HR branding best practices. What kind of bird is HR branding? Shall we talk? Evgenia Brylova, HRD DSM Group

Nina Osovitskaya

HR branding. Working with generation Y, new tools for communication, developing corporate culture and 9 more effective practices

Preface. HR branding today: trends and forecasts

Since the formation and development of HR branding in our country in the early 2000s, it continues to remain relevant for a number of reasons. First of all, the labor market is affected by the increasingly deteriorating demographic situation: there are fewer working people in the country, while Russian business, which is just over 20 years old, is accustomed to young specialists and wants to invest only in them. But in just six years, employers will have to face the fact that there will be very few young applicants due to the minimal birth rate in the 1990s, and this circumstance should be taken into account by owners and HR specialists primarily when developing an HR strategy and business development . I also want to believe that HR branding trends in the coming years will be largely focused on the older generation and employers will begin to work fruitfully with a mature age group of applicants.

The acute shortage of university graduates that has become commonplace and the low influx of “fresh blood” into the economy will be felt in the coming years. All this is superimposed on the fairly low unemployment rate in Russia, which can be called insignificant in comparison with the indicators of most European countries. Therefore, there is and will be a struggle for personnel even with declining production.

At the same time, projects to work with young people are not disappearing anywhere - this trend has been especially strong in recent years. What is happening is what has been talked about for a long time, namely: companies are forced to change the format of the working environment and schedules under the pressure of generation Y. Its representatives expect flexibility from employers, and relative freedom for themselves. Today's youth are very different from previous generations, as they grew up in a stable economy. Those who are now over thirty have seen crises and changes in formations, so they value stability and constancy more and are less prone to frequent job changes. Generation Y, on the contrary, feels rather relaxed and is not ready to adapt to different environments, so employers have to take this factor into account by introducing flexible schedules and quick adaptation programs.

In addition, the turn of HR branding into the technology sector is increasingly obvious. We have witnessed a large number of projects related to the automation of processes and user interaction and generally having a humanitarian focus - employers are trying to relieve people as much as possible. These innovations are also explained by economic reasons. The retail sector is beginning to shine brightly in the use of the technological component, which is noticeable in the significant projects that are being launched not only in the capital, but also in the regions.

Projects related to the emotional involvement of staff in the life of the company through various corporate events and creative initiatives are also becoming relevant. If a few years ago charitable and social programs dominated, now the employer’s gaze has turned “inward”, to the inner world and hobbies of its employees. There are several initiatives to organize theaters in Moscow, photo exhibitions, and support for artistic talents.

Among the latest trends that have emerged in the HR sphere, the following especially stands out: in Moscow, even in a difficult economic situation, budgets for HR branding are not cut, but at the same time, expenses for related education are being reduced. In other words, companies in the capital strive to invest money not in training, but in the implementation of specific projects where the subject has already been thoroughly studied. Thus, participants in the thematic summits on HR branding that we hold annually are showing increasing interest in the practical component - seminars and master classes where real tools are studied and branding techniques are practiced.

However, at the same time, another direction is making itself known: in the regions, the need for training has increased. Just two years ago, not many representatives of regional business communities came to HR branding summits, but today we are successfully holding a series of events in Russian cities, where we tell the same thing as in Moscow, but we place more emphasis on practice and local specifics. There are managers and HR specialists in the regions who are willing to learn and are ready to implement HR branding tools in their companies.

In short, every year we notice the emergence of new trends in HR branding. At the same time, it would be wrong to say that they replace each other like fashionable hobbies; rather, they introduce something into already existing realities, and the tasks are determined by the socio-economic characteristics of the market and the internal needs of companies.

In the current difficult economic situation, the employer will have less and less chance of making a mistake. Attracting quality specialists is becoming critically necessary, so HR branding is carried out by those who are looking for the best personnel for themselves. It is in the struggle for qualified personnel that it is important for the employer not only to offer a high salary, but also to show what his company represents. Everything is important here: how they take care of employees, what kind of atmosphere reigns in the office, what goals are set for people, how transparent internal processes are, etc. Candidates are very attentive to the above conditions, since when choosing a place of work they are guided not only by the material component, although it remains an important factor. In this case, we are talking about external HR branding, one that is broadcast outside the company.

A similar situation will develop with regard to internal HR branding: retaining valuable personnel through a certain salary level, especially in the current situation, is no longer enough. An employee’s loyalty will be especially strongly influenced by intangible factors: how comfortable he is at work, whether he is ready to stick with the company.

There is a fundamentally misconception that HR branding is just a decoration that hides the real state of affairs. In fact, it helps attract a high-quality audience of job seekers, and for this the company does not have to be in the top rankings in terms of compensation. If a person feels comfortable in a company and recommends it to his friends and acquaintances, then this is one of the cheapest and highest quality methods of recruiting personnel. Current employees attract potential employees, work more efficiently, strive for results and understand what they are doing - all these factors directly affect the profitability of the business and its efficiency.

Olga Mets, Director of PR and Marketing, HeadHunter Group of Companies

Introduction. HR branding in the world and Russia: trends and research results

Is HR branding coming of age?

