In the past few years the idea of personal branding has kicked off in a big way and now, the question stands – are individuals seeking out companies to work for or are companies seeking out individuals to hire at any cost?
What is personal branding?
The idea of ‘brand-self’ is being able to curate and control, to an extent, what comes to mind when other people hear your name or think of you. Even if you haven’t ever considered your own personal brand before, you have one, so it’s worth spending some time to consider the following questions to develop your personal brand.
- What do people associate with your name?
- What do you want people to associate with your name?
- Is your online presence consistent with your ‘real-life’ presence?
- Are you conscious of your brand in all of your interactions?
The idea of personal branding is not a new one – high profile people have known about the concept and have been capitalised on it for many, many decades – but the widespread use of the internet has influenced the rise of the idea of being able to create a personal brand. Now, it’s not just high profile people or big companies that are able to utilise their big budgets to create a positive brand for themselves – individuals can now do it with little to no budget with the tools available to them through the internet.
What are the benefits of personal branding to an employer?
When recruiters look for employees, finding individuals with strong personal branding and values that clearly align with the company’s is a great tool for nipping disengagement in the bud. When employees have aligning values with the company, their engagement levels will be higher, just from feeling more connected to company-wide goals. An engaged team is a productive and loyal team, so employers and recruiters should be taking advantage of individual’s personal branding to avoid disengagement issues.
Great personal brands are also extremely helpful when it comes to growing the company’s brand. On an everyday basis, your customers and clients will be interacting with your employees, whether face-to-face, over the internet or on the phone. If branding is revealed through all interactions, then these client/employee interactions are extremely important when it comes to perpetuating your company’s brand.
How do you keep them loyal?
With such strong personal branding and companies falling over themselves to secure the best employees for their brand, how do you keep your employees loyal? The answer lies within your salary management and whether you’re thinking about pay packets or ‘play packets’. Create loyalty and give your employees more scope for flexibility by managing their salary in a way that rewards them.
If you would like to read more about how to utilise personal branding whilst still boosting your organisational brand, download Pendragon’s eBook: ‘The New World of Work’.
Pendragon can help you run your business more efficiently, saving you time and money.
For further information please don’t hesitate to contact us, book an appointment or reach us at [email protected] or 02 9407 8700 where one of our Australian team members will gladly help you.
