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Employer Branding

5 Steps For Spreading Good Vibes And Weaving Purpose Into The Employee Experience

We often hear that the recipe for true happiness and success is when your passion meets your purpose. In his book, Start with Why, Simon Sinek echoes the fact that everything you do should always have a ‘why’ behind it and should always be done with intention. If you are one of the lucky people that have found the why in your job or in your company, then you have truly hit the jackpot. Companies who prioritize and advocate for social good create a richer and more engaging employee experience.

There are several ways to weave social good into the everyday culture of an organization without it feeling like a hollow gesture. Here are 5 key ingredients to what I like to call “The Social Good Recipe”! In equal parts, blend purpose, prioritization, passion, planning, and production. And as a special bonus treat, add a sprinkle of party as you celebrate wins together.

The Social Good Recipe

1. PURPOSE – Survey your employees asking them for organizations and causes close to their heart. Provide context and ask them to consider your values, the communities you serve, and underserved sectors. Being part of the journey from the very beginning will help them feel seen, heard, and more engaged in the process. This will also give them the opportunity to reflect upon their contribution in life, both personally and professionally. When employees come together, working towards the same goal, they are bound to develop creative ways to realize that goal.

 

2. PRIORITIZATION – Select around 3 to 5 causes that align well with the fabric of your organizational culture. Prioritizing down to this level shows intentionality and brings a strong focus to your overall goal. Too many options will muddle the process and may overwhelm your employees, causing them to become disinterested.

 

3. PASSION – Create a group of social good ambassadors representative of the world around us. Next, hand over the reins to the people that make up your organization, so they can own different aspects of the process. If you are a company that is dispersed regionally or globally, it is important to select a social good ambassador in every region who then belongs to the larger group at the head office level. This helps with consistent and seamless local execution of initiatives within the respective regions, helping voices across geographies to be heard.

 

4. PLAN – Develop a plan for execution and come up with different ways to achieve your goal. When social ambassadors put their heads together and create an all-encompassing plan, it helps them become more invested at a personal level. This may sometimes mean partnering with a consulting agency that focuses on not-for-profits. Clothing/Food drives, volunteering at the local food bank or soup kitchen, participating in walks/runs, and building a home are just a few ways to make this happen. Provide flexibility for employees to be part of other causes outside of the top 3 to 5 that the organization has selected. Some organizations have woven volunteerism into the employee experience by offering days off to support community enrichment and/or philanthropic efforts to charities of their choice.

 

5. PRODUCTION – Making it happen. This part will likely be the bulk of the hands-on work. Seeking out vendors, coordinating and promoting events, and communicating key messages across the organization. Encourage employees to include their family and friends wherever they can. This will not only deepen a sense of belonging, but it will also demonstrate to your employees that you truly care about them and their families. And don’t forget to share your journey and pictures across social channels to further unite the team, deepen the meaning of the mission, and attract purpose-driven talent to the organization.

 

Last but certainly not the least, celebrate your wins (the bonus treat “P” PARTY)! Recognize employees or groups that have contributed their time and energy to serve these causes that matter. There is nothing like seeing your purpose and efforts come to life!

 

Well there you have it, social good can bring greater meaning to the employee experience and enrich your overall brand, both employer and consumer. And when your employees come along this journey with you, they become your greatest ambassadors.

 

Are you a company that is on a social good journey? This recipe might be a good one to follow so you and your employees can find that perfect blend of purpose and passion, as you enjoy every bite of success.

 

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Need help designing an employee experience that matters? Hop on over to www.powerhousetalent.ca to learn more about our award-winning employer brand strategies.

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employee engagement

Deepen Employee Engagement

Deepen employee engagement - Employee Experience Infographic

The workplace continues to change and progressive employers are deepening employee engagement by recognizing the paradigm shift that is occurring.  

You can read more about escaping legacy behaviours, sparking a cultural metamorphosis, and changing the energy of your organization in our book Peace, Love, Meaningful Careers.

Looking for support on this journey? Hit us up here or at [email protected] to learn more about our award-winning employer brand strategies and programs designed to help your organization realize its best self. 

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employer of choice award writing tips

Five Tips For Writing Employer Of Choice Award Submissions That Win!

So you’ve decided to submit an employer of choice or industry award nomination for your organization.

Now it’s time to write a submission that actually gets traction. We have some great news. We help clients with this frequently and are here to dish some tips to help you win at work! Insert happy dance!

1) Write with Personality

There is nothing worse than reading a regurgitation of stats and facts. Imagine what the judges are thinking when they are sifting through an endless stack of submissions. It’s time to wow them and move them into action in order to get your submission into the finalist pile.

