What's up brand builders Stephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this
video you're going to learn how to create an employee branding process for your business
so you can align your brand from top to bottom from
inside to out and develop representatives that personify the brand you're building
now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals using
strategy psychology and creative thinking and you're in the right place hit that subscribe
button and the notification bell if you want to fast track your results make sure you grab the
pro brand strategy blueprint it's a free download and the link is in the description now i created a
video recently called what is employee branding if you haven't seen it yet check it out i'll leave a
link in the description below but just to recap employee branding is all about appealing to the
audience through the employees now that differs to employer branding which is all about appealing to
those employees and telling them that the brand is a great place to work so employee branding
and employer branding they're quite similar but employer branding appeals to the employees whereas
employee branding is the employees appealing to the wider audience now the reason employee
branding is becoming more and more popular is that brand leaders understand the value of cohesion and
consistency and if they don't take the time to educate their employees on the brand and what the
brand means what it represents and how it should be communicated in the marketplace then there
is going to be misalignment and that misalignment leads to distrust so employee branding is becoming
more and more important because every single touch point within the brand should be consistent from
top to bottom which includes face to face or over the phone or any kind of employee interaction and
that consistency is definitely one of the major advantages of employee branding if
we see consistency time and again that represents predictability and that represents trust to us
that's in our innate nature as human beings we gravitate towards things and people that we can
trust and predictability is an indication that we can trust somebody or something so that cohesion
right across the board within the brand will help the wider audience to build trust towards
that brand to realize that this is a brand that is predictable that it is what it says it is it
does exactly what it says on the tin and that is ultimately the value of employee branding having
that consistency across the board whether it's a digital interaction or a face-to-face meeting
so now between this video and the previous video that i referenced i hope you have a
good understanding of what employee branding is but now i want to give you the steps that you can
take to integrate employee branding processes into your own business or your clients step number one
align employer and employee branding now employee branding works on the premise that the employee
is going to go out and represent the brand and personify the brand in essence and really
bring across the values that the brand represents now if there is a misalignment internally
within the brand then the employees are not going to be able to represent that brand in
the way it should for example if the values of the brand are well-being and kindness and then
within the brand the employees are expected to do over time consistently and the brand manager
is a bit of an ass well then that's not aligned with what the brand says it is externally so that
employer branding and employee branding is really important having that alignment step number two
develop an effective onboarding process now if the employer branding is doing what it should then
chances are there will be demand to work within this brand there will be a demand from the
workforce for open positions within the brand and that's great for the brand in terms of attracting
the best talent but there needs to be an effective onboarding process in place and that should
uncover exactly who this person is and what they believe to make sure that they're aligned with who
the brand is and what the brand believes if there is a misalignment there then they are not going
to be the best person to go out and represent that brand so you need to have those processes in place
to make sure that the onboarding process really does attract and uncover the most relevant people
for the brand step number three educate your employees on the brand now zappos have absolutely
nailed employee branding because they are so in touch with who their brand is and they have great
processes in place to make sure that the people that they take within to their brand understand
what the brand is about they educate them over a four-week program when somebody starts at zappos
they don't just go straight to work no they take four weeks to understand what the brand is about
what the vision of the brand is what the purpose of the brand is what are those values and how does
the brand behave in the market and only then after four weeks of understanding what the brand is
about are they ready to go out and start engaging with the audience so make sure you educate your
new employees on what the brand is about and how they're expected to go and represent that brand
so that when they go onto the front lines of the brand the brand is being represented
in the right way step number four incentivize alignment now most businesses will have some
kind of performance incentives which are either directly or indirectly related to sales but
that flies in the face of branding branding and sales do work towards the same goal and that is
to grow the business through client acquisition but they do it in very different ways branding
is the long game it's all about that messaging it's all about that consistency and it's all
about that trust if you incentivize your employees to make sure that their communication and the way
they represent the brand is aligned with who the brand is and what the brand represents then they
will really adopt that they'll take it seriously and they'll try each and every day to make sure
that what they're saying is in line with what the brand believes and what the brand message is and
step number five analyze effectiveness through surveys so it's great that you have employer and
employee branding in place but just because it's in place doesn't necessarily mean it's working
this isn't a set and forget job you really need to keep your ear to the ground and your finger on
the pulse as to whether or not what you're doing is actually working and a great way to do that is
to survey your audience survey your audience and small segments of your audience regularly to see
if the brand experience that they had is aligned with the brand strategy and if it is that tells
you that your employer branding is working if it's not it tells you that you might need to adjust
something now you might be thinking employee branding is for big businesses it's not really for
my little small business but introducing employee branding into a big corporation is far more
difficult than it is to introduce it to a small corporation or a small business if you introduce
these processes early and you're consistent with these processes if everybody that comes into your
business is educated on what the brand is about so when they communicate with the audience they're
communicating and personifying that brand then it becomes part of the fabric of the brand so
take the opportunity when the business is small to really integrate these processes
early and don't wait until you become much bigger when it's much more difficult and if you do want
to grow your brand which i'd imagine you do then you want every advantage at your disposal
taking the time to develop processes for employee branding doesn't take that long implementing them
consistently long term takes a bit of work but the rewards are there if you can engage your audience
with consistent and cohesive communication from who your brand is through each and every employee
your audience will start to see that you're a predictable brand that does what it says
it's going to do and that is a brand that your audience can trust now of course if you want to
develop an effective employee branding process that's going to lean on a strong brand culture
if you want to understand what brand culture is and how to develop it well then this video
will help you out until next time brand like a master and i'll see you in the next video