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So, what does it take to make customer service a mission possible? It starts with a customer-centric mindset that permeates every level of the organization. Here are a few key strategies to help you achieve this:

1. Empower Your Teams: Give your customer-facing teams the autonomy to make decisions and take actions that meet customer needs. This might mean providing training, resources, and support to help them resolve issues quickly and efficiently.
2. Listen Actively: Encourage your teams to listen actively to customers, ask questions, and clarify their concerns. This helps to build trust, resolve issues, and identify opportunities to improve the customer experience.
3. ⁠Measure and Improve: Regularly collect feedback from customers and use it to identify areas for improvement. This might involve making changes to processes, procedures, or training programs.
4. ⁠Recognize and Reward: Recognize and reward employees who deliver exceptional customer service. This can be a powerful motivator and helps to reinforce the behaviors you want to see in your teams.

The Role of HR in Customer Service

As HR professionals, we play a critical role in creating a customer-centric culture that supports mission possible customer service. Here are a few ways we can contribute:

1. Talent Acquisition: Hire candidates who share your organization’s values and are passionate about delivering exceptional customer service.
2. Training and Development: Provide ongoing training and development opportunities to help employees build the skills and knowledge they need to deliver great customer service.
3. ⁠Culture and Engagement: Foster a culture that values customer service and encourages employees to take ownership of the customer experience.
4. Recognition and Rewards: Develop recognition and reward programs that incentivize employees to deliver exceptional customer service.

In today’s fast-paced and competitive business landscape, customer service is no longer just a nicety – it’s a necessity. Customers expect to be heard, understood, and valued, and companies that deliver on these expectations are rewarded with loyalty, retention, and advocacy.
And let’s be real, who doesn’t love a good customer service story? Whether it’s a friendly chat with a support agent or a seamless return process, amazing customer service can make our day.

The Power of Customer Service

Customer service is more than just a department – it’s a mindset. It’s about putting customers first, anticipating their needs, and exceeding their expectations. When done right, customer service can be a game-changer for businesses.
In fact, studies have shown that customers are willing to pay more for a product or service if they receive excellent customer service.

The power of customer service is undeniable. It can:

1. Build loyalty: Exceptional service fosters loyal customers who become brand advocates.
2. Drive retention: Satisfied customers are more likely to return and continue doing business with you.
3. Generate positive word-of-mouth: Happy customers share their experiences, attracting new customers.
4. Differentiate your brand: Outstanding service sets you apart from competitors.
5. Increase revenue: Loyal customers spend more and make repeat purchases.

The Impact of Customer Service on Business

Customer service isn’t just about individual interactions – it has a broader impact on the business as a whole. It can influence customer acquisition, retention, and advocacy. When customers have a positive experience with a company, they’re more likely to become repeat customers, recommend the company to others, and even become brand ambassadors.

The impact of customer service on business is significant:

Positive Impacts:

1. Customer Retention: Excellent service builds loyalty, reducing churn and increasing repeat business.
2. Brand Reputation: Positive experiences lead to word-of-mouth referrals and online reviews.
3. Increased Revenue: Satisfied customers spend more, buy frequently, and refer others.
4. Competitive Advantage: Superior service differentiates your business.
5. Valuable Feedback: Customer insights help improve products/services.

Negative Impacts:

1. Lost Sales: Poor service drives customers away.
2. Negative Reviews: Unhappy customers share their experiences online.
3. Reputation Damage: Consistent poor service harms brand image.
4. Decreased Loyalty: Dissatisfied customers take their business elsewhere.

By prioritizing customer service, businesses can build strong relationships, drive growth, and thrive in competitive markets.

I come from a school of thought that seems more academic than liberal, so when I agreed to write this article, I knew my introduction would be a definition of the subject matter to gain a better understanding of its implications for candidate sourcing.

Definition –According to Wikipedia, Social Media is a set of interactive digital channels that facilitate creating and sharing information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks.

