This document discusses how companies can retain and engage talent as the workforce changes. It suggests focusing on engaging employees on three levels: as people, professionals, and members of society. As people, companies should allow employees to bring their full selves to work and care for them personally. As professionals, companies should offer interesting, challenging work and development opportunities. As members of society, companies should give employees a sense of purpose and impact through community involvement and philanthropic efforts. The document provides examples of how top companies successfully engage talent on all three levels.
5. Think of a person whom you consider the best
leader you’ve experienced in your life.
What were the characteristics or traits that
made this person a great leader?
6. “John Wooden inspires others to reach levels of success and peace of
mind that we could never dream of reaching by ourselves.”
- Bill Walton
6
7. Nearly 3 million employees surveyed last year
6,200 companies represented
Lists in over 45 countries, including:
• Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®
• Great Place to Work® 50 Best Small & Medium Workplaces
• World’s Best Multinational Workplaces
Great Place to Work® Institute:
One of the world’s largest studies of workplace excellence
8. Our Global Network
NORTH
AMERICA
United States
Canada
Mexico
LATIN
AMERICA
Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Central America
& Caribbean
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Mexico
Paraguay
Peru
Uruguay
Venezuela
EUROPE
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United
Kingdom
Turkey
AFRICA
Nigeria
ASIA-PACIFIC
Australia
China
Hong Kong
India
Japan
Korea
Singapore
Sri Lanka
MIDDLE EAST
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
11. That CEOs are
paying attention
to talent means
they're ready to
start paying
attention to
culture.
12. 100 Best Companies Voluntary Turnover by Industry
Best Companies have significantly
lower turnover than industry peers
13. Average Rate of Growth: Employee Headcount
2015 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For vs. U.S. Average*
In the past 2 years, Best Companies
added employees at 2.5x the rate of
the U.S. average
14. Who is our future workforce, and what do they want?
16. Backed by 30 years of research
A great place to work is one where you TRUST
the people you work for; have PRIDE in what you do;
and ENJOY the people you work with.
Our Model: TRUST is the Key
22. How can companies retain and engage their
talent as the world around us changes?
23. Focus on Engaging Employees on
Three Different Levels:
1. As People
2. As Professionals
3. As Members of Society
How can companies retain and engage their talent
as the world around us changes?
24. Employee as a Person
ENGAGE Can I bring my
“full self” to
work?
The top driver of employees’ perception
of a great workplace among the
100 Best Companies is this belief:
“Management cares for me as a person,
not just as an employee.
25. “Management shows a sincere interest in me
as a person, not just an employee.”
83%
100 Best
Winners
Average
72%
100 Best
Contenders
Average
26. “I can be myself here.”
89%
100 Best
Winners
Average
83%
100 Best
Contenders
Average
27. “When you're able to be yourself, it makes
being successful much easier... you're not
thinking about the persona you're putting on,
you can truly think/act from your heart.”
– Employee, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
“One of my favorite things about working
at Zappos…is the expectation from
management that I be myself…I don't
have to hide or pretend or make myself
something I'm not.”
– Employee, Zappos.com
28. 91% offer Telecommuting
88% offer over 20 days PTO after 1 year
83% offer Flexible Scheduling
76% offer Job Sharing
71% offer Sabbaticals
Supporting Employees:
Balance at the 100 Best Companies
29. Employees are given 10 “Ferris Bueller Days” per
year: Impromptu days that help employees take the
time off that they need.
Riot Games offers flexible hours and unlimited
paid time off.
“We work hard while we are here, and a lot of us
work long hours, but we are trusted to set our own
schedules and take the time off we need.”
– Employee, Riot Games
Work/Life Balance at the 100 Best Companies
30. Employee as a Professional
ENGAGE Is my job
interesting and
challenging?
Employee development is one of the most
commonly cited areas of focus among the
Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®.
31. Average annual T&D hours for salaried employees = 94
Average annual T&D hours for hourly employees = 79
Number of 100 Best Companies who offer tuition reimbursement to employees = 88
Average tuition reimbursement max per employee = $6,600/year
Training and Development at the 100 Best Companies
32. • Unlimited paid days of conference attendance to
gain insight into design methodologies and
advances in technology.
• Week-long onsite classroom trainings on new
software or tools.
• Replaced annual performance reviews with regular
“Check-ins” that are built around key principles for
success.
