“Employees are a company’s greatest asset – they’re your competitive advantage.”
– Anne M. Mulcahy
Question for consumers: What do you say when someone asks you where you work?
Questions for providers: What do you want your employees to say when they get asked this question?
Previously on this blog we’ve talked about social recruitment, but this month we focus more on how aged care providers can make use of one of their greatest strengths, the staff, in marketing to older consumers.
Staff are the brand
Think about this statement: people are the brand embodied and creating a brand experience is key to marketing.
The experience a customer has with the brand, from the messaging through to interaction with staff is all important and every element must work to reinforce the experience.
The staff of an organisation say a lot about the company. The admin staff, the carers, the nurses, the support workers – they are all the public face of aged care providers. Family want reassurance their loved one will be looked after, knowing the staff care about their work.
Employee engagement
Employee engagement is critical to a business or organisation. When team members feel valued, respected, and included, it goes a long way in creating a positive environment. Instilling a sense of pride in your employees begins with instilling a sense of meaningfulness, a sense purpose, a sense of what they are doing as being important.
In our work we find that employees in aged care often do not think they are doing anything out of the ordinary – but they are and it is worth sharing. They know your products and services in a way that no-one else does, so getting them to share that knowledge is indispensable for developing relationships with clients and their families.
We all know that money, although important, is not what keeps aged care workers in the industry. There is a real passion for improving lives.
They are benevolent, empathetic people and their work weaves through the social fabric of the community in which they work.
All too often marketing is seen as something only undertaken by the big bad companies – but marketing in aged care is really engagement with the ultimate outcome of better health and wellbeing for people in care.
Brand Ambassadors
Staff usually live local. Those who live local will network locally and already have well developed relationships and are trusted for their opinions. This can be a valuable communication channel for organisations. Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth!
Here are some tips to engaging with staff and getting them to be an ambassador for your brand.
- Social media: Set up feeds on Twitter or Facebook to get their story out. Vasey RSL Care is great example of what an organisation can do when staff get involved!
- Get employees to create content and post in on your website
- Encourage staff to share their stories via social networks on and offline.
In the absence of good news placed by a provider and its staff, media coverage will vere to the negative. But the media loves human stories, particualrly local media, and nothing is more authentic than a positively reinforcing relationship between a carer and resident.
So push out those positive stories, tap into the resources you have and tell your story.
Ellis Jones knows aged care and social recruitment. Get in touch to find out more.
image credit: WadeM via Creative Commons
