019 : The Importance of Organizational Culture to Attract and Retain Employees with Diane Domeyer
Employees value three things: 1) Doing meaningful work; 2) Having their contributions recognized and appreciated; 3) The opportunity to learn and grow. Any company who wishes to retain top talent needs to be able to deliver opportunities not just from a departmental approach, but from an organizational approach as well. This means deliberately encouraging collaboration, creativity, innovation, risk-taking, and multidisciplinary contribution in the workplace. This also goes beyond helping the team find meaning in the work that they do: Employees need to have a broader sense of purpose that is in alignment with their core values.
35% of employees have turned down or would not accept a job that is otherwise a perfect fit for them if the organizational culture leaves much to be desired. Hiring managers, on the other hand, have the responsibility to think through how organizations are changing so rapidly within the creative community. This includes being on top of today’s marketing strategies as well as how design has changed the way consumers perceive organizations. Also, 9 out of 10 hiring managers say that hiring for cultural fit is just as important (and in some cases more important) than hiring for skills and experience. In other words, hiring managers are looking to bring in people who are both a fit for the organization and possess soft skills that drive innovation.
Steve Chaparro and Diane Domeyer discuss why they believe that optimizing organizational culture should be one of the top priorities of any company. They cover topics such as the antiquated concept of the “career path”, tips for effectively conveying corporate culture to prospective job seekers, things to consider when trying to retain employees at creative companies, and what lessons to take away from the current remote working environment. Stay tuned.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Why Dianne prefers the term “career journey” over “career path”
- The importance of recognizing and seizing career opportunities that take you to places at which you never expected to arrive
- The origin story of The Creative Group and Robert Half
- What separates the creative community from other professional categories
- Why having a strong organizational culture is a strategic asset in the hiring and firing process
- How companies can better articulate their culture
- Bridging the gap between your brand promise and the employee experience
- Dianne’s perspective on remote working brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic
Resources Mentioned in this episode:
About the Guest:
Diane Domeyer is the Executive Director for The Creative Group, a Robert Half company. Viewing her career as a journey rather than a path, she pinpoints three big opportunities that led her to the role she has today. The first was the opportunity to join the company when it was only a startup. The second was the opportunity to spearhead digital efforts as the internet quickly rose to prominence. The third was the opportunity was to tackle her present role as Executive Director. She considers a heightened awareness to opportunity, along with the courage to seize them, as the key to success in any professional endeavor. That is why Diane lives by the mantra: “See a need; fill a need.”
She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in International Business at the University of St. Thomas. Since 1993, Diane has been lending her passion for and expertise in design to The Creative Group.
Sponsor for this episode:
This episode is brought to you by the Culture Design Studio, a consulting firm that helps people and cultural leaders who feel constrained in their ability to engage their employees to become champions for their people through a series of facilitated workshops. They provide a practical and collaborative process to transform the culture within your creative organization.
Culture Design Studio has worked with organizations like Duarte Design, Design Thinkers Group, Red Bull, USAID, Bacardi, and the Office of Civic Innovation
If you’re looking for more than just a consultant and want someone who can facilitate your organization through a structured conversation to transform your culture, Culture Design Studio is the one for you.
Contact them today to learn more about what they can do for you and your company.
Full Transcript: Powered by Otter.ai
Announcer
Welcome to the culture design show where we feature conversations with leaders and thinkers who are passionate about culture and design. Now, let’s get started with the show.
Steve Chaparro
Steve Chaparro, here. I am the host of the Culture Design Show, a podcast where I feature leaders and thinkers at some of the top creative firms in the world, including architecture, design, technology, and marketing. What’s the one thing they all have in common? They all believe in the power of culture, and design.
This podcast is brought to you by Culture Design Studio. We help people in culture leaders who feel constrained in their ability to engage their employees to become champions for their people. Through a series of facilitated workshops, we provide a practical and collaborative process to transform the culture within your creative organization. We’ve worked with organizations like Duarte Design, DesignThinkers Group, Red Bull, US AID, Bacardi, and the Office of Civic Innovation. So if you’re looking for more than just a consultant, but someone who can facilitate your organization, through a structured conversation to transform your culture, reach out to us at culture design studio.com.