Training and Development at the Best Companies
33. • Balance training and development technologies
with human touch
“The most important part of career development is the discussion that
takes place between a manager and an employee.”
• A robust leadership pipeline is essential
Academy for Conscious Leadership
Moving into the future…
35. Employee as a Member of Society
ENGAGE
Am I making an
impact on the
world?
72% of students, as opposed to 53% of
workers, consider having “a job where I can
make an impact” to be very important or
essential to their happiness.
– Forbes.com
36. “I'm proud to work for a company that is serious
about its responsibility to give back to the community
in accordance with B-Corp standards. It makes me
happy to know that we're enabling people to make a
living off of their art.”
– Employee, Etsy
“We've made a commitment to take a leadership role
in the business community's efforts to rebuild Detroit
and restore it to a position of prominence among
other great cities.”
– Employee, Quicken Loans
Training and Development at the Best Companies
37. 93% of employees feel good about their company’s contributions to the community.
85% of employees believe their work has special meaning: this is not "just a job".
56 companies give employees PTO to volunteer (avg: 21 hrs/year).
Philanthropy and volunteer efforts are among the most robust of all people
practice areas across the 100 Best Companies, across all industries.
Inspiring a Sense of Purpose at the 100 Best Companies
38. Gaming company Activision Blizzard launched the
Call of Duty Endowment non-profit, which has helped
over 3,200 service members transition to high-quality
civilian careers after their military service.
Twice per year, Twitter has #FridaysForGood, a
company-wide day of giving back, where employees
in every Twitter office support their local communities
by volunteering at area nonprofit organizations and
local schools.
Inspiring a Sense of Purpose at the 100 Best Companies
39. Focus on Engaging Employees on
Three Different Levels:
1. As People
2. As Professionals
3. As Members of Society
How can companies retain and engage their talent
as the world around us changes?
Without talent, there is no business
If your company is going to be around in 10 years – and healthy and growing – then the talent issues are among the biggest. Just as customers and capital are critical to having and growing a business – without talent there is no business.
The Landscape
CEOs are beginning to be somewhat fearful that between the failures of the global education system demographic shifts, financial and political instability – that talent will become a much more strategic part of strategic and operational planning – and they believe that the talent/skills shortages will only be getting worse over time, putting their growth strategies at risk.
-Talent Shortage: Results of ManpowerGroup's ninth annual reveal employers in the U.S. and worldwide continue to identify a lack of available skilled talent and a constant struggle to fill vacancies as having a negative impact on business performance.
http://www.manpowergroup.us/campaigns/talent-shortage-2014/assets/pdf/2014_Talent_Shortage_WP_US.pdf
Talent Shortage: According to PwC’s 2015 U.S. CEO Survey http://www.pwc.com/us/en/ceo-survey/top-findings.jhtml: Though U.S. CEOs say they have more opportunities to grow than they did 3 years ago, the availability of key skills is a top concern of CEOs. 78% of U.S. CEOs are “somewhat concerned” or “very concerned” about the availability of key skills as a threat to their organizations’ growth prospects.
By 2020, McKinsey & Company predicts the United States may have 1.5 million too few workers with college or graduate degrees – McKinsey & Company study
Demographic Shifts as younger workers are quickly becoming the most dominant group in the workforce, and more tenured leaders are retiring.
Increased job mobility with the Rebounding Economy, as according to the BLS, over 2.5 million people voluntarily quit their job each month across the U.S. (updated Jan 2015) – and the quit rate has been steadily rising since 2010.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t04.htm
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t18.htm
That CEOs are paying attention to talent means they’re ready to start paying attention to culture.
CEOs are now aware of the talent/skills/demographics forces blowing against them.
Mark Hurd anecdote: in a small analyst conversation I asked him if there were any “HR metrics” that he personally tracked. He gave this answer: “I know every day how many openings we have and the top three jobs/categories that we’re having trouble filling.” (He’s the co-CEO of Oracle)
Turnover at the 100 Best Companies
This chart compares turnover rates from the 100 Best Companies to work for this year—the companies that have created great workplace cultures –with their industry peers.
We can see that when it comes to retaining talent, these companies are highly successful at retaining their workforce.
The only thing these companies have in common is that their employees experience them as great workplaces.
Growth at the 100 Best Companies
Our research also shows that when it comes to attracting talent, over the past 2 years, 100 Best Companies have added headcount at more than double the rate of the U.S. average employment growth.
