Issue 2, June 2006

Published by:

In conversation with

Employer Branding Mr. S. Padmanabhan

on Employer Branding at TCS

What is Google India

How to Attract Great doing to be different?

Case Studies on
Employer Branding

Talent…Forever? Hewitt's Point of View on

Employer Branding

Employer Branding Survey

and Roundtable 2006
 INSIDE THIS ISSUE

EDITOR’S NOTE
Let’s start by asking you a question.

How much is your company’s Annual People Spending?

One Fortune 500 Company spends

$3 billion in annual people spending

The above figure is based on Saratoga Institute and U.S.

Department of Labor data that tracks what the Fortune 500 spend
on all forms of pay, health care benefits, retirement benefits, and
training and development. T he number is even larger when you start
thinking about recruitment and orientation, work environment,
technology support, travel etc. .

Where would you say this number rates among total expenses? In
most companies it’s absolutely a Top 5 expense -- and more
commonly, as the world economy becomes driven by people and
information companies -- people is the no.1 expense. I f we are going
to spend this much money on people, it makes sense to brand this
money. No marketer would waste such a brilliant opportunity to
brand this spending on people to improve the company’s image.
And yet companies go through this amount and fail to realise the
unused potential of people spending on creating a powerful
Employer Brand. .

So what is Employer Branding? ?

Employer Branding is the sum total of what Inside this issue

employees think of an organization as an Employer
The Employer Brand covers all associations that employees or View from the Top 3
potential employees have with the firm. This includes direct and S. Padmanabhan, Executive Vice President
indirect experiences of dealing with the firm. L ike actual product (Head Global HR) of Tata Consultancy Services
branding, companies have started to invest in Employer Branding as shares his recipe for the TCS Employer Brand
employees are the internal customers of the firm. .
Measuring HR 4
We hope that you find this second issue of HR Connect, a n The 2006 Employer Branding Survey Results
interesting and insightful read on Employer Branding. covering more than 105 IT & ITES Companies

For a soft copy and/or feedback please email us at Point of View 5

hrconnect@nasscom.in Hewitt's POV on Employer Branding

Warm Regards Thrashing It Out 6

The Editorial Desk HR Heads from HCL, Genpact, Sapient,
HR Connect, an interactive platform for the IT & ITES industry Flextronics, Momentum and Xansa discuss
K Employer Branding
Readers Desk
Case Studies 7
Thanks to our readers for their encouraging messages on the first Live case studies on Employer Branding
issue of HR Connect. by HR practitioners
“A great initiative!”
Tata Housing - Mohini Mehta
“Interesting Reading” Nasscom HR Initiatives 8
Apollo Hospitals - Chandan Das

“Contents are contemporary and practical” Google Talk 9

Balkrishna Tyres - V P Mathur Manoj Varghese, Director (HR) at Google
“It deserves much wider publicity” India,speaks to us on how Google is different
ONGC - John Wesley B when it comes to hiring, managing and
“The information provided herein is very useful” attracting employees
EPC Industries - V N Ghate

Published by Accor Services, Camera House, Majiwade Village Road, Thane (West), Mumbai 400 601. www.accorindia.com.
Supported by NASSCOM. www.nasscom.org.
Knowledge Partner: Hewitt Associates. www.hewitt.com. (For Private Circulation Only) 2
 VIEW FROM THE TOP
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Limited is currently Asia's largest IT services firm with revenues of US $2.97 Billion
for the Financial Year 2005-2006. As of March 2006 it has the largest number of employees amongst the Indian IT
companies (over 62,000). TCS was conferred with the best IT employer award by Hewitt Associates in 2004 and the
best place to work award by Dataquest in 2004 and 2005. We caught up with Mr. S Padmanabhan, Executive Vice
President (Head Global HR) in Mumbai to understand how TCS goes about building its Employer Brand.

