Branding Inside Out

Employees are the architects of a company’s success and failure. Today, when companies are competing for top talent in the market, employee experience is something that can be used as a magnet for talent.

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs

The employee experience is extremely valuable and plays a huge role in building and solidifying the reputation of an employer. If an employer’s reputation is strong enough, top talent might be willing to overlook a tedious experience. But if the employer brand is poor, even the best employee experience won’t get you onto the radar of most in-demand job seekers.

“To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.” — Doug Conant

The nature of the employee experience is directly dependent on your ability to deliver on your EVP. When employees understand and meet employer expectations and are rewarded accordingly, they’re likely to view the experience of working for your organization as a positive one. And a positive employee experience translates to better performance for the employee and the organization as a whole.

Employee Experience is the New Branding

A study by Forbes found that companies that effectively leverage employee advocacy experience a 10% increase in customer satisfaction and a 15% increase in sales conversion rates.

“Engaged employees are the engine of your brand.” — Richard Branson

If we survey anyone who’s working, whether it be CEOs, Chefs, Drivers, or Engineers, they all want the same thing: to be happy. When we talk about happiness at work, it doesn’t mean ping pong tables or spa days. It’s all about how they are treated by the leaders and by the people they work with. So, here are a few ideas to make employees happy at work:

• Trust & Respect: Leaders often say, “We trust our employees; we empower our employees,” and when an employee needs approval of an expense which wasn’t planned but happened because of a client’s change of mood, we make them take the approval of 3 line managers involved. All the trust goes to the ground. You have to hand your employees the trust to do whatever is possible and right to make them actually feel great.
• Fairness: The thing that erodes trust in an organization faster than anything else is when employees feel that they are being treated unfairly. You have to treat all the employees the same, regardless of their rank, tenure, age, or their experience in their job category compared to anyone else.
• Listening: To be a listener who connects to all types of people, we have to unlearn a few things. We all have been taught about active listening, eye contact, an intense stare, and a compassionate look. That’s not listening; repeating what a person says is not listening. Being humble and always searching, hunting, and going deep to get the best idea possible, that is what listening is.“Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.” –Andy Stanley Employees want to know when they talk to you and share an idea, did you actually consider it when you made a decision? Because everyone wants what they say to matter so much that you change your mind.
• Change: We all know what all we need to change, the things we need to do differently. The way you behave, the way you treat others, the way you respond, and the way you support defines the work experience for everyone around.

There are no brand ambassadors better than employees.

“When we think of marketing, we think of marketing to our customers, perhaps to persuade them to get more of what they are getting. But your market is equally important. Because they are the people who make the brand alive for the customers.

You have to give employees a taste of the principles and values you have for your clients. It’s the best way to help employees make a powerful emotional connection to the products and services you offer. Without a connection, employees are likely to undermine the expectations set by your advertising. In some cases, this is because they simply don’t understand what you have promised the public, so they end up working at cross-purposes. In other cases, it may be that they don’t actually believe in the brand and feel disengaged, or worse, hostile toward the company. We’ve found that when people care about and believe in the brand, they’re motivated to work harder, and their loyalty to the company increases. Employees are unified and inspired by a common sense of purpose and identity.

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” — Jeff Bezos

Unfortunately, in most companies, the values a company shares for their customer and employees are as different as the north and south pole. Many company leaders know it’s important to tell employees about the company’s plans, but they often assume everyone already understands how great the company’s brand is. The folks in charge of communicating within the company usually don’t have the right skills to make the brand exciting to employees. They share information through things like memos and newsletters, but they don’t focus on making the brand stand out. By using some of the same techniques used in ads to talk to employees, leaders need to help them really get what the company is all about and even get excited about it. When employees really understand and believe in the company’s vision, they naturally act in a way that matches up with what the company promises to customers.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams

Series

Rethinking Talent Management

Mapping out Employee Value Proposition

Culture is an Infinite Game