Sony Employer Branding - Case Study Example

Sony Employer Branding Student’s Name Student No Unit Name Word Count Sony Employer Branding Introduction Employer branding is a process of promoting a company as the employer of choice to the desired group that it needs to recruit and retain (Mosley and Schmidt, 2017, p. 3). It facilitates the ability of the business to attract, recruit, and retain ideal employees with the objective of securing the achievement of its strategy. Additionally, it enables companies to sell their workplace culture, values, and goals to potential and existing employees (Grünewälder, 2008). Other advantages include making an organization stand out from its competitors and help streamline recruitment. To establish an appealing internal and external employer image, a firm needs to understand its needs and strategic objectives. It also needs to identify what makes it an expectational employer regarding what it is offering to its employees. Importance of Employer branding For technology firms, their biggest issue is getting the right qualified people for the job and retaining them. The industry is marked by fierce competition for technical talent and a high turnover of employees who often choose the best employer based on a range of factors. Most of them opt for companies that pay them well and provide them other extra benefits that make their work more fulfilling. Sony Corporation uses differentiation strategy. The company sells products that target the high-end market that value quality and innovation over price (Spulber, 2009, p 364). It has incorporated the latest advanced technology such as AR and VR in its products, which makes it unique. Sony clearly understands its core competencies and therefore focuses on continuous innovation and advanced technology. In addition, they recruit creative people and integrate new technology to build and nurture the core competencies. Qualified and creative employees are key pillars for the success of the company. One of the major threats Sony facing is competition. Its main competitors are Philips, LG, Olympus, Canon and others (IBP Inc 2015). Enterprises in the technology industry compete in terms of innovation and products that have the latest and most useful features. To have an upper edge, most firms have resorted to poaching qualified workers from their competitors. Besides, some firms go to extra lengths to promote their organizations as the best employer for technology workers. This enables them to attract, recruit, and retain the best that the industry can offer. Failure to attract qualified workers may adversely affect Sony as they will lag behind in coming up with new ideas. Besides, employer branding will cushion the company from losing its staff to its rivals. Currently, Sony faces serious issues with its talent management. It has very limited graduate programs and does not put much investment in future. Asplund (2017, p 103) says that companies that train their workers reap maximum from the same. As one of the leading technological companies in the world, Sony can attract talented individuals to fill out vacant positions in the organization. However, this is not the case for Sony, as it has not fully exploited that advantage. It needs to embark on a well-thought out strategy. Steps of Developing Employer Branding Developing a robust and recognizable employee brand involves some necessary steps. Taylor says that it should follow the process of building market brands. The aim of the process is to create an association in the minds of existing and potential employees between the experience of working for an organization and the certain positive values of psychological responses. Just the same way customers become loyal to particular brands; the idea is that employees be motivated to stay faithful to an organization (Sartain and Schumann, 2013, p. 125). The first process that a company needs to do is finding out what their employees like about working for it (Trost, 2016, p 49). This could be the management style, culture, and values or work benefits. The second stage is finding out what differentiates the company as an employer from your labor market competitors. Armed with the information from the first two stages, the next step involves coming up with the right language and images that are appropriate for broadcast. It is important that the messages should mainly encompass certain key value propositions that will be repeated in the different media channels selected for the purpose (De St. Aubin and Carlsen, 2017, p 15). Says highlights some of the brand's values that Sony can identify with include prestige, cause, high risk/big potential and work-life balance. On prestige, Sony can highlight the great reputation that it has and try to convince the targeted audience that working for the company will enhance their long-term career opportunities. Concerning work-life balance, Sony should demonstrate some of the other benefits that its employees accrue apart from their normal contracts. The best way to work out these is by running focus groups with employees and job applicants. A good employer