If you aren’t watching CBS’s new show Undercover Boss Sunday evenings, you should be. It’s an eye-opener about the cultural disconnects between the senior leadership at corporate headquarters and staff on the frontlines.

The premise of the new reality series is simple. Each week a different chief executive from a major corporation leaves the comfort of their corner office to examine the inner workings of their company. The boss goes “undercover,” slipping anonymously into the rank and file of their companies. It’s a little like “secret shopping,” except the CEO does the actual investigative research and not a third-party vendor.

While working alongside their employees, these undercover bosses get an up-close look at what it takes for frontline people to make their company run. Most enlightening, they see the effects their decisions have on others and where problems are lurking within their organization.

You’d think employees might be suspicious of some random new guy who has an entourage of cameramen in tow. You’d expect staff to be on their best behavior, or at least try hide some of the ugly warts. Wrong.

Reality Check: Employees aren’t bashful with their workplace criticisms and concerns. They’ll talk to anyone who is willing to listen, including you.

In the debut of Undercover Boss, Waste Management President and COO Larry O’Donnell (shown here) poses as “Randy,” training as a new employee to perform low-level jobs like picking up garbage, sorting trash at a recycling facility and scrubbing Port-o-Potties. Practically everywhere that “Randy” goes and almost everyone he talks to, he finds something fascinating, shocking and/or disturbing:

• Waste Management’s garbage truck drivers have to pee in tin cans they carry with them because their routes are so tightly scheduled that there’s no time for potty breaks.
• One person did the work of four employees for no extra pay.
• At one of Waste Management’s facilities, employees are docked two minutes of pay for every extra minute they go past their allotted 30-minute lunch break.
• While working as “Randy” at a landfill, O’Donnell can’t keep up with the pace and gets fired for the first time in his life.

UNDERCOVER BOSS – WASTE MANAGEMENT
President and COO Larry O’Donnell invites the frontline employees he worked with while posing as “Randy” to come talk with him at Waste Management’s corporate headquarters. Note how employees express their gratitude and appreciation for having a boss that cares enough to spend time with them.

Key Questions:

• When was the last time someone from your corporate HQ spent any time in the trenches?
• How many people on your C-suite have ever spent time as a teller?
• How do you think your staff would feel if you spent time working alongside them — “walking a mile in their shoes,” as the expression goes?
• What would you find if you went undercover at your bank or credit union?
• Are your processes, procedures and corporate decisions hurting morale?
• How would you know if you had a rogue manager twisting corporate priorities into painful and punitive policies?

At first, O’Donnell said he was reluctant to go on the show, but, in the end, he gained some extremely valuable insights that would have been nearly impossible for him to discover through other means. “I wanted to experience what it’s like to do so many of the jobs that are vital to they way we operate every day, so I could learn what is it like. What are the challenges in these jobs.”

O’Donnell said he was “blown away with how dedicated and hardworking” his staff is and amazed at how much pride they take in their work. “What I took away was that everyone really loved the company and wanted me to succeed in my job,” he said.

What O’Donnell also learned was how his corporate cost-cutting measures and drive for operational efficiency had impacted the frontline troops.

“I learned a heck of a lot,” O’Donnell said. “I got to experience first hand the frustration that some of the decisions that I’ve made are causing [employees].”

O’Donnell resolved himself to make a number of operational changes in his organization.

Key Takeaways:

If you want employees to help you build your brand, then you have to understand how corporate decisions impact frontline staff. Employees — not you — are the ones with the real power to create branded experiences. Staying connected with employees isn’t something that you do once every five years. It should be part of your culture. You don’t have to go undercover and “spy” on your employees either. Just pull up a chair next to them and roll up your sleeves. You may be surprised how such a simple act can be so enlightening, and how appreciative staff can be.

Stay Tuned

The second episode of Undercover Boss featured Hooters president and CEO Colby Brooks. While posing as a new employee, Brooks couldn’t believe what he saw when one of his managers forced female employees to compete for extra time off.

