You're struggling to align new hires with your brand identity. How can you ensure they embody it effectively?

Lets take an e.g | At a luxury fashion brand, new employees often struggled to grasp the brand's emphasis on exclusivity and quality. The HR team developed a comprehensive onboarding session dedicated to the company’s history, mission, and core values, which included interactive discussions and real-life examples of how these values were reflected in daily operations. A little bit on HOW ? To align new hires with your brand identity, start by embedding your core values into the hiring process. Clearly communicate these values during interviews and assess candidates for cultural fit. Once onboard, provide thorough orientation sessions that emphasize the importance of these values and how they translate into daily work.

To align new hires with our brand identity, I focus on hiring for fit, creating an immersive onboarding and training program, and providing ongoing mentorship. I ensure clear communication, lead by example, and build an inclusive culture. Regular check-ins and empowering employees to be brand advocates help reinforce our core values: Integrity, Innovation, Customer-Centricity, Collaboration, Accountability, and Respect.

What is more important is consistency in these programs. For instance, just one training session on leadership will not help. These programs should include interactive elements such as role-playing, simulations, and real-world scenarios that reflect the brand’s values and standards. Provide ongoing training opportunities to reinforce these principles and keep employees updated on any brand developments. Pair new hires with experienced mentors who exemplify the brand identity to provide guidance and real-time feedback.

Continuous Messaging might be one the effective ways to reach out and make them aware about the existence! Even hiring is sales and continuous TOM is required.

In my experience, a brand book that explains the direction of the brand based on market and customer data in a way that is clearly understandable for all employees, especially new colleagues, helps a great deal in moving towards the overarching vision on a shared mission with consistent messages. It is important that the strategic statements are also broken down into clear communication strategies and tools that can be used specifically for day-to-day work. Further documents, such as a Tone of Voice Guide and CD Manual, round off the sources of knowledge and application relating to the brand and lead to consistency in communication right from the start.

Best way to manage brand identity is to create brand manual central documentation and each employee follows the same where manual follows by training module

While working with a client, I observed discrepancies in how team members communicated the brand’s value proposition. We created a brand playbook that included approved messaging, visual guidelines, and customer interaction protocols. Regular team meetings were held to discuss brand consistency and address any deviations, ensuring uniformity across all touchpoints. How to address ? Keep it simple by documenting! Ensure consistency in messaging by developing and distributing comprehensive brand guidelines. This document should detail key messages, tone of voice, visual identity, and customer interaction standards. Regularly update and communicate these guidelines to all employees.

Consistency is KEY, given that this phrase is extremely overused now, we still have a long way to go in terms of actually implementing it. Coming to keeping a similar tone of voice on various platforms, not only online but also in offline campaigns. This consistency, would actually provide the new hires with a sort of a PLAYBOOK if I may say so. Giving them some sort of referencing material.

I personally feel that the "BUDDY" approach taken by a lot these new-age startups is extremely effective in such a given scenario. When you're new to a company, the company ethos is not something that comes naturally to you, rather it is an aspect which has to be embedded within an individual. So, speaking to and also shadowing seasoned employees would be the best foot forward.

As much as giving feedback to new hires is important for them, I feel taking feedback FROM them is equally important. There is a high chance that the company/organization could potentially benefit from a new & fresh point of view. In addition, regular feedback session, may it be 1 on 1's or team/group sessions are equally important to reinforce brand voice and may also help expedite the process of understanding the brand as a whole by the new joiners.

All in all I feel, the starting month or two is extremely crucial for the new hires. This period is what will help create a perception about the company. Also introducing them to leaders/executive in other verticals or at least to teams that they might be working with in the near future, makes new hires at ease.

I think it all sums up to the amount of exposure the new hires have in the company. It’s similar to building a habit using the 21 day rule. The more exposure you give to the new hire with their assigned mentor, the better they would understand. But I also believe it depends highly on the new hire, it would require a candidate that is keenly interested in the brand. Don’t struggle too much if the brand core is not embedded into a candidate within a month.

1. Brand Bootcamp: Don't just hire them, induct them into your brand's personality. Create a fun, interactive training that's more than just policies. Make them live and breathe your brand. 2. Buddy System: Pair new hires with brand ambassadors. Let your passionate employees share the brand story first-hand. It's like having a personal brand mentor. 3. Real-life Rewards: Recognize and reward those who truly embody your brand. Not just sales numbers, but how they interact, communicate, and represent you. Make it cool to be brand-centric.