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Companies are fighting for valuable and competent employees. The race to get the best has been going on for some time now but has only heightened the last few years.

Especially since employees and prospects have the advantage of comparing and choosing employers so easily now. In this modern day and age, it’s more than pay and insurance that prospective employees are comparing. No, those swaying factors are benefits. I’m not talking about just how many vacation days (though that is a popular factor). I’m talking about remote days, flexible working time, company luxuries, company culture, and other factors.

Company culture?

Yes, people care about the environment that they will be working in. Do you have a fun-loving culture? Do you have a serious, but competitive one? At Bruce Fox, we have shown our company culture through our blog and social.

Every company is different, but it’s learning how to align your company culture with the brand you want to portray to clients and employees that will make the difference.

Why?

Employee turnover rate - it’s expensive to research and interview, hire, and train an employee just to have to start the process all over again within a few months. According to PeopleKeep, it is predicted that every time a business replaces a salaried employee, it costs 6-9 months’ salary on average, and that’s not including any hidden costs.

Read this article from Harvard Business Review if you need any more convincing on the importance of aligning your company culture with your brand.

Does your culture align with your brand?

Take the time to be introspective. What does your branding say about your company?

A tech-forward innovation hub? A historical but far-reaching financial rock in the business world? What about a philanthropic company with a quirky name and product flavors?

Each company is differentiating itself from its competitors through its branding. So, why not do the same with your company culture?

What does your company culture say about you?

Does your culture reflect the brand that you portray to the public?

No?

Then your company culture might be negatively impacting or seem disjointed to both your clients and employees.

Or is it more of your company culture is so strong that it’s affecting your branding?

Now, this can be good or bad. The bad could mean that your company outwardly shows a fun-loving brand, but the culture might be competitive and serious.

Both are fine cultures, but if it’s disjointed, the lack of alignment will make employee retention difficult.

But what if the culture affecting the branding is good? Then that means that you’re doing what most companies are striving for. You have made your company culture and branding align so well, that the culture is boosting your brand.

Steps to Align Your Culture and Branding

As a company, you have to decide on three things.

• Does Your Brand Mean Business? Quiz
• Aligning Your Brand and Culture Has Never Been More Important
• 5 Ways to Create a Culture That Aligns With Your Brand
• Two Ways to Ensure Your Corporate Culture and Values Align
• Aligning Brand, Purpose, and Culture

2. If you need to realign your company culture and branding, how will you do it? You need to decide how to proceed and make appropriate changes. This will take strategic planning, employee support, and smart implementation. If you are truly committed to shifting your culture to reflect your branding, it will be a monumental change. So, have you planned out all of the details and have the support of your employees?

3. How will you keep up the new culture once you make the change? What steps will you take to ensure that the culture and branding continue to align? An onboarding program? Employee incentives programs? Regular employee recognition? Company outings? Quarterly employee education programs?

There are countless ways to engage employees, but you must understand your company’s values and branding to align with your culture and continue to do so.

Engage Employees

According to TinyPulse.com, companies with recognition programs that are highly effective at improving employee engagement have 31% lower voluntary turnover. Which, if properly applied, will assist with your hiring, onboarding, employee engagement, and employee retention needs.

Did I also mention that according to SocialCast disengaged employees cost organizations between $450 and $550 billion annually? Ouch.

Which means, if you can align your company culture with your corporate brand and values, you will be able to save money by reducing employee turnover and employee disengagement; as well as have the opportunity to engage your employees further, creating a more loyal and engaged employee base.

How? One increasingly popular way to engage employees and to further align with company values in a cost-effective way are employee recognition programs.

Employee Recognition Programs

Obviously, we recommend adding employee recognition into your company culture.

Why? Here are some telling statics:

• When asked what leaders could do more of to improve engagement, 58% of employee respondents replied “give recognition.” (via Berks and Beyond)
• 81% of employees believe awards and recognition programs are effective. (via engage2excel.com)
• 70% of employees prefer a choice of rewards, awards or gifts, but it’s only offered 38% of the time by companies. (via engage2excel.com)
• The number one type of recognition that organizations have in place is for recognizing years of service. (via tinypulse.com)
• 87% of recognition programs focus on tenure. (via tinypulse.com)
• 89% of employees believe performance-based recognition increases engagement. (via engage2excel.com )
• 72% of employers have performance-based recognition programs. (via engage2excel.com)
• Employees with performance recognition programs are 2x’s more likely to recommend their organization as a great place to work. (via engage2excel.com)
• 87% of employees are more committed to stay with an organization that recognizes their performance. (via engage2excel.com)
• 69% of employees would work harder if they felt their efforts were better appreciated. (via tinypulse.com)
• 50% of employees believe being thanked by managers not only improved their relationship but also built trust with their higher-ups. (via tinypulse.com)
• Only 14% of organizations provide managers with the necessary tools for awards and recognition. (via tinypulse.com)

Employee recognition can be anything from top sales recognition to customer service. However, consider adding some out-of-the-box recognition programs like innovation, safety, attendance, creative problem-solver, or "person who embodies the company values the most;" in order to add more value for employees and to engage those in other departments. And don’t forget recognizing the fun company contests, such as who raises the most money for the charity of the year, who makes the best chili at the chili cook-off, or winner of the yearly golf tournament.

Get more company culture tips by reading these articles by Branding Strategy Insider and Entrepreneur. Want more employee recognition tips? Here are some great blogs and resources:

• Personal and Professional Gift Ideas to Celebrate Accomplishments
• How Custom Awards and Displayable Products Are Used
• More Than Awards
• Onboarding 101: A Guide to Starting an Onboarding Program
• 17 Employee Recognition Facts You'll Love
• How to Design a Custom Award From Scratch
• Show Your Employees Some Love
• 9 Services Bruce Fox, Inc. Provides
• Why Giving Recognition Is Necessary 
• Cause and Effect: The Positives and Negatives of Employee Recognition

Check out our website to learn more about Bruce Fox’s capabilities or our blog for more tips and info.

Kristina Hublar (formerly Mobley) is your friendly neighborhood Marketing Specialist at Bruce Fox, Inc., which means she is the person behind the keyboard for the social media, emails, website, and other marketing efforts. She’s new to Bruce Fox, but is an Indiana native. In her spare time, you’ll find her plotting her next road trip, bobbing along to music while crafting, spending time with loved ones, or with her nose in a book.