Stalk Your Employees!?

5 little known ways to learn what matters to your employees

Did you know that there’s a job where people are paid to root through the trash to learn things about consumers? Companies use this method to shadow their target customers. Their ultimate goal is to learn more about their audience preferences, consumption habits and more. 

Digging through the trash in the office might be extreme behavior — although, to be frank, over the years I’ve discovered a number of compelling tidbits by skimming abandoned printouts and faxes before stuffing them in the recycle bin.

Leaders, members of HR and internal communicators all need insights on employees. We’re more likely to gather that intelligence via engagement surveys, feedback/suggestion boxes and focus groups. Other common methods vary, depending on the company and work locations. 

How can you find out more about your employees’ preferences, behaviors and habits so that you can use that knowledge to improve the communication you deliver?

We have to regularly employ new methods to learn more about employee preferences. Today, our approaches need to be more immediate and allow flexibility in how the feedback is obtained.

Here are five employee research methods to add to your employee insights toolbox. 

1. Turn Sociologist and Observe Them in Their Natural Habitat

The most successful employee communication manages to feel like a natural part of an employee’s day, not an interruption to it. That means it’s helpful to conduct some informal experiments by spying on employees as they go about their workday. Much of what you’ll discover would never show up on an employee engagement survey!

Sit in the cafeteria, break room or any place where employees congregate. While you’re there, observe what employees are doing.

More than likely, many people will be using their phones. What apps or programs are they are using. Last year, I happened to discover the popularity of SnapChat because I was observing app usage at LaGuardia Airport and noticed that every person around me was opening an app with a ghost on it. SnapChat was on the rise and nearly everyone in line with me was using it. The same thing is occurring right now with Pokemon Go. Before I started hearing the news stories about it, I’d noticed it’s popularity by observing people at a coworking center in New York City.

Some other things to observe in common areas:

  • Do you notice people looking at posters? Where? For how long?
  • Are people reading the tent cards in the cafeteria or breakrooms?
  • Are there areas where employees tend to congregate that could be new locations for signage?
  • How people are getting their work done — are they using their laptop or tablets?

Other research strategies to try:

  • While you’re sitting with someone in their workspace, are you hearing the chimes of notifications? Try to notice which notifications they look at first (instant message, text message, app notification, etc).

    • Which ones keep their attention the longest?
    • How quickly do they check for a message when a chime goes off ?
  • Have conversations. Ask people how they heard the last piece of important news that was shared. While the answers you uncover aren’t scientific, they are still valuable.
  • Fan out! Have several people at each worksite who are doing the spying for you.

2. Get the Data

Many of the contact points with employees involve technology. Whether it’s email, Intranet, instant messaging or anything else, finding out how people are using technology to access communication will be invaluable.

If you have IT team members who voluntarily provide you with technology metrics, you’ve got a superstar team on your hands. Be sure to take advantage of that regularly!

If your IT systems allow you to pull metrics on your own, learn how to take advantage of that.

Here are some questions and requests for your IT team that could prove to be useful insights.

  • Which sites are employees most frequently visiting?
  • What time of day do employees typically use [specified resource] (it could be a program, website, app, etc.)?
  • How do employees access [specified resource] via desktop, laptop or mobile device?
  • Which browsers do employees use? Which version? Although there is usually a corporate standard, you may be surprised at the number of employees who find a way to download their preferred browser.
  • What search terms are most often used on your Intranet, portal or other important site?
  • What time of day is your network busiest?
  • What is the login frequency to [specified resource]?
  • If you have an enterprise social media site, how many people have never logged in?
  • Is there anything interesting about how that data falls in terms of location, tenure or job?

3. Snoop Around Social Media

You can find insights on your employees’ interests and behavior on any social media site. But, there are two that can provide information that can be useful in terms of employee insights. 

LinkedIn

Although many companies have an active LinkedIn Company page, it is usually intended for prospective employees to learn more about the company.

