Tag Archives: Communication

Corporate Legends-Your Culture Weapon

Using Corporate Legends to Communicate Culture

We often hear that communicating organizational culture is an important task. However, most people fail to provide examples on how to do that very thing! I’ve been testing different methods for sharing culture (collectingÂ touchstones, for one), but one of my favorite ways to share our corporate beliefs and values are through the “legends” within our organization.

What is a legend?

In this sense of the word, a legend is defined as a person who took extraordinary action to achieve a goal. The guy who drove 400 miles to support a customer’s urgent request. The team that brought 40 employees on board with 48 hours’ notice. The woman who, despite all odds, successfully navigated a corporate audit with a successful conclusion. Basically, it’s the people and actions that embody the high standards that your organization stands for.

What’s the purpose?

Sure, I can tell you what our corporate values are. I can even give you some generic idea of what they mean. However, human communication has a long historical basis in storytelling and traditions. Telling you about how one of our employees really embodies the spirit of our corporate values makes it stick in your brain that much better. If a similar situation arises, you won’t be wondering how to proceed. You’ll be able to recall the legend and what someone else did to achieve success.

How to get started

Start talking with the people who have been at your company for a while. Ask questions that are designed to dig into previous accomplishments. For example:

Can you tell me about a time someone went above and beyond the call of duty?
What was the biggest success this department has ever had?
Has there ever been a big innovation or breakthrough at the corporate or team level? What was it?

If you’re stuck with few examples, you need to get started capturing and communicating the legends that you have. Start reaching out to managers and ask them to share with you when one of their people has a successful project or does something that demonstrates excellence. It’s your job to take those stories and use them to encourage others to embody the same characteristics.

While there might be better ways to communicateÂ organizationalÂ culture, using internal legends is fairly straightforward, it’s easy to get started, and it has an immediate impact on the people who hear them. Have a legend of your own? I’d love to hear it! Feel free to share in the comments below.

HR Brand-Words vs Actions

Your HR brand is what you do, not what you say

As part of our rebranding of HR we were asked to come up with a new name for our Human Resources department. Can you guys help me with your suggestions to rename our department?

I don’t want to pick on the person who posted this, so I won’t name them, but I had to laugh when I read it. Call it the Pit of Despair. Call it the Confluence of People and Happiness. It doesn’t really matter as much as what you do. Continue reading →

Signs That a Person is Lying-Free Guide

What are the signs that a person is lying?

The person rubs their forehead or neck
Perspiring, trembling and blushing
Delayed nodding to support an answer they’ve given
All of the above

If you’ve been in HR for very long, you have probably run across some employee relations or management issues. Inevitably, someone will end up lying to you before too much time has passed. But how do you detect when someone’s not telling the truth? How do you know when to dig deeper on a question that someone’s trying to avoid answering? I recently ran across a free guide from i-Sight (link below), and I thought it was a resource worth sharing. Continue reading →

How to Create a New Hire Welcome Letter

Have you ever wondered how to send a new hire welcome letter to get the employment relationship started on the right foot? I started sending a letter to new hires last year, and I’ve tweaked it over time to cover more questions, beef up explanations, and pretty much share as much information as I possibly can with our new employees. I’ve included my version below, so if you’re considering adding this into your new hire process, feel free to borrow/use some of this. (If you want more help with onboarding and new hire orientation, check out the free new hire orientation eBook!)

Create a New Hire Welcome Message to Inspire Enthusiasm and Drive Engagement from Ben Eubanks

The Pinnacle new hire welcome letter

Welcome, [Name]!

We are excited about your first day with Pinnacle. Be forewarned, you’ll have a lot of information thrown at you on the first day, and it probably won’t slow down for a while. A piece of advice: take notes!

We use the phrase “drinking from a fire hose” around here sometimes, and it’sÂ an apt description for the pace of the work we do. Don’t let that worry you, though. Along with that work comes an amazing manager, a supportive team, and a group of leadersÂ that really does care about you and your work.

We’re different from other companies. Other companies say that, but at Pinnacle, it’s true. We are just over four years old and fairly small (about 70 employees at this time). We are growing quickly, and that is as a direct result of our reputation for doing great work. We aren’t a 5,000 person company with dozens of locations. You aren’t a faceless number to us. We treat our people like adults, because you deserve that. We’re a small business doing big things (or “small, but mighty” as we like to put it!).

You have a lot of questions as the resident newbie. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there and it’s understandable. Here are some of the most common questions and answers to get you started. If you have something that isn’t answered below, your supervisor would be happy to assist!

A few things you need to know about your work

What do I wear?Â We have a casual atmosphere in the office. It’s business casual most days, and many of us wear jeans on Fridays. Remember, we’re more focused on the work than your clothes!
Who do I ask questions of if my manager isn’t present?Â We support each other, so you can get questions answered by anyone. The most common questions can go toÂ [insert operations team description/focus areas].
What do I do if I have a computer problem?Â Send an email toÂ [support address]Â describing your problem to open a trouble ticket.
What are the standard working hours?Â With your key, you can get into the building 24/7 if necessary. Some of the engineers work 6:00-3:00. Some of the operations staff work 8:00-5:00. Find something that is comfortable with you and communicate that with your supervisor.
Will I have to work overtime? Evenings? Weekends?Â At times we will have flurries of activity that require some overtime, but it’s not a regular/weekly occurrence.
Will I have to travel? How often? Who makes travel arrangements?Â Travel isn’t something we do often, but it’s not unheard of. If you are required to travel, speak with your manager about who is responsible for making your travel arrangements.
How flexible are my work hours?Â One thing we appreciate at Pinnacle is the person you are outside of work. We work hard to be flexible when work and life events conflict. During those times stay in close communication with your manager if possible. It’s more about fitting your workÂ into your lifeÂ than the other way around.

