The publics perception of brands, both good and bad, is of course closely linked to their personal experiences of those who represent the company. So the aim of employer branding (a term first coined by Simon Barrow of People in Business in the early 1990s) is for companies to improve their appeal as employers to existing and potential staff, and to ensure that workers live the brand values that the company promotes externally. They become, in effect, an integral part of selling goods and services.
Numerous studies show the link between loyal employees, satisfied customers and profitability. Motivated employees add value in all kinds of ways, including boosting productivity, accelerating product and service innovation and enhancing corporate reputation by acting as brand ambassadors. Employees behaviour and performance is a more sustainable point of competitive advantage than any of the classic marketing tools, including price, promotion, product and place, all of which can all be copied, claims Jason Frank, head of marketing and research at web, design and brand consultancy SAS. B&Q even dares to put a figure on the difference behaviour and performance make. It estimates that engaged employees add up to 70 million sales every year.
Early findings from research conducted by Brandsmiths has found that consumer power has now spread to workers they know they are in demand. Internal branding is also seen as increasingly vital in oganisations where hierarchical structures are becoming flatter. More junior staff are making decisions, so it is crucial that all employees understand the brand inside out.
In some companies, the internal brand and external brand are indistinguishable. First Direct wins a third of new customers through word-of-mouth referrals. Our people are our brand, says head of brand communications Matthew Higgins. Though we pioneered direct banking when we launched in 1989, it was only when we started dealing with customers that our internal culture developed.
Marketing and communications works very closely with HR in developing the employer brand. Whats more, adds Higgins, before we launch any new ad or marketing material we test it out on our staff first as they are the ones who need to buy into it if they are going to talk to customers about it. Staff are the best gauge of what your brand is all about.
But in larger companies, such as Allied-Domecq and Unilever, employer branding is used less to promote individual products and more to build a sense of togetherness among geographically disparate employees. For Allied-Domecq this change in emphasis came last November when chief executive Philip Bowman stood up in front of 120 senior global managers and announced that the key to driving strategic growth and shareholder value would be a new focus on brands, people and the companys ability to implement strategy more effectively than the competition. To that end, he said, Allied-Domecq had identified its people brand as one of its nine core brands, and would nurture it with the same care and attention it lavished on its prized drinks products.
Allied-Domecq has gone further and used its new internal brand, Real Player, to drive a cultural change in the business to help it achieve its strategic objective of being a real player in the drinks market. Working alongside HR consultancy Cognosis, Allied-Domecqs aim was to create a clear expression of the companys strategy for people and to define the role of the HR function. This meant identifying priorities for the HR team and linking the functions activities to business priorities by ensuring the commitment of employees to delivering the business vision. We wanted our people strategy to support our business processes, says HR director Tom Brown.
The company also took a top-down, bottom-up approach to developing and embedding its people brand. It was sponsored by the chief executive and driven by a joint HR and marketing team headed by Brown and chief marketing officer Kim Manley. Employees themselves helped define the people brand values which helped secure their commitment from the start.
Manley, who sits on the board, acts as the champion for the people brand as well as the companys consumer brands, but the people brand now has its own manager too, who will act as brand guardian around the world. The success of the brand will be assessed through employee opinion surveys.
The initiative has also had an unexpected benefit for HR. It has driven the function into the commercial heart of the business. This is seen as a commercial initiative, led by HR and supported and endorsed by marketing, says Brown. Using marketing techniques to develop the people brand has forced us to use the kind of business language that hasnt previously been part of our lexicon like measurement and return on investment.
Its an experience shared by City & Guilds. The UK vocational qualifications awarding body relaunched its brand last November to communicate to its various stakeholder groups round the world the extent, value and relevance of its work in todays increasingly competitive environment. But before the external launch the organisation spent almost 18 months developing its internal brand. We knew that we could only sell ourselves to our external audiences if our whole organisation embraced the value of what we do and made the brand a natural part of the way everyone thinks, feels and acts, says head of group marketing Jo Causon.
The initiative was driven by marketing, but the relationship with HR was critical, says Causon. The brand team was made up of representatives from both areas and it was the integration of our respective skills that allowed us to achieve what we have done. Marketing had the external focus, while HR ensured that people could deliver.
The co-operation between HR and marketing has been to the benefit of the organisation also, says learning and development manager Graham Watson. This is the first time HR and marketing have worked together closely, to our mutual benefit and that of the organisation as a whole. We have learned a lot about how to identify problems and it has given HR a great opportunity to connect with the business.
Understanding that change had to come from within, an eight-strong brand team appointed 45 brand champions from different levels across the business. They were enthusiastic, energetic, persuasive and not afraid to challenge, says Causon, and they really got people thinking about how to apply the brand values of innovation, integrity, engagement and excellence in their own business areas.
But implementing an employer brand isnt all plain sailing. One of the biggest and most fundamental hurdles is to get marketing and HR to overcome their mutual suspicion and learn to work together. Traditionally marketing has been guardian of the brand, so they get very protective of their role when HR starts to show an interest, explains Susanna Mitterer, head of consulting at people development company TMI. Equally, for years marketing cared not a jot what recruitment ads said, but now employer branding has become sexy they are trying to muscle in on it. Marketing, like so many employers, has jumped on the brandwagon. The resulting tension is the reason so many organisations never get beyond first base, adds Mitterer. That tension is only resolved by high-level co-operation between a marketing director with foresight and/or a forceful HR director who can also evangelise the benefits to their respective teams.
Its a tension that Causon was very conscious of before City & Guilds embarked on its rebranding. There was discomfort on both sides about where their responsibilities started and finished, she says. But our approach wasnt at all compartmentalised, but totally integrated.
As the initiative progresses you also have to try to win over the inevitable cynics by continually reinforcing the message and demonstrating success, which is why several companies are appointing managers to focus exclusively on the employer brand. But while these people may be marketers, HR needs to continue working in close partnership with them, because the employer brand wont succeed unless the organisation lives up to its promises. This has significant implications for leadership styles, performance management, development, reward and recognition and for HRs role at the commercial heart of the business.
