The Corporate "Signature Experience"

A company must have a clear sense of its own identity before it can attract and retain the right people. Confidently defining and explicitly communicating your firm's identity is a prerequisite for guaranteeing employees' commitment and loyalty. At Nokia, HR places particular emphasis on its signature experience, which consists of a network culture and employee participation, to ensure the engagement - primarily emotional - of curious, friendly, and adaptable people.

What magic formulas do companies that attract and retain the right people possess? "They don't have any," respond Tamara Erickson and Lynda Gratton. Indeed, they have found that what such companies have to offer is actually quite varied. Some offer higher than average salaries, while others do not; some have standardized work processes, while allowing their workers the freedom to work as they would like, and so on. Nevertheless, these companies have one thing in common - a distinct identity. They have developed a genuine "signature" that conveys to potential employees what it is really like to work at their company. Erickson and Gratton present five fundamental ways for companies to establish and communicate their core identity - the real key to finding and keeping the right people.

1. Target specific types of people
A company must clearly define the particular appeal of its "employer offer" whether this concerns remuneration, the work environment, flexible schedules, and so on. The company can then attract people whose essential professional aspirations it can satisfy, thus ensuring high motivation and performance. For example, low-cost airline JetBlue does not offer salaries that are any higher than average. However, it does provide excellent working conditions and flexible hours, factors that are stressed during recruitment.

© Business Digest No 175 - June 2007

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