History – Internet Relay Chats (IRCs) was first used in 1988 and continued to be known well into the 1990s. The first recognisable social media site, Six Degrees, was created in 1997. It enabled users to upload a profile and make friends with other users. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular, creating a social media sensation that’s still popular today. After the invention of blogging, social media began to explode in popularity. Sites like MySpace and LinkedIn gained prominence in the early 2000s, and sites like Photobucket and Flickr facilitated online photo sharing. YouTube came out in 2005, creating an entirely new way for people to communicate and share across great distances. By 2006, Facebook and Twitter became available to users throughout the world. These sites remain some of the most popular social networks on the Internet. Other sites like Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare and Pinterest began popping up to fill specific social networking niches. Today, there is a tremendous variety of social networking sites. We can only speculate about the future of social networking in the next decade or even century, but it seems clear that it will exist in some form for as long as humans are alive. – (Small Business Trends).

Demographics – By tapping into various social connections, recruiters can reach a wider pool of potential employees. However, one critical factor that brings home the point of this article is demographics. It is essential to know where to find a suitable pool of candidates. The table below highlights the global demographics of the major platforms:

Culled from Sprout Social.

Looking closer to home (i.e. Nigeria) and according to a report by Statista, the top ten (10) social media sites used in generating connections, interactions and content are WhatsApp (91.9%); Facebook (86.4%); Instagram (77.9%); Facebook Messenger (71.2%); Twitter (57.4%); Telegram (50.3%); Snapchat (49.7%); TikTok (47.7%); LinkedIn (37.6%); and Pinterest (21.7%).

When the global stats are juxtaposed against the Nigerian numbers, it becomes clear that the most viable tools for finding talent in Nigeria are: the Meta ‘Trio’ (Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp), LinkedIn and YouTube.

● Facebook is arguably the largest and most active platform, thus, always presenting potential opportunities for sourcing candidates across industries and skillsets. The platform has tools that help with targeted advertising to get past all the ‘noise’ to reach those who match predetermined recruitment criteria. Its active population/age (largely male-centric) group falls within the range of new entrants into the workforce and those with some years of experience.

● Instagram is also male-dominated. However, the gap is much closer than the spread on Facebook. Thus, we can assume that the female gender has a growing influence on Instagram. Instagram is also reputed to be a more visual-based platform. As such, job opportunities have to be shared using visuals.

● WhatsApp deserves to be mentioned here because it is often the go-to platform (and usually the first to be used) to reach personal networks when seeking a job or employers/recruiters are trying to fill vacant positions. And companies that advertise vacancies on Facebook can always carry over those conversations to Whatsapp directly due to the same platform ownership. Access to the network capacity of WhatsApp (at 91.9% of usage in Nigeria) will be difficult as that is wholly dependent on the volume of individuals’ networks and how easy it is to reach out to people. Thus somewhat limiting potential reach given the platform’s usage generally.

● LinkedIn, with the growing popularity amongst millennials on this platform, it becomes a tool for sourcing the much-needed talent for employers and recruiters. Its lack of popularity compared to other social media platforms makes it an add-on platform to be used in conjunction with others to generate leads for finding talents across different industries. However, if finding talent in somewhat specialised fields with a relatively small pool of qualified/experienced persons, LinkedIn presents itself as a viable sourcing tool.

● YouTubecould be seen as an employer-driven platform where employers attempt to create content that sells the kind of work environment potential employees could be coming to work. In the long term, it could significantly impact the way sourcing is done by encouraging job seekers to upload videos of themself showing what they can do and employers showcasing what they have to offer to attract talent.

Conclusion – Understanding the different platforms’ dynamics makes Social Media a veritable tool for recruitment, as long as a deliberate approach is taken. It is without a doubt that Social Media will continue to grow as a formidable tool for finding talent, though its usage will continue to change over time. The companies that will succeed in using Social Media as talent sourcing tools are the ones that continue to keep abreast of trends and adapt their strategies accordingly.

Written By: Olufeyisayo Sofolahan Soewu (CEO, SquaredLAB Innovations Limited)

Several business leaders strive to thrive in today’s fast-changing global market because of new challenges that have characterized the business environment. Business leaders face challenges in establishing a workplace culture that impacts productivity and organizational performance. It is a clear fact that every business would expect to make a profit and expand its business size. However, it would then be essential for business leaders to establish a sustainable workplace culture that can impact and assist the navigation of every challenge within the organization.

Culture in the workplace is expected to define the ideal behaviour of people within the organization. The expected behaviours are to be established by business leaders and cascaded into shared beliefs and values to shape the workforce’s perspective within the organization. Consequently, the absence of a defined culture in the workplace is the root cause of low performance within an organization. To address this gap, business leaders must demonstrate a commitment to define the desired workplace culture and model the same to improve productivity in the business. They must also take cognizance of the peculiarities of their business environment to establish the desired culture without necessarily attempting to adopt another organization’s culture.

