Aside from having the necessary experience and skills to do a job, the main factor that employers typically base a hiring decision on is whether a potential employee will smoothly integrate with the company’s culture.

However, a company’s culture and the personality of a company’s brand are not necessarily always one and the same (though ideally they would be very close, at least).  While ensuring the right culture fit is certainly important, perhaps even more so is whether an employee really epitomizes the company’s brand.

After all, every employee is a brand ambassador, and if your employees aren’t resonating with your company’s brand, how can you expect your clients to do so?

“Employees are best suited to remind your customers what you stand for and who you are as a brand.”

Before you can start aligning your employees to your brand, you need to identify and understand the essence of your brand. 

Enter brand archetypes.  According to the Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator, there are 12 universal archetypes that both individuals and businesses can be categorized by, as illustrated by our infographic:

Once you have paired your company’s brand to one of the 12 archetypes, extend the main qualities of that archetype to your staff, assessing how your staff matches up – as individuals and as a collective group – to your brand’s archetypal qualities.

For example, do your employees’ work ethic, energy, ideas, outlook and mindset reflect those of the company’s brand personality?

“While many companies recognize the value of a powerful brand, they often overlook the critical role employees play.”

It may seem like a small thing to be concerned with, but your brand identity and personality could be the only thing that distinguishes your company from your competitors.

A dichotomy between your brand’s archetype and the personalities of your employees could further translate into the risk that your employees aren’t fully investing themselves in the work that they are doing on behalf of the company, which has grand implications on company output and performance.

“The reality is that employee behavior is a big reflection of your business. It speaks volumes about the authenticity of your value proposition.”

So take some time to assess your current talent, weighing their nature against that of what your company stands for.  Likewise, the next time you seek to make a new hire, don’t forget the importance of aligning an employees’ personality with that of your brand as a whole, rather than just the professional and social culture of the company.

Quote Sources:
[1] https://getbambu.com/blog/branding-strategies/
[2] https://www.prophet.com/thinking/2002/01/brand-assimilation/
3] http://www.madisonpg.com/2012/06/make-your-brand-resonate-with-employees/

This post is by Jessica Yubas.  You can follow her at Capa Consulting Group’s blog, on Instagram and on LinkedIn.