Info Shoppers: A New Breed of HR Buyers

I just got through reading a fun book titled Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes. A New York Times and WSJ best seller now in paperback.

Excellent book with a lot of great idea-generating content for anyone in marketing or PR. And some good information for HR vendors such as an entire chapter on the "Working Retired" and the huge implications for recruiters, employers and society.

But today I'm blogging about another chapter that describes a new breed of consumers called "New Info Shoppers", a name given to the growing trend of information based shopping.

Information based shoppers are consumers who pour over product spec sheets, third-party review sites, blogs and any other information they can get their hands on before buying a product.

Many big market categories are becoming information based models including cars, homes, electronics and medical care. In all these product categories nearly 80% of shoppers say they gather information on their own from the web before buying.

As a result, the author of microtrends correctly points out that marketers today must "balance traditional media, online media, and content".

Sound familiar?

But how many marketers have adjusted? Not many. Based on advertising budgets in the U.S., a typical company spends 60 times more on advertising than they spend on generating online publicity.

Some companies in other industries understood this trend - like Zagat's who pioneered the concept of survey ratings which most good restaurants use and millions of consumers refer to before making a buying decision.

But what Microtrends points out, which is interesting, is the fact that info shoppers are now spreading down the product chain - even to shampoo!

In fact, according to microttends, an astonishing 70% of consumers say they consult online product reviews or consumer ratings before making a buying decision. And 62% say they spend at least 30 minutes online each week to help them decide what and whether to buy. Among Americans under age 43 that number jumps to 73%!

HRmarketer's HR Trend Reports identified this same trend nearly five years ago in the HR marketplace. Each year we run these surveys (a new one to be issued this Fall) a larger percentage of HR decision makers say they go to the Internet first - even before peers - to gather information on products they intend to buy.

What can HR vendors learn from this trend?

Information marketing means vendors have to get back to producing more information on their products (spec sheets, case studies, HR white papers, research reports, etc.) and aggressively delivering this content to buyers through a mix of traditional and online marketing and PR tactics.

By the way, the author of microtrends predicts that "Information aggregation sites" - the ones that don't generate content themselves but link to others' content - will become even more important. And as an HR vendor, you need to be on these sites.

HRmarketer's own Information aggregation site - The HR Directory - is a great place for you to create a company profile and link to all your content. It's free (and it helps your SEO). We will soon be launching a new product review section that allows HR people to rate your products, as well as an RFI portal that gives HR people the ability to request information from HR vendors and compare products.

Stay tuned!

The lost art of listening - how do you manage?

Where the heck is our social media marketing eBook for the HR marketplace? I've been busting my own chops for me to get that dang thing done (as well as others at HRmarketer!). You'll finally see it in September, or my name is mud (and it isn't thankfully).

But whoa Nelly, just like you shouldn’t just jump right in set up a Twitter account and start tweeting randomly about your products and services, I couldn't just jump right in and tell you how to use Twitter without effectively using it for a while.

Right?

These online strangers don’t care about your products and services, nor do they care about me telling them how to tweet out of the gate.

You must first listen. Listen and learn. I pushed finishing the eBook out multiple times because I listened all summer to the smart social media marketing folk out there today.

While the eBook will be primarily about participating in the great online experimental conversation in order to organically generate more visibility, traffic and leads via content marketing, you need to answer some not-always-so-simple questions first:

• Who are my target influencers and buyers? (i.e. – HR, executive management, industry thought leaders)
• Where are my target influencers and buyers online? (i.e. – social networking services, professional networks)
• What are my objectives? (i.e. – drive blog readership, website traffic, content downloads, lead generation)
• Who in my organization will manage and measure your social media marketing efforts? (i.e. – marketing, business development, PR)
• Who in my organization will participate in your social media marketing efforts? (i.e. – marketing, business development, PR, executive management, other employees, all of the above)

If you’re already a successful business blogger with growing and participatory readership, then you know how important it is to know these answers, and it all plays the same in social media marketing.

It’s very important to define these answers and then start listening to your target influencers and buyers online:

• What are they talking about?
• What types of industry information are they sharing and why?
• What are the hot HR marketplace topics driving extended conversations?

Now, if you’ve answered all these questions, started listening and already have accounts set up in the relevant social networking channels, then you can skip ahead to conversational content marketing and reap the benefits therein.

