Category Archives: Culture

What does your Company Culture say about your Future?

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Culture-is-the-wayToday, job seekers not only want to know what jobs are available, or what kind of salary they’ll earn or even what the company culture is like, they also want to know how rosy the outlook is for the company’s future. While most often business outlook is an important topic to investors, shareholders and others focusing on finance, it’s increasingly becoming HR’s employment brand issue too.

Have you asked employees their opinion of your company’s business outlook? If not, you may want to take a look at your company reviews on Glassdoor where you can find candid employee feedback.  As part of Glassdoor’s ongoing online company review survey, employees voluntarily and anonymously share their perspective about the work environment, the culture, their satisfaction with key factors like compensation and benefits, and they share their opinion on the following question: Do you believe your company’s business outlook will get better, stay the same or get worse in the next six months? 

Just think about the signals this sends your candidates that are deciding to come work for you.

To see what employees at your company think, you’ll need a free employer account. This will allow you to read all of your company’s reviews and be able to see their take on the company’s future business outlook. Below is a  recent company review from a Google Sales Executive that shows where, if provided, in each company review you can find sentiment on business outlook.

For susan

Curious to see what companies do stand out in terms of business outlook in the eyes of employees? Glassdoor recently released a new report that looks at Top 10 Companies with the Best Business Outlook based on company reviews shared in April. At the top of the list is Google – 86% of employees believe the company’s business outlook will improve in the next six months. See the complete list and how employee satisfaction stacks up at the top-rated companies:

Top 10 Companies with the Best Business Outlook

This report is a good reminder that employment brand isn’t just a reflection of what a company has done, but it’s also a promise of what the company can do.

Photo Credit: Noozmag

About the Author:

Samantha ZupanToday’s guest post comes from my pal Samantha Zupan who is Glassdoor’s Corporate Communications Director. Glassdoor is a jobs and career community that is changing the way people find jobs and companies recruit top talent. Follow Samantha on Twitter @SamanthaZupan.

Social Media ROI – Perhaps it’s not what we Thought

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yomamaI recently came across a fantastic article titled “The New ROI for Social Media Recruiting” which not only gave great insight into this year’s ERE Recruiting Conference & Expo but shared a little of why folks still are not jumping on the social media bandwagaon, especially executives. Perhaps we are trying to measure the wrong things.

This article talks of discussions that took place at the Conference that even big named brand representatives are still having a hard time getting their senior corporate managers and leaders involved or even understanding the ROI of social media and how it affects their organizations. We’re still looking at it as an end all, cure all as opposed to a valuable tool and channel of influence to our overall efforts. Perhaps that’s because of how it’s been presented to us.

Social is a grand tool for getting your brand out there and as this article surmises you can’t not be there.

You can’t not be on social because candidates, potential candidates, and those whom you hope to attract and someday hire will see your absence from the social media landscape as a negative. Doing it poorly is equally negative.

When a company fails to post regularly, and especially when comments and questions go unanswered for days or never, or when a company indiscriminately dumps all its job postings into Facebook’s news feed, it says, in the words of one recruiter, “This is a lame company that has no idea what social media is all about. Who wants to work for a company people think is lame?

The great thing that social enables us to do, and especially for brands and organizations, is telling the employer story and building its brand. Things such as the culture of the organization and what to expect in the hiring process on through to the day to day “what it’s like to work there” kind of things. These are the very particulars potential candidates are looking for when deciding whether or not to even begin the hiring process.

We may never be able to obtain ROI in how many folks we’ve hired through Facebook or Twitter (social in general). Instead, we should be looking at the value in branding and reputation building.

What does your company brand look like online? Are you a ghost town?

If you’re looking into a few easy ways to start, check out Glassdoor’s free resources.

Looking for a Job is like looking for your Soul Mate

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Hey guys and gals – I’m on vacation still, in sunny California. Here’s a great post (or so I thought) from the archives. Enjoy and see you next week!

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Many years ago I dated this fantastic guy.  He was funny, charming, said all the right things, wined and dined me. We dated for several months.

The great thing was that he lived about 12 hours from me and we would see one another when he was in town for business, we’d meet in Orlando for a fun weekend or I would fly to see him. It seemed like the perfect match.

Then things started getting a little serious and I found myself saying “This sh#$ just got real.”

I found myself babysitting his five-year-old while he went darting off to work leaving me to cook, clean and babysit. As if that wasn’t enough to make me run he started asking questions like “Whose car was that at your house on such and such night?” And saying things like “My Mom doesn’t even know where I live. You can never tell anyone where I live.”

It wound up that we had a little sit down conversation and it came to a head that he worked for some secret government agency and that was why no one was to know where he lived – not even my parents if we were to marry. And then he started talking about me becoming his five-year-old’s mother and I was all….”Wait now, lets back up.”

