Reader favorites plus several new articles to highlight projected trends in Employer Branding, published on www.brandbakers.cz from 2015 to 2018. The Era of Recruitment is Over The way companies hire employees in the Czech Republic, and Europe as whole is going to change due to a decreasing workforce, sluggish economy and preferences of the incoming Y generation.

1. Employer
Branding
Reflections and Visions
Heading Into 2019
Petr Hovorka
Reader
favorites
from 2015
to 2018
Several newarticles to highlightprojected
trends
+

2. 02
Petr Hovorka
is a Employer Brand Baker
@ BrandBakers,
a leading consulting company
in Central Europe
focusing purely on a holistic and honest
approach to Employer Branding and
recruitment marketing.
I would like
to say thank you to a few special people:
Jiri Landa,
my partner at BrandBakers,
who lets me have my thoughts and visions
and does the great amount of work
in our company
Kristen Binda,
a Charles University student
with big dreams to change the world,
for translating all articles
from my “Czechglish” to
correct English
Brett Minchington,
world Employer Branding authority,
for reviewing some of my texts
and for encouraging me to
write articles

3. Foreword by Brett Minchington,
the world's most respected authority
in the Employer Branding field
In 2016 I launched the first World Employer Branding Day in Prague and
returned in 2018 for a sold out event with the strong support of Petr
Hovorka and his team at Brandbakers. Petr has also been supportive in
connecting our team into the broader Czech Republic Employer Brand-
ing community which is growing every year.
During this time, Petr has been an active contributor in developing
thought leadership in Employer Branding in Czech Republic and his
opinion and commentary has also been felt beyond his local borders.
The management field of Employer Branding is now the number one
focus in many organisations around the world as they adapt to the
complexity of multiple trends that impact on the world of work simulta-
neously. Petr’s work assists organisations to develop solutions and
strategies to respond and adapt to these trends.
I admire Petr’s tenacity and dedication to contribute to advancing
awareness, knowledge and practice in Employer Branding through his
authorship and agency practice and I look forward to continuing our
friendship and partnership for many years to come.
03
Brett Minchington
Chairman/CEO | Employer Brand International &
Employer Branding College
Founder | World Employer Branding Day

4. 04
Jiri Landa, Brett Minchington and Petr Hovorka (from left)
A photo from the meeting, where we planned the third year of the World
Employer Branding Day conference in Prague, 2018.

5. Content
The Era of Recruitment
is Over 06
Recruitment Marketing
x Employer Branding x Advertising 17
Employer Brand Versus Employer
Branding: What’s the Difference? 25
Employee Satisfaction
is Not Enough 29
Galluping into
the 21st Century 35
How to Convince your CEO to Approve
an Employer Branding Budget 39
How Employer Branding
is like a Fish! 43
Employer Branding Trends in 2019
in the Czech Republic 46
05
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

6. The Era of
Recruitment is Over
1
06
The way companies hire employees
in the Czech Republic, and Europe
as whole is going to change due to
a decreasing workforce, sluggish
economy and preferences of the
incoming Y generation.

7. I
07
OFTEN HEAR RECRUITERS who wish to become business part-
ners and seek to establish that role through labeling themselves
specifically as "HR Business Partners". Rather than simply retit-
ling yourself, I offer a few tips below which can help your busi-
ness on a more substantial level. And here’s the best part: you
can start right now and without a large budget. But let us begin little by
little, starting with words.
Three Words to Retire
It’s commonly said and accepted that the words we use affect our think-
ing and actions. So, what are the three most frequently used words
used in HR, and how might they be holding us back?
1. Recruiting -> Attracting
Whenever I hear the word “recruitment”, I imagine army recruiters from
a different era who had lines of eager young men seeking to enlist, so
many in fact, that they had to turn away those with flatfeet, tattoos,
poor eyesight etc. Similarly, this used to be the case when the labor
market, was still full. However, in five years, the number of working
people will drop by 400,000 people, or 10% less, in the Czech Republic
with similar trends predicted across Europe. This will come at a time
when trade is increasing, and companies will need new employees.
Rather than recruiting them, they will need to attract them.
2. Interview -> Dialogue
Back to our military metaphor, imagine the rank involved with interview
processes. Rather than speaking as equals in a conversation or dia-

8. logue, maintaining “interview” in your vocabulary calls to mind a superi-
or speaking to, or even at, a subordinate. In contrast, inviting candida-
tes to an initial dialogue, or conversation, allows them to feel involved
and equal in the process of considering their employment.
3. Human Resources -> Human Energy
I am not sure if anyone wants to be referred to as a resource, as in the
days of “bodies on the ground” from military dominance. Rather than
considering employees as resources to be used, consumed for duty
and potentially discarded, let’s work to find a better alternative to this
term. I suggest something akin to “human energy” instead.
Energy Drives Business
During the Industrial Revolution, it was possible to gain a competitive
advantage by building a factory and equipping it with proper machines
and a full staff. Then, Henry Ford developed his assembly line along
with labor specialization and took over the world of cars. He used the
money he earned to buy other factories and better machines which
built upon technology. From there, a patent period followed and only a
short while ago, we entered the era of knowledge.
And now comes the era of people! Those who can use knowledge,
technologies and patents are the new movers and shakers. I like to
08
Figure 1: The Development of a Competitive Advantage in Business;
Source: Marty Neumeier

9. think of people in this new era as energy, and not resources. They are
the energy we need in our companies. But how can we attract (formerly
“recruit”) such “human energy” (formerly “human resources”)?
Relationships Rule
When the pool of recruits was plenty, recruiting was easy! All you had
to do was throw out a recruitment ad as bait stating "a-successful-inter-
national-corporation-is-looking-for-candidates-requires-offers-send-CV"
and wait until a sufficient number of candidates pressed “apply”. Then,
you invited them for an interview and chose the best mercenaries for
your army. After a short training, you could go to battle, to another war.
It is not only the approach to recruitment that’s changing. Even in
business (attracting customers) we do not push as hard as we used to.
We’re moving from the push approach to the pull approach – to
attracting and building relationships (formerly called “recruiting” in HR
and “acquisition” in business). Instead of using cold calls, business pre-
09
Figure 2: Men wanted, Ernest Shackleton’s Recruitment Ad
Source: http://discerninghistory.com

