Employer Branding Blog | Heywood Innovation

Our new blog

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:36:00 +0000

Hello blog readers

After three years of writing for Heywood Innovation's four blogs – branding, employer branding, M&A branding and annual report - I have decided to combine them all into one 'visual' blog that celebrates a new affiliation with our good friends the Taylor & Taylor creative team in Melbourne, and the sensational strategic and creative work that is driving our growth into 2011. The blog features work our teams are producing in the Sydney, Melbourne, London and Birmingham markets. Our new blog can be accessed here.

Best regards

Tony Heywood

Accountability rules OK?

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:52:00 +0000

So you've applied your strategic and creative genius to launch new employer branding activities, but then the CEO asks you to report on the ROI! How do you do this? How do you go about measuring ROI? It's not easy to measure. You can for example engage a talented copy writer to improve your job ads and measure the number of responses, but this has little to do with building a strong and sustainable employer brand. Most metrics are likely to be linked to tactics or one-off campaign activities, not real employer branding. So what is involved? Here are a few pointers to start you on your journey...

Employee engagement
A good measure of ROI are the levels of employee engagement before and after the employer branding activities kicked in. By surveying the workforce before and after the activities you will be able to identify how effective they were, which ones hit the mark and which ones didn't, and refine them accordingly.

Length of service/retention
This cannot be calculated in the short term. If length of service figures are increasing then it's fair to say that the new EB activities may be driving higher levels of engagement and that employees have a new found higher regard for their employer and the employment experience.

Customer service
Are customer surveys highlighting new levels of satisfaction with the sales experience, the purchasing experience, the order processing experience, the delivery experience and the after sales experience? Were they greeted with a new found smile and a thank you? Are sales figures increasing?

Ideas and recommendations from employees
Are employees suddenly forthcoming with new ideas on how they can do their job better, save on production times, increase team performance and satisfaction, or ways to enhance the customer experience?

Cost per hire
Are you receiving more speculative applications from job seekers? Is this allowing you to reduce your reliance on advertising and external recruiters?

Job applications
Are applicants better empowered with information and an understanding of the job for which they are applying and the career opportunity? Is it because you now have a more compelling and informative Careers section on your website or are other improvements responsible? Are more job seekers visiting the website and, if so, are they the right ones? Are your job ads better written, more informative and more inspiring?

Higher productivity
Are production figures rising without additional resources? Do employees in the production area seem happier with their work and are they putting in a bigger effort?

Referral rates
Are you receiving more 'better fit' job applications from people who have been referred by your employees?

Internal engagement
Are present employees more engaged with their work, their colleagues and with managers? Do they have a smile on their face? Has their behaviour shifted to one where collaboration is the norm?

Living the brand
How well is the organisation's brand being emotionally received and lived by employees? Are they willing to defend and promote it to customers, colleagues, friends and new job applicants? Do they do this 'from the heart'? Are they ambassadors for the brand, who instill a positive perception in the minds of customers?

Moving forward
Are employees keen to engage with personal development programmes, training programmes and do so willingly? Do they perceive the benefits flow through on personal, work, career and organisational levels?

Offer:accept ratio
Has this improved? If you previously had a 4:1 offer:accept rate, but now have a 3:1 rate, then you can reasonably say the EB activities are taking effect.

Recruitment campaign effectiveness
Are more people responding to your recruitment campaigns? Are they perceiving a more compelling offer? Does the campaign look more attractive and have stronger messages? Is it achieving more 'cut-through'?

Employer of choice
Have employees since achieved greater clarity on what the organisation is, what it does, what it stands for... and how the employment experience it provides can benefit their career, job satisfaction and lifestyle requirements?

So do you think after your investigations you'll be armed with sufficient data and feedback to look your boss in the eyes and tell him/her with great conviction that the organisation's investment in building a strong employer brand has paid off? I hope so.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney and London with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, Singapore and Mumbai.

It happens so frequently

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:35:00 +0000

If your employees are not living the organisation’s brand values internally then it’s going to be next to impossible to build the brand externally.

It’s surprising how much money and effort organisations put into building and promoting external brands when things just aren’t right on the inside. When culture is fragmented across different areas of the business. When employees just don’t have a clear view of the road ahead or who’s driving the organisation. When employee disengagement starts to spread because the organisation forgot how to challenge or reward them. When recruitment campaigns fail to get a result. When sales volumes start to dip because enthusiasm and belief for the organisation’s products and services just aren’t there any more. When change moves employees out of their traditional comfort zones and brings on stress and discomfort. When efforts to communicate with employees fall on deaf ears.

Organisations are switched on these days to identifying the warning signs but tend to experience significant difficulty when it comes to finding solutions.

Most branding consultants are inexperienced when it comes to thinking strategically and creatively to identify employee-related issues and finding ways to prescribe solutions – ones which, in many cases, significantly affect the future wellbeing of the organisation. Consulting firms tend to focus on business processes and the bottom line. Employer branding consultants like Heywood Innovation however, focus on employee-related issues and opportunities and how the organisation is perceived as a competent and attractive employer from both the inside and the outside.

Which one did you go for?

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney and London with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, Singapore and Mumbai.

There’s nothing like a disengaged Australian workforce to cause post traumatic stress

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:16:00 +0000

Employees come in all shapes and sizes but mainly fall into three categories when it comes to their levels of engagement with their employer and their job.

You have the engaged ones who are just what an employer needs – co-operative, committed, loyal and hopefully don’t ask for too high a salary. They’re just a delight to have around – they tend to be innovative, and confident enough to make decisions on their own, are creative and just love their boss. Their fellow workers tend to be stimulated by their enthusiasm which leads to higher productivity. They have a profound connection to their employer and understand the value of the company brand and all it stands for. They value the experience they are gaining from being employed.

Then you have the somewhat disengaged ones who are only in it for the money and are biding their time until a better opportunity comes their way. Often semi-comatose, they do what they’re told but not much more. They don’t smile or laugh much and tend to go home on the dot. They put in minimal effort, keep quiet most of the time, even with their fellow employees, and don’t go out of their way to do a better job. They can have a chip on their shoulder, believing they are in the wrong job or in the wrong industry.

Then at the bottom of the pile are the actively disengaged employees. These are the ones you wish weren’t your employees. They represent the ‘cancer spreading through the organisation’ or the ‘one bad apple’. They tend to display a negative attitude to most things, cause internal rifts and disrupt harmony. These employees undermine what their engaged co-workers accomplish. They are keen to complain and criticise and take delight when others follow suit. Fellow employees tend to go out of their way to avoid them.

A typical breakdown of a workforce would comprise:

25 - 30% engaged employees
55 - 60% somewhat disengaged employees
15% or less actively disengaged employees

Even though it has been calculated that most organisations only experience ‘active disengagement’ in around 15% or less of their workforces, the effects can be very disproportionate and go beyond workforce disruption right to the bottom line.

Gallup’s five year study of employee beliefs and actions determined that disengaged employees were costing US businesses US$300 billion annually in lower productivity and performance.

The Gallup Management Journal’s semi-annual Employee Engagement Index reports that 29% of US employees are ‘actively engaged’, 54% ‘not engaged’, while 17% ‘are ‘actively disengaged’.

Actively disengaged employees are often the most difficult problems to fix or eliminate. They rarely want to change and tend to sabotage management’s efforts to confront the situation. This is where the superstar from HR comes to the rescue. Sometimes, however, they go willingly, feeling relieved that ‘finally it’s all over’ and they have been released.

There is no getting away from the fact that workplace relationships are personal. Employees need to relate well with others to foster an harmonious working environment. Any disruption to the dynamics that support these relationships will have far-reaching consequences. Disengagement must be identified quickly before it has time to take hold and multiply. When was the last time you engaged an employee engagement survey?

