EBstars 2018 Winners: employer branding has entered the data-driven level this year!
We have just awarded the best employer branding projects in Employer Branding Stars Award for 2017/2018. It was 9th edition of the contest and it shows that we are going really mature in the area, entering the data-driven approach here in Poland!
I have been organizing the EBstars project for 9 editions now – year by year observing what is changing on the labour market and how HR is responding to it. As Poland has hit the lowest level of unemployment rate for 20 years now – employer branding has become one of the main tools of strategic sourcing and retention management. Operating on such level is obviously changing how we understand our goals and how do we approach execution.
Shortly speaking – the shift is from “beautiful and innovative” to “effective” campaign.
Does it affect the way we do employer branding? A lot.
And that is why we decided to change HR focus to employer branding on ROI and data-driven approach this year . It wasn’t easy for companies applying for the EBstars – to be honest, we knew not every company is ready to show the data and ROI of its activities and some would had to give up the process this year – but eventually we have gained applications from 50 companies!
Where is the shift?
This year together with the great Jury (Łukasz Trzeszczkowski, Magdalena Selwant-Rozycka, Tomasz Bartnik, Przemysław Stański, Piotr Bucki, Adam Piwek, Maja Gojtowska, Katarzyna Młynarczyk, Maciej Mazurek, Anna Woźniak) we heat up the strategic approach focusing on three dimensions picturing the way we all should approach our activities if we want to be a real strategic partner to the business. Here are 3 main hot points we had followed assessing the applications:
1. Strategy (activities should be in line with business needs, EVP-centered, tailored to target groups in communication and tools)
2. Data (insights and outcomes should be based on good quality data)
3. ROI (activities should bring great revenue confirming it was good decision to chose employer branding as tool)
Ok, but where is the creative part?? Of course creativity was important as it is an marketing area eventually but it was treated strategically:
If not so hot and sexy concept is converting as hell to applications bringing revenue to business it means it is an effective communication.
Who are the Leaders of data-based employer branding approach in Poland?
Focusing on 3 main dimensions (strategy, data, ROI) Jury awarded the most effective projects as follows:
- Best campaign over 100k PLN went to Leroy Merlin, Volkswagen and mBank
- Best campaign below 100k PLN went to mBank and Performante
- Best digital project went to EY and Accenture
- Best candidate experience went to McDonald’s
- Best internal EB went to Link4
- Best video went to Future Processing
- Best career site went to Accenture and AmRest
- Special Jury Award went to Fabryka Mebli Forte
Congratulations to all! I am really happy to see the progress we are making to become the real partner to the business. Keep going – working on winning the next year edition has just started 😀
PS. I am really happy to see students of mine on the stage! Good job <3
