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5 attributes of awesome employers
- 1. 5 ATTRIBUTES OF AWESOME EMPLOYERS June 24, 2014
- 2. Presenters 2 • Helps build company culture, continually increasing employee engagement and developing people strategies • Previously worked for U.S. Bancorp, Fidelity Investments and The HayGroup • MBA, with HR concentration, from Vanderbilt University Sara Hill Chief Human Resources Officer, Ceridian Kim Flowers Senior Director Employee Benefits & HRIS, Sunrise Senior Living • Leads the team responsible for benefits, wellness, HR technology, recognition, appreciation and employee engagement • Been with Sunrise since 1999 in various HR functions
- 3. Agenda • Benefits of achieving “awesome employer” status • Employer Value Proposition • Overview of 5 attributes of awesome employers • Examples from Sunrise Senior Living • Q & A 3
- 4. Benefits of “Awesome Employer” Status Employer of Choice COMPETE Hard to imitate people and culture – true differentiation. RETAIN TALENT Provide challenge and growth opportunities to make employees happy to stay. ENGAGE TALENT Boost morale and pride. ATTRACT TALENT Winners like to work with other winners. 4
- 5. Benefits of “Awesome Employer” Status Pride and bragging rights! 5
- 6. Evaluate Current Workplace – Your Baseline Retention rate. Does top talent stay or are they leaving at an alarming rate? Reputation. Have you won any awards? What does the media/analysts say about you? Quality of hires. Does talent move from your competition to work for you? Employer Value Proposition. Do you clearly communicate what you offer that employees value? Employee Engagement. What do employees say informally as well as through formal survey tools? 6
- 8. Ceridian Internal Brand: What Great Looks Like 9
- 9. Attributes of Awesome Employers De Provide Work-life Balance 11
- 10. Consider the Employee Life Cycle 13 Strategy Attract Select Develop Engage Retain Courtesy: Hudson
- 11. Attribute #1: Offer Growth Opportunities Competitive salary and engaging work Training and experiences to build and develop skills Career advancement or added responsibilities 14
- 12. Attribute #2: Offer Work-Life Balance/Flexibility 89% 80% 57% Employees that say work- life balance is a problem Employees that say flexibility is important or very important when deciding on a new job. Employers that offer flexible work arrangements. Sources: SHRM State of Employee Benefits in the Workplace, December 2013 15
- 13. Attribute #3: Empower Employees Define roles and responsibilities clearly Provide challenging assignments Make info readily available Offer clear objectives & feedback Hard work is recognized 16
- 14. Attribute #4: Provide Resources & Tools 17 Top Employer Comprehensive Benefits Enabling Technology Training
- 15. Attribute #5: Recognize Employees RECOGNIZE Companies with effective recognition programs have 31% lower voluntary turnover SHARE STORIES TIE TO COMPANY GOALS OR VALUES MAKE EASY & FREQUENT RESULTS & BEHAVIORS PEER TO PEER Not simply top down 19
- 16. Communicate! • Celebrate your successes • Reach out to employees to gather feedback and insights for continuous improvement • Market any awards you receive both internally and externally – including via social media • Encourage your employees to be company brand evangelists • Don’t keep your efforts to develop or maintain an Employer of Choice position a secret! 20
- 17. Sunrise Senior Living – An Awesome Employer • 30+ years serving the needs of seniors • 26,400 units in the U.S., Canada and U.K. • 29,000 employees (approx. 65% full- time, 92% hourly, 83% front-line staff) Background • Use Engagement Survey to engage and tie to business results • Ongoing programs to recognize and support Actions • 80% retention rate among full-time, community-based staff • Happy, engaged employees Results Employer of choice for warm-hearted people searching for meaningful work in a nurturing, ethical and active environment. 21
- 18. Sunrise Senior Living Attributes Exemplified • “Summer of Sunrise” • “Caring for you as you care for others” • “Shine On”• “Your Voice Counts” Engagement Survey Recognition Program Celebration Appreciation Wellness 22
- 19. Sunrise Senior Living: Engage & Retain Create sustainable engagement levels that attract, retain and engage employees that both strive toward excellence, precision and continuous improvement and serve as brand ambassadors by building a community where employees feel deep commitment and pride • New process May 2012 – branded Your Voice Counts: Partnering Together for a Brighter Sunrise • Paper process for community-based team members, online for regional and HQ • Fully supported and championed by C-suite and regional ops leaders • Community visits by CEO and COO – held town hall- style sessions with team members • DVD introducing and describing the process and intended results • 2014 response rate of 65% Engagement Survey 23
