Document creation and management have a big impact on the day-to-day life of a knowledge worker and subsequently on a company. Generating documents is a time-staking process with the average employee spending approximately 50% of their time creating and preparing documents [1].

Despite this time investment, approximately 83% of employees recreate documents that they cannot find on the company network [ M-files 2]. All of this time spent creating and recreating brand documents is estimated to cost a company R20 000 to over R300 000 per annum.

Yet, many companies do not have content governance systems in place to manage brand templates, documents, presentations or content which results in duplication of work, employee inefficiencies, inconsistent branding and increased workloads particularly for the IT and branding departments. The value of having the correct brand assets easily available when they are needed extends beyond improving employee inefficiencies, it also improves customer and employee experiences, driving customer and employee retention and positively impacts the company’s bottom line.

Whether employees are developing documents, presentations or emails, content should be easily accessible and companies need to gain control of this process to overcome employee inefficiency, drive down costs, improve brand consistency and enhance customer experiences.

Saved time means money saved

According to Tech Crunchies, document issues account for over 21% of daily productivity loss. The average salary in South Africa is R22 500 per month which means that companies spend on average, R4 725 per employee per month on document issues. That amounts to R56 700 per employee, per annum in lost productivity.

Having correctly branded and up-to-date templates, document, presentations and email content easily accessible to employees as and when they need them, helps to improve employee efficiencies as it saves time spent searching for documents that have been misfiled or accidentally deleted. This also prevents the need for employees to spend time reproducing branded content that already exists and gives them peace of mind that they are sending the correct and most recent and brand compliant documents and templates to customers.

On-brand document compliance across the business

Brand consistency is a key driver of business success. When you take your brand seriously, customers believe you pay attention to every detail and this reinforces your values and builds brand trust. As part of this, templates are an important component of business communication and need to carry the correct content, logo and brand elements including the font used.

Within organisations, many employees can access, edit and save company templates and documents, resulting in brand inconsistencies across documents. In some instances, outdated templates are used carrying incorrect company details from the director’s details to contact numbers which raises questions about the legitimacy of the document. Further, brand inconsistencies across documents dilute the brand, influence brand perceptions and impact customer trust in the organisation.

To overcome this, companies should be able to share the latest documents and templates across the organisation with immediate, permission-based access. However, employees should be restricted from being able to override content on these legal and binding documents which can result in incorrect information being sent to customers. This is supported by findings from Kroll Ontrack, which attribute 26% of data loss incidents to human error.

Improved security

By implementing user permission access to branded assets such as letterheads, templates and documents based on specific departments or individuals, adds a layer of security to this content. It also allows for companies to monitor who accesses the documents and the changes they make to them.

While managing document accessibility within the organisation is important, it is equally important to safeguard access to company assets and templates by third-parties. In some instances, companies save all their brand assets and templates on an extranet for employees and partners to easily access, but it is just as easy for third parties to access.

Companies should save these documents within secure, access-controlled environments, such as a cloud-based platform, to allow for content to be updated, shared and managed while protecting against third-party access which could have dire consequences for the brand including potential fraudulent activities and reputational damage.

Better customer experience

Empowering employees to access the information they need at the right time, enables them to work effectively and improves employee satisfaction levels. This has a direct impact on customer experiences as inspired employees put in more effort. With the brand compliant content easily available when it is needed, employees can focus on meeting customer expectations with improved response times and on-brand content every time.

The real value of brand-compliant templates and brand governance lies in the ability to remove the content clutter from the workplace, empowering employees to meet customer expectations and deliver customer experiences that drive satisfaction levels and retention. It also reduces the need for IT and branding departments to fix mistakes after the incorrect content has been sent out and aids companies to meet governance and compliance requirements.

In addition, with a secure, cloud-based solution, the company can minimise potential reputational damage to its brand by preventing third-party access to branded templates and content.

Technologies have been gearing us up for the remote workforce for years, providing solutions that can equip employees to work from anywhere in the world. However, according to Owl Labs 2019 State of Remote Work report until now only 44% of global companies have embraced the remote workforce. The notion of work from home has never been practised to the extent that the current situation calls for it to be.

On the back of the news that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a global pandemic and President Cyril Ramaphosa setting the scene for South Africans to take precautions to protect themselves and their families from contracting the virus, drastic measures have been put in place. Businesses have responded to the news responsibly with many organisations calling for employees to stay safe and work from home.

Many employees today already have laptops, high-speed internet connectivity and access to networks via the cloud to perform their daily tasks remotely. However, are they equipped to deliver consistent brand experiences that customers have come to expect when dealing with the organisation?

Having invested significantly into their brands for years, companies need to put the best interests of their employees and customers at heart but not at the detriment of their brands. As such employees should be equipped with tools that will help them to meet customer’s needs seamlessly and deliver consistent brand experiences in every email and document sent to clients wherever they are working from.

There are several measures that companies should put in place to secure their brand and deliver a consistent experience in all customer and employee engagements whether working remotely or not.

ALWAYS ON BRAND WHEREVER YOU ARE

To help employees to deliver consistent experiences in every email, they must have a professional and consistent email signature that is used across the company so that all correspondence that employees send out is consistently branded.

Further, the body of the emails should be on-brand using the same font and colour across the company. It is also recommended to have pre-developed and pre-approved content available and easily accessible for employees to insert into emails while working remotely. This requires minimal input and keeps the brand integrity in every communication.

Employees should have access to the latest company letterheads, templates, documents and presentations that are required for client communication. If documents are updated while the employees are working remotely, the latest versions should be easy-to-access without the need for a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and employees should feel comfortable that they are sending their customers the most up-to-date information at all times.