“Ladies, you want to leave early today?” the manager asks. “Then you’re going to play my ‘reindeer games.’” The manager then has the women — with hands behind their backs — race to see who can eat beans off their serving trays fastest. The manager, named “Jimbo,” squeals in pleasure as he watches his female employees root around for nuts: “Whooo doggie!!!”

“I just want to pull him by the ears and say, ‘Hey, you can’t do that,’” Hooters CEO Brooks says.

Indeed. It doesn’t just seem immoral. It’s probably illegal.

Other companies whose chief executives will be going undercover this season include such 7-Eleven President and CEO Joseph DePinto and White Castle owner and Executive Board Member Dave Rife.

The Financial Brand interviewed Mary Olson, VP of Marketing, Delta Community, and talked about the credit union’s creative — and branded – employee intranet, affectionately named “Simon.” Simon is the portal for all employee communications — the guy who knows what’s going on inside the credit union. But Simon is more than just an intranet. He is a full-fledged internal spokesman and mascot, complete with a costume and foam head.

How many employees does Delta Community have?

Mary Olson (MO): 550.

Why did you feel it was important to have a branded intranet like Simon?

MO: We wanted to make the service easier for employees to embrace by creating a personality — a trusted buddy, co-worker — there for work and play.

MEET SIMON

“He’s your guide through Delta Community Credit Union’s intranet portal. Simon is friendly and knowledgeable. He’s fun and has a lot to say. His favorite movie is ‘Revenge of the Nerds,’ and his claim to fame is filling out Sunday’s New York Times crossword in about 30 minutes with no help.”

What can employees do or find at the Simon website?

MO: It’s more like what can’t they find on Simon?

Employees can access a calendar of events, employee birthdays, HR suggestion box, training information, games, project fact sheets, timesheets, updates on charitable fundraising activities, HR policies and procedures, and more.

What kind of intranet was in place prior to Simon?

MO: We utilized Delta Air Lines intranet so it was wrapped-up under their branding and structure to fit their business model. We created Simon to help create a more organized portal for the credit union.

The previous one really just housed a bunch of our emails and poster artwork for campaigns—not very functional and not as widely used.

[Note: Delta Community Credit Union is closely linked to Delta Airlines, the historical source of the credit union's membership.]

Where did the name ‘Simon’ come from?

MO: We were inspired by the “Simon Says” game. It’s something many people remember from childhood. We then gave the name to our agency partner, Third Degree Adverting, and asked them to come up with a character image to represent Simon.

What kind of technology makes Simon tick?

MO: Passageways is the name of the product, which comes from Purdue University Credit Union. We customized some of the functionality to fit our credit union’s needs.

Is Simon a public spokesman as well?

MO: He’s purely for employees—serving as an internal mascot and voice of the credit union. We have a Simon mascot who visits employee birthday and holiday parties. One time, he was even kidnapped by our CEO Rick Foley and held for ransom to benefit Children’s Miracle Network.

Many financial institutions complain that staff doesn’t use their intranets. How do you get Delta Community’s employees to use Simon?

MO: We push them to Simon by emailing messages directing them to go to Simon to get the full story. Plus, they have to go to Simon to learn about the latest fun events such as upcoming jean days and parties.

How active are employees on the Simon website?

MO: They have to be on it every day if they want to find out the latest news. It’s also our default home page on employee computers.

What’s the biggest impact Simon has had on your organization?

MO: Simon has increased our level of communications with employees. With one central location to send people, it’s so much easier to keep people “in the know.”

Also, it has increased efficiency from an HR function. For example, when updates our made to our employee manual, each individual is required to read and approve the updates. We can now do this much easier through the intranet site.

And, with 22 branches in four states, Simon also serves as an online “water cooler” where employees can share photos and even support peers in need, such as battling cancer.

