What is Your Reputation?

It may seem as though 2017 has been quite the year for Corporate scandal. Some of the world's largest companies (i.e. Uber, United Airlines, The Trump Organization, and Google, to name a few) have been exposed for harassment, fraud, and discrimination. Loyal investors, faithful consumers, and even the average Joe are steering away from some of the largest brands based on moral code and culture.

Culture.

Today's big buzz-word! Everyone is searching for ways to improve it and recruitment and retention are becoming increasingly difficult because of it. So where is the middle ground!? How do we get it right!?

There are so many variables that go into culture and the way it shapes a business. David Mattin, Global Head of Trends and Insights at TrendWatching, recently wrote an insightful article (you can find the link below!) on how culture has become a company's brand. What used to be guarded and private is now the most public piece of a company's reputation.

Reputation.

Another buzz-word! When company's culture is in upheaval, their reputation is immediately discredited, internally and externally.

Internally, company's tend to have three types of employees - the die-hard loyals, the complacent and careless, but most significantly, those who are on the line of the two (for purposes of this article, let's call them the swing). The swing are the one's who require persuasion to stay or leave and a majority of that choice is made on enhancements in culture. Change benefits, increase company or team outings, try a new structure for PTO and/or telecommuting, incorporate corporate wellness, get to know these people personally.

Externally, there are those who are in the recruitment stage. Normally, a majority of these prospective candidates are members of the swing but can be persuaded to loyalty before they even start. How? Just think of the largest generation currently seeking jobs...

Millennials

You knew this would be a buzz-word! Reputation is an absolute requirement to engage and recruit the Millennial and Gen Z age groups who make decisions based on what they see on social media. There are currently 7 million Americans looking for jobs. 7 MILLION. With 6.2 million job openings, that gives almost every "seeker" a position. So why are company's taking so long to hire? For the entrepreneurial, motivated, and excitable millennial, a job is only desirable if there is company presence on platforms that are interacted with daily. These two generations want an inside look at what the day-to-day will be like before interviewing even starts.

The most desirable prospects are information gatherers. Every detail they can find on a company before entering the doors for the first time will be found. The first places they'll go to find it - Instagram, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and, if they're smart, Forbes.

NOTE: There are 80 million millennials in the United States of America. That is the largest generation in Western history. The classification of entitled, lazy, and self-centered does not describe the entirety of this generation. This article focuses on the recruits in this generation that are desirable hires.

If said recruit cannot find recently published information on one of the social sites listed above, it is an immediate red-flag for lack of communication and social interaction. If there is a lack of creativity or effort put into posts that do make it up onto social forums...instant boredom. If one of the social forums listed above has more negative publicity than positive publicity around the product or services a company offers, or most importantly the culture that a company has created, the recruit will stop searching for openings.

Not surprisingly, the culture and reputation relationship is quite the merry-go-round. If culture is bad, reputation is bad. When reputation is bad, culture dissipates.

But this is an area of opportunity for any company willing to invest in their future!

To take a long, hard look at what is going wrong with internal culture, ask the people! Get to know the people! What do existing employees want to see changed? What do they like? What advice do they have to make things better? What have they seen work at other company's they've worked for? What is their current interpretation of the reputation of the company and why?

When hiring, instead of interrogating, accept recommendations. What attracted you to the company? What social platforms did you look at when researching us, if any? Of our posts, what did you or didn't you like and why? Do you have feedback on what we can do better to market to new hires? What would you have liked to see that you didn't see here?

If there is anything to learn from the past year of corporate scandal, it is that transparency in culture is absolutely critical to the success of a business and that reputation is built from the cultural brand a company presents. So in the wake of what seems to be a year of workplace disgrace, know that it is only because our method of sharing information is exponentially faster and more impactful. Get ahead of it by establishing the culture that makes everyone within the organization proud to boast.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/2017-your-internal-culture-brand-david-mattiImage

Image: yoursocialstatus.com