A session at Employee Benefits Connect New York will set out why HR departments should align themselves with the branding of the rest of the business.

Momeyer-Alan-LoewsCorporation-2014

Alan Momeyer, vice president of HR at Loews Corporation, will lead a session titled The role of HR in shaping company strategy at Employee Benefits Connect in New York on March 25, 2014.

He said: “When HR didn’t function well, when it wasn’t integrated into the business, it was because HR departments had their own philosophy of what they were supposed to do.

“They were thinking of the field of HR and what the fads were, and everyone was trying to outdo each other. That created very dysfunctional HR departments, in many cases, which were not seen by senior business people as part of the business.”

The idea behind branding HR starts with the fact that every employer has a business philosophy of what it is trying to communicate about its own products and services, said Momeyer.

“There is a way to take that business philosophy and create an HR strategy around it.”

For instance, one of Loews Corporation’s subsidiaries is Loews Hotels, a luxury lodging organization with a four-diamonds rating. Its branding for HR is ‘Four diamonds for guests requires four diamonds for employees’.

“It becomes an over-riding strategy that you have to create HR programs in every area – talent acquisition, benefits, compensation, employee relations, labor relations – that are the luxury equivalent of the guest experience,” said Momeyer.

“It then becomes completely tied to what the employer is trying to do on the business end, so there is no difference.”

The session will also aim to answer a range of questions, including:

  • How is the role of HR changing?
  • What value do high performers put on reputation or mission, vision or values and career development?
  • How do you sell your organization for talent acquisition purposes?
  • Which talent acquisition models – conventional and unconventional – really delivered in 2013?

Employee Benefits Connect New York will be held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York on March 25 2014.

Register to attend the event for free.