What’s the most important piece of advice you’d offer another financial institution considering an employee intranet?

MO: It took twice as long as we thought it would with marketing, HR and IT working together to make it happen. And, it’s always a work in process. Be prepared to take baby steps.

How much time does it take to keep Simon up and running? Who is responsible?

MO: Marketing, IT and HR probably update and/or monitor Simon on a daily basis. Also, work group managers are responsible for providing updates to, and about, their teams on Simon. …One great functionality about Simon is that you can choose who receives updates on Simon based on the message content. For example, if there’s a bake sale going on at one branch, the whole credit union doesn’t need to receive and read the message. So, the message sharing is scalable.

What do you think Simon is missing?

MO: Right now, we can’t host video on Simon because it holds up our server. We’re working with our IT department to find a way around this challenge, which also fits our IT security standards.

Is Simon single? Perhaps a ‘Simone’ in his life?

MO: Simon is single and focused on his career. He only parties at the office.

As part of a broader initiative to reach out to customers experiencing financial hardship, TD Canada Trust has created TD Helps, a subsite featuring 12 employee videos. The project was inspired by stories shared among employees on TD’s intranet.

Most of the videos — 10 of the 12 in fact — are firsthand testimonials, where an employee shares a story about how they were able to help a customer who has been severely effected by the economic downturn. There’s also one video with a step-by-step breakdown of TD’s loan consideration process, and another one from TD Canada Trust’s CEO introducing the subsite.

“Our employees were the driving force behind this website. We thought and hoped that a lot of our customers would identify with some of the situations our employees have helped with, and that their stories would encourage people to come and see us sooner,” says Tim Hockey, CEO/TD Canada Trust.

It does not appear that TD Canada Trust will be rotating any fresh videos into its TD Helps lineup. Maybe they will if the idea takes off, but don’t count on it.

“Let’s figure it out.”

The subsite’s banner has an understated sense of design. A simple, overstuffed, green leather chair serves as a metaphor for the bank’s “sit-down-and-talk-to-us” message. It’s like an invitation from a financial psychologist, “Here, please, take a seat and get comfortable.”

The subsite’s banner contains is the only place you’ll find any copy from TD corporate:

“If you’re like many other TD Canada Trust customers, you may be finding it difficult to make ends meet. This site is for you. More than ever, our employees are empowered to offer solutions that will help get your finances on track. And while we may not be able to help everyone, we’re truly doing our best to see that our customers feel comfortable.”

The TD Helps subsite, hosted as a part of TD Canada’s main website and not as a stand-alone microsite, is fairly simple in its structure. There’s the welcome banner and 12 videos, and that’s it. But that doesn’t mean that TD didn’t put a lot of thought into it, because they clearly did, and there are lots of little details to prove it.

People can rate- and comment on the videos. You can even rate- and reply to other people’s comments.

The CEO’s welcome video has received the most comments so far, 63 in all. People are wondering, “Is this a genuine reflection of the bank’s beliefs? Or just a PR stunt?” The conversation is actually quite fascinating.

While customers have been able to comment on the TD Money Lounge on Facebook for a couple of years, this is the first time the bank has ever opened up its own site for comments.

A couple of the videos are rated five stars out of five. The lowest ranked video, “Their High Interest Was Weighing Them Down,” received only 2.17 stars, but unfortunately, the site doesn’t tell you how many people rated each video.

There are buttons that people can click to share the subsite with their Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Clicking on the buttons will auto-populate a somewhat presumptuous message from your account: “Wow, a story about a bank who’s actually helping people? http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/tdhelps”

The subsite has one other interesting feature. You can download a PDF transcript for any of the videos. But again, who’s going to do that?

Tasha’s Video

Tasha Serraro is a banking specialist at TD Canada Trust branch in Marathon, Ontario. The closure of the town’s local pulp and paper mill dealt a heavy economic blow to her customers. With her help, one of her customers secured lower monthly payments on his loan, and developed a plan to keep his family comfortable until he could find a new job.

