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Tag: Employee Engagement

How Do You Orient Your Team When Everything Seems Uncertain?

Posted on by Jamey Aiken

The old axiom about uncertainty being the only certainty in business seems quaint given today’s headlines: Historically low unemployment. Hiring shortages one day and hiring freezes the next. Creeping inflation. Shaky markets. Unexpected layoffs. It’s whiplash inducing. And it’s the world we live in.

As the economy shifts and shudders, leaders are challenged to make strategic decisions with increasingly limited foresight. And employees? They’re left feeling disoriented, confused, and vulnerable. It’s a recipe for getting stuck. People become less willing to make mistakes, to stick their necks out for each other, or to take the smart risks necessary to adapt to the changing environment. In a time when flexibility and agility are critical qualities to business success, many organizations find themselves in a state of emotional contraction, unable to zag gracefully forward.

The problem is alignment. Conventional objective-setting tools simply fall short as a way to get everyone on the same page because they’re based on past assumptions rather than the competing signals of the future. Plus, they don’t give employees the right context for seeing themselves in that changing future—much less get them excited about it. For companies to navigate wave after wave of uncertainty, you need a more responsive approach:

Understand how your employees are feeling right now.
Are they cynical or optimistic? Are they barely hanging on or feeling enthused and inspired? Do they understand the vision for where the company is going? Or do they need more evidence and explanation? The more understood and recognized people feel in times of uncertainty, the more opportunities you have to deepen trust and allegiance. If you ask, people will let you know how aligned they are with a vision for the future and the strategy to get there. You can identify what dissonances need to be reconciled. Where the sources of doubt take hold. What fears need to be assuaged before they grow out of proportion. Powerful alignment—the kind required to change and adapt with the business environment—is only possible if you have clear insight into the emotional state of your organization at any given moment.

Address employees’ emotions with a clear story of how you plan to move forward.
While emotional understanding can improve conventional objective-setting by creating deeper connections with people, you still need to establish a clear point of view that will guide your organization toward its future. All businesses have multiple critical initiatives going on at any given moment: corporate strategy, product, go-to-market, brand, people & culture. If the narrative about how they connect is haphazard or unintentional—or confused by external market conditions—people will start quilting their own narratives. The result is multiple, often conflicting stories that lead to different end states. In other words, brand confusion. You must cut through the noise of function-specific goals, objectives, KPIs, and OKRs to make business and brand more emotionally relevant to the people in an organization.

Get employees focused on a future that they are empowered to create.
In times of flux, business leaders face pressure to leap into action—to batten down the hatches, set a course, and prepare teams to brace for the worst. But what employees most need today is leadership that inspires people with purpose and meaning amidst uncertainty. If your organization is feeling trapped by mounting performance pressure and shrinking time horizons, you must give every employee the ability to see, believe, and participate in creating a future that they know is not only possible but necessary. Emotion is the accelerant, the enabler, the multiplier, and the amplifier that connects powerful ideas more deeply and resonantly to the people who need them.

To move your business forward and ultimately grow in times of uncertainty, you need better ways to connect to what employees are feeling. And you need to equip them not with a best guess about the future, but rather with a clear picture of how they’ll create their future. When employees feel they have the agency and ability to control their destiny, they lean into the future with an entirely different spirit. This is how you translate all the ambition that underpins your brand into a coherent set of actions that keep an organization aligned, confident, and positive as it speeds into the uncertain future.

HR and Marketing: Building Your Employer Brand Together

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Finding the Right Fit: HR’s Number One Challenge

HR and Marketing? The role of HR has evolved significantly in recent years. Attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent is a high priority for executives, and most companies place this responsibility on HR. According to PwC 18th Annual CEO survey, a full 73% of respondents are concerned about the availability of talent – a 10% increase from 2014. Executives worry that it’s getting harder to recruit and keep the people who are both skilled high-performers and ‘fit’ within their organization’s culture. And without top talent, maintaining a competitive advantage, adapting to industry change, and growing business is nearly impossible.

