We just returned from the Annual HR Technology Conference and Expo in Chicago last week, and it was an incredibly rewarding experience.

HR Tech 2016 was a great opportunity to meet teams who use Bonusly face-to-face, to catch up with our friends in the industry, and learn about all the exciting new tools, technology, strategies, and methodologies driving HR forward into the future.

For those of us who weren’t able to make it out to the conference, and for those who are excited to continue the exciting discussions that began there, we gathered a list of the six most powerful trends we identified across the conference.

Convergence

The days of siloed, disparate platforms have already been numbered, but it has never been more apparent than at this year’s HR Tech Conference.

Tools are integrating more seamlessly with one another to provide an entirely new experience, both for the HR practitioners, for senior leadership, and for employees.

Modern HR platforms are talking to one another, sharing resources and working together in concert to provide new and more actionable insights.

Payroll systems are no longer completely separate from performance management, or employee engagement.

“Will it integrate with our current stack?” is becoming almost as common a question as “how much will it cost?”

This trend of convergence isn’t limited to breaking down technological and data silos — departmental silos are breaking down as well.

Sales and marketing organizations are blending into one another, internal communications and PR, Hiring and Marketing — all blurring the lines between previously distinct business functions and embodying a singular cause of moving the organization forward.

Now, more than ever, it’s becoming important for HR professionals to be flexible, and to work cohesively across departmental boundaries, and the tools being offered on the expo floor show it.

People-Centric Design and Strategy

There’s also been a noticeable dialectic shift from ‘talent’ to ‘people’ across leadership in many organizations, large and small.

But what does that really mean?

Talent isn’t a person; talent is a characteristic — and we don’t hire characteristics, we hire people that embody characteristics. We’re not hiring engineering bandwidth, we’re hiring Michelle, a talented engineer. We’re not hiring SEO capabilities, we’re hiring Ken, a talented SEO expert.

This focal shift to ‘people’ realizes and embraces that delineation. It’s a deliberate focus on employees as people — what value a person can provide to an organization, and what value an organization can in turn, provide for a person.

So what does that mean in terms of strategy?

You’re now more accountable for developing, communicating, and making good on your organization’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

At HR Tech, we saw a burgeoning compliment of tools relating to improved employee health, wellbeing, and development.

In addition to developing the organization’s value toward the employee, it’s also becoming more and more important to provide an environment and framework that helps employees to realize their maximum potential.

What does that kind of framework look like?

Technologically speaking, people have become more and more accustomed to and increasingly expect user-friendly and intuitive Business to Consumer (B2C) design in the tools they use. These tools are there when they’re needed, but stay out of the way when they aren’t.

Seamless and transparent communication and collaboration among colleagues has also become much more of a need-to-have, rather than a nice-to-have trait of the working environment.

The HR tools of the near future will provide more intelligent, personalized, and intuitive interactions between individuals and their organization. It’s exciting to see them taking shape, and considering how these tools will shape the future of work.

Understanding and Challenging Bias

During one of HR Tech Conference’s “Women in HR Tech” panel series, I heard a brilliant quote:

“Diversity fuels innovation — there’s no room for like-mindedness.”

There’s no question that diversity is a crucial element of any top-performing organization. The multiple perspectives diversity provides are a major competitive advantage in any industry — and perspective is only one of the many benefits diversity brings.

Here’s the problem though:

Biases still present themselves in most organizations, whether those biases are conscious or unconscious.

Very few people would be comfortable saying “I run a biased organization,” or “Our hiring process is quite biased,” yet in many cases, it’s true.

The first step in tackling biases is better understanding how they’re formed, and the myriad ways they manifest themselves.

It takes a certain level of fearlessness and a good set of tools to seek out and challenge both conscious and unconscious bias within an organization. But with the courage to accept that biases exist in your workplace, comes the opportunity to challenge them.

Whether it’s reconsidering organizational value alignment, evaluating hiring and onboarding practices, or tackling bias with programmatic interventions, there are more tools available than ever before, and we saw many at the expo.

Now that HR leaders are being presented with an ever-expanding toolkit to help seek out unconscious biases within their organization, they’re in an unprecedented position to be a positive force for change.

Data and Predictive Analytics

Probably one of the biggest, most frequently recurring themes within the conference was data. Over the past few years, more and more tools have come available that are designed to help organizations make more data-driven decisions regarding people ops.

As these data analytics tools evolved and matured, the methodologies for deploying them have begun to evolve alongside them.

