Seven Crisis Communications Examples Every HR Professional Should Have
A crisis can affect your company at any time. As of this writing, the COVID-19 pandemic has gripped the world and has changed the way we think about communication, contact, and work as we once knew it. The world has never had to deal with large-scale social distancing and contactless norms as we’re currently dealing with. Crisis management is essentially an HR function. To react appropriately to a crisis, everyone in your organization has to be on the same page. Crises tend to spring up unexpectedly, and communication during such times is of paramount importance. As tough as these times can be, they present a rare opportunity for you to enhance your company’s standing with your customers. 1. Prepare The old saying is true: “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” You may not be able to anticipate the exact nature of a crisis but creating response plans and educating employees with regards to what a crisis looks like is essential. Your employees will appreciate having a crisis response template. There are two plans that you should have in place above all else: Your business continuity plan and crisis recovery plan. Your business continuity plan and crisis recovery plan. The former ensures your organization will not be crippled during a crisis, and the latter will help dictate your response to the situation. Adopt tools that allow you to quickly broadcast company-related announcements to your staff. Calling everyone on the floor to an all-hands meeting is impossible these days, and this is why you must define platform login and monitoring protocols. If your employees know what's expected of them before a crisis hits, they'll react in a coordinated manner once the situation becomes critical. 2. Identify crisis communication management teams Who are the key people you need to deal with a crisis? Identify and train them beforehand to help them do their jobs well during a crisis. With remote workforces, communication between team members is crucial since face to face interaction isn't possible. Create dedicated communication channels for this team and empower them to create sub-channels to help them achieve their goals. During a crisis, it's impossible to know what your team will need, and this is why using highly customizable software is essential. 3. Notify Crisis communication is all about ensuring there are no stones left unturned when it comes to delivering your message. This approach applies to your internal communication as well. Aside from broadcasting announcements on your software platform, make sure your employees receive notifications on their phones and email as well. These messages should be delivered via SMS/mobile apps and other functionality within a modern, social intranet. Restrict sending such notifications solely for critical moments. You don't want your employees to tune out your messages by sending them irrelevant updates and announcements. 4. Encourage responses with employee advocates The old way of responding to a crisis was to batten down the hatches and restrict employees from talking about it. In the era of social media, not only is this the wrong approach to adopt, but it's also impossible to enforce. People turn to social media for information, and ignoring social conversations involving your company will damage your brand. Encourage your employees to interact with customers and followers on your accounts and give them to become brand advocates. Designate responsible employees or have someone from your crisis recovery team assume control of your accounts. Make sure your employees are up to speed concerning communication tone and response protocols. 5. Accuracy (not just speed) Your first instinct when a crisis hits will be to respond quickly to put out fires. However, an inaccurate or false response will only make the situation worse. Instead, focus on communicating honestly, and your employees will follow suit. Encourage your crisis management team to explore the situation and provide constant updates in your internal communications to all of your employees. Above all else, never go silent. If your organization is gathering the facts surrounding the case, then communicate this internally and externally. Remaining silent conveys dishonesty and will damage your brand's reputation. 6. Test Regular crisis communication testing is the key to measuring the effectiveness of your response. Craft response templates in advance and share them through your HR platform to gather feedback from your employees. Share these test responses in different communication channels to gain a well-rounded picture of what your employees think. Sharing it across the entire organization at once and opening the floor to feedback from everybody might result in you getting lost in the weeds. Make sure you include relevant personnel contact information in these templates. Your employees can then use their HR mobile app to get in touch instantly with these people when the crisis hits. 7. Review Once a crisis passes, review your workflow with your crisis management team. Gather feedback from employees through your HR platform's channels and incorporate this into your response moving forward. Find the opportunity in a crisis A crisis will test your organization thoroughly, but it's also an opportunity for you to bounce back stronger than ever. Communicating decisively and clearly--with the right crisis communications plan—with your employees will help you respond as one to the crisis and will enhance your reputation. It will also bring your employees closer to one another thanks to having dealt with the situation together. To learn even more about managing remote teams and keeping employees working at home highly engaged, download our ebook now. Download now With the workplace going remote these days, communication is of paramount importance. To learn many more tips, tricks, and best practices for communicating with remote teams, download our eBook,“A Better Way to Communicate, Engage, and Recognize & Reward Remote Workers.” About Author: This article is written by a marketing team member at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of proven HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee communications & engagement, and rewards & recognition. Our user-friendly software increases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.
Shifting customer service into high gear
When a customer contacts customer service, whatever channel they use or problem they have, they want fast answers. Most expect “now” service within 5 minutes of making contact online and say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide good customer service.Companies struggle to balance providing rapid answers with the need to ensure their customer service agents are as productive as possible. While agents are at work, it is critical to maximize their time and skill sets, so they can deliver optimal service to as many customers as possible, as fast as possible. Sounds easy, right?Not so fast. Great customer service means arming agents with the right technology and ensuring they have access to the right information to help them help your customers…as quickly as possible.So how do you make your agents faster and more efficient? Let’s take a look at three opportunities to help increase the speed and efficiency of your customer service operations.Improve the equipmentFirst, take a hard look at the technology that agents use on a day to day basis. It starts with some basics. How many systems or screens is an agent required to use? If they have to refer to >1 system or multiple screens to get to the information they need to solve a typical customer issue at hand, this is not good. Especially when customers expect the agent to be equipped with complete information, including their contact and product data to service information and history.
Should Future HR Managers Rely Only on Technology?
HR is becoming more complex all the time. For a start, it’s more hybrid, with gig employees making up a larger percentage of the workforce. In the near future, demand for gig workers is expected to rise from 77% to 94% for support services, and 63% to 94% for corporate staff. It doesn’t help that “job for life” is no longer part of the lexicon, so there is also a lot more movement into, out of, and within the enterprise. Today’s employees are looking for new challenges, positive corporate culture, and opportunities to advance their professional horizons and discover their personal talents and capabilities, and you need to meet these expectations if you hope to retain them. Close to three-quarters of workers are more likely to remain at a company that offers skill-building opportunities. On top of all that, the impact of the pandemic, plus the existing drive towards digital transformation, has made change management more pressing, more challenging, and more frequent, further complicating the picture. HR managers today need to gather employees’ data so as to keep track of all the capabilities of each individual, in order to know how best to support them, what to offer them, and how to put those skills to best use. But at the same time, you need to keep track of the makeup of your teams and the organization as a larger whole, so you can respond to changes in your industry and be ready to mitigate risks and seize opportunities. It’s not really possible to handle this without the help of new technology, but is tech all you need? Manual Performance Reviews Are No Longer Sufficient Performance reviews are crucial for encouraging employees and enabling employee growth. Ideally, they should be ongoing, constantly updating a representation of each employee’s strengths and weaknesses, but that’s a high bar to clear — unless you have tech to help you. Traditional performance reviews involve lots of emails and spreadsheets. You have to dog people to complete their forms, and it’s easy for information to get isolated. But HR platforms have user-friendly interfaces to make it easy for people to carry out continuous performance assessments without friction. That said, delivering the results of a performance review requires tact, sympathy, and compassion, capabilities that machines don’t possess. You need a living, breathing, and well-trained human who can convey the results in a way that the employee is able to hear and take in, so your employees get built up, not torn down. Mental Health and Employee Wellbeing Demand Tech and Human Synergy There’s no denying that a good HR manager has to be a people person, someone who can spot the employee who seems down, sluggish, or unmotivated. It takes a face-to-face conversation for an HR manager to check if an employee is waving or drowning. But remote work made that tough to achieve, and many organizations still haven’t returned to the office. Increased awareness around mental health challenges has raised the bar for managers to detect them and offer support, at just the same time as anxiety, bereavement, and long covid caused by the pandemic has raised the incidence of mental health issues. At this point, HR managers can’t do it alone. They need help from mental health apps, which can both provide regular support for those who need it, and identify those employees who need more than app-based guided meditations. Personalized Interactions At Scale Are a Step Beyond Human Capabilities It’s challenging for HR teams in a large enterprise to offer personalized training sessions and project opportunities, or suggest a new internal role, to the right employee at the right time. Many share these openings on a central forum and simply trust that employees will see them, but most notices go unseen. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-driven HR tools can help. They analyze employees and constantly update their assessment of individual skills and skills gaps, interests, and intra-team dynamics to create a multi-faceted understanding of each employee and push relevant opportunities in their direction. Some also use augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) to create immersive, personalized training experiences. While these tools are invaluable, an enterprise still needs the holistic opinion of a human HR manager, both as part of and to confirm the data that a talent management platform might draw on. Technology Fatigue is Real Both employees and HR managers risk experiencing tech fatigue. Overloading employees with tech tools intended to improve their working environment, wellbeing, and employee experience can often end up backfiring. Likewise, HR managers with too many tech platforms can easily miss the wood for the trees, and fail to notice serious issues developing within the workforce. However, HR managers who have too big a workload can face burnout, especially when many are managing hybrid teams and dealing with the ongoing fallout of the pandemic. The right way to use tech is to automate tedious HR tasks and lighten the burden on HR teams, so managers can spend more time on the human interactions and assessments that AI can’t (yet?) take over. Successful HR Management Is All About Balance Tech is a vital way to augment the abilities of your HR team and help them do their jobs more effectively, but like in every sphere of the world of work, HR teams need to use human and machine capabilities in a balanced way. By applying AI and ML to automate time-consuming tasks, streamline performance reviews, support employee mental health needs, and improve talent management, HR managers can improve HR processes across the board. Author Bio: This article is written by our marketing team at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee engagement, and intranet software. Our aim is to help your company improve employee engagement, employee productivity, and to save you valuable time!
