90 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds feel that listening to an iPod while working improves their job satisfaction and productivity.

Hahah

How do they talk on the phone to clients? In case you didn't read it in the Wall Street Journal, this generation is the one that needs constant praise and attention.
I just read the tips from HR Magazine on managing this new breed and you must be kidding!

I guess I'll be first in line for multi-generational training.

• To combat undeveloped grammar, spelling and writing skills provide basic training for employees and reinforce off-line research skills.
• Understand that these employees need to understand the reasons behind instructions and processes, or they will ignore them.
• Outline clear limits as to how much the employee can use IM, and take personal phone calls, as well as how and when it is appropriate to contact/address superiors.
• Provide constant feedback.
• Focus on the outcome/product not the process getting there. Millennials can multi-task (IM, e-mail, and talk on the phone with friends) while working, and the product will be great. Don’t worry about the other stuff they are doing, so long as they are getting their work done, and if they get their work done very quickly give them more to do.
• They value their time, so just because they are single without children, doesn’t mean they will be willing to work more overtime or do more travels than their married with children counterparts.

Most importantly – keep them engaged. If these professionals feel they aren’t being challenged and have stopped learning, they will leave.... and they will take their ipods with them.

The future's so bright... get your shades!

How do you like the new blog?
Yes the website is coming.

Labels: generation X, Generation Y, multi-generational training

First of all technology--
If you're techno-sexual like I am, you can see who' s been visiting your website and why and where they've come from. For instance, if someone went to google and typed "support with employee communications", and a BRANDEMiX paid search ad appeared next to the search results, and the person clicked on our link and I went to our website (being redone as we speak...really) stats checked the logs, I would know from the IP address who is in need of our services and I could follow up with the appropriate person about how we could help them.

So, that's the technology part. And I mention it because I just did that and saw that someone had shown up on our website from a link from Entrepreneur Magazine so I went to Entrepreneur Magazine and found a whole story about Employee Referral Programs that featured You Know Who (me)! Read it now. You_Know_Who.pdf

That's the PR Part.

So, now you know that in addition to Entrepreneur, Blogger-Phenom and Senior Communications Strategist -- I am also the expert authority on Employee Referral Programs -- always at your service.

And, by the way, the best employees in BRANDEland have come to us as Employee Referrals.

and that's the truth part.

Labels: employee referral, Human Resources, PR, technology

I love it. Thanks to CK for launching a new fragrance (IN2U) and launching (and trademarking) a new buzz word which, as we say in adland, has legs. The technosexual, according to Wikipedia "is a neologism (I had to look it up, so you should too!) used to describe an individual in one of two ways:

1. A person (usually a male) with a strong aesthetic sense and a love of gadgets; a straight man who is in touch with his feminine side but has fondness for electronics such as cell phones, PDAs, computers, software and the web."

Back to the new fragrance: it was launched using digital billboards in Toronto, allowing users to interact with the billboard and read their messages on-screen. And they also created a space and contest on Second Life- an island allowing users to enter a photo contest with a chance to win a million bucks. (Virtual moola only.) Lastly, their website encourages film students to upload short films about what they're in2 for a chance to win $10,000. (This time real moola!)

CHECK IT OUT but boo hoo that it takes a while to get in2 it.

ITS' A GREAT TIME 2BE ALIVE!

Labels: CK, integrated campaigns. in2u, Second Life, virtual marketing

Sell Sell Sell-- hasn't everyone been told to sell the job.

Here comes some information that says that may not be the best approach.

Almost half of more than 2,000 HR and Training executives surveyed by Novations Consulting are seeing employee turnover of up to 50% within the first year.

The reason? Novations executive consultant Tim Vigue has this to say: “… there are managers who are not very good at describing and communicating to the candidates what the job and the organization is all about.”

Here's the stats-
• Unrealistic expectations of the job and organizations, cited by 47.9 percent.
• Poor communications with immediate supervisor, 33.1 percent.
• Failure to develop a sense of belonging and purpose, 26.4 percent.
• Not understanding the link between the job and organizational goals, 20.9 percent.

While employers may think they’re simply selling themselves in a war for talent, he noted, “if you’re not being realistic in how you talk about yourself on the web site, in college recruitment,” or the job interview, “you are going to mislead some people.”

Here are some tips from your favorite expert on Branding for Business Results (and if you don’t think that making a dent in 50% turnover is a sound business result, please call me) —

1. BRANDING- In all your communications, don’t invent—reveal. Identify the culture (the real culture) and then recruit to it. Over lunch with Les one day I said “Les, a Boiler Room is a Boiler Room, and lets not pretend by calling it a sauna/spa. if there are reasons people want to work in one- let’s find out what they are. Then we’ll offer candidates the option of seeing if they’re a match."

This approach takes guts because, you have to be willing to lose perfect candidates through your honesty.

2. Communicate the business strategy and put actions around the plan to get from A to Z. Get everyone’s buy in. Sit them down and review it and make them feel part of it.

3. Communicate from the top down and bottom up. Survey the population and find out how they feel about the entire process of assimilation. Jayne told me that people who leave in the first 60 days made their decision on day one. Lets put an onboarding plan together.

Don't be so busy selling the jobs that you forget what is supposed to happen once the curtain is unveiled.

Labels: Employer Branding, war for talent

The Police are coming to Madison Square Garden August 1st and I’ve already got my tickets – something I’m pretty happy about. So I guess it’s no wonder that as I think about my recent discovery of Second Life, the virtual world creating a big buzz in the world of marketing, I realize that Sting's song titled “One World is Enough" may be slightly dated.

Apparently we need more worlds, and more words, such as “Avatar”. Second Life offers people the opportunity to create online personalities called Avatars (think role-playing), and interact with other Residents to socialize, trade, interact and do business- basically everything we’re doing in this world. It already has 3.3 million registered users, adding 230,000 per week.

Linden Labs, the creator company of Second Life has received more than $19 million in investment dollars from such big names as Jeff Bezos (Amazon) Mitch Kapor (Lotus) and Pierre Omidyar (Ebay). Digital convergence teams are paying attention and we need to as well.

The thing about Second Life that makes it so interesting is that people are making and spending real money on it. You can use real dollars to convert to play money and buy real estate clothing and entertainment experiences. Real companies like Toyota, Cisco and Circuit City are partnering with Second Life to set up virtual showrooms, storefronts and dealerships and you can buy a car (fake) for a buck (real).

I’m sure there will be opportunities to get virtual jobs which will spawn the virtual job board which will keep everyone very busy keeping up with this life, the second one and the one after that.

Soon, instead of Madison Square garden, I’ll be able to buy tickets (maybe this time in front of the stage) for $5 to hear The Police. Maybe even Jerry Garcia will be making a comeback. (Or will that be on a new site called AfterLife).

Sting, maybe it’s time to replace the guitar with an Avatar.

Labels: Avatar, employee communications, Second Life, The Police, Virtual Branding