A fascinating report from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce points to a tipping point in global commerce. The last decade has seen China, in particular, emerge as the workshop of the world. This report suggests that this may not always be the case. New production technologies, minimising human involvement, and rising labour costs in China and India mean that the cost benefits of manufacture in such jurisdictions is reducing. Increasing energy costs and rising regulation point in the same direction. And at the same time, consumers are more and more interested in provenance – last week’s horrendous events in a Dhaka clothing factory only serves to emphasise this momentum – and, for many industries, local production enhances speed and consumer responsiveness. The main challenge faced by the potential beneficiaries of such a shift – UK based SMEs – is their ability or otherwise to hire talent to cope with this rising demand. In particular, the authors of the report suggest that the main stumbling block for such ambitious organisations plays very much to the respective strength of their employer brand – “Their lower profile mean that they are not on the radar of the sort of jobhunters they want and need to attract.”
A low profile employer brand is playing a key role in stifling organisations’ abilities to respond to real business opportunities.
If business and jobs are truly coming home, where and what is that home? Picking up on a recent blog citing Yahoo!’s Marissa Mayer and her decision to put an end to employees working from home, comes fascinating contributions from Jack Dorsey and Richard Branson. Not only are both unconcerned about where their people work, they are less and less convinced about the need for formal, traditional offices. Branson, who apparently has never worked out of an office, takes this further – ‘One day, offices will be a thing of the past’. Dorsey, founder of Twitter, appears to be on the same page, ’I don’t have an office, I don’t have a desk. I have space in my iPad, I have space in my head’. The nature, environment and geography of work is shaping up to be a significant employment differentiator. Do employers opt for the openness and collaboration of a Virgin or a Twitter or the greater formality of a Yahoo! or Bloomberg, whose eponymous founder came out last month unequivocally on the subject – ‘Working from home is one of the dumber ideas I’ve ever heard.’
So, if UK SMEs face a resourcing and branding challenge, many other organisations face perhaps greater challenges around retention and engagement. The spatial argument above points more towards engagement and retention, issues exercising the minds of many within the C-suite. A poll earlier this week from Robert Half suggests that the major staffing concern for CFOs – cited by 38% of some 2,000 polled – was their ability to retain valued and valuable employees. Closely following that and, indeed, closely related, was maintaining employee productivity, mentioned by 27%.
For TMP, the key point to emerge from these findings relates to the proximity between an organisation’s employer brand and their consumer/institutional positioning. The employer brand has often been viewed as a poor relation, even an irritant by many corporate marketers. A quick look at the television schedules suggests that this may no longer be the case. As we make more and more use of mobile enabled recruitment activation, geo-targeting and Twitter keyboard targeting, there’s something positively old school about how some organisations are projecting both their business and their employment experience.
This week sees the start of two primetime TV programmes with employment front and centre. And if we await how the story of the Brownall Job Centre, in ‘The Job Lot’, in the west midlands unfolds with some degree of interest, it is Greggs, pie purveyors to the nation, who really fascinate. Yesterday saw the start of an 8-part series featuring the organisation, its people and its culture in all its glory. And this is some statement and some risk, for an organisation who has seen sales and profit margins under pressure of late. As we have seen with employers who have made similar programmes over the last 12 months – Network Rail (‘Keeping Britain on Track’) and Claridges (‘Inside Claridges’) – organisations have little or no control over editorial content but much potentially to gain. This demonstrates both bravery and a confidence in their employer brand. They feel sufficiently reassured about putting their people in front of the cameras and living and breathing the employer brand. In both examples, the organisations in question have fared well – their people have come over, generally, as engaged advocates. People have been portrayed in realistic, authentic scenarios and have not towed the company line but have had and communicated their own thoughts. Their employers, by definition, come over as trusting, empowering and enabling.
These are fascinating examples of an #employer brand not standing in the shadow of a consumer brand, but, by demonstrating confidence and purpose, actually adding to the institutional narrative. If organisations as varied and diverse as Greggs, Network Rail and Claridges are confident enough to lead with their employer brand, not hide it in the shadows, this should act as a major learning for the employer brand leaders in all organisations.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 