Between the challenge of containing the " big quit ", the desire of organizations to attract the best talent to their team and new paradigms of engagement, there has never been so much talk about employer branding. But what exactly is this brand ?
1990' : Towards a new future of corporate value
The concept of " employer branding" is just over 30 years old. It was the entrepreneur Simon Barrow who first stated it in 1990 during a conference presenting the approach of the brand new kind of consulting firm he had just created : People in Business. The businessman is convinced : the future of companies lies in human capital, in their ability to attract, engage and retain talent, and in the strength of their competitive positioning on the job market. Well done.
Six years after declaring that the future lies in employer branding , Simon Barrow has written a theoretical essay with marketing science expert Tim Ambler, published by the London Business School : The employer brand.
Symmetry of attention at the heart of the employer brand
Barrow & Ambler first relies on studies that establish a correlation between consumer satisfaction and the quality of the employee experience. Kotter & Heskett's work on corporate culture as a performance driver highlights the effects of management and leadership on employee productivity and posits that the companies that treat their teams best are also the ones that give consumers the strongest sense of being well served.
An idea that was developed and registered by the Accor group in the early 2000s, under the name of " symmetry of attention " : the closer an employee is to the customer (agent in contact with the public, salesperson, waiter/waitress, receptionist, call centre agent, maintenance or security agent, controller, etc.). the more you have to make sure that your working conditions are good.
It's common sense : we are more friendly, more smiling, more open, more willing and more attentive when we are properly paid, managed with intelligence and benevolence, heard about our needs, recognized and valued for our work. For the customer, even the most luxurious service is not satisfactory if it is offered in a grimace soup. Conversely, a service offered with palpable attention and a sincere smile immediately takes on an additional value.
From the employee experience to the employee ambassador
There is therefore a direct benefit to increasing the quality of the employee experience but also a whole series of indirect benefits. Considering that work is constitutive of the identity of individuals even outside the space-time strictly dedicated to work, it is rather interesting to work for their pride.
To be proud of one's company is first and foremost to be the first consumer of its products (the basis of Fordism); it is also to be a promoter potentially perceived as all the more credible because he or she has the keys to the backstage... It should be noted that this works under certain conditions : if your employees behave like sandwich men or women who repeat corporate discourse without suffering contradiction, it is more counterproductive than anything else. On the other hand, if the speech is authentic and exudes sincerity, with proof that from the inside, it is really a " good company ", it is strong for the company's sympathy capital... And by the way, it can make others want to come and work there.
Did you say well-being at work ?
The real quality of the employee experience is essential : there is no chance that your employees will convince anyone that your company is great if in fact, the job bores or exhausts them, the management pressures and censors them, the atmosphere stuffs or tenses them. Well-being at work, which begins with respect for working conditions as defined by the legal framework at least the rules, is key.
A sensitive matter if ever there was one, the feeling of well-being at work is very vulnerable to hiccups : an episode of managerial brutality, a frustration that is not heard or taken into account, a poorly managed conflict and the balance suddenly tips on the side of the negative experience, without the rational calculation of the benefits offered elsewhere being able to do much. Indeed, what is the point of having a table football and a fruit basket, why participate in fantastic team-building seminars and take yoga and mindfulness breaks if it is by going to work with a lump in your stomach and spending your days there with a head full of annoyances ?
The question of meaning...
For the employee-ambassador and perhaps even more so for the candidate, the question of values and meaning has taken on a whole new dimension in recent years. It is a desire to join an organization that carries values that resonate with those of individuals, social groups (especially those that companies target in particular because they are reputed to be full of " talent ")... And of the time.
The recent " call to desert" from students from prestigious schools testifies to this: the good salaries, the nice benefits portfolio, the great career prospects, it will be without this educated youth if companies do not justify truly significant actions to reduce their impact on the environment. And there is no question of washing , because if the " product brand" can still be based in part on a narrative that flatters illusions, the employer brand requires serious coherence between announced values and results that can be objectified in reality.
Employer branding, a communication or a revelation ?
The entire rhetoric of employer branding, starting with the very principle of applying product and service sales techniques to the relationship between individuals and the workplace, is now being shaken up, if not challenged.
The thought of the " labour market" as a market equivalent to others is indeed showing its limits, at a time when we aspire precisely to access through professional activity what is not for sale or what is corrupted when we bargain for it: meaning, well-being, Living together, hope... So, it may seem paradoxical, but it could be that the future of employer branding lies with companies that stand out... By not marketing everything !