Global HR branding practices have been developing for more than two decades, and the first initiatives on the Russian market will soon be ten years old. Basic concepts are formulated, algorithms are defined, tools are tested. And although not everyone can yet boast of a truly strong HR brand, the number of such companies is growing, many are now in the middle or beginning of their journey, and I want to believe that in 2015 we will see new bright stars in the labor market. Those who have already done a significant amount of work on building an HR brand development strategy can safely skip the following pages (pp. 9-13) and move on to the results of our latest research. If you are just thinking about how to become a great place to work for the people you need, I suggest you study the main stages on the way to this goal.

5 steps to build an HR brand.

1. Defining goals taking into account the HR strategy. Identification of target audiences. Formation of a working group, determination of budget and resources.

Today, the task of defining the goals of the entire employer brand development program is quite complex due to the difficult economic situation. On the one hand, for many companies, the tasks of attracting new employees are less relevant; on the other hand, the demographic situation and migration trends (young qualified specialists are more actively looking for work in other countries) are intensifying competition in the labor market for the best professionals, that is, those who will help the company develop successfully even in conditions of crisis or stagnation. Also, the attitude of working employees towards the company is becoming increasingly important. How engaged and interested are they in achieving business goals? Are they truly loyal or are they just staying with you to ride out the tough times? The internal HR brand development program will create the most effective working environment.

Examples from the practice of companies participating in the HR Brand Award 2009

GROUP OF COMPANIES "AGENCY CONTACT"

Winner of the HR-BRAND Award 2009 Silver in the “Capital” nomination

Reality recruitment show project “Become a business star!” aims to attract the best students who can become recruiting stars, and to ensure an effective and long-term perception of the company as an attractive employer among the youth audience. The project should strengthen the positive image of the company as an employer for a successful start and career development among potential candidates and employees.

Since the requirements for employees are very high, the company needed a system for attracting high-level young specialists. To do this, it was necessary to create a non-standard tool for recruiting interns, which would not only provide a continuous flow of the best, or “star” candidates for internships, but would also strengthen the Contact Agency brand among the target student audience. The Reality recruitment show “Become a Business Star!” became such a project. is the first project of this level in Russia, conducted in the format of a reality show on an online platform. As a result of cooperation only with targeted universities, including leading universities in Moscow, Agency Contact has become known as an attractive employer for starting and developing a career in recruitment. The finalists of the “Become a Recruitment Star” program are highly motivated to work and develop in recruitment and chose Agency Contact over competitors.

OJSC PKK "VESNA"

Finalist of the HR-BRAND Award 2009

The company has developed measures aimed at retaining employees who share the company’s corporate values, namely:

Methods of material motivation (a system of bonuses for high qualifications, material incentives for competition winners, salary increases based on the results of successful certification);

System of benefits (DMS for key employees and employees with long work experience, referral to sanatorium treatment);

Education and development. In 2009, the emphasis was on the use of “internal” teachers and mentors - from among the company's employees (the value of teaching others). Such corporate training accounted for 72.8% of all training provided.

Natalya Leontyeva , managing partner of the company GLOBALPAS:

“Currently, there is a huge shortage of qualified personnel, which will only grow due to demographic changes, an increase in the number of potential employers, the not very high level of education in many educational institutions, etc.

The need for truly talented and competent employees is constantly increasing, because the presence of highly qualified and motivated personnel in a company directly affects its success. All this leads to a struggle for the best personnel and the search for new solutions in this area.

Employee Value Proposition (EVP), or the employer's value proposition, is a set of benefits and benefits offered to an employee in exchange for his abilities and experience. The task of EVP is to contribute to the realization of the company's goals, to increase the loyalty and productivity of employees, and not just to make them happy.

A company will be able to retain the best staff only if it is the best as an employer. Above all, it must become a place where people seek employment.

A competent EVP increases the possibility of attracting candidates with a high level of competency development, as well as their retention. The work of creating a value proposition combines the areas of marketing and human resource management.

The development of an EVP begins with defining a concept based on identifying a target group that is important to the employer. It should be based on the business strategy, mission and values of the company, meet the expectations of employees and candidates (motivation system, working conditions, corporate culture, opportunities for career and professional growth, social and moral satisfaction, interesting work), and in addition, be different from competitors, advantages over them, be truthful (if the information transmitted to the outside world differs from what actually exists inside the company, all efforts will only cause harm) and stable, which is especially important for the modern labor market.

A creative concept is an original, attractive idea for the target group, embodied in text and visual images, creating an emotional connection between the employer and staff. Its attributes can be brand identity, slogans, slogans, descriptors, articles and texts for different promotion channels (radio, TV, Internet, press, outdoor advertising), audio, video and POS materials.

In companies with a strong EVP, employees work not only for money, but also for what they believe in, which allows them to feel their individuality.

An example is British American Tobacco (Russia), which was named one of the best Russian employers twice in 2012. Text images on the company’s website reflect its values and characteristics of the target group: “We try to attract truly talented people who can make a significant contribution to the development of our company”; “Encouraging individuality is our key to success”; “We are united by the desire to win”; “We set tasks for our employees that require maximum dedication from them, and offer limitless opportunities for career growth”; “The amount of remuneration depends on the individual performance of the employee and the activities of the company as a whole”; “If you are serious about planning your career, you will certainly prefer to work in a reliable company and industry that will not disappear from the market anytime soon,” etc.

