How to Leverage Learning and Development to Improve Employee Retention

man sitting with laptop smiling at a coffee shop

Recently, employees’ priorities and desires have shifted—especially as a result of the pandemic.

Many individuals previously valued high-end office amenities and compensation above all else. Now, however, the list of desires has changed dramatically. (That’s not to say that brag-worthy offices and compensation don’t matter!)

There is one element that employers can leverage to improve employee retention: enter learning and development (L&D). Let’s continue this conversation on how to leverage learning and development to improve employee retention.

What is Learning and Development?

Learning and development (L&D) is an HR function defined as “a systematic process to enhance an employee’s skills, knowledge, and competency, resulting in better performance in a work setting.”

In ​​Human Resource Management, Back to Basics by Filip Lievens, it’s written that the goal of L&D is “to develop or change the behavior of individuals or groups for the better, sharing knowledge and insights that enable them to do their work better, or cultivate attitudes that help them perform better.”

So, what does this look like in real life? L&D can look like a variety of things depending on the business making the investment. For example:

  • One-on-one coaching
  • Seminars and/or workshops
  • Continued education
  • And more!
Infographic of How to Leverage Learning and Development to Improve Employee Retention

What Are the Benefits of Learning and Development?

There are various benefits—for both employees and employers—when it comes to implementing an effective L&D strategy for your business. Some of the benefits include:

  • Increased productivity
  • Reduced workplace risk
  • Increased job satisfaction
  • And of course, increased retention (which in turn leads to financial savings!)

How Learning and Development Improves Employee Retention

Increased employee retention is one of the best benefits of a successful learning and development strategy. In fact, according to a LinkedIn study, “94% of employees would stay at a company for longer if the business was investing in their career development.” Wow, that’s a statistic that can’t be ignored!

Moreover, L&D is something that you can’t ignore—especially given the Great Resignation that we’re observing now. The job market is HOT, and research shows that 86% of professionals would change jobs if a new company offered more opportunities for professional development.

PS: Employers who are fearful of the Great Resignation… Check out one of our latest articles on how to prevent the Great Resignation in your business.

How Can You Make Learning and Development Possible for Your Business?

We know, all of this L&D talk sounds great… But how can you make L&D possible for YOUR business? Below, we’ve listed three tips for getting started.

Incorporate Learning and Development Right Off The Bat

Many employers make the mistake of not implementing learning and development for new hires until they’re “comfortable” in their roles. Professional development, however, should be accessible from the get-go. This will ensure L&D has a more profound impact on an employee’s experience.

Build Learning and Development into Everyone’s Schedules

We know, everyone is busy! Whether it’s monthly or quarterly, it’s important to set aside a designated time for L&D on everyone’s calendars.

Make Learning and Development Accessible

Contrary to popular belief, L&D doesn’t have to break the bank. In fact, it’s often cheaper than many of the other perks you might offer your employees. That being said, learning and development opportunities should be spread across the board—and not just available to key employees and executives.

In fact, coaching has been named one of the most requested employee benefits, and the results are a win-win for both employee and employer. The bottom line? All of your employees are worth the investment of L&D!

Interested in learning more? Read on to see how learning and development can transform your company culture.

How to Manage Time

hourglass

How to Manage Time, Wellness, and Self: Part One

Today, the average employee has a lot on their plate. In addition to work, they have to worry about managing their time, their own personal wellness, and self. At Culture Works, we recognize that many might not know where to start. (Yes, it can be overwhelming!)

Moreover, sharing these tips with your employees from the top down can prove extremely beneficial.

So, we’re here with the first part of our three-part series. Today, we’re talking about time management. 

How to Level Up Your Time Management Skills

What is time management anyway? According to MindTools, time management is “the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between different activities.”

At Culture Works, we believe that there are three pillars that contribute to successful time management.

  • Awareness
  • Arrangement
  • Adaptation

Let’s talk about each in a bit more detail.

Awareness

What is awareness? When it comes to time management, awareness is thinking realistically about your time by understanding it’s a limited resource.

There are many practices to develop awareness. Here are two practices that we’ve found to work at Culture Works:

Define Your Peak Performance Time

Break your typical day into three to four time slots. For example:

  • Early morning: 6 am to 9 am
  • Late morning: 9 am to 12 pm
  • Afternoon: 12 pm to 3 pm
  • Evening: 3 pm to 6 pm

Your time slots, based on your work and self, might look different! Perhaps you have three slots of longer time as opposed to four. The options are endless.

