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(10) HR FUTURE 02.2010

BrETT MICHINGTON

SHArES WITH

ALAN HOSKING

KEY OUTCOMES

FrOM A YEAr-LONG

EMPLOYEr BrANDING

GLOBAL rESEArCH

PrOJECT.

HOW DO COMPANIESVIEW EMPLOYERBRANDING CURRENTLY?The uptake in employerbranding research, theory

and practice has grown signicantlyover the past ve years including

the past two ollowing the GlobalFinancial Crisis (GFC) where employerbranding became a key priority othe leadership agenda. During timeso economic growth, the ocus oemployer branding was on talentacquisition strategies. However,with the reduction in recruitmentand headcount as a result o theGFC, companies shited their ocusto engagement and retention o thetalent they already had. The economicdownturn has actually been positiveor the eld o employer branding ascompanies are now seeing the benetso applying a holistic approachto employer branding as a talentattraction, engagement and retentionstrategy.

WHAT WERE THE KEY OBJECTIVESOF THE RESEARCH?The key objectives o the researchstudy were to understand therelationships and key linkages betweenthe employer brand, corporate brandand consumer brand, and to developa ramework to guide best practice

in leveraging the brand portolio tooptimise the value o your intangibleassets

As part o the research project, weconducted ace-ace research orumsin South Arica USA, Denmark andAustralia with eight to 15 seniorexecutive leaders rom top companiesrom the regions. We also conductedone-on-one interviews with industryand corporate leaders around theworld.

WHAT DID YOU FIND IS THERELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEEMPLOYER BRAND, CORPORATE

BRAND AND CONSUMER BRAND?The relationship between theemployer brand, corporate brand andconsumer brand has been describedas The Bermuda Triangle! I describeit as a relationship built upon ocus,leadership and infuence.

Firstly, it is important tounderstand your company onlyhas one brand and the corporate,consumer and employer brands are

INTERNATIONAL WATERS GLOBAL MASTErCLASS

PROFILE

Brett Michihington, MBA, is the Chairman/CEO of Employer Brand International and MD

of Collective Learning Australia. He is considered one of the worlds leading authorities

on employer branding and is active in 30 cities across 20 c ountries as part of his global

tour. Brett is the author of Your Employer Brand attract-engage-retain and his new book

Employer Brand Strategy will be published in 2010. Bretts work has been featured

in leading HR, marketing and management publications around the world including the

Economist and Business Week.

subsets which make up the brandportolio. The total portolio needsto be considered in organisationalstrategy as each subset can (andusually does) have an impact on theother. For example, a company whichmanages redundancies poorly andgains negative media attention willlikely see an impact on their consumerbrand as a groundswell builds orconsumers to boycott their productsas a result o the negative publicity.With todays online communicationtools and networks such as Twitterand Facebook, negative publicity canbe circulated globally instantly! Thedamage to your reputation can takeyears to restore.

Most companies have a dierentstrategy or each subset o thebrand. The marketing unction isusually responsible or managing thecorporate and consumer brand and HRis usually responsible or the employerbrand, though this is changing (ourglobal research published in 2009ound that 43% o HR departmentsare responsible or the employer brandvs 70%+ two years previously). TheHR, Marketing and Communicationunctions need to work closely on theemployer brand strategy to ensure theycapitalise and leverage the capabilitieso the sum o the capabilities odierent unctions.

The essence o your corporate andconsumer brands should be refectedin the essence o your employerbrand. The Ritz Carlton brand is aboutquality and service, and this mustbe refected in both the customerand employee experience. I thehotel promises a superior customerexperience and employees do notbuy in to the vision, the companywill likely all short on delivering thecustomer promise.

Leaders need to inspire sta todeliver on the corporate and consumerbrand promise. Sir Richard Branson,ounder o Virgin does this best. It isclear when you interact with a Virgin

brand that the people who workthere are aligned to the companysbrand values. Conceived in 1970,the Virgin Group has gone on togrow very successul businesses insectors ranging rom mobile telephonyto transportation, travel, nancialservices, media, music and tness byempowering employees to deliver ontheir brand values o value or money,quality, innovation, un and a senseo competitive challenge. Bransonstrademark is outlandish publicitystunts. He will do almost anythingto promote the Virgin brand: drive atank down Fith Avenue in New Yorkto introduce Virgin Cola to the UnitedStates, risk his lie in high-prole hot-air balloon adventures or abseil downthe side o a hotel whilst throwing outree airline tickets to watchers below.Whilst you may not see the CEO oGoldman Sachs abseiling down theside o a hotel, Branson gets awaywith it as he is merely bringing to lieits brand values.

The employer brand can infuencethe corporate and consumer brands.Sodexo, a global ood servicesgroup has received enormous mediaexposure over the past couple o yearsas a result o its eective use o socialmedia recruiting. As a result, theSodexo corporate brand has achieveda much higher level o awareness thatwould have been possible through apaid advertising campaign. Sodexoare the worlds best-in-class atsharing stories about the employmentexperience as seen through the eyeso their employees and has engagedand built global communities andrelationships with potential candidatesand raised awareness o their productsand services amongst consumersaround the world.

Customers are oten prospectiveemployees or may be a reerralsource or talent, so there needs to beconsistency in messaging across thebrand portolio. Sometimes a dierentmessage is required or your corporate

brand vs your employer brand. Forexample, a bank many not want toproject to clients that it is a unky, cooand a un place to work. However, itmay wish to project itsel as a riendlyand un place to work to passive andactive candidates, especially i it wantto recruit a diverse workorce andyounger generation.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES FORHR MANAGERS IN ADDING VALUETO THE BRAND PORTFOLIO?The key challenges include:

< The ability or HR managers tobreak down the tradition omarketing being responsibleor managing the corporate andconsumer brands and HR beingresponsible or the employer

brand. I suggest HR initiate theconversations with Marketing/Communications to get started;

< An inability to demonstrate aviable business case which resultsin a lack o resources availableto invest in aligning the brandportolio with corporate objectivesThere may also be a lack oexpertise and infuence in HR/Marketing and Communicationunctions to drive the alignment.This is where executives need tostep in and support the agenda;

< Establishing i the companysleadership has an employerbrand mindset or i they only seeemployees as unctional humancapital in the same way as other

tangible assets such as plant andequipment; and

< Clariying who owns the strategyand how it aligns with thecorporate strategy, objectivesand values. It actually doesntmatter who owns the strategy.The key is to ensure collaboration,communication and commitmentbetween the unctions responsible

or managing the strategy. (HRf)

h

Employerbrandresearchshows keytrends

HR FUTURE 02.2010 (

Brett Minchington, MBA, will be live and in person in Johannesburg to chair the 2010 South African Employer Branding Summit on 23

March 2010. For more information, visit www.collectivelearningaustralia.com.