Helping new colleagues and volunteers get to know your brand

Why the brand is missing at the start

With a new colleague you think of a laptop, accounts and a tour. The brand often gets left out. It falls under ‘you will pick it up as you go’.

Meanwhile, that colleague does get to work. They search for a logo online, copy an old presentation or ask whoever sits closest. In no time, new versions of your visual identity appear, without anyone wanting that. It is not ill will, but the logical behaviour of someone who wants to get something done quickly.

What someone needs to know in the first week

You do not have to go through the whole brand manual. Start with what someone needs for their work:

• Where everything is. One link to the brand manual or the place with brand files. That is the most important information of all.
• The templates. For presentations, letters, quotes and social media posts. With a good template, you need to know few rules.
• How your organisation sounds. Formal or informal address, and a few examples of the desired tone.
• Who to ask. One fixed person for questions about the brand.
• What you do not do yourself. For example, changing the logo or choosing new colours.

A short brand introduction in three steps

A brand introduction does not have to be a training. This is enough:

• Show the brand. Explain in a few sentences what the organisation stands for, and show how that comes back in the logo, colours and tone.
• Let them search for themselves. Ask the new colleague to download a logo and a template. That way you know for sure they can find their way.
• Let them make something. A first presentation or post, with feedback from someone who knows the brand well. One correction often teaches more than a long explanation.

Volunteers, interns and temporary staff

At charities and associations, volunteers often make the newsletter, the flyer or the Facebook post. They come and go, and have little time for explanations. For them in particular, the brand must be as easy as possible.

So do not give them the whole manual, but a limited set: the logos, the colours, a few templates and the key writing agreements. And make sure their access ends when they leave, so no old files keep circulating.

The same goes for interns and temporary workers. Anyone who stays only briefly must be able to start quickly. A good template is then worth more than a thick document.

Make it easy to get it right

The best brand introduction helps little if the files are hard to find. So take a critical look at your own set-up too. Can you find the right logo in a few clicks? Are old versions still mixed in?

In MarkBase you give each colleague or volunteer only the permissions that fit their work. With an access code you quickly link someone to the right brand, and you can have new accounts reviewed before anyone gets access.

Ask new colleagues after a few weeks what they missed. They see best where your brand manual is still unclear. Use their answers to improve the manual and the introduction.