Sustaining Employer Branding at Whirlpool of India Ltd.

Sustaining Employer Branding at Whirlpool of India Ltd

It was 7.15pm in the evening, Mr. Rehan Mehta (Rehan), Vice President, Whirlpool of India Ltd., was busy meeting guests at the company’s annual meet dinner. All the  arrangements were perfect. Employees were enjoying themselves in different groups. Mr. Sanjeev Oberoi, CEO made a sudden announcement.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen! It brings me immense pleasure to congratulate you all for the exemplary performance in this financial year and because of your combined efforts, the stock prices are at INR780. I appreciate the initiatives and new practices adopted by Rehan for the organization. A big round of applause for Rehan.”

Everyone was praising Rehan and his well thought actions for managing employees through employer branding. Rehan was very happy and he soon was in his own  reverie reflecting his journey at Whirlpool since his joining............

Whirlpool of India Ltd.: An Overview

Founded as “Upton Machines” by Louis and Emory on November 11^th 1911 with the funding from Lowell Bassford to produce electric and motor driven wringer washers. In 1929, the Upton Machines was merged with Nineteen Hundred Washer Company of Binghamton, New York to be known as Nineteen Hundred Corporations. The corporation went on its manufacturing journey and in the year 1950 was renamed as “Whirlpool Corporations” with the launch of its first automatic top loading washing machine under the Whirlpool brand................

Employer Branding Status

According to the Whirlpool Annual Report 2013–14, the Human Resource Department’s key focus was to work on building capability, retaining talent and engaging the workforce. The company launched the initiatives of “i-grow” for improvements in the front and sales managers ‘through engagement and motivating the sales force. The Whirlpool Service Academy has trained more than 1,200 engineers helping them to design their career path and...............

Employer Branding Initiatives at Whirlpool

Whirlpool of India Ltd., carried out an extensive research based on secondary data sources to identify the most important criteria that candidates look for while selecting the employers. According to the (Association of Graduate Recruiters, 2013), the young graduates are considering career progression as the important factor to work for any employer. It is followed by job type/function, training and Concerned for the job enrichment and the organization’s culture..............

The Challenge

Whirlpool adopted the employer branding initiatives and was recognized as the best employer for 2016.4 Thus, It continued the trend of having............

Assignment Questions

The following questions will facilitate a more nuanced discussion of the caselet:

I. Can you relate the Stakeholder management theory to the issue of managing the external and internal stakeholders for the HR function of an organization?
II. .................

Exhibits

Exhibit I: Company Profile: Whirlpool of India Ltd.

Exhibit II: Reaping Profits at Whirlpool of India Ltd. from Employer Branding

Exhibit III (a): CC-Opex Approach at Whirlpool of India Ltd.: Conceptual Schema of Program Development

Exhibit III (b): CC-Opex Approach at Whirlpool of India Ltd.: Timeline of Program Development

Exhibit IV: Employer Branding Initiatives at Whirlpool of India Ltd., along Four Thrust Areas

Sustaining Employer Branding at Whirlpool of India Ltd.

Synopsis

The caselet enables a discussion on the employer branding initiatives adopted by Whirlpool of India Ltd., for employee engagement and leadership effectiveness. The caselet illustrates the process of developing and manifesting its employer branding program. The initiatives taken were a huge success which reflected at the bottom-line of the company as well and helped create a best employer image for Whirlpool of India Ltd. The later section of the caselet brings up the issue of  sustaining employer branding initiatives at Whirlpool, as it requires consistent efforts to maintain the position of best employer.

Prerequisite Conceptual Understanding

For either of the groups, the caselet presupposes knowledge of basic Organizational Behavior and Human Resource systems along the following lines:

• *Broad roles of the human resource function in a typical organization, such as recruitment, performance management, payroll, maintaining concierge services, etc.
• *Different kinds of benefits, allowances and compensation practices
• *Work facilitation expectations of employees as regards autonomy, job design, work resources, timely communications from the HRM department and top management regarding company policies
• *Career management and personal growth resources for employees such as trainings, tours, etc.

Case Positioning and Setting

The caselet is meant for postgraduate students of business and management courses. It can also be used as a thought stimulating exercise for early career  human resource executives. It can be used in ‘Strategic Human Resource Management’, ‘Employee Engagement’ and ‘Employer Branding’ courses in these  programs.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• *Appreciating the novel concept that the HR department needs to treat its internal stakeholders or employees as customers and the imperative to craft an Employee Value Proposition (EVP)
• *Understand the concept of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) and to appreciate that top management support is vital to implement any large organization-wide initiative
• *Conceptually understanding how broad organizational philosophies such as how it wants to treat its employees can be translated into actionable points in the form of ‘processes’ and ‘practices’
• *Learning about the various employee related aspects that an employer branding program should address OR what are the components of a successful  employer branding program
• *Learning about the various metrics or indicators that the HR function utilizes to check the health of the organization’s human capital
• *Understand the concept behind HR metrics, their usage and their integration with organizational strategy

Teaching Plan

Prior to the caselet discussion students may be divided into groups of 4 to 6 and be asked to choose any one of the many other companies in ‘the best places to  work for’ list and visit their personnel practices sections to find out more about the employment culture of the company. The caselet might be introduced by inviting one-third of the groups to air their views about what HR practices, they believe, makes the particular company of their choice a desirable employer.  These views must be tabulated on the class board as a laundry list of ‘pre-caselet discussion items’. The second one-third of the groups might then be invited  to discuss in detail the initiatives taken at Whirlpool and explore in detail, the nuances of Exhibit IV of the caselet. Finally, the last one-third of groups may be  invited to critically comment on the viabilities of the items in the aforementioned Exhibit IV of the caselet according to the criteria given in Exhibit (TN)-III of this  note and thence integrate each of the pre-caselet discussion item to the said four groups. The pre-and post-caselet discussion time slots may be limited to 10  minutes each and the rest major chunk of time (approx. 25 minutes plus) devoted to Whirlpool itself. The details provided in the ‘Case Analysis’ section may be incorporated into the instructor’s PowerPoint presentation to aid and guide the class discussion.

Assignment Questions

The following questions will facilitate a more nuanced discussion of the caselet:

I. Can you relate the Stakeholder management theory to the issue of managing the external and internal stakeholders for the HR function of an organization?

II. Which organizational theory out of the following (whether partially or fully) would you say best characterizes the central tenets of this caselet:

       a. Theory X, Theory Y, LMX, Theory Z?

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