Management Perspectives

Over the past decade, I have often spoken at many HR conferences, but I was always the oddone-out–the customerfocused man in a group of HR experts. It was always a good experience, but I often got the impression that HR was somehow evolving less quickly than marketing.

This has now started to change, and has been significantly accelerated by the COVID crisis.

However, when it comes to innovation in the war for talent, one of the most frequently asked questions is still: “In which technology do we need to invest?” when it should be “What kind of experience and culture do we want to offer our employees?”

The Offer You Can’t Refuse for employees
Customers have always had the choice about who they want to buy from, and this level of competition is why companies have been investing in their customer relationship for years. Now, as a result of growing talent scarcity in certain fields, companies are facing a similar challenge and must do the same for their personnel.

The challenges for keeping employees satisfied are looking increasingly like the same challenges for keeping customers satisfied. For customers, the very basic level is the need for a good product and good service at a good price, and for employees, the same lowest level is the need for good job content and a good salary. These are minimum requirements and they are important, but they will not be enough for an employer to differentiate his or her company.

There are, however, three more levels to the offer you cannot refuse, and for it to be implemented successfully, leadership is crucial.

Ultimate convenience
Simplification of processes is an important starting point for improving employee experience. A study by Deloitte revealed that 74 per cent of employees across both large and small companies regard the processes in their company as being too complex.

In my previous book, Customers the Day After Tomorrow, I suggested three axes of investment that would allow companies to offer greater convenience to their customers. These same three dimensions can be used for employees.

• Continuous learning: Organisations with a strong learning culture have 92 per cent more chance of bringing innovative products and services to market; are 52 per cent more productive than others; have 56 per cent more chance of being first to market with products and services; and are 17 per cent more profitable than their competitors.
• Well-being: A recent study by LinkedIn showed that 49 per cent of employees prefer benefits linked to health and well-being above all other benefits. Apple took this to extreme lengths in 2019 when it introduced optional DNA checks for employees to check for certain hereditary diseases and then develop personalised treatments to keep the health of the employee stable for as long as possible.
• Continuous feedback: Researcher Josh Bersin showed that 70 per cent of multinationals no longer organise annual evaluation meetings with their employees, but have switched to a system of continuous conversations as the best means to discuss performance and plan future career developments. The classic evaluation procedure focuses on the assessment of past behaviour, and then rewards or punishes people via financial incentives. But if you want to be a partner in the life and career of your people, you need to look to the long-term future, build trust between teams and plan together through a process of constant dialogue.

Saving the world, together with your employees
A recent study by PwC suggested some 64 per cent of young people would no longer accept a job with a company that does not have socially beneficial and sustainable objectives. By 2025, 75 per cent of the working population will consist of millennials.

But, it is not just for the youngsters–it is a fallacy that it is only the millennials who attach importance to positive values when choosing an employer. Seventy per cent of the total working population wants to work for an employer with a strong and positive climate policy. Fifty per cent of people are even prepared to work for slightly lower pay, if this gives them the opportunity to find an employer with positive societal objectives and values. For one in three young people, the absence of a societal sense of responsibility is a deal-breaker, a view also shared by 17 per cent of older employees.

So why are more and more people opting for companies that have a ‘save the world’ plan? Firstly, a ‘save the world’ strategy creates a sense of pride in employees when their company exceeds the societal norm. During the lockdown, Panera Bread continued selling salads and sandwiches to customers via home deliveries and street pick-ups, but the company also donated tens of thousands of its meals to poor children when COVID-19 forced the closure of schools. This is the kind of action that makes employees proud, and the more the employees can be actively involved in these inspiring actions, the greater their impact will be.

Secondly, future employees assume that a company that wants to take care of society will also do a pretty good job of taking care of its own people. And lastly, projects with a societal added value often strike a chord with the employee’s own values. A good fit between personal values and the company's values is one of the most important drivers for intrinsic motivation, so it has never been more important to make your employees the offer you cannot refuse.