TALENT MATTERS
Charlotte Housden
Bernard Hodes Group
Strategic Human Resources Conference
7th February 2007
Geneva
TALENT MATTERS
Using Employer Brand
to attract talent
Or… have I stumbled into
a Marketing presentation?
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So, as we’re talking about brands…..
 Do you know which are top 10 Best Global Brands in
the world (Interbrand 2006)?
 Or which are the 10 most Respected companies in
the world (PWC 2004)?
 Or which are the top 10 MBA Employers in the world
(Universum 2006)?
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Best Global Brands
World’s most respected Co’s
1 – Coca Cola
2 – Microsoft
3 – IBM
4 – GE
5 – Intel
6 – Nokia
7 – Toyota
8 – Disney
9 – McDonalds
10 – Mercedes
1 – GE
2 – Microsoft
3 – Toyota
4 – IBM
5 – Coca-Cola
6 – Dell
7 – Wall-Mart
8 – Citigroup
9 – Procter & Gamble
10 – Hewlett-Packard
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Top 10 MBA Employers in the world
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The talent squeeze
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Working age populations
Working age taken as 15-64 years
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Working age populations
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Aging populations
Decreasing birth-rates
Reduced talent pool
Increased life expectancy
There will be “a significant exodus of talent and experience in
the next two decades and a dearth of new employees to step
into roles that require specialized skills”
Accenture (2005)
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Global employee engagement levels
Towers Perrin global workforce study (2005)
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Declining employee tenure in the USA
 1/3 in jobs less than 2 years
25
 2/3 in jobs less than 5 years
20
 1/2 employed on Interim/Contract basis
Years of
15
Service
 3.5 years average
Depression
10 Survivors
5
Pension
Seekers
Victims
0
1950s
1960s
1970s
“Free Agent
Nation”
1980s
1990s
2000
2000s
US Department of Labor, Employee Tenure Surveys, (1995-2000)
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Baby Boomers:
1946–1961
Generation X:
1961–1981
Generation Y:
1981–1997/2000
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Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
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Bigger Meaning:
The Australian Leadership Foundation
When looking for a job Gen Y’ers want (in this order):
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
Training
Management Style
Work flexibility
Staff activities
Non financial rewards
Salary
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Aging populations
Decreasing birth-rates
Reduced talent pool
Increased life expectancy
Declining tenure
Self-actualisation
Drop in engagement
A less interested talent
pool
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Together… an attraction and retention issue
 CIPD 2006 recruitment, retention and turnover survey:
 82% of organisations reported difficulties in recruiting
 69% reporting difficulties in retaining
 RightCoutts 2006, in Management Issues 2006
 41% of Senior HR professionals thought retention of key
staff was their most critical HR issue
 Accenture on-line survey 2006
 67% of senior directors in N. America, Europe and Asia
think the inability to attract and retain the best talent is
one of their top 3 threats to success
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Some HR Levers
Performance
Management
“where is our talent in
the organisation?”
Employer Brand
“what do people think
of us?”
Individual
and Team
Competence
Performance
Review
Leadership
Values and
Culture
Recruitment
Processes
“how we do attract
talented people to
us?”
Core Work
Processes
Talent Management
“how do we manage
our talent?”
HR
Processes
Organisation,
Team and Job
Design
Communication
“how do we talk to our
talented people?”
Reward & Recognition
“what keeps our talent
with us?”
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Employer Brand: a short
summary for the uninitiated…..
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What is it?
 “The package of functional, economic, and psychological
benefits provided by employment, and identified with the
employing company”, Ambler & Barrow 1996
 A long term strategy that establishes an organisation’s
identity as an employer
 Which differentiates them from competitors in the
employment market
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Where do you start?
 The development of an employee value proposition (EVP)
 Capturing in one statement, the sum of “everything that
people experience and receive while they are part of the
company”
 It must be aligned to the overall brand and reputation
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Who is it for?
 Potential employees – to persuade more and better
applicants to apply and accept offers
 Current employees – to reduce turnover, increase employee
motivation, a sense of belonging and align behaviour to the
organisation’s needs
 Consistency of messages across both groups is vital as the
organisation has to deliver what it promises
 Projecting an unrealistic image may improve recruitment but
can increase attrition
TALENT MATTERS
Brand Strength
Brand strength
Employer Brand
The unique and
differentiating promise
a business makes to
its employees and
potential candidates
+
Employee
experience
Actual delivery of the
promise throughout the
employee lifecycle
Attraction of the right
candidates
Employee engagement and
retention
Differentiation from
competitors
Customer engagement and
retention
 Attraction of high quality employees is a competitive necessity
 Engagement of high quality employees is a bottom line issue
TALENT MATTERS
Employer brand – a three step process
1.Brand insight
• Competitor analysis
• Brand positioning vs
competition
• Understanding vision for
the business and
employees
• Understanding best of
the current employee
experience and
improvements
2. Brand development 3. Implementation
• Alignment of the consumer brand/
employer brand
• Concept development
• Concept testing
• Refinement and development
• Recruitment guidelines and
roll out for recruitment
advertising
• Design of internal launch
process
• Production of comms
materials, internally and
externally
Employee Value
Proposition
Employee vision
Personality
Key messages
Strengths/areas to improve
Brand book
Communication
strategy
Communication tools
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Employer brand benefits
 Significant decreases in cost per hire
 Reduced cost of recruitment - efficiencies maximised
throughout the recruitment process
 Reduction in recruitment marketing costs over time
 Greater numbers of higher quality applicants
 Higher performing employees
 Increased retention rates
 Stronger reputation in the marketplace
 Increased ability to attract specialist talent in a difficult market
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Employer brand benefits at our clients
 Diageo - Began with an attrition rate of 18%, costing £4
million. In 14 months they reduced attrition rates to 7%,
recouping the costs of the initial research 30 times over.
