Simon Barrow, Chairman People in Business 12 Great Newport Street, Tel +44 20 7632 5910 Your Employer Brand Bringing the best of brand management.

Simon Barrow, ChairmanPeople in Business

12 Great Newport Street, Tel +44 20 7632 5910

www.pib.co.uk

Your Employer BrandBringing the best of brand management to people

at workHoofddorp, Netherlands

4th November 2010

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Introduction to People in Business

• Originated ‘employer brand’ concept in early 90’s conducting the first research on the discipline with London Business School

• First book on the subject in 2005

• 15 years hands-on experience in employer brand development and implementation

• Global network of employer brand consultants, research and resourcing specialists

• Recent employer brand clients include: Coca-Cola, EON, HSBC, HP, IBM, John Lewis, Nokia-Siemens, P&G, RBS and Sky

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Brand relationships

• Powerful consumer brands provide a focal point for:

Aspiration (When I’ve really made it I’ll drive a Mercedes)

Identity (The devil and I both wear Prada)

Engagement (My Nike’s make me feel like running)

Advocacy (Let’s meet at Starbucks)

Trust / Loyalty (When the new i-pod comes out I’ll be the first in line)

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The employer brand relationship

• Powerful employer brands play a similar role:

Aspiration (It’s a company I’d love to have on my CV)

Identity (I’m proud to tell people where I work)

Engagement (I’m committed to going the extra mile)

Advocacy (I tell people it’s the coolest place to work on the planet)

Trust / Loyalty (It would take a lot to get me to leave)

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Customer Value

Proposition

Employee Value

Proposition

Corporate Brand

DNA

Why should consumers consider you?

Why should they come back for more?

Why should people join you?

Why should they stay?

Why should they commit?

What shines through everything the organisation does and says?

Employee experience

Consumer experience

Marketing

HR

Leadership

Integrated brand management

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Vision

Shared Objective

Services Vision

Core Competencies

Organisational Values

Brand Values

A digital vision for everyone

To be at the heart of 21st century living

World Beating Customer Service

ExcellenceCo-operationHonesty

RespectEmpowerment

EntertainingCreativeInnovative Challenging

World Beating Customer Service

Accountability

Problem Analysis & Decision Making

EmpathyEnthusiasm and

PassionDeveloping our

People

Passion for Excellence

Team Player

Close to Customer

ConnectedValues its

People

Passionate about the business

Friendly/ Helpful

Leading Edge & Agile

Credible & Confident

Successful &

Profitable

Cultural Characteristics

Establishing clarity

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Excellence

Co-operation

Respect

Empowerment

Entertaining

Challenging

World Beating Customer Service

Accountability

Problem Analysis & Decision Making

Empathy

Enthusiasm and Passion

Developing our People

Passion for Excellence

Values its People

Passionate about the business

The fully loaded proposition

Honesty

CreativeInnovative

Connected Friendly/

Helpful

Leading Edge & Agile

Credible and

Confident

Successful &

Profitable

A digital vision for everyone

To be at the heart of 21st century living

World Beating Customer Service

Team Player

Close to Customer

Business case

• A strong employer brand reputation attracts more top quality candidates

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Source: Corporate Leadership Council - Attracting and Retaining Critical Talent Segments study

More active job seekers:

contain fewer top

quality candidates

Less active job seekers

contain greater proportion of top quality candidates

Principles for EB success

1. The content of the working experience is the heart of an EB not ‘branding’. It is about reality not ‘spin’ and the key audience must be your existing employees

2. It reflects the needs of the organisation’s overall strategy and delivers business benefits.

3. HR can initiate but it needs other functions and line mgt

4. EB is a long term commitment not an initiative (P&G created brand management in 1931 !)

5. The EB needs the principles of good brand management i.e. coherence, coordination, research, planning, innovation and measurement

6. The readiness to be courageous and stand out from the crowd.

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Why the EB needs such care

Customers Employees

Life style is a factor Work is about life itself

They’re external They’re family

They don’t know everything They do!

