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Massive shifts in the recruitment landscape, the continually changing nature of work and workers, and extraordinary technological progress have combined to enable unparalleled advances in how current and prospective employees receive and process information about organizations. Once the domain of internal organizational public relations and human resources (HR) teams, most employment branding has moved beyond organizations’ control. This chapter provides a conceptual framework pertaining to third party employment branding, defined as communications, claims, or status-based classifications generated by parties outside of direct company control that shape, enhance, and differentiate organizations’ images as favorable or unfavorable employers. Specifically, the authors first theorize about the underlying mechanisms by which third party employment branding might signal prospective and current employees. Second, the authors develop a framework whereby we comprehensively review third party employment branding sources, thus identifying the different ways that third party employment branding might manifest. Third, using prototypical examples, the authors link the various signaling mechanisms to the various third party employment branding sources identified. Finally, the authors propose an ambitious future research agenda that considers not only the positive aspects of third party employment branding but also potential “dark sides.” Thus, the authors view this chapter as contributing to the broader employment branding literature, which should enhance scholarly endeavors to study it and practitioner efforts to leverage it.

Purpose: This chapter considers talent management in ‘situ’, at a time of unprecedented disruption, and identifies implications for practice and study.

Methodology/approach: We compare normative advice from the talent management literature with publicly available accounts of talent management strategies employed during the Covid-19 pandemic. We also include perceptions of employees from publicly available reviews (Glassdoor, 2020a), and a brief personal account.

Findings: Hospitality and tourism organisations are encountering unprecedented pressures for change, primarily due to Covid-19 as well as the sustainability and social justice movements. We identify three organisational responses to the pandemic – closing/contracting operations, consolidating around areas of strength, and creatively pivoting in new directions. Innovations in talent management were found to vary accordingly, including: humane downsizing and pay cuts; training and development (for managers and front-line employees, including in emotional intelligence, resilience, and delivering service excellence online); new talent acquisition, through new programmes, structures, roles, and partnerships; an enhanced employee value proposition, including safe and fun work environments, as well as improved pay and benefits; commitments to social equity and sustainability; courageous, creative, and resilient leadership; and effective communication. Despite these innovations, employee reviews suggest that top performing organisations continue to fall short on work–life balance, un-social working hours, inadequate compensation, and poor-quality managers.

Practical implications: Ever increasing business complexity requires skilled senior managers in multiple domains, and empowered, decentralised unit-level managerial and owner competence (with skills in emotional intelligence, collaboration, and negotiation). Front-line employees, capable of delivering excellence in customer service (despite disrupted circumstances), are more essential than ever. Successful enterprises, both now and in the future, will undoubtedly be those that prioritise talent, throughout all levels of organisation.

Research limitations/implications: Future research should undertake a more comprehensive investigation of talent management strategies employed (including from small business owners), as well as employee perceptions of their effectiveness (considering socio-economic differences as well as gender and race). Research is also needed with respect to the perceived value of organisational commitments to sustainability and social justice initiatives.

Originality/value: This chapter uniquely considers talent management at a time of crisis. Methodologically, it uses publicly available data of employee perceptions of their employers.

Based on a single case approach, this chapter empirically explores the triple helix configuration of Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM) and its social innovation programme. The study uses case files and web available material to consider the nature of the university’s relationship with industry and government. The findings show that triple helix social innovation has yet to be studied in an Indian context. Also, CUTM’s human and social orientation is a driver of its triple helix interaction. The university’s pursuit and trust in employers’ participation in the curriculum and campus experience is the hallmark of its social and pedagogic success. To advance the literature, this chapter draws attention to a much-overlooked Indian context and, for practitioners, it demonstrates the inner-workings of a functioning triple helix system.

In this chapter, we explore the changing role of social media and its increasing influence in the recruitment and selection process. Access to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as profiling tools both inside and outside the workplace is generating a number of potential ethical, legal, and moral dilemmas in the human resource management (HRM) field.

This is a conceptual chapter which analyzed peer-reviewed academic literature, the business press, and other media outlets.

This conceptual chapter outlines the key issues for HR academics and professionals in the area of recruitment and selection associated with the changing role of social media in the workplace, and how it indirectly affects a number of other HR practices. Certain emergent practices such as cyber-vetting and applicant data mining demonstrate a deficiency in moral, ethical, and legal frameworks. The lack of attention paid to these new HR risks highlight the skill gap within the HR profession to handle information and data security challenges, any of which can be exacerbated due to social media.

In order to assist HR in tackling these challenges, we conclude with a number of recommendations for HR practitioners.

The chapter helps raise awareness and understanding of this new and emerging aspect of digital HRM.

We provide a framework for a broader understanding of the issues associated with cyber-vetting and its potential impact on HRM policies and practices.