Meaning in the Age of the Employee

People wouldn’t care if 77% of brands disappeared!*

A startling statistic, but one Havas Group has been exploring for close to the past decade.  Through a proprietary study, we’ve measured the quality of benefits brands bring into people’s lives – and given the statistic above, many brands are still coming up short in the value exchange with their audiences. They’re missing the opportunity to add meaning to the experience.

And we’ve found that there are three key areas brands should focus on to address that gap in the value exchange: deliver the products and services they say they’re going to deliver, improve people’s lives and play an active role in the communities they touch. Only brands that create meaningful connections with people will prosper.
 
One of the major elements a modern consumer expects from a brand is tailored content that’s specific to their wants/needs/hopes/dream/fears – the whole range of human emotion.
 
Great content is an enabler for building meaningful connections and adding meaning to an experience. In today’s world, people expect brands to provide content that inspires, entertains, educates, informs and helps them.
 
So, what does this have to do with employees and their experience?
 
It’s time to stop focusing on the world of employment as a siloed experience – a compartmentalized aspect of someone’s day-to-day. Companies are now seeking to create value for their employees – beyond the traditional means. Just as people are expecting brands to provide meaning and value in their lives as consumers – they’re expecting the same, if not more from their place of employment.
 
They want something more than a job. They want to be understood as an individual.  They want personalization. They want interactions to matter. And they want employers to live up to the purpose and culture that’s been promised on career websites, in job descriptions and in interviews. 
 
In short – they want us to value their experience as employees as much as we value their experiences as consumers. 
 
The good news is if we can deliver on those promises and provide an engaging, meaningful experience we’ll be able to cultivate an environment of trust and engagement. A huge benefit to us all because when employees are engaged, they are 39%* more likely to become an advocate for the organization and 38%* more likely to remain loyal to their company. What’s more, inspired employees are two times more productive than just satisfied employees.
 
So how do we get there? At Havas People, we specialize in building meaningful employee experiences and believe employee experiences should be designed as thoughtfully as customer experiences. When we approach our communication strategies, we look at it as an infinity loop.  Candidate and employee experiences should not be looked at as separate actions, but instead holistically to ensure meaning is being built into every single touchpoint.  This means using data and research to provide a meaningful recruitment process, onboarding process, and even offboarding process.  And building programs to keep employees engaged while they are at your organization.
 
It’s translating the principles we’ve used so successfully in the consumer world to employment. Take onboarding for example, typically a one-size fits all, templated, tick the box exercise.

​But we’re all different and have different experiences and expectations. We carry different histories and have different needs when starting a new job. The level of information, training, support needed all varies.
 
Now think of buying a brand-new piece of tech. Your level of comfort ability to naturally use it, understanding of the potential will vary compared to your neighbors. Does the company selling you that product treat you as an individual and do their best to tailor their content and guidance on your behalf? Or do they just leave it to you to figure things out on your own? Do they give you really generic advice that’s not applicable? If they did the latter, would you consider buying something from that company in the future? 
 
That’s the essence of adding meaning to your employees’ lives. It’s combining employee and customer experience principles to better understand what matters most to your people. And using that information to identify pain and gain points for the journey you’ll take them on in your organization so you can be sure you’re adding meaning where and when it matters most to them.
 
Source: Meaningful Brands powered by Havas
Source: The Edelman Trust Barometer 2019