Employer Branding and Staff Attraction strategies in IT companies:

EPAM & LUXOFT case study Term Paper findings under Master’s degree at Higher School of Economics

Author: Ksenia Udovitskaya

Structure

IntroductionTheoretical Part Employer branding in international companiesStaff attraction strategies in international companiesEmployee attraction in international outsourcing companies Analytical Part Case Studies of IT company EPAM Systems Inc. Case Studies of IT company Luxoft Comparative analysisResults and ways of problem solving Summary and Conclusion (Recommendations)References Appendices

Problem StatementThe days of hiring the best talent for the company seems to be ending. Accenture (2015) survey shows that 41% of C-level executives recognize the diffi-culties their companies would face in attracting talent in the next 12 months.Global organizations face the challenges of attracting qualified candidates, as the demand for talent is strong. • lack of distinct classification of IT-specialists • many IT-specialties have emerged in recent years,

universities have not yet developed adequate edu-cation approaches

Applicants in active search frequently have several job offers at the same time. Employers provide similar total value of this compensation package (salary, benefits and perspectives). In this case employer brand plays is a crucial role in potential worker’s decision-making.

Missing Pieces Term paper subject and object

There is a lot of research papers applied to well-known international IT brands such as Google and Yandex, while there are a few analyses of IT outsourcing companies. IT outsourcing industry is one of the fastest growing on the market – driven by corporate cost cutting and efficiency gaining initiatives.

The object - staff attraction strategies in IT companies. The subjects - two international ITO compa-nies that are also close competitors in their primary market areas:EPAM and Luxoft.

Employer brandingThere are a large number of studies on the employer branding available. Employer branding: ‘the package of functional, economic and psychological be-nefits provided by employment, and identified with the employing company’. Simon Barrow, founder People in Business (not only marketing brand, but also the em-ployer's values)‘the image of your organization as a ‘great place to work’ in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market’ Brett Minchington, CEO of Employer Brand International.

Objectives of employer brand:•establishing an emotional contact between the company and employees•developing internal culture based on an understanding of the brand platform•enhancing the public relations policy and elaboration of steps for managing any situations critical for reputation

Brand buildingStages of brand building (J.Walter Thompson)

• identifying of target audience among the candidates and employees,

• diagnostic of employer brand (understanding the audi-ence, people's perception of the company’s culture), Em-ployee management market can offer various online tools that includes Grapevine, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, Vo-coli and JobVibe.

• creating a positioning (employee value proposition, EVP) and verification of the employer brand in the target audi-ence,

• development of the employer brand platform (chan-nel selection, media strategy: awareness & responses)

Employer brand positioning takes a form of an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) – is a set of characteristics and qualities, often intangible, which allows the company to stand out among other organizations, to attract the best candidates.

Staff attraction strategies

Personnel attraction strategies are considered to be one of the most important elements of building the employer brand. Most of the them can be broken down on the stages:• Defining the quality and quantity of talent

demand. • Selection of the attraction strategies. • Practical implementation of the strategy

Conditionally the following methods can be identified: Corporate Website, Content Marketing, Commercial job boards, Internal recruit-ment, Social Media, Career Fair, Industry specific events, Education initiatives, University programs, Internship programs, Engaged Employees

Methodology

• Data sources have served the information from public sources, such as corporate site, social networks, recruitment sites, media.

• To determine EVP Towers Watson’s is used that implies core elements as total rewards (base pay, allowances, health care, insur-ance, retirement, time off), the mission, vi-sion and the job culture and people.

• In order to analyze corporate websites a new framework was designed, which includes the analysis of important pages for employee, usability and navigation, content assessment, design and multimedia.

Findings: EVP # EPAM Systems Luxoft

Benefits wage, bonuses, sports & health, family support, opportunities worldwide, free coffee, relocation programs, opportunities for growth+ housing program, comfortable working conditions, intangible promotion policy, free English language courses, no special dress code on working days

wage, bonuses, sports & health, family support, opportunities worldwide, free coffee, relocation programs, opportunities for growth+ cooperation with huge global companies, interesting projects, medical insurance for worker and the family, cool technologies, referral program, training & professional events, full relocation support

Mission provide the world’s leading companies imagine, design, engineer, and deliver software that changes the world

to go beyond the client's expectations

Vision create a good business sense by better software, which is able to provide a new way of building teams

to be the leading global IT solution and services provider with a strong position in key industry verticals

Values results and relentlessly. Compromised of passionate people who produce amazing, creative and detailed work

excellence, relationship, creativity, commitment, agility, and fun

Corporate Website Analysis: Pros and Cons

EPAM Systems Luxoft

- homepage and career page, friendly attitude and loyalty (search form, re-wards information, slogan, position statement, crew photos)- good work of marketers and de-signers (information is easily readable, a large flow of information is replaced by entertaining video)- navigation and site organization are consistent and intuitive

- website is more focused on attracting new clients than to attract workers. - perfect career page (motivating video: soccer championship, big bang family picnic, good targeted message «Code your career with Luxoft»)- Well served job descriptions

- no sufficient amount of content (brochures, white papers and analyst reports). - a weak frequency of updates in newsroom page- technical complexities (does not work a request form)- not developed gamification necessary to modern programmers

- old style and primitive design, still employer section is well-performed - no attention to employee on the homepage- technical complexities (no instant reaction while clicking on the icons, it takes time) - no relinking between sections, only blocks to other sections, too much text in labels

Thanks for your attention!

Copyright (c) 2016 Ksenia Udovitskaya. All rights are re-served.