The Role Of HR In Developing Brand Equity

Transcription

1 The Role Of HR In Developing Brand Equity An Adecco Asia Pacific White Paper Quarter 2, 2016

2 2 BRAND EQUITY is something that every company wants to attain, and usually for the purpose of making itself more attractive to customers and other external audiences. Only fairly recently have organisations begun to realise the potential power of brand equity in attracting talent. This is where HR departments are able to change the game for their companies, if they re willing to move with the times and take forward thinking initiatives. In the past, HR had a very defined and specific role. Find and recruit talent and then manage the administrative matters of that talent. Today, the role is more like a mission statement that reads, Excite, Engage and Evangelise. It s no longer about dealing with simple recruitment, today s HR department and HR professional is able to build equity around the brand by evangelising on how their organisation is one of the best places to work, thus creating a drive among candidates to apply and compete for roles within the company. TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES Creating brand equity for any organisation boils down quite simply to getting people to talk about the company in a positive light. The best people to do that are your current employees themselves. Not only are they collectively the most experienced with the internal workings of the company, but they are also the most believable. Faced with corporate messaging and an employee who has been working at the company for a few years, any outsider will easily take the employee at their word while giving the messaging the pinchof-salt treatment. So how does one tap into this well-spring of information? It all starts with creating a proper level of internal communication between a company and its employees. Doing this will enable businesses to tap into the unique knowledge, insights and the talents of its people and the benefits are far beyond productivity and profit. Companies are able to create a strong community among their employees, which allows workers to feel happy and confident in their roles. By creating an atmosphere of open communication, employees feel empowered in their roles and feel invested in the direction and success of their organisation.

3 3 LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE Unlike in the past, people no longer have lifelong jobs, spending their entire career in one company. In fact, today s employees will change jobs, and possibly career directions, several times in their working lives. However, if the goal is to retain top talent, companies need to start thinking about the employee s futures and how to keep them engaged by helping them grow in their roles and perhaps beyond. The way to do this is by career management. By providing training opportunities that help employees grow, companies can reduce turnover and thus hiring and training costs, and increase productivity. A recent study by global firm Watson Wyatt showed that high-commitment organisations out-performed those with low commitment by a significant 47 percent. Cyril Stahlmann, Director of Human Resources at Razer, believes that the gaming lifestyle giant understands this very well. Every quarter we have a global town hall meeting with our CEO and Co-founder, Tan Min Liang, who updates everyone on what s going on in the company, says Stahlmann. Cyril Stahlmann, Director of Human Resources at Razer At the same time, he opens the floor to questions and answers everything anyone has to ask. The reason we do this is because we want our employees to feel like they are invested in the company, and to keep everything transparent. If the employees feel like they can ask anything and will get an answer, they understand that as a company, Razer cares about what they think. More importantly, it creates greater employee engagement and an engaged employee has a higher likelihood of wanting to help the company succeed. They are also more likely to recommend the company to both future employees and customers and thus building a strong brand equity. Keep in mind that effective career management is not a static, one-time process. It involves a continued focus on the workplace, the local and global labour market, trends within the industry and how individuals can perform at their best according to their skills, interests, values, and lifestyle considerations. ONLINE EXCELLENCE One of the great ways of attracting talent comes in the form of the company website. According to a survey by the Candidate Experience Awards, 64.5 percent of applicants found career sites helpful when researching a company. Unfortunately, it can also be one of the great stumbling blocks if not handled correctly. The key lies in making the site as userfriendly as possible, providing a good idea of the company culture for any candidate viewing the website. Company events should be well documented in video and images and made available on the site. Employee testimonials on what they like about the company are also a strong tool for promoting the company to potential candidates. This is a sound practice that has served Razer well thus far. The end game here is that happy employees talk about how happy they are at work outside of work.

