Challenges and Solutions of Employer Branding

Running head: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS OF EMPLOYER BRANDING 1
Challenges and Solutions of Employer Branding
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CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS OF EMPLOYER BRANDING 2
Challenges and Solutions of Employer Branding
Premium conglomerates have an exquisite approach to the allocation of capital. They
manage their money such that they can regularly shift capital from enterprises that have low
returns to businesses that offer high returns. Notably, most of the underperforming
conglomerates tend to have a passive approach to the allocation of funds. They occasionally
spread their investments more broadly over various sectors of their businesses. These are done
without considering whether the business is performing or underperforming. Contrary, premium
conglomerates focus primarily on accountability and performance; they share a common
approach to compensation of incentives, which is tied to the overall performance of the business.
Thus, the latter’s performance rigorous strategic reviews for all their central enterprises.
Importantly, they assume that changes are inevitable, and that the response needs to be swift.
Employer branding is also a significant concern to established firms, especially for those
who want to stay competitive in a talent-driven job market. Some of the challenges facing
employer branding include; lack of employer brand consistency, lack of collaboration, and
inadequate resource allocation (Owers, 2017). Fortunately, some of the established firms have
made strategic steps in solving employer branding. For instance, companies should offer a
customer-quality career site that showcases the opportunities it provided; it should also
demonstrated the culture of the firm. Conversely, a company should use social media sites as a
branding tool, which will publicize its image (Pateman, n.d.). The firm should be active on social
networks, which will provide original content that portrays its message and allows job seekers to
interact with it.
Case Study of Pakistan’s Premium Conglomerate: Hashoo Group

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Diversification is a vital strategy for the development and financial companies globally,
including premium conglomerates in Pakistan (Nguyen, 2018). The purpose of “Pakistan’s
premium conglomerate” is to improve the lives of consumers’ daily; this is made possible well-
known companies that are organized into enterprise divisions (DIL NED University, 2018). The
Hashoo Group has emerged as “Pakistan’s premium conglomerate” with a diverse global
business portfolio. The organization has at least 5,000 workers in the hospitality industry alone.
Also, it operates the “Pearl-Continental” and “Hotel One” brands with the presence in all major
cities in Pakistan along with “Marriott franchise hotels.”
Hashoo Group of companies has at least nine five star hotels, which cover an average of
32 meters square per room, and each is fitted with seamless and reliable wireless connectivity.
The essence of this is that the comfort conditions improve guest satisfaction, and communication
between staff members, and the management department. Unfortunately, the former has
experienced some challenges such as the existing infrastructure was at least 20 years old with
access points deployed by Aruba. This could not penetrate the guests’ hotel rooms. In spite of
this fact, the legacy Wi-Fi technology did not cope with increasing demand from more digitally
savvy guests such as weddings and conferences. Hence, guests experienced slow browsing and
frequent disconnection from Wi-Fi that caused at least 60 complaints a day to the hotel
management. Consequently, the hotel needed IT staff to be on call 24 hours a day, which the
premium conglomerate did not offer.
General Factors Influencing Hashoo Group Adapting Digital Transformation
The Hashoo Group earlier struggled with end-to-end aid for the wireless infrastructure,
and Wi-Fi experience of guests. Thus, the “premium conglomerate” partnered with various IT
companies such as Aruba and “Ruckus Wireless”, which did not provide enough “on-the-

