Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia Industries
Excerpts from her keynote at Randstad Award Ceremony

My background is in marketing and so I always think in terms of brands and markets and target audience. In a way there is very little difference between product brands and employer brand. There’s also a very big point of contrast. As the employer brand our target audience, which is our employees, actually experiences us every day and experiences us repeatedly. They experience us in many multi-faceted ways. All of us represent some part of the employer brand.

One of the things that we say in Britannia is, at the end of the day people are responsible for people, HR is not responsible for people. I think if we internalize that as managers, as people interacting with our peers, managers, as people in whom other people in the organization look up to, what becomes absolutely clear is that the employer brand is nothing but the sum total of experiences all of us have about our company each day . When those experiences add up to something that is worthwhile, something which is enriching, and when those experiences culminate in each one of us in building our own brand equity, we give out our best. At the end of the day the company performance is nothing but the sum total of the performance of people who work in that company.

Each of us brings certain energy to what we do, that energy can be positive, infectious, in a very favorable manner or that energy can be tedious and tiring in another manner. I do believe that in survey after survey when you look at great brands, when you look at great individuals and great companies there is one thing that distinguishes them and that is the pursuit of excellence in what they choose to do. And if you have employees buy into that whole concept, whole philosophy that entire belief of excellence this simply means that I will do better than what my peer group is doing every day. I am going to bring to my work that positive energy that distinguishes me, differentiates me, and makes me distinctive amongst other options that people have to choose from.

Employee democracy

I do believe that we live in a way in a consumer democracy and certainly in an employee democracy when it comes to employer brands. So what do I mean by that? In a democracy each one of us can choose to be where you want to be. None of us is forced to be in a position where we don’t want to be. And products are successful because they have consumers who buy them every time they want to experience that category and they buy them in preference to any other alternatives that are available. Equally employer brands are successful when consumers choose to be part of your company as compared with other alternatives. And as we know that employer brands are not necessarily those companies that play the balance.

There are some people who are motivated primarily by money and they want to make money very fast and each of us as employers have to determine whether those are the types of people we want in our company or do we want to create an environment that attracts good, smart people, that attracts people who have a vested interest in creating success in the company in which they work but also that has people who work with the heart. That has people who bring to their place of work not just their mind or intellect but also their compassion, their understanding, their heart. Their belief that each one of us individually cannot do what all of us can do together.

All of us have responsibility because many people in our companies are looking to us for inspiration, motivation. I think it is our responsibility to demonstrate through our behavior consistently the values of the employer brand we represent.

Employees touch everything a company touches. If you are a happy employee no matter who you are, a receptionist or the CEO, a marketing head, supply chain head it does not matter – you are representing the values and behaviors of the employer brand. Those then get communicated very loudly and clearly not just to other employees but also to all the stakeholders, vendors, suppliers and competitors.

In times of stress…

I don’t know of any company that at all periods of time is successful. Any successful company has seen an equally aggressive competitor, has seen hard times, has seen the rough with the smooth but what distinguishes successful companies is that at times of stress the values of the company are not sacrificed, behaviors of leadership are not sacrificed and the positivity and the positive energy that is required to turn a company around is never sacrificed.

None of us can guarantee any of our employees a smooth ride. But I think all of us can guarantee fairness, equity that we bring to the company, values that we live by and most important the character of the employer brand we want to create. At the end of the day, people are attracted to people of character, authenticity, people who are genuine, who in the midst of uncertainty, tough economic environments that they are going through have belief in people.

Companies are successful because they have people who believe in the purpose of the company, who bring their best to work every day, create an environment where people do their best work. Of course we are dealing with a situation where people have different demands, some of us want to be in an organization where we want to learn, grow and contribute. Others want to come in make as much money as they can as quickly as possible and go out and do something else. There is no value judgment. The important thing is to recognize as the employer what kind of employee that you want to attract.

At the end of the day, a brand is nothing but a sum total of images, but most of all its experiences that are communicated by that brand whether that brand is a company, product, service, government, every entity that we deal with is a brand and every brand has a reputation, history and a future that it is going to create. It’s important to understand the brand you represent, the brand all of us represent and the brand you want to create.