- 20. Sunrise Senior Living: Recognize Shine On Recognition • Launched in 2013 due to feedback heard in the 2012 Engagement Survey • High touch day-to-day recognition pieces (manager to employee, peer to peer, and customer to employee) The mission of Sunrise’s recognition program is to create a culture of appreciation and recognition that is applied consistently across the organization Recognition Program Anniversary Recognition • Replaced cash-based milestone anniversary awards with very visible and tangible award program • Ongoing manager tips and encouragement • Flexibility that allows managers to hone in on business needs and drive/reward behavior 24
- 21. Sunrise Senior Living: Recognize & Appreciate Summer of Sunrise – Celebrating Our Team – Our Team Does It Best! • Company-wide initiative focused on celebrating our team • Focuses everyone back on our mission and values • Events held at each location, pictures, testimonials are submitted and shared • Heavily supported by leadership Thank You Gifts • Annual “Thank You” gifts are given to each team member • Typically between Thanksgiving and Christmas Celebration Appreciation 25
- 22. Sunrise Senior Living: Wellness & Work-life Balance Sunrise Healthy Living – Caring for you as you care for others • Established in 2010 mainly to combat rising healthcare costs • Expanded to encompass overall well-being including financial wellness • Health Promotion Programs include - Free smoking cessation program - Onsite Health Screenings - Free diabetes testing supplies - Company-sponsored health challenges - Company funding toward medical deductible for participation - Employee Assistance Program - And more… Wellness 26
- 23. Sunrise Employee Comments 27 We do a lot of team bonding, and we depend on each other to get through each day. Working together as a team helps us to stay warm, happy, and fulfilled in our jobs. – Care Manager Sunrise treats its employees very well. The nurses here are an extremely close-knit community of people who are always looking out for one another. Working in such a compassionate atmosphere every day is actually very empowering and makes me want to give 100% of myself to the residents every single day. – Registered Nurse
- 24. Takeaways Develop and consistently communicate your Employer Value Proposition Understand and benchmark your organization’s current market perception/status Consider what attributes of awesome employers best fit with your organization’s culture and goals Remember to recognize employees and shine the spotlight on your successes 2 5 3 1 Empower employees with rich resources and tools to get the help they need in their personal and professional lives4 24
- 25. © 2013 Ceridian HCM, Inc.
Editor's Notes
- Craig will introduce
- Sara – provide high level agenda before diving in. There will be 10-15 minutes at the end for Q & A, and we’ll be asking some polling questions throughout.
- There are numerous benefits to becoming an “awesome employer” or “employer of choice” – the place where talent wants to be! Employees who want to work for a company are not likely to leave in a hurry. Increased retention allows for greater depth of talent and improved succession planning, which in turn leads to improved long-term growth prospects for the business. It also leads to improved long-term customer relationships with a stable workforce. In a business environment which changes so rapidly, organizations have a very small window of competitive advantage when they launch a new product or service, given that competitors can imitate successes so quickly. But the one thing that competitors cannot imitate is people and culture. Source: http://www.hays.com.sg/press-releases/HAYS_064592 It has been shown by a Mckinsey Consulting study that the ability to attract and retain the best talent will provide competitive advantage to a business. The survey took in the views of 13,000 managers at 112 US enterprises, and found that companies with excellent talent management ‘achieved total shareholder returns that were 22 percentage points better than the average’. http://www.recruiter.com/i/how-to-become-an-employer-of-choice/
- While awards take some effort to obtain (often a lengthy application process) it can be beneficial to have the formal recognition – for the benefits I just mentioned as well as for the internal engagement value. (But it can’t feel like simply a PR play to employees – it needs to be part of the company DNA) There are numerous awards out there, so if you have the resources to go through the process, consider what awards are the best fit for your organization.
