Boost your Company Brand with a Brandful Workforce

Boost your Company Brand with a Brandful WorkforceBoost your Company Brand with a Brandful WorkforceBoost your Company Brand with a Brandful Workforce Gometz, author of The Brandful Workforce How Employees Can Make, notlage Break Your BrandEvery employee matters, especially when running a small business. A single employee could be responsible for bringing enormous success to your business. Or one employee could bring you down.Why not motivate your employees to work FOR your company brand, ratherbei than against it, by cultivating a brandful workforce?How It All BeganThe brandful workforce approach was developed as a practical guide to help business leaders better engage employees with the products and services they help deliver every day. It was informed through my own career journey, working for both small and large organizations, private, public and non-profit.fruchtwein recently, I was in charge of employee engagementat JetBlue Airways. My colleagues at other companies used to ask me How do you get your employees to be such fantastic brand ambassadors?It wasnt something that JetBlue purposefully platzset out to do. It was the result of a successful business. Yet there wasnt a recipe that others could easily follow. So I took it upon myself to figure it outLets look at how you can create brandful employees for your business and your company branding.Building a Brandful WorkforceStart with your product or service. After all, who will want to promote something that they dont personally believe in?One common mistake small business owners make with employees is not defining and communicating the consistent delivery of the business. What does it look like? If you dont know, then how will your employees?Help them understand the details of your business, your company brandand especially your customer promise.When your employees understand your business, your customer promise and their role in how to deliver it, they can get to work promoting your brand. In fact, the y may even exceed your expectationsCreate Brandful Communication ChannelsThe next step in creating employee brand ambassadors is giving them the means to go out and promote your brand. I call these brandful channels.These include tools and resources such as social media, swag, celebratory events, and community volunteer efforts that spread awareness of your business.Remember not everyone is going to want to engage in social media, so its helpful to offer your staff some other branding options.For example, you may have an employee who enjoys the backstage planning of an event. Or another employee may be athletic and can represent your business in a marathon.The brandful channels approach provides opportunities for everyone to participate in amplifying your brand in a genuine and authentic way.Recruit to Build your Company BrandingSome small businesses find it hard to compete for talent with larger organizations. Yet there are a few areas where you can favorably recruit top talent by accentuating your unique brandOffer a jack-of-all-trades employee experience. Employees can learn and be involved in many aspects of the business, rather than be narrowly focused on a specified role within a larger organization.Provide a family feel and local culture as opposed to a larger, bureaucratic environment.Give employees the opportunity to make a direct and meaningful impact on business successKeep in mind that brandful candidates care less about salary (as long as its within a reasonable range) than the quality or purpose of the job.If salary negotiationbecomes difficult during the recruiting process, the candidate may not be the right fit for your business.Heres a quick checklist to help determine if your job candidate is brandful-mindedDo they love or use your products or services?Do they know how to talk about your products or services?Do they have fresh ideas about how to expand or improve your business?Do they act like owners, or are they simply looking for a paycheck ?Do they give you honest - and helpful - feedback?If you answered yes to most of these questions, youre well on your way to building a brandful workforce of your ownAuthor BioJulia Gometz is the founder of The Brandful Workforce, a company that advises organizations on how to build a workforce that can work for the brand, rather than against it. Her book, The Brandful Workforce How Employees Can Make, Not Break Your Brand, introduces the first roadmap for organizations on how to create and sustain the brand internally. It also inspires individuals to be part of an organization whose products or services truly match their passions.Gometz is a global thought leader and practitioner in people strategy with a focus on how employees best contribute to bottom-line business results.Prior to her current venture, Julia successfully built and led three critical People functions at JetBlue Airways over her eight year tenure Employee Relations, People Analytics and Employee Engagement. An exp ert in making people the top competitive advantage for any organization, she has collaborated with colleagues at Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, as well as public and nonprofit organizations.Boost your Company Brand with a Brandful WorkforceBoost your Company Brand with a Brandful Workforce Gometz, author of The Brandful Workforce How Employees Can Make, Not Break Your BrandEvery employee matters, especially when running a small business. A single employee could be responsible for bringing enormous success to your business. Or one employee could bring you down.Why not motivate your employees to work FOR your company brand, rather than against it, by cultivating a brandful workforce?How It All BeganThe brandful workforce approach was developed as a practical guide to help business leaders better engage employees with the products and services they help deliver every day. It was informed through my own career journey, working for both small and large organizations, private, pub lic and non-profit.Most recently, I was in charge of employee engagementat JetBlue Airways. My colleagues at other companies used to ask me How do you get your employees to be such fantastic brand ambassadors?It wasnt something that JetBlue purposefully set out to do. It was the result of a successful business. Yet there wasnt a recipe that others could easily follow. So I took it upon myself to figure it outLets look at how you can create brandful employees for your business and your company branding.Building a Brandful WorkforceStart with your product or service. After all, who will want to promote something that they dont personally believe in? One common mistake small business owners make with employees is not defining and communicating the consistent delivery of the business. What does it look like? If you dont know, then how will your employees?Help them understand the details of your business, your company brandand especially your customer promise.When your employees understa nd your business, your customer promise and their role in how to deliver it, they can get to work promoting your brand. In fact, they may even exceed your expectationsCreate Brandful Communication Channels The next step in creating employee brand ambassadors is giving them the means to go out and promote your brand. I call these brandful channels.These include tools and resources such as social media, swag, celebratory events, and community volunteer efforts that spread awareness of your business.Remember not everyone is going to want to engage in social media, so its helpful to offer your staff some other branding options.For example, you may have an employee who enjoys the backstage planning of an event. Or another employee may be athletic and can represent your business in a marathon.The brandful channels approach provides opportunities for everyone to participate in amplifying your brand in a genuine and authentic way.Recruit to Build your Company BrandingSome small businesses f ind it hard to compete for talent with larger organizations. Yet there are a few areas where you can favorably recruit top talent by accentuating your unique brandOffer a jack-of-all-trades employee experience. Employees can learn and be involved in many aspects of the business, rather than be narrowly focused on a specified role within a larger organization.Provide a family feel and local culture as opposed to a larger, bureaucratic environment.Give employees the opportunity to make a direct and meaningful impact on business successKeep in mind that brandful candidates care less about salary (as long as its within a reasonable range) than the quality or purpose of the job.If salary negotiationbecomes difficult during the recruiting process, the candidate may not be the right fit for your business.Heres a quick checklist to help determine if your job candidate is brandful-mindedDo they love or use your products or services?Do they know how to talk about your products or services?Do they have fresh ideas about how to expand or improve your business?Do they act like owners, or are they simply looking for a paycheck?Do they give you honest and helpful feedback?If you answered yes to most of these questions, youre well on your way to building a brandful workforce of your ownAuthor BioJulia Gometz is the founder of The Brandful Workforce, a company that advises organizations on how to build a workforce that can work for the brand, rather than against it. Her book, The Brandful Workforce How Employees Can Make, Not Break Your Brand, introduces the first roadmap for organizations on how to create and sustain the brand internally. It also inspires individuals to be part of an organization whose products or services truly match their passions.Gometz is a global thought leader and practitioner in people strategy with a focus on how employees best contribute to bottom-line business results.Prior to her current venture, Julia successfully built and led three critical Pe ople functions at JetBlue Airways over her eight year tenure Employee Relations, People Analytics and Employee Engagement. An expert in making people the top competitive advantage for any organization, she has collaborated with colleagues at Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, as well as public and nonprofit organizations.