Worldwide, nearly 800,000 people (about half the population of Idaho) die from suicide each year. For instance, in 2020 alone, there were 1.2 million attempts globally. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), suicide is the 12th leading cause of death overall in America. 

To help raise awareness and open up the conversation, the month of September is recognized as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.  

Let’s Work Together to Break Past the Stigma

We can all help shed some light on suicide prevention. That’s why we must continue working to break past the stigma surrounding mental health issues and to address these issues head on. Most importantly, talking about it increases our awareness as a community and brings this widespread issue into the public consciousness. 

When you change the way you think, that is what changes the world. On a broader level, it is about learning the causes of suicide, the warning signs that someone you know may be experiencing suicidal thoughts, and key support or strategies you can offer someone who may be at risk. 

Be a Leader in the Suicide Prevention Conversation

Each suicidal death is a public health concern. It not only has a profound impact on those around them—family, friends, and colleagues—it impacts society at large. 

The goal is to continue to raise awareness about suicide prevention, reduce the stigma around suicide, and encourage well-informed action. Everyone can play a role.

Our actions, no matter how big or small, can provide hope to those who are struggling and feel alone. 

The “Together for Mental Health” Campaign

Throughout September, NAMI will be highlighting the “Together for Mental Health” campaign. The Campaign encourages people to come together and unite to advocate for better mental health care, including an effective crisis response system. NAMI is an invaluable resource when it comes to gaining access to mental health and crisis resources.  

Ultimately, NAMI wants any person experiencing suicidal thoughts or behaviors to have a number to call and a system to turn to for support. Together, we can advocate for better access to mental health care and build awareness surrounding how to respond in a crisis. 

As part of Execs In The Know’s Leading with Impact initiative, we are challenging our CX community to take a stance and become a stigma-free leader, co-worker, friend, and family member. 

Learn more about our Leading with Impact campaign or our stigma-free initiative and start taking action today. 

You can download the “Navigating a Mental Health Crisis: A NAMI Resource Guide for Those Experiencing a Mental Health Emergency” here. This guide outlines what can contribute to a crisis, warning signs that a crisis is emerging, strategies to help de-escalate a crisis, available resources, and so much more.  

Read previously published Execs In The Know articles on mental health:  

Mental Health in CX: A Discussion with NAMI 

Keeping Your Workforce Mentally Healthy 

What Is NAMI? 

NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. The organization has more than 600 NAMI Affiliates across the country along with 49 NAMI State Organizations and national NAMI headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. NAMI educates by providing programs in thousands of communities across the United States and advocates to shape national public policy. 

The post September Is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month appeared first on Execs In The Know.

While the labor shortage has affected every industry, one role that has fared relatively well during the labor shortage is that of the work-from-home (WFH) customer service agent. WFH contact center roles are nothing new, but the pandemic contributed to many organizations shifting more of their workers to this construct by necessity. Many Execs In The Know community members were early leaders in identifying barriers to successfully hiring for these roles. Within that framework, the most successful organizations were those that started thinking differently about the ways they recruit and retain top talent.

Perfecting the work-at-home contact center model

According to Gartner research, 70% of customer service and support agents prefer to work at home. That same research shows that these employees wish to continue working from home in some capacity once the pandemic is long over. This is in line with surveyed service leaders who believe that WFH is decidedly here to stay. In fact, 81% of service leaders believe that 30-50% of their workforce will primarily be WFH in 2023.

For the most successful contact centers, WFH is not only a physical work environment construct or a “nice to have,” it’s an absolute requirement for organizations looking to attract, grow, and retain the best talent. In fact, this type of work gives organizations real power to make an impact on employee satisfaction, attrition levels, and career advancement for associates, while also achieving the contact center’s other ultimate goal of providing superior customer service.

As we think about the future of WFH and how organizations can be most effective, there is no better place to insert the decades-old wisdom of focusing on people, process, and technology — all of which will be pivotal for any organization that wants to survive in this experience-dependent world.

What that means in practice is not only taking care of your people with proper onboarding, training, and ongoing support, but also enabling them with the most effective processes and technology to succeed. Let’s briefly break down each of the three core elements: 

1. Engaging employees

A blended model of telework and in-office work expands an organization’s labor pool globally. But to engage the best talent, organizations also must reimagine their workforce and workplace models. This requires digitization of core functions and processes, as well as a focus on employee care throughout the talent lifecycle, including:

