The Great Resignation – problem or opportunity?

A social trend has emerged this year of people leaving their jobs by the masses.

This article authored by Auckland HR Adviser Bhavika Singh.

Time to read: 8 mins

However, you could be doing damage to your brand by not developing your visual identity further. Other elements like fonts, colours and imagery will have a major impact on how your brand is perceived. If these elements are not given consideration, the result will be a brand that looks inconsistent and unprofessional which we all know, isn’t the best look for your business.

Let’s take a deeper look at these elements and when you might use them:

Primary Logo

You have a logo which you use to represent your brand. If you have a tag line or an established date in your logo, it’s probably included in here too. You use this logo to promote your business and it clearly identifies you from your competitors. Easy!

Secondary logo

A secondary logo can be a simplified version of the primary logo or the same logo elements in a different layout. For example, you might have a tagline on your primary logo that doesn’t appear on your secondary logo, or you might have a horizonal logo that is taking up too much space in narrower spaces so the logomark is stacked on top of the type. Whatever the reason, a secondary logo solves a multitude of problems.

One more thing about logos

It is always best practice to have monochrome versions of your logo. Having versions in both black and white allows your brand to shine in different print and digital formats when colour is not an option. Don’t get caught out by not having these as part of your extended logo suite.

Favicon

You may not have heard of the word before, but trust me, you probably don’t go a few hours without seeing one!  A favicon is a small icon that represents your logo on your website. Open a couple of websites in different tabs and have a look across the toolbar and you will see a variety of favicons across the pages before the URL. You will also see these in your bookmarks section. They help you distinguish between the tabs to ease navigation between sites. If you have a combined logo, it is likely that your favicon will be your logomark, or a simplified version of it. If your logo is a wordmark, you will use a stylised version of the first letter of your business name.

Patterns

Using a pattern as part of your collateral is a good opportunity to add another layer of brand recognition to your business. Patterns can be used on printed documents, walls, packaging etc.  You can approach this as a repeated shape, or you can add multiple elements if you have more to say. Just like a good pattern, the options are endless!

Colours

When it comes to colour, it is important to be specific and consistent. Find out the exact breakdowns of the colours that you use in your branding. You should have an RGB (digital) and a CMYK (printers’ preference) breakdown of each colour and stick to them.

Imagery

A picture tells a thousand words, and the right images will convey thought and emotion at the blink of an eye before your potential customer has even read your content. Images should be chosen with care and there should be a unifying theme to the image’s you curate. Spend some time and develop an image asset library that you and your team can use when they need something. Please do not steal images off the internet. There are enough resources available for free or for a small yearly subscription.

While these resources are great and will work in so many places,  the best images are the ones that are unique to your business. If you are selling a service, it’s worth hiring a professional photographer to take some shots of your team on location doing what they do best. If you are selling a product, this will be an ongoing investment to photograph your products to make sure they look irresistible to your clients. 

Typefaces (Fonts)

The typeface that you choose can greatly impact the tone of your brand. We’ve all heard the jokes about comic sans but like a lot of good jokes, this comes from a place of truth. Comic sans will work if you are a children’s entertainer, not so much if you are a funeral home.

Teaming styles and weights for headings, subheadings and body text and following that style through the rest of your collateral will set you apart from your less organised competitors.

As you can see, there are many elements involved when making decisions about how you are perceived visually that come into play beyond your logo. I hope this article helps you understand these better. If you think your brand collateral could use the professional touch,  clarification or review or simply you would like some brand guidance, please get in touch today.

Texas university professor Anthony Klutz referred to it as the ‘Great Resignation’, and the term has taken off around the globe nearly as fast as employees are handing in their notice. This was an unexpected side effect of the Covid-19 pandemic which has got employees reassessing their job satisfaction and reflecting on their values.

Smart employers see the great resignation as something to be embraced rather than feared. The market is teeming with talented people interested in what you can provide, and this is a great chance to upskill your workforce. Many are looking at changing sectors of work, which employers should not rule out either. Great people with the right attitude can be trained on the technical areas of a position and can make all the difference to your business.

It started in the United States, with millions saying ‘I quit’ each month. The US Department of Labor reported a record high of 4.3 million workers leaving their jobs in August, around 3% of the workforce. In New Zealand, an AUT study carried out over a year shows that the number of employees who were most likely to leave increased from 34.7% in May 2020 to 46.4% in April 2021, and the number of employees who were not considering leaving their jobs has halved, from 19.1% in May 2020 to 9.2% in April 2021. (The study involved around 1000 participants, on average 40 years old, mostly working in the private sector).

Employees were hanging tight to their jobs last year when the pandemic was new and uncertain. This year, we have witnessed that life and jobs can continue in a Covid world, and unsatisfied employees are now quitting or considering leaving their jobs. There might be no better time than now either, with employees having more leverage over employers than before, and border closures creating a smorgasbord of job choices for employees locally.

The key drivers behind this surge in resignations are burn out, people seeking better pay, better working conditions or a job that fits around their lifestyle. Companies who do not offer flexible working options may find employees looking elsewhere after their experience of this during lockdowns. The pandemic has given employees not one but a myriad of reasons to leave their jobs.

 

The key drivers behind this surge in resignations are burn out, people seeking better pay, better working conditions or a job that fits around their lifestyle. Companies who do not offer flexible working options may find employees looking elsewhere after their experience of this during lockdowns. The pandemic has given employees not one but a myriad of reasons to leave their jobs.

While these are all valid observations of the great resignation, it is important to remember that it is now normal for people to have multiple jobs and careers in a lifetime. The pandemic may have simply been a catalyst for job changes that were going to occur eventually anyway. A national survey of graduates carried out by Talent Solutions shows that Gen Z are expected to have 18 jobs and 6 careers in their lifetime. This is clearly something that is not going away, and employers are going to have to adapt to a continually changing workforce.

Now is the time to update your strategies for retaining top talent and long-term employee retention. Identify your major risks, such as employees with expertise that would be difficult to replace, and how you can manage these. View departures with empathy and celebrate contributions that departing employees have made.  Unmotivated workers are costly and can bring down morale, while departures provide an opportunity for internal promotion.

The great resignation is upon us, but it is not necessarily a bad thing for employers. This is a golden opportunity to enhance your workforce, and to continue building a culture which contributes to employee retention.

DISCLAIMER No liability is assumed by Baker Tilly Staples Rodway for any losses suffered by any person relying directly or indirectly upon any article within this website. It is recommended that you consult your advisor before acting on this information.

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