This is a white paper authored by Anita van de Velde and researched by Evelina Padervinskaite from DeVelde International. It explores how various leading multinationals such as HEINEKEN, DSM and TCS have embraced the discipline of Employer Branding to ensure their future success.
For more information please contact Anita van de Velde | info@develdeinternational.com
We have moved far beyond talking about ‘human capital’ in today’s business world, and rightly so. Companies today recognise that employees are fundamental to their success, as they carry with them the most fragile of things; a company’s reputation, its brand, its promise and, essentially, its profitability. Reputation and employees are now, more than ever inextricably linked. With change as a given, be that technology driven innovation, such as AI or societal and anthropological shifts in the way we want to work, the future is closer than you think.
What keeps CEOs up at night? It should be, how do we as a company, remain relevant and successful, now and in the future? How can companies fuel success – it’s their people, their employees. It’s the vital resource from the CEO themselves, to senior leadership through to the change agents required to drive innovation. Thus, reputation and employee engagement should be central to any future strategy of those companies that want to exist in the future.
It’s an inescapable truth that acquisition, retention and actions of both customers and employees are directly fuelling a company’s bottom line. In line with this, we can see the emergence of a distinct ‘employee economy’ in which there is a growing focus on the people at the heart of the company and a constant re-evaluation of how best to work with them. In the employee economy we see the development of strategies to make the most of this valuable resource and compete successfully for the very best of talent.
All of which begs the question of how a company can stand out in this emerging economy, and attract – and retain – the right people. Anita van de Velde, MD of specialist executive search agency, DeVelde International interviewed several companies who are investing in Employer Branding, to better understand their journeys and to some leading agencies who, through their offerings, are at the coalface of this focal discipline. So, what can we learn from them?
In 1995 in the UK when Anita started her career in advertising, recruitment advertising – as they called it then, was decidedly unsexy. Anita spoke with Ed Barzilaij, a veteran in Employer Branding and founder of Maximum Employment Marketing Group.
Ed Barzilaij
CEO and partner, Maximum
They reminisced about those innocent days of ‘company seeking employee’ classified advertisements in the back of printed newspapers. Anita asked him what had changed in the decades that lie behind them. Ed identified the following developments as intrinsically changing the rules of engagement and as key drivers behind the emergence of an employee economy:
The Employer Brand is the champion running the race in today’s global talent marathon. Companies are articulating the fittest versions of themselves to be competitive. In this environment, Dynamic Signal’s MD for Europe, Chris Seth, emphasised the point of standing out from the crowd in a way that really resonates, ‘It all starts with the people who work for you; they are the significant component in your value proposition that makes it credible.’
Chris SethMD Europe, Dynamic Signal
Your employees are your differentiators; match this with an authentic narrative and you have something worth promoting, Chris continues, ‘20% of the top 500 multinationals use our technology platform to harness the power of employees, to develop a narrative that drives awareness and reach. Employees like to be empowered by transparent operating behaviour. On average, people have 1,000 connections each on all media. We have clients who have generated hundreds of thousands of euros’ worth of media value through this. Companies are driving market value through this process.’
Your employees can deliver your Employer Brand message with impact and scale. You may already be familiar with this quote from the Edelman Trust Barometer, but here it is again; people have greater trust in their peers, ranking them significantly higher than experts and leaders.
Or, as Frans Mahieu, Kimberly-Clark‘s Global Marketing Director for People Strategy, put it: ‘Everyone is a living billboard and ambassador for the company.’
Competition for talent has always been rife in the tech industry, where some organisations caught on to the value of Employer Branding much earlier than others.
‘At Microsoft we have, for the past 40 years, been investing in our Employer Brand. In our industry, this is ongoing and always has been a strategic imperative. There is tremendous competition for top talent; attracting and retaining the most innovative, creative and passionate employees is key to our business success,’ according to Ineke Hoekman-van Hassel, HR Director.
With the arrival of Satya Nadella as CEO, certainly the company and its Employer Brand has been reinvigorated. ‘When Satya became CEO, there was a renewed focus on culture to attract and retain talent. Satya looks not only to HR, but to our storytelling communications team to bring the mission and culture initiatives to life through storytelling and major company-wide programs.’
Satya Nadella
CEO, Microsoft
The changes have certainly made Satya Nadella a popular man inside the company; he enjoys a staggering 93 percent approval rating among current and former Microsoft employees, which is well above the industry average.