Anyway, once you’ve broken apart your day, over the course of a week, rank-order these slots from your most to least productive. Then, organize your to-do list based on your hours of peak productivity.

Shift Your Perspective

Another practice to develop awareness is by gaining some perspective. When working, ask yourself: How will the tasks I am doing right now help or hurt me in the future?

Then, adjust your work accordingly.

Arrangement

Let’s move on to the second pillar of time management: Arrangement. Proper arrangement means designing and organizing your goals, plans, schedules, and tasks to use time effectively.

There are many practices to take control of arrangement. Here are two practices that we’ve found to work at Culture Works:

Schedule Protected Time

Interruptions happen, especially with remote work—so plan for it! Make calendar appointments with yourself to ensure focused time dedicated to your most important projects.

This will help build accountability.

Prioritize Activities and Obligations

Make these things a priority. Oftentimes, it is not enough to simply list out your tasks, to-do lists, and meetings.

Adaptation

The third and final pillar of time management is adaptation. Adaptation is when you monitor time while performing activities and adjust to interruptions.

There are, of course, practices to master adaptation. Here are two ideas that we’ve found to work:

Sprints, Not Marathons

We know… Marathons are impressive! When it comes to work, however, using a short burst of effort toward completing a task can be effective. Remember, progress, no matter how small, is still progress.

Use Meaningful Reminders

The reminders you set in place should have detailed explanations or descriptions.

Time Management Capacity (and Time Blocking!)

Another practice we recommend is the use of capacity buckets to hit targets. This is a simple, four-step process you can use to manage your time successfully:

  1. Identify buckets (work at hand)
  2. Allocate goals
  3. Block time
  4. Reflect on outcomes

However, we believe number three could use a bit more detail.

What is Time Blocking?

“If you don’t control your schedule, it will control you.” —Todoist

First, what is time blocking? Time blocking, according to Todoist, “is a time management method that asks you to divide your day into blocks of time. Each block is dedicated to accomplishing a specific task, or group of tasks, and only those specific tasks.”

Time blocking, for some, might look like the below:

Time Blocking Example

But how do you time block?

  1. Review Your Week: Prioritize items on the list (i.e. urgent vs. non-urgent, deadlines vs. recurring tasks)
  2. Break Down Tasks: Daily, weekly, monthly, meetings, administrative
  3. Estimate Time for Tasks: Slot time boxes into your calendar, review your estimates and results, batch related tasks together
  4. Completing Tasks: Devote your entire focus, close other browsers, put your phone away, find a quiet place, do not respond to emails and/or instant messaging

Not yet seeing the benefit? Below, we’ve provided an example of someone who doesn’t time block vs. someone who does.

Time Blocking vs. Not Time Blocking Example
Image courtesy of Todoist.

Using Covey’s Four Quadrants to Unlock Time Management Success

Lastly, we’d like to introduce the four quadrants of the Covey Time Management Matrix. We promise – it is not as scary as it sounds… (And it’s definitely not as scary as the 1999 Keanu Reeves film!)

Covey’s four quadrants help prioritize your tasks based on urgency and importance. Each task lies in one of four quadrants labeled one through four.

Take a peek below.

Covey’s Four Quadrants Time Management

For example, an HR emergency would land in quadrant one whereas long-term planning or relationship building might land in quadrant two. Quadrant three might be home to interruptions, emails, calls, meetings, and so on. Try to steer clear of tasks in quadrant four; for example, busy work and time sucks.

Stay Tuned for Parts Two and Three!

So, there you have it! Our best tips on how to level up your time management skills. Stay tuned for parts two and three of our series, where we’ll discuss how to manage your personal wellness and self.

Interested in benefitting your employees? Read on for 10 unique ways to support your company culture through human connection.

How to Managing Time, Wellness, and Self

Happy Anniversary To Us: Culture Works is Two!

work celebration party with confetti pink company culture

It’s official! Our company, Culture Works, is two—happy anniversary to us! We are so excited to continue working with our amazing clients to make productivity soar, reduce churn, and operationalize culture through:

  • HR Consulting
  • Culture Operations
  • Talent Recruitment
  • And more!

We love operationalizing the vision of role and value alignment through true culture operations and culture accountability, and can’t wait to do more of it.

