One of the best ways to help people succeed professionally (and in life) is to nurture a culture of trust at work. Lifecycle feedback programs are a great place to start.

Cultures of trust begin with listening

The new world of work requires a new relationship between managers and employees, and the most important element is trust. But how do you build it? When people feel heard, it builds camaraderie, trust, and loyalty. It also reduces stress. Getting feedback from your people is key.

Effective feedback architectures should make it easy to gather feedback from team members at various stages of their employee lifecycle. Feedback should serve as a routine and stress-free way to check in with people regarding their experiences in training, career progression, and more over time.

The foundation of healthy company cultures

If we don’t engage with our people and check in regularly, there’s a good chance they’ll start to feel detached and unmotivated and start exploring other opportunities. It’s essential to build relationships built on trust to avoid attrition. 

Encouraging routine, open conversations takes the pressure off people when they meet with managers and HR leaders. Regular conversations also help organizations identify what actions to take at each stage of a person’s career and which actions will positively impact metrics like engagement, attrition, and productivity.

Promoting great employee-manager relationships with Employee Lifecycle Feedback

Bob’s Employee Lifecycle Feedback tool helps HR leaders and managers engage their teams regularly with a 360-degree approach and build robust feedback architectures that support cultures of trust. The tool provides surveys designed to collect information in real time that provide insights into your teams’ professional progress. Milestone tracking at every stage of the employee lifecycle also helps contextualize the data and helps people feel that they’re heard and valued, improving employee satisfaction. 

The adaptability of Employee Lifecycle Feedback also allows businesses to create the culture they’ve always dreamed of while empowering and prioritizing their people. More than ever, it’s crucial that people leaders take into account that every person is unique, with different backgrounds, needs, and work experiences, and that replicating individuals’ most valuable moments will deliver value to the company.

Ask the right questions and check in at the right times

Getting real-time feedback from people at different stages of their professional lifecycles is just the beginning of understanding people’s daily experiences at work and what makes a lasting impact. Checking in at critical points can help business leaders learn where and when to boost morale, address social networking issues, and what people consider most rewarding.

Collect feedback at career milestones and routine events

As a jumping-off point, always check in and get feedback from your people whenever there’s a routine change. Our surveys are ideal for collecting feedback at career milestones or regular events like:

• Thirty days after the start date: Avoid losing new hires after the first month by checking on the efficacy of their initial training and welcome experience.
• Post-onboarding: Define and improve your onboarding process with feedback from your people once they enter the next phase of the employee experience.  
• Post-probation: This may be the first three months of a new hire’s employment. When you’ve reached that mark, get direct feedback on what they expect next. 
• First work anniversary: Keep your people interested and engaged past the one-year mark by surveying their work experience, progress, and goals.
• Exit survey: When the time comes for someone to move on, interview them about their experience and apply their feedback where it counts. 

When someone gets promoted or changes departments, or when there’s a change in management or leadership, Employee Lifecycle Feedback can help measure transition progress. But remember, fostering a healthy culture of trust means the conversations shouldn’t all be about work. It’s just as important to account for people’s lives outside of work.

Check in with your people about life milestones, too

Let your people know you’re there to support them. Show them empathy during times of significant life change. After all, major life changes unrelated to work—like getting married or divorced, having a baby, moving, or experiencing the death or illness of a loved one—can affect people’s moods and productivity levels. 

It’s also essential to be able to gauge people’s physical and mental health. Maybe you’ve noticed the onset of burnout on your team. Maybe someone who usually performs well is having a hard time focusing. Each of these changes requires attention and sensitivity.

Something as simple as letting people know you understand and have their back will foster trust and boost your culture and employer brand. Employee Lifecycle Feedback can be the tool people use to express their needs.

Employee lifecycle feedback can also help you determine where your people need a little more attention in the health department:

• Mental health: Workplace anxiety, depression, and other mental health struggles can be addressed with consent, allowing people leaders to give support where it’s needed. 
• Physical health: Make physical illness less daunting to discuss by monitoring people’s recovery or simply noticing when someone may need a day off to recharge. 
• Burnout syndrome: Prevent burnout before it spreads by keeping track of people’s workload, roadmap, and goals reached–from their perspective.

