A Business Case Analysis: Bytedance and Baidu's Talent Strategies

This project presents a business case analysis comparing Bytedance and Baidu's strategies for attracting and retaining talent. The research investigates how these companies leverage employer branding and compensation systems. The project utilizes case studies, literature reviews, and questionnaire surveys to evaluate employee satisfaction and the effectiveness of these strategies. Key findings highlight the use of employer branding through internal communication channels like ByteFan and ByteJun, and the importance of competitive compensation packages including base salary, performance-based pay, and stock options. The analysis also covers Baidu's focus on AI-related employer awards and campus recruitment, alongside Bytedance's emphasis on corporate culture and employee benefits. The research concludes with recommendations based on the analysis of the data and literature.

A Business case presentation
I Research Findings & Discussion
1.1 Research objectives & Research methods Overview
The topic of this research is how Bytedance and Baidu attract and retain talent
through employer branding strategies and compensation strategies. I completed my
research by leaving a goal. The goals are: 1. Use a case study to explain how
Bytedance and Baidu use employer brand and compensation system to attract and
retain talents. 2. Use a case study to show how Bytedance and Baidu use employer
brands and compensation systems to attract and retain talent. 3. Case studies and
literature studies are used to illustrate the advantages of Baidu and Bytedance in
employing employer brands and salary management. 4. The questionnaire survey
reflects employee satisfaction and the influence of Bytedance and Baidu on employer
brand and salary management.5. Use the literature to explain employer branding and
compensation management principles to attract and retain talent. 6. Put forward
reasonable suggestions based on the above research and analysis.
Qualitative and quantitative research is used to conduct the analysis. Questionnaire is
used to accomplish Goal 4. Case studies are used to accomplish Goal 1, 2, 3and 5.
1.2 Research Findings &Discussion
1.2.1 research analysis from literature method or case study
objective 1
1.Case studies are used to determine that Baidu and Bytedance use
employer branding and compensation management strategies to
attract and retain talent.

Employer brand is embodied in employment behavior and the
combination of functions, economies, and benefits associated with
the employer. As the image symbol of the employer, it is manifested
in the value, policy and behavior system of the enterprise to
motivate and retain the existing employees and attract the potential
employees.（Tim Ambler（1996（
Historically, the development of employer brand mainly experienced
two stages, the first phase mainly by inside publish, internal
newspaper, build internal corporate culture, foreign small show, in
the second phase of development, in addition to the content of the
first stage, new media content increased, from the internal
construction to fully open, deep shaping corporate image, to avoid
the stereotype, in addition to baidu and bytes to beat, Many other
companies also opt for employer branding。
Bytedance's employer brand is mainly made up of a public account
called ByteFan and a Douyin account called ByteJun. From the
horizontal comparison of the whole new media of domestic
employer brands, "ByteFan" is worthy of thumb up in terms of
content quality, reading volume, interaction and innovation. I will
mainly analyze the content of "Byte Fan" public account over the
past year to see how to do the employer brand.（tarrant（2021（
Baidu in 2018 won the multiple employers brand award,
respectively, the best employers for college students, college
students' Internet industry best employers, overseas students the
best employers, best smart employers, model 100 employers in
China, human word digital management model, and so on six big
prizes, cause the extensive concern of college and business.
Compensation management, under the guidance of organizational
development strategy, is a dynamic management process to
determine, allocate and adjust the employee compensation
payment principle, compensation strategy, compensation level,
compensation structure and compensation composition.(Stephen
O'Byrne,1995)
The level management of compensation means that the
compensation should meet the requirements of internal consistency

