What you don’t know will hurt you the most

Over two thirds of companies survey their employees to measure engagement and identify key employee concerns or issues which may exist. A relevant and well designed survey will not only provide an employer with invaluable insight and a platform for developing HR plans but will illustrate that employee input and concerns are important – this in turn fosters loyalty and engagement.

Keeping your employees engaged in an economic downturn is critical – engaged employees perform better, are more loyal and contribute more to the organisation’s bottom line. In such times you need to work harder to motivate and retain your best people. The best talent remains mobile in spite of economic uncertainty – losing key performers, experience and intellectual property at this time can be very costly.

Getting answers to the following questions is vitally important right now and will largely determine your organisation’s ability to make real headway in 2010.

• Do you know how engaged your people are?
• Do you know who’s generating the most revenue?
• Do you know who’s thinking about leaving?
• Do you know who’s looking after your customers properly?
• Do you know who’s taking best care of delivery and customer service?
• Do you know who’s building your brand, and who’s devaluing it?
• Do you know who’s loyal and engaged?
• Do you know your longest serving employees and why?
• Do you really understand the current mood within the organisation?
• Do you really know your people well and how they perceive you and the organisation for whom they work?

During challenging times it is critical that any new employer branding initiative or change of direction can be justified in terms of ROI. Gaining insight from employees, new hires and leavers clarifies what people really like about working for your organisation. This baseline information will indicate the current state of engagement and appropriate courses of action for employers wishing to optimise productivity.

The online survey is a cost-effective and easy way to gain real insight and data from which to generate a bullet proof activity plan.

“But we only just surveyed our employees 12 months ago” you say. Employee surveys conducted more than 12 months ago are likely to now be meaningless. Markets have changed and you need to understand how the resulting insecurities have affected your employees so you can plan accordingly. Focussed insight will enable you to understand their worst fears and what it will take to win back their confidence and loyalty.

Act now, to re-engage with your workforce and find out what they are thinking. Call Tony Heywood on 02 8256 3999 or email tony@heywood.com.au for further information.



Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

Mass exodus on the cards – or just media hype?

Articles appearing in the mainstream business press and various business websites are claiming that large numbers of employees, restrained and disengaged by the events of 2008/2009, are going to do some walking and head for greener pastures. They’ll do it after they’ve trawled Seek, scanned a few job ads in the paper and visited a few of those recruiting people still suffering from the great drought of 2009. It seems that a whole stream of employees will be giving their bosses the wry smile and pushing the dreaded envelope across the table in their direction. Many employers will be skeptical of the prospect of a mass exodus of employees but some surveys from the past few months suggest the situation is serious.

The ‘Chandler Macleod Post GFC Candidate Study’ suggests that 95% of employees post GFC are looking for work

The Hudson 20:20 Series report Talent Tightrope: Managing the Workplace through the Downturn, which involved 3,000 employees across Australia and New Zealand, came up with these statistics:

• 44 percent of employees indicated that employee morale had plummeted
• 32 percent of employees are genuinely concerned about losing their jobs
• 42 percent of employees said they feel their job is less secure than the same time last year
• 47 percent of employees are seeking a new role
• 56 percent of employees would consider roles they previously would not have looked at

Mark Steyn, CEO of Hudson A/NZ stated that “If employees are disgruntled or unhappy with their current roles, the moment a better opportunity presents itself they will leave. It is this danger of a mass exodus that employers must be aware of and take urgent steps to avoid.”

But wait, there’s more...

Another survey by recruitment firm Aequalis Consulting gleaned the following from 280 job seekers...

• only 22 percent are not planning to move jobs when economic recovery happens

Another survey by global recruitment consultancy Robert Half has found...

• 77 percent of professional workers expect a pay increase once the market recovers

The Corporate Leadership Council believes...

• 25 percent of high potential employees plan to quit their jobs when the upturn happens

So there you have it. Bad news for employers who can’t afford to lose good people, good news for employers wanting to recruit new talent and possibly even better news for recruitment agencies after an ‘annus horribilis’.

What does this mean for employers?

• The potential for skyrocketing recruitment and training costs.
• A need to acquire deep insight to what employees are thinking and planning right now in order to find ways to re-engage them.
• Now is the time to consider new employer brand building activities to reinvigorate positive perceptions of the employment experience and potential.

What are the priorities for employers?

Conduct an online employee survey

• discover what’s going on in employees’ minds with an online employee survey, the sooner the better

Improve internal communication

• communicate more effectively with employees to keep them informed of where the organisation is heading and its future prospects

Create a cut-through awareness and recruitment campaign

• now is the time to be ‘out there’ on candidates’ radar before the rush for talent begins and the market becomes once more highly competitive

Introduce a competent careers section on your website

• careers sections on websites will be under increasing scrutiny and must create a positive impression in the minds of candidates and graduates

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

They’ll always call Australia home

Australia’s robust economy has defied the financial downturn that has savaged many other countries around the world. The brain drain of Australian talent that escaped these shores in pursuit of fame and fortune overseas is now looking over its shoulders and recalling fond memories of home. The reality is that as more Australian companies commit to re-hiring after a long market drought the expats now see bigger employment opportunities back here while the US and Europe in the main are still floundering in a financial black hole. And so the tide turns. Recruitment agencies here are starting to receive accelerating numbers of enquiries from expats seeking new opportunities of better jobs, higher paid jobs, more job security and the opportunity to soak up the sun on a decent beach once again. Yes, there is always a seasonal shift to these shores but the expats now have more reason to return.