4 4 Another aspect to consider is the mobile generation, or more specifically, how your website looks on their smartphones and tablets. While iphone and Android devices are less than a decade old, what they have done in the way of transforming how digital audiences communicate, stay productive and access information, is nothing short of phenomenal. Unfortunately, in many ways, mobile recruiting experiences are lagging behind. In a recent survey by LinkedIn, it was found that only 20 percent of respondents felt their career sites were mobileoptimised while only 13 percent felt confident enough to call their mobile recruiting strategies adequate. The problem is that for many companies, building a mobile-optimised career portal is a complete mystery. The key to a good mobile career site is to keep it simple and easy. Navigation should require the minimum amount of clicks, taps and swipes and recruiters should be extremely selective in choosing content. In the article Tips for Designing a Mobile Career Site that Candidates will Love, Laura Klein, a user experience consultant who has been building consumer facing technology products since the mid- 90s, states that understanding the intent of the job seeker is key to deciding what your primary call to action should be. You will also know that you should get rid of everything that might distract the candidate from that action, Klein recommends On a similar note, in the same article, Joseph Drambarean, Director of Strategy at MobileUX agency, Punchkick Interactive, explains that mobile is only one part of the candidate experience equation. Another important element in today s BYOD world is ensuring that candidates can easily transition between devices. According to Drambarean, much of the research his firm has done shows that candidates are very open to working on multiple devices and will likely save an in-progress application on the computer and then work on it on a mobile device on the way to the office. Work consumes at least one-third of your life, and half your waking hours. It can and ought to be more than a means to an end. Laszlo Bock, SVP of People Operations at Google Inc. IT S ALL ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE As previously mentioned, people who feel engaged and receive satisfying experiences within their working lives will talk about them to others outside the company. As such, one of the most direct ways that HR can affect brand equity is to create truly unique experiences. This applies to both new candidates and existing staff members. In his book, Work Rules, Laszlo Bock, SVP of People Operations at Google Inc. says, Work consumes at least one-third of your life, and half your waking hours. It can and ought to be more than a means to an end.

5 5 By focusing on elements such as candidate experience, career management and employee engagement, HR can play a vital role in building brand equity, creating an image of a place that candidates will bend over backward to get a job at. Bock believes that one of the ways to keep employees engaged and productive is to give their work meaning. Connect it to an idea or value that transcends the day-today and that also honestly reflects what you are doing, writes Bock. Google organises the world s information and makes it accessible and useful. Everyone who works here touches this mission, no matter how small the job. It draws people to the company and inspires them to stay, take risks, and perform at their highest levels. According the Stahlmann, Razer is also a strong advocate of creating passion for what people do. There are a lot of perks that come with working for Razer, states Stahlmann, but the main reason is that we are all encouraged, on a daily basis, to do great work. Razer is the biggest lifestyle gaming company in the world and it s thanks to every single person in the company and we make sure our employees know that. Stahlmann also believes in giving new candidates a true Razer experience, so that they know what they re in for. We make sure we highlight the perks of working here, such as the free daily lunch, our R&R area which has a pool table, 10 LAN gaming stations and a table-tennis table! Asides from this, Stahlmann s team also arranges for new candidates to meet their prospective supervisors and their future colleagues to ensure a good fit with the team they will be working with. Razer is not alone in their belief in positive candidate experiences. According to a survey from the Candidate Experience Awards, it was found that 23.8 percent of respondents stated that a positive candidate experience with an employer made them more likely to increase their relationships with employers respective brand alliances, product purchases or networking percent were encouraged to continue to maintain a relationship with an employer even after applying for a job. CHANGING THE GAME The rules of HR have changed, albeit subtly over time. Today s HR professionals have the power to change the perception of a company and serve as an essential cog in the machine that runs the business. By focusing on elements such as candidate experience, career management and employee engagement, HR can play a vital role in building brand equity, creating an image of a place that candidates will bend over backward to get a job at.

6 The Adecco Asia Pacific Network: Australia China Hong Kong Japan Malaysia New Zealand Singapore South Korea Taiwan Thailand Vietnam Adecco-APAC.com