Ethan McCarty, CEO of Integral and lecturer in Strategic Communication at Columbia SPS, joined Dr. Edna Chun’s Transforming Total Rewards class for a dynamic and engaging guest lecture on contemporary trends in employee communications, digitalization, and the employee experience.
McCarty shared the results of the Integral Employee Activation Index (www.teamintegral.com), an in-depth survey of 2000 employed individuals in the U.S. conducted in both 2021 and 2022 with the Harris Poll. The Index validated the relation of the employee experience to business outcomes. For example, employees who had a clear sense of their employees’ values tended to perceive the organization more positively. This alignment affected employee mindsets on a daily basis and drove positive actions undertaken on behalf of the employer. The results of the survey substantiated an earlier discussion of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the class.
The Employee Activation Index also recommended that employers act like marketing departments in segmenting employees as customers and using data analytics to drive results. According to Ethan McCarty, a pressing challenge that companies currently face in the gig economy is the fractionalization of labor on digital platforms as individuals now sell their time and effort to employers. Reinforcing this point, a presentation earlier in the class by graduate student, Pablo Stuardo, identified the need for HR systems to keep pace with changing trends including the tokenization of hours. Further, due to limited budgets, McCarty emphasized that employers need to differentiate their TR offerings on something other than cash, noting that it is not simply the nonmonetary benefits you offer, but how you offer them in terms of the employee value proposition.
A lively dialogue and discussion with the students followed the lecture, with one graduate student describing the guest lecture as “enlightening and amazing.” Our thanks to Ethan McCarty for this thought-provoking and dynamic presentation!