I bet you are having an ongoing conversation about the ongoing conversation. Are you listening to the conversation? Joining the conversation? Guiding the conversation? Tired of the conversation yet? You know, the conversation about the conversation that current and former employees, prospective candidates, and other interested parties are having about YOU as an employer. That conversation. Without a doubt, there are many ongoing conversations about the conversation and differing opinions as to how employers should/can/must engage in the conversation. These conversations have been going on for hundreds of years. The Internet, social media, and other tools are just exponentially connecting, expanding, amplifying and fanning the flames of the conversation.

When I interviewed for my position at TMP almost 14 years ago, I really knew nothing about the company, nor did I have an obvious route to learn more. Had I been privy to the TMP work experience conversation, I might have injected some of those nuggets and questions into the interview conversation. Without those gems I was relegated to closing the interview with “I really believe I can make an impact at TPM.” Thankfully, I still got the job. We had a good conversation despite my verbal typo.

Yes, the conversation about the conversation about the conversation can be exhausting. But, there are definitely valid reasons for an employer to be aware of the conversation. While there may not be a finite right or wrong way to determine when, if, and how to engage and guide the conversation, there are some common sense ideas to be considered.

(For those of you who have lost count, I’ve used the word “conversation” 25 times already.)

First of all, think about the conversation from this perspective: anyone can quickly and easily find well-indexed opinions about the workplace of most employers via search engines, message boards, blogs, social media, employee testimonial sites, etc. That’s a given and we should all stipulate that.

Now think about this fact: keep reading…

The newest, shiniest recruitment tool is …. fundamentals. There, I said it. For some employers, fundamentals are the things we do while we try to get budget and buy-in for the cooler, more fun stuff. Certainly over the last 15 years especially, recruitment has been upended, then right-sided, then upended again, depending on the economy, the state of our businesses, sector growth, talent shortages and surpluses, recruitment solutions du jour, globalization, etc.

Amidst this ongoing constant of change, common themes remain that must be addressed. Fundamental challenges that employers faced before the most recent recession and the proliferation of purported “silver bullet” media options (read: social media), challenges that predate the Internet even < insert gasp> still and will always exist to varying degrees.

Fundamental challenges sometimes require fundamental solutions. They may not be the sexiest solutions or what everyone in our networking groups are talking (sorry, I meant micro-blogging) about, or even what most recruitment marketing firms are proposing, but their impact is far reaching and their value is lasting.

As many employers are evaluating their recruitment and retention challenges, more than ever before are looking inward first for fundamental solutions.

What “fundamentals” am I referring to? They include: keep reading…