• Sourcing and recruiting: Savvy organizations are using technology to target both passive and active candidates — such as implementing RPA and AI-enabled administrative processes to increase the hiring speed of quality candidates and create more personalized interactions. They’re embracing social media and a variety of recruitment channels to uncover and engage with a diverse pool of candidates and promote their employer’s value propositions.
• Onboarding: Particularly during an employee’s first 90 days, focused training is crucial to ensuring a smooth and productive experience. In a WFH model, tools such as workflow checklists, interactive online experiences, and video content are particularly important to increasing employee engagement.
• Ongoing training: It’s important for contact center agents to have access to training and helpful information embedded in the work they do. Leveraging tools such as Walk Me, and augmented and virtual reality helps bring these interactive experiences to life. At Conduent, our Learning Services team is an exclusive partner of Apply Synergies, the founder of the 5 moments of need It’s an approach that ensures the right tools are available at every stage of the employee journey and that the various stages of learning and performance most effectively support employees’ needs.
• Supporting health and wellness: Organizations can support the wellbeing of their WFH associates through live and AI-enabled health navigation and advocacy. This includes things like Employee Assistance Plans, 1-to-1 health advocates, online wellness tools, educational webinars, and AI-based symptom tracking and triage tools. 

2. Building the right processes

For today’s call centers, another key to success for both WFH and brick-and-mortar roles is making the connection between employee experience and customer experience, and then employing the tools, methodologies, and cultural elements that will ultimately drive success. In our experience, that equates to taking a “human-centered” approach to contact center design and operation.

Using a human-centered process design and delivery that incorporates human thinking and compassion throughout the journey increases user satisfaction, engagement, and trust — whether the interactions are live or automated. Human-centered design enables organizations to clarify or reframe the real issues at hand, and it puts the human — who traditionally has been at the endpoint of a transaction — first. Organizations that pay attention to design and the way consumers interact with their products and services earn loyalty and see their respect for human needs reflected in the bottom line.

All this may sound academic, but practically speaking — there are lots of ways to measure the impact of human-centricity, both internally and externally. At Conduent, we use analytics and data insights as part of the equation, including leveraging sensitivity analysis to boost learning among our own customer service agents.  

3. Adopting the right technologies
   

Having the right technology infrastructure in place is fundamental to the successful contact center. But in a WFH model, in particular, technology requirements are often different and require a more strategic approach to implementation. Organizations with a mindset of continuous innovation and improvement are in the best possible position to build the most effective WAH infrastructure for both customer service delivery and employee satisfaction and success.

During the pandemic, Conduent increased its use of analytics (including sentiment analysis) to evaluate customer satisfaction (CSAT) drivers and opportunities to reduce customer complaints. Through that process, we were able to identify 35% more agents in need of additional on-the-job training. Ninety-four percent of those identified were recommended to receive soft skills coaching, which allowed us to upskill our staff and ensure they were applying the right levels of empathy and compassion to live interactions during this critical time. This strategic use of analytics has helped to elevate our contact center operations in two important ways:

1. Optimized agent performance: AI-based call analytics paired with natural language processing provides valuable insights on agent and call-level metrics, helping to evaluate markers such as over talk, silence, call length, and caller sentiment.
2. Increased ability to anticipate and resolve customer issues: Using analytics to categorize critical situations, we’re now better able to proactively plan automated workflows that route inquiries to the appropriate person or specialized team.

For WAH operations to be successful, organizations must also keep a keen eye on mitigating risks such as fraud risk, security risk, and risks to employee safety. Employing a balance of cloud vs. enterprise infrastructure is one of the best steps you can take to minimize security risks. At Conduent, we’re also using sophisticated speech and language detection tools that diagnose sentiment analysis and help reduce the risk of fraud.

Successful organizations have also built or implemented various custom smartphone applications to help ensure that employees stay healthy — whether they’re WFH, in the office, or in a hybrid model. At Conduent, we used our proprietary virtual assistant technology to develop a custom return to workplace app that associates used each day to assess and self-report their own fitness to work. Data from our custom application helped us keep track of thousands of employees daily from our various locations, with data readily accessible to managers via our integrated HR system. The data could also be used for contact tracing.

Keeping the momentum going
Work at home is a powerful concept that experts predict will continue in much greater frequency than before the pandemic. More of our own clients have embraced this model and the opportunities it provides for enhanced employee satisfaction, flexible and efficient service constructs, and reduced costs.

Though WFH is not a new concept in the contact center space, the sudden shift to WFH during the pandemic gave many in the industry the opportunity to evaluate the people, processes, and technologies they have in place, and make strategic changes that will carry them forward. To keep the momentum going, organizations must retain that same agile mindset that was invigorated during the pandemic, and build partnerships that allow them to grow and flex as the WFH landscape continues to evolve.

Statistics used in charts are from:
Global Workplace Analytics. Global Work-from-Home Experience Survey. April 2020.
Airtasker. Survey on Benefits of Working from Home. March 2020.

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Furthermore, if you are a CX practitioner at a corporate brand, consider joining the conversation on Know It All (KIA) online community. Crowdsource and connect with your CX peers in a collaborative, non-competitive environment — a totally free service from Execs In The Know.

