TL;DR: In this episode of Elevating ER, HR Acuity’s Founder and CEO Deb Muller walks us through how to build your employee relations brand. Strong ER branding starts with honestly assessing current perception, then crafting a strategy that delivers value to employees, leaders and customers. Build clear messaging architecture, apply it consistently so actions match promises and continuously monitor trust with tools like eNPS surveys to refine and strengthen the employee relations brand.
Video Transcript:
[0:05] So as employee relations start to elevate and become more strategic in organizations, we’ve been getting a question about elevating the brand. How do I grow the brand of employee relations across our organization? Now we are not brand experts. There are big companies that do that, agencies that do that.
[0:21] But I did start doing some research saying, well, how do companies build their brands? How do people build their brands? What are kind of the tips and tools that they get? And I found five that I actually thought kind of hit it on the mark when it came to employee relations.
[0:33] 1. Assess your brand perception: You have to come in really open to understanding, how do people see us today? And I kind of think that personally because for years everybody knows HR doesn’t have the best reputation, right. Not everybody loves HR. Newsflash, if you don’t know that one. But I used to say to myself, yeah, but not me. You know, my HR is different. People get along with me.
[0:57] And I think #MeToo made me stop and say you can’t go into it that way. You have to assume that people don’t trust you. People don’t think they’re gonna get the right experience or a positive outcome when they come to talk to you. And even if your organization has a tremendous strategic HR organization, as some of our clients do, they’re awesome. You have to know you’re getting new employees every day. And HR is one of those functions that kind of transcends employers. So if someone had a really bad HR experience somewhere in their career that sticks with them because it’s real personal. So it sticks with them and that’s what they’re gonna bring to your organization. So you need to really assess where do you stand in your organization and why. So that’s the first thing.
[1:39] 2. Build your brand strategy: Secondly, you then need to build your brand strategy. What is going to drive value for your key stakeholders in your organization, for your employees, for your leadership team, for your managers, and how that’s going to translate to your customers? What’s that brand strategy across all of those stakeholders?
[1:56] 3. Create the architecture: And then create the architecture. How are we going to do things? How are we going to message things? What are the priorities that we’re going to touch on? And make sure we deliver on those in our messaging. Let them know why we’re here. Let them understand our purpose and what’s in it for them.
[2:12] 4. Consistent brand application: The fourth thing is consistent brand application. So now you’ve said what you’re going to do, please do it. Do what you say you’re going to do. Be consistent. Make sure that they actually have the experience that you promised them. There’s nothing worse. We all know from social media, right? A brand promises one thing, and they deliver just the difference. People talk about it. They talk about it a lot. And so it’s really important now, more than ever, to make sure that brand is consistently applied across your organization.
[2:37] 5. Monitor it: And finally, you’ve got to monitor it. You’ve got to monitor and audit that brand. You know, one of the new features that we recently introduced to HR Acuity is this idea of an ENPS score, so employee net promoter score. And you may be familiar with that. A lot of brands do it, consumer brands do it. They’re always asking you, how likely are you to recommend this widget to your friends? Or, how likely are you where you recommend that your friends come work at this organization? So we’re using the same process within investigations, within employee relations. At the end of dealing with someone, whether it’s an investigation or just something, you’ve helped them out, maybe with some communication issue or a policy issue in the organization. Send them a survey. Ask them a couple things. Ask them first of all, was your issue handled in a timely manner? When things go wrong at work, people want to know that it’s a priority. So, was it handled promptly? Were you treated with dignity and respect? And then finally, how likely are you to recommend a peer or a colleague come to HR with a similar issue? How powerful is that?
[3:38] Because that’s what’s really going to change the perception of HR. Start asking those questions, start listening to the feedback and assessing, and you will elevate your brand of employee relations.
