Attraction and Retention – Navigating the Perfect Storm
The recently released HAYS Salary Guide points to a “perfect storm” on the horizon for employers. The survey highlights 3 factors which will contribute to the storm. These are:
Positive Hiring Intentions – most employers are planning on hiring more people
Widening gap between candidate and employer salary intentions – most candidates expect more than employers are prepared to pay
Skills shortages – 54% of employers in Australia are experiencing difficulty in filling critical positions. This number is significantly higher in WA and QLD. Australia is ranked fourth out of 39 countries for skills shortages in critical roles.
Horses for Courses: What is the right measure?
With the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival in full flight, the question many are now asking is which is the best racehorse of all time – Black Caviar or Phar Lap? Many media outlets have given their opinions, and the most common conclusions say something along the lines of the old adage “ask a silly question, get a silly answer”. The issue of asking the right questions to get the right answers is highly relevant to the field of market research, where the objectives required by clients need to be constantly referred to throughout the project to ensure the end outcomes of the research answer what was the client was initially asking for.
Is the Qantas brand still well-liked?
Well, does it matter? Do we have a real choice? After all, the latest IBISWorld report indicates that Qantas (along with its subsidiary Jetstar) is the clear leader with a 74% market share of domestic passenger travel. Virgin Blue’s shift away from the ‘No-Frills’ image and business model is still in transition: its point of differentiation does not command the price premium that Qantas does, while its price (and cost structure) is similar to that of Jetstar, a rising star to whom it has lost market share over the last five years. Having outlasted its competitors (remember Ansett and Australian Airlines), the brand is quite endearing and the history or legacy appears to associate it as Australia’s airline.
Think Different
Whether you are a lover or hater, promoter or detractor, a user of Microsoft Windows or Google Android, there is one thing we can all agree on. Apple Inc. with Steve Jobs at the helm has influenced ours lives in one way or another. You may be a “disciple of the church of Apple” or wishing to bring it down, either way Apple has been on the tip of your tongue. This blog post aims to discuss how brands, especially brands like Apple, can evoke such strong emotional responses in us, either on a conscious or subconscious level, and whether brands are simply a function of clever marketing and advertising or evolve from somewhere deep within the psyche of an organisation.
Employee Engagement for Competitive Advantage
Your brand is only as safe as your least engaged employee. Engage your employees and align them with your corporate vision and values, as they are the face that represents your business at all levels, interacting with all stakeholders. Employee engagement is also an effective source for competitive advantage. Not only are employees an asset that is dynamic, flexible and resilient, but they are also difficult for your competitors to replicate, a source of value and uniqueness.
Data or Analysis: What gives the greater edge? The debate continues…
In part two of this debate, the question of what truly gives a competitive edge is explored through looking at the types of data captured, and poses a further conundrum of what is the better type of data, quantitative or qualitative?
In the previous blog (posted 12th August, 2011), the position was taken that it is the uniqueness of data that can provide quality insights that help establish a sustainable competitive advantage; but in saying this, the unique data needs to be matched by quality analysis. However this raises the question of how data can be “unique”? Should you look for the hard, quantifiable and crunchable analytics or the more “soft touch” that is afforded with qualitative data?
Activity Based Working Drives Attraction and Retention
The new trend in office design is referred to as Activity Based Working (ABW). This concept has been developed based upon the idea that people will be more engaged and satisfied in their jobs by removing hierarchical structures from the workplace. Hierarchy is removed from the workplace by removing symbols of seniority and creating an environment which fosters collaboration.
Activity based offices are designed to give people the freedom of how to work, where to work and when to work. There are no assigned desks and in most cases no private offices for executives. Team members are also encouraged to work remotely.
Consumer-celebrity attachment: The key to brand endorsement success?
A common feature of marketing strategy is celebrity endorsement, with brands leveraging a celebrities’ popularity to boost their own. The influence of such endorsements is undeniable, with a plethora of market research supporting the notion that sales, stock returns, company image and awareness, amongst other things, are boosted by having a celebrity on board. An obvious indication of the sheer power these endorsements have in the marketplace is the speed at which brands seek to distance themselves from celebrities who ‘behave badly’. Tiger Woods, Kate Moss and Kobe Bryant are just some of the celebrities that were quickly dumped by brands they represented after personal indiscretions became public. Perceptions of brands are inextricably associated to those of their celebrity backers, both good and bad.
Getting Paid NOT to use a Brand!
Creative agencies have long used “personification” as a technique to develop and describe a brand. Describing inanimate products as people allows consumers to understand and relate more closely with the product.
Taking this further many organisations appoint brand ambassadors or spokespeople that represent the attributes that they would like consumers to associate with their product or organisation. A good example of this was Gillette who associated themselves with the world’s best performing athletes. In 2009 Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Thierry Henry were Gillette’s global ambassadors. Securing these three ambassadors cost Gillette millions!
Data or Analysis: What gives the greater edge?
Perhaps it is an age old debate or a “chicken and the egg” kind of stalemate, but what truly leads better decision-making, the kinds of data captured or the talented and creative analyst crunching the numbers? Moreover, could it be the situation that better decision-making cannot occur without both; that quality data and analysis need to act in unison to truly maximise effectiveness.
The relationship between data and analysis can be a tenuous one. Having high quality data and a lack to talent to analyse it means insights and potential opportunities contained in the data will be missed or overlooked; meaning the data’s potential is underutilised. Conversely, data that lacks in depth and breadth results in a talented and creative analysts being limited in what insights they can provide; potentially creating more questions than answers and leading to poorer decision-making outcomes.