The bottom line: Employee Lifecycle Feedback helps you curate a people-first culture

Taking account of your people and being accountable for the employee experience are two separate scenarios but should be blended to care about overall wellbeing. Bob’s Employee Lifecycle Feedback makes engaging your people and improving work satisfaction easier and more enjoyable through real-time milestone and event tracking. Curate a culture where being heard is a priority and continuously evolve by checking in with your people when it matters most. 

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Research shows that hybrid and flexible work models increase job satisfaction and productivity. In fact, 65 percent of people who have the option to work from home or onsite whenever they choose say they’re satisfied with their jobs. The key to employee satisfaction is flexibility rather than a fixed hybrid work model that requires people to come into the office at set times. 

So, how can HR leaders support people in this new world of work and find the perfect combination between work and personal life? Here are some ways to help your people attain perfect synergy:

Shift from daily to-do lists to weekly priority mapping

Synergy is all about seeing the forest for the trees. The problem with writing up a new set of tasks every day is that it’s easy for people to lose sight of overarching goals. Your people should be gently encouraged to spend a few minutes once a week to outline priorities for the following week.

For example, you can reserve Mondays for workplace administrative tasks, set aside Tuesdays for meetings, and block off Wednesdays for family time, etc. This approach effectively blends workplace responsibilities with off-hour activities.

Be physically and mentally present as often as possible

It’s easy to get sucked into multitasking in today’s age of virtual reality and social messaging channels. But, we’re genetically hardwired to be unitaskers: We can’t effectively do two things at once without a workflow supported by automation that keeps team members aligned. To synergize work with home life and live the best of both, people must dedicate specific times to each.

Do what you love and love how you do it

Happiness matters. People don’t just want to take home a paycheck. They want to enjoy what they do and have agency in their lives at work and home. Today’s workforce prefers flexibility. If employers don’t offer it, they risk losing talented people and struggling to replace them. 

FlexJobs’ 10th Annual Survey found “that 24 percent of workers … are willing to take a 10-20% pay cut to work remotely, and 21 percent would give up some vacation time.” According to the same survey, 44 percent  “say they know at least one person who has quit or is planning to quit” because their jobs don’t offer any kind of flexibility.

HR leaders can work with their companies to introduce more flexibility into their work structure, help prevent burnout, and kindle people’s motivation with more advanced learning and professional growth opportunities. Initiatives like these not only add value to people’s work experience, they help increase people’s enthusiasm and loyalty to their workplace.

To thine own self be true with flexible work

Today’s workforce is more diverse than ever. To find and retain the best talent, organizations must foster a culture that supports people of all ages and cultural and professional backgrounds. People change gears at different points in their lives: At different points, their primary focus can be career growth or raising a family. 

HR leaders can promote DE&I, flexibility, and healthy cultures by encouraging self-awareness and personal priorities. With support from their workplace, people can more easily synergize their priorities, leading to a happier and more productive life in and out of work. In return, organizations that invest in work-life synergy stay relevant in today’s talent-driven professional landscape.

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Here are 10 ways your company can foster non-binary inclusion:

1. Protect gender identity and gender expression

By including non-binary protections in your company’s anti-harassment and non-discrimination policy, you will signal a culture of inclusion and support. Make clear during recruitment and onboarding processes that gender expression (ie. attire or hairstyle) and gender identity are protected and any infringements will be strictly responded to. There should be zero tolerance for intolerance in the workplace. 

2. Permit gender expression

While many offices have dress codes, these should not exclude non-binary employees from presenting as their gender. Modify uniform clauses and apply them consistently to avoid perpetuating gender stereotypes and alienate non-binary team members. Another important way to protect gender expression is to give employees the ability to self-identify on HR platforms and systems. HR managers should include an inclusive list of pronouns and genders for administrative systems and forms. Field menus with drop-down arrows allowing the addition of pronouns and genders in coordination with employees’ self-identification and gender expression, if set up correctly, will foster inclusion at the systems level. And of course, with most companies transitioning into work-from-home structures, it would seem archaic not to foster inclusion using accurate and viable gender expression.

3. Protect employee privacy

During the hiring process, recruiting and hiring personnel may become aware that a candidate has transitioned. Background checks, references, social security, and other documents will contain pre-transition information including name and sex. While it is self-evident that this should not impact the individual’s chances of securing the position they are applying for, discretion is also important. Outing candidates or employees against their wishes is hurtful, insensitive, and inappropriate.

