Dive Brief:

• Only 19% of employees worldwide see a strong alignment between their company's public perception and their own work experience, a Weber Shandwick survey reveals. The public relations agency gathered 1,902 online responses from full-time employees across 19 markets globally.
• Survey results also show that employees in aligned organizations are more likely than others to recommend their employer as a good workplace (76% versus 54%), and they're more likely than employees in misaligned organizations to recommend their employer's products or services (59% versus 49%).
• Retention (77% versus 64%) and productivity (54% versus 40%) rated higher in the survey among employees in aligned organizations.

Dive Insight:

Incongruity breeds mistrust. An organization branded as conscientious and trustworthy needs to ensure that its members are following the same principles in the workplace. Studies routinely show that employees value transparency, empathy and honest communication from employers.

Branding firm Siegel+Gale polled 14,000 people across nine countries and found that 95% of those in less bureaucratic organizations trusted the leadership. The firm examined the tie between employee engagement and streamlined organizations. But the survey results also showed the connection between a trusted organization, employee engagement and productivity.

Employers also must be mindful of how harmful a negative persona can be. A new CareerArc poll found that only 1 in 5 job seekers will apply for a job at a company with a one-star rating on a traditional, five-star scale.