and external competition, and make dynamic adjustment according
to the performance, ability characteristics and behavior attitude of
employees. Including determining the salary level of management
team, technical team and marketing team; Determine the
remuneration levels of subsidiaries and expatriate employees of
multinational companies; Determining the compensation level of
scarce talent and determining the compensation level compared to
competitors; Compensation system management, which includes
not only basic salary, performance pay, option stock management,
but also how to provide employees with personal growth, job
satisfaction, good career expectations and employability
management; The system management of compensation refers to
the extent to which compensation decisions should be made open
and transparent to all employees, who should be responsible for
designing and managing the compensation system, and how to
establish and design the budget, audit and control system of
compensation management.
Bytedance not only has a clear hierarchy of management system,
but also has a unique compensation and welfare care system. At
Bytedance, employees are paid 15 salaries according to their rank,
with 1.2 times overtime pay for each week. Students with excellent
products can even get 18 salaries.
The salary structure of Baidu Company consists of three parts: First,
the guaranteed salary, which has little to do with the performance of
the employees and is only related to their positions; Second,
variable pay, closely linked to employee performance, in accordance
with the employee's performance in the company within the scope
of the selection of the quarterly or annual star of "baidu", although
this is just a kind of honor, but also affect the year-end appraisal of
performance salary and annual bonus and performance wage
change is also in accordance with the performance appraisal result
gives the corresponding performance increases; Third, the company
incorporated a company-wide employee stock option plan into its
compensation system when it was founded in 1999. Unlike other
high-tech Internet companies such as sohu and Sina, Baidu's stock
option plan is available to all employees, including the company's
front desk staff, which is the best benefit plan given to employees
by Baidu.（Liu（2011（
Objective 2

Use case studies to show how Bytedance and Baidu use employer brands and
compensation systems to attract and retain talent.
Bytebeat is the byte norm
Bytedance now has more than 100,000 employees worldwide,
which, put together, is equivalent to the average population of a
county in China. Do this public number, certainly for more than one
hundred thousand staff service. This is a display window of the
enterprise and employees, as well as a place to obtain internal
information.
In addition, this number will also help to spread and precipitate the
corporate culture of Byte, attract more talents to join, and also allow
ordinary users of Byte products to see more inside of Byte that they
cannot see from other channels. Therefore, no matter it is the
aggregation of corporate culture or the dissemination of employer
brand, such an information channel is needed.
Byte-style is the core of the content
At the heart of ByteFan's content is ByteDance's corporate culture.
In the past year, I have paid special attention to the newly added
item of "multi-compatibility", which is basically carried out in
accordance with the corporate culture.
The specific content of byte fan pursues the ultimate, pragmatic and
dare to do, open and humble, frank and clear, always
entrepreneurial.As you can see, many contents of Byte Fan are
expressed around this core value. How did you get into Bytedance?!
"Is a way to tell a diverse and inclusive culture through Byte's
diverse recruitment ideas and stories.Another example is "I squatted
at home for a month, my parents impressed me with new eyes",
which shows that every byte person is a unique individual of value
through various small achievements made by byte people at home
during the epidemic.（Sohu,2020)
Bytedance's compensation strategy

The salary range for fresh graduates and junior engineers is around
200,000-300,000 yuan, and the salary for senior engineers is around
700,000-1.4 million yuan, almost the same as Alibaba. Bytedance's
overseas salary is very high, especially the term equity, even New
Gard can get 250,000, in addition to the industry's top level of
salary, Bytedance's welfare is also very rich, the annual bonus is
generally 3-6 months, and allows some employees to exchange the
year-end bonus option. We also provide five social insurance and
one housing fund and supplementary medical insurance, free buffet
meals of 150 yuan per person, afternoon tea and snacks, etc.
Bytedance's salary is adjusted every six months, and only 30%
participate in each time. Since its establishment, Bytedance has
always kept the tradition of big and small weeks. You have to work
overtime on two Sundays in each month. If you work overtime, the
company will pay you 120% of the salary, and you can ask for leave.
About optionality, optionality is better 2-1 ability can have
optionality, commonly 22 ability has optionality, ability has
optionality, buy back optionality commonly 20% fold with market
price. The vested option employee can take it away. （Ta（2021（
Enable talents to introduce and connect their dreams with
"wisdom"
In the eyes of the outside world, artificial intelligence has become
the most recognizable label after Baidu's search. The two AI-related
employer awards, "Best Intelligent Employer" and "Model of Human
Resource Digital Management Award", became a big highlight of his
awards. This award is due to Baidu's exploration and attempt to
combine its strong AI technology advantages with human resources
work. Different from the traditional school recruitment activities in
the past, Baidu used the smart school recruitment in the 2019
campus recruitment, according to the job demand and resume
content, tailored for graduates to meet the job demand of
personalized written test, so that the job search becomes more
intelligent. In this year's recruitment season, many college students
in the process of online application, it is through the wisdom of the
school recruitment assistant Xiao Du's help to lock the desired
position.
The recruitment of overseas schools radiates China's

