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A good employer brand is proven by employee experience. That's it really but read on because there is a twist at the end. A good employer brand is proven by employee experience and not by:
The HR Person of The Year award
HR Innovation of The Year award
Digital HR of The Year award
Happiness First Leader Award
and all the bla bla bla bla award or LinkedIn posts carefully crafted by HR or the marketing department.Â
The only judge of the pudding is the person who is eating it and not the one who designed the recipe for the chef to make the pudding.
I find it absurd that HR panels dictate what's best for employees, and task HR professionals with implementation, resulting in mere recognition for execution. It's essentially an implementation award, nothing more. How do I know that? Well, I know the process behind awards, certificates and any kind of recognition and I also talk to employees who do tell me exactly what it's like working for that prestigious company. It's a makeup, the same as ladies put on in the morning to look better especially when they feel awful. The more makeup we put on the worse we feel inside.Â
I observed the same situation regards to guest satisfaction in the hotel industry with the outdated LQA audit (makeup), designed decades ago. The satisfaction standards it imposes are no longer relevant to today's travelers. Nevertheless, the industry blindly adheres to this program, to its own detriment. I've consistently emphasised the significance of guest-centric standards, arguing that many of the imposed criteria are unwanted by guests. However, failing to score high on your audit will invite corporate intervention if you know what I mean lol. It's a flawed system that prioritises adherence over genuine guest satisfaction. Nobody cares about the stupid LQA hoteliers only you. Guests don't and I will prove it.Â
Take 12 hotels.Â
The 12 hotels' LQA scores (audit) and online quest satisfaction scores are the exact opposite. I did that study because they pissed me off. My hotel scored the lowest on the LQA so I got a good amount of bollocking... I looked at my GM and said "I don't care about this score we have the highest guests satisfaction AND, employee satisfaction amongst the 12 hotels." To which he replied I know but head office doesn't care about that.Â
I went back to my office and produced the two graphs side by side and I was right!Â
The two graphs were the polar opposite. Those who scored highest on the LQA audit had the lowest online guest satisfaction. My hotel scored the lowest on the LQA but had the highest online guest satisfaction score. Everyone else in between lined up nicely according to this pattern so the graphs were just beautiful to look at.Â
I sent it to my GM and closed the email, "I don't care what ONE person says about our service once a year, I go with the 1000s of satisfied guest reviews and I will not make the team feel bad about this." My GM agreed and sent the same email to corporate.Â
This is why I say a good Employer Brand is Proven by Employee Experience that is measured, experienced and felt every day, and not only once a year by random people who haven't even stepped into your organisation let alone asked your staff "What is your experience working here related to the title of the award?"Â
Once we do that, ask our employees about what they think of HR or rather their experiences with HR and organisational policies, procedures, and practices, only then I will take any HR award seriously.Â
It is time to raise the bar and aim for a little higher than "looking good from the outside" but looking ugly from the inside. A lot of people just want to look good but do evil. I rather have a company just like my friend's company which donated a track full of stuff for underprivileged families for Christmas and says nothing about it on social media. When I asked "Hey, why is this stuff not on social media?" she replied, "I am not doing it for that." Be like her!
Companies are really just massive kindergartens for adults. Read here:
