By Business & Finance 
By Gillian Horan, CEO and chief brand strategist, The Pudding
One of the most important parts of a brand is its people.
People interact with your customers each and every day. This might be in person, on the phone, on email or on social media. And if that is the case, then your team are the face of the brand. They are crucial to the brand.
They are what your customers experience when they interact with your brand. They are major players in the brand experience you deliver. If this resonates for you and your business, how much weight do you put on employer branding?
Over the last few years we have focused greatly on our customers but now it is the time to not only market to the customer, we to need to market to the talent we want to attract and retain.
First things first, acknowledge the importance of building a strong brand internally. From here, there are a few key areas which can help organisations build a strong employer brand.
Look to your current team
Do you involve them in branding decisions? Do they know the brand objectives of the company? What is their perception of the brand they are part of? The advice I always give to CEOs and managers – involve your team in the plans for your brand. To start, hold a branding workshop and talk all things branding. Get your team’s input.
It is often the case that your team will have ideas that top management may not have considered. This creates a positive atmosphere, motivates people but also helps with retaining staff who buy-in to your brand. Tip – get management buy-in and partner with experts if you need to.
Develop and design a brand book
Brand guidelines help all stakeholders to use the brand identity in the right way. A brand book is so much more. A brand book goes beyond your brand identity guidelines; it is the physical manifestation of the living, breathing concept that is your brand.
It will contain your objectives, mission, vision, brand story, brand values, brand promise, brand personality, brand messaging, brand tone of voice and positioning. To build a strong brand, it is crucial that your team know, understand and more importantly buy into all of the above.
Create a process for hiring the right people
Organisations want to hire talented skilled people but do they have similar values and traits to your brand. This is where you can refer to your brand book.
When interviewing people for a role within the organisation, you need to find out if this person will fit into your brand culture. Their personality impacts the brand experience your customers have when interacting with your brand. They set the tone.
It is often the case that your team will have ideas that top management may not have considered
CULTURE CLUB
Gillian Horan
You have the right team and you involve them in goals and aspirations of the brand so now it is time to communicate to them the important role they play as brand ambassadors.
On most occasions, we see that brand ambassadors naturally emerge and if this is the case, acknowledge this. If this is not the case, communicate to your team that they represent the brand. Either way, I would create a brand ambassador programme.
When you invest the time in building a strong employer brand the results should be clear
This programme would give information of what a brand ambassador does, provide a forum to share ideas, give feedback and ensure there is ongoing communication. In addition, you can control the quality and consistency of the participation.
If you want to go a step further, you could develop a specific employer brand book that specifically outlines the core elements of your brand. This contains content on your brand culture, your employer brand promise and employer brand communications.
When you invest the time in building a strong employer brand the results should be clear. If you have a happy team who naturally communicate their positive affiliation to your company, other people will see this.
You will attract similar people. You retain those people and you will have a happy motivated team, which can only lead to positively impacting your business and the bottom line.
Remember, for most brands, the people are the brand.
About the blogger
Gillian Horan is CEO and chief brand strategist at The Pudding branding agency.
Gillian loves to talk about all things branding. She strives to inspire those around her to gain clarity on their brand whether that is a corporate brand, a non- profit brand or a personal brand.
She is a certified brand consultant, author, lecture, speaker and has served as a director and board member of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisors (IMCA) and was the 2015 Network Ireland Limerick president.
