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Do You and Your Employees Embody Your Brand? By Paul Batarseh

Have you ever dealt with a business establishment and had an employee that you didn't know say to you in frustration, "I don't know why we do it that way," or "I'm sorry about the trouble, it happens all the time," or, worse, "I hate my job and can't wait to get out of here"?

I have heard each of those statements from employees, in person and on the phone. I cringed every time I heard the complaints. Not only was it unprofessional but it identified a bigger problem: A colossal failure in managing and embodying the company's brand internally.

Far too often some companies expend most of their energy and efforts on marketing and advertising campaigns that push the brand but give half-hearted efforts on living the brand in their management practices and corporate cultures.  Imagine visiting the corporate offices of Coke® and noticing that most of the employees never smiled because they were miserable and/or too busy to smile. What kind of brand message would that send? Definitely not, "Have a Coke and a Smile®."

In his article, What Does Your Corporate Culture Say about Your Brand, Mr. Shiraz Madan from SEO Design Solutions points out, "Just a like family whose children often adopt the habits, good and bad, of their parents, a corporation's employees will often adopt the work habits, ethics and strategies that upper level management display."

The old adage, "actions speak louder than words" is so true. It doesn't matter what you say about your brand or how hard you push the brand message to your employees. If company management doesn't display actions that fit the brand then their talk is cheap and their actions can actually damage the brand.

If nothing else, CBS's highly-rated TV show, Undercover Boss, shows us how upper management's decisions trickle down and affect the employees of a company. Yes, I know, it's just a TV show but bear with me.

CBS describes their hit show on the "About Undercover Boss" page on cbs.com as follows. "Each week, Undercover Boss follows a different executive as they leave the comfort of their corner office for an undercover mission to examine the inner workings of their companies. While working alongside their employees, they see the effects that their decisions have on others, where the problems lie within their organizations and get an up-close look at both the good and the bad while discovering the unsung heroes who make their companies run." At the end of the show, the boss gets a rude awakening and determines to fix the problem and also rewards those who are doing a good job.

Regardless of what happens when the cameras get turned off, the show gives us a clear picture of problems associated with bad management decisions and how they can directly affect a company's brand. It also points out that rewarding employees who embody the company culture and brand sends a positive message to the employees which in turns enhances and protects the brand.

As humans, we are entitled to having a bad day but our overall message, demeanor, and actions to our employees must be, consistent, on message and, most importantly, must be sincere.

In her blog, Does Your Corporate Culture=Your Brand, Jaci Russo states that companies must make an investment into maintaining a brand but that it can't be forgotten once the brand is set. She also stresses that branding is not a onetime occurrence but one that must be woven into every corporate action.

So where do you start? Start with the hiring process. The employees you hire must fit within your corporate culture and subsequently become part of your brand. In his blog, Your Culture is Your Brand, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, discusses how fitting into the corporate culture at Zappos is part of the hiring process.

"It starts with the hiring process. At Zappos, we actually do two different sets of interviews. The hiring manager and his/her team will do the standard set of interviews looking for relevant experience, technical ability, fit within the team, etc. But then our HR department does a separate set of interviews, looking purely for culture fit. Candidates have to pass both sets of interviews in order to be hired.

We've actually said no to a lot of very talented people that we know can make an immediate impact on our top or bottom line. But because we felt they weren't culture fits, we were willing to sacrifice the short term benefits in order to protect our culture (and therefore our brand) for the long term."

And what do you do about your existing employees that don't embody the brand? This can be a difficult hurdle to get over. I suggest you start with evaluating upper level management and what they're displaying. Fix the top and the effects will trickle down.

There will always be employees that can't be turned around, no matter what you do to correct, retrain, coach, and reassign. In those cases, dismissing those employees may be the best fix for your brand.

An obvious question you may ask is how big a company has to be before this becomes an important issue. The answer: Any size company. Its size doesn't matter. If you sell a product and/or service your company has a brand. Your brand may not be as established as "the big guys" and you may not have one tenth of one percent of their branding budgets, but it is a brand nonetheless. Once your brand is established you need to preach it, live it, and breathe it—you must embody it.

 

 

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