In its early stages, HR analytics focused on answering specific, static questions with data. This isn’t without its value, but that value isn’t as clear to a wider group of stakeholders in the organization.

As HR analytics evolved, it has begun to focus more on solving business problems through predictive analytics.

Senior organizational leadership has begun to expect more from HR in terms of the types of business problems it can solve, but these new technologies are making it possible.

As Josh Bersin put it during his talk on the “Datafication of HR” panel:

“It’s not about analyzing HR data for HR’s sake; it’s dangerous not to be business-aligned in this area.”

With these new tools and capabilities available, it’s become more important now than ever for HR to forge strong interdepartmental relationships, and demonstrate the exciting new possibilities for collaborative problem solving.

How do you do that?

Edward Baker-Greene, SVP Chief Human Resources Officer at FactSet offered a really useful strategy. When using these tools and developing initiatives based on them, ask yourself:

“How am I using this data to help inform and drive the organization forward?”

Innovation and Iteration

The influx of startups and startup culture in HR Tech brought an exciting wave of creative problem solving to the industry. Even some of the largest and longest-standing HR tech platforms have begun to adopt a focus on agility and continuous iteration.

This is great for the HR industry as a whole, because it shortens the feedback loop between the people who make the tools, and the people who use them.

The adoption of an agile methodology was viscerally present in the Second Annual HR Hackathon.

Four teams of talented engineers and designers sat down with a group of 60 HR professionals to find creative ways to solve some of the industry’s most challenging issues.

What came from those discussions (and two days’ hard work) was nothing short of amazing.

During the final phase of the hackathon, each team presented proof of concept applications they built in answer to the challenges they were tasked with solving.

A team form IBM designed a tool called SmartLens. The tool was designed to enable a more bias-free resume review app that did an excellent job of communicating only the pertinent job-related information to the reviewer, without surfacing information that might trigger unconscious bias.

TMP Worldwide‘s team developed a wiki-based platform to reward organizational knowledge sharing. An employee would simply search for a question. If the question didn’t have an answer, they could post it for others to answer.

If others felt the question was valuable, they’d be able to upvote it. Users could also choose to post an answer for review, and receive points from the community for their answers as well.

Ultimate Software‘s team developed a work life virtual assistant called UltiMatt that promised to utilize human natural language and deep HRIS/HRMS and HMC integrations to help contextualize data and help employees manage their day-to-day operations much more efficiently.

Willis Towers Watson‘s team built an app they called Kompas, to help organizations successfully fill key positions with internal candidates, and to help employees with career pathing.

Using this app, an employee would be able to view internal job postings, and identify which would suit them best, based on their own skills, and the skills required of the new position.

The system would also help them identify skill gaps, and help employees close those gaps by intelligently surfacing internal company contacts to meet with, e-learning courses to attend, and special projects to take on.

All of these were great examples of how quickly and effectively problems can be solved when a platform and its users participate in a tight feedback loop. It was great to see such a visible example of this in action, and on such an exciting scale.

In Conclusion:

We were incredibly fortunate to attend this year’s HR Technology Conference and Exposition. It was a great learning experience, and a fascinating window into the future of HR tech.

Hopefully this list of trends sparks your imagination, and your anticipation for the future of work. From the floor of the HR Tech 2016, it was looking quite bright.

This article was originally sourced from Business2Community. 

The recent move away from text-based content online may be a side effect of the fact that banner ads just don’t work all that well. But a major trade group, along with The New York Times, is trying to rethink the ads in a way that could actually produce a balance between content and commerce. Here’s the scoop.

If you haven’t had a chance yet, go read this piece I wrote last week about a Pew Research study that highlights the way that young adults (a.k.a. millennials) read text online.

It’s OK. I’ll wait. I’ll trust you to return.

… (taps fingers) …

So, yeah, that’s a pretty surprising result, isn’t it? It plays against what we’ve been led to believe is the best way to reach younger audiences. That doesn’t mean Snapchat doesn’t have its place, nor does it mean Instagram doesn’t matter so much, but instead, it means that there’s still plenty of room to reach users of all ages through the written word.

So why is there so much momentum behind getting us to leap toward visuals? I’d argue that the reason has little to do with the tastes of the audience and more to do with the needs of the advertiser.

