Branding You

If you happen to read some of the same things employers read (which is a VERY GOOD idea, by the way), you might see a lot of talk around "employer branding". "What is that", you might ask? It's any serious efforts that a company undertakes to present themselves strategically as a good place to work for prospective employees. What that also means is that they're probably hiring. And they're looking for the right talent. And there's opportunity there. For you. Maybe for your friends and family. When you look at a company website, for example, and their section on Jobs or Careers is really compelling and well put together, you can bet there's a big initiative to brand themselves to you. There is also likely a team behind that effort that is really thinking about their talent or people strategy. Usually these are the people in HR, the recruiters who work for them, and the ones they all work for - the head of Talent, and the C-level executives, like Chief Operations Officer and even CEO. See, people make up the biggest expense (or "line item") in any organization. And obviously people make or break a company. This is important to understand when you're looking to be hired for a job. The more you understand this dynamic, the better prepared you can be when you finally get in the door or meet someone from that company. It also might...well, hopefully...will inspire you to look more closely at who's working in that company, how they're structured, what their culture is like, and what's happening inside that might necessitate them needing to hire. If you can figure out who they're looking for, why, and match up your talents, skills and interests, you may have a strong case to approach them. Think about the value you can personally offer them. Why you could make a difference inside. Could you help them make or save money? Solve a problem they have? Those are perhaps the most important questions to ever ask yourself when you're looking for work and considering a specific organization. But back to this employer branding trend. Keep an eye on it if you plan to be in the job market. You'll quickly find a large number of companies jumping into this arena to better prepare themselves to you. Here's a great example. Take a look at an email we just got about the GLOBAL Best Employer Brand Awards. It's in Mumbai, India. We found it through another email that came to us about the Asian Awards. Then found links to the GCC Best Employer Brand Awards (Gulf Coast Countries) and the program in Africa....yes, they're very globally minded. And connected. Click around and see for yourself. They're by no means direct links to actual jobs, but access to a whole different level of perspective and insight about which companies are really taking hiring seriously. They sound like good ones to keep on your radar. Another fascinating link is to the World HRD Congress. http://www.worldhrdcongress.com/ At YSN we live and breathe global youth employment and entrepreneurship, and even we were blown away by the depth and breadth of their work! If we manage to make it over to one of their events, or connect with them, we'll be sure to let you know A LOT more about what their biggest employers are thinking and doing! Or if you happen to already be connected yourself, do tell us more.