Case Study: Bringing a New Brand to Life
The Challenge
A regional airline that had operated as an arm of a major carrier decided to break away and launch its own independent operation. The airline branded itself under a new name, with the vision to provide an entirely new level of customer-focused experiences. While strategies for external marketing of brand changes were being developed, senior leaders recognized the need for major change in the employees' behavior to appropriately represent the brand. They asked T3, "Now what?"
T3 helped the company tackle the complex questions they faced, including:
- How do we ensure that the strategic values defining the new brand are represented by each employee at every level in the organization?
- How can we select individuals able and willing to deliver on brand values and who are excited to learn how to make the promise a reality for customers?
- How do we foster alignment across the organization, given the very different roles and responsibilities of each employee?
Our Process
The company identified eight key departments imperative to the success of their new brand and operational initiatives. T3 designed and delivered a two-day offsite with the leaders and key performers in those departments, engaging all in collaborative, strategic discussion around how to codify the behaviors that would deliver on the Brand's promise.
T3 created a competency framework and associated job descriptions, grounded in the brand strategy for all employees - from Mechanics, to Flight Attendants, to Pilots, to Call Center Representatives. The framework was designed to provide a consistent, behavioral representation of the expectations for each key department - guiding recruitment, selection, performance management and training development. Each business unit leader played a significant role in defining the specifics by identifying value-driven behaviors to guide each employee above and beyond imperative technical skill application.
T3 then built Interview Guides based on the competency framework. Included in the Interview Guides were specific questions crafted to help managers assess how candidates would fit with the brand culture. The Guides fostered consistency of questioning across managers - ensuring valid focus on the needs of the job and the company. Managers gathered behavioral responses to typical customer-oriented situations, simultaneously providing a realistic job preview to candidates of the competencies indicative of success with the company.
The Results
As a result of T3's work with the Employee Services Team:
- Employees in all departments clearly knew what was expected of them;
- The company was able to recruit and hire employees based on fit with the brand promise;
- Managers had the tools to reinforce the desired behaviors;
- Employees at all levels understood why their work mattered and were fully committed to delivering on the brand promise.
