What We Do

Recruitment, Retention and Orientation

Connecting people to your company brand is an essential part of attracting and retaining the right talent for your organization. In today’s world, where competition for the best and brightest performers is fierce, you want a resource that can help you tell your story in a way that’s powerful, compelling and memorable. Let Hill, Barolet & Associates bring your internal brand to life.

Getting Employees Involved in Your Brand

Demystify Your BrandMarketing professionals love talking about company brands, and they’ve got lots of special terms for doing just that. However, for most employees who do not work in your company’s marketing department, terms such as brand promise, brand equity and brand value proposition can be extremely confusing. Keep in mind that branding is, in essence, about creating a relationship. From an internal perspective, it’s about getting employees to care about their company, to know the services and/or products it provides, and to understand the value and purpose of their own role in that process.

See Your Brand as a Shared ResponsibilityEach person at your company has the power to promote or undermine your brand; therefore, it’s important to educate employees that the company brand isn’t something apart from them. They are your brand, whether they are senior executives or summer interns. Their comments about your company — at work or out in the neighborhood — make a statement about your brand. Their understanding of what your company does as a business makes a statement about your brand. And, of course, their passion and pride in being part of your company, makes a statement about your brand.

Bringing Brand Values to LifeBrand values are like company values. To be truly meaningful, both need to translate into day-to-day behaviors for employees. Thus it’s important for employees to define for themselves how their actions support the company brand. By making this process participatory, rather than prescriptive/proscriptive, you encourage employees to take personal ownership of the brand.

Keep Tabs on Brand PerceptionWhile it’s important to employ formal tools, such as market research, to measure brand perception, keep in mind that employees can be a great resource for tracking how consumers and customers perceive your brand. Feedback they receive, even on an anecdotal basis, may yield important information about your brand. For example, is your product easy to use? Is its design and packaging appealing, as well as practical? Is your customer service team responsive?

Employee Satisfaction Builds Brand AmbassadorsWhen employees are happy at work, acting as brand ambassadors comes easily and naturally to them. For this reason, be aware that organizational changes, HR programs, policies and processes, as well as fundamental employer offerings, such as benefits and compensation, will affect how employees present your brand externally. By measuring employee satisfaction on a regular basis, you can get a general sense of how your brand is being presented to the world and what is occurring internally to strengthen or impair this effort.