Exceptional customer experience is what all companies aspire to deliver, and one of the keys to achieving it lies in having a high level of engagement between their employees and their brand.
How many businesses are aware of just how crucial internal brand engagement is to customer service and satisfaction?
According to research by communications agency Involve, almost half of marketing, brand and customer experience directors believe that their own internal brand engagement programmes are ineffective.
While they understand the value of engaging their employees, they see external marketing activities as more prestigious and influential. In fact, many companies are failing to invest or measure the success of their employee brand engagement programmes.
There are no short cuts or quick fixes when it comes to employee brand engagement. “People want to think that the companies they buy from are genuine, so employee engagement with the brand has to be authentic,” says Ellie Collins, head of people at online print company MOO. “Customers will quickly see through a company that talks up how happy and engaged their employees are, but in reality only pays lip service to internal brand engagement.”
So what does an effective employee brand engagement strategy look like? According to Ben Black, director at My Family Care, employers should focus on giving their employees three simple things.
He says: “They need purpose, as in ‘what is the business for and why are we doing it?’ They need autonomy – the freedom and ability to make decisions and therefore to make mistakes – and they need mastery. Autonomy is great but people also need the ability and skill set to do their jobs. Being good at something is good fun.”
Businesses also need a clear brand purpose that is not just about making money, but rather something that employees can relate to and feel passionate about. Only then can companies start to engage their people with that purpose and define what standards and behaviour are appropriate to make that brand a reality.
Involving people in this process means they become engaged and that brand behaviour becomes automatic instead of something that is forced and requires effort, says Stephen Dann, a coach at the Business Growth Service.
“If employees are living those brand values and behaviours every day at work then they will reflect them externally too. Employees become brand ambassadors because they want to, not because they are told or incentivised to,” he says.
Rachel Clacher, director of telephone answering company Moneypenny, agrees that employees should not need to be ‘made’ into a company’s brand ambassadors.
In a happy business with the right people in the right jobs, it should be there instinctively, she says.
“Employing people for themselves means that each individual adds their own personal value to the wider team,” says Clacher. “Our ethos is very much about treating others as you would want to be treated yourself, which sets the tone for everything that follows.”
Nevertheless, even the most natural engagement between employees and employer brands can always benefit from a little encouragement.
Simply incorporating fun into the work culture, and into the company values, creates a positive environment in which staff will feel happier and more productive.
MOO’s 340 UK employees enjoy weekly social get-togethers, which improve communications and teamwork, but are also part of the company’s fun environment.
“These are an important part of our workplace culture,” says Collins. “When people are looked after and feel valued as part of a lifestyle brand, they are also happier and more engaged with their job.”
Online marketing company Ph.Creative has a novel but effective way of reinforcing brand advocacy among its employees – using poker chips. CEO and founder Bryan Adams explains: “At the start of each month every team member gets a set of five poker chips to distribute to their colleagues as they see fit. When they see a colleague exemplifying a brand value, they reward them with the corresponding poker chip. At the end of each month, the team members with the most poker chips for each value get rewarded.”
Before the introduction of the simple initiative, only a third of the team members could name more than half the brand values, while a quarter couldn’t name any values at all.
With the poker chips in play, every single member of the team is able to name the Ph.Creative brand values through inadvertently thinking about them every day.
“Everyone lives and breathes our values and recognises excellence in the context of our values too,” says Adams. “Our clients have noticed the results and love the process, so much so, in fact, that several of them have taken the concept into their business in some capacity.”
Paul Devoy, head of Investors in People, offers these employee brand engagement strategy tips:
Create together
People are far more likely to engage with company visions and values if they’ve been involved in shaping them. Include the team in the development process and they’ll feel invested in your brand from the start.
Use brand values to shape performance management
This could mean incorporating specific behaviours into the review process, providing development opportunities that align with company values, or creating individual performance goals that directly feed into your business vision.
Activate leaders as role models
Business leaders need to feel a sense of ownership and belief in the brand if they are going to empower and encourage their teams to do the same. Leading by example is the most effective way to implement change.
This advertisement feature is paid for and produced to a brief agreed with MOO, sponsor of the Guardian Small Business Network’s Branding hub.
