Hrd 13.07 who's in demand

HCAMAG.COMISSUE 13.7

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR

DIGITAL DISRUPTIONMore than a blip

on the radar

HR TECHNOLOGYWhat you need to know

about wearables

HCAMAG.COMISSUE 13.7

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR

DIGITAL DISRUPTIONMore than a blip

on the radar

HR TECHNOLOGYWhat you need to know

about wearables

YOUR GUIDE TO:Easing expat executive transitions | Improving gender equality | Handling o� ce politics

Creating an e� ective employer brand | Performing under pressure | Managing millennials

EMPLOYMENT LAW SPECIAL REPORT 2015

BUILDING A BETTER YOU

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YOUR GUIDE TO…

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EFFECTIVE EMPLOYMENT BRANDS

THESE ARE the key factors considered in LinkedIn’s annual ‘Most InDemand’ list of employers. Tapping into the insights gleaned from the professional network’s 364 million members worldwide (seven million in Australia), the ranking measures how soughtafter a company is, based on its reach and engagement scores.

Four Australian-based companies made the local top 10 this year, with BHP Billiton appearing on the list for the first time.

1. Rio Tinto 2. Google 3. BHP Billiton 4. Microsoft 5. Leighton Contractors 6. Qantas 7. Apple 8. Chevron 9. Lend Lease 10. Thiess

AUSTRALIA’S TOP 10 MOST INDEMAND EMPLOYERS FOR 2015

This year’s list offers some interesting insights into what makes a desirable and sought-after employer:

• Of the 10 Most InDemand Employers in Australia, companies from the mining, oil and energy industries were most prevalent, appearing four times on the list.

• Australian professionals have a unique perspective of which companies are

attractive, with homegrown companies taking the lead. Results in Australia were in stark contrast to the US results, which saw ICT and e-commerce companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon taking the top places.

• Professionals in Australia increasingly think that tech is hot. While mining, oil and energy companies were dominant in the local top 10, companies from the tech sector have moved up the Australian list since 2013,

most notably with Apple jumping eight places and Google and Microsoft moving up one and two places respectively.

• All the top 10 companies have at least 9,000 employees each, and most, if not all, also have operations outside of Australia.

Reach and engagementHow did these employers make the grade? It comes down to two key elements: reach and engagement (see below).

Who’s in demand?Does your organisation stand out from the crowd? Do candidates – even passive candidates not currently looking to switch jobs – know anything about your company? If the answer is yes, it’s probably a testimony to your employment brand as much as it is to your employees’ advocacy

INDEMAND METHODOLOGYLinkedIn started with:

30+ billion interactions on the siteCountry rankings were �ltered to only the interactions of members in the country.

These interactions were put into two categories:

To level the playing �eld, LinkedIn removed interactions from paid products and adjusted for company size. It then calculated reach and engagement scores and averaged them to arrive at a company’s InDemand score. For example:

Finally, all scores were ranked to reveal the most InDemand companies.

ReachAre members familiar with your company?

+ Non-members connecting to your employees

+ Non-members viewing your employees’ pro�les

EngagementAre members familiar with your company?

+ Non-employees visiting your company/career pages

+ Non-employees following your company

(InDemand score)

90 100 95

2

+ =

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In terms of ‘reach’, this is about assessing how familiar professionals are with a company. It’s the equivalent of asking, “Have you heard of our company?” It is assessed by two data points: firstly, non-employees connecting to a company’s employees; secondly, non-employees actually viewing employees’ profiles.

Engagement revolves around this statement: “I’ve heard of you, but now I’m interested to know more and specifically I want to know about the career opportunities in this organisation”. Again, two data points

are assessed: the number of non-employees looking at a career page or company page on LinkedIn; and secondly, non-employees following a company.

Followers of a company are those who are essentially seeing what’s really going on within an organisation. They want real-time updates about what’s happening in that organisation.