“We were able to arrange lower monthly payments and offer a bit of a cushion in case times got worse and they did… he lost his job,” Tasha says in her video.

Her testimonial continues: “We don’t know if the mill’s going to reopen, but what we do know is that this couple is comfortable for the next few years. They have a plan in place and they’re going to be okay.”

Tasha’s Video
In this video that runs just over a minute, Tasha Serraro shares her testimonial about how she helped a customer after her town’s mill shut down.

TD Canada used Tasha’s testimonial as the showcase video for the launch of TD Helps. Her video travelled along with another video from the CEO in PR materials. It is the most professional of the 12 videos available on the site, with a higher production quality and good editing. Most of the other videos are shot in branch lobbies and typical office environments.

In case you were wondering… Yes, The Financial Brand was able to confirm that, similar to Delta’s Katherine Lee, Tasha is indeed a real employee at TD’s Marathon, Ontario branch, and not just an attractive paid actor or someone recruited from somewhere else at the bank.

“Project Umbrella”

Earlier this year, TD Canada Trust introduced an internal program to make sure that its employees knew what customers were dealing with. It was called “Project Umbrella,” an internal codename is meant to signify the bank’s willingness to shield customers from a rainy day.

Employees were trained accordingly, and given new tools, like the ability to defer mortgage payments.

“The result was that we were helping thousands of customers stay in their homes, get their debt under control and their lives back on track,” CEO Hockney says.

TD Bank says it has helped “nearly 20,000 clients facing severe financial hardship” from February to July under Project Umbrella.

According to TD, employees started asking “How do we reach more people? How do we get the word out to more people that we can help them?”

The Toronto Star reports that TD “executives weren’t convinced at first that going public was the right approach,” and that Project Umbrella is expected to have “no material impact” on TD’s earnings or loan loss provisioning.

That’s an interesting thing to admit to.

BofA has taken a lot of heat in the press lately. As if all the problems surrounding TARP, their merger with Merrill Lynch and executive compensation aren’t enough to deal with, the bank has to respond to public outrage when one of their 300,000 employees makes a moronic decision.

Well, make that two employees…

The Thumbprint “Rule?”

Steve Valdez went to a Tampa Bank of America branch looking to cash a check. Because he didn’t have an account at the bank, he was asked to provide a thumbprint for identification. Standard procedure, right?

Well, Steve has prosthetic arms. He was born armless.

Hmmm, what to do…?

Despite presenting the bank teller with two forms of picture ID, Steve was told that in order to cash the check he would either have to open an account, or bring in his wife who wrote him the check.

Steve told the bank manager, “You do realize this is in violation of federal law and you haven’t heard the end of it?”

The manager’s response?

“Whatever.”

“Corporate Policy” Against American Flags?

The town of Gaffney, S.C., was preparing for a funeral processional for a Marine killed in Afghanistan. Brenda Earls, neighbor to the fallen Marine, lined the route with small American flags. Brenda never expected she’d run into any trouble putting American flags in front of a Bank of America branch.

But Brandy Tate, the manager of BofA’s Gaffney branch, pulled the flags, saying it “violated company policy.” She told Brenda that “it would offend some customers.”

Like who? Confederate separatists? Al’Qaeda?

Brandy then told Brenda she had to go into the branch to collect her flags if she didn’t want them thrown out.

Dumb & Dumber

The way some media outlets, like Fox News, pick up such stories with obvious zeal, they’d have you believe BofA has corporate policies against thumbless people and fallen Marines. But you’d have to be almost as stupid as the two BofA employees in Tampa and Gaffney to really believe that.

Reality Check: People do dumb things. Even intelligent people who are well-intentioned make mistakes. Everyone is prone to the occasional brain fart.