In the spirit of Culture Works turning two, we asked some of our team members to reflect on our two-year journey. Below are a few of their thoughts… Cheers!

Reflecting On Our Two-Year Journey

Who? Amber McQuail, Culture Operations

What She Has to Say: “Culture Works’ mission and values are not just words on a page, EVERYONE definitely walks the walk and talks the talk. It’s intentional collaboration, it’s inclusive, it’s thoughtful and caring, it’s impactful and it’s FUN!  I’ve watched the team double in size over the last year, and it’s been so rewarding to see an entire group of professionals grow and thrive alongside their clients and always be eager for more.”


Who? Claudia Parker, Branding Operations

What She Has to Say: “It is exciting to partner with companies that share our passion for employees and company culture. We have a fun, dedicated, passionate, committed, and collaborative team who love working with our clients in making a positive impact on the lives of their employees, their company culture, and the long-term vision of the business.”

Who? Courtney Harrison, Partner Operations Manager

What She Has to Say: “Since I have been with Culture Works I have seen the team and our clients evolve dramatically. Our team collaborates and elevates the level of work product for our clients to unbelievable heights. I get so excited to see the impactful work and hear about how our team works so hard to customize, humanize and simplify everything for our clients.”

Who? Cymbre Brown, HR Generalist

What She Has to Say: “We have managed to create this cohesive group of people who genuinely love what they do. We work so well together and understand how to capitalize on each other’s strengths to provide the very best results to our clients. I have never worked with a group of people that are so committed to a company’s vision. I am so proud of all that WE have accomplished.”

Who? Jenn Owens, HR Consultant

What She Has to Say: “Internally, we have focused on being a learning organization developing our HR knowledge for our clients and our own personal growth from a professional and emotional intelligence lens. Externally, our focus on partnering with companies to better understand their business and how we can help them build an amazing place for their employees to work has shown that HR is a partner here to help make company culture better.”

Who? Lea Vergara, HR Generalist

What She Has to Say: “Joining Culture Works has been the most exciting and rewarding experience of my career. Our team is so supportive – of each other and our clients. I love that we genuinely care for our clients, and it is rewarding to see them change for the better as organizations through their partnership with Culture Works.”

Who? Margie Holmstrom, Senior HR Generalist

What She Has to Say: “I have been with Culture Works for about 7 months now and I am so impressed with the company and its leader, Kristi! She ‘walks the talk’ in every way and that’s not something you see every day in business. Whenever we provide HR guidance, work products, or process improvements, clients never fail to express how grateful they are. I’m so excited for Culture Works’ 2-year anniversary – I can’t wait to see what our future holds! I’m thankful to be a part of this amazing company and team!”

Who? Sabrina Vonch, L&D Specialist

What She Has to Say: “I was recently asked, ‘What would I change about Culture Works?’ This question, in sincerity, stumped me. As a learning organization, Culture Works is committed to a growth mindset. This mindset allows us to stay innovative not only for our team but also for our clients. If something is not working, we learn from it, make the necessary changes to improve and keep moving forward. We are inherently fostering change and embracing our company values daily – I wouldn’t have it any other way.”


Who? Simone Jones, Culture Operations Partner

What She Has to Say: “Since I joined Culture Works, I have seen the quality of our work evolve, providing impactful and innovative products to our clients. The ability to work with clients who are aligned with our mission and values allows us to truly elevate their culture and employee engagement.”

Interested in learning more about how the Culture Works team works? Read on to learn how we retain our top talent (and how you should, too!)

culture works anniversary

HRIS, HCM, and HXM: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?

HRIS HCM HXM

HRIS, HCM, HXM… What the heck do all of these human resources acronyms mean!? And why do they matter? Don’t worry, our team at Culture Works is here to simplify things for you.

Let’s get down to the explanations, starting with HRIS.

What is HRIS?

HRIS stands for human resource information system. Gone are the days of filing cabinets and paper forms!

Moreover, an HRIS is a software solution that “maintains, manages, and processes detailed employee information and human resources-related policies and procedures,” according to Oracle. Sounds awesome, right?

“The HRIS standardizes human resources (HR) tasks and processes while facilitating accurate record-keeping and reporting.”

What Are the Benefits of HRIS?

