Citizens of Oxus

The Candidate Journey - from applicant to employee

2009-04-10T09:29:00.004+08:00

Published in 2007, “Recruitment 2020” was the result of nine months of research that focused on developing possible futures - or scenarios - for recruitment, and to identify their implications for the industry and for public policy more broadly.

The paper in its entirety is widely available online and is an interesting read for those with direct recruitment responsibilities and even more so for those who run businesses of any substantial size.

Amongst the many findings, they identified the need to bring the recruitment process “into brand” and use the engagement of candidates as a window through which outsiders can see how you operate and make a decision on whether or not they wish to join such a team.

(From Recruitment 2020, pg 77)
Align the recruitment experience with client ethos

At a time when job seekers are showing an increasing interest not just in levels of pay but also in a much wider set of factors - including how it feels to work somewhere - the experience of being recruited matters.
Organisations with a relaxed, business-like or playful ethos (and brand) need to ensure that the process of recruitment itself reflects that ethos. When candidates go through recruitment processes they are also gathering information and making judgments about their potential employers - meaning that the process must reflect the organisation itself. This requires differentiated processes designed not just to identify the right competencies but also to create the right impression.

We do have clients in China that have already identified this and are working towards improving their performance in the “candidate journey,” not just to “prove” that they do what they say they do…value open communication, respect individuals, act with integrity etc, but also to begin the cultural induction of the candidate by exposing them to the organisational culture from the very first engagement. The result is a new employee who has a cultural awareness and affinity with the organisation on his very first day at work. On-boarding process, assimilation and retention can all be improved as a result and best of all, you will have created a brand advocate who will no doubt go tell his friends what a great place to work he has found.

And you thought you had recruitment challenges...

2009-04-01T16:06:00.003+08:00

Top jobs go empty in deadly Chinese mining center
(Associated Press Writer Christopher Bodeen)

BEIJING – Position open: Mayor of Chinese coal mining city notorious for frequent fatal accidents and heavy pollution. Prospective candidates: None.

State media reports on Wednesday said the jobs of mayor and Communist Party boss in the northern city of Linfen have gone unfilled for more than six months because no one wants the potentially career-killing positions.

The former incumbents were fired after a mining accident last September that killed 270 people.

Replacements have yet to be found from within the local government and attempts to recruit candidates from outside the area have so far failed, the China Daily and other newspapers reported.

"The ideal candidates must be willing to risk their political career," it said. Job tenure will likely last only until the next accident, China Daily said.

Asked about the reports, an official at Linfen's government propaganda office said new leaders were expected "soon."

"It's not as serious as media reported," said the man, who refused to give his name as is common among Chinese bureaucrats.

Despite the axing of numerous officials, changes in political leadership at the local level have done little to curb the carnage in China's mining industry, the world's deadliest. Most accidents are blamed on corruption, poor regulation, and cutting corners on safety to feed the growing economy's insatiable demand for coal.

Recruiters Placing More Emphasis on Corporate Branding

2009-03-20T11:38:00.000+08:00

A recent survey by recruitment software company Standout Jobs and HRMorning.com reveals that 43% of the companies polled are pulling their spending from Internet job boards and re-directing those resources to better showcase their brand to potential employment candidates.

The shift away from job boards is a response to current market conditions, which have made more high-value candidates available to companies looking to capitalize on the market's turnaround with strategic hires, reveals the survey. And while the current market remains grim, optimism still dictates many of the respondents' near term hiring plans, with more than 30% planning to increase hiring during the second and third quarter of 2009: adding the fourth quarter raises that number to 41%.

Referrals are still the most popular avenue for sourcing jobs, but the companies polled indicate their Web site or career page as being the next most valuable vehicle for finding candidates. Job boards, while useful for generating a higher volume of resumes, are being criticized for not delivering qualified candidates, which are seen as the key for surviving the tough current economic climate and building future organizational strength.

"We decided to create this poll to get a sense of how bad or good the market for hiring really was at the organizational level, rather than continuing to rely on media reports which have been overwhelmingly negative," says Benjamin Yoskovitz, Standout Jobs CEO and founder. "With the help of our poll partner, HRMorning.com, we asked 450 internal company recruiters a number of questions having to do with their hiring practices and plans for the immediate future.

The results showed cautious optimism, with many expecting to start hiring again in the third quarter. We also learned their standards and processes have changed, and now strategic hiring is the name of the game." Companies are putting more emphasis on engaging quality talent in an effort to show they're a 'great place to work' for the right candidates. Creating a better fit between employer and employee is seen as a key to hiring success, and employment branding attracts the right type of candidates through more open, regular and interactive communication with applicants.

This trend was evident in the poll question "Which recruiting trends do you think could improve your recruiting efforts?" Of the respondents, 239 claim "social networks," while 187 respondents indicate candidate relationship management was high on their list of priorities. The survey further indicates that search engine optimization was also a favorite followed by "other," blogs, online video, and Twitter.

Companies are clearly interested in re-marketing to job seekers, treating people well in addition to delivering a strong candidate experience. Even though the companies polled indicated they were increasing their dependence on their sites and social tools to engage candidates, the majority of them had no specific strategies for recruiting Generation X and Y applicants, which have grown up with the web and are more likely than their older colleagues to use it for job hunting, socializing and networking.

Dominos Delivers

2009-03-06T17:38:00.000+08:00

What I love about this recruitment drive from Dominos Pizza in Australia is the visible input and support of their marketing team and CEO in getting out this media release.

It’s obviously a great message during times of job-loss and much easier to get media attention but still, they have done a great job on their careers site with a clearly articulated and compelling candidate value proposition (CVP) for all vacant positions.

Turns out Dominos is a fun place to work, pay is good, there are serious training and development opportunities and real potential for long-term careers even from entry level driver / delivery jobs.

Their careers site is worth a visit as it ticks a lot of boxes. One feature that I love is where they answer the questions of parents who might be considering the benefits and dangers of having their little ones take their first foray into employment.

Also, by suggesting that they have traditionally relied on students and part-timers but that they are ready for applications from others, they open the door for a much wider group of potential employees by driving home the message that Dominos is a viable long-term career option.

An influx of these employees will most certainly reduce staff turnover and directly impact the bottom line of this listed company whose investors and stakeholders should all be happy with this public and highly professional display of respect to the management of their human capital.

Media release:

Pizza chain has 2,500 job vacancies

Tuesday March 3, 2009, 4:20 pm

While the mining and banking sectors lay off thousands of workers, a major food chain says it has 2,500 vacancies.

Domino's Pizza is seeking casual pizza deliverers across its 434 stores in Australia.

The chain is bucking the trend which has seen 3,000 jobs lost in Queensland's mining sector alone this year, and hundreds in other industries such as banking and retail.

Domino's chief executive Don Meij said the economic downturn was turning many families to more affordable takeaway food.

"As a result this has seen our stores experience the need for additional staff to fulfil orders and deliveries," Mr Meij said.

Domino's has launched a recruitment website, www.dominosjobs.com.au to help fill its vacancies.

With a minimum hourly rate of $10.78 for the first three months plus $1.73 for each delivery, the traditional job takers are university students.

But Domino's corporate operations manager Kerri Hayman said there were career paths at the firm, which might have ex-bank workers and miners lining up for jobs.

END

Fear Not! Web2.0 is here to stay...

2009-03-02T11:45:00.000+08:00

One of the single most compelling reasons for a company to undertake some research and development of their employer brand is simply to position the organisation to perform better in what is now known as the "recruitment2.0" or "web2.0" landscape.

In this world, honesty and transparency are key so only having indulged in some navel-gazing, and taken a stance in some key areas, are organisations in a position to participate in conversations about themselves as an employer in these forums.

It is a fact that "the crowd controls the message" now and HR are indeed correct to have reservations about this but if you choose to stake no claims of your own, or worse, continue to use the white-lies of yesteryear, then you are genuinely and completely at the mercy of the crowd – and this, it seems to me, should be even more of a concern!

The following article from CIPD picks up on the concerns of HR in general when presented with the reality and opportunities of a web2.0 world.

ARTICLE:

Avoid ‘Facebook fear factor’, CIPD tells HR

A new CIPD report finds that HR is failing to take advantages of "the many opportunities presented by Web 2.0 technology." The report suggests that the potential benefits of this technology are being overlooked because of fears about potential employee misbehaviour and a reluctance to lose control over its use. It warns that HR faces losing out on the possibility of playing an important role in guiding the adoption of Web 2.0 to enhance organisational and business performance.

The report (‘Web 2.0 and Human Resource Management: ‘Groundswell' or hype?') lays out a systems framework to help HR professionals think about how web-based content (in the form of texts, videos, opinions and other applications) can be transferred - through new Web 2.0 social media technologies - into important HR outputs. As well as offering clear guidance about Web 2.0, it cites a number of case-studies illustrating how organisations can reap the benefits of these technologies (in areas such as collaboration, learning & development, employer branding and engagement) while simultaneously mitigating the risk of employee abuse.

CIPD organisation & resourcing adviser Vanessa Robinson says "Web 2.0 provides employees with new tools for collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Its open, democratic nature, however, has meant that many HR professionals are focusing on the negative side, which is a shame as Web 2.0 is here to stay.

"HR is in danger of playing catch-up as a profession in failing to advance the interests of organisations by navigating them through the undoubted benefits. As well as limiting potential abuse by carefully selecting the technology used, HR professionals must develop and communicate clear and well-informed policies to help employees understand what behaviour is acceptable and what is clearly not.