The post How Contact Centers Can Thrive by Doing Work From Home Right appeared first on Execs In The Know.

In this article, you will find five common feelings leading to stress for many agents, and suggestions for addressing these for your staff.

I feel isolated, disconnected, and unheard.

Working from home has been positive for some agents and difficult for others. Coupled with a pandemic that forced people to self-isolate, it is no surprise that this has become a common stressor. This can also lead to an even greater disconnect between agents, their peers, their managers, and senior leadership. Customer experience (CX) leaders also need to remember that agents have a unique perspective because they talk to customers every day. This gives them valuable insights and ideas that do not always see the light of day. Regardless of whether employees are in a contact center or are working from home, it is important to create a cadence of scheduled activities and agent feedback mechanisms to reduce the feeling of isolation and drive more engagement. These can include:

• Consistent and frequent one-on-one check-ins: This is different from formal performance discussions, but is instead a time to talk with agents, assess how they are doing, listen to any challenges they are having, and/or hear their ideas. This should be an informal setting that is non-threatening to the agents so they feel comfortable opening up to their supervisors.
• “Fun” activities, wellness opportunities, and interest groups: Fun activities could be with their own teams, or cross-functional teams, but the goal is to bring people together in a way that has nothing to do with work. Examples might include online gaming sessions, virtual games, monthly online lunches, and book/music/movie clubs. Additionally, many companies are now providing ongoing and structured opportunities for employees to participate in virtual (or in-person) exercise and wellness activities such as yoga, meditation, or group walk/runs.
• Employee satisfaction surveys, focus groups, and anonymous feedback: Most companies now have employee satisfaction surveys. Those who excel post the results, analyze the data, implement action plans, and communicate progress to those plans. Focus groups are another means to gather agent feedback. Surveys will give you valuable data, but nothing can replace a good conversation. These should be structured, ongoing, and paired with a communication plan. Providing the ability for agents to submit anonymous suggestions and questions also goes a long way in removing any fear agents may have about voicing concerns. However, leadership must ensure they have processes in place to respond to all submissions, track them, and do something with them.

I fear my job is at risk.

It has been an unsettling year for everyone, creating uncertainty about job security. It is not possible to guarantee staff that their job is safe, especially given the events over the last year, but leaders are able to minimize the angst through:

• Transparent and consistent communication: You may not be able to disclose everything, but the more transparent you can be as a leader, the less stress your staff will feel. It is always important for agents to hear from their leaders because in the absence of communication, people will create worst case scenarios in their own minds, which is often worse than reality. Both monthly (or quarterly) “town halls” with senior leaders and weekly meetings with direct managers are key.
• Genuine open-door policies: Create a culture and environment that encourages staff to ask questions and voice their concerns. This requires all levels of management to adopt genuine open-door policies, even if you need to set aside certain hours that are available for just that. This can even be done remotely by way of opening a web meeting during certain hours or allowing staff to schedule on your calendar during established hours.
• Training and development: One of the best ways to alleviate concerns about job security is ongoing training and development. Again, there are no guarantees of job security, but by creating career paths, development plans, and working with staff to further their skills, agents will gain confidence that they are valued and the company is still invested in them, regardless of what the future may hold.

I get “yelled at” all day from unhappy customers.

There is no question that agents have a difficult job. Yes, it can be satisfying to solve customers’ issues, but let’s face it – most of the time customers are not contacting an agent because things have gone well. This can be very taxing to agents and the best ways to help them navigate through this is:

• Training and coaching: Help agents learn the skills and utilize their resources to de-escalate difficult customer situations and resolve issues effectively. Agents will of course receive training on tools and processes as part of new hire training, but there is always something to learn to make the job a little easier. Ongoing monitoring and coaching are of course important, but there are other creative ways to help them develop these skills such as peer coaching, brainstorming sessions, and case studies of similar situations and how they were resolved.
• Escalation support: There are of course times that agents will not be able to handle a challenging customer. They need to know that they have support, either from their direct manager or an escalation team. In a physical center, this is easier since they can put the customer on hold and ask a peer or leader, but remote workers may face more challenges. So, ensure you have instant messaging queues or some ability to reach someone should escalation be necessary. In short, ensure they do not feel alone should they need support.
• Rewards and recognition: Responding to unhappy customers all day every day is taxing and can often feel like a thankless job. Whether agents are in center or working from home, it is more important than ever to implement structured programs to consistently shine a light on high performance. Most companies have performance-based approaches which are, of course, effective. But it is important to go beyond this as well, such as having peer-based nominations and spontaneous recognition when a “great customer experience” is observed. Company-wide awards programs in which leaders from departments nominate employees based on actions aligned with company values also provide exposure for staff and helps recognized individuals feel more connected to the organization as a whole.

I do not always receive updated information, or I get so much information I cannot keep up.