Potential benefits of implementing an HRIS include:

  • Increased productivity
  • The ability to make data-driven decisions
  • Improved operational efficiency
  • Increased employee satisfaction
  • Enhance user experiences
  • Accommodate business growth
  • Maintain compliance

HRIS Examples

Here are some HRIS software examples, courtesy of Adam Enfroy.

  • ADP
  • Namely HR
  • Paycor HR
  • Bamboo HR
  • Workday
  • Zenefits
  • UKG Pro
  • Sapling

What is HCM?

HCM stands for human capital management.

Similar to HRIS, HCM is a great tool for overworked HR teams and line managers, as it frees up time from various HR tasks. To clarify, human capital management is not only software but also a more general HR strategy.

According to ADP, human capital management is “the process of hiring the right people, managing workforces effectively and optimizing productivity… [This strategy is] made up of a series of administrative and strategic applications that include:

  • Recruitment
  • Onboarding
  • Payroll
  • Time and attendance
  • Benefits and retirement services
  • Talent management
  • Training
  • Reporting and analytics
  • Compliance”

So, has your company spent time developing a quality HCM strategy? Look below for its primary benefit.

The Primary Benefit of HCM

Most importantly, an effective HCM strategy helps increase workforce productivity while helping HR managers hire, engage, and retain employees.

What is HXM?

Let’s address our final acronym: HXM. HXM stands for human experience management. Human experience management continues to build upon human capital management (HCM).

The Future of Customer Engagement, Experience, and Engagement describes HXM best. Unlike HCM—which focuses “on facilitating transactions and pushing top-down HR processes”—HXM is “all about focusing on the people who power a business to success; providing them with the tools and technology to enable meaningful, productive, and personal employee experiences that drive business results.” Awesome, right?

After all, we all know that when your employees have positive work experiences, their productivity, creativity, and ability to serve all increase. On the contrary, a negative employee experience can result in decreased productivity, poor performance, and therefore, negative customer or client experiences.

The newly emerging idea of HXM manages the role that employee experience plays in developing high-performing companies. Don’t believe in the importance of HXM? Check out this article by Forbes, “5 Reasons Why Human Experience Management Is The Future Of HR.”

A Final Word

The fact of the matter is that your business doesn’t want to be focusing on HRIS, HCM, and HXM solely to protect itself, or because it’s what you “should be doing.”

HRIS, HCM, and HXM help foster amazing company culture—and are why it’s important to build a team that is focused on building this standup culture. Interested in learning more? Read on for ten unique ways to support your company culture through human connection.

Exiting Your Business: Step #1, Revisit Your Org Chart

Planning on exiting your business? Let’s discuss the first step you should take when doing so as a business owner: revisiting your org chart. But you might be wondering, what is an org chart, and why is it important?

What is an Org Chart?

First, for those who need a refresher, what is an org chart? An organizational chart, or org chart, shows the internal structure of an organization or company.

This considered, org charts house a lot of information. Also, there are many different types of org charts. For example:

  • Hierarchical Org Chart: Hence its name, shows who’s at the “top” of a business.
  • Matrix Org Chart: Typically used when individuals have more than one manager.
  • Flat or Horizontal Org Chart: This type of org chart is simple with just two levels: management and the workers. There are little or no levels of middle management in flat and horizontal org charts.
Org Chart
Above is an example of a “Matrix Org Chart” from Lucidchart.com.

How an Org Chart Can Benefit Your Business

So, now that we’ve refreshed your memory about org charts, how can they benefit your business? As a business owner, there are many benefits to using and maintaining your org chart. An org chart can help…

Org Charts for your business

Illustrate a Clear Reporting Structure

For big companies especially, org charts are extremely useful in illustrating who is a part of the company, who reports to who, who manages each department, and so on.

(Could we say “who” any more times!?)

By using an organizational chart, your company increases its efficiency; employees know exactly who to go to as needed.

Make Onboarding More Efficient

The onboarding process can be a thorn in your side as a business owner. There are so many people for your new hire to meet and remember! Creating an org chart can make your new hire more comfortable and help them put names to faces quicker.

Visualize Reorganization

The fact of the matter is that most of your employees won’t stay in the same role forever. Whether you have individuals shifting from department to department or from role to role, investing in quality org chart software can help you visualize your business’s reorganization with ease.

Delegate Work

A top notch org chart can help employees see their workload clearly. Additionally, an org chart can be helpful to identify when/if department heads need support. For example, are they managing a team of seven when they only have the bandwidth to manage five or six? An org chart can clearly paint this picture to help delegate work.

