Blogging as a recruitment technique

Whilst the headline reads "Cadbury Schweppes blogs on", it is the sub-heading that is the most telling: "Online diaries will give future potential employees an insight into the organisation" (People Management).

I'll reproduce the article in its entirety as it's first of all quite short (and sweet), but mainly because it's the first prominent evidence to suggest that the HR management-orientated media, in the UK, is taking a much wider view of work-related blogging - see, for example, HR warned over staff blogs (People Management), Illegal blogging (People Management), 'Blog' dismissal should prompt policy on usage (Personnel Today), Dismissal highlights need for ‘blog’ policy (Personnel Today), and, Don't blog your way into trouble (Personnel Today). Here goes...

Graduate recruits at Cadbury Schweppes have been told to speak their minds about their jobs.

The group has been asked to contribute to a set of regular "blogs", or online diaries, launched last month, which would give future potential employees an insight into the organisation.

"We want to encourage them to speak as freely as possible," said Anthea Marris, graduate resourcing manager at Cadbury Schweppes. "We want to let them know that it's okay to write something negative because everyone has a bad day once in a while." Marris said that HR or corporate communications would only veto information that was commercially sensitive. The blogs are intended to give future employees an idea of what working at the company is like.

"We want to help potential candidates make an informed decision about whether we are the right company for them," she said.

The organisation, which relaunched its graduate recruitment scheme in 2002, will be accepting applications for next year's batch of graduate posts in the next few months and hopes the blogs will attract more candidates to the recruitment website.

Rebecca Clake, CIPD adviser, organisation and resourcing, said companies were increasingly using their websites to attract the right people. But she warned: "If you do get any negative publicity [from the blogs], then you need to be aware of the potential risk to your reputation."

A good article on the whole, but it's clear that more needs to be done about the value of work-related blogs, for both employee and employer, whether encouraged by an employer or not.