So, great workplaces are really winning the war for talent, and CEOs and other leaders are right to start thinking about the role company culture plays in this equation.
Who is your future workforce, and what do they want?
So, as we think about company culture, and how it can be leveraged to attract and retain the workforce of the future, an important question to ask is:
Who is your future workforce, and what do they want in their experience of the workplace?
We’ve all heard the same things about what the next generation of workers will seek in their workplace experience; and, most of us are well-versed in the differences and the needs of “Gen Y:”
Opportunities to grow
Sense of flexibility and mobility – blurrier lines between work/personal life
Deep sense of purpose
Transparency
Collaboration
Diversity
Today, I’ll discuss a number of these areas in the context of what it means to be a great workplace, and what we see in companies that employees believe to be great workplaces.
A definition of a Great Place to Work has held true over time
This has held true since our research began in 1984, and has been validated over and over in the years since.
A definition of a Great Place to Work holds true across age groups
Even across age groups– all age groups report similar experiences of a great workplace.
This graph shows the data from our 2015 100 Best Companies to Work for, broken out by age, across the five dimensions of the Great Place to Work Model – Credibility, Respect, Fairness, (Trust the people the work for) Pride (have pride in the work they do) and Camaraderie (enjoy the people they work with).
What all of this tells us is that fundamentally, when people have an experience of the kind of culture that is considered a “Great Place to Work”—the kind of culture that attracts and retains talent, as we’ll see in a moment—that core experience is remaining steady.
While the core tenets of what it means to be a great workplace have remained the same, what this look like in practice is evolving, especially as the landscape of the workplace and related technologies is rapidly changing.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The question we have to ask ourselves now isn’t “What does the future workforce want?” We already know this, it’s held true for decades across 45 countries on 6 continents.
People want a workplace characterized by trust, pride and camaraderie—where elements such as work/life balance, development, and much more are part of the everyday experience.
The fact remains that despite the changing landscape, fundamentally, what people are looking for at the heart of their workplace experience has not changed.
The question to ask ourselves now is, “How can companies continue to engage and retain their talent, as the world around us changes?”
How can companies engage and retain their talent, as the world around us changes?
How can companies engage and retain the talent that is crucial to their success-- as the world around us changes?
ENGAGE: Our research at Great Place to Work shows us that as employers, we have the opportunity to engage people on three key levels.
Moving forward, it will become increasingly important to use the technologies available to us to engage employees on all three of these fronts:
Employee as a Person –
Embracing employee’s full self
Supporting work/life balance
Employee as a Professional
Providing ample development opportunities
Ensuring people feel challenged at work
Employee as a Member of Society
Employees feel their work has meaning
Opportunities for volunteerism
Employee as a Person –
Supporting work/life balance
Embracing employee’s full self – who they are in and out of work.
Engaging the Employee as a Person
This statement is the top driver of people’s experience of a great workplace.
It also happens to be one of the biggest differences we see between companies who make the list and those who apply for the list.
The line between who a person is in and outside of work is becoming increasingly blurred. Especially with the advent of Facebook, Twitter, and other technologies, people do not want to—or may not even know how to-- check their personal lives at the door.
Additionally, with shifting gender roles in the family as well as the heightened importance on personal time that we are seeing among Millenials, it is more important than ever that employers are paying attention to how employees as “people” are engaged.
Connecting with employees as human beings is a huge opportunity for organizations to engage their employees.
This is another statement on our survey that is critical to employees’ experience of a great workplace—”I can be myself here.” At great workplaces, and increasingly among the list contenders as well, employees report that they can be themselves at work.
At great workplaces, employees are not asked to check who they are at the door. Rather, they are asked to bring their full selves to the table—including their most innovative ideas—each and every day.
These are very typical comments from two of our Best Companies that represent how employees at GPTW’s feel when they are engaged as people, not just employees.
Finally, a big part of supporting people as full people is supporting their lives outside of work, using the many tools and systems that are now available to us. This is a big opportunity to engage and retain people on this level.
Best Companies are providing many options that allow people to manage their work lives and their personal lives with ample opportunities for time off and managing other commitments.
Especially as technology and family dynamics evolve, these sorts of practices will become more of the norm as we look to the future of the workplace and what employees will expect as they strive to balance their work and personal lives.
