Organizations have long struggled to instill shared values, behaviors and ethics that embody and validate brand platforms, personalities and promises. A tighter linkage between the CMO and the CHRO should be strongly centered on organizational branding and creating cultures that radiate and reinforce core brand attributes and aspirations. Enabling platforms and solutions that leverage the reach and vibrancy of private and public social media networks can do much to engage employees and key stakeholders in a dynamic and directed process to express and underscore the essence of a brand and the culture of a company.
Big changes are underway in the make up of the workforce and the requirements to satisfy younger, social media-minded and technically savvy workers. Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are entering the workplace in record numbers. They are idealistic, diverse, digitally enabled, social and perhaps, most importantly, ambitious. According to insights aggregated by UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Young Entrepreneur’s Council, one in three Millennials prioritize social media freedom, device flexibility, and work mobility over salary in accepting a job offer. It’s research notes that “Millennials can be a social media megaphone for your company…friends of fans represent a set of consumers 34 times larger than fans themselves.”
In partnership with CultureSphere, the CMO Council is engaging in a thought leadership initiative titled “Making the Work Place a Brand-Defining Space” that will explore where and how marketing and HR leaders are collaborating on new ways to organizationally reinforce and reflect their brand values and qualities. It will look at social media strategies and techniques currently being embraced by leading consumer brands to recruit and retain Millennial workers, build customer-centric cultures, recognize and reward innovation and output, as well as “gamify” the workplace in order to drive productivity, performance and motivation.
The CMO Council's resulting white paper from this initiative will feature key insights based on qualitative conversations with marketing and HR leaders to explore how they are collaborating on new ways to organizationally reinforce and reflect their brand values and qualities throughout their organization.
