When identifying your consumer brand, it is what consumers say it is, not what you think it is. If people perceive Kia's to be cheap, low quality transportation, that's the reality of the brand, regardless of what people at Kia would want you to believe, AND REGARDLESS OF THE ACTUAL QUALITY OR VALUE THAT KIA OFFERS. If people don't see it that way, it isn't that way.

Likewise, your employment brand is whatever your employees say it is. This is a fundamental point of creating, developing, and communicating a brand, and a point I hit strongly in my presentations to employers on this subject.

So as we go through this process, it almost always comes up that this is difficult to do, because different departments (horizontal), or different job grades (vertical) would have different opinions about the company's strengths, weaknesses, personality.

This is where I recently stopped my thought process, and asked myself, WHY IS IT THAT THERE IS SO MUCH VARIATION IN VIEW OF THE COMPANY BOTH HORIZONTALLY AND VERTICALLY? If one department treats your employees well, pays well, is open and honest in communication, and is compassionate to them, why would that change from department to department? Or, for that matter, based on how high up the ladder you are?

Is this common for every business?? Is it good, or merely accepted? If just something you have to deal with, why? Looking at it from 30,000 feet, this seems ridiculous to acknowledge and allow such incongruous relations to manifest in one business. Am I crazy or is it just plain simple to assume that a unified and pervasive employee/employer relationship will help all areas of the company operate more efficiently and effectively?

What am I missing?

There's more of this post, beginning and end, on my blog, if you're interested in further ranting: Recruiting Front Lines.