Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

Reimagining the Employee Experience

At last summer's SilkRoad Connections conference, researchers from Kaiser Associates presented two innovative ways to consider and impact the employee experience.

The business case for tweaking our approach is clear. Research shows that organizations with high employee satisfaction outperform peer organizations over time by approximately two to four percent annually and 89 to 184 percent cumulatively – even controlling for other factors that drive returns. Additionally, the cost to replace experienced and executive-level employees is 75 percent and 200 percent of their full salaries respectively.

In addition to salary, new hires require investment via recruiting, onboarding, training and development, and the Kaiser researchers pointed out that organizations will never realize the full return on that investment if they do not evaluate and design a powerful employee experience.

A New Perspective: Employee Experience Empathy Mapping

Understanding how employees view pieces of the talent management lifecycle with themselves at the epicenter can turn a process lifecycle into an individualized, forward looking, and connected journey.

There are a number of components of the employee experience that should be considered at each phase, including work environment, people, incentives, technology enablers, programming, and roles. We can use Employee Experience Empathy Mapping to identify gaps and opportunities between the current vs. desired state employee experience throughout. In other words, what are employees actually feeling versus what we want them to be feeling? Experiential components can be mapped along the talent lifecycle as follows:

• Attraction: What is this organization about and why would I want to work there? Potential candidates develop an impression of your organization based on your brand and what you share publicly. A dynamic organization attracts a dynamic candidate.

• Recruitment: Is this the right organization and role for me? Candidates are exposed to organizational processes and culture, either solidifying or challenging pre-conceived notions. Sodexo, for example, drives recruitment internally through its Candidate Discovery Program, which offers candidates a strong initial impression from the individuals through which they are referred.

• Onboarding: What can I expect here, and what’s expected of me? New hires become excited about the organization and gain an understanding of how their roles fit into the organization’s strategic direction.

• Performance: How will I receive feedback? Employees receive constructive feedback on performance and work collaboratively to develop meaningful goals and objectives that align with organizational goals.

• Development: How will I continue to grow my career? Employees seek out development opportunities and their long-term goals are supported by the organization throughout their tenure. To make an impact here, insurance company the Hartford has an experiential mentorship program that pairs senior-level executives with entry-level staff so critical skills can be acquired in both directions.

• Retention: Should I stay or should I go? Employees are continually engaged through development opportunities, rewards, compensation, and promotion. Hubspot, for instance, has developed a retention element that positively contributes to employee experience. Spinoff City is a forum in which employees devise, vote on, and help to implement innovative programs.

• Transition: What are the high and low points of my experience here? Employees provide meaningful feedback on their experience and remain engaged with the organization post-tenure through alumni networks and personal contacts.

For more where this came from, head over to the SilkRoad blog.

Current Trends in Learning: Focusing on Performance

At last summer's SilkRoad Connections conference, David Wentworth, principal learning analyst at Brandon Hall, shared that most organizational learning is still done in the classroom (66 percent). But classroom learning has its limitations.

For one thing, 61 percent of companies believe that employees need to interact with learning on a daily or weekly basis in order to be effective at their jobs. Furthermore, according to the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, people forget 90 percent of what they’ve learned after a mere month.

What High Performing Companies Do

Brandon Hall’s research illustrates that one of the most effective learning methods is coaching and mentoring, and on the job exercises are almost as effective. Over 90 percent of high performing organizations think tailoring learning experiences and offering experiential learning in multiple modalities are important or critical to the business. These companies report following about their learning and development offerings:

• Learners can participate in coaching/mentoring
• Learners have access to subject matter experts
• Learners can comment on and rate content
• Learners can share content with one another
• Learners can generate and contribute their own content
• Learners can discuss content and development paths in the learning environment
• Learners can meet virtually to discuss topics without the need for formal scheduling
• Learners can use simulations to learn a skill in a no-consequence environment
• Learners can take on stretch assignments and special projects

In high performing organizations, learning is embedded in the job and incorporates a blended approach. It is contextual (according to my role and development path), digestible, informal, social, and often mobile.

For the rest of David's insights, check out the SilkRoad blog.

Should Your Business Have a Physical Location?

Are you having trouble choosing a business location for your company? Depending on your product or service, it may make sense to start a new business in a particular state, city or town—or to not have a physical business location at all. And although it seems like digital shopping has reached a new high and e-commerce is king, data from the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce reveals that in Q1 2016, about 93 percent of all U.S. retail sales came from traditional brick and mortar stores.

