Honest voices are critical to building an authentic Employer Brand

How do we ensure honesty?

Winning the trust of internal employee interviewees and respondents, through reassurance and explanation is therefore a vital first step to ensuring that the feedback gathered is honest, emotive and that it comes from the heart.

In interviewing and broader research, we go to great lengths to reiterate that we act as a neutral and non-judgemental filter, through which respondents can anonymously express both the good and bad about their employment experience, without being concerned that their views may later be judged and held against them.

We repeatedly make the point that names are never attributed to any comments given and that an employee may be as critical or as complimentary as they like about their work environment, but they will never see their name appear beside that comment. Any recordings or notes we make are for our own use and never shared with the client. It’s a promise we make and one which we never break.

In a group research scenario, we will always seek to gain the trust and confidence of participants, through the way in which we structure groups. There are almost unlimited and relevant ways in which a large company can have its internal workforce divided for research purposes, but the first rule of group structuring, is to have those on the same level within the company, participating exclusively in groups together.

We are not just reluctant, but strongly resistant, to the idea that a junior member of staff, recent starter or graduate, may be expected to sit in a group interview, with their line manager, or someone more senior. The confidence to speak up about the good and bad of an employment experience will likely be adversely affected by being in a room with someone who may be a direct line manager.

Can HR participate in focus groups?

Allied to the foregoing, is the idea that a member or members of the HR team should also sit in on groups. It has been proposed by clients in the past that they sit in, just to observe or to participate themselves. However, unless we are running a group comprised specifically of the HR team, we do not include HR members in other groups. The reasons for this comes back again to confidence in the ability of group members to speak openly to us about their recruitment, onboarding and career path management experience - where it was good, where it could have been better and how it might be improved.

And that’s another reason why we are strong advocates of external, neutral research, rather than groups and interviews being run by members of the company. The perceived influence that a manager or member of HR may have over a respondent’s position, will lead them to hold back and not necessarily be open about the important things that we need to hear, in order to directly define an authentic EVP and Employer Brand for the organisation.

The benefit of quantitative research is to validate qualitative insights 

The quantitative studies will then be circulated to the entire work population, or groups within in it, to validate the issues and insights that have been highlighted through the groups. Quantitative studies are also important from the perspective of company-wide inclusiveness – everyone’s opinion has been sought and acknowledged, although once again, we strongly stress to participants that we ensure any outcomes and comments submitted are anonymous and unattributable to individuals.

Validating, reinforcing and interrogating responses is an important diagnostic way of ensuring the accuracy that our Employer Brand is ultimately going to bring. We will pick responses apart, further question our participants and interviewees, and seek further detail, so that as much detail as possible is extracted. We will also ask the same question in different ways, so that respondents either validate what they have previously said or add further detail to their answer.

Uncovering the truth is always our core objective

In all research, the first question to be answered, is ‘What are we trying to find out?’, and this remains at the centre of everything we do, from the trust we engender in participants, to the questions we write, the further queries we make and the diagnosis reached from the gathered responses given. Guaranteed anonymity for respondents, is key to the truth being told, which is why an external party, acting as a neutral gatherer of information, will always achieve a well-defined EVP and an accurate Employer Brand. We also need to hear a sufficient number of voices, from diverse areas within our client companies, to ensure that all voices are heard and the truth is delivered.