Diane Domeyer is the executive director for the Creative Group, a Robert Half company. She works with companies throughout the United States and Canada to connect them with creative digital marketing, advertising and PR talent. Diane, welcome to the Culture Design Show.
Diane Domeyer
Thank you. It’s an honor to be here. I’m thrilled to be a part of your design culture podcast series.
Steve Chaparro
Well, it’s an honor for me. I know we’ve been talking for several months when we first were talking about getting together. We were going to be in Pittsburgh. We were going to be at the AIG a conference, but then something happened.
Diane Domeyer
Right, right. Oh, how the world has changed, right, Steve?
Steve Chaparro
That’s right. The things happen, but I’m I’m so glad for technology that we’re still able to communicate in this way. Well, I’d love to first go into I’d love to learn about your, your professional journey, what brought you, you know how you started your career and what brought you to this moment in time with your role at the creative group?
Diane Domeyer
You know, the first thing I would start with Steve, as I love that you call it a career journey, because that is a phrase we often use to describe the journey that we help individuals through throughout their career. It’s never a direct career path, and I am no exception to that. So I went to school specifically for marketing and financial services. But I worked all through college as a programmer at 3am. And when I graduated from college, I was absolutely one of those people that really didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. But I certainly didn’t think I would end up in staffing.
And so when you think about career journeys, sometimes Time’s opportunities fall in your lap, and it takes you on a journey that you did not expect. So, you know, my background is such that I was in sales for a brief period of time. And I came to work or came to call on Robert Half our parent company, to try and introduce them to the services that I was representing. And they said, you know, do you think maybe you have a degree in marketing, you have background in accounting and finance and you have some experience in sales? Do you think you might be interested in recruitment, and at that time, that was not something I would have ever considered. Long story short, I joined Robert Half over 25 years ago. I thought at the time, I might do it for two years, and here I am 25 years later, and it’s been quite a journey.
So in my early days, I had some pretty good success as a recruiter, and I got additional responsibility over time to manage a team. This was in the Midwest. And as we were growing as a company and I was having some success with the territory that I managed, I was called on by our corporate offices to consider a move from Iowa to California. At that time I was pregnant. It required a relocation and travel four to five days a week. So it was not an obvious choice. But that is a move that I need to make. But I took a leap of faith and I relocated to our corporate offices in San Francisco Bay area to help launch and expand a new but at the time, small product line for the company. So it was early days and I helped to grow that business. This was in the early to mid 90s.
And then subsequent to that, the internet was vastly changing the world of recruitment, how you find a job and how you hire and we saw an opportunity as a company to really expand our digital strategy as to what did that mean through the use of job boards, social media wasn’t even a thing at the time. But I was asked to head up our operational and digital strategy for a period of time as we were going through periods of innovation. So that brought together sales and recruitment, marketing experience, operational experience and my technology experience. Long story short, that was kind of a significant pivot for me.
One time, I don’t want to go too long on this, Steve, because we’ve got some really good stuff. We got some really good stuff to talk about. But very early in my career, I got some great advice from our CEO. I was really young in my career. This was before I even reload to California. And he said, You know what, I have known many, many people over the years, who are highly educated or come from great backgrounds. But then I also see those who have been most successful and those that have been mostly Successful oftentimes, it’s not always about education or background, but it’s about those who recognize an opportunity. So the first opportunity I recognized was the opportunity to do a start up operation for the company, which brought me to California.
The second was profound change that was happening as a result of the emergence of the internet. And I jumped on that opportunity headed up digital strategy. And then the third opportunity that I would say, was a significant milestone was now going back about seven or eight years ago, where I moved into the role of overseeing the operations for the creative group. And that was an amazing opportunity because the role of creatives in any organization has quickly moved from, we want to have a seat at the table to it is oftentimes the center of the table as it relates to business strategy. So I had a unique opportunity to Moving head up our operations for the creative group as we expanded that service offering because there was so much more demand for hiring and career opportunities. And so that’s a short abridged version of my career journey.