Fierce marketplace competition makes it difficult for candidates to know if they are a good fit for the brand without some guidance. Ensuring employee ‘fit’ means your brand needs to know why it matters. That’s where an employer brand comes in. Your employer brand must do the hard work of being clear and consistent about its promise (EVP), communicating an authentic, meaningful brand experience across all touchpoints. When done well, an employer brand helps attract the right talent, allows prospects to self-select for fit with your organization, and increases the likelihood that they will develop into long-term, low-churn, high-producing members of your team.

The Heat is On

Today, HR is tasked with creating an employee experience that markets the business to recruits and employees. Crafting a relevant and resonant employer brand involves aligning your organization’s aspirations, values, needs, and wants with the people you are looking to recruit and retain—no easy feat.

The pressure to create a unified, engaging experience for employees and prospects is real. And, launching an employer brand often involves obtaining budget from a CEO who may not see its value. What’s more, building an employer brand can become nearly impossible if the corporate brand is outdated, or worse, non-existent. When HR operates in a silo, getting budget and approval can be an uphill battle.

We’ve worked with a number of clients with varying global challenges around recruitment and employee engagement and there’s one thing they all agree on: successfully building an employer brand can’t be done in isolation. Engaging and partnering with marketing from the very beginning is essential.

Five Ways to Create a Successful Partnership Between HR and Marketing

  1. Designate an owner. Clarifying ownership is key. There is no better steward of an employer brand than the CEO, but gaining alignment from the rest of your leadership team, including key stakeholders, securing budget, and taking the project to the finish line won’t happen without a designated decision maker from either the HR or marketing team. 
  1. Map the employer brand to the corporate brand. Even if the corporate brand looks outdated or lacks relevance, the employer brand needs to build off of the brand’s foundation, otherwise it is confusing to your employees and the marketplace. Use what assets the brand has and build from there. If your corporate brand has a brand promise, find a way to use that as your North Star. The authenticity of the employer brand depends on HR and marketing working together to create an employee experience that is true to the brand.
  1. Get a commitment from key stakeholders. Getting the leadership team invested in the employer brand is more than just establishing a committee where people can voice opinions. It’s also important for each leader to understand the reach of the employer brand as a key influencer of your brand’s image and reputation. Leadership needs to have skin in the game from the start. This up-front work will help you and your marketing team move quickly with alignment and see the project all the way through.
  1. Build a coalition. Once you’ve got your employer brand strategy in place and support from the key stakeholders, you’ll need advocates from both marketing and HR to roll-out the employer brand. Unfortunately, there’s no “launch” button for your employer brand. To make the biggest impact, you’ll need a team dedicated to the project who have always been part of the journey. Marketers know how to drive and measure audience engagement, create engaging experiences, nurture audiences, and tell a story that keeps people interested and engaged over a long period of time. And you don’t just need the marketing execs on board, you need the whole marketing team.
  1. Don’t forget purpose. Your employer brand needs to be rooted in purpose and meaning in order to emotionally connect to and successfully recruit and retain the type of talent best suited for your business. HR understands what matters to employees, but marketing knows how to capture their attention, authentically win them over with purpose-driven messages, and create valuable brand experiences at every touch point. When HR and marketing collaborate on an employer brand strategy together, they ensure that the company lives up to its promise and executes it every day.

Collaboration Wins

HR and marketing are not used to collaborating on strategic initiatives, especially those driven by HR. But not engaging marketing in the project can be a fatal mistake. Marketing owns the brand and they need to be brought along on the journey. Marketing will appreciate being asked to participate and HR will save time and angst by getting them involved from the start.