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

What is flexible working, what’s in it for the employer and who’s doing it?

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 05:23:00 +0000

Organisations must adapt to economic and cultural change by embracing more flexible working practices or risk losing the new war for talent. Fifty percent of employers surveyed who had flexible practices in place admitted these were borne out of the GFC where flexibility in terms of shortened working week and other necessary trade-offs with employees were implemented as a survival strategy to retain employees whilst necessarily reducing their salary levels.

Our recent survey of business leaders in Australia and New Zealand, conducted with The Rubicor Group also sought to uncover the current extent of flexible working practices already in place across the business communities of both Australia and New Zealand. We were interested in understanding the perceived benefits and challenges that flexibility brings into the workplace and whether flexible arrangements are now an integral part of the employee value proposition employers are presenting to the external candidate market as well as their internal employee audience.

Does successful flexible working really mean boosted productivity and improved staff morale, as many claim?

The findings below reveal a powerful argument in support of this.
The findings below seem to support this notion.
The sentiment observed in our survey responses seems to say so.

Only 2% of the surveyed audience felt that there were no positive business benefits gained from introducing flexible work practices
86% of the businesses surveyed now provide some form of flexible working initiatives
84% felt flexibility would create higher levels of retention
75% of respondents agreed that flexible work practices would have a positive benefit in attracting quality staff
74% also felt employee morale would increase
70% of all respondents believed that employee engagement would improve
64% felt they would reduce absenteeism in the workplace

It seems then that flexible working can deliver significant benefits for both employer and employee. There appears however to be little awareness of how to fully harness this via the EVP and employer brand, with 57% of respondents admitting that these benefits were NOT regularly discussed with applying candidates.

We know that work-life balance is increasingly on the radar for employees and candidates. We also know work-life balance is a key driver of job satisfaction for generations X and Y, and increasingly the Boomers. We can then suggest with confidence that flexibility and work-life balance then are an integral part of the EVP and as such represent a significant element of any employer brand. It is not without reason that the adoption of flexible practices is widely supported by HR practitioners.

Work-life balance keeps individuals healthy, stimulated in all areas of their life, and more likely to stay and contribute productively to their employer’s vision.

It is getting harder for employers to ignore that there are more flexible working models and more technology to support them than ever before. Employers must mind-shift away from needing to see an employee in a seat to fostering a ‘results-oriented’ environment.

The key words here are ‘trust’ and ‘empowerment’. If you don’t trust your employees and are not a manager who works hard to empower employees, then you will struggle to make such a scenario work and will likely be left behind. We are witnessing more remote and flexible working than ever before. Business sectors that have fiercely resisted the model, such as the legal sector are finally succumbing to employee pressure in order to retain and attract in a very competitive field – they are not alone.

Many office policies relating to Flexibility are not formalised (statistic) which could represent a ticking-time-bomb for employers. Employers beware – when rules and favours are not applied with equity across a workforce – if this occurs then previously settled employees may well become disengaged or even move on.

Healthy Internal Communications

Over 43% of managers surveyed said their teams were unaware or only partly aware of the current flexible benefits available to them

There is a clear communications gap here between having the benefits available and making employees aware of them, even when these benefits have been specifically designed to keep them in the business! – this communication gap is hurting many employers who do not have a robust EVP, have poor internal communications and no effective employer brand to recruit to.

The most desired flexible practices suggested by survey participants included: Childcare support, Sabbatical, Job share/Flexi-time and Technology support.

The strongest perceived or expected problems/difficulties outlined by survey participants included: Supply and support resourcing, No trust from leaders and managers, Potential fragmentation of teams and Expense.

Sample response (see below)

To access the Flexible Workplace Survey – March 2010 report document click here.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

Are disengaged employees holding you back?

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 05:23:00 +0000

The GFC and its resulting job losses have, on one hand released an array of available talent to the market, and on the other hand have fostered many cases of disengagement within the workplace. Shaken by the dismissal of their colleagues, disillusioned by their own frozen-careers or exhausted through delivering ‘more for less’, many employees are fed up with worry and sleepless nights - many blame their leaders and expect them to ‘put it right’.

Disengaged employees are not good for business. Consider some of the ways they can negatively impact your organisation’s bottom line:

a lack of focus – not delivering close to 100% effort
distracted – product and service deficiencies result
bad influence – a negative effect on co-workers
undermine – leader’s vision and authority
leave – or cause others to leave
inappropriate uses of company time – job seeking, time wasting, clock-watching
lack of focus – company initiatives don’t gain traction
increased absenteeism
employee morale falls across the organisation
employee productivity falls
no creative or innovative input
no real drive or incentive to go the extra mile

What causes employee disengagement?

burnout due to long working hours and lack of recognition in return
inadequate training, career mentoring, feedback and support
broken promises
lack of empowerment
favouritism/inconsistency
ineffective leadership
inflexibility
an inappropriate environment
a brand with which no one wishes to be associated
mis-trust and or micro-management
career opportunities absent or minimal
individual contributions not acknowledged
poor team spirit
poor internal communication particularly during the GFC when redundancies, changes in work patterns and budget cutbacks were occurring
Inability to compete with remuneration levels offered by alternative employers (talent competition)

Actively disengaged employees can cost employers thousands, if not millions of dollars. Gallup estimates that the decreased productivity and performance fostered by actively disengaged employees’ costs U.S. businesses around $300 BILLION annually!

Ignore disengaged and actively disengaged employees at your peril!

Employers should make every attempt to find out who’s motivated and who’s not, who’s engaged and behind the leader’s vision and who’s going through the motions. Who’s there for the long-term and what keeps them bound to the company. Who’s contributing, who’s a passenger and who’s a company assassin?

Discover what people most ‘like’ about working for your organisation, what they actively ‘dislike’ and what you need to do to engage, motivate and retain them.

Online employee survey – why you need one now…

Looking at the employee profiles below – doesn’t it make sense to understand the prevailing employee sentiment and levels of engagement within your organisation?

HI offers:

Free Employer Branding presentation (EmployerBrandGuidanceSystem 2010)
Free Brand clinic – find out how your brand is performing

Our all-staff surveys probe general levels of engagement and employee perceptions of the value proposition across 12 key areas which comprise the employee experience.

Our surveys will:

Identify strengths and weaknesses within your existing employment framework
Indicate ways in which improvements might be made
Solicit anonymous quantitative input from employees
Allow comparison/alignment between employee groups
Provide insight into the levels of sentiment within the workforce

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

Vale recruitment advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:41:00 +0000

Australian recruiters and employer branding companies like Heywood Innovation were shocked at the news this week that national recruitment advertising firm TMP Worldwide has collapsed into administration with the closure of five offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, despite winning four gongs at Fairfax’s Employment Marketing Awards only a few months ago.

This presents sobering insight to the state of the recruitment sector throughout 2009. Despite a seemingly dramatic pick up for many recruiting firms in the opening months of 2010, the strain of prolonged low advertising activity throughout 2009 proved too much. Previously Monster Inc before its purchase in 2006 and subsequent renaming, TMP Worldwide was a major supplier of recruitment advertising services to governments around Australia.

Most of us will appreciate that if there are only a few job vacancies available there isn’t much call for recruitment advertising. It makes sense.

What doesn’t make sense is that here in Australia our experience has been that the downturn also caused companies to clamp down on their employer branding activities. This in my estimation has contributed significantly to the rapid turnaround in recruitment activities in these last few months. Employee engagement has fallen off the radar for more than 12 months. Consequently the ‘itchy feet’ syndrome is affecting many employees, causing their employers to start feeling the pain of departing talent. This ‘knock on’ effect with employers is predicted to become one of the key contributors to the SWD ‘Second Wave Downturn’ the doomsayers are preaching will hit us at the end of the year and continue into 2011. We sincerely hope not.