But I think it kind of comes down to, which is advice I give people all the time, you have to recognize an opportunity when it’s presented to you, if it’s going to take your career in a different direction that you don’t expect, amazing things can happen. The other thing is to find something you love and that you’re passionate about. But also a career motto I’ve always had is see a need philony if there’s profound industry change that’s happening somewhere, jump into it, and great career opportunities can happen. So that’s the summary for me and a long story short,
Steve Chaparro
No, I love that and I’m actually glad that you bring up the whole, even the verbiage of professional journey, the journey aspect of it because I truly resonate with You know some of your insights in terms of, you know, the journey is never something that you envision what it’s going to look like in 30 or 40 years, and then you just land. And I actually think that if that does happen, you shortchange yourself of what is possible. And so if you definitely see your profession, your career, whatever you do vocationally, as a journey of discovery, I think you can learn so much more. And the possibility is so much greater. I mean, for me, I’ve navigated through different industries during different parts of my, you know, 22 plus year career. And it went from architecture, to real estate development, financial services, back to real estate development back to architecture. Now, it’s in this area of culture design.
And in some cases, I look back on some of those moves and think, no, that may have been a little bit of a bad move. I took a step back professionally, it wasn’t always moving up or even lateral. But in hindsight, I definitely see that each one of those moves have given me such a perspective, you know, different industries, different postures, like even my time as a financial advisor, the idea of being a trusted adviser, doing what’s best for your client versus what’s best for you, has impacted my career in such powerful ways,
Steve Chaparro
Right, I think the term career path is an antiquated term. When in reality, we both know so many individuals, and I think of you know, creative leaders in a variety of capacities, who most of them would say, if I only knew then what I knew now, right. And so I think if for those that are coming up on their career journey, or they’re at the early stages of their career journey, I think the most important message is to stay open to the possibilities because the path will not be straight. It’s not a straight path.
And I think that’s even true for people who have multiple decades in their career as well. I think you know, with each sort of era In design or creative industries, technology, all of these different things, things are changing so fast. And if we are open minded, open hearted, open handed even to, you know, being able to respond to some of those shifts in the market, you know how how we work and how we work together? If we’re open to those things, you know, there’s a greater one, there’s a lot of lessons we can learn, but I think we increase our relevancy. You know, even as things are changing, we can still be a big part of what’s going on.
Diane Domeyer
I agree. I think journeys are fascinating.
Steve Chaparro
Yes, journeys are absolutely fascinating. I love them. And I love the whole idea. So I want to talk now about the creative group. When you mentioned it started as a startup within Robert Half. Would love to hear about the origin story of the creative group.
Diane Domeyer
Yeah, well, Robert Half is our parent company. And Robert Half is one of the oldest and largest professional staffing firms That is specialized in its segments, certainly in North America and the creative and it was the namesake really was in accounting and finance. But based on client demand, our specialties have expanded over the years. So starting with accounting and finance, we then launched and expanded in our IT staffing operations. And now going back on my gosh, my marketing team would be upset with me if I get the date, right. But I think we just celebrated 25 years in the creative group, whereby we had relationships in particular on the corporate side, the brand side more than agency, where we were doing business with the CFO and the CIO. And it was just a very natural transition for us to be able to provide professional staffing services to the marketing and creative teams.
And so over time that has expanded far beyond the tradition. Additional marketing role and Creative Services role to our relationships with advertising agencies, and most notably, most recently, expansion into the digital areas, whether that be in customer experience, user experience, design, front end development. So it’s a very natural marriage. As CIOs and chief marketing officers have come together to deliver outstanding customer experiences from acquisition through to retention. Our business has grown in that area. It’s been one of the most exciting areas to be in, in my opinion. So we now have grown to the point where we literally service thousands of hiring managers each year to find the talent that they need to be successful and work with thousands of creative professionals to help them manage their career, from the first placement in that journey. All the way through to, you know, they’re owning their own company, and how can we help them. So it has been an exciting journey and opportunity as well. So we provide those staffing solutions.
