A

PROJECT REPORT

ON

“A STUDY ON EMPLOYER BRANDING”

AT

GENPACT

Submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of

Management of Business Administration (MBA)

By

KAPIL BINDAL

(BATCH 2012-2014)

DELHI INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES

(AFFILIATED TO GURU GOBIND SINGH INDRAPRASTHA UNIVERSITY)

SECTOR-25 ROHINI, NEW DELHI -110085

CERTIFICATE
DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this project report titled “Employer Branding” has been successfully completed at
GENPACT, towards the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree “Master of
Business Administration” from Delhi Institute of Advanced Studies , affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh
Indraprastha University. This is an original manuscript developed by me and has not been furnished from
any source thereof, has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or any such titles by
this institute or any other universities.

DATE SIGNATURE

PLACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It gives me great pleasure to express my boundless sense of gratitude to each and every person
who directly or indirectly helped me with hand and hand in completing this humble piece of
work.

First, of all I would like to thank Mr. Rajiv Khatri (Assistant Vice President – Direct Hiring),
Mr. Prashant (Process Developer- Direct Hiring) and Mrs. Manica Tewatia(Process Associate-
Direct Hiring) under whose supervision and guidance this report was completed.

No task can be completed without timely guidance and continuous motivation from a person who
can enlighten us about the motives, requirements and outcomes of our efforts. I would like to
extend my heartfelt thanks to my faculty guide Ms. Ruchika for extending her untiring guidance
to me and providing meaningful insight to the subject. She always supported me and guided to
grasp every minute detail about rebranding knowledge.

I am also thankful to my parents, classmates and friends who were in some or the other way
helpful to me in successfully completing this research study.

Kapil Bndal

MBA 3A
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This project examines the concept of employer branding carried out in Genpact and its
competitor Convergys. Employer branding is about capturing the essence of a company in a way
that engages employees and stakeholders. It expresses an organization’s “value proposition” –
the entirely of the organization culture, systems, attitudes, and employee relationship.  It is the
image of the organization as a 'great place to work’ in the minds of current employees and key
stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other
key stakeholders).

This study is based on the responses of the employees of selected BPO industry and the students
who are going to pursue their career in BPO industry. It involves a comparative analysis of the
students perception of the branding practices carried out at select BPO industry and also
compares their viewpoint towards their chosen company as an employer brand. Also a
comparative analysis of the employees perception of the branding practices carried out at their
respective company is done and their viewpoints towards their company as an employer brand
are contrasted.

The students and employees perception of the branding practices adopted by select companies
and their respective viewpoint towards their company as an employer brand is also compared and
contrasted. At the same time, it is also examined whether the demographic factors have an
impact on the students and employees perception of the company as an employer brand.

For the comparative analysis, the companies that were surveyed include :-

1. Genpact
2. Convergys

The mean score has been computed to find out the employer branding practices which are mostly
prevalent in these companies. Also, a comparative analysis of these companies is done in terms
of their branding practices to find out their ranking in context of ‘Employer Branding’.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgment

Executive Summary

CHPTER ONE - Introduction ………………………………………………………..6

1.1 Research Objectives

1.2 Research Methodology

1.3 Company Profile

CHAPTER TWO – Literature Review……………………………………………….13

CHAPTER THREE - Conceptual Framework………………………………………15

CHAPTER FOUR – Analysis & Findings………………………………………………41

 Conclusion
 Suggestions
 Limitations

Bibliography

Annexure………………………………

 Questionnaire for students

 Questionnaire for employees
  Evaluation Sheet
 Attendance Sheet

CHAPTER – 1

INTRODUCTION

Employer branding

Employer Branding is fast becoming an important tool for businesses in the quest to attract and
retain high quality talent in an ever increasing competitive employee market place.

“Employer branding” is an emerging discipline with its roots in classical marketing and HR
principles. Its aim is to develop an image of the organisation as an “employer of choice” in the
minds of existing and potential employees, as well as other stakeholders including customers and
recruiters. The objective is not only to offer these tangible benefits, but to also develop an
emotional link with them. A strong employer brand should connect an organization’s values,
people strategy and HR policies and be linked to the company brand.
 What employer branding is What it’s not

 A comprehensive recruiting strategy that  An advertising campaign – your

positions your company in an attractive employer brand is not just about
way and makes it top of mind for developing a catchy tagline!
potential candidates.  A wish list of how the company would
like to be perceived, i.e. promoting
 A focused corporate message that speaks work-life balance as a key benefit to
to current and potential employees that attract candidates is a good idea, but if
conveys the company’s culture and your organization doesn’t have programs
identity in a truthful and compelling in place, the message won’t be credible.
manner.  A quick fix – it may be tempting to
create an employer brand campaign to
 A long-term vision that encompasses the quickly generate a rush of new
values, systems, policies and behaviours applicants, but if you are not delivering
which define what employers expect of on your promises, retention will then
their employees and what employees become another challenge! Your
expect of their employers. organizational culture must be nurtured
over time.

