In the second webinar of our series ‘Why Your Employer Brand Matters in Times of Transition,’ HR Director Sam White shared Ingram Micro’s inspiring journey to becoming a Great Place to Work-Certified™ company and one of Philippines Best Workplaces, and the impact of that recognition on their Employer Branding.
Sam shared his insights with our host, Philippines’ Managing Director Antoniette ‘Toni’ Talosig, starting with the development of Ingram Micro’s employer of choice strategy, their partnership with Great Place to Work®, and their plans for moving forward.
Here are some of the key takeaways from this session:
1. It takes a clear people strategy and focused effort to build a strong employer brand.
The vision to build a culture of excellence at Ingram Micro started with their ‘IM Engaged’ campaign. This campaign was anchored on six critical programs for sustainable employee engagement, including Diversity and Inclusion, Corporate Citizenship, Rewards and Recognition, Career Growth and Development, and Organizational Governance. The Ingram Micro leadership team felt that these programs would help to unlock their employees’ talent and potential and support them in becoming the best that they can be. In 2019, Ingram Micro arranged to partner with Great Place to Work® to get external validation of their progress. This led to Ingram Micro being successfully GPTW-Certified™ in 2020. While the recognition that Great Place to Work-Certification™ provided was appreciated, Ingram Micro focused on using their Trust Index Survey results to identify strengths and areas for improvement in their employee experiences, and revised their workplace strategy accordingly. Even while responding to the challenges presented by the Covid-19 crisis, their focused efforts resulted in improved engagement and retention scores and enabled Ingram Micro’s selection to the Philippines Best Workplaces List™ for the second time in a row.
2. It is a journey that requires focused effort with support by an experienced partner.
Sam shared that it has taken three-years to get to this stage of Ingram Micro’s journey in creating a great place to work and has required on-going focus.
Sam recognized the support provided by the partnership with Great Place to Work® and our aligned goals of building a high-trust, high-performance workplace. As the global authority on workplace culture, the GPTW survey analytics platform and culture coaches have helped Ingram Micro in identifying performance drivers and planning, assessing and celebrating progress.
Ingram Micro was able to leverage their Certification™ and Best Workplaces™ recognition by incorporating these in their ‘Step Into Greatness’ and ‘Greatness Continues’ campaigns, boosting employee pride and productivity, even as they moved to working virtually. This reinforced Ingram Micro’s human capital strategy, allowing them to successfully assimilate their people programs with their campaigns and elevate their employer brand.
3. The benefits are worth the effort.
Sam emphasized that, while it has taken a lot of planning and focused effort, the return on that investment for Ingram Micro made it worthwhile. Employee pride, engagement and retention has increased. They have a steady stream of highly-qualified applicants to fill specialized roles.
Almost all of these applicants refer to Ingram Micro being a Philippines Best Workplace as an important reason for their interest. Sam also sees a heightened sense of respect, accountability and willingness from employees to support the business in every way, including when they made the sudden transition to working from home.
4. Even Best Workplaces don’t rest on their laurels.
Even with Ingram Micros’ Best Workplace recognition and growing reputation as an employer, Sam noted that they continue to focus on their core – their people – as they keep looking for opportunities to improve and stay on top of evolving workforce trends. This includes a current drive on enabling their teams for the future of work, by accelerating automation and training their employees to better enable them to fully adapt. This ongoing commitment to supporting their employees towards the next level in their journey affirms Ingram Micro’s brand promise – to cultivate their employees’ potential further, and to enhance their experiences.
An audience member asked Sam why he thought employer branding is important during this time of pandemic. Sam responded, “Your brand promise or brand recognition evokes pride and a sense of connectedness among your people. It tells the story of who we are as a company and to each other, and that story is how we reach out to them, and those who may want to join us. It is a crucial element.”
Ingram Micro now enjoys the benefits of a strong employer brand based on a strong relationship of trust between leaders and employees. As they continue to nurture and develop these relationships, they look forward to achieving more as a team and as a business. Their journey provides a true case study of the leadership and employee-first commitment found across our Best Workplaces.
Allow us to support you as you create your own unique story!
To embark on this journey, join us on our next Get Certified™ Webinar.
Watch a replay of the webinar: Step into Greatness with Ingram Micro.
Xyris Tapia
Xyris loves to look at life through a broader lens. She is a certified bookworm, occasional writer, intrepid traveler and design enthusiast. She likes to create and breathe vibrancy to things. When not organizing events, she is a content contributor for GPTW PH and likewise handles corporate matters. A happy wife and a doting mom, she finds joy in unique experiences and believes that everyone has the potential for greatness.