Should you build a large language model?
In the realm of generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs) have taken center stage. Their ability to generate humanlike text holds vast potential across industries. But should organizations invest their resources in creating and training their own LLMs, or would they be better off relying on a software as a service (SaaS) vendor like LIKE.TG?Challenges of building in-house LLMsWhen deciding whether to invest in in-house LLMs, it’s important to consider the possible challenges associated with that process. Let's explore the questions and concerns businesses frequently encounter when considering in-house LLMs.1. Responsible AI concernsOrganizations need to address critical questions regarding the responsible aspects of building LLMs, such as: How is the training data sourced? How do we mitigate bias? How do we reduce the severity of hallucinations? 2. Resource allocationDeveloping state-of-the-art LLMs often demands extensive resources in terms of both infrastructure and human expertise. One challenge organizations face is whether they can secure and allocate these resources effectively enough to yield a cutting-edge AI solution.3. Training dataBeyond the technical aspects involved in generating LLMs, access to a substantial amount of high-quality training data is paramount. The breadth and depth of this data serves as the foundation of the models and significantly influences their quality and accuracy.In a typical scenario, organizations have access to only their own data. However, many businesses’ knowledge bases don’t offer sufficient training data.4. Maintenance and progressWith technology advancing at breakneck speed, an initial big push into creating an LLM is simply not enough. Even after investing heavily in development, organizations often find newer, better LLMs that supersede their efforts. Therefore, an investment in in-house LLMs is an ongoing commitment.5. Time to valueFostering LLMs in-house and then adding skills training on top of them can take substantial time. This prolongs the time before businesses can derive tangible value from their investment. In a competitive landscape, this delay can be a significant disadvantage.Alleviating key pain pointsGiven the complexities of building an in-house LLM, it may be wiser—and more cost-effective—to take advantage of an existing architecture. LIKE.TG offers a feasible way to help organizations drive productivity and address these concerns without overhead.1. Ensured AI responsibilityLIKE.TG is committed to continued investment in next-generation AI, building foundation models responsibly. Domain-specific LLMs ensure the training universe of these LLMs is much narrower, reducing hallucination range.Organizations can rely on LIKE.TG GenAI, knowing that its foundation models strike a balance between risk and domain-specific requirements, such as application development and customer service management.2. Comprehensive resource availabilityWith the acquisition of Element AI, LIKE.TG fortified its capabilities, joining an exclusive group of organizations that have professionals who can build state-of-the-art foundation models. Moreover, a strategic partnership with NVIDIA provides access to essential resources, such as high-demand graphics processing unit computing power and LLM training tools.3. Robust training data setLIKE.TG bolsters the foundation of the LLMs by training them on its own data, fostering a comprehensive, diverse data set that enhances the models’ quality and result relevancy.Importantly, LIKE.TG respects customer privacy and preferences. We use only anonymized customer data with customer permission. This amalgamation of wide-ranging data—not readily available in an in-house setup—can be a significant advantage.4. Ongoing maintenance and technological advancesLIKE.TG's commitment to innovation helps ensure businesses get access to cutting-edge AI solutions and receive ongoing maintenance and upgrades. This approach saves organizations from the painstaking process of trying to stay ahead in the rapidly advancing AI landscape.5. Accelerated time to valueOur Now Assist GenAI experiences allow organizations to see value rapidly. Businesses can access powerful GenAI capabilities just by turning on Now Assist, avoiding the lengthy process of building and training LLMs in-house.The bottom lineLIKE.TG’s emphasis on research, strategic partnerships, and a stable foundation of AI embedded in its platform makes it an ideal choice for organizations seeking a responsible and reliable LLM for LIKE.TG workflows.For most organizations, selecting a vendor-generated LLM like LIKE.TG's is the best approach to harness innovation, increase the speed of delivering value, and remain competitive in an ever-evolving marketplace.Find out more about how LIKE.TG helps accelerate productivity and time to value with GenAI.
Showcasing artifacts of pride
June is Pride Month, an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies. Every LGBTQIA+ community member has a unique story that defines who they are.To honor this spirit of storytelling, three LIKE.TG employees share personal artifacts that have shaped their lives. In doing so, they hope to inspire and encourage others to be their unique selves and follow their dreams, regardless of obstacles.
Singapore spotlight: How to fix 4 top customer service issues
Singaporeans are growing increasingly frustrated with customer experience—and for good reason. LIKE.TG and Lonergan polled 1,030 Singaporeans and found major gaps between what the people of Singapore expect from businesses and what they experience. This translates into millions of hours wasted on hold per year and a concerning drag on business productivity.Singaporean organizations need to focus on the “customer” in customer service. Bad service experiences can turn consumers away. Business as usual tends to result in doing nothing. Adding new digital services to support customers is an investment choice.Without addressing the underlying issues, Singaporean organizations are in danger of alienating their existing customer base—and losing potential business. Here are four major customer service issues we learned from the LIKE.TG Customer Experience Intelligence Report for Singapore, along with advice on how to fix them.1. “It takes too long to resolve my issues.”Time spent on hold has increased over the past 12 months. Singaporeans spend an average of 16.1 hours—two working days—on hold. Issues and complaints typically take nearly an entire workweek (4.7 days) to resolve. This frustrates customers, hampers customer service agents, and decreases team productivity.Finding the information needed to resolve issues is often an obstacle, especially when data is stored across isolated databases and departments.Solution: AI-augmented processes can create a single system of action that brings front, middle, and back offices together to quickly and proactively address customer issues.Automation and AI tools aimed at simplifying case management and resolution can help improve efficiency. A self-service portal containing troubleshooting guides and AI-driven chatbots for real-time assistance can empower customers to troubleshoot without waiting on hold. 2. “I’m not confident in the company’s service.”Last year, Singaporeans faced one of the worst service disruptions ever. An estimated 810,000 online banking attempts at DBS and Citibank failed, as did roughly 2.5 million payments and ATM transactions, according to The Business Times. Banking wasn’t the only sector affected by disruptions.Our research found that 70% of Singaporeans encountered service disruptions from key providers across a range of industries. On average, each Singaporean experienced two disruptions per year, yet many of those disrupted chose not to reach out to customer service for help. More worryingly, 29% feel businesses make it intentionally difficult to get proper service or resolution.Solution: Be clear, honest, and transparent with your customers. Every organization experiences service disruptions. Prompt identification and trustworthy communication of these issues can help ensure they don’t turn customers away from the business for good.It’s worth noting that 27% of Singaporeans feel that being warned about issues in advance is key to good customer service—an increase from 20% in 2020.Being responsive works: 64% of Singaporeans who had five or more interactions with a company over the past year had a high level of trust in the organization’s ability to handle unexpected issues.3. “I don’t like using chatbots.”More than one-third of Singaporeans believe chatbots and automated services can’t understand the complexity of their issue. Although these consumers remain skeptical about chatbots’ usefulness, only 37% said they prefer to speak to a human.We’re seeing a greater willingness by younger generations to solve issues themselves through digital channels. More than half (56%) of Generation Z reported using self-service options, such as guides, wikis, and automated services, more frequently last year.This sentiment isn’t shared by older generations, however, as 55% of baby boomers prefer to speak directly to an agent.This suggests that Singaporeans aren’t intrinsically chatbot-averse—they just want to feel valued and supported when contacting an organization.Solution: Educate customers and support agents about how and when to use chatbots. For example, simple, low-urgency matters, such as requesting basic product information and scheduling appointments, can be easily handled by chatbots. Encourage this by providing options for seamless escalation if customers encounter problems.Chatbots and automated systems that are designed well and fully integrated with a robust, inclusive customer support system can greatly improve resolution times and help customers avoid long waits on hold. 4. “I don’t feel heard.”Singaporeans report having trouble connecting with organizations. Indeed, 40% say they experience poor service because "customer service is not listening to me"—a twofold increase from 2021.This lack of connection hits younger customers harder. Gen Z is more likely than other generations to feel less heard (47%) and that organizations make it deliberately difficult to seek help (33%—the national average is 29%).Solution: Tailor your customer experience strategy with greater empathy for customer pain points and acknowledgement of their preferences. It’s important for leaders to put themselves in the shoes of their customers to better understand their needs, as well as identify gaps in systems.Leaders should also look for ways to consolidate existing customer and operational data to better understand different types of customers and their needs and behaviors. This can provide insights to help increase personalization and segmentation, as well as speed and accuracy when responding to service requests.MedAire, an international emergency healthcare company, automated processes using LIKE.TG Customer Service Management. The solution helped MedAire manage “fit-to-fly" health assessments and improve communication with more than 5,000 airports, airlines, and teams in handling medical emergencies midflight.In-flight app integration provides crews with real-time access to information and guidance and has resulted in a 10% reduction in the time it takes to conduct a health assessment.Closing the gapsIt will take more than technology to close Singapore’s customer experience gaps. Organizations will need to adopt fresh approaches to digital business strategy that can scale efficiently to address diverse customer needs.Choosing the right platform to unify fragmented customer data and processes has never been more important. The faster Singapore organizations can act, the better—for the nation’s consumers and economy.Find out how LIKE.TG helps organizations deliver frictionless customer experience.
