I onboarded with my new employer last week in Portsmouth, NH. It was exciting and overwhelming in all the best ways. My new coworkers, and people I met in general, were authentically nice, welcoming, and the environment has a good vibe. I feel very fortunate for this opportunity.
At this point, I’ve entered and exited numerous employment situations, but unique to this one was my first real “branded welcoming.” After a well executed IT onboarding, with my new laptop in-hand, we walked to the design studio where my workstation sits and waiting there for me was a thoughtfully curated collection of branded merch, quality pieces and all extremely useful. This had a surprisingly big impact on me and stood as proof of concept to some brand ideology I’ve long promoted in my career life, but never personally experienced.
For several decades now, I’ve worked from the brand perspective, delivering creative work as a widely defined term across a range of design idioms. By and large, these are communications of brand ideas to the external world for clients and are what we typically see day to day in the form of advertising, marketing, packaging and promotion. Aside from selling goods and services, these communications build brand awareness and loyalty with customers, clients and fans.
In recent years, aligned with changes in expectations around the employee experience, a big bucket idea within branding has emerged in the form of internal brand communications, the expression of a brand toward employees. The clear communication of values, strategy, mission, and other internal characteristics within an organization help form emotional bonds between the org and its constituents, and employees are increasingly seeking employers they align with along shared values. These brand touch-points, when done right, impact employees, executives and stakeholders from multiple angles to help build emotional bonds, trust, loyalty and retention.
This is internal brand culture, a mostly overlooked and undervalued component within the workplace prior to the 21st century. What we’ve learned is organizations that invest in this area successfully can develop positive reputations as employers and be seen as desirable places to work, winning top talent in the employment marketplace as a result. In other words, companies that understand and execute on this can gain a competitive edge.
I was delighted to receive these gifts and inspired by the act of their presentation. As an individual, my brand loyalties are relatively few and my fandom for most anything is subdued, but I have mad respect for branding as both a design practice and form of communication. I would honestly have thought I was impervious to the effects of cool branded swag, but was happy to learn otherwise, and my new employer took a strong step forward in welcoming me, making me feel a part of the team, and informing me that I matter. Nothing could have planted the seed for loyalty at the early stage more effectively.
So there. Branding matters. I can stop wondering if my job is strawman fluff now!