I spoke to four small-business owners about what went into their decision to select a physical or virtual business location, and what they’ve learned in the process. Here, Peter Awad, co-founder of Mission Meats in Decorah, Iowa; Lindsay Kolber, co-founder of LogicPrep in Armonk, New York; Brian Podwinski, owner of Blue Blood Brewing Company in Lincoln, Nebraska; and Ismael Wrixen, co-owner of brokerage firm FE International in Boston, Massachusetts, sound off.

What factors went into deciding on a physical or virtual business location for your company?

Peter Awad: I'm 100 percent focused on flexibility, so it is important to have the ability to operate my companies from anywhere with an internet connection. The most important factors are [having] people and groups in the area I can identify and collaborate with; beautiful, quiet co-working spaces where I can plug in easily; and outdoor amenities like the beach and hiking.

Lindsay Kolber: LogicPrep cultivates a motivational space that encourages learning. For this reason, we seek locations that are well-lit, well-designed—clean lines, modern aesthetic—and well-located relative to our clients’ daily routines. We want to make ourselves a convenient respite, a space outside of one’s home and school to learn from inspiring instructors.

Brian Podwinski: We had to look not only [for] manufacturing space but also [for] a good retail environment to interact directly with our customers. We needed a location that would be cost-effective for the manufacturing operations as margins are low and the space requirement high. On the other hand, we required an easily accessible location for customers where margins are significantly higher.

Ismael Wrixen: Expanding from the U.K. into the U.S. was a big decision. The U.S. has many great locations, so we first established a shortlist of five potential cities based upon a heat map of our client base and conference activity. We then worked with attorneys in the U.K. and U.S. to determine which states offered the greatest opportunities over the long-term. We chose Boston primarily for its business-friendly laws, nationally ranked colleges, thriving entrepreneurial tech community and, importantly, the convenient time zone that allows our team to service both European and West Coast clients.

Have a look at the full interview on the AMEX Open Forum.

How Should Small Businesses Manage Their Cash Flow?

Small businesses are in economic recovery mode, but some might agree with me that it has been slower than anticipated. In an end-of-year survey, Wells Fargo reported that "only 39 percent of small-business owners experienced an increase in company revenues over the past 12 months.

At the same time, 47 percent expected cash flow and revenues to increase in 2016." Given a still-far-from-ideal financial picture, we asked three small-business owners—Fritz Heffinger, founder and president of event marketing firm OutCold in Chicago;  Diana Goodwin, founder and CEO of AquaMobile Swim School in Toronto; and Shawn Schulze, CEO of SeniorCare.com in St. Louis, Missouri—what their cash flow management techniques are this year.

Why is cash flow management a critical skill for small-business owners?

Fritz Heffinger: It’s important to learn how your sales go—when your peak times are and when to expect a slowdown. In a perfect world, sales are steady all the time, but any small business knows that is not the case.

Diana Goodwin: Cash flow management is extremely important! You don't want to be stuck in a rut, unable to run a critical marketing campaign because you didn't properly manage your cash. Something like that could cripple your business and impact your sales for the coming year, putting your company in a downward spiral.

Shawn Schulze: When a business has cash on hand and cash reserves, it has much more control. Without available cash, a business relies on debt or new funding sources. Businesses that are operating day by day or have lots of debt are just one unexpected event away from desperation mode. In addition, interest on debt is a costly expense.

How, or where, did you learn to manage your cash flow?

Schulze: After over 10 years in business, I still have a fear of what may happen that could hurt our existing cash flow or require a large, unexpected expense. This fear is great motivation to ensure that we are conservative in our projections, in our expenditures and also in the amount of money we maintain on hand.

At the beginning of every year, I devise a cash flow plan and then set calendar reminders to review our various bank and Paypal accounts every two weeks to see if any money needs to be shifted.

Goodwin: My company AquaMobile is a seasonal business, so I knew right from the outset that cash flow management would be important. From there, I’ve just made sure I’m always aware of our current spending and future cash needs.

Heffinger: I wish I could say I read this book or had someone on staff, but it has been a trial by fire. I have had help from a good friend who works at a large bank, but our business is so unique that it was a risk in the beginning.

For the rest of the interview, head over to the AMEX Open Forum.

