Branding: Why Every Ergonomics Project Needs One (Part 1)

Brands.  All organizations have them.  Every product has one.  Nearly every service has one.  Even some people have them (think Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey).  I’ve worked in some companies and some of their customer service and wellness programs have them.  But rarely, if ever, do ergonomics projects have them.  Why is that and why is it important?

Let’s start first with defining a brand.  A brand is defined as a unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product, service, project that differentiates itself from its competitors. The brand becomes a unique value proposition that it creates a level of credibility, quality, preference and loyalty in the mind of the target customer/market.

So, why is ergonomics project branding important?  Because your project can suffer and become irrelevant without a compelling brand.

Consider an experience I had at one of my employers.  I was with the company for a few years.  When I first started I remember the company leaders were stressing that we, as a company, needed to improve our customer service as our customer satisfaction rating were below the benchmark for our industry.  This led to the first customer service improvement initiative throughout the company in which everyone was trained on customer service our new tactics and strategies to improve and the goal we hoped to achieve.  This was a strategic initiative of the company for that year but there was no brand to this.  It was just known as the customer service improvement project.  There was some excitement generated at the initial roll out and implement but there was nothing for managers and employees to latch onto—to attract and keep their attention.  Within a few months other priorities came up and the new customer service initiative got lost along the way.  When the next customer satisfaction ratings came out there was little change.

Now compare this to my experience in leading an injury prevention initiative at the same company.  The housekeeping department had very high injury rates and related costs so much so that it caught the attention of the VP of the company.  It was my job to reduce the injuries.  Prior to me coming to the company other safety initiatives had been done but with no success.  The employees were told to “be safe” but that obviously didn’t have much meaning. I obviously looked over the injury data, determined the most common injuries and causes, and had a good idea of how to go about preventing those injuries.  However, I also knew I had to overcome past efforts and find ways to create excitement and get buy-in from department managers and employees on safety.   I did this by creating a brand and marketing campaign.  There had to be something that got the managers and employees attention and that would have them embrace the new injury prevention efforts that I had in mind.  After spending time with the employees and much brainstorming I settled on a tagline of “Safety Is An Attitude:  How’s Yours?” and created an image using a couple employees in the picture to convey the “Attitude” I wanted.  The result of this injury prevention project was phenomenal.  Within the first year we reduced lost work days from over 200 to fewer than 30 and reduced restricted work days from over 900 to just above 100.  The cost savings were greater than $300,000.

I put that brand on every housekeeping cart; put it in the break room and in their housekeeping closets.  To keep the “Attitude” brand fresh I’d ask employees to volunteer to be on the next “Attitude” poster.  At first I had to ask, as time went on I got volunteers.  This got employees involved and engaged in the project and soon the attitude of safety being an afterthought became an attitude of safety at the forefront of their minds.  Of course, the brand/marketing was only one aspect of the project.  We change some equipment, trained on different techniques, started a joint management and employee injury prevention committee, etc.  However, what did everyone rally around—the brand.

Throughout my career I’ve done ergonomics, continuous improvement and wellness projects with and without a brand I can honestly say that the ones where I took the time to develop a brand were the most successful, effective and most importantly sustaining.  After all, what does a great brand rely on?  Great human factors.  As a HF/E professional, I use what I know well—human factors in developing brands to support and enhance the projects I do for my clients.

Branding.  Try it if you haven’t done it and let me know if your outcomes are different.  I expect they will be.

In upcoming the next upcoming blogs I’ll be exploring how to go about creating a brand and the importance of the brand/project image.