Why didn’t the employee in Tampa try to find a solution for the thumbless customer? Was this employee so insensitive, emotionally detached and/or lazy that they just didn’t care, as the “whatever” comment might suggest? Or perhaps the employee is just one of those mindless automatons who blindly applies corporate policy? “Sorry, no thumbs, no thumbprint, no money… Next!”

Dumb.

Why didn’t Brandy let a few American flags fly on the sidewalk of a bank that has — quite literally — wrapped itself in American patriotism? Why couldn’t she foresee the inevitable PR nightmare? The headline is so obvious: “Bank of America refuses to fly American flags for fallen American.” No matter what “corporate policy” she may- or may not have believed was in place, how come she didn’t make a better decision? How could she throw U.S. flags in a Bank of America trash can?!?

Dumber.

But every organization has the occasional dimwit, pinhead, bully or spineless bureaucrat. BofA is no different. Simply based on their scale, they are going to have more than most financial institutions. But do they have more than their fair share? Not likely.

Fact: 300,000 employees is almost the same size population as cities like Cincinnati, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Anchorage. How many people do dumb things in those cities every day? For that matter, how many get arrested?

Reality Check: With 300,000 employees, having two bad eggs really isn’t all that bad.

BofA fell victim to human stupidity. Not once, but twice. And you know what? It’s going to happen again. Why? Because it’s impossible to design a system that thwarts and deters all human stupidity. We’re nowhere near smart enough to figure out how to stop ourselves from doing dumb things.

Anyone tempted to wag their finger at BofA should remember that this can happen to any company, at any time — and you may be next.

BofA’s Reaction

In both situations, BofA had some appropriate-yet-predictable responses. The bank admitted it should have “offered alternative requirements if an individual is not able to give a thumbprint,” and called the Gaffney flag gaffe “an unfortunate miscommunication in corporate policy.”

But what would have happened if BofA took a different approach? What if they had been candidly honest? What if they had said, “These two employees made boneheaded decisions. They aren’t dumb, but they both made really dumb and unfortunate choices.”

Key Question: In this day and age, where the President of the United States can call Kayne West “a jackass,” why shouldn’t BofA be able to give it to us straight?

Probably the closest BofA came to telling-it-like-it-is happened when Larry DiRita, a spokesman for BofA, told Fox’s Megyn Kelly, “Hey, people make mistakes.”

True, true.

A BofA spokesperson told The Financial Brand that the bank “immediately and deeply apologized to those involved, to their families and their extended communities for any inconvenience these unfortunate mistakes may have caused.”

It’s nice that BofA offered an apology, but quite frankly, it’s the two employees that should really step up and say they’re sorry. They are the ones who should offer the apologies — to their customers, their customers’ families, their communities and even their employer, for the embarrassment. BofA didn’t really make a mistake here. These two employees did. They are the ones responsible for offending their communities. They are the ones who made ugly choices based on their own, personal warped interpretations of “company policy.”

In the end, BofA looks at the experience as a learning opportunity.

“We recognized these unfortunate incidents as a coaching opportunity,” Joseph Goode, BofA’s SVP Global Media Relations, said in an interview with The Financial Brand.

“We shared these stories with our employees through our internal communication channels, and underscored that these incidents do not represent Bank of America’s policies or our corporate values.”

Bottom Line: Common sense and caring aren’t things that can’t be taught. Good judgment is something we all wish we had more of. Hire accordingly, just remember that every company is going to have employees who do something regrettable. There is no such thing as the Bank That Never Does Anything Stupid. Fess up when you make mistakes, and don’t be afraid to call it like it is.

Filene released a study on employee perceptions of credit unions. The study concludes that credit union employees are confused about what “a credit union” is. Among the conclusions:

• Employees agree on the “credit union idea” but have a very difficult time explaining that idea to external parties.
• Employees can’t neatly compartmentalize how a credit union fits into our society.
• Employees can identify the parts of the credit union puzzle, but they don’t see how it all fits together.
• There is significant variance in employee commitment and in the consensus of what a credit union represents.
• Employees younger than 30 and those with higher levels of educational are less committed to credit unions.