10. 10
sentations and special offers as often as we used to, quality content
steps in to help us. They key to quality content is its uniqueness: that
which is made especially in view of our own company, and gives advice,
helps, inspires, entertains and most importantly, informs. Content doesn’t
exclusively mean blog posts, but can also be lectures at conferences or
sharing at workshops etc.
The present day demands followers, not mercenaries. We need
followers who will connect with us through our thoughts, approach and
the common will to enact change. This doesn’t mean promising them
the moon.
We Need Results, Not Employees
After all, we don’t want to fill a free position. We need people who like col-
laborating with us, feel a connection with our mission, believe what we
believe in, bleed with us, and share their best with us.
Simon Sinek, the bestselling author of Start with Why says: "Great com-
panies don't hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire al-
ready motivated people and inspire them. People are either motiva-
ted or not. Unless you give motivated people something to believe in,
something bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate them-
selves to find a new job and you’ll be stuck with whoever’s left." As a
side note, for a legendary TED talk, see Simon’s presentation on “How
Great Leaders Inspire Action”.
What We Now Know
Thanks to much research and study, we have a greater sense of what
people want when choosing their employer. Dan Pink, the author of
many bestsellers (check out his amazing TED talk, “The Puzzle of Moti-
vation”), tells us that people’s intrinsic motivation, regardless of their
profession, depends on three things. According to Dan, in order for us

11. to enjoy our work, we need:
1) purpose – participating in something meaningful beyond ourselves,
2) mastery – the possibility to do more of what we are best at because
that gives us recognition and praise and enables us to grow
3) autonomy – we do not want anyone smarter than us to nanny us. We
want a task and to make make decisions about what steps to take to
complete it ourselves.
It Will Take Work
Unfortunately, the shortcut trend still persists in HR. Personally, I am
always late whenever I want to take a shortcut to avoid a traffic jam, for
example. Often, the solutions that seem to be quick and effective are
usually slow and expensive. Many companies fall into this trap as well
and accelerate in a frenzied fashion - they determine the need to have
“career profiles” on social networks, and now! So, they post all the in-
formation about their wonderful CSR projects, new colleagues and
11
Figure 3: Causes of Intrinsic
Motivation; Source: Dan Pink,
Drive – The Surprising Truth
About What Motivates Us!,
Riverhead Books 2011

12. 12
excellent results while remaining satisfied when no one likes, shares or
comments on their content.
Work-Life-Balance
This is also another popular buzzword term. Recruiters are questioning
how they can provide people with their desired work-life-balance while
still requiring significant performance from them. It seems that many
companies have decided the solution is to build relaxation rooms, buy
more plants, or include massages and nice meals at the workplace
throughout the day as benefits. But what does “work-life-balance”
actually mean?
I understand it as "being able to go home early so I can do the things
that make sense to me and that I enjoy in a place that I like with people
close to my heart." So, what’s the solution here? The latest fad in HR is
the use of Big Data. We are thinking about how to analyze and learn
from it to perform better but I suggest something else: start with your
own small data!
Small Data
We can start collecting small data immediately. A small step for your
recruiters, and a big leap for your whole company. This will prepare you
for the time when, instead of recruiting people, you will instead be at-
tracting them. To achieve that, you need to be a good employer and
introduce yourself as such in the job market and provide information to
candidates in the following three areas:
1) Why your company exists: what is your place in the world as a
company, what do you improve, what do you bring to the table, and
what do you seek to accomplish?
2) What you are like as a company: what is your corporate culture and

13. leadership style, what opportunities are available for education, how do
you support the growth of employees, what are the unwritten rules
(lived corporate values), what events and rituals do you have, and what
kind of environment you work in?
3) What you offer to your employees: why should anyone work for
you instead of another company?
An Offer You Can’t Refuse
How can you prepare an attractive advertisement to highlight your
specific offer to candidates? To do that you need three ingredients to
make your offer sincere, relevant and unique at the same time:
The first ingredient is an awareness of the reasons why your employ-
ees work for you, why they have chosen you and what they appreciate
most about you. So, go and ask them! They will tell you.
13
Figure 4: Basic parts of an
Employer Brand’s DNA;
Source: BrandBakers, 2015
Mission
& Vision
Values
& Culture
Opportunities
& Reward

14. The second ingredient is an insight into candidate decision-making
criteria. You need to know how they make their decisions and what is
important to them in that process. Use the opportunity provided from
the dozens or even hundreds of people who you engage with in dia-
logues about cooperation (my alternative to the word interviews) and
ask them how they decide what is most important to them when choos-
ing an employer.
The third and last ingredient is familiarity with the competition’s offer.
Go through the career pages of your competitors in the job market
within your region or industry. Describe those companies in terms of
what they say about themselves, what they’re like and what they offer.
To finish, place all ingredients into a bit pot, set it to boil and cook them.
Mix them thoroughly until you can clearly see your unique position as
an employer.
Figure 5: Ingredients you
need to design your EVP;
Source: BrandBakers, 2015
14
Employees
Accociations
Competition
Offer
Candidate
Criteria

15. 15
Return on Investment?
Believe me: you will do a great job in this process and it will really be
worth it and can be done by yourself and with the help of your HR team,
without a budget. You will be able to understand your employees, candi-
dates and competition in the job market. You will do an excellent job
not only in attracting your future employees (recruitment communi-
cation), but also in communicating with your current employees. They
too want to be able to introduce their company to their friends and
encourage them to join you.
If you persevere in communicating to your candidates and within your
company long enough, you might become the new Zappos, an ad-
mired employer in the United States that was able to completely cancel
posting for open positions last year. There are so many people applying
for them that when they need someone, they can search internally.
Will You Try?
During the industrial revolution it was possible to gain a competition
advantage by building a factory. You would put the right machines and
a required number of people in it. Today, company success is dictat-
ed by people who want to take part in its mission and progress.
Don’t wait to run out of people or for the best ones to start leaving.
To paraphrase Tomas Bata - attracting the right people is go- ing to be
the toughest job. Don’t look for the easy ways which are used by so
many companies nowadays, for example, investing in “beautiful career
websites”. These kinds of distractions offer a competition advantage
for only so long and ultimately divert money from where your greatest
investments should lie, in your property – your brand.
Make a first small step: change your vocabulary. Since recruitment as
we knew it is dead, the future will be about building relationships and
attracting candidates. The time is coming when people will be the

16. 16
energy of your business (not its source) and those entering will expect
to be acknowledged as partners, who you should have a dialogue with
rather than treat as another candidate to interview. The first compa-
nies to understand this will gain a competitive advantage by attract-
ing followers versus mercenaries. Before you get down to work with
Big Data, collect your own small data and give people meaning that
they can connect to: tell them who you are and why they should work
for you and start communicating with them as you have been communi-
cating with your customers for a while now.
The era of recruitment is over, the future is in attraction. So good luck!