But the other piece, which I know we’ll get into here, Steve is, in addition to helping employers find the talent that they’re looking for, and helping people to manage their creative careers. We have a broader purpose, which is also to serve the greater marketing and creative community, based on the workplace trends that we see based on the research that we do. So one of the things I know we’re going to talk about is organizational culture. We have experiences with companies from small to multinational, that have addressed this challenge of organizational culture, and we do research and publish that content so that whether someone is looking to hire from us or not whether someone is looking to make a career move or not, we have workplace and career management research that we can provide to the greater community.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, that’s so important. And I’m sure that the part of the impetus of even forming a different brand and Robert Half in the form of the creative group was understanding that there is probably some messaging, some branding, some special, I don’t know if it’s special treatment, but very unique treatment that is cater to the creative industries. Because you know, let’s be honest, we are a different bunch of people. Right? We may or may not want to be bunched in with the accountants and so it was that part of the reason for creating that brand.
Diane Domeyer
Yeah, for sure. It was and I will also say having been able to work with customers of Robert Half for as long as I have in the disciplines of accounting and finance in it in legal. Don’t tell anybody else but I have the most fun working with the creative community because you know, it’s Truly, there are unique nuances. There’s no question. But it’s truly an inspirational community that is changing the world in so many ways. And so our messaging and our content, what motivates the creative professionals that we work with to accept one roll over the other might be very different than what might motivate someone who’s gone to school for it as an example.
Steve Chaparro
Right. Right. So I think one of the major topics that we want to talk about today is this aspect of hiring and retention, and why is organizational culture such an important part of this point in the journey because like you said, this journey goes from all the way from employer brand, you know, which leads into recruiting, you know, hiring onboarding, but on the other end, it leads to, as you said, it might be someone either leaving the firm to start their own firm or even retirement, so that when we think of all those times points along that employee journey, if you will. A lot of times it’s really important for us to think about the hiring and retention portion of it, and why organizational culture is so important as part of that. So what are some thoughts that you have about organizational culture as it relates to hiring and retention, and specifically talking about creative companies?
Diane Domeyer
Yeah. So, I would start Steve by saying, I do want to share just some high level statistics as it relates to the research that we did. And so this is a byproduct of some research that was done by Robert Half to over 5000 senior managers in a variety of disciplines throughout North America. And it was all around the concept of organizational culture the make or break factor in hiring and retention. First of all, why is it important and how does it factor into hiring and retention?
Number one, the research shows that 35% have employees said that they have turned down or would not accept a job that was otherwise a perfect fit for them. If the organizational culture wasn’t right, if the match isn’t there, that automatically takes out a third of the talent. Right? So in highly in demand skill sets for hiring and creative, if a third of them are saying, if it’s not a good match, I won’t accept your job, your available talent just got smaller. The other aspect is from the hiring manager standpoint, thinking through how organizations are changing so rapidly within the creative community how marketing strategies have changed how design has really changed the way organizations and consumers think it’s also important that organizational culture and hiring managers are looking for people who are a match not just for the skill sets, but who can evolve and so now Nine out of 10 hiring managers said that a match to the culture is either as important or in some cases more important than an individual’s skills and experience. In other words, hiring managers are looking to bring people who are a fit for their organization who also have the soft skills that are going to drive innovation. And that is so important to creative professionals. Right, the match and the sense that you are a part of an organization that has values that match what you’re looking for. So one of the things you know, organizational culture is a big word. I mean, it’s a big idea.