Top talent have their choice of companies to work for. Access to information and opportunity has accelerated a new employer brand rule book where companies are continually learning to adapt the hiring, retention, engagement strategy, and practices for success. By coordinating these efforts with HR and marketing, your business will reap the benefits in terms of the talent you attract and how well they ‘fit’ into the company.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

The Meaningful Workplace: Employee Engagement for the 21st Century

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

The meaningful workplace is an idea which seeks to address many of the pain points businesses are feeling as they try to get their enterprises fit for the future.

This white paper will set out the advantages of building a purposeful, values-driven workplace with a meaningful culture that better balances the needs of both the employer and the employee. 

It will explore how businesses can reach out to their employees on a new and more engaging human level that reduces the static inherent in typical company/employee interactions. 

It will argue that when senior management seeks more meaningful outcomes from their employee engagement activities, they not only achieve their traditional objectives, but also something of great and enduring value: a new, higher-order and meaningful alliance with their employees.

This paper will suggest that the traditional notions of “purpose”, “values” and “culture” need to be rethought in light of the changing attitudes, expectations and aspirations of both current and prospective employees. It presents the alternative ideas of “ambition”, “feelings” and “behavior”, which are better aligned to the needs of the modern, meaning-seeking employee.

It will detail what composes the ideal master plan for a meaningful workplace and how that master plan can be used to fuel a range of plans designed to engender meaning at the corporate, workplace and individual levels. 

Finally, this paper will point out the need to rethink how to engage employees who are seeking meaning and urges businesses to think beyond mere “internal messaging” programs.

While this series challenges a number of established employee engagement “principles and practices”, it demonstrates how the “meaningful workplace” concept addresses the same business objectives of improved morale and increased productivity and engagement – albeit from a more compelling human perspective. 

Here’s what you can look forward to in the Meaningful Workplace

  1. Context: the workplace in crisis
  2. Understanding what makes something “meaningful”
  3. Toward the meaningful workplace
  4. Employees respond positively to a meaningful workplace
  5. Why people are looking for meaningful workplaces
  6. Why workplaces aren’t meaningful now
  7. Making your workplace more meaningful
  8. “Ambition” is the new “purpose”
  9. “Feelings” are the “values”
  10. “Behavior” are the new “culture”
  11. Making it happen
  12. Going beyond “messages”
  13. A process of self-discovery and self-identification

If you or someone you know is challenged by a workforce in which employees aren’t engaged, productivity is down and morale is low, download this paper. It is a must read for any business today.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.

Competing for Talent in a Hot Market

Posted on by Dominique Smith

When you’re a young company hoping to thrive and compete for talent in a hot market, like the tech industry, it can be tempting to succumb to the table stakes of the “free” work culture. Many of the most well-known tech giants of Silicon Valley offer free food, gym memberships, massages, dry cleaning, concierge services, work activities, the list goes on, all with the intention of attracting and retaining talent. But, are the free add-ons really working?

According to a 2018 LinkedIn report, the tech industry had the highest turnover rates at 13.2% with a median tenure ranging from 1-2 years. In other words, free employee perks might attract talent, but it definitely doesn’t keep them.

Organizations that effectively cater to their talent are those that prioritize strong leadership, effective communication, and dedication to its employees and their growth within the company. The lack of presence of these initiatives within some of the larger tech companies are exactly why employees end up leaving—just take a look at their company reviews on Glassdoor.

So, how can your company attract, retain, and engage talent? Here are three markers of a successful employer brand.

Growth and Recognition

Employees want to work at organizations that not only create opportunities for continuous learning but also for career growth within the company (i.e. promotions). There is an understanding that when you stop learning and advancing in your career, you run a high risk of falling behind and becoming less competitive, especially in today’s economy. New companies and trends are constantly emerging and the talent pool will only become more skilled.

Vision

Full transparency and communication between leadership and employees about the direction the organization is heading in and how it intends to get there highly factors into how aligned employees feel within a company. Employees want to have a clear picture of where they are investing their efforts and ensure that there is still a place for them in the organization. Implementing this heavily relies on effective communication from managers and executives.