brand is that which elevates the company to the desired status where people want to be part of and look for ways to be considered for any position that may present itself. De St. Aubin and Carlsen (2017, p 15) says that a strong employer branding strategy must have a common theme so that current employees give out their opinions on their experiences with the company. It should also guarantee visibility for the organization about its products and services. Likewise, the employer brand strategy must have information about the company’s work practices, career development, and culture and environment. Lastly, it should provide reinforcement for the current employees as to the quality of the workforce and the value of employee contributions. Sony must observe other important considerations. For example, it should define its current employment brand if it has any to know where they stand with its employees and in the marketplace. Also, Sony ought to identify successful branding strategies used in other organizations. The company should benchmark with organizations that have been successful with their branding efforts and those that have failed. Basically, this will put them in a better position to know what to adopt and what to avoid. It would also be required to identify the candidates for the branding effort. Here, the company should ask itself the type of candidates that it would like to attract and how they would find them (Meier, 2006, p. 32). Moreover, once it has implemented its branding strategy, Sony should track its success through surveys, focus groups, and exit interviews. Monitoring the progress will enable Son to know how its employees view the company and how its shapes the plan. Google is considered among the leading employer brands in the world. The company has been able to achieve this through creating an environment that is conducive for optimal performance of its employees. Foremost, it has one of the highest average salaries in the tech world. It also anticipates for major events of its employees, which help create a happier work environment. The tech firm also allows its engineers 10 percent of their time to try out new things or come up with innovative ideas (Lucas n.d.; Caffery n.d.). It is during such moments that some of them come up with new ideas. To cement its position in the society, the firm has invested heavily in involving its employees in any activities that benefit the community. For example, it sends them to various countries to engage in local projects. Besides, it donates $50 for every hour an employee volunteers, which has made it popular with many millennials. These among other practices make most people the world over want to work with the company. Another successful company that hires top talent is Facebook. The company has a review system where employees say what they like about the company and what they do not. It then responds to a handful of these reviews on a monthly basis. The review panel consists of both current and former employees so that there is a balance in coming up with solutions to the problems. In collaboration with other organizations like Glassdoor, Facebook constantly monitors its rating and that of its CEO by reviewing analytics (Glassdoor Team 2017). Subsequently, they use the harnessed and analysed data to come up with strategies that keep their public image afloat. Job Embeddedness Theory Job embeddedness theory examines an individual’s link to other people, teams, and teams, perceptions of their fit with the job, organization, and community, and beliefs about what they would have to sacrifice if they left their jobs (Holtom, Mitchell, and Lee 2009). This theory has relevance in employer branding as it looks at how people perceive organizations, whether it is fit for them to work there. Links Links are known as obvious connections between individuals and institutions and are separated into two factors: organization links and community links. The more links to the workplace or community, the more highly embedded people will become (Holtom, Mitchell, and Lee 2009). Notably, the connections can be social, psychological or financial. They can also be associated with the years of service, the number of children and their ages, hobbies, religious activities or membership to professional organizations. Also, whether individuals continue working for an organization is dependent on the pressure they are subjected to from their families, friends, and people at work. Additionally, the lack of marital or parental responsibilities and the failure to develop meaningful relationship could be an indicator that employees are less likely to stay with their present work situation. Sony would definitely have to consider some of these factors when coming up with its employer branding strategies. Fit Fit is defined as an employee’s perceived compatibility or comfort with an organization and with his or her environment. The closer an individual’s personal views, values, and goals are aligned with those of an organization the higher chances the employee will feel professionally and personally embedded (Holtom, Mitchell, and