Tamara J. Erickson

Lynda Gratton

<article-ideainbrief class="article-ideainbrief">
 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">The Idea in Brief</h4>
 <div class="ideainbrief-contents">
  <p>What separates great companies from merely good ones? Exceptional firms attract and retain the right people—employees who are excited by the company’s culture and values and who reward the organization with loyalty and stellar performance.</p>
  <p>How to get the right people on board? Don’t try to be all things to all employees, Erickson and Gratton advise. Instead, communicate your company’s <strong>signature experience</strong>—the distinctive practice that best conveys what it’s <em>really</em> like to work at your company and what makes your firm unique.</p>
  <p>Consider Whole Foods Market’s signature experience: team-based hiring. Employees in each department in every store vote on whether a new hire stays or goes after a four-week trial period. This experience sends a strong message about the company’s core values of collaboration and decentralization. It weeds out lone wolves—and attracts only people who share those values. Whole Foods’ reward? Highly engaged and productive workers in <em>every</em> team.</p>
  <p>The Idea in Practice</p>
  <p>To establish and leverage <em>your</em> company’s signature experience, Erickson and Gratton offer these guidelines:</p>
  <h2>Define Your Target Employees</h2>
  <p>Identify your target potential employees as methodically as you do customers. <span style="idea-in-practice-example"><span style="idea-in-practice-example-header">Example:&nbsp;</span> </span></p>
  <p>Unable to pay reservation agents standard industry salaries, JetBlue targeted people who prize flexible schedules. It created a signature experience reservation system: Agents work out of their homes and trade shifts using an online community board. Their job satisfaction has engendered a 30% boost in agent productivity and 38% jump in customer-service levels compared to industry averages. </p>
  <h2>Address Business Needs</h2>
  <p>Craft a signature experience that meets a specific business challenge. <span style="idea-in-practice-example"><span style="idea-in-practice-example-header">Example:&nbsp;</span> </span></p>
  <p>To help integrate five recently acquired oil companies, BP developed a signature experience called “peer assist”: unit heads assigned to peer groups exchange ideas about what is and isn’t working in their businesses. The experience has enabled BP to meet financial and safety targets while weeding out managers who can’t buy into its signature experience. </p>
  <h2>Share Your Stories</h2>
  <p>Encourage employees to relate legendary, signature experiences to potential hires. <span style="idea-in-practice-example"><span style="idea-in-practice-example-header">Example:&nbsp;</span> </span></p>
  <p>One legend any MBA student worldwide is likely to hear is that of Goldman Sachs’s signature recruitment experience. Successive cohorts of B-school students pass along the tale of the MBA student who went through 60 interviews before being hired. Job candidates who enjoy meeting partners in the myriad interview sessions are exactly those who will be capable of building the networks and collaborative relationships upon which the firm’s success depends. </p>
  <h2>Strive for Consistency</h2>
  <p>Buttress your signature experience with processes that send consistent messages to employees. <span style="idea-in-practice-example"><span style="idea-in-practice-example-header">Example:&nbsp;</span> </span></p>
  <p>Whole Foods backs up its team-based induction process with compensation practices, employee rewards and recognition, and promotion criteria that are also strongly team based. Bonus pay, for instance, is explicitly linked to group, not individual, performance. Result? Team members choose their trainees carefully: They want hard workers, not buddies. </p>
  <h2>Have the Courage of Your Convictions</h2>
  <p>Accept that you don’t need to be—nor should you try to be—all things to all people. No matter the content of your signature experience, you can use it to attract people who are suited to <em>your</em> organization’s culture—and who want to further its goals.</p>
 </div>
</article-ideainbrief><p>It’s the HR equivalent of keeping up with the Joneses: In their quest to find and retain top talent, businesses often try to match competitors’ offers, ensuring that their compensation schemes, health care benefits, training programs, and other talent-management practices are in line with the rest of the industry’s. While this strategy may be useful for bringing job candidates to the door, it’s not necessarily the most effective way to usher the right people across the threshold—great employees who will be enthusiastic about their work and fiercely loyal to the organization and its mission.</p>

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<p><span class="reprint">Reprint: R0703G</span></p>
<p>What distinguishes a company that has deeply engaged and committed employees from another one that doesn&#8217;t? It&#8217;s not a certain compensation scheme or talent-management practice. Instead, it&#8217;s the ability to express to current and potential employees what makes the organization unique. Companies with highly engaged employees articulate their values and attributes through &#8220;signature experiences&#8221;&#8212;visible, distinctive elements of the work environment that send powerful messages about the organization&#8217;s aspirations and about the skills, stamina, and commitment employees will need in order to succeed there.</p>
<p>Whole Foods Market, for example, uses a team-based hiring and orientation process to convey to new employees the company&#8217;s emphasis on collaboration and decentralization. At JetBlue, the reservation system is run by agents from their homes, a signature experience that boosts employees&#8217; satisfaction and productivity.</p>
<p>Companies that successfully create and communicate signature experiences understand that not all workers want the same things. Indeed, employee preferences are an important but often overlooked factor in the war for talent. Firms that have engendered productive and engaged workforces address those preferences by following some general principles: They target potential employees as methodically as they target potential customers; they shape their signature experiences to address business needs; they identify and preserve their histories; they share stories&#8212;not just slogans&#8212;about life in the firm; they create processes consistent with their signature experiences; and they understand that they shouldn&#8217;t try to be all things to all people.</p>
<p>The best strategy for coming out ahead in the war for talent is not to scoop up everyone in sight but to attract the <em>right</em> people&#8212;those who are intrigued and excited by the environment the company offers and who will reward it with their loyalty.</p>

What It Means to Work Here

Reprint: R0703G What distinguishes a company that has deeply engaged and committed employees from another one that doesn’t? It’s not a certain compensation scheme or talent-management practice. Instead, it’s the ability to express to current and potential employees what makes the organization unique. Companies with highly engaged employees articulate their values and attributes through “signature experiences”—visible, distinctive elements of the work environment that send powerful messages about the organization’s aspirations and about the skills, stamina, and commitment employees will need in order to succeed there. Whole Foods Market, for example, uses a team-based hiring and orientation process to convey to new employees the company’s emphasis on collaboration and decentralization. At JetBlue, the reservation system is run by agents from their homes, a signature experience that boosts employees’ satisfaction and productivity. Companies that successfully create and communicate signature experiences understand that not all workers want the same things. Indeed, employee preferences are an important but often overlooked factor in the war for talent. Firms that have engendered productive and engaged workforces address those preferences by following some general principles: They target potential employees as methodically as they target potential customers; they shape their signature experiences to address business needs; they identify and preserve their histories; they share stories—not just slogans—about life in the firm; they create processes consistent with their signature experiences; and they understand that they shouldn’t try to be all things to all people. The best strategy for coming out ahead in the war for talent is not to scoop up everyone in sight but to attract the right people—those who are intrigued and excited by the environment the company offers and who will reward it with their loyalty.

What It Means to Work Here

Summary.

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