With new job numbers increasing by 40,000 in October pushing the unemployment rate down to 5.7 percent compared to 7.9 percent in the UK and 9.5 percent in the US, there is good reason for them to pack their bags. The Australian Bureau of Statistics claims we worked an additional 13.4 million hours last month.

Helping them in their quest to head home are Australian employers who battened down the hatches during the economic storm, hid beneath their desks, stopped communicating and ignored the golden rules of employee engagement. These are the ones whose employer brand strength has been diminishing over the months, leading to disengaged employees who are now heading for the door. Many employers are waking up to the fact that the investment needed to build a robust employer brand is far less than the cost of replacing valuable staff. An employee exodus in the coming months has even been suggested by the more notorious media commentators. Expats here they come.


Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au

Don’t say we didn’t tell you

I would have thought it was pretty obvious really. You should have seen it coming a mile away. You didn’t need tea leaves to give you a sign. If you’d read only a little bit of the material we’ve been pumping out these last 12 months you’d have got an inkling of what is now starting to happen. And it took those good people down at Hudson to spell it out for us. Employees are going to do some walking. Yes, you heard it first right here, unless you’ve already visited the Hudson website, read the papers today and scanned twenty or so Google-friendly blogs. They’ll do it after they’ve trawled Seek, checked out a few job ads in the paper and visited a few of those nice recruiting people. So if you’re a boss or one of those HR types, don’t come complaining to me that a whole stream of employees are giving you the wry smile and pushing the dreaded envelope across the table in your direction. I warned you. I told you 12 months ago that those organisations who build and maintain a strong employer brand will come out smelling of roses once the market recovery happens. Those who didn’t heed the warning would rue the day they stopped communicating with their employees, hid under their desk, went on a long fishing holiday and scribbled a note about a clampdown on pay rises and had their secretary pin it on the canteen notice board when everyone had gone home. Tsk tsk. For employers the news isn’t good. Evidently the Hudson 20:20 Series report Talent Tightrope: Managing the Workplace through the Downturn involved 3,000 employees (and 247 employers) across Australia and New Zealand, and goes something like this:

The good news for employers...
> more than a third of employees said they would consider a pay freeze or reducing or losing a bonus

The bad news for employers...
> in 2008 63 percent stated that an insufficient salary was the main reason for them to leave a job... in 2009 it was only 45 percent
> ‘career development considerations’ were far more important to the majority as the reason they quit their jobs
> 44 percent of employees indicated that employee morale had plummeted
> 26 percent of employers thought that workplace morale had dropped
> 35 percent of employees are increasingly concerned about the impact of the downturn on their personal circumstances
> 32 percent of employees are genuinely concerned about losing their jobs
> 42 percent of employees said they feel their job is less secure than the same time last year
> 47 percent of employees are seeking a new role
> 56 percent of employees would consider roles they previously would not have looked at

In the words of Mark Steyn, CEO of Hudson A/NZ...  “In every aspect of current workplace sentiment, whether job satisfaction, motivation, morale, perceived stress levels or job security, employers are clearly unaware of their employees’ frame of mind”. He went on to say “If employees are disgruntled or unhappy with their current roles, the moment a better opportunity presents itself they will leave. It is this danger of a mass exodus that employers must be aware of and take urgent steps to avoid.”

But wait, there’s more...

Another survey by recruitment firm Aequalis Consulting just happened. This is what they gleaned from 280 job seekers.

> 45 percent lack trust in senior management
> 62 percent were experiencing lower morale
> only 22 percent are not planning to move jobs when economic recovery happens

But wait, there’s even more... another survey by global recruitment consultancy Robert Half has found
> 77 percent of professional workers expect a pay increase once the market recovers

So there you have it. The good news for recruitment agencies is that 47 per cent of employees are seeking a new role. The bad news for employers is that 47 per cent of employees are seeking a new role. The good news for job seekers is that those plum jobs of 12 months ago are going to come back again pretty soon. The bad news for many employers is that they’re going to have plenty of envelopes sliding across the table if they haven’t got their act together.

The good news for employer branding consultants like Heywood Innovation is that...
> those organisations who fear what’s going on in employees minds had better commission an online employee survey quick smart while they’re still in their seats
> those cut-through recruitment campaigns are going to be needed again
> employers are going to need to communicate with staff again
> organisations who aren’t perceived as a good employer are going to need lots of help
> tired old intranets will need a rethink
> there is a need to create competent careers sections on many websites

As an employment branding professional I’m banking on the fact that most employers are just waking up to these facts and will probably be starting to feel a bit uneasy that bad things may be about to start happening to them. Their biggest fear is that they don’t know what employees are thinking right now.

I’ve been saying for quite a few months that “What you don’t know will hurt you the most”.

So what do I recommend you consider first?

If you’re one of these employers I recommend that you give serious consideration to an online employee survey to get inside your employees’ heads and figure out what they’re thinking and how happy they are. It may just save you from getting trodden underfoot by the stampede.

If you’re in Sydney or not too far away call me on 8256 3999 and we’ll work up a solution for you.


Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Let’s get back to business

In these recovering markets, I anticipate the following:

1 Employer emphasis is now shifting back to recruitment. After some of the toughest business conditions many organisations have ever experienced, employers realise more than ever that employees are the life blood of their organisation and can make the difference between success and failure. There is a fear however that employees have been ‘biding their time’ for the past year and may be now keen to test the recovering jobs market. A case for some urgent focus on employee engagement.

