The following was presented by Ms Angela Ling delivered at the ATO Human Capital Forum 2013, held on 2 October at the Raffles City Convention Centre. Ms Ling is the Managing Director of globeone Singapore, a management consultancy with specialised competence in brand management, marketing strategy, communications and research. She leads a team of strategic and creative professionals working passionately on both global and local brands in Southeast Asia.
Branding as a discipline only truly gained traction in the last 10 years. This is not to say that brands didn’t exist before, but branding was seldom well understood or methodically applied. Fast forward to 2013. Now that the effects of branding on corporate value and organisational effectiveness are more widely recognised, it is fitting to evaluate corporate performance – including talent management – through its lens.
Fundamentally, a successful talent management programme is dependent on a strong underlying philosophy towards acquiring talent, a healthy internal culture towards nurturing talents and an infrastructure that promotes continual personal development, performance and retention. How well your organisation does on each of these measures will determine the strength of employer brand equity you will enjoy.
Four challenging conditions
The jostle for talents in the accountancy sector is intense for reasons that include:
1) A competitive landscape
Of the more than 630 public accountancy entities registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), 1% comprises international networks such as the Big Four and 99% are small and medium-sized public accounting practices (SMPs). These figures do not even cover the wide swath of other organisations that hire accountants. Taken together, the demand for talents is high.
2) Limited number of new, accountancy-trained entrants each year
Each year, the three local universities produce a total of about 1,000 accountancy graduates. However, with 40% joining the Big Four, the supply of accountancy talents to SMPs and other organisations in particular is severely limited.
3) Negative perceptions of role
The accountancy profession continues to bear the weight of perceptions such as a rigid career progression structure, unattractive work-life balance and undue fee competition. The fact that almost all finance or accounting professionals routinely work extended hours beyond what they were contracted allows these perceptions to perpetuate.
4) High talent expectations
Finance and accounting talents are a demanding lot! 86% of talents expect their employers to offer more formal training and development and 58% would like to see their employers offer technical or accountancy qualifications. When talents leave, 62% say it is because they were not offered opportunities they deserve.
As a result of these conditions, among others, the job of an accountant ranks sixth in professional service vacancies in Singapore and the job of an auditor ranks third. Worryingly, 74% of SMPs have cited their inability to attract a sufficient number of competent staff as a main growth constraint.
Emotion meets engagement:
Leveraging your ATO brand equity to meet your talent objectives
Branding is not a magic pill. But a well-crafted brand strategy can elevate your talent management efforts.
A brand is about who you are, what you stand for, how you articulate these attributes and how you deliver your promise consistently. It is more than a catchy name or splashy visual identity and it is certainly more than advertising.
By virtue of being an Accredited Training Organisation (ATO) of the Singapore Qualification Programme (QP), your policies and processes have already been thoroughly benchmarked against the high standards established by the Singapore Accountancy Commission. You have also demonstrated your commitments to staff training and development, as well as to support the success of Chartered Accountant of Singapore qualification and the growth of the accountancy sector in Singapore.
A brand is about who you are, what you stand for, how you articulate these attributes and how you deliver your promise consistently. It is more than a catchy name or splashy visual identity and it is certainly more than advertising.
The good news is that these are more than good practices in corporate citizenship. As outlined above, talents value companies that have a vested interest in their personal development and success. In a homogenised sector, your brand is an asset that provides a competitive edge to your business. Brand equity influences more than people’s perceptions – brands impact their decisions and actions, be it to purchase a product or service or to serve an organisation.
Your ATO brand equity will enable you to build strong relationships with your candidates and employees on highly-emotive dimensions including aspiration, identity, engagement, loyalty and trust, creating a high-performing workforce.
Three steps to building a successful brand
The best brands are authentic, laden with meaning and elicit emotional responses. They focus on building enduring relationships with people, not merely ringing up transactions. Ultimately, it’s about the people, not just the numbers.
In developing a success employer brand strategy, globeone recommends three basic steps:
Step 1: Insight
Develop a brand proposition that resonates with your target audiences, internally and externally.
Resonance is the operative word here. To resonate, one must first understand. The first step to any successful brand strategy is a thorough understanding of one’s internal and external stakeholders, with references to industry developments, current and projected. Expectations and motivations change with time so it’s absolutely essential to keep one’s finger on the pulse.
Step 2: Clarity
Ensure your brand definition is well-aligned with your company’s vision and core values.
What do you do with all the insight you have gathered? Make sense of it. One cannot be everything to everyone so do not try. A good dose of honesty and pragmatism is necessary in order to craft a brand definition that accurately reflects who you are and what you stand for and which captures your corporate objectives and vision. At this juncture, you may also wish to review your visual identity for alignment with the brand definition.
Step 3: Consistency
Deliver your propositions with purpose and clarity.
Cascade the brand definition through the organisation (educate and bring on board). Align operations to the brand definition (some redesign may be necessary).
After all, a brand definition is only as meaningful as how it is lived. A brand strategy is only as effective as how it is executed. #
To view the presentation slides from the ATO Human Capital Forum, visit this page.
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