“The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.” – Saint Augustine
People today, including employees and prospective recruits, are looking for more meaning in their lives and in their work. This is why there has been a rise in budgets directed to more meaningfully connect with employers and an increase in budgets to develop a company’s Employer Brand.
Messaging alone won’t pull employees in
This is especially true when investing in your Employer Brand, and trying to build a Meaningful Workplace. It becomes far more involved than simply sending a PDF of the master plan to every employee or hanging posters in the cafeteria. Indeed, every aspect of the master plan’s deployment needs to be done in a highly sensitive and respectful way.
It has been said that messaging is dead, meaning that the idea of simply creating and broadcasting a bank of words, no matter how charmingly poetic they may be, simply doesn’t cut it any more.
Such business transmissions smack of company speak, and worse, of marketing. Eyes glaze over. Defensive shields are erected. Pure messaging attempts fail.
The goal, after all, is a meaningful outcome that seeks to bring the employer and the employee closer together. This is not to say messaging doesn’t play a role in the development of an Employer Brand.
What it does say is that messaging cannot be the primary tool for instilling a sense of ambition, for evoking feelings, and for creating a meaningful culture.
This excerpt is the eighth in a series from our white paper titled The Meaningful Workplace.
