Recently, I ran an Employer Brand Management morning workshop in Amsterdam prior to speaking to an EB conference there in the afternoon. The morning session attendees – about 25 in total – were a knowledgeable group of HR, Resourcing and Talent Management professionals with extensive EB experience working in major European and multinational companies.
It became clear from a discussion on achieving brand activation that some EB road blocks existed for this group and I list below the major concerns they had. Here were the top five issues:
1. Lack of strategic intent and common purpose at a corporate level which should drive overall EB thinking and action.
2. Insufficient measurement by management of the key dimensions of the working experience. As one delegate put it 'we are not showing enough evidence of pain in order to achieve the change we need'
3. Continuing disconnect between HR, Marketing and Operations when it comes to the delivery of necessary improvements to ensure that brand activation is implemented
4. Lack of HR leadership and influence on senior colleagues. One verbatim 'who is ultimately responsible for the Employer Brand of our organisation? The HR Director or the CEO?' The CEO is clearly seen to be responsible for the corporate brand (with investors, the media and a major advisers/suppliers etc) and the EB is surely a vital ingredient of that.
5. The widespread perception that senior management usually faces bigger issues than the EB and EB Management at any one time and is driven by short term priorities.
As I said above, this group knew the theory of the EB in that, however important it is to create the messaging and positioning resulting in a stance which is distinctive, compelling and true (easy to say but hard to do), EB branding is only one element of Employer Brand Management. The effectiveness of the latter depends on the ability and influence of the Brand Manager to bring measurement, planning, innovation, change and coherence to the management of the overall employment experience.
To achieve that needs trust, respect and involvement outside any one department. It requires confidence and influence to argue the case for changes which will improve the working experience and which will demand alteration to attitudes, behaviours and processes over which HR has no direct control. That influence needs the direction and support of the whole management group and in particular the CEO. It is this top group who need to ensure that HR actions are integral to the strategy and plans of the whole business. HR is not a race apart.
I learnt this lesson very early in my career when I was a Colgate brand manager. I may have worked hard on the plans for my brand (Colgate Fluoride Toothpaste) but European and later New York management had to approve them having tested the financial, marketing, production, R&D and distribution thinking in demanding and inquisitorial meetings which I have never experienced since. However, all that resulted in an approved budget plan which the whole company had to get behind. The chances of a 27 year old brand manager successfully influencing change are vastly improved when his or her plan has become the approved company plan.
What I believe lies behind the frustrations I listed at the start of this blog is the feeling that Employer Brand Management ought to be like this too but HR ( the obvious place for this approach) is restricted to creating and delivering on projects which can be managed within HR itself. Recruitment marketing and communication is an important part of that remit and the development of an Employer Value Proposition is an important output. However, that is not Employer Brand Management and, while the EVP will result in a more focussed, joined up and improved communications, it will not bring the best of real brand management into a place where it can really make the difference. While some organisations we know are truly demonstrating this way forward, too many are concentrating on what to say rather than what needs doing.
Simon Barrow
Chairman
People in Business Ltd, London
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Why are bankers not defending their bonuses better? -an Employer Brand viewpoint
I have not yet been asked to work with an investment bank to assess the impact of the bonus debate on existing employees, potential recruits, investors and other stakeholders. Why are they not using every argument to demonstrate why substantial bonuses are vital and show that successful bankers are heroes rather than greedy ogres?
To date most bankers seem to use just one response to their critics namely that unless restraint is global they will lose their talent to other financial centres. I don’t buy this – successful bankers who have set down roots in London have a full and varied life living in the finest urban property in the world and enjoying the social and artistic life of this great city. Any confidential research amongst bankers and their families would indicate that London is a very hard place to leave.
Why don’t they use much more powerful arguments? All I can conclude is that they do not exist and Sir Philip Hampton’s TV message last week was correct ie yes there are some brilliant people but the rest are journeymen. If so then small wonder that obvious rebuttal points do not get made. Yet, if this is a trade worth defending then they should form a key role in the defence.