Encourage your employees to follow your Company page on LinkedIn, if appropriate. Share industry-specific information and other details about your business that will be of interest to both current and prospective employees.

This offers two benefits:

  • You can determine the company updates that received more frequent engagement.
  • You can review the Company feed to see other content that LinkedIn users have engaged with. If a topic is trending, you can leverage it either through trendjacking or other purposes.

Facebook

Have you noticed that when you shop for something online it seems to follow you for days afterward? For Father’s Day, I visited Amazon and a few other sites to look at charcoal grills. For the next two weeks, my Facebook feed enticed me with the grills I had looked at, along with similar options.

Marketers have been able to target content based on your behavior — sites you’ve visited, topics you’ve liked, etc. This feature continues to grow more and more sophisticated.

Although as “internal marketers,” we can’t get quite as much out of these insights as a consumer marketer might, we can leverage this functionality on Facebook to better understand our employees.

Facebook’s Audience Insights

Audience Insights can provide information on groups of users so you can get a better idea of the kind of content they find interesting. For example, with audience insights, you can see:

  • Demographic information, including trends by age and gender, relationship status and job roles
  • Lifestyle and interest information about your target audience

Also, less helpful, but available:

  • Purchase information including online purchase behavior and which categories they’re mostly likely to buy in
  • Location data

For more information on how to use Facebook’s Audience Insights, check out our article on Linkedin

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4. Conduct Pulse Surveys

Pulse surveys are quick “temperature” checks on a topic. You can deploy a number of pulse surveys without introducing survey fatigue. Using frequent short surveys can yield more actionable data. This is because you are focusing on a targeted question or issue, you’ll be better positioned to put the feedback to good use.

5. Get Social With Online Focus Groups

The best feedback is usually shared via conversation. It’s difficult and expensive to pull representative groups together for focus groups. The online version solves that problem – and is effective at capturing insights.

The beauty of online focus groups is:

  • Employees can participate at anytime they choose (within the timeframe of the survey).
  • The experience feels similar to social media commenting, or sites like Reddit where there is a conversation happening but not necessarily at the same time.

In order to gain valuable information, be sure your online focus group has active facilitation that encourages employees to stay on topic and share relevant information.

Get even more tips during our upcoming webinar!

5 Best Employee Communication Secrets

Learn how to successfully engage with your employees every single time!

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 Thursday, July 28 at 4 PM EST.

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Employee Activism: Creating a Culture of Employee Thought Leaders

If you’re responsible for communicating with employees, you have countless important messages to share with them on a daily basis. You can distribute posters. Send newsletters to employees’ homes. Post articles on the Intranet. Roll-out videos. Send emails.

With all of these methods, you’ll experience some measure of success.

Yet, even if the employee receives the message, you’ll have no guarantee that they will:

  • Understand the message itself
  • Prioritize the key points
  • Act on the message

Some people long for the days when you could distribute a message and employees did what the were supposed to do: promptly read the message and then take appropriate action. They did it because that’s what good employees do.

I don’t think those days ever existed.

It’s revisionist history that employees always happily absorbed messages and took action. YES, the way modern workers express their needs is much more straightforward — and to some, entitled — than in the past. However, the basic needs of today’s employees are not that different from previous generations. Employees want to:

  • Be heard
  • Understand what they need to do in order to be successful
  • Know expectations in advance

No matter the topic, ultimately, all employees want to know how “to win.”

How to Successfully Reach the Masses in 2016

A common message cascade we used in the past was from senior leadership to senior managers, to managers to supervisors and then employees. This method would offer little value today. No longer can the message be singularly controlled by people at the top because employees want to co-create. To be a part of the process.

In order to get their buy-in, we have to offer some opportunities for employees to participate in the process.

What or who are the most power employee influencers? Other employees.

As such, finding a way to hand employees the microphone and communicate alongside you will help increase the success of any message you share.

