WHY you need employer branding

By HANMER MSL
Youd normally associate branding with products and services, but employer branding is rapidly becoming a priority for organisations battling with talent shortages and high attrition rates. CEOs today understand that being known as an employer of choice is critical to attract and retain talent the key to achieving business goals and long-term success. This was the key discussion point at a recent event HANMER MSL and the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised in Mumbai.

Executive summary
What makes an employer a brand? An employer brand embodies the core values of the organisation. Prospective employees view companies as well-defined entities embodying the traits theyd like to be identified with. Companies that focus on becoming great places to work at eventually realise that they need to harvest their intellectual capital -- their employees. They need to understand employees hearts and minds to differentiate and grow. Hence, the employer brand is essentially the identity of a firm in the minds of employees, key stakeholders and prospective employees as a great place to work at. In this crisis-prone employment market, companies compete fiercely to attract the best talent. In such a situation, the employer brand plays a more critical role than even the job profile or remuneration . While many companies are only just waking up to this, MSLGROUP has seized the opportunity to start a new global employer branding practice. Christened Brand and Talent, it addresses the growing need for innovative and purposeful ways to attract, inspire and engage talent. All of this was dissected in an interactive format at the symposium themed Employer Brand The Importance of Building a Brand to Attract the Right Talent at the Mumbai Yacht Club on October 20, 2011. It was organised jointly by HANMER MSL and the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFFCI). The panel was moderated by MSLGROUPs Senior Vice-President and Chief Strategy Officer Pascal Beucler and included Bharti Axa General Insurance Managing Director Dr Amarnath Ananthanarayanan, LOreal India Chief Operations Officer Dinesh Dayal and MSLGROUPs Asia Director of Social Media Gaurav Mishra.

Employer value proposition

Talented people lie at the heart of every successful organisation, said IFCCI Secretary-General Laura Prasad, opening the discussion. HANMER MSL CEO Jaideep Shergill put in perspective the growth of employer branding in organisational thought. We believe strongly in the employer value proposition (EVP). Employer branding is a must-do. A lot of organisations dont see that yet, but the MSLGROUP has been doing it globally for years. The Brand and Talent practice communicates with employees through their career cycle from the time they join the company, through their tenure in it and even after they leave. The alumni become a very important part of the campaign. As organisations chase their goals, sales and marketing targets, there is a realisation that they cannot do it without people, Shergill said. Key learnings Businesses need an engagement tool that communicates with employees through their career cycles, even after theyve left the firm. There are 3 aspects to a good EVP programme: empowerment, social responsibility, innovation. Every business needs a welldefined sense of purpose. All employees look for a purpose that drives and motivates them. Ananthanarayanan, of Bharti AXA General Insurance, emphasised the value of building a brand from an employer

perspective and also that most Indian companies have not created an Employer Value Proposition (EVP). There are various facets, he pointed out, to creating an EVP how you train the employees, grow them, give them opportunities within the firm and outside (which is where community service comes in) and how you reward and recognise employees. All this ensures that there is a lot of brand building, even if its through word of mouth. People outside recognise what is happening within the company. This is one way of building EVP. MSLGROUPs Beucler highlighted three key aspects: A good EVP programme is about empowering people; there is an intrinsic connection between social responsibility and EVP, which is very modern but is also a more Indian vision of life, leading many companies to create social responsibility projects; EVP helps institutionalise innovation. Another very important aspect of EVP was highlighted by MSLGROUPs Mishra

when he spoke about the need for every organisation to have a well-defined sense of purpose. All people, including

employees, are looking for a purpose that drives them, motivates them, that makes them proud and want to be associated with. He looked at EVP as having three main elements, purpose being the first. People want to be associated with companies that have a clear sense of it. The second is the companys personality. Companies need a vision of what their ideal talent is since the ideal talent also has a clear perception of the kind of companies they want to associate with. Unless there is a fit between the two visions and personalities, it wont work, Mishra said. The third element is potential, which is very important and stands for everything, from how fast the industry is growing to opportunities for international assignments.