Another example. Elfa positions itself not as a furniture seller, but as a company that creates an idea, a philosophy for arranging the interior space of premises. The idea is conveyed to staff and candidates that they are not just employees of a trading and manufacturing company, but also creators. Even the name itself is reminiscent of a fairy tale (“Elfa” - elf).

It is very important to understand that building a creative concept is only part of the larger work of confirming the promises of EVP every day. To avoid undermining trust in an HR brand, you need to carefully and consistently manage the many different levers that shape employee and candidate opinions about the company. The messages and promises contained in the creative concept of EVP, which are fulfilled, help improve the organization’s image in the labor market and fulfill its main task - to increase the loyalty and productivity of employees and the influx of valuable candidates, which in turn will contribute to the implementation of the company’s strategic goals.”

Marina Lakhina , head of marketing department of a recruiting agency Luxoft Personnel:

“The successful creation of an EVP is a team project, which should involve the HR function, the marketing function and the external provider (a consultant from a recruiting company). The EVP structure distinguishes between external attributes aimed at attracting talent, and internal attributes aimed at retaining critical talent capable of achieving the company's strategic goals.

As an external provider, in the process of recruiting personnel for customers, we come across non-standard projects in which standard approaches do not work to attract talented candidates, and we build an EVP using external attributes (employer reputation, industry, conditions, scale of tasks, etc.).

Let me give you an interesting example from the practice of promoting vacancies under the brand of an employer, our customer. Vacancies were open to developers for mobile platforms (Android, iOS) and testing specialists.

Initially, candidates were searched for in standard ways, posting vacancies on corporate, recruiting and job sites (standard texts including requirements, responsibilities). As a result, we received applicants who did not suit the customer in terms of personal qualities or inflated salary expectations.

Then the concept of attracting under the employer brand was proposed, in which the key attributes of EVP were:

reputation of a young, ambitious startup with a friendly team of professionals and a creative approach to work;

the scale of the tasks - an international project that attracted specialists with interesting work and great prospects;

industry – trending direction in IT, software development for mobile platforms;

working conditions – stock options, fitness, corporate holidays abroad.

As a result, specialists began to contact us who wanted to work in the customer’s company, who were interested in its projects, opportunities, and whose financial expectations corresponded to the client’s salary offers. These were ideal, motivated and talented candidates.

So, an equally important benefit of creating a managed EVP is payroll savings.”

Elena Agafonova , CEO Solution Management Group:

“It seems to me that the issue of technology for creating employer value propositions today is not a closely guarded secret. It is enough to enter the query “EVP is” in one of the popular search engines, and you will easily find practical instructions for developing such a proposal. The main blocks and their attributes are listed, based on which it is possible to diagnose the current state of affairs and develop an outline of the future value proposition. Moreover, the benefits of those companies that manage their EVP, and the risks of those that do not attach due importance to this aspect of management or ignore it completely, are very clearly outlined. You can also get acquainted with the most common mistakes and pitfalls when developing and implementing EVP.

We are talking about the uniqueness of the value proposition. I see several aspects that influence the success of such a project in a company of any size.

Sincere interest of decision makers: shareholders, top management.

When are owners and senior managers genuinely interested in a good outcome? It is correct when they connect the positive result of the project with personal results. In other words, if owners are happy with their personal results, then most likely they believe that their company is already the best, and people should be happy when they are hired by it. They won’t even think about any EVP; at the very least, they will support it verbally. But if the situation, primarily economic, begins to worry the owners and they are dissatisfied with their results, then gradually they come to understand that the previously used methods of business management, in particular personnel management, are not effective enough. This is where interest in new methods, including values-based management, will begin to grow. But this is still not enough.

Test projects.

People who own a business need clear evidence that such management will be beneficial to them and will lead to the desired personal results. Other people's examples are not particularly helpful. Saving on wages, increasing the level of employee commitment, attracting the best candidates - all this is interesting based on the example of your own business or at least convincing situations in the industry. Therefore, I would recommend developing unique EVPs only on the initiative of decision makers, and starting with test projects: within one direction, department, functional unit, so that you can accurately measure the result before and after.

Understanding the true values of the company.

It seems to me that the topic of EVP and, more broadly, of an HR brand is often not unique precisely because there is a certain substitution of concepts: the way we would like to perceive ourselves is reality. Or, more simply, what is desired is presented as reality. And this is why EVP is not unique. And that's why it doesn't work. That is, before developing the desired image, it would be good to understand what is happening with the value proposition today? What does the company actually produce today in terms of “organization”, “people”, “work”, “remuneration”, “opportunities”, “working conditions”? Upon closer examination, it will become clear what values are actually taking root in the company today.

In this case, it is worth considering several levels of diagnostics, using the integral approach of Ken Wilber:

internal personal – beliefs of leaders, motivation of employees;

internal collective – traditions, unwritten rules, taboos of the company;

external personal – behavior, knowledge, skills, demonstrated abilities;

external collective – prescribed instructions, procedures, systems and processes.

Of the identified values, it is worth keeping in the offer for employees those that help the organization grow. Those that interfere should be replaced with more effective ones that contribute to development and achievement of strategic goals. Here I would highly recommend the work of Professor K. Graves’ students “Spiral Dynamics”. This book will help you diagnose the organization’s leading value memes (similar to human DNA) and see the values that contribute to its further growth.”