Employer Branding – Core principles

The core principles of employer branding are:

1. Insight
 How do employees currently perceive the employer brand?
 Do people have a strong sense of the organization's purpose and values?
 What behaviours are felt to be most characteristic of the employees?
  What currently drives people’s commitment and what demoralizes people?
 Why do people chose to join the organization and why do they leave?
 What would be the reply of employees to the question:- What kind of
organization do you work for?

2. Focus

 Provide a focal point to the employee’s relation with the organization.

 This could be either what the organization does or what it plans to do.
 This could also be how the organization does it i.e. the values, style, culture
and personality of the organization.
 It is important to identify the current focal point and if need be, make a new
focal point.
 In either case, it is important to make the focal point crystal clear to all
employees.

3. Differentiation

 What is it that makes the organization different from it’s nearest competitor?
 What is it that makes the organization better than it’s competitors?
 These two points are always the key points at the core of any employer
branding exercise.

4. Benefits

 If you are going to make changes, communicate what’s in it for the

employees.
 Benefits could be many like money, greater security, greater share in success,
competitive strength or wider career opportunities.
 Don’t assume that employees will read between the lines.

5. Continuity

 Understand that change is not easy for anyone.

  People will be more receptive to change if they can see where it has come
from and not just where it is going.
 As far as possible, stress on continuity to the present situation.

6. Consistency

 This is going to be the most critical factor in building a brand that sustains
itself over the long run.
 There has to be a consistency in between what the management is saying and
the changes experienced by employees within the organization.

The major benefits of employer branding include:-

 Increased Productivity and Profitability.

 Increased Employee Retention.
 Highly ranked for Employer Attractiveness.
 Increased level of staff engagement.
 Lower Recruitment Costs.
 Minimized loss of talented employees.
 Employees recommending organization as a “preferred “place to work.
 Maintenance of core competencies.
 Employees committed to organizational goals.
 Shorter Recruitment time.
 Ensured long term competitiveness.
 Improved employee relations.
 Decreased time from hire to productivity.

1.1OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

  To analyze the components of employer branding and the branding practices
prevalent in selected companies
 To undertake a comparative analysis of these companies in terms of their branding
practices in context of ‘Employer Branding’.
 To study the employee perspective and student perception towards the branding
practices.
 To comprehend the impact of demographic factors (Age, Gender, Education, Tenure
and Designation) on the students and employee perception of the companies as an
employer brand.

This study also helps to find out certain employer branding practices which could be made more
prevalent at these companies to help them woo skilled talents for further expansion and growth
and to bridge the gap between the employee perspective and employer perception.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The following hypothesis have been framed and tested:

H1: There is no significant difference in the students perception of the branding practices carried
out at the company which they identify as their prospective employer.

H2: There is no significant difference in the viewpoints of the students towards their chosen
company as an employer brand.

H3: There is no significant difference in the employees perception of the branding practices
carried out at their company.

H4: There is no significant difference in the viewpoint of the employees towards their company
as an employer brand.

H5: There is no impact of the demographic factors on the student’s perception of the companies
as an employer brand.
H6: There is no impact of the demographic factors on the employees perception of the
companies as an employer brand.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research is the pursuit of truth with the help of study, observation, comparison and
experiment.Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. In it
we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research
problem along with logic behind them.

A good methodology works as a strong plan for collecting both primary and secondary data.

Type of Research

There exist two type of research. These types can broadly be classified as follows:

1. Exploratory and
2. Conclusive

Conclusive is further classified into Descriptive and Causal.

 In this project, Descriptive research has been done. Questionnaires were administered to
the students as well as employees. Hypotheses were set in the beginning of the study and
were verified through the analysis.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

The information and data to be collected can be of two` types – Primary and Secondary. The
primary information is first hand information and is called specifically for the study being
conducted. So the research himself collects information with relevance to the problem.

The secondary information is the second hand information for the researcher. The particular
information has been collected by some other researcher for the problem to be solved.

This particular project was mainly accomplished with the help of primary data, as it was really
helpful to give the realistic picture. Questionnaire were used as a source of primary data.
At the same time, information about the various employer branding practices of companies was
also collected from:

 Company brochure and manuals on internet.

 Previous records and documents of companies.

These were the sources of secondary data.

DATA COLLECTION METHOD

There are two methods for collection of data:

1. Questionnaire method
2. Interview method

For finding out the employees and students perspective towards the employer branding practices
in selected companies and their viewpoints towards those companies as an employer brand,
questionnaires were administered to them.

Two different questionnaires were prepared for the students and employees. The questionnaires
were divided into two sections.

The questionnaires were structured in a way that the questions in both the sections could be
measured on a Likert Scale.