My observation about workplace culture across organizations where I have worked reveals that the personality of the top leader often informs and reflects on the organizational culture. It is worst in organizations where the culture is undefined in any way. In such an environment, it is inevitable not to have a subset culture that will hurt organizational performance. I have worked in an environment where the top leader is very value-driven and possess a solid character. The personality of the said top leader consequently reflected on the workplace culture, and it positively impacted the overall business performance. I have also worked in an environment where the leader’s personality is poor, and even though the organization had well-crafted policies in place, the character of this poor top leader rubbed off on the workplace culture, which led to overall negative performance. The moral I picked from these two environments is that leaders must make efforts to build strong character because character informs values, and culture is a reflection of values. Leaders must deliberately prioritize building character while leading others.

As organizations evolve, it would be critical for the leaders to consciously assess and strengthen their culture, which will go a long way to impact establishing policies, initiatives, and strategies that align with the set objectives. This alignment has a role in assisting the C-suite to cascade the desired behaviour to everyone within the organization.

The big question in this article is, how can leaders build and sustain a workplace culture? To respond to this question, below are a few thoughts to be considered:

a. Communicate the Expected Culture: Fundamentally, culture must be communicated clearly and consistently to everyone in the organization. This way, everyone is aware of expected behaviours in the workplace. However, communication about culture must also be intentional to avoid distortions that may lead to a lack of trust in the leaders.

b.  Attraction Strategy: In the attempt to build and sustain the desired workplace culture, organizations would require coming up with an effective attraction strategy. This strategy can support organizations to make the most of the culture. It means that during the hiring process, the focus should not be only on skill sets but also on the personality trait that fits into the organizational culture. Studies have shown that candidates with a personality trait that fits into an organization’s culture are more likely to perform better on the job.

c. Design Intentional Onboarding Programme: Another approach to building and sustaining a workplace culture is to design an onboarding program that reflects the organizational culture. By so doing, new employees will be inducted into the organization’s culture. Moreso, one of the key motives of the onboarding program is to cascade the organization’s core values and set expected behaviours for new hires.

d. Design Reward and Recognition Programs: Reward and recognition programs are deployable tools to motivate employees that consistently model the set workplace culture. Such employees should be put in the spotlight and rewarded.

e. Design Robust Performance Management Program: Research suggests that employees that fully imbibe the workplace culture stand a higher chance of performing well on the job. Consequently, organizations need to build a robust performance management framework that reflects the workplace culture, and feedback is provided to employees about how they are aligning to expected behaviours.

In conclusion, being part of an astonishing workplace culture generates an exciting experience for everyone within a particular organization. The priority of business leaders is to create a workplace culture where there is trust, open communication, and healthy relationship. Lastly, business leaders must be consciously committed to defining, articulating, and modelling the workplace culture.

Written By: Oludare Obadina (Organizational Leadership Enthusiast)

So much has been said over the years about the generations in the workplace, and it’s been quite interesting hearing diverse perspectives about the differences and similarities between them. Permit me to add my voice to the conversation, considering I work in an organization with employees across all four generations – Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y (popularly known as Millennials) and Gen Z. The Alpha Generation are still some distance from the workplace yet.

Just as organizations were beginning to get a grasp of millennials – the good, the bad and the ugly, in came Gen Z with attributes, behaviours and idiosyncrasies of their own!

So we are all on the same page, Gen Z is generally believed to have been born between the mid to late nineties and the early 2010s (there’s no consensus on the exact years). I’m not one to make sweeping generalizations, but I believe most people will agree with the descriptors being bandied around for Gen Z – digital natives, activist generation, organizers, risk takers, hard workers, entitled, and so on. Love them or hate them, their impact on the workplace is unarguable.

Let me tell you a true story. In 2019, I was privileged to welcome a young lady to my team (call her Ms X). She started as a youth corps member and later became a full-term employee. Fresh out of school, she had arguably the perfect background as a graduate in Industrial Relations and Human Resources Management but had a lot of learning to do on the job. As I would soon find out, I also had some learning to do.