Six insights to help integrate AI into your digital strategy
Bestselling author and media commentator Mike Bugembe is an internationally recognised expert on artificial intelligence. Advising IT leaders across a range of industries, the former chief analytics officer from JustGiving is helping organizations transform and grow their businesses through AI.According to Mike, the perception of AI being too complicated is causing businesses to become spectators—something he believes puts them at risk of failure. We caught up with Mike after his keynote speech at LIKE.TG’s recent Future of Work livestream event, where he shared six key insights with us on AI integration.What is AI?“Think about AI as a machine which can see better than us. It can see through walls, around corners, and into the future. It can also hear better than us and read better than us. So any processes which require us to see, read, or digest lots of information and make decisions—machines can do it significantly quicker. That’s AI.”Does it have to be complicated?“Hollywood has a lot to answer for with their description of what AI looks like. The current generation of CIOs have grown up watching the type of sci-fi movies which make it difficult to conceptualize and understand what you can do with it in our world of work.The biggest insight is that AI doesn’t have to be complicated; you shouldn’t be intimidated by it.The best way to look at AI is to look at it as a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum, you’re getting decisions from data or getting data to describe what’s happened, what’s going on, and why it potentially did happen. And on the other side, you’re looking at full automation to predict exactly what’s happening and prescribe what the solution should be. Technology is making this simple.”How are everyday businesses using AI?“I’ve seen businesses make their help desk far more efficient, responding to customer requests super-fast. And I’ve seen organizations use AI technologies to better understand their customers too—to understand why they’re doing something specific and to optimize and monetize those processes.I’ve also seen organisations use AI for acquisition and AI for engagement. Ultimately, in businesses of all shapes and sizes, AI is making life better for teams, making life better for customers, improving productivity, and unlocking hidden revenue.”What are the rewards for the business?“The rewards are sizeable. You can see companies that have invested in AI doing significantly better from a profit, production, and a cost perspective.Companies that successfully deploy AI see a game-changing difference within their organization and their industry vertical. Often, those that have successfully integrated AI on the right use case will be the dominant player in their respective industry.”What can an IT leader do now to start their AI journey?“Do your homework now. How many organisations do you know that have written down all the key decisions they need to make? Or how those decisions relate to each other and how any incremental changes to one of those has a knock-on impact on the key metric they’re trying to move?Not many.Understanding your organization is essential. View it as a system of people making decisions and if you take the time to look deeply, to understand the processes, understand the activities, understand the decisions being made, your AI use case will generally fall out and it will be very, very clear where you should be applying AI.”Can we afford to wait to see how others are adopting AI?“You absolutely cannot afford to stand on the side and spectate and say, ‘I’ll wait for somebody else to do it first.’ Companies that thrive in the future are those prepared to integrate AI into their workflows now. No doubt about it.”Watch Mike’s guest keynote from LIKE.TG’s Future of Work livestream event and see how LIKE.TG digital workflows are helping companies on their digital transformation journey here.
Six Must-Have Features for an Effective Crisis Management Software
A crisis cannot be always predicted, including when it may hit and how long will it last. Your company should be prepared for such situations, aided by effective crisis management software to manage unfamiliar interruptions and ensure business continuity. A sudden and unexpected event happen may hit at any time which makes it challenging for companies to redirect their operations and manage communication protocols for business as usual. This necessitates the need for a two-pronged approach - crisis management software and a crisis management plan. While a crisis management plan entails a clear playbook outlining the procedures and policies in place for any unexpected event, crisis management software facilitates communication channels through cloud-based networks to ensure an aligned workforce and business continuity. A crisis communication tool is a clear and concise way for leaders to transparently deliver information to employees during a time of crisis. This allows employees to stay calm and focused and provides them with the support they need to coordinate a crisis response for the organization. Strong Imperative for a Crisis Management Software The findings of a Global Crisis Survey conducted in August 2019 showed that an overwhelming majority (95%) of companies believed they would face a crisis of some kind in the future. The findings were proved right. The survey also highlighted that 69% of companies faced a crisis during the last five years. Which Companies Need Crisis Management Software? Every business in general stands to benefit with the capability to not only maintain but also ensure strong communication in the event of a disruption. Many businesses and industries with frontline workers operated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The right software connecting these workers helped them stay up to date on information affecting their work as well as safety, whilst supporting the operations of the organization. You should select a communication tool that confers certain capabilities and ensures that all the employees are aligned with a unique and well-drafted crisis communication plan. Mobile App for Emergency Communication Emergency management software is a crucial tool for any business, but it provides particularly helpful for organizations whose employees are constantly on the move. For example, frontline workers make up 80% of the world’s labor force and are often the ones who suffer the most during a crisis since they can't just stop working. Frontline workers include healthcare professionals who are on the frontlines of the battle against the pandemic, and they are the ones leading the charge. They take care of the sick and drive ambulances, making up 20% of the world’s frontline workers. Another group of people who have been working hard during this time is retailers. With grocery stores being one of the few retail industries permitted to remain open, retailers have strived hard to disinfect stores, order supplies, and stock shelves. A mobile employee communication app helps in creating a unified response during crises situations by aligning every employee with regular updates from the leadership. Prioritizing communication is indispensable. With the right mobile software, leaders can create a culture of safety throughout their company, connecting with their dispersed workforce. By using an iOS app builder, leaders can quickly and easily create custom mobile applications, making it easier to communicate important safety information to employees. This helps in sharing critical information, uploading safety training videos, and issuing real-time alerts during a crisis, right from an extreme weather event (higher incidences due to climate change) to a contagious infection that can affect employees and customer service. Dependable Platform That Can Handle Extraordinary Situations A company may encounter different events that can impact various aspects of its operations at any given moment such as legal, financial, brand reputation, data security, facilities, as well as safety. To ensure an effective yet seamless transition from day-to-day operations to emergency crisis communication, the role of digital tools that can also serve as emergency communication software is crucial. This way, you and your team will be able to communicate with one another quickly and efficiently in the event of an unforeseen crisis. A cybersecurity crisis can severely impact a company’s operations and cause sensitive data leaks, affecting the brand reputation and also customer base. A robust and effective internal communication tool with key features can aid a seamless transition to support business operations during a contingency. These features should include the real-time ability to deal with the rapidly evolving situations, confirmation campaigns to make sure employees mandatorily read the alerts and messages, group chat for collaboration, and a repository for sharing and updating crucial safety information. Two-Way Communication Channel for Employee Well-Being A digital tool that allows for two-way communication helps businesses create an inclusive environment on a daily basis. This strategy delivers positive outcomes, such as increased employee engagement, a more collaborative workforce, and improved customer service. When a crisis occurs, it's even more important for organizations to have a channel that frontline workers can use to voice their concerns. Surveys are a great way for leaders to keep track of how their employees are doing during a crisis. By asking questions and getting feedback from frontline workers, managers can make more informed decisions about how to proceed. Peer-to-peer chat and communication help create a supportive structure for colleagues working from different locations. A workforce app can also provide a space for employees to voice their concerns and feel more secure in their work environment. After a crisis has passed, leaders can use post-crisis response feedback to assess their crisis management plan and see how it worked out in practice. Crisis Management by Leveraging the Power of Analytics and Data Being able to communicate with your employees is a great foundation, but having a fully-functional crisis management service with an analytics dashboard will provide you with more detailed information about your team. Analytics can help you understand employee engagement during regular business operations, but in a crisis, everything changes and it can be very hard on your employees. They may become anxious or lose focus, hence it's important to have a system that can help you monitor these things. An analytics dashboard as part of your crisis management service can get you a clear picture of what's going on with your team and identify any areas of concern. This way, you can address any issues that may come up and help keep your employees calm and focused during a time of crisis. Even during a crisis, employee engagement is still