‘What I realise more than ever now is that my job is curation of our culture,’ says Nadella, ‘If you don’t focus on creating a culture that allows people to do their best work, then you’ve created nothing.’
Tech leaders are certainly a key draw for organisations attracting today’s talent. Their vision of the future and personal charisma is a critical differentiator. In my opinion, in a sector trying to out-do each other, Satya Nadella is a highly valuable component in Microsoft’s re-emergence to cool.
The Employer Brand is part of the holy brand trinity for many companies; corporate, marketing and employer. Employer Brand and its articulation is emerging using the same marketing principles and vernacular. Employee and customer journeys/experiences are interrelated drivers of business success.
The growing energy around Employer Branding is leading to greater functional collaboration and is an opportunity for co-creation. Alfonso Auñón García, Head of Global Talent Acquisition at HEINEKEN, recounted the journey the company took to bring their Employer Brand to life. From the outside, it appeared that they were addressing Employer Branding five years ago with the ‘Graduate’ campaign; however, that was a marketing – and not an HR – initiative. It proved that good stories that connect with people can have impact across the whole brand architecture. Alfonso explained that the HR Leadership team at HEINEKEN raised the question of Employer Branding three years ago. The question was, did they really need one with such a strong consumer brand? Their issue was not scarcity of talent and applicants, it was maximising quality and fit.
Alfonso Auñón GarcíaGlobal Head of Talent Acquisition, HEINEKEN
‘In the beginning it was an idea, a team of two getting under the skin of who HEINEKEN was, what did employees really think of the brand and the HEINEKEN culture? We wanted to go on a journey but we had to ask first ‘what is that journey’?’
That journey went far and wide; a survey of 700 employees across 20 countries, reflecting the diversity of the business and a survey of 1,300 people representing external stakeholders. It led to the past – its heritage; a theme of ‘adventure’ emerging from stories of Freddy Heineken. Alfonso shared the story of Freddy Heineken dropping a dart in a map to decide on which country to go to next. Another theme that emerged was togetherness, distilled into ‘friends’. Alfonso drew on both heritage and research; ‘I don’t serve beer, I serve warmth,’ said Freddy Heineken and today’s employees come together irrespective of function or hierarchy to share a beer at 5pm on a Friday. As a brand DNA, HEINEKEN isolated three key themes; fame, adventure and friends.
After six months, Alfonso had his findings and the beginning of a very exciting story. But it went further than simply a story. For HEINEKEN’s HR function, Employer Branding was an opportunity to co-create with other functions such as marketing, corporate communications and IT. Aflonso told us ‘this is truly a company journey, it was an opportunity to be part of something big,’
The resulting glocal ‘Go Places’ campaign channelled real company truths and insights, cross-functional collaboration, was localised and had a clear proposition that worked across all roles and functions. It embraced marketing methodology in a meaningful way and offered a clear framework to deliver against both HR and brand KPIs. If you’ve not seen it, do: goplaces.theheinekencompany.com/en
HEINEKEN is a great example of co-creation. At Kimberly-Clark they went in a different direction; moving one of their senior marketers into HR. As Frans Mahieu, Kimberly-Clark‘s Global Marketing Director for People Strategy, explained, ‘When I first came into this position six years ago it was a rarity for a marketer to be undertaking an HR role. Now it’s a movement, with 50% of large companies actively using marketing or communications professionals to bring in new approaches to their Employer Brand efforts. I work in HR, with very different types and talent mix as a function.’
Frans MahieuGlobal Marketing Director People Strategy, Kimberly-Clark
At Kimberly-Clark, HR owns the Employer Brand; it’s more integration than co-creation, as Frans explains: ‘We work closely with marketing and use the same processes as our consumer brands. The way we approach marketing on our consumer brands, we apply the same philosophy, techniques and processes for our Employer Brand.’
Delving further into what this meant on a process level, Frans responded by sharing the approach that delivered the highly impactful ‘Welcome Original Thinkers’ campaign. ‘We have gone through a process, we have a brand promise and story, and then really we execute chapters out of the brand story book throughout the year. We articulate it, we have guidelines and that helps us in everything we do, from social media to media programs. But it all started out by finding the core of what we believed was unique and differentiated within our company internally, to make sure that our Employer Brand was seamless internal to external. We started internally, by understanding what Kimberley-Clark stood for, what we were aspiring to and based on that we built a brand and a road map for the future.’
Through rigorous research, Kimberly-Clark developed a central, global approach which also worked at a regional level, and allowed for localisation. Employer branding was also central in the company’s move to a more performance driven culture.
