1.1 HRM as a function and HR Managers and key staff personnel have a vital role in the successful operation of a firm. Based on the information provided below, describe how the Brand Ambassador program affected or supported various functions of HRM.

HOW 'THE COMPANY' DEVELOPED A BRAND AMBASSADOR PROGRAM

At 'THE COMPANY' we usually categorize Employment Brand at THE COMPANY' into four big buckets: candidate experience, brand ambassador programs, messaging, and online presence. The truth is the brand ambassador component is the glue that plays into each part of employment brand at THE COMPANY'.

There were also core business reasons that made this the perfect time to implement this initiative.

1. Our company was going through a massive transformation to a Digital Industrial company. We had to tell the public about it, but most of our communication channels were B2B. The question then became - how do you get word out to people?

2. Transparency is not just in, its becoming an expectation. Customers/candidates could care less what we say about ourselves (they dont trust it exhibit A). They want to know what it is like to work at our companies from our employees.

3. We had a huge culture shift going on as a company. How do you convey this externally? How do you help employees to discover and experience this?

4. Talent Acquisition use to be job led. It is now brand led. How do we now shift this in our processes and the way we approach candidates?

WHAT WE DID

We used the voices we have in the company (the 350,000 potential marketers) to humanize our brand and represent us as people instead of an overwhelming corporate entity. To lay a firm foundation we started with a pilot and quickly grew it as we evolved the training. We also tried to involve as many key stakeholders as possible from the beginning, and along the way, that could evangelize and promote the training where it should be promoted.

We created a basic one hour course and then other more advanced components that those with passion to represent the company can choose to join. The foundational course has been fused into other trainings that employees receive along their life cycle at 'THE COMPANY' such as New Employee Orientation, Hiring the Right People, and Executive/Leadership training. This ensures that we entice people to get involved and bring it to mind along their career path at THE COMPANY.

A big part of any brand or ambassador programs is about keeping it going - the longevity. To do this we implemented a strategy where we evolve and offer the training quarterly, as well as create full marketing strategies to involve our brand ambassadors in and keep them engaged. This continues to create a buzz and enhances our marketing campaigns to increase the reach, engagement, but most importantly the longevity.

KEY RESULTS

• Increase in applicants - With our first big push through the brand ambassador army of the Owen commercials we saw an 800% increase in applications the following month.
• Increase in quality/hires - Connecting to the right/quality candidates pays off our Women In Technology Campaign provided over 18K leads within the first few days. Engagement with this audience through email and text led to at 75% open rate, 25% click through rate, and a 10% apply rate.
• Social Ambassadors - Over 75% of our global employees have a profile on LinkedIn, and are actively engaged on social media (most are engaged and many are very active = 100 + postings / month).
• Connected/Reach - Able to use brand ambassador army to reach more organically than many paid campaigns our brand ambassadors have 19.7M unique first connections we see this increase on average 15% per quarter for the last three quarters.
• Know what content engages - We can learn by the masses of content that candidates / customers engage with (and in turn educate our brand ambassadors AND marketing teams). We now follow the 3-2-1 rule. Three pieces of smart content, two pieces of thought leadership, to every one piece of content about a job or product.
• Make emotional connections - Employees understanding and articulating their why long term we believe this will even help with retention.
• Organic engagement taking place of spend targeting campaigns - Social amplification from brand ambassadors gaining over $3M equivalent in social target campaign spend for $0 in Q1 2017.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• People tell great stories that cause connection. You need to equip them with tools for confidence and time to get it done and most importantly permission.
• Brand ambassadors are free marketing campaigns.
• When employees learn their why they share it They stick with the company through the hard times. It is too early to tell in numbers, but we are seeing a pride through hard times in each business that we have never seen before. Positivity and camaraderie can also be impacted, as brand ambassadors attribute engagement to believing in what they are doing. Having brand ambassadors discover and write about their why gives them a sense of belonging - not just a job.
• Brand + Data + Relationships = Recruiting - The focus of recruiting doesnt solely land on our HR team. Our brand ambassadors are some of the best recruiters we have!