A new trend is starting to appear along with the falling unemployment rate and the increasing battle for qualified employees – companies who purposefully strive to establish a good employer brand and promote development of their own unique corporate culture have a significant competitive advantage in the battle for talents. A survey by the ABSL indicated that companies who are capable of better presentation of their philosophy are more attractive to job applicants and expend roughly half the effort of competitors, who are not as concerned with an employer brand, when recruiting people.
This finding is also confirmed by another survey realised by the Randstad personnel agency. This indicates that a strong brand, which is positively accepted by the public, allows the company to save costs on personnel advertising and increases the response to advertised positions. “Companies with a strong brand receive twice as many responses to advertised job vacancies than competitors who have a worse or negative reputation and their advertising costs are 10% lower on average,” said Hana Púllová, director of the Randstad Company, and she added: “However, companies should not forget that the employer brand is always a reflection of a specific corporate culture, the uniqueness of which needs to be developed and cultivated. 87% of respondents in our survey confirmed that the corporate culture was decisive for their acceptance of a job offer and 80% stated that the corporate culture was a reason to leave their job.”
The award for the best employer brand goes to the CDK Global Company
A number of companies in the business services sector are aware of the importance of a positively perceived employer brand in relation to talent recruitment, and a number of projects focus on development of the company’s good reputation and corporate philosophy. An expert committee assessed the most successful of these within the terms of the ABSL Diamonds award in the Employer Band category. The CDK Global International Company, with registered office in Prague, received this award thanks to its unique and very successful “Bored? Careers with more colour” recruitment campaign. “The awarded project makes it clear that companies need to engage the interest of candidates and entertain them,“ said Jonathan Appleton, director of the ABSL Association, which associates and represents companies in the business services sector in the Czech Republic, and he added: “Finding nearly 700 job candidates and selecting 150 qualified employees in the field of IT, HR and finance, who also speak foreign languages fluently, in just several months, could be considered practically impossible by some. But not for CDK Global International, which bet on unique configuration and communication of its employer brand in its campaigns.“
Boredom is the enemy, jobs need variety
The main goal of the “Bored? Careers with more colour” project was to address and employ qualified employees for the CDK Global Company’s newly opened business services centre in Prague. A survey among job candidates, which the company had carried out, showed that a key reason why people change jobs is because they are bored with their current job. This is why the company came up with an unusual concept for a campaign, which was intended to engage, entertain and emphasise the main attribute of this employer’s brand: “Our recruitment campaign was inspired by the iconic Lennon’s Wall in Prague, which is wonderfully colourful, keeps on developing and disrupts the status quo. And this is how we see our company. People continue to develop and educate themselves in our company and their profession is unusual and colourful,” said Steven Reade, Business Service Centre Manager for CDK Global.
Six Beatles concerts, a double-decker, a trip to Liverpool and graffiti in the office
“The key activities of the campaign were 6 free Beatles Revival concerts, at which our people distributed leaflets and discussed a career with CDK Global with interested individuals. The project also included billboards in the metro with the text “Bored”, a campaign on Facebook, competitions for first prize in the form of a trip for two to Liverpool, travelling around Prague in a doubler-decker bus from London or creation of our own Lennon’s Wall in our office areas,“ Steven Reade of CDK Global informed, and he added: “We are very happy with the results. As well as recruiting 150 qualified employees, we also acquired 275 registered talents and 93 subscribers to our talent community.“
“We are very pleased that the awarded project also inspires other companies from our segment, which grows every year by approximately 10,000 people. Questions of recruitment and assurance of employee loyalty are therefore crucial questions, which our members must address. Increasing awareness of one’s own employer brand is now a priority,“ Jonathan Appleton said in conclusion.
About ABSL
The ABSL (Association of Business Service Leaders in the Czech Republic) is an organisation associating companies active in the business services segment. This is a segment, which currently employees 89,000 people in the Czech Republic and generates 5% of Czech GDP. ABSL was established in 2013 with the goal of supporting companies in the field of business services, sharing best practice and helping develop its members’ activities and the activities of other subjects in this segment. ABSL also provides support to foreign investors wishing to establish their business services centres in the Czech Republic. For more information go to www.absl.cz.
Contacts for the media
Marta Lipovská
PR Consultant
E-mail: marta.lipovska@prcom.cz
GSM: +420 606 716 555