Heather HuhmanNothing makes HR groan more than discovering there’s a company crisis afoot. Three Burger King employees are the most recent bad apples to join the ranks of HR headache-inflicting employees everywhere.
In case you missed it, a photo supposedly snapped at an independently owned Mayfield Heights, Ohio, Burger King is making the rounds online, grossing out whopper-loving patrons everywhere. The photo, which shows an employee standing in lettuce bins, came captioned with, “This is the lettuce you eat at Burger King.” The three employees deemed responsible for playing with Burger King’s product have since been fired, but their disgusting viral behavior will continue to intimidate HR from sharing internal company stories.
Despite disgusting viral behavior like Burger King’s latest incident and the dirty Domino’s employees from 2009, sharing internal company stories publicly is a brilliant company strategy HR professionals should embrace. Here’s why:
Customers Like It
Engaging customers is becoming an increasingly difficult task for companies. More and more customers ignore marketing campaigns and instead search for the companies offering the best coupon. What’s worse is that customers minimally engage with companies that spend time and money on social tools, causing brand influence and profits to decline.
Sharing internal company stories is a great way HR can humanize its company and employees to customers. Much like spokesperson advertising, internal company stories tie a product or service to a face, giving customers an overall positive feeling about the people who are responsible for creating and distributing the company’s products or services. Creating video clips of charismatic internal employees is one great way to engage customers.
It Attracts Talent
HR professionals know that not every employee at their company is 100 percent satisfied with his job. But, for every unhappy employee a company has, there are plenty of respectable, excited employees with great stories to tell.
Take Groupon’s Sam and Amy for example. Back in March, the couple shared their love and engagement story to deal-loving customers everywhere. The simple blog post shows potential talent that Groupon is a fun, easy-going place to work where you may even find love.
Find outgoing employees with great stories to tell at your company and encourage them to share externally. The feel-good approach may make your company more attractive to potential talent.
It’ll Get You Press
Sure, releasing great finances and stock increases will certainly get a company press, but pure financial reporting has grown increasingly complex and even downright boring for the average media consumer to read. Journalists, after all, are storytellers, so embracing sharing internal company stories will likely get you some press attention.
Additionally, if an unsatisfied employee’s antics go viral, like in the case of Burger King, you better believe it’ll be all over media outlets within days. While these internal company stories are the kind HR dreads, it’s a common strategy to combat the negative with positive employee testimonials. HR should embrace communicating positive internal company stories because, in times of crisis, they can salvage a company’s reputation.
Does your company share internal company stories publicly? Why or why not?
Image courtesy of Flickr.
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