key. Make sure that you check how your employees are managing and use your communication tools to reach out to them. This way, you can provide the support they need during this difficult time. Right Tool for a Resilient Workforce When it comes to choosing a digital crisis communication solution for your business, it's important to find one that will support your needs and help you stay organized. Create dedicated crisis streams and alerts, but don't forget to maintain a sense of normalcy in your communication. In other words, keep up with your day-to-day strategies and practices to keep your workforce engaged. This way, you'll be prepared for anything that comes your way. Also, ensure that the tool will help your company in employee recognition, promote collaboration and create a channel for employee feedback. Business Continuity with Cutting-edge Features Crises are unpredictable by nature, which means they can hit unexpectedly and last for an indefinite amount of time. Many companies faced major disruptions to their workflows due to lockdowns imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The right incident management software can play a key role in business continuity at all points during a crisis. Here are some of the features that you should look for while choosing software for this purpose: Automation capability Business continuity is vital for keeping things running smoothly, no matter what type of crisis may arise - whether it’s a natural disaster, extreme weather event, data breach, or a sudden need to disperse your workforce. When a company has an internal communication tool that can automate even a routine administrative process such as payroll, then a transition to a crisis will have comparatively fewer disruptions. This level of automation in place will help to keep your business running as usual, even when faced with difficult and unforeseen circumstances. Cloud-based operations A crisis can often make traditional communication methods, like email or landlines, inaccessible. With a cloud-based network, employees are always reachable through their smartphones, can continue to communicate with colleagues and managers through apps like Slack or Google Hangouts, and access important documents and information stored online through cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive. Manage work schedules An effective workforce communication platform can enable workers to manage their schedules on their mobile devices which can help to reduce absenteeism during a crisis. Employees can continue to receive their work schedules and swap their schedules directly with colleagues. Messaging across multiple channels Employees can use different communication channels throughout the day to accomplish their work. This could be in the form of voice messages, group chats, or direct messaging. With a strong platform, businesses can be assured that communication will not be interrupted and work can continue as usual. Crisis management is one of the key factors in managing an organization. With the help of efficient crisis management software, you can prepare your organization to face any unexpected situations, keep employees engaged, preserve your brand reputation and provide timely products and services. Introduction to Conflict in the Workplace(and How it Erodes Productivity & Culture) Download the Ebook Now
Six trends driving customer service transformation
Customer service is changing. As we mentioned in our last blog post, channels don’t matter as much—the focus has shifted to customer service effectiveness instead of efficiency.ThinkJar’s Esteban Kolsky recently spoke to customer service practitioners as part of his annual research project about the state of customer service.According to Esteban, practitioners identified six critical trends fueling customer service innovation:1. Budgeting. Growing budgets are shifting from maintenance to improvement aided by digital transformation initiatives bringing customer service in alignment with the rest of the enterprise.2. Spending priorities. There are three areas where customer service will be spending over the next two years: customer experience and customer engagement; automation and self-service; and a new operational excellence model aligning these needs with corporate digital and business transformation.3. Technology adoption. Technology is slowly deployed in customer service, usually following lengthy and painful pilots. We are seeing a slight shift in this model supported by the comfort of customer service practitioners with platform-based operations and artificial intelligence following years of use. There is also an increase in the use of technology to train better agents. 4. Data. Data-based decision making is rising. Virtually all customer service practitioners we talked to are investing in data analytics and predictive operational enhancements and are less concerned with cost savings. Expect to see an effectiveness-focused metrics model emerge.5. Channels. Disconnected channels became cumbersome to support and impossible to tend to separate from everything else. Channels are becoming the communication medium for customer service operations, irrelevant as separate entities. And with platforms becoming the prevalent solution in customer service, channel management is now commoditized.6. Cloud and platforms and ecosystems. Large service organizations are still running on-premises for critical functions, but virtually all organizations are being forced to consider cloud-adoption strategies. Smaller and modern organizations have taken to the cloud quite well, showcasing the realities of this transition; expect larger cloud adoption to happen soon.Customer-centric customer serviceAccording to Esteban, these six trends, combined with a shift toward enterprises becoming digital businesses, is resulting in a new model for customer service that emphasizes customer-centric effectiveness rather than company-centric cost efficiency.You can also check out the full ThinkJar white paper, Six Transformational Customer Trends, and hear what Esteban has to say in this this webinar, 5 Critical Steps for Outcomes-First Customer Service.This blog post is part of a four-part blog series highlighting trends and how you can apply valuable insights to fuel your customer service transformation.In the Customer Service is Digitally Transforming – Series, you'll find the following posts:Part 1 - Customer service is digitally transforming—Are you ready?Part 2 - Six trends driving customer service (this blog post)Part 3 - The new customer-centric customer service modelPart 4 - How to translate CSM trends to business value
Six Ways to Achieve Employee Satisfaction
Achieving employee satisfaction is important for every organization for a variety of reasons. And there are as many as six superb ways to achieve employee satisfaction within your organization. In fact, employee satisfaction is useful for all businesses- whether it’s a small business, new startup or a multinational corporation. So how does one go about to ensure employee satisfaction? To do so, we first need to comprehend what this term “employee satisfaction” actually implies. Defining Employee Satisfaction In simple terms, employee satisfaction is a yardstick that companies utilize to know whether their staff at all levels are happy doing the job and with workplace conditions. What most human resources managers aren’t aware of is that employee satisfaction has more to do with psychology instead of simply providing good pay and excellent working conditions. In fact, employee satisfaction is all about the state of the mind of an employee at workplace that also extends to their personal lives. Therefore, it’s not easy to measure employee satisfaction levels. There Are several factors that go into determining employee satisfaction. Overall liking of the job by an employee. Satisfaction over levels and quality of supervision. Feeling safe and secure at workplace. Ability to perform the role well. Adequate resources necessary for daily working. Commitment to making a long career with the employer. Career advancement opportunities. Prospects for financial growth. All these factors have a close link with one-another and are some of the common factors that HR managers and employers worldwide use to measure employee satisfaction. Here it’s also important to remember that an organization’s goals should correspond with its desire to achieve employee satisfaction. Focusing merely on employee satisfaction without concern about the organization’s goals for growth, expansion and greater profitability can prove disastrous. Reasons to Aim for Employee Satisfaction At the same time, there’re very strong reasons why any business serious about staying in business and growing needs to take steps for ensuring employee satisfaction. Rising Cost of Hiring The cost of hiring an employee ranges between $7,000 and $50,000 depending on the role they’ll play. This includes the various hiring processes such as advertising online or offline for a vacancy, shortlisting the right candidates, tests, interviews and training before the new hire fits into the role and starts performing well. These expenses don’t calculate man-hours an organization spends on such processes and training. Nor does it consider the costs of lower productivity of a new hire. This makes it imperative to retain existing employees, especially top talent within the organization. Lowering Attrition Rates Employees tend to leave an employer if they’re unhappy at a workplace for any reason. And this leads to hiring costs, for obvious reasons. However, high employee satisfaction is known to help retain the best talent while developing loyalty to your organization. It’s well known that loyal staff exert extra efforts to ensure the organization achieves goal. And in most cases, they’ll stand with their employer, if the company runs into doldrums for any reason. Loyal employees won’t leave an employer merely for a bit higher salary. Healthy Reputation for Employers Employee satisfaction directly translates to a healthy reputation for employers. Because, this satisfaction reflects on their lifestyles. Satisfied employees also spread a good word about the employer through word-of-the-mouth publicity. This makes it easier for organization that’ve a high level of employee satisfaction to attract the best talent and sometimes, wean away people with vital skills from competitors to their own companies. Workplaces with high employee satisfaction rates also find it easier to get fresh recruits quickly whenever they announce a vacancy through job boards, LinkedIn to explore more and newspaper ads or their own websites. These three benefits of achieving employee satisfaction are something that every organization would definitely desire. And there’re some simple ways to try and achieve employee satisfaction. Six Ways to Achieve Employee Satisfaction Before we discuss these six best ways to achieve employee