Bharti AXA, though still a young company, is among those that has realised the importance of effective employee engagement through a shared values approach, where the leadership constantly empowers, engages and educates employees to make them ambassadors within and beyond. LOreals Dayal shared what his company endeavours to do, focusing on integrating the companys vision with that of talents. He talked about the mobility that employees can expect and leverage within the company: most of the leadership has lived and worked in at least three countries, before coming to, or returning to, India. Dayal also detailed the various initiatives on women, education and science. Another employee engagement tool could be empowerment. There is a saying in LOreal You can be a general at 28, Dayal said, referring to Napoleon who became a general at that age. When people are given the opportunity to assume responsibilities at a young age, there is a sense of empowerment, leading to veterans who are not even 40 years old. It is the ideal situation for young people who can grow very fast.

Engaging and retaining talent

While part of the problem before CEOs is the importance of sourcing and recruiting the right talent, the more pressing issue is how to retain it. Keeping employees engaged, inspired and connected to the organisation demands commitment and innovation.

Key learnings Finding and recruiting the right talent is tough enough, but retaining it is even tougher. Integrate company vision with that of employees.

Have a purpose
There has been a marked change in the perception of corporate citizens and corporate social responsibility (CSR) over the past decade. A decade ago, being a corporate citizen was all about the environment. This later came to be associated with sustainability, a more holistic vision of corporate citizenship. Today, this concept is all about purpose and people. From this perspective too, people are more important to organisations than ever before. Having a sound strategy and social innovation plan are essential to attracting the talent that will help organisations deliver on focus areas like customer centricity, innovation, talent and a shared policy agenda. The right EVP inspires, organises and energises people; the purpose helps retain them. Key learnings The focus has gone from environment to sustainability to purpose and people. A sound strategy and social innovation plan are essential today. The best people want to do work that contributes to society with a company whose values they share, where their actions count and their views matter. Mishra, the last speaker, quoting Van Der Veer of Shell, said: The successful companies of the future are those that integrate business and employees personal values. The best people want to do work that contributes to society with a company whose values they share, where their actions count and their views

matter. We are increasingly seeing that any company that wants to define its EVP will need to integrate all three elements purpose, personality and potential. He mentioned examples of companies that are doing a great job of converting employees into ambassadors. One such is Dell, a benchmark for a well-defined purpose focused on inspiring, organising and energising employees. Dell recently trained 900 staff in India to engage with consumers on social media and hosted an unconference so that its employees could brainstorm how best they can leverage social media. Another example is footwear firm Zappos, which believes that its not about making shoes, but about delivering happiness. Zappos realised it can deliver happiness to customers only when it delivers happiness to employees if you delight your employees, they will delight customers. So everything Zappos does as radical an idea as a bonus to leave after a month in the company if they dont see a cultural fit is centred around such innovations that define EVP. Finally, another example from India. Mahindra is betting on innovation. Its Mahindra Rise campaign has become an important part of its EVP. What we see is the visible, public part of it, but there is also the invisible internal campaign where it has given stock options called Social Options to employees. Social Options give employees the freedom to support social causes that they believe in and include the help of the organisation in those causes. This is a fantastic example of how a large, manufacturing company reinvented itself around a clear purpose to engage, inspire and energise employees.

The change within

Beucler summarized the days proceedings by drawing on the biggest challenge facing CEOs today: We agree that we are living in an era of change change is the challenge for all CEOs around the world. CEOs agree that everything is about change we need to change business models, the way we lead innovation, customer service and we need to change the way we engage our people, our employees in our companies. On the whole, we see that the challenge for every CEO is to drive the change because if you dont, the change will drive you out. He also highlighted the concept of ecosystems how each company is a fragile ecosystem. People are part of it and have the ability to move, regroup and change all the time. How do you mange this ecosystem? How do you ensure that employees find enough reasons to stay in the company? Employee engagement delivers business results and cultural benefits to the organisation as well as personal and professional benefits for employees. He drew attention to innovation, which is very close to employee engagement. A company that does not have a social innovation strategy is going to face problems.