17. Recruitment Marketing x
Employer Branding x
Advertising:
2
17
What Do They Mean Together?

18. VERUSE OF THESE THREE words is reaching new
heights. Everyone implements recruitment marketing,
many "introduce" Employer Branding to the mix and
most utilize advertising. What they don’t realize, and
what often leads to failure, is that this process of build-
ing your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) takes a
good amount of time and effort – it’s not a product that one can just go
to the store and buy off the shelf. I suggest, we take away the confusion
and assign true meaning to these terms. Because the better we under-
stand, the better we can perform at work – for both the employees and
business partners and us, the marketing experts.
Understanding of common phrases is a great start, but it’s not enough
as marketing is made of push tactics while branding is all about pull
strategy. Advertising is what you say about yourself while branding is
what other people say about you. I elaborate on this concept below and
explore my interpretation of the meanings of these three terms (recruit-
ment marketing, Employer Branding and advertising) through telling the
short-stories of the fictional companies, Living & Co. and Coffee &
Sons.
Recruitment
Marketing
Living & Co. was an amazing company that built its success through
working well with people and prioritizing its employees above all else.
Understanding
Candidates
O
18

19. As Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin empire, says: "Learn to look
after your staff first and the rest will follow." Employees were proud of
their workplace and eagerly recommended it as an employer to their
friends and professional network (note that such firms typically receive
40% or more of the employees through recommendations). Turnover
was practically nonexistent, and Living & Co. grew and grew and need-
ed new employees to fill its open spaces. In the European labor market
with such low unemployment, recruitment efforts by existing staff were
not enough. The company decided to start advertising for their employ-
ment needs.
Living & Co. went to work. Through interviews with staff the hiring mana-
gers found out why employees chose the company and what they were
most proud of in the workplace. Representatives of individual depart-
ments at Living & Co. (business managers, IT, junior staff, HR, engineer-
ing, etc.) helped identify important attractions for potential groups of
candidates. Interviewers focused on what influenced their original
choice when selecting Living & Co., why they’ve stayed, and what has
been most important and helpful to them in the workplace. Additionally,
Living & Co. compared their offer to other competitive employers in the
labor market.
Based on the findings, Living & Co. outlined its EVP corresponding to
the question, “What makes us (as of today) a unique employer?” The
company did not advertise that it "offers the best IT software equip-
ment to salespeople in the field", but instead, customized the advertise-
ment according to each candidate group’s needs and interests. For
Living & Co., most of its outstanding features could be found within its
corporate culture – its values, education, leadership style, trusting ma-
nagement of employees and a strong mission – so they emphasized
these qualities in their ads. By sticking with the conditions to create an
attractive offer, their hiring campaign was authentic, resonated well
with potential candidates and stood out from the competition.
19

20. After their thorough evaluation, Living & Co was well prepared to
develop a strategic plan to present its offer to the labor market.
They decided how they would present their offer, what tone and langu-
age to use to attractively and accurately represent themselves, and
where to find ideal potential candidates. They created a career page
where current employees briefly introduced themselves and their posi-
tion through videos and launched a targeted online campaign that in-
cluded banners and Google AdWords for specific candidate groups.
Additionally, they hosted educational seminars for Java developers and
held an open-house day. As a final touch, they hired a quality third-party
advertiser to disseminate information about Living & Co’s hiring needs.
So, no wonder the campaign was a success! In just 3 months, more
than 3,000 candidates sent their CV’s, visited career webpages, open
days and meetings – each with a sincere interest to work for the compa-
ny. Thanks to this, Living & Co. had plenty of great candidates to choose
from. My partner at BrandBakers, Jirka Landa, says recruitment market-
ing is a tool to "put your best foot forward as an employer, and really
sell your business to future employees.” It is the process that helps
you attract new employees and understand what candidates are
looking for.
Employer
Branding
Let’s refer now to a different example from Coffee & Sons to see how
Employer Branding can be used to better understand your own
business. Coffee & Sons was a successful company that built success
through its business model and broad portfolio of clients with its
“customer first” attitude. Employees reported high levels of satisfaction
in each annual assessment: they were well paid, had good employee
benefits, and some even recommended the company as an employer
to their friends and professional contacts. However, a small portion of
Understanding
Your Own Business
20

21. them were let go, and from time-to-time, an employee received a
"better offer" and left the company. Recently, these cases had begun to
increase. Meanwhile, the firm continued to expand, and in addition to
finding good staff for new projects, it also needed to replace its outgo-
ing employees. To add to their troubles, less and less people respond-
ed to Coffee & Sons’ hiring ads through different websites.
The company decided to look internally to establish why so few employ-
ees were deeply engaged, how to increase employee referrals, and find
the REAL REASONS why some employees were leaving. It was import-
ant that they had the courage to take a look in the mirror. Employee
interviews showed why people worked at the company, what features
they liked most and vice versa, what they liked the least. They gained
deeper insight to their current Employer Brand and what employees
thought of the company, how they understood and judged the compa-
ny's mission – some didn’t even know what it was! Interviews with repre-
sentatives of different company sectors revealed what they liked most
and least enjoyable in the workplace. Finally, Coffee & Sons researched
the offerings of competitive employers, those with no problems finding
and retaining good employees, in and out of the industry. What Coffee
& Sons found was not an entirely positive report – its reputation
was weak in many areas compared to its competition.
At this point, it was important that the company did not give up, but
instead began to think about how to improve the situation and reestab-
lish its brand through the EVP, corresponding to the question: “How
can we be unique as an employer going forward?” Project team
employees and management representatives – including the CEO –
collaborated to change the unfavorable situation and determine how to
create the employer's brand. As a team, they outlined what steps to
take, what to start with, and what resources to use in the process. They
sought to improve understanding within the company, change overbear-
ing management practices, add greater flexibility to worker hours, and
21

22. attractively advertise to potential candidates. The process was long
and painful, but in the end, they achieved great results and created a
winning strategy.
Based on their strategy, the company slowly began to change
things for the better. Coffee & Sons issued a company-wide manifesto
summarizing the changes, which included: Coffee & Sons’ purpose of
existence as a business, company goals, and rules and expectations.
Additionally, they implemented a series of workshops to personally ex-
plain these ideas to most employees. Other changes included making
the pay system more transparent and fairer to employees, improving
mid-level management skills, enhancing internal communication
through weekly team breakfasts, a monthly meeting of all employees,
and an employee E-newsletter. They also adjusted the recruitment
process by responding to all applicants, enhanced integration by pair-
ing new employees with mentors at the company, and invested in new
office, dining and kitchenette equipment.
A year later, Coffee & Sons was hardly recognizable! Employees were
happier, enjoyed their work more and frequently recommended the
company to others who were seeking employment. What's more -
people started seeking out employment at Coffee & Sons, writing that
they would like to work in the company thanks to its good reputation.
They began recruitment marketing in the same fashion as our first ex-
ample, Living & Co., and employees shared their stories and successes
on the corporate blog plus attending lectures at colleges and industry
conferences. Coffee & Sons became recognized for its good work-
culture and developed a great network of supporters. Since then, the
company has not struggled to retain current employees or fill the posi-
tions created by its growth.
Employer Branding is a leadership concept which buildings on a deep
understanding of your business in order to help you attract new employ-
22