More sobering is the realisation that the future prospects for print media are, like the Australian drought, looking pretty dry. “I’ll have $10 for online media to win, and a cold beer mate”.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

Talented females shunned

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 02:22:00 +0000

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has been saying some profound stuff on the subject of talented females failing to break into senior management roles or onto company boards.

Its recently released Corporate Gender Gap report was the result of surveying 600 human resources professionals across 16 industries in 20 countries.

The US has the highest percentage of female employees at 52% followed closely by Spain then Canada, while India is dragging its heels at only 23%. Shame on you India. This suggests that not many organisations are fully committed to gender equality. The average number of women achieving CEO level across the 600 companies was less than 5%.

Legislation in Norway now ensures 40% of a public company board is female. A major step forward. How many other countries would be game to follow suit? Would male-dominated boards and senior management have something to say on the subject I wonder?

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

20 key problems that manifest with a disengaged workforce

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:18:00 +0000

We meet with many HR professionals at our workshops and in our ‘front line’ activities helping organisations deal with employer branding-related challenges – particularly those that are a direct result of disengaged employees. The challenges faced by these HR professionals are so prevalent that we thought it would be useful to record them. Here they are – challenges from organisations both large and small:

Employee morale falls across the organisation
Employee productivity falls
Employee turnover increases
Increased absenteeism
Poor attitude results in dissatisfied customers
Product defect rate increases
Lack of focus on business objectives
Lack of direction – becomes hard to move forward as a team
Work in silos – become individual and defensive
Change initiatives don’t gain traction
High levels of workplace stress, affects relationships and quality of work
Infighting and point scoring
Poor brand representation
Job seeking and inappropriate use of organisation’s time
Leaders viewed with apathy and skeptism
Ghost interviews
Cliques form – long termers v newbies
Diminishing loyalty to the organisation
Employees not reliable
Negative world of mouth and malicious gossip – inside and out

Any of these problems can have a detrimental effect on your organisation’s bottom line and should be identified quickly before they have a chance to take hold.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

How attractive an employer will you be in 2010?

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:47:00 +0000

Whether you are fishing for talent, positioning yourself to engage an elusive individual, or aiming to retain and nurture the best of your catch, employer brand is the bait, which will tempt potential employees and arouse and retain their interest.

Your employer brand represents your position in the market – the perception of your employment experience in the minds of employees and candidates – it communicates the fullness (or lack thereof) of your offer – what makes you unique and compelling as an employer and why.

It is a hugely undervalued business tool with impact far beyond the placing of a few recruitment adverts, with a reach all the way to your organisation’s bottom line. It removes the risks of poorly performing job ads and lofty recruitment campaigns by focussing your messaging and visualisation around the strongest components of your Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

Employer branding is not about visualising the optimum aspired messaging to get candidates to knock on your door. It is a considered end-to-end process that looks within – it delves into the hearts and minds of the people inside your company (and occasionally outside). It identifies the very reality of your employment experience and markets the most positive, compelling or unique aspects of this experience. It also provides the possibility for very real improvements and alignment of the employment experience with the promises made and the aspired value proposition.

Careful consideration of your EVP will tell you where improvements must be made to more fully engage your employees, or be ultra-competitive on attraction. It will highlight where you are not competitive and cannot hope to win the minds of candidates, and where you are leading the field and need to shout louder.

Changing times can be unsettling for employees. They can quickly lose faith in their employer’s strengths and vision for the future – particularly if communications are scarce and fail to resonate with them.

It is only a matter of time before talent and skill shortages re-ignite the ‘war for talent’ and employers’ priorities once again become focussed on attraction and retention in a candidate tight market place. With many skill sets projected to be once again in high-demand the way for employers to combat this is two fold:

Assess your EVP - is it competitive, is it still relevant and engaging post-downturn and will it hold onto and motivate your people in recovery times when they expect to see some reward and payback?
Develop a standout employer brand to communicate and differentiate the offer.

Sourcing in 2010 is projected to become increasingly competitive and fraught with complications such as:

Candidate and skill shortages destined to return
A significant exodus of employees who have been ‘sitting tight’ during the downturn
Increasingly disengaged employees undermining the leader’s vision, fragmenting company culture and detracting from operational efficiency
Short tenures - with 70% of employees looking to change jobs within two years (good news for recruitment firms)
A growing trend towards demands for flexible work practices
Ageing workforce and problems associated with mixed demographics, desires and perceptions

Australia presently leads the way in employer branding investment, suggesting that many employers are already aware and on board with the advantages to be derived. Candidate perceptions can be influenced with well crafted messages and images. When they find out however that the promises made in the job adverts were merely ‘ink on paper’, all faith in the integrity of the employer disappears and the search for an honest employer with a ‘real’ opportunity begins anew. For those organisations willing to embrace best practice and change - maximising the EVP and employer brand will bring huge rewards well in excess of the dollar investment made.

Having a well-conceived employer brand will enable you to:

Inspire and engage with your employees – improving morale and increasing retention
Develop and communicate your Employee Value Proposition
Cascade the leader’s vision and the organisation’s values
Increase referrals and ‘word of mouth’ promotion – underpins successful marketing and advertising activity
Achieve competitive positioning in the minds of target audiences and candidates
Deliver measurable returns on marketing and sourcing $ invested
Facilitate planned workforce and organisational development
Attract and retain ‘right-fit’ talent, improving business efficiency and reducing staff turnover
Increase referrals and pro-active candidate applications – less reliance on advertising
Be positioned as a preferred employment destination – employer of choice status
Communicate more effectively
Achieve competitive positioning in the minds of candidates
Fill ‘hard to fit’ positions – attract specific skill-sets
Align your present employer brand with your aspired one
Create high visibility campaigns that engage with candidates and employees

Benefits of a highly engaged and retained workforce:

Better customer engagement and satisfaction
Improved morale and heightened loyalty – employees ‘living the brand’ and ‘sharing the vision’
Facilitates growth and promotion from within – investment in personal development and training provides a $ return
Leader’s vision is understood and embraced
Advances skills and knowledge transfer – promotes knowledge sharing within the company
Retains skills, experience and IP
Collaborative work environment – improved morale, inspiration, passion
Generates brand ambassadors – encourages positive word of mouth promotion
Aligned on behaviours and common sense of purpose – unified identity as an employer
Reduced employee turnover provides significant cost savings
Improved efficiency and profitability

Now is the time to oil the employer branding wheels and leave your competitors in the slow lane.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

What is worse for your business – an empty chair or a chair with the wrong person sitting in it?

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:28:00 +0000

What will the employment marketplace look like in the first half of 2010? As business confidence improves it looks like it will favour the workers. In other words there will be more positions than qualified candidates, with the result that employers will struggle to create and retain the teams they crave for. Often out of desperation it is all too easy to install the wrong person with catastrophic results.

Candidates, especially professionals, increasingly pose a new question of their potential employers … What’s In It For Me?

So what do candidates want? – increasingly, financial return is not the leading priority. You need to offer much more than this.

“I want advancement, mentoring and inspirational leadership”.
“I want interesting work, flexibility and a respectful and relaxed atmosphere”.
“I prefer to work in a results-driven environment”.
“I need to work in an organisation whose morals and ethics match mine”.
“I want variety and challenges”.
“I need to know that my efforts are valued and stand for something”.
“Where will I be in 1, 3, 5 years … will I stay that long?”

