And how to motivate them to stay.

What I learned and observed by researching 50 job boards across every industry and niche job. Consider this when you post your next job.

Introduction

A craftsperson is someone who practices a trade or discipline with the ultimate goal of mastery. Anyone, in any discipline, can be a craftsperson if they so choose. Each and every one of us has the capacity to do good work of some kind. I myself am a consultant by trade and the founder of […]

There's a chance I've linked to this before, but in case I haven't, here are ten ways to encourage workplace transformation (yes, transforming your company is kind of your job). Focus, the experience, advocacy, influencers and metrics should all be very comfortable subjects in your vocabulary.

Here's your big read for the week. From fellow talent nerd Liz Lembke's Transforming Talent, this week's newsletter got my head spinning. Why? Because we don't talk about social contracts much at all and we really should. Over the last 50 years, what we expect from each other, from our governmental institutions, and from our jobs has changed. But the systems that support our relationships with our jobs really haven't. What do you expect from your colleagues? What's worth complaining about (and what isn't)? When is it okay to ask for help and when are you expected to buckle down and figure it out? Liz collects a series of recent articles on the topic, and they are very much worth your time.

Let me ask you a question: would your overall employer brand be better/stronger if everyone felt like they had a hand in crafting their own jobs, if they were able to shape the tasks, people and purpose of the job to better match who they were? The concept of "job crafting" (new to me) has been studied for the last 20 years and the impacts are very interesting. While the article is geared towards, "you should try to craft your job," what if you started to think how you support and encourage others to craft their jobs to make them feel more satisfied and fulfilled at work? That sounds like an interested employer brand strategy to me.

We all know how COVID is changing work, but it is time to stop thinking about "work" in terms of a "job." Our jobs are going to be more fluid and driven less by tasks and much more by outcomes. Add to that disconnection from a core office, and technology that allows anyone to tap into more remote systems and we're entering a time when the very concept of a job will be re-thought.

Are you sick of me saying how you need to start thinking about your employer brand beyond the funnel? Too bad! This article talks about all the ways professional systems will be changing in light of everything, and this is my chance to remind you that you need to make friends with the development team. What the company offers to learn is one thing, but connecting to to why they want to learn, to develop a story pipeline system about the people who embrace the development culture and what they get out of it is totally in your jurisdiction.

My big takeaway is that we’re seeing the further crumbling of the definition of a ‘job.’ Everyone is looking for transferable skills, flexibility in taking tried and true skills and applying them to new fields and brand new problems. Everyone is busy re-inventing their own career. Everyone sees the world as 'uncertain. All of which suggests that a lot of the foundational elements of your brand (what we do, our industry, how we work) are changing or eroding. Ignore these shifts to your own peril.

Here’s a list of current data that likely will influence how you shape your employer brand. My big takeaway is that we’re seeing the further crumbling of the definition of a ‘job.’