Scaling a Revolution in Employee Experience takes a Remote Village

Reflection articles often have rear-view mirror of lessons learned, as my anniversary post last year did. As Cheer Partners celebrates our second anniversary, which is awesome and humbling at the same time, I want to take a forward-looking view. While there have been a lot of lessons, wins, losses and unbelievable moments across every spectrum, we really are changing the way employees experience work, true to our mission. And for that, I am very grateful.

What does that mean for us, our team and our clients? For starters, we have to keep innovating and creating experiences that matter. Cheer Partners is a fully remote team, and we have cultivated a connected culture using technology we have carefully selected through trial and error, so we know what works. This allows us to be nimble, and since we can’t walk down the hall to see each other, stretches our creativity even further. We have experiential brainstorms, and test drive new approaches and concepts with our team first. We fail fast and reshape the offering until it works using our version of agile methodology. It’s an idea lab concept that has improved how we deliver. We have seen this work especially well with our professional development and our visual content work, the latter of which won two awards.

In the coming year, we will continue trialing technology and systems that will enable us and our clients to see results even faster. Our team members have more opportunities to work on stretch assignments outside of their primary role, which not only gives them a deep dive into our three practice areas but infuses fresh thinking into our work. When you have someone on the HR Advisory team supporting content, that new lens can make all the difference.

We are launching new ways of reaching our audience to shape opportunities for our clients. 

• As we are remote, we are beta-testing best practices in virtual summits that matter, to help our clients connect more frequently with a purpose, without the costs associated with travel.
• We have recast the way pulse surveys are designed, to improve response rates and feedback.
• We are increasing the methods of touch employers have with their employees and creating new ways for two-way communication between them.
• We are continuing to improve change management communications and workshopping approaches, based on the feedback and data we have from this past year.
• We are improving our measurement, so we know what content is sticky and when we need to pivot.

All of this to say, we radically stretch our thinking to rework how we approach designing cultures that authentically live with respect and inclusion.

Why is this important? A Deloitte report revealed that nearly 80 percent of executives rated employee experience as important. However, only 22 percent said their companies were excellent at building differentiated employee experiences. Your employee experience is your employment brand. Employees who have a differentiated and impactful experience will be your brand ambassadors. It drives engagement, recruiting, retention, discretionary effort and yes profitability.

As we head into our third year, I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished in becoming leaders in changing the way employees experience work. We help companies to attract, engage and inspire employees through all phases of their work life. Join us in our revolution. Let us begin.