EVP

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Employer

      Building an Effective EVP: The Journey of a Bangalore Tech Company

      by

      India’s startup ecosystem has been experiencing a rapid growth rate, with the country emerging as the third-largest startup hub globally, posting record revenue of $227 billion in 2022, according to Mint. This growth has led to a highly competitive market for talent, making it essential for companies to have strong employer branding and an attractive Employer Value Proposition (EVP) to remain competitive.
      To gain insights into creating an effective EVP in such a fast-paced environment, we caught up with Malliga Rajkumar, the Senior Director of HR and Talent Branding Lead at Flipkart, one of the largest e-commerce platforms in India based in Bangalore, which began as a startup 15 years ago with a team of 200 people.
      As a 30,000-strong organization serving 150 million customers across all of India, Flipkart is known as the “startup of startups,” with alums going on to found their successful tech enterprises. Despite its size, the startup ethos of risk and innovation remains near and dear to Flipkart’s heart.
      However, with the tech sector’s growth came fierce competition for key talent, prompting Rajkumar and her team to build and implement an employer branding strategy to ensure Flipkart could compete. Rajkumar’s approach was to ask two simple questions: “What is it about our culture that we want to absolutely retain and rebuild where it may have atrophied? And what are the elements that we want to add on?”
      Developing EVP
      The journey to Flipkart’s EVP was months of extensive primary and secondary research. Rajkumar and her team interviewed people at all levels within the organization, spoke to headhunters, and did market benchmarking with accredited organizations like the Great Place to Work Institute and Mercer.
      In the end, they had a list of all the things Flipkart wanted to be known for and a list of the things talent cares about. The challenge was to find a balance between the two to stake out an EVP that encapsulated what Flipkart stands for while appealing to the talent they wanted to attract.
      They settled on a simple EVP that stitched together all of the concepts they wanted to include in one phrase:
      “Together, We Dare to Maximize.”
      Together spoke to everything they hope to foster in terms of community and collaboration. Dare represents their startup heart by celebrating audacity and breaking boundaries. And maximize represents their ambition to be the best they possibly can be and continuously improve.
      Activating EVP
      Articulating an EVP is only half the battle; Rajkumar and her team still needed to activate it for both employees and candidates. “Together we dare to maximize” is displayed in every Flipkart office. More importantly, that concept and the four pillars that support it are woven into all internal communications, awards, employee forums, and events throughout the year.
      They also measure its resonance each year in their annual employee engagement survey. A team of over 250 employee advocates helps get the word out and shares an honest look at what life at Flipkart is like.
      Aspirational EVP
      Flipkart sees its EVP as aspirational, and they want to ensure that they live up to its promise. Therefore, they used their mission statement to build a 3-year maturity model that articulates every process’s intent, design, experience, and measurement. The goal is to look at everything they do and take the time to align it with their EVP incrementally.
      As always, it is crucial to measure the impact of employer branding to demonstrate its value to key organizational stakeholders. At Flipkart, they compare their engagement statistics to a benchmark list of other companies to assess their performance and identify areas for improvement. Additionally, they have specific metrics for individual campaigns and regularly conduct internal surveys to assess the level of awareness within the organization regarding employer brand themes.
      According to Rajkumar, “Employer brand is not about who you are today; it’s about who you aspire to be.” A good EVP should reflect the organization’s current state and set higher standards for what it can become. Good employer branding presents an opportunity for an organization to improve and live its values, which in turn attracts top talent.

