How do you build your brand? (Part Two)

This is part two of a three-part series I began a few months ago regarding branding.  If you recall I was hoping to explore three facets of branding your company.  This could help to create awareness about your culture, working environment, and much more.  Those three items regarding branding are:

1)  What do your current employees say?

2)  What does the market say?

3)  What does your competition say?

Today we will be exploring #2 – what does the market say about your brand?  At an organic level there are only two general responses.  The market either has a positive perception of your brand or a negative perception.  The truth could lie in the middle, but for the purposes of this conversation I only want to focus on these two.

Let’s first talk about the positive end of the spectrum.  I will break this into two categories as well – intentional and unintentional.  Intentional branding is an effort to communicate a clear message regarding what you are doing surrounding employee recruitment, retention, employee benefits, and overall working culture.  Your current employees can then take this message into the market when talking with friends and family, vendors, former colleagues, future colleagues, and any one in general.  This provides an invaluable positive image in the community.  That seems easy, so what do I mean by unintentional branding?  These are the little ways that you take care of employees that end up being communicated at home around the dinner table and in personal and professional circles.  You allow some flexibility with working schedules around holidays.  You remember employee’s birthdays and surprise them with cupcakes.  You provide some tokens of appreciation throughout the year with gift cards to a local restaurant.  It may seem small, but I have spoken with many placed candidates over the years that get so excited about the little things that it turns them into longtime and loyal employees.

Now the negative end of the spectrum.  No company in their right mind is going to intentionally brand themselves as a “bad” place to work, but it happens in everyday communications and interactions with employees.  I recently had a candidate who switched jobs about six months ago.  She thought she was going to a better situation.  You know the old saying – the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.  Well, in this case it clearly wasn’t.  So as this individual begins another job search after such a short period of time, the market will quickly learn that this particular employer is not stable, does not have a good working culture, has very few actual resources to support client service, and in general is not a good place to work.

These may seem like small things, but perception is everything in today’s ever-increasing competitive marketplace for good talent.  We have been helping clients for the past several months create a completely new idea of branding so that the message is concise, clear, and consistent.  The more positive things the market is saying about working at your company is going to lead to more productivity from current employees, the desire for more good talent to join the team, and an overall good public perception of your company.

What are you doing to create this positive branding in the market?