‘My belief is that it needs to be a mix, so at the end of the day, if you can’t deliver on your promise, then you are wasting time on marketing. It was rooted in what our brand stood for, but then also we had the idea of where we wanted to go, from an aspirational perspective, so I think we’ve found a mix that is working.’
Technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) have also given us a plethora of new companies with very different structures and cultures. What makes them attractive to millennials has influenced organisational developments in mature companies too. How do you change your proposition and attract a new breed of talent into your organisation?
Elsevier has been on this journey and Hannfried von Hindenburg, Senior Vice President Global Communications, shared some valuable insights. ‘As a company with a long history in science, technology and medical publishing, we have moved from offering clients texts to read to offering them targeted search, allowing them to find the information they need quickly. The next step is increasingly providing insight and intelligent direction to help solve professional problems in science and health. We do this by employing technology such as machine learning and artificial intelligence that allows us to turn information into actionable knowledge. We are now an information analytics company specialising in science and health. As such, we need to attract technology talent and brand ourselves as a technology company. That’s why Employer Branding is so important. I believe that if you brand yourself as a tech employer then your overall brand positioning shifts towards tech as well – a much-welcomed and mutually-reinforcing virtuous circle.’
Hannfried von HindenburgSenior Vice President Global Communications, Elsevier
With such a shift in positioning and strategy, really embedding this with existing employees was critical for Elsevier. So how did they translate this to their Employee Value Proposition?
‘Our EVP is based on a purpose and mission that we think most of our staff can identify with and that helps to motivate them. From there, we frame our corporate strategy as a means to “lead the way in science, technology and health for the benefit of humanity”. This enables staff to better understand what our journey is and how we intend to reach our business goals. Ultimately, staff is not motivated by money and benefits alone. Today’s employees want to feel that special sense of synergy between what they stand for and what a company represents, and developing a clear Employer Brand for us is central to that process. We want everyone to feel a sense of pride in working for Elsevier.’
Elsevier initiated a company-wide conversation about its corporate strategy with workshops for its more than 7,000 employees discussing what kind of company they are working for. ‘While we have evolved as an information analytics company, we are still on a journey. In developing the Employer Brand, you have to be bold in projecting the type of company we are and want to be. We held “strategy sessions” in each business unit across the world so that everyone had the chance to make the company’s journey their own professional journey as well. And what’s important about such conversations about company values and business strategies is that the more confident your internal audience are, the more convincing employees can be externally acting as Employer Brand ambassadors towards potential new recruits.’
Does a homogeneous Employer Brand proposition address the nuances which exist across different functions in an organisation? ABN Amro is a company that is doing it differently, they have adopted a segmented approach to their Employer Branding.
As with many of companies interviewed, ABN Amro’s Employer Brand is all about cross-functional collaboration: corporate communications, marketing communications & HR are driving the strategy through to implementation and all three functions came to discuss their Employer Brand: Suzanne van Kordelaar, Head of Group Communications, Bas Bisschops Director Marketing & Communications and Ruth Bielderman, Head of Talent Attraction.
They explained that ABN Amro is on a journey, moving away from the traditional image of a bank towards becoming a digital brand, which will see them compete for talent not only with other banks but with the likes of Google, Facebook and (Dutch online retailer) Coolblue.
Bas explains, ‘We are looking at a new set of skills as we transform from a bank to an IT company, but we noticed that millennials entering the job market who have the skills we need don’t put us at the top of their lists of potential employers. We knew we had to find a different way forward to appeal to them.’
To achieve this, ABN Amro has translated its positioning into a targeted talent strategy based on specific personas. Each persona represents the current and future skills ABN Amro needs to take the company forward on its journey. Six different personas were identified; each with its own tailor-made ‘attraction strategy’ and specific activation based on audience insights and needs.
Suzanne van KordelaarHead of Group Communications, ABN Amro
‘A couple of years ago we were a top three employer, but we have made a conscious choice to invest in a way that is unlikely to take us there again. We have chosen to invest in specific target groups and our aim is to be in the top three employers among this talent,’ explains Suzanne.
Ruth continues, ‘We took our Employer Brand to The Next Web, an international digital event. People asked us why we were there as most of the attendees tend to be start-ups, innovation labs and so on. The main reason was that we wanted to discuss the transformation that digitalisation is bringing to banks with the right target groups; why they should work within ABN Amro and not a company like Coolblue.’
