A different perspective on the employee experience

My belief is that the next 10-15 years will be about the employee experience, the same way the past 10-15 years have been about the customer experience.
Why? Because engaged employees provide any organization with a competitive advantage. As Richard Branson says, “Your employees are your company’s real competitive advantage. They’re the ones making the magic happen— so long as their needs are being met.”
When you think about it, the mapping and the implementation of the customer experience have given organizations the benefits of better understanding and addressing their customers’ pain points. Thus, these organizations have seen an increase in customer engagement, customer retention, and customer advocacy.
The mapping and the implementation of the customer experience have also given these organizations the opportunity to engage with their customers on a more personal level – whether by offering a variety of products or services to address different market segments, or through the usage of multiple communication channels to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. Organizations can accomplish the same with understanding, mapping out their employees’ pain points and design a strategy to engage with those same employees.
Millennials are massively entering the workplace. By 2020, they will form 50% of the global workforce, per PwC. Gen Y seek for and thrive on brand experiences, and their employee experiences should be no different from their customer experiences.
Employee Experience Summit in Cincinnati
We believe the employee experience should be as much defined and driven by HR than by Marketing and Customer Experience teams, if not more.
Join us at eX Cincy on May 11 to hear thought leaders, brand strategists, designers and HR disruptors discuss the topic. Find out more and register here.

Is your company's job interview experience good enough?

Many companies feel they are in the driver's seat when it comes to the interview process. They feel that working for them is a privilege; that candidates should be thankful for the opportunity to even be considered for the job. They are WRONG, especially in industries and job markets where competition for talent is fierce.

Very much like companies don't tell their customers what their customer experience (CX) should be, they should not tell or dictate their employees (or soon-to-be) what their employee experience (EX) should be. Employees drive the EX, the same way customers drive the CX.

It should not be news to employers/recruiters, but the job interview process is the first chance for a candidate to experience what it's like to work for a company. Companies now have to think of themselves as employment brands. They should treat their employees (or soon-to-be) the same way they treat their customers.

Companies should apply customer journey mapping tactics to their job interview process. A mapping exercise helps identify all the different touch points a candidate goes through and how (s)he interacts with the company. From job descriptions to where/how jobs are posted, to how easy/complicated it is so submit a resume or job application, to how phone or face-to-face interviews are conducted, to the salary/benefits negotiation process, etc.

Because top companies compete for top talent, talented candidates likely have the choice between several offers. Salary, benefits package are nice, but research shows they are less and less of a tie-breaker. What makes the difference is the "employer brand" experience.

For those located in the Indianapolis area, join us at eX Summit's eX Meet Up to discuss the job interview experience (free event). Richard Whitney, Global Employment Brand Manager at Cummins, and Justin Fite, Chief Sales Officer at Lessonly, will speak on the panel on what makes or breaks the candidate experience. They will be joined by a couple of employees who will share their own perspective on what a good/bad experience is. Register here.

Some key "employee experience" take-aways from eX Indy (part 1)

eX Summit successfully launched its first event - eX Indy - last week at Launch Fishers in the Indianapolis area. We had a packed house, great speakers and panelists who provided the audience with a lot of actionable best practices (85% agreed on that).


Engagement measurement

As we already wrote about it, only 30% of the US employees feel engaged and inspired at work. It is a serious issue organizations must address, considering that increased engagement means (from Emplify's presentation):

• 22% higher utilization and productivity

• 50% lower turnover rate

• 3 times more profitable in operating margin.

Surveying employees about their relationship with and commitment to the company's mission, values and brand message is an effective way to measure their engagement. The most compelling component of engagement is the psychological conditions of the workplace: meaningfulness, safe, capacity. When an organization addresses them positively, the engagement increases. Mobile applications, such as Emplify's app, are a great way not only to measure your employees' engagement, but also to communicate and exchange in a more personalized way, versus the traditional and generic emails sent from HR.


The power of workplace design

Business Furniture, from a Steelcase report, highlighted that in order to design a workplace that is resilient and encourages engagement, organizations must create an ecosystem of interconnected zones and settings that are destinations where people have choice and control over where and how they work. This ecosystem should offer a palette of posture, presence and privacy. When organizations do this, they help people by offering spaces that support their physical, cognitive and emotional wellbeing.

When considering (re)designing the workplace, companies should:

• conduct a thorough research on workplace design strategy and best practices

• engage employees throughout the process to increase the rate of adoption 

• provide spaces for BOTH collaboration and concentration.

