BI WORLDWIDE, a global business improvement company, recently released an article called Employees as Marketers discussing employee engagement’s impact on building a solid brand. The article was written by Lorraine Frias, interactive promotions strategist at BI WORLDWIDE.
“Large companies spend millions of dollars annually building and maintaining their brand,” Frias said. But sometimes they forget to acknowledge the connection between the employee experience and the customer experience. According to Frias, “organizations need to view employees as marketers of their product, service or brand, regardless of their position in the company.”
Employee engagement programs can greatly improve the way employees interact with customers on the front-lines. Frias said “companies need to use both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators to drive behavior change and motivate employees.”
Extrinsic motivation comes from influences outside of oneself such as an incentive program that motivates employees to sell certain products or rewards an individual for high performance behavior. This type of motivation also comes from the fear of a poor performance review or the threat of being laid off.
Intrinsic motivation is the strongest driver of behavior change and action and it stems from passion, desire, emotion and core beliefs about oneself. Because intrinsic motivators are so personal, they are the hardest for companies to impact.
“Ultimately, it takes the right combination of extrinsic motivations, used as part of a total rewards strategy, to foster the intrinsic motivators in your employees and create a long-term behavioral and culture change,” Frias said. Once an organization has developed a solid employee engagement program, they will see an increase in employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and, most importantly, revenue.
Frias’ article Employees as Marketers gives several examples of companies with solid employee engagement programs that have built up strong brands because of them. To download Frias’s full article visit BIWORLDWIDE.com.
About BI WORLDWIDE
BI WORLDWIDE helps organizations translate their vision into action to improve employee engagement. A privately held company with 1000 employees located in Australia, Canada, China, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, our mission is to produce measurable results for our clients by driving and sustaining engagement with their employees, channel partners and consumers. We are a founder of Recognition Professionals International and a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.