Leadership

The togetherness of an organization must trickle down from the top. Employees want to trust their managers and believe that they are competent, communicative and experienced enough to not only lead and make well-informed decisions on behalf of the company but also provide mentorship and value to the company.

In today’s climate, working for an organization that has a strong, effective foundation and is willing to invest in its employees in a way that cultivates opportunity for growth and advancement are the organizations that will have the upper hand in attracting and retaining talent. The free add-ons are a plus, but employee satisfaction is really rooted in working somewhere that is dedicated and supportive to the growth of your career and goals.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.

Employer Branding Trends for 2020

Posted on by Paige Lansing Valle

Today, we’re continuing our deep dive into the most important trends affecting your business, brand, and culture heading into 2020. Following our look at content strategy, let’s examine employer brands.

Remember when the common sentiment toward millennials was laden with disgust? Who were those entitled young people and their outrageous demands for flexibility, remote working, and—gasp—having a greater purpose in work than making money? It wasn’t that long ago, but oh how the tides have changed.

Now, as we all know, those “millennial” demands have not just become normalized, but meeting them has become the de facto minimum requirement for employers if they’re going to attract and retain top talent, of any generation. But just as the demographics of employees—and their shared needs and desires—shift every year, the trends of effective employer brands shift as well.

As a refresher: an employer brand is the articulation of what makes your company a great place to work. Your employer brand is integral to every touchpoint an employee or prospect might interact with, from the website to social media to the interior design of your office and internal communications. Because the potential touchpoints are vast, consistency is key to ensure optimal impact on your audience: the people most critical to making your business a success. Staying on top of employer brand trends means keeping in touch with what employees are looking for, and thereby ensuring your employer brand is relevant.

Here are the top trends to look out for in 2020.

1. Authenticity

Publicly displayed company values are key indicators for employees looking to align their personal values with how the business is run. But values are meaningless unless you can back them up. Take ‘family-friendly.’ Paid parental leave is nice, but if new parent employees are expected to be available 24/7, traveling all the time, or have rigid expectations placed on when they need to be in the office once parental leave is over, the ‘family-friendly’ value comes across as completely disingenuous. And thanks to sites like Glassdoor and Indeed, it’s pretty easy to find the truth.

2. Growth

As ‘digital transformation’ has become common parlance, employees understand that job security depends on acquiring new skills regardless of where you are in your career. And this doesn’t necessarily mean sending employees to expensive conferences or bringing in a world-renowned speaker. Offering employees exposure to senior leaders or inviting them (even as a fly on the wall) to big meetings is just as important for growth as more formal activities. Using the employer brand to communicate these types of opportunities demonstrate to your employees that you are invested in their development, which in turn makes them feel invested in your company.

3. Personalization

“To attract and retain talent, we’re seeing organizations creating a consumer-grade experience at work which reflects their attractive, authentic employer brand,” says Forbes columnist Rebecca Skilbeck. Personalization, i.e. acknowledgment that I am an individual, not a number, goes hand in hand with hustle. It’s an implicit contract: I work hard for you, you give me praise to keep me motivated. Being treated as an individual, whether through customizable career pages à la Nike or Starbucks, or 1-1 praise indicates a company values your talent and contribution, your experience and perspective. And by acknowledging that through personalization efforts, it creates a virtuous cycle in which employees are more motivated to continue performing.

4. Brand Association

An employer brand’s effectiveness goes hand in hand with the external brand. So if the brand itself lacks public awareness, sells a meaningless product, or worse, is involved in shady behavior, that reputation is going to impact how employees and prospects feel about the company.  A recent LinkedIn study has proven that more than 75% of job seekers research a company’s reputation before applying. People care about the brand they are working for because it reflects on their personal brand—which has become more important than ever in ensuring long-term career growth. Assessing your brand reputation and taking control of the narrative is imperative if you’re going to attract and retain top talent.

