Summary of key points arising from case study
Start from the business strategy. An employer brand only has meaning when it is presented in the context of an overarching company strategy.
Lead change from within the business to enhance success. In the case study, the trap of HR owning the culture change was studiously avoided. This enhanced the acceptability of the new brand.
Do not over plan the change process – stay flexible. Things change as organizations move through a change process. This case study illustrates how to plan phase by phase, ensuring that feedback is incorporated into future plans.
Be creative – do things in new ways. Culture change can only be achieved by doing things differently. In this case, the organization incorporated some radically new ways of doing things by using the principle of marketing to engage employees in the desired changes.
Build on the current cultural strengths rather than attack current habits or try to break things down. The employer brand was derived from conversations with a wide cross-section of employees, so there was a ‘rightness’ about the brand values, which impressed people.
Case study description
This third case study illustrates the challenges and opportunities offered by creating an employer brand. The organization in this case study is a highly successful and dynamic global spirits and wine business which has grown steadily through merger and acquisition over the last 10 years. The steady progress of industry consolidation worldwide led this business to consider its future as either an acquiring or an acquired company. This contemplation led to a desire to strengthen various aspects of the business, resulting in three interrelated aims:
To be fit and ready to take opportunities as they arise, whether they come from industry consolidation, acquisition or new ventures.
To achieve quality growth by:
generating volume and share growth on specific existing key brands;
encouraging innovation and launching new products;
integrating newly acquired brands and businesses.
To enable the above to happen smoothly by implementing simple and flexible systems and processes such as those delivered by SAP.
In order to encourage full engagement and involvement in the new strategy, the organization decided to launch an employer brand which challenged all business units to get full commitment of all employees, so that each person could become part of a unified winning team, connecting with consumers and taking the business to new levels of growth. The top team wanted everyone to be engaged in the action, committed to the goal and confident of their part in achieving it. Everyone was expected to take an active role individually, and work with others as part of the team.
One of the significant pieces of data that informed this employer brand strategy was the following quote from the Collins and Porras survey, Built to Last (1994): ‘Companies with strong positive core vision and core values have outperformed the general stock market by a factor of 12 since 1925.’
The employer brand
The employer brand arose from the existing culture. It was worked on by both internal and external people through eliciting current views of the company ethos, and gathering aspirations of current employees.
The concept of the brand wheel was used to define the brand. The brand wheel idea, developed by Bates North America, is used to define the functional and emotional components of a brand. Bates North America has developed an impressive reputation for reinvigorating brands. The brand wheel is based on various concepts that go into creating a brand such as essence, values and personality. The brand essence is heart or spirit of the brand. The brand values are about how the brand makes a person feel and what it says about them if they become associated with the brand. The brand personality is a way of talking about the brand as if it were a person, to get to the emotional content of the brand itself.
Out of the brand wheel came a concise definition of the six key brand values together with their associated behaviours. See box.
THE SIX EMPLOYER BRAND VALUES
Value: integrity
Behaviours:
Expressing views and opinions in an open, honest and constructive way.
Consistently delivering on their promises and commitments.
Taking accountability for decisions and actions.
Value: unity
Behaviours:
Contributing enthusiastically to team goals, sharing and aligning own objectives with team(s).
Supporting and encouraging players on their own team and other teams.
Building personal success on team success and contributing to other teams’ success.
Value: diversity
Behaviours:
Treating diverse views, cultures and communities with respect.
Learning from the variety of different cultures, countries, functions and teams within the organization.
Acknowledging different approaches and seeking win–win solutions.
Value: performance with passion
Behaviours:
Setting and exceeding stretching targets, individually and in teams.
Demonstrating high levels of pace, energy and commitment in achieving goals.
Finding new opportunities to improve their game and being courageous by trying them.
Value: celebration
Behaviours:
Sharing success, recognizing and rewarding achievement of other players.
Encouraging the celebration of success and building a ‘success leads to more success’ culture.
Having a can-do mentality and encouraging others to do the same.
Value: learning
Behaviours:
Being proactive in professional and personal development.
Sharing learning and supporting the development of other players.
Going outside the ‘comfort-zone’, challenging the status quo, and learning from mistakes.
The process
The organization devised a three-stage process to move from this definition of six core values to a position of full involvement with the new strategy. The three stages were awareness, adoption and advocacy ), with only the first stage planned in detail. The second and third stages were give a broad brush plan, but awaited the results of the first stage to enable sensible planning.
The awareness stage involved three main activities:
- A video was circulated to all managers, which identified the values in an exciting way.
- Senior managers were asked to introduce the values at any business meetings they were already running within a six-month period (special meetings were not held, and HR people did not run the process alone).
- The six values were integrated into the performance review process. They became key performance measures for each individual.
The Adoption stage is going on at the time of writing, and was preceded by a questionnaire which tested the success of the awareness stage. Adoption in this context is about implementation, so this stage of the process is very practical and involves lots of ‘handson’ activities. A brand director was appointed at the end of the awareness stage to look after and promote the employer brand, and interestingly, this person has a marketing rather than an HR background. Planned activities so far include a newsletter circulating stories of success and the creation of a Web site on the company intranet that allows exchange of views and offers team exercises and thought-provoking resources to help people to get to grips with the values. Employer brand items and gifts such as mugs, sweatshirts and hats will also be available for those who want to promote the brand locally, or wish to have themed celebrations.
Advocacy is already appearing in pockets around the organization. Various managers have been selected as brand champions, but this process is seen as emergent rather than one that needs to be closely managed.
The planning team also used the Beckhard change formula to guide their actions (see Organizational Change). This meant having a clear vision, explaining the need for change and devising some first steps.