SAMPLING SIZE

A sample size of 120 employees (60 from each company) and 120 students (60 each who chose
either Genpact/Convergys) was chosen for the questionnaire method. Most of the respondents
were available at the time of visit and they cooperated very well in giving the required
information.

SAMPLING METHOD
Convenient sampling / simple random sampling.

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES USED FOR ANALYSIS

SPSS Software has been used to apply certain tests on the data.

Reliability test has been applied to check the validity of the questionnaires to both the students
as well as the employees.

Mean Response has been used to find out the employer branding practices mostly prevalent at
Genpact and Convergys.

One Way Anova test is also applied to find out the difference in the employees perspective
towards the branding practices carried out in their respective companies and the difference in
their viewpoints towards that company as an employer brand.

Crosstabs has been used to analyze whether the demographic factors have an impact on the
students and employees perception of the company as an employer brand.

1.2COMPANY PROFILE

GENPACT

A GLOBAL LEADER IN BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

SERVICES
 CORPORATE FACTS

Established Headcount
1997 60,000+

Stock symbol
Revenues
'NYSE'
$1.9 Billionn
G

OVERVIEW
 The Company traces its beginnings to 1997, where under the name of GECIS, it was
established as an independent business unit of GE Capital.
 The organization was chartered to provide business process management capabilities that
would deliver outstanding efficiencies to all businesses across GE.
 Genpact became an independent company in 2005 and was successfully listed on the
NYSE in 2007, trading under the stock symbol G.
 An early innovator in the business, Genpact has been responsible for introducing many of
the concepts that have given strength to the industry.
 Genpact was the first to leverage Six Sigma for process transitions, delivering greater
process gains to clients.
 With Smart Enterprise Processes (SEPSM), Genpact is the first to introduce a proven,
scientific approach that delivers the benefits of effectiveness in addition to efficiency and
focuses on business outcomes versus only looking at transactional results.
 Genpact’s approach puts process in the forefront, understanding the value process brings
to a company in driving front end results such as customer satisfaction and retention,
revenue generation and profitability.
 The Company couples deep process knowledge and insights with a focused IT approach,
targeted analytics and pragmatic engineering to deliver an integrated process solution.
 Genpact has built its credentials to support this direction with the single largest pool of
dedicated Lean Six Sigma experts in the industry; extensive industry-leading people
processes, earning it one of the lowest attrition rates in the industry; the largest global
analytics and research services organization; and the technology expertise to enable great
processes.
SERVICES PORTFOLIO

Genpact has a broad portfolio of core enterprise and industry specific services including:

SERVICES OFFERED:

Core Business

• Finance & Accounting

• Procurement & Supply Chain

• Collections & Customer Service

• Human Resource Services

• Legal Processing

• IT Services

• IT Consulting
Smart Decision Services

• Analytics & Research

• Risk Management Services

• Reengineering

Industry Specific Services

• Banking & Financial Services

• Insurance

• Capital Markets

• Manufacturing

• Energy & Utilities

• Retail & CPG

• Healthcare

• Life Sciences

• Transportation & Logistics

• Media & Entertainment

• Hospitality
CLIENTS

Genpact manages over 4500 processes for 700+ clients across a breadth of industries. The
Company’s client base is diverse in terms of industry, business size and process need. This
diversity serves both the Company and client base in bringing broad, practical process expertise.
Genpact’s proven strategy has been to grow with its clients with revenues coming from both new
and existing clients. Clients include:
 AstraZeneca
 Cigna
 GE
 Genworth Financial
 GlaxoSmithKline
 Heineken
 Hyatt
  Johnson Controls
 Kimberly-Clark
 MassMutual
 Financial Group
 National Australia Bank
 Nissan
 Staples
 United Biscuits
 Walgreens
 Wells Fargo

 Zimme

rCORPORATE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE AT GENPACT

 Collections
 Insurance Solutions
 Finance and Accounting
 Analytics
 IT services
 Commercial Finance
 Learning
 Consumer Finance
 Industrial and Equipment

HIERARCHY OF GENPACT
 GLOBAL PRESENCE
Process
Process Developer Level
Process Associate
Middle
Assistant Manager Management
Management Trainee
Top Level
Assistant Vice President Management
Senior Manager
Functional
Senior Vice President Level
Chief Consultant
CEO Decision Level
CFO
Genpact delivers its services from a global network of centers, spanning 16 countries:

Brazil

China

Guatemala

Hungary

India

Japan

Mexico

Morocco

Netherlands

Philippines
 Poland

Romania

Spain

South Africa

UAE

United States.

Genpact’s objective is to service its clients from the locations that best meet their needs, taking
into consideration business objectives, cultural considerations, language requirements and cost
containment goals. Genpact prides itself in driving seamless delivery and a singular service
culture across its operating locations, accomplished through strong people practices and local
management.