Examples:
Centro - #8 Medium Company: Chicago-based software company serving the Ad Industry: Employees are 10 Ferris Bueller Days which is used for exactly what it sounds like: impromptu days that we know that our peeps need to enjoy a sunny day when their parents happen to visit or a day off with their kids if they are home sick from school. We never want our peeps to feel guilty for taking the time off that they need.
Riot Games - #13 on the 100 Best Companies; global gaming company HQ in Santa Monica
Open PTO and Flexible Hours: Rioters are passionate folk who want to go the extra mile with projects. Despite best efforts to slow the sun’s advance across the sky, there are still only 24 hours in a day in which to pack work, play, hobbies, personal time, and family. By instilling a genuine culture of trust and accountability, we ensure that Rioters decide how they want to blend their personal and professional lives.
Thanks to open PTO, which was formally announced in 2012, Rioters decide where, when, and how they want to work (or not work). Riot IT have worked their strange magic to make working from home a technical snap. Between VPN and mobile app technology, you’re as likely to be joined by someone on Skype or Google Hangouts during a meeting on campus as you are to run into someone interested in getting in a game of League of Legends or two (and that’s pretty darn likely). Some Rioters are night people, while some have some traditional hours thanks to kids, dogs and other loved ones, but we all use the flexible hours to set a schedule that works best for us, that allows us to take the time we need to take care of ourselves and our families. Rioters are able to take as many days off as they wish as long as they’re producing results and communicating with their teams.
Top talent wants to come to work and find opportunities to be challenged and to grow professionally
In fact, employee development is one of the most commonly cited areas of focus among 100 Best Companies.
Great workplaces realize the important link between robust employee development efforts and talent retention. These companies are really throwing their energy into this area, and are engaging people on the professional level.
Here are some stats from this year’s 100 Best Companies.
Question that came from EA Sports:
-How can leaders support their young talent better and allow their best people to be supported and do their work
-How to do it and be meaningful to their employees and organization?
Insomniac Games: Gaming Company; #10 Best Small Workplace HQ in Burbank, CA
Proactive approach to keeping employees abreast of latest developments in the field
The company provides unlimited paid days of conference attendance, as well as incentives to speak at conferences. Insomniac Games also provides educational reimbursement for all employees after one year of service, an online learning system complete with tutorials and videos for 24/7 access to training, department-specific speakers and training, offsite training and onsite lunch-and-learn seminars. There are also leadership-specific development seminars and mentorship programs.
Adobe: #90 on 100 Best list; IT company in Silicon Valley
From Culture Audit:
Adobe made the bold move to abolish our archaic Annual Review process to create an environment where our employees can do and be their best by providing them ongoing, in-the-moment feedback and help them look forward and improve. Our approach, called Check-in, is built around three key principles: setting clear expectations, giving and receiving on-going feedback in all directions, and growth and development. Managers and employees share accountability for enabling success in these areas.
This cultural transition is a multi-year journey but we are excited about the progress we are making toward more frequent, transparent and effective conversations that allow employees to leverage their strengths, contribute to the business and continue to grow. In the 18 months since Check-in was launched, our voluntary attrition has decreased 37.5% to an all-time historic low. And in our Pulse Survey, we saw a 2% increase that employees receive feedback from their manager that is helpful in improving their performance and a 2.5% increase that managers are open to receiving feedback from them.
While professional development has always been important, the landscape is changing.
On the HR side of things, we now have complex Learning Management Systems available to manage talent, and this is becoming more of an expectation for leveraging, developing and recruiting talent.
On the employee side of things, top talent is willing to leave in search of better opportunities if they aren’t being challenged and growing that professional part of themselves.
What’s being done in the employee development space to keep up with changing demands?
Two key points here:
Learning Management Systems are being integrated into the talent management space, but it’s important not to lose sight of the human touch that’s needed to ensure efforts are meaningful.
For example, at PCL Construction, though they have a well-integrated use of HR Technology to manage employee development, the belief is that the most important component of the program are the regular face to face check in meetings between managers and employees.
A robust leadership pipeline is essential as demographics shift and employers strive to hang onto top talent and promote from within.
For example, Whole Foods Market has created the 4-day Leadership Academy that all leaders from mid-level to the most senior management have attended, ensuring leaders continue to be challenged and that the company is building a robust pipeline.
Returning to the focus on diversity and inclusion, at great workplaces we see well-developed programs to ensure women and minorities are supported reaching the upper echelons of the company such as sponsorships, mentorships, as well as special forums and retreats for diverse groups.