In their targeted approach ABN Amro has considered the full employee journey, defining targeted messaging and channels of engagement. What they are bringing to these specific and highly sought-after professionals is their business challenges, showing that their skills can be utilised within their business in a way that is exciting and cutting edge.
‘At The Next Web, for example, one of our teams was demonstrating our payment app, which is very innovative and doing very well, and we had one of the guys from the team talking to a group of young students, discussing how it can be developed further. I think that is the experience you need, people getting a different view of the kinds of people that work here and the things that are possible here. We should show more of ourselves’ says Bas.
Naturally, other professions are still important and integral to the business; the bank’s reputation remains strong with other groups of employees. ‘We also need bankers, of course, but they know how to find us; we don’t have to market ourselves to them in the same way,’ says Suzanne.
With a segmented approach to talent acquisition by job function and aligning employee experience with this, is ABN Amro creating an organisation of micro-cultures? Do you need a homogeneous group tied to the same behaviours to make an organisation successful? Or can you construct a group of ‘tribes’ all working in their nuanced way to deliver the greater company goals? Perhaps this can work when you have an overarching commonality that is the ‘glue’, such as a company’s values. This is where ABN Amro has significantly invested; in defining tangible and easily-to-relate-to values that certainly work across all functions and all levels.
DSM is an organization many people admire greatly for their contribution to making the planet a better place through innovations in nutrition and sustainable materials. How does a leading B2B company like DSM tackled Employer Branding? Headquartered in Heerlen in the south of the Netherlands, admirably the company has not relinquished its local ties, despite it being a potential recruitment challenge.
Jos Van HaastrechtGlobal Brand & Communications Director, DSM
Jos Van Haastrecht, Global Brand & Communications Director, and Anneke Luijkenaar, Vice President Global Talent Acquisition, were asked whether it is harder to compete for future talent as a B2B company.
‘Yes, it is significantly more challenging, partly because the new generation is not necessarily attracted to B2B organisations. People who know us are eager to work for us, but those who do not know us, these are the group we need to target. Millennials, for example, need to be targeted as the next generation. We do not enjoy the awareness of a consumer brand; we really need to brand DSM to that population. DSM is an example of a B2B company which actually drives the agenda with regard to many societal challenges relevant for B2B and B2C companies. Malnutrition, climate change, circular economy, topics like this. Sustainability generates a lot of attention for the general public and the employee population we are targeting; that’s the central point of our new proposition.’
In 2010, the current CEO Feike Sijbesma joined the company. He felt that externally the company was undervalued. It resulted in a rebranding and rearticulation of what the company stood for. In 2011, DSM introduced a mission statement: to create brighter lives for people today and generations to come. With this, they established a purpose for the company which translated into its value proposition for customers but also a value proposition for employees and prospective employees: “working for DSM is doing something meaningful for the benefit of people and planet.”
At DSM, Employer Branding is part of their strategy at a board level and a driver in their HR transformation. An integral part of this is the role the CEO played.
Anneke LuijkenaarVice President Global Talent Acquisition, DSM
‘The Chief Brand Officer is the CEO and he’s also our Chief Talent Officer. He takes immense interest in everything that goes on in the organisation around these fronts. At DSM, the brand is co-owned by the CEO and it is then translated into various disciplines. It is a collaborative effort. It is a seamless transition, everybody who works in the company, sees that our mission, our brand purpose has nothing to do with greenwashing. It is just there and part of everything we do.’
The positioning is a reality at DSM, Anneke explained. ‘People internally have so much passion for what DSM does, that it is practically a given, it sounds a bit idealistic but it is unusual how committed people are to the mission & purpose of DSM. By itself, we are living very much our Employee Value Proposition. It is reflected from an employee’s first day.’
What do organisations do when, say, purpose positioning is not so linear as a key differentiator in attracting and retaining the very best of talent? Or worse still, that your company operates in a sector that until recently was wholly unappealing for many? Some of the interviewed companies had reorganised or rebranded post financial crisis, but for the financial sector itself it was life or death, it was a blood bath. How do you come back from this? How do you emerge as a contender in this battle for talent?
ING Group’s Head of Global Brand Management, Nanne Bos, recalled that the financial crisis was a very harsh time. At ING, instead of going down the route of corporate purpose branding, they looked internally, identifying that through customer centricity, they could enable their customers to realise their purpose driven goals. An authentic approach for a bank as Nanne explained, ‘Having a big airy brand purpose is often not relevant for your customers, because they only want the bank to pick up the phone and arrange their mortgages. So, we started from universal customer insights. When you have that, you can start thinking. You cannot ignore the fact that people are unhappy with banks. We should stay realistic. If you promise something, you should make sure that you deliver on it. And then, eventually, if that works you can link it to the bigger purpose in society.’