Mistakes can be managed Mistakes can be mortal

Broadscale communications One to one preferred

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Headline Proposition

Recommended employer brand model

Corporate BrandVision / Mission

Personality

Values

Qualifiers

Employee Value Proposition

Defining attributes

Reasons to believe

Em

plo

yer

Bra

nd

The everyday basics you need to deliver on to ensure the proposition is credible

The core brand DNA of the organisation reflected in everything it says and does

The one quality you most want to be famous for as an employer

The distinctive qualities that further define the employment experience

The tangible proof points that make the proposition credible

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For example…

Mission

“to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential”

Distinctive Values:

Taking on big challenges.

Constructive self-criticism.

Corporate BrandVision / Mission

Personality

Values

Natural communicators with a passion for technology.

An environment where talented people can realize their full potential.

Individually tailored, strength-based development.

Industry leading investment and innovation in L&D.

Respectful, open and supportive management style.

Target profile

Headline Proposition

Qualifiers

Defining Attributes

Reasons to Believe

Wordle of values from FTSE 100 websites

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• Target propositions need to be aligned but also adapted to reflect:

– Regional / divisional strengths

– The specific needs and aspirations of different target groups

• Adaptation can be achieved through relative emphasis, distinctive local ‘reasons to believe’ and supplementary attributes (consistent with the overall brand)

CORE EVP

TVP

Division

TVP TVP

Region Talent Group

EB attributes / themesA B C D E

Brand DNA

Tailoring the ‘umbrella’ proposition

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For example….

Headline EVP Proposition: ‘A new challenge every day’.

US Career Site

Western European Career Site

Regional Tailoring

Functional Tailoring

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• Recruitment advertising and career websites often very generic

Distinctive look and feel

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Distinctive look and feel

• If you have a distinctive customer brand identity – use /and adapt it!

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Distinctive look and feel

• If you have a distinctive customer brand identity – use /and adapt it!

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“If you want to be a comedian,

don’t tell people you’re funny,

…..make them laugh”

The employee experience

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Shaping an ‘on-brand’ employee experience

Orien

tation

Mea

sure

men

t

Process ‘Touchpoints’

Recruitment

Working Environment

Comm

unication

Performance &

Development

Reward &

Recognition

Core Values

Core

Compete

ncies

Everyday Behaviours

Brand o

f

Leadership

Style of

Management

Underpinned By

EmployerBrand

Experience

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Employer brand action planning

Media

Career Sites

Assessment

Correspondence

Pre-joining instructions

Interviewing

Advertising

Job description

Selection*

Recruitment Process

• Basic strengths and weaknesses (is it a consistently positive experience?)

• Alignment with the brand proposition (does each stage support the promise?)

• Signature brand experiences (what is distinctively on-brand?)

• This thinking can be applied to every touch-point

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Distinctive practices

Every team member has a say on recruitment decisions

Annual party for all Virgin employees and their families

Regular input from front line employees in senior level decision making (Real Directors)

Six to seven weeks training for all new representatives

Overcome EB Management challenges!

• Seldom positioned to influence the whole employment experience

• Recruitment communications the main priority yet ’branding’ is not brand management

• EB research does not always lead to necessary change to the working experience

• Lack of connection with business strategy

• Insufficient metrics on HR

• Low profile with senior management (and HR can be a nervous platform for EB)

• The culture does not demand courage and distinctiveness

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Remember the principles for EB success

1. The content of the working experience is the heart of an EB not ‘branding’. It is about reality not ‘spin’ and the key audience must be your existing employees

2. It reflects the needs of the organisation’s overall strategy and delivers business benefits.

3. HR can initiate but it needs other functions and line mgt

4. EB is a long term commitment not an initiative (P&G created brand management in 1931 !|)

5. The EB needs the principles of good brand management i.e. coherence, coordination, research, planning, innovation and measurement

6. The readiness to be courageous and stand out from the crowd.

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• We wish you every success in building Employer Brands which will last a 100 years plus!

Simon Barrow

[email protected]

www.people-in-business.com

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