HR Practices - The Brand Wagon!

Building employer brand the better way…

Key learnings:

1. Employer branding is not a recruitment exercise, but a relationship building process
2. To ensure effective brand creation, a clear understanding of the scope and objectives of the programme is important
   

Employer branding calls for an appropriate strategy to accomplish its objectives. However, most organisations do not pursue employer branding efforts in the right way. A recent survey conducted by the Employer Brand Institute revealed certain interesting facts. While some findings conform to universally accepted ideas on employer branding, there are others that come as a shocker. The findings include:

1. CEO involvement is critical for branding success
2. External and internal market research is not a success parameter
3. More than 80 percent of the global corporations have an employer branding strategy
4. Half of those having a branding programme showed a serious disconnect between branding objectives and strategy
5. The scope for development and improvement in an employer branding strategy is dynamic and depends to a large extent on the environment surrounding the organisation
   

These findings are important for organisations that are working towards framing an effective branding strategy. Most organisations fail to link their strategies to branding objectives. For the desired branding effect, organisations have to focus on certain key measures, which ensure that they meet their programme objectives with ease.

Imperatives for success

To succeed with the employer branding strategy, organisations have to focus on the ‘intent’ of execution. To do so, leaders have to work on six critical parameters. They are:

Clear definition

Leaders need to begin their efforts by defining employer branding clearly, with reference to the organisational context. The definition should include the type of brand that the organisation wants to create, the kind of talent pool it wishes to attract and the changes that would accompany the process. Further, leaders need to understand that employer branding is not about recruiting talent; it is a relationship building exercise that is largely strategic in nature, aimed at creating a positive corporate image. This image would determine the quality of talent that would be associated with the organisation, and therefore, impacts the overall productivity of the organisation. Leaders, who take a narrow view of employer branding, fail to capitalise on its true potential. They will be vulnerable to crises as compared to those who focus on building lasting relationships through a strong brand.

Scope and objectives

Branding is not any ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity, but presents itself as and when there are changes taking place in the corporate environment. Leaders must, therefore, ascertain the objectives keeping in view the ‘need’ for the exercise. In addition, understanding the scope of the branding effort is also important to give it the right premise and context for execution. For instance, if an organisation wishes to attract alumni of certain universities and institutes, its approach and scope would be different from an organisation that wants to establish an employee referral culture. Thus, within a larger employer brand, organisations can create small branding strategies that cater to the changing business needs and different lifecycle stages of the business.

Ownership of process

Whose job is it anyway; HR, marketing or corporate communications? Most corporate initiatives fail because of the uncertainty over the ownership of the process. Hence, clarifying issues pertaining to ownership and accountability is important for the success of any initiative. In the case of employer branding, the effort has to be more collaborative, as the exercise is largely strategic and calls for the involvement of HR, marketing and corporate communications. Hence, allocating responsibility on the basis of the roles that each of the functions would play is important for the smooth execution of the strategy.

Understand ethos, drivers and needs

A clear understanding of the corporate culture, work ethos, talent routers and needs is important for building an effective employer brand. Collecting information and intelligence on important issues like external perception, leadership vision, employee concerns, suggestions for improvement and talent needs is critical for deriving the desired branding solution.

Leadership involvement

CEOs and other senior executives have to be involved in the process of employer branding. Leadership involvement enables managers to get a clear insight into the future needs, and helps them work on a premise that is more long-term in nature.

These key factors determine the success of any branding initiative.

Right channels

The world of communication has undergone a revolution. The number of channels available for communication today are plenty, thereby giving leaders a number of options to channelise their message. However, selecting the right channel of communication is important, since a wrong choice of medium can sabotage the very purpose of communication.

Communication in the context of branding has myriad complexities. Since the agenda of branding is to communicate a positive image about the employer, and also strike the right chord with target audience, it is important that cultural, geographic and demographic considerations are accounted for. Therefore, applying a common template to all global locations can boomerang for organisations that believe in a ‘tried and tested’ strategy. Developing sensitivity to the surrounding environment is, thus, critical for creating an appealing and successful employer brand.

Ref: TheManageMentor.

People Management- A Globally Multicultural Outlook

Diversity recognises existence of differences in a work force with regard to the race, gender, physical ability, lifestyle, tenure, age, religion, geographic origin, education, attitude/behaviour, functional expertise and personality. A study on one of the Fortune 500 companies, a multi cultural organisation, gained immense popularity from its employees on implementing a multicultural policy. The policy ensures that there are no discriminatory issues in an organisation with regard an employee's nationality.

Diversity management is considered a new organisational paradigm. Companies have realised the need to move beyond a human resource model to a model with inherent value in diverse workforce. Globalisation has brought the 'diversity' factor into focus. Employers feel that diversity should be given significant importance since complications on such issues are unwarranted at work place.

Many Indian companies have expatriates occupying senior management positions and find it difficult to deal with the rest of the employees. Management should formulate anti discrimination policies to cater to such problems. To be a global player, it is imperative to have a diversity initiative programme in place.

The Diversity Programme

Dow Chemicals with plants and offices all over US was designated a multicultural organisation. It made substantial progress towards 'inclusion'. It identified certain key areas, which influenced diversity initiatives.

Initiation and support from the top management

Dow Jones, an organisation that has its offices all over the U.S., has an anti discriminatory policy, which focuses on serious commitment towards the diversity initiative. Though it was considered as 'frivolous' for some, the top management's initiative made a lot of difference to employees across the board. Employees started taking the issue more seriously than before.

Another company with a good track record of diversity management is Xerox. The top management's objective was to convince employees that managing diversity was not an obligation but was a business imperative.

Companies looking to tie up or acquire global companies should ensure that a diversity management policy is in place.

HR initiatives

Several inclusionary measures were made sub functions of the human resource department. A committee called

'The Preferred Employer Quality Action Team' comprising of a cross-section of managers at corporate headquarters spearheaded policies. The team identified five categories for improvement: overall compensation, employment security, operating environment/culture, policies and values and personal dimensions. It believed that these areas affected employee satisfaction and were derived from general attributes that the company hoped to achieve.

Organisational communication

Employee involvement in HR policy making was the high point of the diversity initiative the organisation could have come up with. The Equality Council comprising of a cross-section of employees met once a month to discuss issues related to a diverse workforce. Membership rotated every two years.

Suggestions ranging from a diversity booth at the Family Day Picnic to offering discrimination refresher training sessions, preparing guidelines during performance appraisals and creating an anonymous suggestion box titled "Dr. Equality" were conceived by this council.

The council also designed posters, calendars, and coffee mugs to promote the diversity theme. Employees collectively determined policies at work and could express disgruntlement with existing policies through the council. The HR manager moderated the discussion.

The council also helped design yearly employee opinion surveys. Diversity progress at plants within the organisation was highlighted, in an annual corporate diversity conference. The in-house and corporate newsletters encouraged employee involvement and helped to transmit the diversity message.

The organisation had a corporate philosophy governed by diversity policies. The standardisation of policies was in accordance with the desire to create a stronger organisational unity and identity among the employees. These policies created a "sense of linkage" and a feeling of unity by having a common cause.

A true commitment to diversity encompasses a variety of measures over a period of time. Creating a climate of acceptance requires major, systematic, and planned change efforts, which are typically not part of affirmative action plans. Efforts to address managing diversity must be supported by profound changes that are reflected in the day-to-day operation.