Currently, I’m hearing much discussion among my CEO peers about how to get more and better talent, and how to hold on to them. It’s the same battle that Triton has been fighting… and winning. In today’s article, the fourth blog of my series, I thought I’d share what we’ve been uniquely doing to compete and win in our talent recruitment and retention efforts.
It’s all about Triton’s corporate brand… who we are… our flag in the sand… our competitive distinction. Our brand (voiced as The Triton Way) compels a prospective talent to say “I want to work there, I want to be a part of that.” Our brand is compelling and has become the fuel driving Triton’s talent recruitment and retention success.
Let me give you a great example of an organization recognized for its brand prowess and continual success in recruitment and retention — the U.S. Marines Corp. If you ask someone, “which branch of our armed forces (which are all great) has the strongest brand?”, I think you will find the U.S. Marine Corps will overwhelmingly be the answer you’ll hear.
We all know “The Few, The Proud, The Marines.” Their brand distinction is one of humble eliteness, not everyone makes the cut. Only the determined few earn the privilege of calling themselves a Marine. Their brand is a magnet attracting a specific type of individual wanting to be a member of the few and the proud… and wanting to become a part of the brotherhood.
The Marine’s brand is inspirational and clearly speaks to their special distinction apart from the other fine branches of service. A new recruit isn’t joining them just for the pay, They want to become a Marine.
At Triton, we’ve worked very hard to define our compelling and competitive distinction, one that drives our competitive advantage and one that drives our talent recruitment, retention and performance. We call our claim of distinction “The Triton Way.” It propels and guides our company just as the Marine’s brand drives theirs.
In the beginning, I didn’t fully understand the term brand or what it meant to be brand-driven. But I took a big uncomfortable leap to uncover and dial in what makes Triton distinct, what makes us tick. I now feel fortunate that I invested the time and effort to take this leap. Learning how important our brand is, and the interrelationship that it has with our culture and leadership, has granted me the privilege of helping my team progress through seeing and hearing our brand, to believing our brand, and finally to embracing and becoming our brand.
This is still a process for us. We have wins on some days and losses on others. However, before we started on this journey, our turnover was unbelievably high. It looked like one continuous revolving door as we watched a steady stream of new hires come and leave. It made me sick to my stomach, and I knew that there had to be a better way. And there was… becoming brand driven.
Now, with our company being brand-driven, not only do our leaders drive our culture but even better, all of our Tritons do as well. It’s made a huge and unbelievable difference for us, and we’re experiencing a significant increase in recruitment, and a drastic decline in our turnover. Everything we do is now centered around building a fantastic place to work, and this shift has delivered a 10x return on the business, team morale and engagement, our growth, and most importantly on the sense of purpose felt by our Tritons — all as a result of becoming brand-driven.
Like the Marines, Triton is a company on a mission. We believe in something greater than ourselves… making a meaningful difference in the lives of the companies and the people we serve. We have discovered that we can pull from the Marine’s brand adoption model and apply it to our business. If you’re like us and want to make drastic improvements to your business, consider taking the same uncomfortable leap that I did, so that you too can learn how to become a brand-driven company.
John Freudenberger; CEO of Triton Metal Products, located in Hamilton Indiana.
John has helped Triton Metal Products maintain an exciting growth streak through innovative process adoption and operation expansions. Catapulting growth even further was the decision to embark on a company-wide brand development project, designed to unearth what makes Triton different, and why that should matter. John’s leadership has helped “Making a Meaningful Difference” become a unifying promise that positively impacts the Triton culture, the solutions they provide for their customers, and the communities they serve.