You can easily talk about your company brand and the image portrayed to clients and vendors. Could you say the same about your employee brand image? Do you know how current and former employees describe your business and what it is like to work with you. This is a tougher question to answer. Not to mention – once you know the answer, you may or may not like it.
Beyond that, you may be thinking…Why does this matter? Is it necessary to be concerned about Employee Brand when I have so many other things on my plate? Well, the short answer is “yes” and why is detailed below.
Recruiting
Your business is growing and you need to start placing help wanted ads and interview people. This can be easier or harder depending on your employee brand image.
- A good brand will receive quality resumes and many referrals. The referrals will come from employees, customers, or vendors. They realize what a good image you have and are comfortable with recommending others to work for you.
- A neutral brand you will see the good resumes and some referrals. People may be indifferent. If someone mentions they are looking for a job or asks what the company is like, they will give feedback but not offer it.
- With a bad brand you can imagine the kind of resumes you will see or the quality of referrals (if any). The resumes will be mediocre and referrals will be none. Who would want to work at a workplace where all they hear is negative? Not to many.
Retention
As you know, keeping your good employees is key. These are the people who will keep your business going and make it grow. Having your good employees jump ship at the first sign of another offer is not something you want. If you have a bad or even toxic employee brand, your employees will even change jobs for less salary for a company with a good employee brand.
Customer Service
While your provide customer service to your clients, on the front line it is your employees. You would prefer (and probably demand) they provide excellent customer service to keep your clients. Anyone will tell you, it is better to retain your current customers. You don’t want to be the company that is vying for new customers just to replace the one’s who have left.
Marketing
Your employees, either current or former, will speak about your business. You don’t know who they are talking to or who is listening. Could it be a potential customer? A potential vendor? A potential new employee? You don’t know. What you do know is that what they are saying could influence who becomes your customer, vendor or employee. This works both ways – positive and negative.
Create Raving Fans
What? I’m not a sports team. That’s true (well maybe you are). The fact is, it doesn’t matter. You want Raving Fans, these are the people who speak positively about you and your company. They actually go beyond positive to “Wow, this place is great”. This is great publicity, advertising, marketing, and word of mouth. Who wouldn’t want this?
Word of Caution
Having a good or great employee brand is important, no doubt. Where the caution comes is in how you get there. Don’t presume that to have a great brand means letting your employees have their way, let them do whatever they want and make them happy at any cost. What you need to do is to be a Great Leader, provide limits while allowing appropriate discussions.
Bottom line – it is about your company culture. Company Culture = Employee Brand.