Your Employees are Your Biggest Brand Investment

You don't usually think of corporate branding as being an issue for human resources management. After all, employee management is supposed to be a strictly internal affair that's largely invisible to customers, regulators, and the general public. What this narrow view of human resources management overlooks, however, is the role your employees play in representing your company to outsiders. Some of the ways they do this are obvious, while others might surprise you.

Direct customer contact is the first thing you probably thought of when you tried to imagine a grassroots-level employee branding the company to the public. It makes sense, after all, as the sales and customer service reps are the whole company as far as most customers are concerned. A call to customer service that's handled by a poorly trained or disgruntled rep could potentially end with a canceled account. Getting the rep to focus on branding the company for the customer starts with human resources management branding the company to the rep.

As a human resources management professional, part of your job is to enlist the employees' active cooperation in finding and keeping customers. Part of this effort will, of course, consist of straightforward employee management in the form of adequate training and quality assurance.

Effective recruiting and retention can be the difference between red and black ink on a quarterly report. High turnover ensures you'll always be short of help and that the workers you do have will be generally undertrained. Low employee morale increases turnover and discourages new hires who ask around about your company prior to the interview. Current employees who enjoy positive attention from their human resources management team are far more likely to refer friends and acquaintances to apply for long-term work at your company than are unhappy, disconnected employees.

The issue of referrals brings up the subject of anonymous reviews. Some of the best branding your company can get will come from unsolicited employee testimonials. When your human resources management strategy anticipates employees sharing their opinions of how good—or bad—the company is, it will be more likely to encourage good reviews that will not only boost sales and improve retention, but also encourage new applications from workers looking for a company that will treat them right.

Your employees are in a position to represent the company on every level and to every conceivable audience. Every day, your company will be judged by potential customers, future employees, and members of the general public. If you can craft a human resources management approach that makes a positive investment in those workers, your employees will reward you with positive branding for the company in every interaction.

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