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Branding Buzz Flies into HR

With the continued focus on the labor shortage and the need to attract and retain employees, employers are becoming more and more aware of the need to market their corporate culture. They want to answer the question, "why should I work for you?".

The concept of "branding your corporate culture" is similar to branding products and services. They are simply sophisticated methods of selling your organization as a great place to work. Or is it that simple?

Everywhere we look there are articles on how companies are not only doing things differently but how they are branding their unique initiatives. In a recent article in Maclean's magazine they describe the efforts of Dofasco where "they now spend $15 million a year on training and development, much of it on revitalized apprenticeship programs." Other organizations focus on the environment and their improved human relations, while others tout that employees are people first and employees second in fact they are the first customer (the most important customer). Times have certainly changed.

Employee loyalty and engagement are critical factors in organizational success. We are often asked to assist clients in building employee engagement programs. Our response is always the same; Build your compelling purpose first and then recruit individuals whose values align with this purpose or communicate the compelling purpose clearly and accurately to employees and build programs that can connect them to it.

It is critical to understand why employees are not engaged in their work and connected to their employer before you can build programs that adequately respond to the issues. Employees need to feel connected to the work that they do but more importantly they need to feel connected to the employer's vision and purpose.

The 2007 Global Workforce study has provided new insight into why employees leave their employer and what they are looking for from senior leadership. For the past two decades studies have shown that the number one reason employees leave their workplace is their relationship with their immediate supervisor. This new study shows that this is no longer the case. The strongest factors influencing disengagement are connected to organizational development such as available training, senior leadership, and even the reputation of the organization itself.

As you can see Branding Corporate Culture is a small piece of the attraction and retention challenge. The new employee is not only very savvy but they know what they want. When branding our corporate culture we need to be able to ensure that the environment inside the organization reflects accurately our branding strategy. Consistent with traditional branding strategies we must provide what we sell. All of our efforts to attract the right people can be lost quickly if our branding is not accurate. In fact, our reputation and credibility is at stake when we choose a branding strategy. We have to commit to "living" that brand.

Employers should begin by focusing time and resources on building a corporate culture that is worthy of a branding strategy. When this is done a comprehensive branding strategy is a great way to attract new talent. Branding corporate culture is a great way to inform people of your corporate initiatives and employee propositions. Your branding should answer the question, "why you should work for us".