It may be corn, but it's working for Kellogg's

Yikes! Just look at that scary guy. War criminal? Satanic dentist? Dodgy children's entertainer waiting to dip his fingers into the young 'uns fun bags? No. It is, of course, William Keith Kellogg, freaky cereal magnate, Arabian horse breeder, vegetable-botherer and one of the original proponents of the Employer Value Proposition.

It's all there in Wikipedia, so it must be true. W.K. Kellogg famously declared, 'I will invest my money in my people,' and went on to demonstrate how altruistic leadership in manufacturing can lead to commercial success. He even operated extra shifts during the Great Depression, just so as many people as possible had the opportunity to put fried squirrel on the table (or whatever it was they ate back then in Battle Creek, Michigan).

Now, Kellogg's is continuing his work in what looks like a good way. This last week they've had all manner of good PR about their summer hours policy, which the media has latched onto as evidence of responsible management in depressed times. Basically, Kellogg's is saying to its employees that, providing you've fulfilled your weekly hours requirement by then, then you can bugger off home at lunchtime every Friday.

It's not an original idea. Barkers, for one, used to do it a couple of years back. But it's managed to get Kellogg's excellent exposure in news channels and, I imagine, around the water coolers of every company in Manchester which doesn't offer a similar benefit.

Lesson, then: dream up something similar for your organisation. Think about the employer value proposition you want to communicate, then invent a policy that 'proves' you mean it. Want to be seen as age diverse? Then give free subs to the People's Friend for all. Want to foster a better work-life balance? Have the CEO walk around the office with an effing big dog at five every night chucking people out. You get the idea.

It needn't be original. And it'd probably better be cheap. But done properly it'll get you better and further-reaching PR than that latest microsite or bloody Twitter feed.