influence on AI
In 2018, with the gathering and outbreak of AI power on a global
scale, overseas talents have become the object of competition for
domestic science and technology enterprises. In the spring of 2018,
Baidu parachuted more than 20,000 kilometers into the United
States, and traveled to nine cities to recruit students. In 32 days,
Baidu went to Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California,
Berkeley, the nine top universities in the United States to recruit
overseas students. Besides, we also carried out technical exchange
activities for Apollo unmanned driving, DuerOS voice interaction
platform and PaddlePaddle deep learning open source framework.
With its overseas campus recruitment activities, Baidu has given
Chinese Internet companies a certain degree of visibility and
reputation among overseas universities. As a result, Baidu won the
"Best Employer for Overseas Students" award.
Corporate culture + room for growth = brand appeal of the
employer
As the post-90s generation has become the main group of job-
seekers, corporate culture, working atmosphere and growth space
have become a big weapon for enterprises to attract talents. In the
selection of "Best Employers for College Students", corporate value
recognition, originality, openness and so on become important
indicators. Baidu in the corporate culture, the implementation of the
"simple and reliable" corporate culture, has been recognized by the
new workplace.
In fact, it takes more than culture to keep new employees in the
workplace. Take this year's Baidu Spring Recruitment as an example,
I went to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University
of Science and Technology and the University of Hong Kong to have
face-to-face exchanges with nearly 1,000 students. In the process of
interaction, Baidu's mature tutor system and complete promotion
mechanism became the focus of students' attention. Interestingly,
at a company with a well-established management model like Baidu,
new employees often have the opportunity to take on big roles. The
tradition of "a little horse and a big cart", which is the most well-
known, gives new people more opportunities and growth. Baidu
University is also the main push to help new workplace transition
into the "Baidu growth" training course, the new students can join
this mysterious organization to "charge" themselves. At the same

time, the existence of all kinds of clubs will also provide students
with more free space to release their interests. This kind of
enterprise atmosphere, which combines learning and growth with
leisure and entertainment, is favored by graduates.
Go deep into the "circle of friends" of talent front line fine
cultivation colleges
How to innovate the school-enterprise cooperation mode and carry
out the seamless connection of talent training has become an
important way for various enterprises to build their employer brand
image and show their influence. Baidu won the "Best Career
Development Cooperation Award from the Advisory Committee of
Tsinghua University" this time because of its long-term emphasis on
campus work and continuous innovation of the cooperation model.
It is understood that in order to strengthen exchanges and
cooperation with colleges and universities, to bring the industry's
cutting-edge technology and thinking to colleges and universities,
Baidu has cooperated with a number of domestic colleges and
universities to participate in college talent training through teacher
training, curriculum co-construction, cooperative competition,
technical exchanges and other forms. For example, initiated by
Baidu, the Shenquan doctoral study tour program is jointly
participated by 20 top universities in China, including Peking
University, Tsinghua University and University of Science and
Technology of China. Tsinghua University, Peking University, the
University of Hong Kong, Stanford University, the Wharton School of
the University of Pennsylvania and other well-known universities to
visit Baidu from time to time for exchanges and other forms of
cooperation has become a "routine operation".
It is worth noting that Baidu also attaches great importance to the
on-site experience of students in various exchange activities. In
September this year, the recruitment team brought a device named
"AI Recruitment Box" to the university station of Chinese Academy
of Sciences at the recruitment information conference. The device is
1:1 to restore the office environment of Baidu Building and set up
the smart school recruitment experience area, so that students can
feel the real office atmosphere and have a new understanding of
Baidu's smart school recruitment. "This kind of experiential
recruitment is very novel and has created the first of its kind for the
university," said Chang Hongwu, director of the university's
Graduate Career Guidance Center.

