Soft Skills

Web 2.0: The emerging voice

Vikram Bhardwaj writes how corporate reputation and employment relationships will be affected by second generation Web-based services like social networking sites.

There has always been a strong correlation between corporate reputation and talent, companies with good or exemplary reputations have been generally seen as able to attract and retain the best talent. This concept gave birth to the notion of employer branding (a direct branding effort showcasing information on business, culture and benefits of working for this company to potential employees) and this quickly became a central concept in HR marketing. Most Indian IT companies caught on with the concept, post the dotcom bust (peaked during 2003-2004 and 2004-2005), and thus pitched their efforts in the pursuit of “employer of choice” status for their organisations.

Again specifically relating this to the Indian IT scenario, with increased competition amongst IT firms to hire the best talent, many have gone a step further. They have exemplified the use of employee branding (which is an indirect branding effect where employees serve to characterise their company’s employer brand.) Thus one would see advertisements from several such IT companies having their employees voice their opinion on their place of work.

Advent of Web 2.0

However, with the advent of Web 2.0, the relationship between corporate reputation and employment relationships is strengthened even further. These concepts (of employer and employee branding) would seem traditional soon and will be made redundant with enormous amounts of time, energy and financial resources wasted. We are soon to witness developments, which would have a profound impact on the people strategies of employers in India and other places, wherever there is a talent crunch, whatever be the size of the company.

The concept of Web 2.0 is as follows: within a period of 36 months, the Internet has moved on from static applications like Google Maps, Mapquest to more dynamic applications like various blogspots, Orkut, Myspace, et al, which derive their existence (and updation) from the human connections and networks formed around these portals. Besides, users can voice and leave their comments on a product, service, brand and thus generate an authentic, first-hand feel of the user-experience associated with the product or service.

Web 2.0 has totally changed the way we make our purchasing decisions, like previously the Internet changed the way we bought (online payments). My wife loves to sniff through various sites studying customer reviews for almost anything she wishes to purchase—be it a digital camera, our new car or a hotel in Allapey (Kerala). She is able to read through experiences of real people who bought and used the product or service and this is a trusted opinion. She no longer trusts advertisements or any experts giving their opinion. There seem to be several like her if the number of reviews written is any indication.

A real voice

Hence, in the case of brands, the fact that the customer is now being given a real ‘voice which can be heard by others’ is transforming the way purchasing decisions are being made. Its direct parallel in the talent space has profound implications—in the case of employers, what an organisation says about itself is no longer as important as what its employees think of it. It is not far when such employees would start voicing their opinion on an employer, candidates could publish on the Internet reviews on their experience with the selection processes in a company, etc.

How much does a company promote work-life balance? Does it have any innovative hiring practices? What about rewards and recognition? How good are the company’s training programmes? How regular are internal movements within the group? How demanding is the environment for a woman employee? One could easily research and compare companies on the same criterias! This surely would have widescale ramifications threatening to transform the entire employment landscape.

Preconceived notions about a particular company or set of companies (say large companies as a group or for that matter, public companies as a set) would either be easy to clear or could be reinforced many times and strongly, it could be challenged strongly or left unchallenged at all. Every employer would necessarily be at the same level as the other in terms of their attractiveness quotients.

A smaller company would be able to attract far more talent than it otherwise ever has, thanks to the positive reviews it gets from employees who experienced this company. It is quite ironical that this company could be a relatively unheard brand (remember ‘employer brand’). At the same time, false positive perceptions about a big company could be changed forever.

Given the forces at play, such a scenario is most definitely to happen, the only question is how soon does it impact. HR experts along with branding and communication specialists need to jointly apply their energies and thinking to evolve the next breed reputation and brands.

HR strategies thus come at the centerstage of corporate play even more with not branding but bonding, relationships and employee commitment becoming the core intangible assets.

Vikram Bhardwaj is a Partner with Redileon. Views are personal