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 - – wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, 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 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Employer Branding is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Employer Branding in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Employer Branding is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Employer Branding is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Employer Branding to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Employer Branding to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
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.
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.
Organizational Resilience of Employer Branding
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Employer Branding does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Employer Branding are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
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.
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 -
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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Employer Branding 's lucrative customers.
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.
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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Employer Branding has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Employer Branding has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding HBR case study mentions - Employer Branding takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding, it seems that the employees of Employer Branding don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
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.
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 -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Employer Branding in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Employer Branding can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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.
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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Employer Branding can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Organizational Development segment.
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.
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.
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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Employer Branding to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Employer Branding to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Employer Branding can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Employer Branding has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Employer Branding to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding case study. Employer Branding can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Employer Branding can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
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 -
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.
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.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Employer Branding business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Employer Branding can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding, Employer Branding may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Employer Branding can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study A Great Place to Work!? Understanding Crowdsourced Employer Branding .
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Employer Branding needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