"Organisations will be increasingly faced with employees seeking to use Web 2.0 social media technologies at work, so rather than ignore them or ban them outright they will need to adopt sensible policies that fit a particular context. There are no one-size-fits all policies because contexts differ, which is evident from our research and case studies."
END

On Video CV’s:

2009-02-23T17:43:00.000+08:00

From an recruitment industry point of view, it seems that whilst everyone can appreciate the benefits of a multimedia CV, and there are even some enterprises out there promoting the practice, it didn’t seem to me to be gaining a lot of steam over 2008.

Post-financial crisis however and suddenly "talent" is a buyers market again and job-seekers will need to impress if they want to get a foot in the door.

Are we going to see more video CV’s in 2009 from applicants wanting to differentiate themselves? And if you are a recruiter…are you ready and willing to receive them? See what these recruiters think...

Article:
Multimedia CV: Put your best face forward
By Lia Timson
The Sydney Morning Herald
Published: 07 February 2009

Get in front of potential employers with your own video.

When Matt Niedzwiedz wanted a job in event management, he prepared a multimedia CV package to showcase his talents.

The party organiser had spent many years working on the music scene in Warsaw and London and wanted to demonstrate his skills to potential employers. So he produced a 30-minute presentation, burnt it to mini-CD and mailed it away. He also produced a shorter version that he posted on video-sharing website YouTube.

"I was quite known in Europe but here I would be nobody," he says. "I wanted to show potential employers my way of working."

Niedzwiedz is not alone. An increasing number of tech-savvy jobseekers, particularly generation Ys, are using webcams, camera phones, editing software and online video-sharing sites to promote their talents and stand out from a long line of hopefuls. While there are subtleties to the technique, it can pay off.

The human resources manager at accounting firm Pitcher Partners, Melissa Banek, says she likes to see CVs on video.

"It provides a great snapshot of the candidate's profile, experience and education in [their] words," she says. "I find it an efficient use of time. The employer can work out which questions they would like to
further probe in an interview and not waste time going over old ground."

However, Banek warns some employers could immediately exclude you from a face-to-face interview if they are unimpressed with your video CV.

A browse of YouTube, where many jobseekers post their CVs as a supplement to targeted mail-outs, shows the diverse range of video resumes being produced.

Some have very poor production values and feature applicants giving lacklustre performances. Others dazzle the viewer with their high quality and confident presentation.

The director of non-profit placement agency NGO Recruitment, Richard Green, says he is yet to receive a video CV but expects that day is not far off. He believes a video CV could work well for jobs where media skills and unconventional thinking are an advantage, such as head of communications at an organisation like Greenpeace.

The talent manager for advertising specialist recruiter The Ladder, James Greet, says job applicants considering a video CV should make sure it is primarily focused on their experience and capacity to do the job.

"It may be a very creative way of building excitement around [you], as far as it's well directed, informed and entertaining," he says. "Done badly, it could ruin your chances."

Mature-aged workers can also take advantage of the technology, according to Sam Leon, the principal of XMSolutions, an over-45s recruiting firm. He favours web conferencing and video CVs over phone chats and preliminary person-to-person meetings with jobseekers. He says employers also appreciate avoiding travel expenses for first interviews of interstate candidates.

"It gives a feeling for the candidate's personality and whether they are genuine," Leon says. "You can pick up body language, watch their eyes and get them to hold up things like diplomas.

"Over the next five years, video CVs will be as normal as printed or emailed CVs, without question."

When Tourism Queensland recently sought applications for a dream job on Hamilton Island, it insisted on video CVs in the first round to get a feel for the applicants. The role pays $150,000 for six months of work, living on the island and promoting it to the world. More than 8000 applications have been received.

The area manager for recruiter Drake International, Zipporah Szalay, says video CVs should be carefully prepared. Drake has a professionally staffed production studio to help candidates properly represent themselves. It regularly produces 30-second videos for candidates, especially those looking to work overseas.

"We've done it for Asian students going back to their countries to work, even doctors and nurses," Szalay says.

"You can demonstrate a cultural fit [with the company] by the way you communicate your passion and charisma and they can click on a link to your CV. But it doesn't work for everything. Professionalism is the key. You need to really take care because you only get one shot at it."

Niedzwiedz has learned valuable lessons from his video CV. He received just one response from 60 CVs sent out. He now believes his 30-minute presentation was too much of a demand on a company's time.

He hopes to make another assault on the job market soon, using the insights he has gained.

2009-02-17T17:02:00.000+08:00

"hungry designers wanted"

This is definitely still one of the best recruitment ads I have seen.
Apple seems to have got both their product and employment identity down. :)

-Camilla

Choosing a Recruitment Communications Agency

2009-02-17T10:22:00.000+08:00

The following is an excerpt from an article written by Ri5 for the January issue of Pharma Times, the monthly magazine for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare industries.

The first half of the article, not included here, focused on the history of the recruitment communications industry. The following portion then goes into how the internet has effected that landscape and how a recruiter might go about selecting and engaging professional support in this area.

This should be of interest to anyone who is considering seeking the support of an agency such as Oxus and I am pleased to say that when looking at their main criteria, we tick all the boxes!

"... And then along came the Internet and, not only did the goalposts move, but the rules of the game went out of the window. As in so many other aspects of life, the Internet opens up wonderful potential for recruiters, while at the same time presenting a new set of challenges. The opportunities are threefold: the Internet offers extraordinary scope for an employer to communicate with its current workforce and potential employees ...; it allows far more detailed communication about an organisation, its culture and what it is like to work there; and it has vast capacity for candidate administration. This is not then simply a new channel for advertising vacancies but a platform on which to build and promote an organisation's image as an employer - the employer brand. It can also provide the administrative infrastructure for managing talent pools and pipelines.

Response rates and costs can be measured in real time, allowing campaigns to be fine-tuned on the run. Yet alongside all these largely positive possibilities, there are dangers lurking: anyone who has a modicum of Internet savvy will check in the chat rooms and on social networking sites to get informal views about any prospective employer's good and bad points. There is thus very little point in constructing a gold-plated employer brand if one scratch reveals rather tarnished base metal below.

The purpose of recruitment (or employment) communications is to achieve the best possible return on an organisation's investment in attracting and retaining the people it needs. Recruitment communications agencies are in business to develop and implement effective recruitment marketing strategies and employee communications, using a wide range of media expertise and creative flair to deliver such results. The specialist skills that such agencies have evolved over the last 50 years or so are now allied to the most sophisticated knowledge of digital and Internet technologies. At the very least, recruitment communications agencies deliver useful and valuable services; at best, they can help to achieve real competitive advantage.

Not all agencies offer the same services. The starting point is much as it has always been:

A recruitment communications agency will be able to write, design and produce recruitment advertisements and manage their placement in appropriate online and offline media.

They will offer expertise in the design, production and hosting of recruitment websites - both general careers sites and job-specific microsites.

They will advise on how to optimize the use of search engines, job boards and other online and offline media to drive qualified traffic to the right place.

Many will offer strategic advice on employment marketing, brand development and management, and communications strategies.

Most provide response management facilities.

Perhaps the key task for any employer wishing to appoint a recruitment communications agency is to specify precise requirements before devising a selection process to identify the best qualified.

Drawing up a long list of recruitment communications agencies that could meet the specification should be fairly straightforward. Look at the advertising agency listings and visit the agencies' own websites to get an impression of what they are like. And look for good examples of online and offline recruitment communications, and try to find out who was responsible. Or simply contact the HR team in organisations you respect and ask who they use. Once you've identified your targets, you should make contact and, if initial impressions are favourable, arrange a meeting. Some form of structured assessment may be appropriate, or you could consider a trial project or a competitive pitch between a short-list of agencies (probably inviting a maximum of three contenders), making it clear to all concerned the criteria you will be using to determine the winner. (One of the most useful exercises may be to brief all agencies on a "real" project and invite them to propose fully-costed solutions, with as little room as possible for ambiguity.)

Recruiters, not just in the UK but the world over, have at their disposal the means to communicate more effectively than ever with employees and potential employees. The price of getting it right need not be high, but the cost of getting it wrong could be huge. UK recruiters are fortunate to have at their service the world's most accomplished and talented recruitment communications experts and any effort put in to finding the right agency partner is likely to be repaid in spades."

Note:
Ri5 call themselves “the premier information and marketing platform for the recruitment communications industry” and they are without a doubt one of the best sources of information online for this industry. Check them out if you wish to read more.

Heath and Desire Paths

2009-01-14T15:57:00.000+08:00

This is Heath, making my first blog post. I came to work at Oxus about 8 weeks ago, having no background whatsoever in anything HR, ATS or Employer Branding-related. I've lived in Beijing for a little over two years, spending most of my time teaching and learning valuable skills. (read: Spending massive amounts of time on the internet, reading books, illegally downloading music and watching pirated DVDs.)

Now I find myself the Systems Solutions Manager in charge of an Applicant Tracking System. It's been an exciting few weeks here. It's been wild going from total ignorance to being pretty well versed in the world of Talent Management Systems. Luckily, I've had good teachers. Everyone in the office has plenty of experience in the HR world, and every day I learn something new. On top of that, the internet is a fantastic resource on its own. I've spent hours on sites like ere.net, fistfuloftalent,com and ri5.co.uk, just figuring out how this world works.

