How many good, loyal employees became “costs” and casualties of “The Great Recession?” The answer to this question is difficult to know from the simple unemployment numbers. Many businesses have made tough decisions to cut staff and reduce costs while at the same time seeking new means to drive organic growth. The real business question is whether these two business needs are working for or against each other.
Employees are very often the face of a company. If they do, in fact, project the brand personality of a company, what does that personality look like and what impact does it have on the market?
Research connecting employees and transactional customer experience indicates some fundamental points.
Employees develop emotional attachment with their employer brands. People are looking for purpose through their work. Traditional compensation methods are important, but, do not produce the emotional attachment to work that comes from alignment with personal goals.
Employees project emotional attachment with their employer brands to customers. Any brand manager seeking to effectively position their brand personality would expect nothing less. This positive projection only happens if employees are truly engaged with their employer at both a company and a supervisor level.
Causality can be effectively measured. Drivers of brand attachment for both employees and customers can be effectively measured and linked.
In-the-moment context matters. Systems that measure emotional attachment in the moment that a transaction occurs better reflect the full impact of the employee engagement to customer connection.
No single answer exists for every company and every industry to the impact on customer experience and resulting market share caused by the recession. However, knowing that the relationship between employee attachment to the employer brand can and will impact market share at least warrants the need to determine the potential topline reduction from any bottom line decision.
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