Nanne Bos
Head of Global Brand Management, ING Group
ING researched if they could become a loved brand in a category that was not respected. They believed they could, whilst being aware that they could not change the image of the sector. In 2011 ING Group ran a research project on brand love. They built a statistical model and analysis around it: what is it for employees, what is it for customers and management? They found that there is a strong correlation between brands being loved and employees recommending the brand. Nanne added that ‘It’s all about clarity for these groups: what do we stand for, the consistency and coherence of the messaging.’
ING Group have given their management two KPIs: they have until 2020 to be the most empowering bank and achieve a five-point improvement in their Net Promoter Score. ‘Talent does not want to work for typical multinationals which stand for the past.’ Nanne continued, ‘It is about changing the structure, getting the right people in, role modelling, leadership skills. The future is merging culture, reputation and brand management.’
In a transformation, the role of the CEO can be highly influential. When asked about Ralph Hamers’ role in the repositioning, Nanne’s position was clear; ‘The CEO plays a critical role. Without it, I should quit my job. The CEO is the ultimate role model for the brand, particularly in recruitment. At ING we are fortunate to have a CEO who is innovative and passionate about the brand and company culture.’
ING Group’s performance has been impressive they currently have the largest market share in the Netherlands; they have weathered the storm. However, they are not complacent. ‘Now we are the market leader in the Netherlands, but it’s a fragile role. People are looking at it, as soon as you do something wrong, you lose it. Scepticism stays with us for several generations.’ Nanne concluded.
In the service sector people are literally your business. A well-articulated Employer Brand and Employee Value Proposition is not a nice to have; it’s an inescapable fact. A point of view shared below by Abhinav Kumar, Chief Communications & Marketing Officer Europe, Tata Consultancy Services.
Abhinav Kumar Chief Communications & Marketing Officer – Europe, Tata Consultancy Services
‘As a services business with 378,000 employees worldwide, our human capital is literally the primary asset the company has. Our ability to attract, evolve and retain great talent is the most important contributor in our business’ success. This makes the Employer Brand central to the business of the firm since its conception. And it has only grown in importance since’.
TCS is a company that has experienced immense growth and success. Their ambitions also extend to Employer Branding. ‘Our vision is to be considered a Best in Class Employer in each of the 46 countries we operate in,’ Abhinav shared. ‘It is an important strategic goal for our Country CEOs and the business layer. Given that talent is one of the key parameters in our own clients’ buying decision matrices, these benchmarks are strategically important for us from a sales and commercial purpose as well.’
So, how does a company of this size and complexity deliver a compelling Employer Brand proposition? Abhinav explained that it is enshrined in their Employee Value Proposition with three simple thematic components: creating rewarding long-term careers, ensuring work-life balance and finding challenging/exciting/ambitious work for people to engage in. ‘While it is simplistic, almost a perfect coverage of employees in the company when polled agree that these are the primary reasons they continue to work in the company. So the rubber does meet the road on this.’
Advocacy is an important component for all businesses, however in the service sector again, it is integral in driving reputation and business success. Abhinav explained; ‘The two best advocates we have are our employees and our clients. We have strong referral programmes in place which are a major channel contributor to our recruitment efforts. We encourage our employees to be active on social media and share their and the company’s successes, which of course helps project the Employer Brand further to their own networks.’
For Edelman, the leading global communications marketing agency, attracting and retaining the industry’s very best talent is central to realising the company’s aspirations and implicit in their ability to deliver against their clients’ needs.
So, is it possible to translate the reality of what it takes to join a leading agency like Edelman? How does it translate into an Employer Brand proposition which is aligned with the actual employee experience whilst still being attractive? Nigel Miller, Edelman’s Chief Human Resources Officer, explained how they are addressing this challenge.
Nigel Miller Chief Human Resources Officer, Edelman
‘Honestly, I think our Employer Brand represents an aspirational view of our employee experience. As our industry’s leader and pioneer, we are a very attractive destination for anyone seeking a career choice in Public Relations. Our Employer Brand reflects our history, our continued independence, our leadership and scale, our clients and, to some extent, our values. However, while all of that is accurate, we can be better at depicting how challenging it can be to work at our firm, particularly for newcomers. We are client-centric, so really understanding our clients’ business and designing the best possible solutions are our highest priorities. We’re big, so understanding how to manage our matrix isn’t always intuitive. We strive for perfection, and that can be demanding. Many people thrive in this environment, and we need to find, excite and retain those who can and will. But we’re not for everyone, and we need to try and be as honest as we can about that.’