But if you go back 15-20 years ago, whether it be at software startup companies, high tech comm, certain agencies, some believed organizational culture was defined by we’ve got a cool office space, we sponsor lunches and we have a pool table. And those are all perks they have really nothing to do with organizational culture. organizational culture is really about having a dynamic set of behaviors, skills, shared values and perceptions. And if you think about the creative community in particular, creatives thrive in environments where they can create where there is innovation, where they feel valued, and that they feel a sense of shared value, whether that be designed for good or designed for a brand. And so that match becomes really really important. So more and more companies really see strong organizational culture as a strategic asset, right. So for sure it plays into the aspect of If there is a match, it can affect how you attract and retain your top creative talent. But the other aspect is there’s the business case associated with when there is a good cultural match for creative professionals or any professionals, frankly, there’s a higher level of productivity, higher level of quality of work, higher level of innovation and creativity. So there’s a business case associated with it. And that really plays well to the creative community at large.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, in terms of when we’re talking here. I mean, I’m getting old goose bumpy because that’s absolutely what what I believe as well is that having a great culture a healthy, strong, inclusive, collaborative culture is definitely does have a bottom line to it. I talked to so many leaders who have maybe still are still are thinking that culture is if you think of, you know, the building blocks of a business and you think of that, you know, there As the base, there’s some building blocks of the base the things that you need to address first, and as you go higher and higher, the pinnacle of that pyramid, if you will, is culture. And so some people think, well, it’s at the top, which means it’s the very last thing that I will address. If I can establish what our business value is, and all these other things, then we can work on culture versus thinking that culture is actually one of the most important things to establish first, what are your thoughts about like when you’re working with a client organization that wants to describe their culture? So I think in some cases, one of the things that I have found is, there are organizations that want to describe their culture, but have not yet defined it for themselves? Have you noticed any of that at all? Like I say, if you’re asking a company, well, how would you describe your culture? And so you know, I may not know exactly what that is, and maybe we’ve got to do some work on our culture before we can start describing it. Well, have you run into that at all?
Diane Domeyer
Well, I would challenge that thinking a little in the sense that I it’s a great question. But if there are companies or individuals that would respond and say, Well, I’m not sure we know we have to define our culture, I would say there already is a culture that exists. And so in order to better articulate that culture, I believe it starts with kind of a breakdown of hierarchical definitions, and more, what is it you can observe culture, you can feel culture. And if you want to better articulate what is your corporate culture, you should ask employees, you could observe it. I’ll give you an example. You asked previously about how does organizational culture play into hiring.
So, first of all, you can make a deliberate effort to put your culture front and center in the hiring process, but whether you do or you donut will be seen and perceived by prospective job seekers in every interaction they have with your company. And so when you think about how you would articulate your corporate culture, first of all, you want to put it front and center in every touchpoint. But also to kind of evaluate, you know, how are we perceived by a prospective employer, starting with the company website, right part of what one website shows versus another without any effort already tells you a little bit about the difference in the culture of the company. So you can define to a certain degree just by observing how do we present our brand, how do we present our about us? How do we present our accolades? So the company website, it’s not just the About Us, but it’s, do you have community involvement on your site? Do you showcase your people do you simply showcase your goods and products?
So starting with your website, every job description that’s posted if it is traditional and cookie Qatar and doesn’t describe anything other than the requirements of the job probably says something about your culture, or what it doesn’t say about your culture, social media channels, right? Anyone can look at LinkedIn for who is at your company, and they can kind of quickly Connect. What are the types of people in the groups that they belong in that defines a company’s culture? What does the brand put out on social media? Is it just about their products and services and their clients? Or is it more broadly about the engagement of their staff review sites like Glassdoor and others say a lot about corporate culture? So while an HR or a marketing department might think you can promote and define your corporate culture, your corporate culture is perceived in many, many different channels. And so if you want to better communicate your corporate culture, you should also look at all those touch points. asked the questions throughout that process.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, I love that. I mean, I definitely have seen, you know, like, say if I looked at some creative firms on Glassdoor, let’s say for instance, and maybe they do have some negative comments by maybe, you know, some disgruntled folks who may or may not have valid things to say one of the things that I really appreciate in those instances, is when the company or a representative from the company responds, and says, you know, I’m sorry that this was your experience, know that we’re learning from our past, you know, lessons learned, and we’re trying to make it you know, better moving forward, however, they word it, but just the attempt to rectify the situation, almost like an A Better Business Bureau. You know, it’s like taking care and addressing these things is a really important thing.
