Position It as Global Employer of Choice Through Employer Value Proposition

Challenge

A leading aircraft manufacturer perceived that becoming an employer brand leader is crucial to its corporate positioning.  Therefore, they wanted to lift their profile as top employer brand instead of just an aeronautical employer brand. To kick off the whole employer branding campaign, MSLGROUP China suggested setting up EVP (employer value proposition) as a foundation for the long term program. MSLGROUP China targeted key markets and arranged internal focus groups with selected employees with different roles in the company. In addition, developed a detailed questionnaire covering corporate reputation, employer responsibility, internal communication, employee’s belongingness and other issues developed for focus group.

Solution

MSLGROUP China cooperated with the company to arrange a series of focus groups with an MSL specialist as the moderator in order to get original feedback from interviewees. Each focus group invited 5 to 6 employees for a detailed interview and discussion. All conversations had been recorded and kept confidential /anonymous for analytical use in order to encourage employee’s on sharing their thoughts. Following the focus group, MSL conducted series phone interviews with executives in different business units to compare feedback from different levels of positions. From the series interviews, MSLGROUP China has observed 1) serious internal communication problem between local company and headquarter 2) lack of connection among business units within the company 3) payment concern led to increase of turn over 4) working environment and management style changes brought negative impact to employees’ confidence in the company. 

Results

The focus group has received strongly favorable feedback from interviewed employees as they agreed that this format of internal investigation would help improving operation, employee benefit and engagement.  Furthermore, they agreed that it is more effective and attractive than paper questionnaire.

The interview findings significantly helped the team to:

• Articulate the roles that individuals play;
• Create link with the corporate brand- benefitting from our external reputation;
• Provide a road map to link up and work with internal communication;
• Further develop the message which includes some regional/role variations and corporate guideline and toolkit for employer branding.