Chapter 9: Human Resources: The Window to the Corporate Soul

Human resource departments are undergoing a profound change. Since the advent of the balanced scorecard concept, ^[1] organizations around the world have begun to position their human capital expertise as one of the strategic elements of business success. While some HR departments are still primarily filling out forms, handling staff benefit issues, and making sure the organization is in compliance with labor laws, growing numbers of HR professionals have become strategic consultants to top management. In fact, software now makes it possible for line managers in many organizations to handle a lot of traditional HR administration, leaving HR time to focus on organizational development and human performance. And many HR departments no longer handle training, now a separate department in many large organizations.

Dr. Graeme Field, an organizational development principal with Morgan and Banks (NZ), explains that when organizations understand that people are its competitive edge, the HR role "includes devising recruitment policy and strategy to ensure an organization hires people that fit its culture and value its customers ... [and] be able to formulate methods to accurately measure individual employee and overall staff performance." ^[2] Critical in this role is also balancing the needs of investors, employees, and customers. To emphasize this new positioning, some recommend calling HR departments human capital departments. Whatever they are called, if an organization attempts to brand its customer service, HR must be brought into the marketing and branding process.

Staff Recruitment

A strong brand is a powerful draw for recruitment. It is also a pull to retain valued staff. In order for an organization to be seen as a desirable place to work, HR must first hire people who can live and deliver the brand. No longer can "warm bodies," as some managers call them, be recruited to fill service positions. This requires both identifying competencies and also defining the type of person who will best deliver the brand's promise. Not so long ago, the big challenge was hiring staff that could handle technological changes. Today, that challenge may be brand delivery competence.

Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F) has taken this idea to an extreme. The big clothing retailer actively recruits young college students who look like its catalog models. Such a person is at least good-looking and young and frequently has what is described as a distinctive classic American look. We heard someone describe A&F staff as surfers who just caught a wave. According to the New York Times, the clothing retailer, in its hiring approach, is merely part of a growing retail hiring trend. ^[3]

Abercrombie and Fitch knows well that young shoppers prefer coming into stores to be waited on by staff who look and act like its ads. The question is whether A&F violates antidiscrimination laws by hiring within such a narrow range. Hiring for looks is not necessarily illegal, but not hiring because of age, sex, or ethnicity is.

Should a company that wants to project youth and energy in its brand be allowed to fire workers after they reach a certain age or never hire them in the first place? Marshall Cohen, senior industry analyst with NPD Fashion World, argues, "In today's competitive retail environment, the methods have changed for capturing the consumers' awareness of your brand. Being able to find a brand enhancer, or what I call a walking billboard, is critical." ^[4]

Certainly, education and skill are considered fair measures for hiring. And no one seems to object that high-fashion models are almost all very tall, skinny, and beautiful, or at least exotic. But what about the case of Abercrombie and Fitch? Some individuals have brought legal complaints (A&F is currently facing two high-profile racial discrimination cases) stating that they were turned down for jobs, even though they brought substantial retail experience with them. Instead, good-looking young people without any retail experience have been recruited. A clue as to A&F's mind-set is that A&F apparently does not place a great emphasis on service training. We have asked several stunning-looking A&F clerks about the training they received and were told they got a two-hour orientation. Clearly, if Abercrombie and Fitch can openly recruit this way, it gains an advantage over other retailers that hire older experienced shop clerks who look like the parents or grandparents of the audience they wish to attract.

Actually, A&F has recently discovered that attractive sales staff are not enough to command market share if its target market is too narrow. A&F has made its brand so exclusionary that same-store sales have dropped for four years in a row. ^[5] Brands are a total package and obviously involve more than the physical appearance of sales clerks.

To hire for effective branded service delivery, HR must first define the brand delivery skills necessary for each position. HR professionals can do it themselves or work with managers to describe brand requirements that go beyond detailing technical skills and task responsibilities. Then, just as references and background information need to be checked and skills need to be tested, so, too, do brand delivery approaches need to be assessed. If your organization has a probationary period before permanent hiring, attitudes toward the brand need to be considered part of the final hiring decision.

Some brand delivery attitudes can be taught—to a point. For example, Intel's brand promises speed. Intel can educate staff about how to deliver the concept of speed in service delivery, but someone who habitually speaks and reacts slowly is probably not the best person to work at an Intel call center. FedEx is about guarantees ("When it positively, absolutely has to be there overnight"). FedEx needs to consider what a "guaranteed delivery" service attitude looks and sounds like, as opposed to what a "probably there on time but cheaper" package service attitude looks and sounds like.

Discussing the tone that is required with potential employees, and reminding them of it during their tenure, makes it more likely that employees will be alerted to its significance and what is expected of them. When offering suggestions for performance improvement, managers need to do so in terms of the brand. This helps to depersonalize criticism, making it easier to accept. For example, if reliability and personal organization are aspects of your brand promise, then suggestions for keeping a more organized desk can be framed within brand delivery and not around how messy the person is.

For many years, TMI has recommended writing job descriptions from the customers' point of view. We have discovered that this approach can be readily shifted to focus on brands. Most job descriptions are written from the point of view of what the employee does. But in a customer-centric organization, how customers benefit from what employees do is a better starting point for a job description. In a brand-centric organization, including an element of the brand promise brings more precise definition to the essential brand aspects of a position.

For example, ARAMARK Uniform Services designs, manufactures, and cleans work uniforms. From its customers' point of view, however, it "gives people a corporate identity." From a brand point of view with service identified as ARAMARK's competitive differentiator, the description becomes "We make it possible for customers to have complete confidence in their visible corporate identity." Then the task becomes to identify potential staff who identify with and can support such a brand promise whether they are designing, manufacturing, or cleaning uniforms.

^[1]For a good overview of the balanced scorecard concept, see Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, "The Balanced Scorecard—Measures That Drive Performance," Harvard Business Review (January–February 1992): 71–79.

^[2]Mark Henderson, "Role Changes for Human Resources," Sunday Star Times, January 12, 1997.

^[3]Steven Greenhouse, "Help Wanted: But Only the Young, Hip and Blue-eyed Need Apply," reprinted in International Herald Tribune, July 12–13, 2003.

^[4]Steven Greenhouse, "Help Wanted: But Only the Young, Hip and Blue-eyed Need Apply," reprinted in International Herald Tribune, July 12–13, 2003..

^[5]Shelly Branch, "Maybe Sex Doesn't Sell, A&F Is Discovering," Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2003.