There are two ways that employees can participate in peer-to-peer communication:

  • Brand advocates — influence the public’s view on your company
  • Internal advocates — act as authority on corporate goals and internal programs for employees

Since my focus is employee communication and engagement, this article discusses the latter. These employee influencers can be called employee influencers, employee ambassadors and employee champions.

Why Employee Influence Works So Well

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, we have twice as much trust for “someone like me” as we do in leadership. Therein lies the power of peer-to-peer action, communication and influence.

In addition to higher trust from colleagues, employee influencers are strong communicators because they can:

  • Know their business/job role better than centralized communicators
  • Speak the same language as their peers
  • Provide an extension to centralized communication efforts by helping manage office, country or regional differences — including localizing and tailoring messages
  • Collect employee feedback and share it with decision-makers
  • Help provide more authentic messages
  • Observe and provide insight on who is resisting the change and why
  • Motivate employees

Good Practices for Launching Employee Ambassador Programs

1. Tap into employee groups that are already happening organically

Last year, I helped a global mass media and information company launch a highly successful employee ambassador program for a new global wellness program. The launch was particularly challenging because it was multinational with inherent existing programs, needs and budgets. Every location also engaged employees and communicated differently.

Using employee ambassadors for the program was the ideal approach to share the core messages around the world. We discovered that an effective strategy for finding employee ambassadors was to engage employees that were already acting as leaders in employee groups.

Their operations manager reported, “Our ERGs [employee resource groups] were organic and formalized from what employees had already assembled.”

If you find that a group of employees have created their own affinity group, you can tap into the group to identify employee champions. Here are some ideas to recruit from an organic group:

  • Ask for volunteers
  • Conduct a survey and ask the group members what their interests are. Then, determine how their interests can align with what you need to communicate.
  • Ask the entire group to participate in a special project to be the on-the-ground support for a campaign.
  • Have the group document their model so it can be repeated at other office locations or for other groups.

After determining how the group can be expanded, as you assist them in documenting their charter, add a role for members to act as employee champions.

Note: This method takes longer than conducting a survey or one of the other methods mentioned above. However, it will do a better job of enabling you to create an organization of champions that you can use repeatedly.

2. Get really specific on what you need

Determine the makeup of your employee ambassador program. Consider these questions:

  • How many employee ambassadors is ideal for your organization?

Consider who will be managing the group. If you do not have a dedicated resource to engage employee champions (see #3 below), you might want to start small and grow as you determine what’s most effective.

  • What are the segments of employee ambassadors and how many do you want from each segment?

Should they come from each office location? Region? Country?

Or, is selecting ambassadors based on job role or career level a better fit for your organization?

  • How can you ensure diversity of thought when selecting candidates? Consider:
    • Tenure with the company
    • Age/generation, gender, race
    • Life stage (working moms, recent college grad, etc)
    • Career level (interns, employees, supervisors, managers)
  • Do ambassadors need specific interests or a specialty in a certain area?
    • For example, a wellbeing program might want ambassadors who are attainable models of good health. An employee who rides his bike to work daily could be an ideal employee ambassador.
    • A software tool launch that will represent process changes would benefit most from employees who are early adopters and/or devout supports of technology (any kind. So yes, Apple fans count!)
  • How do you want to use the employe ambassadors?
    • Do you need to start an employee ambassador program that’s specific to your current communication need?
    • Or, would it be more beneficial to create a group that you can use on an ongoing basis for various purposes?

3. Inspire employee ambassadors

At the start of the program, you’ll probably have many eager volunteers. Be sure to have a plan in place to interact with them right away. There’s no better way to get the momentum going.

If you identify employee ambassadors, but then take weeks, or even a month to connect with them, don’t be surprised if they are no longer interested.

