HR Insights Blog

Workshop on sharing best practice – A great employer on the market, or how does a Top Employer distinguish itself? On 16 October 2014 in Business School of the Technical University of Warsaw the Top Employers Institute organised another meeting in a series of workshops for sharing best HR practices. This event was fully devoted to the topics of innovative practices in communication and the ROI of development programmes. These topics are being discussed more and more frequently as the effect of changes worldwide, the development of global markets and growing need for examining the ROI of particular investments.

The importance of internal succession is increasing in the business world. A clear benefit for any company is the ability to rapidly identify future managers within the company itself. The advantages are obvious: less integration issues, they are familiar with your company, its activities and its values, no time-consuming onboarding process ...

A research conducted by the Top Employers Institute on more than 500 companies across Europe shows that Dutch companies have a very extensive application process. Dutch employers, in half of the cases use IQ tests and role playing during the interview, while in the rest of Europe this occurs less often.

Is it more effective to recruit superstars from outside or to recruit among your own? Businesses confront the same dilemma that athletic clubs do when trying to look for new talent in key positions.

The insights displayed below are derived from the Top Employers HR Best Practice Report, a detailed report, derived from the Top Employers Institute’s research, covering current trends in Talent Management and Talent Management Processes. Scroll down on this page to get access to the full report.

Employers, employees, workforce councils and labour unions should have a common goal: sustainable business growth. That is where the focus should be, since this is best for all involved, or not?

A number of key trends in talent management have been identified following our global research into the world’s leading employers – and business leaders will have to adapt rapidly to stay on track.

Looking for a job has never been so easy. In less than 10 years, we have moved away from paper-based job offers; firstly, to internet job boards and then to the actual omnipresence of the company’s own websites. The “war for talent” has obliged even the best companies to find ways of differentiating themselves when it comes to recruiting, in order to make themselves more visible, more attractive and more convincing. In fact, most of the Fortune 500 companies are self-proclaimed “ Employers of Choice ”. But is this enough in the current climate to reach the previous goals?

As many organisations face key strategic decisions more frequently at the moment, it has become clear that making decisions about Talent Management is just as important as making decisions about business issues. Knowing your workforce in terms of their unique qualities, how they respond to change, what drives them and how you can keep them pushing your organisation forward is not only a matter of necessity, it is the smart thing to do if you want your organisation to perform at its best

By simply focusing on reducing corporate travel, organisations can make a significant contribution to reducing their carbon footprint, and play their part in the environmental movement, writes Samantha Crous. According to the *Trends in global CO2 emissions: 2012 Report, global carbon emissions increased by 3% in 2011. It goes on to report that “the top 5 emitters are China (29%), the United States (16%), the European Union (EU27) (11%), India (6%) and the Russian Federation (5%), followed by Japan (4%).”

Employers aren’t just trying to attract and engage the best talent in their industry, they are also trying to retain them; and that means looking after them. At Top Employers, we certify companies all over the world, and whereas each country has its own special circumstances, I’m based in London, so I’ll use an example of what sort of workplace and health initiatives are going on with the companies we work with in the UK

We are currently in the middle of the Top Employers 2014 Certification cycle. We are assessing employers in more than 60 countries and we are seeing many great examples from what Top Employers are offering their employees in order to create optimal employee conditions for their people. The 2014 results are obviously not in yet, but we can show what Top Employers are offering this year. And there is one emerging trend that is visible across various employee conditions: the degree to which technology is influencing employee conditions.