A Career of Engagement - From Day One to Retirement
Employee engagement is not a yearly project to undertake after an engagement survey is conducted and the results shared. Top-tier organizations create a powerful competitive advantage by developing engagement strategies that intentionally engage every employee, every day, in some way.
NO PODCAST THIS WEEK.
WE’LL BE BACK STARTING A NEW SERIES NEXT WEEK, THE NEW PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENT.
Employee engagement is not a yearly project to undertake after an engagement survey is conducted and the results shared. Top-tier organizations create a powerful competitive advantage by developing engagement strategies that intentionally engage every employee, every day, in some way.
Over the last few weeks we have shared a model for enhanced employee engagement that creates a complete, employee lifecycle of engagement and works whether you are in a world of face to face interactions or remote connections.
Triboarding (onboarding, reboarding, and transboarding) cultivates a performance environment and culture that, beginning day one, identifies, values, and develops each individuals unique talents and connects them to the organization (onboarding), while intentionally creating opportunities every day to leverage those talents whether on engagement teams, performance teams, functional teams or as valued individuals in their roles (reboarding). And finally, to ensure sustainable individual and organizational success, creating an engagement strategy that proactively develops employees which ensuring they are ready for their next career milestone prior to promotion or as they leave the organization they become advocates and leave in a very positive way (transboarding).
Triboarding will guarantee your organization moves from employee engagement being an annual or bi-annual project that attempts to rectify issues to an intentional, dynamic, employee engagement strategy that becomes a powerful, competitive advantage for your organization.
Click here to download more information on the Triboarding process and how Cornerstone Learning can help you achieve a robust employee engagement strategy.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
A Career of Engagement - Phase Three - Transboarding
We complete our series on Triboarding, cultivating a lifecycle of employee engagement, by highlighting a key factor that not only enhances employee engagement but also top-tier employee retention and growth: Transboarding, which helps in planning for and enabling success.
We complete our series on Triboarding – cultivating a lifecycle of employee engagement by highlighting a key factor that not only enhances employee engagement but also top-tier employee retention and growth: Transboarding, which helps in planning for and enabling success.
So far in this series we have established a firm foundation for a career of engagement by creating a unique and impactful Onboarding experience that we continually build upon daily with intentional Reboarding and re-recruiting activities that engage and reengage every employee every day in some way. To complete the employee lifecycle we must proactively enable the smooth and successful transitions employees make throughout their careers through Transboarding.
Career ladders are fast becoming relics of the past, being replaced by dynamic and agile talent mobility strategies. A number of trends are accelerating this evolution: expectations are increasing for more rapid career advancement, an aging workforce with more people retiring early means more people are shifting into new positions. Coupling those with the complete disruption and uncertainty in the global workplace today requires a focused and intentional strategy for talent flexibility and mobility. Transboarding enables ongoing, flexible, successful talent transitions by proactively identifying, developing, and cultivating the unique talents and skills of individuals.
Transboarding ensures:
Employees proactively have access to the right resources that help them succeed be it with training, coaching, mentoring, or technology.
Employees understand and are connected to the vision, values and priorities of their new workplace function, which often may be different from the function they were in previously, even within the same organization.
Employee’s have clarity and alignment to what success looks like from day one in their new function and the resources they can call upon to assist.
As an employee transitions out of a role into a new role or leaves the organization that the successor is properly transboarded and set up for success day one.
Transboarding completes the entire employee lifecycle of engagement from prior to day one onboarding to intentional efforts that continually engage each day to enabling effective talent transitions and mobility.
To discover more about the lifecycle of employee engagement and what Cornerstone Learning can do for you, visit our Triboading page at www.cornerstonelearning.com/triboading.
Click here to download more information on the Triboarding process and how Cornerstone Learning can help you achieve a robust employee engagement strategy.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
The 5 Keys to Effective Employee Communication
In most organizations, there is significant opportunity to enhance and sustain your employee engagement with employee communications as the keystone and hallmark of your people strategy. How do organizations overcome the challenges to effective employee communications? Here are the 5 keys.
Employee communications is the “keystone” to employee engagement. Just like the keystone is the critical component and the centerpiece in architecture, communication is the vital component that provides structure, strength, and stability to any organization.