Simply: Banner ads just can’t compete on an engagement level with mediums where the transition between advertising and content is less distracting and more engrossing. Listen to your average podcast, just as an example, and you’ll often find the ads just as interesting as the stories. But banner ads? They’re wallpaper. They often get in the way of your content and add little or nothing to the mix.

And the effectiveness of the ads is often called into question. Last month, Forbes legal writer Daniel Fisher wrote that fewer and fewer plaintiffs are collecting the payments they are eligible for under class action settlements, largely because attorneys rely too heavily on online banner ads to provide notice to potential claimants.

Considering all that, the rise of native advertising or influencer marketing makes sense. But what if the solution to this problem is a more thoughtful banner ad?

That’s the tactic The New York Times is trying out. Last week, its crosstown rival The Wall Street Journal revealed that the Gray Lady was effectively abandoning the cross-device ad distribution tools offered by companies such as Google and Facebook, and replacing them with its own offering.

As if to underline the point, the Times plans to ditch the standard 300-pixel-wide ads that you’ve seen on just about every website that serves advertising (including this one). In its place will be ads that automatically resize and reshape themselves based on the layout of the page. (An example from the Times‘ front page is shown above.) If a text ad makes more sense for a specific use case, that’s what the software will throw out.

This gives the Times a level of control over the experience that has previously proven difficult with banner advertising because those modular shapes limited how well the ads merged into the overall experience. Sebastian Tomich, the newspaper’s senior vice president of advertising, noted that publishers haven’t leveraged their market power in a way that maximizes the advertising.

“The way advertisers are using Facebook is very native, for example, but you haven’t really seen many publishers using that model,” Tomich told the Journal. “There’s a good amount of negativity around the display business in the market now, but it’s a staple for us.”

IAB OVERHAULS ITS AD FORMATS

The association world is abreast of this kind of change, too. Last month, I reported on an industry effort to ensure online video ads work properly in a variety of contexts, but it goes deeper than that.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has been taking steps to revamp its thinking on banner ads. For years, IAB promoted a series of “rising stars”—standardized ad formats with interactive elements that were intended to expand on the ad’s message. But as AdExchanger reported last month, IAB is moving away from promoting those ads.

Now, the bureau is moving toward advertising that works in different ratio sizes, meaning that they allow much more layout flexibility. In other words, instead of a standard-ratio 300×250 ad, a 1:1 ratio ad would fit the width of the given space, whether it’s 400 pixels wide or 230 pixels wide. (Above is a sample of a 1×2 ad.)

Additionally, heavy interactive elements like auto-play video and formats that pop up on your screen will be discouraged.

(By no means is IAB moving away from interactivity, however; the organization included virtual reality formats as part of the new ad portfolio.)

In a news release, IAB’s Randall Rothenberg also noted that the strategy leans on the bureau’s “L.E.A.N.” ad principles, a noninvasive advertising strategy that the group introduced about a year ago.

“It is imperative that we create new de facto standards that put user experience, control, and cross-device behaviors first—and this new portfolio delivers,” Rothenberg said last month. “Its flexible ad units will allow for creative to scale to different sizes without losing any of its original messaging and impact.”

The formats are up for public comment until November 28.

MEETING USERS HALFWAY

The problem with banner ads has long been one of expectations. They don’t work as well as they could, and because of that, they’ve often been stretched in ways that discourage users from wanting to view them. (Hence, the rise in ad blockers.)

Advertising is clearly an important part of the association revenue pie, but it has to mesh with what you’re already doing. Native ads and influencer marketing, some might argue, can take things too far without firm boundaries in place.

Banner ads have the opposite problem. They’re too confined by their boundaries. That’s why these two efforts are so important—they could eventually get us closer to an elusive ideal.

That ideal? Someday, the banner ad might not actually stink.

This article was originally sourced from Associations Now and written by Ernie Smith. 

Financial Services Council announces new board, CEO appointment and solid 2016 financial position

The Financial Services Council (FSC) has announced a strong financial position for the year ahead following the release of its annual report; (http://fsc.org.nz/site/fsc/Reports/FSC_AnnualReport_2016.pdf) along with a number of key organisational changes including the election of a new board and the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer.

The new board which will serve for two years sees the addition of two new members who were elected at the annual general meeting on 4 October. The new members include Matthew Hanley, a tax expert, representing EY, and Charlie Trotter, Managing Director, representing FNZ, one of the biggest platformproviders in financial services in New Zealand.

