I typically don’t walk away from conversations about Employment Branding and Employee Engagement blown away. I have a pretty decent perspective on the industry and its evolution. Friday’s conversation with Polly Pearson, VP of Employment Brand and Strategy Engagement for EMC was the exception.
Polly is a progressive communications executive with vision for the impact EB initiatives can have on culture. She is a no BS, brand from the inside out thought leader and our conversation confirmed for me the impact and significance having the right leader in the EB role can have on business outcomes.
We talked a bit about the misconception that EB was a strategy specific to talent acquisition. From her perspective, that is the easy stuff. The hard part is “winning over the hearts and minds of their people.” Banking on the idea that people inherently want to be successful and contribute in meaningful ways to meaningful work at some level it means simply removing the barriers that inhibit potential – and just getting out of the way. It also means being forward thinking enough to let people do more of what they love and not being confined to the limitations of job titles, policies and procedure.
EMC is clearly winning with a culture of “collaboration and connection”…..and you can learn more about how she drives this initiative and her ideas for 2010 at her blog Building and Branding Careers, Culture and Cool (and yes, they are hiring!).
Employment Branding isn’t all about image. It’s about execution and experience. Polly delivers and provides keen insight and best practices that other organizations can learn from and leverage to make some real progress in the talent engagement arena.
If you get the chance she is definitely a webinar or conference keynote worth watching!