Also, I have seen to your point about the job descriptions, I have read some job descriptions that you just read it, you know, for face value and think well, that’s very clinical. It’s just the job requirement. I’m not sure I would get fulfillment, or that it’s aligned with my own professional and personal purpose and mission. And so there has to be some life. And that’s where a little bit of that brand voice starts to come in with even the copyright the copy of how it’s written. Is there a playfulness to it is there Can you tell that this is a tongue in cheek type of group, you know, that even shows up even the job description, those that have done that? Well, I can definitely see how they are very attractive to people.
Diane Domeyer
Every touchpoint in the process. And it’s also important to recognize that it’s, it’s not about creating the perfect or the ideal corporate culture, because I’m not really sure that there is an ideal, it’s about the importance of the match. Right and how you showcase that. So if you ever get an opportunity, there’s a great example of that as it relates to how you can convey your corporate culture to prospective job seekers. Toms you know Toms shoe TOMS Shoes, They have a fantastic company culture video. It’s like a minute and a half long find it on YouTube. And you can really get a sense in a minute and a half of who they are, what they stand for, what their environment is and how people feel working there. One of the closing things that they have on the slide is Tom’s cuz we need your energy not because cuz we need your energy, fresh ideas, love, hard work, to keep giving shoes. Changing a life, including yours begins with a single step. And when you watch the video, it’s so well done. But to my point about it’s not about the ideal corporate culture. Because when you watch that there will be some that absolutely say, you know what, that’s a little too casual for me. I really, you know, or what have you. So it’s about conveying the match. In the corporate culture, and leveraging the successes and being able to convey that in a concise, and sentimental way.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, I love that it reminds me of the idea of having a magnetic message will attract some, but it will also repel others. And if that’s the case, it did its job. And to your point of being able to make that a concise message that could be told in a minute and a half, you know, with the audio with the words used, but also the imagery, I think that’s a great task to pursue, is what would it look like for us to encapsulate all that is about us what it means to work for us as a company in a minute and a half, because that takes a lot of work. It takes a much more work to do a minute and a half than you probably would take to do in 10 minutes.
Diane Domeyer
Right? And I applaud the creative team that did it. I didn’t get a chance to look and see who did that. But you know, most organizations are creating those company culture videos and you you can see one as an example by Microsoft, same thing and in about the same period A time great company to work for known and recognized for their corporate culture. But you have an absolute idea of the difference of the type of culture you’re joining simply by the tone of voice in the video. So I applaud the creative teams.
Steve Chaparro
So I love this topic, because there’s two halves to it. We’re talking about hiring. And we’re talking about retaining. And I think many times what we’re talking about right now, in terms of the brand message, it’s the brand promise, in some cases, we call it the employer brand, right? We say this is what it looks like to be part of our family. Sometimes there is a misalignment between that brand promise in the employee experience. So the experience is different of that brand promise. What are some things for us to consider when we’re trying to retain employees at creative companies?
Diane Domeyer
Well, and I would say in particular, this is a different research that we did that went beyond our organizational culture. We did a really widespread study on what we call Work happy. And we looked across disciplines accounting, finance it legal and we segmented the findings creative. We segmented the findings. The really good news is that as it relates to fulfillment in the work that they do, creative professionals had the highest job satisfaction, maybe not surprising that they’re more satisfied than an attorney. I don’t know. But no, not to know. But from a retention standpoint, here’s what we heard from creative professionals was most important to them.
There were three things, number one, doing meaningful work. Number two, that their contributions were recognized and appreciated. And number three, that they had the opportunity to learn and grow. And so from a organizational culture standpoint, in order for companies to retain top talent, they need to be able to deliver those opportunities through not just departmental approach, but organizational approach as well. Right recognition is not just about the employee of the month it is value and appreciation for the contributions and communication as it relates to how it contributed to further the purpose of the organization to drive results. And so there needs to be in order to foster that and retain top talent.
