Johannesburg, 01 Jul 2014
The ability to attract and retain the best talent in the market is important for any organisation, but never more than in the competitive IT sector in South Africa today.
Not investing in your employer brand?
Recent LinkedIn surveys shed some light on the value your employer brand plays in your talent acquisition strategy. What we found could have profound implications for your recruiting efforts, says Sheryl Cooke, HR manager at ConVista Consulting.
1) Investing in your employment brand will save you money...
The bottom line impact is real: a strong talent brand reduces cost per hire by up to 50% and lowers turnover rate by 28%.
Eda Gultekin: What's the value of your employment brand? http://lnkd.in/valueofEB (December 1, 2011)
Too often, however, we see organisations' over enthusiastic communication of their brand, which results in a lack of congruence between what employees experience and the brand that the company aspires to.
The question is how to create this synergy and how to differentiate what your organisation provides its employees from organisations in the same industry?
At ConVista Consulting, we ask the following questions:
1. What do current/prospective employees want?
2. What are the most attractive and different attributes of the organisation, viewed both internally and externally?
3. How do these perceptions affect recruitment success?
4. How do we ensure congruence between our aspiration and what we are?
To answer these questions holistically, we need to consider both internal and external research.
In the Global Universum Student Surveys, work/life balance has been the number one career goal in most countries other than Russia and Poland, where work security was number one, and South Africa, where serving the greater good is the most important goal.
At ConVista, we measure the current internal perception through the Great Place to Work Survey, run via our group office in Germany. Every person in the organisation participates in analysing the results and improving our brand.
The attributes that differentiate us as an employer, coalesce around our vision, our people and our culture.
1. Our vision was co-created by all employees and is constantly referred to in decision-making. The focus of our ConVista Vision is on "transform(ing) and enrich(ing) communities we touch through fresh ideas, collaboration and integrity".
2. Our people, "passionate, awesome and talented": finding the best people is always an HR manager's biggest challenge! Especially in a niche market. Here our brand is most important! We hire for:
a. Attitude - commitment, collaboration, community
b. Passion
c. Excellence
d. Technical/engineering expertise or mindset
3. Our culture supports the vision, by focusing on being a community. Through collaboration, excellence, a need to grow, a healthy sense of self, all filtered with a quirky sense of humour, especially when the going gets tough, we focus on delivering to our customer. All of us work hard to create this space, we make mistakes, we learn and, above all, we improve.
Potential hires are often quite bowled over when they meet us, by our positivity and our passion, by the focus on both personal and organisational development.
The challenge for us is to ensure there is a synergy between how we come across and the pressure this puts on the individual. To participate in a culture which is focused on the above, each individual has to participate actively in the process. They have to be prepared to participate within the organisation and at the customer. This is more challenging than people expect.
To manage this challenge, there is an initiative to build both personal and team resilience. We encourage our employees' attendance on training aimed at building competence in the consulting space. These workshops focus not only on being a great consultant, but on building the emotional intelligence required to deal with the complexities presented by projects. These learnings are then supported where possible on work by colleagues, team leads, and project managers.
ConVista has spent time creating an organisation that caters for the needs of the individual, while asking each person to be part of the greater good. The organisation's culture is one of caring (we are a family), collaboration/community and awesomeness. The focus is on making a difference to the lives of both colleagues and customers by delivering excellence. Being open to real personal and professional growth driven from both the individual and the organisation is a prerequisite to embracing the ConVista experience.
As you can see from the ConVista experience, we continuously work on our brand. We work to ensure that we live up to our vision and culture, while delivering to our customers. Our people are proud to tell people where they work. We strive to create a strong coherent line between who we are today and who we are striving to be in the future.
For further information contact ConVista Consulting on (021) 5519294 or visit our website at www.convista.com
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