How a brand defied its category conventions to stand out and begin the journey of becoming an attractive place to work.

The challenge.

Guardian Life Insurance of America (Guardian Life) is a 158-year old organisation. Not only is it tremendously stable and venerable, it is counted among the Fortune 250 companies as it continues to hold its spot decade after decade as one of the foremost financial services company in the US.

None of this seemed to hold water - or worse, was even known - when Guardian went recruiting. Typically, the recent management or engineering graduate did not consider insurance as a domain to build a long-term career in. Part of the challenge for Guardian India can be termed a ‘Category Problem’. Most of the called KPOs (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) players struggle with defining their employee proposition compellingly. The clients are often offshore, the working hours at times, can be at odds with normal waking hours in India and the popularly held notion is that there is nothing much to learn.

Guardian India too has not been an exception to this. Despite being a 100% owned subsidiary of a Fortune 250 company with an incredible track record of upholding consumer and employee standards, it is considered a short-term, well-paid stepping stone to better opportunities.

Demonstrating to the audience how Guardian is changing the way work gets done by talking about the new motivations, attitudes, values, and drive of Guardian senior management and how it is complementary to our audience’s career aspirations. Let our ideas drive a certain buzz – both in offline and online circles-to help Guardian recruit, motivate, engage, and retain incredible emerging and young talent.

Our work with Guardian is two-fold. While we designed a strategy to imbibe a corporate identity for Guardian and establish them as a valued employer for a young graduate, we also worked towards scripting a cohesive strategy to retain the young talent already at Guardian. It involved designing a comprehensive long-term employee value proposition – simply put, designing a tangible ‘culture’ at Guardian.

Immediate-term initiatives were kicked off to amp up workforce vitality and set the needle moving. We started with leveraging the social media presence and crafted a stack of activities to create a buzz and energy in the Guardian offices that pulls their employees in every morning with enthusiasm and a sense of belonging. Day-to-day topical stories through a robust social media plan droves engagement.

social media.

Storytellers has initiated, planned, managed and delivered events to build camaraderie and instil a sense of pride among the associates.

managing Guardian’s
pan-India brand launch.

A film made on the occasion of the relaunch:

collaterals for events.

others.

posters.

collaterals for initiatives
for creating “Corporate Apostles”.

In the long term, our aim is to create brand advocates from within Guardian. No celebrity endorsement or advertising campaign can beat the power of one of your own espousing your cause.

Our work at Guardian this year will be to co-create differentiators that will define the employee experience. These differentiators are the three filters through which every piece of work passes through. The first is that Guardian is truly a ‘Glocal’ organization, integrating the best of global and local. This can include processes, people, products, knowledge and the employee experience. The second is that Guardian wishes to see itself as not just a workplace but a community of like-minded people. People for whom work is so much fun, it becomes a powerful excuse to come out of home, every single day. The third is that Guardian wishes to grow into a Learning Organization. This perhaps is the most important distinction.