Now, I realize that the majority of the people reading this blog probably have a better handle on the world of HR than I do. I'm new. I think I can, however, offer a fresh perspective.

One thing that has been particularly interesting to me is the way HR departments in China seem to lag pretty far behind those in the US/UK/Europe. In the West, it's commonplace to utilize the internet to simplify the hiring process. Business in China, though, hasn't adapted.

Pre-internet, paper resumes and applications were the only ways to figure out who your applicants were. These had to be read individually and sifted/sorted by hand. An enormously time-consuming and expensive task.

Today, this process can be automated. Applicants can apply online, resumes can be parsed and relevant information can be tagged. You don't need people reading every resume. It's easy.

Why then, is this practice not in action in the world's most populous country? There are millions of people looking for jobs in China. Companies are inundated with resumes. Yet still, applicant tracking systems are far from commonplace. It's insanity.

Look at this picture:

It's a "desire path".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/desirepath

You see them all over the world. You don't need to walk all the way around the sidewalk. Just walk directly where you want to go. It saves time and energy. In recruitment, it also saves money.

A Post for Chris...you never saw these shots did you?

2009-01-14T13:32:00.001+08:00

These images were taken when shooting the "farmer using computer" shot for Intel's "Create the New Normal" campaign. Mid-winter, not a great day, damn cold and no greenery. We were counting on some post-production to see us through. Still, we needed a field of vegetables so we planted one! See the end result above...then see how it was done! (slide-show)

End result was a royalty-free image for the client (their own requirement) at less than half the cost of buying a lesser quality one we'd already found in an image-bank.

Employer Branding; more than just pretty pictures

2009-01-13T17:00:00.000+08:00

Employer Branding is gaining popularity and awareness in China today and a number of companies are investing large sums to develop their own Employer Brand (EB). What most of us see as a result of this investment in time and money is a collection of creative visuals and catchy copywriting espousing the joys of employment at such and such a company. But is this really what employer branding is all about? Is there more to Employer Branding than just pretty pictures and catchy advertising taglines?

Written by Employer Branding professionals in China, this article will look into the process of employer branding by drawing on the experiences of Microsoft China Research and Development (CRD) during their 2007 Campus Recruitment Program. The article will illustrate the process taken, the justifications for them and the results that can come from leveraging your employer brand in the recruitment market.

“Brand Building?”

Legend has it that a major MNC recently approached HodesOxus asking how much it would cost to “build” their employer brand. The answer was simple, “That will cost you nothing; you already have one!”

The fact that every organization already has an employer brand is an unavoidable truth that is sometimes more easily recognized by replacing the word “brand” with “reputation”. Whether you like it or not, you all have a reputation as an employer, based on the variety of opinions that have been formed amongst your staff and stakeholders over the period of your existence. It is the sum of these opinions and the associated emotions, values, and feelings that constitute your “Employer Brand.” Companies may sometimes feel that these perceptions are underserved or maybe even downright incorrect, but as they represent the reality of your brand (or reputation), they need to be properly understood before any actions can be taken to manage them, address them and begin to leverage them to your own benefit.

So how should this MNC have approached the issue? They could have asked, “How much will it cost to discover my Employer Brand?” Obviously you simply cannot go and make up a bunch of stuff about your company and send it out to the public only to discover that your existing employees don’t actually agree with it. From a recruitment perspective, the employer branding messages must ring true. They must not only come across as genuine, but more importantly, be something that the organization is able to deliver on. Anyone joining an organization for a particular set of reasons will not stay long if these commitments are not delivered upon. A big part of employer branding is simply about making sure that your organization is attracting the right people, for the right reasons, aligning employee expectations with the reality of the job offering.

Assessing perceptions

And so it begins with research, which, done properly, should assess perceptions both internally and externally of the company. By offering a safe environment with an emphasis on confidentiality, small, internal focus groups of employees across all levels of the organization can offer valuable insights into the real state of affairs. To compliment these findings, the perceptions of the company as an employer also need to be assessed from the outside, ideally from the type of people you are hoping to attract – your target audience. Identifying candidates for this external research can be more challenging and if focus groups prove to be too difficult to arrange (getting 8 unrelated people in the same room at the same time can be hard), they can also be achieved through 20 - 30 minute telephone interviews with an experienced interviewer.

When compared, the two sets of data can show a picture of internal employer brand “reality” against external employer brand “perceptions”. This is the information that should be the basis for the design of a messaging strategy that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the employer brand as it is. This creative application incorporates not only the copywriting but also the whole visual appeal of the brand including the overall theme and taglines.

A Case Study in Employer Branding creativity and implementation; The Microsoft China Research and Development (CRD) 2007 Campus Recruitment Campaign.

In early 2007, Microsoft CRD invested in both internal and external research into their “core-tech” target audiences across China and India. The findings indicated some external perceptions of Microsoft as an employer that were worrying to its recruitment team and that it wanted to address. These included that CRD was an intense and demanding working environment that was not as creative as its competitors. Some felt that projects in China lack challenges and involved more implementation than incubation of new technology development. Internally however, CRD was recognized for its excellent training and development opportunities, it’s exposure to cutting-edge technology, career development and “impact”, the extent to which an individual’s contribution can be felt both inside the organization and in the world at large.

Knowing that they had a compelling employment offering, CRD settled on a strategy of drawing on a selection of newly recruited “stars” to deliver the messages for them. This “dream-team” of core-tech superstars became CRD’s spokesmen and women, in some cases returning to their old campuses to talk to the graduating classes about life after school and life at Microsoft CRD.

Thus CRD went to campus with a very open-door approach that was summed up in the tagline “See for yourself”. Leveraging familiarity with Microsoft’s corporate slogan of “We see…”, this tagline was an invitation to “come and have a look” that at the same time displayed an almost defiant confidence and pride in their offerings as an employer. The result was a resounding success. The recruiting target for the event was exceeded by 20% without compromising on entry requirements and interview / screening systems. So successful was the campaign in fact that it won a creative excellence award at CEA 07 and went on to form the basis of the internship campaign in 2008.

Using a more youthful and urban theme of a colorful graffiti-sprayed wall, the “stars” partook in a half-day photo-shoot that formed the visual basis for a variety of communications that delivered a number of key messages to the target audiences. CRD was very aware of the amount of pertinent information that their target group had access to, so stretching the truth was never an option. At the same time, they were aware of the demand for this talent and the fact that nearly every graduate from the top schools was likely to be presented with more than one “letter of offer” from a major player in the IT sector.

From the perspective of the job-seeking graduate, the employer branding messaging should have given them an understanding of CRD as an employer that might have differed from what they “heard” elsewhere and by hearing it directly from their peers on the inside may have lent it increased credibility. The result is that when letters of offer come in, the candidates have the added security of making an informed decision about their very first career move.

Employer Branding however should also deliver more than that. Microsoft’s Campus road shows and presentations were attended by many more than those individuals who finally took up offers of employment. All the brand awareness and familiarity now imparted into these other graduates who will be joining other organizations will carry with them a perception of what it could have been like at Microsoft. This could mean that they would go on to consider Microsoft again in a few years time or even end up working with them indirectly as a client or service provider.

Off campus however and into a real labour market, not all of your target audience is actively seeking employment and the opportunity to seed in the minds of those who are already engaged in other organizations the benefits and features of employment with your organization is just as critical. Employer Branding is not something that should appear solely in the realm of recruitment advertising. It is about spreading that awareness into the offices of your competitors, thereby beginning to attract passive job seekers with its well crafted and well positioned messages.

Furthermore, having defined your offerings and laid them in a concise and consistent manner, the communication of them through a much broader variety of channels will also allow for the development of passive candidate channels. By building your employer brand into your careers site and coupling it with a web-based application system, the opportunity exists to turn any media channel, from industry publications to online communities, into viable recruitment channels. The company can begin to undertake recruitment advertising that does not hold a job title or job description but rather attracts potential candidates to your careers center by delivering carefully crafted messages. Once on your site, they can begin to understand what you stand for and what you offer to your employees.

Recruitment partners such as headhunters and even internal recruitment staff also stand to benefit from the development of an employer brand by becoming clearer on the jobs they are “selling” which results in a greater return on investment over the long term. At the end of the day, if they are selling your company as an employer, they must be fully equipped to do so with the maximum amount of honesty and integrity. There is too much to lose in getting this wrong.

Much more than just pretty pictures and copy, Employer Branding is an exercise in research, followed by a creative application that is intended to deliver a powerful and consistent message about your company that carries with it all the emotion, values and excitement that your company can inject into the lives and careers of your staff.

Footnote: HodesOxus is the partnership of Oxus Solutions Ltd (www.oxuschina.com) and the Bernard Hodes Group (www.hodes.com ) who have come together to offer Employer Branding expertise in the China market. The designs used in the Microsoft campaign can be seen in the portfolio on www.oxuschina.com.