How Businesses Can Stay Focused During Slow Periods

I asked three business owners—Zeeshan Ali, CEO of screen printing company The Zee Group in Chicago; Bryanne Lawless, managing partner of PR firm BLND in Los Angeles; and Michael Mogill, CEO of Crisp Video Group in Atlanta—about how they turn historically slow seasons into growth periods.

What are the ebbs and flows of your business in a typical year?

Ali: Typically, the start of the school year and the end of the year—as we are ramping up for trade show season—are our busiest times of the year. We have focused on diversifying our portfolio of clients this year, so the wavelength is a bit different than in past years.

Lawless: The beginning of the year is always the craziest since businesses want to re-market themselves, update their branding or expand their social media presence. The slowest time is usually the third quarter because companies are running out of budget for marketing and PR efforts. Luckily for us, almost every business needs PR to compete and be seen as an expert in its industry.

Mogill: The slower times of the year are the early part of Q1 and Q4. Starting the year, our sales pick up stride as we get into March and are very strong through Q2 and Q3. In Q4, things start to slow near Thanksgiving, not just because of the holidays but also because clients are going out of town.

Can you predict when activity will slow down? How do you prepare for slow seasons?

Mogill: Absolutely, since we have tracked activity data over several years. Because we are able to anticipate them, we can ramp up marketing significantly during slow periods to ensure that we are still able to be productive and hit our goals. Also, we frontload our goals through the early part of the year rather than spreading them evenly over 12 months.

Lawless: When our pipeline slows down, that’s a signal that everything else will follow. It’s important to focus on the clients we have, but we also have to make sure there are always clients ready to sign and hit the ground running.

Ali: We use the reporting feature in our CRM and in QuickBooks to monitor slow and peak periods of activity. This information dictates how we should manage our expenses and allows us to accurately forecast each month.

For the rest of the interview, head over to the AMEX Open Forum.

Gen X-ers Will Have the Best Careers of Anyone

I got into Northwestern University despite far-from-perfect SAT scores and missing the valedictorian spot by one grade. If I were a millennial, I would have had much longer odds. Born in 1976, I’m a late Generation X-er and have had less competition for everything pretty much all my life.

You’ve heard of Generation X. Due to plummeting fertility rates, the media called our birth years the "baby bust." Gen X includes those born between 1964 and 1979 and is bookended by the massive baby boomer generation (those born 1946–63) and the even more massive millennial generation (those born 1980–95). Historically, we’ve either been ignored or called slackers by pop culture and advertisers.

But we’re more influential in the modern workforce than we tend to get credit for and are about to become more so. And if the coming baby boomer exodus from the workplace is just revving up and Gen-Xers are next in line to fill the roles boomers retire from, it won't just be a sheer numerical advantage that plays to our favor. Here's why.

FILLING A COMMUNICATION SKILLS GAP

While these are sweeping and probably unfair stereotypes, you don't have to look far to find organizations urgently prodding their more senior employees to get with the technological program. Meanwhile, hiring managers and recruiters arepointing to a "soft skills" gap among recent grads and championing emotional intelligence as a job skill.

Our careers have tracked the rise of the digital workplace, and the foundation that's given many of us may pay dividends.

So while millennials may be unfairly caricatured as socially inept much the way boomers are wrongly dismissed en masse for poor technical chops, the trends in companies' staffing needs are unmistakable. Gen X-ers, on the other hand, may be more likely to prove communication maestros by comparison.

We grew up socializing without devices in our hands. Whether it was learning to cope with the neighborhood bully or sweet-talking our parents into letting us stay home alone while they went on vacation, many of us knew how to use words and persuasion to problem-solve and solicit cooperation.

Anna Garvey at Social Media Week called Gen X the "Oregon Trail generation,"referencing the 1980s adventure game that had millions of kids glued to their schools’ desktop computers. The idea was to get your wagon to Oregon before you lost all your oxen or died of disease. Oregon Trail and games like it showed us how to tinker with this new and strange technology and become masters of the machine.

Heading off to college and our first careers, the electronic age really started heating up. As Garvey aptly put it: "We came of age just as the very essence of communication was experiencing a seismic shift, and it’s given us a unique perspective that’s half analog old school and half digital new school."