You should have an assignment ready for them to undertake immediately. Some examples (depending on your business need for selecting champions):

  • Ask them to watch a video where a project lead or other individual describes what they will be supporting and why
  • Offer a demo of a product
  • Provide a pulse survey that they can customize for their segment and gather feedback from their peers
  • Ask their opinion on something
  • Ask them to select a lieutenant (a great way to make sure each segment has a back-up person)
  • Invite them to a meeting or call

Shortly after engaging them in a task, invite them to a kickoff call where all employee ambassadors across segments are invited. On this call, discuss:

  • Roles and responsibilities
  • Immediate needs and actions
  • Facts about specific programs/initiatives you are asking them to support
  • Resources available to support them
  • Time commitment
  • How to communicate their participation to their managers
  • How to request budget

And, of course, plenty of time for questions and answers.

4. Support employee ambassadors

Many companies have created employee ambassador programs and then become disappointed with the results. An effective network of employee ambassadors requires consistent support. Remember, this is not a part of the employee’s job. It’s a commitment on top of their regular job.

Many employees gladly take on the role, but their involvement will fall off if they are not engaged on a regular basis.

Here are some ways to support your employee ambassadors:

  • Build a way for them to communicate with other employee ambassadors.
    • Enterprise social media is perfect for this — Slack, Yammer, Chatter, etc.
    • Provide a list of all the employee champions so they can reach out to each other.
    • Create a message board or group where they can interact.
  • Create a toolkit that reinforces the messages you shared during the kickoff calls.
  • Provide templated communication that you ask them to share
  • Give them an advance preview of all communication — it makes them feel like they are insiders which in turn makes them take the role more seriously.
  • Offer access to partnerships with internal resources:
    • HR and communication resources are common needs
    • Knowing who to go to for support and help will set them up for success
  • Give them talking points, emails, tweets. Whatever they need to communicate messages to employees. They should have the flexibility to use their own language, but it will be much easier to engage them if you make it easy
  • Hold a monthly meeting with all employee ambassadors. Plan to discuss:
    • What’s working — invite employee champions to share strategies they’ve used that worked well
    • What’s not working — invite employee champions to share their challenges
    • Updates and feedback from leadership
    • Goals to accomplish until the next meeting
    • Acknowledgement of superstars (see #5 below)

5. Recognize employee ambassadors

Try to make employees feel like it is a privilege to be involved as an employe ambassador. In addition to helping employees understand how important their participation is, also plan ways to acknowledge their role.

  • Create a badge — either physical, such as attached to their employee ID — or online, appearing in their profile
  • Create a certificate they can display at their desks
  • Send communication to their managers on how their participation is a benefit to the company. Even better, encourage the employee to include participation as one of their professional goals
  • Have leadership contact employee champions randomly and thank them for their involvement.
  • Share their accomplishments in employee communication vehicles
  • Hold a rewards program quarterly or yearly and recognize outstanding ambassadors.
  • Create leadership — or even a fun point system — among ambassadors.
  • Have a rewards program quarterly or yearly

Have you rolled out employee ambassadors in your organization? What tips and tricks can you share?

 

What Talia Jane’s Story Teaches Us About Employee Engagement

You may have heard about the blogger, Talia Jane who wrote an open letter to the CEO of her company, the San Francisco upstart, Yelp. In her letter, she shared her point of view on how she cannot sustain a lifestyle on the wages she’s being paid.

Clearly, Talia has some talent in social media because her post got immediate results:

  • She was fired the same day.
  • Her post started a firestorm of conversation, and a few hashtags (the most popular being #taliajane).

The buzz spread far and wide and here are just some of the topics her letter and the resulting conversation touched upon:

Entitlement — Millennial workers, of which Talia is a part, have an entitlement complex. Readers with this point of view opined that what she was struggling with is part of “paying your dues” and it’s entitled for her to think that she should not have to do so.  

Prevailing Argument: Talia should suck it up, get a roommate and/or a second job.

Corporate Greed — The fact that Talia could not earn a living wage with her full time job while she’s working for a successful company, and a millionaire CEO (to whom her letter is directed), were another common argument. Theorists cited that the middle class is disappearing and this company is able to thrive only by not paying their people a fair wage. 

