The Role of Employer Branding in Olympia

Olympia based in West Kensington, London, is an exhibition Centre, Conference Centre and event space. The venue is used to host several national and international trade and customer exhibitions, events and conferences. The company just like any other business has an objective of providing quality services to its customers by ensuring that the event room, conference Centre is clean and meet the level of customer requirement. They as well consider that all other services are accessible to the clients when needed. Provision of value to the customers will result in higher profits and this is a fact the company is well conversant.

Reliability, convenience and safety are essential elements that the business need to consider to satisfy the needs of the customers. To achieve all these the company should carefully monitor and develop strategies that will help the employees to become more productive. Strategies developed begins with the recruitment and selection strategies, employee motivation, training and development as well as employer branding within the market. These strategies if well-structured will lead to the realization of the company’s goals. The report from the Olympia closely underscores how it handles people management issues to help it realise its objectives as well as having motivated employees.

Employer Branding

              Employer branding entails set of values and attributes that makes the organisation unique promising a specific and particular experience in employment appealing to them that will thrive and perform well in the business culture and environment. Olympia has developed an Employer Value Proposition (EVP) that has formed its bedrock (Edwards 2009 pp. 5-23). These have been designed to help the employees understand the organisation’s values, culture, the motivation of the current workforce as well as the primary target groups for the company. The EVP clearly outlines the benefits that the organisation offers to the employees and the candidates.

              To achieve this, the company has employed several ways to motivate the current workforce and the potential candidates in the firm. The firm has ensured that there is a personal touch with its people. Currently, the firm has a website, social media platforms that allow the organisation to directly engage with candidates who may become an essential part of the firm in future (Backhaus and Tikoo 2004 pp. 501-517). Through developing personal touch, the organization plays an essential role in the management of people as they will have a sense of belonging and importance to the company. The firm has provided value to its clients as well, through the employer brand, the firm has been able to attract and recruit best employees who have been instrumental in providing quality services (Wilden, Gudergan and Lings 2010 pp. 56-73). Delivering on the brand has been witnessed in several events that have been organized within the firm in the previous years. The organization has developed a schedule of events in ensuring that activities run smoothly. Many skilled employees want to join the firm due to the value provided by the firm.

Recruitment and Selection systems and practices

             Recruitment and selection is a significant aspect of human resource management. The company has developed a policy that ensures fairness, gender distribution and people with disability fully represented. The openness in the recruitment process begins with the identification of job vacancy. As soon as a vacancy has been ascertained, the job description is outlined and job vacancy advertised (Searle 2009, pp. 151-168). The advertisement is done through the newspapers, social media and the website. Equal opportunities are presented to all the applicants and the job awarded to the best candidate with the required skill that the firm thinks will help the organisation realise its objectives and grow.

            The policy that has been developed instil a lot of confidence to the applicants and the whole process is fair (Boxall and Macky 2009, pp. 3-23). The interview process provides an opportunity for all the applicants to be heard by the interviewers. The job is awarded to the candidate who best merits the position and effective communication to all the applicants updating them on either job offer. The update can be a regret notification with a provision that they keep checking on the available opportunities within the firm or a confirmation of success. People with disabilities as well are adequately represented in the firm, the Discrimination Act in the recruitment and selection policies and practices (Rees and Rumbles 2010, pp. 169-190). By obeying the constitution, the firm also ensures that the gender rule threshold is met during recruitment and section process.

             The rights of all the employees are adhered to in the recruitment process. Candidates seeking an opportunity to work for the firm will develop an interest in the safety of information they provide to the firm during recruitment and selection process. Safety and security of the documents given to the HR department are of great importance, the firm usually keeps the information and shred the ones they don’t require (Cascio 2018, pp. 30-45). Olympia also provides an avenue through the online recruitment process to applicants who may be far to access the data and make a timely application.

Reward, motivation and employee engagement systems and practices

Employees work for value for the firm. In a bid to ensure that employees feel appreciated and part of the firm, Olympia has developed several ways to ensure that they reward the employees in the best way possible (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). When employees are motivated, there are many benefits to the firm. Motivation is all about making the workers have the drive to do their best for the organization. Employees feel motivated when the firm meets their needs. The needs range from physical to emotional needs. Employees at Olympia enjoy sufficient security and pay in the current market. Every employee would desire that the pay can be matched to the value provided to the firm and that they are not exploited. At Olympia, there is good security to ensure that they are safe external threats and have a peace of mind.

The company as well organizes several social activities for their employees. Among the sporting activities that are organised are football, rugby, volleyball and indoor games. Sports brings together the whole workforce to refresh their minds. In the process of team building, sports act as good avenues to improve productivity within the firm. United workforce in the firm has greater positive results for the firm.

The firm as well as employee engagement platforms. The employees at Olympia have a chance of expressing their views to the management to different employee engagement meetings. From the meetings, employees share their ideas with the management and hence viable ideas get implemented by the firm in its operations. Having an engaged employee means that the employees will as well actively and positively participate the customers (Shields et al. 2015). The engagement of the latter will result in higher profits to the firm as the customers will have the needs met and satisfied (Deci and Ryan 2012, pp. 85-107). Leadership style applied in the firm varies and is situational. In most cases, the employees are provided with the guidelines on how to carry out the activities and they do them on the own.

