Last week saw two apparently very similar UK-headquartered insurance organisations adopt entirely different positions regarding their future domicile. Prudential, with significant business revenues in the fast emerging Asian markets, has been quietly threatening to pull its corporate base out of the UK and head, in all probability, east, prompted largely by what they see as increasingly anti-business regulatory sentiment in the UK. The threat has even seen London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, writing to Prudential CEO’s in a plea for the business to stay put. The jury remains out as to Prudential’s ultimate decision.
Such an approach contrasts with that of Aviva. Clearly a key competitor to Prudential, Aviva appears to be going out of its way to communicate its desire to remain in the UK. “If Aviva were to re-domicile, everyone else would have left first. We are extremely committed to the UK. We love the UK”. Praise indeed from Andrew Moss, Aviva’s CEO.
But why does this matter from an employer branding context? For TMP, this is of major importance. On the back of a sizeable piece of recent research into candidate behaviours in early 2012, what would-be applicants crave is stability – perhaps not surprising given the buffeting the employment marketplace has experienced over the last four years.
And this is exactly what Aviva is offering its UK workforce. Not for them worry and concern that their headquarters, and with it considerable numbers of jobs, are about to move abroad. They can therefore concentrate on turning in the sort of business performance that Moss was able to announce at the same time – with operating profits rising 6% to £2.5bn. How might the same people be feeling at Prudential with the possibility of having either to leave the company or leave the country hanging over their heads? Are levels of engagement, productivity and alignment likely to remain unaffected?
However, employer brands are about adopting a unique position and communicating a distinct sentiment. Aviva’s employer brand shouldn’t occupy the same space as that of Prudential’s – there should be clear lines of demarcation and differentiation. If Prudential’s positioning around a possible move away from the UK is consistent with promoting global employment flexibility and mobility, then it is being consistent to its employer brand.
Whilst Aviva’s clear positioning around UK stability demonstrates something different, something ownable and something around which potential insurance job changers can make a clear decision – the global mobility of Prudential or the domestic stability of Aviva.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 