Here’s the thing – I had only been divorced two years and was enjoying time by myself and taking care of  my daughter who was around 17 years of age. I did not want to get into a relationship where I was now taking care of a five-year-old and having to parent all over again when my kid was about to turn 18, graduate and fly the coop.

I know, that sounds horrible. But it’s just a fact and a frame of mind I was in. And I was not ready to settle and / or compromise.  And I shouldn’t have to, no one should unless they choose to.

Now stay with me ………

My point in all this is that sometimes we don’t look into the culture of an organization and we rush into something because it “appears” to be the perfect fit. It’s not until after a little time that we realize we’ve screwed the pooch! Then we feel stuck and feel as if there is no way out. Just like we do in our relationships.

Sometimes it just makes sense to find out about an organization (Google them if you have to), look them up on Glassdoor.com. Find out what employees are saying about their culture and take some time to really determine if it’s really a good fit for you. If it’s where you want to burn the midnight oil.

And lastly, go with your gut. If you feel weird vibrations during an interview just be bold enough to say “You know what? I’m not ready to take care of your five-year-old” and walk away.

It’s always better in the long run to do what’s right for you. Heck, they’re doing it about you!

Photo Credit: Creativity4Us

Is bringing your dog to work the best fit?

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Not long ago I read a piece that said Nestle Purina Company allows its employees to bring their dogs to work.  When I think of bringing my pets to work the first thing that comes to mind is “that could be a disaster” in an office setting. Now I don’t know about you but if I took either one of my dogs (especially Buddy, my yellow lab) I wouldn’t be able to do jack! But then in reality and since I work mainly from my home office, I do bring them to work and they are constantly bugging me to eat, play, or go outside to potty!

I see the premise behind this but can’t see it working in the real world! The premise of course being “providing one measure in offering a better work-life balance for its employees.” Dude! What a beautiful thing. But is balance the right word for this? Is there even such thing as work-life-balance? I know my friend Cali Yost would tell you its more about work-life-fit. She is dedicated to empowering individuals to strategically manage the way work “fits” into their lives–because as she says “It’s fit, not balance and helping organizations create strong work+life fit partnerships with their employees is crucial.”

So What Is Nestle Purina Up To?

The maker of dog and cat food – Nestle Purina Petcare Company,  has 9,850 employees globally, most of them in St. Louis, where the company’s based. And yes, they’re hiring; a spokeswoman says the company has openings for marketers, copywriters, accountants, engineers, sales representatives, paralegals, and more. But before you apply, make sure you’ll fit in with a furry-friend-loving culture. “Bringing pets to work is a major plus,” one employee wrote on Glassdoor.com regarding this issue. “Pets on the work floor make everyone happier.” (Is this realistic? I think my dog Marley would totally bite someone if they came by her “desk” while she was taking her nap).

Indeed, work-life balance is about more than reputation or keeping employees happy; it’s mainly about retention. Offering flexible scheduling is the most effective way of improving employee retention rates, says Dick Finnegan, a former human-resources director and CEO of C-Suite Analytics, which helps companies decrease employee turnover saying -

“The more liberal companies can be with letting people pick their own schedule times, letting them work from home, letting them–especially people who travel a lot–have no established schedules, letting people leverage technology to work from anywhere–the more companies aggressively offer those things, the higher their retention.”

If your company doesn’t offer flexible policies, perhaps you should look to your direct boss to help you figure out a way to create a comfortable balance for your employees between their work and personal lives.

So what’s your opinion? Is this just a fad or is this the new way of figuring out how to jump through hoops and the “out of the box” thinking that is required in this new millennium and with the new demographic changes we are facing?

This post was from the archives published HERE in 2011. 

HR it’s about your people – not your seat at the Table!

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booster seatI often love to hop on to Youtube and watch a few videos of channels I’m subscribed to as a part of my ongoing learning in this space (okay, and a few funny videos).

I came across a fantastic video from Meet the Boss TV titled “Ten Best Practice HR Tips” that showcases HR and Executives from companies such as McDonald’s UK, KFC, IBM, Google and Mattel  It was interesting to hear how they change their strategies from what previously was being done in their organizations to what they are currently doing in regard to their people.

HR can be a game-changer in our organizations. The very ones who can quite possibly change the course of our ships and create amazing organizations; the very ones who can often change the definition of what’s expected from our leaders and our people. They can become the greatest company brand ambassadors and create amazing change within the structure of our organizations.

Sometimes that takes asking ourselves a few questions such as:

  • What are the business needs around our people that drive performance?
  • What is it that our people truly value about working at our organization?

When we determine the answers to these two things we can often create an energy that can be released around our people – from where it should begin first and foremost. From there HR can then begin to talk about the future talent needs of our organizations, how we can generate better insight around our people, how they can get rid of organizational silos that destroy our progress, and lastly – how we can support change in business.

