Time to Start Hiring?

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The value of your brand: Are your marketing and HR teams working together?

You have both a company brand and an employer brand. That is, your company's brand value and associations will affect your ability to bring in good people. That means your talent-management professionals and HR organization should be working closely with your marketing organization. Some companies with whom we are working are looking, in fact, to integrate recruiting activities with their media, marketing, and sales organizations so that all parts of the company are working in sync to get the brand message out there.

This is also the time to make sure your HR organization is effectively using Web 2.0 technologies and social networking channels to bring potential hires to the door. Attracting competent performers is cheaper, after all, than working to find them. That's one of the important value propositions of social media when it comes to recruiting and hiring.

Other companies are realizing that the brand changes they are trying to make for the reset affect where they locate themselves and where they find employees. Conoco Phillips, for example, recently announced the creation of a new corporate-learning campus and technology center to drive innovation and knowledge sharing. Where did they locate it? Not in Texas, but near Denver—a community traditionally at the forefront of environmental awareness. This reflects the brand Conoco Phillips seeks to create as a more environmentally friendly company, as well as the green skills and experiences they seek.

In addition to paying attention to these three hiring imperatives, remember that the winners in the next era of hiring will be those organizations whose executives become much more hands-on with the talent-management function than they have in the past. Your HR professionals are there for a reason and you shouldn't try to do their jobs for them. But you do need to be much more involved this time around. Translating business strategy into workforce strategy is a C-level responsibility. If you find yourself without the right people in the right numbers during the challenging and exciting months ahead, the person to blame will be the one in the mirror.

David Smith is managing director of Accenture's Talent & Organization Performance practice.

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