Employees are the brand new messengers in the digital age

Every company – small or large – has a brand. They may not know it or may not be in full control of its dissemination, but these days branding happens with or without the involvement of the company itself.

Things were a lot easier in the past. Before the digital age, companies had more power over how their brand was presented. Back then the real life employee experience didn’t necessarily have to align with the employer brand because, bar a bit of bitching and gossiping around the water fountain, communication channels could be controlled by management.

Even just a short time ago, potential employees would peruse the company website to gain an understanding of what it might be like to work there. Corporate videos, official press releases and other tightly controlled communications vehicles were all one had to develop an understanding of an organisation’s culture. In the information-fueled world of social media, however, organisations no longer control their message. So now more than ever the workplace experience and employer brand must be perfectly aligned.

Social media

Within an increasingly complex global communications network, every individual engaged in social media is in a position to add to the branding process of a company, for better or worse. Therefore, deploying top quality branding for your company that doesn’t align with the reality of life in your workplace will backfire.

At the heart of any organisation considered by its staff to be a “great place to work” is trust. Trust is key. Both current and potential employees must believe in their organisation’s corporate communication.

Losing talent to one’s competitor is hugely damaging for any business and not just in terms of the bottom line. If other staff learn their colleagues are jumping ship, morale will be negatively affected. Rumours will circulate as to how things might be done differently elsewhere in the industry. In essence, trust breaks down.

Communication

Trust is created, first and foremost, through open communication channels.

“It’s all about creating opportunity for two-way dialogue,” says Rosemarie Dizon, HR business partner – Global Functions, EMEA, head of HR – Ireland at MetLife. “Providing opportunities for our people to tell us what they think, feel and experience through conversations is crucial. That’s why we provide numerous opportunities for dialogue through ‘town halls’ and breakfast meetings with leaders. These provide a great place to ask questions.

“In addition, surveys are used to gain feedback. We want our employees to be proud of MetLife’s nearly 150-year history and our long history of social responsibility and strong leadership. In Ireland, we have grown rapidly from just six employees in 2006 to more than 260 today. We also want our employees to feel part of the development of our local MetLife culture.

“We continuously seek input and facilitate dialogue through an open-door policy at all levels, organising regular ‘lunch & learn’ sessions that help our employees to feel connected to the business. We also organise regular social events and promote involvement in local community-based initiatives that help build supportive internal networks. We also use recognition programmes to celebrate those things which make us most proud.”

It’s important to then put any positive suggestions into practice. Otherwise staff will believe dialogue is just a PR stunt.

“One of the areas we heard quite clearly from our staff is the ongoing concern for our local environmental footprint,” says Dizon. “As a result, we’ve responded by making several changes to our recycling system.

“We also use a comprehensive organisational health survey to solicit employee feedback and learn what is working and what’s not, understand how well we benchmark against other great companies and measure 37 practices that are the hallmarks of the most successful companies.

“At MetLife, we take the results of this survey very seriously and are investing time and resources to focus on those key things that will make the biggest difference.”

Ambassadors

Through numerous online platforms, employees can tell the world what it is really like to work for any organisation. If the workplace culture is strong, positive and authentic, staff can be ambassadors for a company and can be a crucial support in attracting game-changing talent.

“We recently began our global transformation,” says Dizon. “We asked our employees to help us define our new culture and co-create our refreshed company values. We learned that care and respect were two of the areas that set us apart from other companies and that our people are very driven by our purpose: “helping people pursue more from life.” Our purpose and our values reflect what’s most important to our culture and our staff. We have recently supported all our leaders with training and resources to promote diversity and inclusion which we hope helps us maintain a positive employee experience for all, as we continue to grow our talented team. On the health front we focus on wellness activities at various times throughout the year, from health weeks to regular information sessions on topics like diet, mindfulness and resilience as well as free onsite medical checks.”

With such checks and balances in place, staff will trust their employer. If the culture is poor, conflicts regular and mishandled or if employees feel disengaged or hostile, negative online reports will surface and completely undermine any positive image an organisation may have thought it had.

There are telltale signs that your culture is letting you down: people skip out of work rather than in; employees don’t talk about work outside of work or hate to be asked what they do for a living; people don’t laugh in the workplace any more or are reluctant to refer their friends into the recruitment process. Also if an organisation needs to pay above the odds to attract talent, it may be a sign the brand isn’t communicating a culture that people want to be a part of.

‘Great Place to Work’

There are no short cuts to getting it right. The internal culture must be authentic. As employer branding expert Publicis Engage puts it: “If you can’t be confident to share certain parts of your employment experience externally, then it is time to change the employment experience rather than market an incomplete view of your organisation.”

So if a company plans to expand and flourish, it needs to have innovation at its core - whether it’s in the sale of products or services. Innovation comes from talented staff and innovative staff only stick around if they feel they’re in an environment where their input is valued.

The Great Place to Work process allows organisations to get a clearer understanding of what their current employee population think, feel and believe about the working life experience.

The starting point for developing a strong employer brand is the development of a clearly articulated culture. This culture must be right for the organisation. It must allow for the achievement of all business strategies and goals. Beyond profit margins though, it must also be supported by a strong set of values that are consistent with promoted workplace behaviours and are integrated in all organisational policies and practices.

For real success, be clear about the type of employee you want to attract and retain. Then build a culture where they will thrive.