Corporate Image Building Assignment

Submitted to Col. Arun Kumar Pandey

Submitted by Garima Chopra C-57 MBA- HR (2010-2012)

Employee Branding

In the competitive world of today, every company seeks to have the best talent around. This is the reason that it has become extremely difficult for the employees to get into any company. But as far as the best talents from the high-profile universities are concerned, companies have to come up with exciting packages so as to ensure that the highly-talented lot can become a part of their functioning. So, as far as the current research is concerned, an employee brand is what attracts the employees towards a company. It is actually an image that the company makes of itself in the minds of many that it is the best place to get employed at. An employee brands ensures a sense of belongingness in the people and this makes the employees play an integral role in the achievement of success. Hence, one can say that an employee brand is the value of a company that exists in the corporate. Hence, one can say that in the present scenario, one of the goals of a company is related to employee branding. Marketers spend signicant amount of money on a variety of tactics to reach and communicate with customers and promote their brands. However, if employees arent aligned with and rallied around that brand, then delivery of that brand promise is broken, leading to suboptimal customer experiences, missed opportunities for true brand differentiation, and customer defection. Organizations often underutilize their employees as a channel to connect and build relationships with customers, leading to fewer endorsements of the brand and the organization to customers and potential future customers. The image projected by employees through their behaviours, attitudes and actions. This image is impacted on by employees 'attitude and engagement towards the employer brand image promoted through the culture of the organization.- ( Minchington 2005) Employee Branding means what an employee projects about himself and the organization culture. He /She should be able to serve as a brand ambassador for his/her Organization. A strong sense of affiliation is seen of the employee towards his/her organization.

An unsatisfied customer tells ten people about his experience while an unsatisfied employee tells a hundred.
-D K Srivastava, VP HR at HCL

Modes Of Discovering Employee Brand

One can develop an employee branding strategy by making a comprehension of the culture followed in the organization, the work experiences of candidates, the drivers of talent, external perspectives of the organization, vision of the organization, the leadership issues and also the management practices. If a company focuses on these areas for discovering its employee branding, it would be able to make a construction of its message platform which would have the characteristics of being the most authenticated, of a compelling nature and also distinguished. This systematic procedure would also be embraced perfectly in the internal organization. Other than this, the external reach of the organization would also better as a result. There are also various ways of carrying the development program of employee branding. These are both quantitative and qualitative research. This can be in the form of focussing on groups, conducting interviews of leaders and also meetings and seminars. One can also gather competitive intelligence in the process. If the company wants to develop itself externally as well, it can check the online reputation of the firm so as to find out the views of the organization about what is said about them on the web through the blogs, or some social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut. Role of the CEO and the Higher Authorities in Employee branding It is extremely important for a company to have its top management converse about the employee brands in the earlier stages of the development of the same. There is an institute called the Employee brand Institute which suggests that it is highly positive for a company's future prospects to get involved with the key stakeholders on this issue. These issues can include the following: * The support of employee branding in development of the business strategy * The culture of the organization and its consistency across the globe * The perception of the organization both internally and externally * The channels of communication for bottom-up and vice versa * The most critical positions of success and the extent to which the company has gone in achieving the same * All the above defined can be with respect to the attraction of the employees towards the organization, the engagement in achieving the organization's goals and finally the removal of policies of absenteeism from the organization and achieve maximum retention of employees (HR faces the challenges of 2002, 2002)

Significance Of Employee Brand

Many researchers have argued that in spite of following all the characteristics of employee branding, companies have generally considered it as a shortcut for getting the best talent available in the surroundings. Many companies also tie up with ad agencies so as to market their employee branding even if they do not practice them in reality. These are some of the activities which fall totally against the much valued significance that employee branding has. It is often said that if one takes good care of his guests, there is all the probability that the guest will become your own and will continue to be loyal with you. This is followed by organizations like Google, Facebook and Marriott. Every organization must understand this fact very clearly that the organization's core values are defined by the extent of being productive and responsive towards the customers. In others words it is a common belief that if a company takes care of the people it affects, these people would certainly take care of the company. The competitive world of today teaches a very simple concept which is that every gain is mutual. Along with the services, it is the employee brand of a company that it would have to deliver to make the best possible returns.

Stages Of Employee Branding

Stage Brand ambassadors

Brand believers

Brand learners

Brand resistors

Knowledge 1. Share knowledge of brand internally and externally. 2.Participate in driving direction of brand 1. Understand brand relevance to specific job. 2. understand customer needs 1. Participate in training. 2. Know brand messages, values and stories 1.lack of understanding of brand 2. misconceptions of brand

Attitude 1.Feel empowered 2. Excited to shape future of brand. 3. Believe in differentiation of brand. 1.believe in brand 2. passionate about brand.

Behaviour 1. Live brand in work and community. 2. Model behaviour for others. 3. Active word-ofmouth marketing. 1. Engage in word of mouth marketing. 2. Try to live the brand but feel constrained. 1. Meet the needs of customer. 2. Live job to the letter of law description. 1. Inconsistent behaviour. 2. Put self interest first.

Happy when things are going well in the organization.