- Before we can talk too much about what your organization can do to earn or maintain “top employer” status, you really need to understand where your organization currently sits – your baseline. There are numerous ways to measure or assess this, but the most common metrics include employee retention rate and the quantity and quality of job candidates. Let’s take our first quick poll to get a sense of the measure you may or may not be using…
- Strong companies – those that people really want to work for – typically have a strong employer brand with a well-defined and understood Employer Value Proposition. Consider how you are conveying who the organization is both internally and externally. I’m going to talk for a moment about Ceridian’s internal branding journey (next slide)
- As we started looking at our internal brand and talking to employees, we heard the constant refrain “I love working here because of the people.” We chose to articulate this by breaking it into the “what we do” or expertise and the “how we do it” or character. This helps us describe much more clearly how we can have a great impact on our customers and colleagues. lt helps us to recruit the right KIND of people, Manage performance based on things that matter, and Reward employees who behave in alignment with our “character” behaviors, our values. Transition to next polling question to see if the audience has a defined employer value proposition.
- Here’s an overview of the five key attributes as well as an overarching attribute – demonstrating commitment. As I’ve already mentioned, Ceridian has program examples of how we’re living out these attributes. When you hear from Kim later on, you’ll see how Sunrise Senior Living is also embodying these attributes. 1. Provide opportunity – Just the mention of the word opportunity can have a positive impact on people’s behavior and delivering on the promise of increased opportunity is vital. Whether it’s an opportunity to be promoted or get a higher salary or take on more responsibility and challenges, employees want to feel they have somewhere to progress. Boredom and lack of career progression is a major factor in losing staff. 2. Keep the balance – Most people want a reasonable balance between work and personal life and an employer who can provide flexible workplace practices to enhance this will be viewed positively. Whether it’s being able to work from home, job share a position or leave work one hour early once a week to attend a child’s sporting event, it’s important for employers to be sensitive to the personal and family needs of their employees. The important point is to listen to your employees, because everyone has different needs and what works for one employee may not work for another. 3. Empower employees - Giving employees adequate responsibility is a great way for an employer to say “I trust you”. Having more responsibility, such as a project to lead or a new task to perform, can make an employee also feel more valued. 4. Provide the tools – This goes beyond the obvious hardware and software packages to include access to the data and internal subject matter experts employees and the benefits packages (EAP/work-life/wellness programs) employees need to do their jobs successfully. 5. Recognize employees and create a sense of pride - Recognition of employee contribution doesn’t have to involve expensive reward programs. A simple thank you for a job well done from a manager can be enough to make staff feel valued and proud of what they do and where they work. But make sure it is a genuine, honest gesture by management for the recognition to be effective. Overall, you want to demonstrate commitment and make your culture known - Employees are more committed when they personally identify with the organization and agree with the ethics, goals and morals, and are proud of the company’s reputation. The way an organization demonstrates commitment externally – through volunteer work, charity drives, etc. – is a big piece of this puzzle. At Ceridian, we have Ceridian Cares where employees have volunteered XXX hours, participation in our United Way program was 83% last year – part of our DNA. We even have a Fun@Work program that demonstrates our commitment and supports our internal brand. Time for another quick poll…
- At Ceridian, we’ve really been looking at the external and internal processes through an employee’s experience. http://hudson.se/en-gb/employee-lifecycle (Attract, Select, Develop, Engage/Retain/Outplace)
- Let’s discuss this first common trait of “employer of choice” companies a bit more thoroughly. When you think about the employee life cycle, offering growth opportunities is critical during recruitment as well as after an employee has been onboarded. In a way, growth opportunities are a bit like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – you have to meet the basics – a decent salary and a safe work environment – before you can really conquer the kinds of growth opportunities employees desire. While not every employee may want to climb the traditional corporate ladder, the majority of employees want to know that they will continue to develop expertise, learn new skills and have new experiences. At Ceridian, we saw a need to better develop our managers, so we created the Manager Essentials program. This was rolled out to more than XXX employees over the last year, and feedback has been positive.
- The topic of work-life balance comes up so frequently now that it’s become almost a cliché. However, having the flexibility to enjoy your personal pursuits, family and friends without sacrificing your work objectives is important to most people. If you take a look at this data, you’ll see that the percentage of employers that offer flexible work has increased from 53% in 2012 to 57% in 2013. This trend is in line with employees’ increased desire to manage their own time and better balance their work with their responsibilities outside of the office. Other SHRM studies show that employees rate “balance of work-life issues” as an integral factor in job satisfaction.