The amount of information agents receive on any given day can be daunting. And they are expected to receive, absorb, remember, and apply it — all while caring for customers. Sometimes they do not even receive needed information for various reasons. Leaders can and should look closely at their communication process and consider:

• A central repository of changes/updates: This could require a technology and infrastructure investment, but the best-case scenario is a central repository of updates and communication for agents. This puts the responsibility on them to check it, but also ensures everyone has access to the same information at the same time.
• Electronic receipt/tracking: Additionally, it is becoming more important to have the ability to track information flow, ensuring each agent has received, accessed, and confirmed their understanding of important updates. A central repository would certainly make this easier but there are less sophisticated ways to do this as well. The updates could be categorized and triaged based on level of importance/complexity and that would trigger the type of receipt or confirmation required.
• Structured cadence and daily huddles: Regardless of where or how the information is provided, the more structure the better. In other words, critical updates are sent on Mondays only from specific people (with exceptions). The results are agents know when to look for key updates and from whom. Other types of updates could be shared in daily huddles with direct managers, versus sending emails. There are several ways to do this, but the key is to simplify and put a structure around it that is easier for agents to digest.

I work from home, but I am finding it difficult to balance work with my personal situation.

Employees who will continue to work from home also have children and personal situations they are balancing. While leaders have businesses to run, scheduling has been a source of stress for many agents. Leading companies have implemented more flexible and creative scheduling practices such as:

• Split shifts: For example, you might allow agents to work for four hours early in the day and four hours later in the day. This can be a benefit to agents but also to the organization depending on customer transaction arrival patterns and volume.
• Longer shifts over fewer days: Some companies are taking volunteers who would like to work a shorter week but longer hours. For example, 10-hour shifts over a four-day period might be an option. Again, depending on personal situations this allows agents some flexibility while providing the coverage needed by the organization.
• More (but shorter) breaks: Let’s face it. Many of us have worked from home all or most of the last year. It is challenging to only have two 15-minute breaks during an eight-hour shift, especially given the distractions common at home. Offering more breaks throughout the day that are shorter in duration provides some relief to agents. If workforce management plans for this, it should not impact service levels.

In summary, a lot of anxiety and stress has built up over the last year and it should not go unnoticed. Leaders can alleviate these stressors in many ways, including the ideas presented in this blog post. Additionally, many organizations have expanded the resources available to their employees such as mental health resources, financial services assistance, and legal representation. Most importantly, all leaders need to be aware of any challenges facing agents and take action to help minimize them. Doing so is not only the right thing to do for employees, but will also lead to better customer experiences and greater company success.

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Among the many CX trending topics we will be talking about and creating awareness for Mental Health at Customer Response Summit – September 15-17, 2021.

The post Making Agent Mental Health a Priority: Five Agent Stressors and How to Address Them appeared first on Execs In The Know.

The pandemic crisis forever changed the way we live and work. Our own personal and professional experiences leave no doubt that the societal impact of Covid-19 heightened anxieties. Our early research showed consumer concerns more than doubled within weeks, from 16% feeling highly anxious at the onset, to 39% just a month later.

Companies who provided customers with peace of mind alongside their products and services are now emerging well-positioned to retain and grow their customer bases. There is a clear relationship between compassion and customer experience: companies who were bold in their strategies to help customers saw a 4- to 6-point lift in Net Promoter® scores.

Adjusting to Our New Reality

Now, on the cusp of our new reality, we are faced with another set of unique challenges. How can companies appeal to customers’ altered attitudes, behaviors, and expectations as they enter the next phase of change while simultaneously helping employees re-enter their work environment differently? Employees are key to delivering compassion in customer experiences. How can we support employees who are also trying to adapt to post-pandemic life?

Accomplishing this demands fresh ideas, new support models, and different ways to embody empathy. The key to successfully emerging from this pandemic lies in the hands of employees, so turning inward and focusing on them will result in better customer experiences in the long run.  With the world slowly opening back up, employees and their children are going back to offices and schools (or adapting to working and learning remotely for the long term). People will begin gathering in groups and traveling again. What new challenges will your employees face as a result? Where are their attitudes, behaviors and expectations continuing to evolve? How can we acknowledge employees’ work and personal challenges, and create an environment where they can feel and perform their best?

Employee Response to Change

The Kϋbler-Ross Change Curve is a model that illustrates how employees typically process big changes in their work environment. In the first half of the curve, employees are struggling to understand and come to terms with these changes – represented by the Kubler-Ross stage of Depression.

Right now, most employees are likely between Depression and Acceptance. They move into the Acceptance phase when they start learning to adapt to those challenges, finding ways to work within their “new normal.” Over the past year, employees adjusted to challenges like quarantine, illness, lack of interpersonal interaction, changes in family finances and so on. Acceptance is a pivotal milestone for employees, their experience at work, and their ability to help you innovate.

