{"id":4807,"date":"2009-03-16T10:22:15","date_gmt":"2009-03-16T10:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/?p=4807"},"modified":"2009-03-16T10:22:15","modified_gmt":"2009-03-16T10:22:15","slug":"recruiting-in-the-headlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/recruiting-in-the-headlights\/","title":{"rendered":"Recruiting in the Headlights"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"AIG<\/a><\/div>\n

Few companies have received more negative notoriety in recent months than AIG. Yet on their Careers site<\/a>, it looks as if nothing in the world has ever happened to disturb the company, or the happy futures of its prospective employees.<\/p>\n

Since it\u2019s been reported out loud<\/a> in many places that AIG has four PR firms at work, in addition to their in-house resources, it seems obvious they are concerned with making the right impression.\u00a0 And the corporate home page strikes just the right note, with a simple but effective acknowledgement that problems exist and efforts are at work:<\/p>\n

\"AIG<\/a>The look is clean and friendly, and the large \u201cMoving Forward\u201d link takes the visitor to a well-spun news page that focuses attention on restructuring.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

But click on over to Careers, and it\u2019s like landing in an Oz of flashy graphics and enthusiastic copy:<\/p>\n

\"AIG<\/a>
\nThe lead line is: \u201cWherever you are looking for opportunity, AIG is there.\u201d And in view of the recent publicity about AIG (and financial institutions in general), it is difficult not to regard this statement with a certain irony.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Of course it is absolutely right to continue recruiting, even if a company is experiencing difficulties. And it might even be reasonable to try and keep the Careers section in a bubble, if that were possible. But such could only be accomplished with careful attention\u2014which doesn\u2019t appear to have been paid at AIG. If a natural curiosity were to lead the job-seeker to click on the \u201cOur Organization\u201d tab, and then choose \u201cNews,\u201d here\u2019s what they would find:<\/p>\n

\"AIG<\/a>
\nThe lead line is: \u201cWe celebrate the accomplishments of our employees around the globe. Check back frequently to read updated reports of achievements in the office and in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

But the corporate news feed inserted beneath this caption creates a bit of a disconnect, since it\u2019s generally a stream of financial and legal items that are certainly not celebratory, and bear no relationship to employee accomplishments. On the date I checked (3-12-09), the first item was \u201cAIG Issues Series C Preferred to Trust for the Sole Benefit of the U.S. Treasury.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to say what a company should do in AIG\u2019s circumstances.\u00a0 But I thought it might be worthwhile to look at another approach, so I traveled over to Citigroup, which has been similarly in the headlights.\u00a0 They may have been in a better position fundamentally, since their Careers site is much more serious (one would even say sober) in design and execution.<\/p>\n

\"Citigroup<\/a><\/div>\n

Very little copy on the landing page–and nothing that moves! The presentation remains restrained throughout the site, which has considerable depth, and includes a lengthy, realistic-yet-encouraging message from Citi CEO Vikram Pandit. If visitors access \u201cNews\u201d from the Careers site, they are taken to the Press Room, where stories are presented completely, and in context\u2014which plays much better than the bad-news headline scroll at AIG.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It’s understandable that revamping the Careers site may not be a top priority at AIG. But some small changes could have made the presentation seem more appropriate. Here again, perception means a lot . . .<\/a><\/p>\n

And attention is important. A footer on the Careers landing page announces: \u201cLast Updated Date 10\/30\/2008 9:58:53 AM.\u201d And that just seems too long under the circumstances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Few companies have received more negative notoriety in recent months than AIG. Yet on their Careers site, it looks as if nothing in the world has ever happened to disturb the company, or the happy futures of its prospective employees. 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