To be sure, not every Gen Xer grew up the same way or acquired the same skills through their experiences. But our careers have tracked the rise of the digital workplace, and the foundation that's given many of us may pay dividends in helping us navigate the boomer brain drain.

In my first job at a PR agency in New York City, I dealt with issues typical of the alienated, twenty-something X-er. I struggled with how to meet people who could help me do my job, and how to talk to my boss about getting a raise.

There's more to it than just timing. Sure, we have valuable years behind us and just as many left on the clock. But we're also invested, comfortable, and happy.

But I was the only person in the office who knew how to use a search engine. I learned to survive in the boomers’ business world, but I also helped usher in the "tech everything" one that millennials would soon populate. I developed a useful hybrid of offline and online communication skills, easily shifting from one medium to the other.

When workplace clashes occurred, I understood where the boomers were coming from but also intuitively "got" the millennials. Eighteen years later, that role as a bridge still serves me well. Every day, as I serve as a translator and perform mediation and mentorship duties for boomer and millennial colleagues and clients alike. In the process, my skills as a leader of a multi-generational workforce only increase.

Of course, I'm just a sample of one. But the research seems to suggest that many other Gen X-ers share my experience. In a recent EY study that surveyed 1,200 professionals across generations and industries, Gen X scored higher than the other generations when it came to effective collaboration. In separate research published by the Center for Talent Innovation, 65% of respondents associated the "team player" label with Gen X-ers (compared to only 45% associating it with millennials).

Even if these findings don't reflect the innate personality traits shared by an entire generation—as some psychologists are quick to point out that they probably don't—they may still hint at the stage in our careers where my peers and I now find ourselves. More than that, from what we know about the skills companies need most in their new leaders, the research suggests that we're uniquely prepared for those roles—not just next in line for them.

For the rest of the piece, please visit the Fast Company website.

The Intersection of Brexit and the Digital World

For the last few months, Brexit – or the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union – has dominated global news coverage. But for those of us concerned with digital transformation, are there practical implications? Here, digital transformation expert Mark Skilton from Warwick Business School sounds off on the challenges and opportunities in a disrupted world.

Digital transformation + Brexit = what, exactly?  This was the question that last month, I set out to answer for our readers.

Mark Skilton is a Professor of Practice in Warwick Business School’s Information Systems and Management Group. Also a private consultant with an incredible website and two very informative books, (Building Digital Ecosystem Architectures: A Guide to Enterprise Architecting Digital Technologies in the Digital Enterprise, 2016) and Building the Digital Enterprise: A Guide to Constructing Monetization Models Using Digital Technologies (2015)), Skilton could very well be THE global expert on this topic.

London was known as the digital capital of Europe. What was the state of digital transformation in the UK prior to Brexit?

The UK has a long history of being a leader in digital creativity and innovation. Several of the leading global creative agencies are based in the UK, and new entrepreneurial initiatives are attracted all the time – as witnessed by the Silicon Roundabout in London’s Shoreditch district and the Cambridge hub Silicon Fen. We also have huge international companies, including Unilever,Proctor & Gamble, and MasterCard, expanding their digital footprints.

Digital technology has transformed the way the private sector functions in UK companies of all sizes. Always-connected, socially engaged, multi-channel markets have influenced the local, regional, country, and international supply chains, as well as sector automation, job creation, employment productivity and GVA (gross value-added, or the measure of the value of goods and services produced in an area, industry or sector of an economy).

Overall, how do you think Brexit will affect digital transformation efforts, both within the UK and the global economy?

The UK relationship to the EU and to global digital transformation will evolve in several areas, including relationships, cybersecurity, and competitive innovation.  EU legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (to be introduced by May 2018) will still need to be honored from the standpoint of privacy and consensus rights if this becomes a mandatory trade position. The new UK surveillance bill seeking mandatory access to company and consumer data through “back door” methods will be a legal issue for other countries. National security and corporate cyber protection will still need cross border collaboration in governments and industry, and the UK will continue to be a leader in this field.

Digital transformation will enable greater online trading access. One Brexit-related issue is whether barriers to stock trading to the EU will result in a flight of both skilled talent and corporate headquarters to mainland Europe. This remains difficult to predict. But Brexit may also present a huge opportunity for the UK to seek digital transformation investment and competitive new models within the EU and other countries not defined by EU conditions.

