Feeling connected?
How much do you truly believe in your organisation? Do you trust it to do the right thing? Do you have confidence in the leadership? Would you buy the products or services that it provides? And perhaps the ultimate test, would you be an advocate for it?
Building?deep and lasting connections with customers, suppliers, investors, partners and communities is essential in establishing trust and developing a positive reputation. Creating an emotional connection with employees is arguably even more important, whether that's through culture?and behaviours, shared purpose and meaning or a varied mix of motivational factors that drive discretionary effort.
If people feel connected to your business, they are more likely to champion it, to promote it and to stand up for it even if the going gets tough. To enhance your reputation as an employer, strengthen your connections.
In this edition of the newsletter, we explore connection as one of the?drivers of employer reputation. Enjoy.
How are you doing?
When was the last time you asked a colleague - "How are you doing?"
Increasing the opportunities for colleagues to connect with one another can increase productivity, motivation and engagement. A timely reminder from Karyn Twaronite , EY Global Diversity & Inclusiveness Officer in Harvard Business Review during Mental Health Awareness Week to check-in with those around us.?
An emotional connection at Vroom
How do you create and bring a story to life that makes an emotional connection and unifies a diverse population of motor technicians, data scientists, marketers and customer service professionals across North America and Europe?
This is the Vroom story...
So good...
...for interview preparation
John Lewis & Partners have made job interview questions available for all roles available on its website to allow candidates to prepare answers in advance and to make the process more neuro-inclusive. Lorna Bullett , talent acquisition lead for the John Lewis Partnership explains that this decision was made "to allow candidates to prepare and confidently demonstrate what they can do, which gives us the best chance of finding the right person for the role." In a recent People Management magazine poll on LinkedIn, two thirds (67 per cent) of people agreed that organisations should follow suit and make their job interview questions public.
Not so good...
...for job hunters
Just under half (45%) of job candidates have been ghosted after an initial conversation with a recruiter,?a report from hiring platform Greenhouse has revealed.
Kate Garbett , vice president for SMEs at Adecco , stated that ghosting candidates was bad for organisational reputation. “There’s little justification for ghosting a candidate after an interview. It's an unprofessional practice that can damage both a recruiter’s and a company’s reputation."
Nearly nine in 10 (88%) candidates reported that they expected to hear back from companies within one or two weeks following their initial application - How does your business compare?
Work 'family' vs. real life
'We're one big family'. How do you feel when you hear that from leaders? It's a phrase that in our opinion goes too far and is never the reality of the workplace. It's a phrase that should ring alarm bells for us all. Of course, sharing a common purpose and fostering meaningful connections are key to building a successful business, but the lines between work life and family life should never be blurred. Recent research from TheLi.st found that nearly 80% of people in corporate roles are lonely because of their job, and it's being seen by many as the new mental health epidemic. And when we say 'lonely' we mean emotional isolation that manifests itself in being ignored, not listened to, passed over for promotion, undermined and undervalued.
In a recent article in Fast Company,?Ann Shoket, the CEO of TheLi.st suggests that loneliness in the workplace is more than just a mental health problem - it's a pipeline problem, particularly impacting women in leadership roles, people of colour and Gen Z employees. Ann says, 'organisations can achieve a middle ground where they can have meaningful connection with employees without feeling like they’re encroaching on their personal space.'
Employees want to be cared for, listened to, recognised as individuals and supported.
So what are you doing to build and nurture that connection?
Employer reputation matters
On the 23rd of May, Ceriph officially launched its new value proposition to a group of senior talent leaders in an event at Smiths of Smithfield. The Employer Reputation Company, is a trademark of Ceriph and is a result of over 18 months of consultation with Chief People Officers, Senior TA leaders, Heads of Internal Communications and Consultants operating in the talent space.?
The session revealed a new Employer Reputation Model,?which has been created in partnership with the business school at Aston University, which features 6 key drivers that impact an organisation's reputation as an employer. Keith Schofield, Assistant Dean at Aston University highlighted the work completed to date on verifying the language used within the model - and shared that the second phase of the project will see organisations of all sizes engaging with the study.?
Ceriph also introduced a new diagnostic called ERIN, derived from The Employee Reputation Indicator. The tool allows organisations to be able to measure and understand the strength of their reputation as an employer. From the CEO and Chief People Officer, to Heads of Talent Acquisition and DEI, ERIN will help organisations to evaluate, enhance and strengthen their reputation as an employer through an easy to use diagnostic that can be deployed to both employees at all levels and external target candidates.?
We will share more on ERIN over the coming months, but if you would be interested in trialling our beta version, then please contact Nikki Steeden (Bulloss)
Final thought...
A creative story about car features?
When was the last time you whipped out your car owners manual and flicked through its pages? Despite knowing there's some good stuff in there that will help you to understand your car - you never have right?
On world book day, 奥迪 teamed up with Penguin Random House UK to?introduce short stories to a world of tech manuals and what can often be - mundane content. Lovely.
Want to connect?
The Reputation is a monthly collection of news, articles and case studies that we think highlight some of the varied challenges and solutions people and organisations face when managing their reputation as an employer.
We’re always open to your ideas, experiences and input. We would love to hear from you - and gather some feedback and suggestions of what you would like to see coming up.
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Great article, I couldn't agree more. Feeling connected to the business you work for, being aligned to their values and vision as well as a culture built on celebrating success, diversity and continued learning is the single biggest success to a business in my opinion. If you have this your people are more likely to stay with you, give your customers a better service, be inspired to be creative and share ideas to make your business better, the list goes on. Looking forward to following on to this article!