Consider The Employee Experience of Every Department in Your Company for Optimal Success.

For a company to exist in the market with a relatively decent market presence, but yet, fail to capture a high market share, there could be a fault in the Employee Experience of one or more departments within the company.

In conducting research on what makes companies successful, I discovered a misconception of having a great product to be the singular formula for success. It is certainly true that a great product creates value to satisfy the needs of the public or niche consumers. However, innovation that only thrives in one aspect of the company is incapable of solely preserving the longevity of a company’s financial health. Without focusing on revenue generation, the longevity of the brand’s value cannot be sustained;  likewise without the brand’s value, the financial health of the company lies in jeopardy.

Thus, organizational success is the combination of innovation and generation in product(s) and revenue respectively.

It is common knowledge that organizations are made up of myriad departments (core and operational) each responsible for a unique function - Marketing, Sales, Design, IT, HR, Finance etc., that contributes to the growth and success of the company. Therefore, since every department has its own unique function within the company, every department and its incumbent employees, also has a unique need that needs to be addressed individually to satisfy the Employee Experience (EX) rule which states that,  “how you treat your employees is reflected in how your employees treat your company and customers”.

Thus, the Employee Experience of your company is not a one size fits all strategy.

An error some companies suffer from is the overcompensation of the EX for their product design employees, while neglecting the EX of every other department in the company. This highlights the misconception of having a great product to be the sole formula for success. Aside from having a great product, the company also needs to ensure there is public awareness of the product, exceptional customer service, high return of investment, high employee engagement and performance standards, reliable logistics, high retained income, amongst other things.

If the Employee Experience of a company excludes the needs of these other teams, it inevitably will breed an army of disgruntled and unsatisfied employees incapable of performing at their optimal standards. It is based on such imbalance that a company can have high innovation in its product design, product value, product research but yet, have low public awareness, low market share, low inventory supply, poor customer service, poor employee performance, low assets, high liabilities, poor return of investment, etc. Although the company has a great product due to the great employee experience of its product design team, it will have a low - average revenue generation rate and market performance, because the employees responsible for driving sales, growth, customer service, marketing, investments and others, suffer from a lack or the absence of an experience that propels, motivates and equips them to connect to the company in order to perform at high standards.

The result of this wholistic approach to the EX of every department and its respective employee(s), ensures both it’s product innovation and revenue generation are operating at their optimum. Likewise, the shift in this approach to success allows the company to tackle the next phase which is, “How to design a unique Employee Experience for every department and its respective employee(s) in the company for Optimal Success”.

A Message to Emerging (Start Up) Companies

The Effect of Strategic Talent Search on Selecting Your Target Audience:

Value can be defined as a unique vision which breathes life into a company's existence. In the human world, people can be defined as inherent beings of creation. Translate this definition into the corporate world: we can describe employees as inherent beings of creating value in businesses. Value is an important key to success. 

Yet, would you agree that a significant number of companies are focused on making money first, rather than creating value; and thereby, are unable to select the appropriate target audience for their businesses? If this approach is re-defined to a focus on creating value first,  it becomes apparent that companies are able to target the right audiences by strategically selecting individuals who are passionate about the company’s' vision and are adept at bringing the vision to life. These employees are equally capable of creating high quality and resonant products/+ services successfully aimed at targeting the right audience. 

 

If you are interested in reading further, let's tie all of this into a seamless operation. 

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Step 1: Define your vision

Assess your vision and mission statements. Use this opportunity to dig in and discover the unique characteristic(s) that define your company's value proposition. Case Example: Interior Design/Architectural Firm. As simple as it sounds, its a diverse industry specializing in the areas of residential, commercial, luxury, contemporary, modern, cultural, structural (et al) design. For this particular firm, by narrowing down it's vision to it's areas of expertise, it is able to select the areas of specialization that correspond with it's vision, and thereby, design a system that translates this vision into products that create value.

Step 2: Define your talent

This step defines all the jobs vital to translating the company's vision into products.  Jobs in a workplace can be divided into the following sections: core, operational, fixed and contingent jobs.  Employees, the people essential to performing these jobs, can also grouped into the 4 areas- core, operational, fixed and continent employees.  Your core employees  provide the required skills to perform jobs essential to translating your vision into a product. Your operational employees ensure their jobs sustain the continuance and growth of your company.  Some employees might be required to work on permanent jobs, while others are needed on a flexible/per project basis- fixed and flexible employees respectively. You might need all four types of these employees/jobs to create value in your company, or you might need just one. The important thing is to ensure you consider all the jobs in the design system of translating your vision into products, and account for the corresponding type(s) of employees to perform each job. 

Step 3: Define your target audience

Following the example in step 1 for the Interior Design/Architectural firm: in this step, the company has selected it's areas of expertise and is now able to choose its audience to allow it provide high quality and resonant work that is tailored to it's customers' preferences.

If the Interior Design/Architecture firm chooses to focus on modern and structural interior design, it's customers will appreciate work like this:

SOURCE: Studio PMK + Designers

If the Interior Design/Architecture firm chooses to focus on modern and structural workplace design, it's customers will appreciate work like these: 

SOURCE: West Elm Corporate Headquarters

Step 4: Recruit your employees: 

Once you have successfully divided your jobs into either core, operational, fixed or flexible employees, you are able to search in the various talent pools for qualified employees to perform each job.

I personally believe a visual approach is highly effective at recruiting core employees in the Interior Design/Architecture firm as human beings have a deeper and resonant connection to visuals- as the saying goes: "pictures speak louder than words". Notwithstanding, the firm's recruitment strategy will look like this: 

1. Employees: 

• Core Employees: Interior Designers, Architects and Visualization Technicians etc.

• Operational Employees: Project Managers, Marketing Coordinators and Human Resources Professionals etc.

2. Type of Work:

• Fixed Jobs: Hourly/Salaried employees, Managers, Executives etc.

• Contingent Jobs: Consultants, Auditors, Contractors etc.

3. Hiring Techniques: 

• Visual Approach: this includes, Portfolios, Websites and Case Study Tests to assess patterns, colours, lighting choices etc.

• Structured Interview Approach: Interview questions targeted at guaging candidates' interest in the value proposition & design approach. In the case of operational employees for example, the company's interview questions can focus on the company's collaborative culture, the theme and structure of it's workplace design and the candidates' ability to significantly impact and assist its core jobs and employees to yield value to its target audience etc.

As always, build an employee experience design that mirrors your business requirements and mirrors the expectations of your employees to ensure a high retention rate and continuous production of high quality work. 

Strategic talent search creates an excellent opportunity for a company to define all the jobs required to translate it's vision into a product, thereby creating value. It creates an opportunity for it's employees to organically connect with the company's vision, communicate the company's value proposition to it's customers, while maintaining healthy relationships with them.  This dynamic combination inevitabily generates money for the company!