Month: March 2020

Entrepreneur’s Organization is a global network of over 13,000 business owners. Learn how EO New Jersey helps over 100 business owners grow.

Cautious optimism surrounding the recent approval of the coronavirus vaccine may have us hoping for the best, but as the virus continues to rage, it’s still not business as usual. Maybe it never will be. We’ve had to pivot, to flex our agile muscles, to embrace digital marketing as never before.

Digital marketing offers substantial benefits, especially when it seems much of the world is exclusively operating digitally. It eliminates the need for face-to-face interaction (a key to stemming the virus’s spread), but it’s also measurable and easily adjustable. Analytics enables you to see your return on investment and quickly change anything that’s not working.

 

Digital Marketing Strategies and Tactics to Rebound from COVID-19

While many brands have opted to play it safe for fear of tarnishing their reputation—marketing experts suggest that now is not the time to sit back and hope for the best. Brands and marketers need to focus on offering short-term communication and innovation to secure long-term success in this unpredictable period. It’s a time to reinvent, inspire, and provide a viable solution to a very pressing problem.

Here are some examples of successful digital marketing campaigns to get you inspired:

Guinness Beer: St. Patrick’s Day Video

Guinness created a unique St. Patrick’s day video focused on a message that brings people together, offered a clear value, and let their consumers know that they were there for them in a campaign that will serve them well into the future.

The video uses an uplifting, inspirational tone coupled with a theme of communal care and solidarity to striking an emotional chord while demonstrating value and humanizing the brand in uncertain times.

Guinness yielded excellent results from its Covid-19 marketing campaign, which was original, relevant, and on-brand. The spot performed well above the US norm for brand favourability (49 percent).

Many people wanted to share the ad to be part of the Zeitgeist, with 21percent saying they would share it because the content defined the spirit and mood of the time.

Getty Museum: Creative Social Media

The pandemic closed museums, but the Getty Museum jumped at the opportunity to promote its brand through social media. Launching the ‘Getty Museum Challenge,’ the museum issued a challenge asking social media users to recreate their favorite artwork using just three objects found around the house.

It was an instant hit, generating tens of thousands of responses across social media platforms and providing well-deserved engagement for the Getty Museum.

Dunkin’: Making the Coffee Break Virtual

Dunkin’ tapped into the growing gratitude people expressed during the pandemic for front-line workers with a way for Americans to help and to show support without having to leave home. It created the DunkinCoffeeBreak.com eCommerce site to give customers a way to show appreciation by sending a virtual coffee break in the form of a Dunkin’ e-gift card. Dunkin’ donated $1 (up to $100,000) for every card purchased at the site to the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation emergency funds, specifically for non-profits helping families affected by COVID-19.

The site is driving incremental digital gift card sales and has generated a 300 percent increase in year-over-year gift card sales for specific events.

Chipotle Mexican Grill: Zoom Lunch Sessions

One of the first brands to act once the pandemic began upending daily life, Chipotle Mexican Grill launched Chipotle Together, a series of daily sessions on Zoom. First, bringing 3,000 fans and celebrity guests together over lunch, when they may usually have lunch at a Chipotle restaurant under different circumstances, and later offering it at various times throughout the day.

In just two weeks, the campaign generated 500 million impressions and 100 earned media stories. The strategy demonstrated an excellent way to deliver community to consumers hungry for connection in the early days of the lockdowns.

There is no doubt that this is an unprecedented situation, and it’s a real challenge right now for businesses to know how to adapt their creative strategies. The pandemic has challenged everyone, but it also provides businesses opportunities to grow and thrive like all challenges. Taking advantage of digital marketing is an option that can guide you safely into the future.

Entrepreneur’s Organization is a global network of over 13,000 business owners. Learn how EO New Jersey helps over 100 business owners grow.

This post was originally published on the EO Global Octane Blog.

Entrepreneur’s Organization is a global network of over 13,000 business owners. Learn how EO New Jersey helps over 100 business owners grow.