With Edelman building a communication business for the future, its UK team reinvented its graduate programme to attract a new breed of talent. They did away with the usual application form and, instead, invited potential applicants (anyone over 16 years old) to make their way through an online multi-platform hunt that included clues and codes scattered across social channels, online marketplaces, video screening platforms and a well-known music app. Candidates had to demonstrate their curiosity, tenacity, strategic thinking and creativity to make it to the end of the application.
‘We already had a prestigious graduate scheme in the UK, but we knew the application process needed to be updated to better reflect the new Edelman. If we wanted people to be game changers, our method of attracting and assessing them needed to be a little more game changing itself. By creating such a unique and intricate online hunt, bridging the world of physical and digital, the UK team were able to cast their net much wider. But at the same time, they also significantly narrowed the pool of applicants they ultimately invited for assessment days. The program not only spoke volumes about our Employer Brand, attracting attention across multiple social channels and attracting about 15 times the number of applicants to our previous program. But, with only 6% of applicants completing the hunt, we ultimately knew we’d be interviewing people who were highly motivated and savvy enough to get that far.’
This piece has only touched on a small part of Employer Branding, subjects such as measurement and recruitment have not been addressed, however both are fundamental in proving the business case for Employer Branding. It is crucial that a measurement strategy should be as well thought out as an overall strategy and that your talent acquisition touchpoints are well honed to deliver on both conversion and experience metrics.
To conclude this piece, here is a vision of the future in the eyes of those who know Employer Branding best; the contributors to this piece.
‘Brands are now really creating that emotional connection and saying, on an emotional level of values, do I, company, and you connect? If we connect, even if you don’t apply, you will maybe buy. And that’s enough. And that’s how I see the future of Employer Branding and that’s why connecting with marketers and communication is key. Making this as a company and not an HR story is also key.’
‘I think the future of Employer Branding will be experience driven. I recently read an article saying that Employer Branding is the new corporate branding. People no longer want to work for the label of a company, they want to work for the experience that the company offers.’
‘In the future, Employer Branding will be much more about interacting with talent than sending a message.’
‘Culture is the collective memory of what a company is. So, in order to change it, you actually need to change some parts of the organisation and people. Change is here to stay and it is undefined, it is in between all the disciplines. The future, for those companies who get it right, is maybe where you have disciplines merging. The ones who get it right – it’s about soft and hard transformation going hand in hand.’
‘It’s about trust; personal interactions and honest interest in each other while being authentic. Social selling is a journey. Like it or not, we’re all in sales now.’
‘The big disruption to an Employee Branding effort that has taken place historically is social media and its future certainly lies with that. Humanising your brand and telling stories of your employees and by them is which is going to drive authentic Employer Branding. In celebrating their achievements and lives, our own company comes alive.’
‘The world is hugely transparent; my personal passion is external candidate experience. It is really important to win the war of talent.’
‘I expect a much greater degree of personalisation in Employer Branding with the increase of technological advances in target marketing, candidate tracking and artificial intelligence.’
‘As most organisations are keenly aware of the importance of their reputation among employees and potential employees, and the link that has to finding and keeping the best people, Employer Branding will only grow.’
‘Today, the Employer Brand is a key pillar on which to develop a more consistent and productive company culture. Our mobile and social world means businesses must now operate in a more open fashion, encouraging dialog with customers, stakeholders and, of course, with employees. People are far more likely to trust what a company’s employees say than they are to engage with a business through traditional paid media. So, in future, the foundation of a successful Employer Brand will be built on an engaged workforce and will communicate that proposition through employee advocacy.’
‘Employees should come first when you talk about branding. You need to have great employees to have a great customer centricity approach.’
‘It’s important to create an Employer Brand that attracts different types of people to your company; where it’s not just about attracting people who will join full time for the next 10 years but also about attracting entrepreneurial people who work, for example, four days a week and have their own company next to it; it’s about freelance professionals who choose to work here because of a certain professional challenge. Work will be more community-driven and companies will brand that community and give a vibe to it.’
‘As a company, you can’t just claim that your brand is imbued with a meaningful purpose, you also need to put that purpose into action and let the employees do it and be proud of it. It can’t be just lip service.’
For more information please contact Anita van de Velde
HEINEKEN Employer Branding Case Study
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