satisfaction, it’s important to consider the “new normal” of work the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic dictates. The “new normal” as it’s known, is rapidly changing the way we work. This means, ways and means to achieve employee satisfaction also need to adapt to the newer ways of working. In this article, we will look at six ways to achieve employee satisfaction in 2021 and beyond. Christopher BaggottChief Executive Officerator of Medlinks Cost Containment, Inc. and Medlinks Staffing, LLC. “Our staff has praised the increased communications level Workmates delivers. We use it to communicate important project matters and give staff specific ‘kudos’ or even recognize their birthdays. More importantly, we use Workmates to clarify important project details that needed rapid dissemination among the entire team.” Work from Home Facilities Work from home is the new normal for countless organizations and their employees. That’s because of the need for social distancing to prevent getting the Covid-19 infection. In fact, most employers are encouraging work from home while employees are utilizing this facility happily. However, anyone that works from home would testify that it comes with a bunch of inherent flipsides. An office-going employee could relieve the day’s stress at home. Nowadays, with home and office becoming one, there’re few ways to alleviate such work related stress. Any organization that wishes to achieve employee satisfaction will therefore have to see how to make work from home a more pleasurable while ensuring lower stress levels. Providing flexible hours may be one solution but that might not be possible for all employers due to the nature of their business. However, it’s important to ensure that work from home is less stressful and more pleasurable in the present circumstances. Better Communications at Every Level Remote working or work from home also makes it necessary for employers to have better communications with employees and among one-another. Such seamless communications through video conferencing helps employers to detail their objectives clearly to employees while leaving nothing to ambiguity. Elimination of ambiguity combined with excellent communications between a team of remote workers helps achieve employee satisfaction. Every employee is clear about what they need to do and the processes they have to follow. This results in better productivity and could help remove misunderstandings and confusion that can prevail among employees due to poor communications at different levels. However, better communications can sometimes be misunderstood as micromanagement. And this is something an employer should avoid. The trick here is to set clear objectives and get the work done seamlessly instead of micromanaging a team of remote employees through better communications. Online Training Programs Training ranks among the most effective ways to achieve employee satisfaction. And it helps the employer too. We live in an era where technologies are rapidly changing. This also means the way we work has to evolve around newer technologies. The best way to ensure this is by training employees to work with latest, more efficient systems that would see the business record greater profits and customer satisfaction. The Covid-19 pandemic triggered a surge in demand for online training courses for employees. Therefore, organizations need to look at employee training very seriously if they wish to achieve employee satisfaction. It’s a well-known fact that employees will leave an organization if they find their skills going redundant or outdated for the job market. And having employees with older skills can severely retard the growth of a business. To learn even more about improving the employee experience and increasing your competitive advantage while providing a fast return on investment, download our ebook now. Download now Internal Promotions & Career Growth Every employee takes up a job either as fresher or with some experience, expecting to create a career. They look forward to promotions that helps career growth and salary hikes that come with higher positions. Therefore, creating an HR policy that prioritizes internal promotions and offers ample career growth prospects works well to achieve employee satisfaction. This can be done even when you have a team of employees working online from remote locations. Internal promotions and career growth prospects foster a healthy competition and higher productivity, leaving little or no space for workplace politics and undesirable attrition. Training all staff and providing them equal opportunities to vie for a higher post works well towards achieving this goal of employee satisfaction. Instead of hiring a person externally for senior positions, an organization could consider promoting someone with the right skillset and attitude, from within. Preventing Overwork Work from home can often lead to overwork. And often, it’s not because an employee couldn’t complete the day’s work on schedule. Instead, employers expect a work from home employee to complete some additional work, because they believe it can be done comfortably. Nowadays, quite a large number of organizations are working with lesser number of staff. That’s because they had to trim payrolls to counter losses sustained during peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. A shorter payroll often results in longer working hours for existing staff. This should be avoided at all costs. Overwork is one of the main reasons for staff attrition and inability to achieve staff satisfaction. Incentives & Appreciation Providing timely incentives in the form of cash rewards or pay hikes and instant appreciation of high performing employees is a time-tested and proven technique to promote employee satisfaction. Though it might sound outdated, this practice is relevant till date and works well for every organization that implements the system. Lack of appreciation is a reason for high staff turnovers. And not incentivizing good performance causes disgruntlement among employees at all levels. Combine the two and an organization could actually face mass resignations and very high attrition. The best way to stem these undesirable situations is to incentivize good work and appreciate outstanding performance by employees. Incentives and appreciation always works well to achieve employee satisfaction. It also benefits the employer since all employees exert extra effort to gain appreciation and avail incentives. In Conclusion There’re also some other known ways to achieve employee satisfaction. However, with the new normal for work, it’s best to adapt or utilize the above six ways to suit specific needs of the organization. After all, employee satisfaction helps businesses grow faster and attract the best talent. Any investments in achieving employee satisfaction are therefore, worthwhile. About Author: This article is written by a marketing team member at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of proven HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee communications & engagement, and rewards & recognition. Our user-friendly software increases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.
Skills-based volunteering helps employees make a global impact
At LIKE.TG, we’re passionate about giving back and helping communities thrive. The pandemic and lockdowns around the world challenged us to think more creatively about how we can get out into the local community to give back. So, we’ve provided our employees with opportunities to use their skills and expertise to make an impact in the world.“As part of our global impact program, we give our employees 20 hours per year to give back to causes they are most passionate about,” shares Alan N., a solution architect who’s been leading a skills-based volunteering project at LIKE.TG in Europe. “Skills-based volunteering has enabled employees to give back from the safety of their own homes while making a profound impact to organizations all around the world.”Passion and experience fuel growthEmployees have been able to use their passion and experiences to help organizations grow. Sarah G. is using her experience as a widow and her 25-year career in marketing to help Apart of Me reach more people with their app. The charity helps young people cope with the death of a loved one.“At LIKE.TG, we create our technology in the service of people, and that’s exactly what Apart of Me has done—created a mobile game to help young people navigate their grief. It’s a perfect match that allows me to extend the passion I feel at LIKE.TG of making the world of work, work better to the charity sector, one heart at a time,” she says. Prabjoth S., an advisory solution consultant, is working with Ignite Hubs to break stereotypes around careers in coding. “The students I’m mentoring believe coding is a lifelong and one-dimensional career, sitting all day alone with a headset on,” he explains.“I’ve been sharing my career path of being a coder for a year before moving into leadership and management, and how coding gives me an edge when I’m talking to C-suite leaders. The students get a buzz from you talking to them, which helps build their confidence. It’s pretty cool, and it doesn’t take much time to give back.”Allies to new communitiesOther employees have chosen projects that enable them to become allies to single-parent and Black communities.“The book Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo had a profound effect on me about how difficult it is to be a woman of color trying to find work whilst looking after your children, a challenge that has been exasperated by COVID,” shares Sarah B., security and risk solution sales manager.“That’s why I’m working with Ranwo, a social enterprise that empowers single parents by educating and employing them to become virtual assistants.”Andrew W., global sales enablement delivery manager, joined ACE Entrepreneurs to gain a deeper perspective of the challenges Black entrepreneurs face when setting up their own businesses. “From unconscious bias to securing finance from a bank, there are many obstacles Black entrepreneurs face. I’m honored to use my 30+ years of experience to be a sounding board to founder Nadine Campbell and help more Black entrepreneurs set up successful businesses.” Diversity of thought and approachesSignup for skills-based volunteering continues to grow because the experience helps our employees with new ways of thinking in their roles at ServiceNow. “Ever since I started working with Ebun Sanusi, the founder of Ranwo, I often ask myself in my role at LIKE.TG, ‘How would she approach this?' which helps me to prioritize and bring diversity of thought into my team,” explains Sarah.Prabjoth describes the experience as grounding. “We collaborate to be strategic whereas students collaborate naturally, so they are teaching me new ways to approach our values of teamwork and collaboration.”Feeling inspired? Join our team.