Candidates insist on the truth. An employer’s eloquent and persuasive description of their company and employment opportunity must match the experience of the candidate when they start work. An employment experience is viewed as a transaction – productivity and knowledge traded for a promise.

If the position does not live up to their expectations from day one, if promises are not kept, should anticipated objectives not be achieved, then the deal is off. There is little remorse or loyalty, because other options are coming available. In short, employers are in danger of wasting a lot of time and money in the process of recruiting, hiring and training good people, only to see them walk out the door.

If the keystone to any successful business or enterprise is its people and their combined input, productivity and knowledge, then few things can be more destructive than ‘poor fit’ employees – individuals whose core values, visions, standards and objectives (either personal or professional) do not match those of the business and its leaders.

What has this to do with branding?

What is worse for your business – an empty chair or a chair with the wrong person sitting in it? Creating an effective employer brand, marketing it and believing in it can help minimise or remove both from your list of worries.

A canny employer has to think beyond the traditional job advertisement which details a salary, hours and job description or even relying on a recruitment consultant to solve your problems.

A well considered and executed employer brand will attract the right type of candidate rather than a volume response. It will help market and promote your organisation and add value to your marketing and promotional spend and activity.

Tell the truth. Work out what is truly positive and unique about your employment offer. What do you offer other than a salary and a desk? When they get home, how do you think your employees feel and talk about their day at work? How do they express your brand to family, colleagues and friends?

For many organisations employment branding is a brave step. It requires of them to look within, analyse the truth of who and what they are, listen to the positives and negatives and build a promise around the deliverables. Don’t however promise the earth if you can’t deliver it. People will leave – it will cost you time and money and your business will suffer.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

Building your employer brand out of your EVP

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:38:00 +0000

Put simply, the EVP is the reason people choose to join your organisation and more importantly the reason why they stay.

A compelling EVP is a priority for any organisation looking to attract, engage and retain the cream of talent in their market. Employers known for having an industry beating EVP will become the destination of choice for high performers as we enter the recovering markets in 2010. The employer brand needs to encapsulate and communicate the very essence of the EVP. An employer’s EVP encompasses both functional components (reward and remuneration, hours of work, the physical environment) and emotional ones (“how will I feel about myself working there?”, “how will I be treated?”, “how will the culture manifest?”). Both need to be understood to truly define an organisation’s EVP.

To achieve this clear understanding, our team at Heywood Innovation engages with clients to determine their real EVP and identify areas where they may not be competitive. We achieve this by immersing them in our unique EVP process which divides the reward experience into twelve carefully defined components. When combined, these form the basis of a compelling employment experience for their employees.

Each component is thoroughly probed by a representative selection of employees. We utilise several analysis tools: teleconferencing, online survey, workshops and one-on-one interviews to suit the location and make-up of the participants.

It is this good, bad and ugly, ‘warts and all’, across-the-board insight which allows us to venture deeper. We are able to give the employer a clear view of how employees and candidates perceive their organisation and the employment experience. This provides a platform to create a compelling and effective employer brand, and confidence that all brand promises will be met. This is step one on the road to reduced attrition and positive engagement.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

What you don’t know will hurt you the most

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:39:00 +0000

Over two thirds of companies survey their employees to measure engagement and identify key employee concerns or issues which may exist. A relevant and well designed survey will not only provide an employer with invaluable insight and a platform for developing HR plans but will illustrate that employee input and concerns are important – this in turn fosters loyalty and engagement.

Keeping your employees engaged in an economic downturn is critical – engaged employees perform better, are more loyal and contribute more to the organisation’s bottom line. In such times you need to work harder to motivate and retain your best people. The best talent remains mobile in spite of economic uncertainty – losing key performers, experience and intellectual property at this time can be very costly.

Getting answers to the following questions is vitally important right now and will largely determine your organisation’s ability to make real headway in 2010.

Do you know how engaged your people are?
Do you know who’s generating the most revenue?
Do you know who’s thinking about leaving?
Do you know who’s looking after your customers properly?
Do you know who’s taking best care of delivery and customer service?
Do you know who’s building your brand, and who’s devaluing it?
Do you know who’s loyal and engaged?
Do you know your longest serving employees and why?
Do you really understand the current mood within the organisation?
Do you really know your people well and how they perceive you and the organisation for whom they work?

During challenging times it is critical that any new employer branding initiative or change of direction can be justified in terms of ROI. Gaining insight from employees, new hires and leavers clarifies what people really like about working for your organisation. This baseline information will indicate the current state of engagement and appropriate courses of action for employers wishing to optimise productivity.

The online survey is a cost-effective and easy way to gain real insight and data from which to generate a bullet proof activity plan.

“But we only just surveyed our employees 12 months ago” you say. Employee surveys conducted more than 12 months ago are likely to now be meaningless. Markets have changed and you need to understand how the resulting insecurities have affected your employees so you can plan accordingly. Focussed insight will enable you to understand their worst fears and what it will take to win back their confidence and loyalty.

Act now, to re-engage with your workforce and find out what they are thinking. Call Tony Heywood on 02 8256 3999 or email tony@heywood.com.au for further information.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

Mass exodus on the cards – or just media hype?

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:51:00 +0000

Articles appearing in the mainstream business press and various business websites are claiming that large numbers of employees, restrained and disengaged by the events of 2008/2009, are going to do some walking and head for greener pastures. They’ll do it after they’ve trawled Seek, scanned a few job ads in the paper and visited a few of those recruiting people still suffering from the great drought of 2009. It seems that a whole stream of employees will be giving their bosses the wry smile and pushing the dreaded envelope across the table in their direction. Many employers will be skeptical of the prospect of a mass exodus of employees but some surveys from the past few months suggest the situation is serious.

The ‘Chandler Macleod Post GFC Candidate Study’ suggests that 95% of employees post GFC are looking for work

The Hudson 20:20 Series report Talent Tightrope: Managing the Workplace through the Downturn, which involved 3,000 employees across Australia and New Zealand, came up with these statistics:

44 percent of employees indicated that employee morale had plummeted
32 percent of employees are genuinely concerned about losing their jobs
42 percent of employees said they feel their job is less secure than the same time last year
47 percent of employees are seeking a new role
56 percent of employees would consider roles they previously would not have looked at

Mark Steyn, CEO of Hudson A/NZ stated that “If employees are disgruntled or unhappy with their current roles, the moment a better opportunity presents itself they will leave. It is this danger of a mass exodus that employers must be aware of and take urgent steps to avoid.”

But wait, there’s more...

Another survey by recruitment firm Aequalis Consulting gleaned the following from 280 job seekers...

only 22 percent are not planning to move jobs when economic recovery happens

Another survey by global recruitment consultancy Robert Half has found...

77 percent of professional workers expect a pay increase once the market recovers

The Corporate Leadership Council believes...

25 percent of high potential employees plan to quit their jobs when the upturn happens

So there you have it. Bad news for employers who can’t afford to lose good people, good news for employers wanting to recruit new talent and possibly even better news for recruitment agencies after an ‘annus horribilis’.

What does this mean for employers?

The potential for skyrocketing recruitment and training costs.
A need to acquire deep insight to what employees are thinking and planning right now in order to find ways to re-engage them.
Now is the time to consider new employer brand building activities to reinvigorate positive perceptions of the employment experience and potential.

What are the priorities for employers?

