Are You Aligning Your Culture and Brand to

Are You Aligning Your Culture and Brand to Increase ROI? THE CULTURAL FIT FACTOR Lizz Pellet, Felix Global Vice President USA 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 • Personal Values System alignment • Employee Value Proposition

Can you conduct a culture assessment to determine what “fit” will be? What should be measured and why? • Identity – employment • • brand Leadership Relationships Communication Infrastructure Employee Engagement Change Management Finance

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 Quantitative data allows you to determine who you are and who you are NOT! No more guesswork or assumptions. Healthy Neutral Unhealthy Identity 78 13 9 Relationships 72 18 10 Leadership Employee Engagement 59 25 16 58 26 16 58 25 17 Infrastructure Communication 55 25 20 Finance 38 39 24

Why do organizations need to understand organizational culture? • 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 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

Defining Your Corporate Culture is Not as Easy as One Might Think… • Leaders create cultures that will be most beneficial in helping them achieve their goals as a business. • Differences are very real and can dilute a congruent corporate culture message. Values will support an organization in times of crisis so that the leadership can easily respond rather than react. Just say J&J. The ability to perceive the limitations of one’s culture and to develop the culture’s adaptability (change) is the essence and ultimate challenge of human resource leadership. Airline examples – who do you want to work for? • • •

How Is Culture Created? Actions and Behavior of Executives What Leaders Pay Attention To What Gets Rewarded & What Gets Punished Allocation of Attention & Resources Culture

HR’s Role in Shaping Culture Recruiting & Staffing Compensation & Benefits Training & Development Talent Management Performance Management • Hire people • Create • Instill • Attract the • Create a who will “fit in” with the current culture. compensation and benefit packages that help reinforce and drive the company culture. corporate values and desired behaviors/skills that will help promote the current culture. • Measure culture and identify potential derailers. best of the best • Retain top talent. • Repel the ones that just don’t fit culture where employees know what is expected of them and hold them accountable. • Hire for fit/aptitude, not skills

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 “We have a culture dedicated to creating a place where talented people want to work. This gives us a tremendous advantage when it comes to attracting, developing, exciting and retaining exceptional people. ” Ian Davis, Managing Director – Mc. Kinsey & Company

Today’s Employees Want Transparency • • 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) Potential employees are twittering about their job interviews, the people who are interviewing them and how they are being treated. Potential PR nightmare or outstanding exposure opportunity.

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?

The Connection Between Culture and its Effect on ROI… • Hard dollars spent on Recruitment and Retention = statistics • Take one executive salary from last year that was a “bad hire” • Baby Boomer = Bust: the 2010 shortage = OR NOT • Gen Y challenges • The new Knowledge worker • Mergers and Acquisitions = Cultural integration issues • Corporate Scandals = loss of employee confidence and share holder value

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 x 2 hours/day in lost productivity = $30, 000 x 20 days worked in a month = $600, 000 x 12 months = $7. 2 M in lost productivity. These figures are based on a M–F, 8– 5 pm operation.

Boomer Fit This was an actual picture on the career site for Harrah’s Casino in Las Vegas l It was predicted that in 2010, 30, 000 boomers would retire a day in the US. l We have to get creative to keep our older workers - IP. l There is as much competition to retain the boomers as there is to attract Gen Y.

The Next Gen Challenges…and you know what they are! • Social networking is KEY Facebook, You. Tube and Twitter are the new norms in communication and have changed the branding landscape • UAB Emergency Room Rap http: //tinyurl. com/6 zvmj 7 • Read the ERE. net article by Dr. John Sullivan re: who owns your brand http: //tinyurl. com/yzfmspb

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 Photo Source: Libby Sartain • 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!

Encourage & Promote Executive Sponsorship

The Starbucks Brand: It’s all “Green” to Me …and to Them!

Values Alignment Knowing your intrinsic values and asking an organization to complete a values assessment.

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 Company Commitment Employees Employee Value Proposition/Brand Health and Financial Work/ Training and Pay, Work Social Well-being Career Recognition, Security Life Environment Networks Development Performance Balance. Sustainability Leadership programs Recruiting/ Orientation Program Content Communication Vehicles Delivery Channels Source: Libby Sartain, co-author “Brand from the Inside”

Example of positioning your EVP. Start each top line with “we offer”……. Compensation Benefits Competitive Salary, Stock Options, Bonus, and Promotional Opportunities More choices, more options, more possibilities So that you can grow with us and create the career and experience you want. So that you Can Customize your Package to meet your needs Amenities Free Latte, Health Club, Foos Ball, Sport Courts, Covered Parking So that you Can take a break and have fun at work Career Development More Opportunities to learn and grow So that you can grow your career with us and get the most important things in your life. Life Tools Connections More solutions to help you plan your life and future Financial Planning, Child Care Assistance, 401(k) You can work with some of the brightest people around, in a dynamic, challenging environment. So that you Can Create Financial Security. . So that your work Makes a Difference Source: Libby Sartain, co-author “Brand From the Inside”

Employment Brand Promise: Delivery Timeline Results 1 to 3 Years Full alignment Significantly better business results Increased ROI of recruitment & retention programs 3 to 6 Months Establish value proposition Develop brand message Roll out initiatives 12 Months Redeploy diagnostic to measure progress Track ROI 1 to 3 Months Diagnostic, Data Collection, Analysis Delivery of action plan Time

Sustainability What about being green? How will you shift your culture?

The Way We Interview Candidates is Forever Changing

CO 2 Reduction Using Virtual Interviews 645 kg CO 2 In-person Interview 17 kg CO 2 Live virtual Interview Conducting just 30 live virtual interviews per month is the same CO 2 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

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 realtime conversations online. Video/Photo Sharing Blogging Podcasts Key Social Platforms Micro Blogging Message Boards RSS Chat Rooms Social Networking

The World of Social Networking Changes Every Day!

Social Media Revolution http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=s. IFYPQj. Yhv 8

ROI: The Cost of Using Social Media vs. Other Methods $$$ Free $$ Corporate Niche boards Micro sites Web advertisements (word press) (application)

Questions? Lizz Pellet’s Contact information: lpellet@felixglobal. com (480) 221 -9649 Follow me on Twitter: www. twitter. com/lizzpellet Invite me on Linked. In: www. linkedin. com/in/lizzpellet