Increase Collaboration

When you have an awesome org chart, it’s something that can be shared all throughout your business. It then becomes a practical company-wide tool for planning and collaboration. An org chart can be especially helpful when it comes to scaling for growth, restructuring, and workforce planning.

How Org Charts Support Exit Planning

So, what the heck does an org chart have to do with exit planning? Well, we’re glad you asked…

Having an org chart helps you plan for exit. All of these benefits we’ve listed above—illustrating a clear reporting structure, increasing onboarding efficiency and collaboration, etc.—help support a smooth exit strategy.

After all, leaving behind your business takes forethought, and how could you leave behind your business without first identifying its internal structure?

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to exit planning is making sure your business won’t crumble when you leave. Having a powerful, scalable org chart in place is one of the many ways that you can help prepare your team for exit.

Want to Learn More?

So, you’re on your way to having an awesome org chart in place, plus you have a great team of employees! But how does your company fare culture wise? Here are five signs you have a positive company culture.

Shh… Retaining Your Top Talent Doesn’t Have to Be a Secret

Employee Retention

When you consider talent retention, chances are the first thing you think of doing as a business owner or CEO is offering competitive compensation to your employees.

While money is an important factor in attracting and retaining top talent, it’s not the entire cake. Rather, it’s an ingredient in the cake. Arguably, there is a much more important ingredient in the cake that is employee retention. According to a recent Harvard Business Review article on employee retention, the most important ingredient is making your employees feel special.

Now, wait a minute … Before you roll your eyes at how cheesy or “unprofessional” you might think this is, give it some serious thought.

Here, we’ll help you.

Feeling Valued and Special in the Workplace

Don’t worry, we’re not going to get all mushy gushy.

But why is it important to feel valued and special in the workplace? Well, according to Investors in People, the need to feel valued is not an abstract concept.

They write, “As human beings, we know what it feels like to feel undervalued and before long it can become intolerable. This is not only true in the workplace, but in relationships, family life, social clubs, and more.”

Feeling special in the workplace results in a number of positive benefits, according to the American Psychological Association (APA), including:

  • Better physical and mental health
  • Higher levels of engagement, satisfaction, and motivation.

“All the things that lead to a healthy and productive relationship between employer and employee,” says Investors in People.

How Can You Make Employees Feel Special?

So, how can you ensure your employees—more specifically your top talent—feel special in order to attract and retain them? Don’t worry, we’re not going to advise you to take your employees out for a happy hour every week (although we’re sure they wouldn’t complain!) or to buy them flowers and chocolates (kind of weird…)

Harvard Business Reviews narrows making your top talent feel special to three things you should never do. Here’s what they are.

Never Dismiss Their Ideas

Regardless of whether or not the idea is immediately actionable, ensure that your employees’ ideas are heard. Do not dismiss their ideas. Also, it’s important to remember that chances are, when an employee comes to you with an idea, it’s because they’re able to see an issue on the horizon.

Never Block Their Development

Offer your employees opportunities to grow. Is there a seminar or conference you know they’d like to attend to grow their knowledge? Support them in this! As an employer, you should always be championing your employees’ development.

Never Pass Up the Chance the Praise Them

Words of praise go a long way. Chances are your top talent works around the clock on difficult projects and tasks. When you fail to recognize this, employees might become resentful or look for other places of employment.

A Final Word

There you have it! The secret to retaining your top talent: making them feel special. (See, it’s not rocket science!) Read on for tips for attracting and retaining great talent.

How to Write an Effective Offer Letter

Effective Offer Letter

Congratulations—your team is growing! Your hiring team has endured the interview process and now you’re ready to send out an offer letter to the right candidate. Yay! But wait, what should you include in an offer letter?

In today’s world, a verbal offering should also be supplemented with a formally written document. By offering a job in this way, you can be sure that both the employer and new hire are clear on the conditions of the job.

Although offer letters contain very important information, they typically only range from about one to two pages. Here’s how to write an effective offer letter.

What is Included in an Effective Offer Letter?