Conduct an online employee survey

discover what’s going on in employees’ minds with an online employee survey, the sooner the better

Improve internal communication

communicate more effectively with employees to keep them informed of where the organisation is heading and its future prospects

Create a cut-through awareness and recruitment campaign

now is the time to be ‘out there’ on candidates’ radar before the rush for talent begins and the market becomes once more highly competitive

Introduce a competent careers section on your website

careers sections on websites will be under increasing scrutiny and must create a positive impression in the minds of candidates and graduates

They’ll always call Australia home

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:18:00 +0000

Australia’s robust economy has defied the financial downturn that has savaged many other countries around the world. The brain drain of Australian talent that escaped these shores in pursuit of fame and fortune overseas is now looking over its shoulders and recalling fond memories of home. The reality is that as more Australian companies commit to re-hiring after a long market drought the expats now see bigger employment opportunities back here while the US and Europe in the main are still floundering in a financial black hole. And so the tide turns. Recruitment agencies here are starting to receive accelerating numbers of enquiries from expats seeking new opportunities of better jobs, higher paid jobs, more job security and the opportunity to soak up the sun on a decent beach once again. Yes, there is always a seasonal shift to these shores but the expats now have more reason to return.

With new job numbers increasing by 40,000 in October pushing the unemployment rate down to 5.7 percent compared to 7.9 percent in the UK and 9.5 percent in the US, there is good reason for them to pack their bags. The Australian Bureau of Statistics claims we worked an additional 13.4 million hours last month.

Helping them in their quest to head home are Australian employers who battened down the hatches during the economic storm, hid beneath their desks, stopped communicating and ignored the golden rules of employee engagement. These are the ones whose employer brand strength has been diminishing over the months, leading to disengaged employees who are now heading for the door. Many employers are waking up to the fact that the investment needed to build a robust employer brand is far less than the cost of replacing valuable staff. An employee exodus in the coming months has even been suggested by the more notorious media commentators. Expats here they come.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

Don’t say we didn’t tell you

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:45:00 +0000

I would have thought it was pretty obvious really. You should have seen it coming a mile away. You didn’t need tea leaves to give you a sign. If you’d read only a little bit of the material we’ve been pumping out these last 12 months you’d have got an inkling of what is now starting to happen. And it took those good people down at Hudson to spell it out for us. Employees are going to do some walking. Yes, you heard it first right here, unless you’ve already visited the Hudson website, read the papers today and scanned twenty or so Google-friendly blogs. They’ll do it after they’ve trawled Seek, checked out a few job ads in the paper and visited a few of those nice recruiting people. So if you’re a boss or one of those HR types, don’t come complaining to me that a whole stream of employees are giving you the wry smile and pushing the dreaded envelope across the table in your direction. I warned you. I told you 12 months ago that those organisations who build and maintain a strong employer brand will come out smelling of roses once the market recovery happens. Those who didn’t heed the warning would rue the day they stopped communicating with their employees, hid under their desk, went on a long fishing holiday and scribbled a note about a clampdown on pay rises and had their secretary pin it on the canteen notice board when everyone had gone home. Tsk tsk. For employers the news isn’t good. Evidently the Hudson 20:20 Series report Talent Tightrope: Managing the Workplace through the Downturn involved 3,000 employees (and 247 employers) across Australia and New Zealand, and goes something like this:

The good news for employers...
> more than a third of employees said they would consider a pay freeze or reducing or losing a bonus

The bad news for employers...
> in 2008 63 percent stated that an insufficient salary was the main reason for them to leave a job... in 2009 it was only 45 percent
> ‘career development considerations’ were far more important to the majority as the reason they quit their jobs
> 44 percent of employees indicated that employee morale had plummeted
> 26 percent of employers thought that workplace morale had dropped
> 35 percent of employees are increasingly concerned about the impact of the downturn on their personal circumstances
> 32 percent of employees are genuinely concerned about losing their jobs
> 42 percent of employees said they feel their job is less secure than the same time last year
> 47 percent of employees are seeking a new role
> 56 percent of employees would consider roles they previously would not have looked at

In the words of Mark Steyn, CEO of Hudson A/NZ... “In every aspect of current workplace sentiment, whether job satisfaction, motivation, morale, perceived stress levels or job security, employers are clearly unaware of their employees’ frame of mind”. He went on to say “If employees are disgruntled or unhappy with their current roles, the moment a better opportunity presents itself they will leave. It is this danger of a mass exodus that employers must be aware of and take urgent steps to avoid.”

But wait, there’s more...

Another survey by recruitment firm Aequalis Consulting just happened. This is what they gleaned from 280 job seekers.

> 45 percent lack trust in senior management
> 62 percent were experiencing lower morale
> only 22 percent are not planning to move jobs when economic recovery happens

But wait, there’s even more... another survey by global recruitment consultancy Robert Half has found
> 77 percent of professional workers expect a pay increase once the market recovers

So there you have it. The good news for recruitment agencies is that 47 per cent of employees are seeking a new role. The bad news for employers is that 47 per cent of employees are seeking a new role. The good news for job seekers is that those plum jobs of 12 months ago are going to come back again pretty soon. The bad news for many employers is that they’re going to have plenty of envelopes sliding across the table if they haven’t got their act together.

The good news for employer branding consultants like Heywood Innovation is that...
> those organisations who fear what’s going on in employees minds had better commission an online employee survey quick smart while they’re still in their seats
> those cut-through recruitment campaigns are going to be needed again
> employers are going to need to communicate with staff again
> organisations who aren’t perceived as a good employer are going to need lots of help
> tired old intranets will need a rethink
> there is a need to create competent careers sections on many websites

As an employment branding professional I’m banking on the fact that most employers are just waking up to these facts and will probably be starting to feel a bit uneasy that bad things may be about to start happening to them. Their biggest fear is that they don’t know what employees are thinking right now.

I’ve been saying for quite a few months that “What you don’t know will hurt you the most”.

So what do I recommend you consider first?

If you’re one of these employers I recommend that you give serious consideration to an online employee survey to get inside your employees’ heads and figure out what they’re thinking and how happy they are. It may just save you from getting trodden underfoot by the stampede.

If you’re in Sydney or not too far away call me on 8256 3999 and we’ll work up a solution for you.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Let’s get back to business

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:28:00 +0000

In these recovering markets, I anticipate the following:

1 Employer emphasis is now shifting back to recruitment. After some of the toughest business conditions many organisations have ever experienced, employers realise more than ever that employees are the life blood of their organisation and can make the difference between success and failure. There is a fear however that employees have been ‘biding their time’ for the past year and may be now keen to test the recovering jobs market. A case for some urgent focus on employee engagement.

2 The ongoing strength of an organisation’s employer brand relies heavily on an ability to maintain communication with employees and address their concerns regarding the future and ongoing job security.

3 Companies are looking for ways to reduce recruitment costs. They are loathe to tolerate the high recruitment costs of previous years. Reducing costs however, is not about less communication and less marketing. It is about finding ways to be more capable and perform more recruitment tasks in-house.

4 The upturn will advantage those organisations that have used their time and resources wisely, to keep their employees informed and engaged with the company’s vision and confidence in the future.

5 A new style of company leader is emerging who is people-focused and can inspire a workforce to make deeper commitments to its employer. These newly engaged and motivated companies will be the new leaders in 2010.

6 Employer branding is increasingly recognised as an essential complement to a company’s corporate brand. An increasing proportion of advertising and marketing budgets will consequently be channelled into employee-focused activities.

7 Companies who define and strengthen their employment proposition will be favourably positioned ahead of competitors in recovering markets.

8 Recruitment companies will increasingly realise the value of employer branding to themselves and to their clients. They will stimulate closer relationships with practitioners of employer branding, particularly those with end-to-end service offerings.

9 Employees will expect their employer to be open and truthful about the employment experience and keep the promise that was made at the point of recruitment.

10 Organisations will realise that people are the essential fabric of their business and critical to future business success. Consequently they will have a deep desire to know employees’ present perception of the employment experience.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

“How many of your employees would describe your organisation as a great place to work?”