Here are a few I have simply made up which if true would make quite a hard hitting defence eg
1. The colossal margins eg such as those which enabled Morgan Stanley to afford $16bn in salaries, bonuses and benefits in 2010 are only achieved by a few outstanding firms. The majority of bankers do not deliver results like these and the corporate and personal career risks are great. As with sportsmen and musicians there are only a few outstanding performers amongst the thousands who take part.
2. The competition for customers is intense. If all bankers earned these margins then the self correcting principles of capitalism would ensure that new competitors would rapidly enter the market and bring margins down.
3. To be a successful banker requires quite extraordinary and rare qualities eg professional skills like accountancy, an MBA, a first degree First and outstanding commercial and interpersonal qualities. This evidence only gets you an interview – the rejection rate is over 90%
4. This is not a long term career and top talent must make money when it can. There is a long time in education and training and then perhaps only 15 years of really productive work. ’50 on Wall Street is old’ really is true.
5. The burn out/drop out rate for Bankers is crippling. The employee turnover rate for qualified bankers is over 35% pa.
If the above were true Bankers rewards would be understandable but presumably none of it is otherwise the average rewards for a large investment bank would be nowhere near the £269,000 per head which Goldman Sachs paid out in 2010. I have just read a glowing report on the level of engagement and commitment in Goldman’s UK business. With such a level of average earnings that is not surprising yet don’t these talented employees sometimes wish that their leaders could defend what they are paid rather better? In the meantime I’d be interested to know what they say to friends and family.
If there are powerful arguments based on the realities of this market then let us hear them - otherwise observers will fill the vacuum with the thought that they really are just overpaid journeymen in a category ripe for change.
Simon Barrow
To date most bankers seem to use just one response to their critics namely that unless restraint is global they will lose their talent to other financial centres. I don’t buy this – successful bankers who have set down roots in London have a full and varied life living in the finest urban property in the world and enjoying the social and artistic life of this great city. Any confidential research amongst bankers and their families would indicate that London is a very hard place to leave.
Why don’t they use much more powerful arguments? All I can conclude is that they do not exist and Sir Philip Hampton’s TV message last week was correct ie yes there are some brilliant people but the rest are journeymen. If so then small wonder that obvious rebuttal points do not get made. Yet, if this is a trade worth defending then they should form a key role in the defence.
Here are a few I have simply made up which if true would make quite a hard hitting defence eg
1. The colossal margins eg such as those which enabled Morgan Stanley to afford $16bn in salaries, bonuses and benefits in 2010 are only achieved by a few outstanding firms. The majority of bankers do not deliver results like these and the corporate and personal career risks are great. As with sportsmen and musicians there are only a few outstanding performers amongst the thousands who take part.
2. The competition for customers is intense. If all bankers earned these margins then the self correcting principles of capitalism would ensure that new competitors would rapidly enter the market and bring margins down.
3. To be a successful banker requires quite extraordinary and rare qualities eg professional skills like accountancy, an MBA, a first degree First and outstanding commercial and interpersonal qualities. This evidence only gets you an interview – the rejection rate is over 90%
4. This is not a long term career and top talent must make money when it can. There is a long time in education and training and then perhaps only 15 years of really productive work. ’50 on Wall Street is old’ really is true.
5. The burn out/drop out rate for Bankers is crippling. The employee turnover rate for qualified bankers is over 35% pa.
If the above were true Bankers rewards would be understandable but presumably none of it is otherwise the average rewards for a large investment bank would be nowhere near the £269,000 per head which Goldman Sachs paid out in 2010. I have just read a glowing report on the level of engagement and commitment in Goldman’s UK business. With such a level of average earnings that is not surprising yet don’t these talented employees sometimes wish that their leaders could defend what they are paid rather better? In the meantime I’d be interested to know what they say to friends and family.
If there are powerful arguments based on the realities of this market then let us hear them - otherwise observers will fill the vacuum with the thought that they really are just overpaid journeymen in a category ripe for change.
Simon Barrow
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Why can't Waitrose run our public services?
Now here is a blog about a real Employer Brand
On Christmas Eve, I succeeded in getting a rubbish skip removed; the driver, noticing a Waitrose wine case, said ‘Ah, you’re a Waitrose man’. I mentioned free delivery and competitive prices. `Fair enough’ he said, adding that three members of his family worked for them at Saxmundham; ‘they’re all happy – Waitrose is a good employer.’ When I said I was going there that afternoon, he said `say hello’ to his son Ben in the wine dept.