From the book Marketing. And now the questions! author Mann Igor Borisovich

From the book Handbook on Internal Audit. Risks and business processes author Kryshkin Oleg

From the book Business Plan 100%. Effective business strategy and tactics by Rhonda Abrams

From the book Reward System. How to develop goals and KPIs author Vetluzhskikh Elena N.

Financial component, goals and indicators from the practice of others

From the book The Easy Way to Find a Good Job author Skuratovich Dmitry Ivanovich

Examples of resumes from practice Competent resume Moscow, st. Moskovskaya, d. 00 sq. 000Tel.: +000 0000000E-mail: [email protected] Date of birth: 12/02/1981 Ivanov Ivan Ivanovich Work experience 07/02/2009 – to present Cool Company LLC Head of Sales Department Responsibilities: Achievement

From the book Personal Brand. Take care of your reputation before others do by Sitkins Patrick

From the book Personal Brand. Creation and promotion author Ryabykh Andrey Vladislavovich

Chapter 1 Brand and personal brand What is a brand? To better understand what a personal brand is, why it is needed and when it appears, let’s start with the familiar concept of a brand to marketers and the basic concept for us. So, the first question that needs to be answered is when and why.

From the book HR-Brand. 5 steps to the success of your company author Osovitskaya Nina A.

Examples from the practice of companies participating in the HR-Brand 2009 Award JSC PKK VESNA Finalist of the HR-BRAND Award 2009 The company had a problem associated with the high turnover of sales department employees. According to management, the reason was inconsistency

From the author's book

Examples from the practice of companies participating in the HR-Brand 2009 Award I FREE Finalist of the HR-BRAND Award 2009 In connection with the global financial crisis, it was necessary to maintain the efficiency of the work team, the motivation and loyalty of personnel in conditions of severe cost savings. Development

From the author's book

Examples from the practice of companies participating in the HR-Brand 2009 Award GROUP OF COMPANIES "AGENCY CONTACT" Winner of the HR-BRAND Award 2009 Silver in the "Capital" nomination Project Reality recruitment show "Become a business star!" aims to attract the best students who are capable of becoming

From the author's book

Examples from the practice of companies participating in the hr-brand award 2009 ALIDI Group of Companies Winner of the HR-BRAND Award 2009 Bronze in the REGIONPROJECT nomination: “Conquer the heights together with ALIDI!” Prerequisites for launching the project. Participation in the HR-BRAND 2008 Award demonstrated insufficiently high

From the author's book

Examples from the practice of companies participating in the HR-Brand 2009 Award IBS - Information Business Systems Grand Prix HR-BRAND Award 2009 CAREER START "IBS Master's Degree" is a unique project for targeted training of young specialists in the most in-demand IT industries

From the author's book

Examples from the practice of companies participating in the HR-Brand 2009 Award DHL INTERNATIONAL Finalist of the HR-BRAND Award 2009 PROJECT: “Tools for the formation and development of a personnel reserve” Prerequisites for launching the project The need for talented, qualified managers. Development

From the author's book

Examples from the practice of companies participating in the HR-Brand Award 2009 I-FREE Finalist of the HR-BRAND Award 2009 PROJECT: “i-Free Storm” Prerequisites for launching the project. The crisis affected the company unexpectedly, since it was initially predicted that it would have much less impact on the market

From the author's book

Examples from the practice of companies participating in the HR-Brand 2009 Award INTEL CORPORATION Finalist of the HR-BRAND Award 2009 PROJECT: “Intel’s internal communications in Russia and strengthening their role in the conditions of the economic crisis” Prerequisites for launching the project. For many years

From the author's book

Examples from the practice of companies participating in the HR-Brand 2009 Award AMWAY LLC OR AMWAY RUSSIA Winner of the HR-BRAND Award 2009 – Silver in the “World” nomination PROJECT: “From understanding values to involvement” Prerequisites for launching the project. During 4 years of doing Amway business in Russia

Working in the open market in business recruiting, I constantly come across the concept of HR branding. This professional term for a recruiter has ceased to be an incomprehensible and mysterious word for a wide range of people, both for candidates looking for a job, and even more so for the employers to whom it directly relates.

So, what is HR branding of a company?

Internal HR branding is the creation of the best, favorable image of the employer.

In the current conditions, the open market of candidates is not in favor of the employer.

According to our partners, leading job sites at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, on average there were 20 or more employer offers per candidate. The candidate independently creates his own portfolio of vacancies, and the choice is his! At the same time, employers are ready to outbid good specialists, creating “artificial overheating of the market” with inflated salaries for these same specialists. The question immediately arises: “Will these risks be justified?” After all, no one guarantees that these “golden specialists” will bring real profit to the company.

To avoid such situations, employer companies need to come to grips with their own HR branding, or rather their own image of the best employer.

Effective HR branding tools can immediately entail:

attracting new best professionals;
maintaining our own highly professional employees;
a significant increase in the productivity of the company's staff;
creation of new innovative business areas in the company;
keeping the company in constant progressive development and being at the peak of the newest business ideas and directions.

Internal HR branding is working with personnel!