2 The ongoing strength of an organisation’s employer brand relies heavily on an ability to maintain communication with employees and address their concerns regarding the future and ongoing job security.

3 Companies are looking for ways to reduce recruitment costs. They are loathe to tolerate the high recruitment costs of previous years. Reducing costs however, is not about less communication and less marketing. It is about finding ways to be more capable and perform more recruitment tasks in-house.

4 The upturn will advantage those organisations that have used their time and resources wisely, to keep their employees informed and engaged with the company’s vision and confidence in the future.

5 A new style of company leader is emerging who is people-focused and can inspire a workforce to make deeper commitments to its employer. These newly engaged and motivated companies will be the new leaders in 2010.

6 Employer branding is increasingly recognised as an essential complement to a company’s corporate brand. An increasing proportion of advertising and marketing budgets will consequently be channelled into employee-focused activities.

7 Companies who define and strengthen their employment proposition will be favourably positioned ahead of competitors in recovering markets.

8 Recruitment companies will increasingly realise the value of employer branding to themselves and to their clients. They will stimulate closer relationships with practitioners of employer branding, particularly those with end-to-end service offerings.

9 Employees will expect their employer to be open and truthful about the employment experience and keep the promise that was made at the point of recruitment.

10 Organisations will realise that people are the essential fabric of their business and critical to future business success. Consequently they will have a deep desire to know employees’ present perception of the employment experience.



Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

“How many of your employees would describe your organisation as a great place to work?”

Gallup Australia undertakes a Biannual Australian Engagement Study in Australia. It surveys the levels of workplace engagement of Australian employees. Although the most recent study relies on 2008 figures and may not accurate reflect the 2009 situation (which may be worse), the study reveals that 21 per cent of employees are actively disengaged. What is very worrying is that this is estimated to be costing employers $33.5 billion annually! In addition to this, evidently 45 per cent of these employees intend to stay with their employer for the next twelve months (ie through 2009). The big challenge for the employers is how many of their disengaged employees can be transformed into engaged employees, and how will they achieve it?

One question that is guaranteed to make employers cringe is “How many of your employees would describe your organisation as a great place to work?” It’s a great leveller and a direct reflection on how the organisation performs as an employer.

I believe that it requires some determined questioning to accurately gauge levels of employee engagement. It is not a subject to be taken lightly as disengagement has a direct impact on an organisation’s bottom line – more so than most employers seem to realise. The world’s leading drinks producer Diageo relies on six questions which employees are required to answer annually. With the best of intentions, I really cannot believe this is a sufficient number. From the answers it receives, Diageo determines whether employees are ‘engaged’ or ‘super engaged’. Evidently 41 per cent are in the ‘super engaged’ category. This seems to be supported by voluntary turnover figures which dropped from 18.4 per cent to 13.5 per cent between 2007 and 2008.

Conducting online surveys to gain insight to employee perceptions is of significant value. Sadly, in my experience not too many employers conduct such surveys and certainly not regularly.

The next level however is to hold ongoing face-to-face meetings between varying groups of employees and senior management to provide employees the opportunity to engage in open dialogue (and prove, despite rumours to the contrary, that bosses are real people). A live meeting with ‘real’ people is much more valuable than reading an inter office memo. It’s where clarity, understanding, encouragement and inspiration tend to come from.

Ask yourself this question... Are regular meetings between employees and senior management part of your organisation’s culture, and actively encouraged? If not, why not?

Engagement is directly related to employees having a great place within which to work and thrive. Open and honest communication is a key contributor to this.


Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Why do only 16%* of companies have a clear employer branding strategy?

Based on these figures sourced by the Employer Branding Institute, you could be forgiven for thinking that many employers don’t really care too much for their employees. Or aren’t they aware of this ‘employer branding thing’? Is it a new phenomenon in the developed world only embraced by the biggest of corporate achievers? Is it too expensive to entertain by ordinary companies? Will it distract HR managers from their recruiting tasks and holding exit interviews? Is it not on the CEO’s vision-for-the-future agenda? Was it a good idea that got swept under the carpet when these recessionary times hit home? Are employers sitting on the fence waiting to see if it can make the early adopters some money and keep employees in their place? Do they think it’s an overnight sensation and will be quietly forgotten in 2010? Is it a new Chinese idea designed to corrupt the minds of honest workers? Is it something those good people from McKinsey dreamed up in their lunch hour? Is it a crank idea published on Youtube by geeks working in the Social Sciences Dept at Manchester University? Are they confusing it with Facebook? Is Tom Cruise promoting it? Are they adopting the stance “We’ve already got a logo and a Flash website and we don’t need another one”? “We bought one on the internet and it only cost US$49”. “The CEO’s wife says that they should be happy to work for us”. “We’ll perhaps try it next year when we have more time”. “Our competitors don’t have one so there doesn’t seem much point in us having one”. “We  have to get the car park re-surfaced which is our No.1 priority right now”. “We’ll have one so long as it doesn’t conflict with the staff Christmas Party”. “Can we have one for a trial period?” “Does it come with a guarantee?” “Our new uni graduate studied employer branding so I guess we’re OK for the moment thanks”. “Is this EVP stuff something your company has dreamt up?” “This other crowd came in to see us last week and they’re selling employer brands for $2,500, and they’re including a free course in NLP”. “Our sales team are dead against anything that takes up their valuable time and hampers their sales efforts”. “My PA looked at your literature, laughed and told me that employees only ever want one thing... more money”. “Sorry, we’ve already developed our own EVP with some help from our interior designers”. “We’d love to take you up on your offer of developing for us a new employer brand, but we’re just about to enter into a merger with another company – call us again this time next year”. “Our HR manager says she’s too stressed to think about employer branding right now”. “The CEO’s son is developing one for us as part of his school project”.

