RECRUIT TALENT IN TODAY S MARKET. How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

Transcription

1 RECRUIT TALENT IN TODAY S MARKET How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

2 INTRODUCTION Your employer brand is part of your corporate brand. Therefore, any activities affecting your corporate brand will trickle down into your employer brand. Mergers, acquisitions, renaming, and even implementing a logo redesign will inevitably affect candidates and employees. While many companies create campaigns and communications plans oriented toward customers and shareholders, employee needs are sometimes overlooked, or included at the last minute. In the worst cases, employees find out about major events after the press, creating resentment and discontent that damages the employer brand. When they are not kept in the loop, employees end up voicing their concerns and frustrations on platforms like Glassdoor. In addition, if external communications are managed poorly, candidates receive mixed messages as they research your company. In this ebook, created as a joint effort from Glassdoor, VMware and AIA Worldwide, we ll share real-world insights to help you create and execute an employer brand transition plan. Carefully considering the needs and concerns of your employees and candidates will prevent frustration and confusion, helping you retain and recruit in the months and years after the transition. Successfully managing your employer brand through a transition helps employees integrate changes into their daily life, and gives candidates and employees alike a consistent message that clearly demonstrates what s new while understanding what remains. Before we show you how, let s first look at just how important your employer brand is. 2 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

3 SECTION 1 Value of the Employer Brand 3 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

4 SECTION 1: Value of the Employer Brand A strong employer brand helps companies recruit candidates, retain engaged employees, and drive bottom-line business results. Companies with strong brands collect positive reviews and receive high satisfaction ratings on Glassdoor, setting an example for businesses that seek to improve and communicate their brand. Strong Employer Brand = BETTER RECRUITING Organisations that prioritise employer brand are 250% more likely to rate their overall talent acquisition efforts as highly effective. 1 A strong employee value proposition (EVP) can reduce the compensation premium needed to hire by 50%, and increase new hire commitment by up to 29%. 2 Candidates who saw a positive Glassdoor review formed a better opinion of the company, were more eager to apply and to recommend it, and said they would ask for smaller salary increases than participants who saw a negative or neutral review. 3 74% updates of Glassdoor users are more likely to apply to a job if the employer actively manages its employer brand (e.g., responds to reviews, updates their profile, shares on the culture and work environment). 4 Sources: 1 Brandon Hall Group, Understanding the Impact of Employer Brand, Research Brief, November 2014; 2 CEB, Workforce Survey, 2016; 3 Glassdoor Economic Research, Why Online Reviews Matter for Employer Brand, January 2017; 4 Glassdoor.com U.S. Site Survey, August How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

5 SECTION 1: Value of the Employer Brand Strong Employer Brand = HIGHER ENGAGEMENT Organisations that prioritise employer brand are 130% more likely to see increases in employee engagement. 1 A strong EVP can decrease annual turnover by 11% and improve employee commitment by up to 37%. 2 MORE REFERRALS 78% to of employees at companies on the Glassdoor Best Places to Work 2017 UK list would recommend the company a friend, versus 49% of total Glassdoor users. 3 BETTER COMPANY PERFORMANCE A portfolio of Glassdoor 2.8X4 Best Places to Work companies outperformed the S&P 500 by Sources: 1 Brandon Hall Group, Understanding the Impact of Employer Brand, Research Brief, November 2014; 2 CEB, Workforce Survey, 2016; 3 Glassdoor Data Labs, December 2016; 4 Glassdoor Economic Research, Beating the Market Again, December How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

6 SECTION 1: Value of the Employer Brand Competitive Advantage of Employer Branding Although there is ample data to support the benefits of a strong employer brand, few companies have been able to build a business case for investing in employer branding. Companies that tie their employer brand to business improvement, recruitment and retention will have a competitive advantage over those that don t. 60% 66% of companies describe their employer brand project as a key element of their HR strategy. The leading edge 30% of companies see it as critical to business delivery. 1 say that they have developed an informal business case based around general aspirations to improve their reputation as an employer and their ability to attract the right talent. 1 } BUILT BUSINESS CASE BASED ON: 28% cost savings relating to recruitment 20% cost savings relating to improved retention 17% business improvement As these stats demonstrate, the majority of companies have determined that employer branding is critical for engagement and recruiting, but fewer have tied it to overall corporate reputation and business success in a measurable way. Keeping a close eye on business performance in unpredictable times of transition will help you identify problem spots that might stem from how employees react. Sources: 1 CRF Institute and People in Business (a wholly-owned subsidiary of AIA Worldwide), Employer Brand Benchmark Survey, How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