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:17:00 +0000

Gallup Australia undertakes a Biannual Australian Engagement Study in Australia. It surveys the levels of workplace engagement of Australian employees. Although the most recent study relies on 2008 figures and may not accurate reflect the 2009 situation (which may be worse), the study reveals that 21 per cent of employees are actively disengaged. What is very worrying is that this is estimated to be costing employers $33.5 billion annually! In addition to this, evidently 45 per cent of these employees intend to stay with their employer for the next twelve months (ie through 2009). The big challenge for the employers is how many of their disengaged employees can be transformed into engaged employees, and how will they achieve it?

One question that is guaranteed to make employers cringe is “How many of your employees would describe your organisation as a great place to work?” It’s a great leveller and a direct reflection on how the organisation performs as an employer.

I believe that it requires some determined questioning to accurately gauge levels of employee engagement. It is not a subject to be taken lightly as disengagement has a direct impact on an organisation’s bottom line – more so than most employers seem to realise. The world’s leading drinks producer Diageo relies on six questions which employees are required to answer annually. With the best of intentions, I really cannot believe this is a sufficient number. From the answers it receives, Diageo determines whether employees are ‘engaged’ or ‘super engaged’. Evidently 41 per cent are in the ‘super engaged’ category. This seems to be supported by voluntary turnover figures which dropped from 18.4 per cent to 13.5 per cent between 2007 and 2008.

Conducting online surveys to gain insight to employee perceptions is of significant value. Sadly, in my experience not too many employers conduct such surveys and certainly not regularly.

The next level however is to hold ongoing face-to-face meetings between varying groups of employees and senior management to provide employees the opportunity to engage in open dialogue (and prove, despite rumours to the contrary, that bosses are real people). A live meeting with ‘real’ people is much more valuable than reading an inter office memo. It’s where clarity, understanding, encouragement and inspiration tend to come from.

Ask yourself this question... Are regular meetings between employees and senior management part of your organisation’s culture, and actively encouraged? If not, why not?

Engagement is directly related to employees having a great place within which to work and thrive. Open and honest communication is a key contributor to this.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Why do only 16%* of companies have a clear employer branding strategy?

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:06:00 +0000

Based on these figures sourced by the Employer Branding Institute, you could be forgiven for thinking that many employers don’t really care too much for their employees. Or aren’t they aware of this ‘employer branding thing’? Is it a new phenomenon in the developed world only embraced by the biggest of corporate achievers? Is it too expensive to entertain by ordinary companies? Will it distract HR managers from their recruiting tasks and holding exit interviews? Is it not on the CEO’s vision-for-the-future agenda? Was it a good idea that got swept under the carpet when these recessionary times hit home? Are employers sitting on the fence waiting to see if it can make the early adopters some money and keep employees in their place? Do they think it’s an overnight sensation and will be quietly forgotten in 2010? Is it a new Chinese idea designed to corrupt the minds of honest workers? Is it something those good people from McKinsey dreamed up in their lunch hour? Is it a crank idea published on Youtube by geeks working in the Social Sciences Dept at Manchester University? Are they confusing it with Facebook? Is Tom Cruise promoting it? Are they adopting the stance “We’ve already got a logo and a Flash website and we don’t need another one”? “We bought one on the internet and it only cost US$49”. “The CEO’s wife says that they should be happy to work for us”. “We’ll perhaps try it next year when we have more time”. “Our competitors don’t have one so there doesn’t seem much point in us having one”. “We have to get the car park re-surfaced which is our No.1 priority right now”. “We’ll have one so long as it doesn’t conflict with the staff Christmas Party”. “Can we have one for a trial period?” “Does it come with a guarantee?” “Our new uni graduate studied employer branding so I guess we’re OK for the moment thanks”. “Is this EVP stuff something your company has dreamt up?” “This other crowd came in to see us last week and they’re selling employer brands for $2,500, and they’re including a free course in NLP”. “Our sales team are dead against anything that takes up their valuable time and hampers their sales efforts”. “My PA looked at your literature, laughed and told me that employees only ever want one thing... more money”. “Sorry, we’ve already developed our own EVP with some help from our interior designers”. “We’d love to take you up on your offer of developing for us a new employer brand, but we’re just about to enter into a merger with another company – call us again this time next year”. “Our HR manager says she’s too stressed to think about employer branding right now”. “The CEO’s son is developing one for us as part of his school project”.

Where was I? Oh yes. You need a clearly defined strategy before you start off down the super highway to developing an effective employer brand. There are many potholes and a collapsed bridge waiting for the unwary. Just like M&A branding, the chances of success can be remarkably low if you don’t decide up front what and how much you want to get out of it. And it makes a whole heap of sense if the CEO and senior management are leading the process. It needs to be totally aligned with the organisation’s overall business strategy and not just a ‘one-off’ initiative from the marketing department. With some careful planning it will make a significant contribution to the organisation’s ability to attract, engage and retain talent.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

*down from 37% – info received from Brett Minchington of renamed Employer Brand International

A powerful business tool

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:46:00 +0000

Believe it or not there are still some organisations out there who don’t rate employer branding in the ‘must have’ category (yet). They don’t even realise they have one and that it probably isn’t performing quite as well as it should. Do they spend all their time trying to get more customers to buy more product and wonder why it’s one long struggle? Do they wonder why the big advertising dollars they’ve entrusted to their advertising/communication/keepers-of-the-brand aren’t getting the results they want... or are they just blaming it all on the financial downturn? Did they commission research to find out from their customers and potential customers why they aren’t too enamoured with the product/brand on offer and why wallets/purses are remaining closed? Did they ever wonder if it might be something to do with the fact that employees haven’t been quite as engaged with their employer and job these last twelve months or so?

Employees have had it pretty tough this year. They’ve seen markets fall, companies go under, unemployment rise, promotion prospects die a death, house values plummet and disposable income reduce. No wonder sales teams are distracted and disengaged, morale is low and they don’t quite have the same enthusiasm to engage with customers the way they used to. They’ve lost faith in the organisation and what it used to stand for. They’re questioning its ability to survive/grow/provide for them excellent career prospects. They’re keeping their heads low or, if they’re really worried, scanning the employment pages. And it doesn’t help if employers aren’t too forthcoming with information on what’s happening with the business, thereby leaving employees in a bit of a vacuum. The future for many employees is presently looking a bit fuzzy, and will probably remain so for some time.

Customers have a knack of picking up on changes in companies, products and sales staff. They’re fickle and unforgiving. They want to believe sales staff are really enthusiastic about the product they’re selling, have complete faith in it and are being really honest about its attributes. That slightly disengaged look, the hesitation, the distant gaze, the forced smile, the curt responses... won’t sell product. The customer has second thoughts and walks away.

People sell products and services. They’re essential to the sales process and convincing customers that the brand is aligned with their needs and the product is something they really need to own.

There’s a big market readjustment going on out there. It’s called competitive advantage. In 2008 organisations were going at it hammer and tongs fighting the marketing wars striving to gain market advantage by optimising sales techniques, increasing advertising budgets etc ... all the usual stuff that goes on. This year much of that has gone out the window. Money is scarce. Everyone has pulled back so we’re lead to believe. Canny organisations however, those with vision who recognise that a distressed market is an opportunity to get ahead of the competition, are investing in their people right now to get them primed and pumped up to take advantage of the recovering markets and leave competitors behind. This is where the value of employer branding comes to the fore. Because as we all know... you start on the inside first don’t you? Unless you do, customers will never be inspired by your sales staff.

