Are you wondering how employee experience in an increasingly remote workforce and in a time that feels very polarizing can make or break your path to success as a business? Want to know how benefits, referrals, alumni, marketing campaigns and organizational communication within your company can shift the dynamic of an employee experience greatly? Listen now to hear how Jam City's, Billie Larson-Shipley, dives in on how to navigate all of these conversations and more.
Show Notes
Notes from Tom:
What is the biggest mistake organizations make around employee experience? When we asked Billie Shipley of Jam City, her answer was a bit of a surprise. She didn’t talk about benefits, compensation, or a workplace teeming with happy dogs.
Instead, she said that employers ignore the full life cycle of an employee—which includes their post-employment experience.
When you bring people into your workplace, there are many ways to impact their experience in a positive way. For some people, internal employer branding and marketing is a great way to develop an inclusive environment. But for some, Billie says, the rose-colored glasses approach just doesn't make sense.
People see through smoke and mirrors right away, and authenticity begets loyalty.
On the flip side, how honest should companies be?
Billie says there’s a fine line to being authentic with the reflection of your business and that doesn’t mean slapping your token LGBTQ+, woman in tech, or black employee on your marketing campaigns as not everyone wants to be the face representing your D&I initiatives.
In the same spirit, EVP elements like your company values play a huge role in how you should go about executing your employee engagement plans.
Billie believes that “the values you prioritize are up to you. The key is selecting values with intention, and ensuring that they inform every decision you make as a company.” (And that includes the inevitable choices your employees make to leave your org.)
When it comes to off-boarding, this experience is often overlooked by employers for a number of reasons. Billie’s advice on how to offboard correctly is simple and straightforward:
- Be a good listener: Never skip the exit interview. It’s the moment when people feel most empowered to be honest, at least when they’re talking to HR. Clear metrics on employee engagement are tough to get, but this is a fantastic way to track employee churn and to spot patterns in the reasons why people leave.
- Ask management exit interview questions: Someone who’s quitting might tell their manager they’re leaving for an exciting new job, but tell HR that they’ve burned out due to unreasonable expectations from management. Gut-check the answers you get by asking a departing employee’s manager the same questions you asked them: Why do you think this person is leaving? What do you think they’d suggest we improve?
- Don’t dismiss your alumni network: You’d be surprised by how often people will “boomerang” back to a former employer, often after they’ve leveled up their abilities elsewhere. Even if they don’t come back to work for you, they represent your brand out in the world—for better or worse. The key takeaway? Don’t burn any bridges. Staying on good terms with alumni means more positive messaging about your company will circulate in the industry. And don’t forget about the “PayPal Mafia,” former PayPal employees who went on to do great things. Your company name attached to someone’s future success is a rising tide that lifts everyone.
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