23. ees, encourage their engagement, and reduce turnover.
I define the Employer Brand and Employer Branding as follows:
EMPLOYER BRAND is what people say about your company as
an employer, and what they think and feel about the company.
We can also say that the Employer Brand captures answers to
questions like: why does the company exist (beyond making mo-
ney), what is its values and corporate culture, what are its
goals, how it is led and operated and what rewards and condi-
tions can employees expect? The Employer Brand gives com-
pany names the meaning which people can identify with,
connect to, and follow.
EMPLOYER BRANDING is a thoughtful set of steps that aim to
lead the brand from its current to an ideal state set by the EVP. It
is also a leadership concept for increasing the value of compa-
nies by organizing ideas and shaping teams of inspired employ-
ees who sweat, work and win together.
Advertising
In both stories above, they needed to pay someone from time to time
to distribute their content. Companies with a well-known customer
brand, such as Apple, Audi or Adidas, have a slightly easier start since
people know them. Smaller companies need to invest in advertising
through vendor stands at employment fairs and other public events,
ads in job portals, magazines, PPC campaigns through social media
sites like Facebook or YouTube, increasing their SEO on Google, and
buying spots on local radio stations. There is nothing remarkable or
Paying someone else to tell
candidates about yourself
23

24. bad about it – if you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind! These tactics are
necessary to compete with today’s flood of recruitment campaigns.
However, an approach I do not want to encourage is false advertising.
Companies use it very often and its unfortunately not a unique problem.
You know the drill: they claim to have a friendly environment, people
never leave, they offer great work-life balance, meal vouchers, benefits,
recreation and relaxation zones, have great processes and continually
innovate, development opportunities abound, they make the world
better each day, and advertise through extravagant career sites and
recruitment campaigns. The result: lots of people are reached, attract-
ed, and employed for a few weeks or months only to leave feeling disap-
pointed and deceived.
In Summary:
Recruitment marketing = Candidates
Employer branding = You
Advertising = Someone else
False advertising = They (Let the others do it)
24
Figure 6: Less Wrinkles
in Only One Minute

25. Employer Brand
Versus Employer Branding:
What’s the Difference?
3
25
How much difference can three
extra letters (ing) truly make in practice?
A big difference indeed! Let’s break down
Employer Brand versus Employer
Branding below.

26. HE EMPLOYER BRAND is the status quo, final result,
and reputation of the company as an employer while
Employer Branding is the process or project that crea-
tes the brand (i.e., the reputation). It is a project that
ideally never ends. Yeah, you read that right - it does not
stop. Be careful to avoid adding marketing to the mix
too soon and simplifying the brand into a common formula of: HR +
marketing = hearts and rainbows, ad campaigns and new employee
benefits. Instead, we need to fit leadership into the formula: HR + CEO
+ whole management = a company where people come first and have
the highest priority and attention in the workplace. For me:
“Employer Branding is a leadership concept used to increase
the value of businesses by organizing thoughts and shapes
teams of inspired employees who work together and is an
ongoing project, that – in enlightened businesses – changes
into a day-to-day approach within leadership, ultimately to
the best practice in Human Relations.”
So, back to it – the output of Employer Branding is not just a brand book
with a description of the ideal brand and position that the company
wants to build and display on career pages, employee video introduc-
tions and attractive recruitment campaigns. It's about how you get to
your brand book, i.e. your company DNA: how many employees are
involved in creating an ideal image of their workplace, how they are
T
26

27. 27
engaged in creating a strategy, and how many great partners you make
from these employees.
Visions, missions, and values penned by management on weekend re-
treats often are not lasting or real inspiration for employees. Generally,
they fail to become a guideline for the decisions and actions of a com-
pany and don’t materialize. The company, Decathlon was able to enga-
ge 30,000 workers in a new vision (out of a total of 70,000), but it took
them over a year’s time to achieve such cohesion. Now, however, they
have an inspirational long-term outline broken down into five areas that
people understand and want to participate in. This is on top of a long-
standing and widespread comprehension of employees for why the
company exists (in other words, their mission): to make sports more
accessible.
Simply put – in the case of building an employer's brand, the journey is
more important than the goal. In the case of Employer Branding, it is
not just a cliché. For those who do sports or other activities: do you
prefer the feeling you have during a run, cycling, skiing, painting, or
playing guitar or when you’ve "gotten to the finish?" For most of us, it’s
safe to say the feeling of the journey, or of doing, is greater even than a
triumphant or picturesque ending. The path towards developing a
desirable brand creates understanding, engagement, desire, and
reconciliation along the way – a result without these key ingredi-
ents is just an empty wrapper.
The purpose of building an Employer Brand is to have as many people
as possible in the company who enjoy their work, understand the
business, are sympathetic to the ideas of the company and literally live
and breathe its missions and values. The goal is to have employees as
fans and ambassadors or at the very least strong teammates. Only
these types of employees will advocate for the company in their daily,
real-world battles of the market. They’ll also be the ones who are happy
to recommend the company to qualified friends (increasing the inflow

28. 28
of good candidates) and will not easily leave the company (decreasing
employee turnover).
When thinking about building an Employer Brand – think about the
journey (branding) at least as much as you think about the final
result (brand).
Trust that through this process, true values arise along the way, not just
at the end. As I said in the beginning – building a brand is a project that
ideally never ends. It is an ongoing project, that – in enlightened busi-
nesses – changes into a day-to-day approach within leadership, ultima-
tely to the best practice in Human Relations. Perhaps it will help you
understand the length of the project, setting the individual steps, the
need to involve management, related tasks etc. I’ll keep my fingers
crossed for you.

29. Employee Satisfaction
is Not Enough
4
29
If you want a more successful company,
don’t measure employee satisfaction.

30. ERE, I’LL ASK which kind of employee you would ra-
ther have: A) those who are "just fine", they don’t wreck
anything, but also don’t solve anything or B) co-workers
who are happy and engaged in helping you with your bu-
siness – whether you are manufacturing, trading or
providing services?
Okay – I assume that you answered "B". On your pathway to working suc-
cessfully with engaged employees, it will probably be your first step to
map out the current situation to decide in a strategic manner which
steps to take. Knowing the
simple demographics of your
workplace is not enough, you
must search for deeper infor-
mation to determine what
makes some employees feel
committed to you, and what
makes others feel less in-
vested in your business.
The picture above depicts the situation in the Czech Republic from
the viewpoint of employees and their relationship with employers.
H
30
Satisfied but
unmotivated
8%
Satisfied
and motivated
36%
Dissatisfied and
unmotivated
38%
Dissatisfied
but motivated
18%
M O T I V A T I O N
SATISFACTION
Figure 7: Satisfaction and Motivation
of Employees in the Czech Republic;
Source: JobsIndex, LMC,
May 2018