It sounds pretty bleak — like all the people who actually work at credit unions don’t know what “credit unions” are.

Surely there was some discord among the survey’s responses. But when you actually look at the data, the news is pretty good for credit unions. In fact, you almost have to wonder how the survey’s authors came to such dire conclusions.

The survey posed over 150 different questions to 340 employees. Here’s some of the results:

• 99% believed great service is a defining feature of a credit union.
• 98% felt credit unions exist to serve ordinary folks, not just people with money.
• 96% believed credit unions made a difference in people’s lives.
• 96% thought “people helping people” pretty much summed it up.
• 96% knew that credit unions were different because they had all-volunteer boards.
• 95% believed there was more of a community feeling at a credit union.
• 95% have recommended the credit union to someone other than family.
• 95% believed that members actually own their credit unions.
• 94% believed it was more important to look after a member and not push them into something they don’t want.
• 91% believed that fundamentally, a credit union is a pooling of the members’ financial resources for the members’ benefit.
• 90% have tried to get one of their family members to join.
• 88% felt treating members equally was an underlying value of credit unions.

Bottom Line: It sounds like employees of credit unions have a lot of pride in where they work, and know more about “credit unions” than we may assume. Some messages are clearly getting through…to staff, any way.

If you’ve got 20 minutes, check out this PDF of Filene’s results.

If you’ve got another 20 minutes after that, Filene has a 20-minute MP3 about the study.

Both are worth the time — if you have it.

Key Question: What would employees of banks say if they took a similar study?

Some financial institutions have mission statements. Some have vision statements. Some have both. Some companies have a defined list of core values, while others don’t. One thing is for sure: There is a lot of confusion about what each of these tools should do.

The difference between a Mission Statement, a Vision Statement and Core Values in the simplest terms:

• Mission Statements – Say what you’re doing today
• Vision Statements – Say what you want to accomplish tomorrow
• Core Values – Define what you believe in

Reality Check: Most mission statements are full of trite, feel-good expressions. They only get approved because they say nothing unique nor courageous.

Here’s an example of a mission statement for an imaginary financial institution:

“Our mission is to be the premier provider
of superior financial solutions by
earning people’s trust in the most friendly,
professional manner possible.”

It is no one’s in particular. And yet it is everyone’s.

The day-to-day purpose, goals and beliefs of most financial institutions are almost identical, so it’s no surprise that they have similar-sounding missions, visions or values. They all want to “do what’s right,” and “hold themselves to the highest standards,” so they can…Yeah, yeah. It’s the same stuff you hear from hundreds of financial institutions.

Reality Check: In this economic climate, you’ll have to forgive the folks on Main Street. You may say you’re trying to do the right thing for your community, your employees and your shareholders, but right now, people are a little jaded and skeptical about such statements. When most people read a mission statement (including employees), they roll their eyes and think, “Phhbbbt…’a premier financial institution.’ Just more corporate mumbo-jumbo.”

Lookalike missions, visions and core values aren’t the real problem though. It’s when the board, CEO or senior leadership of a financial institution confuse any of these things for a brand strategy or brand position that real problems arise. In most cases, they aren’t anywhere close.

The missing piece: a brand position

All too often, senior management and the board are left trying to build a 3-legged brand strategy out of statements that essentially say the same thing as their competitors. The result? An undifferentiated brand.

Reality Check: The #1 thing that prevents an organization from crafting a brand position is that the CEO or board thinks the mission or vision is “the brand.” Odds are, these brands will live stunted lives.

What they need is the fourth leg of the table: a Brand Position. A Brand Position (or brand essence, or brand strategy, or USP, or whatever you want to call it) is where you can really differentiate yourself in relevant ways.

