Employer Branding - Case Study
Employer Branding: Super happy people
01/01/06
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Recent research shows that employees at companies with the strongest brands are happier at work. But do brands really drive people - or do people drive brands? Caspar van Vark reports.
If you want your employees to be happy, loyal and hardworking, there's now a shortcut to achieving it. Get your company on the annual Business Superbrands list. Apparently, people employed by these companies go to work with a spring in their step.
That's according to research carried out by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB), which completed a survey of people employed at the 2005 Business Superbrands. BMRB quizzed 804 employees online and discovered, for example, that 82% of its sample were proud to work for their company, compared to a national average of 50%; and 69% said they were treated well by their employer, compared to 43% for the national average.
The Superbrands organisation chooses the Business Superbrands from a list of thousands, based on areas like brand awareness, quality, innovation, and reputation (see box). This year's list includes familiar names such as Cable & Wireless, DHL and Deutsche Bank but there are also some less obvious ones like coach company Arriva and property developer Slough Estates. It does not judge candidates specifically on their employer branding, says the organisation's chairman, Stephen Cheliotis. But he is not surprised that companies on this list are particularly adept at making themselves attractive to employees, both current and prospective. 'I don't think it's a coincidence, the fact that these brands have been rated superbrands and that their employees have said they're happy and motivated,' he says.
'I'm not surprised that strongly branded companies are perceived by their workers to be better employers. I expected this to be the case, but I didn't expect the difference to be so great.'
So why is it, then? Cheliotis puts it down to a sort of virtuous circle.
01/01/06
[pic]
Recent research shows that employees at companies with the strongest brands are happier at work. But do brands really drive people - or do people drive brands? Caspar van Vark reports.
If you want your employees to be happy, loyal and hardworking, there's now a shortcut to achieving it. Get your company on the annual Business Superbrands list. Apparently, people employed by these companies go to work with a spring in their step.
That's according to research carried out by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB), which completed a survey of people employed at the 2005 Business Superbrands. BMRB quizzed 804 employees online and discovered, for example, that 82% of its sample were proud to work for their company, compared to a national average of 50%; and 69% said they were treated well by their employer, compared to 43% for the national average.
The Superbrands organisation chooses the Business Superbrands from a list of thousands, based on areas like brand awareness, quality, innovation, and reputation (see box). This year's list includes familiar names such as Cable & Wireless, DHL and Deutsche Bank but there are also some less obvious ones like coach company Arriva and property developer Slough Estates. It does not judge candidates specifically on their employer branding, says the organisation's chairman, Stephen Cheliotis. But he is not surprised that companies on this list are particularly adept at making themselves attractive to employees, both current and prospective. 'I don't think it's a coincidence, the fact that these brands have been rated superbrands and that their employees have said they're happy and motivated,' he says.
'I'm not surprised that strongly branded companies are perceived by their workers to be better employers. I expected this to be the case, but I didn't expect the difference to be so great.'
So why is it, then? Cheliotis puts it down to a sort of virtuous circle.