates.  That’s a changing reality for certain.

SHRM President & CEO Lon O’Neil kicks us off Monday morning and the legendary Simon Bailey is the closer.  It’s a privilege to serve as the middle reliever for this event.  I better bring the A game!

Posted in Brand, Communications

Tags: Human Resources, Speaking

Most of my energy (prior to putting some ‘thinking time’ into a blog) is devoted to consulting, speaking and training with the occasional foray into writing an article for publication (when something was really weighing heavy on my mind).   While attending to present at the 2009 Annual SHRM Conference & Exposition in New Orleans I was fortunate enough to stick around and attend one of the final sessions of the conference.  A moderated panel hosted by SHRM COO China Gorman featuring a selection of the top bloggers in the HR industry.  The panel included Kris Dunn of HR Capitalist, Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock HR, Lance Haun of Rehaul and Jessica Lee at Fistful of Talent.   It provided a window inside some of the best captured thinking in our industry and was truly one of the most valuable conference sessions I have attended in some time.  It inspired my own personal commitment to more research, writing and now authoring a blog of my own.  I was also fortunate to sync up with Cincy Recuiter Jennifer McClure for a chat captured on video and Peter Clayton of Total Picture Radio where we recorded a segment for his show.  And my social calendar included time spent with big thinkers Mark Stelzner of Inflexion Advisors, Michael Long-The Red Recruiter, Josh Westover at EnticeLabs and Mike Vandervort at The Human Race Horses.  What impressed me most about the panelists, bloggers and thought leaders wasn’t their success, following and brilliance necessarily (although tons of great ideas were on display).  It was their commitment.  They are all BIG TIME students of the game.  Today I am proud to count them among colleagues I listen to very carefully and learn from daily.  I was also lucky enough to have been invited by Mary Ellen Slater, Editor of SmartBrief on Workforce to serve on their workforce advisory with many of the aforementioned and additional contributors to the industry.

I grew up in Ohio and had long been a fan and follower of HR Blogging Guru and fellow Clevelander Cheezhead and now residing in Minneapolis I am connected to people shaping the industry both inside and out of the Twin Cities community including Doug Berg at Jobs2Web, Steven Rothberg at CollegeRecruiter.com, Raghav Singh at the A List and Paul Debettinges, our MN Headhunter. I keep my office at Pixel Farm Interactive with the Engaging Trends think tank for a reason and it wouldn’t be a Sunday without a Skype with globetrotting CEO of Employer Brand International, Brett Minchington.

What’s the point?  The HR industry is in state of transformation.  And if a client is going to hire me to consult, train or speak as an expert in this arena, my ideas and experiences alone are simply no longer sufficient.  Innovation and change occur too rapidly for any consultant, business development professional or vendor partner to adequately pace.  To be good enough, current enough, relevant enough and on point I need a collective voice.  This is a sampling of mine.  When a client hires me I leverage more than my own ideas, work product and skill set.

An organization looking to make a buying decision, procure new resources, augment or upgrade strategy (and even hire a speaker/trainer) would be well served to inquire to their potential provider around who is shaping their thinking?  What trends and ideas are they betting on?  How does their solution fit into the sum of the parts?  What is the enduring value proposition?

Puts a lot more pressure on the Consultants and Business Development Professionals.  That is the point.  To compete and succeed today you really need to be offering your client partners more.  A collective voice.

Be a student of the game.

Posted in Communications, Recruiting

A big round of applause to the Pixel Farm Interactive crew for the home run they hit with their Interactive Landscape.  They continue to impress.  From this blog design to my web site.  No doubt, they get it.  And for a window into their ideas and insights visit their Engaging Trends Blog.  What is clear  is that the interactive marketing business result will be achieved in the blend.  Design & Usability are imperative. Success will result based on the Strategy.  And the Human Element will always remain as a key component.  Going to be fun to find more ways for us to work together in the future!  Stay tuned…

Posted in Brand, Communications