Award profile
Creating a distinct employer brand is now a top priority for most organisations. Employees these days are more creative, selective and empowered – choosing to build relationships with organisations that treat them as intelligent partners. Successful employers of choice work hard at creating an identity for themselves as accessible, flexible organisations. This award recognises employers that have made a major effort in this area. The judge looked for a clear explanation of how the employer brand was created and is being maintained.
VOCA
The team – HR and organisational development
Number in team: 8
Number in HR function: 7
Number of employees HR is responsible for: 400
About the organisation
Voca (formerly Bacs) is one of the world’s largest automated clearing houses, processing more than 4.5 billion automated payments. As Bacs, it was known as the organisation that processed automated payments in the UK, including all direct debits and more than 90% of salaries.
The challenge
In October 2004, Bacs rebranded as Voca. The challenge was to create a new employer brand that the 400 employees would be proud to work for.
What the organisation did
- The director of HR and organisational development was given responsibility for creating the new internal employer brand
- Held a two-day ‘Bringing our brand to life’ conference
- Embedded the idea of culture change with the chief executive and executive team
- Executive team members brought the brand to life by each championing one of the organisation’s six new values
- Worked with middle managers so they could drive behavioural change.
Benefits and achievements
- Bacs was transformed from a not-for-profit infrastructure organisation to an agile business with a turnover of 75m
- Pre- and post-conference research showed increases in employee understanding of the new values
- Most recent employee surveys show that 83% of employees are clear about what they are expected to achieve, and that five of the six values feature in the top 15 list of “words to describe Voca”.
Category judge John Smythe says: “This is an innovative approach to creating values and an associated employer brand for an emerging company. There has been substantial cultural change without any sense of a ‘cultural change programme’ being directed at staff. It is employee based, not top-down driven, and is focused on people as individuals, encouraging and promoting personal involvement at all levels.”
COMPASS GROUP
The team – HR team
Number in team: 6
Number in HR function: 300
Number of employees HR is responsible for: 400,000
About the organisation
Compass Group is the world’s leading food service company, providing food, vending and related services. It has about 25,000 client companies and serves around 20 million lunches a day. It is the ninth largest employer in the world, with more than 400,000 staff in 90 countries.
The challenge
To achieve the company’s strategic goal of being recognised as a preferred employer and to enable Compass Group to attract, develop and retain the right people. This strategy is part of the organisation’s four-year organisational change strategy, ‘Our journey from great to good’, which was launched in 2002.
What the organisation did
- Identified the business case for developing a brand. A 1% reduction in the annual staff turnover of 40% would save £16m
- Researched best practice and competitors’ approaches
- Defined what makes Compass Group a unique place to work through research
- Defined eight core opportunities to commit to delivering to its people
- Developed a logo and look for the brand.
Benefits and achievements
- Staff turnover in the Americas was cut by 2%, saving $6m (£3.4m)
- A 20-fold increase in people visiting the UK e-recruitment website
- Savings of 300,000 on media and advertising spend in the UK
- UK staff survey response rates up by 10%
- Staff satisfaction surveys show a 4% improvement on drivers of loyalty
- Two out of three people are proud to work for Compass Group UK and Ireland.
Category judge John Smythe says: “This is a thorough programme to create a sustainable and compelling employer brand with clear criteria for success from the outset. Staff engagement at all levels helped to implement the approach. This project is extensive in scale – 400,000 employees across 90 countries – and comprehensive in scope, with alignment of vision, values, strategy, challenges and employee opportunity.”
UBS
The team – Human capital management team
Number in team: 10
Number in HR function: 650
Number of employees HR is responsible for: 66,000
About the organisation
UBS, one of the world’s leading financial firms, is the largest wealth manager in the world, a top-tier investment banking and securities firm, a key asset manager, and the market leader in Swiss retail and commercial banking.
The challenge
To develop a global employer brand strategy to support UBS’s implementation of a single brand, and to help create a consistent overall image of the organisation.
What the organisation did
- Developed a strategy that equally considered employee needs, business needs, the UBS brand and its values
- Set up a project office run by one HR communications representative and one from the brand management group
- Set up a project team, including representatives from all five UBS business groups. A marketing and an HR person represented each group
- Launched project with a two-day workshop and followed up with calls every two weeks
- Appointed ambassadors to drive the brand strategy across the business.
Benefits and achievements
- HR has been the sponsor and leader in developing and implementing the global UBS employer brand
- All HR communications and marketing activities – internal, external and across all businesses – are consistent in their key messages and visual and verbal language
- The employer brand strategy is designed to attract and retain the best people who will be able to deliver business goals
- Harmonisation of HR communication tools.
Category judge says: “An excellent example of integrating the internal promise and experience with the espoused external promise in the light of a new corporate brand. It is a sophisticated programme, well defined, well structured and well executed. This is a good core team with effective cross-business representation. And there is clear evidence of a compellingly strategic approach translated into a practical and realistic programme.”
GETTY IMAGES
The team – HR operations
Number in team: 6
Number in HR function: 23
Number of employees HR is responsible for: 2,000
About the organisation
Getty Images was founded in 1995 and is the leading provider of imagery and film to communications professionals around the world.
The challenge
To develop and implement an employment brand strategy in line with the wider business strategy of changing from a good to great employer.
What the organisation did
- Staff research on 26 attributes of employment asking them to prioritise and measure how well they thought the organisation was doing on each one
- Sought feedback from 100 senior managers about leadership
- Identified four attributes of employment that would form the basis of the company’s brand proposition
- Refocused all internal communications and recognition mechanisms
- Embedded leadership principles into all core HR systems
- Rolled out an executive development plan, including 360-degree feedback and coaching for 50 most senior managers
- Overhauled all compensation and benefits systems.
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Benefits and achievements
- Staff turnover cut by 37%, saving 500,000 per year
- Cost per hire reduced by 45%
- Staff satisfaction with senior management strategy and leadership skills exceeds that in benchmark companies
- Correlation between HR metrics and business performance in the past two years that saw revenue up 19% on 2003 in 2004, and net income grow by 75%.
Category judge John Smythe says: “A pragmatic and creative approach to building an employer brand, with detailed analysis and understanding of employee ’employment preferences’, effectively integrated with key strategic vision of ‘leadership’. This project demonstrates excellent integration of the employer brand proposition with a range of communication and HR interventions that ensure consistency.”