"Companies lose by viewing office space as something to manage or minimize. The workspace is, in fact, a crucial driver of productivity and morale." (Read: Change Your Space, Change Your Culture: How Engaging Workspaces Lead to Transformation and Growth)

How design drives the employee experience

Studio Science highlighted how organizations can use design methodologies and processes to foster employee collaboration and engagement.

Using design sprints - the same way tech companies use "dev" sprints - Nathan's team creates the space and the framework to tackle complex problems by involving multiple teams with different skills and mindsets. 

"Employees must participate in meaningful work and know that they’re impacting the world around them... A design-led culture creates positive experience by engaging employees in the meaningful creation of solutions and value, and encourages strong relationships with co-workers. It ultimately connects individuals to purpose.", concluded Nathan.

Stay tuned for "eX Indy part 2" next week.

It’s time we seriously talk about employee experience

There’s been a lot of focus over the past few years on the user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX), for good reasons.

According a recent North Highland whitepaper, a Gartner research shows that in 2016, , nine out of 10 companies planned to compete primarily on the basis of customer experience. Nothing— not price, not product—is more important than the experience you provide. Organizations that deliver compelling customer experiences have a competitive edge.

However, in doing so, many organizations have failed to focus on the experiences of their most important competitive advantage: employees. It’s now time to talk about the employee experience (EX).

“Your employees are your company’s real competitive advantage. They’re the ones making the magic happen— so long as their needs are being met.”

- RICHARD BRANSON

Companies focus on reaching out to their customers wherever they are across multiple channels, but yet fail to reach out to their employees/talents wherever they are.

Companies focus on their customer journey, drawing roadmaps to better identify how their customers interact with their brands (touch points), but yet fail to understand their employee journey.

Companies design spaces to deliver unparalleled brand experiences to their customers, but yet fail to design spaces to deliver positive employee experiences.

Companies focus on customer retention but yet fail to focus on employee retention.

Companies invest time and resources in customer research/segmentation but yet fail to spend time on employee research/segmentation.

Companies offer different services/products to address the needs of different market segments, but yet fail to address the diversity of their employee groups/segments.

Companies have tools to track, monitor and analyze customer behaviors, satisfaction and engagement, but yet fail to adopt tools to measure employee behaviors, satisfaction and engagement.

 In 2015, only 21 percent of employees globally were highly engaged. In the U.S., the majority of employees—51 percent—were not engaged. And perhaps most critically, another 17 percent were actively disengaged. (Gartner)

North Highland notices that the opportunity is there. Your organization is already offering some sort of an EX, and every employee is already experiencing your brand, but how good it that experience?

That’s why I’ve founded eX Summit, a space to debate the importance and impact of the employee experience. Our first event eX Indy will take place on September 22. Many of the above topics will be discussed. Check out our event page to see which topics our thought leaders will speak about. We hope to see you there and let’s start a true discussion on EX!

How to optimize social media to recruit talents

Your company’s reputation and brand are not enough to attract or retain a talented and skilled workforce. An innovative, future-oriented organization must build a smarter workforce.

Flying back home from a conference recently, I was engaged in an interesting although argumentative conversation with the person sitting next to me. An HR executive in his late 40s for a law firm, he told me he was caught in a generational fight with younger associates on how to recruit and maintain talents in his firm. He argued that the reputation of a company, combined with the high number of job seekers vs. a global slim job offering should be enough to find the right talents. I replied sarcastically that as much as most job postings are no longer publicly advertised in various platforms (newspapers, online job platforms such as Monster and CareerBuilder), and that more than 80% of positions are filled by referral and networking, the same logic also applies to job seekers. The new generations entering the job market no longer respond to tens or even hundreds of job postings. On the contrary, through online and live networking, job seekers are able to narrow down their search and apply to the very jobs and companies that appeal to them, not relying merely on a company’s reputation.

As job or talent search is a matter of supply and demand, it is easy to assume that more job seekers than jobs means that companies should not have trouble finding the right talents, should they? Interestingly, 65 percent of global companies are having problems finding employees with the skills they need. A recent report lists talent shortage as the #2 risk for businesses globally. The evidence is clear. The need for superior talent is increasing and organizations across the globe recognize that the best candidates are worth fighting for. The question is: how does your organization attract, retain and empower the right talent for the right position at the right time?

Your company’s reputation and brand are not enough to attract or retain a talented and skilled workforce. An innovative, future-oriented organization must build a smarter workforce.