Even before the pandemic necessitated moving to remote work for thousands of people, it’s been trending upward, growing 173 percent since 2005. Another 2018 study showed that about 70 percent of the entire global workforce telecommutes at least one day a week already.

Research has found that employees who worked from home reported “higher levels of job satisfaction and reduced levels of burnout and psychological stress.” Employees that work from home can often struggle to feel connected with coworkers and the organization. By investing in remote team building activities, you can build happy, engaged, and productive remote teams.

Virtual team building activities can range from silly and straightforward to those that include teaching work competencies under the guise of fun. They can all create solidarity among remote teams.

Mystery & Intrigue

With simple animation and eerie music, virtual games such as Among Us and the virtual version of Codenames provide fun ways to foster team spirit and cooperation. Both games rely on problem-solving skills and a bit of imagination.

Virtual Team Coffee Breaks

A 15-minute “coffee break” each day or once a week, depending on your preference, is a simple way to provide a relaxing environment with team members. The team can gather on a video chat platform for conversations that can be work-related or purely for fun and entertainment, just as if people were sharing a coffee break at the office. Take it up a notch by sending team members a company coffee mug.

Virtual Escape Rooms

This activity lets teams play together while providing a great problem-solving activity. You can split into smaller teams and turn it into a friendly competition. Virtual escape rooms can be done in one sitting or a prescribed amount of time, such as a week.

Articulate

If you’re looking for a virtual team-building activity that combines brain power and laughter, this may be the game for you. It can be adjusted to take 15 minutes or an hour and requires no special materials.

Instructions: 1) Each person gets a different list of 10 words (e.g., laughing, movie, dog, etc.)

2) Each participant gets one minute to describe as many of their words as possible to everyone else, without saying the actual world. Phrases such as “sounds like” or “starts with” cannot be used.

3) After each participant has a turn, the person who can describe their words to the highest number of players wins.

Read My Lips

This is an easy and quick game to play with your team that mixes stress relief with a bit of critical thinking.

Instructions: 1) One team member mutes their microphone so they can only be seen, not heard. Be sure the other players are not muted so he/she can still hear the others in the meeting.

2) The designated player “says” a phrase. To make it a bit easier, you can select a topic or a theme.

3) Everyone has one to two minutes to guess what the designated player said. Once the phrase is guessed or a player’s time is up, another team member is designated.

Dog, Rice, and Chicken

Creative thinking and problem-solving foster collaboration and is a hallmark of a great team. This game practices lateral thinking and teamwork skills and offers an opportunity to discover how well your team can work together when challenged.

Instructions:

1) One person plays the role of the farmer, and the other team members are the villagers.

2) The farmer has a dilemma: he has a dog, some rice, and a chicken he needs to get across a river to get home, but can only carry one item at a time. He cannot leave the dog alone with the chicken because the dog will most likely eat the chicken, and he cannot leave the chicken alone with the rice because the chicken will eat the rice.

3) The villagers must help the farmer come up with a solution.

4) If your team is large, you can create multiple villager teams; then the winner is the team that comes up with the fastest and the least number of boat trips across the river.

Lunch and Learn Sessions

Lunch and learn sessions are fantastic events that allow your team to learn new skills while having a break from the workday. It can be done as a quick presentation or with a guest speaker who shares career-building skills or helps with personal goals. It is also a great way to provide lunch to your remote team via delivery service. You can make this a quarterly event and change the topic each time.

Guided Meditation

During an otherwise busy day, ten quiet minutes can be an effective way to bring people together and build strong remote teams. You can achieve these results with a guided meditation session.

Find a guided meditation exercise online or contact an expert to guide the group. Consider sending employees a care package with scented oils and candles beforehand.

Research has shown that remote team activities have myriad benefits—boosting team morale, increasing productivity, encouraging creativity—all good for business!

Entrepreneur’s Organization is a global network of over 13,000 business owners. Learn how EO New Jersey helps over 100 business owners grow.

