I’m sure we all know this function exists, but in my experience hardly anyone uses it and I think they are seriously missing a trick. Almost all email providers give the option of adding a profile picture as you would in social media. And there are plenty of advantages of getting your employees to have headshots uploaded to their email address.
Increased trust and rapport
Typically speaking people relate more to faces than anything else. The problem with email is that it is a completely text-based platform and it is easy to forget that there is another person on the other side.
It is often the case in this digital world that we have professional relationships entirely through email. It is much harder – though not impossible – to build trust and rapport through faceless communication. If we are being really honest with ourselves we would be more settled knowing who we are speaking to.
The first meeting
Another problem with never finding out what someone looks like is that inevitable awkward position of standing in a busy restaurant or café not knowing who you’re looking for. Imagine if everyone had a profile image linked to their email account so that you could recognise them in a crowd before even meeting them?
I have done some freelance event work in the past where my client walked straight up to me in the crowd and warmly told me how nice it was to finally meet the face in the emails.
Inter-Office relations
We’ve all received an email from a colleague that has required us to take a deep breath and calm down before replying. Having profile pictures on your employees’ emails means they relate what is written to a living breathing person with feelings, and that will make it easier for them to be calm and polite to each other over email.
If you have a big business where employees may never meet each other and only communicate on email having profile pictures may be a really simple way of subtly building more rapport between employees, which in turn could contribute to higher levels of morale.
It looks professional
This depends on the photo; a picture of your employee out on a stag/hen party surrounded with empty alcohol bottles is not going to make your company look professional. However a strong and professional photo looks so much than the blank default images.
There is even the possibility of the photos representation your brand message. Serious brand? Serious photos. Fun brand? Fun photos. Creative brand? Creative photos. The possibilities are endless.
My experience with The Headshot Guy
I had the pleasure of having my headshot taken at the Digital Marketing Show and I am so pleased with the end result; I now have a truly professional looking profile picture for my emails, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, which I feel has strengthen my personal brand.
The experience of the photo taken was fantastic; the smile in my picture is because I was genuinely laughing at the jokes being told. And I was guided to stand in such a way to get the best possible result.
If you’re thinking about getting employee headshots taken, whether for emails or otherwise, I would highly recommend The Headshot Guy – not only do you get great results, but it’s also an enjoyable experience.
This blog was written by business management graduate Zac Hill. To read more of his work please click here.
