‘What’s internal is external’: Employer branding’s ties to brand reputation

Even when your communications are internal and employee-focused, there’s a good chance they’ll still have ripple effects outside of the organization. What’s communicated inside an organization is inextricably linked to how a company presents itself to the outside world.

At Ragan’s Internal Communications Conference next month, Megan Troppito, director and head of communications and brand at International, will share her insights and experiences about how internal employer branding translates to external brand reputation.

“What is internal is external,” Troppito told Ragan. “If your employees don’t believe in your brand, the outside world never will. Every hire, every departure, every Glassdoor review now impacts your brand reputation.”

Troppito will detail her firsthand experience dealing with the importance of employer branding as it relates to external perception, exemplified by her organization’s rebrand from Navistar to International. Rather than using press releases to inform employees of the change, the comms team took a dedicated approach that put employees first and foremost during the transition through the “We are International” campaign.

“Through the eyes of the comms team, priority number one was always the employee population,” she said. “The way we did our messaging and strategy started within.”

Boosting the employee story to the world

But the comms team did more than just tell the employees that change was coming — they gave them the tools to embrace it and show it off to the world beyond the company.

“We gave employees instructions and a set of materials to update their profiles and reflect the new company brand,” Troppito told Ragan. “One of the most rewarding things was to see their excitement on LinkedIn, where they were saying great things on our behalf about how proud they were to be International again,” she said, alluding to the fact that Navistar once held the International moniker in the past.

Troppito added that her team’s deep connection to the company’s employees and culture helped identify the people and stories that exemplified the new International branding they were trying to promote, stating that the best brand ambassadors are the ones who can talk about the company authentically.

“We know who the high performers are, who’s already posting on social and who’s excited to tell the company’s story, she said. “We keep an eye on LinkedIn and when we see employees already talking positively about International, we simply ask them to continue and amplify it. Those organic advocates are always the most authentic voices.”

She also said that the careful planning for the communication of the rebrand process formed the basis of its success — and that internal success led to a unified external front.

“One of the reasons we didn’t face external pushback during the rebrand was that we did so much anchoring with employees ahead of time,” Troppito shared. “They didn’t just hear about the change. They were part of it. When the new name went public our own people were already advocates, sharing their pride instead of resistance.”

Identifying important outward-facing stakeholders

During the rebrand, Troppito and her team identified four groups that needed to know about the process — employees, the company’s dealership network, customers and the general public.

She added that her team also placed special emphasis on the rebrand comms with its dealership partners, as they have direct contact with customers buying trucks from International.

“They are some of the biggest champions for our brand and the face of our company with our customers,” she said. “It’s very similar to a car dealership — that’s where people experience the brand firsthand. If they weren’t bought in, the message would have fractured before it ever reached customers.”

Troppito told Ragan that internal comms will affect external perception, and external branding affects internal sentiment. If the internal stakeholders evangelize the message outwardly, a lot of the work is done — but it’s on communicators to set up the infrastructure to make that happen.

“The lesson for us was clear — brand reputation isn’t managed in isolation,” Troppito said. “It’s built by employees, by dealers, by customers and even by the questions people ask when they stumble on your name. If you don’t align those voices, you end up with a fragmented story. But if you bring them together, you create one unified voice that carries much further.”

Register for our Internal Communications Conference here.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.