So how solid are your employee communications? Is your communications strategy central to your employee engagement efforts? Would your employees say that overall communications are a key strength as an organization? Is the communication and messaging consistent and does it support every part of the organization? Does the communication provide clarity and stability in times of uncertainty, change, and crisis?
In most organizations, there is significant opportunity to enhance and sustain your employee engagement with employee communications as the keystone and hallmark of your people strategy.
However, there are a number of factors that impact outstanding employee communications efforts:
Who owns the overall strategy, coordination, and effective execution of employee communications in your organization?
Are employee communications a planned strategy or a reactive, ad-hoc task sent as needed?
Employee’s communication needs, expectations and requirements have and will continue to change.
Communication is both an art and science that continually evolves and requires a dedicated focus to stay abreast of best practices and changes in technology and tools.
So how do organizations overcome the challenges to effective employee communications?
“Be Intentional” about elevating employee communications to your #1 employee engagement strategy and make it a competitive advantage for your organization.
“Get Real” about the perception and real impact of your current state employee communications efforts.
“Reimagine It” based on your identified current state. Leverage your strengths and reimagine your gaps and weaknesses. Make changes quick and visible so the organization can see the importance and reap the rewards.
“Own It” Who will ultimately own and have accountability for the sustained success of your reimagined employee communication strategy and ongoing efforts?
“Evaluate It” Continual measurement of impact and effectiveness of your employee communications efforts will ensure the investment of time and resources are delivering results with every interaction.
So is employee communication the keystone in your employee engagement or it is the weak link that needs to be enhanced?
As we have noted here, and found through our work with clients, communication is the most important step to begin increasing employee engagement and easily generates to biggest “bang for you buck”. Contact us today at info@cornerstonelearning.com and let us partner with you to strategically enhance your employee communications.
A Career of Engagement - Phase Two - Reboarding
This week we explore the engagement strategy of “reboarding,” the planned and intentional effort to continually “re-recruit” and engage every employee, everyday, no matter the position or tenure.
Last week’s focus, onboarding, sets the foundation for a career of engaged performance. This week we explore the engagement strategy of “reboarding,” the planned and intentional effort to continually “re-recruit” and engage every employee, everyday, no matter the position or tenure.
Just remember back to the first 90 days of any job you have had, the excitement and enthusiasm and that welcoming feeling most organizations provide to a new employee. While a new employee’s productivity level is generally lower, their commitment and engagement are commonly higher.
Highly engaged organizations create a workplace environment that feels like the first 90 days, everyday, where everyone feels highly valued, supported, and appreciated. Unique talents are identified and leveraged, questions and opinions are welcomed and encouraged, and people look forward to coming into work knowing they can and will make a difference no matter where they reside in the organization.
Take the same approach, time, and efforts you do to attract and recruit new talent into the organization and continually reboard and re-recruit those currently making a difference throughout your organization. Employee turnover will decrease and overall employee engagement and commitment will increase.
Next week we discuss proactively preparing your people’s skills and talent today for tomorrow’s opportunities.
To discover more about the lifecycle of employee engagement and what Cornerstone Learning can do for you, visit our Triboading page at www.cornerstonelearning.com/triboading.
Click here to download more information on the Triboarding process and how Cornerstone Learning can help you achieve a robust employee engagement strategy.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
A Career of Engagement - Phase One - Onboarding
Onboarding is to employee engagement like breakfast is to the start of any day, the most important meal of your day, or in the case, the engagement of an employee’s career. Getting off to a great start sets the stage for future success. In fact, many studies show good onboarding increases retention by nearly 85%.
As we further explore our Triboarding approach to creating and cultivating an entire employee life cycle of engagement we want to focus this week on the Onboarding.
Do an internet search and you end up with 33,100,000 results; now 33,100,001! Needless to say, it is a well documented and researched topic. Why? Because it is important and makes a major difference in any organization. Onboarding is to employee engagement like breakfast is to the start of any day, the most important meal of your day, or in the case, the engagement of an employee’s career.
Getting off to a great start sets the stage for future success. In fact, many studies show good onboarding increases retention by nearly 85%. Right now, however, there is currently so much focus on the technology and facilitating the “process of effective onboarding”, the goal and essence of the onboarding is lost in a sea of decisions around which is the right onboarding technology. And while the process is important, let’s not lose sight on the goal of onboarding; to create a firm foundation by providing organizational and personal clarity, alignment and resources that enable an employee’s near and long-term success.
