By Dr Magdalena Meller
Leading companies allocate six-figure advertising budgets to develop their brands. A strong brand invariably increases consumer awareness, competitiveness, and market share. The branding process can also sharpen corporate identity.
One of the most recent and remarkable examples of external and internal brand building is Adidas. The “Impossible is Nothing” campaign was devised by marketers with the purpose of connecting to customers. Beyond Adidas’s commercial success, the campaign also raised the company’s spirit, a key HR deliverable. It reenergized the company’s workforce by giving Adidas employees added confidence in their products and abilities and thereby instilled greater pride and commitment.
Thus, since a powerful brand can affect all facets of company’s operations, all managers are responsible for protecting and cultivating it.
HR professionals are the ones entrusted and in a position to create positive and high quality experiences for employees and candidates alike to reinforce the values of the corporate brand.
In particular, supporting and developing a culture of service and salesmanship within the HR department can actually lead to strengthening the brand. To do so, HR must regard employees, managers, and also job applicants and short-listed candidates as customers who require high levels of service and care. Equally as important, this perspective can help the HR department shift from a tactical (administrative) approach to a strategic approach (leadership and consultancy).
Employees and managers as customers
Similar to marketers and sales people, HR professionals need to aim at achieving high customer satisfaction levels. A pyramid consisting of 4 levels of customer satisfaction can be used to shape priorities within the HR department.
As shown, HR must first be accurate. At this level, employees expect to receive the benefits they enrolled in, the payroll slip to reflect all information accurately, and for HR staff to answer questions competently. If the HR department consistently fails the accuracy test, customers will defect and the friendliness of HR employees will not matter.
Second, HR must be available. At this point, employees expect an open door to their HR department. This means that the HR staff is available anytime, anywhere, and can notice that all too common look of “I need help now”!
Third, HR must act as a partner to employees and managers. At this stage, employees want their HR staff to listen to them, to be responsive to them, and to make them feel that they are truly concerned about their development, performance, and progress. Employees and managers who feel understood and enabled to execute the company’s strategy are one step closer to real satisfaction and genuine advocacy.
Finally, HR must provide genuine advice. At this juncture, employees and managers will feel the closest bond to their HR staff because they have helped them learn and achieve professional goals.
To recap, the first two levels, accuracy and availability, barely prevents dissatisfaction. Therefore, the greater benefits arise at level 3 (partnership) and level 4 (advice). Specifically, partnership provides HR the opportunity to create positive feelings of satisfaction and advice constitutes the most advanced level of customer satisfaction. The payoff of treating employees and managers as customers is that positive employee experiences will help to improve HR’s image, increase inter-departmental collaboration, and ensure the success rate of employee referral programs.
Applicants as customers
HR professionals also need to send powerful brand messages to applicants and candidates. After all, the HR department orchestrates first impressions of the company to potential hires and the recruitment process provides insight into the company’s organisation and structure.
The HR approach for dealing with potential hires may be supported by how marketers and sales people view and understand clients and prospects. Indeed, a satisfied client or prospect will pass on his/her positive experience to one person or a handful of people whereas a dissatisfied client or prospect will share his/her negative experience with another 10. The same is true for jobseekers; unsuccessful candidates will share their experiences (good or bad) with others.
Furthermore, from a sales mindset, HR staff should actually view all applicants as if they were already hired. This point of view will keep HR staff on their toes, reinforce the “best” behaviors, and cause the department to be more responsive. The return can be significant, research in 2007 revealed that two-thirds of candidates base their decision on whether to join a company by their ‘interview experience’.
We should be aware that it does not take much to create a negative impression that no capital-intensive branding efforts will be able to undo. Frequently, applicants are simply overwhelmed with the amount of paperwork required by the HR department.
Those, who are invited for an interview face other common HR difficulties; poor coordination, interviewers that show up late and are unprepared, and seating arrangements that emphasize status and power of the interviewer over the candidates. More often than not, HR also does not bother notifying candidates that they are no longer being considered for the position.
All of this leads to the suggestion of critically reviewing an applicant’s journey with your company from the moment they submit an application (see Applicant’s Journey).
The payoff of treating also applicants as customers is that positive applicant experiences prevent damage to the company’s image and spread the word-of-month of the company’s professionalism amongst its competitors, strategic partners, clients, etc.
In a nutshell, HR should champion strengthening the company’s brand through maintaining effective client relationships with employees and managers and efficient communication loop with all potential hires regardless of the outcome.
Ultimately, integrating recruiting and marketing efforts and getting HR and marketing to work more closely together is an important key for successful retention and business growth.
Applicant’s journey
“If you want to work here, you will have to find us.”
Is your HR department easy to find? Are there any signs to direct job applicants to your HR department? Is the career website easily accessible and informative?
“If you wish to receive an acknowledgement for submitting an application, please attach a self-addressed envelope with proper postage.”
Do you write back to applicants confirming that you received his/her application? Are you utilizing an auto-response feature for online applicants?
“We will keep your CV on file.”
Do you store resumes of applicants? Do you review CV’s on file toward new vacancies? Do you unnecessarily create dark areas of communication leaving applicants uncertain about their status?
“We only contact short-listed candidates.”
Are unsuccessful candidates simply forgotten? Do you ever thank applicants for their interest in your company and position? Do you thank applicants for demonstrating interest in your company, taking time out to research your business, filling out an application, and preparing and going through an interview?
“Thank you for coming.”
Do you communicate to short-listed candidates reasons why they were not successful? Do you provide valuable feedback to stimulate candidates’ self-development efforts? Do you maintain a communication loop to create evangelists for your company?
Post Interview Satisfaction Survey
Do you investigate the applicants’ perception about the recruitment process and their satisfaction levels with the job interview? Are results of such a survey part of the performance review of recruiters and hiring managers? Do you explore what applicants think about your company?
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
