Are You Aligning Your Culture and Brand to Increase ROI?
THE CULTURAL FIT FACTOR
Reagan Forlenzo, Program Manager, US Group
2011
Books by Lizz Pellet
Program Information on This Session
• How to assess and define an organization’s cultural
frame work
• What is Attract, Retain, Repel
• The Cultural “Fit” Factor
• Employee Value Proposition
Can you conduct a culture assessment to
determine what “fit” will be?
• Identity – employment
brand
• Leadership
• Relationships
• Communication
• Infrastructure
• Employee Engagement
• Change Management
• Finance
What should be measured
and why?
Tools to measure organizational culture:
• Past Employee Satisfaction surveys
• New assessment focused on
cultural elements
• Standard surveys customized to
your organization
• Validate survey data
• Quantitative and Qualitative data
Benefits of Quantitative Data
Identity
Relationships
Leadership
Employee Engagement
Infrastructure
Communication
Finance
78
72
59
58
58
55
38
13
18
25
26
25
25
39
9
10
16
16
17
20
24
Healthy Neutral Unhealthy
Quantitative data allows you to determine who you are and who
you are NOT! No more guesswork or assumptions.
• Employee Satisfaction and engagement
• To Create a Sustainable Competitive Advantage
• What We Stand For Versus What We Do
• To Create Internal Brand Loyalty and Trust
• To Compete With Other Employers for the Best Talent
• To Communicate the Value Proposition to employees
• What happens in the case of M&A – whose identity wins,
whose identity loses, whose identity do you use?
Why do organizations need to understand
organizational culture?
Why is Culture Important?
• Numerous studies show that organizations with
performance-driven cultures have better:
o Revenue growth
o Employment growth
o Stock Price growth
o Net Income growth
• Bottom line: Companies that live their culture are high
performing and better places to work
• Leaders create cultures that will be most beneficial
in helping them achieve their goals as a business.
• Values will support an organization in times of
crisis so that the leadership can easily respond
rather than react. Just say J&J.
Defining Your Corporate Culture is Not as
Easy as One Might Think…
How Is Culture Created?
Executives
Actions and Behavior of Executives
Allocation of Attention & Resources
What Gets Rewarded & What Gets Punished
Culture
What Leaders Pay Attention To
HR’s Role in Shaping Culture
Recruiting &
Staffing
Compensation
& Benefits
Training &
Development
Talent
Management
Performance
Management
• Hire people
who will “fit
in” with the
current
culture.
• Hire for
fit/aptitude,
not skills
• Create
compensation
and benefit
packages that
help reinforce
and drive the
company
culture.
• Instill
corporate
values and
desired
behaviors/skills
that will help
promote the
current culture.
•Measure
culture and
identify
potential
derailers.
•Attract the
best of the
best
•Retain top
talent.
•Repel the
ones that just
don’t fit
• Create a
culture where
employees
know what is
expected of
them and hold
them
accountable.
Executives Agree that Culture Can Be a
Significant Advantage
“We do a lot of things right but all those things can be copied by a competitor tomorrow. The only thing they can’t copy is our culture. Culture provides us a competitive advantage.”
Colleen Barrett, President – Southwest Airlines
“We have had firms study our processes and benchmark us for years, but they are hard-pressed to duplicate our success. When it comes to a sustainable competitive advantage, our GE culture is one of the most difficult things for others to copy.”
Jeff Immelt, CEO – General Electric
“We have no patent on anything we do, and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can't copy the heart and the soul and culture of our company and that distinguishes us from everyone else.”
Howard Schultz, Founder – Starbucks
• Employees are looking for a
meaningful, authentic and
congruent work experience
• It is deeply rooted in U.S. culture
to talk about our “jobs”
• Cultural fit is paramount in
finding a job you love
• How long did you stay at a job
that you didn’t fit?
Today’s Employees Want Transparency
What is Attract, Retain, Repel as it
Relates to Culture?
• The ability to understand who you are from a cultural
perspective.
• Being crystal clear on what your culture is as you create an
employment brand
• Employees will be either attracted to your organization or be
repelled by this brand
• Employees who do come to work for you and enjoy an
authentic and congruent work experience will stick around –
retain – and talk to other people about how pleased they are
Attract, Retain, Repel as it Relates to
Recruitment and Retention = ROI
• Attract – how can you get the best of the best from the current
and future talent pool?
• Retain – how will you keep the good ones you have that really
are a good fit?
• Repel – how can you keep the ones that just don’t fit from
applying in the first place?
Cultural Fit is key to Employee Engagement
Gallup Study Results with responses from over 3 million
employees:
• 29% of the U.S. work force is actively engaged, 55% is not engaged and 16% is actively disengaged.
• That means that 71% of the Americans who go to work everyday are not engaged in their job.
• This equates to businesses operating at one third of their capacity.
• This can cost the economy up to $350 billion per year.
• HR movement – Presenteeism……..
• We have to “measure what we treasure”
The Cost of the Disengaged
1,000 Employees
x average hourly wage
of $15/hour = $15,000
$15,000 x 2 hours/day in lost
productivity = $30,000
$30,000 x 20 days worked in a
month = $600,000
$600,000 x 12 months
= $7.2 M in lost productivity.
These figures are based on a M–F, 8–5pm operation.
Boomer Fit
It was predicted that in 2010, 30,000 boomers would retire a day in the US.
We have to get creative to keep our older workers - IP.
There is as much competition to retain the boomers as there is to attract Gen Y.
This was an actual picture on the career site for
Harrah’s Casino in Las Vegas
The Next Gen Challenges…and you
know what they are!