转：经济危机下的企业人力资源战略选择

2009-01-08T12:10:00.000+08:00

经济危机下的企业人力资源战略选择

作者：赵炜

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
　　入库时间：2009年1月8日

　　经济危机的发生导致社会总体需求不足，引起企业销售收入下降，利润减少，平均成本上升，企业盈利能力下降，开工不足，甚至出现停工等现象。人力资源战略是实现企业企业经营战略的方法和手段，面对宏观经济环境的变化，企业的人力资源战略必须随之而变。

　　一、实施紧缩战略，集约化管理：

　　经济危机的发生企业必然会采取紧缩战略，业务范围收缩，新项目停止，海外市场撤回，人员的分流安置成了首要的选择，在外资企业里大都选择了裁员，其实裁员并不是最佳的选择，外资企业之所以选择裁员是因为他有很好的人才吸引条件，而外资企业的文化也决定了裁员是一种简单高效的选择，而在国有企业和民营企业里裁员或许是不得已的选择而不是最优，最先选择。紧缩战略应该做到以下几点。

　　1.认真盘点现有的人力资源存量，根据业务战略的调整对现有的人力资源进行结构性的调整，消除企业在扩张时期、快速发展时期的不合理配置。对富裕的人员进行逐步分流处理，先简单岗位后技术含量相对搞高的岗位，逐步分流，已达到人员总量的平衡。

　　2.停止招聘，严格控制人员的流入，尤其是简单岗位重复劳动岗位的人员的招聘。把招聘变成战略人才的储备行动，在经济危机中也是战略人才引入和储备的机会，经济景气的时候企业急需的高端人才很难引入，这个时侯或许是个很好的时机，抓住机会做好战略人才的引入工作。

　　3.优化业务流程，实施瘦身行动。随着业务战略的调整企业必须及时调整组织架构，使组织架构更加紧凑，灵活高效，以提高反应速度与市场应变能力。

　　4.在人才储备和培养上变专门培养为岗位培养，变内部储备为外部储备，减少和停止岗位外的培训和训练，停止学历教育等等。压缩培训规模，以内部培训为主，以业务技能培训为主。

　　5.停止调薪，优化薪酬结构，严格控制人工成本总额。通过业务战略的调整提高人均产出，降低人均人工成本。停止例行的加薪和额外的奖励。控制计划外福利开支。

　　6.实施集约化管理，将平时分散在各分支机构的培训、咨询等项目集中起来统一管理，统一审批，防止意外开支的发生。

　　二、精细化管理才能提升竞争力：

　　大多数企业的HR在企业快速发展过程中主要精力集中在人才的招聘配置上，无暇顾及人力资源的发展、保持和激励政策的研究。经济危机的发生，减少了招聘量，我们可以腾出时间来更好的研究人力资源的配置，员工的职业生涯的规划，员工发展的评估，激励政策的研究，把一些人力资源的核心的业务进行精耕细作，夯实基础。优化流程，完善人力资源的日常运营体系，提高运行效率，为企业战略的实现提供贴实的保障。

　　三、强化培训是强身健体的最好选择：

　　在经济不景气的时候，企业的订单不足，开工量不足，闲余时间相对较多，这个时候是企业狠抓内部培训的大好时机，精心策划认真组织企业内部的岗位培训，通过培训提高员工的思想素质，统一认识，提高凝聚力，通过认真分析和总结不足与差距提高业务技能，提高人均产出和效率进而提高人力资源的投资回报率。

　　四、企业文化建设，“稳定压倒一切，团结就是力量！ ”

　　经济危机中，企业文化建设尤为重要，经济危机并不可怕，可怕的是精神危机，信念危机。因此这时的企业文化建设，应该加强与员工的沟通与交流，保持沟通渠道的畅通，让员工及时了解经济危机对企业经营带来的影响，让员工理解企业所采取的紧缩的策略与政策，同时在人力资源战略上要树立“稳定压倒一切”的理念，要确保企业经营的相对稳定，员工情绪精神状态的相对稳定，切忌采取极端的过激的政策，以免引起员工队伍的动荡和情绪的波动，进而影响产品质量和经营业绩对企业造成自身的伤害。要多组织积极向上的文化活动，提高员工的凝聚力，统一员工的思想，只要上下同欲，团结一致就能抵御经济危机的影响，共同战胜困难，走出冬天，迎接明媚的春光！

出处：中国人力资源开发网（简称：中人网）www.ChinaHRD.net

雇主品牌:不仅仅是漂亮的图片

2009-01-05T16:34:00.000+08:00

This is the Chinese language version of an article I wrote for "China Staff" (a CCH publication) back in August '08. An English language version will go up here in a few days.

雇主品牌观念在当代中国日益受到重视，一些公司投入大量的资金努力打造自己的雇主品牌。经过大量的时间和金钱上的投入，大家看到的是抓人眼球的视觉效果和精美的文案，以及其所营造出的愉快的工作场景。不过，这是不是雇主品牌的全部内涵？除了漂亮的图片和引人注目的广告词，雇主品牌是否还涵盖更多内容？

本篇文章由中国雇主品牌的专业人士撰写，将通过借鉴微软中国研究与发展中心在其2007年的校园招聘项目的品牌建设经验来探讨雇主品牌的建设过程。文章将举例说明实施步骤，以及中间的调整，还有通过善用雇主品牌从而在招聘市场上取得的不同效果。

“品牌建设” ？

曾有一个跨国公司找到hodesoxus咨询需要投入多少成本才能“打造”他们的雇主品牌。他们得到了一个很简单的答案，那就是 “您不用花一分钱，因为您已经有了” ！

每一个企业都拥有一个属于自己的雇主品牌，而“品牌”一词更容易被“口碑”所取代。不管您是否愿意，您的雇主口碑都在您作为雇主的基础上形成，这个口碑汇集了您的员工以及所有利益相关者的看法。这些看法和相关的情绪，价值观念和情感的汇集构成了您的“雇主品牌”。公司有时可能觉得这些看法是不全面的，甚至是完全错误的，但它们却真实的代表了您现实中的品牌（口碑）。所以在您决定宣传您的雇主品牌前，请全面了解公司内部的这些负面看法，并着手解决这些问题。

所以先前的那个跨国公司应该问的是： “应该需要多少钱来发现我的雇主品牌？” 很显然您不应该去编造一个个美丽的雇主谎言，并把它们传播给公众，但最终却发现您的员工会站出来粉碎这些谎言。从招聘的角度来看，雇主品牌的信息/承诺必须要真实。同时，更重要的是这些信息/承诺是能够兑现的。那些为特定的承诺而加入企业的员工，一旦发现这些承诺不会被兑现，很可能会选择离开。雇主品牌建设从很大程度上来说，是要确保您的公司用实实在在的承诺，吸引适合您公司的员工。更重要的是，这些员工入职后，将发现他们对公司的期望值与公司的现实相符合。

发现品牌

一般会从调研入手，对公司内部和外部从雇主的角度进行评估。通过提供一个高度保密的安全环境，让公司各个层面的员工为公司真正的雇主品牌提供宝贵的见解。结合内部调研的结果，公司也应该在外部进行雇主品牌的调研，尤其是应该在公司希望吸引的目标群体中进行调研。确定外部调研的候选人很具有挑战性，因为组织这种座谈难度比较大（安排8个完全陌生的人在同一时间，同一个房间内出现），通常这样的外部调研可以通过深度访谈的方式进行，安排一位经验丰富的采访者对目标候选人逐一进行20-30分钟的电话访谈，同样可以得到相关雇主的宝贵信息。

将内部和外部的两组数据进行比较，即可显示出内部目标群对该雇主品牌的“真实”评价和外部目标群体对该雇主品牌的“看法” 。清楚标明该雇主品牌的长处和短处，这为如何设计品牌营销信息的传递策略提供了基础。这种创造性的整合策略，将文案，整个品牌的视觉魅力，还有总主题和广告标语有机地融合在一起。

雇主品牌的创意和执行的案例研究：微软中国研究与发展集团（CRD）2007年校园招聘项目

在2007年年初，微软CRD决定从内部和外部研究其在中国和印度的“core-tech”目标群体。调查结果显示，很多的外部目标群体对微软作为雇主有负面看法，这让微软的招聘团队有些担忧。这些看法包括：微软CRD的工作强度大并且很苛刻，创造性也弱于竞争对手。微软在中国的项目缺乏挑战性，更多的是做技术执行而不是新技术的开发。但是微软内部员工认为：研发中心给与了员工良好的培训和发展机会，让员工接触到了尖端技术，重视员工的职业发展，员工的个人贡献无论在公司的内部还是在世界大舞台上都有着深远的影响。

微软知道自已有令人信服的雇主承诺，CRD决定了一项策略，即选拔新招募的“新星”来传递公司的这些雇主承诺。这个“梦之队”成为了研发中心的代言人，他们有时候会返回母校宣讲，向即将毕业的学弟，学妹讲述他们毕业后在微软研发中心的生活。

微软在校园内采用了非常亲民的做法，他们打出新的口号： “see for yourself” ，成功利用了人们熟悉的微软公司的宣传标语“we see… ” 。这个新口号邀请应届毕业生们来微软看一看，同时显示微软作为雇主的信心和自豪感。2007年微软的校园招聘相当成功。在没有降低员工录用标准的条件下，招聘目标比预计超出了20 ％。这个成功的校园招募也赢得了CEA07创造性卓越奖并为微软2008年校园实习生活动奠定了良好的基础。

运用青春感十足和色彩斑斓的城市主题涂鸦墙， “新星们” 参加了为期半天的照片拍摄，这些人物加背景的视觉图片成为了微软传达其雇主承诺的基础，并加工成为不同的传播内容并通过不同的媒介传达给目标群体。微软明白其目标群体可以通过不同的方式获得相关的雇主信息，所以在传达其雇主承诺时不夸大，讲事实。同时，微软意识到几乎每一个顶级学校的毕业生基本上都可以拿到好几个科技界巨头的聘用书。