Keep your eyes here for the latest and greatest in all things 2020.

Emotive Brand is a brand strategy and design agency in Oakland, California.

How to Grow and Maximize Employee Engagement

Posted on by Sarah Herold

Employee Engagement Is More Than an HR Benefit

Since Gallup began tracking employee engagement in 2000, employee engagement averages haven’t budged. A recent Gallup survey shows that indeed, work could be more fulfilling for most Americans. The percentage of U.S. workers whom Gallup considers “engaged” in their jobs averaged 34.1% in March.

As it stands today, over two-thirds of the American workforce is disengaged at work, and it appears that no amount of HR benefit, wellness programs, or incentives can make a dent in this number.

So how does an organization build a culture of happy, engaged employees?

Instead of searching for the right engagement survey or the right communication tool, an organization must instead focus on making the work itself deeply meaningful to each employee.

An organization must talk less about engagement, and focus more on purpose.

You might be wondering, “How can a for-profit organization offer meaningful work without a cause?” Let me illustrate by using myself as an example:

I feel the greatest sense of purpose when I am able to understand the needs of individuals and design solutions and services for them. I’m not changing the world or disrupting an industry. Even the people who are need something to ground them day-to-day. For me, addressing the needs of people is at the heart of productive, successful work. I thrive when I can generate harmony and progress for everyone.

My job as an account strategist allows me to use these very skills that give me the most satisfaction – empathy, intuition, and perception. I like going to work every day because I’m doing something that’s inherently meaningful to me – establishing personal connections and seeing my efforts come to fruition.

According to Gallup, employees who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged than those who do not.

When we know what motivates us we can then organize our assignments to excite, energize, and fulfill us every day. What could each of us start doing today to create a better sense of purpose and meaning in our day-to-day work?

Foster Relationships

Purpose comes down to relationships. Strong connections with customers or colleagues give us fulfillment in our work. Even if we are doing the most amazing work, we won’t feel fulfilled at the end of the day if we don’t feel a strong connection to people.

Personal Growth

When we stretch ourselves beyond whom we think we are and what we think we are capable of, we feel tremendous satisfaction and purpose. It’s important to seek out opportunities to learn and grow.

It’s the Little Things that Count

What matters are the little things we do every day. When we make a difference for someone else – open a door of opportunity, make something easier, or even elicit a smile – it is incredibly gratifying.

When an organization builds their culture and talent strategy around purpose, employee engagement rises. People are motivated, have greater tenure, and are more likely to promote their company as a good place to work. They’ll show up to work differently. They build meaningful relationships. They work to be challenged and grow professionally. And they work to bring out the best in everyone around them.

An engaged workforce positions your business to grow and sets your brand apart as meaningful. It’s a win-win-win.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.

The Business Case for Trust: How Leaders Can Unlock the Full Power of Trust

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

Trust Pays Off

The business case for trust is straightforward and continues to grow. Each year, the data shows that companies with a culture of trust are more profitable than those without it. A culture of trust is not just a “nice-to-have.” It’s good business. Trust culture companies have outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of three, and high-trust companies “are more than 2½ times more likely to be high performing revenue organizations” than lower-trust companies.

Why?

It turns out we come with an evolutionary hard-wired attraction to people we can trust and a visceral aversion to those we don’t.

People are drawn to and prefer to do business with organizations that have earned their trust, which results in greater productivity, higher sales and wider margins. Trust attracts and engages people, says David Rock who focuses on applying neuroscience insights to management. In SCARF: A brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others published by the NeuroLeadership Journal, he lays out not just the benefits of trust within an organization but a framework for establishing and building it:

“Indeed, the ability to intentionally address the social brain in the service of optimal performance will be a distinguishing leadership capability in the years ahead…

The impact of this neural dynamic is often visible in organizations. For example, when leaders trigger a threat response, employees’ brains become much less efficient. But when leaders make people feel good about themselves, clearly communicate their expectations, give employees latitude to make decisions, support people’s efforts to build good relationships, and treat the whole organization fairly, it prompts a reward response.

