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On Wednesday, we raised an important question about big data. While analytics prove that everyone is talking about the topic, how many truly understand what it means? At this point, companies clamoring to make sure they’re prepared for the future might be concerned about whether or not their data is “big” enough. Many are ready to invest, but what if their plans are unnecessary or misguided?
If you can relate to that question, we have good news. “Big” data isn’t the answer for everyone. Because of the concept’s ubiquitous nature, it’s easy to assume otherwise. However, before diving headfirst down the big data path, ask these three questions of your company. They’ll provide direction and help you think about data in the right context.
1) Can my problem be answered by dark data I already have?
Most companies already have access to a lot of data that remains unused, or dark. Before investing in big data, it’s important to explore what underutilized data scores your company already has. There might be incredible untapped value right at your fingertips.
2) Do I have people on staff to manage big, unstructured data?
Later this month, we’ll help you figure out exactly who should handle data at your company. When it comes to investment, it might make sense to hire an expert who can optimize data you already have. Likewise, if you have employees who are somewhat qualified and offer multidisciplinary perspectives, providing further training for them might be key to your data success.
3) Do I really understand big data strategies and how to improve the optimization of information at my company?
Getting comfortable with the concept of big data before you make any decisions is crucial to maximizing its potential. Understanding exactly what it is and how it works will help you apply it to your company’s future. You might even find that for your company, maximizing the data you have, whether or not it’s “big,” is the fastest way to grow.
Stay tuned throughout February for more guidance on the path to data optimization.
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Last week, we introduced our latest blog theme: data optimization. This topic is front and center right now, and everyone ‘s talking about it. However, that doesn’t mean people understand how big data is really defined.
With countless definitions floating around, and many of them complex and confusing, it’s hard for companies to know exactly what big data offers and how to use it. The first step towards data optimization is getting comfortable with the topic.
One team asks: what’s big data, anyway?
In late 2013, a research team from St. Andrews University conducted a survey of big data definitions. Their goal was to figure out what concepts have gained traction and combine them in a concise, consistent summary that takes the ambiguity out of the term.
What did they find?
The researchers found that among all common big data conceptions, there were three similarities. Each definition made at least one of the following claims, and most made two.
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Size: the volume of the datasets is a critical factor.
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Complexities: the structure, behaviour and permutations of the datasets is a critical factor.
Final Definition
Based on their survey, St. Andrews developed a concise definition of big data that’s pretty useful.
Big data is a term describing the storage and analysis of large and or complex data sets using a series of techniques including, but not limited to: NoSQL, MapReduce and machine learning.
Applying it is another matter, but we’ll get to that next week.
Where does your company stand on big data? Does everyone understand what it really means?
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How do you feel about big data? In 2013, that became the question of the hour. Big data technologies have been in place for quite some time, but they didn’t become part of mainstream knowledge until recently. While data and metadata from social networks and internet behaviors have been collected for at least ten years, suddenly everyone is talking about it.
This resulted in two key things:
1. Big data investment is on the rise.
Last year’s NewVantage Big Data Executive Survey indicated staggering growth predictions for data investment. 68% of executives expect their organizations to make data investments greater than $1MM in 2013, and 88% expect the same by 2016. Likewise, investments over $10MM are expected to rise from 19% in 2013 to 50% in 2016.
2. Everyone wants to optimize data for business growth.
Big data is at the forefront of everyone’s attention, and companies are ready to invest. That leaves management and marketing professionals increasingly interested in answering one question: how exactly do you optimize big data? They want to maximize its potential for business growth, and with good reason. When harnessed strategically, data’s impact is undeniable.
Wondering how data fits in at your company?
We’re here to help. This month, we’re dedicating the blog to data optimization. We’ll tell you how to choose the right data for your company, who should manage it and whether or not you need a data team.
To get started, check out our managing partner Bob Murphy’s post on the changing landscape, “Goodbye ROI, Hello IOG.”
See you Wednesday.
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Strong internal brands complement and leverage the power of their companies’ corporate brands. In many ways, they are employee manifestations of external branding. They set expectations for how employees should represent the company and how customers should be treated. They help employees commit to business and mission, because the value associated with their place of work is clearly outlined.
