Adrian Kimpton of Sable&Hawkes writes:
All good stuff right? Well, possibly, but truly valuable to the organisation? In this case, no. These were the values of Enron circa 2001. You can’t read the management press without coming across a company trumpeting about how it engaged its employees in their exciting rebranding programme – unfortunately, and typically, most of us have had to sit through what this engagement usually involves.
And no mousemat has ever changed my behaviour.
The first step, of course, is an expensive executive retreat where senior leadership – with help from a clutch of smooth-talking consultants – brainstorm some values and uncover the new ‘soul’ of the business that will triple the share price or help it act as ‘one company.’ Step two is to create a snazzy logo and brief middle management, and step three is to communicate the values to employees and get them all ‘on board.’
The problem is that by this last stage, the inspirational ideas that had executives falling over themselves have become abstract concepts. What lands on the employee’s desk is a branded mousemat, a DVD and a special issue of the company newsletter. It becomes instant wallpaper and the initiative bites the dust.
Avoiding the pitfalls
A PR-style approach to a brand that is thrust on employees simply will make it doomed from the start.
Giving everyone an ‘Integrity’ mousemat or a mug with ‘Respect’ written on it just isn’t going to engage, encourage, motivate and inspire your people. Being customer focused is great if you are a client account manager but how does that relate to the guy in despatch? Being commercially minded is fine for a business manager; how is this relevant to HR?
What would we do? Take the time to have real conversations with your staff, get them thinking about how they can contribute in their everyday working lives to the process of embedding your brand into your business.
‘The new Us’ leaflet will find a place on your agency’s portfolio page no doubt, but getting a brand to stick takes time and a managed internal programme of involvement (NOTE: NOT engagement – we don’t like that word – its at best neutral and at worst meaningless) that is fully integrated with your HR team. And it takes communicators with tenacity and resilience – making it all relevant is simply not easy. But done well, it is worthwhile.