Things like mission, vision and values clarify what an organization is about, while a Brand Position says how you will deliver on those things. A Brand Position says how you will achieve your mission, accomplish your vision, and live out your values. It says how you will be different than your competitors. Will you become “the premier provider” by making banking easier? Will you be the most knowledgeable advisors?

Let’s use Disney as example. Their mission might be something safe, like:

“Our mission is to provide a wide range
of quality entertainment options
to families and children of all ages.”

Other entertainment companies could very well have an identical mission statement. And Disney’s core values are probably shared with at least some of their competitors. After all, Disney isn’t the only innovative family entertainment provider out there.

So what makes Disney special? It’s their Brand Position:

MAKE MAGIC MOMENTS

And they live this out. If you’ve ever seen a Disney film, gone to a Disney theme park or cruised on a Disney vessel, you should have had a fairytale experience. That’s how they provide “quality entertainment to families” differently than everyone else.

They can train people to live out their brand position. They can (and do) teach people how to make magic moments — how to use their imagination and creativity to do something people will remember. It’s engaging. Fun. Inspiring.

They are “The Happiest Place on Earth” because “The Magic Kingdom” is the kind of place “Where Dreams Come True.” (See the how a brand position can bring clarity, relevance and differentiation to tangible things like slogans?)

It’s a lot harder to help your staff understand what “premier” or “preferred” mean. Those kinds of terms are hard to train because they are vague, and have many varied interpretations to different people.

Give them something inspirational — that’s also credible — and watch them respond.

United Community FCU just gave brand new 2009 Chevrolet HHRs to 17 employees. The cars, wrapped from bumper to bumper with credit union graphics, cost $380,000. To pay for the campaign, the credit union is slashing its marketing budget in half.

Each employee is required to drive their new car at least 10,000 miles a year for the next three years.

Key Question: How were employees picked? Which ones got cars? Which ones didn’t?

Employees are given incentives to win gas cards by providing contact information of prospective members who ask about the credit union.

After hearing about the free cars for employees. one potential member said she was planning to switch her account to the credit union from another institution because she wanted to “deal with someone who treats their employees so well.”

On the back of each car is a number that cell phone users can text to receive the credit union’s phone number and address. “We’ve had 13 messages since Thursday,” Pastirik said.

The credit union leased the cars for three years. Sixteen of the cars are white, and one is silver.

In an interview with CUNA News, Pastirik said United Community’s board was 100 percent behind the concept.

United Community’s CFO was the brainchild behind the credit union’s car giveaway, which goes to show you that marketing ideas don’t always come from just the marketing department.

United Community Federal, in Pittsburgh, PA, has 8,000 members and $36 million in assets.

You can have the best brand strategy ever devised, with the greatest marketing and the most-admired ad campaign running. But it all means nothing if your staff fail to create an experience that delivers on your brand’s promises.

In order for your brand to thrive, employees must be on-board. They must know what your brand stands for and how to live it out. Here are 5 things HR needs to do to help build your brand.

1. All-Staff Brand Orientation

Have you told your entire staff what your brand is about? Do they even know what a “brand” is?

Your HR department needs to create a program that immerses employees in the brand. Staff should know what a brand is and why branding is important. Most importantly, what does the brand mean to them? How does it affect their day-to-day interactions? What are they expected to do? Or do differently? (Hint: You know you have a strong brand strategy when it applies equally to both frontline- and back-office staff.)

A good place to start with Brand Orientation is with an all-staff event. That’s what  Xerox FCU did when it changed names to Xceed Financial.

Quite often, these brand kickoff meetings include a video that tells the story and positions the brand, like this one from Kinecta:

But you don’t need to wait until you rename or rebrand to have a Brand Event. You can have one any time. In fact, you should probably have some sort of “refresher event” every few years.

The nice part about holding a staff Brand Event is that it requires you to make a set of materials about your brand. The mere process of creating these materials can bring new clarity and fresh insights to your brand strategy. Moreover, these materials can subsequently be used for Brand Initiation, the next item on HR’s list.

