FREE Resources

2010 Italian Employer Branding Summit - Tour Diary

Photos from the tour

27 May

A reasonable night sleep before the Summit. Felt really good this morning, this is our third employer branding event in Italy and I really enjoy the positve outlook of managers over here. They are very keen to learn best practice and it's always great to meet up with members of our EBI team based in Italy. Veronique, EBI's Senior Associate based in Paris has also flown in for the event so we have 7 of the EBI team here today.

I opened up the day and had a translator which is always fun! I shared 'Global trends in employer branding and the implications for leaders in Italy.' We then heard from Giuliano Noci, Professor of Marketing, Politecnico di Milano who spoke on 'Employer Branding: lessons from marketing discipline.'

Paolo Emilio Testa, Human Resources  Director at HP delivered a really interesting presentation on, 'Building an effective Employer Value Proposition (EVP) to attract graduates to HP.' Following Paolo's presentation Eugenio facilitated a Q&A session about the morning presentations. Delegates are always very keen to learn what other companies are doing in Italy and it was a great way to lead us into the lunch break.

Following lunch we had a discussion between delegates and a panel of leaders from Microsoft, Vodafone and Ferrero which was facilitated by Barbara Demi, Partner ETLine e Associati. I also joined in the panel. The topic of discussion was, 'The impact of Employer Branding on retention: building internal loyalty and maintaining a valuable talent pool.' Each company provided an overview of what their company was doing to enhance retention and Barbara facilitated some interesting questions from the delegates.

Sonia Tramontana SEMEA Rewards Manager at Ceva Logistics then presented an indepth insight into, 'Re-branding – energise your workforce to support brand values through times of change.' I'm amazed at just how far Italian companies have progressed in Italian companies over the past 4 years I have been conducting events here. There is also more marketing and communication professionals at this years event  which is also a good sign.

Kerry Noone, Senior Marketing Manager, Talent Acquisition Group, Sodexo Human Resources USA rounded off the Summit's presenters by delivering an excellent presentation on, 'Using social media to develop, leverage and strengthen your employer brand.' Sodexo's social media strategy is world class, as is its rercuiting function which was awarded the 2010 ERE Best Practices in Recruiting award. The Italian leaders are always keen to learn how the world's best companies are delivering their employer brand strategy and Kerry's presentation was extremely well received and no doubt will inspire leaders to invest in social media. It is a relative new field for Italian companies.

We concluded the Summit by presenting the EBI Employer Branding Excellence - National Awards - Italy. The 'Excellence in Employer Brand Strategy' award was presented to Microsoft. Congratulations! It is our first year for the Employer Branding Excellence Awards in Italy and we look forward to growing the awards in 2011 to continue to recognise the development of the employer branding concept in Italy.

As is tradition, the EBI team headed our for a post Summit dinner. Eugenio found a great restauant not far from our hotel (Italy's like that!). It was a great way to round off 2 weeks in Italy and a successful Summit. I always enjoy connecting with members of EBI in person and everyone gets along really well. This year we had team members from Australia, USA, Italy and France with us in Milan.

Tomorrow is the long hall back to Australia via a day stop over in Hong Kong before we are back there in early June. I have two weeks now to work on completing my new book and to get ready before I fly out to the USA on 14 June.

A wonderful time in Italy once again! Ciao!

26 May

Weather perfect again, though the hayfever is killing me! We spent the morning having a great look around Bologne. Eugenio and I had an excellent strategy session and have a good year of activities mapped out for 2010/2011.  We then finalised preparations for the Summit before our drive into Milan.

On our arrival to Milan which Eugenio says takes 2hrs but always takes 3-4hr! we went straight to Politecnico di Milano, the venue for tomorrow's Employer Branding Summit. It's a beautiful University, rich in tradtion. It was great to meet up with our contacts at the University once again, they are such a friendly team. Their careers services continues to grow in headcount and I would rate it as world's best practice. They have 15+ staff providing careers services for students and companies are well integrated into the careers programs, everyone wins! It's alot different to our Universities back in Australia where career services appear to rank low in the services chain for students.

Andrea and I met up with Kerry Noone (Sodexo USA) and her husband Kevin and headed out for a coffee. Kerry and Kevin had only arrived earlier that day from the USA and had already spent a day touring the city.  Kerry is a member of the EBI Advisory Board. I really enjoyed meeting Kerry in person as we have only previously had the chance to connect virtually previously.

EVP Part I - Perception is reality when attracting and retaining talent

Article originally published in South Africa's leading HR publication, HR Future

Brett is an International monthly columnist on employer branding for HR Future

This article provides some insights into Employer Value Proposition development as featured in Brett's new book Employer Brand Leadership - A Global Perspective.

With the increasing fragmentation of offline and online channels used to communicate, ‘What it’s like to work for this organisation,’ it pays to ensure the  employment experience you project to current and future employees is matched by what you can realistically deliver upon throughout the employee lifecycle from hire to retire.

At the heart of your employer brand strategy should be your employer value proposition (EVP). Your EVP is an employee-centred approach that is aligned to existing, integrated workforce planning strategies because it has been informed by existing employees and your external target audience. In its simplest form, your EVP is a set of associations and offerings provided by your organisation in return for the skills, capabilities and experiences an employee brings to your organisation.

To read the full article please click here>

Please consider Brett's new book "Employer Brand Leadership - A Global Perspective" For full details please visit the pubisher's website click here>

Connect with Brett - You can follow him on Twitter, watch him on YouTube connect with him via LinkedIn, or friend him on Facebook.

Employer branding - the importance of collaboration

Brett Minchington speaks with Birgitte Brix Andersen, Global Employer Brand Director, Vestas Wind Systems A/S about the importance of collaborations between job functions in building a strong employer brand.

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

Your employer brand - are you influencing the right stakeholders?

It is by no chance the most successful employer brand programs are the ones where the key stakeholders have been defined and are on board from the beginning.

It doesn’t matter whether your employer brand strategy is initiated out of the human resource department or the finance department? Yes, companies that understand the link between customer engagement, employee engagement and financial performance may find their employer brand program evolving out of  a discussion in the finance department.

I’ve consulted on a number of employer brand strategy development programs and there are two things that stand out with the companies who “GET IT.” 

1. There is a high level of collaboration between the human resource, marketing and communication departments, and
2. There is sponsorship from Executive. 

Too many companies exhaust wasted energy just trying to build the business case and get employer branding on the leadership agenda. Sure, your organisation may not be ready to develop an employer brand strategy right now. However when your are ready, it will pay to ensure the right stakeholders are behind your program, no matter how long this takes.  You could even find yourself leaving your organisation if you have tried many times and have been unable to influence the right stakeholders to engage in your strategy.

So where should companies get started?