With Generation Y entering the job market massively, and next-in-line Generation Z being raised on social media, companies must go beyond “just” having an online presence. A robust social media strategy will not only help your company develop brand awareness, but will also help recruit talents, gather customer insights, maximize customer service and retention.

Recent social media stats show that more than 60% of adults are connected to one or more social networks, while 23% of online time is spent entirely on social networking activities.

Online recruiting must be integrated in a company’s marketing strategy. A solid plan, a target audience, metrics and data are all required for effective social recruiting. With the introduction of Brand Pages on Facebook, your organization isn’t any different from those selling a product — instead, you're advertising a place of work.

Through brand management, content creation and engagement, candidates and employers alike see the value of social interaction for talent acquisition. It’s instantly measurable and targeted to something that older processes simply can’t match.

How can your company actually use social media for recruitment purposes? To answer that question you have to break down social media by channels.

LinkedIn for sourcing

The world’s largest professional network is what first comes to mind when speaking social media and careers. 43% of all LinkedIn users are based in the US, with 61 million users. Your business can use LinkedIn in several ways. There is the Company Page where you can share updates and LinkedIn users can follow your company to stay informed. This is completely free but at the moment few businesses have actually claimed their pages.

IBM tops the rank in the US with more than 580,000 followers, who are likely to be good future recruits or know people to recommend for jobs at the company.

Another useful tool on LinkedIn is running a group around a topic. Groups on LinkedIn serve as discussion forums and a place to exchange useful information. HP has successfully built a community of followers that drove significant increases in brand awareness and advocacy.

Then there are of course personal profiles on LinkedIn. The key to success here is to engage your employees. Your own workforce is the best place to start adding followers – after all, they’re your biggest advocates. Encourage them to create and complete LinkedIn profiles – once they include your company name, they automatically become followers of your Company Page. Ask them to include a link to the Company Page in their email signatures.

LinkedIn is extremely useful for sourcing and approaching new talent. Good recruiters navigate through the LinkedIn database using their upgraded accounts, 3rd party tools and networking skills. You won’t find user profiles with more professional information than on LinkedIn, making this a primary tool for any recruiter.

Facebook for brand awareness

With 158 855 340 monthly active users in the United States, FB has become to most used social medium. Companies are using Facebook to discover talent but are not hiring directly from the site. However, they are creating FB pages and promoting them, as well as jobs, through the Facebook Ads platform. Recruiters are using Facebook groups, advertising and their corporate Facebook careers page in order to source candidates. For instance, Marriott’s Jobs and Careers page has an application that lets a job seeker run his own Marriott Hotel kitchen, which increases their page engagement and attracts more people to “like” the company.

The goal here is not to hire talents through Facebook, but rather use FB as an additional channel to LinkedIn or Twitter to increase your brand exposure, share information about the company’s value, career opportunities, benefits… in short – share why your company is a great place to work!

Twitter to keep the conversation going

With 140 million users in the US, Twitter has positioned itself as the second-biggest social networking site after Facebook. The optimal usage of Twitter while recruiting talent is to use it as a conversation tool. This is a great way to keep your followers engaged, spread your story, share updates. You can answer candidates’ questions, wish them good luck for interviews… 

You can also use Twitter to post job entries through your own accounts, use third party companies, such as Tweet My Jobs and Twit Job Search, to promote your listings…

Encourage your employees to tweet about their (positive) experience working in your company.

By having individual Twitter accounts for recruiters you will humanize the whole process and give applicants a single point of contact.

YouTube for more branding

The world’s largest video sharing community and second largest search engine is all about branding. Everyone consumes content from YouTube but we still see very few companies producing videos for recruiting purposes.  Some applicants want to read articles, others want to speak to current employees, some love watching videos about ‘A day in the life of [insert job title here]‘. Companies like UPS have successfully used YouTube for large recruitment campaigns where they show what it’s like to work for that company. UPS also proved that every employee within a company has a story to be told, by leveraging these stories on video you make prospective applicants feel like they know your employees already.

Conclusion

Social media doesn’t need to be the absolute center of your recruitment strategy, but it would be ill-advised to ignore the trend completely. 

In HR and recruitment strategy, social media should be used to develop your brand across multiple channels, share your company’s story, empower your employees to spread their positive experience working for you, engage your followers and potential hires. 

These channels are changing and advancing the ways we approach finding the best talent and taking it to a more personal, open and collaborative experience. 

What do you think? Does using social media mean less work for recruiting, or just more effective implementation of traditional ideas?