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ground” system engineers, or training for a staff member in Pakistan. Therefore, the previous
service provider was only offering one engineer for 200 million Pakistanis’; this means that any
problem would not be sorted out straight away, which left guests extremely disappointed.
According to Ruckus (2017), the CIO of Hashoo Group note:
Our company philosophy focuses around delivering the best hotel experience to our
guests. We want them to come to us, not just because we dominate the market but
because we offer the best quality of service, and Wi-Fi is absolutely no exception. Having
been around the block in wireless tech, I believe the Ruckus Wireless BeamFlex
Adaptive Antenna Technology is world-leading in managing Wi-Fi signal interference,
and it’s becoming the de facto standard in the hospitality industry (p.1-2).
The stability in the economy of Pakistan has boosted the growth of the premium
conglomerate, which has enabled it to adopt the digital era in its operation. This is evident as the
global financial institutions; for instance, the IMF expressed an expected growth in Pakistan’s
economy by five percent in 2016. The Pakistanis Rupee had a steady value against the U.S
currency, while the inflation rate was at three percent in the same year. However, the electricity
generation capability remained short in demand as the niche varied from 5000MW to 6000MW,
which hurt Pakistan’s economy. In 2016, the Pakistani government began an initiative with
Chinese assistance whereby the energy industry had be given priority to subdue the energy
shortages by the year 2017, or 2018. This was an essential milestone for Hashoo Group as the
power issues it experienced could be solved, which would assist the “premium conglomerate” to
have a smooth transition to the digital era.
The execution of CPEC suggested that an investment of 42 billion dollars was needed to
solve the power issues by 2018; this slightly affected the GDP growth curve of Pakistan in 2016.
Fortunately, the CPEC enhanced the expansion of the Pakistanis economy. Notably, energy is the
heart of modern technology such as Wi-Fi that Hashoo Group depends on to meet its customer

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expectation. Nevertheless, the initiative of Pak Arm under “Zarb-e-Azb” has completed a two-
year operation, which has dramatically reduced terror attacks. From 2016, the Army was focused
on eradicating terrorism as it had been a major barrier to guest arrival in Pakistan, which severely
affected the operations of Hashoo Group. Thus, such efforts by the Pakistanis government were
welcome as the operations of the “premium conglomerate” depended on the stability of the
nation (Pakistan Services Ltd, 2016). The federal government was making steady progress in
infrastructure development, especially the railway and road networks, enhancing the creation of
thermal, hydel, nuclear, and renewable energy. The road and railway networks meant that guests
would easily access hotels owned by Hashoo Group, which enabled the enterprise to embrace the
digital era.
The growth of the Pakistanis hospitality sector mainly relies on corporate and youth
activities, increased leisure linked activities, and tourism (Arshad, Iqbal, and Shahbaz, 2017).
Importantly, the needs of the hospitality sector also depend on laws and regulations set by the
government. In 2016, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and the UK expressed their interests in joining CPEC,
which would boost the operations of the Hashoo Group to the digital phase (Pakistan Services
Ltd, 2016). Alternatively, the latter was accountable for protecting its environment, and
enhancing sustainability. This was made possible by regular training performed by employees on
extreme care for environment protection, saving energy and water.
Hashoo Group’s Structural Operations that Influence Digital Transformation
The basic operation of the “premium conglomerate” has dramatically impacted its effects
in adapting to digital transformation in Pakistan. Pakistan Services Ltd. (2018) suggests that the
operations of Hashoo Group depend on its staff members providing quality services, which has
made it a leading hospitality brand in Pakistan. The former believes that its continued success

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and development is attributed to its staff members who go an extra mile in meeting the
consumers’ needs, and building trust within the Group. Conversely, Hashoo Group operates in a
fast-paced world that changes constantly, and faces challenges from various technological
advancements. Also, the “premium conglomerate” need to adapt to digital transformation was
attributed by the large workforce and increasing competition.
Most of the workforce at Hashoo Group is at least 38 years, which consists of more than
50 percent of millennials. This made the organization to focus on which strategies may be
appropriate to its HR that will address the new workforce’s changing attitude towards the work
environment. To address these challenges and maintain Hashoo Group as a brand to be imitated
in Pakistan, its HR strategic vision is on being a growing HR team, enabling its business lines,
and energizing the performance of Hashoo team. Therefore, the ‘premium conglomerate”
focuses on three primary areas to attain its vision and adapt to digital transformation
successfully: performance-based culture, worker engagement, and organizational agility
(Capgemini Research Institute, 2018).
Hashoo Group’s first worker engagement evaluation was conducted through an
independent consultant. The survey suggests that 83 percent of its employees are happy and
properly engaged. The obtained results were shared with workers, and the “premium
conglomerate” promised to empower and improve the working conditions of its employees.
Also, Hashoo Group promised to include its workers in the action plan (Pakistan Services Ltd.,
2018). Such efforts assisted the former in adapting to the digital era where employees are
included in future endeavors of the company, and the appropriate technology that would boost
the Group’s performance.