Others in the organization become more effective, more open to ideas and more creative. They notice the kind of information that passes them by when fear or resentment makes it difficult to focus their attention. They are less susceptible to burnout because they are able to manage their stress. The feel intrinsically rewarded…If you are a leader, every action you take and every decision you make either supports or undermines the perceived levels of status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness in your enterprise. In fact, this is why leading is so difficult.”

Building Trust Starts with Behavior

In business, leadership behavior is what matters. The actions of leaders shape expectations. Each decision and action either reduces or builds trust.

We’ve consolidated the factors that build trust from a review of management literature. Through our analysis we found a consistent set of behaviors that trusted leaders demonstrate.

Clarity and transparency: People trust the clear, and mistrust or doubt unnecessary complexity. Be crystal clear about your purpose, expectations, and priorities. Tell the truth in a way people can verify. Be authentic and lean in on disclosure.

Empower with empathy: People learn to trust those that operate beyond their own self-interest; that show respect for others’ points of view, skills and expertise. People want to be great. Tune in to their abilities. Be the leader that lets others be great.

Consistently demonstrate integrity: People notice those who do the right thing for the right reason. Be true to yourself, your purpose, and your values.

Keep commitments and contribute: Few things build trust quicker than actual results. At the end of the day, people need to see outcomes. Empathy and integrity aren’t enough, unless combined with delivering on commitments. Be the most useful person in the room. Be consistent delivering results.

Keep current: People have confidence in those who stay up to date, relevant, and sharp. Stay curious and keep learning. Be an enthusiastic teacher and learner. Be known for seeking out new ways of doing things, ideas, and trends.

Be open and cultivate connection: Trust requires a relationship, and it is through its relationship with you that your team expresses its trust. Openness is essential to build these relationships. If people can’t get to know you, then they probably can’t get to trust you, either. With openness comes the requirement for a certain vulnerability.  Be available and present. Be the type of leader that ‘puts yourself out there’ and make the first move to make a connection.

Trust Takes Time

“Every action you take and every decision you make either supports or undermines the perceived levels of status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness in your enterprise.” – David Rock

So take it one moment at a time. Trust can’t be built overnight. It requires time, effort, focus, and consistency. Inspiring trust requires authenticity and effort. But if you think of these elements as skills to work on and challenge yourself to think of every action or decision as an opportunity to demonstrate one or more, you will be on your way to building trust that will drive results and improve both the top and bottom lines.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy agency.

Secrets to a Great Employee Brand Story to Recruit Top Talent

Posted on by Chris Ames

Your Employee Brand Is Your Talent Scout

There’s a reason that great employees are so often referred to as “talent.” Workers are a dime a dozen, but true expertise is incredibly hard to come by. It’s the thing that propels businesses to their next level of funding, keeps the sales pipeline full, and boosts office morale high in times of unease.

No matter how advanced your technology is, people are the backbone of a successful business. Great brands tell stories, and there are few narratives more important than your employee brand story. HR specialists and recruiters have been leading this space for years, but in today’s competitive landscape, companies can’t afford to let someone else tell their story for them.

Who Do You Trust?

When you’re trying to recruit excellent people to your brand, where should you point the spotlight?

Well, according to the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer, “Employees rank higher in public trust than a firm’s PR department, CEO, or Founder. 41% of us believe that employees are the most credible source of information regarding their business.”

Simply, if you want to demonstrate the advantages of working at your company, let your actual employees do the talking. By turning your current employees into brand ambassadors, not only will the message be more authentic, but it will directly impact retention.

In the daily shuffle, employees are rarely encouraged to think deeply about what they do and why it is important. This simple exercise can bring in new talent while reaffirming those who have already joined.

