trailer world issue Two 2011

Why employers have to step up their efforts to attract potential employees.

Issue Two 2011 7LWOH 6WRU\ Lhe phrase is as awkward as it is unattractive. But it is gradually making its way from the cryptic world of marketing into the con- sciousness of business leaders, executives and managers. “Employer branding” encompasses any measures a company takes to position itself as an attractive employer. In contrast to product advertis- ing, the aim of employer branding is to turn an employee-oriented personnel policy into a trademark of the company. The features that distinguish a strong brand are also what make successful employ- ers strong: they have appeal, are trusted, and create an emotional attachment. A check of the demographics shows just how pressing this issue is in Germany. “The whole world is talking about how oil and gas are in short supply in our economy, but we’ll run out of qualified people long before that happens,” warns Hilmar Schneider, Director of Labour Policy at the Institute for the Study of Labour (Forschungsinstituts zur Zukunft der Arbeit / IZA) in Bonn, Germany, a statement that clearly describes where the demographic trend and falling birth rates in our country are leading: to a scarcity of human resources. Is it estimated that in 2030, there will be 25% fewer children and young people living in Germany as compared to today. The German Federal Statistical office forecasts that the number of under twenties will drop by about four million, to 12.7 million. Over the same time period, the over-65 age group will increase by approximately 40 percent, to more than 22 million people. By 2020, one out of every two employees in Germany will be older than 50. This makes it high time to come up with smart strategies to win the war for talent. “It is the eleventh hour,” says personnel recruiting expert Edeltraud Dietz-Stang from Norderstedt, Germany. With her DS Media Team agency, she helps companies develop human resource recruiting strategies they can use to win the “war on talent”. However, her assessment of the German small and medium-sized enterprise sec- tor, the country’s largest employer, is not very flattering when it comes to employer branding: “The majority of the companies are hiding their heads in the sand,” Dietz-Stang says on a sober note. Even market leaders are not aware that in the future, their competitive ability will depend on whether they have succeeded in hiring and retaining suf- ficiently skilled, qualified staff. Dietz-Stang, Managing Director of DS Media, believes that “there are some companies that won’t make it.” It is already tight in many sectors of the German economy today. According to a study conducted by consulting firm Pricewater- 5HFUXLWHG FRXUWHG DQG PXFK VRXJKW DIWHU 4XDOLILHG VNLOOHG HPSOR\HHV DUH EHFRPLQJ D UDUH VSH FLHV ,I FRPSDQLHV ZDQW WR EH DEOH WR ZLQ WKH ÚEDWWOH IRU WDOHQWÛ WKH\ KDYH WR VKRZFDVH HYHU\WKLQJ WKDW PDNHV WKHP DWWUDFWLYH DV DQ HPSOR\HU Ú(PSOR\HU EUDQGLQJÛ LV LQWHQGHG WR GR MXVW WKDW %DWWOH IRU 7DOHQW ,OOXVWUDWLRQV&DUJRÕ*HWW\,PDJH

trailer world issue Two 2011

Pages