Dear fellow employers! In order to successfully develop your own HR branding of the company, start working closely with your own personnel! Turn to face him, and not the place you usually turn to him! Dear CHIEF persons of the companies! I ask you not to forget that you are completely dependent on those people who work for you and for you! Your main task is to know all the problems and unsolved problems of working people. You must invest in your employees financially, investing in their professional development, and also remember to pass on your own professional experience and even a piece of your soul to them! Yes, yes, just invest your soul in these people who will go through thick and thin for you, and you will certainly recoup your own investments in your employees many times over.

I would like to give one example. A leading Russian company hired a new sales manager for expensive industrial equipment. He was very pleased with his work in the new company and in the new team, and his work also began to work out right away. The client base grew rapidly, and a number of large bills were prepared for payment.

However, his manager, the director of the sales department, was unhappy with him and was preparing to fire him. When I asked what happened, the director replied that this employee does not go to personal meetings with decision-makers in the company with whom he works, and resolves all issues by phone from the office. Such behavior, according to the manager, is unacceptable, since it violates the traditions of the company, which requires the personal presence of their employees when concluding major transactions.

When talking with this manager, I found out that he really likes his work, everything is going according to plan, and he plans to develop his own effective scheme for developing this business. When I asked why he didn’t go to meetings, but resolved all issues over the phone, my interlocutor replied that at his old place of work, the former management pursued a policy of strict financial austerity and demanded that all issues be resolved as much as possible from the office. That's why he's just used to working like that. After our conversation, he began to actively and often independently go to meetings with partners.

I also asked his manager why he himself didn’t clarify the situation with his subordinate and, without understanding the details, immediately began to raise the question of dismissal? To this question, the manager replied that he had no time to find out all this. I consider this behavior on the part of the employer unacceptable! What kind of company image should we talk about if management doesn’t even bother to find out basic operational issues!

Internal HR branding of a company is a complex work!

HR branding of a company is a set of targeted measures to create a positive image of the employer in order to constantly attract the best of the best specialists in their industry.

So let's create the most positive image of our own company. Of course, this also requires a lot of effort, namely, developing and implementing your own mechanisms for developing and motivating personnel within the company.

It is necessary to listen and hear the opinions of your own employees, because sometimes the most inconspicuous and modest specialist will be able to help you make a decision on which the fate of the entire company will depend for many years to come.

Invest in your employees, do not waste your own time on them. And also motivate them for independent continuous development.

Also, I would pay attention to creating a favorable moral and ethical climate in the company. After all, sometimes a person changes jobs only because he was very uncomfortable and unpleasant working in a team. And he is ready to move to another morally pleasant atmosphere even after losing money.

Currently, the economic market is very difficult. In these conditions, every company simply needs to fight for every working professional. We must not forget that business is, first of all, the people who do it! And these people will do everything to ensure that the company develops and prospers when they themselves grow, develop and prosper within the company itself.

– the basic formula for success for your business!

The new book about HR branding is based on the best projects of the winners and nominees of the HR Brand Award.

The book presents a step-by-step algorithm for working with an employer brand and an analysis of the main current trends. A separate section includes interviews with HR directors and executives of companies that most successfully work with their employer brand and who were at the origins of this trend. Top managers and HR managers of DHL, JTI, Baltika Brewing Company, VimpelCom (Beeline), KPMG and MTS share their experience. And, of course, a large section with practical cases - this information will be useful to any HR specialist.

The projects of the companies presented in the book are aimed both at solving traditional HR problems (recruitment, adaptation, training, motivation, internal communications, etc.) and at finding innovative solutions (automation of HR processes, predictive analytics, collective forecasting , gamification). The book also presents unique socially significant projects that go beyond narrow business tasks and help unite employees and create a strong team.

Speaking about trends, I will specifically highlight the so-called digitalization, or automation of all business processes. Even HR branding projects are already being implemented with an emphasis on numbers. In a number of projects, it was thanks to an in-depth analysis of numbers and behavioral metrics that competent social packages for staff were created. That is, decisions were made not based on the subjective opinion of an HR specialist or a convenient price offered by a provider, but through an in-depth analysis of information. As a result, exactly the things they needed were created and presented to employees as additional motivation.

There are also examples of gamification, the options of which were also built in an automated way based on the analysis of available information about personnel. Marketing and recruiting have been operating within digital for a long time, and now other areas of HR are gradually being included in it, including HR branding.

The use of these tools does not mean that marketers have turned into IT specialists.

Remember, 20 years ago a cafe visitor with a laptop attracted much more attention than a person in an expensive car at the entrance. Those who had at least a little understanding of computer technology were considered almost IT specialists. Now everyone knows how to use software as part of their profession - HR, marketer, journalist, writer, developer, etc. And every HR specialist will inevitably come to understand the basics of analytics, automation systems, data collection and digitization over time.

In this regard, Big Data (BD) is of great importance - the analysis of a colossal amount of data, millions and billions of records that are systematized and compared. The point is to overlay data that at first glance is not connected in any way, find correlations, general patterns, and draw certain conclusions based on this. Using Big Data leads HR specialists to amazing results. Thus, a study in a large company showed that employee performance was most correlated with the proximity of the place of residence to work.