Sleep well, work well, live well: Bring joy to your employees
The modern day is broken up into thirds, with eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work, and eight hours to dabble in your favorite hobbies like painting, hiking, or building a frustratingly complex particle board bookshelf that came with the instructions to a slightly different model. It’s the rhythm of today’s society.We all know the impact that sleep can have on a person. Not getting enough rest can affect concentration, mood, memory, and balance among other issues. These common effects have led to countless studies, practices, and products all designed to help humans ease into their REM cycles a little easier. Lights that slowly dim as you wind down for the day, mattresses with variable firmness, ambience noise to sooth, and alarms that are a bit gentler than the hammer and bell models. So much of a person’s outlook and attitude is impacted by a few extra beats of slumber, it only makes sense that the advances achieved by researchers and innovators are lauded.Work is the other third of our day, and much like sleep, environmental conditions play a huge role in a person’s wellbeing. Only recently has research extended beyond the salient dynamic around interpersonal relationships or manager-subordinate communication, and started exploring the resonance of culture, benefits, technology, and the overall experience an employee has in comparison to other aspects of their life. Lacking any of those elements may impact productivity, motivation, and creativity to the same degree as a restless night of sleep.Companies need to invest more in the experience of their employees, mainly listening to feedback and adjusting when appropriate. Sadly, it seems many organizations either aren’t doing that, or their efforts are falling flat. As part of LIKE.TG’s Employee Experience Imperative research, we found over half (52%) of employees do not believe employers are invested in improving the employee experience for their workers, and only 40% believe supplied feedback is acted upon by their employers.It’s a problem that needs to be tackled by the entire leadership team, not just the head of HR. Recently, LIKE.TG’s CHRO Pat Wadors and CIO Chris Bedi sat down to discuss how these statistics correlate with their experiences.
Social Media Strategies for Boosting Remote Employee Engagement: A Guide for HR Professionals
The landscape of how work is conducted worldwide has undergone a significant transformation in recent years. Recently, remote work has become more prevalent than ever – and for good reason. While this shift to remote work brings many benefits for both parties, it also presents unique challenges, particularly regarding employee engagement. What are we aiming at here? Well, the physical separation from the original workplace can create a gap in communication and connection. This makes it essential for HR professionals to explore innovative solutions to these newly-created problems. If your company is facing the same problem, you’ve made the right click. In this guide, we’ll delve into the challenges posed by remote work setups and the ways in which social media can be harnessed as a powerful tool to enhance employee engagement. The Growing Importance of Social Media in the Remote Work Era Here’s an interesting fact that you might or might not have known so far. Looking at Upwork's insights, it's anticipated that by 2025, approximately 32.6 million Americans, making up roughly 22% of the workforce, will be engaged in remote work. It’s a serious transition. Now, let’s focus on the aspect that interests us the most – social media. While it offers numerous advantages – flexibility, and access to a worldwide talent pool – remote work also presents unique challenges. Social media is one of the critical tools that have emerged to address these challenges. Although most of us view social media merely as a tool for DM-ing friends and boosting posts on Instagram of each other, it has now become an indispensable resource for fostering online relationships in the remote work era. For starters, there’s the communication aspect. Social media platforms provide various channels for communication. You can hop on simple messaging apps and video calls or participate in group chats. Basically, you have the freedom to reach out to anyone at any time, however you like. Besides communication, it offers a chance to showcase your personality and humanize your online presence. You can share your interests, glimpses of your daily lives, and even some snapshots from your workplace. The best thing about using social media while working remotely? You can share achievements and mutual milestones even if you’re one continent away from each other.Hold on to that thought – we’ll mention it along the way. All of this sounds great at first, but it’s not all sunshine. Remote work can also lead to strong feelings of isolation, burnout, lack of motivation, and even communication online. That’s where social media strategies kick in. 4 Social Media Strategies Tailored for Remote Engagement Boosting employee engagement is a burning issue, and it’s in need of instant solutions. So, without further ado, here are 4 effective social media strategies for boosting remote employee engagement. Time to take notes! Setting Clear Goals Setting clear goals is a fundamental aspect of ensuring productivity and engagement among employees. Setting clear goals provides employees with a sense of purpose and direction during their working hours. When working remotely, employees may sometimes feel detached from the broader organizational objectives, which is completely understandable. So, well-defined goals act as guiding beacons, helping employees understand their role in achieving these objectives. There are dozens of online social media tools that can help your organization with setting clear goals. You can download Todoist, Trello, Asana, Microsoft To-Do, GoalsOnTrack, and many more. You can share them with your colleagues and see how far you’ve come in your tasks. A great thing about setting clear goals while using social media tools and calendars is transparency. These apps are easy to use and navigate, and you can share them with other members of your company. Of course, acting managers should jump in and engage in meaningful dialogues to help employees set clear goals and cooperate while taking into account their challenges and circumstances. Choosing The Right Platform Although social media offers an array of platforms for us to communicate and reach out to one another – they’re not all the same in effectiveness. It’s completely natural for some platforms to perform better than others, and as a growing business, you should take notes. Did you know: Zoom currently serves 504,900 corporate clients, with a total of more than 3.3 trillion minutes spent in annual meetings and an additional 45 billion minutes dedicated to hosting webinars each year. How to make the right choice? First, you need to understand the preferences of your company in terms of social media platforms. Do they use specific platforms for social media tools already? Ask and you shall receive your answer. Next, you should analyze your top candidates – Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack would be the best-performing ones. Evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and see which one sits the best with your remote team. Also, explore tool integration of each of these platforms. This will do wonders for your remote workplace and make it ten times easier to streamline certain tasks. Last but not least, make sure that the platform you choose is also mobile-friendly. You’ve got to remember that your employees will not have their screens next to them 24/7 – and that’s completely valid. Choose a platform that’s easy to install on their smartphones as well. Hosting Virtual Events Your time zones might not allow you but technology is here to save the day and help you stay in touch with your employees and connect. The answer? Virtual events. Many businesses believe that this is a key strategy when it comes to enhancing remote employee engagement. Virtual events are an excellent choice for team building, social interaction, and learning when you’re sentenced to long-distance. To maximize the effects of this strategy, you should consider diversity – meaning you should host different types of events – webinars, virtual team launches, workshops, and even online games. While you’re at it, make sure to stick to relevant topics. If your goal is enhancing engagement, you should focus on topics that promote discussion. You need to be 99% certain that your employees will willingly speak and participate in your virtual event. Don’t make these events monotonous – instead, add a little bit of flair – polls, breakout rooms, Q&A time, and so on. You can also invite hosts to speak about something that’s interesting at the moment – choose engaging partners and witness how your remote workspace thrives. Celebrating Team Milestones Celebrating each other’s milestones is absolutely fundamental! Just because you’re not in the same office doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t acknowledge each other's achievements. On the contrary, utilizing social media to highlight milestones and celebrate the next steps is highly effective in enhancing engagement. There are dozens of ways to kick off this popular trend. You can host virtual celebrations, chat with your colleagues in group chats, make customized certifications and badges, encourage peer recognition, or just send out the good old virtual e-cards. With Workmates, any team member can give a digital ‘kudos’ as a form of acknowledging a colleague’s efforts. This not only benefits employees but helps foster an excellent workplace culture! The Benefits of Boosting Remote Employee Engagement If you decide to incorporate the above-mentioned strategies in your remote workspace, results are guaranteed. So, here’s what you can expect in the long run: Enhanced Productivity Oftentimes, your remote employees just needed a little pat on the back to work more productively. As we said, the transition from regular office hours to remote work is a major change, and it can be rough at first. Luckily, once they feel encouraged and noticed, remote employees will feel empowered and ready to seize the workday! Job Satisfaction When you move out of the office and into your own home, you have plenty of time to sit back and really think – ‘Do I like my job, or am I in it just for the money?’ Once your collective starts implementing the strategies that we mentioned, you’ll have a clear answer – of course, you like your job, you just needed a little push! Stronger Team Collaboration Working remotely might create a sense of isolation and alienation – especially if it’s been a minute since you’ve talked to anybody from your team. That’s precisely why we took the time to emphasize virtual events and celebrating milestones. These simple strategies yield positive results. Now you have a chance to chat with your employees and talk about something that’s not strictly work-related. You might even discover that you have similar hobbies. The Final Verdict By now, we have covered everything regarding enhancing remote employee engagement in the current age. It's time to review the most important points. What we can definitely conclude is that remote work is inevitable and that it will take over the work landscape by 2025, almost completely. With such statistics and knowledge, it is important to pay attention to employee engagement. To secure positive results, businesses are encouraged to implement strategies that involve social media: setting clear goals, choosing the right platform, hosting virtual events, and celebrating milestones. In the long run – enhanced productivity, job satisfaction, and team collaboration is guaranteed. Try Workmates Interactive Demo Click trough it yourself withinteractive demo. Try It Now