More on that soon! In the meantime, how do you manage the lost art of listening?

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

The Latest HR Market Share Podcast: Interview with Bob Schulte, President and CEO of myStaffingPro

The latest HR Market Share podcast is ready for your listening pleasure below (more interviews in the queue as well!). Subscribe to the series in iTunes and look for regular posts to our blog and on the HRmarketer.com site. You can also subscribe to all our past interviews and episodes via Hipcast.

Our latest episode includes some HR marketplace insight and an interview with President and CEO of HR Services Inc. and myStaffingPro, a full-featured applicant tracking and recruiting software system.

According to Bob Schulte, president and chief executive officer of HR Services Inc., 60 percent of mid-market companies do not have an applicant tracking system (ATS) for recruiting and onboarding employees.

In more than ten years since developing myStaffingPro, a full-featured applicant tracking and recruiting software system and a proprietary product of HR Services, Bob finds the majority of mid-market companies have home-grown processes in place for hiring and onboarding their workforce. Although still useful in hiring, Schulte suggests companies instead put an ATS in place. With an ATS companies can reduce recruiting and onboarding costs, reduce employee turnover and increase efficiency in the hiring process.

In evaluating a new ATS, Schulte recommends customers ensure the ATS provider go beyond simply providing a technology or a product. An ATS provider should help its customer’s understand how to use the product to make their business more efficient.

Thank you and enjoy!

• myStaffingPro
  
• myStaffingPro Blog
• As the good ship lollipop of American business finally starts to sweeten again
• The coolest and most comprehensive collection of HR-related news and content found online is in our HR Directory (get a profile up if you're not already there)
• News for HR Newsletter
• More HR marketplace news here and here

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Will Boomers Retire or Keep Working: Two Opposing Views.

John Paul Marosy is the president of Bringing Elder Care Home, LLC. The company consults with business and community organizations to create work places that allow employed caregivers to balance elder care and work.

John is a pioneer in the field of aging. His latest book, Elder Care: A Six Step Guide to Balancing Work and Family has won both a national Mature Media Award and a Caregiver Friendly Award from Today's Caregiver magazine. He is also the author of A Manager's Guide to Elder Care and Work, the standard reference text on this subject.

His monthly newsletter, Elder Care / Work Balance, is free and worth signing up for.

His latest issue discusses the impact that retiring Boomers will have on organizations. John writes:

"There won't be enough skilled labor to fill all the jobs as the economy begins to rebound in the years ahead. By 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) estimates there will be 165 million jobs and only 162 million people available in the workforce. And 19 percent (30 million) of those available workers will be age 55 and older. Most employers aren't prepared to handle this impending labor shortage."

Mark Penn in his latest book microtrends disagrees. He predicts most aging workers will remain on the job and labels them the Working Retired. Mr. Penn writes:

"The Working Retired means huge things for America. As a purely numerical matter, they means much bigger workforce than anyone has projected. Every year, a little over 2 million American's turn 65. If just half of them decided to keep working, that would be more than 1 million unexpected participants in the workforce."

I tend to agree with Mark. I think this coming labor shortage is highly exaggerated. A 2005 Merrill Lynch survey showed more than 3 in 4 Boomers say they have no intention of seeking a traditional retirement. And many will have no choice considering their retirement savings were severely reduced this past year. Instead, what I believe companies will need to prepare for is aging workers staying on the job.

But whether you agree with John or Mark the fact is aging Boomers will without a doubt dramatically impact companies.

If Boomers stay on the job it will put the squeeze on younger workers, create challenging management structures and force companies to make changes to things like benefit mixes - instead of maternity leave we may see things like "winter off" leave.

If Boomers retire in droves, recruiting becomes top priority for many HR departments, especially in industries with a high percentage of older workers.

But nobody knows what will happen. We're all guessing.

One thing companies can do now is Strategic Workforce Planning to begin to get a better understanding of their workforce demographics, the likely hit they will take and start developing strategies for whatever may happen. Some companies that offer Strategic Workforce PLanning can be found in our HR Directory.

This will be a fascinating trend to watch.

The Unregulated Onsite Wellness Industry: A Model White Paper.

Imagine this.....

