January always brings a wave of New Year’s resolutions, fresh starts, and new opportunities. As people set goals for this upcoming calendar year, both employees and employers will find that it may be time to make changes to how they work — and who they work with. Many organisations have taken this new year as an opportunity to refine their talent acquisition process, particularly in light of the ongoing talent shortage and the wave of quits many are dubbing the Great Resignation.

This article is the first in a series Hogan put together about refining your talent acquisition process to find, impress, hire, and onboard talented employees who are looking to grow in a new and exciting workplace. To kick things off, we’re starting at the foundation of a successful hiring process — your employer brand.

In a competitive employment environment where organisations around the world are competing for a small talent pool, your employer brand can either be your greatest asset or biggest weakness. It may come as a surprise that 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before applying for a job, meaning that your organisation’s digital reputation is one of the most integral elements of attracting top talent.

If you’re unsure of what to look for and how to improve your employer reputation, we’ve put together a step-by-step system for you to follow.

The Employer Brand Strategy

Assess

Before anything can be done to bolster your employer brand, it’s crucial to gauge your current level of success. From social media to employer review platforms such as Glassdoor, how your company presents itself and how others interact with your organisation is the clearest sign of a positive or negative employer brand.

Measuring Employer Brand

To help capture the current state of your employer brand, take a moment to answer the following questions:

• Do you have a business profile on Glassdoor, Indeed, Comparably, etc.? If so, how many employee reviews do you have?
• What feedback, if any, do you see consistently mentioned — either positive or negative?
• Are current or ex-employees leaving most of the feedback?
• Does your Google My Business profile have employee reviews?
• Are employee reviews drowning out customer feedback?
• Do you have a company LinkedIn page? If so, are employees connected to it? Do you post frequently?
• Does your website have a robust About Us page?
• Does your website highlight the benefits of working for your organisation?

These questions should help you understand what specific pros and cons a prospective employee might be looking for or notice during their research. If you’re missing one of these elements or answered in the negative, don’t worry — identification is only the first step.

Act

Now that you’ve asked the right questions and potentially found some weaknesses, it’s time to make one more assessment: does your employer brand need to be built, or does it require fixing?

How to build Employer Brand

As previously mentioned, you can target a few specific platforms to make your employer brand more robust:

• Glassdoor, Indeed, Comparably, and other HR-focused employee review platforms
• Google My Business
• LinkedIn
• Your organisation’s website

If you are missing one of these profiles or pages, the best first step is creating it and developing it with thoughtful content, related company images, and other relevant information.

For LinkedIn, as a platform to engage with professionals, it’s recommended that you create relevant, thought-provoking posts at a frequency of two to three times per week.

For Glassdoor, Indeed, Comparably, and Google My Business, it will likely take time to gather reviews. To help start the process, encourage your employees to leave honest feedback at their discretion.

These actions will help searchers find your company, gather more information, and gauge your level of engagement with current and past employees.

How to improve Employer Brand

If you identified negative feedback while assessing your employer brand, you can take steps to help counteract its effect. While you might not be able to delete negative employee reviews on most platforms — a practice that can actually do more harm than good — responding to them is the best form of damage control.

When responding to a negative comment, just remember that it’s important to stay calm, cool, and collected. A prospective employee will read the original review and judge your response to measure your organisation’s level of compassion. If you are quick to deny or shut down any criticism, you will paint your organisation as cold and heartless. Failing to address the reviewer’s specific feedback can also be damaging to your organisational reputation.

The best response is structured in the following way:

1. Acknowledge the specific issue being raised.
2. Offer up a solution, if possible, to remedy the situation.
3. Thank the reviewer for their feedback.

Following this simple template should defuse the situation and provide a positive representation of your organisation’s commitment to conflict resolution.

Attract

With these steps, you will have redefined your employer brand as an enticing opportunity to job hunters. The best employer brand is one that is present, thoughtful, and actively engaged with current and ex-employees. While the circumstances of talent acquisition in 2022 might be challenging, being proactive about understanding and managing your organisation’s reputation can help position your organisation to weather the storm and come out on top.

Contact us for more information Learn about the Hogan 360

The post New Year, New Hire, Part 1: How Defining Your Employer Brand Can Help Attract Top Talent appeared first on Peter Berry Consultancy.

First, know it’s not just you. Organisations across industries and around the globe are confronting these issues and more. As Industry 4.0 technologies change how businesses operate, employers are seeking candidates who have strong digital skills, including the ability to quickly and easily learn to use new technology and aptitude for data and analytics.