Solution Consulting Academy helps veterans launch post-service career
Dream big. Take risks. Call these the mantras—or directives—of the LIKE.TG solution consultant (SC) community. Ingrained in the DNA of our Solution Consulting Academy, they even play a role in the recruitment of enrollees.According to Alex H., director of the global Solution Consulting Academy, “In order for our platform to be the platform for the 21st century, we need our SCs to set big goals—and never settle for less. Accomplishing them, at times, will require taking on risks.”[We’re hiring. Explore sales careers at ServiceNow.]The Solution Consulting Academy is a five-month program designed to launch the careers of SCs, whom Alex calls “trusted advisers” and the “technical counterpart to our sales reps.” They work directly with our account executives to help close deals.In a nutshell, the academy provides accelerated technical training, certifications, professional development, and hands-on experience. All of this has traditionally taken nine to 12 months. The fast-paced courses ensure Solution Consulting Academy graduates are effective in the field on day one, Alex says.The initial class of the academy in 2018 had 18 participants. The following year, enrollees increased to 26. This year, the number jumped to 42. Alex expects more than 100 enrollees in 2022.In 2020, 93% of the 22 graduates continued in solution consulting at ServiceNow. Expanding to include veteransThe Solution Consulting Academy was originally created to bring early-in-career talent into the SC organization. This year, it added the subset of veterans into the fold—recruiting recent and active military personnel and reservists to launch their post-service career.Why veterans? Two reasons:1. Customer centricityChristine E., vice president of solution consulting, says veterans understand the lingo, business challenges, and unique nature of our federal business accounts. “They wield a great amount of respect and confidence with these customers because they served their country and have a unique understanding of them,” she says.2. LIKE.TG cultureThe program is aligned with Veterans at Now, one of our employee Belonging Groups. Pete L, area vice president of solution consulting, says it’s part of our culture to give back. “Veterans are used to helping others and align to our vision, values, and mission by continuing to serve customers—no matter where they are,” he says. An emphasis on relationshipsThe big question for the inaugural class of veterans is twofold: Why the Solution Consulting Academy, and why LIKE.TG?We spoke with the current group of enrollees, who are on schedule to graduate in December. Tré B. spent 10 years in the Marines, including four deployments—two tours each in Iraq and Afghanistan—as well as stints in Japan and Korea. He attributes our company culture as key to his transition from teaching overseas to joining ServiceNow.“One of the main things that attracted me was how easy it was to request help from anyone in the LIKE.TG community. It’s a culture that I hadn’t experienced since I was in the military,” he says. “Yes, we are competitive, but we all want everyone to succeed.”Tré says the academy is all about relationships—and knowing he can provide customers with the exact solutions they need. “As SCs, we can work on sales without actually talking about money,” he explains. “It’s about getting customers something that’s robust, something that’s amazing, something that will last, and something that will solve their business issues. Making customers happy will be incredibly rewarding.”Sergio H. spent five years in the Air Force and has been in the Reserves for a decade. Since leaving active duty in 2010, where he worked as a mechanic on the C-5 Galaxy, Sergio has worked mainly in corporate finance.“I began to miss the daily pressures of the military and actually seeing the fruits of my labor,” he says. “I saw an opportunity in LIKE.TG, through the SC Academy, to feel more like I was on the front lines, adding tangible value to what the company is trying to accomplish.” Bringing the mantras to lifeSergio adds that the concepts of taking risks and dreaming big have unquestionably resonated with his personality and experience.“I believe taking risks is all about getting out of your comfort zone. Dreaming big is about the bigger picture—what we can accomplish together,” he says. “I’ve always felt much better saying ‘We did it’ rather than ‘I did it.’ You don’t accomplish anything substantial as an individual. You must rely on others on the team.”Jeremy W. joined the Army at 23 years of age and began as an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technician. After five years, he left the military for college, earning a bachelor’s degree in information science.“What ultimately won me over for LIKE.TG was how everyone I talked to during the interview process absolutely loved working at LIKE.TG,” he says. “Everyone was warm, welcoming, and showed a genuine team spirit. The feeling has only been heightened after my first 60 days here.”Jeremy says he’s most excited about helping businesses find value in a product that can, ultimately, allow them more financial flexibility to hire more employees and create more jobs. “Impacting the ability of companies to bring in more talent is very rewarding to me,” he says.Want to know more about the Solution Consulting Academy? Email [email protected]. Learn more about sales job opportunities at ServiceNow.
Source-to-Pay Operations: The key to cutting costs and boosting satisfaction
Since we launched Finance and Supply Chain Workflows in May, I've had a lot of conversations with LIKE.TG customers. They want to know how we're applying the Now Platform to address the challenges their business stakeholders have been facing across the source-to-pay process.LIKE.TG Source-to-Pay Operations automates and organizes the work of procurement—from onboarding suppliers and managing indirect procurement requests to confirming receipt and paying suppliers for products or services delivered. It bridges systems, teams, and data sources, and even brings external stakeholders onto a single platform to simplify and accelerate processes.An easier, more efficient way to workAlmost all companies today rely on a patchwork of systems to address the various needs and tasks in the source-to-pay process. Navigating different systems and figuring out processes or statuses can be frustrating for employees and suppliers.For procurement professionals, it involves too many manual processes, especially around data entry. Every manual step slows your current process and introduces opportunities for workarounds. It’s no wonder companies struggle to increase the amount of spend under management.There’s an easier, more efficient way for your employees to work. Source-to-Pay Operations consists of three products: Sourcing and Procurement Operations automates the source-to-receipt process for seamless purchasing and case management across teams, allowing sourcing and procurement to focus on strategic priorities such as building a higher-quality supplier base and negotiating more favorable contracts. Supplier Lifecycle Operations enables you to quickly onboard suppliers, effortlessly manage supplier data, add key supplier contacts, monitor supplier performance, and enhance productivity of the teams that engage with suppliers so your teams can do more, more easily, without a corresponding increase in headcount. Accounts Payable Operations helps finance departments simplify and coordinate the activities required to pay suppliers accurately—from matching invoices to purchase orders and goods receipts to approvals and payment release—so your organization can pay confidently and improve supplier relations. Empowering employeesSource-to-pay stakeholders, such as procurement, receiving, and accounts payable, can now focus on more strategic activities: Optimizing spend Achieving more responsible sourcing and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals Forming a higher-quality, more resilient supplier base Confidently paying suppliers accurately and on time This is the intended work of teams across the source-to-pay process. It’s why you hired them, and it’s what they want to do. Too often, though, employees are overwhelmed with status request emails or manual data entry tasks that burn time and energy without adding value to the business.Source-to-Pay Operations alleviates the tedium so that your employees want to follow established procurement processes, procurement professionals have more time to focus on value-adding activities, and suppliers are kept in the loop. With Source-to-Pay Operations, you can: Double the number of requests and suppliers handled by your procurement team Uncover discounting opportunities by consolidating spend and taking advantage of early-payment discounts Raise supplier quality and reduce fraud with embedded ESG and risk management Create a better experience for all with one easy-to-use environment for getting work done Connecting systems and increasing valueIf you're a Now Platform owner, this may sound familiar. We use the core technologies from the platform—workflows, case management, AI—and apply them to the procurement space.If you're a procurement professional, think of LIKE.TG as a one-stop shop to help an employee get work done. Source-to-Pay Operations connects to and augments underlying systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) or sourcing solutions so you get more value from existing investments while simultaneously making life easier for your employees.LIKE.TG Finance and Supply Chain Workflows are a recognition of and response to the idea that we need new and better ways to compose the business systems that span teams, applications, and data streams. Now you can say yes to both cutting costs and increasing employee satisfaction.Find out more about Finance and Supply Chain Workflows.
