Yahoo!'s HR boo boo
The top brass at Yahoo! have annoyed a significant portion of their employees this week by telling them to work full time in the office – even if they had previously arranged work-from-home situations.
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Or should that be "Y?"[/caption]
Despite the subject line: YAHOO! PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION — DO NOT FORWARD, the email was promptly forwarded to All Things D by a “plethora” of unhappy staff.
"Beginning in June, we’re asking all employees with work-from-home arrangements to work in Yahoo! offices. If this impacts you, your management has already been in touch with next steps. And, for the rest of us who occasionally have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration. Being a Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are only possible in our offices."
We at CustomerGauge do not have a strong opinion in for or against working in the office versus working at home. But we do firmly believe that this employee crisis could have been averted by using Net Promoter to regularly survey staff.
Employee Net Promoter, or eNPS as it is often called, works in the same way as a regular Net Promoter survey, with the question “How likely are you to recommend working at this business to a friend or family?,” followed by another question asking for feedback. (Hint: CustomerGauge has an eNPS product built into its platform, including special functionalities such as anonymous feedback reporting to protect the privacy of your employees, and a built in workflow management system).
With a robust employee satisfaction and workflow management system in place, Yahoo! could have proactively asked employees on their opinions to improve collaboration and productivity, and whether they’d be willing to spend more hours in the office if asked.
How eNPS could help Yahoo!
For Yahoo!, an eNPS survey could have:
- Informed the Yahoo! C-suite about the crisis before it had a chance to happen.
- Avoided turning off potential talent who may have considered working for the business.
- Improved staff morale as they feel included in the decision-making process rather than a part of a top-down power structure.
- Potentially crowdsourced more effective and less controversial processes to improve productivity and collaboration.
eNPS is a potentially powerful tool to improve staff retention and ultimately have a positive impact on the bottom line. Has your business used eNPS to good (or not) effect? We’d love to hear from you!
