Shweta Binoy, Remidio’s Vice President — Human Resources & Organization Development, shares her thoughts on the importance of internal branding and how Remidio did it differently.
Remidio’s rebranding is a story of change but let me tell you about the people who drove this change, our in-house change enthusiasts!
We are a team of young, dynamic, entrepreneurial, problem-solving people who love to be challenged every day to make change happen at Remidio. These ‘change enthusiasts’ enjoy pushing boundaries and are comfortable keeping “Status-Quo” out of their dictionary. So, it isn’t surprising that the very need for rebranding Remidio came from within!
Our rebranding was not an exercise but an experience!
There is a misconception that an organization’s brand is for the customers and stakeholders, and we often do not see the underlying connection between brand promises and employee engagement. As a result, we seldom spend enough time and effort on internal branding. External marketing and communication raise awareness and expectations, but internal communication is the tool to inculcate the culture within the organization to deliver on the brand promises. Read on to know how we did it differently.
At Remidio, we experimented with a unique perspective on internal branding with our design team and employee ambassadors. Multiple discussions gave clarity to our thoughts and helped us build a strategy. We believed that internal branding is much more than branded goodies, and a CEO’s address or a written document would not be sufficient to sell the brand internally.
“Tell me, and I forget, teach me, and I may remember, involve me, and I learn. This quote by Benjamin Franklin hangs on our wall.
And we believe in it! Involving all employees in the process is essential to us.
At the outset, our Brand & Design team faced several questions — What describes Remidio best? How do we define our values and culture? What best represents our vision? What are Remidio’s attributes? But we were sure that the new look would reflect the characteristics of Remidio and its people.
Conducting surveys would have resulted in textbook answers, and hence we observed our people and their interactions within the comforts of the office space. This ‘un-said’ collective knowledge of all employees helped us decode the organization as a personality, and we got to know that all of us at Remidio are Bold, Open, and Dynamic.
Gamification of the brand attributes
Rather than introducing our people to the brand values, we wished them to experience the brand. The brand values are nothing but their attributes as a group. Moreover, we wanted to gauge the proportion in how each of us was bold, open, and dynamic. For this, we curated games around the three attributes.
We gauged the dynamism among us via ‘Dynamic Deck’ — a visual game where each team presented a monologue based on ten random pictures shown to them for only 10 seconds! The spontaneity of thoughts and all of us “being dynamic” had us all rolling with laughter.
Next was a jig-saw puzzle with a twist as none of the teams had all the pieces for the puzzle. We deliberately handed out a few pieces to other competing teams. For winning the game, one had to negotiate for the missing pieces with other groups. It was fun to see us ‘ being open’ and plotting, interacting, and arranging for the missing pieces.
The last game was where the risk was the highest. Teams could risk all their earned points to participate in the next challenge. The upside was that they could earn double the points if they won, and the downside was, they lost all the earned points. Interestingly 4 out of 5 participating teams were bold to risk everything.
The brand launch day also had us receiving Remidio’s new tee shirts, badges, uniquely designed bag-tags articulating our vision & values and not to forget personalized coffee mugs. In all, it was humbling to see everyone embrace the entire event and its activities with gung-ho.
These might seem like games for an outsider, but it symbolizes what we are and what we believe in as an organization. Since our inception in 2009, Remidio has believed that employee connection is more than just a social engagement. It is all about ‘employee brand engagement.’ Engaging everyone at all stages came naturally to us!
Outcomes for Remidio
Employees no longer view the logo as a mere image but as a visual representation of what the brand stands for, what we are, and what the brand wishes to achieve in the future. The event presented a mirror — that each one of us at Remidio is bold, open, and dynamic. In varied proportions — but without doubt, each one represents the three attributes.
Beyond the launch day, Remidio continues nurturing and reinforcing the brand daily, at every touchpoint. Even those who do not interact with customers understand and embrace their role in delivering on-brand customer experiences.
Remidio believes in ‘Employee Brand Engagement,’ which doesn’t have just happy, engaged employees; more importantly develops happy, engaged employees who produce the right results.
