The company Magnolia International Ltd. is a Swiss software company, located in Münchenstein, Basel. Starting their business in 1997, they have become an influential company in the area of web content management and have been included in the section “Niche player” of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant 2019, and thus competes against organizations such as Adobe, Sitecore, Oracle, Kentico and Bloomreach (Gartner, 2019). With this rapid growth, the initial start-up culture might need to be adapted to be able to stem the predicted growth, without losing the entrepreneurial spirit that prevailed in the company ever since its foundation. The company Magnolia therefore asked us to propose a suitable Employee Value Proposition (EVP), which is said to be the promise an employer gives to its current and potential employees in terms of what to expect when working in this organization. Furthermore, we were asked to show, how this developed EVP can be promoted in different channels. Both of these research tasks can be found within the research fields of Human Resource Management and Marketing. A third research task was to propose possible corporate values, and the fourth research task should include any other improvements that we can suggest, based on any of our findings throughout the course of this project.

To be able to suggest an EVP to Magnolia, we have conducted a survey and interviews among Magnolia employees. In addition, we have conducted thorough desk research on Magnolia’s competitors and have studies regarding current research on the topics of EVP and culture in IT companies. The main elements that needed to be covered were the strengths of Magnolia, the attributes desired by employees and the characteristics of competitors. To propose ways of promoting the established EVP, we have considered Magnolia’s current employer branding efforts, and with best practices and relevant theory, we have proposed an “as-should” state of employer branding, including measures that should be taken to improve the current channels used and new channels that could be adopted. The corporate values were distilled from our findings in surveys and interviews, and further areas of improvement, that we encountered throughout the project.

The process resulted in a suggestion of an EVP, derived from insights through research, surveys and interviews whilst considering expert literature on the subject. This was proposed in form of a slogan which captured to incorporate a number of diverse values to reflect the culture at Magnolia. Additionally, the analysis of the channels used to promote the respective EVP showed various areas and suggestions, in which the communication could be utilised in order to attract and retain the desired potential employee or employee. Furthermore, four corporate values were proposed to the client, based on various aspects, such as the data derived from the primary research and consideration of literature on the subject of corporate value generation. Lastly, there were general suggestions made to the client, which had arisen during the process of the live project and were deemed to be possibly of use to Magnolia.