4. Support transitioning employees

It is important to delineate clear guidelines for transitioning employees and for their supervisors and colleagues. These protocols may include allowances for working remotely, paid leave, a hygienic and private room for administering hormonal injections, and other accommodations to ensure that transitioning employees are not excluded.  

5. Implement comprehensive sensitivity training

Lack of understanding and knowledge is a major contributing factor to the exclusion and mistreatment of non-binary individuals in the workplace. It is vital to engage staff and implement comprehensive sensitivity and anti-harassment training – from senior management to lay staff. Empower all employees to become allies and educate them to advocate for non-binary inclusion, both within the office setting and without. These initiatives may be part of pre-existing diversity and EEO compliance training or may be implemented separately. One suggestion is to invite non-binary community advocates or representatives to address management and employees.

6. Facilitate documentation changes and options

Transitioning is hard enough as it is, but bureaucratic and documentation foot-dragging can make the journey even harder. It may take months for a legal name change or gender change to be made official. Furthermore, many government forms and documents only include two genders – even the EEOC doesn’t include a third or other categories for gender on employer reporting forms. While many departments accommodate moving from male to female on documentation, there is no category available for those who do not identify as male or female. For non-binary individuals this means being forced into checking a box that doesn’t actually correspond to their real gender.

Leaving gender fields blank or giving the option to add additional gender or pronoun categories in both paper and online HR forms and platforms is another policy to promote the inclusion of non-binary individuals in the workplace. By offering applicants and employees the opportunity to designate their gender beyond the binary, your company is signaling a culture of acceptance and support.

7. Establish bathroom and locker room access

One of the most prominent topics in the conversation around non-binary inclusion in the workplace centers on the sex-segregated bathrooms. Forcing employees to use facilities that do not correspond with their gender is harmful and discriminatory, and recently the expectation that trans employees should have access to bathrooms that correspond with their presentation regardless of the stage of transition is increasingly expected. However, for non-binary individuals, gendered bathrooms are still problematic. Some options for overcoming this hurdle are:

• Single-occupant, gender-neutral bathrooms.
• Multiple-occupant, gender-neutral bathrooms with private, single-occupant stalls.

8. Inclusive health insurance policies

Legally, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies are not permitted to discriminate against trans or non-binary people in the provision of health care. Health plans cannot exclude transition-related care and every individual must be treated according to their gender, without discrimination. Companies do not need to stop at the basic legal requirement – fully covering gender confirmation surgery, mental health counseling, prescription drug or hormone therapy, and other treatments commonly utilized by trans and non-binary individuals is an important step towards inclusion. Short-term disability coverage following gender confirmation surgery should also be included in company health coverage.

9. Actively recruit individuals from protected communities

The discrimination and exclusion faced by non-binary individuals mean that it is necessary to take proactive measures to engage with potential employees that identify as non-binary. Evaluate your procurement process to ensure inclusion and publicize your socially responsible policies to attract highly-qualified candidates who are either non-binary or are seeking a more inclusive workplace. 

This will also likely attract customers who increasingly choose to support inclusive businesses. The 2017 Harris Poll for GLAAD found that nearly 70% of Americans would switch to a brand that is LGBT-friendly and most would actively avoid businesses that are less inclusive. As more consumers are stepping up to champion LGBT and non-binary rights in the workplace, there are utilitarian benefits to doing the right thing. Recruit better talent, keep employees happier and more productive, and build brand loyalty with inclusive workplace practices and policies.

One vital way to promote inclusion is by leveraging workforce analytics to better understand and identify organization-wide needs. Tapping into essential data can help you expand diversity hiring and programs, communicate with leaders, and ensure that your company practices are unbiased.

10. Encourage neutral of preferred pronoun use

One of the most important ways to include non-binary employees is to adopt their chosen pronouns. By and large, binary pronouns like he/him or she/her are just how most people speak. However, for non-binary individuals, these two categories are insufficient. While some trans men and women prefer gendered pronouns, some trans people and many non-binary people prefer neutral pronouns such as they/them, it/its or ze/hir. Not making assumptions about a person’s correct pronouns is vital to creating an inclusive workplace and should likewise be included in any sensitivity training. 

Another way to normalize the use of preferred gender pronouns and encourage greater sensitivity is to incorporate neutral language and greetings instead of gendered expressions like “guys” or “ladies”. 