We will still require the right human skills to create knowledge capital and financial investment to fund digital transformation. Aleksi Aaltonen, Assistant Professor in Information Systems Management at Warwick Business School, recently wrote about Brexit’s impact on startup entrepreneurship. He discussed the critical need for technology skills possessed by the migrant workforce and the problem of the proposed £35,000 earnings threshold for migrants living in the UK.

Access to EU innovation investments, including the H2020 fund of 80 billion euros, may be a casualty of the Brexit. If the UK cannot participate in these programs, we may not attract high-caliber members of the academic and scientific communities to work here. However, the EU’s efforts to form public/private partnerships that can effectively compete against Asia and the U.S. have not really come to fruition. Ironically, a UK outside the EU block may be a better way for this country to build global digital scale and to help the EU move toward a better integrated market.

For the rest of Mark's interview, check out the QuickBase Fast Track blog.

Soon, Your Boss May Be a Machine

Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business, has a compelling proposition: once machines track your every move and tell you exactly how to become more productive, will you listen to them?

A few years ago, in support of the pioneering practice of people analytics, MIT invented employee badges that allow organizations to tell which employees are most productive, and where their efforts should be directed to ensure maximum success. At the time, these badges were considered an experiment – a novelty. Not anymore.

Whether you think counting your steps with FitBit is motivating or a chore, you’ll have to get used to the idea that it’s only a matter of time before FitBit for business arrives on your device or in the mail via a wearable. Seemingly harmless software and/or software powered by big data algorithms will turn your working life into Big Brother on steroids, and you’ll have no choice but to use it.

As Schrage says in Harvard Business Review: “Anybody and everybody who wants to succeed in tomorrow’s organizations will have to commit to levels of self-monitoring, self-surveillance, and self-quantification that makes Orwell read like Pollyanna.”

That Little Voice That Whispers “You Can Do Better” Is No Longer in Your Head But On Your Device

How will this work, exactly? Schrage explains that much the way Amazon suggests books to read and Netflix recommends videos to binge watch, data aggregators will synthesize and customize explicit recommendations designed to make people productive and effective. Annoyed that your boss doesn’t give you enough attention? Fear not, for soon, algorithms will recommend strategies to boost your creativity, optimize your performance, manage your time, and improve on your work product based on your unique style.

An algorithm may serve as a communication coach, too. It could prompt an introverted employee to get out there and network, and an extroverted one to tone it down. It may help you solve a problem with a colleague, deliver criticism to a direct report, or manage a sticky political situation. Even if your boss did have the time to help you out, who’s to say his or her advice would be as good? What will win here, human intuition or scientific objectivity? The jury may be out now, but machines are only getting smarter whereas human capabilities are pretty static.

For more where this came from, check out the full post at QuickBase's Fast Track blog.

The Cat's Out of the Bag: App Dev Moves Out of IT

Shadow IT and the app-building practice of “citizen development” is still an area of concern for many leaders. Here are some actions leaders can take to grow more comfortable around apps being developed outside of IT.

Understand your own priorities

IT departments are inundated with line of business requests and simply don’t have the time or bandwidth to address all of them. If you haven’t already, speak with your manager about where you should be focusing your energy, and the overarching business and departmental goals you are working to accomplish. Requests that fall outside this scope are often perfect candidates for citizen development and should be delegated if possible.

Vet the technology

Most line of business employees aren’t trained in programming and traditional application development, so thinking that even the most ambitious ones can become instant experts is naïve at best. Fortunately, low and no code platforms exist that allow citizen developers to build applications with little to no coding experience. Investigate these and assess how they can integrate with your existing IT infrastructure before giving the green light.

Encourage pilot implementations

You’ll feel better about letting your citizen developers take the reins if the implementation is reasonably contained, is of limitedscope, and is centered on an isolated business process – without the ability to disrupt the business as a whole. Pilot implementations give citizen developers the opportunity to experiment, tweak the approach, and improve upon it while using a minimal amount of resources.

Take your citizen developer out for a drink

If the very idea of what your citizen developer is up to keeps you awake at night, it may be due to an inherent lack of trust. Especially if you haven’t worked with this person before, you have no reason to believe the implementation won’t turn into a disaster that you have to fix. Build trust by getting to know your citizen developer as a human being. Take him or her out in a casual environment and start a communication exchange that builds a friendly rapport and facilitates ongoing cooperation.

For the rest of the piece, head over to QuickBase's Fast Track blog.