从这个角度来看，对于求职的毕业生，雇主品牌的信息给了他们了解微软研发中心的工作机会，而非道听途说。他们直接从公司内部的朋友那里获取信息，增加了信息的公信力。所以，当目标候选人收到聘用书时，他/她会对自己职业生涯中的第一个选择更有信心。

其实雇主品牌能传达的信息远远超出想象。许多人都出席了微软校园巡回展览，宣讲会，最后加入微软的仅仅其中的一小部分。对于那些最终加入其他公司的毕业生来说，他们通过微软的这些活动认识、熟悉了微软的雇主品牌，他们也许会将现在公司的工作和微软的工作进行比较。这可能意味着他们在几年后可能会再次考虑微软，或者作为客户/服务供应商来为微软间接工作。

在学校以外的人才招聘市场中，不是您的所有目标群体都正在主动寻求就业机会。将您的雇主优势和信息传达那些已经在其他企业工作的人才是非常关键的。雇主品牌的打造不是靠纯粹的招聘广告，而是用良好的制作和定位将信息传达，吸引您的目标群体。

此外，明确您的雇主承诺并且用简明，一致的方式进行传达。通过更广更多样的渠道来传播您的雇主信息，这些渠道可以帮助您发现并发展您的被动候选人。将您的雇主品牌融合到您的网站招聘和网站招聘系统，把任何可利用的媒体渠道，从行业的出版刊物到网上社区，都转化为可行的招聘渠道。公司开始进行招聘广告时并不一定需要有空缺职位/职位描述，而是吸引潜在候选人到您的公司的网站，查阅相关雇主信息。候选人一旦登陆公司的网站，他们实际上就开始了解公司对待员工的态度，以及公司能为员工提供什么。

雇主品牌清晰明确的发展将为招聘合作伙伴，如猎头公司，以及公司内部的招聘工作人员提供很大帮助。他们需要将公司作为雇主推销出去，所以他们必须全副武装，尽一切可能做到诚实和正直，不能有一点失误。立足长远，公司才能得到更大的投资回报。

雇主品牌远不止是漂亮的图片和文字，它是实践性的研究，而后从中发展出精彩的创意，继而传达出有影响力并且前后一致的雇主信息，这些信息中承载着情感，价值观和令人兴奋的元素，它们都将注入到您公司员工的生活和职业生涯中。

注： Hodesoxus 是由Oxus Solutions.（www.oxuschina.com）和Bernard Hodes（ www.hodes.com ）组成，Hodesoxus为中国市场提供雇主品牌建立的专业服务。微软2007年校园招聘案例请参阅www.oxuschina.com “ 案例” 部分。

Thoughts for 2009

2008-12-31T14:22:00.000+08:00

As a new business totally focused on employer communications in China, 2009 promises to be a pretty scary year. Only a few months ago all the talk was about the 'war for talent' and companies struggled to hire the people they needed - especially in mid management and leadership positions. We were receiving plenty of enquiries about how we could help customers develop their employer brands, asked for our ideas on tapping into new 'passive candidate' channels and were kept pretty busy working with Microsoft in particular, on their campus recruitment campaign.

How things change! Within a matter of weeks, companies crying out for solutions suddenly announced hiring freezes, or worse. All plans for 2009 seemed to have been put on the back burner and our forecasts took a hit. But then we took a good look around at the general state of employment communications in China and found more than a few reasons to be cheerful.

To put it bluntly, apart from a few innovators, the vast majority of 'talent managers' preside over a pretty underwhelming recruitment and engagement programs. In an age where all candidate traffic should be driven to the corporate career site, we still find plenty of shocking career sites - badly designed, badly maintained and often not even functional.

Only a few are working on SEO in an effort to drive their job offering high on the search engine rankings - most are still satisfied to lump their jobs onto one or more of the big job boards - Zhaopin, 51 etc - along with all the competition. Surely in 2009 the home of employment communications shouldn't be in with 62,000 other competitors for talent, but housed on your own channel, when you can hold more meaningful conversations with the best candidates.

As Rob pointed out in his recent post, pretty much all the 'ads' found in this market are jargonised job descriptions, impossible to understand even by company insiders. It is very difficult, reading any type of employment communications, to figure out what distinguishes one company from another...why should the best candidates chose you, rather than your competition? Although most big companies do have an employer brand articulated at the global level, invariably it doesn't work in China. This is generally because employer branding is such a new concept in PRC, not many people have real experience of it, and struggle trying to bring an EVP handed down from global HQ to life in this environment.

Another area that seems ripe for exploration is the posting of 'job ads' online. I still can't work out why more HR folk aren't experimenting with the massive potential of the wider internet. Posting to the open web - social networks, bbs, blogs, video hosting sites - surely offers huge payback to the companies that get it right. Of course, before you can really take advantage of this area, you need to know what to say about yourself...you need a brand communications strategy and the means to get your message out there. Anyway, one of my predictions for 2009 is that a few brave souls will take the plunge and be repaid handsomely for breaking out of the job-board and headhunter mindset.

And talking of headhunters...in September I took part in a seminar organised by CCH (of China Staff fame) - the talk was about emerging recruitment practices. Mal Bentley, Oracle's Head of Recruitment for Oracle explained how he had created an in-house headhunting team to take care of all of Oracle's recruitment in Greater China. This effort has paid huge dividends for Oracle and I expect many other large employers to follow suit and develop their own direct sourcing teams over the next few years.

So, after getting over the initial panic of head-count freezes and budget clampdowns, it is clear that there is an awful lot of work companies should be doing over the course of 2009 to make sure they are well set for the continuing battle for talent over the long term. They need to sort out their brands, their websites, their communications, their job ad distribution. They need to really get to grips with metrics - especially source of hire and true cost per hire - and they need to think about using talent management software, both pre- and post hire. They should also think about experimenting with emerging assessment tools, psychometric, aptitude and others, as part of the talent acquisitions and evaluation mix. Yes, there is a ton to do...so Oxus will be back with a vengeance in 2009 to move the market along.