According to The Balance Careers, an offer letter confirms employment details including:

  • Job title
  • Job description and responsibilities
  • Schedule (i.e. full-time/part-time)
  • Reporting structure
  • Starting date of employment
  • Salary
  • Benefits information and eligibility
  • Acknowledgment of offer and confirmation of acceptance

Additional Elements to Include in an Offer Letter

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, depending on the state and/or employer, an effective offer letter might also include:

  • Policies: For example, “employment will be subject to the company’s policies, procedures and handbook (if applicable) as adopted, revised or deleted from time to time.”
  • At-will employment: Explains that “either the employee or the company can terminate the relationship at any time, with or without cause or advance notice.”
  • Contingencies: “State that the offer is contingent upon a background check clearance, reference check and satisfactory proof of the employee’s right to work in the U.S., as required by law.”
  • Confidentiality and invention assignment agreements
  • Prior employer confidential information and restrictions

How to Write an Effective Offer Letter: An Example

Below, we’ve included an example of an effective offer letter (minus the additional elements listed above). We’ve written this letter as if we were adding another member to our team—woohoo!

Interested in joining our team at Culture Works? Check out our open positions.

A Final Word

See? Writing your next offer letter will be a piece of cake using our guide. Interested in learning more about hiring? Read on for 2022 hiring trends in the new year!

10 Unique Ways to Support Your Company Culture Through Human Connection

Human Connection Company Culture

The topic of human connection is more important now than ever.

Many of us are returning to the office. It’s been a while … Some of you might be thinking, “How the heck do we do this again?!”

Harvard Business Review writes that returning to in-person work can be tricky. “Whether you’re excited or anxious about re-entry, you can expect being around other people to require a lot of energy that you probably haven’t had to expend in a while. Why is in-person interaction such a drain, and how can you muster up the energy to reconnect with your colleagues?”

Harvard Business Review recommends getting back to the basics of human connection.

In this blog post, we’ll detail 10 unique ways to support your company culture through human connection during this time.

What is Company Culture?

First things first, what is company culture, and why is it important?

Company culture is defined as “how you do what you do in the workplace.” This includes both the formal systems and the informal behaviors in the workplace, as well as:

  • Work environment
  • Company mission
  • Leadership style
  • Values
  • Ethics
  • Expectations
  • Goals
  • And more

Typically, company culture is something you can feel (even as an outsider!).

10 Unique Ways to Support Your Company Culture through Human Connection

There are many ways you can improve your company culture. Prioritizing human connection is one of them. Here are 10 unique ways you can support your company culture through human connection.

  1. Kick Off the Week with Some Positivity

Chances are your company has some sort of touch-base at the beginning of the week—whether remote or in-person. 

A great way to foster human connection is to kick off the week by sharing a “personal win” and a “professional win.”

For example, maybe one of your employees went skiing over the weekend and didn’t break a bone. That’s their personal win! Their professional win could be something along the lines of meeting an important deadline or managing their time well during the previous week.

Kicking off the week with some positives helps team members get to know one another on a more personal level and start their week on a positive note. It’s also a great way to share and celebrate accomplishments!

  1. One-on-Ones

Prioritizing one-on-one meetings helps build rapport between leadership and employees. During these one-on-ones, whether bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly, you have the opportunity to learn more about your employees’ goals and experiences within your business.

It demonstrates to your employees that you care.

  1. Get Your Team Out of the Office

If distance allows it, get your employees out of the office. Take them out for a walk, coffee, drinks, the options are endless.

Fresh air and a change of scenery can help build trust; compared to having conversations in the same old meeting rooms.

  1. Encourage Conversations about Goals

Ask your team members about some of their personal and professional goals. What are their challenges and desires? How can you support them?

Some examples might include gaining the courage to speak up more in meetings or to better prioritize their time. Keep these conversations honest and light.

  1. Celebrate the Wins (Big and Small!)

In an article published by Forbes, they discuss the importance of creating a company culture where employees come together to connect and celebrate the hard work that’s been done.

It doesn’t matter if the win was big or small—it deserves acknowledgment!

  1. Ask a Community Question

Maria Leggett of Forbes recommends asking a ‘community question’ each week.

“Ask about a favorite vacation place, a most memorable trip, or even a funny story that happened at work. Describing the craziest call you ever received at the office can generate great responses and tell you a lot about how people handle the unexpected.”

This is a fun, easy way to foster human connection, thus improving your company culture!

  1. Practice Listening

Like, really listening … Active listening is a skill that, surprisingly, many of us don’t naturally have. When you’re in conversation with someone, it can be easy to get caught up in your own thoughts and distractions, thinking of what you’re going to say next—especially if you’re tense.