Do you think that Employer recruitment advertisements, client presentations, and we were the
Branding is a fad or something that first organisation to embark upon an IT quiz concept for schools
is very necessary?
across the nation for students of 8 to 12 standard. We chose Quiz as
Employer Branding has been in
medium to enhance the IT awareness and provide a window to the
existence for a long time. It is not a
world of IT. The event has also helped us in brand building and
phenomenon peculiar to the IT
besides extending “IT for Schools”. .
Industry and in today’s context, it can be an important differentiator
to project the uniqueness of the organization.
What does the TCS Employer Brand stand for?
What is the main area of focus of the TCS Employer Brand?
Our first milestone is to be among the Top 10 IT companies globally
by 2010. All our energies are invested in this direction.

The TCS brand as an employer embodies the tremendous

opportunities TCS offers to a young professional. These include
world class training, right from the initial years as well as an
opportunity to work across technology platforms, domains and
geographies. We offer careers in more than 5 streams, our reward
and recognition program is a unique mix of monetary and non
monetary benefits and we continuously engage with our employees
beyond the work space with initiatives like MAITREE, to create
professionals with a global mindset. These are messages that are
conveyed through the brand.
How does the TCS Employer Brand connect to this
vision?
With the vision of being among the global top 10 by 2010 as
“The Employer Branding
the backdrop, TCS is focused on creating a global
organization that is multi-cultural and diverse. A company,
which operates in an enriched and inclusive atmosphere
of collaboration and excellence. This higher brand
awareness is attracting talented people to the company,
which is increasingly being recognized as the preferred
employer in key world markets.
We have a consistent branding message that gets communicated
across the organization, across the geographies. We are a global
company with global customers, by an
increasingly global workforce. Over 6 per cent
of our company's employees are non-Indian.
Tell us about the branding exercise at
TCS?
At TCS the branding exercise is well
connected with a two pronged
approach based on our Employer
You can't go with Brand and leverages the same with
the same message our internal processes.
to every school and
you can't go with the Externally we ensure that the
same message to TC S Employer Brand is
every geography consistently communicated
in all our external
interactions. Some of
We want to be in them include our
the Top10 by 2010 campus presentation,
World’s Best
Global Opportunities Training Ground Employee Friendly
What are some things that you do in your internal processes to
drive this message?
Our internal portal Ultimatix is the 'central nervous system' of TCS.
The portal combines several different applications based on
different platforms and is TCS ‘ ERP, Knowledge Portal,
Management Information System, CRM, Employee Self Service
System, and much more, all rolled into one! Over and
above Ultimatix also serves as an in-house
communication tool, delivering daily news and
is handled by a cross
functional team with information updates to TCSers on a real-time basis.
communication, HR, Ultimatix is a very important vehicle for branding
branding and logistics internally. It carries all the important news and
specialists” updates on the happenings in the organization
globally.
Our HR policies focus on diversity, workplace
harmony, work life balance, competency building and flexibility.
Some of the HR activities for Employer Branding include sustained
employee engagement, rewards and recognition (Best White Paper
Awards, Star Of The Month, Creative Workspace Awards, Best
Project Awards, Best Faculty Awards, Best Auditor Award etc.) We
also offer our employees flexibility of choice on career streams,
encouraging a diverse experience through rotations across
streams.
What makes TCS different from other IT/ITES Employer Brand?
The TCS brand is a much sought after brand among potential
employees. Our learning and development capabilities, number
and variety of internal opportunities especially in international
environments, a growing world-wide presence where we compete
with global IT companies in all markets for large engagements are
some of the attractions for professionals. Also ongoing
engagement in the work and life space enables employees to have
long term careers with us which is evident by our lowest attrition rate
which is below 10 percent.

3
 MEASURING HR

EMPLOYER BRANDING SURVEY AND POLL 2006

EMPLOYER SURVEY 2006
The Employer Branding Survey by Hewitt Associates and Accor Still Room For Improvement
Services covered 105 IT/ITES organizations. This is the first time
that a survey focused solely on Employer Branding has been
conducted in the country. The survey had a healthy mix of large,
small and medium organizations across the country with a majority
of the companies having operations in India for more than 3 years.
" Employer Branding to become more " My company has the right Employer Brand
important in the future" to attract and retain the talent it needs"
Top 3 aspects of Employer Branding (What Employers feel)
(85% Agree) (38% strongly agree)

EMPLOYEE POLL 2006

Employees of over 80 different IT/ITES organizations participated in
the Online Employer Branding Poll 2006 hosted on the NASSCOM
website.

