What's Important At Work Part 4 of 4

In my last post I made the case for creating your own definition of What’s Important At OUR Work?

Because when you have that, then you can build a story of your organisation, and what’s important, valued and different. You can use it to promote you as employer or to become a better employer. You can feed it back internally to build your Status and Reputation, Integrity and Values, Leadership and Vision. It can become the stimulus for staff to innovate and create to make you a better organisation and better serve customers. It can be the starting point for creating ambassadors for your career offering.

What is undoubtedly true is that different parts of the story will be more effective for different people. I think you need to understand that, and identify what to turn up for some and down for others. It probably involves some segmentation. But don’t get too hung up on making that rigid, people aren’t one neat little set of attributes. They’re complex, messy. So don’t stick to other people’s definitions - I’m thinking especially of generational segments here. It’s your definition, your story; identify your own segments. (And here’s a good example from Lloyds Banking Group). 

In fact try not to make the whole thing too rigid. It should be about allowing people to identify with the story. So they can see how what you’re showing will apply for them. Ideally, they’d be able to tell it themselves with their own words and experiences. Consider carefully whether a toolkit or a presentation is going to give them that understanding and freedom. 

And I don’t think it matters whether you approach this as a brand, engagement or culture piece of work. Often that’s complex and messy too. What does matter is to truly understand what’s it’s like from your employees’ or potential employees’ perspective. Once you’re at the root of What’s Important At OUR Work, then it’ll become obvious what will work for you, your organisation, your people and the people you’d love to have.