For your customers, your brand is your employees. Almost 65% of them gauge employee and CEO behavior before purchasing from a brand, reports Energy and Matter. They expect your employees to speak the same language and embody the same values as your brand. When this doesn't happen, the consequences are always detrimental.

Take the United Airlines' Unfriendly Skies' controversy, where a passenger was forced out of an overbooked flight despite their bold claim of being 'friendly.' The brands set out claims their employees failed to meet and faced severe backlash.

Source

So, how can you avoid this? By implementing internal branding strategies. Internal branding is the process of educating employees about a company's values and culture so they live by it. Without proper internal branding initiatives, your employees and marketing are likely dancing to different tunes even without realizing it.

In this blog, we delve deep into the internal branding strategies of 4 top brands - Hubspot, Sprout Social, Northumbrian Water Limited and Gong and how they contribute to improved employee morale and advocacy.

4 examples of stellar Internal Branding from Leading Brands

Here are 4 internal branding examples from brands known for their cohesive culture and passionate employee advocates:

1. Hubspot: Reinforcing positive work culture through regular feedback and 'HEART Week' celebration

With 7000+ employees spread across the globe, a strong, cohesive culture is the linchpin that holds Hubspot together. From their Culture Code deck to the "HEART Week' celebration, each initiative aims to etch the Hubspot culture into employees' minds as second nature.

The Hubspot Culture Code is a 128-page slide deck written by Hubspot CEO, Dharmesh Shah outlining the values a Hubspot employee should embody, stand for and inculcate. He calls it a 'Work in Progress,' as the document gets frequently revised to reflect the brand's ever-evolving culture.

Husbpot conducts regular surveys to understand the pulse of its employees and identify its shortcomings on time. The deck is then revised based on the feedback from the employees. The brand claims to have tweaked the document around 30 times, and one of their pivotal revisions includes altering the acronym 'HEART' to better embody their team ethos.

HEART stood for "Humble, Effective, Adaptable, Remarkable, and Transparent" before being altered to "Humble, Empathy, Adaptable, Remarkable, and Transparent". Dharshamesh recounts the process he underwent to bring this change:

The brand ensures the ideals don't just remain in the books and makes a conscious effort to stay true to its claims. The 'HEART Week' is one such internal branding initiative it conducts to activate its values and remind employees what it is to be a true Hubspotter. The week's activities, including failure forum sessions, customer spotlights, and career growth talks, are tangible expressions of HubSpot's core values in action.

Nawal Fakhoury, Senior Director of Culture at Hubspot, gives a rundown of Heart Week's agenda and how each activity ties to their team ethos in this LinkedIn post:

Another notable initiative is Hubspot's Annual Global Week of Rest in July. The whole company shuts down for a week's break to return fresh and strong. According to Eimear Marrinan, VP of People Experience at Hubspot, the right to take a break and unwind is crucial in developing a sustainable work culture. By intentionally letting employees be off the hook, Hubspot cements this idea into its organizational culture.

2. Sproutsocial: Binding a global hybrid team together with in-person gatherings and employee recognition programs

At Sprout Social, a company listed as one of the best places to work in 2023 for the 4th straight year, 'culture is more than just a buzzword.'

"We heavily invest in it to maintain a healthy and cohesive team culture, regardless of location," says Stephanie Wells, general manager and head of go-to-market for APAC at Sprout.

From brand playbooks, DEI initiatives, and employee recognition programs to regular in-person meetups, the brand invests in everything to build a strong internal brand. SEEDS, Sprout's creative hub, offers guidelines on how it works, looks and sounds to ensure a consistent brand image.

But it's more than a brand manual and delves deep into how each form of expression, be it creative or functional, gets tied back to Sprout's core values. Here's an explanation of how the brand's limited use of humor is anchored by Sprout's brand persona, Luminary:

This level of detailing helps newer employees get the hang of a brand faster and understand what the brand signifies and cares for.

Sprout Social makes a special effort to walk the talk of 'championing diversity, equity and inclusion.' With a twin-layered leadership approach – DEI Advisory consisting of employees and reporting managers and DEI Executive Team with C-suite executives – the brand ensures company-wide representation.

It eliminates chances of unconscious bias through regular education about different identities and cultures. On top of that, with around 10 Community Resource Groups, it offers their team an opportunity to foster a sense of belonging and support. They also take a special interest in giving back to the communities by raising funds and partnering with non-profit organizations for the underrepresented.

Another internal branding strategy of Sprout that's worth mentioning is the quarterly Value Awards. These awards are given in the presence of their family members to employees who go the extra mile while embodying the company values.

As a hybrid team spread across the world, the brand relies on these gatherings to foster a sense of community and ingrain its core values in employees. According to Wells, Sprout conducts two meetings, regional ones, to bring together those from the same geographical locations and functional ones to discuss goals, challenges, and successes.

In addition, the brand has an optional initiative, DONUTS, to connect coworkers from different teams. Those interested can either set up a virtual meeting or an in-person meeting with their specific person through a Slack channel. This is a great measure to prevent team silos and help each employee understand how their peers' contributions matter.

3. Northumbrian Water Limited: Dissolving information silos and prioritizing team wellbeing with central repositories and employee care programs

For Northumbrian Water Limited, a company that offers water and sewage services in England, 'serving their customers at the right time' matters most. The company's internal branding initiatives closely align with this brand mission of theirs, be it their use of a central repository for tearing down information silos or their employee wellbeing program.

