Cultivating a Culture of Engagement for Success
Culture and Employee Engagement were the hot topics at the Talent Summit in Dublin this past week. Panelists’ did a great job discussing and outlining their company initiatives and insights.
In short:
employer branding is important to attract the ‘right fit’ candidates;
ensure the hiring process addresses questions around company culture and
your culture supports employee engagement.
The consensus; this affects and supports customer engagement and subsequent revenues.
Jeetu Mahtani speaking about HubSpot‘s Beer like book program – where it needs to be as easy to get a book as a beer. They’re promoting education & self-development so employees can download as many books as they like and this process needs to be, and is as easy as walking to the cooler and grabbing a beer.
Jason Medley of Quirky, the morning keynote speaker, spoke about how culture is not just about having a rock wall in the office…! The hiring process needs to incorporate questions that are based on a company’s core values to ensure culture is being addressed.
Bryce Winkelman of Qualtrics believes that: Employee engagement = customer engagement = revenue
Fidelma Healy from Gilt, an online shopping platform, spoke about embracing authenticity and individuality in their hiring processes, and promoting a culture of “not being afraid to fail.”
Culture is as much a consideration for Fidelity Investments in their rigorous selection process for full-time employees as it is for contingent workers.
Salesforce are proud of their Pledge 1% 1-1-1 philanthropic model: giving 1% of product, employees time, and equity to their communities.
Orla Moran of New Relic emphasised that we’re back to basic’s in relation to word of mouth of employees being key for employer branding.
With the topic on the brain, I happened upon an article published in the Harvard Business Review that emphasises the key points covered at the Summit: A Company’s Good Deeds Can Energize Employees by Christopher Lueneburger. He highlights the successful metrics and employee engagement of two companies CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives and how “leaders must find the courage to pursue cultures of purpose because there is no surer way to energize employees and unleash the forces that drive business success.”
My questions based on the above:
As a job seeker is CSR, employee engagement initiatives and company culture important to you? Do you research these key areas at the application stage? Are fit and initiatives as much a deciding factor as the job itself when choosing a company to work for?
As an employer, do you incorporate questions on company values and culture into your recruitment processes? Do you see value in employee engagement initiatives? If so, what has proved most successful for you to date and why?