Another company found that the highest performing sales employees were people who had younger siblings. Such discoveries cannot be made in any other way. The data obtained in this way allows employers to create a pool of potential candidates.

However, in order to implement Big Data in a company, an automated information collection system is needed.

It is also obvious that digitalization is impossible without finding a common language between HR and business.

We see that over the past five years, HR managers have stopped making just beautiful programs and began to show how one or another of their developments affected sales growth, turnover and hiring. The results of the projects nominated for our “HR Brand Award” competition during this time have been very carefully calculated; HR specialists began to understand that success lies not in words of gratitude, but in the final numbers. They learned to explain to the CEO the benefits of every investment in their work. This skill leads to the fact that shareholders, owners and heads of divisions are ready to listen to their words.

Such a pragmatic approach turned out to be especially important in the last year, marked by crisis phenomena in the country's economy.

Even in such difficult times, many companies pay great attention to the mutual influence of the product brand and the employer brand. In a situation of a protracted crisis, we all need to learn to count money and justify our own effectiveness, so we should think about the impact of HR branding projects even before they are launched.

An HR specialist must work on the basis of predictive analytics, predicting how investments in a specific project will affect the company’s business. And digital tools can play an important role in this, for example, allowing you to more accurately differentiate the target audience and work more productively with certain groups of applicants. Therefore, start making friends with numbers, but don’t forget about people!

Olga Mets, Director of Marketing and PR, HeadHunter

An HR brand is one of the tools for increasing business efficiency. Any self-respecting company engages in branding as an element of the marketing mix, because in today’s competitive world this is a great opportunity to gain loyal followers.

Marketers were the first to engage in branding to increase the attractiveness of brands and consolidate certain key characteristics of the brand in the minds of the target audience. The target audience of such messages were primarily clients and consumers. Those who were more insightful began to include internal audiences (employees) and external audiences in communications, since employees themselves were often consumers (in FMCG markets) and loyal advocates for their employers’ brands.

Over the past 10 years, the struggle not only for consumers, but also for one of the company's main assets - human capital - has intensified significantly. And here branding technologies began to work at their full potential, adjusted, of course, for their specifics. HR branding plays a major role in this war for talent. It allows you to attract the most valuable personnel from the market at the lowest cost, retain and save on personnel due to added intangible value, makes it possible to implement various programs for high-potential and ordinary employees, consciously manage the strategy of working with people, systematically convey the company’s key values to people, and increase efficiency intra-team interaction, involve them in new projects and much, much more.

The topic of HR branding is close to me because it is at the intersection of two huge areas that are of great interest to me. I have been involved in branding for more than 12 years and even managed to receive the Brand of the Year / Effie award back in 2005 in the category of a low-budget project for creating an umbrella brand in the consumer market. And it’s surprising when marketing and branding technologies are already actively used by companies to create an HR brand, an employer value proposition, a set of internal and external communications with target audiences, and much, much more.

On the way to building an HR brand, you may encounter a huge number of errors and risks. I'll list 10 main, which should be remembered by everyone who plans to engage in or is already engaged in HR branding.

1. Constructing a core brand identity (essentially a brand promise) based on a false understanding of the needs, wants and values of target audiences.

Before building a brand structure, it is necessary to conduct research to understand these people and speak the same language with them. It happens that the person or team responsible for the development and implementation of an HR brand is in a completely different value field (remember the simplest example with the X and Y generations), which entails serious errors in the development of the platform that stem from this discrepancy.

OPINION

Nina Osovitskaya, HR Brand Award consultant, HR branding expert HeadHunter

Speaking about mistakes in working with an employer brand, one cannot fail to note the mistake at the very beginning of the process - when setting goals. Why are we building an HR brand? What candidates and employees do we want to attract or retain? Often companies formulate their goals too abstractly and in general terms: we want to become the best employer, we want every student to dream of getting an internship with us. At one of the meetings, the client voiced the following goal, for example: in two years to become like Google. It is better to set specific, realistically achievable goals that meet the overall business and HR strategy of the company.

Another common mistake concerns conducting research. HR departments try to save money and independently use unadapted questionnaires that can be found in the public domain on the Internet, for example, Gallup Q12.

You can imagine how perplexed line employees in production are when answering the question “Does your boss or any of your colleagues care about your personal development?”

And lastly, and perhaps the most common, are errors in communications. I will name only two of the most typical ones. The first is the use of publicly available images from photo banks instead of photos of employees or at least materials from a special photo shoot. It’s quite strange to see the same blonde with a Hollywood smile offering to join her team in a bank, a real estate agency, or a large pharmaceutical company. The second is to use photos of products or goods instead of photos of people and workplaces. A shoe store is proud of its patent leather shoes, a poultry farm is proud of its fluffy chickens, and only somewhere in the depths of the company’s career page can you find something about the people who work there.

2. The HR brand is divorced from the identity of the root brand, which is offered to consumers on TV screens.

A brand cannot be simultaneously energetic, young, cheerful and respectable, serious and conservative. Since communications often intersect, the minds of consumers of these communications will be a complete mess. Align your HR brand with your consumer brand so that they become part of the same whole.