CULTURE

Genpact has created a culture that emphasizes customer centricity, teamwork, and continuous
process improvement. Their culture is expressed in the Values that embody their core ideology
and define who they are. Their Values are based on the foundation of unyielding integrity and
act as a compass to guide our thoughts and actions, serving as the pillars that uphold us as an
organization.

The Genpact Values

 We Succeed When Our Customers Succeed

 We Grow When Our People Grow
 Teams Work,Boundaries Don’t
 Energy and Focus Transform Challenges into Opportunities
 Outstanding Execution Delivers Impact
 Innovation Keeps Us Ahead of the Curve

Being an Employer of Choice

Genpact is a people-oriented company and they truly believe that happy and energized
employees are the key to their success. They are committed towards attracting and retaining
talent and follow global best practices to ensure that they build fruitful and rewarding careers
with them. They strive to create a vibrant and open work environment that is employee-friendly
and socially responsible. They offer a global work culture that provides opportunities for
constant learning and growth, based on their culture of performance and meritocracy.

From world-class training programs to learning opportunities for building competencies, they
encourage and empower their people to acquire new skills and achieve higher education,
matching their professional and personal aspirations. They also make significant investments in
creating a safe and secure work environment for their employees starting with a strict policy for
Environment, Health and Safety.

Rewarding is intrinsic to their nature and they ensure that excellence never goes unrecognized.
They believe that rewarding provides recognition and motivation to high performers to continue
with their winning ways, while also raising the bar higher for mediocre performers to perform
better. They have a formal online rewarding system that enables managers to instantly reward
deserving employees.

A Culture of Transparency

Genpact believes that open, transparent and frequent communication with employees on both
good and bad news fosters trust and goes a long way in building employee loyalty. They
leverage technology as well as the power of face-to-face interaction using multiple channels such
as town halls, web chats, employee intranet, one-on-one meetings among others, to regularly
connect and communicate with employees.
 Empowering employees to voice their ideas, concerns and feedback is a key piece to keeping
them happy. A key channel for garnering feedback is the Employee Satisfaction Survey—the
results of which are driven with rigor and passion throughout the company.

A Culture of Giving
Caring at Genpact is our global Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) initiative. It involves
them as individuals as well as our company wide efforts. Their guiding principles are:

 Embedded social & environmental code of conduct into our core operations & functions
 Leverage our differentiating skills and competencies
 Design and implement sustainable and scalable solutions

They focus on socially relevant areas that complement our business model and
skills/competencies and systematically apply their distinctive strengths to maximize social and
environmental value. Towards this goal, they have designed a number of global platforms and
programs to make giving a way of life at Genpact and empower them build stronger
communities, where they live and work.

A CLIENT-CENTRIC CULTURE

 Genpact’s operations are a seamless extension of their clients’ operations.

 Their strong operating culture defines their process effectiveness that aims at
delivering real business results and strategic value to their clients.
 They integrate their capabilities with those of their client’s to drive business process
effectiveness with the objective to increase efficiencies and improve business
outcomes. They see their relationships with clients as strategic, long term, and
enduring.
 Genpact offers the right skills and services for such an approach.
 Their expanding list of service offerings allows them to assist our clients with a broad
range of solutions.
 They often start to work with a client in one domain and end up developing the
relationship to encompass others.
 This proven customer engagement model, where they start small, deliver value, expand
business scope, and gradually penetrate other areas, provides them with growth and
long-term revenue visibility.
LITERATURE REVIEW

Sartain and Schumann (2006) defined employer brand as: "how a business builds and packages
its identity, from its origins and values, what it promises to deliver to emotionally connect
employees so that they in turn deliver what a business promises to customers."

Brett Minchington (2005) defines employer branding as “the image of your organization as a
‘great place to work’ in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external
market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other key stakeholders).”

Sullivan (2004) defines employer branding as "a targeted, long-term strategy to manage the
awareness and perceptions of employees, potential employees, and related stakeholders with
regards to a particular firm."

Ambler and Barrow (1996) define employer brand in terms of the benefits it conveys on
employees.

Mark Ritson, who holds a Ph.D. in marketing and has been a faculty member of some business
schools, believes that employer branding doesn’t have a consumer to address. Moreover, that
employer branding doesn’t look at the negative associations to a brand. Ritson also believes that
companies fail to differentiate their employer brands and that they all claim the same drivers –
e.g. innovation, empowerment, integrity, etc. Lastly, Ritson says that through generic surveys,
companies fail to measure true brand equity and that the execution of employer branding has
been so bad that it’s best to stop now before professionals in the field make things worse

Kristin Backhaus, (School of Business, State University of New York at New Paltz, USA)
states “Employer branding represents a firm's efforts to promote, both within and outside the
firm, a clear view of what makes it different and desirable as an employer. In recent years
employer branding has gained popularity among practicing managers. Given this managerial
interest, this article presents a framework to initiate the scholarly study of employer branding.
Combining a resource-based view with brand equity theory, a framework is used to develop
testable propositions. The article discusses the relationship between employer branding and
organizational career management. Finally, it outlines research issues that need to be addressed
to develop employer branding as a useful organizing framework for strategic human resource
management.”

