Companies are increasingly focused on developing external communication strategies to attract and retain customers in response to the growing power of digital communications. But, focusing on your customers at the expense of your internal teams can be an erroneous and costly decision.
Despite the obvious importance of developing healthy organizational cultures, a 2013 worldwide study by the polling firm Gallup revealed that twice as many workers felt disconnected from their roles than satisfied within them. Mexico, alarmingly, was at the top of the negative, global ranking. More recently in 2015, the Mexico-based employment portal trabajando.com revealed that more than 60% of the 2,000 Mexicans surveyed expressed unhappiness with their jobs, an alarmingly high percentage given the efforts to increase national competitiveness.
Over the years we´ve worked with organization´s internal marketing and HR teams to develop and implement internal branding strategies to strengthen culture. Organizational culture. Whether activating a service focus brand for tourism service provides in Puerto Vallarta or developing a national recruitment campaign to attract and retain the right talent during EPAM´s national debut in México. Promoting and reinforcing the brand at all levels of the organization can unify your internal teams, increase satisfaction and as a result productivity and success.
Below we list 7 areas for review to ensure you culture is on brand.
1. Define your brand.
Who are you? What values and ideas define your business behaviour and culture? Go beyond a mission and vision statement to find a higher purpose for the brand. Thinking big can inspire and motivate your organization and lead to greatness.
2. Implement your strategy
Creating a successful brand necessitates a brand strategy and identity that informs the design of your work space, tools and technology, processes and procedures and the ideas you create.
3. Hire the right employees.
Finding the best talent and finding the right talent are, sadly, not always the same thing. The higher the disconnect between the organization and your internal teams, the higher the churn. Go back to your brand and corporate values and focus on finding and hiring those that share your worldview.
4. Invest in your team
Celebrating learning and professional growth will impact on staff happiness, loyalty and productivity. According to a 2016 study performed by the Dale Carnegie Training Center, 40 percent of poorly trained employees end up leaving their companies within their first year on the job. That impacts negatively on morale, organizational knowledge retention and your bottom line.
5. Celebrate and share your success
If your internal teams feel valued and secure in their roles, it´ll be reflected in their commitment and productivity. Problem solving when things go awry, is less effective then deconstructing and celebrating success. It is better to learn, replicate and applaud success than to analyze and demoralize with failures.
6. Listen and learn.
Your teams and customers offer incredibly insight and opportunity to those who make time to listen.
7. Evaluate, measure and strengthen as necessary
You cannot achieve success without defining the metrics that will be deployed to evaluate your strategy, design, campaign or policies. Measuring and understanding ROI – whether economic or cultural – will identify the tactics to replicate and those to eliminate.
Daniel Gómez is Strategies Director in Mijo! Brands, creative agency leader in CDMX and Puerto Vallarta. Visit us at www.mijobrands.com or contact us.
