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A Brand Manual, formerly known as the Employee Handbook, is a document handed to and supposedly internalised by every employee. From traditionally being a procedures & directives manual, such documents nowadays have evolved into inspirational branding tools.
In modern times companies typically choose to have a Brand & Culture Manual in digital format, sometimes even sharing it out in the open on their corporate website. Cool and attractive brands are created by driven positive people with inspirational ideas and behaviours. If it is really cool and attractive, why hide it from the open?
A Brand & Culture Manual covers information about the company and its Brand(s) and Culture. It’s about feelings and behaviours, one could say the softer and more emotional stuff that holds everything together and gives people emotive direction to the future. It typically provides awesome information about the company, its history, the purpose, vision, values, services and behavioural principles. And moreover, how the company adds positive value to the world, to communities and to people.
Traditionally such an employee manual described more formal policies and procedures (such as confidentiality policy, dress codes, holiday procedures, sick leave, appraisal procedures, salary policies, etc.). But that is the transactional HR stuff we are nowadays not so much interested in. For sure that info is also important, but it can easily be made available on some sort of folder on your corporate intranet.
Get it done right; it will push your company in the right direction
When created content-wise and designed graphically in an awesome way, your Brand & Culture Manual will not only give direction to the ideas and behaviours of the people who are the business. It will also serve as a tool for onboarding and a brief for creating your websites, and all your other internal and external communications and innovation of products and services. When really done well, it will attract the right candidates and clients and positively impact your future strategies. So you better create one!
How to create an attractive Brand & Culture Manual?
The content of the Manual has to be co-created in collaboration with the employees. And often external partners and even customers can nowadays partake with the creation.
Step 1
We always start with deep visioning with the leadership team, to really understand how they see the future of the company and the cool stuff that leads them. Often it needs a bit of a fuzzy process to get the team to see the same future.
Step 2
Then we involve more key players from various departments in getting the input we need. And preferable, we use innovative collaboration and communication tools to involve as many people as possible in the creative process. They give input, we process it and step-by-step we create and design the content. During the process, we review with the leadership team. It's often a bit of a hairy process with insightful discussions on views, ideas and even conventions. We empathize with the people, we inspire them and are inspired by them, and then we start with converging and diverging of prototypes.
Step 3
In several iterations, and with parallel graphic design sprints, we bring it from a puzzle of many individual pieces scattered in the heads of the people to a most inspirational Brand & Culture Manual.
Step 4
We help you launch your Manual in a festive way that fits your culture. Be it a (remote) party, a special training session, an inspirational movie or else. As long as you don’t just throw it over the fence by email or by adding it to your intranet. Make it something memorable.
Step 5
Together we make sure co-workers internalise the content, by using it as the fundament for onboarding and (online) training, organising a company quiz, dialogue sessions or even storytelling workshops to align individual stories to the corporate culture.