That visit gave me five positive experiences stemming from helpful advice given in a warm, spontaneous, natural spirit by people who really seemed to be enjoying their jobs. True, it was Christmas Eve, but that’s no guarantee of a benign, constructive response. I remember once doing a student job delivering drink, working with a driver who described the season as ‘nothing more than a f….g booze up ’.
So: why were they all so positive?
- they were working for a successful business – well, so are lots of big retailers but there was something else about working there;
- perhaps because, they are part owners of the business, Waitrose being part of the John Lewis Partnership?
- perhaps because there’s a greater sense of fairness with everyone getting the same percentage bonus on their basic salary? Plus rewards at the top, though handsome, are not at the stratospheric levels in other organisations;
- perhaps, being decently managed, they pass on that sense of decency and work as team players? With Waitrose employees bringing out the best in their customers and vice versa;
- With people like this most of us would think twice before raising a bad tempered voice – you don’t easily lose it with people doing their best. In any case the management's careful planning and implementation probably means there is little to cause rows. This is a disciplined place.
If I had to select the key Waitrose attributes they would be a) the basic human qualities of the people they recruit b) the sense I get that how Waitrose management behave is how they the partners want to behave c) the clarity and expectations of the actual employment experience and the confidence in the strategy on which it is based
As I drove home I wondered why more organisations don’t prompt me to feel this way. If Waitrose ran the railways, local government, education and health would not their employees and their customers be a lot happier? In addition I can think of several commercial businesses where the bedrock of the actual experience does not stand out for all it touches in the way it does here. If you need to spin your way to an Employer Brand you’ll never make it.
Simon Barrow 5th Jan 2011
On Christmas Eve, I succeeded in getting a rubbish skip removed; the driver, noticing a Waitrose wine case, said ‘Ah, you’re a Waitrose man’. I mentioned free delivery and competitive prices. `Fair enough’ he said, adding that three members of his family worked for them at Saxmundham; ‘they’re all happy – Waitrose is a good employer.’ When I said I was going there that afternoon, he said `say hello’ to his son Ben in the wine dept.
That visit gave me five positive experiences stemming from helpful advice given in a warm, spontaneous, natural spirit by people who really seemed to be enjoying their jobs. True, it was Christmas Eve, but that’s no guarantee of a benign, constructive response. I remember once doing a student job delivering drink, working with a driver who described the season as ‘nothing more than a f….g booze up ’.
So: why were they all so positive?
- they were working for a successful business – well, so are lots of big retailers but there was something else about working there;
- perhaps because, they are part owners of the business, Waitrose being part of the John Lewis Partnership?
- perhaps because there’s a greater sense of fairness with everyone getting the same percentage bonus on their basic salary? Plus rewards at the top, though handsome, are not at the stratospheric levels in other organisations;
- perhaps, being decently managed, they pass on that sense of decency and work as team players? With Waitrose employees bringing out the best in their customers and vice versa;
- With people like this most of us would think twice before raising a bad tempered voice – you don’t easily lose it with people doing their best. In any case the management's careful planning and implementation probably means there is little to cause rows. This is a disciplined place.
If I had to select the key Waitrose attributes they would be a) the basic human qualities of the people they recruit b) the sense I get that how Waitrose management behave is how they the partners want to behave c) the clarity and expectations of the actual employment experience and the confidence in the strategy on which it is based
As I drove home I wondered why more organisations don’t prompt me to feel this way. If Waitrose ran the railways, local government, education and health would not their employees and their customers be a lot happier? In addition I can think of several commercial businesses where the bedrock of the actual experience does not stand out for all it touches in the way it does here. If you need to spin your way to an Employer Brand you’ll never make it.
Simon Barrow 5th Jan 2011
Thursday, November 18, 2010
I mentioned that ’Passion’ had joined the list of much used FTSE company values along side integrity, trust and teamwork.