Finally, offering the option of adding pronouns on HR forms, platforms, and systems will ensure that employees are given the opportunity to express their pronoun preferences, fostering greater inclusion and avoiding uncomfortable misgendering or mistaken pronoun use.  

A lack of understanding and knowledge about the unique experiences of trans and non-binary individuals is one of the main barriers to inclusion in the workplace. Although every individual gender identity journey is different, there are common practices and processes that employers can implement towards educating and facilitating acceptance. These systems are not about legal compliance, they are about creating an environment where employees can flourish regardless of their gender identity. 

To learn more about how your organization can promote the inclusion of non-binary personnel, please download our HR Guide to Non-Binary Inclusion.

You too can participate in International Transgender Day of Visibility, by making a difference where it really counts. If you wish to contribute to the community during this challenging time in human history, we recommend sending donations to the LGBTQ funding resources for COVID-19 or the COVID-19 Mutual Aid Fund for LGBTQI+ BIPOC Folks. 

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At HiBob, HR began by getting in touch with their people and explaining the processes for web conferences, who to report to whom in times of need, and how to clock in and out during this hectic time. However, once HR had snuggly set these standard protocols into place, it was time for managers and employees to focus on their individual and team priorities, beginning with the following setup for success that we implemented our first-week remote: 

Scheduling daily standups

Managers and team leaders blocked out 30 minutes of their people’s daily schedule (preferably in the morning) for a standup. During the first day, these standups consisted primarily of instructions on how to work from home. Before our first meeting started, we made sure our collaboration tools were up and running, as well as our laptop’s video and microphone. We all need to be able to view our team’s workflow and communicate with them effectively. 

These daily conference calls are now a chance to sync up with our entire team and report back on any ongoing or new project process; it’s the ideal time to learn where we need to improve in terms of team collaboration so that the next day or following week grows increasingly productive as we work remotely. Remember – these daily standups should be designed to help your teams produce faster and stronger results while working from home through task updates, company announcements, and brainstorming sessions. 

Our Managers and employees also host their own one-on-one standups for 30 minutes daily, in order to assess an individual’s time management skills and their to-do list. A private one-on-one also allows employees to give their managers feedback regarding their new work from home processes and policies or sound off on anything specific that may be bothering them or hindering their productivity outside of the office. We all take full advantage of our one-on-ones! 

Getting organized  

Once we synced with management and our team, we got organized – especially on day one. We each created a comfy, yet ergonomic space for ourselves and planned ahead for any home distractions or responsibilities that we normally would have tended to during the day time. Now, we’re dealing with a new and unique situation, therefore time management is key and should be practiced to the best of all of our abilities. We mapped out your tasks and tried to allocate time in our schedules for each depending on projects, and scheduled meetings with blocks in between so we could prepare for each fully. 

If you’re struggling to prioritize your to-dos, talk to your manager in your one-on-one. They will be able to identify urgent matters and help you find wiggle room in your schedule for medium to low priority tasks. That’s what we try and do! We also break out the ol’ whiteboard or stick to our daily planners to stay on top of our tasks by writing them down and visualizing our day or week’s schedule. It makes all the difference in the remote world. 

Be a goal-getter

We got organized, in sync with management, and connected digitally. Then, what? It was time to set some weekly goals to make things interesting. Maybe some Bobbers wanted to pick up the speed of their writing by using an online app. Maybe others wanted to start turning in tasks early by setting their own deadlines ahead of time. The point is, we try to get creative with our projects and look for aspects or challenges that strengthen skill sets. 

Establishing goals such as these will allow us to structure our schedules in a more efficient manner, elevating productivity to a whole new level. Why? Because we’ll be contributing to our personal growth, as well as professional. 

Cleaning house… projects

Without coffee breaks with coworkers, we noticed a little extra free time on our plates. Those typical office distractions that take us away from our desks are no longer present, so why not make the most out of those small windows in our schedule? During our first week working from home, we took notice of these windows by writing them down in our schedules and substituting water cooler talk for a previously neglected task. It’s the perfect time to clean house and take care of projects that have been sitting on the backburner.

It’s more than okay to take some time to get situated; we certainly did. Working from home doesn’t come naturally to everyone. But, once we synced with our teams and leaders, prioritized tasks, and mapped out weekly goals, it was time to get down to business… and we’re doing so successfully. Working from home is all about finding your groove and staying connected to the people you’ve always counted on in the workplace; even if you’re using Zoom to catch up face to face.