The new Chief Executive Officer, Richard Klipin, will begin from midNovember. With an impressive career spanning 26 years, Klipin has held prominent executive roles within Australian and New Zealand financial services in both commercial and non-profit sectors.

Over the past 11 years Richard has served in a number of key industry roles leading transformation at a time of rapid regulatory change. In Australia, as CEO of the Association of Financial Advisers; and as CEO of Millennium 3. Most recently, in New Zealand, Richard was Chief Distribution Officer for Sovereign.

Klipin replaces Owen Gill, who ran the FSC on an acting basis since April 2016. During his time in this position Mr Gill reviewed memberships and finances, helping to establish a stable basis for the future success of the organisation. Mr Gill did not seek the role permanently.

The Independent Chairman, Rob Flannagan, says the FSC is committed to steppingup its work in the areas of regulation, tax policy, and professional standards, among other things. This includes work on a professional code of conduct that will apply to members.

“The FSC is renewing its role, in representing the personal insurance and wealth sector, to the Government and to consumers, in a constructive way. The demands of the proposed regulatory regime, digital products and digital distribution, and rising consumer expectations, require a strong organisation to represent financial services firms in New Zealand.

“Richard is an ideal CEO to lead the FSC and its members through this time of potential change, given his extensive experience in this area.”

Fourteen firms, covering the vast majority of the New Zealand wealth sector measured by market share, are members of the FSC (wealth sector includes personal insurance, funds management and investments, and KiwiSaver).

A further 14 associate members include several of the large law firms, professional services firms, and consultants that specialise in providing legal, audit, and compliance advice in the sector.

Board members elected at the AGM, and the firms they represent, are:

• Matthew Hanley (EY)
  
• Charlie Trotter (FNZ)
  
• Nadine Tereora (Fidelity Life)
  
• Lance Walker (Cigna)
  
• Cris Knell (Asteron / Suncorp)
  
• Simon Hoole (AMP)
  
• Chris Lamers (Sovereign)
  
• AnaMarie Lockyer (ANZ)
  
• Susan Basile (BNZ)
  
• Suzanne Wolton (Westpac)
  
• Rob Flannagan (Independent Chairman)
  

This Media Release was originally sourced from Scoop. 

The Police Association’s 81st Annual Conference has today elected Chris Cahill as President for a three-year term.

In a contested election, Mr Cahill secured the position after receiving the support of delegates to the conference in Wellington.

Mr Cahill is a Detective Inspector in Auckland City. With a police career encompassing Invercargill to Auckland and many places in between, across a variety of work groups, from one-man stations to specialist national squads, he will bring a broad perspective and understanding of policing to the role.

Mr Cahill has a long history of involvement within the Police Association. He has held every committee position, including serving as a core negotiator on three salary negotiations, as well as regional director and Vice-President for three years.

“I believe Chris will bring a high level of commitment and experience to the role,” departing President Greg O’Connor said.

“He has shown himself to be a strong advocate for police as an Association member and representative, and I am confident he will ensure that the voice of police officers will continue to be heard in the law and order environment.”

Mr Cahill will take over the position of President from Mr O’Connor, who announced at last year’s conference that he would not seek re-election after serving 21 years in the role.

This Media Release was originally sourced from Scoop. 

Today eleven organisations in New Zealand called for the New Zealand Super Fund to fully divest from fossil fuels. The organisations signed an open letter after the NZSF announced its climate change-focused investment policies last week. It urges the New Zealand Super Fund to make their climate change response unequivocal and withdraw all their investments from the coal, oil and gas projects that are driving climate change.

"While the NZSF have made a step in the right direction, with the knowledge we have today, it is no longer possible to claim to be a responsible investor without also fully divesting from fossil fuels," said Niamh O’Flynn, Executive Director of 350 Aotearoa.

The organisations involved represent a range of organisations championing different issues that are affected by climate change, including unions, faith groups, environmental, social justice, and development organisations.

Last week the NZ Super Fund stated that they would not exclude the fossil fuel industry from their portfolio because "blanket exclusions rule out the possibility of engaging with firms in the sector that may be able to transition, and may have a role to play in transitioning to a low-carbon economy."

The letter focuses on the inadequacy of shareholder engagement as a tactic, stating "engagement does not work with a company whose primary source of profit is fossil fuels since they rely on that industry to continue existing."

"It’s a moral issue. Climate change is the greatest challenge of our times. New Zealanders wouldn’t be satisfied for our Super Fund to be invested in, and engaging with, some nuclear weapon manufacturers. So why would we settle for only a partial divestment from fossil fuels?"

