What Does Employee Onboarding Have to do with Your Organization’s Brand? Everything.

June 22nd, 2015
Written by: Elizabeth Richards

Your organization’s brand is what you stand for and what you deliver—the value and experience your customers or members perceive. You’ve put a lot of work and thought into your brand and how to “live and breathe it” every day. Branding goes much deeper than having a nice logo and tagline; it is the sum of every touchpoint your customer (and vendor!) has with you, whether it is in sales, customer support, operations, billing—online or in person.

So what does employee onboarding have to do with your organization’s brand? Everything. Here’s why.

As we’ve pointed out before, Onboarding is not orientation. Onboarding is the process during a new employee’s first 90 – 120 days that is designed to:

• Increase the time to productivity of the new employee;
• Identify a poor fit as quickly as possible; and
• Protect your overall talent investment by increasing retention.

But while proper Onboarding ensures that a new employee meets or exceeds the specific expectations of his or her role, it should also confirm that he or she can live up to (or even enhance!) your intentionally and carefully developed brand.

Think of it this way: (a) If your brand is the sum of all of your touchpoints with the customer; and (b) We know that those touchpoints are either created by or directly with your employees; then (c) You cannot afford to have any employees who don’t align with your brand.

So when you think about your brand, which is one of your most valuable business assets, make sure to remember the integral role your biggest and most valuable asset—your people, especially new ones—plays in supporting and enhancing that brand.