EMPLOYER BRANDING. I femte och sjätte delen av vår employer branding-skola, fokuserar Richard Mosley* på det löfte du som arbetsgivare ger dina nuvarande och potentiella medarbetare.

5. För att bygga ett starkt arbetsgivarvarumärke, gäller det att lyfta både nuvarande styrkor och framtida ambitioner i sitt EVP. Det visar på såväl trovärdighet som visioner, menar Richard Mosley i del fem av vår Employer branding-skola.

The most effective EVPs combine credible ‘here and now’ strengths solidly grounded in the current employment experience and more future focused, stretch aspirations, underpinned by tangible leadership commitments and planned investment. Playing to current strengths helps to establish trust, which provides the essential underpinning to any brand. Playing to future aspirations builds vitality, which is also critical in maintaining a brand’s forward momentum and competitive edge.

• When Coca-Cola Hellenic developed its first company-wide EVP a number of years ago, it recognized that two elements within the proposition – teamwork and empowerment – were credibly strong, but employees’ current rating of opportunities for development within the company was relatively poor. Despite this existing weakness, they decided to incorporate this promise into the EVP as they recognized how critical it was to their talent attraction, employee engagement and future business performance. However, when this EVP was recommended to the board it came with a qualification. Development should only be included in the proposition if the leadership team makes a step-change in investment, otherwise it will be seen as nothing but wishful thinking and undermine rather than build the brand.
  Coca-Cola Hellenic’s leadership team made the commitment. The Company began to invest more consistently in front-line training across the 27 countries in which it was then operating, established clearer career paths and improved talent mobility. The reward was a 9% increase in development related employee favorability scores over the following 2 years, a similarly high 9% increase in employee advocacy, and a top 10 place in Great Place to Work’s European-wide rankings. This external recognition came with a special prize for ‘employee development and progress’.
• Adidas recently suggested that ‘an EVP should be uncovered not created’. They defined their task in terms of capturing the distinctive vibrancy of the existing Adidas ‘culture’ to enable them to celebrate and communicate it more effectively. This may be true of a handful of organizations, but for most like Coca-Cola Hellenic an effective EVP cannot simply uncover and describe, it also needs to inspire, shape and create future change.

6. Ett bra EVP klargör inte bara vad potentiella kandidater kan räkna med av arbetsgivaren, utan också vad som förväntas av dem i gengäld. Det gäller att hitta rätt balans mellan ”ge och ta” i sitt arbetsgivarlöfte. Ju svårare det är att attrahera rätt kompetens, desto mer fokus måste ligga på ge-delen, det vill säga vad ni kan erbjuda.

The most effective EVPs clarify not only what employees can expect from the employer, but also what is expected from employees in return. In other words it’s not just simply a one-way promise, but a two-way ‘give and get’ deal. This helps to ground the EVP in the reality of the business and working experience.

If the major priorities for the leadership of the organization are quality, customer focus or enterprise-wide collaboration, then it’s just as important to reflect these desired capabilities in the EVP ‘mix’ as it is to reflect the needs and aspirations of potential candidates. It generally helps to think of this as a mix and match exercise. Some potential pillars may be entirely driven by business needs, some entirely by target talent needs, and others may provide an even balance between both. For example:

• Work-life balance tends to be more give than get from an organizational perspective. It should be seen as an important means of achieving more sustainable levels of performance, but in practice it is often seen as a necessary cost to engage and retain employees.
• High performance tends to be more get than give from an organizational perspective. It doesn’t generally appear among employee attraction or engagement drivers but is often a key focus of what is demanded of employees.
• Empowerment tends to be a more evenly balanced deal. The organization ‘gives’ more scope for personal initiative (which most employees would see as a benefit), but in turn they expect to get a high level of accountability from employees to deliver on their performance objectives.

One of the important decisions to make in developing your EVP is striking the right balance in this ‘give and get’ deal. Where the supply of talent exceeds demand, as it has done in many markets during the economic downturn, then you can afford to up-weight what you expect from potential candidates (the ‘get’ side of the deal). If on the other hand, the demand for talent outstrips the supply, you will need to up-weight what the organization needs to ‘give’ to attract and retain the people it needs.

Since many organizations are now facing increasing difficulties in attracting the right kind of talent they will inevitably need to upweight the ’give’ side of the EVP equation, but they should never forget the counter-side of the deal. To be effective EVPs need to be not only ’fit for talent’, but also ’fit for business’.

* Fotnot: Richard Mosley är en ledande employer branding-expert med över 25 års erfarenhet av varumärkesarbete från företag som Coca-Cola, BP, LEGO, L’Oreal, Nokia-Siemens och Unilever. Han är även författare till bl a bästsäljaren ”The Employer Brand”.

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Annika Ahnlund

grundare & redaktör på HRbloggen.se

Annika är grundare och redaktör för HRbloggen.se samt vd för HR etcetera AB, där hon bl a arrangerar seminarier och utbildningar för HR och chefer. I botten är hon både beteende/personalvetare fil.kand. och marknadsförare med lång erfarenhet av kommunikation från reklambranschen.

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