Very excited this week, what with a family holiday within touching distance. As thousands upon thousands of other families across the land will be doing, we’re stocking up on sun lotions, pondering, with equal levels of optimism, whether I can still get away with flip-flops at my enormous age and deciding which board games to take. Monopoly? Check. Scrabble? Check. Perhaps one of the enduring attractions of such games is the memory of having played them yourself as a child and the current experience of getting whupped at them by your own offspring today.
So I’m not entirely sure what my reaction was this week when it was reported that Hasbro, Monopoly’s manufacturer, was launching a shorter version of the game. A 20/20 equivalent, if you like. Rather than play a game designed to meander on for several days (and even more arguments), Monopoly Empire is over and finished within just 30 minutes. And this is by no means the only example of this – the new Scrabble Flash can be completed within just two and a half minutes.
And if our childhood experiences are speeding up, then perhaps so are our employment equivalents. A fascinating piece in City AM a week or so ago touched on the ‘magnesium economy’. Research by the Innosight suggests that the life expectancy of organisations is shrinking. In 1958, companies on the Standard & Poors’ index stayed there for an average of 61 years; by 1980 that figure had come down to 25 and in 2013, the figure is just 18 years. They don’t make them like they used to. More specifically, exponentially faster information flow, greater trend pace and enhanced M&A activity means organisations are more likely to flare and burn (a la magnesium) or be consumed within a competitor. Just as organisations are faster to establish than ever before – Instagram went from a college start-up to a $1bn Facebook acquisition within just 18 months and Silicon Roundabout in London’s EC1 saw 15,000 start-ups in the last 12 months – they are acquired, or indeed acquire, or simply fail on an increasingly accelerated basis.
But what are the implications for employer branding? TMP’s work in this space sees us engaging with a wide and diverse range of candidate audiences. It is fascinating to get an up close and personal appreciation of employment sentiment from such talent pools via focus groups. And the prevailing wish and aspiration of the great majority of these people? Particularly given the upheaval and emotional scarring left behind by the economic (and associated employment) pressures since the start of the financial crisis in 2008?
People are after stability, security and reassurance. Not necessarily a job for life – the great majority sense this is perhaps obsolete – but certainly an employment experience they can rely on, one they feel has a future. Something more solid, more grounded, more certain. But is this possible anymore? Does employment dependability exist today? With the rise of project based work, consultancy assignments, a desire to lose FTEs from the payroll, a need for greater organisational flexibility and nimbleness, how do organisations provide what would-be employees are looking for?
The employer brand is everything in this regard. And just like the organisations it represents, it has to be increasingly nuanced and flexible. It should imply strength but not rigidity; presence but not stasis; it should be an authentic illustration of today but suggestive of the future; it should be confident but not complacent. As organisations engage with the magnesium economy, they need to convey an appropriate level of excitement without implying futures, careers and ambitions are going to be burned.
A final reminder of how brands have to remain front of mind and relevant? Let’s go back to Monopoly. Reliable, comfortable old Monopoly. But is it though? As well as speeding up the game, Hasbro have engaged with fans via Facebook to replace the faithful old iron symbol with a cat as well as creating an edition dedicated to Alan Turing, the Bletchley Park codebreaker. A great brand, communicating longevity, substance and relevance for the future. A real role model for all employer brands.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 