Meanwhile, major demographic shifts are occurring within the talent market. Through 2030, 10,000 baby boomers will reach retirement age every day, leaving a plenitude of open positions in their wake. Worse, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this phenomenon, with more than 2.4 million early retirements as of fall 2021.

Of course, ability to use technology or learn new skills is not limited by membership to a specific generation. However, this combination of trends has many employers wondering about hiring Gen Z, also known as Generation Z.

Who Is Gen Z?

The most recent generation to join the workforce, Gen Z consists of people who were born from 1997 through 2010. Gen Zers grew up knowing the ubiquity of the internet, smartphones, and social media, so expected fluency with technology is one reason many employers consider them to be desirable as candidates.

Another reason organizations are hiring Gen Z? Gen Zers make up a substantial and growing portion of the talent market. In 2021, 24% of the global workforce were members of Gen Z. By 2030, Gen Zers are expected to account for nearly one-third of all workers.

Although they were expected to come of age with good employment prospects, Gen Zers instead have begun to launch their careers during a global crisis. While human resources and talent acquisition professionals have been lamenting the Great Resignation and the retirement boom, the effects the pandemic has had on the employment market have disproportionately affected Gen Z. Between March 2020 and April 2021, Gen Z experienced 79% more layoffs and 73% more furloughs compared to the rest of the workforce. In other words, they’re open to work.

Building trust will be essential to hiring Gen Z. So, what kind of measures can you take to attract Gen Z job candidates and, more importantly, retain them?

Prioritise Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Gen Z is the most racially, ethnically, and gender diverse generation in history, and its members are more likely than any previous generation to expect organisations to have diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DE&I, programs in place. In fact, 99% of Gen Z workers consider workplace DE&I to be important, and they won’t necessarily wait for you to hire them before they evaluate your organisation’s efforts.

If your DE&I initiatives are insufficient or nonexistent, your leadership team appears homogenous, or your brand doesn’t appear to celebrate diversity, Gen Z job seekers might not even apply in the first place. Concerns about not being accepted due to race, sexual orientation, or gender identity have stopped 37% of Gen Z job seekers from applying for a job, and one in five say they’ve elected not to apply for a job because of concern about the hiring organization’s ability to accommodate neurodivergent individuals.

While no perfect solution exists, a simple starting point does: talent management. If your talent acquisition strategy relies solely on human judgment, you could be missing out on qualified candidates due to unconscious bias. Using scientifically validated personality tests, hiring managers can evaluate candidates objectively to make the hiring process more equitable. Personality can also be used to develop leaders who will promote diversity and inclusion efforts, which is important for creating lasting cultural change.

Look Beyond Hard Skills in Hiring Gen Z

Gen Z workers are just starting out in their careers. Although many already have acquired some experience, don’t limit your consideration of their candidacy to technical skills. The pandemic has been a formative event for this generation, interrupting their education, their transition to the professional world, and more. They’re likely to bring a unique style of emotional intelligence to their work, but they might need and even expect flexibility in finding a role that is both motivating and fulfilling.

Gen Zers understand professional success depends on qualities such as curiosity and willingness to take on new challenges, and 81% believe it’s important to develop relationships with potential employers even when an open position isn’t available — an increase from 22% before the pandemic. A 2019 report by Deloitte and the Network of Executive Women concluded that one of the best ways for employers to attract Gen Z is to select smart, talented people, and then figure out how they align with the organisation’s objectives. Other strategies some businesses are taking include establishing an internal talent marketplace or job rotation program.

Well-validated personality tests can facilitate any of these approaches (and mitigate risk) by giving hiring managers detailed insights about candidates’ so-called soft skills. The Hogan Personality Inventory, for example, can predict how a candidate is likely to behave at work on an everyday basis. Its data offer nuanced information about adaptability, interpersonal style, learning approach, and more. As another example, the Hogan Development Survey can show how candidates are likely to derail if they cease to self-manage during times of stress or pressure. This kind of intel can help you ensure people are matched with roles and projects that suit them.

Offer Professional Development Opportunities

In this competitive hiring market, refining your talent development programs might be the last thing on your mind, with talent acquisition taking precedence for obvious reasons. But don’t underestimate the power of development opportunities when it comes to attracting Gen Z talent. Opportunities for development are a key factor Gen Z candidates consider while job hunting, and they’re critical to provide if hiring Gen Z is an objective for your organisation. In fact, 76% of these candidates see learning opportunities as a must-have.

To make your organization more attractive to this population of job seekers, consider investing in talent development initiatives. These might include mentorships with more experienced employees (which could be reciprocal or “reverse” mentorships), coaching, or personalized development plans supported by personality data. It’ll pay off — more than one-third of Gen Zers expect to stay at their first job for at least four years.

Define Your Organisation’s Values

As you might assume, many Gen Zers care about your business’s social and environmental impact, and they want you to care too. In a 2021 Deloitte survey, 49% said their personal ethics inform the type of work they’re willing to do, and 59% said they believe businesses have no ambition beyond wanting to make money.”

Gen Zers fear being stuck doing work that doesn’t feel fulfilling, and they want to work in environments where the organisational culture reflects their personal values. If you’re interested in hiring Gen Z workers, it’s crucial to know what motivates your employees and how those motivations shape your organisational culture. After all, what drives your employees is what drives your business.

At PBC, for example, every employee has completed Hogan’s three core personality assessments. This includes the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory, which sheds light on the types of jobs and working environments people will find most satisfying. Although we’re a diverse bunch, our collective personality results show that most of us share one key value: altruism. Given that our business’s core purpose is to help people and organisations succeed using data-driven talent insights, our shared desire to help others is fundamental to both our organisational success and our employees’ personal fulfillment. Perhaps we can help you sometime?

Contact us for more information Learn about the Hogan 360

The post Hiring Gen Z: Talent Attraction and Retention Strategies appeared first on Peter Berry Consultancy.

Enhancing Employee Engagement

There is growing consensus that employee engagement is a critical element of an organisation’s success, with employee engagement found to be associated with a range of performance and business outcomes. For instance, Gallup (2020) found that employee engagement was associated with higher levels of productivity, quality, customer loyalty, and profitability and lower levels of absenteeism, turnover, and safety incidents. However, interventions designed to increase employee engagement have been found to have mixed results and according to research from various engagement survey providers such as AON, Glint and Mercer/ SIROTA, 30-35% of employees are disengaged.

Employee engagement requires deliberate strategic actions and there are a range of actions that organisations can take in an effort to build employee engagement. Engagement strategies are most likely to be effective when they are targeted with a useful starting point involving gathering engagement data to identify the issues that are currently impacting staff engagement. Strategies to improve engagement are also most likely to be effective when they are driven by strong leadership and accountability to ensure they are being implemented effectively. If management is out of touch with how staff are motivated and the issues that are currently impacting engagement levels, then the effectiveness of engagement strategies is likely to be significantly reduced.

Leadership and Engagement

Leadership plays a key role in employee engagement, with Gallup stating that 70% of the variance in employee engagement can be contributed to a team’s manager. They found that leadership behaviours centred around positive workplace relationships, recognition, ongoing performance conversations and opportunities for development were closely linked to high engagement levels. The research also indicated that engagement is highest amongst employees who meet with their manager at least once a week.

Transformational leadership has been found to have a high impact on employee engagement and performance. Transformational leaders help connect staff to the organisation, act as a positive role model that inspires them, encourage staff to take greater ownership for their work, and understand the strengths and development opportunities of staff so they can assign tasks that optimise their performance. Transformational leaders listen and attend to staff needs, provide support, engage in open communication, stimulate and encourage learning and thinking independently, and articulate an inspiring vision and promote a sense of purpose.

PBC also conducted research into the most effective leaders and found four meta-competencies that differentiate higher performing leaders. These are being achievement focused, inspiring, strategic, and emotionally intelligent. They include setting clear goals and high performance expectations, working hard to improve morale and create a positive working environment, being visionary and strategic and communicating a long-term vision, and managing one’s emotions appropriately and exhibiting excellent people skills.

As leaders play a significant role in driving employee engagement, it is beneficial to regularly focus on their performance and development. This may include using 360 and personality assessments to identify their motivators, strengths and potential derailers as well as how their leadership style and behaviours are currently being perceived by their direct reports and peers to identify opportunities for improvement. The development of leaders should be focused on increasing the demonstration of effective leadership qualities and behaviours including those that are likely to help enhance employee engagement levels.

Fostering Positive Workplace Cultures

Having a positive workplace culture is important in effectively engaging staff. Positive workplace cultures support employees in feeling that they belong and are valued and focus on the growth, development, and promotion of staff within the organisation. Positive workplace cultures tend to exist in organisations that are purpose- or values-driven with leaders playing an important role in communicating and promoting the purpose, vision and values of an organisation and helping staff understand how their day-to-day work links to the organisation’s broader vision and strategy. They help staff clearly understand what is expected of them and set challenging yet attainable goals.

In positive workplace cultures, leaders also stay in touch with their staff to listen and engage with them and provide regular feedback. Feedback is two-way with employees having the opportunity to communicate issues that they may experience and provide input about operations within the workplace. Engagement is likely to be enhanced in organisations that ensure their employees are provided with an opportunity to voice their views in relation to current issues and practices in the organisation as well as what they find motivating and rewarding.

Rewards and recognition can act as a powerful form of feedback for employees and help employees feel appreciated and valued when performing daily tasks, with employees who don’t feel appreciated more likely to leave their jobs. It is useful to obtain staff input when identifying potential methods to use for rewarding and recognising staff as this can vary amongst employees. It is important to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach and to regularly evaluate rewards and recognition programs to ensure that it suits the organisation’s employees.

Final Thoughts: Avoiding A Common Pitfall

A common pitfall that organisations face when seeking to enhance employee engagement is not linking employee engagement to organisational performance. Many organisations make higher engagement results the goal rather than focusing on the improved performance outcomes that high engagement should be helping them achieve. The action plans that emerge from engagement survey findings shouldn’t focus solely on making employees happier, they should be part of clear strategic objectives that articulate how high engagement levels will lead to improved business outcomes.

The post Enhancing Employee Engagement appeared first on Peter Berry Consultancy.

The research is clear: Highly effective teams drive organisational performance.¹ When a highly effective team comes together to accomplish a goal, the unique skills and characteristics of each team member work together in concert to produce work that no person could accomplish alone. The astronauts of Apollo 11 worked together to land on the moon, and famous bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones collaborated to produce music that will never be forgotten. While these examples of teams made great achievements, many teams fail to be successful.

Patrick Lencioni’s famous model of the five dysfunctions of a team seeks to explain what might cause a team to struggle to succeed. Lencioni proposes that, at the most fundamental level, an absence of trust can lead to serious issues in a team.² Research has confirmed this repeatedly.³ Among other things, a lack of trust can lead to a loss of job satisfaction and poor communication at the individual level, as well as low team commitment and performance at the team level.⁴ Therefore, team trust has ramifications beyond the team.

While research has proven this, the importance of trust within a team is an intuitive concept. A person who does not trust their teammates might be less likely to share new ideas, reach out for support, engage in productive conflict, or to rely on others to make contributions. This behaviour will inevitably hinder team performance. Teams whose members are afraid to share new ideas, for example, will have a difficult time coming up with innovative solutions for challenging problems.

Given the importance of team trust, here are three ways that you can improve trust within your team.

Consider Hogan Scales

Scores on the Hogan personality assessments can provide insight into potential barriers for building trust within teams. For example, individuals with high scores on the Skeptical scale of the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) can be less likely to trust others. When they’re under stress or not self-monitoring, they might assume others have ulterior motives. Providing this insight to individuals who score high on the Skeptical scale can be a first step to fight against the tendency to shut others out and develop a plan to help them foster trust.

While Skeptical is a good example of a scale that can be used to build trust, several other scales can be used to help build team trust as well. Notably, these include the HDS Bold scale, which measures the tendency to resist feedback and appear arrogant, and the HDS Excitable scale, which measures the tendency to appear temperamental and critical when under stress.

Set Recurring Meetings

Trust is built over time and cannot happen when team members aren’t interacting. Setting up recurring meetings for the team to communicate can help build trust. Sharing updates on work projects might can allow for team members to collaborate and share expertise, which aids in building trust. In addition, socializing might help foster a culture of vulnerability, which can also help to build trust.

Model Transparency

Mistakes happen, and everyone on the team will inevitably make them. To leverage these mistakes for trust building, demonstrate and encourage transparency. Sharing mistakes as a leader sets the stage for the rest of your team to follow suit. As team members start to share mistakes, others can offer encouragement, support, and help when appropriate. Over time, a culture of transparency will begin to develop, which is critical for developing team trust.

While considering Hogan scales, setting recurring meetings, and modelling transparency are important for building team trust, these are not one-off solutions. Creating a plan for implementing these practices and adhering to them is necessary. Failure to follow through will hardly impact team trust in a positive way, so developing a plan and having the team hold itself accountable is crucial when implementing these practices. For sustainable change, consistency is key.

The post 3 Ways To Build Team Trust appeared first on Peter Berry Consultancy.

As COVID-19 cases surge once again, organizations that were eager to have employees return to the office are delaying those plans — in many cases, indefinitely. This means that many employees will continue to work from home, whether they like it or not.

There are pros and cons of working from home, both for employees and employers. For example, one common concern among company leadership is about distractions at home and reduced productivity. Some have gone so far as to determine how to monitor employees working from home. On the other hand, working from home has revolutionized the employment perks enjoyed by many workers, offering more flexibility and fewer formalities compared to the office.

Maintaining productivity while ensuring employees stay happy in their roles is a balancing act that organizations strive to perfect. However, as the world’s progress toward ending the pandemic fluctuates, it’s important that both sides of this discussion — employer and employee — take steps to ensure a healthy and prosperous partnership.

Tips for Employees

How to Stay Motivated Working from Home

One of the best ways to stay motivated and avoid burnout is setting goals. But not all goals are made equal. Large, abstract goals that are difficult or time-consuming can be more harmful than helpful, leaving you feeling inadequate as you fail to meet milestones. Instead, set small, attainable goals that can be accomplished steadily over the course of a project or period of time.

How to Stay Focused Working from Home

Distractions are present in any working environment, but working from home can often pose even greater challenges to remaining focused. Aside from removing distractions, such as phones, televisions, and other entertainment sources, one of the most effective strategies is creating a dedicated workspace that helps divide work from home. In the absence of a commute, having a workspace that is detached from the areas of your home where you relax and unwind will help you mentally “clock out” when work ends.

Tips for Employers

How to Keep Employees on Track

Similar to how employees can set goals for individual growth, good leaders can set goals for their teams that will help keep people across job functions aligned and motivated. To support these goals, leaders should remember to encourage their employees at every milestone and make sure to be present to support them as needed.

How to Avoid Becoming an Absentee Leader

Absentee leaders are those who are disengaged from their teams. Absentee leaders don’t communicate with or actively lead the employees who rely on their guidance. To evaluate the strength of your leadership, look at the effectiveness of your team to gauge if your employees are effective, communicative, and empowered in their roles. Other strategies for avoiding absentee leadership include setting up open-door time or one-on-one check-in meetings, creating agendas to structure meetings, offering opportunities for employees to share feedback and ideas, and investing in team building.

While 2022 is already starting off with uncertainty, organizations around the world are taking forward the lessons of the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and adapting to the new realities of doing business. Both employee and employer will play a role in the success of this ever-evolving, work-from-home environment, and flexibility and understanding on both sides are our best tools in building success.

The post How Working from Home Has Changed Employees and the Workplace appeared first on Peter Berry Consultancy.

It’s old news that low employee engagement predicts negative business results. Way back in 2004, Gallup estimated that employee disengagement and associated behaviors cost the U.S. $1 trillion per year, or 10% of GDP.¹ Since then, many studies have validated the effects of employee engagement on organisational performance. What most of the conversations around these studies miss is that employee engagement is not just an issue of commerce but a moral issue as well. Companies that choose to invest in employee engagement are also choosing to improve the quality of their employees’ lives. When employees like their jobs and have a sense of purpose, they are happier and healthier. They also make teams more effective and better serve their employers.

So, engagement is clearly a win-win, right? What’s not to like about something that benefits everyone? Although you might assume all companies are on board, the truth is that most continue to neglect employee engagement. Yes, engagement did receive a recent bump — probably due to remote work’s impact on work-life balance — but a 2020 Gallup poll still revealed that 51% of workers are not engaged[1] and an additional 13% are actively disengaged (by their own reports).[2] Evidently, organisations need to start taking a more proactive approach to boosting morale than the occasional pizza party. They need to look at the root of engagement: personality.

People power organisations , and personality powers people. You can think of personality as a person’s core wiring and the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that stem from it. Using personality tests for engagement efforts will allow leaders to ensure that their employees — and thus their companies — are around for the long haul. Here are four surefire ways to use the science of personality to grow employee engagement.

1) Tailor development to the individual

Before you can grow employee engagement, you first need to understand who you are trying to engage. Each person brings a unique constellation of strengths, weaknesses, and values to an organisation, so a one-size-fits all engagement solution is unlikely to produce results.

One high-level engagement strategy that can be applied throughout the company is to focus on development. If employees are going to spend half of their waking hours at work, it is natural that they want their jobs to be rewarding. Employers can help satisfy that desire by investing in employees’ futures within the organisation, which will make employees feel valued and boost their chances of professional success. Crafting development plans for each employee will encourage them to think about how their current roles are helping them grow professionally and benefiting their career trajectories.

Employers should assess employees to ensure that these trajectories are achievable and realistic. Personality tests yield individualised personality data that can help employees bridge the gap between their day-to-day behaviors and their long-term career ambitions. Personality tends to remain stable over time, and therefore personality test results should be a powerful resource for feedback and coaching throughout an employee’s life.

2) Hire according to values

Employees whose beliefs conflict with organisational values are bound to leave before an employer’s investment in them pays off. Deeply personal, values define careers by shaping which work environments and cultures people find enjoyable.  Organisations that are challenged to retain the best talent should look at whether they are seeking candidates whose motivations, preferences, and values align with their own. Employee selection processes that prioritise alignment between employee values and organisational values will help create a culture of engagement.

To illustrate the impact of values on organisations, consider the cultural differences between the two biggest competing technology companies in the United States. Apple famously has a reputation of valuing individuality, nonconformity, and innovation. In contrast, Microsoft’s stated values focus on collaboration (i.e., “One Microsoft”), accountability, and making a difference in the world. While the technical competencies for employees would likely be similar for roles at either company, the conditions for engagement would differ substantially. Engaged employees at one company might care strongly about the appearance and quality of their work and surroundings and respond well to managers who value their autonomy and creativity. Engaged employees at the other might respond more strongly to community involvement, performance rewards, and a focus on team achievement. If you took an employee from one company and put them in the same job at the other, that person’s engagement could differ depending on the degree of employee-organisation alignment.

Hence, selection processes should prioritise candidates whose values overlap with those of the organisation. These individuals will find it easier to engage in their work, mesh with their teams, and get behind corporate initiatives. Organisations that assess for values alongside personality will have much better chances of promoting employee engagement.

3) Monitor managers

If there are specific teams that consistently underperform, it is important to look at the performance and test results of the managers who lead them. Personality tests can easily identify managers who corrode employee engagement. Behavioral red flags include, but are not limited to, tendencies to blame mistakes on others, overestimation of one’s competence, lacking team loyalty, ignoring commitments, bending rules, and disregarding others’ concerns. Managers who regularly exemplify these behaviors fall under the “bad bosses” label. Unfortunately, bad bosses tend to be the rule and not the exception ¾ the base rate of bad managers in the corporate world is between 50% and 75%.[3]

Remember when we talked about employee engagement being a moral issue? The quality of life for employees with bad bosses is so poor that eight in 10 workers admit to crying at work, and almost half attribute their tears to bad bosses.[4] In contrast, our data show that employees who describe their bosses as calm, organised, skilled at listening, and business-focused are three times more likely to be engaged.[5]

When organisations hire and promote bad bosses, they alienate and undermine their financial interests by risking employee disengagement. When a bad boss is identified, the situation should be remedied as quickly as possible to protect employee engagement.

4) Set a companywide vision

To succeed, CEOs must craft a vision that appeals to employees’ values. When a CEO succeeds in communicating an attractive vision, employees are more willing to set aside their personal interests and mobilise to pursue organisational goals.

Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom and 2020’s businessperson of the year,[6] is a great example of a leader with an attractive vision. Yuan has carefully crafted Zoom’s vision to reflect his altruistic values, often saying that Zoom’s focus is on “delivering happiness.” Zoom’s heartfelt approach — inspired by Yuan’s desire to see his wife’s face while she was away at college — led to it becoming the videoconference tool of choice during the COVID-19 pandemic for both professionals and people seeking human connection. Zoom’s employee ratings on Glassdoor make it clear that employee engagement is high within the organisation and that Yuan has succeeded in engaging his employees.⁸ This engagement paid off when employees came together this year to defend Zoom from malicious hackers.

As Zoom’s success shows, employees will happily follow the lead of bosses who make a strong vision that appeals to their values. Without shared aspirations, though, leader-follower relationships and employee engagement will likely trend downwards. Leaders who need to fine-turn their vision should start by crafting a company-wide call-to-action, or only statement.

Contact us

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