Presenting the company in the best possible light in the eyes of the future, current, as well as past employees is perhaps the best possible way to describe Employee Branding in a nutshell. Somehow, as many employers have discovered, it is not as easy as it reads as it takes a great deal of effort, conviction and believe that what employers do fit in with what they preach.
Normally, when employers do recruitment and selection, most of them will put on their best foot forward and pile on that makeup to look as pretty as possible. How does one ensures that the pretty picture lives up to the expectations of the employees on a day to day basis when they start to work for the organisations. How many times have we heard of employees missing out their orientation on their first day of work because something urgent needed to be attended to!
Many a time, it is their external brand image that attracts us to join an organisation like a MacDonalds, Google, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Hyatt or BHP. And when we do join them, we may realise that they do not necessarily live up to what they espouse as their primary values and how they execute their business. On the flip side, there are companies that will live up to what they preach and these are the companies that can turn their employees into brand ambassadors. What do these companies do that are different and make them exemplary?
For starters they are able to guide employee behaviour so that the people who work for the company can effectively project the brand identity of the organisation through their work behaviour. The primary reason for this is because the values and ethics that the organisation stands for are effectively crafted and employees can identify with them. Values crafted have to demonstrate an ability to be translated into action and employees have to be able to see that everyone, including the senior management are able to live and practice them daily. For instance if Integrity, as an example of a behaviour associated with the organisation and is crafted as a Core Value, the company has to make sure that all activities and processes with its internal and external customers are in synch with this principle. This takes a great deal of conviction right across the organisation and employees must be able to see living examples of this on a day to day basis. Effective story telling can reinforce this at various training sessions and town hall meetings. Positive reinforcements can be rewarded with awards, thereby strengthening the message and the core value. Similarly, negative behaviours contradicting the core value will have to be seen as being intolerated.
When this happens, the employees begin associating with the core value of the organisation and one aspect of the brand begins to mould as a believe and conviction. This will allow employees to see that the organisation is living up to its promise and employees become proud of being part of the organisation. They then become brand ambassadors of the organisation.
