Dear Ajitha,
It's one of the most discussed topics in HR. Hiring talent is not a big question; retaining them is really a big burden for HR professionals. I don't believe that having lunch together, making the environment musical, and chit-chatting can help us retain the talent. I also disagree with your point asking for three days leave.
In an Indian context, the most important factor I find for retaining talent is Employer branding/Brand Building. Look at a few Giant Companies like IBM, Infosys (Attrition is not a burden for them). I would like to start with a recent post "Brand building to attract and retain the best talent" in the words of Punita Jasrotia from New Delhi.
The IT industry, being people-oriented, differentiates the best from the rest through the "quality of human capital" in every organization. While there is plenty of talent available, the challenge lies in finding the talent that best fits the organization. Potential employees seek to associate themselves with companies that have a brand of success, leadership, people development initiatives, and instill a deep sense of pride and commitment.
Not much effort has been made by organizations to improve their corporate image internally. However, with increasing global competition and a more mature work environment, Indian IT companies have also started looking at this facet of branding.
Employer branding is all about the company's value in the market, a timeless process that has gained even more significance in today's scenario. It is essentially a combination of the organization's reputation, the career offer, and the corporate culture existing in the company.
Typically, there are two types of employer branding exercises: one for prospective employees and the other for the current set of employees. In the case of the former, employer branding initiatives target building mindshare in potential recruits about the company as a preferred place to work. This can be in the form of communication through advertisements, third-party endorsements through the media, or campus visits. "Internal employees might not know about all the product or solution offerings of the company, and it becomes necessary to inform and educate them," says Mita Brahma, the head of Nucleus Software's corporate HR department.
Employer branding has become more critical in today's times, as most professionals are looking for a stable career and to establish a long-term relationship with the company. D K Srivastava, the vice president of HR at HCL Comnet, says, "It is said that an unsatisfied customer tells ten people about his experience while an unsatisfied employee tells a hundred. Employer branding reflects the work culture in an organization. Therefore, it is of much significance."
A survey conducted by Hewitt Associates reveals that more companies are focusing on employer branding to "attract employees" and keep them engaged. There is a direct correlation between an effective employer brand and achieving business success. It helps in retaining current employees, increasing employee satisfaction, attracting job candidates, and motivating employees in their work, leading to excellent business gains. The purpose is to use the internal brand as the seedbed for aligning their people programs to deliver significantly improved business results.
This is evident from some of the recent initiatives taken by organizations to make the workplace more employer-friendly and implement development concepts like "spiritual quotient" and "value-building". Some companies have gone even further and appointed "internal branding consultants" to have a better relationship with their employees. For example, Texas Instruments, whose brand mantra is "conscious" and "consistent", which get reflected in all their activities, be it company journals, awards, or regular meetings. HCL Comnet, whose brand value signifies "exuberance", has developed a "Force of One" campaign that signifies an innovative attitude and the ability to individually make a difference. Or Cognizant, whose employer brand is "Celebrating Work", which gets reflected in its participative, empowering, and transparent work environment.
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, on the other hand, emphasizes both internal and external customers. "Paying attention to what matters to employees, and then delivering on that promise, keeps CGE&Y at the top of the list for the most talented employees," says Atul Srivastava, who heads people relationship management at the company. "The greatest goal of Cap Gemini Ernst and Young is to be the 'Employer of Choice', a company that can deliver a wide range of career opportunities, a company known everywhere for its ability to develop top professional talent delivering work of top professional quality. We have used Maslow's hierarchy of needs as the basis for categorizing retention programs and selecting a broad range of programs which can best address employee motivation and satisfaction issues," says Atul Srivastava, the head of people relationship management at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.