• Social networking is KEY Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are the new norms in communication and have changed the branding landscape
• UAB Emergency Room Rap http://tinyurl.com/6zvmj7
How Does Organizational Cultural Fit Relate
to Your Employment Branding Efforts?
• Vision, Mission, Values - leaders create and sustain organizational culture
• A common way of thinking, which drives a common way of acting
• Shared assumptions and beliefs: the silent code of conduct. It is the glue that holds an organization together…or not
• It is your employment BRAND in the truest form – whether you have consciously created it or not
• How employees feel they fit and identify with the organization
Cult-like Cultures - What do they have in
common?
• Strong sense of identity –
BRAND - a core ideology.
They are VERY clear about
who they are and who they are
not
• Greater tightness of fit.
Employees either “buy-in” or
“get out”
• Self selection process... “this is
just not for me”
• Show evidence of elitism. They
create a sense of belonging
[internally] and superiority
[externally]
Who Has a Cult-like Culture? Built to Last
• Southwest Airlines has
earned its reputation as
one of the most
outstanding companies
in consumer and
employment branding:
Fast, FUN and Friendly
is who they are… bags
fly free
• You want to be a
Nordee?
• Mayo Clinic’s Mission
• Zappos!
Photo Source: Libby Sartain
Encourage & Promote Executive
Sponsorship
The Starbucks Brand: It’s all “Green” to Me
…and to Them!
What is Employee Value Proposition (EVP)?
• A narrative proclamation – to the employees – of how an
employer will carry out the promise and uphold the values
in the employment relationship. It needs to be both
rational and emotional.
• Make sure you have a clear understanding of EVP before
going to the C-suite. Create a proclamation before you
outline any creative approach
Creative Approach to EVP
While your internal marketing departments know your company’s
brand, they may not have the psychometrics or external exposure
to pinpoint the EVP or employment brand perception. People
relate best to visual images. Consistency is quality!
Source: Southwest Airlines
EVP and the New Addition of Social
Networking and Sustainability
Social
Networks
Company Commitment
Employee Value Proposition/Brand
Recruiting/
Orientation
Training and
Career
Development
Pay,
Recognition,
Performance
Health and
Well-being Financial
Security
Work/
Life
Balance
Work
Environment
Sustainability
programs
Program
Content Communication
Vehicles
Delivery
Channels
Employees
Leadership
Source: Libby Sartain, co-author “Brand from the
Inside”
Example of positioning your EVP.
Start each top line with “we offer”…….
Compensation Benefits Amenities Connections Life Tools Career
Development
Competitive
Salary, Stock
Options, Bonus,
and Promotional
Opportunities
So that you
can grow with
us and create
the career and
experience
you want.
More choices,
more options,
more
possibilities
So that you
Can
Customize
your Package
to meet your
needs
Free Latte,
Health Club,
Foos Ball,
Sport Courts,
Covered
Parking
So that you
Can take a
break and
have fun at
work
More
Opportunities
to learn and
grow
So that you
can grow your
career with us
and get the
most important
things
in your life.
More solutions
to help you
plan your life
and future
Financial
Planning, Child
Care
Assistance,
401(k)
So that you
Can Create
Financial
Security..
You can work
with some of
the brightest
people around,
in a dynamic,
challenging
environment.
So that your
work Makes a
Difference
Source: Libby Sartain, co-author “Brand From the Inside”
Employment Brand Promise:
Delivery Timeline
Time
Results
1 to 3 Months Diagnostic, Data Collection, Analysis
Delivery of action plan
3 to 6 Months Establish value proposition
Develop brand message
Roll out initiatives
1 to 3 Years Full alignment
Significantly better business results
Increased ROI of recruitment & retention programs
12 Months Redeploy diagnostic to measure progress
Track ROI
Sustainability
What about being green? How will you shift your culture?
Going Green to Attract, Retain and Repel
What are your core values as it relates to being a green organization?
A report by Sustainable Business Network of Washington (SB NOW)
gives us a great list to why a company should go green.
Their number one reason?
1. Increasing employee satisfaction, retention and productivity
2. Improving operational efficiency and effectiveness
3. Saving energy, water and raw materials
4. Shielding yourself from escalating energy and water prices
5. Branding the business and differentiating it from the competition
6. Developing a positive, proactive relationship with local compliance
inspectors
7. Reducing pollution, waste and greenhouse gas emissions
8. Avoiding fines and other sanctions green guide and certification
CO2 Reduction Using Virtual Interviews
645 kg CO2 17 kg CO2
In-person Interview Live virtual Interview
Conducting just 30 live virtual interviews per month is the same CO2
savings as taking 60 cars off the road annually
Why is Green Important to Your Recruiting
Strategy and Overall HR Initiatives?
“While candidates of all generations have begun evaluating potential employers based on their greenness few in recruiting have leveraged this hot topic in recruitment communication and activities”.
“Individual recruiters need to make their firm’s environment stance a critical element of their sales pitch to potential applicants and candidates”
Dr. John Sullivan
June, 2007
Key Social
Platforms
Blogging
Micro
Blogging
RSS
Social
Networking
Chat
Rooms
Message
Boards
Podcasts
Video/Photo
Sharing
Social Media
• We cannot talk about cultural fit without talking about how Social Media is changing today’s employment.
• Social media has created a fundamental shift in the way people communicate via real-time conversations online.
The World of Social Networking Changes
Every Day!
Social Media Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8
ROI: The Cost of Using Social Media vs.
Other Methods
$$$
$$
Corporate
Niche boards
Micro sites
Web advertisements
Free
(word press)
(application)
Questions?
Reagan Forlenzo’s Contact information:
(949) 400-6046
Invite me on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/reaganforlenzo