Maximise the digital assets at your fingertips with personal branding

TO remain visible in the employment market people need an innovative approach to job hunting.

Maximise digital assets

Australia’s labour market remains weak. The latest unemployment rate has hit a 12-year high at 6.4 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Tepid economic recovery and organisational “right-sizing” after the global financial crisis have resulted in a tight job market. An increase in redundancies and job mergers across industry sectors have extended the time people are unemployed between roles.

While it used to take C-suite executives six to nine months to land a new role, Right Management research shows it now takes eight to 10 months or longer.

For people to remain visible in the employment market and get stronger “cut through” when applying for roles, they must innovate from traditional approaches to job hunting.

This means not only embracing social media but strengthening the quality of your digital footprint through personal branding. An online brand allows candidates to build professional connections and influence and collaborate with industry peers and potential employers.

Professionals have embraced social media, and it has been a game changer for employers, recruiters and hiring managers, who are turning to people’s online platforms to make candidate assessments and head hunt top talent.

These platforms have become a honey pot for improving sourcing efficiency, planning and the quality of referral hires, as well as opening up a pool of passive job seekers not actively looking for their next role. While social media is important as a platform for identifying and showcasing talent, it alone won’t be enough to achieve differentiation in the job market.

An independent study commissioned by personal branding website developer Workfolio showed 56 per cent of hiring managers cited personal websites as the most impressive tool a candidate can have in their job search.

Personal branding websites allow individuals to demonstrate their skills and dedication to the sector they work in. They enable employers and recruiters to get a stronger idea of an individual’s experience, skillset, personality and cultural fit for potential roles.

Personal website development has also become a strategic differentiator at Right Management, and we recently established an industry partnership with Work­folio to offer website technology as part of our core career transition and outplacement services.

Those going through a career change are guided by consultants to produce a clear, consistent and compelling brand presence accelerated through Workfolio’s website technology.

In an era where business leaders and human resource professionals are more aware of the importance of strategic workforce planning to align talent to skills shortages, personal websites will become the resumes of the 21st century — integral to our external personal brand.

Gen Ys will soon make up the largest percentage of our workforce. As savvy digital natives, they will strive to achieve a competitive edge over their peers by developing a compelling digital footprint through branding.

Recruiters and employers will continue to favour innovative approaches to talent sourcing, making personal websites crucial rather than just a “nice to have”.

Jane Telford is a career management specialist at Right Management