MB
31st December 2008

转载：经济危机下的人力资源管理模式创新

2008-12-31T14:14:00.000+08:00

转：经济危机下的人力资源管理模式创新
由美国次贷导致的席卷全球的经济危机，已经深深影响了世界的每一个角落，中国当然也不例外。随着针对这场危机认识的深入，我们不仅需要从业务模式上进行反思，更需要从管理模式上进行反思。如何构建具有中国特色的企业管理模式，让中国式管理形成独有的体系，并为企业在风暴过去之后的快速崛起提供卓越的管理平台支持，是我们在经济危机暴虐的今天，需要提前思考并找到答案的必需选择。从业务模式思考，目前中国最先倒闭或者深受波及的企业，往往都处于全球价值链的最末端。这类企业的共同特征是利润最低化、出口牵引化。随着国外消费能力的大面积萎缩，销售订单急剧减少，从而出现开工不足的现象，由此导致现金流的减少，加剧企业的生存危机。从管理模式思考，这些企业管理机制非常落后，基本属于人治管理和经验管理。这种管理模式危机在销售增长的情况下一般都会淡化，但只要出现市场波动，最先受影响的就是这些没有任何风险承担能力的企业。市场变动是不可控的，但企业管理模式的更新和提升，却是经营者必需应对并可以主动改进的方向。看待任何事物，我们都要善于应用辩证的眼光。比如这次经济危机，确实导致销售锐减，赢利下滑。但换一个角度，由经济危机导致的市场低迷，对于想提升内部管理水平的企业来说，却是难得的喘息机会。在销售暴涨或者出口猛增的时候，企业更加关注产品生产和交付，没有足够的时间和精力来考虑管理问题，所以很多企业的管理基础非常薄弱。这种薄弱的管理机制，肯定无法应对企业更大的扩张。未来发展到一定阶段，即使没有经济危机，也极有可能因为内部管理危机而产生一系列经营性风险。正是基于上述思考，本文拟从人力资源管理角度，谈谈在经济危机的影响下，企业如何实现人力资源管理创新，为企业搭建具有前瞻性的人力资源管理平台，并为企业可持续性发展提供足够的人力资源管理积累和人才储备。一、构建从职位到胜任特征到知识的逐层演进的人力资源可持续化管理提升体系。经济危机影响企业的利润和生存，而职位将影响企业人力资源管理机制的健康状况。在现阶段，无论采用哪种管理体系，职位都是人力资源管理的基石。没有科学、规范、完整的职位体系梳理，就不可能构建适合企业特征的人力资源管理平台。在职位体系完善的基础上，再根据职位特性引入能力管理，建立关键岗位的胜任特征模型。在职位管理和能力管理趋于规范的基础上，再根据企业需要建立知识共享平台，构建企业人力资源知本化管理体系。三者联系如下图所示：很多企业管理者对职务分析的认识还停留在比较肤浅的层面上，认为职务分析无非就是写一份岗位说明书。而实际上，岗位说明书只是成果的展现，更关键的内容在于岗位职责的梳理和岗位任职资格的定义。而岗位职责必需和岗位产出密切相关，所以需要从业务流程和管理流程入手。同时，一份完好的岗位说明书，需要能对岗位进行准确定位，通过关键业绩领域的挖掘梳理出关键业绩指标，为岗位产出的价值衡量提供最重要的依据。这段时间我们先后为数家企业提供人力资源咨询服务，他们都有现成的岗位说明书，但在咨询过程中无一例外都是从职位入手。可见，企业现有的职务分析尚不能支撑人力资源新模式的构建，需要从业务发展、管理模式特性、未来适应性等角度重新进行评估。二、因应企业管理精细化的发展，人力资源管理度量化成为企业越来越迫切和现实的需求。在我们为客户提供咨询的过程中，企业最大的管理困惑就是工作量化问题。如何科学评估员工的产出和人力资源部自身的工作效率，成为人力资源从业者操作层面最大的管理诉求。而人力资源管理度量化，可以有效地帮助企业解决这一管理难题。所谓人力资源度量化，就是从工作中抽取关键指标并建立数学分析模型，从数量化的角度对工作进行分析和评估。比如工作方面的利润完成率、客户投诉次数、废品率等，内部管控上的员工满意度、能力测评等，人力资源管理方面的培训次数、培训效益、招聘成本、薪资成本、员工结构分析等。人力资源度量化要求每项工作都能抓住最核心的指标，并设计可操性强、准确率高的数学分析模型，通过客观的数学分析对工作进行全方位的评估。当然，人力资源度量化未必能涵盖工作和人员的所有方面，某些指标如果实在无法找到合适的数学分析模型，或者如果采用度量化会加大不必要的管理成本时，可以考虑采用德尔菲法或者其它工具。比如我们在给某家公司提供咨询时，客户要求对中层干部的部门管理水平进行评估。我们设计了部门关键员工流失率和部门工作效率两个指标，而部门工作效率就没有建立数学模型，而是由主管上级根据日常工作表现进行评估。三、从权力驱动型人力资源管理，转变到以员工为客户的价值驱动型人力资源管理，实现组织利润和员工价值的最大化。传统管理模式下的人力资源管理，是基于权力驱动的管理模式，通过组织架构内的权力分配实现管理职能。这种管理模式比较刚性，将人力资源管理推到员工的对立面，让员工感觉是在被动的状态下服从和遵守。而客户价值驱动型管理模式，将员工看成人力资源管理的客户，人力资源管理职责就是为员工提供相应的人力资源产品和服务。在客户价值驱动型的管理模式下，人力资源管理将通过有效沟通更加关注员工需求，让自己提供的培训、招聘、绩效等产品和服务更加贴近员工的实际需要，真正构建以员工为导向的人力资源管理体系。企业要实现客户价值驱动型人力资源管理模式，需要建立包含价值创造、价值评估、价值分配三个关键环节的人力资源价值管理体系。在该体系范围内，不仅关注人力资源产品和服务为员工创造的价值，也关注员工为企业创造的价值，并通过绩效管理、奖惩管理等工具对价值进行确认和衡量，通过薪资管理、激励管理等工具对员工创造的价值给予相应的回报。四、构建人力资源知本化管理体系，实现企业内外部知识共享，让企业知识在组织内发挥最大的效用。在人力资源知本化管理体系建设中，员工是创造知识的主体，组织是积淀知识的母体，流程是传递知识的载体，它们之间的关系如下图所示：员工知识和能力的差异化，导致他们在为企业服务的过程中，可以创造各自专业领域丰富的知识和经验。人力资源管理者需要将这些知识和经验进行筛选和积累，并提供给有需要的员工更好完成业务工作，在帮助员工业绩最大化的同时，也能让组织效益最大化。人力资源知本化管理的核心并不在于知识的积累，而在于通过借鉴实现知识的再创造，并由此来构建学习型组织，使企业永远保持鲜活的创造力。要想成为一个基业长青的公司，企业就必需构建知识的共享平台，让员工在分享的同时进行再创造，从而汇聚成企业知识的海洋。也只有这样，企业的管理提升和业务拓展才能获得更加坚实的基础。五、建立不仅适合企业管理现状，还能满足未来管理提升的人力资源信息系统，帮助人力资源管理者为员工提供更加优质的服务。人力资源信息系统从基础阶段发展到目前的管控阶段，解决重心还在于业务流程的自动化处理和协同化操作。要应对未来的管理提升，就需要在软件定位上更进一步，从“效能诉求”提升到“管理诉求”。通过人力资源信息系统建设，在企业战略指导下构建多样化的人力资源管理模型，比如前文提到的人力资源度量化管理体系、人力资源知本化管理体系等。人力资源管理软件发展历史沿革如下图所示：从管控阶段提升到革新阶段，建议企业通过咨询引入对现有管理模式进行重构，并将信息系统作为全新管理模式落地的辅助工具。也只有这样，人力资源信息系统才能真正焕发管理的光芒。总而言之，经济危机只是在企业发展过程中邂逅的一场暴雨。它督促着我们建立起完善的企业管理模式和人力资源管理平台，在经济低迷期夯实企业管理基础，那么，当风雨过后，一定能比别人更早迎来绚丽的彩虹。

低薪如何留住人2

2008-12-31T12:12:00.000+08:00

在某论坛上，我发表的一篇关于“低薪如何留住人”的帖子，引起了很大的反响。帖子大致上是说如何通过以下的几个方面来留住企业的人才。
1。允许从事个人项目你雇用员工是因为他们聪明，这就意味着他们思考的各种项目，有的与工作有关，有的则很边缘。但是不要低估工作时间所从事的边缘项目的价值，这些项目迟早会与工作挂上钩，带来积极的后果。2。让他们产生影响力当员工感觉他们能对公司发展做出贡献并产生影响时，是最好的激励。这就要确保他们的工作是有意义的，让他们承担能够对公司有影响的工作。同时，给他们传授工作经验的机会。这样他们从公司得到了认同感，就会很愿意为公司服务。3。帮助规划职业生涯对大多数人来说，机会和认同感一样，在职业发展中比冷冰冰的钱更有诱惑力。因此，给员工提升技能和认清发展前途的机会有助于提高种程度。4。尊重和信任他们一项调查显示，一些有意义的行为比如表现出尊重、信任，都可以激励员工。同样，要感谢他们，尽管这是他们的工作，但是如果得到经理的欣赏，他们会投入更大的热情从事工作。
大家就对此众说纷纭。有留言指出
“谨慎为之，这需要HR对于企业的战略、发展前景都很清楚，企业发展快速，以及企业管理具有稳定性等条件，最好楼主把可以采用低薪留人的前提也总结一下。不是什么样的企业都适合；也不是所有的HR都可以尝试。 ”
的确，每个公司的情况，文化背景，管理制度等各方面是不同的，所以采取何种方式吸引，保留人才肯定也是不同的。我们走访了一些客户，当我们和他们的hr谈到如何吸引人才，保留人才时，没有一个hr谈到薪金问题，而大多数谈到以上在我的论坛里提到的四点。
作为老板，看到员工做项目之外的通常都会比较感冒，这个也是在情理之中，但是往往却忽略了员工的主动性。看似无关的东西，但最后取胜的，做成一件事也许就是这些东西。很多老板提出，只要员工可以完成手上的工作，做些其他跟项目相关的事未必就会对本职工作，或是工作造成伤害。而我们也看到了，在留言中，有不少的读者说很希望有这样的老板。让员工有更大的工作积极性，对于公司而言，绝对不是坏事。
我们遇到的很多做高科技的公司提到有关员工影响力，成就感的问题。而这点也是跟第四点息息相关。IT公司特别明显，一个软件，或是一个新技术，也许明天就被广泛地用于人们的日常生活，改变人们的生活。这种成就感是不言而喻的，更重要的是，公司能认同员工，在各方面能倾听员工的心声，尊重他们的意见，让员工看到自己在这个企业里的价值。让员工有归属感，能真正融入到企业中，一旦成为企业的真正一员，企业的流失率也便自然小了。

现在很多的公司都会提供完善的职业规划，用培训，晋升机制等这些留住公司的人才。很多刚毕业的学生，培训对于他们而言，必然就很重要，年轻人有对自己理想的美好憧憬，他们希望看到自己未来的路是什么样的。如果这时候，公司具备这个条件给这些满怀抱负的年轻人做一个比较完善的职业规划，让他们在这个公司看见自己发展的方向，能够展望自己的未来，那很有可能就留住了这些有潜质的年轻人。而对于资深员工来说，职业发展到一定的时候，就会出现瓶颈，如果公司能够很好的处理好这一点，帮助员工做理性的职业规划，相信对于一个帮助自己成长，发展的公司，大部分的员工都会心存感激的。而我们也相信，很多时候，在选择工作的时候，我们看的绝对不止是钱。

还有其他的读者也指出老板说话算不算数也很重要。的确，在一个有诚信的公司做事业才会长久。公司一旦许诺就要兑现，公司失信于员工，员工也就未必对公司诚信。所以我想，对于一个人性化的企业，事事以人为本的话，相信企业的路一定会很长，而我们在选择工作的时候，也应该是理性对待。

Whats in a Job Ad?

2008-12-30T17:13:00.000+08:00

For a long time now we’ve been worried about the habit we see in China of posting a job description in the space normally reserved for recruitment advertising copy. Over the past few months we’ve seen some absolute classics including one for a Financial Controller who listed in their requirements “must be able to use a calculator.”