Company's Success and Career Progression Compensation

Reputation in the Market Top 3 IT - ITES Employer Brands in the Country

Main findings

§ You need an Employer Brand even when you already have a

strong Organization/Customer Brand. 85% of surveyed
managers feel that Employer Branding will become more
important in the future.

§ Only 38% of managers strongly agree that their organization has

the right Employer Brand to attract the talent they need.
Top 3 aspects of Employer Branding (What Employees feel)
§ The Employer Brand needs to be aligned to the Customer Brand.
92% of managers feel that their Employer Brand is aligned to their
Organization Brand.

§ The key to successful Employer Branding is collaboration.

Although HR is primarily responsible, contribution from other
departments like Marketing and Corporate Communications is
crucial to the success and making the magic of Employer
Branding work. Compensation Career Progression Nature of Work

How do you attract 25% to 75% of potential employees every year?

One of the most effective ways of communicating your Employer
Brand is through the company website. On an average 25% of
COMING SOON
employees apply to a company through the career website. In a few
companies this percentage was higher than 75%. However only
25% of organizations feel that their communication of employment
information (employee benefits, workplace culture etc.) to potential
recruits through the career website is very good.
Hewitt's Best Employers in Asia Study 2007
The Best Employers in Asia is a study that examines
How to compensate a weak brand? people management practices in many of Asia's leading
A firm with a weak brand would most likely have to offer in excess of organizations and helps companies understand what
25% extra salary to attract an employee working for a strong separates the best from the rest.
Employer Brand. Therefore a strong Employer Brand acts as an exit
barrier and helps retain an employee. To participate in this study, please contact
Kevin.Freitas@hewitt.com

4
 POINT OF VIEW

HEWITT’S POINT OF VIEW ON CREATING THE EMPLOYEE

VALUE PROPOSITION
Branding is a way to package information about functional attributes, economic value, and psychological benefits so it's easily understood
and absorbed by the target audience. Every organization has an External Brand and an Internal Brand. The External Brand is the image that
an organization projects to customers, suppliers, investors, and the public. The Internal Brand is the image that employees and others have
about what type of employer an organization is. Whether the brand is explicit or implicit and even if it has not been deliberately developed
every organization has an Internal Brand.

Brand

External Internal

An External Brand gives information on the attributes of the An Employer Brand (or Internal Brand) gives current and potential
goods or services to current and potential buyers. It answers employees information about the employment experience and
questions like: what is expected of them. It answers questions like:

Functional Benefits Functional Benefits

What will these goods or services do for me? What is this job like?
What needs will it fulfill? What will I be doing in this job?
Will I enjoy the experience?
Economic Value How will I develop professionally and personally?
How much can I expect to pay?
How good a “deal” is it? Economic Value
How will I be rewarded?
Psychological Benefit What can I expect in return for my efforts?
How will it make me feel?
What image of myself will it help me convey to the world? Psychological Benefit
What will I be a part of?
What will I belong to?
How will my efforts help drive a greater mission?

Profit From Experience

After completing over 1500 Engagement studies, Hewitt
Employer Branding Kit Associates has found that employees are looking for a
unique combination of the following:
Employee Performance Tool • The belief that one works for a great company!
• Exciting work,
Retention Tool
• Meaningful opportunity,
Culture Tool
• Career and personal development,
Recruiting Tool
• Work/life balance,
• Wealth and rewards.

Popular Measures For Tracking The ROI

Of Employer Branding Are:
Employ • The offer letter to conversion ratio
er Branding • The percentage of positions filled/applied for through
employee referrals
• The ranking on best employer surveys

“An effective Employer Brand is AUTHENTIC,

DIFFERENTIATED, and above
all ALIGNED to the External Brand”
5
 THRASHING IT OUT
own people who form the audience. If you say your company is an
employee friendly company, then you have to act that way, whether it
is by creating a creche or having gymnasiums, swimming pools,
flextime etc. Your actions have to match your promises.