They follow a two-birds-with-one-stone approach where they double down on employee enablement and wellbeing to deliver exceptional customer experience. NWL knows the importance of timely access to organizational knowledge - those that are either buried within files or stuck with older staff.

With the help of Sharepoint Syntex, they compiled over 20 million documents and created a central repository accessible to every employee. This means an employee, regardless of their experience, can find crucial information on experts, assets, processes and locations with a click or two. For example, if they need to know how to replace a pipe, all they have to do is search for it in the repository instead of scouring through documents. Another step they take to avoid information silos is investing in ways to document the knowledge of the elderly workforce.

Here's how they do this, according to Craig Stanley, former Productivity and Collaboration Consultant of NWL:

"We had an experienced team member working in a rural area who used a very old van for transportation. The van was due for replacement, but he wouldn't let us replace it. Eventually, the equipment team learned why. As he drove to different areas, he was drawing on the ceiling where mains and certain assets were.

With SharePoint Syntex and Microsoft Viva Topics, we've found a way now, at scale, to bring together all our information and people, and identify those sorts of experts inside our business and also identify and manage information into more manageable topics." (Source)

Employee wellbeing for NWL is as important as employee enablement, as around 30% of their workers are above 50. The brand zeros in on the welfare of the employees to reduce the chances of sickness and stress-induced absence. It offers employees self-help and expert help to prevent musculoskeletal issues from transitioning to chronic illness and also mental health support to reduce stress.

These measures, though not exactly internal branding strategies, tie back to the brand's mission of serving customers in a timely manner. By making information accessible to everyone and offering physical and mental health support, they equip employees to serve their customers better.

4. Gong: Creating raving fans inside and outside the organization with performance management and personal branding strategies

Gong is a brand that gives equal weight to internal branding and external branding initiatives. The brand discovered long ago that 'raving fans' are created when internal and external branding efforts work in tandem. Thus, it takes conscious effort to connect every step in an employee's journey to the cultural touchpoints of the organization.

For instance, 'want more' is one of Gong's operating principles that signifies the undying need to be the best of the lot. The company ties its performance management practices to this philosophy and shows how this helps Gongsters grow and become the best.

Here's what Ryan Giordano, Former Senior Learning and Development Manager at Gong, says about their performance management strategies:

"Performance management exists to help guide really ambitious folks and give them a sense of what they could do next, while also helping leadership and managers drive teams in the same direction and help people all together.

We have a lot of ambitious employees, and we have managers looking to drive new business initiatives. At a really lofty level, we seek to be the type of company where people are getting more out of their time with us." (Source)

It's also linked to yet another principle the brand stands by: the 'no sugarcoat policy.' According to Ryan, transparent performance management is for the employees' own benefit. "Because they need to figure out what they need to do, and what ways they need to grow, so that they can continue to contribute at the level they want to", he adds.

Another step worth mentioning is how it makes employee advocacy a non-negotiable among employees. It gives a strong 'WIIFM' for the employees to take action - how higher LinkedIn engagement results in greater brand awareness and getting more meetings booked. This reason, combined with the right amount of handholding, does the trick.

This way, by reverse-engineering employee advocacy through internal branding, the brand ensures a regular influx of employee-generated content and talent. "Because when everyone spreads the word about Gong's mission, everyone gains," says Gong's CMO, Udi Ledergor.

Strong internal brand: A sustainable pathway to employee advocacy

Employee advocacy is an inevitable reaction to a strong internal brand. When employees genuinely feel connected to your brand and its core values, they become brand advocates without even realizing it. They'll be more willing to share positive reviews and brand-related content on their socials.

And the only way to get there is to turn your deeds into action by adding internal branding touchpoints throughout the employee journey. And it needn't always be big steps like employee recognition initiatives or DEI programs.

Start small with employee appreciation posts on your socials and tie them back to your values. These posts grab your employee's eyes and help them understand how they contribute to your company's culture. You can take it a step further by showcasing these posts on your Sharepoint website with a social media aggregator like Flockler.

Flockler lets you pull these employee recognition posts from LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or even Instagram and curate a social media feed on your Sharepoint website. Adding it to intranet websites like Sharepoint ensures all employees see and interact with it.

FAQs

1. What is internal branding?

Internal branding is the process of educating your employees about your culture, values and mission so they live by it. Internal branding strategies are crucial to ensure your employees do justice to the claims you make through marketing or advertising. A strong internal brand can be instilled into employees' minds through regular training, adding value-based touch points like employee recognition programs or culture week celebrations to the employee journey.

2. Why is internal branding necessary?

Internal branding is necessary for the following reasons:

• To build a rapport and bond with employees: When the company values align with employees' values, they will feel more connected to your brand.
• To avoid discrepancies between brand claims and employee actions: Without internal branding, your employees might commit actions that don't align with the brand promise. This can lead to poor customer relationships and satisfaction.

3. When is the right time to start internal branding?

There's no right or wrong time to start internal branding. However, these are some common trigger points to kickstart your initiatives:

• New leadership: Employees are more receptive to rebranding efforts made in connection with new leaders taking charge. This is because they expect new leaders to disrupt the current functioning to a certain extent.
• Product launch: Internal branding efforts, when implemented simultaneously with product launches or similar occasions, get a better reception. These initiatives needn't always be groundbreaking.

You can start with smaller, cost-effective initiatives like using your Sharepoint websites for education and social media for employee recognition.