We are in a decade where people are asking companies to stand for a purpose that can be clearly identified. I would like to quote the example of a leading French business school where 35% of young graduates last year chose to work with nonprofit organisations. They could have made 1,00,000 euros working with large financial organisations but they chose to work with non-profit organisations where they were making only 10,000 euros a year. This is a clear indication that people, especially the younger generation, are looking for meaning, for purpose. Pasal Beucler, Senior Vice-President and Chief Strategy Officer, MSLGROUP

Employer branding positions the company as a great place to work at in the minds of present and prospective employees Employees want to work for companies they feel good about... Laura Prasad, Secretary-General, IFCCI

Employer branding is a must-do. A lot of organisations dont see that yet. Jaideep Shergill, CEO, HANMER MSL

We all know what a big brand Apple is and how people line up to work for it and not the other way around. Most companies in India have not created an Employer Value Proposition (EVP). How do you create values? There are various facets to creating and EVP how you train employees, grow them, give them opportunities inside and outside, which is where the community service comes in. And, lastly, how you reward and recognise employees. If you do all that, there is a lot of brand building even through word of mouth people outside recognise what is happening within the company. Dr. Amarnath Ananthanarayanan, MD, Bharti Axa General Insurance

LOreal was not formed by a businessman or a financial wizard but by a chemist who invented the first harmless hair dye. The passion for developing products, the emphasis on the science behind everything is inherent and attracts a lot of people. This company has more than 700 patents filed and people feel proud about that. Dinesh Dayal, COO, LOreal India

Any company that wants to define its EVP will need to integrate purpose, personality and potential. We also need to recognise that different people assign different weightages to the three elements of the employer value proposition and we need to understand who these people are who are the ones who would look more for the purpose, who would focus on the personality and who would give more weight to potential. The next question would be to understand how to communicate the EVP effectively to these different employee personas do we use owned media channels for communication like spokespersons or newsletters and websites or do we employ word of mouth to convert our employees into ambassadors And how much would we consider paid media like TV advertisements or sponsoring events? Gaurav Mishra, Asia Director of Social Media, MSLGROUP

We go about looking for the talent we want to see working with us the right talent. We want the poet in the peasant. The poet who has the sense of imagination and aesthetics in any function and the peasant who has the sense of pragmatism in everything will do the job. Dinesh Dayal, COO, LOreal India

each company is a really fragile ecosystem. People are part of it and have the ability to move, regroup and change all the time. How do you mange this ecosystem? How do we ensure that your people find enough reasons to stay in your company? I have the highest respect for [Pepsi chief] Indra Nooyi because she had the courage to say that apart from cleaning up the brand Pepsico, one of her main focus areas is to ensure that employees have good reasons to be with the company. Pasal Beucler, Senior Vice-President and Chief Strategy Officer, MSLGROUP

We engage, empower and create a common set of values across the organisation. We also do a lot of stuff on the social responsibility front so that each employee stands for what our company stands for. By this, we are able to create brand ambassadors both inside and outside. Dr. Amarnath Ananthanarayanan, MD, Bharti Axa General Insurance

The event in pictures

For over 20 years, MSLGROUP Asia has counseled global, regional and local clients, helping them to establish, protect and expand their businesses in Asia. The largest PR and social media network in both Greater China and India, MSLGROUP Asia is headquartered in China and includes 30 owned offices and 1250 staff across Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. A satellite network of

staff reaches an additional 125 Indian cities and a strong affiliate network of independent agencies across the region adds another 23 Asian cities to our reach. In the past two years, MSLGROUP Asia has been recognized with more than 35 awards, including MSL Japans 2009 PR Lion in the Travel and Tourism category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and PR Consultancy of the Year for HANMER MSL INDIA, 20:20 MSL India, Eastwei MSL China, and ICL MSL Taiwan from both international and local industry groups.

INDIA

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MSLGROUP India is the nations largest PR and Social Media network. Made up of three agencies, HANMER MSL, 20:20 MSL and 2020Social, MSLGROUP India combined includes 16 offices, 575 staff and an activation network reaching an additional 125 Indian cities.

With a proven track record of servicing multinational and Indian corporations since 1989 and 40 senior counselors with 15 or more years of communications experience each, clients, staff and business partners benefit from the depth and breadth of insight and experience within its teams.

HANMER MSL is one of Indias largest multidiscipline communications firms and a leader in the area of speciality communications services including financial communications, social media, crisis and issues management, corporate reputation, strategic public relations, events and activation and creative services. Through its powerful network of more than 400 staff across

offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune, as well as the reach of the MSLGROUP and Publicis Groupe international network, HANMER MSL works with more than 150 leading Indian brands and multinationals to deliver world-class communications.

www.mslgroup.com www.mslgroupasia.com www.hanmermsl.com

Contact jaideep.shergill@mslgroup.com prashanti.mikayla@hanmermsl.com