A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding
The benefits provided by employment and identified with a specific employing company are referred to as employer branding. We argue that when employees use IT to transmit employer branding-sharing and accessing work-related experiences openly across organizations-their expectations and assessments of workplaces change. We collected 38,000 reviews of the highest and lowest ranked employers on Glassdoor, an online crowdsourced employer branding platform. Using IBM Watson to analyze the data, we identify seven employer branding value propositions that current, former, and potential employees care about when they collectively evaluate employers. These propositions include (1) social elements of work, (2) interest and challenge raised by work tasks, (3) the extent to which skills can be applied in meaningful ways, (4) opportunities for professional development, (5) economic issues tied to compensation, (6) the role of management, and (7) work/life balance. We clarify that these value propositions do not all matter to the same extent, and demonstrate how their relative valences and weights differ across organizations, especially if institutions are considered particularly good or bad places to work. Based on these findings, we show how employers can use crowdsourced employer branding intelligence to become exceptional workplaces that attract highly qualified employees.
Authors :: Amir Dabirian, Jan H. Kietzmann, Hoda Diba
Swot Analysis of "A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding" written by Amir Dabirian, Jan H. Kietzmann, Hoda Diba includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Employer Branding facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, Motivating people, Technology and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding casestudy better are - – technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Employer Branding, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Employer Branding operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Employer Branding
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Employer Branding
Strengths A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Employer Branding in A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Employer Branding has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Employer Branding is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Employer Branding has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Employer Branding is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Employer Branding in the sector have low bargaining power. A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Employer Branding to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Employer Branding has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Employer Branding has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Training and development
– Employer Branding has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Employer Branding is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
High brand equity
– Employer Branding has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Employer Branding to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Employer Branding has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Employer Branding digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Employer Branding has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Weaknesses A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding are -
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Employer Branding supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Employer Branding vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding, is just above the industry average. Employer Branding needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Employer Branding has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Employer Branding even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Employer Branding has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Employer Branding has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Employer Branding is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Amir Dabirian, Jan H. Kietzmann, Hoda Diba suggests that, Employer Branding is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Employer Branding is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Employer Branding has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Employer Branding is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Employer Branding needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Employer Branding to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Employer Branding can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Employer Branding is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Employer Branding has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Employer Branding can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Employer Branding to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Employer Branding can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Employer Branding operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Employer Branding to increase its market reach. Employer Branding will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Employer Branding has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Employer Branding to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Employer Branding can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Employer Branding can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Developing new processes and practices
– Employer Branding can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Employer Branding can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Employer Branding in the consumer business. Now Employer Branding can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding are -
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Employer Branding will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Employer Branding is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Employer Branding in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Employer Branding has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Employer Branding needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Employer Branding can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing wage structure of Employer Branding
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Employer Branding.
Environmental challenges
– Employer Branding needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Employer Branding can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Employer Branding needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Organizational Development industry regulations.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Employer Branding in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Employer Branding.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Employer Branding with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Employer Branding needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.