IWC JOURNAL: Engineer yourself – IWC’s Employer Branding

EMPLOYEES SHARE THEIR INDIVIDUAL SUCCESS STORIES AT IWC IN A NEW FILM

The war for talent has become the new normal. To stay at the forefront, IWC has gathered a group of exceptional talents, that is, four mentors and their respective mentees, to talk about their success stories at IWC in a short film. Talent Acquisition & Global Employer Branding Manager Sara Heidecke, who led the project, explains what the film is all about and grants us an exclusive peek behind the scenes.

Tim is now team lead in the final inspection department

Alex started his internship in purchasing

Emily’s energy and eloquence helped her get promoted to Lead of Guest Relations

WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE

JOURNAL: How did you come up with the idea to create an employer branding video?

Sara Heidecke: The IWC Employer Value Proposition (EVP) answers the question of what makes us unique as an employer and what we stand for. Using the EVP, we make a value proposition to potential and existing employees and show them why we are the right employer for them.

The whole process of creating an EVP started with the creation and definition of our company values – the ICARE Values. The EVP was then identified through workshops with our employees in order to identify what truly makes IWC unique. The key to a successful EVP is authenticity – it needs to be truly lived by the employees. The video is the visualization of this EVP.

What’s the objective of the video?

The video shows 4 different stories of a mentor, mentee pair – each with a different type of career path within IWC, each with a different personal and professional background. The objective of the video is to show the EVP (Employer Value Proposition) of Engineer Yourself. Become part of the Journey. As well as the attributes of the IWC culture that are connected to this.

It was a great change of pace and experience for [our employees] since many of them have never been involved in something like this.

Video overlay image of two IWC employers having a conversation at the office premises.

A LOOK BEHIND THE SCENES

Take us behind the scenes. Any challenges, bloopers or embarrassing mishaps during the video shoot that you’d like to share with us?

The call times were extremely early – to shoot the scene in the train, we had to get the train at 7:05 from the Hauptbahnhof in Zurich. Before that we also had to get a couple of shots on the platform as well as making sure everyone got into hair and make-up on time – this meant we were there at 5 am. One of the most important shots that we needed to get was Emily looking out onto the Rheinfall through the train window. We literally had 5 seconds to get this shot and only one time to do it. This meant that everyone was extremely alert and tense on the train.

What was great for our employees to experience was to see how a professional video shoot happens - they were amazed that it required such a large crew (10 people from the film crew, hair and makeup, a stylist, a person for the sound) – and the waiting times in between shots to readjust light or conditions. It was a great change of pace and experience for them since many of them have never been involved in something like this.

If you look closely, you will see that there is a filter effect on parts of the video – this looks a little bit like a haze. This was achieved through a hazer – to get this effect ended up being a lot more difficult than we thought, since the ventilation system in the HQ is automatic and always sucked the haze right away. Without the help of our infrastructure team, we would have not been able to do it (they were on call all day for air conditioning, opening and closing window blinds, moving furniture, etc.).

Last but not least: Coffee and Food. I have never experienced a group of people eating so much and consuming so much coffee!

Virginie and Walter during a product team meeting

Thomas’ team assembling the IWC manufacture caliber 69

Virginie & Walter: “A career means grabbing opportunities when they are presented to you”

Gaelle & Emily: “When I started at IWC I was impressed by the international vibe of the place.”

Alexander & Susanne: “IWC is like its watches: unique, innovative and exciting.”

Tim and Thomas: “Everyone at IWC deserves the support that I received.”

ATTRACTING THE BEST TALENT WORLDWIDE

Why is it important for a brand like IWC to produce a video of this kind?

One reason is that, even though the brand and products of IWC are well known – IWC isn’t necessarily known as an employer. In order to achieve the goals that we have as a company, we need to make sure that we are able to employ and attract the best talent from all over the world in the future.

This visualization of our Employer Value Proposition allows us to do this. The video and the pictures that were taken in connection are the basis of integrating this in the entire candidate lifecycle. We will have consistent messaging throughout all of the different touchpoints that we have with our candidates.

Can you tell us a bit about the protagonists? What’s their background and why did you choose them?

The stories are based off the different success stories which we post regularly on our IWC intranet and on LinkedIn. We chose these protagonists because they show the different types of employees at IWC – different in respect to the backgrounds that they have, their education and professional skills as well as the path that they have taken at IWC.

Emily, for example, started as an intern and developed into a leadership function quite quickly. Tim started as a watchmaking apprentice and developed into a team lead as well. Virginie started in one department and moved into another area of expertise with the support of Walter. Alex started as an intern, moved into a full-time position, and then moved to a position within a market – always making a cross departmental move.

However you like, you have the ability to Engineer Yourself, and become part of your career journey at IWC – and in the end, we all meet at the coffee machine 😉

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