Advices to startups and small organizations

Decide the following very carefully:
1. What is the segment that you are targeting?
(Don't target all of the 1.2 billion people in the country)
The Delhi Roundtable organised by NASSCOM and Accor Services 2. What is your positioning? (What do you want to stand for? Why
on Employer Branding, was witness to an involved, free flowing should your potential employees join you? And no matter what the
exchange of ideas between the HR Heads of different companies temptations are: to rank and stack against the majors, just stick
across the IT-ITES Continuum. Among those present were Aadesh to what you stand for)
Goyal from Flextronics Software Systems, Vinayak Kamath from
Genpact, Binoo Wadhwa from Sapient, Sunil Goyal from An interesting analogy on the alignment of the Employer Brand
When HLL sells soap, it tries to give users a good and valuable
Momentum Technologies, DP Singh from Xansa and J
experience from using that soap. It involves the brand manager or
Kalyanaraman from HCL. The discussion was moderated by Arvind
the research personnel who is associated with the customer. Today,
Sagar and Kevin Freitas from Hewitt Associates.
when we talk about services, it is each and every employee of the
What is Employer Branding? company who is associated with the creation of the right brand. Let's
Employer Branding is not just about compensation.
say that your employees are creating value for 3M
Compensation is just one part of it and may not be the
“The value that an employee today. You would want your employees to somehow
most important. There are more important factors like top feels working for you has to create more value for you. Otherwise, your
leadership, the attitude of management towards be more powerful than the
employees might end up working for 3M and not for
employees, the culture of the organization. value in working for a client”
Aadesh Goyal, Flextronics you. So the value that you create for yourself has to be
Is Employer Branding relevant today or is it a fad? more powerful than the value you end up creating for a
Employer Branding has always been there. Previously it 3M or a Boeing or any other client. People have to feel
was a demand driven market.This has changed over time “Startups should understand your pitch. They have to see what you are doing as
to a supply driven market. In a bid to attract talent, the segment they are going
authentic. It is about alignment to the organization
after and decide their
Employer Branding has taken on a whole new meaning. positioning accordingly” brand.
What was a natural extension of the organizational brand Vinayak Kamath, Genpact
The impact of leadership on the Employer Brand
is now focused on closely to create an Employer Brand
Irrespective of the size of the organization, Employer
that communicates both internally and externally to key
Branding gets related to the leader's philosophy of what he wants
constituents. Everyday, new organizations are setting up shop in the
the organization to do. When we talk about Wipro, we think of Azim
country. In light of this, Employer Branding and the way you brand
Premji. When we talk about Infosys, we think of Narayana Murthy.
yourself becomes important.
When we talk about the Tata Group, we think of JRD Tata. The brand
What is changing about the way organizations do Employer association lives beyond the lifetime of the founder. In the future
Branding today ? there will be differentiations that will come around the culture, the
Tata companies are known to be nice to people. But are employees philosophy and the persons directing the philosophy. This will
only looking for nice firms today? Are they only looking for firms that impact Employer Branding. However this will take time to change.
will advance their career? Are they looking for a mix of many things? But the core will not change.
Today, what is required to do the branding is what is changing!
How should one measure the Return on Investment of Employer
How has Employer Branding evolved? Branding? ?
It could start with a product and then the product gets converted to The two indicators that could be good measures of the return on
the feeling of wanting to work there. It could start with the Employer Branding are: Are people staying on with me (level of
organization's muscle and size translating into a feeling of wanting attrition or retention) ? Are my people referring their friends and
to work there. One could also start with a very specific and niche area acquaintances (number of employee referral s ) into my
of specialization translating into demand for employees of a organization? The panel felt that HR needs to make a case for the
particular caliber or skill set. You have organizations that are very return on Employer Branding activity more forcefully and this should
small, where the size of the organization is less than 50 people but be directed by business logic and sound measurement.
there are people who prefer to work there for a lifetime, because of
the kind of work and the environment that is given to them.
“Whatever you do for your employees has to be authentic”
How should an organization preserve its Employer Brand in the DP Singh, Xansa Short
face of layoffs, corporate scandals, lawsuits and other “It is your employees first who really need to believe in your Takes
unexpected situations? brand. Your customers will follow” - Sunil Goyal, Momentum
Even under the best circumstances, it is impossible for Employer “We need to treat our internal customers, just like we would our
Brand managers to control all the variables that affect a company's external customers”- Binoo Wadhwa, Sapient
image, reputation and attractiveness as a place to work. Internal “No one thought twice about joining a TATA's or a Birla's 10 years ago. This
was and is because they have an Employer Brand” - J Kalyanaraman, HCL
Branding is a lot more important than External Branding as it is your