I am not alone, just have a look at this You Tube clip
I am not alone, just have a look at this You Tube clip
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
'A principle is not a principle until it costs you money’ – the role of ‘values’ in an Employer Brand
This quote came from the great Bill Bernbach, founder of the celebrated ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, made famous by their distinctive work for Volkswagen and others which broke the predictable mould of advertising towards the end of the ‘Mad Men’ era in the 1960s.
I think of that line when I see the value statements of most large companies. A statement of values and the behaviours and processes they drive should be a fundamental building block of any employer brand – vividly demonstrated in the way the place works. People in Business recently studied the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 top UK businesses (The FTSE) and established that 65 of them have stated values which are on their websites. The 35 who do not may believe that a formal statement is superfluous since the culture, style and positioning are clearly in the DNA and do not need added promotion in that form.
Frankly, looking at the 65 value statements there maybe another reason for not going public which is that non participants may be aghast at the samey obvious values which dozens of large organisations trot out. Maybe they just don’t want to join that club. You can see why from the PiB analysis ie 31 mentioned ‘Integrity’ and if you add similar words like ‘Trust’ and ‘Honesty’ that rises to 55. ‘Respect’ is claimed by 22 of the 65, ‘Responsible’ 20 and ‘Teamwork’ 19. Another 15 companies, trying perhaps to push the boundaries, state that‘Passion’ is a value of theirs.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with any of these as words which should underpin the basic stance of any organisation but value statements like these cannot form the basis for an employer brand which is distinctive and compelling. After all, unless you are Bernie Madoff or in organised crime, then are not such noble sentiments fundamental to all of us? They just do not add anything other than tick the box that ‘we have a set of values’
I think a great value statement should stop you in your tracks and make you think. It should give you an indication of what is expected of you and tell you what is really important to the organisation and what it stands for. Consider these for starters:
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité for post revolutionary France in the late 18th Century
The Declaration of Independence for the United States of America. A brilliant example of where succinct prose works better than a few stated beliefs. In 1776 it was also a global first.
Down the street from PiB's office is the Lutyens memorial to the nurse Edith Cavell shot at dawn in Brussels, October 1915. There are four words in the stone ’Fortitude, Humanity, Sacrifice, Devotion’. Eighty five years on it strikes me as timely right now for the 20 health care volunteers killed at one time by the Taliban in Afghanistan earlier this year and all those who continue do that brave and vital work under such circumstances.
We have a new partner in Turkey and the basis of that country’s continuing stance is based on the stated beliefs of its leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk post the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 - ‘Westernization, Modernisation, Solidarity, Secularization and Equality for All Turks’. Turkey today is still driven by these values and the behaviours that represent them. Ataturk also knew the power of one simple edict to demonstrate a new order – in 1925 he made the Fez (the traditional hat of the ruling class) illegal stating that ‘civilised men wear civilised hats!’. He wore a fine Panama hat from then on.
Values should be at the heart of any worthwhile Employer Brand if the leadership can sign off on statements which are compelling and distinctive and which they themselves can demonstrate. It can be very hard to establish statements which match the power of the examples I have used above but using words which are just worthy and commonplace will not do it for you. If you can’t do it right, wait until you can.
Simon Barrow
16 November 2010
I think of that line when I see the value statements of most large companies. A statement of values and the behaviours and processes they drive should be a fundamental building block of any employer brand – vividly demonstrated in the way the place works. People in Business recently studied the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 top UK businesses (The FTSE) and established that 65 of them have stated values which are on their websites. The 35 who do not may believe that a formal statement is superfluous since the culture, style and positioning are clearly in the DNA and do not need added promotion in that form.