As you know, internal brands don’t sustain themselves. Management can do its part to cultivate brand values, but in the end, they are fostered by your people – the employees who live the brand day in and day out. Hopefully, those people let your brand shape every decision they make in the workplace and every interaction they have with customers.
Wondering how to help your employees live the brand? Here are three tips:
1. High-quality internal communications
Develop high-quality internal communications for your company. They’ll keep your employees engaged and offer a consistent example of what you expect from their external communications.
2. Invest in brand-related professional development
Want your employees to buy into your company’s mission? Put your money where your mouth is. Offer professional development that adds value to your employees’ lives and teaches them key things about what your company stands for.
3. Reward hard workers
Hard workers and high achievers deserve to be recognized. Offer exciting incentives for employees who really commit and make an impact at your company. This will cultivate a healthy work ethic for everyone and show employees that you value their efforts.
When it comes to helping employees live the brand, encouragement from the top makes all the difference. What works at your company?
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For anything to thrive and grow, it must be nurtured. Believe it or not, this applies just as much to your internal brand as it does to your houseplant. To keep employees engaged and encourage them to consistently express brand promise to customers, make plans to sustain internal branding over the long term. Wondering how to do that? It’s easier than you think. Simply make brand awareness and education an integral part of your organization.
Three ways to make your internal brand sustainable:
1. Host workshops.
Workshops sound standard, but part of your internal brand can be making them fun. Host brand-related Lunch and Learns, or take one day each year for a fun internal retreat. Your team will appreciate the pause from daily workloads and feel re-energized by brand values.
2. Develop newsletters.
To keep your internal brand strong, it’s important that communication between leadership and employees be consistent. Commit to an internal newsletter that keeps employees updated on fun personal tidbits and company news, and they’ll feel engaged and in the know.
3. Think outside the box.
When it comes to internal branding, don’t be afraid to think outside the box. ING Bank is a great example. As part of its ongoing internal branding effort, the company ran an online internal branding campaign which aimed to reinforce brand positioning among employees. The online campaign leveraged an IP targeting technique which served banners to employees while they were surfing the internet. Whatever your methods, keeping brand value front and center is worth the effort.
How does your company keep its internal brand strong?
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Companies typically view the benefits of employment branding to be talent acquisition and recruitment, but they run much deeper. The ultimate goals are increased revenues and profit margins.
Your employment brand faces both outward to prospective hires and inward to current employees. However tempting it may be to focus your time and money on acquisition, it’s critical that you continue to cultivate relationships with the employees you already have.
A well-defined employment brand aligns employee and management expectations so that promises made during the hiring process are delivered.
This continuity is crucial to retaining employees and fostering a productive work environment. Disconnections between expectations set during the hiring process and the actual employment experience have a significant effect on employee morale. When promises are kept, internal brand is strengthened with a confidence that permeates outward.
Here are three ways keeping promises to employees makes your company better.
1. Creates happy employees
When expectations are met, employees are happy. This increases productivity, impacts the bottom line and keeps them committed to your company over the long term.
2. Maximizes HR dollars
When employee retention is strong at your company, HR dollars can be focused on internal cultivation. With the need to recruit and hire reduced, your internal communications and incentives can be developed, resulting in even greater retention and internal cohesiveness.
3. Fortifies brand promise
When promises are delivered, your internal and external brand promise will be strengthened and delivered consistently to contacts. If management delivers to employees, employees can deliver to customers.
What are you doing today to deliver on promises at your company?
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Putting effort into your employment brand reaps great rewards for your company. It impacts your bottom line and gives customers a consistent brand experience. Luckily, when it comes to talent acquisition, employment branding makes you stand out from competition. You’ll become what every company wants to be — the top choice for top talent.
Time and again, studies show that salary is not the most important factor when people decide where to work. Instead, they look for the organization that provides the most value through a group of benefits that addresses their specific needs.
Here are four ways your employment brand should create value for employees:
Focused on overall value
Your employment brand should take the focus off salary and create a full picture of thoughtful perks your company offers. Do you offer the option to telecommute? Flexible hours for working parents? Excellent dental insurance? Whatever it is, cultivate a complete, integrated representation of your culture. Make it about overall experience, not bulleted lists.