      To follow Malliga Rajkumar’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help identifying the values and culture you want to create in your company, get in touch.
      Share this post: More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Employer

      Developing and Activating a New EVP for an Old Company

      by

      The concept of employer brand is still fairly new to the world of business. Articulating an EVP (Employer Value Proposition) is typically on the agenda of management teams; however, not every organization knows how to go about it.
      Hence I was pleased to chat with Kayla Branham, Marketing Manager of Talent Acquisition at security giant ADT. Most of us will be familiar with this company and brand that has been around for over a century. But what is it like to work there?
      Branham points out that every company has an employer brand or employer reputation. The question is how you manage this and how you can highlight what makes your company stand out as an employer. In this case, Branham adapted Allison Kruise’s 3-step model for brand activation to develop a new EVP at ADT.
      Landing on an EVP
      Step one was to investigate what the current employer brand was for ADT. The research undertaken zoomed in on a number of areas, such as:

      How are we perceived as an employer?
      What is on offer to our candidates and employees?
      What makes working at ADT different from other companies?

      The purpose of asking questions to people around the business was to understand perspectives from all talent groups. The research outcome painted a picture of what it’s like to work at ADT.
      On top of speaking to current employees, the team also carried out external research to determine employer brand perception in the public sphere.
      Establishing the EVP
      One word kept popping up in focus groups: Trust. This particular word happens to be essential to the ethos of ADT and it was a natural place to lay the foundations of the EVP around trust. The governing thought was determined:
      “At ADT, you’re entrusted with tomorrow.”
      Next up, Branham and team identified four pillars of the employer value proposition:

      Take ownership
      Work with a great purpose
      Shape the future
      Win together

      “There’s a give-and-get element to each of them. It’s what team members offer to an employer and what the team member is receiving in exchange,” Branham notes.
      Time to activate
      The EVP was launched at the back end of 2022, and before this, it was communicated internally to various stakeholders and teams. The idea was to stoke interest in the upcoming external rollout.
      Branham and team developed a number of content pieces designed to inspire employees and to create engagement. Videos, LinkedIn banners, and social sharing contests were all part of the plan.
      Looking to the future, Branham will be partnering closely with Talent Management to focus on continuing internal activation and adoption. “We want to ensure that our EVP is a lived experience for our team members,” she says. They know that scaling the employer brand internally is the most important thing for growing external awareness.
      The next stop on the journey is to partner with Talent Management to embed the EVP with the employee lifecycle. By scaling internally, the EVP will manifest itself in the public domain in an organic fashion.

      To follow Kayla Branham’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help with your own EVP, get in touch. We help you identify the values and culture you want to create in your company.
      Share this post: More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Employer

      Activating Employer Brand as a Science and Technology Company

      by

      Successful employer brand activation is all about thinking globally for this 352-year-old, progress-driven science and technology company.
      Merck Group has dedicated itself to furthering human progress through science and technology. It’s a lofty mission and one its team takes very seriously, particularly employer brand leader Chris Dinwiddy.
      You Value Curiosity
      Merck Group’s EVP, “Bring your curiosity to life,” carries two meanings for Dinwiddy. It invites employees to nurture their curiosity, but it also encourages employees to direct that curiosity toward improving life on earth. Curiosity isn’t just a trait of a great hire; it’s a skill that helps Merck Group make the world a better place.
      Curiosity also motivates the employer brand team’s investment in its ambassador network. With so many markets worldwide (including China, the US, Germany, and others), Dinwiddy has realized the importance of nurturing one-on-one relationships with regional heads of recruitment and demonstrating an interest in their unique region.
      You Stay Innovative
      When courting an in-demand demographic, filling a specific role type, or launching a campaign, the employer brand team relies on SAP SuccessFactors tools and custom landing pages. They keep a close on their Google Analytics and other sources of quantitative data, while also tracking more qualitative feedback (candidate comments like ”I didn’t know much about you before I applied” or “I’ve seen your brand around”) to measure success.
      The team is also trying out a new tool that’s been instrumental in gathering employee-generated content: an app called PathMotion, specifically designed to help candidates connect with employees.
      You Prioritize Humans
      “The recruitment industry’s drifted in the last few years away from corporate and polished,” Dinwiddy observes. Now, candidates are responding more to honest, authentic, and candid messaging.
      For Dinwiddy, this human-centered and end-user-focused culture is key to what makes it a great place to work and such an easy employer to promote. In describing his experience at Merck Group, Dinwiddy offers the same kind of candidness he encourages in brands: “My job’s really special. I work for a brilliant company—and I’m not just saying that because they pay my salary!”