31. It is powerful to realize that 38% of employees feel dissatisfied and un-
motivated. This is why we do what we do at BrandBakers, connecting
employers with solutions to create more satisfied and more motivated
employees. Recently, we completed a culture analysis in a company with
a high share (around 40%) of satisfied but unmotivated employees. You
may find this a bit confusing, that satisfaction does not lead to motivation.
Below we’ll explain exactly why and how this issue is all too common.
An important prerequisite for mapping your current situation is in- sight
into the intrinsic motivations of people. You'll need it when you ask
employees and interpret their survey data to distinguish the difference be-
tween achieving satisfaction and engagement and then plan your steps.
Satisfaction and engagement.
What's the difference?
Employee satisfaction shows to what extent employees are generally
satisfied or satisfied specifically with their work and work environment,
while Employee motivation shows to what extent employees are en-
Get meaning and
inspiration from their
company’s mission
Are inspired
by the leaders in
their company
Have the tools, training
and resources to do
their job well
Can get their jobs done
efficiently, without
excess bureaucracy
Are valued and
rewarded fairly
Have a safe work
environment
INSPIRED EMPLOYEES
ENGAGED EMPLOYEES
Are part of
an extraordinary
team
Have autonomy
to do their jobs
Learn and grow
every day
Make
a difference and
have an impact
SATISFIED EMPLOYEES
31
Figure 8: Pyramid of Employee Needs;
Source: https://hbr.org/2015/12/engaging-your-employees-is-good-but-dont-stop-there

32. thusiastic about their work, dedicated to their organization and are
committed to extraordinary performance. Got it?
Perhaps it’s be better to look at the two concepts through the pyramid
of staff needs (pictured above). On the pyramid, you will see what works
for Satisfaction versus Motivation (engagement) of employees.
Inspiration – a key element
And there is still Inspiration, which we have not talked about yet: the
highest standard that we can reasonably achieve in our employees, a
consequence of great organizational structure and, in particular, of ma-
nagement style. Take a look again at the pyramid of needs with a focus
upon requirements for inspired employees.
There are two main assumptions for creating a clearly defined com-
pany and inspiration in the workplace: 1) a strong mission, vision and
values and 2) authentic leaders who model the values of a company’s
DNA and set an example for all employees.
A clearly defined company based on Patrick Lencioni’s book,
“The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps
Everything Else in Business”, (which I recommend from
the bottom of my Employer Branding heart) outlines six
questions to better understand your company.
1) Why does our company exist (mission)?
2) How do we behave (company values)?
3) What do we do (business category)?
4) How will we succeed (business model)?
5) What is most important now (strategic plan)?
6) Who has to do what (action plan)?
32

33. Satisfaction – Motivation – Inspiration.
What’s it all about?
Most of us know how important inspiration can be in everyday situati-
ons. In the workplace, employees sometimes "hit a wall" when dealing
with challenging tasks. We can generally expect three different respon-
ses. 1) Satisfied employees call a meeting to consider how to break
down the wall, 2) engaged employees will start looking for solutions
themselves, and 3) inspired employees will burst straight through.
Bain & Company conducted a survey that showed the excellent bene-
fits of engaged and inspired employees, compared to satisfied em-
ployees. They found that satisfied employees create a value of 100 units
of productivity, while engaged employees create a value of 144. And now
watch out for a real jump… inspired employees were found to reach up
to 225 units of productivity. Simply put – you need two-and-a-half
satisfied staff members to achieve the same performance as one
inspired worker.
Don’t just be satisfied – be courageous
You can stimulate the inner motivation of employees through the ideas of
your business, corporate culture, and leadership style. Addi- tionally, in
Figure 9: Employee Performance
Source: https://hbr.org/2015/12/engaging-your-employees-is-good-but-dont-stop-there
Dissatisfied Satisfied Engaged Inspired
71%
100%
144%
225%
33

34. order to inspire it is imperative that you be comprehensible as a com-
pany. If your employees can’t clearly answer the questions posed
above, how can we expect them to even be satisfied?
If you want to be a better company and become better by working
more closely and effectively with your people, you have to start by get-
ting to the bottom of their feelings and understanding of the workplace.
Be real and comprehensible. Keep inspiring commitment to your mis-
sion and building leaders to then inspire others. Forget about simply
measuring employee satisfaction and rather follow along the wisdom of
V. Frankl, “The greatest misfortune is to seek happiness. Look for
meaning and fulfillment.”
34

35. Galluping into
the 21st Century
5
35
*The Gallup Q12 Index
The Gallup Institute has proposed
its 12 questions* based on 30 years
of experience in continuous behavioral
and economic research involving
more than 17 million employees
around the world.

36. ASED ON THIS RESEARCH, Gallup identified 12 key
question/answer statements that best predict employee
and team performance and significantly impact busi-
ness results. While these iconic 12 statements main-
tain undeniable validity through the business world,
here at BrandBakers we’ve added a few new elements
to a classic formula in order help you create a more engaged and in-
spired group of people.
The 12 Gallup questions are commonly revered as the manager’s equiv-
alent of the ten commandments. For a better breakdown of what specif-
ic areas are targeted, I’ve divided the set of questions into four primary
categories:
B
36
Figure 10: Impact of Engagement on Company Results: Comparison of Firms from the
Bottom and Upper Quartiles of Engagement; Source: The Relationship between Engagement at
Work and Organizational Outcomes 2016 Q12®
Meta-Analysis: Ninth Edition
Absenteesm
High Turnover Orgs.
Turnover
Low Turnover Orgs.
Shrinkage
Safety Incidents
Patient Safety Incidents
Quality (Defects)
Customer Ratings
Productivity
Profitability
O%-10% 10% 20% 30%-20%-30%-40%-50%-60%-70%-80%
-37
-65
-28
-48
-41
-41
10
21
22
-25

37. A) Do I have everything I need?
1. Do I know what is expected from my work?
2. Do I have all the materials and equipment to do my job correctly?
B) How am I doing, and am I enjoying what I do?
3. Do I have the opportunity every day to do what I am really good at?
4. Has someone honored or thanked me during the last seven days
for my work?
5. Does my supervisor seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone who encourages my development?
C) Do I belong here?
7. Do my opinions matter at work?
8. Does the mission/purpose of the company make me feel that
my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to giving their best performance?
10. Do I have a real friend in the workplace?
D) What can I learn?
11. Has anyone spoken to me about my development over
the past six months?
12. Did I have the opportunity during the last year to learn
new things and grow?
Sweet 16: When you want to map out the causes of engagement (or dis-
engagement) in your workplace - use Gallup’s 12 questions. However,
to understand the level of inspiration of your employees, add these four
questions from us at BrandBakers:
E) Am I inspired?
13. Do I understand and agree with why our company exists (mission)?
14. Do I know what makes us unique from others (business model)?
15. Are our leaders are a model of corporate values (corporate values)?
37

38. 16. Do I know where our company is headed and what we want
to achieve (vision)?
It’s as simple as that! To elevate your employee commitment, engage-
ment and inspiration you must dive deeper than classic evaluations
that stop at the boundary of employee satisfaction. These question
sets should allow you a much deeper insight into how your employees
are connected to and understand your company. Take the results and
move forward to greater engagement.
38