The organizational culture needs to support, collaboration, creativity, innovation, give creative professionals the opportunities to take risks, to take on new projects and contribute in different ways and feel that they are tied to meaning not just in the work that they do, but a broader to what you said a broader sense of purpose. There’s a connection to the purpose of the work a connection to the purpose purpose of the organization. So whether it be on the agency side or whether it be on the corporate side. And it’s true, not just in creatives, people want to feel that they believe in the purpose of the company that they are belonging to, and that the work that they do contributes and matters to that overall purpose and is in alignment with their core values. Right?
Steve Chaparro
Yeah. And one of the things that with respect to this, I’ve talked to the heads of different agency firm CEOs, even founders of those firms and and they shared with me that there is a talent war for their creative people that they are many cases are being wooed by some of these corporations, these bigger, you know, all be they, you know, whether they’re technology firms, or whatever it is, you know, there’s a lot more design talent that is coming in house to some of these corporations. And some of these folks are saying, Yeah, I can’t compete with stock shares of these public companies. You know, they could probably make You know, fund their children’s education, with the stock options that they get at these big companies. I can’t compete on that the only thing I can do, and maybe to what you just said is provide those three things. If there’s meaning if there’s purpose, if there is fulfillment, if they have a path forward, those are those intangibles that I don’t know if you can necessarily put $1 value, but it’ll definitely help some of these agencies retain these folks, as opposed to losing them and boom wooed away by these corporations, I would imagine.
Diane Domeyer
And that’s why I come back to my comments that I made earlier about organizational culture and your ability to deliver these things is a strategic asset. And what I would say is, you know, especially most recently, and you know, perhaps prior to our current circumstances as a result of COVID-19, there was a war for talent both directions, not just from design firms to corporations, but the other one As well, as design has become central to the overarching strategy of many organizations. design firms also want to bring in the business aspect of those that have really impacted and imparted change in their organization to bring them the other way. And despite the fact that maybe we are at a brief pause in the economy in our current circumstances, that war for talent, and the pain of that war for talent is very fresh in everyone’s mind. And so I think the war is resuming. And there is an opportunity right now for talent that is available all of a sudden that maybe wasn’t as available previously. Absolutely. That those connections are being made as we speak.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, that’s a very interesting point. Because I think, you know, again, we’ve seen a tremendous surge in layoffs. I mean, we’re probably at an all time high unemployment. And that includes, you know, as I’m looking on LinkedIn, many of these creative firms that are, you know, unfortunately having to let people go or at least put them on furlough. And I think maybe what may have kept a creative talent at a firm before, as in a sense, their hands have been forced in terms of like, Okay, then what would I consider if I’m really, really gonna figure out what my next step is in my career, then I want to make sure it right fulfills those three things. I’m not gonna put up with what I put up with before. And so maybe they may be a little bit more discriminatory and how they choose their next stage.
Diane Domeyer
Right. And, you know, I have said it’s exciting possibilities and creative. It’s an epic time to be in the industry that we’re in because Never before has creativity and design been at the central of more and more organizations strategies. So even if the pause gives the opportunity for organizations to reach out, maybe Across geographic boundaries and access some talent, we have proven this will be long standing, it has been a proven test in the ability to tap into remote talent and to support talent that may not be in you’re not only in your four walls, but may not even be in your own geography. And employers are going to keep that memory to think about how can we tap into that top talent. And similarly for career prospects coming out of this? You know, I believe there will be a long standing impact of you don’t need to just think I’ve got to find something on my own market or I’ve got to reload. Right. We have individuals that have been hired start to finish without setting foot in an office and without relocation that are now planning to be long term completely virtual for that company. And I’m not sure that would have happened for some of those companies 90 days ago.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, I’ve definitely that’s something in my conversation with the folks that I have heard over and over again, is that They are much more open handed and minded about remote talent and which gives them definitely a greater pool of talent to choose from. You mentioned COVID-19. And I’d love to hear your thoughts. I can’t believe we’re already. You know, so far into our conversation. This has been great. No, I love this time has passed so quickly. What are some notes that you’ve made about the current remote work environment? And what are some additional to what you’ve already described things that we can learn from this?
