You’re Fired for Violating Brand Standards!

Yes, you should be able to fire anyone in your company for violating your brand’s standards. I doubt you can though. Why? Because you probably don’t have anything regarding your brand written down, and if you do, you probably don’t share it with your entire team.

In talking with a prospect that is a large construction company this week, I asked them if they had any documentation on their brand to get my team and I up to speed. They looked at each other confused. I asked a somewhat humorous, but point blank question to explain the need for such a thing, “Can you fire someone for spitting in front of a client?” Now this may be an obvious “yes”, but your legal team may disagree. Spitting is not a crime (as far as I know), but it may be against your clean collar brand personality. If your brand expectations are not written down and shared with your team, you cannot fire this person.

We suggest documenting your company’s brand and sharing “what it means to be a ___ team member” with your company during toolbox talks and staff meetings. This ensures everyone knows that is expected and encourages them to live out that lifestyle.

Your brand should attract like-minded clients and employees to your company as deter others. Our own marketing attracts numerous construction companies while repelling those we don’t want to work with such as lawyers and doctors. We’ve never had a law or medical office ask us to work with them and for us, that is a great thing