Sanjit Roy in The ICFAI Journal of Brand Management (2006 ) stated in his research that “In
the new economy, the word that makes its presence felt most in the business world is
'competition'. The primary source of long-term competitive advantage for a business firm or an
industry is its people.
Hence, it is an uphill task for employers to attract the right kind of workforce. Retaining the
current employees is yet another most talked about issue in the business circle. This is the right
time for the advent of a technique called 'employer branding' - considered as the most effective
strategy that is fast gaining worldwide attention - which may act as a differentiating factor for the
employer who uses it effectively. Effective employer branding is about building the overall
image of the organization, both internally and externally. At all levels of building the image of
the employer, it requires involvement of the employees and their views on continuous
improvement in the organization.. Employer branding is a concept where the recruitment process
has to be managed in the same way as customers are. It involves employees and customers,
human resource and marketing professionals.

AMANDA MCGRORY (2013 )"An employer brand is a billboard for the organization, and the
importance of this public sentiment goes beyond recruitment efforts," said Jim Link, managing
director of human resources for Randstad US.
"Clearly, company reputation impacts attractiveness among potential candidates. It is also clear a
strong employer brand will further drive bottom-line results by creating a stable work force,
increasing productivity and engaging key stakeholders. This affects all aspects of the
organization, and when managed effectively, can elevate leadership and visibility within the
company's industry."

According to Davis Group“ Attracting and retaining the best and brightest employees is a daily
struggle for most human resources professionals. Companies that try to recruit candidates with
salary, benefits and other job-specific dimensions alone have missed the point. This intangible,
yet compelling notion motivates target candidates to choose you as an employer. The bond
created by a sense of shared values motivates and retains employees. Developing an employer
brand is not a small undertaking. Top management support is critical, as is a structured approach.
Communicate and Integrate Your Employer Brand. Consistent support of your employer brand
in all of your company's actions and words strengthens your brand.

Ms. Vijt Chaturvedi, Faculty (HRM), ICFAI University thinks it like a consumer brand, which is
an emotional relationship, but between an employer and employee, one that radiates out from
this core to other stakeholders, to the community at large, and obviously to potential employees.
Employer branding is the development and communication of an organization's culture as an
employer in the marketplace. It conveys your "value proposition" - the totality of your culture,
systems, attitudes, and employee relationship along with encouraging your people to embrace
and share goals for success, productivity, and satisfaction both on personal and professional
levels. Employer branding is a distinguishing and relevant opportunity for a company to
differentiate itself from the competition creating its branded factors as its USP for employee
satisfaction and happiness resulting in retention, productivity and efficiency

Dr Sandeep K Krishnan, research has shown that the right brand for an employer can help in
attracting and retaining good talent. Employer branding has been a very popular concept with
HR professionals, branding consultants, and market researchers in the recent past. While
attracting the right talent and retaining them becomes a critical aspect for business success,
research has shown that right brand for an employer can really help in this regard. Employer
branding has external and internal aspects. The internal factors are the culture, HR practices, and
the overall employment experience that a current employee has. The external factors are what a
prospective employee feels about the organisation. 

Accordingly to Richard Mosley, who is an employer branding guru, the critical aspect is to have
consistency between your internal employer brand and external employer brand. If what the
organisation promises to the external world is inconsistent with what is happening in the
organisation, it can create conflict with the new joinees who expects what was promised through
branding. While the current employees on the other hand might feel cheated by the practices
followed. Instead of supporting the organisation in retaining and attracting talent, it will leave
both the current and future employees unhappy. 

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The Employer Brand Experience

An employer brand is the full physical, intellectual, and emotional experience of people who
work there, and the anticipated experience of candidates who might work there. It is both the
vision and the reality of what it means to be employed there. It is both the promise and the
fulfillment of that promise. The employer brand radiating out of our organization’s name inspires
loyalty, productivity, and a sense of pride.

In marketing terms, a brand’s image is grounded in three dimensions: 

 Functional benefits. What the product does, for example: “this Canon digital camera
takes good pictures” and “this particular model is great for portraits, video, and long-
distance shots.”

 Emotional benefits. How a product makes the customer feel, for example: “I feel happy
when I see this beautiful shot of my kids” and “I feel loving and fun when I e-mail these
pictures to their grandparents.”

 Reasons to believe. Validation of the product’s claims, for example: “Canon means
reliability and ease of use” and “reviewers on CNET.com rate the Canon digital camera
as excellent.”
A solid employer brand is grounded in the same dimensions:

 Functional benefits. Tangible rewards of working at the employer: salary, health care, a
clean, safe workplace, and a convenient location; for example: “XYZ Co. has great
compensation and has a beautiful office near my home.”