Diane Domeyer
Well, one of the surveys that we did, Steven, asked the question of the employees. how satisfied are you with the way your company has responded to COVID-19. And more than nine out of 10 said that they have been pleased with the way in which their companies are so good. Unfortunately, four out of 10 said while that they’ve been pleased, they feel that their company is not entirely set up to really support them remotely. And so as a result of that, companies have had to not only implement new technologies, but consider how might they speed up that process, because probably three out of four companies say that they will have more remote workers coming out after this. So they’re getting all of that, you know, kind of figured out.
The other thing is, I mean, in terms of remote work, here’s what I think is fascinating, because I’m in the business of careers and workplace is how video, of course, which has always been there is now used everywhere. We have many companies and design firms who’ve maybe always been virtual, but they’ve maybe been the minority versus the majority. And the current environment has kind of lifted the veil of formality to expose the true human condition.
Steve Chaparro
Yes, yeah.
Diane Domeyer
And so the connections that are being made Between employer, employee team and company has really, in my opinion inspired some great work product because I think some of the biases and the perceptions have been lifted, even if it’s because somebody’s cat walked across their laptop, or their child was in the background when they were doing a zoom conference call, right? All of a sudden, it’s like, regardless of where you are in the hierarchy, I relate to you, I belong to you, we can partner together and we can do great work. And I think that is a positive outpouring of the remote work. But meanwhile, many, many, many organizations are going to figure out how to do this better. So they can tap into the pools of talent that they want, but also to support the work life balance that people are looking for.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, you know, I think culture itself being even more important than it ever has been for has been one of the things that were superficial Before in terms of maybe even the fluff about, you know, hey, this will benefit our culture, it’s those perks or things like that I think some of the things that are really true and powerful and most impactful for cultures are the things that are really rising to the top. Have you experienced that yourself as well?
Diane Domeyer
100% 100% I think the transparency of communication that is happening in many organizations, obviously, the vulnerability that is exposed as a result of our current situation. And when you think about specifically for the design community, while we talked about those three things that really drive employee engagement, additionally, creatives want transparency, right? They’re looking for transparency, and I think you’re seeing that happen, right transparency, clarity of expectations, communication, contribution, and in the now technology enabled, and it’s only going to get better, but ability to support remote workers. I think that’s going to support organizational cultures in a big way.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, I recall a conversation that I had with a principal at a design firm. And he was sharing with me that he says, Steve’s, you know, me, I’m a pretty hard guy to work with anyways. And I’m looking over, you know, my employees shoulders, I want to make sure that they’re, you know, getting the highest utilization rates as possible, because, you know, we need to build out to our clients and make sure that we’re being as profitable as we can. So now that we’re in COVID, I don’t have the ability to look over people’s shoulder. And he said, Man, if I had a hard time trusting before, this is forcing me to really trust my folks. And it’d be interesting for me to talk to him, you know, five, six weeks later, see, how’s that going? And I would imagine it would be so much better that yes, it may have been a painful experience to release some of those controls and just believe that your team is actually doing really good and the positive effects of that trust.
Diane Domeyer
Right? Right? Trust, transparency, clarity of expectations, recognition for the work that’s being done. Those are all the things that drive not only job satisfaction, but the business case behind it, which is also improved productivity, improved performance, improved innovation, which directly ties to business results.
Steve Chaparro
That’s a great place to end the conversation, folks, we’ve been talking to Diane Domeyer, the executive director for The Creative Group. Diane, if people want to learn more about your firm and more about you, where can they go?
Diane Domeyer
They can go to CreativeGroup.Com. We also you can download the organizational culture research that we have is available either through creativegroup.com or you can go to our parent company, RobertHalf.com. We have information there including salary guide, which we publish annually, as well as our work happy research. So those might be very pertinent to the discussion that we had today.
Steve Chaparro
Diane, thank you so much for being on the Culture Design Show. It’s been a pleasure.
Diane Domeyer
It’s been a pleasure. Thank you so much.
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