AGILE HRM

Branding from the Inside Out : HR’s Role as

Brand Builder
• Branding implies more than just selling a product or
service; the best companies sell a promise that goes
with the product.
• The brand attaches meaning, the lifestyle, the
transformation, the potential, the joy, and the
fulfillment to the product.
• Branding internally is not just a way to attract and
retain employees. It is a way to bring employees
together under a shared sense of mission and values.
• Branding inside the organization is a way to
constantly re-recruit an existing workforce in a way
that doesn’t feel like hollow propaganda.
 Branding from the Inside Out : HR’s Role as
Brand Builder
• Southwest Airlines determined that the strongest
differentiator between Southwest and its competitors
was the spirit of its people. So the company decided
to use that differentiator externally as its competitive
advantage.
• Over the years the marketing strategy proved so
effective that Southwest became a major national
airline.
• Southwest’s mission to deliver low-cost air travel had
given Americans the freedom to fly. Southwest
embarked on an internal branding campaign designed
to make the freedom message come to life for
employees first so they could deliver on this promise.
 Branding from the Inside Out : HR’s Role as
Brand Builder
• Working with a cross-functional team from
advertising, pubic relations, marketing, operations,
and HR, employees of Southwest went to work
cataloging the products, services, and experiences
offered by the company that employees wouldn’t get if
they worked somewhere else.
 Branding from the Inside Out : HR’s Role as
Brand Builder
• At Yahoo! Internal branding was part of an entire
rebranding initiative designed to position the company
for a bigger future. Yahoo defined mission and values.
• The values became the foundation for Yahoo’s new
brand. As Yahoo launched rebranding, their marketers
conducted an inside-out and outside-in review of the
company with HR as part of the internal review team.
• Internal branding will change the way you design, and
communicate HR products and services. Aligning the
employee experience with the customer experience and
the brand promise is a powerful way to establish a new
relationship with employers. HR can create and
enhance the internal brand through interactions with
employees by providing branded HR products & service
 Branding from the Inside Out : HR’s Role as
Brand Builder
Steps for Internal Branding
1. Don’t work in silos : Successful internal branding must
involve all constituencies/departments.
2. Start with your brand promise : Be sure you understand
what your external brand promise is to your customers.
For ex., at Yahoo, they created a series of guides to
working at the company with the look and feel of Yahoo
Maps products
3. Think like a Marketer : Use the expertise and
techniques of your marketing, communications,
advertising, and public relations people to comprehend
how employees currently perceive the company, what
they want, and how you can help them experience the
company in a more positive way.
 Branding from the Inside Out : HR’s Role as
Brand Builder
Steps for Internal Branding
4. Engage your employees : To make sure messages
sustain their meaning and credibility, keep your
employees involved.
5. Use powerful key words : Link all your messages to
powerful one-or two-word messages. Southwest used
Freedom. Yahoo! Chose Life Engine.
6. Be authentic : Develop a narrative proclamation of how
your organization will carry out the promise and uphold
the values in the employment relationship. Don’t
overpromise and under deliver.
7. Update your packaging : The promise statement can be
used day to day to inform and guide decisions that
impact the employment relationship.
 Branding from the Inside Out : HR’s Role as
Brand Builder
Steps for Internal Branding
8. Market the internal brand externally : Use your internal
brand to let the community, customers, and potential
candidates know what it’s like to work at your company
9. Create internal brand standards : For every touch point of
the employee experience, there should be corresponding
metrics to track performance against standards. For ex.,
measure whether you deliver the right candidate
experience by surveying candidates, including those you
did not hire. Ask departing employees whether their exit
experience left them feeling good about the organization.
10. Build and enhance the brand : Every brand evolves over
time. Each year, HR should plan and carry out
repackaging and messaging to keep the message exciting
and fun.