Where was I? Oh yes. You need a clearly defined strategy before you start off down the super highway to developing an effective employer brand. There are many potholes and a collapsed bridge waiting for the unwary. Just like M&A branding, the chances of success can be remarkably low if you don’t decide up front what and how much you want to get out of it. And it makes a whole heap of sense if the CEO and senior management are leading the process. It needs to be totally aligned with the organisation’s overall business strategy and not just a ‘one-off’ initiative from the marketing department. With some careful planning it will make a significant contribution to the organisation’s ability to attract, engage and retain talent.


Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

*down from 37% – info received from Brett Minchington of renamed Employer Brand International

A powerful business tool

Believe it or not there are still some organisations out there who don’t rate employer branding in the ‘must have’ category (yet). They don’t even realise they have one and that it probably isn’t performing quite as well as it should. Do they spend all their time trying to get more customers to buy more product and wonder why it’s one long struggle? Do they wonder why the big advertising dollars they’ve entrusted to their advertising/communication/keepers-of-the-brand aren’t getting the results they want... or are they just blaming it all on the financial downturn? Did they commission research to find out from their customers and potential customers why they aren’t too enamoured with the product/brand on offer and why wallets/purses are remaining closed? Did they ever wonder if it might be something to do with the fact that employees haven’t been quite as engaged with their employer and job these last twelve months or so?

Employees have had it pretty tough this year. They’ve seen markets fall, companies go under, unemployment rise, promotion prospects die a death, house values plummet and disposable income reduce. No wonder sales teams are distracted and disengaged, morale is low and they don’t quite have the same enthusiasm to engage with customers the way they used to. They’ve lost faith in the organisation and what it used to stand for. They’re questioning its ability to survive/grow/provide for them excellent career prospects. They’re keeping their heads low or, if they’re really worried, scanning the employment pages. And it doesn’t help if employers aren’t too forthcoming with information on what’s happening with the business, thereby leaving employees in a bit of a vacuum. The future for many employees is presently looking a bit fuzzy, and will probably remain so for some time.

Customers have a knack of picking up on changes in companies, products and sales staff. They’re fickle  and unforgiving. They want to believe sales staff are really enthusiastic about the product they’re selling, have complete faith in it and are being really honest about its attributes. That slightly disengaged look, the hesitation, the distant gaze, the forced smile, the curt responses... won’t sell product. The customer has second thoughts and walks away.

People sell products and services. They’re essential to the sales process and convincing customers that the brand is aligned with their needs and the product is something they really need to own.

There’s a big market readjustment going on out there. It’s called competitive advantage. In 2008 organisations were going at it hammer and tongs fighting the marketing wars striving to gain market advantage by optimising sales techniques, increasing advertising budgets etc ... all the usual stuff that goes on. This year much of that has gone out the window. Money is scarce. Everyone has pulled back so we’re lead to believe. Canny organisations however, those with vision who recognise that a distressed market is an opportunity to get ahead of the competition, are investing in their people right now to get them primed and pumped up to take advantage of the recovering markets and leave competitors behind. This is where the value of employer branding comes to the fore. Because as we all know... you start on the inside first don’t you? Unless you do, customers will never be inspired by your sales staff.

Unless sales staff engage with their employer, customers won’t engage with your sales staff, so they won’t engage with your product. And everything will grind to a halt. And we don’t want that now do we? I recommend that organisations channel some of those precious advertising dollars into something more immediate. It’s called employer branding.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Do employees have a high regard for a company’s commitment to CSR?

Just when you thought you’d mastered corporate governance... CSR arrives on the scene.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development defines it as ‘... the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development, while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as the local community and society at large’.

The Australian Human Rights Commission describes it as ‘corporations having a degree of responsibility not only for the economic consequences of their activities, but also for the social and environmental implications.’

No longer is it sufficient to simply provide jobs, pay taxes and provide customer service. It’s all about your organisation committing itself to the present and future wellbeing of society, and actively supporting a sustainable global economy. CSR is widely recognised as a major contributor to company reputation – and we all know how important that is to business success – inevitably impacting on share price and product sales.

Potential employees are more likely to seek out organisations who can demonstrate a commitment to CSR. An organisation’s CSR activities can have a measurable influence on employee morale and retention. Employees who are satisfied with their organisation’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility are likely to be more positive, more engaged and more productive than those working for less responsible employers.

Ask yourself this. How highly is your organisation regarded in the local community? What measure does it take to protect the environment? Does it actively support good causes? Does it look after its employees? Does it have a reputation for caring?

There is increasing demand for organisations to be more open, more accountable and willing to report publicly on their performance in social and environmental arenas – no matter what their size or activities.

Common views on CSR range from...

‘It is fundamental to the positive reputation a business builds in the minds of its employees’

‘It distracts from the fundamental economic role of businesses’

‘It is nothing more than superficial window-dressing’

‘It is an attempt to place more control over powerful multinational corporations’

“Organisations with no measurable commitment to CSR are less likely to attract top performers”

What is your view?


Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Disengage your employees and you disengage your business

In the present climate, your Employer Brand has to work harder than ever before, says BrandSynergy

Singapore, 12 May 2009 – According to the Singapore Ministry of Manpower report, the total number of retrenched workers rose to 10,800 in 1Q2009, up from 7,500 in the previous quarter. With retrenchments on the rise, some employers are beginning to take the backseat in talent retention and benefits with the mindset that times are hard so no-one’s going to be leaving – why should I worry about losing people?