Work environments continue to evolve, bringing new challenges to which employees must adapt. While some people are looking forward to going back to the office, others might be afraid to return to a workplace where people are physically closer together. Those who were isolated may crave in-person interaction. Parents will need to support children returning to school or childcare. It might be difficult for some employees to get back to a set routine and the structure of office work. Alternatively, some who are eager to work in an office again might find they’ll be working from home permanently. All these concerns provide executives with opportunities for innovation.

How do you tap into this opportunity? Try this short and achievable four-point plan.

1. Understand employee emotions.

Understanding and looking after your employees’ needs and concerns will ultimately lead to better customer experiences. Employee research, such as the Discrete Emotions Questionnaire (DEQ), quantifies your teams’ emotions and challenges, and will help you determine when the time is right to leverage your employees for CX innovation. The DEQ emotions can be aligned to the Kϋbler-Ross Change Curve, giving leadership insight into how employees are moving through the stages of change and when they are on the verge of Acceptance—the optimal stage for sourcing ideas.

2. Remove barriers to basic tasks.

Beyond quantifying emotions, research will help you uncover the challenges they are facing when doing their work. Asking employees to support both your customers and contribute to CX innovation before you’ve cared for their basic work challenges will result in increased frustration and a longer period of time until the Acceptance stage is reached.

Research estimates that 50% of the workforce will be remote by 2024, and that 74% of CFOs plan to shift at least 5% of their on-site employees to working from home permanently. Having the proper technology is especially important for employees who are returning to the workforce, but not to the office. For example, VPN connectivity, communication channels, and changes to physical workspaces are the most common roadblocks to effective remote work.

These roadblocks vary dramatically from one company to the next, based on industry and infrastructure. Identifying the immediate barriers, then removing them, is an important step towards better serving your employees and preparing them to support CX innovation. Once these hurdles are eliminated, teammates are well-equipped to contribute to the CX improvement mission.

3. Give employees a new sense of purpose.

Movement along the Kϋbler-Ross Change Curve is impossible without energy. To accelerate the shift through the emotions towards Acceptance, employees must be motivated. But motivation in constantly changing times can be easy to lose—especially as it pertains to work. During the past year, as employees managed work and home tasks simultaneously, their priorities may have shifted.

How do you keep motivation high? As the pandemic crisis heightened, we talked to team members who found it easy to stay motivated, and learned their biggest motivator was having a renewed sense of purpose and understanding the critical impact of their work. They’ve witnessed successes amidst the trials and found them to be inspiring. When leaders share the highlights and wins, it strengthens motivation among all employees. Rekindling fires in the hearts of a team drives engagement in return.

4. Embrace ideas and creativity systematically.

Once your employees’ emotions are aligned to the Acceptance phase, you’ve removed roadblocks they commonly encounter, and communicated a new sense of purpose throughout the team, it’s time to harness all of the newfound energy to fuel positive change and innovation. Interacting with customers – who are also adjusting to their own “new reality” – should lead to learnings and lessons. Thoughts on how to improve their situations will surface. Employees, with their refreshed outlook, will feel inspired to share ideas.

It’s important, though, to capture these creative suggestions in a systematic way for swift action to be taken. Without some parameters in place, leadership will end up spending more time sorting through and making sense of ideas instead of enabling process improvements.

In addition to employee surveys, companies should establish an employee elevations program. This allows employees to submit innovative ideas on an ongoing basis, whenever they come to mind. An elevations case management system will bring concepts to fruition, and further motivate teammates to contribute ideas.

Albert Einstein famously said, “In the midst of every great crisis lies great opportunity.” We’ve taken this opportunity to learn a great deal about understanding and meeting employee needs. We’ve tested and proven the best ways to ensure they deliver great customer experiences, even under extraordinary circumstances.

Although the pandemic crisis is, we hope, nearing its long-awaited end, new challenges lie ahead and the time for innovation continues. Remember that your employees hold the keys to a successful transition – and you can count on them to help.

Guest post, written by: Ellie Dubbs, Product Strategist VOC Solutions, Concentrix VOC

To learn more about ways to build a high-performing customer-centric culture, register for Execs In The Know’s Customer Response Summit, and watch the Concentrix-led executive panel session, Customer Feedback: 4 Fresh Practices for Unlocking Employee Potential, on Tuesday, April 27 at 9:15-AM – 10:00 AM PDT or 12:15 PM – 1:00 PM EDT. To attend live or watch on-demand, please register. 

Concentrix VOC is an industry-leading provider of customer and employee feedback software and solutions. Contact us at: voc@concentrix.com | 1-800-747-0583

The post CX Leaders: You’re on the Precipice of Innovation appeared first on Execs In The Know.

