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Employee Branding- Employee branding is nothing but how employees adopt the organizational culture and how the culture influence employees in achieving the band image which is the prime goal of an organization. It is a process of training the employees and makes them understand their responsibilities and their duties in specific with proper motivational factors to reach and build good brand image of the organization with customers. Aims and Objectives of this research: * How far employee branding can be useful in managing and maintaining organization brand image. What’s the role of employees in achieving organizational brand image. * How brand image is linked with other functions of an organization. * How employee branding can help in enhancing recruitment and selection process and to what extend it is effective. * How HR plans and activities will help in shaping up employees in reaching organizational goals which is building a very strong brand image. * How brand image of the organization drive organization and also employees working in it. * What are the methods which can be used to improve the employee branding when it is required to do so.
Literature review: The process by which the employees are motivated to demonstrate the image of the organization to the customers, external world is named as Employee BrandingThe employee brand is the image presented to an organization’s customers and other relevant stakeholders through its employees. The employee branding process is predicated on achieving and maintaining message consistency throughout the organization. Messages emanate from various organizational sources such as the systems of organizational staffing, performance management, and compensation.
Each message should reflect and reinforce the organization’s desired brand image which, in turn, should be consistent with the organization’s mission and values. Employees should get a feel that the employer is being fair in dealing with them in the process of getting them present the organization brand image to the customers, which is a critical process, because employees should be aware what organization is looking from them and how it wants the employees to deal and present the image to the people who they deal with.
They might deal with customers, prospective customers and sometimes with people who holds interest in the organization or the services provided by the organization. So organization should make sure before letting the employees to carry the image of the organization that employees are aware what they are doing and have the complete knowledge of the role which they are playing. If they have the complete knowledge then would perform are per the guidelines given by the organization or they might end up in creating the negative image in the mind of the customers and also with the people who they are going to deal.
From time to time the management should ensure that employees are updated if there are any updates taking place in an organization in terms of policies, services and also any new announcements. Along with this they should also ensure that if employees require any kind of training which would enable them to improve their performance. When shaping employees who are chosen to put through the process where they are going to be responsible for carrying the image, so management should verify all things are going fine in accordance with the plan made. hen performance is evaluated and progress is checked constantly that would not only help to improve the process and also will kind a help employees to be responsible thinking that somebody is watching and they need to deliver their best and also it would enable them to think that organization is really concerned about their employees and it would drive employees in a right path in delivering the desired image of an organization. A conceptualization of the employee branding process explains how each elements of an organization is linked very strongly with other elements in order to achieve ultimate employee branding.
The first stage is defining organizational mission and values based on which whole organization is going to function. Desired brand image is what is derived from organization mission and values and that will reflect through the image of an organization brand. Organization’sMission ;Values| DesiredBrandImage| Sources/Modesof MessagesInternalFormal- Human ResourceManagementSystems- Public RelationsSystemsInformalCulture/CoworkerInfluenceLeaders/ManagersExternalFormalAdvertising ; PRInformal-Customer Feedback| Employee’sPsyche Knowledgeof DesiredBrand Image| PsychologicalContract| |
EmployeeBrandImage| Outcomes• Position ofOrganization andits Offerings inCustomers’ Minds• Turnover• EmployeeSatisfaction• CustomerSatisfaction• Customer Loyalty• FavorableReputation| Sources of message is how and what are the various modes of communication through which messages are conveyed and how its transmitted at various levels. Employee’s psyche is the combination of how much of knowledge employees have on brand of the organization and also how do they relate it to their psychological contract to deliver the effective and most efficient image to the customers of the organization.
Feedback Employee brand image is as explained above it’s a way how employees adopt organizational culture and act as a ambassador of an organization in doing the effective presentation of the brand image of the organization to the customers as desired and designed by the management. Outcomes might not have to be positive always, sometimes it could be negative if it so then proper care has to be taken to ensure it does not occur again.
So proper evaluation has to undertaken of employees to ensure they are performing well at the same time evaluation of employees feedback and actions have to be taken accordingly where ever it is required. Lastly the feedback received from various sources that could be either from customer or from employees. Strong evaluation of feedback has to be done to and required details has to be sent to the required departments to make the necessary amendment where ever it is required. Ultimately employee satisfaction is important to achieve customer satisfaction.
Because satisfied customers will provide the best services to their customers and that would result in converting customers into brand loyal towards the organization. Employee branding plays a very major role in enhancing recruitment and selection- Employee branding process begins with choosing the right people who becomes the brand ambassador for presenting the positive image of the organization to the customers and also external people and entities who are interested in this organization or in the services of it.
HR will come in picture in an organization when it comes to designing the policies for the organization and also hiring the right candidates to at right place to perform the right job. At the same time organization will have a demand for having candidate who meets the requirement of the organization with respect to someone who can get adjusted and learn the organizational culture, quick learner, team player, polite, good communication, good listener etc. When management design the set of requirement to hire the candidates to become a part of the organization brand ambassadors to carry on brand image.
If employees potential matches with the required criteria of an organization then such employees will be hired into the organization. At the same time only those employees will be hired into the organization who shows interest and will have the passion and potential to match the organization standards. Employees branding process begins with setting a target and specifying the requirement or quality of the employees to be hired to be the part of the organization to carry out one of the most challenging activity of the organization.
Usually employees are the one who constantly convey and present the image of the organization to the customers and apart from that their activity would also include to handle id there is any issues with the services which customers have received from the organization and also to educate and inspire the prospect customers. Once the candidates are recruited in an organization then they have to put under the training to make sure that they completely adopt the culture of the organization and module themselves are required for the benefit of an organization.