“In times of rising unemployment, increasing insecurity and low business confidence, employer branding becomes more important as talent is key to growth,” says Tony Heywood, Principal of BrandSynergy Pte Ltd. “If you can provide an image that highlights stability, innovation and security during uncertain times, it translates to a positive energy amongst your employees which is in turn projected onto the marketplace. And during a recession, as others retrench, it is also a prime opportunity to pick up a few good talents.”

“Every employer has a brand. It is a perception that people have of the employer and what the company represents, and it is distinct from the product brand. At the heart of your Employer Brand is your Employee Value Proposition or your EVP,” Heywood adds.

This was shared with an audience of senior business executives and human resource professionals attending a special presentation on “Employer Branding: Solutions for Stormy Conditions” which took place in Singapore on Wednesday, 22 April.

“The EVP is supported by 12 pillars for a solid foundation – advancement, communication, corporate brand, culture, environment, experience, leadership, people, recruitment, remuneration & benefits, values & corporate social responsibility and work-life integration.”

Earlier this year, BrandSynergy launched the EmployerBrandGuidanceSystem in Asia, a 9-stage end-to-end Employer Branding Process where companies are provided the tools to begin discovering, implementing, monitoring and measuring their EVP progress (Please refer to Annex I).

Few companies have a good grasp on the external and internal perceptions of their organisation as a good employer. To determine what your EVP is, the System offers a TeamPlan survey that can be conducted either by an online/offline questionnaire or in focus groups.

The participants at the presentation took part in a TeamPlan exercise where they responded to a few key questions like “What HR-related challenges is your organisation presently encountering?” and “What aspects of your employer brand do you believe can be improved?”. They experienced first-hand the process of clustering responses where prevalent thoughts and emotions emerge, revealing rising issues, like communication, empowerment and staff benefits.

“One of the common and recurrent issues we encounter is the ineffectiveness of internal communications. Employers who are too busy to communicate with their employees foster disengagement, and de-motivated people will under-perform inevitably, putting your company off its track. An employer brand reflects both the functional and emotional components of your EVP. Employers today face new challenges with greater staff expectations beyond just functional components like salaries, hours of work, parking facilities and training. Employees are more cognizant and discerning of the company’s corporate culture, environment and values as well as advancement opportunities within,” said Heywood.

Quoting John Quelch, Professor at Harvard Business School: “Branding your company as the best place to work during a recession is critical. Top talent is looking, especially now. When you start to grab these players during a recession, it will positively impact productivity.”


Karen Fong
Managing Editor
Equity Communications
Singapore

Chicken rice and workshops in Singapore

Friday 24 April 2009 and my creative director Neil Cookson and I are just back from a successful 4-day mission in 34 degree heat to our BrandSynergy Singapore office. Thank heaven for air conditioning. With the help of my partner Max Chia and other members of our fabulous Singapore office team, we held our inaugural BrandSynergy employer branding workshops at the Rendezvous Hotel for 20 companies ranging from large corporates including HSBC and Singapore Press Holdings to medium size enterprises and government entities. Singapore, although an island of modest size, is host to 150,000 SMEs who contribute significantly to the GDP, and receive much encouragement from government agencies IE Singapore and Spring, who actively support these SMEs across a wide range of business building activities including branding advice and support. Our discussions with a delightful gentleman from Spring highlighted the branding grants available through its Brandpact initiative to Singaporean companies, which can cover 50-70% of the costs associated with an approved branding exercise. Hello, are you listening Australia - please take note! In the past two years Spring has approved grants for 120+ businesses. Of particular note is that Spring is presently experiencing a surge in enquiries from businesses wishing to build their brand to the next level. This is the result of a recent awareness program and seemingly the fact that Singaporean companies with whom I have spoken have switched on to the rare opportunity provided by the present downturn to step back, focus on the future, prepare their businesses for the upturn and achieve competitive advantage. The rest of the world please take note.

What did we learn from the workshops and the interactions we had with attendees?

1/. Positive feedback from attendees suggests that we have a powerful employer branding offer that is attuned to helping Singapore businesses build strong employer brands that optimise their recruitment and engagement activities and enable them to attract and retain top talent.

2/. Singapore companies are showing more interest in employer branding and its benefits than their Sydney counterparts.

3/. Information gleaned by us from pre-workshop attendee questionnaires indicated almost all organisations had no creative proposition with which to underpin and promote their employee-related activities.

4/. More worryingly, the majority had not defined their Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

5/. The workshops reinforced that regardless of where a business is located - in Europe, Asia, the Americas or wherever - it will be facing very similar employer branding challenges and have very similar opportunities to make improvements. Human beings generally think and behave in similar ways and have similar aspirations and desires when it comes to their employer, their job and their career prospects.

6/. Any work undertaken to create or improve an employer brand must be taken seriously and accomplished within a carefully managed process, not just on an ad hoc basis - our EmployerBrandGuidanceSystem was created to do just this.