Much like all of the writing we do at Powerhouse, we write with heart and in a manner that feels human. We encourage you to do the same. So what does this actually look like? It means finding your voice and ensuring a consistent tone across channels. This comes back to the overarching significance of taking time to understand and build out your employee value proposition (EVP) and employer brand strategy. When we understand our tone of voice and consistently use it with every communication including award submissions, we reinforce key messages, our brand personality, and build brand trust.

2) Tell Stories

Did you know that stories are 22 times more powerful than facts alone? I discovered this while conducting research for my book Peace, Love, & Meaningful Careers…shameless plug. The fact remains, stories work.

Reflect on the question at hand and then swiftly move into storytelling mode. Help the reader, in this case, the judge, become immersed in your transformational journey. This builds connection and deepens an emotional response to the information.  

Workplace culture book

 3) Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute

If you’ve decided to participate in various award submissions, really commit to the process. This means proper planning. There are organizations all over the world that hire agencies skilled in crafting submissions and telling impactful stories. These are experts in understanding the information required to help judges move into action and consider them as a finalist for an award. That is your competition. 

Slapping together facts in a generic fashion will not get you to the finish line, as it is a representation of who you are as an employer. If you care enough to submit your proposal for consideration, care enough to plan and do it right. This doesn’t mean you must hire an agency although many organizations who do not have internal Communications teams find it to be more effective and cost-efficient than hiring an internal resource to manage the work.

4) Use Another Set of Eyes or Two 

When we write submissions, we go deep in the zone becoming so familiar with the work that it proves more difficult to spot errors. As such, with every writing project we embark on, we undergo an editing phase. This is done by an individual skilled in copyediting which is a different skill set than writing. Not only does this improve grammar and overall composition, but it ensures minor typos are caught and a submission is flawlessly executed.

Buy your grammatically skilled colleague a virtual coffee and have them review your submissions with a fine-tooth comb. 

5) Persevere

When we started to walk, we didn’t just get up and run a marathon. The move from crawling to running down the halls of our home took time. There’s value in pursuing awards whether you win them or not as it works a self-reflection muscle which brings greater intentionality to building an exceptional employee experience. Check out this article here where we discuss this further.

It’s not uncommon to be shortlisted yet not cross the finish line in year one, only to find the very next year you are crowned the winner. Like everything else in life, it’s about perseverance.

 

Well there you have it, five tips to help you rock the awards circuit! We’re sending you winning vibes from the Powerhouse team. Send us a note and let us know how your award submissions worked out. Happy writing!

Employer of choice awards

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HR book

Human Resources Book – HR Reimagined

Workplace culture book

Human Resources Book – HR Reimagined & Ready for the Modern Age

Hey there friends! Ever ask yourself “Is this all there is?”. Guess what, your employees are asking the same question and it doesn’t need to be that way. In so many cases, the workplace has turned into the hamster wheel where we spend our time labouring to fit into a box versus truly tapping into our full potential as professionals and as an organization. That is exactly why I wrote this book.

This book is a trip through my twenty-year career as a Certified HR Leader (CHRL) and the research I have done. Here you will discover a methodology filled with the ingredients to nourish your workforce and build a thriving culture. And I didn’t stop there. As a lover of simplicity and bringing ideas to life, my book also contains an implementation blueprint designed to help you operationalize key concepts and tactics as you move your organization through a cultural metamorphosis.

Within the book, I cover topics such as workplace flexibility, Employee Value Proposition development, diversity and inclusion, corporate social responsibility…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! The book is filled with research as well as interviews with experts in the fields of diversity and inclusion, leadership, and media.

This is my contribution to the world in an effort to foster a greater sense of community at work. I hope you enjoy it. It was written with love. 

Wishing you peace, love, & meaningful careers, 

Alyssa

To learn more about Powerhouse Talent Inc. and our employer branding and employee experience strategy solutions, hop on over to www.powerhousetalent.ca.

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Article on EVP and employer brand

The Most Powerful Transformer in HR

Article on EVP and employer brand

I want to let you in on a little secret…

You might be surprised to hear me say that the biggest win related to an employee value proposition (EVP) /employer brand strategy project is not that of talent attraction, but rather the fostering of a cultural metamorphosis. A wonderful by-product of such a project is greater ease in attracting outstanding talent, as when one’s position and voice are crystallized, the opportunity for brand recall is strengthened. But again, that is simply a fabulous by-product.

When we commence these projects digging deeper and with a spirit of organizational self-discovery and intentionality around building an exceptional employee experience, we can transform more than a recruitment process. We can transform our culture.

This is not new and has always been the case. By the end of this article, you will understand why this happens. My hope is that I will inspire you to do this critical work. This does not require an agency although many organizations opt to utilize one for several reasons including expertise in this discipline, speed, ease, and objectivity. But most importantly, do not let budget constraints prevent you from realizing your organization’s best self! An EVP project is at the helm of a cultural rebirth.

Let the fun begin!

Let’s start with what an EVP is. An EVP is the “why” around your organization. It’s what attracts and retains talent. It is also your promise to your people. When we undergo an EVP project, we distill the very qualities which attract talent to us, as well as gain an appreciation for who we are not.  In this realization there is power. There is the capacity to communicate clearly to both existing employees and prospective talent around the authentic employee experience. In doing so we optimize our recruitment funnel by having those unlikely to find success at our organization opt-out while those who will thrive in our environment have their interest intensified. For example, some candidates thrive in builder environments with a higher degree of fluidity and ambiguity, while others will be met with frustration and crave deeper process maturity. An EVP is an exercise in truth-telling flavoured with the aspirational tone of what’s to come, as with each hire we advance closer to this.

Next, some mistake employer branding as an exercise in career site beautification. This to me is “veneer work”. If what is beneath the #instaperfect surface is far from inspiring and contrary to the messages being shared, credibility will be lost. When we approach this work with genuine motivation to become our best self, we can co-create an enriched employee experience and future together with our employees.  This is the business of transformation, not of selling an illusion.

For those who know that there’s something special that needs to be unearthed and are committed to this being the catalyst for positive organizational change and enhancement, this is the work that gets me fired up!

It’s important to look at this initiative with fresh eyes. It’s a paradigm shift rather than looking at it as simply another HR initiative. One needs to understand that the EVP is at the heart of one’s people strategy and brings cohesion to the full employee lifecycle.

Article on EVP and employer brand

Once an EVP has been established, every new HR program, initiative, and policy, becomes intentional and crafted to support an exceptional employee experience honouring the people promise. It is approached with a spirit of alignment to the overarching “why” of the employee experience. Rather than the employee lifecycle looking similar to a quilt with random employee programs patched together, it is an intentional and cohesive experience which aligns to this “defining why”. How we onboard, how we inspire, how we develop, how we build belonging, how we part ways, how we foster ongoing relationships within alumni networks, and how we invite those very people back into the organization as boomerang employees, all aligns with the EVP and tells a consistent story. If you’re looking for authenticity around your employer brand, this is how you do it.

An EVP is the Optimus Prime of HR. It is the transformer (80s cartoon version of course!) that leads the people strategy. Beware of the veneer, they are the Decepticons of this space.

Listen to our podcast to learn more on this subject.


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To learn how to escape the legacy mindset, foster a cultural metamorphosis, and change the energy of your organization, check out the book Peace, Love, & Meaningful Careers available in Kindle and paperback here. To learn how you can work with Powerhouse Talent on the development of your EVP, hit us up here.

Workplace culture book

 

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Employer of choice awards image of trophy

Winning at Work – Are employer of choice awards worth it?

 

Employer of choice awards image of trophy

You’ve got the best gig ever, employer branding (I know what you are thinking…biased much? Raving fan of EB over here and proud!). Undoubtedly you will start to think about ways to build awareness and strengthen your organization’s reputation. Often employer of choice awards come to mind. With more and more award organizations popping up and categories emerging, it’s hard to know what is worth pursuing.

Employer of Choice Awards can be helpful within the world of employer brand management and employee experience strategy. When they are part of a larger people plan, they can provide intentionality and help narrow your organization’s focus on programs that are truly meaningful within the employee experience.

Here are five ways employer of choice awards can strengthen your organization’s position in the talent marketplace.

1) They force you to reflect upon the employee experience and make it better

The award submission process can serve as an opportunity for reflection. In my humble opinion, awards should not be a random exercise in throwing tactics against the wall to see what sticks. Like my philosophy around the broader people promise and employee experience, awards play a role in intentionality. They provide an opportunity to pause, reflect, and optimize. This may mean reviewing award criteria to better understand organizational gaps so that these gaps can be remediated. This may mean not pursuing awards for a period of a year to right the ship, do the heavy lifting, and serve the employee population in a more thoughtful manner.

Whether you are in it to win it in year one or simply information gathering, the awards circuit allows us to look in the mirror and ensure we are building a world-class employee experience.

2) Brand enrichment

For those lucky enough to be finalists or recipients of industry or employer of choice awards, employer brand enrichment can occur. Promotion around award programs provides additional reach and broader brand awareness to populations who may not have had the opportunity to interact with the brand in the past. Just think back to the last award list you saw and you will probably recall seeing names of organizations that provide a product or service that is not consumer-facing, thus you may not have had the opportunity to interact with the brand up until that point.

This means brand awareness grows, as does prestige, as discovery was through being noted as a leader within the industry and/or the employee experience.

3) Social proof

Social proof is essentially reinforcing a brand’s credibility by having a trusted third party associated with it. Think of your consumer brand purchases, you likely visited sites that mention the product or service being featured in a major publication or being used by a large multinational corporation. Social proof leverages the existing trust of these global publications and/or multinational organizations to establish credibility. Awards are valuable social proof.

4) Additional traffic

From a talent attraction perspective, many award sites link to either a career site or directly to one’s ATS thus providing an additional traffic opportunity. Let’s face it, attention matters. Gaining additional attention streams can serve both your employer brand, as well as your consumer brand.

5) Employee pride

Last but certainly not least is the benefit of employee pride. Being appointed a finalist or the recipient of an employer of choice award benefits more than the leaders of the organization, it can help to ignite employee pride. Employees want to feel proud of where they work as it is a pivotal association made with them as individuals. Being associated with an award-winning business with employee-centric practices helps employees feel proud of who they work for and indirectly helps elevate their personal brands.

There you have it, five reasons to consider industry and employer of choice awards. Once again, in order to derive the greatest benefit from this investment, it is important that there be an overarching people strategy that embeds the employee value proposition (EVP), essentially “the why” into each stage of the employee life-cycle. Once established, awards can provide intentionality, focus, and commitment to an exceptional employee experience.

 

Wishing you peace, love, and meaningful careers,

Alyssa

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Internal communications image

How To Write Employee Communications With Heart In Five Simple Steps

Have you ever received a corporate email laced with jargon and wondered why communications can’t share information in a more human manner? We got you. Not only is it possible, but there is also a helpful formula to make sure you don’t put your readers to sleep. Are you ready for it?

1) Determine what you want the audience to know and how you want them to feel

Start by understanding your communication goals. What do you need the reader to learn from this communication and how do you want them to feel while reading it? When we are intentional, not simply about information structure, but also the emotional response, we improve the output. Rather than a vanilla communication, compose heart-centered messages that share not simply the desired information but also enrich the employee experience.

2) Speak to one person and do so with transparency

Stop writing to the masses. The best way to hit it out of the park with your communication is to imagine your reader, not your readership. When you move from a generic mass communication to a custom-crafted message that can still be shared broadly, you increase your odds that it will feel human, connected, and sincere. 

Don’t forget to be transparent. If you need to gloss over the facts with jargon, don’t bother including them. Employees want to be informed, trust their leaders, and this is built with transparency. Share the journey and help employees understand the landscape. Let them know what is keeping you up at night and what you are doing about it.

3) What’s in it for them

While speaking to your reader, ask yourself, “what is in it for them, or what is the impact?”. It’s human nature to focus on our personal impact, positive or negative. Shifting our thinking to the reader’s questions helps build messages which convey what is needed while addressing the elephant in the room. This helps communications land well, reduces noise, and assists the team in digesting the information. 

4) Add images or video

Tell stories, don’t just regurgitate facts. Bring the reader into the story with visual elements. Did you launch a new product? Share images of the product team including the journey leading up the launch (the pizza boxes, the goofy moments, the product demos, and team shots). Bring the reader into the experience of the message with informal images and video. Highly produced scripted video or portrait shots won’t usually win over hearts. Keep it real!

5) Use modern channels

Communication is simply the sharing of information. Break those predictable communication patterns and experiment with new channels. From live streaming to internal podcasting, there are plenty of ways to break up with the “office memo”. Kick it new-school. Consider the criticality, confidentiality, and scope of the message when determining the appropriate channel.

There you have it, employee communications delivered with intention and heart! Now go on out there and build an awesome workplace!

Need help communicating with your team in ways which inspire connection? We got you! Powerhouse Talent builds meaningful employee communications, compelling employer award submissions, and social media content which unites. Hit us up at i[email protected] to learn more. Contact info here

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HR and Recruitment Training

Recruiter Training Has Never Been So Much Fun!

Recruiter Training: You’ve heard it before, your recruiters want more training. The war for talent is intensifying and the landscape seems to be changing on a daily basis. While conferences are great networking opportunities, you are really looking for training that is specific to your organization’s current state. A collection of generalized approaches to topics is just no longer cutting it. 

Powerhouse Talent's Recruiter Training

Behold…Powerhouse Talent’s Talent Attraction Learning Intensive. Our custom learning workshops are called intensives for a reason. We get in there and dig into your organization’s specific needs. We dive deep into pain points and build the path forward together while learning simultaneously. We like to say we put the “action” in talent attraction learning.

Powerhouse Talent's Recruiter Training

Powerhouse Talent's Recruiter Training

In each customized session we provide inspiration, education, and operationalization to help get you to the other side! The best part is we have a blast doing it! Our sessions are designed for team building and togetherness. They are fun and human….no stuffy theory lectures here! So much so that we have a 100% net promoter score with participants describing the training as inspiring, engaging, unique, useful, and high quality!

Powerhouse Talent's Recruiter Training

Give us a shout today to learn more. 

Join our journey on Instagram! Wishing you peace, love, meaningful careers!

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