Developing an employer brandThe Atkins experience

Chris Marsh

Director Group Resourcing

2nd October 2014

So what’s this all about...

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• Why do you need an employer brand?• How do you develop an employer brand? • The Atkins employer brand• How do you activate your employer brand?• How do you embed your employer brand?

Atkins at a glance

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17,489Employees worldwide

£1.75 billion Revenue (full year ending 31 March 2014)

What we’re good at

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Plan

We plan every aspect of our clients’ projects, from cost and risk planning, feasibility studies and logistics, to impact assessments and stakeholder engagement activity.

Design

Atkins designs intellectual capital such as management systems and business processes. We also design physical structures such as office towers, schools, bridges and highways.

Enable

Our clients trust us with the management of projects, people and issues, ensuring that deadlines are met, costs are controlled and success is delivered.

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Why an employer brand?

Why do you need an employer brand?

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Source: LinkedIn's Newest Crusade: Fix That Employer Brand! Forbes, 10.10.2012

“In order to attract the right people, companies need to build visibility in the market, and be seen as great places to work.”

“83% of global recruiting leaders say ‘employer branding’ is a critical driver of their ability to hire top talent.”

What is an employer brand?

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A great story well told…

and a promise well kept

Why create an employer brand?

The Atkins brief

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“We need to recruit a significant number of employees.”

“The market…is highly competitive and attracting quality employees is a major challenge.”

“We believe that there is a low external perception of the breadth of the Atkins offer and its range of skills requirements.”

“Our brand lacks any link to our proposition as an employer.”

“…little clear differentiation between us and our competitors.”

“In order to attract (and retain) the right people we need to be seen as a great place to work”

Link to Video

Why create an employer brand?

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Sharing our lessons learned…

• Key driver for hiring top talent

• Requirement in “hot” market

• Essential for online presence

• Everyone else is doing it!

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How do you develop an employer brand?

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Developing an employer brand propositionIt is about uncovering the unique truths about our business in a career context and creating a shared understanding on…

WHO we are – our DNA

HOW we go about things – our culture

WHY people should care – the reasons behind everything we do

…In a way that is true and relevant to our people and differentiated from our competitors

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Developing the employer brand proposition

1. Seeing our world

2. Setting the direction

3. Expressing our brand

Desk researchAtkins reports &

market trends

Perception research

Strategic sessionWorkshop &

Employer brand proposition

Creative concepts

Translation of key insights and

proposition in 2 creative concepts

for testing

Post-development

research

Creative expression

Employer brand identity, key

visuals & verbal content direction

The work developed

Desk research

Atkins internal reportsViewpoint survey results 2011Atkins group exit report September 2012Offers declined September 2012External interviewsExternal sourcesGlobal workforce study 2012 – Towers WatsonE-recruitment, market assessment 2012 – Key Note UK Global trends report 2011 – LSN, The Future LaboratoryResourcing and talent planning 2012 – Hays, CIPD

Atkins’ world

Market trends

Competitor’s audit

Development phase…

The work developed

expected

differentiates

defines

What we do How we do it Why we do it

Employer brand proposition

• We challenge the environment

• We go beyond the brief and expectations

• We live in an opportunity world: freedom to make the most of it

• We create Masterpieces & ‘micropieces’

• We are a house of specialists

• We have a challenging mindset

• We define the questions• We are an open community• Knowledge networks

• We deliver excellence• We have technical expertise• We are specialists• We offer worldwide

opportunities

• The way we work with our clients

• (close, human relationships)• Client focus & ability to deliver

(“more than what is asked”)• Trust & autonomy• Freedom of thought• Professional (honesty,

integrity)• “Quiet(ly) confidence(t)”

• Can do attitude• We offer security• “Ghostbusters”• Good company environment• We respect and value diversity• Empowerment – two way

• Speed & response• People challenged

• Commitment to people• It is in us, in our DNA• We become part of it• Being part of the big picture

(Quality of life)• We want to understand, driven

to help, to achieve it

• Client (personnel) vs. market focus

• “Best of everything” - variety of projects and areas (full capability of the business)

• Atkins’ stories

• Pride

Strategic session

Workshop & Employer brand proposition

Workshop

Developing an employer brand

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Sharing our lessons learned…

• The importance of research

• Need a structured process

• Involve key stakeholders

• Don’t rush it!