The rewards from the company are equitable and the employees can attach value to what they receive. The employees have several bonuses that can be won by employees who meet their goals or perform well. The same has made the company improve its productivity in the recent years. A reward like the employee of the year has motivated most of the employees to work harder to realise their goals and be acknowledged as the best (Nohria, Groysberg and Lee 2018, pp. 78-84). The job rotation is helping the firm to create the right employees’ job fit, breaking monotony at the workplace, testing the skills and competencies of the employees and developing a wide range of working experience for the employees. All employees always aspire to grow and exploit all the abilities to realise their full potential.

To make the work interesting, the management has adopted job rotation that is being applied by the company. Employees don not operate only in one line of work but are rotated within the firm. The employee finds the job more lively and engaging on a daily basis and with much learning (Macey, Schneider, Barbera and Young 2011). The company has used both the financial and non-financial means to motivate the employees.

Training and development policies and practices

             Olympia is operating in a changing environment that requires fully trained and competent employees. Employees cannot continually meet the needs of the customers if they are not updated with the current knowledge and skills in performing the daily duties. The firm therefore has developed different policies and practices to help them in equipping the employees with the required skills in the market (Moser 2012). Among the changes witnessed is the steady advancement in technology. Initially, the firm made arrangements in which the clients would book venues for events, conferences and exhibitions, billing done manually, payroll was manual among others.

             Technological advancement led to various changes in the company’s operations. The company with a well-developed website would now allow the customers to book venues online and payment is made electronically. Employees therefore needed to be equipped with the current technology for the firm to remain relevant in the market. Employees are trained continuously to enhance their abilities in performing well to increase productivity.

In the bid to meet the desired expectations of the clients, the company has used several ways to train their employees. It has been able to provide formal training sessions where experts in some specific areas would come and speak to their employees. Olympia as well has been using employee mentoring and coaching, participating in the conferences organised within the firm (Salas, Tannenbaum, Kraiger and Smith-Jentsch 2012, pp. 74-101). The mentorship program developed is adhered to help the junior employee grow and exposed to the current issues in the job market.

The firm is uses job rotation in the process of training and developing the employees. Employees are equipped with skills in several areas and thereby building their capacity to work with confidence. Employee prefers to work in firms where they feel that they will develop in whole round manner. The provision of development opportunities within the firm attract many workers and helps in retaining the current workforce (Aguinis and Kraiger 2009, pp. 451-474). Besides, training has greatly improved the productivity of the firm and help it attain its goals in recent past. The human resource department has helped in assessing the right training methods and appropriately training the employees. Other employees within the firm have also benefited from the work-study programs that have helped in the growth of the employees. In this program, the company pays for the employee as he/she studies to improve the skills and knowledge. 

Conclusion

             People management issues in the firm are critical to its success. When the management clearly understands its employees and develops best strategies to manage them, they often meet their goals and objectives. For example, motivated employees tend to give their best to the firm and in return, the firm makes much profit. Training and development are key to the provision of quality to the customers. Value proposition results in the uniqueness of the product and the ability to continually provide quality and standardised services as for the case of Olympia. Olympia has remained in the market for a long time due to its ability to care for the needs of the employees and to build trust with its clients all over the world through quality services. The company as well as one of the best recruitment and selection policies and practices in the market today. Confidence is instilled to the applicants and the ones awarded an opportunity  to serve in the firm have the knowledge that they merited the opportunity to serve the organization as a whole and not just departments.

Bibliography

Aguinis, H. and Kraiger, K., 2009. Benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. Annual review of psychology, 60, pp.451-474.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Backhaus, K. and Tikoo, S., 2004. Conceptualizing and researching employer branding. Career development international, 9(5), pp.501-517.

Boxall, P. and Macky, K., 2009. Research and theory on high‐performance work systems: progressing the high‐involvement stream. Human Resource Management Journal, 19(1), pp.3-23.

Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.

Edwards, M.R., 2009. An integrative review of employer branding and OB theory. Personnel review, 39(1), pp.5-23.

Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M., 2012. Motivation, personality, and development within embedded social contexts: An overview of self-determination theory. The Oxford handbook of human motivation, pp.85-107.

Moser, C.O., 2012. Gender planning and development: Theory, practice and training. Routledge.

Rees, G. and Rumbles, S., 2010. Recruitment and selection. Rees, G. and French, R. Leading, Managing and Developing People, pp.169-190.

Salas, E., Tannenbaum, S.I., Kraiger, K. and Smith-Jentsch, K.A., 2012. The science of training and development in organizations: What matters in practice. Psychological science in the public interest, 13(2), pp.74-101.

Searle, R., 2009. Recruitment and selection. Human Resource Management, A Critical Approach, pp.151-168.

Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., O’Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press.

Macey, W.H., Schneider, B., Barbera, K.M. and Young, S.A., 2011. Employee engagement: Tools for analysis, practice, and competitive advantage (Vol. 31). John Wiley & Sons.

Nohria, N., Groysberg, B. and Lee, L.E., 2008. Employee motivation. harvard business review, 86(7/8), pp.78-84.

Wilden, R., Gudergan, S. and Lings, I., 2010. Employer branding: strategic implications for staff recruitment. Journal of Marketing Management, 26(1-2), pp.56-73.

https://www.corehr.com/blog/3-ways-hr-can-use-employer-branding-to-attract-and-retain-top-talent/

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2651/911af691bf432c43609ffea882bf495632ee.pdf