Good branding is imperative for making a positive first impression and demonstrating an organization’s value proposition; however, finding the time to give your company an official identity is never easy. In the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, we realized just how valuable the branding process could be and we are excited to share the story of how we recently embarked on this journey and what it taught us about ourselves and our clients.
HOW WE GOT HERE
As many of our clients and partners know, Far West Staffing Services was initially created to assist in staffing the businesses within the Innovation Institute, a healthcare incubator and leading provider of medical device and healthcare innovation solutions. As a growing organization, we relied on the Institute’s visual identity which provided little time to solidify our own look or develop a narrative around who we are and how we drive value. By 2020, and especially in light of COVID-19, we knew it was time to branch out beyond the Innovation Institute bubble and to applyour expertise in other industries and geographical areas.
WHAT WE ACCOMPLISHED
We approached our branding project thinking it might just be a quick and simple process of picking out a logo, tagline and perhaps a color palette. Despite our humble expectations, this project brought our vision to the surface more rapidly than we ever imagined. We were truly challenged when asked to sit down and think about our business and how we wanted it to be represented in the world. Previously, we were operating within a network of clients that already knew us and our story, but if we were going to branch out, we needed to find a way to make that story stand out on its own.
Another challenge that we did not expect along this journey was the sudden loss of James Ho, our leader and company president. James had carried the vision of this company for the entirety of its existence, and without him at the helm, we had to dig deep and help define where our current leadership team saw the organization going. There was a lot of change and many organizational shifts, but his steady guidance before he passed left our team feeling confident about a path forward.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought many unexpected challenges and struggles to our industry, but one silver lining was that it allowed us to carve time out of our busy day-to-day schedules to initiate the process of defining the personality of Far West. Our branding partners challenged us to envision how we wanted this company to represent itself – both now, and perhaps more importantly, for years to come. The entire process was a bit of a wakeup call. In the many conversations about defining our purpose and identity, we realized just how lucky we were to be born out of the Innovation Institute. While we look forward to branching out in the future, we’re equally proud of where we came from.
WHERE WE’RE GOING
Far West Staffing Services has big plans to expand – both geographically and across many industries. With our new brand identity now firmly established, we are looking forward to growing in new markets while still nurturing our roots. While are expertise has always been centered around the Healthcare arena, we are excited that our experience also provides a stable foundation to promote ourselves in the K-12 and higher education markets and allows us to demonstrate our proficiency in new regions, specifically in the Midwest and on the East Coast. In our existing healthcare areas of operation, we will continue staffing all non-clinical roles and continue excelling in the biotech/IT space. We are ready to demonstrate our mastery of the many idiosyncrasies of these industries to expand our reach and network across the country.
Our main priority throughout this branding process was to find the delicate balance between the values of our two audiences: potential clients and prospective talent. This has always been a pillar of how we work, but the importance of this equitable relationship became all the clearer during our brand purpose research. There was a palpable energy in our brainstorming session when we first heard the proposed tagline “Let’s Get Working.” We knew right off the bat it was the perfect slogan to carry us into this new era. “Let’s Get Working” applies to both audiences, ourselves, and any newcomers in the future. Its multifaceted nature fits perfectly into the directions we aim to take Far West.
Although we did not realize it was missing at first, these marketing efforts fostered a sense of intentionality for the Far West Staffing Services brand. We’re excited to see the efforts of our rebranding strategy. We will always remain grateful to our roots as part of the Innovation Institute family, but we are equally excited to find out what’s next on the horizon.
