As I try to navigate a, broadly, sugar-free January, my relationship with chocolate extends, in theory, no further than this blog. The blunt and unforgiving pressure of the bathroom scales is increasingly hard to ignore. Irritatingly, as I attempt to get past the first week of the year with my resolution and waistline still vaguely intact, it’s hard to move for tales of chocolate, cake and confectionery.
Those killjoys at the Faculty of Dental Surgery produced research to mark the beginning of 2017, which suggests that ‘cake culture’ – sharing all manner of sugary snacks around the office – is having a direct impact not only on teeth but also the rampant levels of obesity around the country. Worse still, cakes, biscuits and chocolate around the office, in conjunction with high workloads and long hours, put pressure on people to make the wrong nutritional choices. So, apparently innocent initiatives to drive higher levels of workplace engagement and teamwork are having some less positive consequences.
Ill-thought out consequences under pressure seem to be proliferating right now.
It’s difficult to imagine surviving the festive season without falling back on a couple of Yuletide staples. Certainly, Christmas in the Harrison household would feel faintly lacking without the presence of both Toblerone and Terry’s Chocolate Orange.
Brands that seem comfortable, reassuring and trustworthy. What could possibly go wrong?
Toblerone was off the mark first. Many food manufacturers have been mulling the challenges of higher commodity prices with a disinclination to simply raise the cost of their products. Their cunning solution? To increase the space between their iconic triangles. In one fell swoop, Mondelez moved away from a piece of unique and hugely recognisable design to something resembling the gap-toothed mouth of an 8 year old. The new design manages to combine the frankly odd with the distinct feeling that the consumer is being ripped off. And not entirely without reason.
Not to be outdone, Terry’s adopted an apparently more subtle approach. Sure enough, the size of its chocolate oranges mysteriously shrank by 10% late last year. More insidious, however, was the change in recipe, prompting user forums, blogs and a brand outcry. Mondelez, again, has taken a commercial decision, presumably under financial pressures, which has impacted on the way consumers process and engage with the product and the brand.
Given the investment, dedication and focus that most brand owners instil not only in their products but equally in their relationships with consumers, such activity feels short-sighted and pyrrhic. Still, our Christmases promise to be slightly more healthy in the future.
And such a future feels ever-so-slightly more positive than many of us anticipated in the immediate June wake of the Brexit decision. A recent CBI survey from late December suggests that 41% of UK employers will increase their workforce in 2017, just two percentage points down from a similar survey at the beginning of 2016. Just 13% of employers indicated they would be cutting the overall size of their employee base.
Such giddy optimism was reflected too in the monthly Adzuna research around advertised vacancies. Their most recent findings, from November, point to no less than 1.65m advertised positions across the UK economy – a 12 month high. This contrasts starkly with candidate availability, according to Adzuna. Candidate competition per vacancy is just 0.3 in London and a slightly better 0.43 across the UK.
If Mondelez hasn’t necessarily responded to pressures in a way likely to delight consumers or brand advocates alike, then Ryanair represents something of a contrast. And given Michael Ryan’s track record, perhaps a surprising one.
Whereas the airline previously revelled in their apparent disdain for the consumer, their business performance from December 2016 reveals the results of a far more customer centric initiative, ‘Always getting better’. Passenger numbers, despite concerns around terrorism, were up a chunky 20% last month on the previous year.
Faced with the pressure of competition, consumer caution and geo-political uncertainty, Ryanair has decided to invest in its customer interface and brand experience – and not to do the opposite.
What are the implications and learnings then for employer branding?
There can be few employers not faced with any number of different pressures as we emerge blinking into the sugar-free glare of 2017. Brexit promises to cut off the supply of overseas talent into UK businesses. The UK economy is forecast to near halve its 2016 growth of 2.2% this year – the optimism and exuberance of the UK consumer is unlikely to come through this unscathed. And a report last month from Investors in People suggested that 59% of all UK employees were looking for a change of employer, with more than half of those prompted to move as a result of on-going salary stagnation. As Mark Carney expressed it recently, the country has experienced a ‘lost decade’ of earnings growth.
Lots of pressures for employers and lots of pressure on their employer brands.
How they respond to such pressures will define them as organisations and potential career destinations. Will they continue to hire, continue to invest in people and careers, will they continue to recognise, value and develop their people? Or will they blink first? Take a short term view and hope candidates, talent pools and employees don’t notice.
Brands with both consumer and employee relationships are likely to be facing all manner of pressures – as we touch on above. They can either emerge from such pressures with an enhanced reputation, as Ryanair are managing, or risk distancing themselves from consumers and brand advocates, as the owners of Terry’s and Toblerone appear to be attempting.
A major piece of research into employer branding from LinkedIn appeared to fly under the radar late last year. Some of its findings emphasised the continued importance of an organisation’s employer brand and the investment it makes in such.
83% of recruitment leaders suggested in the research that talent is the #1 priority for their organisation; and 80% of talent leaders (from a total of 4,000) felt that their employer brand has a significant impact on their ability to hire.
So with something so vital, so impactful on talent acquisition, how will your employer brand respond to the pressures it will inevitably face ahead?
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 