Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Employee Handbook & Recruiting Campaign

CLIENT: FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF SAN FRANCISCO

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco came to us for an internal culture campaign culminating in recruiting materials and an employee handbook — important stuff when you’re vying for staff with the likes of Silicon Valley giants like Google and Facebook.

After a couple of days spent interviewing employees of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, it became clear that a strong sense of public responsibility motivated its workforce. One employee summed it up with the memorable phrase, “The dollar in your pocket has value because of the work done by the Fed.” We devised the “You Are Here” concept to show Fed staffers through diverse photography all the ways in which they are helping the American people to build businesses, support and contribute to the economy and count on the value of a dollar. Each booklet contained a paper pocket with a crisp one dollar bill tucked inside — a reminder that this ordinary item has extraordinary implications for our country.

The first iteration of the campaign was this employee handbook, which had such an extremely positive reception that it spread quickly to encompass all internal communications, and even some external brand communications.