Aptech CHRO Shourya on Building a Compelling Employer Brand

Shourya K. Chakravarty is an esteemed and strategic professional currently serving as the Chief Human Resources Officer at Aptech Limited.

He holds an MBA from Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS) Ranchi, and is also a Certified Corporate Director from the Institute of Directors, India, and a Belbin Accredited Team Roles Facilitator.

He has almost three decades of illustrious experience in Human Resources, CSR, administration, and employee communications.

He has focused his efforts on fostering an empathetic and inclusive culture and aligning systems, policies, and governance to meet overall business requirements while actively engaging with key stakeholders, including the Board, CXOs, and employees.

His leadership embodies an agile and adaptive approach tuned to ensuring the achievement of business outcomes.

How do you define a compelling employer brand in today’s competitive talent market?

A compelling employer brand is the truth of the organisation. No fancy statements or taglines. The truth needs to be told in the form of living examples so that it reflects authentically.

In any organisation, not every employee will have similar experiences; but by and large, if the stated values and culture tenets of the organisation are lived daily, it will invariably reflect both internally and to the outside world.

Say/ Do is critical here – do what you say and say what you do! People see through superficiality.

So, a compelling employer brand is the truthful story of the organisation and the experiences lived every day by its employees.

What role does workplace culture play in shaping your brand externally?

Culture is the heartbeat of any organisation. It reflects in the energy and the vibes. What your people say – both officially and unofficially – is your culture! The culture practiced within the organisation becomes the reputation of the firm.

The leadership should be conscious and careful of how they behave and speak with people, both during normal times and tough times. Passing on leadership stress to the team results in a negative culture.

It takes a lot of personalised effort to nurture a positive, empathetic, empowering culture. Once this is set, outcome-orientation follows. There needs to be an alignment between stated culture and actual practice.

It is important to note that employer branding and organisational culture are two sides of the same coin! If the culture is dysfunctional, no employer branding will be successful. Branding amplifies what culture creates.

How can organizations ensure their EVP resonates with diverse talent pools?

Diverse talent pools have diverse needs. The EVP has to be designed in such a way that it appeals to all but is specific to different generations at the workplace – from early-career to experienced talent.

This can be done through:

• Conducting employee surveys and focus groups across a cross-section of employees to understand their needs and aspirations. Taking appropriate actions based on this and communicating back to the respondents.
• Ensuring that the organisational ethos is reflected in its day-to-day working through appropriate leadership conditioning and designating champions across functions.
• Fostering Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and calibrating agile and adaptive policies that enable people to thrive and remain focused on the business outcomes.

There should also be an open, transparent, and authentic communication platform that resonates with the talent pool. A great EVP should be cross-generational while reflecting the organisation’s core values, its ethos, and its behaviours.

Which strategies have been most effective in attracting and retaining top talent?

Attracting top talent depends on genuine storytelling! Retaining top talent is all about consistency of actions! Having said that, don’t take people for granted.

Deliver on commitments made. Spotlight organisational heroes. Amplify growth and success stories and the impact create.

Retention is a function of managerial behaviours and consistency of managerial actions. Is the work meaningful? Does it align with the individual’s objectives and aspirations? What are the growth and career advancement opportunities available?

Is the leadership genuinely transparent or transparently opaque? How does the recognition framework work? Are people respected for their work?

Do promotions go to the deserving or it goes to the folks who manage up? Are promises actually delivered on career growth, or are they justifications given?

When your talent grows with you, they won’t look for job opportunities elsewhere.

How do you measure the success and impact of employer branding initiatives?

Success and impact of employer branding initiatives can be tracked through social engagement metrics and Glassdoor sentiment. For us at Aptech, we have been consistently monitoring this to improve our EVP.

Our overall rating has been between 4.2 and 4.5 for the past 24 months, and this is a really good score; it speaks about what our people think. We also monitor quality of hire and offer acceptance rates, referral rates, and other retention indicators.

Beyond numbers, the greatest testimonial is when your people become proud storytellers. That, to me, is the real indicator of a living brand.

Thank you, Shourya!