7) Promises

In my last post, I finally got round to the topic of research. Finally? Well, it’s what I do in my day job. I-would-say-this-wouldn’t-I, but I believe that good research, a depth of understanding, a real dialogue with employees – is the secret to engagement, to enhance your culture, to creating a great employer brand. And with all of that in place, performance should take good care of itself.

So, as I’ve described in posts passim, the things in need of attention in research are: understanding of purpose and culture, experience of communication, management and other drivers of engagement.

With a clear picture of this – and a picture over and above an engagement survey - you can uncover two things, which lead me to two more of my hypotheses:

1.     What it’s important for the organisation to do, and which it delivers on well now.

Which is a decent definition of the EVP – and Hypothesis #8 Most attention by HR depts and their employer marketing agency is spent here. That’s understandable, if there’s a recruitment need, the platform is probably already well ablaze. But it’s the short term solution.

2.    What it’s important for the organisation to do, and which it isn’t seen to deliver well on now.

Which is a decent definition for an HR strategic plan – and Hypothesis #9 Often HR is doing lots of things it doesn’t get full credit for. The communication, line management, cultural alignment just doesn’t allow it to be fully seen or understood

But more than this I think it’s vital for: Hypothesis #10 Concentrate on celebrating what is good now, but it’s just as important to making more things great in the future. So a bit of 1), and plenty of 2). After all, giving the customers (in this case employees and potential employees) what they want, how they want it, is how you build a great brand. And I’ll return to an employer brand next time out.