1. Apathy 2.unhappy at job

Best Practices

Five key categories of best practices: Employees who feel valued and appreciated will want to talk about the wonderful place where they work. Create a positive culture for your workers and they will become your most enthusiastic cheerleaders!  Share: Marketers cannot keep the black box closed to the rest of the organization in terms of marketing and brand activities. Instead, marketing executives need to share plans, campaigns, brand insights, and customer information across the organization. For eg: Have exciting company news? Why not give the story to the employees who have blogs before you pitch the traditional media! Theyll feel special scooping the trades, the info will reach a new audience, and you reinforce your staffs investment in the companys success  Involve: To feel a sense of pride about and ownership of the brand promise and customer experience, employees need to feel that their voice is heard and that they play an active role in driving the direction of the overall brand. They work their hardest and care the most when the people in power remember that. Create a culture shift in your company to ensure upper management is accessible, visible, and approachable. People will go above and beyond for a company who considers them part of the team and treats them with respect  Personalize: Senior marketers need to create personal connections between each employee and the brand to ensure that each employee understands what the brand promise means for his or her specific roles and daily activities.  Enable: Senior marketers need to enable the delivery of the brand promise through the creation of guidelines for behaviour, sufficient customer experience training, participation in hiring decisions for customer-facing employees, and empowerment of employees to do what is right for the customer.  Reinforce: To build of and continue the brand-aligned behaviour of employees, marketers need to reinforce behaviour with small and large-scale recognition practices.

Industry Example

We have all heard about the Hilton Hotel and the Le Meridian hotel. These are amongst the best hotels that even middle class tourists can hope to accommodate themselves in. Not everybody has the privilege to afford hotels like Burj Dubai. But when it comes to making profits, the two hotels are not far behind Burj Dubai! A very important reason behind the same is the applicability of Employee branding in the two hotels. Even during seasons when the rates are slashed, the guests are treated in the best possible manner. The two hotels believe in the principle that if a hotel takes care of the guests, the guests will take care of the hotel and also be an integral part of the same by being loyal in the future. This can certainly not happen without the significant contribution of the hotel staff. The staffs of Le Meridian and Hilton Hotels are recruited from amongst some of the best hotel management institutes in the world. The credibility of the staff is so much that they can also be recruited in hotels like Burj Dubai and that too with higher salaries in the beginning. But what keeps them to the mentioned hotels is the amount of care that the top management has for them. Not many employees are given the option to choose amongst their own suitability of duty timings. These hotels are amongst the only exceptions that allow this to happen. There are many occasions that even the higher officials are ready to assist the staff during extra critical situations. This not only gives a sense of confidence amongst the employees but also makes them loyal to the respective hotel in the future. The two hotels are so bothered about their staff that they keep taking their interviews and also be a part of observations so as to see if the leaders behave ethically or not. Much to the surprise of many leaders, the hotels also take action against the leaders who do not turn favourites amongst the staff. Even though it does decrease the power to control, the company sees to it that the results are very close to what actually takes place in the practical sense. Another principle of employee branding that the two hotels follow is to check the distribution channels. A guest is served only after a systematic set of processes followed by the hotels. For example, the receptionist, the escorts, the serving staff, the cleanliness staff and all other departmental staff that the customers encounter. The two hotels ensure that all these staffs are happy with the proceedings of the hotels. The reason for the same is that, if this is not followed and even if one distribution channel fails, the hotels' reputations would be at stake. So, one can see that the employee branding ideology of frequent conversation with the staff for the betterment of the organization is highly followed in Le Meridian Hotel and Hilton Hotel for their best prospects.

Employee Branding Process at South-West Airline

Organization mission & values

Desired brand image Sources of messages: internal (formal n informal) and external

Employee s psyche knowledge of desired brand image

Employee brand image

(Feedback loop )

Outcomes Position of Organization and its Offerings in Customers Minds Turnover Employee Satisfaction Customer Satisfaction Customer Loyalty Favourable Reputation

Vice President of People at Southwest, pointed out that a high level of customer service is a key component of Southwests mission, and the value placed on customer service is virtually unquestioned by the companys employees (Sartein,2000). This customer orientation is reflected clearly in Southwests mission statement, which can be found on their website (Southwest Airlines, 2003).The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit. Interestingly, though, the foundation of Southwests corporate message is not that customers are number one; rather, employees always come first with the company, with customers a respected second. Southwest, in turn, expects its staff to extend customers the same level of warmth, respect, and responsiveness they themselves receive. Southwests employees know they will be expected to deliver outstanding service to everyone with whom they come into contact, and understand what that means in terms of their individual behaviour. They also know they can expect other Southwest teammates to treat them just as well as they treat their customers, as positively outrageous service and the Southwest Spirit apply to interactions between employees too. Southwest does not hire applicants who are not viewed as team players; those uncomfortable with the companys values are encouraged to self-select out of the recruitment process. Southwests training and development efforts are designed to clarify and reinforce the behaviours and values the organization reveres. The training available through the companys University for

People enables employees to identify with the organization, its culture, and its values, in addition to providing the basic knowledge and skills needed for the job. Southwests performance management system is used to align employee behaviours with organizational goals. This reinforces the desired brand image and other organizational messages by relating to employees that while the company cares for them, it expects hard work and high levels of customer service. Southwest sometimes lets employees know how much they are cared for by stepping in and helping individual employees, financially or otherwise, in their times of need. Customer letters, both good and bad, are also widely shared with employees. When bad service events occur and are reported, the employee or employees involved are contacted for their insights into the cause of the problem, and possible solutions to prevent such a recurrence. While complaints are addressed and attempts are made to appease disgruntled customers, these do not Positioning Southwest Airlines through employee branding necessarily come at the expense of the employee. This manner of responding to and passing on customer feedback sends an important message to employees: employees are first, and customers are second.