As we all know, the employer brand, as an important part of the
overall corporate image, is the passport for the success of the
enterprise in the talent market. As one of the iconic enterprises in
the industry, Baidu has taken a variety of measures to build and
enhance the brand image of employers, showing its own corporate
culture, scientific and technological achievements, growth
empowerment and other strengths, and establishing its brand image
in the campus talent market. The recognition from the field of
human resources and the top universities in China has verified that
Baidu has shortened the distance with college students with its
unique AI gene, and has continuously released its influence in
contact with them and won recognition（Yan（2017（
Compensation management of Baidu
Baidu's stock option plan, commonly known as the "golden
handcuffs" system, is based entirely on the option plans popular
among Silicon Valley high-tech companies. In the early days when
Baidu was founded, the company put forward the salary plan in
order to enable employees to focus on the realization of long-term
returns, rather than over-emphasizing the current benefits, when it
was less well-known and competitive. When employees are hired,
the company presents them with two compensation packages to
choose from. One is "lower base salary + higher stock options". The
second is "higher base salary stock options", of course, this "high
and low" level of the definition is only as far as the two packages are
compared. In addition, the company stipulates that stock options
are awarded over four years, with the employee receiving 1/4 of the
total options in the first year and 1/48 of the options every month
starting in the second year. At the beginning of 2004, the company
further split the options held by employees into two shares, which
was also the last of the benefits granted to employees before the
company went public. When implementing the compensation
system, Baidu not only depends on the internal situation of the
company, but also considers the compensation into a system. There
are mainly two aspects: one is how to maintain its own
compensation system to be highly competitive in the market. The
company pays close attention to the changes of the industry salary
level every year. It not only relies on the salary survey data and
reports provided by professional companies, but also knows the
salary price of core employees within the company through the
salary situation among the industry. The company has made a
systematic and comprehensive consideration when positioning its

salary level's competitiveness in the external market. Since the
company adopts an all-employee stock option plan, the basic
compensation plan is designed, especially when determining the
basic compensation level, at a price slightly lower than that of
companies in the same industry. Generally speaking. Basic
compensation for key staff in the company
Are lower than the salaries of comparable positions in other
companies in the industry. Baidu, the higher the position in the
company's employees the basic salary gap compared with the
industry, the greater the is considering different positions held by
the employee stock option's quantity, the higher the position a
because of employee compensation plan should be linked to the
company's strategic performance, the number of stock options and
the master is also considerable.
Performance oriented
Baidu's management style is very similar to that of a Silicon Valley
tech company. This is related to the experience of the founder of the
company who once worked and studied in the United States for a
long time. In general, the company aims to foster a corporate
culture that focuses on employee performance and is entirely
performance-oriented. Baidu pays attention to academic
qualifications and universities when recruiting talents. For example,
from the end of 2004 to the beginning of 2005, it recruited more
than 700 people, most of whom had master's degrees or above, and
most of whom had prestigious backgrounds. But Baidu does not only
use education and school as its criteria. 2005 year in the "baidu
star" program competition final, surrounded by people there is no
lack of some outstanding students of ordinary colleges and
universities. One of them is a high school - student! The so-called
famous school, educational background is only a new employee into
the company and determine the basic salary has a relationship, as
for the new employee after formal work. Educational background
and elite school background fade in a very short time. No matter in
technology, market or business, salary and promotion have nothing
to do with educational background and background. In terms of
salary and promotion, Baidu decides the salary based on work
performance. The relationship between salary and career
development and education, qualifications and major is becoming
increasingly weak, and it is basically linked to the position and
performance of employees. In Baidu, a company that is good at
technology, the human resources department has designed double-
channel career development channels of technology and

management for employees, especially technical employees, and
formulated corresponding salary levels. At the same time, the
comparison between the levels of technology and management is
also stipulated. For example, the technical level includes nine
technical levels, such as software engineer, senior engineer,
architect, chief architect, etc., while the salary level of employees is
completely determined according to the technical level of
employees. In order to cooperate with the technical level system,
the company has also set up a technical title selection committee,
which is held by the company's recognized skilled staff part-time.
Skill grade selection is held twice a year. Once an employee's title is
established. The corresponding salary grade is given on the
company horse. The underlying compensation culture of Baidu is. As
long as your performance is excellent, as long as you have strong
skills. And you'll get rewarded accordingly. For example, a manager
of the technology department is only a junior college student in a
private university in China. Due to outstanding performance, she
was promoted from an ordinary technical employee to the technical
manager of the department within just two years, and her salary
level matches the technical level of her senior engineer. Due to the
dual-channel career development model, the company also provides
opportunities for employees to show their abilities everywhere. Not
long ago. A manager in the company's commercial department
offered to switch to a technical position because he felt he was
better suited to technical work. After an accurate examination. The
manager's technical level completely met the job requirements, so
the company immediately assigned him a technical position, and
determined the corresponding technical and salary levels for him
according to the technical selection committee's professional title
evaluation level. Because the human resource department has
made a reasonable and scientific comparison of salary levels
between the two channels of technology and management, it is very
flexible and convenient for employees to change positions in the
company. In addition, for some team-based projects, the company
also adopts a team reward plan. For every project the team
completes, the company rewards the team members based on their
contribution or gives them a general raise. These programs make
Baidu's compensation management quite flexible and productive.
（Liu（2011（
Objective 3
1. Case studies and literature studies are used to illustrate the