Sparking security transformation with LIKE.TG Security Operations
Diversification and digital transformation are the key to success for businesses in most industries. Spark – formerly Telecom New Zealand – is no exception. The business is now looking to build on its expertise in telecommunications with a broad range of digital services.These far-reaching changes also require a disciplined security response. Josh Bahlman, tribe lead for cyber security at Spark, joined us in LIKE.TG Neighbourhood – our online community featuring speakers who are changing the way work is done – to share the organization’s digital security journey.Josh’s team had a formidable task and is sized appropriately. “My security team is probably the largest in New Zealand, and that’s more out of necessity than anything else,” he explains. “[We have] to protect our telco networks [and] our enterprise as well as our customers through managed services [and] IT services as well.”Spark’s adoption of LIKE.TG Security Operations to support cyber-security aligned with a broader move by the business to consolidate its service management, processes, and workflows. “It was a no-brainer for the cyber-security team to follow suit,” says Josh.The cyber security team began with incident response and consolidating a range of security tools into a single location so it could provide better support to the business.It then focused on vulnerability management and, using third-party scanning integrated with LIKE.TG workflow management, gained better visibility of risk and improved its ability to position work with the right groups for resolution.Spark is continuing to review how automation with LIKE.TG Security Operations can improve the efficiency of security processes. Josh took the opportunity in the LIKE.TG Neighborhood to share with us some reporting that would help direct his automation activities.First, he says, the cyber security team spends half its time on incident reporting false-positives – an inordinate amount of collective energy that needs to be addressed. Second, nearly a third of incident tickets involve denial of service – an area the team is already using automation to mitigate.Finally, phishing attacks are wasting a lot of the team’s time and Josh plans to use automation to reduce the load.Josh also shared with us the techniques and processes Spark used to successfully deploy LIKE.TG Security Operations. These included using the skills of partner InfoSys and breaking the project into chunks to help people grow with the platform rather than try to absorb all its capabilities at once.Spark spent four months switching on the capabilities of the platform and another 12 on adoption and maturation. The business also modified its processes to align with LIKE.TG Security Operations so it could minimize the required work on upgrades and keep up to date with new releases.“Now the pressure is on me and my team to see how we can evolve that further,” says Josh. His projects include using LIKE.TG to gauge bottom-up risk and streamline the audit processes.“What I’ve been searching for is how I can quantify risk around specific assets and maybe even specific resolver groups and people,” he says. “We’re looking at…an integrated risk management tool and feature inside the suite of modules you can turn on.”To view the LIKE.TG Neighbourhood session with Josh, click on this link: https://content.servicenow.com/nowneighbourhood/Spark-Customer_Story?lx=U9S4CU&elqcampid=25124&cname=FE-Q3ANZDigitalSeriesSession6-Online-21AUG20-APJ
Special report: Finding the opportunities in global uncertainty
A volatile economy, a disrupted supply chain, a widespread talent shortage, and environmental challenges have left many business leaders wondering how to move forward. In this environment, change is the only constant.Navigating these headwinds requires evolving your relationship with global uncertainty and seeing the creative opportunities it presents. LIKE.TG’s Workflow special report, From adversity to advantage, offers an actionable framework for making this essential pivot.
Special report: Putting GenAI to work in the enterprise
In my conversations with the LIKE.TG partner community, there’s one thing I’m consistently asked: How do we work with you to adapt to the rapid speed of innovation and change? My answer is simple: To truly innovate, you have to understand the trends behind the innovation.LIKE.TG recently collaborated with Harbor Research to scan the global marketplace. We wanted to understand the widespread digital transformation and rapid technology shifts that are fueling growth—and driving significant complexities—for organizations.I’m happy to announce the release of our inaugural innovation trends report. We’ve uncovered six key technology trends that will affect the ways organizations reimagine work, processes, and value creation.The report also highlights the implications of cloud computing and AI, and how they’ve revolutionized resource creation and management. Let’s face it, as the digital landscape shifts, new technologies emerge—and so do opportunities to enable growth.With that in mind, let’s look at the six innovation trends we found and what they mean for your business:1. Exponential innovationEvery new technology is a building block to the next innovation, but organizations can’t future-proof technology on their own. They need partners to help them bring cutting-edge solutions to market.2. Shared data architecturesSiloed data architectures are no longer sufficient for the volume of data coming into the enterprise. Data architectures will have to be restructured into open systems for more proactive insights and faster time to value.3. Automation technologiesAI, machine learning, and automation-driven algorithms are leading forces in the world of work. By integrating smart sensors, machines, and information systems, organizations can create a “digital nervous system” that makes work autonomous and drives better decisions.4. New modes of work with the right toolsCompanies are no longer bound by four walls—they’re distributed ecosystems. Organizations can use intelligent automation to build apps that work across multiple clouds while easing development complexity.5. Any user as a developerAs software becomes increasingly complex, organizations need to make application development more accessible. With a low-code platform, any individual at any skill level can become a developer and build products and solutions. This can in turn help reduce overall costs and increase value.6. Expansive partner networksScalable partner networks help enterprises effectively manage the rapidly evolving scope of distributed workforces, technologies, and applications. Harbor Research found that more than 50% of data needed for optimization will come from outside an organization.Partnerships are critical to help organizations extend value through knowledge, relationship sharing, and co-creating net-new solutions for unique customer needs.All six trends are vital for the LIKE.TG partner ecosystem as we work toward continued success, growth, and innovation together. By combining a single platform that can orchestrate the entire technology chain with the thought leadership and intellectual property of our partners, the opportunities are truly endless.Check out the full innovation trends report. It includes partner case studies on how we’re addressing our joint customers’ most pressing challenges in each of the six areas.
Special report: Putting GenAI to work in the enterprise
Generative AI (GenAI) is on track to be the most powerful technology of our time. As such, it’s created quite a buzz.“Generative AI has awakened people's imagination for AI,” explains LIKE.TG Chief Digital Information Officer Chris Bedi. “AI has been around for a long time. People use machine learning models, but they couldn't feel and touch it like generative AI. That's why it's very exciting now.”To help people better understand what GenAI can do and, more importantly, how it can be used in the enterprise, LIKE.TG created a GenAI special report.An entirely new way of workingThe possibilities of GenAI in the enterprise are seemingly limitless. When implemented on an intelligent platform, the technology can make every person, process, system, industry—everything—work better.Brian Solis, head of global innovation at LIKE.TG, believes GenAI will power a new era of business growth, along with an entirely new way of working. The question many business leaders are asking is, “How, exactly, do I get started?” The short answer is, with the right platform.A safe, sane approachAI-powered assistants delivered on an intelligent platform can empower people to be exponentially more productive. But to implement GenAI in a way that’s secure, business leaders must understand the data upon which GenAI bases its actions and recommendations.Yoshua Bengio is one of AI’s pioneers. A leading machine learning scientist and winner of the 2018 Association for Computing Machinery A.M. Turing Award, he explains how organizations can deploy GenAI tools in a way that’s transparent, responsible, and auditable.A continuing topic is how and when governments should move to regulate the AI industry. The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act provides the most ambitious governance framework to date.The GenAI-human partnershipOpen-access, open-governance large language models (LLMs) are sure to affect the way software is developed. A conversation between Nicolas Chapados, vice president of research at LIKE.TG, and Jeff Boudier, head of product and growth at AI startup Hugging Face, provides fascinating insight into how GenAI is democratizing code. This makes it possible for people of all skill levels to develop applications—no technical experience necessary.Forget the old “robots are coming to replace us” narrative. To tap into the full potential of GenAI, humans need to stay in the loop, as Hal Gregersen, senior lecturer for work and organization studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management, emphasizes. Business innovation requires a strong partnership between humans and AI, he says.LIKE.TG has long been a leader when it comes to integrating AI into our products. Discover how we help organizations put GenAI to work.
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