"During an employer sponsored flu shot clinic, a staff member accidentally gave two pneumonia shots instead of one flu and one pneumonia shot. The incident was reported to the company’s Medical Director, who investigated the accident. The Medical Director discovered the staff member who gave a flu shot was not a nurse but a Medical Assistant (MA) who is not qualified to give a flu shot without a licensed doctor being present at the site. The company now faces a potential lawsuit from the employee who received two pneumonia shots". - excerpt from "Best Practices in On-Site Wellness Series: Guidelines for Choosing a Health Screening and Flu Shot Vendor.

The Wild West is alive and well in the world of on-site health screenings according to a new white paper by Summit Health, the nation’s largest provider of on-site wellness programs.

This is a tremendous white paper from Summit Health and worth a call-out in this blog because I think all of us who produce content for marketing can learn something from this white paper..

Why?

Five reasons.

1. It's useful and educational: The white paper helps employers better understand the on-site wellness marketplace and how to choose a vendor. It even includes dozens of sample questions employers can use in RFP's and when evaluating potential providers (this is a huge value). HR people will love this.

2. It's newsworthy: It's a compelling topic that will interest the media and lead to very good coverage.

3. It's a little edgy: This white paper pushes the envelope by drawing attention to a sensitive issue in the on-site wellness marketplace - the fact that many companies are using vendors that are unlicensed.

4. It's not promotional: An absolute must for credibility and to avoid turning off the media. In this 21 page white paper the company "Summit Health" was only mentioned ONCE and that was on the last page. Very nice.

5. It's timely: It's summer when most companies plan for their on-site flu shots. It's even more timely when you consider all the attention the Swine Flu is getting.

And what I really like about the white paper is how Summit Health is marketing it.

Aggressively. (In full disclosure, they are using several HRmarketer solutions for much of this marketing). Summit Health is using traditional and search-optimized press releases, advertising, direct marketing, media outreach, blogs, social media, and even a Podcast and Webinar are being discussed.

And the results?

Spectacular by any measurement.

Excellent work Summit Health.

At RecruitFest! 2009, Your participation is required.

When Maren Hogan asked if we’d like to help spread the word about RecruitFest! 2009 “in an organic way” that makes sense for us and our blog readers, we said yes without hesitation.

That’s one indication of the kind of people behind RecruitFest!, not that the ubiquitous crew at RecruitingBlogs.com need any introduction. Jason Davis operates his media businesses guided by the best elements of the online social media ethos: the commitment to sharing, learning from one another, being authentic, transparent, and generally using good manners and common sense to do the right thing. All that stuff we learned in kindergarten…

Born online, the community of RecruitingBlogs.com uses RecruitFest! to take the conversation strictly OFFline. As they state on the Need To Know section of the event page, “The goal is real, present, communication.”

I like it.

Last year, everyone participant I spoke to liked it too.

So with blog posts, and tweets, and referrals and conversations we’re gladly lending our voice to the many saying, “Check out RecruitFest!” coming up next month in Toronto. We hope our conversations may reach some of you who don’t otherwise know about this event.

The session leaders include Geoff Webb, Stephanie Lloyd, Jerry Albright, Julia Stone, the Recruiting Animal, John Sumser, Marie Journey, Jason Davis, and Jenny DeVaughn.

Lastly, we have ONE ticket to the event to give away. If you’d like it, simply add a comment to this post or send an email to info@hrmarketer.com. We’ll award the ticket to the first qualified entry (making sure you’re a real-deal member of the recruiting community and that you’ve read the “What you need to know about RecruitFest!” page.)

After all, “you cannot hide at RecruitFest! Your participation is required.”

Links:
RecruitFest 2009!
RecruitFest! on Twitter
RecruitFest! on Facebook
UPDATE I (08/28): The RecruitFest Press Release

Spirituality in HR - better business ethics

Spiritually in the workplace. What? Can you really talk about that at work? There are laws about that, right? Well, first of all, let's examine the law.

Discrimination against people based on their religion is against the law. The Human Resources profession is fully aware of that. I worked at a company, called MetaWare (no longer around) here in Santa Cruz, that crossed that line, and paid for it. (Then they hired me! That was a classic case of closing the barn door after the cow got out.) What most companies have done is avoid the topic at all. Easy solution, right? That way, there is no chance of a law suit.

