"At the world stage, brands are going out of their league to make their employees feel valued. After all, they are your best brand ambassadors in the real world."
Happiness is a criterion so lost in people's mind, yet it still is the measure for everything that we do. Every step taken in the direction of establishing a happy perimeter around gets rounded by the blunt of being able to survive. The luxury of being content and happy is getting diminished so rapidly that we ought to take serious measures to bring it back to the limelight.
When you take this conversation in your workplace the answer, most of the times are quite unanimous - "I need to put food on my table then worry about being happy." As accurate as this statement is what we fail to realize is how important an asset you are to your organization. For you to be content with your work and position is not only your need of the hour, but it is equally essential for the brand you are working for as well.
Taking from the perspective of a brand, whether a developing one or an established one, employee engagement, employee happiness is not just any task at hand, rather it is crucial towards brand management and developing unparallel brand equity by treating their employee anything less than the status of stakeholders.
Employees are the best ambassadors
Global population is shifting more towards the era of building their empire, 14% to be precise. Living in this era and building your brand, having the right ambassadors to endorse your brand is a key area to focus on. Up until now, brands have put much effort into building their image by pulling all sorts of tricks, but they often forget to serve well to the second type, which is perceived as how good of an employer your brand is.
This negligence towards building a strong identity so that not only your customers but also your employees also treat you as the biggest players in the market can be a recipe for disaster. Building a strong base for your employees is just as important as building a steady clientele.
Your employees need not be on the backend of your brand image; they can act as a very strong ambassador of your brand.
Build an Employer Value Proposition (EVP)
Encapsulating your brand's goals and values, the guidelines and the culture of a brand should be moulded in such a way that lays down an attractive offer for your potential employees to get associated with your brand and work alongside to achieve those goals and values.
EVP is essential for both your existing and up-coming employees, reason being the value it creates for them when you put your brand in the competition of hiring the best out of the lot. Your EVP guidelines can be your spokesperson and let the best of the crowd fight for a position in your organization. This can be a complete game-changer when your brand building project is underway or taking a hit in its early days.
When we discuss the EVP, the remuneration, the designation or the plush offices are not the key ingredients. Happiness, contentment, care, empathy, gratitude and purpose are. These ingredients then support in the strong brand building where the foundation is not only durable but also there exists immense self-belief.
Bridge the Gap
All said and done, the practicality and applicability of this fixture is a hard nut to crack. Many organization have a wide gap between their Marketing and HR teams which creates the difference in the deliverance of brands expectation, in terms of building their brand image and their employee's behaviour in stacking up to build that brand's identity.
To narrow this gap, organizations have got to put a brand new category in their expense ledgers dedicated towards employee engagement (taking it above the usual 'Fun Friday's) that aligns with all the hard work you imagine your employees will do to establish your position in the market. Having a little chunk of this expense, adding up a significant time of the team leaders towards their teams, creating a sublime and transparent atmosphere in your work culture can all lead up to employee happiness at each stage of your hierarchy.