You have been very successful in creating an attractive workplace through solid employer branding. If you were to give us three concrete pieces of advice, what would they be?
You need to start where you are. Be honest with yourself when you measure your zero position even if it turns out that your target image is far from your starting position. There are no shortcuts if you really want a sustainable result, so don't be tempted to jump on them when they appear. Instead, spend time getting a good and well thought-out foundation in place and then build on it.
Define your target audience and challenge yourself to really get to grips with the type of candidates you are targeting. Start from the business strategy/business objectives and what you need to enable this. In this way, it becomes clear to you as a business and facilitates the rest of the work around the development of various activities. It also creates clarity for the target group you want to reach with your employer branding work.
Get the whole organization involved in the work. This is not an issue that is solely owned by HR or the Communications Department, but is something that needs to involve all parts of the business. Find your ambassadors but aim to expand this to include everyone. This way you will have an employer brand that comes from within and is genuine and authentic.
Private recruitment companies are increasingly automating both selection processes and employer branding work. How does the Swedish Public Employment Service work with this type of digitization?
We are currently reviewing how we use the opportunities that exist to automate parts of the steps in our recruitments with the help of digitization. There are a number of development areas linked to the various steps in the process, everything from selection, reference taking to onboarding. It is really positive that we now see how we could streamline our work in the recruitment part. This is also a natural step for us, to digitize various processes in the HR area as we do the same with many other parts of our internal operations.
In terms of employer branding, it's not on the agenda right now, but personally I see that there are things to do in that area as well.
What do you think about the next five years - what parts of this important work cannot, or should not, be digitized?
This is of course a difficult question. I think more than we see as possible today can be digitized. It is easy to think that the human contact and what is supported by the individuals in the organization cannot be digitized. But what happens when we have a combination of robots and people in our organizations! I personally think it is more important to focus on what competencies we will need to strengthen our organizations with. Whatever the future holds, there are a number of skills that will be particularly crucial, no matter what type of business you are. Therefore, employer branding work is particularly important to prioritize. If you can also streamline that work in various ways through digitization and automation, it is only positive.