The All Things Talent community was back with a yet another successful event in the city of Chennai. September 1st saw a huge gathering of HR Professionals to connect, network and discuss some of the latest buzz in the HR Fraternity.
Commencing the event with the vision, values and beliefs of iimjobs.com and hirist.com, the focus quickly escalated to “Employer Branding.”
The event focussed on the discussion of Talent Attraction & Acquisition and Talent Engagement & Retention with respect to “Employer Branding.”
The discussion commenced by the introduction of the panelists with their diverse experience across sectors.
The leaders for the event were:
- Bharathan Prahlad – AVP, Human Resources at FSS.
- Smita Venkataraman, Vice President, HR & Corporate Communications at AGS Health.
- Bikram Keshori Nayak, Head TA, Office of CEO & MD at Larsen & Toubro.
- Solomon Kiran, National Head – Human Capital at Hinduja Housing Finance.
- Suhasini K, Head, Human Resources at Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital.
The panel discussion was moderated by Ankita Poddar, HR Business Partner at Amazon.
Employer branding is a function of the organization’s vision, culture, core values and is driven by the motivation to engage the target individuals and sell your proposition.
While Employer Branding is essential for all organizations and is brought about into the minds of young children, it is not only just for job-seekers, says Bikram K. Nayak, as he began by answering the query on the necessity of an Employer Branding strategy.
Changing gears to employer branding in case of intangibles, Solomon Kiran is a firm believer of the thought “Branding is changing over the years, people are looking at more than just a band name while deciding to work in an organization.”
While in Bharathan Prahlad’s view, “People don’t join a company because of a brand, they join a company because of what the brand indicates. The purpose motive becomes more important, how you connect the 2 Ps: the Purpose to People.”
The focus shifted to the sustainability of an Employer Brand Strategy.
Suhasini’s perspective on making the employer brand span across generations, the organization will have to make an employer brand which is adaptable and attractive for everybody, along with having a constant look at the policies.
Adding to Suhasini’s perspective, Smita believes that an employer brand strategy can not work in isolation. Constant evolution with the changing times and keeping an eye on the HR data is essential as what appeals to people varies.
A strong believer of social media impacting the functioning of an organization, Ankita proclaims that social media is very essential, if one does not get back to a prospective candidate or an employee, they might go online and post undesirable comments that may hamper the brand value to a great extent.
“Branding is not about the design, it is just an enabler. Real branding is about the spirit of the organization, starts with the core values of the company.” Says Smita.
“It’s always like a chicken and egg story. Employer Branding starts with the CEO of the company and ends with the employee and in between we have the HR and Marketing department. There needs to be action and collaborative effort amongst the departments before it passes down to the employees completely.”
Suhasini K. as she answers the question on “Who is ultimately responsible for Employer Branding, HR, Leadership, Marketing, or employees?”
In addition to this, Bikram believes “What fascinated people 20 years back, may not fascinate them anymore. Things are evolving with the time. You need to build the brand and the respect. The responsibility of building the brand is of the entire ecosystem, it is not just the HR, the corporate communications, CEO, each and everyone’s responsibility.”
The final insights of the session were “Our values drive our thoughts, our thoughts drive our behaviour and our behaviour drives our business.”
And as Ankita rightly believes: “HR needs to take a leaf out of marketing’s book. HR is as much about marketing (and many other functions) as it is about HR.”
The event was concluded by a general Q&A from the audience. A token of appreciation was felicitated to the esteemed panelists, followed by a luncheon and a great session of networking and connecting with the leaders present.
The All Things Talent Community will be back soon in Chennai to continue spreading the magic across the HR Fraternity!