Money Isn’t Everything (Really)

If your employee brand story is a paycheck, free snacks, and a standing desk, you’re probably not thinking big enough. As outlined in Dilys Robinson and Sue Hayday’s influential report “Employee Engagement,” employees are motivated by intrinsic factors like personal growth, working for a common purpose, and being part of a larger mission, as opposed to solely extrinsic factors such as pay and benefits.

What’s the why? of your company? Is it compelling? Is it something your current employees can easily articulate in a meeting or at a cocktail party? The more concise and impactful you make your brand narrative, the more incentivized your employees will be to enlist other top performers.

Employee Brand Storytelling 101

There’s no such thing as the one-size-fits-all employee brand story. Delivering it in a medium that feels true and authentic to your brand is key. But here are some ideas for getting the word out.

  1. Social media: Facebook and Instagram can be fantastic windows for showing a glimpse into the employee side of your brand. Strike the right mix of delight and professionalism to show that your brand is fun, connected, and promotes self-discovery through personal branding.
  2. Live events: Especially in today’s digital marketplace, the power of an in-person event is stronger than ever. From career fairs and conferences to more casual drinks and networking, there’s no quicker way to determine if someone will be a good culture fit than meeting them face to face.
  3. Employee reviews: Employees tend to only leave reviews on sites like GlassDoor and Indeed after they have left. Encourage your current employees to leave reviews while they are still with you. Positive reviews will boost your brand awareness and desirability, and any negative comments will help you address internal friction.
  4. Refresh your job listings: For many employees, a job listing is the first piece of your brand that they see. Plus, they are seeing it in a sea of 100 other applications. Are you making the right first impression? Highlight differentiators like culture, growth, and a compelling mission. You’ll attract people who are passionate about finding the right fit.

Turn Job Shoppers into Job Seekers

Top performers are 46% more likely to be attracted by a better company reputation and 29% more likely to be attracted by more interesting, challenging work. If you want to obtain – and retain – top talent, create an employee brand story that’s compelling, impactful, and irresistibly shareable.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco brand strategy and design agency.

The Future of Work Is More About Cooperation Than Collaboration

Posted on by Tracy Lloyd

The Future of Work

What does the future of work look like? Successful businesses in the future will share a common characteristic: a cooperative approach to employee engagement, morale, and gratification.

Stowe Boyd is a super-smart researcher and someone we’ve followed for years. Stowe is also an author who focuses on the future of work. He believes the tectonic forces pushing business into an unclear and accelerating future.

Stowe has made the following observation:

“In the collaborative business, people affiliate with coworkers around shared business culture and an approved strategic plan to which they subordinate their personal aims.

 

“But in a cooperative business, people affiliate with coworkers around a shared business ethos, and each is pursuing their own personal aims to which they subordinate business strategy.”

An Important Distinction

The future is about more humanized business. That means workplaces in which employees can “pursue their own personal aims”. Guided by what Stowe calls a “business ethos,” the employees thrive. At the same time, they put themselves ahead of the “business strategy”.

This is not “business as usual”. But these are not “ordinary times”. We are living in a time when employees (being the humans they are) are seeking to create more meaning in their lives. In a business sense, this means creating meaning through how they spend their money (as customers) and how they invest their time (as workers).

A Human-Centric, Meaningful Workplace

For employees, meaning comes from doing work that matters (a meaningful business ethos), in a way that increases the feeling that their efforts are helping others (including both the business’s customers as well as their fellow employees). So, rather than subordinating the personal aims of employees, successful businesses promote a cooperative work style.

The result? Employees become more involved. As a result, they contribute more ideas. Also, they are more open with others. They help each other out. So every interaction with fellow employees – coupled with the power of the meaningful business ethos driving the team – fills the employee with a sense of purpose and meaning that is absent in a collaborative approach.

 

We have outlined how we see the future of work in a white paper “The Meaningful Workplace.” Download it and let us know what you think.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco Brand Strategy firm