 Emotional benefits. Intangible rewards: mission, pride, status, job satisfaction,

companionship/collegiality, belonging to a “winning team,” and so on; for example: “I’m
proud to work for XYZ Co.—my pals and I make the best widgets in the world.”

 Reasons to believe. Validation of the employer’s claims; for example: “my friend says
XYZ Co. is a great place to work” and “the local news station calls XYZ Co. a hot
company for talented people.”

How to create a strong and compelling employer brand

1. Research
Internal:
 Focus groups
 Interviews with executives
 Needs analysis
 Complete employee profiles, workforce
distribution (Gen Y, baby boomers, etc.)
External:
 Who are you looking to attract?
 What do they want?
 What are your competitors doing?
2. Develop
 Based on your research, develop your Employer Value Proposition (EVP).
 Your EVP is the promise you make to your current and future employees.
  Craft your statement using no more than a dozen words, as it needs to be
concise and clear:
 ‘’At XYZ company, growth is what drives us. We constantly invest in the
improvement of our products, and the development of our people.’’
 Ensure you have clear and factual proof points supporting your message.
 Make sure it is in line with your overall corporate brand.

3. Communicate
Internal:
 Employee orientation program
 Training materials
 Intranet
External:
 Recruitment advertising
 Web site
 Events & job fairs
4. Measure
 Evaluate your success:
 Turnover/Retention rates
 Employee satisfaction surveys
 Brand awareness and attractiveness
 Loyalty and engagement
 Flow of applications
 Cost per hire

Brand Strength
Brand Strength
Employer Brand
Employer Attraction of the right
The unique and Experience candidates
differentiating promise Employee engagement
Actual delivery of the
a business makes to its and retention
promise throughout
employees and Differentiation from
yhe employee
potential candidates. competitorsntion
Customer engagement
and retention
The Importance of the Employee Experience

The bigger the consumer brand, the more likely it is that an organization will attract top
candidates, at least in the initial recruiting stages. However, company brand is only as good as
the employee's experience of that brand promise. If the consumer brand is strong but the
employer brand is weak, an employee may feel deceived or undervalued and think, "This
company is not what they portray to the public," or "they are not committed to their people."
Neither is a good message to send to potential or existing talent.

The employee experience starts with an employee's first interaction with an organization. That
first impression may extend far beyond company offerings in position, salary and benefits.
Today's workforce is equally concerned with opportunities for career advancement, rewards and
recognition, management style and company culture. Together these blend to make up the
employer value proposition and employer brand that impact the employee experience and,
ultimately, the hire's decision to join and remain with an organization.

Connect Employer and Company Brand

One leading high technology organization has a mission to foster highly customer-centric
employees. Its mission to deliver superior customer service and satisfaction is reinforced
throughout the recruiting process. This mission drives the branding and messaging for all its
online recruiting campaigns. Resulting candidates are deemed as a good fit for position if
demonstrated a proven customer-centric knowledge and skills. By ensuring new hires' skills and
prior experience match core company culture, the organization is setting a strong framework for
success. But the importance of brand doesn't stop at the recruiting process.

Financial services firms are known to support formal career tracks for talent in order to create the
right kind of employee experience. Many have received the "Best Company to Work For" label
that aids brand building because employees like to know that an organization is committed to
employees' long-term growth and development. Companies that incorporate this commitment
into employer brand and message will have an advantage because the employer brand validates
why top candidates came to the organization in the first place. "A thoughtful employer brand can
be just as valuable as a well-executed consumer brand," said Gordon Rudow, CEO of San
Francisco-based Bonfire Communications, an agency that specializes in building company
brands. "Just as a good consumer brand inspires trust and loyalty, so does a strong employer
brand help attract, engage and retain the best people and harness their performance."

Many talent managers partner with the marketing department to help build an effective employer
brand. It makes sense to leverage the expertise of marketers that spend days building brands and
running programs to attract and retain customers. Knowing that a customer today is not
necessarily a customer tomorrow, and HR and business leaders can apply marketing concepts to
recruiting and branding efforts to build a competitive edge.

Employer Brand, On-Boarding and Company Performance

On the first day of work, an employee is exposed to a company's values, mission, culture and
attitudes. This usually happens during the employee on-boarding process. The new employee
soaks in the company atmosphere via provided materials, messages from colleagues and
communications from HR and business leaders.

Imagine an employee who has a negative first impression because the company mission is
unclear, on-boarding instructions or product materials are inconsistent or colleagues are
complaining. Given those mixed messages, that person may wonder about the viability of the
company and may not commit fully to the organization or his or her new role. Then imagine an
employee arrives for the first day of employment and finds a solid company message on the
organizational culture and mission. Colleagues are upbeat, and company product and service
information is clearly and consistently presented. This employee likely would be more excited to
be part of that team than the former. Further, the employee presented with positive, consistent
employer brand message is more likely to refer a skilled peer to the organization.

