September 2009 Newsletter

Becoming a High Performance Employer During Tough Economic Times

In today’s market, staying competitive in the industry is a task fraught with challenges. Faced with constrictive budgets and reduced human capital, employers are looking for ways to increase productivity, lower expenses, and improve employee morale - a feat that may seem gargantuan. However, with today’s technological collaborative solutions, such as Cisco TelePresense and Cisco WebEx, organizations can provide strategic approaches to overcome these challenges.

For employers who have multiple locations, especially those that span different geographic regions, delivering employee orientation that communicates an effective and powerful message can be challenging. Even more challenging is the expectation of accomplishing it at a lower cost is quite a task. Collaborative solutions such as WebEx, an application that delivers on-line virtual meetings including video, has enabled employers to solve these challenges. By being able to collaborate online with many people across several geographies and “see” them virtually, organizations are able to reduce travel costs and improve employee productivity.

Rebecca Sweeney, Human Resources Director at Nexus states, “By utilizing WebEx, our company was able to save tens of thousands of dollars in new hire orientation alone. Our workforce is disparate across multiple locations in the West and Southeastern states. By utilizing WebEx, we deliver new hire orientation to any associate as long as they have an internet connection. We have eliminated all travel expenses, including airfare, per diem, and much more. With the time it takes to travel, associates were more productive with WebEx because they were able to get back to their regular duties right away – a critical piece to our business as it allowed our sales organization to increase company revenue. Aside from the tangible financial benefits to our organization, we realized that our employees were happier because they were able to go home and catch their child’s sporting events and tuck them in at night, improving their quality of home life. We feel the orientation we deliver remains consistent and powerful and is not perceived as just another boring virtual meeting. WebEx also offers features such as on-line quizzes or surveys, allowing us to poll our employees and get their instant feedback on how we are doing. This added benefit allowed us to measure whether valuable content of the orientation was retained by our associates.”

Some organizations may need or prefer to have a face-to-face interaction. That’s where Cisco TelePresence comes in. Cisco Telepresence brings high definition video conferencing to the 21st century. Ms. Sweeney states, “Through a state regulated program, we are eligible to receive training funds from the Employment Training Panel (ETP). Our agreement with ETP states training must occur live or via video conferencing. By utilizing Cisco TelePresence, we were able to deliver training to our associates and eliminate travel expenses. Furthermore, the quality of the videoconference is the best in the business, and participants can view our training presentation during the video session. To get the most bang for our buck, we have even utilized WebEx along with Cisco TelePresence for remote participants so employees can share documents on-line and work collaboratively without having to be at one of the TelePresence locations. We have also utilized Cisco TelePresence for applicant interviews, broker meetings, and employee meetings. Without this tool, our travel expenses would go through the roof. We have truly contributed to the bottom line by increasing employee productivity. Our associates retain information better, and can return to the workforce much quicker.”

Would You Like Additional Information?
To learn more on how your business can become a high performance employer, please contact your local Nexus Account Manager or email us at connect@nexusis.com.