7 SECTION 2 The Employer Brand in Transition 7 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

8 SECTION 2: The Employer Brand in Transition Impact on Employees The impact assessments done before mergers, acquisitions, or rebranding focus on maximising shareholder value, and usually include a deep evaluation of a company s product lines and assets, as well as employee headcount and skillsets. They may also include an assessment of impact to customer perceptions, but less often include impact to employees. The impact of a change and uncertainty in the workplace can result in the following: Fear of one s own job loss Fear and resentment about colleagues job loss Decreased engagement and/or performance due to fear and disagreement with company actions Dissatisfaction with leadership, blaming them for bad/selfish decisions Divisiveness among employees who favor the transition and those who don t Exodus of vested employees receiving large payouts Management attrition due to redundancy or conflicts with new team Increased negative reviews on Glassdoor, resulting in lower overall satisfaction ratings and leadership ratings 8 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

9 SECTION 2: The Employer Brand in Transition Impact on Hiring In addition to the impact on current employees, mergers, acquisitions or rebrands can affect the perceptions of potential candidates, impacting the new company s ability to hire. Because a transition can have such far-reaching impacts to employees and recruiting, it s important to engage leadership in setting the tone for your company s transition, as well as keeping an eye on metrics to spot key issues as they arise. Candidate concerns may include: Confusion about the name and/or visual identity of the company Loss or deterioration of previous employer brand equity Uncertainty about which company information is current enough to be trusted, including benefit/salary information. Confusion about the culture of the new company versus the old Recruiters and/or hiring managers not equipped to clearly define new roles and combined culture to candidates Decreased interest in applying upon viewing a string of negative reviews on Glassdoor when looking at reviews by date. 9 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

10 SECTION 2: The Employer Brand in Transition Leadership Engagement During a company transition, leadership is in the spotlight. Employees look to leaders and managers for inspiration, motivation and guidance on how to cope with the transition. When leaders exhibit a combination of enthusiasm, practicality and honesty about the difficult parts of change, employees will feel supported. The positive attitudes of the CEO, top executives as well as middle managers will help employees stay engaged, reducing the fallout that can end up on Glassdoor. The four factors most strongly correlated to CEO approval on Glassdoor are: Employee Satisfaction Satisfaction with Senior Leadership Satisfaction with Career Opportunities Satisfaction with Compensation and Benefits Sources: 1 Glassdoor, What Makes a Great CEO, August How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

11 SECTION 2: The Employer Brand in Transition Quantifying the Impact of a Brand in Transition Companies that manage a transition well monitor employer brand metrics to assess the impact of the change and troubleshoot as issues as they are identified. When you prepare for a company transition by considering its impact to employees and candidates, getting leaders engaged, and putting metrics in place, you ll be able to get started with the communications and engagement plan shared in the next section. Quantifiable elements of the impact of a merger, acquisition or rebrand on the employer brand include: Employee turnover Hiring costs Engagement survey results Satisfaction ratings on Glassdoor Traffic to careers site Traffic to Glassdoor page ACTION TIP Share key employer brand metrics with company leaders throughout a transition to celebrate wins and identify opportunities. 11 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

12 SECTION 3 New Rules for Employer Brand 12 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

13 SECTION 3: New Rules for Employer Brand Transition Years of steady brand equity can be destroyed by a few company missteps whether it s consumer brand, employer brand or a company s overall reputation. To evolve and strengthen your organisation s employer brand during a merger, acquisition or rebrand, consider the impact of the change long before it s announced. Follow these guidelines and learn from VMware examples on how to make the most out of a major company transition. 1. Define the Story You Want to Tell If you ve done the homework of defining an EVP and engaging employees around it, the task of managing the employer brand through a transition will be much easier. Employees who are secure in what the company stands for will be much more receptive to the changes and willing to adapt. If your employer brand is somewhat undefined, a transition provides the opportunity to look back at what was working for your employees (brand strengths) and identify how it needs to evolve given the changes. By observing the positive aspects of how employees adapt, you ll be able to uncover key values, and develop an EVP that sets your company up for the future. 13 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

14 SECTION 3: New Rules for Employer Brand Transition Questions to Ask as You Consider an Upcoming Transition: What will remain the same for employees? What can we celebrate about our culture and brand even as it changes? What s going to be different? This could include practical aspects relating to processes or work environment, as well as softer aspects relating to a merged culture. What will it take for us to get there? What mindset shifts do we need to make? What practical steps need to be taken (e.g., new systems training, etc.)? What can we do to make employees feel supported? What will employees say? Anticipate their questions and concerns. What will candidates think? How can we keep our recruiting messaging attractive relative to our competitors? Do you have a strong content strategy? A partner like AIA Worldwide can develop, deploy and manage your internal and external content marketing efforts. Monitoring Feedback Remember, change is an evolutionary process. By staying tuned into employee sentiment through feedback mechanisms such as pulse surveys, employee forums, town hall discussions, candidate surveys, and/or Glassdoor reviews, employers will be able to evolve their messaging and communications strategies as issues arise. 14 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