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The Atkins employer brand

For people who are driven to ask “why” and to

make a better quality of life possible,

Atkins’ design, project management and

engineering specialists unite around a global

outlook that results in a world of opportunities.

We trust our people to go beyond, and our clients

trust us to exceed expectations because we seek to

excel, and deliver quietly and brilliantly.

Together, we create careers of everyday

masterpieces delivering a better future for us all.

WhoWhy

What

How

Outcome

Employer brand proposition

The Atkins employer brand

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Sharing our lessons learned…

• Create an ‘umbrella’ proposition to give flexibility

•Make it real

•Don’t lose the opportunity to think about where you want to be

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Activating the brand

Activation

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• Employer brand toolkit templates content direction video checklistguidelines for photography and photo library “how to guides” on content and story telling

• Workshops for recruiters and communications teams• Good practice examples• New careers website

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Touch points for an employer brand

1. Generate awareness

2. Create interest

3. Motivate action

4. Positive reinforcement

5. Life as an employee

Putting the Atkins way into practice

2 key issues:

• Visual representation

• Tone of voice

Tone of voice

• Its about the way we talk to our existing and potential employees

• Provides the opportunity to bring the employer brand to life in both written & spoken word

• 3 principles:• Personal

• Inspiring

• Straightforward

“Quietly doing brilliant things”

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“Improving together”

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“Part of who I am”

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“More to us than meets the eye”

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“Great stories, great achievements”

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“Masterpieces and micropieces”

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Activating the employer brand

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Sharing our lessons learned…

• Understand all the touch points

• Provide detailed guidance for content creators

• Think about tone of voice

• Use every opportunity to share the employer brand

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Embedding the brand

What have we done to date?

A new, standalone careers website

Attraction activity

All employer e-flyer linking to...

Introducing the Atkins way to our people…

...a navigable, interactive PDF

and...

… dedicated videos

Worldwide poster campaign

Direct mailing to hiring managers

Recruitment advertising

Attraction activity

Our office environment

Vinyl lift door displays

Our office environment

Euston Tower, 29th floor reception

Posters and tailored material for all locations

Induction and HR correspondence

Online induction portal

Dear {Candidate.FirstName}

We are looking forward to welcome you on board!

I would like to introduce xxx in your team to be your buddy. You can contact xxx any time if you have questions about your future role or team. Xxx is happy to help you to integrate in the new team quicker. I would also like to introduce xxx to you. Xxx will be your mentor and give you guidance when you have any difficulties with your job.  Best regards

 Recruitment Team

ATKINSExplore our world of opportunities – www.atkinsglobal.com/careers

Onboarding correspondence

Employee communication...

Our code of conduct

Viewpoint Group communications

Feedback from around Atkins

“Really helpful for a specific bid question on

culture” – F+G

“I need to have a better understanding of the campaign, what the

intentions are: when it should be applied, etc.”

– North America

“I think that it grows as we work with it.” - Denmark

“Positive feedback re

clean/modern look and feel.”

– UK Marketing

“The guys in my business have bought into it; it is now second nature.” – Energy MD“

“Still need more time to

familiarise with the writing style.”

- APAC

“ We’d like more clarity / training on

applying the tone of voice.”

- DAC

“We're trying to adopt a more friendly, people centric

approach generally and the Atkins way suits it really well.”

– Middle East

It is helping to make Atkins less stuffy.” - Aerospace MD

Embedding the employer brand

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Sharing our lessons learned…

• Your internal audience is as important as your external audience

•Work closely with HR/Comms teams

•Keep communicating with/training content generators

Atkins employer brand

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A great story well told…

and a promise well kept