Active listening is a skill that can go a long way in creating authentic human connections. When you practice active listening, you’ll be able to hear what is actually being said, as opposed to misunderstanding, anticipating, or assuming.

  1. Encourage Sharing

Not quite like show and tell, but almost! As an employer, you should encourage sharing personal stories and interests. Consider talking about a new trending show on Netflix, who you’re rooting for in the Super Bowl, or an upcoming vacation at your next meeting.

This will help get to know your team members on a personal level.

  1. Polish Your Onboarding Process

The onboarding process can be overwhelming—which is why it’s important for executives to take the time to meet with new hires across the business, regardless of department.

This is especially important in the era of remote work, where employees can feel a bit more isolated than in-person.

  1. Practice Empathy

The tenth and final tip is to practice empathy! As the old adage goes, “Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes.” This adage stands as a reminder to practice empathy.

When in conversation with someone, consider where they might be coming from. What is their perspective? How is it different from yours? How can you validate their experience?

Harvard Business Review recommends you “consider what barriers you may face in trying to understand the other person, like assumptions you may be making about them, what you need from them, or your own reactivity…. [By] cultivating a level of self and other-focused compassion, [this] can aid in navigating conflict or disagreements more gracefully.”

A Final Word

There are many ways you can increase human connection within your business to bolster company culture; above are simply 10 ways. Interested in learning more? Read on to learn more about how learning and development (L&D) can transform your company culture.

Top Proactive Recruitment Strategies

Today’s job market is HOT! As an employer, how can you attract the right talent and build your bench?

The answer? Proactive recruitment.

Let’s talk about proactive recruiting – what is it and what are some strategies your business can implement to do it well? 

What is Proactive Recruitment?

Proactive recruitment is exactly what it sounds like. If you’ve visited the Culture Works site or have been in the human resources space for long enough, chances are you’ve heard of it.

According to Ideal, proactive recruitment is “the process of identifying and engaging with candidates long before a position comes open.” This means they’re not actually “candidates” at that point. “Rather, they’re people with skill sets in a given geographic area and job role, and you build relationships with them.”

Proactive recruitment is a practical tool to utilize, and with remote work being more popular than ever, proactive recruitment has become even more tangible in the workforce.

Top Proactive Recruitment Strategies

As we wrote in our article on proactive recruiting to build a killer bench, most companies today practice a reactive recruitment approach. Reactive recruiting means not posting about your business or job until a position needs to be filled. 

Proactive recruitment searches for the right people before you need them and is a much more effective method. In fact, at Culture Works we believe building a killer bench can take six months to a year.

Here are our top proactive recruitment strategies.

Begin the Search

When it comes to proactive recruitment, the first thing to do is look for and reach out to prospective candidates.

Remember, you don’t want to be reaching out to just anyone. Ask yourself, what kind of person will be a long-term, engaged candidate with an interest in becoming an employee at my business?

This requires narrowing down your search and getting down to the nitty-gritty of who you want to hire in the first place. Consider partnering with your team to create an ‘ideal candidate profile’ for each future role that might need to be filled.

Find candidates by using:

  • Social platforms
  • Your candidate database
  • Social or networking events
  • Relevant communities and/or groups

Engage Prospects

When it comes to engaging prospective candidates, personalization is key. After deciding who your ideal candidate is, you must pique their interest.

Although you might have found someone or a group of prospects, hiring is a two-way street. Remember, they aren’t the candidate yet.

Engage prospective candidates by sending them a personalized message. You can:

  • Tell them about yourself
  • Tell them about your business
  • Ask them what they’re looking for in a job

Nurture Relationships

In sales, lead nurturing is “the process of developing and maintaining relationships with customers at every stage of their journey, usually through marketing and communications messaging.”

Similarly, in this phase of proactive recruitment, you need to develop and maintain relationships with prospective candidates.

Let the stats speak for themselves. According to Finances Online, 63% of candidates find employer communication inadequate during the recruiting process. Let this statistic encourage you to nurture relationships with prospective candidates.

Nurturing these relationships helps keep prospective candidates interested, and likely, with proper nurturing, your business will be top of mind if they begin to seek out a job.

Nurturing might look like keeping in touch through:

  • Social media marketing
  • Ongoing content strategy
  • Emails

Convert Prospects into Applicants (Then Employees!)

At this point in your proactive recruitment strategy, you’ve laid a solid foundation for prospective candidates and future hires.

