2010 – A New Year
Welcome to the January edition of Entech’s monthly newsletter.
First let me and the Team wish you a successful and prosperous New Year.The newsletter is designed around 2 key areas:
- Keeping you updated on HR/Recruitment associated trends and news.
- Highlighting a wide range of HR/Recruitment solutions that could be of benefit to your organisation
We aim to keep the information up-to date and relevant to a wide range of businesses and hopefully fuel some discussion points for your organisation.
Before Christmas we spoke about some hopeful signs of recovery in the marketplace, thankfully it appears that the UK has at last joined its counterparts in the developed world by moving out of recession. I think some more “quantitative easing” will continue to be required to fan the flames of recovery though!
I very much want this newsletter to be interactive and welcome your comments and feedback as we grow. I will be happy to feature contributions on important industry issues and your advise on how to improve the success and professionalism of our Industries.
Saul Philpot
Managing Director
Attracting and retaining the best people for your business
Think about some of the biggest global brands – Kleenex, Pepsi, Virgin, McDonalds, Apple, Microsoft – how successful do you think they are at attracting talent, new employees, to work for them?
Imagine the level of response that they get when they place an ad in the local press, covered with their logos and branding. Now imagine your business getting the same response to recruitment ads you place.
Of course, their marketing budgets may be slightly higher, but beyond that, what is it that they do so well to ensure that their brand attracts top talent?
Reputation.
Step one is to map out the type of reputation you want, identifying the key themes and words you want your target audience to be thinking and saying about your business.
Do you want people to be using words like “stable”, “secure”, “comfortable” about your business, or are you looking for people who are attracted to companies that are more “ever-changing”, “fast-paced” and have a “work hard, play hard” style of working. Obviously, each style will attract a different style of personality accordingly.
Demonstration – it is pointless spending the time and effort working on your image and reputation if you don’t live and breathe them, and you don’t live and breathe them with variety, consistency and impact – this is where the focus should be next.
“Variety” needs to be prevalent in where you advertise and look for talent – ask yourself where the type of person with the types of skills you are looking for, go frequently and then create a presence for your brand there.
It may sound absurd, but people with good social skills may be found in public meeting places (like wine bars), good research skills may be found in libraries and
…good team players may be found at sports clubs! Think about the types of skills you are looking for, go to where they exist and start developing your brand there.
“Consistency” will ensure that people start to remember you and think about you subconsciously. Often when we come up with great ideas to attract new talent, we try them out once and then give up when it doesn’t bring the results we had expected. But it takes so much more than that.
It took a number of years from its small start in 1907 before people starting talking about the brand “Hoover” rather than using the word vacuum cleaner – today, a national magazine recently named Hoover one of the 100 brands that changed America.
Similarly, there has to be consistency with the reputation you have designed so your message remains clear to your audience. Ensure that your reputation is not only at the forefront of all of your branding and pr, but also is lived by your current staff in how they work with their customers (remember, any client may be a potential new recruit, or may know someone who might be).
The “impact” of your reputation will then determine just how successful your efforts will be in attracting the best available talent. The top global brands are now directing their efforts beyond the traditional marketing techniques of how many of their target audience will see their advertisements, and how frequently, and instead are finding ways to get their audience to allow the brands to even become part of their ways of life!
The iPod, for example, has created an entire culture surrounding the product itself, more than being just a great product in it’s own right. Motorola similarly has cornered the market with its Razr phone that comes complete with a new way of talking, living and being!
Don’t believe for one minute that these are ideas exclusive…
To the big brand names. It is very easy for any size organisation to corner a market and attract the best talent in that market, if they utilise the lessons learned by these big brands.
So, to ensure you’re not hunting for talent like needles in a haystack, turn the tables around and focus on your brand and reputation so the talent is attracted to you instead.
Entech work extremely closely with a wide range of clients to raise their Brand awareness as an employer of choice,Entech offer a comprehensive recruitment and branding health check completely free of charge to our clients to assiist them in securing and retaining the best candidates for their business needs.
Help for Heroes
For Christmas 2009 rather than send all our clients a Christmas card, Entech made a donation of £500 to Forces Charity Help for Heroes. We received a large number of emails back in support from our clients in support of this worthy charity.
Recruitment Health-Check:
Are you concerned about ever-changing employment legislation? Is your business at risk? Are you being efficient and cost-effective with your internal recruitment practices? If you have answered yes to any of these questions now is the time to take our Free Recruitment Health-check or click here.
Twitter:
You can now follow what we are doing as we continue to use the Twitter micro-blogging service to tweet about our exciting activities. This twitter feed has now been added to our home page. Please click here to view this feed.
Contact Us
We have dedicated teams of professionals supporting the following industries:
Further Information: For further information about Entechs’ services, please visit our web site at www.entechts.co.uk where you can take the Recruitment Health-Check to see how we can help you save on-line. Alternatively, call us on (01442) 898 900 to discuss business benefits and arrange an on-line demonstration.
Entech Technical Solutions 