Employer Branding and Employee Engagement at Agency Leroy
van der Ende, Edda (2016)
Haaga-Helia ammattikorkeakoulu
2016
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201604194586
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201604194586
Tiivistelmä
The objective of this study is to explore different ways in which Agency Leroy (“Leroy”) can both attract the best employees and also retain them. This is achieved by explaining how companies can use employer branding for attracting the right people and how employee engagement helps to keep the right people in the company. Leroy is aiming to gain more clients abroad and Sweden is one of the most natural sources of foreign clientele. Due to this, this thesis also explains what a company should consider when doing business with Sweden. This study was conducted during January 2015 - April 2016.
The theoretical framework introduces different theories in employer branding and employee engagement. The common message among these theories is that a company benefits tremendously from doing these two things right. This thesis presents the basics of employer branding and employee engagement, how companies stand to benefit from them, how an employer brand is set up, how internal and external factors affect the employer brand and what a company should consider when addressing generation Y. Understanding some key factors regarding generation Y is important for Leroy, since many of their new-hires belong to this generation. The chapter regarding employee engagement explains what the employees are looking for and how a company can motivate them.
The study was executed with action research and the data was collected using qualitative research methods. The author conducted fourteen face-to-face interviews at Leroy during the summer of 2015 and five expert interviews during the winter of 2015 - 2016. These experts were people working closely and intensively either on employer branding and/or on employee engagement matters. The interviews at Leroy focused on the driving factors of existing employees and what kind of people would fit the organization. In general, employees at Leroy are looking for challenges, autonomy and personal development. Leroy began implementing the first recommendations of this study already while the study was in progress. The company participated in a workshop where they came up with different key words that would describe Leroy as an employer.
In conclusion, the research objective was achieved. One of the most important findings was that employees of Leroy are passionate about the work itself. The company can motivate the employees with different work-related matters and in doing so get better results from them. Also, Leroy should seek to maintain the “family” style of the company, wherein the employees feel safe and believe they can trust the leadership. The literature review of this study includes several practical recommendations that Leroy could employ in order to attract and retain the right talent. One of those recommendations is to look carefully through the results from the interviews in this study to seek out driving factors for existing employees. This thesis also covers some very practical guidelines for companies entering the Swedish market that should ease dialogue between different cultures, as well as help new-hires at Leroy understand Swedish business culture.
The theoretical framework introduces different theories in employer branding and employee engagement. The common message among these theories is that a company benefits tremendously from doing these two things right. This thesis presents the basics of employer branding and employee engagement, how companies stand to benefit from them, how an employer brand is set up, how internal and external factors affect the employer brand and what a company should consider when addressing generation Y. Understanding some key factors regarding generation Y is important for Leroy, since many of their new-hires belong to this generation. The chapter regarding employee engagement explains what the employees are looking for and how a company can motivate them.
The study was executed with action research and the data was collected using qualitative research methods. The author conducted fourteen face-to-face interviews at Leroy during the summer of 2015 and five expert interviews during the winter of 2015 - 2016. These experts were people working closely and intensively either on employer branding and/or on employee engagement matters. The interviews at Leroy focused on the driving factors of existing employees and what kind of people would fit the organization. In general, employees at Leroy are looking for challenges, autonomy and personal development. Leroy began implementing the first recommendations of this study already while the study was in progress. The company participated in a workshop where they came up with different key words that would describe Leroy as an employer.
In conclusion, the research objective was achieved. One of the most important findings was that employees of Leroy are passionate about the work itself. The company can motivate the employees with different work-related matters and in doing so get better results from them. Also, Leroy should seek to maintain the “family” style of the company, wherein the employees feel safe and believe they can trust the leadership. The literature review of this study includes several practical recommendations that Leroy could employ in order to attract and retain the right talent. One of those recommendations is to look carefully through the results from the interviews in this study to seek out driving factors for existing employees. This thesis also covers some very practical guidelines for companies entering the Swedish market that should ease dialogue between different cultures, as well as help new-hires at Leroy understand Swedish business culture.