What Does your Brand Stand For? A Question to Fight Attrition and Improve Retention.

As the great resignation matured into the great attrition, and now the great negotiation,  employees are on the hunt for work and employers are still desperate to fill positions. 

There is no doubt about it, the workforce and the workplace are locked in a battle of needs versus wants, nice-to-haves versus non-negotiables. This has created a pool of active and potential employees who want to be and are being wooed in other ways – ways in which they haven’t been woo’ed before. And we aren’t just talking about Millennials here. McKinsey reports are showing that while they are 3 times more likely to be reevaluating work, 50% of the current workforce are reconsidering the work they do. 

If the past 18 months have taught us anything, it’s that employees crave investment in something bigger. They want jobs to bring a significant sense of meaning to their lives and are willing to make moves to get it. Rather than feeling constrained to the activities defined for them, employees want to help define their own work by adding value to society and contributing to the purpose of an organization. Employees who get this at work report being more productive, more resilient, and more likely to advocate for the company. When done right, this kind of work creates connection, belonging, and more proactive, autonomous, employees who go above and beyond. During a time when up to 50% of workers also self-identify as quiet quitters, these benefits cannot be understated.  

Having a solid brand foundation is an undervalued tool in supporting this work. When clearly defined and operationalized, a strong brand foundation can make purpose and meaning at work almost second nature. Historically, mission, vision, and values work, etc. (brand foundation) has remained static, resigned to the hallways of leadership, shareholder, and investor conversations. Today, the core of what your organization stands for – the meaning – needs to be understood, supported, and made actionable for every employee at every level in their day-to-day work.

Here is how we can help you understand where your brand foundation sits today and how we can help you strengthen it.

Analyze Your Baseline

First, take a really honest look at what you have been working with when it comes to the company’s internal and external statements. This often looks like mission, vision, and values work, but it also stretches to value proposition, employee engagement programs, brand experience content, and hiring practices. Ask yourself: Do people know our mission? Do we integrate our values into the hiring process? How does your existing brand foundation show up in the day-to-day action throughout the organization?

Sharpen Your Focus

Second, get really clear about what meaning means to your organization and the hierarchy in which you will support it with both words and actions. Sometimes its really obvious but often you have to holistically evaluate what holds the organization together. Understanding the center or the force that brings the organization together will not only help you articulate its specificity but also give people a clear picture as to what they are a part of. Ask yourself: If you were to change the world in 20 years, what specific impact would the company have made? What is a philosophy that you hear people say a lot? What are the adjectives to describe the values that each employee has?

Build a Truly Operational Brand Foundation

Once you feel like you have a solid articulation of your meaning, create a comprehensive brand foundation that is easy to operate within your organization. Make sure that your brand foundation can tell a meaningful story that all of your internal and external audiences can sign up to be a part of. We build the chapters through what your brand intends and how your brand experience will support it. Leaving very little room for misinterpretation but plenty of room for adapting it to all the needs your company requires. Ask yourself: What tools do we need to make it easy and motivating for people to rally behind it? How will the company continue to demonstrate its commitment?

This may feel like a tall order, but one that organizational, not just HR, leadership must start to consider as part of the same conversations that occur around flexibility, enhanced benefits, and culture creation. Paying attention to purpose is an opportunity to meet employees where they are and help them grow with you. Additional support is easier to provide when employees feel like they have something to rally around, something bigger than themselves and their day-to-day activities. Today, treating employees more like clients and customers must be a real consideration for leadership. Those who build a strong connection that is rooted in both the business and the humanity of their employees will have a huge impact. And we can help you create strategies and initiatives that help you meet this need.

We are experts in helping organizations both find and integrate their meaning into the fabric of their company culture. Please reach out to us for case studies.