advantages of employing employer brand and performance
management system in Baidu and Bytedance.
Bytedance's Employer Brand Advantage
Bytes to beat the employer brand strategy has brought great
benefits for the company, for the society to bring 36.17 million jobs,
only in 2018, won the most employers in bytes to beat respectively,
2018 annual top employer, the employer, the most popular with the
workplace employers, best practice employers, best employers in
China, 2018 very top employers across the country, 2019
Outstanding Award in Human Resource Management, Best
Recruitment Experience Winning these awards not only increased
the company's reputation and popularity, but also increased the
cohesion of the company. Although Bytedance is usually low-key and
pragmatic, the fact that it has won so many employer brand awards
fully demonstrates that the job market recognizes the value of
Bytedance's employers. It makes employees feel that Bytedance is a
big platform for stable development and believes in the power of
young people.
Practice social responsibility and use technology to return
more people
Bytedance applies artificial intelligence to the public welfare sector,
giving back to society with technology and helping more people with
information. Headline Search is a public welfare search project
launched by Bytedance in February 2016. With mature and accurate
geo-push technology, Bytedance is committed to helping all kinds of
lost families find their lost people with scientific and technological
means. As of March 1, 2019, a total of 67,704 missing people have
been posted on Toutiao and 8,521 families have been reunited.
（SEO（2020（
Baidu's employer brand advantage
In the eyes of the outside world, AI has become the most
recognizable label of Baidu after search. It has won the Best
Functional Employer Award and the Model Award for Digital
Management of Human Resource Management, and two AI-related
Employer Awards have become one of the highlights of its awards.
With the post-90s generation becoming the main group of job-
seekers, corporate culture, working atmosphere and growth space

have become a big weapon for enterprises to attract talents. In the
selection of "Best Employers for College Students", corporate value
recognition, originality, openness and so on become important
indicators. Baidu in the corporate culture, the implementation of the
"simple and reliable" corporate culture, has been recognized by the
new workplace. In fact, it takes more than culture to keep new
employees in the workplace. Take this year's Baidu Spring
Recruitment as an example, I went to the Chinese University of
Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and
the University of Hong Kong to have face-to-face exchanges with
nearly 1,000 students. In the process of interaction, Baidu's mature
tutor system and complete promotion mechanism became the focus
of students' attention. Interestingly, at a company with a well-
established management model like Baidu, new employees often
have the opportunity to take on big roles. The tradition of "a little
horse and a big cart", which is the most well-known, gives new
people more opportunities and growth. Baidu University is also the
main push to help new workplace transition into the "Baidu growth"
training course, the new students can join this mysterious
organization to "charge" themselves. At the same time, the
existence of all kinds of clubs will also provide students with more
free space to release their interests. This kind of enterprise
atmosphere, which combines learning and growth with leisure and
entertainment, is favored by graduates.（Science,2017)
Advantages of Baidu compensation management
In Baidu's compensation management system, the company also
provides a variety of employee benefits. For example, high-tech
companies provide employees with free breakfast and
reimbursement for overtime transportation costs due to the long
working time and intensity. For some employees with special work
tasks, they also implement a reimbursement system for
communication expenses. In addition to the statutory insurance for
employees. The company also pays for other commercial insurance
programs for employees. In addition, the company has set aside
special team-building funds for each department to use for activities
within the department. The benefits that best reflect Baidu's "Silicon
Valley culture" began in early 2005. The company is recruiting
health care doctors across the country and is offering an annual
salary of $100,000 plus stock options. Because of the fast pace and
intensity of work in high-tech companies, engineers often suffer
from a characteristic "Silicon Valley Syndrome". That is, tension,
anxiety, and poor thinking. In response to this phenomenon, the