- A recent CBS news reporter, Steve Tobak, commented that employee empowerment is really more important than employee engagement. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dont-engage-employees-empower-them/ I think the two phrases are very interwoven, and that top employers are good at both empowering and engaging their employees. Empowering an employee means that you’ve clearly defined their responsibilities – they know and are held accountable for their work. Empowered employees have access to the data and information they need to do their work, and while the work is challenging, it is realistic and they are recognized for it.
- This next organizational attribute may seem rather obvious, but organizations that provide strong resources – especially training, career planning, and benefits such as a comprehensive EAP/wellness program – are the companies that talent wants to work for. Example: Fortune’s top 100 best employers typically offer more training and development than companies that don’t make the list. The top 10 companies provide 32 to 135 hours of training each year per employee. http://www.virginiabusiness.com/news/article/what-it-means-to-be-an-employer-of-choice Family-friendly benefits and flexible cultures are the norm at the Working Mother 100 Best Companies list too.
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/06/13/new-research-unlocks-the-secret-of-employee-recognition/ “83% of the organizations we studied suffer from a deficit in “recognition.” And these companies are under-performing their peers.” http://www.bersin.com/News/Content.aspx?id=15543
- Before we talk with Kim about some of the awesome things they are doing at Sunrise, I just want to reiterate the importance of communication. I recently returned from three town hall meetings where I met face-to-face w/employees from some of our other offices. We’ve set a goal to have clear, ongoing communication, and this supports our top employer strategy. I’d also recommend using all of the communication channels available to you – we know that our employees and prospective employees are using social media, so don’t forget to use it as well as the more traditional channels (emails, posters, etc.)
- Kim: Now fully launch into your story – highlight some of the key elements of the background – size and tenure. How is your Employer Value Prop or brand conveyed internally? How aware and involved are employees in referring prospective employees? Working in the community? Etc. Share some of the high level results in terms of retention rate, quality of hire, etc.
- Engagement Survey Create sustainable engagement levels that attract, retain and engage employees that both strive toward excellence, precision and continuous improvement and serve as brand ambassadors by building a community where employees feel deep commitment and pride New process May 2012 – branded Your Voice Counts: Partnering Together for a Brighter Sunrise. Embraced by employees, 3rd party administered Paper process for community-based team members, online for regional and HQ Fully supported and championed by C-suite and regional Ops leaders Community visits by CEO and COO – held town hall-style sessions with team members DVD introducing and describing the process and intended results 2014 response rate of 65% Employee Recognition The mission of Sunrise’s recognition program is to create a culture of appreciation and recognition that is applied consistently across the organization. Shine On – Sunrise Recognition Program Launched in 2013 due to feedback heard in the 2012 Engagement Survey High touch day to day recognition pieces (manager to employee, peer to peer, and customer to employee) Anniversary Recognition - Replaced cash-based milestone anniversary awards with very visible and tangible award program Ongoing manager tips and encouragement Flexibility that allows managers to hone in on business needs and drive/reward behavior Celebration/Appreciation: Summer of Sunrise – Celebrating Our Team – Our Team Does It Best! Company-wide initiative focused on celebrating our team Focuses everyone back on our mission and values Events held at each location, pictures, testimonials are submitted and shared Heavily supported by leadership Wellness: Sunrise Healthy Living – Caring for you as you care for others Established in 2010 mainly to combat rising healthcare costs Has expanded to encompass overall well-being including financial wellness Health Promotion Programs include: Free smoking cessation program, Onsite Health Screenings, Free diabetes testing supplies, Company-sponsored health challenges, Company funding toward medical deductible for participation,Employee Assistance Program, and more…
- Kim Employee quotes (pulled from your website) really show that employees are engaged and brand advocates.
- Summarize the key points – Start w/your employer brand because it includes your organizational goals, mission and culture. If employees don’t understand and live your brand, re-evaluate and ensure you’re communicating it. Know where you currently stand and how you stack up to your competitor’s in terms of prospective employee perception. Of the 5 attributes we discussed – growth opportunities, work-life balance, employee recognition, access to tools/resources and employee empowerment – consider what works for your organization. For example, community involvement or sustainable practices might be part of your culture and can help support your organization’s position as an employer of choice. The tools and resources you provide to your employees will vary based on what they need to get their jobs done, but think about what you can also offer to make their lives better. Don’t forget to communicate your successes – engaged employees tell their friends and family how great their organization is and it grows from there!