Back to the video:

We must start thinking differently and perhaps going back to the basics where we do consider it more about our culture and the people that work there than our ever arriving at the table.

A lesson in Collective Leadership from the band Mumford and Sons

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Mumford-and-Sons-l-to-r-W-010It’s important that we surround ourselves with others that can encourage and inspire us to see things from a different perspective.

We’ve heard folks tell us that “It’s lonely at the top.” We’ve had discussions with many leaders who have shared their personal stories of feeling lonely and that they were the ones who took on the bulk of what happens in our organizations because it seemed as if no one else cared as much as they cared.

But isn’t leadership really more about inspiring others to become a part of the process? Isn’t it more about team-building and getting our organizations and people to work as one collective body? Heck, even pop groups understand that it takes more than one voice or one guitar player to create a whole?

I was recently encouraged by the music group Mumford & Sons in a documentary when they shared  “We try to always remember that our success lie in the collaboration of each member making the whole one really unique experience. We understand that each of us feeds off of each member and their unique piece of the puzzle and energy. This is what makes us who we are today.”

The collaboration model is nothing new and according to “Next Shift: Beyond the Nonprofit Leadership Crisis,” by the Building Movement Project, younger leaders are not attracted to hierarchical structures and are trying to find new ways to organize and structure work, ranging from entrepreneurial models to shared leadership and broader participatory structures. And more millenials are entering the workforce today than any other era.

Perhaps the time has come that we dissolve the lone hero leader mentality who comes in just in the “nick of time” to “save the day.” That instead, we take the opportunity to think of ourselves as facilitators of a process that engages everyone in our organizations. This can be quite challenging to leaders who are used to doing everything themselves or micromanaging out of fear that no one else can do it “quite like us” or that they are going to screw everything up and we’ll be left to clean up the mess.

Collective leadership empowers employees and teams and can in fact ease our burden.

Figuring out how to adopt this model is not an easy task but can be a tremendous asset to our cultures and the greater good of our organizations. Distributing leadership and responsibility is a balancing act, knowing when and what each of us needs to communicate to the team without overloading each other.

Collective leadership is the result of a process that brings diverse communities of people to create change, begins with a shared dream that forms the heart of a group of skilled and passionate individuals and emerges from our relationship building.

It is amazing what a handful of people can do when everyone’s leadership is tapped and others are allowed to share their insight and ideas. Who doesn’t like to be heard and feel as if they have a voice, especially at work?

This post originally aired at SHRM WeKnowNext. 

Schooling HR in Social Business

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social businessIn researching HR and Social Media I came across a divine article from our friend China Gorman. Since she is a much better writer than I, I asked her if I could share the post over here on the cafe. She was so kind to allow me to do so - 

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In the land of HR, folks tend to think inside their bubble.

And when it comes to social media, some are early adopters (think using social media for talent acquisition) and many are laggards (think writing policies that keep people from accessing Facebook while at work).

But the truth is that there is so much more to social technology than social media. And HR needs to go to school on this.

Required reading for every HR person

I was pleased to attend IBM’s Connect Conference in Orlando last week. I was there to get insight into IBM’s acquisition of Kenexa and its commitment to building a Smarter Workforce – the brilliant marketing extension of their Smarter Planet campaign. Social business is huge. Social business at IBM is enormous — and growing.

While at the conference, I received a copy of the IBM Institute for Business Value’s report titled,The Business of Social Business: What Works and How it’s Done, that should be required reading for every HR person. It’s a sort of primer explaining what social technology is and how it is transforming the way businesses are competing in the global marketplace.

Based on survey data from 1,161 respondents and interviews with 21 executives responsible for implementing successful social business practices around the world, this report is easily consumed by non-technical business leaders (that’s you, HR Pros) and creates a much larger context for understanding the opportunities that social technology brings to an organization — and that will be coming to your organization soon!

3 key areas of social business

Despite Applebee’s and HMV’s unfortunate handling of recent experiences with social media, note that the IBM survey identified three primary areas of social business in which organizations around the world are currently investing:

  • Creating valued customer experiences;
  • Driving workforce productivity and effectiveness;
  • Accelerating innovation.

I found it fascinating that when drilling down into the second bullet point, driving workforce productivity and effectiveness – HR’s domain – the focus was on learning and developing talent, not acquiring it. There’s a head snap for you.

Take a look at the report and look for more useful information from the IBM Institute for Business Value. And download the free “IBM IBV” app for iPad and Android from your app store so you don’t miss any new research!

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This originally appeared on China Gorman’s blog at ChinaGorman.com. Used with permission. 