The post What we learned from<br>our first week WFH appeared first on HiBob.

We have taken increased measures to protect the health of our people while continuing to provide ongoing customer support and maintaining business continuity. The following precautions are being taken at HiBob:

All travel has been canceled or closely monitored 

All business travel has been 100% canceled. There will be no HiBob-sponsored or centric trips until otherwise announced. Furthermore, we have strongly advised our employees to avoid personal travels and to keep HR updated if they should be traveling on personal time for any reason and to any destination. All employees that have traveled domestically or abroad are required to work from home for a minimum of 14 days and adhere to social isolation guidelines. 

All HiBob offices are working remotely on a global scale

All HiBob offices have closed their doors and sent their people to work from home. Video interviews have replaced on-site interviews for new hires, and all internal communication occurs digitally. All planned meet-ups, events and conferences have been canceled or postponed, as well. 

All HiBob communication is constant and clear 

We have shared best practice health tips with our entire company and continue to keep them updated on a daily basis. We encourage open communication and complete transparency using Bob, sharing updates via our platform’s Shoutouts and Kudos features. To keep the culture and collaboration alive while working from home, we advise all team leaders to hold daily standups and team meetings. We also encourage video coffee breaks between coworkers to catch up and stay connected to avoid feeling isolated or lonely during this time. 

As a cloud-based SaaS company with a solid infrastructure, we are fully capable of managing business continuity challenges. We expect our services to continue and thrive without disruption, and we believe in our ability to keep the platform running and expanding as usual, with no interruption. 

We have increased channels of internal communication, and as always, prioritize communication with you, our customers, so you can remain focused on your business challenges and goals. We will remain up to date on any and all released information from the World Health Organization and are committed to reassessing the situation and adjusting our plans accordingly. 

Our CEO, Ronni Zehavi, sends a warm message to our employees and customers; “I hope this message finds you, your families, and coworkers safe and in good health. From a continuity standpoint, I want to assure you we are taking all necessary precautions to protect our people and their families. While there is uncertainty about the duration and impact of this situation, you have my full commitment that the HiBob team is, and will continue, to do everything in our power to help you be the strongest you can be to lead your employees and business through this otherwise unchartered territory… 

…We’re actively listening to you and doing everything possible to offer assistance and support in regards to any questions and challenges you face in a new mode of operation, whether that may be adapting remote work or how to leverage Bob for greater internal impact during this period. I want to thank you for allowing us to serve you and wish strength to all, as well as good health in the weeks ahead.” 

Once again, thank you for your continued trust in us. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our live chat support or to your dedicated Account Manager.

The post How is HiBob responding to COVID-19 pandemic? appeared first on HiBob.

Your new hires should have an onboarding experience to remember. Plus, the experience itself when posted online should contribute to your employer branding strategy; this means enhancing hiring efforts, drawing new recruits, and strengthening retention at a record rate. After all, our research does show that 19% of potential hires scroll through social media to understand a company’s culture before signing a contract or applying to a company. It’s best to make a great online impression. 

Luckily, HR leaders know how to perfectly pair Bob with swag and first-day activities to create the type of experience your people want to Instagram and show off to their friends. Since Instagram outreach is crucial, with stories attracting followers like no other, we think it’s great (not just best!) practice to combine Bob and personalized onboarding feature with external extras, resourced and implemented by HR. Here are 5 steps to making an onboarding experience that is sure to take over Instagram: 

#1: Give ‘em great SWAG

Start your new hire’s first day with everyone’s favorite way to be welcomed – SWAG! Whether it’s socks, hoodies, a water bottle, or a daily planner, swag always makes its way onto Instagram in both posts and stories. Solid company swag also boosts morale, motivating people to represent the company they now work for. 

Sharing swag with your people is a surefire way to increase brand recognition on Instagram, where you can attain extensive audience reach through advocacy, and it’s a low-cost budgeting tactic for creative marketing efforts. Audiences who see that you prep your people with special gifts and gadgets will feel pumped up and want to work for you. Who doesn’t love yo see that your new hires now love where they work and are proud to showcase it? 

#2: Shout ‘em out!