No matter the tools and processes used to facilitate the process, ensure that the onboarding experience provides information, knowledge, education and examples on successfully integrating into and navigating the organizations culture. What is and is not valued in the organization? What insights can be provided about their role? And what, where, and how can they contribute to success? Provide opportunities for employees to engage from day one in making a difference.
In addition, finding ways to connect to the organization’s history, whether the organization is a year old startup or a century old icon, is extremely important. For example, any FedEx employee can tell you Fred Smith’s (CEO) college term paper on the hub and spokes concept that received a C but he later turned that very concept into a global, multibillion dollar brand. Or about him betting on blackjack in Las Vegas to cover an upcoming payroll obligation and pilots hiding planes to keep them from being repossessed in the early days. Your organization’s stories are important to tell, so find ways to incorporate them into your onboarding.
Onboarding is truly more than new hire orientation and getting your computer and passwords. Is onboarding a strategic part of your long term people strategy? If not, you may be missing the most important meal of the day.
To discover more about the lifecycle of employee engagement and what Cornerstone Learning can do for you, visit our Triboading page at www.cornerstonelearning.com/triboading.
Click here to download more information on the Triboarding process and how Cornerstone Learning can help you achieve a robust employee engagement strategy.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
All This Training and No Way to Use it - The 5 Benefits of Online Training
As our priorities switch from navigating in this "new" environment to now fine-tuning details, hiring, re-hiring and training, companies now grapple with the realization that the face-to-face and in-person trainings that have served them well in the past may not be safely coming back for some time, and even when they eventually do, there is no telling when the next outbreak or business altering event might happen.
With all the uncertainty, it is becoming abundantly clear that turning these important training resources into engaging, online modules is a relatively inexpensive and effective way to still provide the training needed in a safer, more updated and sustainable format.
In working with client organizations making this transition, here are the top five benefits they have found for making the switch.
Flexibility
Online training provides broad flexibility compared to in-person training. In our rapidly changing environments, it is important to be able to update trainings quickly. Online trainings provide the flexibility to change and adapt information without having to change an entire structure of a course. Online trainings also provide flexibility for the learner, giving them the ability to take the training wherever and whenever. This is also a benefit to the organization as half day and full day training sessions are no longer needed and the trainings are universally scalable to any amount of employees. And lastly, online training provides flexibility in how information is given. Online courses can easily be built to include downloadable documents, videos, interactive elements and quizzes.
Learner Retention
Online trainings can help learners retain information with videos, animations, interactive elements, quizzes, and legible and creative fonts and images. The options for creatively displaying information are (virtually) limitless. This interactive approach to learning is much more effective than the standard powerpoint presentation with note taking training.
Progress Reporting
Progress reporting is a benefit of online training for both the learner and the organization. On the learner side, quizzes along the way can help the learner monitor their progress throughout the course to make sure they are retaining the information given. For the organization, being able to monitor the progress of all learners at any time allows them to follow up with learners on all completed and outstanding trainings and make sure all learners are completing the necessary trainings.
Centralized Resource Hub
Using online trainings means housing the training somewhere, whether through a company intranet or an LMS (recommended). With the training being housed online, this means that there can be a centralized resource hub for all trainings and resources that all employees can access at anytime. As time goes by we often forget things that were taught to us three years ago. Now, we can access that training and quickly reference what we need.
Price
For some, this benefit should probably have been first on the list. Online training is simply more cost-effective for reaching larger audiences and for organizations who are constantly training employees. No more costs associated with setting up and facilitating in-person trainings, not to mention the additional costs now for cleaning and disinfecting the training environment. The only costs associated with online trainings are the initial cost of developing the training, the possible cost for an LMS (we offer a cost effective solution to that) and the occasional cost for updating the training. Much cheaper!
Bonus Benefit
Currently safer for employees. No need to gather together. Each employee can complete their training safely and socially distanced.
As many organizations are finding out, now is a great time to make the switch. Your new and existing employees get the training they need in a safer and effective format. Let us help you make the switch.
We are an employee engagement consultancy at our core with the ability to develop online training, so we know what truly engages your people more than a standard online training authoring company. Contact us today at info@cornerstonelearning.com and let us partner with you to transform your training.