Prevailing Argument: CEOs are overpaid and the wealth of companies isn’t trickling down to employees.

Minimum Wage — Though she has a college degree, Talia earns $12.25, which is the minimum wage in San Francisco, California where she is employed. Many responded to her post with outrage that something is really wrong if you have a full-time job and it isn’t enough to live on.

Prevailing Argument: The minimum wage should be a living wage.t

After reading the various points of view, I concluded that this issue is one that’s strongly tied to employee engagement. Talia Jane’s experience at her workplace and the messages and meaning she took from that experience are the common string running through her letter.

The Talia Jane Story Is About Employee Engagement

From an employee engagement lens, companies are struggling with employee morale and retention. Companies are looking for ways, not just to avoid a public burnout like this one, but to avoid retention issues and to improve employee productivity.

There is much wisdom regarding employee engagement in Talia’s story. Here are the most prominent lessons.

Employee Engagement Lesson #1: Get the right people in the right job.

“So, I picked the next best place: somewhere close to my dad, since we’ve never gotten to have much of a relationship and I like the weather up here. I found a job (I was hired the same day as my interview, in fact).

Coming out of college without much more than freelancing and tutoring under my belt, I felt it was fair that I start out working in the customer support section of Yelp/Eat24 before I’d be qualified to transfer to media.”

During the recruiting process and the hiring process, don’t only promote the features and benefits of working for your company. Promote the features of benefits of working for your company IN THE position they have applied for. While holding out hope that one day they’ll be able to ascend to the eighth floor can keep them motivated, you’ll have a disappointed employee in your hands sooner than you think.

Talia accepted the position, not because she was interested in it, but because it filled a few of her desires for a job. It was in the Bay area, near her father and it offered an opportunity to eventually move into a position that she was more interested in. That’s it. She really had no interest in the position.

Employee Engagement Lesson #2: Make sure employees understand the value of their benefits and non-cash compensation.

“Let’s talk about those benefits, though. They’re great. I’ve got vision, dental, the normal health insurance stuff — and as far as I can tell, I don’t have to pay for any of it! Except the copays. $20 to see a doctor or get an eye exam or see a therapist or get medication. Twenty bucks each is pretty neat, if spending twenty dollars didn’t determine whether or not you could afford to get to work the next week.”

Although she complained about her compensation, Talia mentioned that her company provided her with health care, free of charge except for a $20 copay for doctor’s visits. She is appreciative of the benefit but did not see its value to her.

Talia may not realize that her medical benefit is worth at least $400 a month just for coverage. And many plans require deductibles to be met and then a heftier payment than $20 for a doctor’s visit.

It’s not clear what other perks she enjoys other than health insurance and snacks, but add them all together and her total compensation is significantly higher than her hourly wage.

The cost of benefits should be transparent to employees. As a part of her offer letter, employees should learn the value of the benefit plans, programs and perks — both monetarily and in life impact, such as convenience.

The message about the value of benefits should be consistent and repeated often. Every week or month, Talia should have learned something new about how to get the most from her benefits. There may have been features of her benefit plans that offered her some solutions that she may not have been aware of. For example, if Yelp offered a transportation reimbursement program, she could have enrolled in that thereby lowering her taxable income and allowing her to pay her transportation costs with pre-tax funds.

Employee Engagement Lesson #3: Turnover impacts eevrrybody.

“…Do you know what the average retention rate of your lowest employees (like myself) are? Because I haven’t been here very long, but it seems like every week the faces change. Do you think it’s because the pay your company offers is designed to attract young people with no responsibilities…”

Based on Talia’s description, it sounds like her former employer might be experiencing a high turnover rate in the Customer Service department. It’s not unusual for Customer Service or call center departments to have a high turnover rate. It’s a difficult job, with high and constant demands. Employees are deskbound for hours upon hours. The work is also repetitive and after a while an employee might even feel like a robot. This is one of the factors that makes Customer Service a prime candidate for outsourcing, sometimes even overseas.

