Why People/Employee Re-branding May Now Be an Inevitable Answer to Organizational Progress

When assigned to write an article on training for a professional body, I initially had no idea of what to bring out. In any case, training is well known to be a process that modifies people’s behavior and skills as well as knowledge. There seemed to have been shortage of more ideas on the same.  But, upon proceeding for lunch at a joint that serves traditional delicacies, I overheard a discussion between the waitress and some two gentlemen, who needed to eat fish. The trouble was that the edgy customers were not interested in just any fish. So, to the amazement of the waitress, they sought to know the source of the available fish.

The bemused waitress could not tell the source of the fish, a fact that led to loss of the two, probably for good. But, before they left, I interjected wishing to understand this fuss about the origin the fish.  Is fish not just fish my friends? I humorously wondered around. The gentlemen kindly explained that they easily distinguish between the taste of fish from Lake Victoria, Lake Naivasha, Sagana fisheries and others. This turned out to be an awesome branding lesson for me that gave birth to a popular article titled “Employee re-branding is the answer to value based HR challenges.” The same was eventually published in the November/December 2010  issue of IHRM magazine.

Coincidentally, our constitution had just been promulgated. The document envisages numerous changes that are supposed to dramatically transform not only this nation, but also organizations and even individuals.  But, whereas the document guides on the relationship between the entire citizenly, as well as the responsibilities, it does not prescribe how to deal with ongoing national and global trends that we need to continually reflect on. That is if we are all focused towards fully benefiting from the intended national re-branding.  Above all, we may need to consider re-branding efforts not only as individuals, but also organizations. Why?

In marketing, it is held that people buy products or solutions guided by only two motivations. The first one is desire for gain. They need to get value, comfort or enjoyment from their procurements. This may happen only when funds become available, especially after attending to every other need. Naturally, such purchases qualify to be luxuries.  Alternatively, people buy for fear of loss that may eventually inflict either physical or emotional pain.  Most often, the purchases become emergency considerations. What then is in it that could turn people or employee re-branding to an immediate necessity?

Research based information reveals the following thought provoking facts.  Those attributable to the national perspective include:-

1. National unemployment levels are currently stuck at 40%. These are employable citizens whose energy and ideas may just be going to waste. The figures could be higher if the informal sector was not treated as an employer.
2. The national poverty levels account for 42% of the population. This applies to people who can’t afford an income of US $ 1 or just about KES 90 a day.
3. National annual economic growth rate is less than 5%, yet there is too much potential.

Those requiring organizational attention include:-

1. 40% or two out of every 5 employees are totally disengaged from the organizations that they work for. Yet, they are still in employment.
2. Employees are today spending 40% of workplace time on unproductive activities. One of the influences on this is the social media.
3. De-motivated employees exploit only 10-20 % of their performance potential. The rest (in terms of time and effort) are wasted and can never be recovered.
4. Organizations anywhere spend 60% of their budget on employee emoluments. Obviously, some of the proceeds end up in the pockets of un-deserving cases.
5. 90% of population anywhere follows what everybody else is doing and acts likewise. Pray that the acts are positive.
6. Our successes in life are guided by 15% of our technical skills, whereas the balance of 85% is attributable to soft skills. Good examples of the latter include leadership and communication.

Incidentally, efforts of improving on the latter 6 organizational challenges, invaluably lead to positive impact on the listed national attributes. Failure to address the same or taking half measures, yields organizational pain through reduced revenue and profitability.

Luckily, organizations need not go through the said pain. Structured employee re-branding as has been continuously advocated provides the answer to all the challenges, mostly at one go. Thus, undoing the pain through employee re-branding may be the only natural organizational choice, especially in line with the dynamics of the 21st century.