Unless sales staff engage with their employer, customers won’t engage with your sales staff, so they won’t engage with your product. And everything will grind to a halt. And we don’t want that now do we? I recommend that organisations channel some of those precious advertising dollars into something more immediate. It’s called employer branding.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Do employees have a high regard for a company’s commitment to CSR?

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:07:00 +0000

Just when you thought you’d mastered corporate governance... CSR arrives on the scene.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development defines it as ‘... the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development, while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as the local community and society at large’.

The Australian Human Rights Commission describes it as ‘corporations having a degree of responsibility not only for the economic consequences of their activities, but also for the social and environmental implications.’

No longer is it sufficient to simply provide jobs, pay taxes and provide customer service. It’s all about your organisation committing itself to the present and future wellbeing of society, and actively supporting a sustainable global economy. CSR is widely recognised as a major contributor to company reputation – and we all know how important that is to business success – inevitably impacting on share price and product sales.

Potential employees are more likely to seek out organisations who can demonstrate a commitment to CSR. An organisation’s CSR activities can have a measurable influence on employee morale and retention. Employees who are satisfied with their organisation’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility are likely to be more positive, more engaged and more productive than those working for less responsible employers.

Ask yourself this. How highly is your organisation regarded in the local community? What measure does it take to protect the environment? Does it actively support good causes? Does it look after its employees? Does it have a reputation for caring?

There is increasing demand for organisations to be more open, more accountable and willing to report publicly on their performance in social and environmental arenas – no matter what their size or activities.

Common views on CSR range from...

‘It is fundamental to the positive reputation a business builds in the minds of its employees’

‘It distracts from the fundamental economic role of businesses’

‘It is nothing more than superficial window-dressing’

‘It is an attempt to place more control over powerful multinational corporations’

“Organisations with no measurable commitment to CSR are less likely to attract top performers”

What is your view?

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Disengage your employees and you disengage your business

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:36:00 +0000

In the present climate, your Employer Brand has to work harder than ever before, says BrandSynergy

Singapore, 12 May 2009 – According to the Singapore Ministry of Manpower report, the total number of retrenched workers rose to 10,800 in 1Q2009, up from 7,500 in the previous quarter. With retrenchments on the rise, some employers are beginning to take the backseat in talent retention and benefits with the mindset that times are hard so no-one’s going to be leaving – why should I worry about losing people?

“In times of rising unemployment, increasing insecurity and low business confidence, employer branding becomes more important as talent is key to growth,” says Tony Heywood, Principal of BrandSynergy Pte Ltd. “If you can provide an image that highlights stability, innovation and security during uncertain times, it translates to a positive energy amongst your employees which is in turn projected onto the marketplace. And during a recession, as others retrench, it is also a prime opportunity to pick up a few good talents.”

“Every employer has a brand. It is a perception that people have of the employer and what the company represents, and it is distinct from the product brand. At the heart of your Employer Brand is your Employee Value Proposition or your EVP,” Heywood adds.

This was shared with an audience of senior business executives and human resource professionals attending a special presentation on “Employer Branding: Solutions for Stormy Conditions” which took place in Singapore on Wednesday, 22 April.

“The EVP is supported by 12 pillars for a solid foundation – advancement, communication, corporate brand, culture, environment, experience, leadership, people, recruitment, remuneration & benefits, values & corporate social responsibility and work-life integration.”

Earlier this year, BrandSynergy launched the EmployerBrandGuidanceSystem in Asia, a 9-stage end-to-end Employer Branding Process where companies are provided the tools to begin discovering, implementing, monitoring and measuring their EVP progress (Please refer to Annex I).

Few companies have a good grasp on the external and internal perceptions of their organisation as a good employer. To determine what your EVP is, the System offers a TeamPlan survey that can be conducted either by an online/offline questionnaire or in focus groups.

The participants at the presentation took part in a TeamPlan exercise where they responded to a few key questions like “What HR-related challenges is your organisation presently encountering?” and “What aspects of your employer brand do you believe can be improved?”. They experienced first-hand the process of clustering responses where prevalent thoughts and emotions emerge, revealing rising issues, like communication, empowerment and staff benefits.

“One of the common and recurrent issues we encounter is the ineffectiveness of internal communications. Employers who are too busy to communicate with their employees foster disengagement, and de-motivated people will under-perform inevitably, putting your company off its track. An employer brand reflects both the functional and emotional components of your EVP. Employers today face new challenges with greater staff expectations beyond just functional components like salaries, hours of work, parking facilities and training. Employees are more cognizant and discerning of the company’s corporate culture, environment and values as well as advancement opportunities within,” said Heywood.

Quoting John Quelch, Professor at Harvard Business School: “Branding your company as the best place to work during a recession is critical. Top talent is looking, especially now. When you start to grab these players during a recession, it will positively impact productivity.”

Karen Fong
Managing Editor
Equity Communications
Singapore

Chicken rice and workshops in Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 07:26:00 +0000

Friday 24 April 2009 and my creative director Neil Cookson and I are just back from a successful 4-day mission in 34 degree heat to our BrandSynergy Singapore office. Thank heaven for air conditioning. With the help of my partner Max Chia and other members of our fabulous Singapore office team, we held our inaugural BrandSynergy employer branding workshops at the Rendezvous Hotel for 20 companies ranging from large corporates including HSBC and Singapore Press Holdings to medium size enterprises and government entities. Singapore, although an island of modest size, is host to 150,000 SMEs who contribute significantly to the GDP, and receive much encouragement from government agencies IE Singapore and Spring, who actively support these SMEs across a wide range of business building activities including branding advice and support. Our discussions with a delightful gentleman from Spring highlighted the branding grants available through its Brandpact initiative to Singaporean companies, which can cover 50-70% of the costs associated with an approved branding exercise. Hello, are you listening Australia - please take note! In the past two years Spring has approved grants for 120+ businesses. Of particular note is that Spring is presently experiencing a surge in enquiries from businesses wishing to build their brand to the next level. This is the result of a recent awareness program and seemingly the fact that Singaporean companies with whom I have spoken have switched on to the rare opportunity provided by the present downturn to step back, focus on the future, prepare their businesses for the upturn and achieve competitive advantage. The rest of the world please take note.

What did we learn from the workshops and the interactions we had with attendees?

1/. Positive feedback from attendees suggests that we have a powerful employer branding offer that is attuned to helping Singapore businesses build strong employer brands that optimise their recruitment and engagement activities and enable them to attract and retain top talent.

2/. Singapore companies are showing more interest in employer branding and its benefits than their Sydney counterparts.

3/. Information gleaned by us from pre-workshop attendee questionnaires indicated almost all organisations had no creative proposition with which to underpin and promote their employee-related activities.

4/. More worryingly, the majority had not defined their Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

5/. The workshops reinforced that regardless of where a business is located - in Europe, Asia, the Americas or wherever - it will be facing very similar employer branding challenges and have very similar opportunities to make improvements. Human beings generally think and behave in similar ways and have similar aspirations and desires when it comes to their employer, their job and their career prospects.

6/. Any work undertaken to create or improve an employer brand must be taken seriously and accomplished within a carefully managed process, not just on an ad hoc basis - our EmployerBrandGuidanceSystem was created to do just this.

7/. Any employer branding activities can only be accomplished with a very clear understanding of what your employees are presently thinking, as their perceptions of their employer will undoubtedly have changed as a result of the downturn - moderately in some cases, critically in others. This can be accomplished in two ways:
> Online employee survey - a multiple question survey where employees are instructed to complete an anonymous online survey is a fast and effective way to identify what employees are thinking, what are their perceptions of their employer and prospects for the future, and to gain their ideas on what improvements that can be made and how to make them. Results we have gained from such surveys have ranged from predictable to alarming, in many cases requiring urgent remedial action. Without this knowledge and insight it is next to impossible for us to offer recommendations for a way forward.
> TeamPlanSystem process - where employment insight and ideas need to be sourced from smaller groups of people, or new employer brand initiatives introduced to them, our tried and tested process which we trialled with the workshop attendees is the definitive way of achieving this.