The letter can be viewed at http://350.org.nz/organisations-challenge-nz-super-fund-open-letter/ The signing organisations are: 

• 350 Aotearoa
  
• Oxfam New Zealand
  
• The New Zealand Public Service Association
  
• Greenpeace New Zealand
  
• World Wildlife Fund NZ
  
• 1222 members of Action Station
  
• Health Sector Workers Network
  
• Unite Union
  
• Coal Action Network Aotearoa
  
• Auckland Diocesan Climate Change Action Group
  
• Anglican Diocese of Wellington
  

This Media Release was originally sourced from Voxy. 

The Gluten Management Association has been launched in New Zealand for the purpose of raising the awareness of gluten-free foods.

The Gluten Management Association (GMA) is a not-for-profit body dedicated to supporting makers, servers and sellers of gluten-free food for people with gluten related disorders including coeliac disease. In doing so, it complements organisations which look to the health and well-being of people who must not eat gluten. It’s one of the aims of GMA to collaborate with these organisations and allow them to concentrate on their important work without concern for the availability and quality of gluten free food for their community.

Specifically, GMA encourages and assists people and organisations to adopt, develop and implement management system standards for the making and sale of gluten-free food. Certification programmes are provided for food outlets interested in capturing the market for the growing number of customers who do not want to buy food containing gluten.

Anecdotal evidence shows that many gluten-free claims are without substance despite the best intentions of providers. GMA is interested in reducing the risk of gluten being present in gluten-free food separately from others supporting gluten intolerant victims. GMA will seek to collaborate with other organisations interested in improving the quality of gluten-free food from seed in the ground to the consumer.

Managing gluten is important because it is impossible or prohibitively expensive to verify that gluten is not present in the result of the process of making gluten-free food unless tests are performed.

Gluten contamination can occur at any one of the numerous steps required to make gluten-free food. It has been shown scientifically that managing the quality of products is best achieved by managing the process of production, every step of the way. Inspecting and testing products at the end of any multi steps process is not a reliable way of ensuring quality.

It’s the nature of well managed systems that they become more effective and efficient as technology advances. Thus GMA is here to encourage, promote and support the continual improvement of gluten-free management systems. Please visit the GMA website to learn more about and join the Association - https://glutenmanagement.com

This Press Release was originally sourced from Scoop.

The Financial Advice New Zealand Working Group has entered the second stage of its 100-day structured development process.

The 40 working-day consultation stage is planned for the rest of 2016, with a short break over Christmas and recommencing in early 2017.

The consultation will cast a wide net across the industry, including advisers – both members and those who are not currently a member of an association; adviser groups; product providers; adviser associations; regulators and consumer bodies.

Focus groups will be held at 11 locations across the country, with details around dates and locations to be provided this week.

Speaking to NZ Adviser, Professional Advisers Association (PAA) chairman Bruce Cortesi said in addition to the focus groups, they intend to make the most of technology to reach as broad an audience as possible, such as via webinars and phone conferences.

“It’s a really exciting time for the industry to have the opportunity to contribute to something that is really positive in a proactive way,” Cortesi says. “This is a really positive step for the industry and an opportunity to really shape the future of the industry - not only for the advisers and the industry as it is now but also for future advisers and for the consumer, which is critical.”

The industry is at a natural crossroads, Institute of Financial Advisers (IFA) board chair Michael Dowling told NZ Adviser, a financial adviser himself for the past 26 years.

“The evolution I’ve seen around my profession over that time has sort of spun my head a couple of times and so it’s natural to take stock and go, ‘where have we come from, where are we going and where are we right now?’

“We want to give everyone the opportunity to have their say.”

Cortesi says the consultation stage is a crucial time to ask questions on what Financial Advice New Zealand needs to look like.

“It’s a blank sheet of paper to say, what does this need to look like; what does it need to deliver; what does the look and feel of a professional body going forward for the next decade and beyond need to look like?” he says.

“So it’s a great opportunity for the industry to have some open dialogue which probably hasn’t really occurred before - you haven’t had input of the whole industry into such a key component as establishing a framework for a new professional body.”

The lead up to the Christmas break is no doubt a busy time for advisers but the break in consultation during the festive celebrations will offer all involved a chance to take stock of the progress so far.