"A new hire's on-boarding is only the beginning of the overall employee experience," Rudow
said. "That initial interaction is reinforced by a series of touch points around the company's
mission, vision and values, learned through the attitudes and behaviors of colleagues and
executives. Those touch points become the foundation of an employer brand." On-boarding
programs are a perfect opportunity to reinforce the employer brand and generate a positive
employee experience. For example, a leading media organization has a comprehensive way to
help new hires get acclimated quickly and get them excited about the company and its brand.
Each employee goes through a formal online on-boarding program in which they hear the
company mission from the CEO, learn about the company culture and history, and learn about its
core products and value propositions. They receive buddies or mentors to guide them on career
paths.

The company's focus on the employee experience via a formal on-boarding program has had a
high impact on engagement and performance. Employees who know how to do jobs, are clear on
company values and messaging, and feel part of a greater purpose. Activities and messages are
delivered through a Web-based on-boarding application that standardizes how the information is
delivered and also manages activities such as shadowing a manager or attending a specific course
or seminar to help them grow in their roles. On-boarding programs also are an opportunity to set
expectations around performance and establish employee guidelines for a successful working
relationship with the organization. Astadia connects company strategic objectives to employee
actions immediately. During the first day of employee orientation, an Astadia executive reviews
the company's strategic objectives and outlines the importance of aligning them with individual
objectives and tasks. Then the annual employee review process measures individual objectives
success and how that success impacts the company's strategic objectives. A company's strategic
objectives and mission should be clearly communicated early and on a continual basis
throughout the employee life cycle because they make up the core components that drive the
employer brand.

Happy Employees Can Be Great Brand Ambassadors

Imagine a happy new hire has been working for the organization for a couple of months. Now
imagine this employee in front of a potential customer, partner or other influencer. If this
individual shares the vision, mission and can clearly articulate the value of the organization's
products or services, he or she is a strong ambassador for the company brand. "All too often,
companies overlook the role people can play as frontline champions of the brand," Rudow said.
"But the more these companies develop their external brand, the more they realize the value of
starting from the inside out."

Companies need to continually align employee knowledge, the corporate mission and brand
messaging. If an organization is launching a new product or service, make sure employees are
appropriately trained to speak about that product or service."Our client's perception of our brand
is based on the actions, statements and successes of our team," Wolff said. "With consultants
deployed globally, we work constantly to increase the consistency and impact of our internal
messaging to drive positive external branding. Mentoring during an employee's first few months
at Astadia has not only positively affected performance, but also has significantly helped in
getting employee buy-in and engagement in regards to employer brand."

Solicit employee input regularly to see if the organization fulfills the employee brand promise.
This can be done through annual employee engagement surveys, or through more frequent,
informal surveys. Feedback received will help the company ensure it is investing in the programs
that matter most to its talent.

Further, company brand and experience can and should extend out to an organization's network
of partners, resellers and distributors. Just as internal employees are brand and company
advocates, a company's trusted network of indirect sales channels should be, too. Many
organizations use extended enterprise training solutions to share best practices, vision, mission
and brand with their partners.
For remote partners, Web-based systems can facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration of
brand and related materials. Many organizations also request partners be certified on their ability
to deliver consistent brand messaging.

Beyond Employer Brand

Companies spend billions every year on their consumer brands to attract new customers and
open new markets. These vast sums are meant to entice the consumer to buy and continue buying
throughout the product and company life cycle.

Leading organizations may suffer if the employees itself don't understand or can't articulate
company value to the marketplace. Formal employer brand programs will help attract, retain and
motivate top talent in a market in which the talent pool is shrinking and recruiting costs are
growing.

Employer Branding – A New HR Arena

This is a market oriented era. If a company has a good brand value in market, it will get good
response if not; it’s very difficult to convince people. From an HR point of view branding is very
important. If the organization has a good brand image in the market, it will help in getting right
workforce at right time and at the same time will have a control over the employee cost. An
organization with no brand name has to shell out lots ofmoney to attract and retain the right
candidate.

Branding can be done in two ways: (1) External Branding and (2) Internal Branding.

Branding Strategy

A) Nature of Business – Branding should be based on the nature of business. Like if an IT

company goes for a fashion show, it may not yield the same results as it would have got by going
to IT Fair or something similar. A real estate company may go for some road show on property
market.

B) Nature of Market – It is always recommended to gauge the market before going for any
project which involves market risk like if one is targeting to explore a financial market or
banking and at the same time it is marred by some other factors like Inflation, one need to design
your strategy which could help a company in overcoming the negative trend.

C) Reception Target – It’s always good to define the reception target or the audiences. If a
company is planning to sell Villas and targeting the middle class, probability is very high that
one will end up spending time and resources in wrong direction.

D) Budget Flexibility – Budget always plays an important role in deciding the strategies. If
budget does not allow to spend a lot, its always recommended to partner in any event where
other participants are not of field and it has got at least one participant who has got a good
market value so that one can attract the crowd.