8/. Attendees expressed keen interest in our ‘12 pillars’ EVP model. Our process of defining an organisation’s EVP identifies the core strengths and weaknesses of the organisation as an employer... and therefore which ‘pillars’ need to be improved.

9/. Recruitment remains a challenging proposition even in a downturn where emphasis is now firmly on retention of talent. It remains a costly exercise and one where a creative proposition - visual and verbal - plays a crucial role in attracting job candidates, positioning the employer and establishing a consistent and recognisable brand presence.

10/. As one attendee with a DIY store chain is experiencing - the ability to fully engage with customers and achieve high levels of brand loyalty and differentiation relies not only on a strong corporate brand but also on sales personnel who are fully motivated and engaged by the brand and possess a clear understanding of what the company brand represents and how it can benefit the customer. Engaged sales personnel lead to satisfied customers.

11/. Communication is critical. Without it all efforts to build a strong employer brand will come to nothing. Employees need to be informed. They need to know what the company leaders and managers are thinking and planning, particularly in trying times. They need to have reinforced to them constantly the important role they play in the company’s future. And this needs to be achieved with language they understand in a medium that is easily accessible.

12/. Investing in the development of a strong employer brand, whether you are a large corporation or an SME is not an option. For some it is a survival requirement. For some it is the sole means to achieve competitive advantage.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

“We just don’t think employer branding will work for us right now!”

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:59:00 +0000

Despite there always being sceptics out there pathologically committed to an alternative viewpoint, employer branding makes a lot of sense for companies right now. The continuing downturn means that many of them will not be actively seeking new employees to facilitate growth strategies and replace non performers or mobile high performers for another 12 months. The recruitment frenzy of 2008 is now but a distant memory.

... in our day-to-day interactions we’re identifying so many companies who are doing so little to address the need to communicate with, engage and retain their best people.

The ‘new order’ of 2009 is characterised by clamp downs on hiring and new focus on finding ways to keep valuable people in their seats. For some companies this may mean a handful of people, for other companies the entire workforce – depending on the nature and size of the business, products/services delivered etc. Considering the severity of the downturn and the corresponding delicate financial position of many businesses, I find it surprising that, while the majority of companies are responsive to my company’s offer of assistance, in our day-to-day interactions we’re identifying so many who are doing so little to address the need to communicate with, engage and retain their best people. I’m sure my company is not the exception to this in the world of consultancy, so what can be causing it? Here are a few reasons/excuses that I have been made aware of:

> A basic lack of awareness of employer branding, its benefits and value
> Scepticism of what it can achieve
> Company clamp down on all spending so no available funds to initiate work in this area
> Previous bad experience with recruitment/advertising consultants
> Belief that the company is too small for employer branding activities
> Recovery efforts totally focused on product sales, not employees
> Activities thwarted by narrow vision HR Manager
> CEO has internalised all employee-focus activities and closed the door
> Company in dire financial straits and beyond help
> Too much reliance on incumbent recruitment agency to “get us out of this mess”
> “We’ve already got a recruitment website thank you”

When it comes to survival and the opportunity to get ahead once markets recover, guess where these guys are going to end up? Recessions can be ruthless when it comes to selecting those companies who just aren’t physically or mentally capable of surviving. For many, investment in tried and tested employer branding initiatives is probably the only lifeline that can stop them from going under, but it takes an enlightened CEO to recognise this. Some dwell in the dark, some see the light.

For a consultancy like ours, this reluctance or inability to seek help is very frustrating, when so many companies have sufficient knowledge and insight to converse intelligently on the subject, have a good understanding of what they need and recognise the urgency with which they need to make a decision and commission help. This doesn’t stop us from wanting to help. So we’ve decided to create an ‘Employer Branding for Beginners’ workshop to test the market. I will report back in a later post with the results of this initiative.

Perhaps we overestimate the ability of companies to grasp the benefits, or is it just a built-in reluctance to ask for help? Let’s find out.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Employer Branding: Your guiding light in stormy conditions (continued)

noreply@blogger.com (Heywood) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:58:00 +0000

Get back to basics and get them right
It may be difficult for organisations to shift their focus from the effects of storm battered markets but the situation will end sooner or later, just like it always has done. The big question on everyone’s minds is when will it improve?

When distressed market conditions dictate that recruitment activities are temporarily shelved, the more astute companies crank up their engagement and retention machines. They will recognise that core employer branding principles are now more valuable and necessary than ever before. The ability to attract correct-fit talent, satisfy them that the organisation has solid prospects and engage them with experiences that inspire them to produce their best work and motivate them to stay has become a determining factor in an organisation’s ability to achieve and sustain success.

Judging from past experience, once the media decides that the worst is over, that we can breathe again and start the rebuilding process, we will witness a race to regain lost ground and re-engage with the jobs market. Those employers that have done their homework and honed their employment offer will be the ones attracting the cream of new talent and forging ahead with a committed and resilient workforce.

So where do you start? This is the time to stop worrying and to start planning. It’s time to get back to basics, strengthen your employer brand and ensure your own employees and key external audiences are exposed to it and recognise its value. Make sure it is differentiated once and for all from those of your competitors. Put your efforts into gaining an in-depth understanding of your employer brand and what it is capable of achieving.

1/. Employee Value Proposition
If you don’t have a well defined Employee Value Proposition (EVP) in place you are severely disadvantaged. An EVP sits at the heart of your employer brand. It is what your employment ‘experience’ delivers on functional and emotional levels – the essence of what makes you different and attractive as an employer. At Heywood Innovation the EVP model we embrace as part of our EmployerBrandGuidanceSystem comprises the EVP as the ‘beam’ supported by 12 ‘pillars’ as shown in the illustration.

These pillars represent the essentials that must be addressed in your employment offer.

2/. Communicate with your employees
Be honest. Tell them the truth. Don’t gloss over the reality of the situation and don’t pretend the company is immune to the changing market conditions, because they just won’t believe you. Be open and transparent. Reassure them. Explain simply and clearly the steps you are taking to address the changes. Tell your employees how much you value them and the important role they play in the organisation’s future. This should come from the organisation’s leader and be reinforced by group leaders all the way through the organisation.

3/. Take engagement with employees to the next level
What steps did you take to engage and motivate your staff before the market downturn? If they were proving less than effective, then I recommend you quickly review the reasons why and make improvements, because the coming months will prove a considerable test. Do you know to what extent employees are engaged and motivated? If not, it makes sense to find out now and plan accordingly.

4/. Don’t stop marketing
If you stop marketing your employment offer into the jobs market, future job candidates and your own employees may fear the worst and conclude that all is not well. If your competitors have stopped marketing their presence in the jobs market, take advantage of this and gain the upper hand by being top of mind when conditions improve.

5/. Reduce your recruitment and training costs
As organisations count the cost of staying in business and trying to make headway, positioned near the top of the list is the significant investment paid to recruiters to source new talent and the associated internal costs of inducting and training these people. These processes will be increasingly scrutinised.

My predictions for 2009 are that:

> more recruitment activities will be brought in-house
> induction processes will be reviewed and more closely aligned with employer brands that are well defined
> a new generation of intranet will appear that is more interactive with employees and is seen as a communications tool rather than an information repository
> internal communications will become more frequent and constantly reinforce the organisation’s values, vision and commitment to its employees
> 2009 will be the year when the value of employer branding rises considerably and claims a greater share of an organisation’s annual budget

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg