Why are market leaders behaving like non-profits, and what does this mean for your workforce and company culture?
Today, a surprising number of global market leaders are integrating explicit social and environmental goals into their business objectives.
While this “higher-purpose” realignment is anything but universal right now, it is a highly visible trend among industry mainstays like GE, Procter & Gamble, IBM, and General Mills, to name just a few. Read more…
Breast cancer awareness and volunteer fundraising are at all-time highs today, despite the ups and downs of front-line institutional advocates like the Komen Foundation.
And when it comes to volunteer activities in our workplaces, a widespread consciousness of the breast cancer cause seems to overshadow all other social responsibility preoccupations.
Employees across North America, many of them relatives or friends of breast cancer survivors and victims, periodically don pink ribbons or other affinity badges, organize donation drives, take part on company teams in organized walks or runs, and so on.
In a remarkable pop-culture-meets-corporate-culture manifestation of this trend, hundreds of medical facilities are creating dance videos performed by their own employees to tracks by Katy Perry, Pink, and other performers. Invariably, the performers in these feel-good videos are inspiring — and more than a little touching — in their beaming, grassroots enthusiasm, if not their choreographic precision. Read more…
Editor’s note: We asked a number of writers to take a look at the movies from the summer of 2012 with an HR or talent management theme. Bob Duffy was the first to weigh in on the remake of Total Recall.
Just when you thought you had forgotten the gubernator’s Total Recall of 1990, back it comes, re-envisioned for 2012 with Colin Farrell in the lead.
Chock-a-block with familiar sci-fi/gamer conventions, this Recall’s setting is bleakly post-apocalyptic, with a color spectrum that ranges from brown to dark gray. No blue skies, and absolutely no green anything. If you’re of the Comic-Con persuasion, this telegraphs immediately what we’re in for — moral and physical desolation, and lots of lightning-strike, barely motivated violence. Read more…
Don’t “bury the lead” in first-stage recruiting; you may lose potential stars.
Your company may be limiting its recruiting success by not articulating clearly enough — and early enough — its most compelling attractors for job candidates.
Here’s what I mean: Once your recruiting team identifies an open position, no matter how extensive or how limited your recruitment “advertising“ budget, your company commands a wealth of content-rich opportunities to put its best foot forward in getting the word out to potential candidates about the vacancy. Read more…
If you work for a healthy, thriving organization, it’s likely that you can identify a consistent set of workplace values that are pretty much held in common by your workforce — or at least by your high-performing team members.
Doesn’t it make sense to base your recruitment branding initiatives on these proven and authentic attributes of your workplace, and on what it’s really like to work at your organization day-to-day?
It’s a relatively straightforward proposition to get a handle on what your team members value about their jobs and your company culture. So why do so many employers start at the other end of the brand continuum? Read more…
Is there a gap between your recruiting practices and your culture?
In today’s economy, even organizations of modest scope can expect many willing and qualified applicants for every open position. So if your small to mid-sized company is hiring, you may think you’re sitting pretty, and you may be tempted to snap up candidates who appear most qualified by reason of their resumes.
A word of caution: in bringing talented performers in the door, you shouldn’t forget the workplace environment into which you’re releasing them. No matter how impressive a candidate’s background and apparent qualifications, a mismatch with your corporate culture can turn a seemingly stellar candidate into a sullen short-timer or, worse, a disgruntled naysayer. Read more…
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