A few things you need to know about your department

Who will I be working with?Â First and foremost, you’ll be working closely with your manager. They will be able to answer most of your questions or point you in the right direction if they cannot. The rest of your team will be [short description of department].
Who are the “movers and shakers” in the organization and how can I become one of them?Â The neat part about Pinnacle is that we all have our unique roles and responsibilities, and we all have a time and place for to be the “mover and shaker.” Doing your work well is a surefire way to establish your credibility as a foundation for future professional and organizational growth.
If I have ideas, suggestions or concerns, what channels exist to share those concerns?Â If it’s an idea, we have a Big Ideas database on SharePoint that you can use as an outlet for sharing new, innovative ideas. If youÂ have concerns, your manager or theirsÂ will be the next likely step.
How do people prefer to communicate in this organization? (Face to face? By e-mail?Â Phone?)Â Depending on the topic, we use all of these methods. Inside the office, we use Windows Messenger chats for quick back-and-forth conversations. Because we have locations across the US, we use email to do much of our official communication. Phones are perfectly acceptable when you need a quick answer and email isn’t fast enough. And face-to-face conversations (or “huddles,” as we like to call them) are key to solving many of the issues we run into on a daily basis.

A few things you need to know about Pinnacle

Do we have a strategic plan? What does it entail?Â The strategic goals of the organization are developed and shared on an annual basis by the Leadership Team. The corporate goals/strategy for 2012:

[Goal A, B, C, Etc.]

What are employees rewarded and recognized for?Â As previously stated, doing your work well is the best way to go. It sounds simplistic, but many organizations don’t have the transparency and flatness of Pinnacle. You interact on a daily basis with everyone from the CEO to aÂ customerÂ site lead to the engineers at corporate. They can tell when you are doing your work well,Â and good news like that travels quickly.

Questions?Â

———–

Again, this is just one piece of a new hire process that touches on our culture in multiple ways. Anyone else use a similar tool with new hires? Care to share what sort of content you cover in this “welcome” document? Here’s an example of one of the welcome letters to new employees that has stuck in my mind for years.

How to create and distribute an employee survey in 10 minutes

We use employee surveys at work to measure employee satisfaction, gather confidential feedback, and uncover hidden issues and trends lying under the organization’s surface. Some companies spend money and time on expensive survey tools, but as long as the right questions are asked, the followup is more important than the method.

I personally like Google Docs as a tool for creating a quick and easy (and free!) employee survey. Here’s how to do it:

Go to Google.com/docs
Log in or create a free Google account if you don’t have one already.
Click “Create”
Click “Form”
Enter the information you’d like your survey to contain
Click the link at the bottom of the screen to view the published form
Highlight the link, right click on the link text, and press Ctrl + C on the keyboard to copy the link
Open an email and press Ctrl + V on the keyboard to paste the link into the body of the email
Send the email to your employees!
To view the responses to the survey, log into your Google Docs account and click on the survey in the document list to open the spreadsheet full of responses

There’s more to it than that short explanation, but that is the most basic way to create and distribute an employee survey in less than ten minutes. To give a little better illustration, I created this short screencast to show some of the steps involvled. Click here to open the screencast video in a new window. If you have questions on how to do this after reading the directions and watching the video, feel free to reach out to me for help.

Never underestimate the power of face-to-face interaction

We are a small company, but we have employees scattered around the US. Last Friday, Mike (our CEO) and I headed down to Fort Walton Beach for our quarterly All Hands Briefing. We only have three employees there, but when we showed up, it was so much fun to see how excited they were to have us visiting. Actually, believe it or not, this was the first time either of us had ever met the employees since we took over their contract one year ago today.

Can you imagine going a year without meeting some of the key people in your organization? Me, either.Â

We were there for a whirlwind tour and the short All Hands Briefing with our entire company, and it was fun to tell everyone about the great team we have down in Florida. The customer on site actually said, “They are a small team, but they’re a good team.” Tough to get better feedback than that, and it was shared face to face with the customer and the CEO, to boot!

The moral of the story? Get out of your cave and meet your people. Find out what they do. Look for ways to make life easier on them. We took the time to find out their issues and frustrations, and we’re working to solve those already (less than 2 working days since the trip). They know that we care, and they are going to remain strong supporters of us in the future.

My friend Dave has a great post on how he sometimes travels with the sales team to find out how to help them do their jobs better. Brilliant. Read through it and see if you see a parallel that you can draw to your own business/industry.

The bottom line

I can send emails, call people on the phone, and talk all I want. But nothing replaces face to face interaction with your people. I think that’s one big reason HRevolution is such a success–people crave interaction and we just give them a forum to meet and converse with one another.

Who holds the best meetings? (and other questions you should ask)

Which of your supervisors holds the best meetings?

I was in a session at HR Florida and the speaker tossed out that question. Most of the audience likely ignored it, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. I honestly didn’t know the answer within my own company, and I’m willing to bet many of you probably feel the same way.

When you’re looking for ways to coach managers and help them be better leaders, you should be asking questions like that. Why? Well, for starters, it helps you to see who your real leaders are. Just because someone is in a position of authority doesn’t necessarily mean they are a leader in the organization. These types of questions help to uncover the hidden aspects of what occurs in a department and how that impacts the organization as a whole.

On another level, it’s your job to provide support to these leaders. How can you do that when you don’t know what’s going on and how they are doing it?Â

Yes, it’s a tough question to ask yourself, but it’s worth it to understand where the gaps are for your people and to start thinking ahead about ways you can help to close those gaps.

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