Frankly, looking at the 65 value statements there maybe another reason for not going public which is that non participants may be aghast at the samey obvious values which dozens of large organisations trot out. Maybe they just don’t want to join that club. You can see why from the PiB analysis ie 31 mentioned ‘Integrity’ and if you add similar words like ‘Trust’ and ‘Honesty’ that rises to 55. ‘Respect’ is claimed by 22 of the 65, ‘Responsible’ 20 and ‘Teamwork’ 19. Another 15 companies, trying perhaps to push the boundaries, state that‘Passion’ is a value of theirs.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with any of these as words which should underpin the basic stance of any organisation but value statements like these cannot form the basis for an employer brand which is distinctive and compelling. After all, unless you are Bernie Madoff or in organised crime, then are not such noble sentiments fundamental to all of us? They just do not add anything other than tick the box that ‘we have a set of values’
I think a great value statement should stop you in your tracks and make you think. It should give you an indication of what is expected of you and tell you what is really important to the organisation and what it stands for. Consider these for starters:
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité for post revolutionary France in the late 18th Century
The Declaration of Independence for the United States of America. A brilliant example of where succinct prose works better than a few stated beliefs. In 1776 it was also a global first.
Down the street from PiB's office is the Lutyens memorial to the nurse Edith Cavell shot at dawn in Brussels, October 1915. There are four words in the stone ’Fortitude, Humanity, Sacrifice, Devotion’. Eighty five years on it strikes me as timely right now for the 20 health care volunteers killed at one time by the Taliban in Afghanistan earlier this year and all those who continue do that brave and vital work under such circumstances.
We have a new partner in Turkey and the basis of that country’s continuing stance is based on the stated beliefs of its leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk post the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 - ‘Westernization, Modernisation, Solidarity, Secularization and Equality for All Turks’. Turkey today is still driven by these values and the behaviours that represent them. Ataturk also knew the power of one simple edict to demonstrate a new order – in 1925 he made the Fez (the traditional hat of the ruling class) illegal stating that ‘civilised men wear civilised hats!’. He wore a fine Panama hat from then on.
Values should be at the heart of any worthwhile Employer Brand if the leadership can sign off on statements which are compelling and distinctive and which they themselves can demonstrate. It can be very hard to establish statements which match the power of the examples I have used above but using words which are just worthy and commonplace will not do it for you. If you can’t do it right, wait until you can.
Simon Barrow
16 November 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Small businessess need an Employer Brand too
- a new frontier for the Employer Brand?
Most Employer Brand conferences are attended by delegates from large businesses, so it was a special event to be asked to talk about how the employer brand might be considered by 130 lawyers gathered at a recent NetLaw Media conference in London. While there were a few ‘magic’ or ‘silver’ circle firms present the majority were small businesses with not more than 10 partners . All the delegates were lawyers themselves, mostly senior partners facing with all the usual challenges of running a small business eg:
- cash management,
- client relationships,
- the pressure to bill (write offs can come in separate time period!),
- whether to concentrate services and build a reputation for particular expertise (in which case what to drop?)
- How and when to outsource (given the low prices for Asian work)
- Poor leadership –as one said law firms have rarely been led just managed
- How good are lawyers at being seen to deliver?
- The relationship between actual time recorded and that billed.
- Debtor management –why are lawyers last in the line to get paid?,
In addition to all that they had the impact of the Legal Services Act (coming into place in October 2011) to consider.
HR, Marketing and Communications people are naturally interested in the Employer Brand – it forms part of what is expected of them - but small businesses rarely employ such specialists. They have to live with the immediate issues and I would doubt that many of these firms have a strategic plan. Thinking ahead will be limited to a budget.
Yet small businesses do of course have an individual reputation for the working experience they offer. They will have to cope with managing that experience and they will have to recruit, engage and motivate their teams. They will also have to worry about how their business stands out versus their competitors. While they may not realise it in the mass of daily pressures they will need the insights, the planning and the implementation which an EB process can provide. We must make the case in a way which is relevant, ‘grabbable’and affordable in senior time and out of pocket cost – showing what EB management has done for a FTSE company is no substitute for that.
There is an opportunity to bring the best of EB to small businesses and we need to create the process for doing so. I suspect that there is a human as well as a commercial need – any analysis of where unfairness, prejudice and evasion or avoidance of employment law is most prevalent is likely to be found among small employers.
Simon Barrow
Most Employer Brand conferences are attended by delegates from large businesses, so it was a special event to be asked to talk about how the employer brand might be considered by 130 lawyers gathered at a recent NetLaw Media conference in London. While there were a few ‘magic’ or ‘silver’ circle firms present the majority were small businesses with not more than 10 partners . All the delegates were lawyers themselves, mostly senior partners facing with all the usual challenges of running a small business eg:
- cash management,
- client relationships,
- the pressure to bill (write offs can come in separate time period!),
- whether to concentrate services and build a reputation for particular expertise (in which case what to drop?)