When a job now opens up, chances are the individuals in this funnel will be encouraged to apply. After you receive their application, however, it’s up to you to make sure the experience with your business exceeds their expectations.

Josh Tolan, Spark Hire’s CEO and Founder says, “In a competitive market, the ability to move candidates through the process quickly can be the difference between making the hire and not.

Efficiency, communication, and understanding are especially key in the world of remote work. If you don’t have a team designated to streamline your hiring processes, consider implementing recruiting software to stay on top of things.

A Final Word

Surely, the tips listed above are not all you can do to maximize your proactive recruitment strategy. Read on to learn more about how your business can attract the right talent and proactive recruitment. And, happy hiring!

How to ensure successful culture integration post-M&A

How to ensure successful culture integration post-M&A

The M&A process is an exciting but lengthy one. It can last anywhere from months to years depending on the size of the company involved. During this period, the merging of two company cultures can create culture shock, damaging productivity, profitability, and morale. Let’s talk about how to avoid that!

Entering into a merger can be challenging for both companies. Whatever the reasoning behind the merger, one thing is for sure—change is coming. According to Harvard Business Review, between 70 and 90% of mergers and acquisitions fail. A culture clash is often to blame for this extremely high number. 

Due Diligence

Preparing for a merger or acquisition requires time and planning. A large portion of this time is dedicated to conducting due diligence. Not sure how to go about your due diligence? Check out our due diligence checklist to ensure a smooth transition during an M&A. 

Due diligence happens during the process of an M&A — But what about the potential culture shock post-M&A? 

Leadership can help bring together the best of both cultures.

Employee engagement doesn’t have to suffer when you merge two different cultures. The leaders of both companies hold the power to protect employees and help them successfully share their cultures. One strategy is a weekly leadership meeting in which everyone steps back from the chaos of the merger to highlight the advantages of both cultures and strategize on ways to bring the best of each culture together to create a new, optimized company culture that works for everyone.

Creating a successful company culture requires an investment from everyone on the team and is essential to retaining employees and keeping them engaged in their work. Here’s how to get started.

Redefine your company’s core values.

Your culture and your purpose are defined by your core values. Merging two different sets of core values can be challenging. In many cases, the acquiring company attempts to keep its core values and share them with the other team.  This frequently results in a sense of disenfranchisement by the acquired company’s employees and results in reduced morale, productivity, and in turn, profitability.  A more egalitarian approach incorporates a process in which the leadership, often facilitated by an outside coach or consulting team, finds the best elements of both sets of principles and works to merge them, creating a new set of core values that speak to the merged company.

Training and development.

As you work to merge two different cultures together, it’s important to engage in team-building activities and ongoing training for all levels of the organization. 

Another aspect of the development of your team is ensuring your team members are aligned in their roles. Role alignment is essential to the success of your new merged business. When employees are aligned in roles that match their strengths they will be more engaged and excited about work.

Through training and development programs, team members who are not role aligned can discover their optimal roles and, in the process of reconfiguring the companies in the merger, change roles to be more productive and set up for success.  

Check-in with employees regularly. 

During a merger, it is essential that leadership and HR communicate regularly with all employees to ensure their concerns are being addressed. This can be done through informal check-ins, and/or formal employee engagement surveys. Monthly performance reviews can focus on an employee’s individual contributions to the overall company goals and assure them that their role is secure in the transition

Communication

One of the top reasons mergers and acquisitions fail is a lack of communication. When communication is lacking between managers and employees, employees are left asking questions: Why is the company merging? How will I be affected? How will I be supported throughout this merger? Am I about to lose my job?

Lack of communication with your employees may leave them confused and unmotivated to work hard for the newly merged company. Keep employees updated on the context of the merger, the timeline of what’s next, and other frequently asked questions related to the merger. Like restructuring the Org chart.  

Employee engagement before and after the merger.

Analyzing employee data before and after the merger can help you better understand how your organization has been impacted by the merger. In doing so, you can identify areas of your culture that may need work.

Employee retention

Employees will likely feel on edge during this major transition. They may be faced with fears of losing their jobs, being asked to re-apply for their job, or drastic company culture changes. Losing employees during the merger will negatively affect profitability. So focus on communication, incentives, clear goals, and strategies to keep your team engaged and in the know.

Count me in!

Practical steps you can take to make your company culture (and yourself) even better.

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