Do You Have a Lovemark?

I had the opportunity to talk to a student group on Employer Branding. When I asked them to name their number one choice of an employer, the overwhelming majority voted in favour of Google. Then I ask them for details that one would be expected to know about a potential employer eg the office location, the number of employees they have in India etc. All these queries draw blanks. I ask the group about what specific jobs at Google they wished to apply for. Except for three students, no one really cared and yet they wanted to be a part of an organization they had very limited information on. We proceeded to pick some more possible employers. The group had strong points of view about many organizations – most of which were not necessarily based on information or data. That is what Employer Brand does to your attractiveness as an employer.

The Employer Brand is what people believe is the promise of an organization as an employer. In a competitive talent market, that is the reason why someone chooses to put your organization’s name as an employer on their resume - at least for a while. The existing employees’ perception of the employment proposition has an equally strong impact on what the employer brand would be seen as. That is the reason why the existing employee decides to hang up when the headhunter calls. It is the reason why a newbie feels good or regrets the decision to join the organization, especially if they had a choice. It is what the employee says about the organization to friends and family when HR people are not listening.

Kevin Roberts (author of Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands) talks about some brands that go beyond and become what he calls “Lovemarks“. When you plot brands on a 2×2 matrix of Love and Respect, there are some brands that inspire love AND build respect for themselves. Those in that hallowed zone are called Lovemarks. When a brand achieves Lovemark status, the consumers becomes evangelists for a brand. The relationship between the brand and the individual is beyond the realm of logic. Being a Lovemark does not automatically make it a top choice as an employer but it probably helps. That is because our needs as employees are different from those that we may have as consumers. The sobering thought is that, the No 1 Lovemark in the list of top 200 Lovemarks is not a corporation but Shah Rukh Khan. Apple at number 4 trails Kajol and Google is at number 9 followed by Rani Mukherjee.

Employer Branding is the sweet spot where Human Resources meets Marketing (and feels inferior). Marketing people spend money, time and resources building consumer insights so that they know who buys their brand, when do they buy it, why do they buy it or why not, where do they buy it and how do they consume it. Based on this research they can decide how to communicate with their Target Audience. These are the same questions the HR person needs to answer about existing and potential employees.

The number of vacancies that the organization fills through employee referrals is rough measure of the strength of the Employer Brand - at least as far as the existing employees is concerned. Finding out what potential employees are saying about you as an employer is equally important. Sometimes that information floats in the most unlikely places. The social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook, MySpace etc have communities that feature organizations. Chances are that your organization has a presence there and you don’t know it yet. Doing a search on blogs will sometimes reveal what the buzz is about your employer brand. The quiet little kid in that corner might the most widely read blogger on the internet who is writing stuff about what it feels like to be working in this organization. I hope you read his blogs. Unfortunately in many cases, perceptions about the organization as an employer are being built and most top executives don’t even have a web presence.

At a recent gathering, a hundred top HR professionals from around the world were asked if they were members of sites like Orkut or Facebook. Only three embarrassed hands went up. That was stuff for teeny boppers most of them said. Yet if you are fishing in a shrinking talent pool would you rather know what the buzz was about you or would you turn a blind eye (or ear) to it? If you did not know what people were saying about you wouldn’t be in a position to impact that opinion. Banning blogging and social networking sites is not a solution. I hope the HR people embrace this change and actually begin to leverage the opportunity to turn their Employer Brand into a Lovemark.

You Made Us Proud

On the flight from Frankfurt to Amsterdam’s Schipol airport, I am seated next to Mr B Muthuraman, the Managing Director of Tata Steel. It is a company he has worked with since 1966 after completing his B Tech from IIT-Madras. I lean across the aisle and introduce myself then tell him that the deal involving Corus Steel’s takeover by Tata Steel has made every Indian proud. The diminutive Muthu smiles in acknowledgment before disappearing into the crowded Schipol airport. He has ambitious plans for Tata Steel. He was recently quoted in Business Week magazine as saying that he is “aiming to be a 20 million-ton company by 2010 and 35 million-ton company by 2015.” Tata Steel currently makes 7 tons of steel a year, and this includes Singapore’s NatSteel and its China plant. By [2015], they’ll be among the top five steel companies in the world in size. Good luck to people like Muthu who make us walk with a swagger. Schipol Airport has a casino, a museum (the Rijksmuseum) that gave me a glimpse of Van Gogh’s sketches of the lion. The airport has its own mortuary - so that you can fly through Schipol dead or alive and has of late been in the news for being a place where couples are getting getting married. No question of missing the flight to the honeymoon destination - just get the pilot as the best man at the wedding.

In Amsterdam you are more likely to be run over by speeding cyclists than with a one of those fancy bikes. Public transport is a plenty but if you are not a gawking tourist you want to have at least one bicycle of your own. The canals garland the city like a giant windshield wiper swishing from side to side. It is hip to have your own houseboat in the canal though the stench sometimes is truly overpowering. On weekends - IF the weather is good, you can see loads of cyclists doing a leisurely trip along the canal with a loaf of bread, some cheese and a bottle of wine stuck prominently in a basket tagged in front of the bike.

What did I like most about this city? Hmmm… I loved the cobbled streets and the lush green parks - my favorite was the Vondel Park. You see families coming there jogging, on bikes, pets in tow and children dutifully following their parents. The leaves were just falling off in preparation for the winter months. What did I not like about Amsterdam? The weather. It was cold and damp for the better part of the week. The Sun made a guest appearance like a Bollywood star in an art movie - brief but impactful and left us wanting more.

Coach Coach Hota Hai

I am currently reading Sun After Dark by Pico Iyer. He writes about the Dalai Lama who is considered to be the spiritual Coach to a nation and to many world leaders. He says though the Dalai Lama is “increasingly famous as a speaker, his real gift, you see as soon as you begin talking to him, is for listening.” That ability to listen makes him a true Coach. The world leaders listen to him because he in turn is a world leader who listens.

Bunty Aur Babli in the Corporation

The workplace has always been a safe haven. This had always been a place where the regular folks came to work. They all spoke English with the same fake accents and chewed gum while moving their jaws sideways and wore their underwear like a fashion statement. They all used “kewl” and not just a simple “Yass” like the wannabes. The regular folks all had been to similar schools and had seen similar films and read the same set of books while growing up. It was not surprising that their world view was also the same. They all had similar nicknames too. So Harmeet or Harpreet were all called Harry or something that sounded Western. Then when they came into the workplace, they all hung around with the regular people in the office cafeteria and on weekends socialized with each other over imported wine and cheese. Their progeny played “Scrabble” in the next room. Read more

HarperCollins to Print MARRIED BUT AVAILABLE

It is official. I am going with HarperCollins. The publishing giant HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation. Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world. In India they have been in business since 2002 as a joint venture with the India Today group.

I had to make a choice. After weeks of nail biting suspense, I voted in favour of HarperCollins to publish my novel MARRIED BUT AVAILABLE. After all they paid me the half a million dollar advance. Ok… now it is time for truth. Heck no it was nothing like that. In this cruel world it is the publishers who decide whther to take on your manuscript or not. So I am really excited that I am going with the biggest name one could have.