Also, it is important to distinguish the difference between spirituality and religion, and to maintain clear boundaries in the workplace to protect employee’s who don’t wish to participate in any discussions about either topic (my next blog will discuss this topic in more depth). But for now, I want to be very clear, this blog is simply about the spiritual side, and will avoid discussing religion in the workplace.

It is very important to maintain a clear boundary between what is an appropriate at work, how to bring people into the discussion, without offending anyone. As John Sumser commented on his blog recently:

“At that point, it’s really not about spirituality, even. It’s about principles for successful living. People like Zig Ziglar are good models to consider… spiritual principles with a focus on business outcomes..."

Once that boundary has been clearly marked, it is my contention that spirituality in the workplace will emerge, and become acceptable as a topic of conversation, and even a guiding principle. One reason for that, is that the baby boomers are aging, the first of them turned 60 recently. Not only that, but because of the draining of their retirement savings during the recent economic downturn, they will be forced to continue working.

What typically happens to people facing their own mortality? Often they become more interested in spiritual topics, especially the baby boomers. I am on the cusp of the baby boomer generation, and by some accounts, I am considered to be one of them. We baby boomers have always been leaders in effecting positive change in society. Taking a person's whole authentic self into the workplace would be a very positive change. It is just one more step along the road. "We shall overcome!"

The second reason I see this topic becoming more important to Human Resources professionals is because the Internet, and social networking in particular, is making people much more transparent to their co-workers. If you are on Facebook as a friend with one of your co-workers, you can just open their page up, and see what their religious views are, right under their name! Well, now that is a big secret, isn't it? (...Not!) People aren't shy about stating that information, not one bit. That is transparency. That cat is certainly out of the bag, isn't it?

This topic is already in the news. It is called business ethics. Ever since Enron, people have become aware of the need to shift the focus of business slightly. Maybe, solely pursuing profits at the cost of all else can lead to some horrendous outcomes. It can cause companies to implode, and the employees’ personal life to become unraveled. A more current example is the Madoff scandal. A couple of weeks ago the CFO was taken away in handcuffs, with the prospect of jail time. Perhaps the Human Resource Department could have changed the culture of that organization? All I’m saying is: we (I am wearing my HR Professional hat right now) wanted to have a seat at the table, but what do we want to say to the board members? How about business ethics? Who is the watch dog on that topic?

I say, Human Resources!

Lastly, we spend more time with our co-workers than our family members, for the most part. This is a very engaging topic. Here is the secret that is still in the proverbial closet: Your staff members are already talking about it, they just don't include you in the discussion. You, my dear HR Professionals, are missing out on the fun!

I am guessing that many of you HR Professional would have ideas to offer about this, and would be willing to discuss it. It’s all about getting engaged, and bringing your whole authentic self to work with you. Getting your staff engaged is the first step toward increasing productivity; that alone might be worth it.

Everyone will also have opinions about this topic. Either supportive, or not…it could be a wild ride.

Check out this: Yale Center for Faith and Culture Ethics and Spirituality in the workplace.

Here is another blogger addressing this topic:
Spirituality in Business: The Time Has Come.

I invite your comments.

Posted by Dawn Passaro

As the good ship lollipop of American business finally starts to sweeten again

Work with me here.

According to Census information from 2004, there are (were) about 6 million businesses in the U.S. with employees.

Out of those, 5,996,500 have fewer than 2,500 employees.

So, depending on how you define small and mid-size businesses, there are fewer than 3,500 large, enterprise-esque and enterprise businesses doing business in the U.S. totalling over 1.8 billion employees.

Not a very big pool compared to the remainder (considering number of firms, not employees - which actually makes it very lucrative for benefits, payroll and talent management firms), and which is also why we've seen the big kids on the HR marketplace block drill down into smaller markets.

Or at least try to.

Now, I'm sure there are up-to-date numbers elsewhere considering the downturn, but again, work with me here.

What I've heard in the past few weeks from various talent acquisition/management suppliers and other HR tech leaders is that more than half of the remaining 5,996,500 firms (totalling over 2.4 billion employees):

• Have no Web- or install-based automated HR software systems to help with recruiting, hiring, onboarding, benefits and comp administration, performance management, succession planning, workforce planning, etc.
• Have executive management teams and/or owners who really don't understand what Web- and/or install-based automated HR software systems are, how they can help improve talent workflow processes and retention while saving time and money, and because of this have inflated price fears of what it might cost to purchased them.
  

