From fully remote to return-to-office planning to somewhere in between, businesses are deciding what their future looks like and how to keep their company culture alive and thriving.
But with employee turnover at a high, how are companies successfully retaining their strong employees?
In this live panel discussion with executives from ArenaCX, Forethought, KPMG, and Zendesk, learn what tactics business leaders are using to maintain strong company culture, the methods they’re deploying to keep employees engaged and happy, and how they’re setting entry-level employees up for success and career growth in an industry known for high turnover.
Watch this live discussion to learn more about:
- Building and maintaining a strong company culture despite office and employee location
- Avoiding attrition and keeping employees happy and engaged during “The Great Resignation”
- Creating leadership and growth opportunities for entry-level employees, especially in high-turnover industries such as customer service
Want to learn more about Forethought?
Webinar Summary
High Performing Teams
In this webinar, Amanda Quinn, SVP of Marketing at ArenaCX, sits down with Timothy Stiles, KPMG Spark’s Partner and CEO, Michelle Suarin, Zendesk’s Director of Leadership and Talent Development, and David Ginsburg, Chief Customer Officer at Forethought to talk about how to develop and maintain high-performing teams in this post-Covid and mid-”Great Resignation” times.
Amanda kicks off the discussion by asking each panel member to introduce themselves and to talk about how each of their corresponding workplaces is currently operating, and how that has changed since the pandemic, are they remote, hybrid, back in office.
Forethought, KPMG, and Zendesk are doing a combination of things. It sounds like everyone was fully in office pre-pandemic, except for ArenaCX who is fully remote and has always been fully remote. Currently, Forethought, KPMG, and Zendesk all appear to have a hybrid model of work where some employees go in and others are remote.
How a company operates influences recruiting and how companies go about it. To move the discussion along, Amanda asks to talk about exactly that, recruiting and onboarding.
Recruiting & Onboarding – Tactical Tips & Takeaways
Michelle is asked to talk about Zendesk’s recruiting strategy and how it’s changed as the market has evolved over the last couple of years.
Michelle responds by talking about how strategy has had to pivot. Recruitment has sort of become a battle. Zendesk has moved to processing applicants faster and truly personalizing the interview process. Now that people are hiring remote workers, “you can find talent in all the corners” making it easier to attract good talent.
Amanda asks Michelle to expound on how they’re increasing that speed, is Zendesk then having candidates meet with less people or filling an interviewers day solely with interviews?
Michelle explains that Zendesk is doing a little bit of both. “We’re not trying to leave too long between interviews.. We’re ensuring ongoing dialogue.” They keep candidates in the loop and try to get things processed quickly to meet recruitment goals and keep the candidate in communication.
Forethought runs a hybrid & hubs model where candidates can work remotely but can have the option to work out of an office hub. Amanda asks Dave if this model prevents hiring from everywhere, but that’s actually not the case.
Dave explains that as much as Forethought hopes to hire into hubs, that desire is by no means a showstopper. He goes on to talk about how hiring into hubs helps people gather, which is something that is shifting since the pandemic. He also hits on how recruitment during these post-Covid times has changed a lot. Things like internal referrals tend to mean a lot more and he also mentions that speed is important. “If you don’t move quickly with candidates and show passion… you lose them.”
Tim is then asked to give his take on KPMG’s biggest challenge in recruitment. Because KPMG is a financial services supporting company that works with capital markets, they have a very thorough and exhaustive background check and validation process. That has slowed down recruitment processes.
Culture & Compensation
As recruitment has changed so has the ideas around culture and compensation. The Harvard business review found that the resignation rates between individuals 30 to 45 increased more than 20% from 2020 to 2021. So, what are businesses doing to make up for the losses?
Tim touches on raises and how compensation really is a driving force for people moving to another company. Dave mentions that as much as it’s about compensation it’s about culture. If the culture isn’t right then people will leave, and these days it’s easy to find out about that from current and former employees of any company.
The conversation then shifts to talking about what companies are doing to keep employees engaged and keep them around. Tim and Dave mention that it’s hard to translate in-person experience into digital ones. It’s hard to keep the spontaneity of getting together when you’re meeting in a remote world. So companies are putting in effort to gather as much as you can right now and really try to communicate further in this remote world. Michelle also talks about improving how we invest in our employees and making them feel supported. How leadership works feeds into the culture that keeps employees around.
Management in the Remote World
Good leadership helps improve culture, so what are leaders needing to do to improve culture in a remote world?
Michelle says that a remote world has highlighted the importance to managers about having regular one-to-ones, having development conversations, making sure to invest in talent, and helping employees navigate those opportunities. Employees feel valued when, “they can bring their whole selves to work.” People appreciate feeling cared about.
Tim mentioned that, “If we are responsible for other people… You need to make the effort in this disjointed remote environment to reach out to people to show that you care.”
Amanda ends the discussion by reiterating that the entire process needs to be thoughtful and intentional – let’s make employees feel invested in and like you’re looking out for their success.
