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By Dan Antonelli, KickCharge Creative
For a small or medium-sized business, a professional brand communicates longevity, trustworthiness and pride. These attributes speak to prospective customers. But they also resonate with prospective employees. Workers looking for a company they can trust with their livelihood want to feel confident that it is reliable and stable. And so, businesses hoping to hire a dependable, committed workforce should implement branding thoroughly, consistently and strategically to attract attention from top candidates and retain loyal team members. Let’s explore six ways to accomplish these recruitment and retention goals.
1. Use your brand voice in job postings and job descriptions
All “help wanted” ads need not sound the same (i.e., boring). Let your brand voice shine in your job posts so that they stand out and are more enticing. Talk about your company culture and showcase it in the tone of your writing.
For example, imagine reading an ad that says, “seeking experienced HVAC installers with strong customer service skills,” while another says, “Our installation crews are experts in HVAC—and in having fun while doing it, making sure they leave every customer smiling.” The latter version reflects a positive, upbeat personality and suggests the company prioritizes its employees’ (and customers’) happiness. Where would you rather work? Talk about your values in your job descriptions so that applicants know if your priorities align with theirs. In addition, a job seeker is more likely to take action after reading a posting that sounds original and special. He or she naturally will be more intrigued about pursuing a career with a creative, thoughtful company.
2. Design professional vehicle wraps, uniforms and business cards
Give your employees reasons to feel proud to represent your company. They’ll feel good about wearing a branded uniform and driving a branded vehicle, rather than feeling ashamed to be seen in them. Similarly, they should be eager to hand out sharply designed business cards. Looking professional will attract professionals. It also will reinforce your expectations for how they represent your company in the field. Brandishing the brand while traveling through the service area or working in a customer’s home offers a constant reminder about the company values your employees are being paid to uphold. You can expect more productivity and higher-quality output. Let the glowing reviews start rolling in!
Similarly, a branded, professional website will inspire confidence in prospective applicants. While they’re researching your company to decide whether to apply for your open position, a modern, up-to-date website with a well-integrated brand is a powerful advantage over competitors whose web presence is weak.
3. Customize your company values and mission statement.
Your brand should reflect your company’s top priorities for how you treat customers and the way you do your job. Put those values into writing and ensure the words and the tone align with your brand voice. If your brand is energetic and enthusiastic, your written values should convey that positivity, intensity and “pep in your step.” If your brand is authoritative and technical, your company values will sound much more serious. If you have a mascot, it will personify these behaviors and attitudes.
Put branded values and a thoughtfully crafted mission statement that synchronizes with them on your company website. They’ll reinforce what your brand depicts and encourage job seekers who share them to fill out your application.
4. Incorporate your brand messaging into your onboarding process
Onboarding and training for new hires should be about more than learning how to perform the daily tasks required for their jobs. They also need to know the company values and culture. Make sure to spend time teaching new employees what your brand stands for, why it’s important and how team members are expected to embody and demonstrate those values every day. They’ll feel like they’re part of the team, and if they’re invested in the greater good, they’ll put forth more effort and produce better results. Ensuring all team members share this understanding will reduce performance problems and turnover.
The training program should spend time teaching how to communicate with customers in ways that reflect the brand. It could even provide suggested phraseology for ways to answer frequently asked questions, so that employees are representing the company’s brand consistently across the board. This will increase their comfort level in their role.
5. Brand your space
We’ve talked about implementing your brand on customer-facing assets such as vehicles, employee uniforms and business cards. But branding your interior space has worthwhile benefits, too. The workspace your team members consider their home away from home is prime real estate for reinforcing the company brand. Office walls, hallways and meeting rooms provide a canvas for communicating the values, mission, voice and personality that unite your team and serve your community. As previously stated, when workers embrace this unified company identity, great things happen.
Use branding mechanisms such as wall wraps, window films, banners or tabletop signs to add personality to every workspace. They can include reminders, provoke thought, lighten the mood or elicit laughs.
6. Give your team the tools it needs
You wouldn’t expect a crew to fix a plumbing problem without a wrench and a few other basic tools. Similarly, you can’t expect workers to provide strong customer service or be high-performing salesmen without specialized tools: professional, branded collateral. Create brochures, folders or other handouts with branded design and your brand voice to help your employees in the field do their job more efficiently and effectively. Your employee retention rate will improve if people feel they have the support they need to get great results. Let your brand ease some of their burden through professionally written and designed collateral.
Branding is Magnetic
Developing a strategic brand requires knowing who your company is—and communicating that identity to the world. When you live and breathe your brand, outsiders can get to know you, too. When they like what they see, the power of branding will draw them to join you.
Dan Antonelli is president and creative director of KickCharge Creative, a successful, award-winning 20-person design studio. He is the author of three logo design books on small business branding, including his newly released third book “Building a Big Small Business Brand.”