You need to introduce your people to the rest of the company. Networking and getting connected ignites a sense of belonging and inclusivity, so why not turn it into an Instagrammable experience? Start off by sharing posts and stories that highlight team icebreakers, first-day coffee breaks, first-time meetings, and the initial welcome your new hire receives as they walk into the office doors. 

Go the extra mile with Bob. Use Shoutouts to introduce your new hire company-wide, and create a poll to play a game that includes everyone from every site. Don’t forget to take advantage of personalized onboarding flows to introduce your new hire to teammates and key people digitally, even before they have a chance to see them in person. It’s always important to put a face to name ahead of time. 

#3: Get ‘em up and on tour

First, get your people on Bob! That means setting up their personalized profiles, highlighting their superpowers and hobbies, and helping them view the Org Chart. After you’ve got them acquainted with the company and its people using these features, give them uncensored access to your company’s Instagram account… 

Let the new hire do a story takeover, and go on a tour across the company offices. Play a game where the new hire has to talk to three different people and ask a “question of the day” or get fun facts to share live on Instagram Stories. During the takeover, also have the new hire point out their favorite part of their new workplace and show off where their team is sitting. There’s no better way to get personal (and relatable!) online. 

#4: Take ‘em out on the town

Find out what your new hire likes to eat and take them out for a team lunch during their first week. Not only is it the perfect opportunity for an Insta post, but it’s a great way for people to bond and get to know each other better. It’s no secret that team-building takes time, but you need to be proactive about it. Maybe you’ll even be wearing some of that new hire swag in the photo opps. Or, you can stay inside and get creative with a build-your-own pancake breakfast to new hire’s first day off on the right foot. We don’t know whats more Instagrammable than that. 

#5: Bring ‘em to a club

As you know, your new hire can log into Bob and see all of their coworkers’ superpowers and hobbies. We know you’ve already put together a club or offsite where people sharing the same hobby can come together and enjoy the activity as a unit! Have your new hire assimilate further by joining in on one of those clubs or a relevant offsite, Instagramming the experience the whole way through. Who doesn’t love to see what a company yoga class looks like or what the piece of work the book club is discussing now?

In case you haven’t noticed, Instagram is fun! It’s a shareable experience that only optimizes your onboarding process by creating lasting memories and improving your branding strategy. Help new hires feel right at home from their first day on the job by making them feel special online. Show off their swag, make them a lunchtime priority, and tour the office as many times as it takes while depending on Bob for all the details that make them unique. 

The post 5 steps to make your onboarding experience perfect for Instagram appeared first on HiBob.

How? By… 

Making data-driven decisions

Data analysis performed by one department can lead to great insights, but two departments sharing their insights with one another is a force to be reckoned with. CFOs can help HR enhance their people strategies by offering key insights that emphasize business priorities central to the finance department. These metrics often include payroll headcount, operating cash flow, and inventory turnover. By gauging assets and sales insights, the CFO can show HR where the company is struggling in operations, allowing HR to tend to individuals who may be responsible and performing poorly, in an attempt to help boost their productivity. 

Talent management can be better practiced when HR provides the CFO with their own metrics, as well. These typically include performance evaluations and employee satisfaction rates, allowing finance to determine where productivity has either contributed to or hurt the company’s operations success within a given period of time. 

Together, HR and the CFO can adjust their people strategies and shape new metrics in order to make better training and talent acquisition decisions, based on what worked in the past and what onboarding techniques molded new hires properly, which contributed to a positive increase in performance results. The goal is to use such business and culture metrics together, to meet the needs of your people who have a direct impact on company finances and success. 

Creating a custom culture

Building a positive company culture can be challenging. HR departments need to consider all of the aspects that go into a thriving culture: learning and development, company benefits, and any other perk or “extra” that falls outside the realm of a salary or monetary gain. All of these cultural aspects cost money, but they’re also the key to keeping your people happy while building a brand reputation that stands out amongst competitors. 

CFOs and HR need to be aligned on both company and department budgets and decide what can be afforded or which ongoing services and perks could be made available to their people. Creating a long-term plan that allocates funds towards cultural aspects will increase the chances that your people are pleased with the culture they belong to, improving employer branding and public perception of your company along the way. A great company culture – that can be afforded – will meet the expectations of your people based on the stage of your startup and draw in potential hires who are interested in what that culture has to offer. 