Granted much of what I've heard is anecdotal and based on small sample sizes, but even if half of this number is accurate, what this says to me is that the HR marketplace isn't doing a very good job of educating the HR marketplace.

And if that's the case, there's a lot of friggin' business out there to be had by HR suppliers big and small as the good ship lollipop of American business finally starts to sweeten again.

It all starts by sharing compelling content to educate your prospects and nuture them to become leads and buyers.

Trust me. We've got lots of compelling stories to share.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Making virtual connections actual at the Fall Recruiting and HR Conferences

For the past decade, members of the HRmarketer team have been a part of many HR, Recruiting, and Employee Benefits conferences and expositions.

We’re increasing our rate of participation each year. We attend. We exhibit. We sponsor.

This fall you’ll be able to see us at the ERE Expo Fall 2009, HR Technology, HR Southwest, and the Onrec Expo & Kennedy Information’s Recruiting 2009 Conference and Expo. We’re also a supporting media partner for the second annual RecruitFest! produced by RecruitingBlogs.com

All of these experiences support our primary business goals as well as enable us to provide good counsel to our clients who are making decisions on trade show and event participation.

We also like to do our part to cheer-lead for these conferences.

While many raise questions about the long term viability of industry conferences due to travel costs, increased media fragmentation, and the availability of so much real-time thought-leadership content online, we still believe that the live conference has irreplaceable benefits. The revenue model may change, as is happening across nearly every other media format, but live events will be a part of our professional lives for the foreseeable future.

As our Kevin Grossman has commented, the forces behind Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other online conversations have only heighten the impulse to connect face-to-face with industry peers, partners, vendors, and customers.

Personally, it’s quite a cool feeling for me to attend an event where so many people are already a part of my online social circles. It makes the initial in-person meeting almost instantly more productive and enjoyable.

In the coming days, we’ll be posting fresh content, reports, and even a free giveaway as part of our participation in the upcoming Recruiting events.

We have a soft spot for the Recruiting events. They all have a unique approach and area of focus and the organizers below have asked us to participate in unique ways to help get the word out about their events. For the third-party and corporate recruiters out there, you’ve a wealth of choices.

• Jocelyn Cook and I will attend the ERE Expo Fall in Hollywood, Florida, September 9-11. We will report on the event with posts, tweets, and maybe a few podcasts or videos.
• Maren Hogan of RecruitingBlogs.com invited HRmarketer to help them promote RecruitFest in Toronto, September 23 & 24. We’ll be giving away a free ticket to this “un-conference”-style gathering of recruiters and leaders. Check back here next week for details.
• Capping offer the fall season will be the newly combined Onrec Expo and Kennedy Recruiting Conference. We’re working on conducting a series of “speaker previews” that we’ll be providing as podcast interviews with a select group of the awesome line-up of speakers on the bill for this event in Chicago, November 3-04.

Let us know if you’ll be attending, exhibiting, or otherwise participating in these or any other shows this fall.

Social Responsibility - it isn't all that easy!

I know that SHRM annual conference held in New Orleans at the end of June is all over, and so much has happened since then, but I can’t help but reflect on one company that I met there that also had another agenda while there – one that is not always visible or audible. No it is not subliminal suggestions being played through the loudspeakers (buy my product, buy my product), but it is "Social Responsibility" . According to Wikipedia, this is “the obligation of organization management to make decision and take actions that will enhance the welfare and interests of society as well as the organization”. I think that it is also referred to as “Corporate Social Responsibility”, “Corporate Responsibility” and “Corporate Citizenship”, and some may even say “Cause marketing”.

As I was wandering around the conference floor, I witnessed demonstrations in booths that instead of the attendees receiving a gift or give away for their time, they got to choose one of 3 or 4 mentioned charities and the company would donate a specific amount to that charity at the end of SHRM. There have been other programs and all fabulous ideas that I have seen over the last couple of years conferences and events by Monster , TheRightThing , OCTanner , Ceridian ,Care.com , Workscape and more.