15 SECTION 3: New Rules for Employer Brand Transition The VMware Story After ranking #65 on Fortune s Best Companies to Work For list in Spring 2015, VMware began formally defining their EVP which was heavily rooted in its employee-defined values, called EPIC2. VMware did this in conjunction with AIA Worldwide, the company that conducted the global employer brand research, developed the Employee Value Proposition and created the new talent engagement creative campaign called DARE VMware. However, shortly before the scheduled campaign launch in October 2015, it was announced that VMware s parent company EMC would be acquired by Dell Technologies, Inc. Over a period of three months, VMware s stock dropped significantly due to the uncertainty of the merger. Two key executives departed, and the company announced its largest workforce reduction in history. How could it maintain employee engagement through this turbulent time? VMware was well-equipped to lead its employees through this period of uncertainty because it had already done the upfront work with its employer branding. Thanks to this work, VMware could specifically distinguish its culture, but still align to the values of Dell Technologies. To manage the transition, VMware leadership focused on frequent, transparent communications and continued reinforcing the importance of its shared EPIC2 values. 15 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

16 SECTION 3: New Rules for Employer Brand Transition 2. Plan Your Communication Once you ve defined the story, it s time to plan communications: How will employees and candidates find out about these changes? How will we reinforce our employer brand strengths during this transition? An adaptable, yet structured plan is always better than a haphazard, reactive set of communications that send inconsistent messages. START WITH INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS Communicate news about merger, acquisition or rebrand to employees at the same time or before announcing it to the press. If you ve done the homework of anticipating employee concerns beforehand, executives and HR will be able answer questions and allay fears. As you roll out external communications, stay true to your strategic message and pay attention to feedback. Use these channels to communicate your strategic message: Internal events (such as company meetings, functional all hands, town halls, interactive chat sessions) Signage /newsletters Intranet Executive communications Social media channels Glassdoor page PHASE YOUR APPROACH Because a transition puts your company into unknown territory, having a defined strategic direction will allow you to choose the appropriate channels at the appropriate time. Previously scheduled events and communications plans may need to be canceled, adjusted or postponed. Remember not to overlook or preemptively shut down channels where candidates are already going, such as your Glassdoor page. 16 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

17 SECTION 3: New Rules for Employer Brand Transition Rebranding on Glassdoor Your pre-existing Glassdoor page provides an opportunity to reach candidates and collect feedback through a transition process. Rebranding tools on Glassdoor allow employers to: Educate candidates by showcasing the updated brand on the old page in the cover photo, social media links, Why Work For Us sections Direct candidates to a new page Display available jobs from the new company Redirect employee and interview reviews Phase 1: Manage (0-6 months) Transitional branding introduces job seekers to new brand No new reviews from current employees to old profile Jobs reflect new company branding Phase 2: Transition (6 months - 3 years) Page views continue to decline as job seekers begin to actively search for new brand Presentation Phase 3: Complete Glassdoor can delete old page once page views drop below 1,000 per month Existing reviews tagged as previous brand and moved under new company GLASSDOOR REBRANDING EXAMPLE For companies that change their names or merge with another company, the example below shows how an employer can leverage the previous company s brand equity and redirect traffic to the new company s Glassdoor page. ExactTarget was acquired by Salesforce in 2013 and eventually became part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud. 17 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

18 SECTION 3: New Rules for Employer Brand Transition VMware Employer Branding With the strong partnership with AIA Worldwide, VMware weathered the turbulent time by continually investing in employee and candidate engagement activities and events. All employees were issued new employee badge cards that reflected the EVP and EPIC2 values, reinforcing brand ambassadorship and pride at VMware. In March 2016, VMware was ranked #40 on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list. This was an extremely proud and pivotal moment for the company which culminated with the launch of a new, highly dynamic and mobile-enabled VMware Careers site powered by AIA Worldwide s TalentBrew career site platform, Fortune advertorial, and Dare VMware campus shuttle and commuter van wraps. Traffic to the new Careers site skyrocketed from 20,000 visits per month to over 1,500,000 sessions in the first year since it was launched, with 528,000 clicks to apply for jobs and over 4,000,000 page views. As the company doubled-down on hiring efforts, recruiters were given an interactive brand playbook with FAQs and other useful information to ensure candidates received a consistent message and understood VMware s unique culture and employer value proposition. 18 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