6
 CASE STUDIES
Deccannet Case Study B rand positioning statement
Strong Brand, Small Company The next step was to create an Internal Brand positioning statement
Deccannet is a small company of around 200 employees that was to guide the $2 billion annual people investment.
acquired by Flextronics Software Systems. The CEO of
Southwest created an internal tagline for the emotional part:
Deccannet passionately spread the message “whatever we are
“Freedom begins with me,” to capture the personal commitment
doing is going to change the world”. This was a feeling echoed by
they want each employee to make to themselves, customers, and
everyone else in the team and company.
the company.
Here are 2 examples of initiatives to fulfill this goal:
3. Reinforce the Internal Brand
§ Deccannet did not want to compete with Infosys or Wipro.
To reinforce the Internal Brand, Southwest Airlines packaged their
Instead of opting for exclusive colleges like the IITs, they
$2 billion annual people investment into eight freedoms : Freedom
identified several colleges in and around Bangalore, hiring
to pursue good health, Freedom to create financial security,
students from rural backgrounds, who would probably be hired
Freedom to continually learn and grow, Freedom to contribute and
by a 'Tier 1' or 'Tier 2' company. Through good culture, training,
be recognized, Freedom to travel, Freedom to work and play hard,
and a 'family' kind of work environment, the company
Freedom to be yourself and have fun and Freedom to stay
philosophy helped employees generate value by learning and
connected.
applying that learning to the company.
Matched with clever and subtle branded employee communication
§ The Deccannet Foundation was also started by the CEO. The through different employee policies, recruitment material, training
purpose of this was to encourage employees to adopt a and development programmes, Southwest has managed to convey
village, set up schools, and with concerted efforts, time and a consistent brand promise to employees that matches its External
money bring about a change. Brand promise of freedom to customers.

When the company was acquired by FSS, the latter realized that Accor Case Study
instead of being overjoyed about joining a big brand, the Employer Branding Communication
With 168,000 people in 140 countries, Accor is the European leader
employees' loyalty lay with the small yet strong brand that was
and one of the world's largest groups in travel, tourism and
Deccannet. Such is the power of a strong Employer Brand.
corporate services, with two major international activities: Hotels
(Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, Ibis, Motel 6) and Services to Corporate
Clients and Public
Institutions managed by
South West Airlines Case Study
Accor Services.
Consistent Brand for Employees and Customers
What began as a small Texas airline has Accor has launched a new
grown to become one of the largest communication campaign
airlines in America. Southwest Airlines to attract talent in hotel and
Inc. has been profitable every year services: “YOUR SMILE,
since 1973. It has 31,000 fun-loving YOUR FUTURE”.This
employees and describes itself as the campaign attends to
only company in America that considers “sense of humor”, a critical Accor’s needs in terms of recruitment all over the world (More than
hiring criterion. Here is how Southwest Airlines went about 22,000 recruitments in 2005).
personalizing the Southwest experience for employees, just as it
Accor’s Employer Branding has always featured smiling employees
does for customers.
focusing on three prominent themes:
1. Create the right E xternal B rand positioning statement § Leading Group
§ Professional ladder with many career opportunities
The Marketing Department that guides $ 100 million in marketing
§ Mobility and Trainings, a reality
budget provided Southwest HR with the External Brand positioning
statement around freedom. The External Brand positioning I n line with the previous HR catch lines (“The future smiles on you”;
statement has a rational part and an emotional part “At Accor, one smile leads to another”) this campaign features
Accor employees smiling. It places the candidate as an actor of his
Here is how the rational part defines freedom: “Southwest Airlines own evolution and shows the reality of the professional ladder within
makes it possible for more people to experience things firsthand: to Accor. The campaign also highlights the diversity of Accor in terms
see and do more things more often than ever before”. This is of countries, brands, positions and cultures through portraits and
because of their fundamental commitment to always provide low professional success stories.
fares to the places people want and need to go.