Ms X was a joy to work with. For the most part, all she needed was a little information on a given task, and her ability to interpret and produce was nothing short of impressive. Where I had a challenge, however, was with her communication style, which became the source of our “fights”. Not that her style was wrong, I was just not used to it. She preferred to communicate via instant messaging, and sometimes if she had a question or wanted to ask for an extension of the timeline for the task, she would do so via text! So, while I thought she was “ghosting” me, she had reached out, but I was expecting a face-to-face conversation. Interestingly, even after talking to her about this several times, it didn’t change, so it was instructive to look inward for the change I sought! I understood very quickly that Gen Z, most and generally, tends to rely heavily on social media and devices for communication and to form and maintain relationships, so I formed the habit of reading my messages a lot more frequently. Problem solved.

Another fascinating thing about Gen Z is their view on job security. They are more demanding than previous generations and keep employers on their toes by continuously challenging the status quo. Their expectations are not outlandish but reasonable, I might add. For instance, why do workers have to go to the office when they can achieve the same results working remotely? Recently, while speaking with some Gen Z candidates, they see this issue as a deal breaker and don’t mind leaving a job or turning down a job offer if it doesn’t afford them a flexible work schedule. A lot of them also have other “hustles” and need the flexibility to give the other gigs some attention. The earlier generations, particularly Baby Boomers and some Gen X, on the other hand, are generally more docile and accepting of pretty much everything their employer hands to them for fear of losing their livelihood.

I could go on and on about this fascinating generation, but I’ll summarize by saying the workplace would not be the same without them. Every employer looking to provide a positive employee experience must have a healthy dose of Gen Z to help shake things up a little from time to time and bring onboard different perspectives. After all, the future of work belongs to them.

Victor Daudu

Head, Human Resources

Viathan Group

HR takes care of everyone, but who takes care of HR?

There has been no definite answer to this simple but complex question.

Recent research shows that many HR professionals in Nigeria and around the world deal with a range of workplace challenges. In 2019 before the pandemic began, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified burnout as an occupational phenomenon. In making its decision, the agency drew on the work of Christina Maslach, psychology professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley.

The WHO said burnout is characterized by:

Feeling of energy depletion or exhaustion.

Increased mental distance from one’s job or feelings of negativity or cynicism tied to the job.

Reduced professional efficacy.

The pandemic has left many HR professionals grappling with seemingly unending stress as they try to find the best ways to cope. A 2021 survey of 726 HR practitioners in 7 countries showed that burnout and exhaustion are rife amongst HR Managers, with 42% of teams struggling under the weight of too many projects and responsibilities.

A report by Lattice, a provider of HR software solutions in the USA, noted, “The team tasked with upscaling the rest of the organization is critically understaffed. Among HR leaders who said they were emotionally exhausted, more than two-thirds blamed it on being overworked, and over 40% said it was because they needed additional headcount to meet their business goals.”

At the same time, employees experienced a tremendous amount of distress with the change in work style and environment leaving HR to figure out how to keep employees feeling engaged and supported. “Nobody was really taking care of HR while we were running around like headless chickens trying to make sure everybody else was OK,” Kittredge says. HR is “the place where stress goes to live in an organization,” she adds.

Raghida Abdallah Yassine, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., says it falls to HR “to create the policies for the well-being of the employees and company.”

Many business leaders panicked in 2020. Government-mandated restrictions ordered many businesses to shut down, people were told to shelter at home, and an alarming stock market plummet in March 2022 put fear into company executives. Unaware of what would happen to the economy, millions of employees were fired or furloughed and HR managers were saddled with the unpleasant responsibility of dispensing the bad news. If you have ever let a person go, you will know how awful it is for the recipient of the bad news—but it also takes a huge emotional toll on the person delivering the message.

In light of the pandemic, HR has had to continually ensure employee well-being is intact and look for signs of burnout. Although it is not part of their job description, members of this group had to serve as de facto therapists, cheerleaders and leaders to maintain morale. These tasks were in addition to their core mission of recruiting, hiring, onboarding and retaining employees. They have had to make tough decisions around keeping a remote policy or enacting a hybrid or in-office model. No matter the choices, you cannot meet everyone’s needs or make everybody happy.

A recent study conducted by Workvivo highlights the following reasons for HR burnout.

1. Workplace transformations and the Great Resignation

2. Bearing the brunt of employee burnout emerging from remote and hybrid working transitions.

3. Under-resourced HR departments

4. Workplace disruption caused by office politics adds more strain to an already tumultuous period.

5. HR Managers feel undervalued in their organizations

The above shows the severity and widespread of HR burnout, and if not curtailed it will have an enormous impact on organizations and worsen the challenges they are currently facing.