OPINION

Irina MaltsevaHRDRostelecom, Volga macroregion

Firstly,HRA brand is an extension of a company's brand and the values of its product or service. On the one hand, this can help, on the other hand, it can interfere with the perception of the employer brand in the eyes of target audiences. CongruenceHR-brand is the key theme here. ExternalHR– the brand must be a mirror of the internal brand. The message for external audiences should reflect the true values of the company, internal working conditions, and corporate culture. It may be worth starting with internal employee engagement and commitment, and then planning to expand to the external level of the brand.

It should be noted that Rostelecom, since its integration in 2011, has now become a very strong corporate brand with high recognition and attractiveness. ControlHR- the brand has recently emerged as an independent direction. At the same time, Rostelecom regularly appears in the top lists of various employer ratings in Russia and individual territories. For example, the macro-regional branch "Volga" of PJSC "Rostelecom" was awarded the national award "HR–brand – 2014”, receiving a third degree award in the “Region” nomination, regionalHR– the “Employer of the Year – 2014” award, is among the best employers in Nizhny Novgorod according to the portal rabota.ru, having received the “Happiness Index – 2014”, “Confidence Index – 2015”. In many ways, these are the results of the implementation of the strategic program “Personnel Transformation”, which ultimately form a positive image of the company in the labor market.

Secondly, for managementHR- the following conditions are important for the brand:

- act systematically, with an understanding of the company’s long-term goals. Including in the regionHR. Assess the real impact of initiatives on business;

- create a value proposition as employers (E.V.P.). Understand and feel your target audience and differentiate from competitors;

- be consistent in your actions.

3. The HR brand doesn’t really stand out among its competitors. The same promises, the same communications, even the same faces.

What then is the distinctive feature of your company? The most you can hope for is to separate yourself from those companies that do not have any meaningful long-term personnel policy at all.

OPINION

One of the first notable players in the marketfast- foodwho pay serious attention to buildingHR-brand, was and remainsMcDonalds. In this area, he is often ahead of his closest competitors. The example of attracting candidates shows how their communication strategy changed over time. Initially, in the advertising campaign they listed social benefits and working conditions in the company. Moreover, some of them were mandatory from the point of view of labor legislation (paid leave), and some reflected personnel policy (training, flexible schedules) and corporate culture (friendly team, stability and reliability). All arguments were clearly stated and clearly presented. Soon this technique began to be used everywhere by other companies in addressing potential target audiences - not only in content, but also in style and communication channels.

LaterMcDonaldsbegan using stories about specific people with their photographs and descriptions of success stories in his advertising posters for future employees. The emphasis has shifted to the fact that this work can be combined with study, making friends and self-realization. Evolution in constructionHR- the brand took into account modern marketing trends - appealing not only to rational arguments, but also to the emotional component.

On a recentHR-conferences, I remember the speech of one of the managers of this company, who is responsible for personnel management issues. She spoke about non-standard and new experience in the use of non-material motivation. An internal competition received great resonance within the company when the best restaurant workers across the country were given the opportunity to work in Sochi during the preparation and holding of the Olympic Games. The winners were compensated for transportation costs to a new temporary place of work and were provided with housing.

Using similarHR- AndPR-technology helps to be one step ahead of your competitors in building and maintaining an individual employer brand.

4 . HR branding is one of the key policies in the company, is all senior management aware of it? Does he share this strategy, demonstrate it in his work, actively communicate it to the market and internal employees, or is it just a new fashionable toy in the hands of the HR director? Are we doing the same thing as before, but now we call it HR branding? If management does not share this strategy or have a completely different opinion about what the company is, expect trouble and conflicts. Most likely, target audiences will not believe what the company tells them.

OPINION

Evgenia Brylova, HRD DSM Group

Construction problemHR-brand, in my opinion, consists in the absence of that very root idea that ensures the exclusivity of the company, making it recognizable among other similar companies. It’s like with charisma, either you have it or you don’t. And a key role in the developmentHR- the brand is played by the personality of the founder of the company or the person managing the company at a certain point in time. It is his unique personality that makes the company itself unique, special, gives an individual character that ignites love in the hearts of people, forcing them to become faithful followers and evangelists of the mission and values of the company.

5. Corporate culture is very inert; changing it requires time, effort and commitment.

Declaring today in a company with an army paramilitary mentality that we are open and friendly, tomorrow you will not get it in reality. It takes meaningful and consistent work to create such an atmosphere. You won’t be able to fly into space right away; you must first build a cosmodrome, develop a prototype rocket, train astronauts, etc. Be prepared to devote a long time to this.

6. How much does non-financial staff motivation and HR branding cost? What is the expected return from the implementation of such programs?

When there is no clear understanding of metrics and evaluation of key indicators, such an unprofessional approach will increasingly require resources to continue and develop. This can turn into a black hole when, instead of using their heads, inventing and implementing really interesting and low-budget events, responsible employees and the team simply get hooked on the budget and begin to actively “master” it. Ideally, you need to move away from the “like it - don’t like it” series of assessments and move to the business plane with a discussion of the ROI (return on investment) parameter.

OPINION

Oksana Kukharchuk Director of MTS Corporate University

HR brandtoday is one of the most important work toolsHR. This is how the company is perceived in the market and, as a result, who comes to you... The right people, with the right potential, at the right time... or just who can be persuaded to come for an interview and outbid for big money?