High turnover sends a message to the employees who stay behind. Even though they may not have moved on (yet), seeing a revolving door of other employees makes them feel dispensable as well. It leads to them not feeling value in themselves or think they hold a respected position. Talia also mentions:

“…Except on the weekends when the customer support team is working, because we’re what makes Eat24 24-hours, 7 days a week but the team who comes to stock up those snacks in the early hours during my shift are only there Mondays through Fridays, excluding holidays. They get holidays and weekends off! Can you imagine?)…”

It’s clear that not only does Talia feel like her contribution is not valued, this whole department is a wasteland as far as she’s concerned. High turnover can lead to that viewpoint. Talia was angry that her department was viewed as “second class” citizens. For example, not being able to enjoy snacks over the weekend because they are the only ones working.

Employee Engagement Lesson #4: Be really careful what you do with employee feedback.

“I did notice — and maybe this was just a fluke — that Yelp has stopped stocking up on those awful flavored coconut waters. Was that Mike’s suggestion? Because I did include, half-facetiously, in that email he and Patty so politely rejected that Yelp could save about $24,000 in two months if the company stopped restocking flavored coconut waters since no one drinks them”

Talia’s sarcasm couldn’t hide her bitterness at making a few suggestions that were not accepted. Employees will make many suggestions. Some of them can change the business, employee experience or customer experience for the better. And, some of them are impractical or difficult to execute. 

It’s always good to give employees the opportunity to provide feedback, and then acknowledge them when they do so. Then, tell them what you plan to do with their idea. If you can’t accept it, try to share why not.

I wonder, why did Talia submit a suggestion anyway? Did the company invite her to do so?

Keep in mind that when you invite feedback, employees often expect you to do something with the information they share. This is why when conducting employee engagement surveys, I always advise my clients to only ask questions about things they plan to address. Don’t ask employees for their opinion on something that is not going to change. Asking the question sets up the expectation.

Avoid asking for feedback that you don’t plan to act on.

Employee Engagement Lesson #5: Offer rewards, acknowledgement and incremental career opportunities.

“I was told I’d have to work in support for an entire year before I would be able to move to a different department. A whole year answering calls and talking to customers just for the hope that someday I’d be able to make memes and twitter jokes about food.”

Can you believe that it would take A WHOLE YEAR before Talia could move into another position?! For many of us, that sounds reasonable. For other, workers, especially eager, younger workers, it sounds like an eternity that they can’t possibly survive.

Talia is disappointed to learn that she has to stay in the Customer Service job for a year before being able to move into other positions, like one that would let her be responsible for writing witty tweets. It’s a reality. No longer can an employee wait a year for acknowledgement of accomplishments or for an opportunity to move to the next rung on the ladder.

Although this may seem new, think about the conversation around Performance Management for the last few decades. HR has emphasized that the performance conversation is not one that should happen once a year. It should happen all the time so the employee has a chance to grow, improve and be fully informed about what’s working and what’s not. It was a best practice for a while. Now it’s a must.

Frequent reviews, feedback and new opportunities are proven ways to improve retention and employee productivity.

“Do you know how many cash coupons I used to give out before I was properly trained? In one month, I gave out over $600 to customers for a variety of issues. Now, since getting more training, I’ve given out about $15 in the past three months because I’ve been able to de-escalate messed up situations using just my customer service skills. Do you think that’s coincidence?”

Talia mentions that she was so much better at customer service because she had learned how to handle situations. We can’t tell from the letter whether that was acknowledged by her manager. But, significant improvement, such as going from $600 average in freebies to $15 but having the same amount of satisfied customers could qualify for a promotion — in Talia’s mind.

Consider making your career ladder have more rungs so that employees always feel as if they are moving forward. Allow promotions to happen more than just once a year. And acknowledge employee growth as it happens.

Employee Engagement Lesson #6: Reward managers for their business results, including how they treat their people.