7/. Any employer branding activities can only be accomplished with a very clear understanding of what your employees are presently thinking, as their perceptions of their employer will undoubtedly have changed as a result of the downturn - moderately in some cases, critically in others. This can be accomplished in two ways:
> Online employee survey - a multiple question survey where employees are instructed to complete an anonymous online survey is a fast and effective way to identify what employees are thinking, what are their perceptions of their employer and prospects for the future, and to gain their ideas on what improvements that can be made and how to make them. Results we have gained from such surveys have ranged from predictable to alarming, in many cases requiring urgent remedial action. Without this knowledge and insight it is next to impossible for us to offer recommendations for a way forward.
> TeamPlanSystem process - where employment insight and ideas need to be sourced from smaller groups of people, or new employer brand initiatives introduced to them, our tried and tested process which we trialled with the workshop attendees is the definitive way of achieving this.

8/. Attendees expressed keen interest in our ‘12 pillars’ EVP model. Our process of defining an organisation’s EVP identifies the core strengths and weaknesses of the organisation as an employer... and therefore which ‘pillars’ need to be improved.

9/. Recruitment remains a challenging proposition even in a downturn where emphasis is now firmly on retention of talent. It remains a costly exercise and one where a creative proposition - visual and verbal - plays a crucial role in attracting job candidates, positioning the employer and establishing a consistent and recognisable brand presence.

10/. As one attendee with a DIY store chain is experiencing - the ability to fully engage with customers and achieve high levels of brand loyalty and differentiation relies not only on a strong corporate brand but also on sales personnel who are fully motivated and engaged by the brand and possess a clear understanding of what the company brand represents and how it can benefit the customer. Engaged sales personnel lead to satisfied customers.

11/. Communication is critical. Without it all efforts to build a strong employer brand will come to nothing. Employees need to be informed. They need to know what the company leaders and managers are thinking and planning, particularly in trying times. They need to have reinforced to them constantly the important role they play in the company’s future. And this needs to be achieved with language they understand in a medium that is easily accessible.

12/. Investing in the development of a strong employer brand, whether you are a large corporation or an SME is not an option. For some it is a survival requirement. For some it is the sole means to achieve competitive advantage.


Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

“We just don’t think employer branding will work for us right now!”

Despite there always being sceptics out there pathologically committed to an alternative viewpoint, employer branding makes a lot of sense for companies right now. The continuing downturn means that many of them will not be actively seeking new employees to facilitate growth strategies and replace non performers or mobile high performers for another 12 months. The recruitment frenzy of 2008 is now but a distant memory.

... in our day-to-day interactions we’re identifying so many companies who are doing so little to address the need to communicate with, engage and retain their best people.

The ‘new order’ of 2009 is characterised by clamp downs on hiring and new focus on finding ways to keep valuable people in their seats. For some companies this may mean a handful of people, for other companies the entire workforce – depending on the nature and size of the business, products/services delivered etc. Considering the severity of the downturn and the corresponding delicate financial position of many businesses, I find it surprising that, while the majority of companies are responsive to my company’s offer of assistance, in our day-to-day interactions we’re identifying so many who are doing so little to address the need to communicate with, engage and retain their best people. I’m sure my company is not the exception to this in the world of consultancy, so what can be causing it? Here are a few reasons/excuses that I have been made aware of:

> A basic lack of awareness of employer branding, its benefits and value
> Scepticism of what it can achieve
> Company clamp down on all spending so no available funds to initiate work in this area
> Previous bad experience with recruitment/advertising consultants
> Belief that the company is too small for employer branding activities
> Recovery efforts totally focused on product sales, not employees
> Activities thwarted by narrow vision HR Manager
> CEO has internalised all employee-focus activities and closed the door
> Company in dire financial straits and beyond help
> Too much reliance on incumbent recruitment agency to “get us out of this mess”
> “We’ve already got a recruitment website thank you”

When it comes to survival and the opportunity to get ahead once markets recover, guess where these guys are going to end up? Recessions can be ruthless when it comes to selecting those companies who just aren’t physically or mentally capable of surviving. For many, investment in tried and tested employer branding initiatives is probably the only lifeline that can stop them from going under, but it takes an enlightened CEO to recognise this. Some dwell in the dark, some see the light.

For a consultancy like ours, this reluctance or inability to seek help is very frustrating, when so many companies have sufficient knowledge and insight to converse intelligently on the subject, have a good understanding of what they need and recognise the urgency with which they need to make a decision and commission help. This doesn’t stop us from wanting to help. So we’ve decided to create an ‘Employer Branding for Beginners’ workshop to test the market. I will report back in a later post with the results of this initiative.

Perhaps we overestimate the ability of companies to grasp the benefits, or is it just a built-in reluctance to ask for help? Let’s find out.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Employer Branding: Your guiding light in stormy conditions (continued)

Get back to basics and get them right
It may be difficult for organisations to shift their focus from the effects of storm battered markets but the situation will end sooner or later, just like it always has done. The big question on everyone’s minds is when will it improve?

When distressed market conditions dictate that recruitment activities are temporarily shelved, the more astute companies crank up their engagement and retention machines. They will recognise that core employer branding principles are now more valuable and necessary than ever before. The ability to attract correct-fit talent, satisfy them that the organisation has solid prospects and engage them with experiences that inspire them to produce their best work and motivate them to stay has become a determining factor in an organisation’s ability to achieve and sustain success.

Judging from past experience, once the media decides that the worst is over, that we can breathe again and start the rebuilding process, we will witness a race to regain lost ground and re-engage with the jobs market. Those employers that have done their homework and honed their employment offer will be the ones attracting the cream of new talent and forging ahead with a committed and resilient workforce.

So where do you start? This is the time to stop worrying and to start planning. It’s time to get back to basics, strengthen your employer brand and ensure your own employees and key external audiences are exposed to it and recognise its value. Make sure it is differentiated once and for all from those of your competitors. Put your efforts into gaining an in-depth understanding of your employer brand and what it is capable of achieving.

