HR Professional - February/March 2008 - (Page 55)

BRANDING BY AMY CASSON SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE BRANDING STARTS WITH THE EMPLOYEE hen it comes to branding, most businesses focus on enhancing the brand of their products and services or their employment brand. But when it comes to corporate branding, there is still one crucial element to success that is often ignored—the employee. An employee’s personal brand plays a vital role in enhancing a company’s branding strategy. In fact, every employee (whether or not they are in front of customers) can either sabotage or enhance a company’s reputation with the way they appear, behave and communicate. There are three types of employees when it comes to corporate brand management: Brand enhancer: Dresses impeccably, communicates exceptionally and behaves appropriately every day. They want to make the best impression both for themselves and the company and believe in the power of personal branding. This employee has the necessary technical skills and image to climb the corporate ladder. Brand detractor: Feels they should be judged on performance alone and believe their image shouldn’t impact their corporate success. This employee purposely dresses, behaves and communicates the way they want, with complete disregard for the corporate brand and customer impression. Brand adolescent: Naïve about personal and corporate branding with no idea how to express their personal and the corporate brand through the way they appear, behave and communicate. While the brand enhancer does not require any training, the detractor and adolescent need to learn how to identify their personal brand and create congruence between it and the corporate brand. Changing the mindset of the detractor and the adolescent requires incorporating personal branding into your management practices and new-employee training programs, so the employee knows that you consider them an integral part to the overall brand strategy. w w w. HRT houghtLeader. c om W Individual Value Proposition Steps Personal branding is about identifying what value the employee brings to the organization and how they communicate their value. Employees should: 1. Define who they are. What are their career goals in two, five and 10 years? What are they passionate about? Get confidential. Provide 360-degree feedback from co-workers, supervisors, customers, friends and family. A strong personal brand exists when there are commonalities between the employee’s responses and the feedback from others. 2. 3. Solidify their personal brand. An employee must understand that their appearance and communication style leaves a strong impression. The way they treat others also speaks volumes about their character, and their body language can enhance or contradict their words. Identify the corporate brand. As a group, the employees must come to a consensus on the values of the organization and how the organization needs to be represented by its employees. 4. 5. Create congruency. Make individual personal brands and the corporate brand cohesive. The goal is not to create a cookie-cutter workforce. In fact, it’s about revealing what is unique about the individual, teaching them how to convey their uniqueness while effectively representing their company. In the past, HR has shied away from appearance issues but the personal branding process eliminates the subjectivity. It allows employees to define who they are and how they want to represent themselves, while at the same time be a part of the corporate branding strategy. Amy Casson, AICI (polishedimage@rogers.com) is president of Polished Image, a corporate image consultancy firm. F e b r u a r y / M a r c h 2 0 0 8 55 http://www.HRThoughtLeader.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Professional - February/March 2008

HR Professional - February/March 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Contributors Leadership Matters Boards By the Numbers Did You Know Sustainability Education News: E-Recycling Communications News: HR Study FYI Ethics World Watch News: Legislation Legal Compensation Focus Strategy The Colour of Money Sustainable Skills From Brown to Green HR Trends: From Winners to Also-Rans Branding Human Capital HR 101 Interview with David Suzuki Off the Shelf The Last Word

HR Professional - February/March 2008

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