39. How to Convince
your CEO to Approve
an Employer Branding
Budget
Leaders are busy people, so I’ll be quick!
Here are 4 key arguments you can use
to convince your leaders to “give you
the money” to build a stronger
Employer Brand.
6
39

40. HEN BUILDING AN Employer Brand, I see 4 key
advantages to emphasize – arguments I use my-
self when talking to CEOs and CFOs:
We want to be a modern company
Most of the key companies in the Czech Republic have already started
to build their Employer Brands to strengthen their company culture and
use it as a competitive advantage while increasing the value of their
companies. They then become interesting employers who attract new
applicants without having to spend large annual sums on hiring
campaigns.
To be a good employer and partner for people (employees) when the
pool of talent is decreasing is not only a necessity but also a matter of
personal “taste”. While companies are at different stages of their
Employer Branding lifecycle, most have started the journey.
We want to build our success with people
Employees who understand and are in harmony with the company’s
values (the brand), and are the right, dedicated, and enthusiastic
people for the job have far superior performance than those who are in
a company just for the “salary and benefits.” The Employer Brand links
all employees with the company’s story.
W
40

41. The productivity of a company stands and falls upon its employees. It
also depends on how much they understand and are in harmony with
its values and the company’s strategy. To achieve this goal, the Employ-
er Brand is a wonderful tool.
We want to define the price for the job
Strong brands in business usually get an average price bonus of about
10 percent, as well as not going through as much pressure for salary in-
creases as average brands do. People simply want to work for great em-
ployers with a strong Employer Brand — those they are in harmony with.
When a company cannot present its candidates with an attractive offer,
it usually increases the monthly wage and offers a wider range of
benefits. Research shows that companies with a strong Employer
Brand, “collect” on reduced wage growth pressure. This is similar to how
strong customer brands collect on the “price premium” in higher prices
and operating margins – look at the price of iPhones in comparison to
Alcatel, Sencor, or Huawei.
We want to invest in people
Companies with a strong Employer Brand get more applicants without
having to spend large amounts in hiring campaigns, promotions, or
publicity. They can then pick and choose the best candidates from this
large pool. These companies also decrease the length of finding the
right employee and limit turnover rates for new employees because
those employees already “know what they are getting into.” Smart
companies invest into people over the long term and spend less on
advertising in the short term.
The most effective marketing tool is word of mouth, which is dri- ven
by a positive experience with a product. In the world of HR, we define
a product as an entire company, including its culture. Smart leaders
41

42. would rather invest over the long-run into their own people rather than
subscribe to quick-fix recruitment advertising campaigns and ads.
But please, don’t think that if you decide to build a strong Employer
Brand you will not need to support your career pages or your brand
awareness program using PPC campaigns (e.g. search engine, Face-
book or public transport ad campaigns). No way! You will still have to
pay for general advertising. In the case of an Employer Brand you
will be investing far more into your own estate which cannot be
copied (it can only be badly imitated) and it will provide you with a
long-term competitive advantage in the job market where the fight for
the best employees has already started.
42

43. How Employer Branding
is like a Fish!
Every week, I talk to HR professionals
about problems with candidates,
employee engagement, and increasing
turnover or dissatisfaction of employees
with... (insert your workplace issues here).
When the discussion finally, but briefly,
turns to the topic of Employer Branding,
we'll begin to discuss what support the
boss is giving to this "project".
7
43

44. GENERALLY PROPOSE an introductory half-day workshop with
management where we hone our understanding of what the em-
ployer's brand is, what its benefits are and how to build a strong
brand. Most importantly, we emphasize the need for bosses
to understand that without their involvement and support the
employer's brand cannot be built. We look for a suitable time
in which we can get into the busy schedule of directors – ideally pencil-
ing in 45 minutes at the monthly management meeting. However, the
concept of Employer Branding is often introduced to people who are
not tuned to better cooperation between companies and people and
are more skilled at focusing on technical and financial aspects of
business instead. Naturally, this concept may be easier for some to
grasp than others so below, I describe how Christina Wasylkiwova, Em-
ployer Branding Manager at FINIDR, offers a recipe for success that’s
easily understandable for anyone! Her example is not only interesting,
but also engages and communicates the idea of Employer Branding.
Just like a fish, the brand either leads or rots from the head first.
Picture this: Christina ascends to the front of a blank flipchart and asks
the managers to imagine their brand as a fish with employees making
up specific parts of its body. She asks, “Who would be the head?” After
a while she hears the right answer - yes, at the head, just like in every
company is the director, the CEO. Then she no longer takes questions
while drawing other parts of the fish.
She shows how the backbone represents the board, management, and
top executives. Middle management – team leaders and managers –
are the bones leading from the spine which help to contain the core (the
I
44

45. ribcage). All the other small parts are employees. Between the bones
are the muscle and flesh, which Christina uses to symbolize as relation-
ships, company atmosphere and culture. If you eat fish, you’ll know the
rule that generally applies, the firmer the flesh (relationships), the better.
Finally, the scales come. What each fish shows to the outside world.
Similarly, in recruitment communications, employers’ “scales” are the
labels and marketing campaigns representing them to the labor market
for candidates.
When you explain, draw the fish gradually – starting with the head and
the spine, through the ribs to the smallest bones, innards and scales.
You’ll see that through this process Employer Branding will become
more imaginative and graspable for your management teams. Ideally,
by showing the employer's brand as a fish your group will be able to
imagine the importance of the head: a source of success, direction and
leadership or starting point for rot and decay.
And that’s all! Like it? Let me know – I’ll be sure to share your com-
ments with Christina as well. Do you have a different opinion? Wri-
te and discuss, I’m eager to hear your thoughts. For HR profession-
als, lets help your bosses help you by showing them this post as
well so they can begin to engage in the actual work of building
their Employer Brand.
45
Figure 11: Fish
Source: Petr Hovorka

46. Employer Branding
Trends in 2019 in the
Czech Republic
What companies did in 2018
is not enough heading into
the New Year.
8
46

47. IRST, WE WILL LOOK at trends from the Czech Republic
in the field of Employer Branding throughout 2018. I'll let
you know upfront that if you’re searching for a discussion
of artificial intelligence technologies or the latest career
sites with an expanded reality penetrating the Human
Relations area, you’ll be searching in vain. These are all
things that relate to Employer Brand communications, but do not pri-
marily create it. Instead, my approach to Employer Branding, which I
follow and continually promote, is as follows:
Building strong Employer Brands is the responsibility of leaders. Many
people can help with it, but none of them can carry the baton and do it
for them. No one, other than company leaders, has the power to
change the company so employees find meaning in their work.
Even Pfizer, with all its pharmaceutical expertise, cannot create a mir-
acle pill for company leaders which automatically grants them instanta-
neous powers to instill meaning in their employees’ work.
What was happening in the labor market in 2018?
I have been talking about Employer Branding this year with far more
business directors than ever before. The topic began to resonate in the
F
47
Employer Branding is a leadership concept to
increase the value of companies, organize thoughts and
form teams of inspired employees who pull together.

48. highest places, especially once companies that previously invested
hundreds of thousands of Czech Crowns in fast-paced HR marketing
schemes realized their high-cost efforts had stopped working. Do you
wonder what this fast-paced, high-cost HR marketing is? Most often,
you will see it on the career pages and profiles of companies that
emphasize superficial benefits such as relaxation rooms with foosball
tables. In video cameos, they portray scripted opinions of employees
who keenly argue that everything is wonderful in the company and
don’t admit every coin has two sides. I always learn the flip-side of the
coin when I speak (off-record) to people in such a company.
However, I have a good feeling that more and more companies are
turning to real solutions based on understanding the real causes of
problems to enhance their Employer Brand, attract new employees and
retain workers. I won’t conceal that this makes me very happy, and I
have high hopes and belief in the trend continuing on through 2019.
How did my forecast turn out in 2018?
Before we look into 2019, let's look briefly, and subjectively, at my pre-
diction for last year’s domestic market. Maybe I have not seen every-
thing and indeed missed something, in that case, do not hesitate to
write to me with your thoughts. What five trends did I predict?
1. Directed by HR teams–> Co-building by management
I did not do a quantitative survey, but as I mentioned above,
this has already begun to happen. Finally!
2. Hunting on LinkedIn –> Relationships on Facebook
Companies have not created really great recruitment content.
Content remains (possibly) a kingpin in communicating with
customers, but with people on the labor market, it is still crapshoot.
3. Stimulating through money –> Inspiring by thoughts
This is what we are waiting for on a larger scale, I firmly hope.
48

49. In 2018, I did not notice the emergence of new referral programs
based on internal motivation of employees.
4. Marketing informs –> Ambassadors communicate
Here was the most achieved prediction of mine in 2018. I've seen
many companies that are pushing their employees to create
content for their performance on the labor market. Instagram is the
most widely used channel.
5. Satisfaction measurements –> Cohesion surveys
This was a clean shot. Companies who provide satisfaction surveys
and those who provide things like meal vouchers are heavily
pushing (like lobbies) for this method of employee retention.
It will likely not change until companies realize that satisfaction
is not enough… a process which will take some time.
What will happen in 2019?
As always, I can only read between the lines, combine various signals,
information and experiences from the labor market, unlock trends in the
United States and Western Europe, watch the progress and the actions
of inspirational companies, and polish my Employer Branding crystal
ball. I have been faithful to this approach for many years. So, what do I
see in the next year? With my eyes closed, I see "people dancing
around the company fire in a celebration of a meaningful workplace pro-
gression for them". Well, let's move the metaphors into a more compre-
hensible form – 5 specific directions that could be enacted in the new
year in Employer Branding.
1. Attempts of any kind to motivate –> Creating meaningful work
In the Czech Republic, the practice of companies has remained with
satisfaction, measured year by year and compared with other similar
companies. Others hire managers supposedly charged with the task of
49

50. “improving happiness”, and single-handedly boosting the workplace
and corporate atmosphere. Manufacturing factories especially care
about security and proper training, while others are dedicated to mi-
nimizing bureaucracy and trying to reward people fairly. Perhaps
every company has acquired a benefits-card program so that employ-
ees can choose from a range of options. Everything complements the
rewards for reaching the annual bonus – which some companies still
think can utilize to motivate employees towards better performances.
One incentive after another – stimulation for stimulation.
In 2019, businesses will begin to perceive the need for sustaining
people's long-term enthusiasm (versus those making sustainable bu-
sinesses from other sources). The result equals meaningful work and
the development of managers who create exceptional teams with mem-
bers who have autonomy and development opportunities and who will
listen to fellow teammates. Take a look at the picture below, which
50
2018
Mission
2019 2025
HOW WE BEHAVE – VALUES
What How Why
2030
Vision
HOW WE WILL SUCCEED – EVP & USP
Figure 12: Meaningful work; Source: Petr Hovorka, 2018

51. outlines five questions as prerequisites for creating meaningful work
that, together with managers’ approaches, forms a corporate culture in
which people want to perform their best.
2. Buzzwords on notice boards –> Capturing key values
You know the basics: openness, respect, teamwork, innovation, reliabili-
ty. Most people in the company do not even name them all, let
alone know what they are supposed to mean. Clutter on central
notice boards, empty chatter in meetings. I just saw one nice exam-
ple on a bulletin, "Our company provides its customers with high-quali
ty products and expertise necessary for informed purchasing decisions.
We deliver our products faithfully and honestly to the highest level of
customer satisfaction. We create professional and long-term relation-
ships with employees who are proud of our business, providing them
with a stable and dynamic work environment. " Not only does it have
51
Distinctive
patterns of behavior that
distinguish you
Core
Values
Desired
Elementary Accidental
Desired values
are the qualities that
an organization
strives for
Minimum
standard of
behavior – do not
distinguish the
organization
from others
They have
become values
unintentionally
Figure 13: Types of Corporate Values; Source: “The Advantage: Why Organizational
Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” by Patrick Lencioni, 2014

52. nothing to do with people, but it also lends itself to creating cynics who
stop believing in the company and its statement. In today’s society we
are increasingly incorporating the Y generation, which will make up half
of the workforce by 2020. It’s been shown time and time again that
what this group wants is authenticity, and not corporate bullshit.
In 2019, corporate values will come to a halt and instead, companies
will dig deep to discover their own unique key values. They will begin by
realizing what the core of corporate values are: hiring the right people,
leading them, and finally assessing their performance. They will under-
stand that their unique set of company values define the personality of
the organization and give employees instructions on how to act, reduc-
ing the need for inefficient and demoralizing micro-management.
Eliška Novotná of IKEA said it nicely: "Where we have no process
or rules, we have values." When defining values, companies will differ-
entiate between basic rules that apply to the game versus the wishes
and key values that help to distinguish the company from others. The
process for testing your specific corporate values is indeed harsh, but
necessary. It requires asking yourself whether your values are signifi-
cant enough to refuse a job if it goes against them, or to let an employ-
ee go who has good results yet resists following your value-set and has
refused to change for a long time.
3. Material incentives for employees -> A caring environment
What would we give our employees in order for them to not leave us,
and what about the new ones to come? What did they tell us they
wanted in the latest survey? Saturation of people in companies is
growing to unprecedented heights. Rich companies arrange offices
according to recent trends with the aid of renowned architects by
redesigning large and small meeting rooms, telephone booths,
fitness and relaxation rooms, sleeping areas, billiards and Xboxes,
cafes, libraries, and the latest laptops or mobile phones. In spite of
this new trend for material enhancements let’s remember a great experi-
52