Advocating for employee growth

It’s no secret that HR roots for their people, continuously advocating for their professional and personal growth. A healthy working relationship with your CFO can come in handy here because… CFOs can also advocate for employee development at the executive table. In doing so, CFOs and HR leaders can better retain their people using resources that keep employees learning and gaining new skillsets. 

A core function of your company’s HR team is professionally developing your people and establish a foundation for continual learning, but without the CFO’s guidance and support, approved and encouraged by the rest of the executive table, the effort falls flat. HR needs certain resources and the acquisition of tools to be approved by higher management, and CFO can speak for the return on investment these resources are capable of. Improving retention rates are the likely outcome of such efforts from the CFO and HR combined. Together, they can account for the promotion of knowledge and development for their people as a united force. 

HR and the CFO – as well as the rest of the finance department – have the opportunity to build their connection by sharing valuable insights, aligning on budgets, and paving a path for optimal employee growth. By teaming up and taking into consideration that money plays a part in all things culture and people, HR and CFOs everywhere can create a stress-free workplace filled with perks and confident decision making, all backed by higher management and approved of by their people.

The post CFOs and HR should rely on each other for talent management appeared first on HiBob.

HR teams for the most successful companies out there are putting a premium on marketing as a way to create and nurture a well-defined workplace culture. To make your workplace culture all it can be, your HR team should incorporate some of your marketing team’s tried and true techniques. 

1. Turn data into valuable insights about your people 

Chances are that your company has access to a treasure trove of insightful data. The problem is that while your marketing team uses this information to learn about customer trends, decision-making factors, attitudes, and behaviors, your people’s data is probably being neglected and not being is used as a source of valuable information. It’s time to change that. A whopping 70% of companies now prioritize workplace data as a means of transforming the way they manage the employee experience. Your company needs to put its HR data to work as a way to turn it into valuable information about your people.

2. Target your message to each team member

Now that you’ve got good people data, what do you do with it? Use that information to develop targeted messages. The marketing team is way ahead of the curb on answering key questions: What motivates customers? What are their goals? Concerns? What do they value most? With your marketing team’s guidance and support, you’ll be in a better position to understand what makes each of your team members tick. Then, you can use this knowledge to target messages and HR programs to specific group departments and team members. This kind of pinpoint messaging precision will communicate a clear message to your people: we see each of you as individuals with unique talents.

3. Sorry, but emails aren’t enough

Marketers realize that emails aren’t sufficient to communicate with target audiences. This is why video, social media, interactive sites, and other platforms are used to boost engagement. HR should take this page out of the marketers’ playbook. Utilizing instant messages, collaboration tools, internal social networks, mobile apps, and other mobile-optimized resources will enhance your HR team’s ability to connect with people, keep them engaged, as well as boost collaboration between team members.

4. Don’t be shy about showing off your workplace culture

Even today, many HR departments view their role within a company as primarily internal. Because of this many companies don’t take advantage of the many available ways to showcase its people and distinctive workplace culture. This is where marketing comes in. An effective marketing team makes its reputation by fusing different mediums to communicate a distinct message. Your people will instantly connect with one another if they, for example, see images of team members on your company’s website. Injecting internal marketing methods into your HR communications will add the right touch to display and share your company culture and to make everyone feel included.

The secret to happy employees? It’s all about the culture

A company’s culture and values are strongly linked to people’s satisfaction at work. But it’s not enough to communicate your company’s culture once, in an onboarding manual. Strong workplace culture should be lived and shared every day. The most effective HR teams are using proven marketing techniques to develop data-driven strategies to position and consistently communicate clear, tailored messages about their company’s values, traditions, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes.

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There are various types of love that you’ll find in the modern office setting. The work world’s cupid is still fluttering around and without a doubt has many colorful arrows in his arsenal, but each one is embedded with a certain emotion that transcends standard relationship labels. 

While HR should always remain aware and monitor the interactions between their people, they can help facilitate other methods of kindness in their culture that make everyone feel loved and valued at work: 

Mentorship

Taking someone under your wing and sharing your expert knowledge with them is a form of love that often goes unacknowledged. As individuals, we try to take pride in what we do, but as human nature would have it, we like achieving a sense of approval from those we work for and with. 

Being a mentor means that you see the promise or potential of an employee. Providing them with learning opportunities and resources to help them grow professionally is a type of love and care that contributes to their future. 

