It’s one of the biggest HR conferences, they said. There will be awesome speakers, they said. The venue would be amazing, they said. I wanted to see it for myself, and signed up for the Gravity+, a two-day conference all about Employer Branding. Before I was even there, I could notice already that the organization turned out to be professional, and that all was well thought through. So I was sure, taking part would be worth it. And that’s how it was!
I’ll share some of my absolute highlights here.
Corporate Happiness Management
Already in the keynote, I learnt about the existence of a Corporate Happiness Manager. Daniela Gleue (Upstalsboom) explained us in a captivating talk why a company needs to invest in people who care about people. She explained that some time ago the employee satisfaction at Upstalsboom had reached its absolute low point. And when her boss realized the dimensions, he went to a monastery for a while. But he came back with the awareness that something had to change. By holding development workshops and actively listening to the employees, jointly working on improvements and creating a feel-good atmosphere in so many different ways, they turned the hotel chain into an attractive employer (brand). Absolute impressive story.
Job ambassadors
Eugenia Mönning from Otto showed us, how a training program turns passionate employees into corporate influencers.
Volunteer employees act as job ambassadors, with profiles such as mulipliers, socializers, technical experts, co-recruiters, and inspirers. They thus help the HR team to find suitable candidates, and to give them a great candidate journey. This talk totally got me.
Brand ambassadors
As many companies in the digital industry, also Payback needs software engineers. Laura Koller outlined that an app can support corporate communication a lot, and how the hashtag ichmachblau helps to strengthen Payback as an employer brand.
Did I mention, that I fell in love with Payback’s branded sneakers? A creative alternative to shirts and hoodies.
Babyboomer vs Generation Y, Z, and Alpha
Hearing Anja Lüthy talk about “The digital youth” and that “we should communicate company culture already during the online recruiting process” was both interesting and entertaining at the same time. I was almost a little jealous of her students at TU Brandenburg, as they have the pleasure of learning from her every day.
She enlightened me about platforms such as whatchado, Jodel, or Talentwunder, and told us how important a good working atmoshpere and appreciation is. And that actually many companies still don’t have a Xing or LinkedIn profile? She can’t understand that at all.
Thanks for this great (speed) lecture.
Corporate pink
These two days were full of pink-colored posters with cheeky, and fresh slogans, speed networking experience, great speakers, and of course lots of great input on the important topic of Employer Branding. It was an amazing conference!
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