      To follow Chris Dinwiddy’s work in employer brand, connect with him on LinkedIn. For help gathering data and insight that you can act on to improve your company, get in touch.
      Share this post: More

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Employer

      Building Employer Brand Awareness with Global Tech Talent

      by

      Everyone’s looking for tech talent, and the competition within this highly in-demand market is steep. This is the challenge Liz Gelb-O’Connor faces as ADP’s VP/Global Head of Employer Brand and Marketing. Here’s how Gelb-O’Connor and her team are tailoring their employer brand strategy to attract tech talent specifically.
      Building Global Awareness
      As a payroll services provider, ADP pays one out of every six workers in the US and is almost a household name. However, outside of the US, it doesn’t have the same level of recognition as major US consumer brands.
      The employer brand team spent 10 months researching the international talent markets that yielded the most candidates and nurturing relationships with partner organizations in other countries. The result was an EVP localized for each country—a monumental effort that turned out to be well worth it, Gelb-O’Connor says.
      Nurture Future Talent
      ADP’s employer brand team also devotes energy to the very top of the tech talent funnel, those that aren’t looking for work right now but may be strong candidates in the future. ADP’s tech blog, a first of its kind for the company, keeps future talent abreast of industry conversations and news while showcasing the brand’s innovation and the thought leadership of its tech employees.
      The results of this tech-tailored approach to employer brand have been powerful. In the five years since Gelb-O’Connor began leading employer brand, ADP has won industry accolades, and earned a strong NPS score for its candidate experience. Cost of hire has dropped, and the candidate conversion rate for the tech career site is twice the rate of its main career site (despite launching during the hiring slowdown of May 2020).
      This rapid change and growth around tech is one of the things that makes Gelb-O’Connor so excited to lead employer brand at ADP. “It never gets old,” she says. “That’s been the most rewarding thing: seeing how far we’ve come.”

      To follow Liz Gelb-O’Connor’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help identifying the values and culture you want to create in your company, get in touch.
      Share this post: More

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in Employer

      Is Your Employer Brand Helping or Hindering Your Hiring Objectives?

      by

      Most employers agree that great employees are at the heart of every business. To secure the best candidates, hiring managers typically put significant efforts into two key facets of the hiring process: producing an attractive job advert and properly screening the applicant’s CVs.
      The interviews and onboarding that follow must be conducted with the utmost care, managed by members of staff with the knowledge and time to ensure they do not miss out on the opportunity to secure the right candidates.
      However, with 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agreeing that employer brand significantly impacts hiring, the key to enticing top talent could lie within how attractive your business seems to potential employees.
      So, if you want to meet your recruitment objectives, it might be time to think about the meaning of business branding and how you can use it to gain a competitive edge in the market…
      The ins and outs of company brands
      In short, business branding is a way of identifying your business. It encapsulates what sets it apart, what makes its offering different, and, perhaps most importantly, reflects the company’s values.
      A company develops a positive (or negative) impression of its brand through the quality and competitiveness of what it can offer its employees, including its salary and benefits, management style, culture, and commitments. As such, branding and recruitment go hand in hand — particularly in the digital world, where so much business and hiring activity happens online.
      Organizations around the world are working on nailing their branding — but why? What benefits are employees looking for, and why is it vital to get it right?
      Firstly, it generates cost savings. According to LinkedIn, companies with positive employer brands or favorable reputations within the market can get up to 50% more applications than companies with negative brands. And that is not all; successful employer branding has multiple proven benefits for hiring businesses, including:

      Conversely, companies that fail to focus on branding stand to lose out significantly — financially and reputationally. One study revealed that 82% of prospective employees consider brand and reputation before applying for a job, which could prove disastrous for business growth and bottom lines in organizations that fail to meet expectations.
      So, can you afford to fall short of the mark in the current recruitment landscape?
      Establishing a brand for your business
      A strong employer brand is crucial for securing skilled, engaged, and leadership-bound workers.
      When done well, a branding strategy can deliver multiple functions simultaneously — from defining products and services to showcasing a unique approach to company culture. Consistent, first-rate employer branding should speak for itself, helping to communicate all a candidate needs to know through every interaction with your company.
      Though defining and developing your business brand is a long-term commitment, there are a few key areas you can focus on to improve how your business appears to prospective candidates…
      Refining your employer value proposition
      Branding works alongside employer value propositions (EVPs): an employer’s marketing message and promise to its employees regarding its core values.
      Every company’s EVP is different. It is the sum of everything you offer as an employer — an employee-centric approach that tells the story of your business and why someone should consider joining your team.
      An EVP can be conveyed through consistent corporate messaging and recruitment marketing that helps communicate key messages to the employees you are trying to reach. However, whilst talking a good game is great, you must also walk the walk to ensure your branding comes across as genuine — a key facet to succeeding in your goals.
      Bringing your online reputation up to scratch
      One of the trickiest parts of navigating the job hunt for candidates is working out which companies they would enjoy working for. So, ensuring your business’ reputation reflects well across the board is crucial — from online reviews and staff testimonials to official accreditations.
      Many employers throw out attractive perks and salary offers, but a growing number of workers look for something more. According to research by CareerBuilder, 83% of candidates are willing to accept a lower salary from an employer with an excellent reputation. So, building and maintaining your brand as a business can lead to lower salary responsibilities and attract more interest from serious job seekers.
      In today’s world, social media plays a starring role in business branding, with many candidates basing their employment decisions on the quality of a company’s online presence. Monitoring and updating social media pages and websites are critical to ensuring you put your best foot forward.
      Optimizing your onboarding process
      Candidates often gain their first impression of your business brand during recruitment. As a result, every onboarding stage should be carefully considered to ensure talent is not dissuaded from pursuing an opportunity within your company.
      For employers, this means issuing timely, thorough feedback, remaining organized, and staying up to date with the latest trends — from virtual recruitment and remote working to HR management.
      Of course, this can quickly become an overwhelming task — especially in the current candidate-driven market. So, experts recommend enlisting the support of a specialist recruitment agency to support a successful business branding strategy.
      After all, if you are going to invest time and money in your business brand, you want to do it right.
      By Julie Mott, Managing Director, Howett Thorpe.
      Share this post: More

    • 88 Shares129 Views

      in Employer

      Crafting an EVP That Serves Multiple Brands

      by

      Some employer brand leaders know how difficult it can be to unify an entire brand under one employer value proposition. That’s the challenge LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group (RSG) faced in 2020.
      Under the leadership of Director for Employer Brand Shelley Jeffcoat, LexisNexis RSG launched an EVP that served each of its eight brands while helping them distinguish themselves as employers.
      Get Brand-Specific as Early as Possible
      As early as the research stage, Jeffcoat’s team was organizing data by brand. With help from an external research firm, LexisNexis RSG explored each brand’s target candidates and demographics, its competitors, its functions, and more.
      Then, when moving from the research stage to the analytics stage, Jeffcoat tagged her colleagues in marketing. Together, they created a unique tagline for each brand that echoed the overarching LexisNexis RSG EVP (“Explore more”) while painting a more specific picture of the individual brand (“Explore our passion for discovery”).
      Think Bigger Than Promotion
      The choice to equip each LexisNexis RSG sub-brand with its own EVP wasn’t simply marketing cleverness. Getting specific made the company more competitive as an employer and continues to impact the employee journey as well.
      In creating these flexible EVPs, “we’re defining our values and culture in a way that’s much easier for our candidates and employees to articulate,” Jeffcoat says. “This improves our competitive advantage as an employer.”
      Invest in Your Employee Advocates
      To generate internal momentum around brand advocacy, Jeffcoat knew she’d need to find employee advocates. She started her search with the talent acquisition team (a natural choice, as they were already skilled and experienced at representing the business to the public). But because of the company’s unique structure, Jeffcoat knew she couldn’t stop there; she’d need to pull in stakeholders from every brand and balance each brand’s representation.
      In an organization that houses so many brands and employs thousands, the best strategy is to “consult and empower,” than surrender control. In Jeffcoat’s words, “Trust the process!”