But the story that really struck me as amazing, was the group of people that flew into New Orleans a couple of days early, already away from their families, brought along their boots, work socks, work gloves, work clothes and determination to make a difference with sweat and hard labor. The good people of Peopleclick coordinated time and muscle power for Coastal Habitat for Humanity , a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry while in New Orleans. This short recording shows some of what they did (http://peopleclick.com/customerhub/SHRM_09_promo2.wmv), but I am sure you are not able to feel the heat they felt, taste the salt on their lips as they worked, feel the muscles screaming as they worked beyond what they were used to. But you also may not be able to imagine the wonderful sense of accomplishment as they were working together, satisfaction that they had made a difference in a family’s life, and help to build a stronger community. Now THAT is one aspect of social responsibility.

But this leads me to another thing to ponder - is that all there is to it? – a company is considered “Socially Responsible” if they give to the environment/community/world like this? Well there also needs to be thought on how is the company run on a daily basis. Does what they offer impact the environment and what they can do to positively change that. How do they treat their employees and the specific community issues that they have? Should they also be looking at the immediate local impact they have?

What about their employees. Is the company empowering them to also make a positive impact for their “passion” cause. I work for a wonderful company that has created the opportunity that all of their employees give time to their causes, and in order to facilitate that, will pay for a full day for each employee to volunteer to their heartfelt cause. This speaks volumes to their employees and to society that Fisher Vista wants to make a difference through their employees. Tell me what other companies have done this – no I mean it - tell me your stories.

I do not want to downplay the strong contribution that PeopleClick or any of the other companies mentioned, has had with their outward looking cause; but I do encourage that it needs to go beyond this one-time event – looking internally, locally and internationally and on a continuing basis. If you can do all of that – and remain profitable, now that would be considered a truly socially responsible company. Do you know of any?

The Latest HR Market Share Podcast: Interview with Bernie Dyme, President and CEO of Perspectives, Ltd.

The latest HR Market Share podcast is ready for your listening pleasure below (more interviews in the queue as well!). Subscribe to the series in iTunes and look for regular posts to our blog and on the HRmarketer.com site. You can also subscribe to all our past interviews and episodes via Hipcast.

Our latest episode includes some HR marketplace news, some very cool marketing and an interview with Bernie Dyme, President and CEO of Perspectives, Ltd., a Chicago-based human resources firm specializing in the nationwide delivery of Employee Assistance Programs, Managed Behavioral Healthcare, Work/Life Services, and Organizational/Management Consultation.

Bernie shares his take on the state of the EAP and behavioral healthcare space as well as the difference between high-touch EAP’s and free EAP’s – and the greater return companies get from high-touch EAP’s. We also have a great conversation about the challenges companies face with disruptive managers and how organizational development training can help save those employees and your business.

Bernie has experienced three economic downturns during his tenure at Perspectives, a Chicago-based workplace resources firm specializing in the nationwide delivery of EAPs, managed behavioral healthcare, work/life services, organizational development and wellness services. EAPs from Perspectives are tailored for each organization to enhance employee health and productivity by addressing personal issues, providing appropriate counseling or treatment and re-introducing employees to the workplace with renewed productivity.

In the early 1980s, Dyme saw utilization rates of EAPs by employees between two to four percent. Today, utilization rates have jumped as high as 27 percent. Dyme attributes the climb in usage rates to companies understanding the value of EAPs and championing the programs to their own employees.

Thank you and enjoy!

• Perspectives, Ltd.
  
• Working World Cafe Blog
  
• Workforce Planning Certification
  
• Employee Retention Certification
• Inbound Marketing University
  
• The coolest and most comprehensive collection of HR-related news and content found online is in our HR Directory (get a profile up if you're not already there)
• News for HR Newsletter
• More HR marketplace news here and here

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

What's In a Company Name? A Lot if Your Brand is Everyday English.

There are millions of articles on the web about How to Choose Your Company Name.

But aside from picking a name that does not offend anyone, is legal, and has an available domain, does it really matter what you choose?

Many branding experts suggest avoiding words that are hard to pronounce or spell. After all, how will people find you on the web? But this is somewhat of a blanket statement that does not always apply. Can you spell Weyerhaeuser? What about Charles Schwab? I still have trouble with that one (unfortunately I had no trouble locating them just before the market tumbled).

But does it matter?

