He thought that quality was better than quantity, and that people were above "vile metal". So he decided to make his views known after years as a sports agent, and as soon as the statement reached his boss's ears, he terminated his contract. This is the story of Jerry Maguire, starring Tom Cruise in the 1996 movie of the same name.
More than two decades after its premiere, two quotes from the world-famous movie serve today to address the reality of the employee experience, so directly related to Customer Experience: the first, "show me the money", speaks of past experiences; the second, "help me help you", brings us in line with the trends in vogue in this discipline still so neglected by a large majority of companies.
What is the best way to retain talent and generate a commensurate employee experience that makes your employees more than just machines to get things done? Some people think that money is the best incentive. Quite a few HR managers or "C-level" managers propose small salary increases to those who show signs of burnout, demotivation or disaffection with the company. They are the heirs of the 'show me the money' culture, so deeply rooted in the professional world. However, this may not be the best strategy.
A survey recently released by the specialist firm Reward Gateway states that more than 60 percent of employees would rather work for a company with a culture "where people are regularly praised and thanked for doing a good job" than one that chooses to increase pay by 10 percent, but is unable to have words of support for above-average performers. Not only is there a mismatch between regular rewards and employee expectations, but HR professionals themselves have serious doubts about the extent of their work: nearly half (45%) feel that their recognition and reward program is not as effective as it should be.
For these departmental leaders in companies, the main reasons for frustration are the lack of motivation for the reward itself, the lack of a quorum at the recognition celebration (i.e. the absence of a social dimension to the recognition), and the lack of a route to the possible recognition. Hence, for the majority, 3 out of 4, they say that investing in such programmes should be a priority.
Be careful, because attachment to the company is also closely related to identification with the company's values (hence the link between employee experience and Customer Experience). A video creation company, TopLine Film, has conducted another study with data collected from a thousand office employees, from which some surprising conclusions are obtained, such as that 1 in 4 employees (24%) would refuse a job offer if they understand that the company offering the job does not have environmental sustainability policies.
If we cross this with the other figure that 3 out of 10 (31%) believe that their company is de facto not environmentally friendly, we can conclude that at least 7 out of 100 employees are clearly oriented towards leaving their company, regardless of the monetary or other rewards offered by the company. In fact, the percentages of those who want their company to be more sustainable (73%) and those who believe that this responsibility starts with the employee (72%) are almost identical.
Another complementary point of view regarding employee-company engagement comes from the study conducted by The Knowledge Academy on a relatively new phenomenon: ghosting. This is known as the practice of "disappearing" in the middle of a job negotiation to take up a new position in another company. A practice that employees and employers engage in almost equally, in another nod to the changing times: who has the upper hand: the one who offers a job, or the one who offers his or her professional skills?
Based on a survey of 1,325 employees, this research determines that the business, finance or legal sector labor market is the most prone to "cheating" during the recruitment process, with 24% of "phantom offers", closely followed by advertising, marketing, public relations and communication with 22% of cases. If we reverse the direction of the equation, it is the latter market that records the highest number of "phantom candidates", no less than 30%, and second place goes to the business, finance and legal sector, with 21% of supposed candidates who were never heard from again.
What is behind these "ghostly" selection processes, especially when the person who leaves is the one traditionally considered most interested? An investigation published months ago on LinkedIn by a journalist from The Wall Street Journal provides some clues. Among them, the not inconsiderable "new reality" of an inability of younger professionals to properly manage several simultaneous job offers. In any case, a lack of communication that would be solved more often if instead of the usual 'show me the money', a good part of the negotiations would include more often a 'help me help you'.
Photo by Sarah Cervantes on Unsplash