- How and when to outsource (given the low prices for Asian work)
- Poor leadership –as one said law firms have rarely been led just managed
- How good are lawyers at being seen to deliver?
- The relationship between actual time recorded and that billed.
- Debtor management –why are lawyers last in the line to get paid?,
In addition to all that they had the impact of the Legal Services Act (coming into place in October 2011) to consider.
HR, Marketing and Communications people are naturally interested in the Employer Brand – it forms part of what is expected of them - but small businesses rarely employ such specialists. They have to live with the immediate issues and I would doubt that many of these firms have a strategic plan. Thinking ahead will be limited to a budget.
Yet small businesses do of course have an individual reputation for the working experience they offer. They will have to cope with managing that experience and they will have to recruit, engage and motivate their teams. They will also have to worry about how their business stands out versus their competitors. While they may not realise it in the mass of daily pressures they will need the insights, the planning and the implementation which an EB process can provide. We must make the case in a way which is relevant, ‘grabbable’and affordable in senior time and out of pocket cost – showing what EB management has done for a FTSE company is no substitute for that.
There is an opportunity to bring the best of EB to small businesses and we need to create the process for doing so. I suspect that there is a human as well as a commercial need – any analysis of where unfairness, prejudice and evasion or avoidance of employment law is most prevalent is likely to be found among small employers.
Simon Barrow
Monday, September 27, 2010
Courage and the Employer Brand
Courage is a vital EB ingredient
Any one who thinks that Employer Brand work is an endeavour that does not need courage is unlikely to produce an effective result. Something which is really distinctive, compelling and true will usually need it. Sadly, one only has to see the number of predictable working experiences, and the platitudinous ways they are described in second rate copywriting, to see the need for greater courage among HR and Marketing people. That in turn may reflect on the precision of the demands which their senior management place on them
Courage in business starts with one individual and I saw three examples of this in the past few weeks. People like that develop great EBs
‘The Bravest Man in Britain’ was how the Daily Mail described Jim McAuslan, General Secretary of BALPA, at the recent TUC conference. With the whole conference supporting a motion to resist all public service cuts (despite them not yet being identified), McAuslan’s hand was the only one to vote against it. The Chair initially thought he was joking but up he went to the platform and said that he could not support the motion since the TUC must first understand the views of the general public ‘beyond this hall’. Without doing so he believed that the TUC were presenting the coalition government ‘with an own goal’. He walked back to his seat in total silence.
Small wonder that ,with him as General Secretary, the British Airline Pilots Association commands the respect it does as partners with employers, supporters of 75% of UK pilots and pioneers on safety management, pilot fatigue, cabin air quality among many other relevant subjects. Furthermore, when BALPA thinks right is on its side it can be a formidable opponent. Leadership like that deserves a following and his BALPA colleagues and members will have been proud of him.
Catholics will have been proud of the Pope on his UK visit for the same reason. Given the negative publicity on clergy wrongdoing and cover ups, the atheist attacks and apparent apathy, it is hard, whatever your spiritual views, not to admire the clarity of his message and the strength of his beliefs
Final example. A large European company kindly invited me to a dinner to thank University Careers leaders for their support in helping to recruit some outstanding graduates this year. We were addressed by graduate recruits who were about to join and by three members of the executive. They took some toughish questions and overall it left us all with the evidence of a courageous and innovative business with a clear idea of its role in the community. Passion is an overused word in business but in this organisation you could feel it
I am reminded of the Chicago writer Philip Bliss’s famous lines
‘Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known’
So many people who could be Daniels somehow fail to deliver.
I mention the graduate recruiters evening not only because the company had such a clear point of view and meant every word but also because of the venue hosts. The dinner was held in the west nave of the vast Liverpool Anglican Cathedral where earlier the Canon had welcomed us in the Lady Chapel proudly stating that St Pauls would fit comfortably into this building.. We then walked to dinner to the sound of an immensely powerful organ.
