You may be surprised by this, but the best marketing and advertising resources every company has bountiful access to are right under their nose: the employees. Let’s remember that one of the primary objectives of successful marketing is to get people talking about your brand. Who better to have out there talking about your brand than the people that are turning what was once a dream into a reality? Turning your employees into brand ambassadors is the best by-product of corporate wellness and promoting a healthy and happy work environment. Striving to maintain high employee morale not only enhances productivity but also generates excitement among the employees. And when human beings are passionate about something, they are going to tell other people about it. Here we’re going to talk about some simple workplace policies to implement that will have a dramatic effect on employee morale.
The Mission Statement
The single most essential and unifying element that a business must layout for employees is the Mission Statement. The Mission Statement is not to be confused with an elevator pitch which summarizes what you can do for a prospective client. A Mission Statement is what your company ultimately aspires to become. When stated properly it gives every employee a unified goal in which they can ask themselves at any time is what I’m doing at the moment getting the business closer to achieving our mission? In some ways, a Mission Statement can be more powerful than an elevator pitch. Take for example finding yourself in a more intimate setting with a group of friends rather than prospective clients. Real friends don’t want to hear about what you can do for them; they want to hear about what your passions are. Chances are if you’re excited about something then you can get others excited as well.
Here at VTR our Mission Statement is to become the leading provider of online business education. Sounds ambitious, we know, but that’s what starting a business is all about. Nobody jumps out of bed at the crack of dawn every morning with a big smile on their face in pursuit of mediocrity. Deep down, competition is what drives humanity. We want to win, we want our sports teams to win, we want our children to be the best, and we want our businesses to crush its competitors. Giving your employees a Mission Statement tells them what winning looks like from the company’s perspective.
Team Dynamics
Let’s face it, we’re not always going to vibe with everyone we work with, and the same can be said for family members and teammates on sports teams. However, when we can always rely on someone to take care of business when the time comes, it makes it significantly easier to forgive and forget one’s quarks. Manager’s need to fully embrace this dynamic regarding organizational structure and building teams, whether that’s hiring new employees or putting together an internal team to tackle a project. When you build efficient teams you get productive work, good customer service, and decreased work stress. You’d much rather have your employees saying things like, “my co-workers may have their quirks, but we’re the best of the best when it comes to taking care of business,” as opposed to, “we have a great product, but man, I work with a bunch of idiots.” You can see how the first example is someone you want out there talking up the company while the second one is someone who is not doing your brand any favors when left unsupervised.
Brand ambassadors are a necessity to having a successful business or startup, and there’s a multitude of ways you can go about grooming them. Here we’ve talked extensively about the most cost-effective way of going about finding them. Your employees are always going to be your go-to brand ambassadors because they are the ones most intimately familiar with your business. Sure your workers may not have the reach that a social media influencer may have, but at least you know that the message they are sharing is genuine and unsolicited. So remember, a successful business is nothing without its team, and a successful team is nothing without its unified objective.
To learn more about improving your business, consider taking one of our Characteristics of Effective Leadership courses for HRCI/SHRM or CPA credits to learn more about these necessary skills.
Article written by Vaughn Pourchot