“(The break) also gives us a bit of time to make sure we’ve got all the feedback, even from people who didn’t have the opportunity for feedback initially because they were so busy,” says Dowling. “So there’s enough space in there to allow us to make sure we get everyone’s view forward.”

Dowling says they were pleased with how the timing of stage two turned out, with the break inbetween. “We thought that’s an opportunity for those who are too busy that can’t get back with inside the 40 days. They have an opportunity to think through things in the break and send us an email or get in contact and give their thoughts in the New Year.”

After the consultation stage is completed, the Financial Advice New Zealand Working Group will begin development of the association’s structure.

This article was originally sourced from NZ Adviser and written by Maya Breen.

The Institute of Management New Zealand (IMNZ) is pleased to announce the appointment of Steven Naudé as its new chief executive. Mr Naudé is also a director of executive education at Massey Business School and will bring the two organisations together in an even closer working relationship.

He replaces outgoing chief executive Fiona Hewitt, who led a refresh of the IMNZ brand and brokered the institute’s strategic partnership with Massey Business School earlier this year.

Mr Naudé will lead the institute into its next phase of development, which includes the launch of several new courses next year and creating simpler and faster pathways for people to achieve higher-level qualifications.

"IMNZ has some very exciting plans for 2017, which will provide additional flexibility and benefits to both students and organisations looking to build the capability of staff," Mr Naudé says. "I am very excited to be leading the institute at such an important time in its development."

Mr Naudé has 20 years of experience in the education sector, including more than a decade at Pearson Education in South Africa and New Zealand. He was director of teaching and learning at the Marketing Association before joining Massey Business School as its director of professional, organisation and executive development last year.

NZ's most comprehensive suite of management courses 

Massey Business School dean Professor Ted Zorn says Mr Naudé is the ideal person to ensure the university and IMNZ jointly offer New Zealand’s most comprehensive suite of courses in leadership and management education.

"Having Steven oversee Massey’s executive education programmes and IMNZ’s short courses and qualifications will put us in the unique position of being able to offer learning opportunities across the entire leadership development cycle," he says.

"While Massey and the institute will each deliver their own courses, between the two organisations students will have access to suitable options for continuous education, no matter what stage of their career they are at."

As well as refreshing IMNZ’s existing qualifications, Mr Naudé says he will draw on the expertise within both organisations to design customised programmes for organisations, which can be delivered in-house.

"No one is able to work so flexibly with customers to design and deliver progammes that exactly suit their needs," he says.

He is also excited about the new IMNZ short courses in development for 2017, including the new certificate programme in business coaching.

"Everybody in a leadership position is expected to coach their team, and that takes a very specific set of skills. That’s why IMNZ is adding an intensive coaching programme to its range of courses and qualifications."

This article was originally sourced from Voxy. 

AuSAE are very pleased to announce business expert Michelle Trute, CEO at Diabetes Queensland will be delivering an extremely engaging workshop tailored for AuSAE members and our community in both Melbourne and Sydney titled: Creating a Behaviours Based Culture.

We also have public relations professional Debbie Bradley, Account Director at Zadro Agency who will be delivering a highly relevant workshop in Brisbane titled: Effective Public Relations.

AuSAE's Workshops are a fantastic way to build on your current skills, network with like-minded peers and learn how to implement strategies for your organisation.

For more information on each event please click the links below:

• Sydney, November 23 
  
• Melbourne, November 24 
  
• Brisbane, December 14 
  

Last issue we raised the need to view the business from the "outside in"; from the point of view of the client. The need to take the view from the "inside out" is often not recognized.

 Businesses exist to make money, fund retirement, provide social good etc... how does this inside out view actually look?

Where the staff are not engaged in their own activities, and are simply following the business mandated instructions of "how to deal with a client" they won't be productive and the client won't be happy, whether or not the "rules" have been precisely followed.

Relevance to the business is again the issue.

If the staff are not happy; the clients certainly won't be, regardless of the so called quality of the "customer engagement instructions".

Simply instructing staff on what they have to do, or are allowed to do, is to execute the business mandated instructions of "how to deal with a client" will always have effect. Strict instructions will definitely succeed; but not in a way that has positive relevance for the business.

Short term; resolve, improve, eliminate, fix, replace and upgrade so that the little things that "annoy" staff, both current and potential, no longer can do so.

Long term; ensure that there are processes in place to prevent "little things" from existing in the first place and where they do actively prevent them from growing into "big things".

Relevance; consider all aspects of your business from the point of view of the staff; and take action on what you observe.