      To follow Shelley Jeffcoat’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. To identify the values and culture you want to create in your own company, get in touch.
      Share this post: More

    • 88 Shares99 Views

      in Employer

      A Strategic Approach to Employer Reputation Management

      by

      What makes your campaigns instantly recognizable as belonging to your brand? When your employees talk about your brand online (and they do), do you know how and where? Your answers to these questions paint a picture of your brand consistency, a crucial element of a unified employer brand.

      These are also the questions Kirsten Bethmann has been asking as Global Employer Reputation Lead for Mars, Incorporated. Mars has set an inspiring goal for itself: to become one of the most attractive employers in the world by 2025. Achieving this goal, Bethmann believes, requires a renewed focus on brand consistency.
      Why Brand Consistency Is So Important to Growth
      The journey toward greater employer brand consistency supports greater brand awareness—often the biggest ongoing talent challenge organizations face. Unless you’re a beloved consumer brand with widespread name recognition, your employer brand team is likely all too familiar with this struggle.
      Establishing a Shared Vision
      A clear employee value proposition is the cornerstone of a consistent employer brand. For Mars, that EVP is built on three pillars: people, purpose, and development. The employer brand team took this EVP development a step further by adapting the Mars statement of purpose (“The world we want tomorrow starts with how you do business today”) into a tagline: “Your tomorrow starts today,” which personalizes and transforms the Mars mission into a call to action for its employees.
      Standardizing Brand Guidelines
      Companies that operate in multiple markets must walk a fine line between enforcing brand guidelines and empowering markets to represent themselves authentically. Mars began this work by creating a central platform for its guidelines, a “one-stop-shop” for learning how to use color, messaging, and more.
      Leaving Room for Personalization
      Within these brand guidelines, employer brand teams in each of Mars’ markets have the flexibility to make campaigns their own. Brand guidelines dictate certain standards for social media messaging, but Mars’ employer brand leaders recognize that messaging from sales employees may sound different from engineering’s messaging. Bethmann and her team welcome those differences.
      To follow Kirsten Bethmann’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help building your EVP, the foundation of your employer brand, get in touch with us.

      Share this post: More

    • 75 Shares169 Views

      in Employer

      Creating an EVP with Design Thinking

      by

      In building an EVP for Ritchie Bros, an online auction platform for heavy equipment, Employer Brand Specialist Thomas Reneau drew from his experience with design thinking firm IDEO. Reneau saw an opportunity to marry this innovative perspective with the company’s employer brand strategy and, in the process, enhanced the Ritchie Bros’ voice, values, and culture.
      A more traditional approach to EVP might assume your team is already crystal-clear on what your company offers to candidates and what your ideal candidate is looking for. A design thinking approach to EVP, however, flips that on its head.
      Design thinking encourages continually asking questions, rather than assuming your employer brand team already has all the data it needs. Design thinking highlights the difference between saying, “We need to attract this specific demographic,” and turning to current employees from that demographic to ask, “Why did you choose to work here?”
      “Think of it as reverse engineering,” says Reneau. “We need to enable the team to attract the right candidates.”
      Empathy and comfort with vulnerability are critical to this approach. When asking a colleague, “How does it feel to be in your shoes?” employer brand teams must be ready for honest and personal answers. They’re also responsible for creating channels and nurturing relationships where that kind of trust is possible.
      Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or Soundcloud.

      To follow Thomas Reneau’s work in employer brand, connect with him on LinkedIn. To get started on your EVP, get in touch with us. We’ll help you identify the values and culture you want to create in your company.

      Share this post: More