2014 Recruiting Trends Employment Brands under Fire

2014 Recruiting Trends Employment Brands under Fire Employment Brand Matters Recruiting Trends Week is upon us! Each day, everday this week Blogging4Jobs is taking it to the streets to find out what trends will be the trend in recruiting. What do you think? What trend do you see as #1 in 2014? Let us know  here!   Were supposed to be writing about recruiting trends that we think will be important in 2014.  A worthy topic, but Im going to leave the prognostication on positive trends in recruiting to the true recruiting pros who write on this topic regularly. I expect you will see a lot about the looming talent shortage, STEM hiring strategies, and the need to build your employment brand and level of candidate engagement via the use of social media. Im a labor relations geek. I spend my time thinking about the stuff my company can do to ensure that our brand as an employer and customer facing organization continues to be top notch.  I spend an equal amount of time looking for and identifying emerging issues and trends that might damage our brand in some way. Employment Brand Matters As employers, we all spend a great deal of time, energy and resources ($) on building and promoting a positive employment brand.  We seek to be viewed as an employer of preference. It provides a competitive advantage in recruiting when people seek your company out as a place they want to work.  Thats no big secret. Here are some solid things you can do to make sure your organization is seen as an employer of preference. .ai-rotate {position: relative;} .ai-rotate-hidden {visibility: hidden;} .ai-rotate-hidden-2 {position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;} .ai-list-data, .ai-ip-data, .ai-fallback, .ai-list-block {visibility: hidden; position: absolute; width: 50%; height: 1px; z-index: -9999;} 1.  Foster a positive employee relations environment.  I firmly believe that  strong, capable, integrity based leadership  is a key element for success in any organization.  Practicing clear consistent organizational behavior with a clear mission, strong values, and equitable treatment of your employees are the foundation elements for a healthy, high performing organization. 2.  Put some skin in the game.  I have worked for two  employee owned companies, and all the following statements about those companies are still true.  More Profitable. Better performance. More engaged employees.  We need more employee owned companies. 3.  Ensure your business is invested in the community.    If the company contributes to the community, so will the employees.  It becomes a virtuous circle, and builds a better performing organization because people will know you care.  Contribute.  Build.  Create. These strategies all build the positive side of your employment brand, and boost your ability to recruit.  They are important all the time, every day.  Make sure your organization is focusing on them. .ai-rotate {position: relative;} .ai-rotate-hidden {visibility: hidden;} .ai-rotate-hidden-2 {position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;} .ai-list-data, .ai-ip-data, .ai-fallback, .ai-list-block {visibility: hidden; position: absolute; width: 50%; height: 1px; z-index: -9999;} Then you should focus on one more thing. Dont overlook the possibility of damage to your employment brand I have written about this many times, but it remains the truth, if you are a large employer with a favorable brand, you stand a good chance of becoming a target for a negative campaign.  There are groups out there who may seek to leverage your good reputation against you in furtherance of a particular agenda. In 2014, I believe it will become critical that corporations have a strategy in place to identify and respond to such issues as they develop.  While it is inevitable that your response strategy will require coordination across a variety of business units, this is something strategic that HR can take the lead on. There are too many of these campaigns running  for me to cover them in depth, but you can check a variety of campaigns via link to underwear, package delivery, a cruise line CEO, the CEO of Yahoo, a fast food CEO, and even some board members. Do you see a trend developing here?  I certainly do.  Time to go do something about it for your organization.