Happy Fat Super Tuesday everyone! This morning I attended a presentation by Merritt Carey, founder of Graffam Solutions, at the Human Resource Association of Southern Maine. The title of the meeting was Disability as Diveristy & How to Use HR as a Marketing Tool. Casey spoke about the benefits to companies of promoting their social responsibility policies to increase consumer loyalty. Corporate Social Responsibility is a very hot topic right now, as can be seen in the January 17 issue of the Economist. Carey asserted that central to social responsibility issues are HR Policies that display a high regard for employee's benefits and appreciation. She expressed that many companies can see increased market share by doing a better job of promoting the good internal HR policies and external social responsibility initiatives that they may already be doing.
Her position is that consumers have more access now to the culture and policies of big businesses, and therefore are more likely to make buying decisions based on how they feel a company's ideals align with their own.
She also discussed how promoting social responsibility initiatives and positive internal HR policies can affect recruiting and retention, thereby affecting bottom lines from the inside out. On this issue, the word from the recruiting front lines is simply this: THAT'S ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! We have seen first hand for years that promoting strong employee benefits and appreciation is a key to building a strong employment brand. Employment Brand is a term used to identify the marketing efforts geared toward recruiting and employee retention. This is a must-do for any business that relies on it's talent pool to maintain market share and grow their business. The war for talent is becoming more expensive and difficult to win every day, and as the baby-boomers leave the traditional workforce and the job growth continues to rise, the ability to be viewed as the employer of choice will be the key to winning the best talent.
Carey also discussed how it is important, particularly in a state as ethnically homogeneous as Maine to include people with disabilities in the diversity discussion. She cited how disabled Americans control a trillion dollars in expendable income, and that this is a group very likely to want to do business with businesses that have disability initiatives in place.
It was a good meeting, and left me thinking about how the business I work for can help HR professionals build their employment brand, and embed it into their consumer marketing....
Any thoughts on this?
2 comments:
Merritt "Carey" not "Casey" is spot on. Merritt is part of the Working Together group (see ExpandingMainesWorkforce.com. This group of Maine businesses and organizations want to help Maine employers capitalize on an untapped source of employees: people with disabilities. 1 in 5 is the statistic typically shared relating to the number of people with disabiities living in America. That's a pretty significant number. Did you meet someone with a disability today? How would you know? Did they produce a business card? Wear a nametag or introduce themselves by saying " Hi, my name is John and I have a disability." Probably not. Consider this: We are all just one accident, incident or situation away from becoming disabled.
Unfortunately many employers still believe the stereotypes and myths associated with people with disabilities resulting in continued incidents of discrimination, insensitivity and disrespect. I applaud Merritt's efforts to change this and likewise ask how you might do the same. One thought might be to inform employers about or make them aware of the Disability Program Navigator initiative.
Maine recently started joined this initiative and has Navigators located in Career Centers throughout the State. Navigators are a great resource for employers and job seekers alike looking for information disabilities and the work incentives and programs available to support successful employment. The Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration Website (www.doleta.gov) has more information about the DPN initiative as do your local Career Centers.
Thanks for the input g2bn2wn! I've updated the spelling of Merritt's name. I apologize for the error. This is great information that you've added to our site.
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