The corporate social responsibility stories that make headlines are large-scale, organization-wide efforts:

– Google plans to give $1 billion in grants and 1 million employee volunteer hours in the next five years.

– IBM’s travel program sends their best employees to developing nations to use their talents on pro-bono assignments.

– Patagonia’s Action Works initiative supports grassroots environmental activism by pairing individual volunteers with non-profits in their communities.

– Microsoft gave non-profits $1.2 billion in services and software last year.

Because of their scale, these corporate programs have a deep and obvious impact on the planet. But organizations can have a staggering effect on a smaller scale, too—just one person and 20 computers were enough to transform the future of a town in Africa.

The Power of Individuals—And Community

A chance meeting through a mutual friend introduced Execs In The Know co-founders Chad and Susan McDaniel to Yembe Nfor, a young man from Cameroon with a vision for bringing technology to his country. His story inspired them so much, they asked him to share his message with their children.

He spent hours with the family, detailing his vision for a space where people in his city could access the internet. The kids were moved to help in any way they could, as were their parents. Chad and Susan turned to the EITK community to see if they could obtain the resources he needed, gathering support by sharing Yembe’s tireless individual endeavors.

Yembe’s Story

Yembe has always had high expectations for himself. “My name… means ‘Behold Wonders,’ and one of the biggest goals of my life has been finding the wonders my grandparents and their grandparents before them were looking at when they thought that name up,” he said.

His home, Cameroon, is one of the most politically and economically stable Sub-Saharan African countries. However, it lags behind the developed world in many respects—Yembe was 19 years old the first time he stepped into an elevator. Economic development in Cameroon is slow, in part because of a lack of access to technology. Just 18% of its 24 million citizens have access to the internet, and even fewer own a personal computer.

Without technological resources, young people in Yembe’s country—and more than 60% of Cameroonians are under the age of 25—struggle to get the education they need to provide skilled labor to employers and better their lives. Without that education, without those resources, Cameroon’s ability to keep up with other leading nations of the world community is inhibited.

Yembe has worked very hard to change the trajectory of Cameroon’s future, and his efforts have made an impact. In 2017, he was awarded a Mandela Washington Fellowship, which brings promising leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa to the US to study at a college or university. After their education ends, Fellows like Yembe return to their home countries and receive continued professional development support.

Making Yembe’s Vision Reality

While in the US, he gave presentations on the challenges people in his country face. In these presentations, he posed this question: what if people in Africa had the same opportunities as people in the developed world? He asked listeners to “imagine providing a space where young people with a passion can gain access to a computer and internet through which they can learn, develop skills, and use them to better their community.”

His vision for these Digital Spaces inspired Chad and Susan, and they started exploring the EITK community for a corporate partner that could bring his ideas to life. They shared his story with Aileen Allkins, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Customer Service & Support. Aileen reached out to her network and contacted Tek Experts, which uses an expert workforce to provide business and IT outsourcing services. The company pledged their support: Tek Experts would donate 20 laptops to Yembe’s Digital Spaces project. In addition, Susan would bring her expertise to Digital Spaces as a board member.

The Difference One Person’s Determination Can Make

Though Yembe’s mission was one big step closer to being fulfilled, the reality of Cameroon’s political landscape soon intruded. First, the government turned off the internet for several weeks because of political unrest, delaying important conversations. He created a non-profit, then had to re-submit the paperwork.

After working through those obstacles, the laptops were shipped and arrived in Cameroon. One last stumbling block appeared: custom duties of $200 per laptop had to be paid before the computers would be released. After more than a week of negotiating, Yembe brought the duties down to $1,000 and finally Digital Spaces had its first pieces of equipment.

The struggle to get just 20 computers illustrates the barriers he faces in his quest to provide access. Yet he remains dedicated to his goals, which extend far beyond Cameroon’s borders. His vision for Africans is ambitious, but he has created a roadmap for getting there.

“Now it’s become clear what those wonders my grandparents were looking at are,” Yembe said. “They’re the possibilities that we can unlock, if we give digital opportunities to our young people.”

Corporations Can Change The World, One Project at a Time

The most successful CSR programs are inextricably linked to organizations’ core values. “Tek Experts built its business on offering exceptional career and development opportunities to our employees around the world and when we heard Yembe’s story, we really wanted to help,” Raymond Murray, Global Marketing Director, said.

This story proves our networks are a vital resource for our social responsibility efforts. From Chad and Susan, the story traveled to Aileen and then on to Raymond. At every step of the way, Yembe’s inspiring story moved people to action.

“Yembe’s tireless devotion to providing people with opportunities to better themselves, to realize their potential and to achieve more, is what we’re all about. So when EITK/Microsoft came to us to see if we could help we jumped at the chance,” Raymond said. “It’s people like Yembe that can really make a difference in the world and we’re proud that we could do something, no matter how small, to be part of his amazing endeavor.”