As I come across more, I plan to post some of them to this blog. Here’s one that sets the tone quite well…a major industrial multinational seeking applicants online:

First, lets check out this position (right-click image to enlarge in a new window). Admin role, needs 5-10 years experience and offers somewhere between RMB1 and 50K per month. Not an awful lot to go on yet, so we read on…

By now everything is crystal-clear. I am confident that I can assume responsibility for “release SWS/JIS to operation” but not so sure that I am suited to “following up engineering change notice and owns reaction plan for execution”. What the..?

We believe that a job ad, (as opposed to a job description), should inspire the applicants to:
a) Read it
b) Consider it
c) Act on it (when appropriate)

And in order to achieve this, it must be:
a) Catchy – both visually and verbally
b) Informative and interesting (to the right person)
c) Include, and be linked to, a clear response procedure

There is far too much to say on how a good piece of recruitment copy should be written and we will soon be launching a short course on this exact theme but the fact remains that the majority of companies recruiting in China are not focusing as well as they should on this critical aspect of their recruitment process.

By failing to do so, they are generating superfluous applications from candidates who are not at all suited to the position simply because they haven’t understood it, as well as potentially turning away those most suited to the role as they felt no affinity with the position due to the same lack of clarity in the language used.

Two additional issues worthy of raising here that I will only touch on briefly today but you will see more about on this blog are:

1) The use of the English language….yes, they do require the incumbent to have good language skills but in order to better facilitate the “read, consider and act” response that we want, why not do it in their own native tongue?In their own language it is so much easier to paint a clear picture of not just “the role” but the opportunity that this job offers the right candidate.

The defensive stance of "we need our applicants to have good English so this screens out the others" doesn't hold water in my books. It is OK to assess their language ability based on their response (cover letter and resume) as well as telephone interviews and even by undergoing testing during screening at a later date.

Step one – find applicants, step two, from thosee applicants identify candidates. This is what “screening” is all about and its role lies not in the “attraction” phase of the recruitment process.

2) The use of a salary indication. Here, a salary of between RMB1,000 and 50,000 really is about as good as ignoring the issue altogether - the approach taken by the bulk of recruitment ads today in China. Proven time and again in the West to generate a higher volume of more targeted responses, Chinese recruiters still shy away from indicating salary levels in their job ads.

Candidates are not dumb. They know that if their previous role was Admin support at RMB 2,000 per month, they needn’t apply for the Admin Manager position elsewhere at RMB 15,000 per month. Likewise, but more important, is that with no indication of salary, the best candidates are left to guess as to whether their expectations can be met and more likely than not, being unsure about it, they will not bother apply. What is the harm in indicating a salary bracket? Is your negotiating power somehow diminished by doing so?

This role: RMB4,000-5,000 / month. Done! I can almost guarantee that in the organizational structure, this role has an even more narrow and clearly defined budget so why not put it out there!?

Recruitment copy is already one of my pet projects and at Oxus we ensure that our clients can write better copy for their job ads or we take on the task of writing it for them. It is the first major touch-point of the candidate journey and a vital part of employer communications that is currently being under-utilized to an extreme degree.

Recruiters feel the pinch as jobs contract

2008-12-29T16:57:00.000+08:00

This article is interesting for the insights the writers have found from a number of senior managers of international recruitment firms around the world.

Whilst none of them paint a rosy picture of their businesses for the next year or so, they do identify some areas of opportunity for recruiters, such as assisting in the downsizing process with counseling or by further developing their offerings as a temping agency - a possible indication that job-hunters might be well advised to prepare themselves mentally to take on temporary positions or roles with shorter contract terms.

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ARTICLE:

By Deborah Brewster, Brooke Masters and Sundeep Tucker
Published: December 27 2008 02:00 | Last updated: December 27 2008 02:00

Now that the banking slump has spread to the real economy, global recruiting firms are feeling the pinch.

In the past two months, US-based high-end head-hunters such as Korn/Ferry International and Heidrick & Struggles and staffing groups Adecco of Switzerland and Randstad in the Netherlands have all announced falling revenue and shrinking headcounts.

Banks and housebuilders, two big sources of revenue for recruitment groups, are shedding staff by the tens of thousands, and most other companies are being cautious about taking on commitments. Candidates have also grown more wary about changing jobs.

That means searches take longer and there are fewer jobs to fill, cutting into completion fees. Many companies are also cutting back on retainers paid to high-end firms, and some are taking 90 days to pay their bills instead of the customary 30.

"I think 2009 is going to be a batten-down-the-hatches year," says Alistair Cox, chief executive of Hays, a UK recruiter that focuses on mid-level professionals in 27 countries.

The slump is most pronounced in the US and the UK and in the financial services sector. According to recruiters Morgan McKinley, there were 3,780 vacancies in London's financial service sector in November, down 59 per cent from the same month last year. The total also represented a 30 per cent drop from October.

"The landscape has changed significantly. 2009 will be a shocker and probably half of 2010," said Jonathan Evans, chairman of Sammon Associates, a London-based recruiter.

Russ Gerson, chief executive of Gerson Group, a financial services recruitment and consultancy firm agreed.

"The bottom just fell out in September," he said. "In this environment, there are going to be serious cutbacks among recruiters ... We will see the large firms let go of a lot of people, and a lot of the very small firms will go out of business."

Headhunters never have much visibility on their revenues, but tough times make the future even harder to predict, said Steve Ingham, chief executive of Michael Page International, which focuses on higher-paid banking and other professional sectors. "Can I predict what is going to happen in six months? No," he said.

Germany and France remain relatively strong, as do parts of Latin America. But the slump recently spread to Asia, where several key markets - Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan - are now in recession.

The latest Asia survey of 3,000 hiring managers by Hudson, the recruitment firm, showed a marked fall in optimism, with companies admitting their approach towards hiring had moved decisively from "wait and see" towards downsizing.

Mike Game, chief executive of Hudson Global Resources Asia, said Hong Kong was suffering because of its comparatively higher levels of front office jobs in the banking sector, while hiring growth in China had dropped to single digits.

Christopher Sykes, managing director, Asia, of EWK International, which focuses on emerging markets, said companies in the region were not pushing recruitment plans in order to conserve cash.

There are bright spots: public sector recruiting, restructuring and bankruptcy experts, and outplacement services, where recruitment firms are bought in to assist companies to downsize by offering career counselling.

Matthew Bennett, head of the Hong Kong office of Robert Walters, said that his firm had diversified to reduce reliance on financial services, and covered a range of sectors including retail, IT, telecoms and supply chain logistics.

Korn Ferry was this month hired to find a replacement for Tim Geithner, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, following his appointment as US Treasury secretary by incoming president Barack Obama. But that didn't stop the Los Angeles-based company from saying it would cut 15 per cent of its workforce to save $50m a year.

Recruiters who also provide temporary workers are also doing better than those focused exclusively on permanent hiring.

Investors have been negative about recruitment companies for months. Korn Ferry and Heidrick & Struggles have each seen their share prices fall by 75 per cent in the past year, and Hays and Adecco are down by about 60 per cent since their July 2007 peaks. Analysts predict staffing agency revenues and earnings are likely to stay low for at least the next 18 months.

"Labour markets tend to lag the real economy by up to 12 months," says Kean Marden, a Singer analyst. "Even if the real economy bottomed out in 2009, unemployment would continue to rise until 2010."

But investors may not wait that long. After the dotcom crash, Michael Page's share price nearly doubled in a year when its earnings barely moved, Mr Marden said. "It completely rerated in anticipation," he said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

Oxus Christmas Lunch

2008-12-26T22:31:00.000+08:00

With the paparazzi otherwise occupied shooting the festive follies of Mando-pop superstars, the people of Oxus sneaked out for their annual Christmas lunch last Wednesday at the exclusive “Café de la Poste” in trendy BeiXinQiao.

Shunning the private dining rooms, the folks from Oxus reserved a table in the general seating area and proceeded to consume a good few kilograms of imported French red meats and wines.

During the meal, the lively discussion generated solutions to the unwelcome impact of the financial crisis in China as well as a full re-working of the judicial system and a 12-step path to full-blown democracy that could be played out in less than 3 months if required. The plans will now stand by until being called upon by the central leadership.

Having enjoyed their main meals, a specially-made Oxus Christmas Cake was revealed and sliced 6 ways without blood-letting before being promptly devoured.

Sensing a good thing in otherwise tough economic times, staff at the restaurant were excited by the amount of wine consumed and may have been pushing their luck when offering the 5th bottle of red after the bill had already been settled and the Oxus crew were stumbling towards the door.

Headcount Reductions?

2008-12-24T10:17:00.000+08:00

It seems that in China anyway the worst case scenario with most of our clients has been a "hiring freeze'...I haven't yet heard of large-scale staff-cutting amongst china MNC's that can be directly related to the financial crisis. I guess that after so long chasing talent in a competitive market it would be heartbreaking to let it go again!

Nevertheless, the following article, by Matthew Guthridge, John R. McPherson, and William J. Wolf (from the McKinsey Quarterly , December 2008), is an interesting read if it does ever come to that in China.

Obviously, downsizing may very well effect your reputation as a "stable" employer and therefore your ability to attract talent when the world shakes off its economic funk and gets growing again.

The article outlines a few case studies whereby the downsizing has presented an opportunity to re-organize staff and re-define roles such that they come out of the downsizing a more efficient and streamlined organization with more engaged staff working fresh roles in new teams.

Worth bearing in mind... many still say that this economic crisis "ride" is still only just starting!

