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How Clear Is Your Business Vision to the People on the Ground?

In the hallowed halls of the C-Suite, your business vision seems clear.

But down on the street, in the halls, in the meeting rooms, in the labs, in the factories, in the warehouses, at the desks, and around the water cooler, your vision is hard to see.

What else would explain why your organization is failing to keep up with the competition, why customers are going elsewhere, why it is getting harder and harder to hire good people, and why investors are starting to fidget?

Continue reading “How Clear Is Your Business Vision to the People on the Ground?”

Employees Love Brands That Truly Matter

Brands that truly matter

It’s amazing how a focus on emotion and meaning can change the way employees approach their work.

They feel like doing more.
Employees are eager, motivated and driven. They wake up looking forward to their work day, and return home feeling a sense of purposeful accomplishment.

They care more for one another.
The workplace is civil, considerate and supportive. Employees are empathetic and compassionate about their bosses, their peers, their reports and everyone in the business.

Continue reading “Employees Love Brands That Truly Matter”

Turning Strong CSR Stories Into New Meaning For Your Employees

Building meaningful CSR stories

A strong CSR report provides an excellent starting point for your brand to achieve a meaningful position in the hearts and minds of your employees. There is even greater value when those reports lead with strong CSR stories.

That’s because, according to a recent Forbes report, CSR and employee engagement work hand in hand:

  • Hewitt & Associations found that, “the more a company actively pursues worthy environmental and social efforts, the more engaged its employees are”.
  • The Society for Human Resources Management found that for companies with strong sustainability programs, “morale was 55% better, business process were 43% more efficient, public image was 43% stronger, and employee loyalty was 38% better”.
  • Towers and Watson reports that firms with highly engaged employees have three time the operating margin of those which don’t.
  • Gallup say these firms have four time the earnings per share.
  • PriceWaterhouseCoopers claims that 88% of millenials choose employers based on strong CSR values; 86% will leave if employer’s CSR values no longer meet their expectations.

Brands matter to people when they do things that matter.

If your brand is truly committed to CSR – and has a strong CSR report to prove it – it makes sense to make your CSR viewpoint, activities and achievements more evident to your employees.

Going beyond simply posting your report on your company’s website or intranet, the stories within your CSR should be re-purposed and dynamically presented to specifically address the beliefs, values, interests and aspiration of your employees.

When you create far more engaging, motivating and rewarding ways to involve your employees in your CSR, you give them new ways to create meaning in their own lives.

Your brand’s good deeds become gifts of meaning your employees can identify with, share responsibility for, and internalize with pride.

As such, there’s a more emotionally meaningful and engaging connection created between employees and your brand.

Don’t allow your employees to miss out on the personal meaning that’s hidden in your CSR report.

Bring it to the surface, engage your employees and create a stronger brand along the way

Please see our work for UPS’s CSR program.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco Branding Agency.

Strong Brands Give Employees an Idea to Rally Around

 

How to give employees something to believe in

Take a moment to think about the employees working for your brand right now:

They are in elevators, at desks, in conference rooms,  in home offices,  on the phone.

They are in cars, on planes, in taxis, on a teleconference.

They are closing deals, answering questions, presenting ideas, pitching prospects, processing orders, producing goods, answering phones, inventing products, serving customers, designing packaging, building factories, budgeting projects, balancing the books, convincing investors, meeting community leaders, hiring recruits and wiring networks.

But are they working in a purposeful, fulfilling and satisfying way – or are they “just doing their job”?

Are they inspired and motivated by what they do, the people they work for and the people they work with – or are their attitudes and behaviors coincidental?

Do they collaborate – or work at cross purposes?

Are they restless and innovative – or resting on their laurels and letting the competition pass you by?

Does their behavior build your brand – or render it meaningless?

The best way to make employees feel their work is meaningful and worthwhile is to develop a “reason for being” for your brand that resonates with the needs, beliefs, interests and aspirations of your employees.

At Emotive Brand, we call that a “Brand Promise” which we believe strives to be:

  • A memorable thought focused on the emotional outcome the brand seeks
  • A brand destination that sets a credible and noble ambition
  • A source of inspiration, guide to change, filter for consistency
  • A thought that comfortably enters your employee’s minds throughout the day

A carefully and thoughtfully crafted Brand Promise will help focus and engergize your people.

It will also leave them feeling far more satisfied with what they do, the people they work with and the brand that employs them.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy firm.