Developed HR literature
A lot of time and money goes into company literature that’s used externally, but HR brochures deserve the same attention. After all, your employees are your greatest asset. Create materials that address their needs and demonstrate the value you place in your people.
Unique ways to meet needs
If you take a look and realize your overall value doesn’t reach far enough, don’t worry. It’s never too late to find unique ways you can go the extra mile to meet employee needs. Grand gestures are great, but in this case, they aren’t always necessary. Small everyday perks go a long way to make staff members happy.
Sustained value over time
It’s important that your employment brand includes plans to sustain value over the long term. Employees will be pleased, and probably stick around, if they trust that you will always prioritize their interests.
In the talent acquisition arena, winning margins are often small. What are you doing to put your company in the lead?
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On Monday, we discussed how strong employment branding leads to talent. It’s pretty straightforward, but today we’re taking it a step further. The benefits of fortifying your employment brand go far beyond recruitment and retention – straight to the bottom line.
Three ways a strong employment brand directly impacts your company:
1. Increased revenues and profit margins
Employees who truly believe in your mission and values do better work, and better work results in increased revenues. It’s that simple. These employees are more committed to their company, they stay longer, and their profit margins prove it. Happy employees who are valued and treated well by their managers do more work in a day and actually enjoy interacting with customers.
2. Greater customer satisfaction
When employees are happy, the result is infectious. Luckily, it usually spreads to your customers. They can tell when employees look forward to interacting with them, and it’s obvious when an employee is invested in the company’s value. It makes all the difference.
3. More consistent customer brand experience
Effective internal and employment branding leads to something that companies know they need but often feels out of reach: consistency. With hundreds of employees, managers wonder how they can possibly unify customer experience with one message of brand value. Committing to internal and employment branding is the answer. Put the message at the heart of everything, and with the help of happy staff members, it will make its way out.
Has employment branding made a difference at your company?
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Strong internal branding usually leads to another crucial piece of business success: a strong employment brand. While the two are similar, they have to be nurtured in separate ways. At their core, however, they have something important in common — employee empowerment.
If you’re not sure how your company’s employment brand is doing, understanding the answers to these three questions will help:
What exactly is employment brand?
Simply defined, employment brand is the perception your employees and prospective hires have of what it’s like to work at your company. It’s the first impression you make on potential employees, and it’s the expectations you set for new hires. Most importantly, it’s the reason your best employees decide to stick around.
Are companies at the mercy of outside perception?
Too many companies fail to take an active role in shaping employment brand. Instead, they consider themselves to be at the mercy of word-of-mouth, customer opinion and media coverage of the company. This is a mistake. Organizations have the power to actively shape employment brand, and done correctly, it makes them great. After all, it’s usually not a product that makes a company – it’s the exceptional team behind it. Finding a way to hire and keep the right people is worth the effort.
How does developing a strong employment brand lead to the ideal staff member?
A properly developed employment brand will include messaging that convincingly communicates the benefits and value you offer to prospective hires. This clear representation of the company’s intentions naturally attracts people whose interests align with your own. After they’re acquired, a strong employment goes a step further with plans to ensure its promises are kept. This keeps your best employees committed to the organization and happy over the long term.
How does your company address employment branding?
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Once you have support from the top for your internal branding campaign, next steps require some strategy and planning. After all, the brand is here to stay. The most important thing to accompany your campaign is long-term commitment, because the process unfolds over time.
Internal branding starts with employee awareness and eventually leads to behavior. Companies who undertake brand strengthening must understand that it takes time and dedication for that commitment to infiltrate every corner of every department.
Your Brand Defined
Think of every customer touchpoint at your company. Sales representatives are the obvious answer, but they’re only the beginning. Touchpoints include emails from marketing, requests with customer service and receipts from accounting – just to name a few. All of these exchanges define your brand. That can be good or bad, depending on the people shaping them.
From the Inside Out
To influence every touchpoint and be truly effective, your internal brand must be carefully introduced to every level of the company. It has to be built from the inside out. Starting with senior management, going to department heads and then to their employees, the brand must be shared methodically throughout your organization. Once it permeates internal culture, it will begin to spread to key stakeholders such as financial contacts, media and prospective employees. By this point, sharing it with customers will be second nature for the whole team.
What are you doing today to build your internal brand from the inside out?
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