Here is how the emotional part of the brand defines freedom:

“Freedom is Southwest Airlines' brand promise and must be viewed
as a sacred responsibility. It is SWA's higher calling”.

2. Create I nternal B rand positioning statement from the E xternal

7
 NASSCOM HR INITIATIVES

WAR FOR TALENT

NASSCOM HR Summit 2006
18-19 July 2006 Hotel Le Royal Meridien Chennai

The Indian IT-ITES industries are

on a high momentum path. Rapid
growth, consolidation and moving
up the value chain in terms of products
and services define the sector.
Rampant growth, however, has come
with its own set of challenges. The chief HR ECO-SYSTEM
challenge is access to skilled manpower
resources and India currently enjoys a key
The aim of the Summit will be to outline
edge in this aspect. Moving forward, not only
does India have to sustain its vast pool of strategies that will help India create an
specialized IT-ITES talent, but it also has to ensure HR eco-system, characterized by better
that it remains “industry-relevant” and “rightly
skilled.” There is a growing need for IT professionals
quality IT professionals, global-class
that have specific expertise for different industry HR leaders and lower churn.
segments and domain knowledge.

The IT-ITES industries are also grappling with the crucial

issue of manpower acquisition and retention. Attrition
levels remain high, causing concern for organizations.
Indian IT-ITS players, both large and small, are struggling with NASSCOM's HR
a workforce crisis! People issues loom large on the agendas of Summit will draw a community
companies, that are attempting to position themselves as the of CEOs, Senior HR professionals, H eads
“best career destination,” “employer of choice,” and the “best of Training and Industry-Academia alliances,
place to work!” Knowledge Management executives, consultants offering
technical and linguistic training, and Heads of Departments/Vice
Building an HR eco-system
In this uncertain and dynamic market scenario, Human Resource Chancellors of higher educational institutions offering technical
development has become an important function within the and other professional courses.
enterprise and the HR chief, a key member in the team of decision
makers. The NASSCOM HR Summit 2006, to be held in Chennai, will
take a close look at the evolving profile of HR and the
transformational role it can play within the IT-ITES industries, to The NASSCOM HR Summit 2006, will focus on the following
make them more globally competitive. The focus of the Summit will areas:
be on how HR can serve as a change agent, innovator and strategic
§ The transformation role of HR within the IT-ITES sectors
partner for the Indian IT-ITES sectors and help these industries
§ Existing trends in compensation and benefits
combat their workforce challenges. Attention will be given at the
conclave to leadership building within the HR community, to how HR
§ The profile of the emerging IT-ITES workforce

professionals can better align themselves to the vision and

§ Leadership development within the HR community

business goals of the organizations they are a part of. § Overcoming challenges related to manpower shortages
§ Maintaining India's competitive edge in the “people's space”
Broadly speaking, the aim of the Summit will be to outline strategies § Successful performance management strategies for large
that will help India create an HR eco-system, characterized by better organizations and SMEs
quality IT professionals, global-class HR leaders and lower churn.
The Summit, through its myriad sessions and discussion forums,
will also spotlight the strategies that will help forge industry-
Special Workshop on Leadership Development and Talent
academia linkages and better tune India's learning environment
with the needs of the IT-ITES industries. Architecture @ NASSCOM HR Summit 2006 by Prof. Scott A. Snell,
Professor Human Resource Studies; Director, Executive Education at
The Summit will also get into detailed discussions on the challenges
Cornell University / ILR School.
facing HR and issues such as the evolving role of recruitment
companies, skill set development through Certifications, models
for building industry-academia partnerships and mentoring for Tier
II and III educational institutions on how they can create a world-
class knowledge pool.