This post was originally published on the EO Global Octane Blog.

Entrepreneur’s Organization is a global network of over 13,000 business owners. Learn how EO New Jersey helps over 100 business owners grow.

The performance review. Dreaded equally, in some cases, by the giver and the receiver, but it doesn’t (and shouldn’t) have to be that way. If you’ve never written or delivered a performance review to an employee, or if the thought of doing a review is about as appealing as a root canal, here are a few tips to help you.

In recent years, the annual or semi-annual performance review process has come under a lot of fire. A 2018 article in Forbes magazine said they were pointless and insulting and referred to them as ‘artifacts leftover from the Industrial Revolution.’ Others contend that the written form is still vital because it puts structure into performance evaluations. Taking the time to write an evaluation signals to employees that you think they’re important. A performance review’s goal shouldn’t be to punish an employee for not meeting expectations but to help the employee and the business grow and succeed.

Keep This in Mind Before Writing a Performance Review

Research has found that performance feedback that only occurs a few times a year is unlikely to be meaningful. Providing ongoing, less formal communication consistently throughout the year, followed by a formal written performance review reflecting what employees have heard throughout the year, can be affirming and motivating.

A Gallup poll shows that when managers provide weekly (vs. annual) feedback, team members are: – 5.2 x more likely to strongly agree that they receive meaningful feedback – 3.2 x more likely to strongly agree they are motivated to do outstanding work – 2.7 x more likely to be engaged at work

Follow these steps to deliver a meaningful performance review:

 

1. Provide regular feedback throughout the year

Offering feedback and coaching (if necessary) regularly throughout the year will help you establish a solid foundation. Here are some guidelines for giving feedback:

Stick to verbal input most of the time. Sharing information feedback will be less intimidating and make employees more receptive. Don’t make it a big production.

Focus on positive rather than negative feedback. Think of the adage: you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. This is not to say that you have to lavish praise for every effort; however, positive reinforcement is much more effective at encouraging employees to do good work.

Offer training rather than delivering after-the-fact critiquing. There’s always room to learn and grow, no matter what level of experience or how many years an employee’s been on the job.

2. Ask the employee to write a self-evaluation

Much like the formal review concept, the idea of employee self-evaluations has also received its share of criticism. A Harvard Business Review article advocates ditching an official form and instead, asking employees to prepare an informal list of their most important accomplishments and achievements. Again, others prefer having employees submit a formal evaluation (example here) that follows a form. The benefits of self-evaluation can be powerful by:

– Increasing an employee’s self-awareness – Reminding the reviewer of an employee’s accomplishments – Instilling self-confidence in an employee

 

3. Write & deliver the employee performance review

Using a performance review template (or developing your own, an example is here to get you started) and taking the employee’s self-assessment into account, complete your own review of the employee. While it’s advantageous to emphasize the positives, you should also be honest. A few tips: – Include a mix of numeric and qualitative feedback. (In the example linked to above, there is both a numerical rating of virtues such as “taking initiative” and a comments section to add color) – Don’t make it too long. Don’t view the performance review as a laundry list. Instead, focus on a few key areas where you think the employee has the most to celebrate and the most opportunity for improvement. – Deliver the review in person (or video call if in person isn’t possible). Don’t just email the review to your employee, instead schedule some time to review it together with them. This allows you to explain the context behind your thoughts and allows them to ask clarifying questions.

Click to Open Template of Example Supervisor Evaluation

Performance reviews can, and should, be a positive and beneficial experience for everyone if done correctly. They can also be a powerful tool that can enhance your relationship with employees and improve your organization’s performance.

Entrepreneur’s Organization is a global network of over 13,000 business owners. Learn how EO New Jersey helps over 100 business owners grow.

This post was originally published on the EO Global Octane Blog.

Entrepreneur’s Organization is a global network of over 13,000 business owners. Learn how EO New Jersey helps over 100 business owners grow.