From assisting individuals like Yembe with their goals, to multi-million dollar charity projects, corporations can do good in many ways, large and small. The best organizations will work on unlocking possibilities, not chasing profits.

How You Can Help

If Yembe’s story galvanized you into action, reach out to us at info@execsintheknow.com. We’d love to hear the stories that inspire you—and leverage our community to help—or discuss how you can give to the Digital Spaces project.

The post Corporate Social Responsibility in Action appeared first on Execs In The Know.

Guest Blog by Justin Gauvin, Executive Director of Verego

 Part 3 of 4 of Blog series from Verego

Who is the Aspirational Consumer?

The voice of the customer is transforming, and the resounding call from the “Aspirational Consumer” is here to stay. No longer can marketer’s think of the customer segment that wants to “do the right thing” tree-huggers because “doing the right thing” is now becoming the “cool thing to do.” The rise of this customer segment is redefining consumerism by blending style, status, and sustainability. The identity of the Aspirational Consumer is defined by their infatuation with shopping, their commitment for responsible consumption, and their loyalty to brands that work in the best interest of society. The reason this brand-hugging consumer segment is gaining the attention of marketers is because Aspirationals are some of the most materialistic consumers, yet at the same time are the most driven to purchase products that connect to their personal aspirations of creating a brighter future for society and future generations.
There is a profound opportunity for consumer brands to appeal to Aspirational Consumers, because market studies have estimated this group to make up over 1/3 of today’s market and have highlighted the fact that Aspirationals are some of the most brand loyal customers possible. Similar to how the car was once an external expression of your inner-self; aspirational consumers are expressing their interval values to the world through the brands they loyally love and frequently purchase. The companies that understand this opportunity the most are focused on creating a meaningful and authentic purpose for their companies that expands the customer experience to involve the customer in the collective achievement of the brand’s higher-purpose.

Aspirational Consumers – Socially Responsible Materialists

Source: The Aspirational Consumer Index Report- Globescan

Aspirational Consumers want to embrace brands creating a brighter future

Brands that have an aim to make a brighter future are winning the hearts of customers, and it’s hard to find a brand aiming to win over the hearts of socially minded customer’s more than Unilever. Embracing Unilever’s goals of social responsibility, the multinational company has launched Unilever’s Project Sunlight with the goal of creating a brighter future. Project Sunlight embodies Unilever’s purpose of building a #brightfuture for the world by creating an inspirationally engaging online and offline community where Unilever’s brand-hugging consumers can connect and be a part of the brand’s higher purpose.

The Future of the Customer Experience

The companies that are getting customers to love their brands the most are utilizing people’s natural inclination to reach towards being a part of something bigger than themselves, thus enabling the customer to be more engaged, inspired, connected, and proud while collectively achieving the brand’s higher-purpose during their customer experience. This new insight is expanding marketer’s view of what the customer experience is really all about, much more than customer service, pleasant store atmospheres, quality products, and user-friendly software, it is about meaningfully connecting with the values and ideals of the consumer. The brand’s higher-purpose is now an integral part of the process for designing the customer experience, and for up to 1/3 of the market, it is one of the only ways to get consumers to truly love your brand in today’s ever-increasing competitive environment.
When getting consumers to truly embrace your brand, the purpose and brand promise must be so authentic that it is embedded in the brand’s DNA. To do this, the brand promise and purpose must be baked into every level or people will smell it from a mile away. For example, if you think of the customer’s brand loyalty like a relationship, how can a customer truly love a brand that breaks the promise or lies to their face? If your brand is dependent on repeat customers, maintaining a strong brand promise that builds life-long customer relationships is critical to long-term business success, otherwise the customer may just purchase your product for a while as they keep an eye out for something better. This means that if you contribute to the design of the customer experience, your goal must be to transition brand-purchasers into brand-huggers because if you can do that, you have just found yourself a lifelong customer.

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From the surface, sustainability and social responsibility are synonymous terms, two sides of the same coin. It is only when one looks deeper into their meanings that the subtle differences raise to the surface. The idea of sustainability comes from the fundamental concept of sustainable development: meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The concept of sustainability looks through the lense of the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profits. The notion of the triple bottom line aims at accounting for all the impacts of an organization into a common set of bottom-line metrics that determine the value of investments based the long-term sustainment of economic, social, and environmental capital. Aiming to sustain the long-term economic, social, and environmental capital over generations is a worthy and important objective for any organization to aspire to, yet many organizations are struggling to put this into action because for many people the concept is hard to grasp and the metrics these market-based organizations are using to make decisions are conflicting with each other.