Just type the first four letters of an established company into Google and the name often appears automatically. Misspell the name? No problem. When Google presents the search results it will ask you "Did you Mean [correct name]?" But what about SEO? A great company name may help but a bad company name can be overcome with good SEO. After all, the no 1 online shoe store is Zappos, not shoes.com. And don't forget, the majority of the typical company's web site traffic, even if direct, is rarely the result of someone "typing" in a specific URL.

The HR marketplace has had its share of peculiar branding:

Then (dot.com era): PerksAtWork.com changes name to Abilizer.
Reaction: Terrible branding decision.
Where are they Now? Abilizer burned through tens of millions of dollars and then fizzled away. But it had little to do with their company name.

Then (2004): Recruitsoft changes name to Taleo.
Reaction: Mixed but lots of "what are they thinking?"
Now: Taleo is doing just fine. Nobody remembers the old name.

Then (2006): Recruitmax changes name to Vurv.
Reaction: Similar to Taleo.
Now: Taleo bought them in 2008 in spite of the name.

But honestly, I'm not sure a company name really matters in the long run..........

Unless your company's name is a phrase used in everyday conversation and you are trying to measure your online media visibility.

Couple of examples:

- A Place for Mom is a relatively new and fast growing company that helps caregivers locate care options for their loved ones. But when you set-up news alerts to track your media visibility you're likely to also pick up thousands of articles that have nothing to do with your brand such as a blog with the phrase "I was looking for a place for mom to stay when she visits Santa Cruz...."

- Setting up an alert for the leading background screening company Accurate Background will return a ton of irrelevant stories such as "a company wanting to conduct an accurate background check on a new employee......"

- And try setting up an alert for training company ELI. You'll be getting a ton of football articles on the Mannings.

What's a company to do?

In a few weeks HRmarketer will launch a new E-Clipping Service (My Company News) that we hope solves this problem.

A sneak peak....

My Company News is a new online media monitoring service that will track major national news sites, newspapers, trade magazines and business journals, plus broadcast TV and radio media outlets. My Company News will also track HR-specific online news and blog sources as well as social media sites such as Twitter — effectively covering millions of outlets.

Updated hourly, the ‘Company News’ section enables HRmarketer members to conveniently view recent media coverage of their company or from a specific time period in the past. Additionally, members can share their media coverage via services like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Digg to further enhance their company's online visibility and Web site traffic. All content is fully accessible via RSS in any desired format, and companies can subscribe to their own feed via email updates, including a mobile feed option and an iPhone application in the Fall.

As we get ready to launch this service we are spending considerable time creating the search strings for each HRmarketer client and adding negative keywords so companies get an accurate picture of their online visibility - without the junk. It's been quite a project but we think we've got a winner here.

As Kevin Grossman, president of HRmarketer says, “Our new e-clipping service will help HRmarketer become a central resource where HR suppliers can plan, manage, execute and measure their company's marketing, PR and SEO initiatives. For years our members have asked for a media tracking service to help them locate news coverage and media placements. Now we can help them measure which news announcements best resonate with various media audiences including blogs and social media sites."

Stay tuned.

What Makes a Great Company? Netflix has some answers.

John Sumser, CEO of Two Color Hat and one of the top minds in the HR space shared the following post on his Facebook page yesterday.

"Culture. No, I really like this presentation set. Netflix shakes the tree. Performance management in action. http://bit.ly/19zNHk"

The PowerPoint deck John links to is titled "Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture". It is 125 pages but a quick and highly worthwhile read.

The PowerPoint author is Netflix's founder Reed Hastings and it highlights the "performance management" philosophy of Netflix. It is a remarkable document. Some sound-bytes:

• The real company values, as opposed to the nice-sounding values, are shown by who gets rewarded, promoted, or let go.
• Great workplace is not day-care, espresso, health benefits, sushi lunches, nice offices, or big compensation, and we only do those that are efficient at attracting stunning colleagues.
• The Keeper Test Managers Use at Netflix: “Which of my people, if they told me they were leaving in two months for a similar job at a peer company, would I fight hard to keep at Netflix? The other people should get a generous severance now, so we can open a slot to try to find a star for that role.
• We don’t measure people by how many evenings or weekends they are in their cube. We do try to measure people by how much, how quickly and how well they get work done – especially under deadline.
• Netflix Vacation Policy and Tracking. Until 2004 we had the standard model of N days per year. We’re all working online some nights and weekends, responding to emails at odd hours, and taking an afternoon now and then for personal time. We realized. We should focus on what people get done, not how many hours or days worked. Just as we don’t have an 9-5 day policy, we don’t need a vacation policy. Netflix Vacation Policy and Tracking: “there is no policy or tracking”.
• Netflix Policies for Expensing, Entertainment, Gifts & Travel: “Act in Netflix’s Best Interests” (5 words long).
• Managers: When one of your talented peopledoes something dumb,don’t blame them. Instead, ask yourself what contextyou failed to set.
• Values reinforced in hiring, in 360 reviews, at comp review, in exits, and in promotions.

When I Googled "Netflix culture" and looked at all the attention this presentation is receiving on web sites, news pages, blogs and social networking sites, I was amazed at just how viral this has become.

I don't know the circumstances behind making this presentation publicly available but kudos to whoever made the decision. Not only does it validate the concepts and beliefs most great companies (large and small) already know about building a great organization but more importantly it is fabulous "employment branding" for NetFlix - this is the document's real value.

What I particularly like about this document is that unlike most Best Companies to Work For lists, which tend to focus on perks given to employees, this gets to the heart of what makes a great company. And any CEO of any size company can learn from what Netflix has shared.

Thanks for sharing NetFlix.

Content marketing and lead generation - You're getting warmer

When it comes to B2B direct marketing in the HR marketplace (and beyond), it's important to differentiate two things:

• Content marketing to cold prospects (prospecting)
  
• Content and product/service marketing for warming leads (lead nurturing)

I've managed hundreds of campaigns for clients big and small, and if there's one thing that never changes, it's this question:

How many leads can we expect?

Let's get one thing clear - just because someone downloads your white paper, research report, signs up for your Webcast, etc., doesn't mean she's a lead.

Yet.

Our captain of sales and biz dev, Jonathan Goodman, reminded me of that when I posted the question in our HRmarketer.com LinkedIn Group:

Content marketing converts more leads than demo and other pure-play marketing campaigns. Yay or nay?

Correction - content marketing warms more cold prospects up to you more than demo and other pure-play marketing campaigns.

Let me give you an example. One of our clients, KnowledgePay, a new compensation management software firm, first hit HRmarketer's list of (now) over 80K HR decision makers with a white paper email direct marketing campaign back in May, and the results were as follows:

• 14% open rate
• 9% click-thru rate
• Over 400 white paper downloads

Not bad compared to some industry standards from MailerMailer's Email Marketing Metrics Report. Of course we included some media pitching, search-optimized press releases and social media marketing in the mix, but the bulk of these came from the direct marketing campaign. And yes, the topic of compensation management is a big one of late.

But how many of those were really leads? Most weren't. To date they're still following up, but only a smaller percentage ever become warmer leads and eventually sales.

Marketing and PR is hard work as I mentioned in a previous post. You must continually include your "prospects" in your content marketing campaigns - but at some point your sales teams will need to introduce your products and services and ask them for the sales dance.

This scenario plays out again and again with companies, and even I get excited about new prospects from our own HRmarketer downloads, whether we require registration or not. But they still ain't warm leads.

Yet.

The content marketing builds confidence with your prospects and grows your credibility, but the point they become a true lead is when they're willing to have a product/service conversation with you based on their organization's needs.

That's when you're getting warmer.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

John Chambers on Leadership, Hiring and Web 2.0.

This past Sunday's New York Times Corner Office column featured an interview with Cisco's CEO John T. Chambers titled In a Near-Death Event, a Corporate Rite of Passage.

It's a short but very good read from one of the better CEOs in business. The questions he answered were as follows. Read the article for the answers - quite good (I don't want to paste the entire NYT article here).

1. What are the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
2. Any other important lessons you’ve learned?
3. How has your leadership style evolved over time?
4. Did you need to be pushed?
5. How do you find out what employees at all levels of the company are thinking?
6. How do you hire?
7. What is the importance of listening?
8. What’s changed in the last few years? (as it relates to how Mr. Chambers recruits)
9. Teamwork is an intangible. How do you make sure they have it?
10. What do you think business schools should teach more of, or less of?