Have you considered how the learning function in your business helps bring your brand to life? Have you considered how your learning offerings ‘condition’ your employees to live and promote the brand to your clients? Do you consider the extent to which staff development practices support your brand? Do your processes, such as appraisal, reflect how your business is, or is trying to be?
Many companies spend large amounts of time and resources on promoting their corporate brand in the marketplace. Brand building has become a major industry in itself, but have you considered how your learning function helps support and develop your brand? After all, where does the rubber hit the road? Most often, it is where customers interact with your staff - face to face or by telephone. Are you training your staff to live and breathe the brand essence and ensure the customers get that promised brand experience?
As learning professionals, we need to fully understand the corporate brand, what it stands for and, most importantly, how all employees can live the brand in their everyday work.
Once again, this is an example of how the learning function can align with the business and add value. As learning professionals, we need to fully understand the corporate brand, what it stands for and, most importantly, how all employees can live the brand in their everyday work. This is critical, not just for front line staff who interact with customers but for all staff throughout the organisation. Promoting a strong brand image only to the customers and then not delivering it though your people will result in failure to deliver your brand promise. Failure to live the brand internally in all your dealings with staff has consequences.
It means ensuring all training, development, and indeed HR processes also live and constantly promote your brand.
For the learning function this means going beyond the normal induction training that might explain the brand to new employees. It means ensuring all training, development, and indeed HR processes also live and constantly promote your brand. A simple audit of your training materials, courses, and other development opportunities is essential, starting with the basics such as ensuring that all your materials are using the correct corporate colours, logos, fonts etc. But that is just the start. Do your training programmes reflect the deeper meanings or essence of the brand? Do they reflect the values, standards, emotions and image that you want to portray to your customers. Can you say that the learning experience matches the customers’ brand experiences?
Can you say that the learning experience matches the customers’ brand experiences?
As learning professionals, we have a huge opportunity (and some would say responsibility) to ensure that the processes we introduce and advocate all contribute to the positive development of the brand and thus the organisational culture. Marketers have long understood the value of a strong brand. Do you, as a learning professional, share this understanding?
Gordon Bull
Gordon was Director of Global Learning Management at Vodafone, and VP Training at American Express. He now runs Learning Forte, a consultancy supporting companies in aligning their L&D function with the needs of the business. Visit his homepage or contact him on gordon.bull@learningforte.com.