Before they become productive and start working on their roles, HR has to make sure that they are completely educated and know exactly what they are going to perform and apart from that they should also know and have the complete knowledge of an organization even if their work is related to a particular area, because they employees might not deal only with the customers who are looking or having issues offered by the organization. Sometimes employees might have to deal with customers who are interested in areas services or the other details of an organization.
There is a strong connection between employee branding and recruitment. When organization requires employees with certain parameters and if they find it in candidates then they will be hired and trained so that they become desired contributor in achieving desired brand image of an organization. Features of Employee branding: Below table explains how each set of action plans are designed to for carrying out the employee branding at different levels.
Branding direction is the brand image activity which is a internal factor of the organization. Brand entity is what the employees who are going to carry on and make a desired presentation to ensure they protect the brand image in a right direction and enrich it. Target of branding is customers who are going to interact with the employees of an organization. Roots are nothing but what are the base for the for brand image of the organization and it shows that it is influenced by organizational culture etc,.
HR activates are one of the most important activity in branding activity as its is highly depending upon the way how employees perform their activity in achieving complete customer satisfaction, so it is the big responsibility of HR professionals to hire quality candidates and train them and perform supporting activities like performance management which is important for organization and to employees to measure if they are on the right track and there is a continuous growth in the performance if not then necessary actions has to be taken to ensure they get on to the right track.
Aims of an organization is highly depending on how the communication is flowing in an organization to update the changes taking place which has to be conveyed to the customers and also communication is important upward and downward for the proper functioning of the organization where employees and employer can take part in making the working area a better place to work.
Lastly intended come is nothing but what is the positive outcome of employee branding, employees who are successful in their roles will get an recognitions and also rewards that would enable other employees to get motivated to do so. And when employees are performing their duties with at most care that lead to complete customer satisfaction and also satisfied customers more likely become loyal to the services which they receive from the organization. | Employee Branding|
Branding activities directionBranded EntityTarget of brandingRootsHR activities AimsIntended outcomes| InternalThe employeeCustomers who interact with branded employees Culture literature for managementLiterature of organizational social literature Marketing literatureInduction Training and development Performance management Competency based on hr systemsInternal communicationTo ensure employees actThe values of organization’s brand for share and ‘on brand’. Increased employee identification and employee commitment.
Increased loyalty or identification and customer satisfaction. | Critical Evaluation- Organization success is highly depending how it hires the right people to take on the organization to the right path, so organizations should give much priorities in designing the proper structure to accommodate the right people which begins with the defining the mission and it’s a continuous process which would include the roles of HR team in hiring the right candidates for the right job.
If proper criteria is not set for hiring the candidates then organizations might end up in hiring the unsuitable candidates who might create the negative impact of the organization in the my mind of the candidates. Employees can be responsible for creating a very high positive image at the same time they can also be responsible for creating negative impact of the brand image.
So along with proper recruitment methods, HR team should also make sure that they keep the track of the performance of the employees on regular basis so that it would help the HR’s to keep the track of the employees who are performing and meeting the expectation at the same time those who are underperformers and also those who are exceeding the expectations, so this would help them to concentrate those who are performing below the target and they can be provided additional assistance in terms of training or development trainings.
Only this would not enable them to keep performing their best continuously, along with this employees should be recognized when they perform exceptionally good when they reach 100% customer satisfaction, such employees should be awarded that would not only encourage them to keep performing good along with that it would also help other employees in improving and match the performance with other employees who are exceptionally good performers.
Apart from all the points mentioned above, other factors like, communication which is very important in an organization for the smooth functioning of it. It should flow both sides from top to bottom and also bottom to top that would build a good relationship between employees and employers. Employees and employers both should get the updates on when ever if new service, issues related to work, new announcement from management, updated in existing service would help in delivering the best service to the customers.
The biggest role which has to be played in employee branding along with employees who do the representation of the branding to the customers, are HR professionals who maintain the balance between management and employees and should make sure all the process are in placed and followed as desired for attaining the mission of the organization as mentioned and conveyed in the brand image of the organization. Research Methodology: I have used only secondary data for this assignment.
Secondary data such as websites, journals, e-books, newsletters, articles, textbooks. Before start doing the assignment I did some basic research on the topic to gain some knowledge and idea about the assignment. When I started doing the assignment I make sure myself what I am going to do and how I am going to proceed further. Firstly I decide what are the criteria’s should follow and understand the concept of the topic. For this assignment I prepared framework what I am going to do for whole assignment and proceeded
It was bit difficult initially when I had to put everything which I had leant in the class to when I started working on this assignment. Transferring knowledge to paper was not easy task as it was looking in the class. But of course the handout material which was given in the class and lecture points which I had collected during each session was very helpful while preparing this assignment. When practically I started proceeding on this assignment step by step, I was not sure initially how to begin and proceed.
I started referring and reading different articles published online. Which allowed me to get a clear picture this assignment? I have also used my previous work knowledge which I had in HR filed though it was not the same filed but I could relate it this to a certain extent and also have used the knowledge of certain seminars and presentation which I have attended here. Conclusion: Employee branding is one of the prime goal of all organization.
So, if the organization need to maintain the brand image it should develop a good strategies to accomplish the desired employee branding starting from defining the mission of the organization to receiving the feedback from customers and also from employees who do the representation of the organization brand and that would help to build the gap if there is any and will also help in improving the brand continuously. Since employees play the major role in carrying the brand of the company, at most focus has to be given while choosing right type of candidates to perform right job.