1/. Employee Value Proposition
If you don’t have a well defined Employee Value Proposition (EVP) in place you are severely disadvantaged. An EVP sits at the heart of your employer brand. It is what your employment ‘experience’ delivers on functional and emotional levels – the essence of what makes you different and attractive as an employer. At Heywood Innovation the EVP model we embrace as part of our EmployerBrandGuidanceSystem comprises the EVP as the ‘beam’ supported by 12 ‘pillars’ as shown in the illustration.  

These pillars represent the essentials that must be addressed in your employment offer.

2/. Communicate with your employees
Be honest. Tell them the truth. Don’t gloss over the reality of the situation and don’t pretend the company is immune to the changing market conditions, because they just won’t believe you. Be open and transparent. Reassure them. Explain simply and clearly the steps you are taking to address the changes. Tell your employees how much you value them and the important role they play in the organisation’s future. This should come from the organisation’s leader and be reinforced by group leaders all the way through the organisation.

3/. Take engagement with employees to the next level
What steps did you take to engage and motivate your staff before the market downturn? If they were proving less than effective, then I recommend you quickly review the reasons why and make improvements, because the coming months will prove a considerable test. Do you know to what extent employees are engaged and motivated? If not, it makes sense to find out now and plan accordingly.

4/. Don’t stop marketing
If you stop marketing your employment offer into the jobs market, future job candidates and your own employees may fear the worst and conclude that all is not well. If your competitors have stopped marketing their presence in the jobs market, take advantage of this and gain the upper hand by being top of mind when conditions improve.

5/. Reduce your recruitment and training costs
As organisations count the cost of staying in business and trying to make headway, positioned near the top of the list is the significant investment paid to recruiters to source new talent and the associated internal costs of inducting and training these people. These processes will be increasingly scrutinised.

My predictions for 2009 are that:

> more recruitment activities will be brought in-house
> induction processes will be reviewed and more closely aligned with employer brands that are well defined
> a new generation of intranet will appear that is more interactive with employees and is seen as a communications tool rather than an information repository
> internal communications will become more frequent and constantly reinforce the organisation’s values, vision and commitment to its employees
> 2009 will be the year when the value of employer branding rises considerably and claims a greater share of an organisation’s annual budget

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

10 essential considerations for your employer brand

1    Employer emphasis has shifted significantly from recruitment to engagement and retention. Employers now realise more than ever that employees are the life blood of their organisation and can make the difference between success and failure.
2     The ongoing strength of an organisation’s brand relies heavily on its ability to maintain communication with employees and address concerns regarding their employer’s ability to withstand the downturn and protect job security.
3    Companies are looking for ways to reduce recruitment costs. Reducing costs however, is not about less communication and less marketing. It is about looking at ways to be more efficient and perform more recruitment tasks in-house.  
4    The downturn will differentiate those organisations that adopt a defensive stance from those that embrace the opportunity to engage with their employees and strengthen resistance to adverse market forces.
5    A new style of company leader will emerge who is people-focused and can inspire employees to make deeper commitments to their employer. These newly engaged and motivated companies will be the leaders in 2009 and beyond.
6    Employer branding will be recognised as a critical complement to a company’s corporate brand. An increasing proportion of advertising and marketing budgets will be channelled into employee focused activities.
7    Companies who define and strengthen their employment proposition, and the promise they make to their employees, will be favourably positioned ahead of competitors when markets recover.
8    Recruitment companies will increasingly realise the value of employer branding to themselves and to their clients. They will stimulate closer relationships with practitioners of employer branding, particularly those with end-to-end service offerings.
9    Employees will expect their employer to be open, truthful and consistent in what they say and what they do. Alignment is very important – the recruitment promise with the employment experience, and the corporate brand with the employer brand.
10    Organisations will increasingly realise that people are the essential fabric of their business and critical to future business success. Consequently they will commission on an ongoing basis deep research on how candidate and employees perceive the employment experience, with a view to monitoring the results and realigning where necessary to optimise those perceptions.

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Focus on growth

Despite the doom and gloom pervading the markets there are still plenty of companies focused on growth. The smarter ones realise that this can only be achieved with top talent on board - working in harmony and suitably inspired by the organisation they are employed by.

To achieve this requires that you brand your organisation as a truly sensational place to work and then prove it. When companies are under stress top talent turns its eye to new opportunities - namely those companies who can shrug off the effects of the recession and leverage their people’s skills to get ahead of competitors and gain market share.

Taking on top talent when markets are distressed can have an extraordinary effect on an organisation. It can rejuvenate and provide inspiration and new impetus to move forward.

What steps does an organisation need to take during a recession to prove it is an exceptional employer?

> consider a four day working week to reduce operational costs and reduce the potential of redundancies - the work/life balance may be greatly appreciated
> remember that top talent is attracted to organisations who deliver a combination of security, sustainability, vision and innovation
> define and promote the benefits of your Employee Value Proposition at every opportunity - remember that your employer brand has to work harder now than ever before and must be fully optimised
> maintain or even increase exposure of the benefits of working in your organisation - it is essential not to let your awareness fall away, either internally or externally
> review your online employer branding/recruitment presence - is it portraying you accurately and effectively as an attractive employment proposition?
> keep an eye on what competitors are doing - don’t let them get ahead of you while you are distracted
> review and upgrade where necessary your preventative health programs
> consider letting employees work from home to minimise travel expenses
> now is a good time to review your induction materials for consistency with the main employment proposition you are promoting to the market
> meet with your recruiter to review your recruitment strategy in line with the changed markets and your changing requirements
> take the opportunity to find out how well the recruiter understands your employer brand
> look for every opportunity to communicate employment benefits to employees and keep them updated on how the organisation is managing the economic downturn
> review your intranet - is it giving employees the information and insight they need to fulfill their role?
> focus on promoting to employees the organisation’s stability, security, innovation and growth opportunities
> above all else be true to your brand promise - who you are, what you are, what you are capable of and what you can offer, and then go after those people who will be most attracted to it and will dovetail into the organisation

Now is a good time to foster relationships with graduates - get your name in front of them and identify the most talented individuals.

