If only com­pa­nies in Aus­tralia hired this way! I would cer­tainly have been inclined to work for a busi­ness that thought like this rather than strik­ing out on my own.

SHIFT are tak­ing a posi­tion that recog­nises explic­itly the power and value of an employee with a strong per­sonal brand — their value to the com­pany is, at least in part, defined by their online (and real life) per­son­al­ity and the cachet hav­ing the sort of per­son with a strong per­sonal brand on staff can bring.

They also realise that in today’s world, any employee is just on loan to you, the employer. While you keep them engaged and excited about their work, you prob­a­bly have the chance to keep them on staff.

The oppor­tu­nity to work with big, free, inno­v­a­tive thinkers like Doug (in an older bracket) and Amanda (who’s only about 10 years older than my daugh­ter) would totally attract me. When I vis­ited Boston ear­lier this year, I met Doug briefly but missed Amanda.

Sadly, most Aussie com­pa­nies still think they own you when they hire you. The idea of estab­lish­ing and own­ing your own brand beyond your work is anath­ema to many of them. Peo­ple here still get dooced for hav­ing any online per­sona. I know sev­eral who hide their Twit­ter streams and blog anony­mously to pro­tect themselves.

Time for Aussie com­pa­nies to wake up!