'Room for You': Building an Employer Brand for Everyone - Insights from IHG's VP of Talent Acquisition

Eunice Clements-Tweedie - Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition - discusses IHG's strategy for how employer branding shows up when attracting, recruiting, and retaining talent, as well as how her own journey and learnings have shaped her thinking around purposeful leadership and authenticity.

Note: 'Room for You' has been piloted to our corporate audience only at this stage.

 

The talent of today, are more tuned-in than ever before: they look beyond the profitability of an organisation and prioritise purpose, culture, and opportunities to learn and grow. What’s important for us here at IHG Hotels & Resorts, when it comes to employer brand positioning and activation, is showing these individuals a glimpse into what life at IHG could be like for them, in a truly authentic way.

Over the course of my career, I’ve been very lucky to work for over 20 organisations across a diverse range of industries, including telecoms, banking, consultancy, FMCG, Oil & Gas, the toy industry and, of course, hospitality here at IHG.

Those past experiences have shaped and informed my current role and thinking enormously, and I have been able to learn from each client brand and experience, blending the good, the bad, and sometimes the unexpected to drive a stronger strategy with innovative net results.

 

"As a leader, one valuable lesson I always carry with me is how important adaptability and agility are."

These skills are essential in being able to move forward fast, with a nod to the past. I've been able to blend all those learnings and bring them here with me to IHG, where they’ve been crucial when looking at how we refresh our approach to employer branding and activation externally, and then outwards across the world. 

For our corporate employer brand, we created the ‘Room for You’ concept, which acts as an all-inclusive wrapper for our three key 'employee promise' pillars: ‘Room to Grow’, ‘Room to Belong’, and ‘Room to Make a Difference'.

Framing our corporate employer brand around these 'Rooms' has clear links to our hotels, and to the core driver of IHG: hospitality. But of course, this is also about reaching outside the business and bringing new talent in, so we were clear that these 'Rooms' could not exist in isolation - we needed to make them relevant to an external talent market as well.

To achieve this, we needed the concept to translate globally and regionally across multiple countries and languages, so we did a lot of listening and gathered audience insights from a range of diverse populations here at IHG, tested it, then tested it again.

"When it comes to branding and messaging, if people have to ask you to explain your concept – then you may have to go back to the drawing board, as it’s got to feel natural first time around."

A company’s employer brand needs to feel genuine and representative, and I’m proud to say that here at IHG, where relationships form naturally – from returning guests, current or new owners and, of course, candidates and colleagues, relationships matter. What this means, is that everything we do has people at the forefront, and we shape our branding around that.  We want our corporate employer brand to be unequivocally IHG, and that was the focus of our thinking right from the beginning. 

So, what are the challenges we face, and how do we continue to attract the best talent to IHG?  We know that this is a crowded marketplace, and it has been for many years.  To keep that edge, we must maintain our unique selling proposition so we can stand out from competitors.  There are an incredible number of property and hospitality organisations out there, but I believe that IHG’s ‘edge’ is our warm authenticity, so we need to give people a glimpse into that. This is our shop window, and we can use it to hint at all the opportunities that prospective IHG candidates can expect: opportunities for growth, opportunities to belong, and opportunities to contribute to themselves and to the wider world. 

"I believe that if you’re happy at work, you do your happiest work… when you allow people to explore their ‘360’, they bring all of themselves to work in an authentic manner."

We’re committed to nurturing an inclusive culture where everyone is empowered to be their authentic selves, to thrive, and to make a difference to society.  This commitment manifests in various initiatives. For example, both our ‘Giving for Good’ volunteering month in September and IHG Academy and IHG University provide platforms for either perspective or current colleagues to explore avenues for personal and professional growth, whether that's laterally or horizontally. So important to offer something for everyone.

Sponsoring London Pride also underscores our dedication to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion, allowing individuals to express their true selves comfortably at work, while our ‘Focus Fridays’ initiative encourages colleagues to prioritise personal development by reducing meetings, which when adopted, has been a real hit. 

As a hospitality business, IHG is extremely diverse, and within the 19 brands that we either help run, manage, or provide services to, we naturally attract huge diversity in talent.  It’s about matching that and giving talent diverse opportunities to participate; ensuring that they are provided with the right tools, nurturing leaders, and enough space to excel and become their best. 'Room for You’ ensures that, for our corporate audience - no matter their background or the journey they’ve taken to be with us - there is a constant and consistent place at IHG for everyone to belong, to grow, and to make a difference. That’s powerful stuff.