E) Long Term Mission of Organization – Also the long term as well as short term goals of the
organization should be kept in mind. If the organization does not have any long term goals in the
target market or location, it’s always recommendable not to go for branding or it is very much
required go for a small, low budgeted branding event.

F) Organizational Structure – Organizational structure is also very vital part for deciding any
strategy. Organizational structure is the strength of any organization and any event or branding
can be done based on that.

External Branding – External branding refers to branding which is done by using external
sources and which may (or may not) require some investment in monetary or other forms. The
different means of doing external branding area as follows;

(a) Use of Job Sites – As HR the first thing which comes to the mind is recruitment, so Job sites
also offer good branding opportunities through different means like Pop ups, pop ins etc. It’s
always better to go for pop ins as most of web browsers come with pop-up blockers.
(b) Banners – Banners are also a good mean for branding. Banners can be of both types’ means
Online Banner and Street banners. By Online banner, an organization name will be flashed on
different web pages as per choice and price. Street banners are good for bigger requirements.

(c) Road Shows – Road shows are also an important mean for creating brand awareness. One
can organize talks, presentations, seminars etc. for attracting people towards ones organization.

(d) Corporate Social Responsibility – Corporate social responsibility refers to corporate getting
associated with society for some noble cause. The association can be in any mode either getting
associated with a Charitable Trust or a NGO or some other public venture. Corporate can align
and attach with any of these and share the stage. Always keep in mind that choose as per
organization status.

(e) Public Events – Public events are one of the major ways of creating a brand image. An
organization can participate in any of the public event and assuring that it does not get
disappeared in the crowd of many brands or big names.

(f) Newspapers – Branding can be done through newspapers as well. If one targets the local
public, and go for advertisements considering the individual day circulation, target readers,
rapport of newspaper, type of newspaper etc. Targets can also be to employ people for workforce
requirement, one can place job Ads which may seem expensive at the first glance but in terms of
attracting the correct workforce, it can do magic.

(g) Email – For mail ids related to job portals, one can create an auto reply which can contain
brief description of the key aspects of candidate’s and public interest and at the same time
introducing company to the public. It should be informative as well as crispy so that the audience
reads it and just does not do Shift Delete.

(h) Tagline – Create a nice, attractive tagline or a punch line for ones brand and give it a
significant visibility in all branding efforts. The tag line should be in accordance with your
organization values, goals, work etc. so that it reflects an overall image of the brand everywhere.
(i) Align with celebrity – Aligning with a celebrity is also a good way of creating a brand
image. But this may cost big bucks and ultimately increasing cost dramatically. This is an
expensive method of branding.

Internal Branding – Internal Branding is comparatively a cheaper way of branding. An

organization can use it for internal organizational staff for this purpose.

(a) Front Office – Always pay attention to front office because first impression is last
impression. It should be kept neat and clean with a pleasant receptionist who always maintains
freshness and welcomes the guests with courtesy.

(b) Stays Interview - HR can always conduct stay interviews in which they can interact with the
employee and ask them regarding their career prospects, there alignment with the company, there
feedback regarding their concerned departments, etc. These feedbacks can be analyzed and used
for different purposes by which one can create an internal brand image of the company.

(c) Exit Interview – An exit always carries a fair chance of initiating the chain reaction among
the employees so always be very careful in analyzing the exiting reasons so that organization can
overcome the justified ones in the future.

(d) Employee Satisfaction – Employee satisfaction is always very important for any
organization to grow. A satisfied employee is a productive employee. If an employee is satisfied,
one can relax because it will create a good and positive rapport for the company in the market
outside.

(e) Policy Information – Always design policies very strategically. A policy should be designed
in such a way that it holds good even after a long period of time. A frequent internal policy
change sends a message to the outer world that the company is not consistent and knowledgeable
and reliable.

(f) Customer Orientation – Customers are always the most important factors. Always keep
workforce motivated towards delivery of customer oriented services. Customers can be of either
type, internal or external.
(g) Employee Participation – Always try to ensure the maximum participation from the
employee side, either in terms of internal events participation or external events.

(h) Trained Employees – Always ensure proper training of employees before they are engaged
in work. The training should be in all the aspects like policies, vision, mission, organization. This
will project a good picture of organization on the new employee. These are few to count with but
based on the requirement and strategy, the list may increase or shorten.

Bibliography

The ICFAI Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 19-34, June 2006
Sanjit Roy

http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC669/fc669.html
The David Group

http://www.expressitpeople.com/20030512/cover.shtml
Ms. Vijt Chaturvedi, Faculty (HRM), ICFAI University

http://universumglobal.com/2013/07/the-great-debate-about-the-value-of-employer-branding/

http://www.benefitspro.com/2013/04/17/workers-look-for-strong-employer-brand

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1509267