Now for the Daniel moment. We got to the round tables and found our names. Some sat down, others stood or shuffled about and then dinner started. I just wondered why the Canon had not given a short interdenominational grace. OK perhaps he felt that night he was just the venue operator as he might be if we were dining at the Adelphi Hotel nearby. Yet here we were in a building dedicated to a faith which is the Canon’s life’s work. Did he feel it was non PC and therefore, even in the most modest way, believe he was not able to recognise what he believed this great building was all about? Surely a missed opportunity.
We all have to answer the question ‘what do you do?’ and those who are proud of their job and organisation let it show.in their answers. Particularly the leaders.
Many people find it difficult. I once interviewed an engineer who worked for the Metropolitan Police – he said when asked what he did that he was an engineer who worked in the civil service. A great EB should have helped him to stand up for his employer
Simon Barrow
Any one who thinks that Employer Brand work is an endeavour that does not need courage is unlikely to produce an effective result. Something which is really distinctive, compelling and true will usually need it. Sadly, one only has to see the number of predictable working experiences, and the platitudinous ways they are described in second rate copywriting, to see the need for greater courage among HR and Marketing people. That in turn may reflect on the precision of the demands which their senior management place on them
Courage in business starts with one individual and I saw three examples of this in the past few weeks. People like that develop great EBs
‘The Bravest Man in Britain’ was how the Daily Mail described Jim McAuslan, General Secretary of BALPA, at the recent TUC conference. With the whole conference supporting a motion to resist all public service cuts (despite them not yet being identified), McAuslan’s hand was the only one to vote against it. The Chair initially thought he was joking but up he went to the platform and said that he could not support the motion since the TUC must first understand the views of the general public ‘beyond this hall’. Without doing so he believed that the TUC were presenting the coalition government ‘with an own goal’. He walked back to his seat in total silence.
Small wonder that ,with him as General Secretary, the British Airline Pilots Association commands the respect it does as partners with employers, supporters of 75% of UK pilots and pioneers on safety management, pilot fatigue, cabin air quality among many other relevant subjects. Furthermore, when BALPA thinks right is on its side it can be a formidable opponent. Leadership like that deserves a following and his BALPA colleagues and members will have been proud of him.
Catholics will have been proud of the Pope on his UK visit for the same reason. Given the negative publicity on clergy wrongdoing and cover ups, the atheist attacks and apparent apathy, it is hard, whatever your spiritual views, not to admire the clarity of his message and the strength of his beliefs
Final example. A large European company kindly invited me to a dinner to thank University Careers leaders for their support in helping to recruit some outstanding graduates this year. We were addressed by graduate recruits who were about to join and by three members of the executive. They took some toughish questions and overall it left us all with the evidence of a courageous and innovative business with a clear idea of its role in the community. Passion is an overused word in business but in this organisation you could feel it
I am reminded of the Chicago writer Philip Bliss’s famous lines
‘Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known’
So many people who could be Daniels somehow fail to deliver.
I mention the graduate recruiters evening not only because the company had such a clear point of view and meant every word but also because of the venue hosts. The dinner was held in the west nave of the vast Liverpool Anglican Cathedral where earlier the Canon had welcomed us in the Lady Chapel proudly stating that St Pauls would fit comfortably into this building.. We then walked to dinner to the sound of an immensely powerful organ.
Now for the Daniel moment. We got to the round tables and found our names. Some sat down, others stood or shuffled about and then dinner started. I just wondered why the Canon had not given a short interdenominational grace. OK perhaps he felt that night he was just the venue operator as he might be if we were dining at the Adelphi Hotel nearby. Yet here we were in a building dedicated to a faith which is the Canon’s life’s work. Did he feel it was non PC and therefore, even in the most modest way, believe he was not able to recognise what he believed this great building was all about? Surely a missed opportunity.
We all have to answer the question ‘what do you do?’ and those who are proud of their job and organisation let it show.in their answers. Particularly the leaders.
Many people find it difficult. I once interviewed an engineer who worked for the Metropolitan Police – he said when asked what he did that he was an engineer who worked in the civil service. A great EB should have helped him to stand up for his employer
Simon Barrow
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