China Gorman has been in and around HR for more than 30 years, including 20 years in the HR consulting world specializing in the career transition, executive coaching, and leadership development specialties. Most recently she was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Global Member Engagement Officer for SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, and you can read her blog at ChinaGorman.com. Contact her at chinagorman@hotmail.com.com.
Photo Credit: Khabar

If your Company sucks offline – your employees will talk about it Online!

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YourCompanysucks_landingpage_03Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit in on several fantastic Google+ Hangouts over in My Community Manager group on Google. One of the sessions was with Yammer and we all (through the hangout and Twitter Chat) discussed issues related to social media at work and incorporating internal collaboration tools.

Here is the actual recording of the hangout in case you’d like to get the exact scoop. I think you’ll find it very engaging and answer a few of your questions on how folks went through the process of adopting social and internal collaboration tools into the workplace – slowly, easily and steadily.

If you still have a problem with unleashing your employees on social you may want to read this new post from the NY Times in regard to trying to regulate social media at work. The title could have been better but it’s a pretty informative post.

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I am all for incorporating social media and technology into our workplaces, that we stop trying to see how we can block it and instead try to make it work toward our advantage – for the greater good of our organizations.

The thing is, if you’re worried that your employees are going to tell everyone about their crappy workplace, that you are making them work 12 hours a day without a break, that you fired someone just last week because they told you they were expecting a baby – you need to really rethink a few things.

If your company sucks offline, folks are going to talk about it online. If your management style sounds a little like Nazi Germany, your people are going to realize you are the worst manager while they are discussing this with other folks – online or off.

The thing to do if you’re lying awake at night worried about blocking Facebook at work because you’re afraid of what your employees will say about you – is to start making better choices. Stop being an ass. Abide by rules (especially the NLRB) and start working on internal (that means inside you) changes.

Bottom line, most folks are worried about what their employees will say online out of fear of being exposed. Those organizations and managers who are doing it up right – aren’t usually worried and actually encourage their folks to share with others how great they are.

Employees are using their phones to get on Facebook and Youtube at work even if you don’t allow them to get online through their office devices. And if you don’t – they’re prepared with excuses in case they get caught READ HERE!

So the next time you or your Executive Management Team sit around the proverbial table – you may want to discuss how to create a better culture. One that will promote trust, team-building, and authenticity and how you can create a better working environment all around.

Photo Credit: MSCO

Kudos to Michael VanDervort for the heads up on the Times article. Love my community!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then and now (Watch This)

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martin-luther-king21Huffington Post did an outstanding job yesterday on their site with the post “Martin Luther King’s Dream still not a reality” and I suggest you go check it out. As much as we blab that it has, the stats in the above post are very disturbing. But I’m not gonna go in that direction.

This past weekend I happened upon a movie I had never seen called “Hart’s War” with Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Howard and Marcel Iureş which is primarily a prisoner-of-war movie focused squarely on the human condition during wartime, examining the willingness to sacrifice for others and the issue of moral courage under pressure, or lack thereof.

(Bear with me)

The historical setting for the film is December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge, when the Germans launched a surprisingly successful offensive against American troop positions in Belgium. As the movie begins, Lieutenant Hart is captured by the Germans and is then taken away for interrogation. Hart, a Yale law student who comes from a privileged background, tries to only give his name, rank and serial number to his Nazi interrogator. But Hart is weak and can’t hold up for long under the intense psychological pressure. He caves in and reveals the location of an American fuel dump to the fuel-starved Germans.

This is Hart’s major failing and it haunts him. When he arrives at his assigned POW camp, fellow American officers know right away that Hart cooperated with the Germans due to the brevity of time he spent in interrogation. The American officers in the camp, led by McNamara, decide to shun Hart and place him in a barracks for enlisted men.

Hart gets along OK with the enlisted men until two new American POWs arrive. They happen to be African American fighter pilots, and are immediately made to feel unwelcome by the all-white prisoners, egged on by deeply prejudiced Sgt. Bedford, played by Cole Hauser.

One thing leads to another and eventually Sgt. Bedford winds up dead. The Germans find one of the African American pilots, Lt. Lincoln Scott, played by Terrence Howard, at the murder scene. Under normal circumstances in the camp, the Germans would simply shoot him on the spot and forego any trial. But here is where the movie changes course radically from other POW flicks. Col. McNamara asks for a trial and then assigns Lt. Hart, a second year law student in civilian life, to defend Lt. Scott. So now we have an interesting courtroom drama combined with the usual tunnel-your-way-out POW tale.

Here is one of the most moving scenes from the trial titled “We Served Our Country” (click photo)

harts war

It’s sad to think that folks had to endure this kind of nonsense, and still do – to this day.

Thank you, Dr. King, for your dream and all you did to fight for your fellowman. May your dream become a reality in every facet of our lives.