Employer Branding / Philips

Building an Employer Brand – a tale of perception

The beginning

Chances are you’ll have at least one Philips product in your home. It could be a flat screen TV, a kettle or your light bulbs. But Philips wanted the values they are known for externally to be better reflected internally. We were charged with developing an employer value proposition (EVP) and employer brand that would accomplish this. Our first step was to look at how the company was perceived, and what motivated potential and existing employees. We spoke to almost 50 internal and external focus groups, 250 Philips employees and 180 potential candidates in the US, China, India, Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland and the UK. We also hosted a web-based survey and conducted a customer research project.

The middle

What we found was that people saw Philips as a company that can enhance people’s lives with its products. Using this, we defined Philips’s positioning as an employer: ‘Touch lives every day’. Not only is it a promise to new people who join, it also describes their opportunities and the environment they’ll be working in. Plus, it gives established employees a focus and reason for staying.

The end

We’ve helped bring ‘Touch lives every day’ to life within Philips and have seen people from across the business buy into the proposition. As a result of the work we’ve done, the company’s approach has gone from scattered to globally consistent. Regular employee engagement surveys help reinforce Philips’s commitment to building better connections with its employees. A new induction programme called ‘In Touch’ has also been put in place. It introduces the new employer brand to every new employee from their very first day. And with further internal communications projects in the pipeline, ‘Touch lives every day’ is set to shape the whole employee lifecycle.

Winner of the CIPD Employer Brand Award