Smart branding: Look inward to engage beleaguered staff

30 March 2009 8:56am

Smart employers are directing their branding strategies inwards to engage workers who survive staff culls and to maintain positive relationships with the talent they're forced to let go, says MD of The Face, Adam Shay.

Throughout the economic boom and skills shortage, branding strategies were predominantly "front-facing", or external, Shay told HR Daily, and were aimed, for the most part, at attracting talent in the highly competitive recruitment market.

But everything has changed in the last six to 12 months, Shay says, including "emotional contracts".

With so many employers compelled to slash numbers or freeze headcounts, he says, forward-thinking leaders are now directing resources into strategies aimed at engaging surviving - and often beleaguered - staff.

"There has been a real fundamental shift," he says. Many employers are still looking to attract the more desirable candidates, he says, but they must, more than ever, be proactive in their efforts to engage and maintain the confidence of their existing workforce.

A recent paper from Taleo and the Human Capital Institute (see related article), based on a survey of more than 300 leading global executives, identifies protecting the company brand as one of the most significant challenges for corporate leaders in the tough economic climate.

Employers forced to make lay-offs, Shay says, can protect their brand by effectively managing the people who remain. Leaders must communicate with staff and be clear and honest about the future of the business and employees' individual careers.

Talented workers who employers are forced to let go can be kept onside through alumni programs and similar initiatives, he says, increasing the chances of them being tempted to return when the economy swings back.

The development of an internal employer branding strategy depends on the company's brand "premise", Shay says.

If the premise is based on invention, for instance, an intranet blog could be established where employees are encouraged to develop relevant ideas and are rewarded for their efforts.

What the giants are doing

Investing heavily in human capital is the key to building and maintaining an effective company brand, says the retail banking executive vice president of PNC, one of the largest US financial services companies.

The tight economic climate means that you are driven "to create a scorecard based on financial underpinnings", says Neil Hall in the recent Strategy + Business reader, Capturing the People Advantage.

"But you still have to weight your priorities appropriately," he says. "Service quality, commitment to customers, commitment to brand. Brand is more about customers than shareholders."

PNC recruits and develops talent and implements other strategies according to customer needs, Hall says - particularly in its retail sectors.

It resists the industry trend to reduce branch numbers and front-line staff - in line with technological advancements - and hires tellers who are personable and apt at fielding questions, in addition to being fast and accurate.

"[Customers] wanted tellers they could interact with," Hall says. "So we had to reconcile our retail customers' desires with our interest in creating a highly productive and cost-efficient function."

PNC also prefers to "nurture" its own workforce.

It is often easier to replace talent than to grow and develop it, Hall concedes, but this doesn't help "to build a sustainable brand".

"You need to consider the value of growing and nurturing your own workforce inside the brand rather than poaching from your competitors," he says. "If you do the latter, you just keep cycling through talent, which makes it impossible to sustain a brand."

Investment in human capital, Hall notes, is justified by the maths. PNC uses human-capital metrics in conjunction with financial metrics and academic research to give stakeholders "a better grounding in what constitutes a sustainable formula for success".

"We use that research to architect our plans around customers and employees in a way that reflects the impact on revenue."

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