Featured on April’s fintechview digital magazine, Georgia Aristeidou, Global Head of HR at The Trading Pit shares her insights on employer branding, developing employees as brand advocates and the colleration with the brand perception.
“Employees are always our best ambassadors, and those who are highly effective in promoting and representing The Trading Pit’s brand. …Essentially, they are the ones who can authentically share their positive experiences and insights with others..”
What is employer branding and why is it so important nowadays?
Employer branding is simply the process of shaping, defining, and promoting the company’s reputation as an employer and the value it offers, targeting specific personas who align with the company’s DNA, values, and mindset. As correctly mentioned, and couldn’t agree more: ‘If the reputation of a company’s products and services is its face, the employer brand is its heart and soul’. Thus, it is one of the most important factors not only for attracting top-notch talent but also for enhancing employees’ loyalty and engagement within their organization. It shapes the company’s culture and fosters employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity, ultimately contributing to the overall success and growth of the company, and driving employees’ actions towards a common vision.
Employees are the best brand advocates. What strategies The Trading Pit applied to develop employees as quality brand ambassadors?
Employees are always our best ambassadors, and those who are highly effective in promoting and representing The Trading Pit’s brand. The alignment between employees and the brand cultivates a sense of pride and belonging, transforming them into passionate advocates for the company. Essentially, they are the ones who can authentically share their positive experiences and insights with others, whether it’s through word-of-mouth recommendations, social media engagement, or other forms of communication. This genuine advocacy from employees can significantly contribute to building trust, credibility, and awareness for the brand among candidates, recruitment agencies, employees, any stakeholders and overall, the broader community.
As HR Department, we have applied various strategies to achieve this goal. Some of them are the quarterly town halls trough we are sharing updates, set priorities and celebrate achievements, by having clear horizontal and vertical communication, by having a culture where all employees should have a well-crafted knowledge of our product, thus employees can understand The Trading Pit’s unique identify, by giving opportunities for a continuous, learning development and growth, by offering to our employees a bunch of perks aligned with their needs (like parental benefits tailored to the parents of the organization) and of course by giving and receiving feedback as our continuous evaluation process involves not only employees evaluations but also managers’ evaluations from their teams.
How is employer branding shaping public perception of your brand? How do you measure? Is this supporting recruitment?
Employer branding plays a significant role in shaping the public perception as serve us as a distinctive identity for our company, setting us apart from competitors within the Fintech industry in the eyes of potential employees and the wider public and, of course, supporting the recruitment process.
The fact that top notch candidates and veterans in the marketplace choose us as employers, despite being considered a startup, is an important metric of where we stand in the job market and the role that Employer branding plays in the recruitment process. On the other way around, our capability of having professional employees who created impact on business performance is what gives us a competitive edge.
The low numbers of the turn over and the periodic checks that we are conducting give us the confidence to stand out from other companies. Quarterly we are having as an HR Department individually one on one discussions with all employees, while proudly we are conducting an anonymous survey every six months. Based on the last anonymous engagement survey we conducted, employees can freely express their opinions and provide suggestions and feedback. If, on the last anonymous survey, the vast majority of employees—98%—stated that ‘if given the chance, I would choose The Trading Pit again as their employer’, while 97.8% ‘feel proud to work for The Trading Pit and consider themselves a part of it’, and 100% are ‘committed to doing what is required to help the organization succeed’, I can confidently say that we have a solid cornerstone for a dynamic and recognizable employer brand.
What’s the ideal onboarding experience in your opinion?
The ideal onboarding experience is the one that carefully crafted a journey that smoothly integrates the new hires into the company’s culture while providing them with the necessary tools and knowledge to excel in their roles. It begins with a warm welcome, where the new employee feels valued and supported from day one. Clear communication channels are established, ensuring that expectations are transparent and values and goals are aligned. Personalized training programs are implemented, catering to individual learning styles and needs, while mentors or buddies offer guidance and support throughout the initial stages. Continuous feedback methods are implemented, allowing for adjustments and improvements as needed. By prioritizing both the professional and personal development of new hires, the perfect onboarding experience sets the foundation for long-term success, new joiners’ alignment with our brand and retention within the company.
What advice would you give to the younger generation/candidates who wish to join the fintech sector?
I would say to invest in their skills and be engaged in a continuous learning process, either in informal type of education from employees and colleagues either via learning courses, workshops, seminars, etc in order to develop technical skills (regardless role or position) for understanding the fundamentals. In addition, one should be adaptable and creative, be open to new ideas, technologies and willing to embrace changes as it’s a fast-paced industry. Last but not least I would advise them to be passionate, persistent and committed to their goals and dreams. With determination and hard work, they can build a successful career in the exciting and dynamic field of fintech.
Check out the 3rd issue of fintechview digital magazine to read more about Georgia.