Interviewing is hard. Most job applicants are going to make an effort to shine, and it’s hard to tell if the polish is only surface deep. Some candidates are glib and able to give polished answers to standard interview questions. Behavior-based interview questions provide a way for interviewers to delve into how candidates handled past situations. That information can inform their ability to perform in a position. These types of questions often begin with the phrase, “Tell me about a time when you…”

 

The Benefits of Behavioral Interviews

Behavioral interviewing is based on the premise that the best predictor of future performance is past performance and can:

Save Money
Hiring an employee is a significant investment, and a bad decision can cost your business a lot of money. It can also have a long-term effect on a company because below-average employees can lead to disappointed clients and drag down team productivity.

Provide a better understanding of the candidate
The behavior interview format lets an interviewer gain a more in-depth picture of a candidate in ways that can help determine if they are a good fit for your organization. It’s a way to measure soft skills, personality, problem solving, and work ethic.

Help predict the employees’ future behavior
Questions like “give me an example of” or “what will you do if” can help interviewers understand if the candidate would approach common situations in a given role in the way the company would want.

 

Are Behavioral Interview Questions Effective?

Behavioral interview questions can be very effective, but they need to be framed correctly. One important component, as explained in a Forbes article, is how the questions are phrased. The idea is that often typical behavioral interview questions give away the right answers, cueing candidates to share success stories and avoiding failure examples.

For example:
ORIGINAL: Tell me about a time when you adapted to a difficult situation and how you did it.

Expressing the question using this language makes it very clear to the candidate that they are supposed to share a success story about adapting, balancing, persuading, etc.

CORRECTED: Tell me about a time when you faced a difficult situation.

Rewording the question allows a candidate to share success stories that provide details, context, evidence of critical thinking, and much more.

 

What to Look For When Asking Behavioral Questions

The process enables you to more accurately determine what qualities and behaviors you are looking for in a candidate that aligns with your organization’s core competencies.

How does the candidate answer the question?
The candidate should provide the answer in the form of a short story, not just list the tasks and activities they accomplished but also what strategies and tactics they used to accomplish them. Encourage candidates to provide specific details about their actions.

What was the candidate’s individual response to the challenge?
Teamwork is good, but you’re trying to ascertain what the candidate’s exact role was in this instance. If there was a team, how did they personally contribute?

What is the candidate’s body language like during the interview?
While an interview can account for a certain level of nervousness, if the candidate is overly uncomfortable or fidgeting, it may indicate that they are not being fully transparent. If this is the case, feel free to ask follow up questions to more fully explore the past experience.

 

Sample Behavioral Interview Questions

When using behavior-based interviewing, every candidate must be asked the same questions to assess them fairly.

Example questions include:
– Tell me about a difficult work challenge you’ve had.
– Have you ever been in an ethically questionable business situation?
– Have you ever had a project that had to change drastically while it was in progress?
– Talk about a time when you’ve had to sell an idea to your colleagues.
– Tell me about a major setback you’ve had.
– Talk about a time where you had to make an important decision quickly.
– Have you ever had a deadline you were not able to meet?
– Talk about a time when you had to adapt to significant changes at work.
– Have you ever had to convince your team to do a job they were reluctant to do?
– How have you dealt with an angry or upset customer?

 

Are additional probing questions needed?

If a candidate’s answers are vague, ambiguous, evasive, or don’t fully address the question, ask follow-up questions triggered by the response. Suggestions include: I’m not quite sure I understood. Could you please tell me more about that? I’m not sure what you mean by ___. Could you give me some examples? You mentioned ____. Could you tell me more about that? What stands out in your mind about that? Can you give me an example of ___? You just told me about ___; I’d also like to know about . . .

Behavior-based interviewing isn’t perfect, and it’s not a panacea for complex recruitment and retention challenges. Still, it is a tried and true methodology that’s used by some of the world’s most successful companies.

Entrepreneur’s Organization is a global network of over 13,000 business owners. Learn how EO New Jersey helps over 100 business owners grow.

This post was originally published on the EO Global Octane Blog.