However, mentorship works both ways. A manager or supervisor who is looked up to as a role model or career guide feels the love too. After all, even the request for mentorship is a way of reinforcing their experience, compassion, and people skills that make them a great individual to learn from. 

Compassion

No one wants to walk into a workplace and feel as if their emotions don’t matter. Employees who feel compassion radiating from their colleagues and managers perform better, too. Curiosity in one another’s lives makes employees feel important and like they matter, which is known to improve productivity levels.

Showing compassion to those you work with used to be a neglected form of workplace love. In the corporate sense, employees were once seen as human capital as opposed to just, well, humans. As we strive to better the work world and create a new frame of work-life synergy, we need to use compassion as a source of understanding and appreciation of those who need to tend to responsibilities outside of the office. 

Throwing in a dash of gratitude plays into compassion, especially for HR leaders. Show your people that you care with recognition initiatives, and that you appreciate all the hard work they show up to do, regardless of what’s happening in their personal lives. 

Care and concern

Caring for colleagues and managers in less-than-ideal circumstances shows them that their value in your life surpasses a job task or project, and that type of love is irreplaceable. 

The unfortunate truth is that employees get sick. Crises come up unexpectedly. And, sometimes, certain life milestones (not the positive ones) rear their ugly heads and need to be dealt with accordingly. These sorts of situations call for more than just paid or unpaid leave; they require genuine care and concern from colleagues and teammates. 

If an employee loses a loved one, for example, it’s important as a collective group to send a card that expresses condolences. If an employee falls ill, it might be a good idea to send them flowers as a pick-me-up. 

But what about romantic love?

We’re not talking about traditional colleague crushes or inevitable “will they, won’t they” scenarios. While it’s important to reiterate that romantic love’s not the only type of love out there, it still blossoms wherever any kind of close relationships exist. If you find that two colleagues fancy each other and intend to take their relationship to the next level, we recommend implementing a love contract to help HR manage any impact or fallout.

Appreciation or fondness be expressed in other ways that have nothing to do with romantic connection or intimacy. HR and team leaders can work together to make sure everyone experiences sentiment without crossing boundaries and feels valued through acts of kindness that should from now on be a building block of your culture.

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A great onboarding experience is one that impacts other areas of the company and the components that drive its success – company culture, employer branding, workplace happiness, productivity, and employee motivation are all included. So, how do we amplify the standard onboarding process and turn it into an experience that makes a real difference at your company? 

Ask: how do you welcome new people? 

Research shows that onboarding is broken, with only 12% of employed people who were impressed by their company’s current onboarding process. That leaves 88% who weren’t pleased with their warm welcome at their new workplace. To make matters a bit scarier, 64% of new hires leave their company after an onboarding experience that wasn’t up to par, placing HR and management back at square one when it comes to recruitment and hiring.

How should we welcome your new hires? For example, at the very least, it is important that we make them feel prepared before their first day coming to work. You can do so by sending them any and all necessary logistics or information pertinent to accessing the office and then assigning them a mentor or buddy they can refer to for questions or requests they may have. It also helps to send over a training schedule so they know what to expect and feel confident that you’re expecting them in return.

How can we be better at onboarding? People need an engagement process that was personalized for them.

How new hires get acclimated to their surroundings depends on the comfort level they feel with others. 

Our research shows that
-39% of people feel most welcome at a new workplace when brought in as a group of new hires. This shouldn’t come as a shock, seeing as how
-55% of employed men find that making friends with coworkers is most welcoming, and
-26% of women enjoy teaming up with a new hire buddy to alleviate first day jitters. 

People feel most welcome when your engagement process is strong and inclusive. Types of activities, like introductory meetings, make them feel valued and included in a culture that up until that very morning, was unfamiliar to them. It’s also important to invite your new hires to join clubs aligned with their own personal interests, have a first-day team lunch, or initiate a new hire ritual such as a ShoutOut or orientation game. 

Empower: help HR make a real difference 

Overall, 34% of new hires believe that HR contributes to a welcoming onboarding experience. HR can take several steps to create that unique and engaging onboarding experience, that has lasting effects on retention and positive company culture. 

Don’t let poor onboarding keep your company from success and your new hires from feeling right at home from day one. By getting HR heavily involved in the overall experience using KPIs, tech tools, and social initiatives, your onboarding process can transform from standard to stellar. You’re bound to see the long term effects of a welcoming onboarding process that’s centered around engagement and excitement.

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