UP TO DATE EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS 

Working remotely can impact on employee communication with CoSo Cloud finding that more than half of remote employees feel disconnected from those employees working in offices.

When employees are separate from the company it is critical they are kept up to date on all important company news and information throughout the day to prevent them from becoming disconnected and uncoordinated. An employee communication tool should be used to broadcast information to employees throughout the day and keep them informed about company news.

It would also be valuable to share updates on topical issues such as the latest coronavirus stats regularly via the broadcast tool to minimise the amount of time employees would otherwise spend looking for the information themselves.

KEEPING SECURITY INTACT 

Having a remote workforce means that companies need to put stringent security measures in place that can protect their data at all times. Yet according to GetApp workers working from remote locations often receive confidential business data but less than half of these employees have received proper internet security training.

To avoid financial and brand damage, companies need to incorporate layered security to help prevent customers and employees from falling victim to email scams, particularly while working with a remote workforce. Centrally managed, tamperproof email signatures are also a first step in helping to prevent fraudulent emails from being sent on behalf of a company. Built-in email verification would also benefit the company and email recipients and give them added peace of mind that emails are authentic.

However, more than this, companies need to have segmentation of risk built into their email branding solution to safeguard customer and company information at all times, particularly when employees are working remotely. This is key to preventing security breaches.

CONSISTENT EXPERIENCES ARE CRUCIAL 

Companies already have many of the basics in place to enable a remote workforce but they need to have measures in place to protect their employees and customer’s data and their brand. The remote workforce opens up huge opportunities for inconsistencies and uncertainty which need to be limited during a pandemic when consistency provides the familiarity customers are seeking. As such the customer experience has to be nurtured at this time and employees need to be empowered to continue to deliver on-brand experiences wherever they may be working from.

BrandQuantum is a South African company and its software solutions are available to companies worldwide.  It assists companies to overcome the challenges they face in today’s digital age, with brand consistency, compliance and security. The company offers a range of brand compliance software solutions including BrandOffice, BrandMail, BrandView, BrandStream and BrandInsight. 

Technologies have been gearing us up for the remote workforce for years, providing solutions that can equip employees to work from anywhere in the world. However, according to Owl Labs 2019 State of Remote Work report until now only 44% of global companies have embraced the remote workforce. The notion of work from home has never been practised to the extent that the current situation calls for it to be.

On the back of the news that the coronavirus (Covid-19) is a global pandemic and President Cyril Ramaphosa setting the scene for South Africans to take precautions to protect themselves and their families from contracting the virus, drastic measures have been put in place. Businesses have responded to the news responsibly with many organisations calling for employees to stay safe and work from home.

Many employees today already have laptops, high-speed internet connectivity and access to networks via the cloud to perform their daily tasks remotely. However, are they equipped to deliver consistent brand experiences that customers have come to expect when dealing with the organisation?

Having invested significantly into their brands for years, companies need to put the best interests of their employees and customers at heart but not at the detriment of their brands. As such employees should be equipped with tools that will help them to meet customer’s needs seamlessly and deliver consistent brand experiences in every email and document sent to clients wherever they are working from.

There are several measures that companies should put in place to secure their brand and deliver a consistent experience in all customer and employee engagements whether working remotely or not.

ALWAYS ON BRAND WHEREVER YOU ARE

To help employees to deliver consistent experiences in every email, they must have a professional and consistent email signature that is used across the company so that all correspondence that employees send out is consistently branded.

Further, the body of the emails should be on-brand using the same font and colour across the company. It is also recommended to have pre-developed and pre-approved content available and easily accessible for employees to insert into emails while working remotely. This requires minimal input and keeps the brand integrity in every communication.

Employees should have access to the latest company letterheads, templates, documents and presentations that are required for client communication. If documents are updated while the employees are working remotely, the latest versions should be easy-to-access without the need for a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and employees should feel comfortable that they are sending their customers the most up-to-date information at all times.

UP TO DATE EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS

Working remotely can impact on employee communication with CoSo Cloud finding that more than half of remote employees feel disconnected from those employees working in offices.

When employees are separate from the company it is critical they are kept up to date on all important company news and information throughout the day to prevent them from becoming disconnected and uncoordinated. An employee communication tool should be used to broadcast information to employees throughout the day and keep them informed about company news.

It would also be valuable to share updates on topical issues such as the latest coronavirus stats regularly via the broadcast tool to minimise the amount of time employees would otherwise spend looking for the information themselves.

KEEPING SECURITY INTACT

Having a remote workforce means that companies need to put stringent security measures in place that can protect their data at all times. Yet according to GetApp workers working from remote locations often receive confidential business data but less than half of these employees have received proper internet security training.

To avoid financial and brand damage, companies need to incorporate layered security to help prevent customers and employees from falling victim to email scams, particularly while working with a remote workforce. Centrally managed, tamperproof email signatures are also a first step in helping to prevent fraudulent emails from being sent on behalf of a company. Built-in email verification would also benefit the company and email recipients and give them added peace of mind that emails are authentic.

However, more than this, companies need to have segmentation of risk built into their email branding solution to safeguard customer and company information at all times, particularly when employees are working remotely. This is key to preventing security breaches.

CONSISTENT EXPERIENCES ARE CRUCIAL

Companies already have many of the basics in place to enable a remote workforce but they need to have measures in place to protect their employees and customer’s data and their brand. The remote workforce opens up huge opportunities for inconsistencies and uncertainty which need to be limited during a pandemic when consistency provides the familiarity customers are seeking.

As such the customer experience has to be nurtured at this time and employees need to be empowered to continue to deliver on-brand experiences wherever they may be working from.