So like, what’s my Return on Involvement? – Part Four

January 22nd, 2015

The final part of our short blog series on millennial aware EVP project design.

Summary

  • Capturing millennial perception means effort – push ‘beyond the survey.’
  • Ensure your EVP project steering committee has millennial representation
  • We provide a sample stimulus component for your research phase

 

To recap: part one of this series looked at the ‘lot’ of the millennial and how peers closely associate occupation choices to personal values. Part Two broached cited ‘millennial traits’, and potential project risks that can occur without due research consideration. Part Three identified ways to channel millennial contribution into an EVP project.

So to wrap up the series we’ll investigate something that has worked. The example I am posting sits within the initiation and research phase according to eBrands EVP project methodology (see diagram).

eBs_3Phase_Cycle_72ppi_r2
A cornerstone of eBrands’ difference as an employer brand agency is its ability to uncover valuable insights that lay buried within an organisation. To do this, we place heavy emphasis on interactive information gathering to supplement any quantitative data. In this first phase, much of our effort focuses on project design, project announcement and the creation of a trusting engagement. Research activities are much more effective when participants gain a real understanding of both their purpose and the opportunity that comes with it. This fits squarely into the millennial affinity for transparency.

As a result, we created the research component Empower your Voice. The goal of the component is enabling research participants to learn about the need for – and the opportunity that comes with – EVP thinking.

The material outcome (a video/videos in this instance) often surprises, with the result of uncovering. It is also fun.

Empower your Voice

We build teams of research participants (typically six). They are divided into recent workforce entrants (millennial & senior, less than one year) and ‘tenured incumbents’ (depending on the talent spread). Their goal is to create structured video material that gets them talking about their employer.

The teams receive a GoPro camera, a microphone, a set of encouraging parameters and a complete day’s worth of time. The resulting footage and the team’s briefing guidelines are then given to an independent editor to construct a video at the completion of the filming day.

The teams are encouraged to be as creative and lateral as possible; although their brief is to answer a particular question. We’ve used a range of different questions that include different tasks; from describing the soul of the employer, to imagining what ultimate success for the employer looks like, or to roleplay a survival guide.

One concept question we’ve found very successful during the research phase:

  1. We’ve guaranteed you three minutes of the CEO’s time and he’s going to spend it… watching the video you are about to make – it’s a golden opportunity – what do you want to communicate?

 

The Result

I am amazed by the executions we receive. Material outcomes vary from reportage style crowdsourced videos, monologues, talent appeals, presentation of anonymous banners & diagrams with a voiceover, and virtual question and answer sessions. The net effect can be funny or serious, but always thought provoking, and they always speak to real issues.

P.S. We’ve always found the CEO to be a willing viewer.

Millennials with their skills are incredibly valuable assets in creating this type of dialogue and short-form content, which in turn garnishes EVP research with passion points. (eBrands consider the uncovering of passion points one of the major factors of a successful research phase – and we’ll talk further about this in future blogs.)

This exercise will also create an internal talent pool for the EVP project director – either to help populate the committee for the EVP/employer brand implementation phase with Millennial representation; or for simply sourcing creative talent. Committee members get the opportunity to portray the EVP accurately, and often receive a new experience by working with a creative agency.

In the project’s I was lucky enough to run, I have found millennials are typically an invaluable source of energy. Their needs for openness and consensus when blended with appreciation of strategy and patience create very effective outcomes, given the right stimulus.

 

Thanks for reading this series!

 

The Millennial Series

Comments? Thoughts?