“The Year of The Employee” (They are customers too!)

It can be said, we hurt the ones we love the most. This saying is especially true in business. Many times we forget the very people who make us the organization that we are. We forget to tell them the messages that we are sharing with the world. Sadly, this one marketing tool is too often overlooked. Yet it can ruin an organization’s reputation faster than any other and it can gain more sales than most channels. We are talking about Internal Marketing. In essence a business cannot have a truly integrated marketing program unless it has an on-going internal marketing component as part of that program. Think of it this way – how can you take care of customers if you don’t take care of your employees?

1. The power of schizophrenia.  Are you hearing voices? If not, maybe you should take a listen. Quite often new employees, younger employees and outsiders are an excellent source of innovative ideas because they see things from a different, and often times fresh, perspective. And, utilizing this group in marketing efforts will go far in making them feel part of the team.
2. Be a truly cultured organization.  Corporate culture identifies who you are as an organization internally, and often times will reflect who you are externally. Think about the little things like how the phone is answered and what employees are saying about their job out on the street. It is a true reflection of who you are…but is it the reflection you want to have? Additionally, the two keys to employee retention are relationships with supervisors and the company culture…are you as cultured as you want to be?
3. Fitting the mold.  It is important to hire employees who match your company culture. Don’t oversell or undersell. Give prospective employees a true picture of what it will be like to work for your organization.
4. Find out how they feel.  Tap into the latest research tools to find out what your employees are thinking. 360-degree assessments, gap analysis, performance based scorecards and internal focus groups are all effective ways to uncover employee attitudes and perspectives. These are some of the components to implement in creating an internal marketing plan that will strengthen your company’s culture while giving clear vision to important issues within your organization.
5. Send them off properly.  If for some reason you must part ways with a highly productive employee, it is important to determine why they made this choice. Hiring a third party to conduct an exit interview will enable your organization to glean valuable feedback on your corporate culture – what works and what needs to be changed. If you plan to handle the exit survey internally, don’t just put the results in a personnel file and forget about them. It is important to track all findings which may help to uncover any corporate issues that may develop over time.