_______________________________________________________________

The Story:

As deteriorating performance forces increasingly aggressive head count reductions, it’s easy to lose valuable contributors inadvertently, damage morale or the company’s external reputation among potential employees, or drop the ball on important training and staff-development programs. But there is a better way. By emphasizing talent in cost-cutting efforts, employers can intelligently strengthen the value proposition they offer current and potential employees and position themselves strongly for growth when economic conditions improve.

Companies can maintain their attractiveness to internal and external talent by using cost-cutting efforts as an opportunity to redesign jobs so that they become more engaging for the people undertaking them. A job’s level of responsibility, degree of autonomy, and span of control all contribute to employee satisfaction. Head count reductions provide a powerful incentive to use existing resources better by breaking down silos and increasing the span of control for challenging managerial roles—thus improving the odds of engaging key talent in the redesigned jobs.

Consider Cisco Systems’ approach to downsizing during the last recession. In 2001, as deteriorating financial performance forced the elimination of 8,500 jobs, Cisco redesigned roles and responsibilities to improve cross-functional alignment and reduce duplication. The more collaborative environment fostered by such moves increased workplace satisfaction and productivity for many employees. Initiatives like Cisco’s succeed when companies focus on redesigning jobs and retaining talent at the outset of downsizing efforts.

In addition to redesigning roles, companies cutting jobs should carefully protect training and development programs. These are not only essential to maintaining workplace morale and increasing long-term productivity, but they also give people the skills necessary to carry out redesigned jobs that have greater spans of control. During the last recession, International Paper continued offering classes at its leadership institute by replacing external facilitators with the company’s senior leaders. This approach not only reduced the cost of delivery but also, thanks to the involvement of senior leaders, redirected the content of the leadership program by tying it more closely to decisions and skills affecting the company’s current performance. Similarly, IBM retained its employee-development programs during its major performance challenges in the mid- to late 1980s. It took the arrival of Lou Gerstner as CEO and a new strategy to turn the company around, but the historical investments IBM had made in developing its people helped achieve a successful turnaround.

Before undertaking widespread layoffs, companies should use their performance-management processes to help identify strong employees. Companies that conduct disciplined, meritocratic assessments of performance and potential are well placed to make good personnel decisions. These companies should also bring additional strategic considerations to the decisions. They should assess which types of talent drive business value today and which will drive it three years from now, as well as which talent segments are currently available and which will be in the future—keeping in mind, for example, that new MBAs will be equally available in two years. They should also look at which types of talent would take years to replace or develop—for instance, skilled electric utility engineers in an environment where retirements are dramatically reducing supply. Performance management well informed by key strategic questions can minimize the negative cultural impact of downsizing, improve the bottom line, and help identify talented people the company should try to retain.

Companies that are reducing staff must focus relentlessly on the internal cultural and external reputational implications of cost-cutting efforts. Although strong employer brands are resilient, it’s difficult to reestablish brand strength once the culture has been damaged. The way many companies conduct large-scale downsizing decreases efficiency, morale, and motivation on the part of remaining employees. It also increases voluntary turnover among high performers and compromises a company’s ability to attract strong talent in the future, as potential employees wonder how risky it is to take a job there.

Counteracting these tendencies requires creativity. In 2001, Cisco gave generous severance packages and assistance with job searches to the workers it laid off and launched a program that paid one-third of salary, plus benefits and stock options, to ex-employees who agreed to work for a local charity or community organization. Steps like these protected Cisco’s employer brand by attempting to make departing employees feel better about Cisco and underscored the company’s commitment to its people for those who remained. The results were measurable: employee satisfaction remained high, and Cisco retained a prominent spot on Fortune magazine’s “Best Companies to Work For” list.

A strong employer brand is also important for companies undertaking selective recruitment even as they cut personnel costs elsewhere. Using slowdowns to uncover and hire displaced talent is often fruitful. Studies have shown that although overall levels of recruitment may level off or even fall, the quality of workers hired rises in recessions. And opportunities to find and hire displaced talent may be particularly valuable during this downturn, as massive downsizing in the financial-services sector makes available to non-financial companies a large pool of highly educated and motivated professionals who previously might not have considered jobs outside their previous employers or industries.
Some organizations are moving surprisingly quickly in response to these opportunities in the talent market. In late October 2008, the US Internal Revenue Service hosted a Manhattan career fair targeted at displaced financial-services professionals. More than 1,300 people attended, many standing in line for three hours to learn more about an employer that offered a newly interesting brand of “job stability.”

Cost cutting during a downturn is often necessary to ensure a company’s current profitability and future competitiveness. Rather than freezing all hiring and employee-development programs, companies should use this period as an opportunity to upgrade talent and better engage existing staff. This means reinvesting a percentage of the capital liberated from cost cutting into, for example, selective recruiting and development programs and in efforts to safeguard the culture and to redesign jobs so that they are more engaging to the remaining employees.

低薪如何留住人1

2008-12-24T10:10:00.000+08:00

留住人才是企业当今具有挑战性的必要工作。全球性的不确定使得人力成本越来越紧张，通过不断加薪来留住表现好的员工是最后的选择。
那么除了钱，还有什么好办法能激励、留住人才呢？
一、允许从事个人项目
你雇用员工是因为他们聪明，这就意味着他们思考的各种项目，有的与工作有关，有的则很边缘。但是不要低估工作时间所从事的边缘项目的价值，这些项目迟早会与工作挂上钩，带来积极的后果。
二、让他们产生影响力
当员工感觉他们能对公司发展做出贡献并产生影响时，是最好的激励。这就要确保他们的工作是有意义的，让他们承担能够对公司有影响的工作。同时，给他们传授工作经验的机会。这样他们从公司得到了认同感，就会很愿意为公司服务。
三、帮助规划职业生涯
对大多数人来说，机会和认同感一样，在职业发展中比冷冰冰的钱更有诱惑力。因此，给员工提升技能和认清发展前途的机会有助于提高种程度。
四、尊重和信任他们
一项调查显示，一些有意义的行为比如表现出尊重、信任，都可以激励员工。同样，要感谢他们，尽管这是他们的工作，但是如果得到经理的欣赏，他们会投入更大的热情从事工作。
工作心得！供大家体会学习。

When the going gets tough...

2008-12-20T20:36:00.000+08:00

The following story ran in the China Daily earlier this month. As corporations persist in using the "big three" job boards to find the majority of their talent, the talent themselves have begun to be more creative in searching for opportunities! I think the story speaks volumes for those like us who have long urged recruiters to diversify their media strategies when recruiting staff.

Two interesting quotes come out of it. The first is an indication that this girl is not alone in her taobao approach and then of course, our astute Professor from Shanghai's Fudan University who notes that "We don't always have to depend on job fairs and agencies to get a job". You said it Professor Gu!

The story....

By Cao Li (China Daily)

Updated: 2008-12-08 07Shanghai-- A woman who lost her job because of the financial crisis has found a new one by putting "herself up for sale" on an online auction site. The 23-year-old woman got a job for a monthly pay of 3,000 yuan ($436).

She used the false name of tony615_2007 to "post herself" on Taobao.com's website on Nov 18, she told China Daily during an online chat on Sunday. A dozen of companies contacted her and one of them is expected to sign a contract with her on Monday, she said. "The idea occurred to me after I couldn't find a job for two months," she said, refusing to give her real name or the name of the company because she did not want media attention. But she said: "As far as I know, several other people are trying for jobs in the same way."

Cai Yuli, Taobao.com public relations manager, told China Daily on Friday that a Shanghai-based advertisement firm "bought" tony615_2007, offering her a strategy research assistant's post. In the statement posted on Taobao.com, tony615_2007 said she majored in business administration last year with excellent marks. She scored 710 in GMAT and won the first prize in a national English contest for university students.

"I lost my job in this economic recession and have to find another Labor is also a product and I'm selling it here," she said in her posting, describing herself as a "tough person".

"It's a very creative way of looking for a job," said Gu Xiaoming, a professor in Fudan University. "Sometimes, people don't know the right way to find a job. We don't always have to depend on job fairs and agencies to get a job."

Citizens of Oxus

2008-12-20T14:13:00.000+08:00

Welcome to Citizens of Oxus. You may know us from our Facebook group or may have been referred here by one of our network of similarly minded friends. Whatever the case, we hope you enjoy the content here and do come back another day or sign up for our rss feed.

This blog is primarily concerned with the subject area of recruitment in China. At Oxus we have a VERY holistic approach to the subject that spans the employee life cycle from unemployment through attraction, recruitment, engagement, retention and back to unemployment.

It is a cyclical journey that all of us take and one that we hope to better understand in order that those who are responsible for this very vital aspect of any business are better prepared to make it smooth and efficient for all concerned - after all, getting this wrong is no good for either the employer or the employee.

The contributors to this blog all work at Oxus China (www.oxuschina.com) and we post on a range of topics from Employer Branding and Recruitment Strategy to technological applications such as information management and candidate screening tools.

We are interested inthe media as a whole from a recruitment perspective, especially in the impact that social networking sites and "web 2.0" in general is having on recruitment. Oxus looks to help its clients also better leverage their own assets in this area, whatever they may be.

The subject area is pretty unique and may not be everyone's cup of tea but if this is your game, your career or simply "mission critical" to your business then do read on, post comments and raise questions as you please.

A final note: This blog will be bi-lingual. Where time and resources permit we will post in English and Chinese but most often it will be just one or the other.