It’s the number of ‘followers’ a company can gather that particularly interests Tim Grogan, talent brand strategist at LinkedIn. “Once, the power was held by certain stakeholders

who would act as gatekeepers or introductory parties to an organisation. Today, employers are able to build direct relationships in a scalable way with prospective candidates.”

The “follower ecosystem”, as Grogan refers to it, is about creating awareness, giving people the transparency to understand more about what a company does, what it’s like to work for, and what the success stories are.

Becoming a ‘candidate first’ employerWhile Grogan concedes it’s difficult to isolate specifically what one company is doing better than another – and all employers on the list can leverage their employment brand off their well-established consumer brands – there are certain elements that push these companies ahead of the pack. Chiefly, these companies take a ‘candidate first’ approach.

“Organisations undertaking a candidate-first approach understand that candidates make decisions about career change in a vastly different way today than they have in the past,” says Grogan. “Candidates want transparency; they want to research whether that organisation is the right one for them to join. These companies are becoming more accessible to candidates.”

The growth of employer review sites like Glassdoor bears this out. Sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp have demonstrated that consumers increasingly trust their counterparts – and the general public – in their decision-making. That logic is now making headway in the employment market.

“I’m not sure I’d say I’m surprised, because there’s a basic need for the type of insights we provide,” says Diarmuid Russell, senior vice-president and general manager international, Glassdoor, when asked about the site’s rapidly expanding user base. Currently, Glassdoor has a membership base of over 30 million people around the world, generating eight million reviews and reports on salaries and culture covering over 400,000 companies.

While Russell admits a damning employee (or former employee) review of a workplace can be a “wake-up call for some employers”, he views such feedback as an opportunity.

“Employees can be a company’s strongest advocate and marketing tool, so it’s important not to underestimate the power of positive employee ratings and reviews”Diarmuid Russell

VOTE FOR ME

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EFFECTIVE EMPLOYMENT BRANDS

“Today’s job candidates are more sceptical of what employers are ‘selling’ them today, and Glassdoor quickly highlights where there are gaps between the image that a company has created for itself and the reality of what employees think. However, employees can be a company’s strongest advocate and marketing tool, so it’s important not to underestimate the power of positive employee ratings and reviews.”

He adds that Glassdoor has had numerous companies and clients tell them that they’ve been able to attract candidates because of their engagement on the site. “Embracing transparency demonstrates that a company is willing to listen, to learn and to improve, and that is very appealing to a prospective employee,” he says.

Here are Glassdoor’s tips for responding to reviews:

1. Respond promptly (monthly or quarterly). On the Glassdoor site, for example, you can set up company alerts that email you when new reviews post.

2. Welcome all feedback. Whether comments are positive or negative, acknowledge them in a non-defensive way.

3. Address speci�c issues. By being receptive to concerns, you give reviewers a sense of satisfaction that they contributed to positive change within your company. A nice touch is giving reviewers a con�dential email address or phone number they can use to contact you about speci�c concerns.

4. Be considerate. Whether the topic is compensation, career growth, or management reputation, a considerate response builds candidate trust.

5. Promote the positive. Responding to positive reviews about your company or adding employee testimonials to your career page enhances your employer brand, not just for jobseekers but for current employees as well.

TURNING A NEGATIVE INTO A POSITIVE

Next stepsClearly the traditional ‘company first’ approach – ‘here’s a company website, if you want to work for us, go to that site’ – no longer cuts it.

CASE STUDY: LEND LEASEHRD chats to Michael Vavakis, group head of HR, Lend Lease, about making the LinkedIn InDemand Employers top 10 list

HRD: What makes your company stand out from the pack? Michael Vavakis: When Dick Dusseldorp founded Lend Lease, he pioneered a ‘triple bottom line’ view of construction, where environmental and social outcomes were given the same priority as �nancial results. I’ve come to understand that it’s this belief that sits at the core of our DNA.