“Did I tell you about how I got stuck in the east bay because my credit card, which amazingly allows cash withdrawals, kept getting declined and I didn’t have enough money on my BART Clipper card to get to work? Did I tell you that my manager, with full concern and sympathy for my situation, suggested I just drive through FastTrak and get a $35 ticket for it that I could pay at a later time, just so I could get to work?”

This one is tough area because as a manager, I would have responded exactly like Talia’s manager. I would have thought: I’m not sure why you’re sharing your personal information, just do what you need to do to get to work.

I once had a new employee call in and say she couldn’t report to work because of a snowstorm. I was shocked that in her first week of work, she wouldn’t make the effort of getting on the Long Island Rail Road to come into the city for her new job. I made it to work. I developed an impression about this employee based on that early incident. I assumed that she wouldn’t be a hard worker. That she wouldn’t do everything it takes to get shit done.

Turns out, that couldn’t have been further from the truth and she was one of the hardest working and most eager to learn associates I’ve ever worked with. She was just a Long Island girl who didn’t plan to find a way into the City during a snowstorm! 

Look, as a manager, you have a lot of priorities. At the top of the list is doing what it takes to meet the goals you’ve been given. Then you have to take care of your employees, answer to your higher-ups, try to meet your personal goals and solve your own problems. Add to that an employee calling with a personal issue and it can feel like one thing too many.

Yet, people want to work where they feel seen, heard and appreciated. And they’ll do their best work in those environments as well. One way to do that is to hear them out and try to understand them.

It’s unclear to me what Talia expected her manager to do when she called and said she didn’t have the money for transportation to work (but again, I’m the bad manager who would have thought why are you telling me this?). Did she expect him to tell her to not come in? Did she want him to loan her money? It’s unclear, but at a minimum, she wanted to be heard. She wanted some compassion from her manager at that moment. More than just what she saw as an impractical suggestion that only focused on the business. 

Surveys show that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Emotional intelligence is now higher on the list of manager skills than it’s ever been. Managers need more support than ever, as well as an acknowledge that their job, when done well, requires a tremendous amount of people skills.

Employee Engagement Lesson #7: An unengaged employee will hold the company responsible for their own decisions.

“Because they taste like the bitter remorse of accepting a job that can’t pay a living wage and everyone kept falling over into the fetal position and hyperventilating about their life’s worth. It really cut into the productivity that all those new hires are so prolific at avoiding.”

Talia spends quite a bit of time talking about her various expenses — how she can barely afford her rent…how she eats rice for dinner every night..goes to bed hungry… can’t afford to get her car fixed.

As I’m reading, I feel compassion because I have been in the same position. Back in the 90s, at the beginning of my career, I had a full-time job and TWO part-time jobs. It was a hustle, but one I saw as worth it for forward momentum in my life – plus, I had student loans!

At the same time, I kept wondering where her problem-solving came in. Does she need the expense of a career and public transportation to work? Is there a way she can lower her housing cost? Is there a food co-op she could join to enjoy fresh, sustainable and shareable produce from nearby farms?

The letter wasn’t about solutions. It was about what the company was doing wrong. Everything was the company’s fault. Because she’s unhappy at work, all of her issues are caused by the company, her rent costs, car troubles, everything.

Is this rational? It is to Talia because she sees her low salary as the cause for all her problems.

Once an employee has become disgruntled, they become an irrational, negative force that can’t see past what makes them unhappy to move into problem-solving.

Was Yelp right to fire Talia?

Some people disagreed with Yelp firing Talia, I think it was a smart decision. The relationship between she and Yelp was beyond repair. I do think the situation shows that Yelp has some work to do to ensure that they aren’t fostering a culture and work environment that creates more employees like Talia.

As for Talia, I think she has a future in fundraising or sales. Her blog update, which announced that she had been fired, gave readers three ways they could contribute to her cause. Being willing to ask for the sale is the first step to getting it. Perhaps Talia has already stumbled into her future.