8
 GOOGLE TALK
Google is consistently rated as one of the most preferred employers on premier campuses in both engineering
and non-engineering fields. HR Connect caught up with Mr. Manoj Varghese, Director for Human Resources at
Google India. Coincidentally, Manoj is also the first senior manager hired by Google in India.

What does your Employer Brand
mean to employees and potential
hires?
Google's mission is to deliver the
best search experience by making
the world's information accessible
and useful. We are all about
customer experience,
engineering excellence, innovation and freedom to work on projects
that impact millions and millions of people. All that we do is to
connect people and information. Hence we invest in creating
compelling products that meet these needs. Our employer brand
hence, means customer experience, access to information,
innovation, engineering/customer service excellence and freedom
to our employees and potential hires.
How does your organization approach Employer Branding? What
kind of brand building initiatives does your organization plan to
sustain your Employer Brand?
Our employment brand is an extension of our corporate brand.
Google's ultimate goal is to be the Gateway to the Internet for people
all over the world no matter where they are located, what language
they speak or how they access the Internet (beyond a personal
computer and a browser to hand-held devices as well).
We work very closely with academic institutions, encourage interns,
sponsor and conduct coding contests, conduct technical talks,
sponsor research in specific areas and support activities that
encourage creativity, innovation and encourage engineering
excellence. Examples of some of the brand building activities will be
§ India Code Jam that we conducted in 2005 and 2006, which is a
technical coding contest.
§ Essay Writing Competitions, as for our Ad Words process in
Hyderabad we look for superior English writing skills
What is the role of HR in sustaining an Employer Brand in your
organization?
Employer Brand cannot be different from what the employee
experiences are inside Google. The culture, the unique work
environment that we have, has been put in place by Larry Page and
Sergey Brin right from the day they started the company and is
practiced and evangelized by our executives. HR's role is to align
Brand. Organizations that build effective Employer Brands will be
able to identify the key sources of talent and the key competencies
required in talent that they seek.
It is important not only to build a great Employer Brand for attracting
people, but for retaining the best talent as well. The sum of
experiences that an employee has, or a candidate has defines the
Employer Brand rather than any slogan or advertisement.
View points
What initiatives would you recommend to startups and small
companies in creating an Employer brand?
Be consistent in your message to the market and the internal
experiences that you provide your employees with. Building
credibility with the experiences that you promise through the
Employer Brand becomes important since a large number of
companies are focusing on the few talent available. Identify
the sources that provide the maximum ROI and concentrate
on that rather than spreading oneself too thin. Leveraging
employee referrals as a source by ensuring the employees
experience the brand and recommend the best people .
Should one create an original Employer Brand or pick and
choose the best characteristics from practice E mployer
B rands?
Benchmarking helps but the key to having a strong, credible
Employer Brand is to look internally and build your Employer
Brand based on what experiences you are providing your
employees. A brand created only to attract is not sustainable
if you are not able to retain people and loose credibility as an
employer.
Employer Branding is not as important as Talent Branding.
Employer Branding encompasses Talent Branding and any
dissonance will result in dilution of Employer Brand and
higher employee attrition rates.
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with the increase in attrition and the war for talent heating up? Or
is it just a fad that will die quickly?
In the crowded market place, where demand-supply gap for
employable talent is growing everyday, Employer Branding is going
to assume greater importance in the years to come in India. The best
“ The sum of experiences that an employee has,
or a candidate has defines the Employer Brand
candidate has a number of choices available to them and the
employer needs to differentiate themselves with a great Employer
rather than any slogan or advertisement.
”
9
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