Lee 2009). Some of the factors that determine whether an individual fit in a community include weather, convenient access to outdoor activities, community culture and friends who share similar views. Notably, the working environment in Sony is not as relaxing when compared to other companies like Google. This type of work setting may not be beneficial to innovation which is the main force fuelling the company’s growth. Furthermore, Sony is not achieving its target in many segments due to demotivation of workers. It, therefore, needs to come up with ways to motivate them. Sacrifice Sacrifice refers to the material and psychological benefits that an employee forfeits at any given time if he or she chose to leave an organization to leave the organization. Some of the organizational sacrifices might include loss of health and retirement benefits, advance opportunities, educational benefits, convenience and proximity to the workplace and even loss of security (Holtom, Mitchell, and Lee 2009). Most workers choose not to leave so as to continue reaping benefits. Conclusion and Recommendation Most employees in the technology industry chose to work with companies that are recognized for going extra-length to make their staff comfortable. Due to competition for the best-qualified engineers, tech firms, compete in offering its employees the best that is available in the market so that rival companies do not poach them. Through their employer brands, they advertise themselves as the best company to work with. This also allows them to attract and retain the best. However, some companies such as Sony have not yet come up with employer brand strategies, which are working to their disadvantage. Similarly, it will protect itself from losing its most qualified staff to rival companies. Given the advantages of having and implementing an employer brand strategy has discussed, Sony should adopt the following recommendations in coming up with one: 1. The company needs establish an appealing internal and external employer image, which is in line with its strategic objectives. To employer brand should appeal to both the internal and external employer image. 2. Upon establishing an employer brand, it should come up with the right language and images that are appropriate for broadcast. Therefore, it should set aside some of its budget to advertise the positive aspects associated with working for the company. 3. The employer brand should also guarantee visibility for the organization and its products and services 4. The employer brand should demonstrate some of other benefits that it employees accrue apart from their normal contracts. Reference List Asplund, R., 2017. Human capital creation in an economic perspective. London: Springler. Barrow, S. and Mosley, R., 2015. The employer brand®. 1st ed. Chichester, W. Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Caffery, A. (2013). Three Companies that “Get” Employer Branding. [online] Recruiter. Available at: https://www.recruiter.com/i/three-companies-that-get-employer-branding/ [Accessed 19 Mar. 2017]. De St. Aubin, D. and Carlsen, B., 2017. Attract, Engage & Retain Top Talent: 50 Plus One Strategies Used by the Best. 1st ed. Bloomington: AuthorHouse. Glassdoor Team., 2016. 5 Ways Facebook Builds Its Employer Brand Through Glassdoor. [online] Glassdoor for Employers. Available at: https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/5-ways-facebook-builds-its-employer-brand-through-glassdoor/ [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017]. Holtom, B., Mitchell, T. and Lee, T., 2009. Applying the Job Embeddedness Theory in a Business. [online] TopMBA.com. Available at: http://www.topmba.com/jobs/career-trends/applying-job-embeddedness-theory-business [Accessed 19 Mar. 2017]. Grünewälder, A., 2008. Employer Branding. Munich: GRIN Verlag. IBP Inc. 2015. Greece Investment and Business Guide Volume 1 Strategic and Practical Information. 1st ed. Lulu.com. Lucas, T., n.d.. Google’s Employer Brand – Is it Right for Your Company?. [online] Available at: https://lucasselect.com/googles-employer-brand-is-it-right-for-your-company/ [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017]. Mosley, R. and Schmidt, L., 2017. Employer branding for dummies. 1st ed. Hoboken,NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Meier, B., 2006. Employer Branding: A holistic concept of Strategic Brand Management for attracting and retaining a company s Right Potentials - with the example of Degussa AG. 1st ed. diplom.de. Mitchell, T. R., Holtom, B. C., Lee, T. W., Sablynski, C. J., & Erez, M., 2001. Why people stay: Using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. The Academy of Management Journal, 44, 1102–1121. Sartain, L. and Schumann, M., 2013. Brand from the inside. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass. Spulber, D., 2009. Economics and Management of Competitive Strategy. 1st ed. New Jersey: World Scientific Publishing Co Inc. Taylor, S., 2002. The Employee Retention Handbook. Wimbledon: CIPD Publishing. Trost, A., 2016. Talent Relationship Management. 1st ed. London: Springer. Read More