As the month begins to consider subsiding into December, one major facial hair event takes over from another. Movember produces all sorts of ill-advised, if well-meaning, upper-lip looks to be replaced by Father Christmas and his outstanding display of facial topiary. With the festive season hoving into sight, it’s worth considering whether there is a more warming, familiar and, above all, trustworthy figure than Santa Claus himself – albeit an entirely fictitious one born out of the promotional imagination of Coca Cola.
It would be hard to quantify just how many organisations and institutions (probably including Coca Cola itself) must envy Father Christmas the profile and unquestioning trust he enjoys amongst all age groups, nationalities and genders. (Particularly for an elderly man you don’t see from one year to the next, who, uninvited, invades your house and steals your finest Amontillado). A fascinating piece of research from YouGov this week outlines the increasing absence of trust around us. Five years ago, 81% of the UK public felt they trusted BBC news journalists, this figure is now just 44%. Trust in senior police officers is down from 72% to 49%. Just 19% trust the Conservative party, just four percentage points lower than their Labour counterparts. Not surprisingly, financial institutions, civil servants and newspapers have all met similar reputational fates in the last five years.
And yet, despite this, trust endures in brands. Not all brands, I grant you, but plenty.
John Lewis is a department store, no more, no less – and there are plenty of alternatives. So why do we instinctively trust the organisation and its brand? Because it delivers on its promises? Because it remains grounded and possessing of humility? Because it does what it says, when it says it will? And if it is aspirational, it is so in a realistic, authentic way. And what does this trust translate into? Today the store group reported a 31 per cent year-on-year rise in online sales and total sales up 7.6% on the same week last year. This on the same day it was announced that there are more empty lots on the UK high street than ever before.
But such trust isn’t guaranteed. Consider what we feel about Starbucks, Amazon and Google this week compared to last week. All three have been up in front of the Treasury Select Committee explaining away an unenthusiastic approach to tax payment. And how do we respond? Not positively, particularly when we have a choice. It may be hard to avoid online searching without Google, but Costa, Nero and Ritazza all provide a more than adequate beverage alternative to Starbucks. Indeed, Costa could hardly have created more marked contrast with by now pantomime villains, Starbucks. Last month Costa, despite having gained planning permission to open a branch in Totnes, faced with a petition against opening in the town, decided to gracefully revoke its decision to open amidst a crowd of independent outlets. I know where I’ll be purchasing my next medium black Americano.
And trust is a key element of the employee-employer relationship. Just today, we see a report today detailing the number of UK financial services professionals leaving the country for centres such as HongKong and Singapore – their trust in the UK’s ability to provide a long term banking infrastructure declining by the day.
TMP’s exposure to employer branding has brought home this year the importance of authenticity in creating an enduring sense of trust in an organisation’s employee value proposition. In defining and articulating the DNA that courses through the employee-employer relationship, throughout the external audience to applicant to candidate to new joiner to employee to advocate and onto brand champion journey, those organisations that combine reality and authenticity with direction and aspiration create the foundations to stand out and differentiate.
These remain cautious times, the economy is unlikely to pick up with any real enthusiasm for years rather than months to come, and, as a result, all too many employers lack the courage to go to market with anything other than a me-too, vanilla employer brand. However, those organisations, and TMP has been delighted to work with several this year, that understand that the employee experience they have created is both tangible and tangibly different and are comfortable with articulating such difference, possess employer brands that candidate and employee audiences are more likely to trust, exactly because they are brave enough to stand out.
Giving great people – both internal and external ones – a genuine reason to trust your employer brand is becoming more and more important within labour markets which demonstrate both caution and inertia at the same time as growing skills shortages.
Maybe you should put that on your Christmas list.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 