Context and question

As a world player in the production of frozen potato products and a West Flemish company in full expansion, Agristo is looking for many new employees to realize their ambitions. In order to better reach potential new employees within the tight labor market but also to let their existing employees grow and engage to become real Potatoholics – the nickname of the Agristo employees – Agristo called us in again, this time to introspect their employer branding strategy. Their specific request: better understand who their employees are, what they care about and how we can reach them, through a target group analysis.

Approach

The starting point of the process was to better understand Agristo employees, in order to strengthen Agristo’s employer brand together with the project team. The first step was therefore to collect all existing information, knowledge and documentation about the employees and the various forms of HR and marketing communications and processes. This information was then structured using a series of ‘archetype questions’. Based on these, a number of hypotheses were then developed; on how Agristo can describe its employees, what their motivations, needs and expectations are, how they are informed, supported, connected and engaged and through which channels this is done. The approach here is to understand what the employees’ deeper motivational drivers are. This is how we eventually arrived at a number of employee archetypes that represent the different types of Potatoholics.

In order to test, adjust and concretize the hypotheses made, the project team interviewed about 20 employees from the different sites and various departments. The insights from these conversations were used to confirm and further feed and enrich the archetypes, but also provided guidance for the next step: mapping the employee journeys. To do this, we looked into the steps taken by employees from application to onboarding and how they experienced this, but also how communication within Agristo, as an existing employee, is experienced.

We brought all this together in the TO BE employee journeys that…

… on the one hand portray the phases of discovery, evaluation and selection/starting work of a potential new employee,

… on the other hand, zooms in on the final phase of engaging the existing Potatoholics, indicating how we can best inform, empower, connect and engage employees.

By understanding what Agristo employees, new or existing, are looking for within each phase and through which channels they expect a response to this, Agristo gained insight into how to align their HR processes and communications.

Result

Throughout the employer branding project, Agristo gained a better view and understanding of their employees’ motivations, needs and expectations. Today, the organization better understands what current employees need to further develop, grow and become the ultimate Agristo ambassador.

The outcome summarizes the channels and core messages through which Agristo as an employer can optimally attract new talent and inform, empower, connect and engage existing colleagues. In addition, a clear project roadmap indicates the next steps according to priority, which then also forms the guideline for the further rollout of the employer branding and internal communication.