Making it simple: Social Responsibility as the “how” and Sustainability as the “why”

At Verego, we believe looking at an organization as a living person with morals, ethics, values, and responsibilities is a more approachable and useful lense to look at an organization than a long-term development of economic, social, and environmental capital. At the end of the day, any organization is made of people and all people understand that acting responsibly is something all of us aim to do everyday. That is why at Verego, we have found many organizations resonate with the idea of Social Responsibility because it turns the language of sustainability into a something that is naturally intuitive for humans rather than a language that is based off of capital and long-term development. Everyone deals with responsibility everyday; it’s a fact of life. If we view organizations as human systems, instilling the values of acting responsibly in ways that benefit the lives of people, communities, and local environments, enables the human side of any enterprise to adopt an approachable roadmap for ethically conducting business and ultimately creating a better future. Most importantly, Social Responsibility transcends the conflict of balancing competing bottom lines by providing an easy to put into action, approachable mindset that emphasizes the commitment to responsibly lead, manage employees, communities, environmental impacts, as well as upholding a corporate ethic that addresses the interests of all stakeholders

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Guest post written by Justin Gauvin, Executive Director of Verego

What does Social Media have to do with Social Responsibility?

As more and more organizations aim to build purpose-driven and meaningful brands, there is a profound opportunity for brands to combine their social media efforts with their ongoing efforts to become a more socially responsible and sustainable brand. The power of social media is continuing to become a critical engagement tool for monitoring conversations about the world’s largest brands, giving companies the ability to create a new channel for customer-driven innovation and online reputation management. Although brands are using social media to engage customers, are brands being proactive about improving their social responsibility in the eyes of the global customer?
This question drives us everyday at Verego, a Corporate Social Responsibility Solution Provider aiming to unite the global economy to promote the responsibility movement. Verego believes there is a massive opportunity for brands to improve their performance as responsible companies in order to proactively manage their reputations with customers and beyond.

Everyday at the world’s leading companies, advanced CRM technologies are deployed across social networks as a means of understanding the voice of the customer. Getting to know what the customer says about your products and services is the critical feedback required by nearly every department of the organization, but one in particular has been disconnected from the power of social media: The Corporate Social Responsibility department.

This disconnection is fading as many big brands like Office Depot and Generals Mills are no longer leaving out their Social Responsibility teams from their company’s social media presence. These once left out departments are now actively embracing social media as their tool of choice for gaining feedback to support the brand’s big bets into becoming the world’s leading, socially responsible companies. Office Depot and General Mills are looking to take advantage the strategic opportunities inherent in becoming a best in class responsible brand, and are some of the first big bands to create specialized Twitter Chats focused on collecting feedback on their social and environmental goals.

On April 23rd, General Mills is launching a live Twitter Chat to discuss their commitment to responsibly source 100% of their 10 most important ingredients by 2020. Social media chats like these are designed as facilitated conversations that engage the broader Online Community. Most notably, these interactive Social Responsibility focused Twitter Chats move beyond the boundaries of normal online customer engagement, to social media enhanced stakeholder engagement, a concept we at Verego like to call #socialsquared: the intersection of powerful social media tools with social responsibility strategies. Like in any form of engagement, the magic comes from using feedback to improve your business, and now, with more and more Social Responsibility teams utilizing social media, we are beginning to witness the growth of the #socialsquared responsibility movement.

What is #socialsquared?

#socialsquared generates a new source for social innovation and environmental improvement by enabling stakeholder dialogue at a scale never before possible. This concept harnesses the power of engaging stakeholders through social media in order to improve the design of products, services, and even the overall operation of the entire organization. Right now, impact-driven brands have the opportunity to go beyond normal customer relationship management, to the new frontier of stakeholder relationship management.

What’s the future of #socialsquared look like?

The future of the #socialsquared movement will involve expanding the notion of the ‘voice of the customer’ to the ‘voice of the stakeholder.’ With this expanded perspective of the brand’s influence, Social Responsibility departments will be able to extract value from the collective ‘voice of the stakeholder’ with powerful social media tools that can generate actionable insights from the vast amounts of data created online everyday.

Digitals Roots, one of the world’s leading CRM innovators is Verego’s partner for bringing the next generation of the #socialsquared responsibility movement to the world’s leading brands. For the past 5 years, Digital Roots has led the way with their “smarter” Social CRM software and with the help of Verego, we are together poised to enable brands to manage the entire spectrum of the online stakeholder experience. Through this partnership, we are looking to the future in order to define what the unfolding world of stakeholder relationship management will look like.

When you think of the opportunities at hand as the #socialsquared responsibility movement evolves, more and more thought leading companies will expand the perspective of their brand beyond just their customer, to the greater stakeholder community, in order to gain the feedback necessary for profound community-generated innovation.

Verego is Uniting theGlobal Economy to promote the Responsibility Movement in collaboration with theVerego Steering Committee who is a group of executive thought leaderscontinuously evolving the open source framework known as The Verego Social
Responsibility Standard (Verego SRS) which is free to all

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