I consider myself very philosophical. But I do not like the proverbial chicken and egg question. And I get asked this a lot: What do you think comes first? A great company to work for or great people who work there? To me it’s just an exercise in futility because, at the end of the day, one doesn’t exist without the other. That is, without good people, it’s extremely difficult for an organization to be great. And vice versa. In 2009, employee turnover cost U.S. businesses an estimated $300 billion. The staggering cost of employee turnover can be viewed as simply the cost of doing business, however, additional damage occurs when turnover is compounded by poor hiring and management practices. (
The Real Cost of a Bad Hire, TEK Systems)
Finding Great People
But that means you have to be deliberate and thoughtful in your hiring practices. It’s tempting to make rash hiring decisions because you simply “need a body.” But that wrong body in the wrong job can end up costing your company more in the long run. With today’s economy and operating costs, companies simply can’t afford to hire “bad eggs.”
The scarcest commodity in business is not customers or technology capital — its people. And the greatest challenge for recruiters and leaders isn’t just hiring people — it’s hiring the right people for the right jobs. When people operate in their “sweet spot,” they lead, naturally. You don’t have to tell them to lead. You don’t have to ask them to lead. They just do it. (Developing Great Leaders for Great Companies, Steve Olson, Generative Consulting)
Tagged as:
Employee Engagement,
hiring,
leadership,
recruiting
Without a doubt, the adoption of using social technologies inside the organization is rampant. So many companies are hearing the loud beat of the “employee engagement” drum, but the task of effectively assessing your needs, implementing technologies correctly, and measuring for success and sustainability is a daunting project. So, it’s okay to slow down, take a deep breath and work from a well-crafted roadmap. Few things make employees more cynical than a social media platform that no one uses. And if your company quickly deployed a ["insert social tool here"] only to find that it fell flat because no one saw the value in using it then you know
exactly what I’m talking about.
Therefore, it’s refreshing to see firms such as Gagen MacDonald and APCO Worldwide working together to help shape internal social media programs. Recently, they analyzed research among U.S. adults working for companies with more than 500 employees that revealed 21 discrete attributes which in turn combine to form three major factors (see image below) that employees look for when deciding whether their company has effective social media internally.
As a result of their research, Gagen MacDonald and APCO Worldwide created a five-step process to build social media from within, ensuring sustainable change through shared goal-setting, leadership alignment, employee training and measurement of key metrics. Some highlights are below but the full whitepaper is available: Harness the Power of Internal Social Media.
A Five Step Roadmap for Internal Social Media
1. Assess
Tagged as:
#socialHR,
apco worldwide,
Employee Engagement,
gagen macdonald,
internal social media
With 61% of employees saying that internal social media helps them to better collaborate and another 60% saying internal social media demonstrates innovation… it’s becoming much more evident that Internal Social Media (ISM) can — and does — impact the bottom line. To better understand the value of social media in the workplace, APCO Worldwide and Gagen MacDonald recently surveyed 1,000 U.S. employees, and built a model that quantifies the factors that characterize effective programs and the impact on core business drivers.
Some significant findings include:
- 58% of employees would rather work at a company that uses ISM effectively, and 86% would refer others for employment
- 60% of employees say use of internal social media demonstrates innovation
- 61% of employees say their companies’ social media tools help them collaborate
Read the full story. And while you’re there be sure to check out the whitepaper on “Harness the Power of Internal Social Media.”
Tagged as:
Employee Engagement,
infographic,
internal social media
I have a friend who works in a call center here in Columbus, OH. She is someone who’s not only passionate about her job, but also about having a voice and affecting change to improve her teams’ functions. But her greatest challenges to feeling included in impacting / changing company processes are related to the working environment itself: with the exception of a half hour lunch and two 15-minute breaks, she must be on the phone all day long making conversation with other colleagues impossible, and 2) opportunities to express opinions with other team members or suggest changes are limited to monthly team meetings. Neither of which are conducive to driving a culture of social, human interaction.
It’s hard enough to drive culture and drive engagement in the standard corporate environment, but imagine what it must be like to drive interaction and engagement in an environment where employees are separated and siloed as a requirement of the job. Call centers have a workplace setting that differs greatly from those of corporate, so I’ve always appreciated the diligence of contact (call) center employees and have wondered how it’s possible to drive (and enable) engagement, interaction and productivity when the basic functions of the job requires employees to be connected to their phones and computers their entire work day. From my meager understanding of the contact center environment, performance metrics are based on call quality, length and ability to wrap the calls as quickly as possible within government or corporate regulations… and performance numbers are scrutinized on a daily basis.
Tagged as:
call center,
contact center pipline,
Employee Engagement
It’s been a loooonnng day…
I’ve spent 9+ hours working on the computer for my work job and here it is.. nearing 1AM and I’m still on the computer but now writing a blog post. My eyes are going cross-eyed and my finger tips are raw from tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard. I did take a break today, shuttling my kids around and going to dinner at Golden Corral (yes, I know), but, of course, I still checked my e-mail messages, Twitter and Facebook accounts on my TWO phones while talking school and shoveling buffet goodness into my mouth. To top it all off, I’m still wearing my kick @ss 5-inch heels. And there’s a reason why I’m doing all of this. I LOVE what I do. Aside from the shoes, does this sound familiar?
With the dawn of social technologies, “ease of use,” and overall mobility, it’s easy to get lost in the endless cycle of work-life-work-life-work-work-work. I should know, I admit that I fall victim to mismanaging my work and personal life all the time — easy to do, especially when snippets of your personal life (e.g., blogging and speaking) are in addition to what you do at work.
Well, thank my ever-loving Fatty Catty (I really do have a cat who I call Fatty), my 5-inch heels must come off at some point otherwise my feet would never recover. And that’s my indicator that my work has ended and my LIFE has begun.
Tagged as:
Employee Engagement,
good.is,
work life balance
I consider myself very philosophical. But I do not like the proverbial chicken and egg question. And I get asked this a lot: What do you think comes first? A great company to work for or great people who work there? To me it’s just an exercise in futility because, at the end of the day, one doesn’t exist without the other. That is, without good people, it’s extremely difficult for an organization to be great. And vice versa. In 2009, employee turnover cost U.S. businesses an estimated $300 billion. The staggering cost of employee turnover can be viewed as simply the cost of doing business, however, additional damage occurs when turnover is compounded by poor hiring and management practices. (The Real Cost of a Bad Hire, TEK Systems)
