Ken Schmidt and the value of creating internal brand loyalty

The importance of brand loyalty might be better understood, but what about employee loyalty? Imagine the value to your organization when you create an experience that creates loyalty. And that applies to your customers and your employees too. 

On our recent episode of Benefits, we explored the concept of brand and employee loyalty with Ken Schmidt, former director of communications for Harley-Davidson Motor Company.

Breaking down brand loyalty

Brand loyalty can be hard to capture but essential to brand growth. Brand loyalty is the dedication a customer feels toward a brand that pushes them to consistently buy their products or services, regardless of competitors, prices, or convenience. Customers are loyal to brands they identify with. 

Brand loyalty begins with your employees because they communicate with customers. According to Mercer’s Global Talent Trends 2022 report, only 55 percent of employees say their current company is meeting their needs. Company leaders need to understand what those needs are and how to best fulfill them. Company leaders can start by creating a regular process for identifying their people’s needs and acting on them. 

When it comes to shaping your brand, marketing communications, and overall brand loyalty development, consider creating a balance between professional and humanizing communication. People are able to relate to a more humanized brand in a more personal way. No matter what type of institution or organization your brand is communicating to, you’re ultimately talking to people just like you. 

Schmidt recommends “looking bigger than what your job is to serve. Everybody in a business serves a function. If we want people to like us as humans, seek us out, and take our advice, we need to be human and speak in languages that others understand.”

How can employer branding help your organization?

Employer branding means presenting the company in the best possible light to employees of different divisions, job candidates, stakeholders, and customers. Consider how your company ends up being perceived internally and externally. Additionally, organizations with a positive employee brand often have an engaged, motivated workforce that’s willing to advocate for the company’s brand, product, and services. 

To develop an effective employer branding strategy, your organization may want to consider:

• Your organization’s business, vision, mission, and values. How do they align with who currently represents your company? Do they help portray how you want to be perceived?
• Conducting internal and external research to learn more about how your organization is perceived by current employees and how it positions your organization.
• What your organization is currently doing to fulfill employee needs. What improvements could be made?

A record 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November of 2021. After experiencing the Great Resignation, it’s more important than ever that employers create organizations that care about their employees’ needs, especially if in turn your employees can help bring light to how your organization is perceived. 

The benefits of investing in employee experience

According to the Harvard Business Review, today’s top-level executives of outstanding organizations are spending less time setting profit goals or focusing on market share and more time examining their frontline employees and customers. 

When designing your employee experience, consider asking how providing certain benefits can help your employees and organization as a whole. Schmidt remarks on how important it is for employees to understand the benefits being offered to them, “When benefits are seen as a given, there’s a tremendous value in employees understanding what those benefits are. Then they understand that benefits are not an entitlement, it’s a company making an investment in you.”

The true benefits of investing in your employees and their experience include improvements in productivity, bottom-line results, reducing turnover, and much more. The better your employee experience, the better your customer experience is as a result. 

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The information in this blog post is for educational purposes only. It is not legal or tax advice. For legal or tax advice, you should consult your own counsel. 

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