Employer Brand Management conference 2016

Registration and breakfast

Tea and coffee will served and this time offers delegates, sponsors and speakers the opportunity to network with each other.

Welcome and opening address

A new vision and values

What impact does rebranding have on the employer brand?

There are many reasons why companies rebrand or reposition. A new CEO, a new entrant into the market, a changing economic landscape or maybe even a crisis. As a brand's identity changes, how can an employer ensure their new vision for the company's external stakeholders is understood and reflected by its internal audience?

In this brand new session, Jonny Briggs, head of talent acquisition at Aviva, Rebecca Sinclair, VP brand at Pearson and Naomi Jones, head of communications at SUEZ will explore how rebranding and repositioning the corporate brand affects the employer brand. 

This will be a panel session with Q&A from our audience.

The session will be moderated by Phil Morley, director of employee engagement at MerchantCantos.

Preparing for the deal

Maximising corporate value through the employer brand

This session focuses on using the employer brand to position an organisation pre-M&A. Having failed to sell the business in 2011 and 2013, ODEON & UCI focused on its employer brand. Fast forward to July 2016 and the company was bought for just under one billion pounds. In this session, Kathryn Pritchard of ODEON charts their amazing success through a shift from cost efficiency to value creation for employees and customers alike.

Joining Kathryn for the Q & A session will be Gemma McGrattan, founder and director of Synergy Creative.

Employer Brand Management Anecdotes

Ten-minute takeaways from winners of the Employer Brand Management Awards 2016.

Tea and Coffee Break

After the deal is done

Post M&A employer brand management

A recent KPMG study found that a staggering 83% of mergers and acquisitions fail. An army of advisors have offered up their theories as to why, but more often than not the war is lost on the battleground of its people.

This session hears from those getting it right, including James Tyler, the former chief commercial officer from Equinix's takeover target, Telecity, and now European head of HR in the new organisation, Helen Durkin, employer brand manager at Dixons Carphone and Charu Malhotra, head of global employer marketing and talent attraction at Ferrero, the recent acquirer of Thorntons.

Change and the white heat of technology

Pablo Picasso once said computers were useless because they only gave you answers. It is an argument increasingly turned upside down as technology isn’t just driving change, it’s asking the questions. The ‘technolisation’ of society is happening at a furious pace. The relationship people have not only with employers but with the actual concept of employment is changing.

How do companies crack their employer of choice ambition knowing that the external market with which they engage will exponentially change by 2025? Unilever are at the forefront of exploring the employer brand in the context of these shifts in society and technology and this session sees Keeran Gunnoo, their global employer brand director, share her insights.

The new CEO

As the saying goes, a new broom sweeps clean. The arrival of a new CEO is often a tornado of change, and one of the first areas under the microscope is the EVP. A new CEO needs to know why people want to work for the organisation and what marks it out from its peers.

This session hears from Kevin Trainor, the head of resourcing & talent from the Financial Conduct Authority, who both focused on the employer brand with the arrival of a new CEO. He'll be joined by Jim McAuslan who worked with over 20 CEOs during his 13 year tenure as the general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association.

The session will be moderated by Phill Lane, head of brand and insight at ThirtyThree.

The change in internal dynamics

Research from over 100 HR and marketing directors reveals that digital has changed the way people receive information from organisations to such a dramatic extent that the corporate and the employee brand are no longer separate. Francesca Brosan, Chairman of creative and technology agency Omobono (who conducted the research in partnership with Winmark Global and The Marketing Society) shares insights. 

Networking Lunch

A time of crisis

The role of employer brand in recovering a damaged reputation

What are the challenges to the employer brand when an organisation is shaken by scandal and its reputation is reviled? How long can the effects of a crisis last? 

Although Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council had changed, perception of its reputation hadn't. It had to transform its employer brand, and fast. 

Jean Imray was the deputy strategic director of children and young people's services at the council, and in this session shares the Rotherham story.

This session is sponsored by Emperor and Jean will be joined by their client director, Susannah Gerner.

Disruption and the entrepreneurial business

Disruption is the MBA grad's buzzword. Uberize has worked its way into the Oxford English dictionary and entrepreneurialism is back in vogue.

Fast-growing and agile businesses need to quickly adapt to seize opportunities or chart new territories, but should that affect the employer brand? Are the challenges to attract, retain and engage the same for today's entrepreneurs as they are for the established business.

Refreshment Break

Communism, fascism, populism - the role of the employer brand in society

Given the rise of populism, how can employer brand-centred thinking help employers and governments address the millions who feel excluded? Perhaps this is a challenge not just for business, but for society.

Visas, talent attraction & Brexit

The employer brand in a new European landscape.

A google search on the word ‘Brexit’ leads to 130million pages and articles. Not since the millennium bug has a subject been as discussed and debated prior to its effect being known. But with Article 50 potentially only months away from being invoked, companies have to start to planning for its impact. Does that impact start with the employer brand of the organisation…or on the employer brand of the nation? The effects on trade or the economy can only be surmised, but with free movement of labour having thus far been a focal point of the argument, it’s pretty clear that an organisation needs to understand what Brexit means to the employer brand.

Conference wrap up