Professional Headshots for Employees as a Perk
Successful businesses are always looking for creative, competitive edges to differentiate themselves from the competition and rise above the noise, particularly when it comes to attracting and retaining both customers and employees. With unemployment at historic lows, and a hyper-competitive market for new employees, many companies are providing an ever-expanding menu of perks to make the workplace more attractive and enhance their employee’s careers.
Professionally done headshot photography is an increasingly popular perk many companies are offering to their employees. As a perk, it not only valuable to the employee, but also provides businesses with many ongoing benefits in three primary areas – Hiring, Retention, and Attracting Customers. Let’s look at these in more detail to see how businesses can benefit.
Hiring
In some respects, attracting potential employees is similar to attracting customers – you want to differentiate and position your business in the best way possible. Potential employees are also interested in your culture, which is represented by (amongst other things) your current employees, your brand, dedication to enhancing employee’s careers, benefits/perks, and so on.
Great looking, professional headshots of employees convey a lot about a business, including:
· Professionalism/success
· That the business values its team
· Quality, attention to detail
· Provides a sense of how employees feel about their jobs/working at the business
Potential employees often research businesses on LinkedIn, looking not only at the business profile, but also the employees as well. Great headshots of employees on LinkedIn is another touchpoint for those people to get the right impression of your business.
Retention
It’s far more cost effective and efficient to retain employees vs. hire replacements. Businesses are always looking for ways to keep employees motivated, liking both the environment and the work they do. Career driven people are always looking for ways to enhance their reputation and make themselves more visible. Many seek opportunities to speak, author papers, participate on panels/business roundtables, affinity groups. Others are active on social/business media on behalf of the business, writing blogs, posts, and articles. Professionally done headshots for these employees is especially important as their profile is often visible to viewers, whether it be their LinkedIn Profile, or a bio for a speaking engagement, for authoring a blog, and so on. A business that has professionally done headshots for those employees is saying they recognize the value that person brings to the company, we want you to put your best foot forward, looking like the professional you are, and are proud of the work you do.
You may want to assist them with updating their LinkedIn Profile itself to not only present their background and experience in the best way, but also to talk about their current role in a way that sends the right message about your business.
Attracting Customers
Particularly for people to people businesses (e.g, service-oriented businesses), potential customers want to know who you are/get to know you as part of their decision process – and as a business you want to encourage that! You want them to get to know you, why you’re better, and who you are.
These are the early stages of establishing credibility and trust – people are visually oriented, and they want to see who they may be working with. So it’s important to have professionally done images of your staff/key team members. Here’s a simple example to illustrate the point: Suppose you need a law firm, you’ve done some initial research into the specialties you need, and have narrowed the choices down to 2 firms based on their level of experience. You then look at the bios of the lawyers, which initially look very similar. One firm has professionally done headshots that look very similar in terms of lighting, background, and overall look. The expressions look confident yet approachable. The other firm has shots with different lighting/looks/backgrounds, crops, etc.. Who would you call first?
And as mentioned earlier, businesses that utilize social and business media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and others have employees who regularly post on those sites. When they post, their profile image is often automatically included. You want that image to look professional, and be representative of your business, your brand.
Professionally done headshots are a perk that continues to offer value to both the employee and the business long after the shots are taken. For a relatively low cost per person, the return on investment is significant.
For more information on headshots for your business and your team, download my ebook “Marketer’s Guide to High Quality Team Headshots” here:
https://www.barrybraunsteinphotography.com/marketers-guide-to-high-quality-team-headshots