 GSK - applied the proposition and guiding principles to
their recruitment process, increasing the number of offers
accepted from 83% to 96%
 Philips - are now receiving 10 times as many quality
applications from graduates and MBAs
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Philips Case study
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Philips: The background
 2002 global recruitment redesign programme found
quality of service could be improved and needed to focus
on proactive talent recruitment
 Identified inconsistent positioning of messages to
prospective employees – not addressing them as “One
Philips”
 They weren’t reaching targets they’d set to attract/ retain
the best talent
 They also wanted to find out how potential employees
regarded the company as an employer
TALENT MATTERS
Philips: their vision
 “To be certain that we are able to attract,
recruit and retain the sort of talent that will
give our business competitive edge.”
 “To be sure that our employer experience will
enable and motivate our talent to work in a
way that is ‘one Philips.’ Providing maximum
satisfaction for both the organisation and the
individual.”
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The research
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29 internal focus groups
18 external focus groups
3500 internal survey respondents
1000 external survey respondents
Both Sales/Mktg and R&D people, different
ages, length of service
 Netherlands, Germany, France, UK, Poland,
USA, India, China
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Some of the outputs
 Employees didn’t not know the full range of products/services
 Everything Philips makes impacts every aspect of consumers’
lives, something to be proud of and make more of
 Philips could be too formal – there needed to be more
personality in the way the brand was communicated
They wanted Philips to be
 One company – all working together, united in one purpose
 Proud and confident about what it does, passionate
 People and products could have equal and united prominence
 Offer great reasons for coming to work everyday
 An “icon of innovation”
 Global and diverse
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“Touch lives every day” – The Trial
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“Touch Lives every day”
 “ Is not only a description of how Philips should approach
prospective and existing employees, but also a call for
managers to ensure the company delivers on its promises “
 Jo Pieters, Global Vice President Recruitment, Philips, The
Netherlands
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Philips Touchpoint Wheel
Exit
interviews
Retention
Career
development
Performance
review
Commitment
Campus
recruitment
Internship
PreApplication
Experience
PostApplication
Experience
Management
behavior
Awareness
Career site
Consideration
Company
brand
Employer Brand
Informing /
Involving
people
Invitation
letter
Application Experience
Engagement
Introduction
Preference
Interview
Rejection
letter
Assessment
Contract
handling
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Ensuring Global Consistency – The Toolkit
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Ensuring Global Consistency – Deployment
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Guide for Hiring Managers
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Building brands from the inside out
“ Winning the war for talent means primarily focusing on
the retention of your current talent and [then], building a
strong position in your key labour markets…
…a brand that is only visible in external communications is
less valuable than a brand that is truly lived inside.
Each and every employee should act as an ambassador
of your brand and that requires a strong recognized
internal and external employee value proposition ”
Jo Pieters, Global Vice President Recruitment,
Philips, The Netherlands
TALENT MATTERS
Philips Labor Market Ranking – China
Employer brand launch Dec 2003
Engineering & Science Discipline
2003
2004
2005
Familiar with Philips
17
11
9
Considered employer
15
9
6
Ideal employer
14
8
4
Business Discipline
2003
2004
2005
Familiar with Philips
26
17
11
Considered employer
23
11
8
Ideal employer
20
9
5
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Philips Labor Market Ranking – Europe
Employer brand launch Dec 2003
Engineering & Science Discipline
2003
2004
2005
24
14
9
6
5
3
21
17
17
Business Discipline
2003
2004
2005
Familiar with Philips
25
21
12
Considered employer
16
11
8
Ideal employer
65
62
54
Familiar with Philips
Considered employer
Ideal employer
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Lessons learned
 Don’t underestimate the size of such an initiative
 Even if you have clearly defined the scope, focus and
approach, you have to make tough choices along the
way about what to keep in or leave out
 Getting the whole organization behind the Employer
Brand is critical to making it a success
 You must get commitment and involvement of people
beyond HR, particularly in marketing, and get it early
on!
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So what does this mean for you…
…and your Employer Brand?
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Some final questions for you
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Do you know what your organisation represents?
Have you tested out your values, your culture?
Have you looked at your brand values?
What does this say about your organisation?
Who is the real competition in the employment market (not just
the ones you know or think it should be?)
Is your brand attractive to new recruits?
Does it help you present a strong employer brand in the
marketplace?
Who manages your Employer Brand – HR or Marketing?
What are you going to do with this information when you get
home?