I believe being a part of Lend Lease is to understand that, if we make everything we do ‘matter’, we will lead the way in safety, diversity, innovation and sustainability. This brings us closer to achieving our vision to create the best places, which will ensure continued success for both our shareholders and our employees.

Recognising that our people are our di�erentiator has led our Global Leadership Team to work together on our people strategy. Our aim is to build upon our high-performing values-based culture where all of our people can experience inclusion and have the opportunity to be their best. A key initiative delivering quick and measurable results for us is our focus on having �exible workplaces.

HRD: How much involvement have you had in your branding initiatives, and what’s the standout feature from those branding e�orts?MV: As a member of the Global Leadership Team, I’m deeply involved in how we communicate to our employees and those who will potentially come to work with us. Our branding initiatives are led by our group marketing team, and together we make sure our employment branding initiatives are embedded into all facets of our employment experience – from before they join us, on their �rst day, and each year to follow.

We’ve seen some great bene�ts from bringing our employment brand to light and have some exciting new initiatives rolling out very soon. A recent standout for me was a series of videos showcasing the rich history of Lend Lease. This video really highlights the connection of our past to our present and to our future success, as well as the strong values-based culture we operate in.

HRD: How regularly do you revisit your EVP and, as a �ow-on, your employment brand?MV: We refreshed our EVP in 2011 and are currently in the process of an update to both our EVP and its alignment to our employment brand. I think it’s vital to continually test and re�ne our o�ering to ensure the EVP both supports our managers and our employees through access to rewards and bene�ts that sit outside remuneration, and then how this feeds into our employment brand by helping us to attract great new talent who are motivated and energised by what we stand for and o�er as an employer.

HRD: How do you believe your company stands to bene�t from being called an ‘InDemand’ employer?MV: Being recognised as an Australian InDemand Employer helps us to celebrate our success and the people who got us here. The added bene�t is improving our employment brand, which will help us continue to attract and retain the very best talent.

We’re really excited to see people around the globe taking the time to get to know our business and our people through a tool like LinkedIn. While we appreciate the recognition, I’m equally excited by the prospect of more people understanding our business, our vision, and how what we do connects to better outcomes today and for future generations.

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“You need to allow candidates the space to socialise, and create opportunities for them to engage with your brand and let them know what it’s like to work for our company. It’s about being more thoughtful about how people want to engage with the company. Then it’s about building the follower ecosystem.”

Proactive employers might even have a 12-month communication strategy so they can continue to drip-feed relevant information to candidates. This can take the form of blog posts, polls, multimedia clips, thought leadership pieces, company achievements, and so on. These all combine to create a recognisable and e�ective talent brand.

“LinkedIn’s value proposition is about engaging active talent but also engaging the high percentage of members who are passive talent. Companies that invest in the

ecosystem of their company and career pages are good at proactively communicating to members,” says Grogan.

According to information from LinkedIn, strong employer brands can halve a company’s cost per hire, and companies with stronger employer brands have a 28% lower turnover rate than companies with weaker employer brands.

For employers that aspire to make future InDemand lists, the two key criteria – reach and engagement – will naturally favour large employers. However, Grogan suggests that any employer can start by understanding the power of their people. “Ensure your employees understand the digital footprint they can create on behalf of their employer. Their own professional networks can help to boost candidate views and follower numbers. They can become employer ambassadors,” he says.

Secondly, InDemand employers recognise that talent management has moved away from a reactive stance – ‘we’ve got an open position; let’s fill it’ – towards a proactive stance; that is, building awareness of a business through its talent brand and being mindful of the areas of the business that are critical to future growth.

Grogan suggests the InDemand list can be valuable for employers that want to get a proxy of how they are perceived against their competitors. “Quality talent is a key point of competitive advantage,” he says. “But how do you compare what you’re doing with what your competitor is doing? It’s difficult in isolation. Data points like this are a valuable way to compare how you are performing, or to assess any talent strategy change that has been implemented. It’s a validation that you’re heading in the right direction.”

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