2. New Employee Brand Initiation

New employees are often given training when they are hired. They learn the organization’s processes and policies. There’s always someone who shows them the bathrooms and tells them about nearby restaurants for lunch.

But when new employees are hired, are they ever trained according to the brand? They need to be. This can be done one-on-one, or in groups quarterly.

One great way to expose new employees to the brand is to assign them mentors. These mentors can come from any department in the organization, as long as they are passionate about your brand and understand the importance of their responsibilities as Brand Mentor.

3. Screening Prospects According to the Brand

If your organization has defined its core values, they should be used to screen applicants.

Say, for instance, one of your core values is “Teamwork.” You need interview questions that explore an applicant’s experience working in teams:

• Do you prefer working in a team? Or are you more comfortable working independently?
• Why do you like working in teams?
• What size team(s) are you most comfortable with?
• Have you ever been part of a team where something went wrong? Can you give me an example? What could have been done differently?

If you aren’t screening applicants according to your brand and its core values, what good are they?

4. Evaluating Employees According to the Brand

It’s this simple: If something isn’t measured and rewarded, it doesn’t matter. If you aren’t evaluating staff according to the brand and giving them incentives for on-brand behaviors, they won’t care.

Annual performance reviews are a good place to include brand evaluations, but staff need regular reinforcement. Once a year isn’t enough. HR needs to develop reward mechanisms and smaller, more frequent incentives that can be used on an on-going basis.

Cash isn’t the only reward either. You could offer a free lunch, a day off, a paid vacation, a parking space, etc. The best rewards reflect and support the brand. If you’re a green organization, for instance, you give certain on-brand employees a hybrid for some period of time (wrapped in the brand’s graphics, of course).

For some people, public acknowledgement goes a long way. Others just need a simple “thank you” to know their on-brand behaviors were recognized.

5. On-going Brand Training & Communications

You know the expression, “Out of sight, out of mind.” The same applies to branding. If staff aren’t hearing about- and learning more about your brand on a regular basis, they’ll forget about it.

What’s interesting is that many employees have an acute curiosity about their organization’s brand. They appreciate it when you take the time to explain the hows and whys of your various brand-building efforts. Everyone should know about current marketing efforts. Stories of on-brand experiences — from within the organization or without — should be shared. Sometimes staff are just curious about what’s going on in another department. Unfortunately when things get busy, internal communications are all too often one of the first things to fall by the wayside.

Reality Check: No matter how much brand information you’re sharing with staff, it probably isn’t enough.

The trick is finding the right communications mechanisms your staff will utilize. Intranet? Email? Newsletter? Social media tools like Facebook or even Twitter?

An employee of Maine State Credit Union says in his blog that “people should be able to see your credit union’s name and know if they are eligible for membership, without ever opening your membership brochure.” This is especially important, he adds, if you expand your field of membership.

So he takes issue with his employer’s choice to switch from ‘Maine State Employees Credit Union’ to ‘Maine State Credit Union’ when it got a community charter – in only two Maine counties:

“When we expanded our field of membership we dropped the ‘Employees’ from the name…who do we serve now? Looking at the name it would be easy to think we served the whole state, but I’d be wrong. We now serve the Kennebec and Somerset counties, but our name doesn’t tell me that. I have to search through the membership brochure to find out what towns are included in our coverage. I don’t like that.”

He also offers this advice: Credit unions shouldn’t drop the term “Credit Union” from their names (by replacing it with “Financial,” for instance). It robs them of a key point of distinction, he reasons.

Key Question: Do you know what your employees are saying about your organization online?

Bottom Line: Google Alerts. I found this post through my Google Alerts. If you set up the right Google Alerts, you can stay abreast of just about everything that concerns you and your organization. “Fine tuning” your Alerts to eliminate irrelevant garbage can be frustrating, however.