You ask the question “If company XYZwas a person, how would you describe her..? Only 5 adjectives.” Ask yourself, your employees, former colleagues, potential candidates, and even your relatives. It's interesting to see the difference in perception. Write down the adjectives you received and compare them with how youHRdescribed the company. Focus on working on gaps. An excellent practice is facilitating focus groups. You will not only get high-quality results, but also involve the main participants.

INwithindevelopmentHR brandmeasureNPS (Net Promoter Score).A marketing tool for measuring customer loyalty that allows you to conduct snapshots and benchmarks, increasing customer happiness.

Just one question: “How likely is it that you would recommend company X to your friends/acquaintances”? The client gives a rating on a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 means “I would definitely recommend”, and 0 means “I definitely would not recommend”. Further, based on the answers, clients are divided into three groups:

“Promoters” – those who gave ratings of 9 and 10. Clients who are highly loyal to the company and are very likely to recommend it to their friends.

“Neutrals” – those who gave ratings of 7 and 8. They are considered “passive” clients who are not very willing to recommend the company, but also not very dissatisfied with it.

“Critics”—those who gave ratings from 0 to 6—are dissatisfied clients who would rather not recommend the Company to their friends/acquaintances, and, moreover, may even “advise” against using its services.

The NPS index itself is calculated as the difference between the percentage of “promoters” and “critics” and shows the level of customer loyalty. The final value can vary from -100 (if 100% of the company’s clients are “critics”) to +100% (if all clients are “promoters”).

It is believed that for companies that have a very high positive NPS index (conditionally +50 and above), the customer base can increase on its own, and there is no need to advertise at all. An example is Apple, which does not need advertising.

If I was asked just 1 piece of advice “What to do for effective developmentHR brand“, I would answer “Study marketing, read Kotler and don’t reinvent the wheel.”

7. Today we are white, and tomorrow we are red. HR branding is a strategy that begins to work when focused work in selected areas is carried out for a long time and with commitment.

If you constantly create new creative solutions that contradict each other, then you risk losing this very focus, and the heads of representatives of your target audiences will again be a mess. You can choose different communication formats, but the most important thing is that the structure or identity of the brand remains unchanged and with each such communication you only confirm it.

8. Copying best practices without understanding and imposing on your identity.

You can and should borrow foreign cases and examples from Russian colleagues with one amendment - you need to clearly understand how these communications and programs will confirm the chosen identity of your HR brand. For HR branding to be a meaningful and effective tool, you need to clearly understand why you need it, what the company will be like, when all the programs are implemented, what value it will bring to employees and the company itself, and how it will increase business efficiency. Any chaotic copying will only confuse and dilute the root promise of the brand.

OPINION

Olga Litvinova, HR Director, EVRAZ

During the period of work inexecutive- searchIn business, I have repeatedly encountered unsuccessful attempts by Russian companies to copy the Western model of working with personnel. I'll tell you about a few fairly typical mistakes.

RussianFMCG-the company (beverage production) sought to attract successful candidates with experience in multinational Western companies, telling candidates “at the entrance” about its advanced technologies and developed corporate culture. In fact, it turned out that the company was unable to create a clear and transparent motivation system. Because of this, new employees were extremely disappointed and left before the end of the probationary period with a feeling of disappointed expectations, having not received the level of income they expected. After some time, the company acquired a corresponding reputation, and worthy candidates no longer wanted to consider it as their potential employer.

Other RussianFMCG- a company (food production) began to actively use assessment center technologies in personnel selection. At the same time, a number of organizational and communication errors were made (uncomfortable environment for candidates, lengthy procedure, inconvenient timing, lack of feedback on assessment results, etc.). Despite the market level of salaries in this company, they were unable to fill key positions for a long time.

Such examples clearly illustrate that errors in the constructionHR-brands not only negatively affect business performance indicators (by reducing the quality of personnel, the speed of filling vacancies, etc.), but also pose significant reputational risks for the company.

9. When formulating identity, they forget about the values that should underlie it.

Values are what unites people, energizes and motivates them; they are the engine and fuel of any company, the heart and engine. Once you choose a certain set of values, you risk losing those people who do not share them. But the bonus will be that people with a common value field will be selected for the team, and this greatly enhances the synergy of the team and its effectiveness. The involvement of professional coaches allows all employees to work at a value level, and the introduction of a coaching management style significantly increases the company’s competitiveness.

10. Get carried away with metrics and do everything mechanically.

People at work don't want to be subordinates or resources, they want to be people. That is why recently there has been more and more talk about the concept of workplace happiness and engagement as key parameters that seriously affect business performance. Let your HR brand and strategy be human, based on and following simple human values. Companies of the future are companies that give their employees the opportunity to self-actualize and use their full potential; who take into account the needs of employees and their desires, intelligently linking them with the goals of the company; who invest in their development, drawing joint plans for the future and showing where each employee’s place is in the company of the future.

I am confident that you will be able to avoid these mistakes and build a strong and healthy HR brand for your company, which will not only increase the efficiency of your business, but also bring true happiness and joy to your employees.

I thank the invited experts: Irina Maltseva, Evgenia Brylova, Oksana Kukharchuk, Nina Osovitskaya and Olga Litvinova for their valuable comments.

President of ICC Russia