How can HR Professionals deal with burnout and exhaustion?

It is a good idea to rethink job satisfaction and possibly make some changes to how work is done. These tips can help HR Professionals cope with burnout:

Get Sufficient Sleep

Getting enough sleep helps the mind stay sharp and focused on the day ahead. It improves concentration and gives the brain time to rest so it can tackle problems more logically. If you are rested, you will have more energy for the challenges of the day, rather than feeling overwhelmed by them.

Leave Work at Work

Be sure to unplug from work entirely on days off and when you are away from the office. If your company has a bring-your-device policy, make sure not to check email or answer texts during your downtime unless it is an emergency (and even then, do so sparingly).

Take Time Off

Whether you need a short vacation or a couple of sick days, take them. It can be difficult to admit that you are burnt out and struggling with anxiety, but it is better to take care of yourself than keep working until something breaks.

Take a Wellness Course

It is not too late to learn more about staying healthy and increasing productivity. Taking an online wellness course can help you learn healthy habits that will last a lifetime.

Find outside or internal groups to connect with

Lots of groups popped up during the pandemic. If you like Slack, there are groups there. LinkedIn, Facebook, and even Reddit have groups that provide support for the HR professional in need of advice.

‘Kemi Onadiran

Head, HR natnudO Foods,

Visionaire, Careerswithkemi

Imagine walking into a dark room; you are likely to bump into the wall, corners and possibly run over an item and maybe even end on the floor with a few injuries. That’s very similar to practising Human Resources management without leveraging data.

Data is a powerful tool for HR professionals and the world at large; for its immense importance in decision-making. For example, it is used for something as simple as checking reviews on where to eat, what vendor to use, and for complex life decisions. Data is the centre of it all.

I love data a lot and rely on it. Just as individuals rely on data, so do organizations, from supply chain decisions to expansion or hiring decisions.

Data provides organizations lot of benefits which include:

• Greater confidence in business decisions, which leads to improved business performance.
• Help to increase business profitability through higher operational efficiency and cost savings.
• More accurate predictions.
• Root-cause identification.

Data has been and will continue to be a core part of the human resource function.

Human resource programs no longer need to be based on soft reasoning but should be analytical and data-driven as any other management discipline – Chris Argyris, Management Theorist & Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School.

While it is impossible to predict the future, relying on good data can help prepare for what’s around the corner and is better than flying blind.

In my opinion, I would classify the quest for data into three phases:

Data Collection: Most organizations have data; from onboarding, and documents to exit surveys, there is a lot of data available to HR to use. Data availability is less of a challenge to the HR profession. Business leaders look to HR to provide data-driven advice, not guesswork, thoughts or presumptions. A level of certainty enhances the trust of business leaders, and data-driven advice is a way to earn a seat at the table.

Data Interpretation: Data tells a story about what we know today. An example of data interpretation would be “there was a 10% employee turnover in 2020. HR often uses data to describe a problem rather than solve it.

Data for Predictive Analysis: This is the phase I believe the HR profession and professionals strive to operate at, leveraging the information collected to provide advice that solves business problems and mitigates business risks. For example, using data as a predictive tool in making an accurate hiring decision can save the business lost time and other associated recruitment costs.

Choosing the appropriate data to analyze is also very important. While relying solely on one data source may not provide a complete story, combining multiple sources and data points will give a more holistic picture that would help with insightful decision-making.

In conclusion, it is now more than ever before important that HR professionals handle, analyze, interpret and communicate data effectively to drive business outcomes. To continue to be relevant as HR professionals and live up to the expectation of business leaders, we need to move from administrative HR activities to leveraging data in how we support businesses to be more productive through people and achieve business objectives. This is how we become strategic business partners.

Thank you for reading!

Written By: Laide Adepetu

References:

Gartner Management Consulting (2022) Enhancing your Data Judgement (assessed August 25, 2022)

<https://www.gartner.com/document/3992363?ref=solrAll&refval=337489401>

Stéphane Kirchacker, 2022, 6 Ways a Data-Driven approach helps your organization succeed. Available from https://www.sinequa.com/blog/intelligent-enterprise-search/6-ways-a-data-driven-approach-helps-your-organization-succeed/