The need for a skilled workforce will only increase when we climb out of the recession. There is much discussion on the facts that here in Australia in the next few years there will be an increase in the demand for skilled workers compounded by the retiring generation of baby boomers.

There is nothing like a good round of cost cutting and retrenchments to kill trust and loyalty from employees and prompt them to look for other opportunities. And it is a hard job to rebuild that trust and loyalty.

Remember that the cure for diminishing employee engagement starts with more and better communication. 

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Employer Branding: Your guiding light in stormy conditions

The sub prime collapse that is affecting global economies is rewriting the rules by which organisations recruit, retain and retrench their workforces. The scale of recent company collapses and widespread retrenchments has not been witnessed since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The confident high employment figures that we enjoyed up until the latter part of 2008 have been comprehensively shattered by market pessimism, profit slumps, investor panic and employers forced to batten down the hatches until the financial storm subsides. Reports from Australia are suggesting that employer confidence is at an all time low. Many organisations hit hard by the economic crisis now realise more than ever before that people are critical to their success and their ability to survive severe market trauma.



For many, a strong employer brand is their lifejacket keeping them afloat in a sea of red ink. It represents a valuable asset holding together the fabric of their business, underpinned by loyal and committed employees who firmly believe in the organisation, its values, the way it respects its employees and its confidence in riding out the storm. They believe in its ability to learn from the experience and leverage this for future success.

So what happens to employees and employers in these tough times?

Employees
> For those organisations who need to retrench a small number of their employees, the least useful workers are the first to be shown the door
> Where the organisation is experiencing considerable stress, even the good employees are being shown the door, which is of significant interest to recruiters
> Employees that have watched their company’s share price plummet and the retrenchment process spring into action will become wary of their present and future employers
> Employees who are concerned about their job security are keeping their heads down and getting on with their work, possibly becoming even more productive
> Employees who normally keep their eye out for new opportunities in the job market will be less inclined to do so until the market recovers
> Word of mouth is very powerful – disenchanted employees, particularly any who feel they have been unfairly selected for retrenchment, can cause significant harm to an employer’s reputation
> Emotional brand attributes will mean more to job candidates now than functional ones – a salary advantage is less important than respect and understanding from a stable organisation with a strong vision
> Recruitment agencies will be receptive to positive word of mouth from ex-employees and job candidates who have recently experienced an organisation that is doing the right thing by its employees

Employers
> HR directors’ focus has switched from recruitment to retention as employees begin to question management’s ability to secure a confident future
> Uncertainty has led to increases in outplacements where companies lack the confidence to commit to permanent staff until a stable market returns
> If your company is one of the few that is still actively hiring, it doesn’t take much intelligence to deduce that many of the recently retrenched employees in the job market are probably the least employable
> Many employers will also recognise that some excellent people, particularly those in financial services, have been released into the market as a result of severe purges and this is the time to attract them when they are eager to be re-employed and have few if any offers
> Companies that are in financial distress will be desperate to hold on to their best people, who may fear that their job security is threatened and be tempted to jump ship
> The more intelligent and aware companies will believe that this is a huge opportunity to now strengthen their employer brand and communicate it effectively to make up for lost time and get one step ahead of competitors when the markets start to recover later in the year
> HR managers will field many more sales calls from recruitment agencies

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

Recruitment ad bloopers

Many organisations produce content for their own recruitment ads – some are good at it, but many fail to press the hot buttons. There are golden rules to writing effective copy which many people are blissfully unaware of. One serious problem with inexperienced ‘copy writers’ is that they fail to recognise that some of the copy they write can be offensive and breach anti-discrimination laws.

A survey by Kelly Services provided insight to how serious this can be. When asked to consider a job ad which had a choice of copy content, 105 of the 220 respondents failed to identify material that is considered offensive. 22% of the 105 were human resources professionals. Some of the more obvious terms bound to offend were ‘office junior’, ‘saleswoman’ and ‘six years’ experience’.

Apart from the risk of using inappropriate and offensive language in ads, we are constantly amazed at the dreary and uninspiring copy that features in many recruitment ads. They fail in some very obvious areas:

> not aligned with their target audience
> use mundane and uninspired language
> don’t compel the reader to respond
> hierarchy of information is ill considered
> poorly describe the position, its importance and its potential
> leave out key details on what is required of the applicant
> copy and design don’t complement each other
> are inconsistent with the ‘tone of voice’ adopted by the organisation’s brand

How confident are you when faced with the task of writing compelling and inoffensive ad copy? Placing ads is an expensive exercise. If the ad is to attract a key player in your organisation for a salary of say $100,000 or $200,000, you want to make sure that it is going to get a good result that doesn’t attract complaints. Perhaps the copy writing is best left to the professionals?

Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and co-founder of BrandSynergy in Singapore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg