L&D Best Practices
genuine and honest and connect emotionally with the Measurements Matter
candidate. The execution of a brand must be consistent
and aligned with an organizations core values and mission.
Done well, regardless of the employment brand touch-
points, any candidate should be able to clearly articulate an
organizations value proposition. Vi realized with the help of
Shaker that there was a tremendous opportunity to leverage
the many employee development success stories to bring
life to the companys new employment brand strategy.
According to Shaker, a brand is about establishing deeper
levels of trust. Stories take down barriers that some
companies might face, Shaker explains. Stories also add
an air of transparency and authenticity. The story enables
organizations to attest what we say has a proof point: this
person.
Bring Life to Your Career
In early 2016, Vi celebrated the launch of the companys
new employment branding campaign, Bring Life to Your
Career, featuring employees who have successfully taken
advantage of the organizations many training and develop-
ment opportunities to enhance or expand their careers.
An important and added benet of the new employment
brand is that Vis employees are highlighted and recognized
for their accomplishments and contributions to the
organization.
Vis new employment branding campaign included the
relaunch of the companys career site, employee referral
campaign, recruitment materials, social media strategies,
and internal employee communication channels. Vis
employment brand is an invitation to imagine, Shaker
says. The brushstrokes art style suggests and builds the
story aspect with actual progression of how people came
up through the organization with the support of continu-
ing education. At its most fundamental level, Vi is about
opportunity. The branding encourages candidates to dream,
to imagine, he adds.
Peer Advantage: A Secret to
Employee Engagement
By Michael Molina, Chief Human Resource Ofcer, Vistage Worldwide, Inc.
F
ar from a buzzword, employee engagement is a
metric no business can afford to ignore in 2016. For
conrmation, just look at the latest ndings from the
Gallup Organization, which has tracked employee engage-
ment in the U.S. since 2000. Though there have been
slight ups and downs, less than one-third of Americas
54 | JULY/AUGUST 2016 training
While Vis new employment branding launched in March,
and its too early to measure results, robust analytics tied to
Vis new recruitment site allow it to evaluate what specic
areas of the companys career site resonate with candidates.
In addition, Vi recently updated the organizations third-party
new hire survey to assess what specically resonated with
candidates during their decision to accept employment with
the company. This data will allow Vi to continually rene the
candidate experience and branding messaging.
According to Shaker, while data on brand sentiment, Web
trafc, and engagement are all useful for measuring the
health and reach of an employer brand, these measures do
little to illustrate how a strong employer brand ultimately
affects talent acquisition performance. For that, you need to
evaluate correlations between changes in volume and expo-
sure and engagement with changes in baseline measures.
These measures include:
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When thinking about bringing life to an organizations
employment brand, chief talent ofcers need to consider
every candidate, new hire, and employee touchpoint.
Whether its a phone interview, online application, mobile
application, employment communications, onboarding, or
training experience, there must be alignment and consistency
with your employment brand. Shaker gives this advice to
companies considering an employment brand refresh: Make
the story your own. An organization must be fully committed
to it. Your employment brand must be truthful, credible, and
sustainable over time. An employer must be willing, once the
brand is identied, to live it within the organization. You must
align the promise and the commitment to deliver on it.
workforce is engaged in their jobs.
Look around the world, and the numbers get worsejust
13 percent of employees are engaged. Not only that, Gallup
estimates lost productivity of actively disengaged employees
costs the U.S. economy $370 billion annually.
So why are employees so disengaged from their jobs? At
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Vistage Worldwide, which facilitates private peer advisory
groups for CEOs, senior executives, and business leaders, we
are looking for answers.
When I think of engagement, I almost equal that to
employee experience. Its the support and connection I get
within the organization, the level of meaningful work, having
a mentor or guide within the organizationall of those factors
are so important.
Building a Community of Peers
Peer-to-peer interaction is the lifeblood of Vistage in that
it brings together leaders from companies of all sizes, and
across varying industries, in small, intimate groups. Their only
vested interest is in helping each other up their leadership
game, solve problems, and take advantage of opportunities
in a transparent and direct way. The groups become sup-
port networks where tough guidance and brutal honesty are
encouraged. When the group is fully committed and invested,
its not just the benet of peer inuence that members experi-
ence, its a more intense level of interaction that drives and
accelerates growth. Vistage describes it as peer advantage.
The same model holds true internally for employees. While
some companies try to boost their engagement X factor
with foosball tables or workout facilities, Vistage takes a
more holistic approach by selecting, growing, and nurturing
employees according to the same principles that govern the
success of its peer advisory groups. They include:
1. Select the right people to participate. Then we create
peer groups where vulnerability and authenticity can be
experienced.
2. Create a safe environment. For me, this means employ-
ees are connected to their work with an infrastructure that
is supportive and conveys clear outcomes. Employees can
see how their roles t into the bigger picture.
3. Utilize a Smart Guide. This person could be a manag-
er, an inuencer, a pal, or a role model. Direct managers
typically arent encouraged to play this role because of the
value placed on getting alternative points of view.
4. Foster valuable interaction. To achieve this, a safe
environment that encourages a high level of contribution
is critical. A collaborative work style raises the level of
engagement and creates deeper, more meaningful
interactions.
5. Be accountable. Vistage employees own their solutions,
and its expected they do what they say theyre going to
do. Authenticity is one of our cultural imperatives.
These principles are further explored in the new book,
THE POWER OF PEERS: How the Company You Keep Drives
Leadership, Growth, & Success (http://www.vistage.com/the-
power-of-peers-overview) by former Vistage CEO Leon Shapiro
and Leo Bottary, vice president of Peer Advantage for the
www.trainingmag.com
company. Not only are they fundamental in selecting talent
to work at Vistage, but in nding new speakers (at every
monthly meeting, half of the day is dedicated to an expert
speaker), as well as in selecting Chairs or the leaders of
the peer advisory groups who are schooled in the Vistage
process. Ultimately, these are the building blocks for a strong
community.
Putting Peer Advantage to Work
Employers and potential employees are equally responsible
for making sure a position is a solid t. But beyond the
getting-to-know-you process, its a companys style of man-
agement and values that dictate whether an employee ends
up satised and engaged or simply a clock-watcher going
through the motions.
At Vistage, this is when community gets real by translat-
ing into results-driven strategies that set up workers for
success. These strategies involve things such as active
listening, up-front collaboration, feedback during early stages,
ask before tell, multiple touchpoints in decision-making, and
presenting options instead of single solutions or recommenda-
tions. And the goals are clear: to deliver value to the members
and generate the highest level of engagement by employees
and Chairs.
When HR consulting rm Towers Watson completed a
recent global workforce study, one of the ve key ndings
was that the organization is the most powerful inuencer of
employee engagement. At Vistage, organizational structure,
practices, and processes are designed for staff to continually
evaluate how their roles and work t within the larger context
or vision of what the rm is working to achieve and whether
that connection is profound enough to result in long-term
retention.
Never Stop Learning
In any relationship, the level of care that goes in will deter-
mine its success. In the work world, this translates to how
big of an investment the company makes in its employees
ongoing development. This is a huge component in the
Vistage experience. Again, replicating what it does for CEOs
and business owners with its internal teams, every employee
gets to experience the benets of working with a peer group
to solve problems and process issues once a quarter.
The groups are small, approximately 16 to 18 people, and
the Chairs who facilitate the companys external CEO groups
are brought in to play the same role internally. Employees are
encouraged to bring their full self.
Being vulnerable in that peer experience is so important
because employees are able to adapt a mindset of im-
provement, of learning. They are able to open up and see
possibilitiesto see the world through a different lens. Q t
training JULY/AUGUST 2016 | 55
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