“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Peter Drucker
The projected unemployment rate for 2019 remains low presenting a challenge for businesses to attract and retain key talent. Ensuring salaries and benefits are on par for your market and offering next-generation perks such as work-at-home options and unlimited PTO are staples in our competitive marketplace. But we all know there isn’t a “one size fits all” approach to talent strategies. The essence of employee engagement is rooted in the culture of the organization, making it imperative to have an authentic employment brand that is well-articulated to the market.
Whether your company has spent the time to uncover and articulate the employment brand or not, having a strong sense of the culture provides a good starting point to embark on brand definition, or a check-in on the alignment of the brand and what employees are experiencing. Culture surveys can be simple or complex, depending on the type of information your leadership team hopes to gain.
If you prefer a simple temperature check, consider deploying a Five Second Happiness Survey used at Zappos, or create your own check-in survey on Survey Monkey or Survey Gizmo to measure engagement. Has your company undergone a recent change in leadership, acquisition, or divestiture? An employee check-in can help you find out what’s working, what questions are lingering, and what can be done to move forward as a team.
Do you use NPS for customer satisfaction? Consider the eNPS survey for your employees. One simple question: “On a scale of 1-10 how likely are you to recommend our company as a place to work?” Scores of 9-10 are considered “promoters” and enthusiastically recommend your company, “passives” are considered 7-8 and represent employees who aren’t necessarily negative, but aren’t entirely loyal, while scores of 0-6 are considered “detractors” and are not likely to recommend your company. The NPS scoring is on a scale of -100 to 100 and what good looks like is dependent on your industry. Don’t miss the opportunity to have employees tell you more about why they scored the company the way they did. These nuggets of information can be helpful as you plan your next talent strategy investment.
If you’re leadership team enjoys diving into data and having comparative information within your industry, company size or region, consider a more robust survey using Gallop (beware the price tag) or local employer councils. In-depth surveys by a third party are a helpful tool to use when developing a longer-range strategic plan and you would like to check progress as the strategy unfolds. Due to the complexity and time it takes to execute these surveys, it is a good idea to spot check data points along the way using an in-house tool or software program.
It is hard to believe we are wrapping up the second decade of the twenty-first century. Even with the onset of artificial intelligence, humans will always be a key component to company success and customer satisfaction. As the economic and employment outlook continues to be strong, now is the time to align corporate strategy with your culture to accelerate growth. Take the first step and get the pulse on employee engagement! ILG is here to help with your most important human resources issues – give us a call if you want to learn more about culture surveys at 720-506-1956.