Commenting on the changing scenario, Arun Tadanki, the chief executive officer of Monsterindia.com, says that it also gets reflected in the kind of advertisements taken out by companies. "Till recently, employment ads were just showing the job description of the vacancy. The focus in the last two to three years has shifted and is largely driven by the IT & ITES employers, to create a powerful image for the organization as a 'dream place to work'. In the ITES industry, the job of a customer service agent is more or less the same irrespective of the company he is working in. What differentiates one ITES company from another is largely its employer brand image. This depends on a whole host of factors like how successful the company is perceived to be; what is the vision and mission; what kind of work culture they have; what kind of career growth opportunities they offer, etc," he says. On the contrary, Srivastava of HCL Comnet has a different viewpoint: "We expect to see more innovation within organizations to improve our corporate image. Training programs, motivational classes, employee career plans have become a common phenomenon nowadays. These things are employee deliverables. What organizations would be aiming towards is not employee satisfaction but employee delight!"
Roadblocks
Pramode Sadarjoshi, the director of Human Resources at Cognizant Technology Solutions, points out that employer branding is not an easy task as it is a long-term process. "It takes tremendous effort and a strategic blend of logic and intuition in the brand-building exercise. The company has to have superior leadership, operational excellence, customer focus, and most importantly, people-orientation in a genuine way, for the branding exercise to be successful," he adds.
Companies have been focusing more on advertising than making concentrated efforts in building relationships. According to the "Riding the Wave" survey conducted by the Career Innovations Research Group, the future might be in danger for those companies that otherwise invest too much in mass media and little in personal contact programs. As per the survey, the most believable forms of communication are not the advertisements, literature, and websites, but the behavior of employees and accounts of their own work experience. Srivastava of HCL Comnet states, "I believe that the most credible forms of communication are not the ads, literature, and websites, but the behavior of one's own employees and accounts of their own work experience."
Employer branding is part of the overall branding strategy of a company. For this to happen, the HR department should ensure a constant flow of communication within the organization, and there should be no conflict regarding internal and external image. Both these factors are very significant. "Every single employee should buy into the vision, commitment, and ethics of the company and should be a walking advertisement for the company. Doing a major employer branding exercise would be nothing if the company's own employees do not believe what is being said," says Sadarjoshi. R Shekar, the senior vice president and head HR, corporate strategy, and business excellence of Polaris Software, agrees: "An organization must adopt a concerted and focused approach to building and maintaining its reputation as a 'Best Workplace' and constantly work towards reinforcing this branding through continuous exercises."
A typical branding exercise would involve identifying the USP (unique selling proposition) of the company and articulating the DNA of the company, highlighting the competitive advantages of this DNA, and creating a consistent brand language across the organization in all forums for all constituencies. Says DK Srivastava, the vice president of HR at HCL Comnet, "The most significant aspect of any organization is to realize its inherent values and the image that it would like to project to its audiences. The next step is to evolve the right messages and reinforce those values again and again. And the most important part is to act on what you say. Plain words can't build a brand. A brand has to be built on action."
Employer branding, however, is limited to bigger companies, with very few initiatives taken by smaller players.
Future course
As companies come up with innovative branding exercises, this trend is expected to be very popular in the future. It would entail a lot of effort from the top management. "What we have seen so far is just the beginning. Every company, no matter how small or new, would want to come out with a 'niche' image, brand, product, or service. So there will be intense competition among all the players to get branded for something unique," says Sadarjoshi.
Experts point out that the next couple of months will witness companies engaged in innovative methods to stay ahead in the race. These may include hiring image building experts to enhance the brand value, providing competitive compensation, enabling foreign postings with dollar salaries and stock options, or offering challenging work environments in cutting-edge technology areas.
Employer branding
Employer branding is a derivative of the following factors:
- Impressive and consistent track record in business leadership.
- Demonstrated investment in growth through future products, R&D spend, articulation of the roadmap ahead, and viable strategies.
- The organization should be perceived as a place where every employee could learn and develop skills in the latest technologies, concepts, and knowledge areas.
- Aggressive, competitive compensation and benefits package.
- Transparent and merit-oriented performance management