19 SECTION 3: New Rules for Employer Brand Transition 3. Engage Employees Fostering employee engagement is crucial to managing a successful transition. The influence of positively engaged employees is exponential as they share their experiences with outside friends, on social media, and make referrals. Keys to engaging employees through transition: EMBRACE MANAGEMENT TRANSPARENCY When company executives and managers are transparent about the difficulties and unknowns even as they lead employees in the new direction, employees develop trust and tap into leaders enthusiasm. Transition is a shared journey that can bring everyone together. LISTEN TO EMPLOYEES Provide internal opportunities for employees to share feedback and ask questions. For instance, after a layoff is announced by an executive in a company-wide meeting, have smaller team meetings where employees can pose questions to a manager about how it might affect their own team, or share concerns about what it might mean for the future of the company. Companies may also choose to let employees write in questions to management and display responses in an internal forum such as a newsletter or intranet. Also monitor reviews on Glassdoor, and respond to reviews while highlighting new positioning. For more on responding to reviews, read Glassdoor s ebook Responding to Glassdoor Reviews. CELEBRATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS In order to prevent the transition from being a distraction from getting the work done of shipping products and serving customers, regularly celebrate employee accomplishments. Engage employees through storytelling about individual and group wins, large and small. Create channels to share individual stories such as customer service triumphs or group stories such as team product launches. These stories will foster a shared sense of purpose, focusing attention on the company s mission and keeping productivity high. And don t forget to celebrate the transition team s accomplishments after the dust has settled from the merger, acquisition or rebrand. 19 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

20 SECTION 3: New Rules for Employer Brand Transition VMware Engagement Strategies VMware s robust engagement programs focused on uncovering and promoting real employee stories that reinforced its core brand values. Two examples include: 1 The EPIC2 Achievement Awards celebrate exceptional employee achievement aligned to VMware s shared values. In 2016, the company utilised AIA Worldwide and its creative teams to develop and deploy a storytelling campaign featuring each of the seven winners from around the world. 2 To support its VMinclusion diversity and inclusion initiative, the company ran a Dare to be Yourself campaign to encourage leaders and employees to share their authentic selves through video interviews and quote walls. The content from these employee engagement initiatives was then externalised via the VMware Careers site, Career Hub talent community, blog posts, and social media to showcase life at VMware to prospective candidates. VMWARE RESULTS In September 2016, VMware became part of the Dell Technologies family, the largest technology acquisition in history. VMware continues to partner with AIA Worldwide to maintain its focus on its people, its unique culture of possibility and a heightened emphasis on its core values and driving social impact initiatives that support innovation, inclusion, philanthropy, and sustainability. The results speak for themselves the stock price has rebounded, the company reached 20,000 employees and $6.5B in revenues, and its Glassdoor ratings have returned to their original high. 20 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

21 CONCLUSION Companies take on major change efforts to improve business results. To ensure a merger, acquisition, or rebrand moves in the direction of growth for both your company and its employees, carefully consider and manage for its impact to your employer brand. By defining a story that reinforces values, planning communications with employee needs in mind, and engaging your employees to celebrate accomplishments, VMware s example proves you ll be able to come out of a major change with brand that s stronger than ever. 21 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition

22 About Glassdoor With millions of company reviews, salary reports, interview reviews and benefits reviews on more than 700,000 1 companies worldwide, Glassdoor is a trusted and transparent place for today s candidates to search for jobs and research companies. Glassdoor helps employers across all industries and sizes advertise their jobs and promote their employer brands to a well-researched, highly selective candidate pool. By advertising jobs via mobile devices, alerts and throughout Glassdoor, employers influence candidates at the moment they re searching jobs and making decisions. This results in more-informed candidates that require 50% fewer CVs to find a quality hire at a fraction of the cost of traditional job boards. 2 To get involved in the conversation on Glassdoor and start managing and promoting your employer brand, employers@glassdoor.com, call +44 (0808) or visit For the latest in recruitment marketing tips, best practices and case studies, follow us on Subscribe to Glassdoor s blog Unlock your free Glassdoor employer profile About VMWare VMware, a global leader in cloud infrastructure and business mobility, helps customers accelerate their digital transformation. VMware enables enterprises to master a software-defined approach to business and IT with VMware Cross-Cloud Architecture and solutions for the data center, mobility, and security. About AIA Worldwide AIA Worldwide is a global leader in talent acquisition technologies, committed to finding new ways to leverage software, strategy and creative to build talent and enhance our clients employer brands across every connection point. From healthcare to government to retail to technology and everything in between we ve revolutionised the way companies and candidates connect. To learn more about AIA Worldwide, please call +44 (0) , Kathryn.Kempster@aia.co.uk or visit To learn more about our TalentBrew career site platform, please visit For thought leadership and strategies in employer branding, attraction & engagement, and trends, follow us on Subscribe to Employerbrand.com blog Start a discussion with us to build your brand 22 How to Manage Your Employer Brand Through a Corporate Transition Sources: 1 Glassdoor Internal Data, March 2017; 2 As measured by application-to-hire ratio compared to other job sites based on a study of 2015 hiring data for 30 million applications