53. ment performed in the 19th century by an economist which measured
the influence of the bosses and managers on the atmosphere of work-
shops under changing physical conditions. They slowly analyzed the
light and warmth of the setting and measured laborer’s moods. The
finding may surprise you: where there was a great boss or manager, the
mood was still good regardless of little light and warmth.
In 2019, companies will focus on developing managers who are invest-
ed in building a caring environment and an overall positive atmosphere.
Team leaders are the most common reason people leave companies (for-
get about the reasons people often say at exit interviews – “I got a better
offer” etc...) and the frequent reason why people enter companies. While
only leaders can create the conditions for meaningful work, managers
are responsible for implementing a caring environment. So, how to do
it? Engage employees by giving them autonomy in decision making,
provide ongoing feedback, compliment and praise good work in the
moment, be interested in colleagues as people and listen their opinions
so they feel they are an important part of the company. That'll work!
53
Get meaning and
inspiration from their
company’s mission
Are inspired
by the leaders in
their company
Have the tools, training
and resources to do
their job well
Can get their jobs done
efficiently, without
excess bureaucracy
Are valued and
rewarded fairly
Have a safe work
environment
INSPIRED EMPLOYEES
ENGAGED EMPLOYEES
Are part of
an extraordinary
team
Have autonomy
to do their jobs
Learn and grow
every day
Make
a difference and
have an impact
SATISFIED EMPLOYEES
Figure 14: Pyramid of Employee Needs;
Source: https://hbr.org/2015/12/engaging-your-employees-is-good-but-dont-stop-there

54. 4. Corporate social responsibility –> Corporate employee
responsibility
Church no longer serves as a corporate indulgence, but companies
have instead switched to utilizing Corporate Social Responsibility to
improve their image. Sponsoring shelter dogs, senior homes, play-
grounds, etc. — I have nothing against companies doing good. How-
ever, it is very often a publicity stunt, where Corporate Affairs gets to
write a well-liked, feel-good article in the hopes of boosting employee
morale and enhancing consumer opinion. Often these activities are
performed according to the following formula: CSR = PR minus HR. I'm
not saying that all companies are doing the same thing, however, I think
it's a pretty common occurrence. The simple question is: why aren’t
employees themselves the primary group of focus for a company’s
charitable or development focuses? They are very often educated only
in matters closely related to work, while, for example a good but excep-
tional achievement is a financial literacy program coupled with individu-
al consultations and help for employees in executing financially benefi-
cial actions.
In 2019, company interests focused on the well-being of employees will
increase significantly, and I don’t mean simply adding more benefits to
what’s already commonly available like gym memberships, food vouch-
ers and other “perks” to be loaded onto cards. These will be more
demanding solutions focused on maximizing human energy (perhaps
substitute this term for "human resources"). The process begins with
the aforementioned training, moving beyond the profession through
individual life coaching, and developing personalized interest in each
employee and their needs. Maybe a shorter work week – which is
already being piloted in a few progressive arenas. All of the abo-
ve-mentioned trends will also be achieved by creating meaningful work
in a caring environment and corporate culture. Next year, I predict we
will see activities shift towards Corporate Employee Responsibility
rather than focusing so heavily on Corporate Social Responsibility.
54

55. 5. Separate departments –> United teams
Too often I come across companies where the teams work great, but
the company atmosphere as a whole is lacking. When I listen to
individual teams, I feel excited – however, the overall company atmo-
sphere and results report is quite different. What's behind that? Incom-
prehensible long-term visions, vague texts instead of well-defined
corporate values, unclear accountability, unclear or uncommunicated
business models, and the absence of medium-term goals that break
into short-term annual and quarterly plans. All this creates a confused
workspace. You'll easily see it when you listen to managers as they
discuss issues: either you hear the statement "it was their task, their
responsibility, we could not influence it", or "we did not succeed, we
Figure 15: 5 stages of tribal leadership; Source: “Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups
to Build a Thriving Organization” by Dave Logan, John King & Halle Fisher-Wright, 2011
55

56. need to think differently about it the next time." What sounds better to
you? For me, clearly it is the second statement, that as managers, “we”
should seek how to resolve issues differently in the future rather than
simply blaming other who did not succeed in the past.
In 2019, companies will work on team alignment, clarifying roles and
tuning the interface between them to build employee feelings of mutual
responsibility for company success. A large part of achieving that
outcome may be the disappearance of many separate departments
which will be replaced by teams instead. This will be greatly aided by
the creation of meaningful work, which is actually a prerequisite for
quality, cohesive teamwork. A beautiful demonstration of how to foster
mutual understanding among teams was the presentation of teams in
the IT company, Tieto, through posters which depicted each team’s
role in the company
In Conclusion
In 2019, Employer Branding will be a sign of companies seeking to
make meaningful work in a caring environment. Businesses will focus
on greater clarity, outlining why, when and where they plan to go; revise
their core business values, invest in the development of managers who
are in charge of creating a caregiving environment, debug the interface
between separate departments, and clearly state responsibilities of
individual teams. And last but not least, they will increase their levels of
care for their employees.
Before you start thinking about who to assign to Employer Branding in
your workplace, remember that this is primarily a continual, every-day
leadership endeavor, and one which translates into enlightened firms
achieving the best practice in Human Relations standards. While the
initiator can be anybody, ultimately the person responsible will be none
other than a CEO or a member of top management.
56

57. I feel positive energy surrounding corporate trends, one that will bring
greater, and more authentic businesses and communications rather
than exclusively superficial perks. I wish you a most successful new
year and look forward to what 2019 will bring.
57
Note:
The term "trend” refers to direction, or the long-term process of change.
It is used in common language as well as in the sciences regarding current and
difficult-to-predict changes, especially in the economic, social and cultural spheres.
Source: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trend

58. Contact
I would like to hear how you think about Employer Branding. Let’s
have a chat, please send me an email, give me a (Skype) call or just
stay in touch via LinkedIn or Facebook.
Petr Hovorka
Employer Brand Baker @ BrandBakers
E-mail: petr.hovorka@brandbakers.cz
Cellphone: (+420) 602 271 011
Skype: petr.hovorka_5
https://www.linkedin.com/in/petrhovorka1/
https://www.facebook.com/petr.hovorka1
https://twitter.com/Petr_Hovorka1
58

59. Petr Hovorka
Employer Branding:
Reflections And Visions
Heading Into 2019
© Petr Hovorka, 2019
Published by
BRANDBAKERS, s.r.o.,
Borivojova 1252/4, Prague 3, 130 00,
Czech Republic
in March 2019
1. edition (PDF)
Free download:
www.brandbakers.cz or cz.linkedin.com/in/petrhovorka1
Ebook design
by Goran Patlejch
ISBN 978-80-270-5299-8