Engaging the Employee as a Part of Society
Finding a sense of purpose through their work has always been a top priority for human beings, and has been for decades. In 1974, Studs Terkel wrote in his famous book Working, “Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread.”
While purpose has traditionally been important, studies show that a sense of purpose in one’s work is becoming increasingly important.
http://www.iopenerinstitute.com/media/73185/iopener_institute_gen_y_report.pdf a 2012 study from iOpener Institute of 18,000 Gen Y folks shows that a sense of purpose in one’s work is actually more important among the Gen Y cohort, and is a stronger predictor than pay as to whether they will stay at a company and recruit their friends.
Generation Y need to feel that their work has a strong economic or social purpose. They need to feel proud of their organization and the work that it does. Incremental pay increases will not, on their own, motivate and retain Generation Y employees
Moreover, 72% of students, as opposed to 53% of workers, consider having “a job where I can make an impact” to be very important or essential to their happiness. https://netimpact.org/docs/publications-docs/NetImpact_WhatWorkersWant2012.pdf
http://www.forbes.com/sites/katetaylor/2013/08/23/why-millennials-are-ending-the-9-to-5/
One of the defining characteristics of great workplaces is that employees feel a sense of pride in their work, and we see this across industries and across age groups.
Here are some comments from employees at 100 Best Companies.
We see here that employees at Etsy (#19 Medium Company; HQ in NY) and at Quicken Loans (#12 100 Best Co, HQ in Michagin)--two very different companies-- can see the positive role their company plays in the broader society.
93% of employees feel good about their company’s contributions to the community.
85% of employees believe their work has special meaning: this is not "just a job".
56 companies give employees PTO to volunteer (avg: 21 hrs/year)
Philanthropy and volunteer efforts are among the most robust of all people practice areas across the 100 Best Companies, across all industries. – this is according to the Culture Audit Part 2 scores; this was consistently the most highly-scored practice areas that we look at.
Activision Blizzard (Gaming Company): Debuted at #96 on 100 Best list this year; HQ in Santa Monica
Leveraged the theme of their popular military-themed game “Call of Duty” to launch a non-profit that has helped over 3200 service members transition to civilian careers after their military service.
Twitter: Debuted at #24 on the 100 Best list this year; HQ in San Francisco
There are a number of Twitter institutions that support our desire to be a force for good. One of those institutions is #FridayForGood (FFG). For the last few years, at least twice a year, we have held a company-wide day of giving back.
On the designated Friday, employees in every Twitter office support their local communities by volunteering at area nonprofit organizations and local schools. On June 6th of this year, Twitter offices around the globe engaged in FFG activities. At headquarters alone, more than 650 employees participated in 50 volunteer programs, making a positive impact on the lives of 5,000 city residents. The program included a range of service organizations including GLIDE, St. Anthony’s,Compass Family Services, Boys & Girls Club, De Marillac Academy, Meals on Wheels, the Housing Negotiation Project and lots more. One group of employees, for example, installed wireless Internet connectivity at a transitional housing program, giving 13 families in residence free online access. “Volunteering at St. Anthony’s was an inspiring experience,” said software engineer Mridu Atray. “Not only was it an opportunity to give something back to the community, but also to understand the physical, financial and mental challenges that many people have to face every day.” St. Anthony’s. At other offices, #TwitterBoston helped clear an invasive plant species from the banks of the Charles River; and employees in Washington, D.C. painted staircases, packed summer bookbags and assembled furniture at an elementary school.
Those not able to work offsite on #FridayForGood typically contribute by making sandwiches for the neighborhood’s low-income residents, assembling emergency kits for the American Red Cross and speaking with young people from a violence prevention and youth leadership organization about the potential long-term consequences of posting youthful indiscretions online.
Takeaway: Paying close attention to your workforce as a people, professionals, and part of the broader society will be critical as you seek to engage and retain the workforce of the future.
Building a great workplace in the ways I’ve shared is a critical part of the puzzle when it comes to attracting and retaining the talent as EA Sports moves into the future.
At Great Place to Work, we believe it is the Dawn of the Great Workplace Era, where increasingly, all people can come to expect that they can work for an organization where they trust their leaders, enjoy their colleagues and take pride in what they do.
In creating your own great workplace here at EA Sports, you are becoming a part of this global movement. I am glad you are joining us, and I thank you for your commitment to this work.