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[#WorkTrends] How to Harness the Workplace Power of Introverted People

February 12, 2021/DEI Diversity Equity Inclusion, Podcast Recaps /by Meghan M. Biro

Many of us might not know that Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and also Elon Musk consider themselves introverts. Like many other introverted people, they have capitalized on their ability to listen well, stay objective, and find the answers in chaos.

Given their unprecedented success, why wouldn’t we want to harness the power and potential of introverts in our workforce?

Our Guest: Jennifer Kahnweiler, Ph.D. — Author and Speaker

Jennifer B. Kahnweiler, Ph.D., is one of the top global leadership speakers on introversion and is the author of a new book: Creating Introvert-Friendly Workplaces: How to Unleash Everyone’s Talent and Performance. Who better to talk about unleashing the power and potential of introverted people in the workplace, right?

First, I asked Jennifer what drew her to this unique workplace topic:

“I worked in a lot of positions in HR and leadership development and coaching,” Jennifer explained. “And it became a consistent theme that introverts were frustrated; they often felt overlooked and ignored. Everything was designed for the people who were the talkers — the loudest voice in the room. Since the diversity and inclusion conversation is so prevalent right now, I was surprised I couldn’t find anything on introverted people in the workplace. So I became almost a zealot about this!”

We’re glad she did. Now more than ever, with increasing dependency on remote work, many people who identify as introverts are making their mark in the workplace.

The Workplace Power of Introverted People

After explaining that introverts re-energize by taking quiet time — time that allows creativity to flow, innovative thoughts to development, and also deep reflection — Jennifer jumped into how to harness the power of introverted people:

“We must be more intentional about our hiring and culture practices. When we talk about HR, in particular, we have to ask ourselves: Are we including introverts in our planning and execution? Are they part of our diversity and inclusion plan? That must happen more. That’s when we change cultures; that’s when entire organizations change.”

“It’s not just a nice to have,” Jennifer said. “Because if we only listen to the loudest people in the room, half the voices and ideas aren’t being heard.”

As our conversation progressed, Jennifer and I also talked about her key findings while researching introverts in the workplace, how introverts are adapting to remote work (including those endless Zoom meetings), and much more. Please enjoy this episode of the #WorkTrends podcast. Then take a close look at how your organization integrates and respects people on both ends of the introversion-extraversion spectrum.

Find Jennifer on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Editor’s note: We’ve redesigned our and #WorkTrends Podcast pages (and also our FAQ page) to help you be more productive. Please take a look!

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Leadership Lessons Learned From an Emotional Inauguration Day

February 1, 2021/Company Culture, Leadership /by Vikas Dua

In every challenge faced, there are leadership lessons to be learned…

To say the recently concluded American election process was emotional would be an understatement. To the dismay of many across the globe, it often assumed the appearance of a mean-spirited reality TV show. Marred with insults, insinuations, and incendiary statements, it did not bear much resemblance to the world’s premier democracy.

Months of acrimony reached a feverish pitch that ended with what many now refer to as an ‘insurrection.’ Highly divided supporters of the outgoing President marched into the Capitol House just over two weeks ago. They plundered even as they posed gleefully in the corridors of power. There was no real joy in the happenings, however. The unruly confrontation between the mob and the police in Washington D.C. on January the 6^th left five dead in its wake.

By any measure, overcoming a national disaster like this would require strong will and consistent action; it would require a different kind of leadership. If there were to be any indication that a new leadership style was emerging in the days to come, it would be apparent on Inauguration Day (January the 20^th), when the 46^th President of the United States of America took his oath of office. As Joseph Biden Jr. placed his hand on his family’s Bible, people across the world joined in the celebrations. They felt a multitude of emotions in their hearts, even as the sun came out on top of Capitol Hill. Maybe, they thought, this new leadership would signal new hope.

So, what were the leadership lessons that warmed our hearts? What emotions did we feel that demonstrate we can once again feel hopeful?

Respect

Kamala Harris.

The name says it all. On Inauguration Day, clad in a purple coat, she was sworn in as the first-ever female Vice-President in American history. She also assumed the distinction of being the first African American and first American of Indian, South Asian, and Asian descent to be elected to this high office. She was administered the oath by Sonia Sotomayor, the first-ever Latina Supreme Court Justice. These ‘firsts’ elicit nothing but respect for the process of democracy and the maturity of the American people. They point towards a broadening of hearts and the belief in creating a more equitable society.

Leaders must show the level of respect shown on Inauguration Day was not a one-off celebration, but an indicator that the demonstration of respect is a fundamental human value.

Concern

We all felt a sense of reassurance while witnessing the discipline with which all the attendees wore masks to safeguard themselves (and, of course, others) from the deadly coronavirus. The masks stayed on even when they socialized and congratulated each other after the ceremony had closed, showcasing their genuine concern for safety. What also touched our hearts was the regular sanitizing of the speaker’s podium, dutifully performed by an elderly gentleman, each time a new speaker took the stage.

Genuine care for one another is the mantra we need in our world – a world that has seen far too many tragedies over the last year. To prosper, one of our most essential leadership lessons learned is that we must model this deep sense of concern for others.

Pride

Twenty thousand people would typically attend a Presidential Inauguration; in 2021, mostly due to the unfortunate events of January 6^th, only a thousand or so were permitted to do so. Instead of exuberant people ready to celebrate the swearing-in of a new president, the National Mall played host to over 200,000 American flags and 56 pillars of light to represent all the American states and territories. Fluttering and rising into the skies and accompanied by the Marine band’s sonorous notes, the flags and all they represented filled us with pride.

Every leader, at the beginning of each day, must ask themselves a question.

“Today, will I help create bone-deep pride in our mission and our work?”

Hope

No one can instill hope better than the 22-year-old poet and Harvard graduate, Amanda Gorman, who recited a soul-stirring poem she composed on the day of the infamous Capitol invasion. To imagine that she overcame a speech impediment to become America’s first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate is truly mind-blowing – and inspiring. The youngest ever poet to take the stage at a Presidential Inauguration, she showed us the capability, clarity, and character of our younger generation. In doing so, she gave us unbounded hope.

Even on the toughest days and in the most challenging circumstances, leaders must provide a sense of hope.

Passion

As expected, star power did not let us down. Lady Gaga, in a characteristically dramatic dress, sang a version of the American national anthem. Jennifer Lopez sang a medley of ‘This Land Is Your Land’ and ‘America The Beautiful’. Country singer Garth Brooks sang a Capella version of ‘Amazing Grace’, even taking off his Stetson during his performance. The one common thread that was binding their individual performances: the passion clearly evident in their flawless singing and brightly lit eyes.

Sometimes, we leaders forget the importance of passion – passion for our work, our mission, and our people.

Grace

At the end of the ceremony, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, stood up. They escorted the outgoing Vice President Mike Pence and his lovely wife, Karen, down the steps of the Capitol building. It was a picture of pure grace, unblemished by any of the acrimony on full display during the election process. As they bid their good-byes, one could see the couples bonding over a hearty laugh. That moment showed the maturity of those that lead the nation last and those that will lead the nation next. In participating in the Inauguration (unlike his boss, President Trump, who chose not to attend), VP Pence let us know that defeat is only one side of the coin. The other side represents growth, something that all Americans can look forward to.

As leaders, work will not always go as planned. We must learn to follow every disappointment with grace and growth.

Leadership Lessons Learned

In a democracy – like a company – there will always be dissent. But there is a fine line between dissension and being stubbornly disagreeable. Two weeks ago, the leaders of the world’s most powerful nation led from the front and by example. After a time when hope seemed hard to find, they stirred positive emotions within all of us.

There is no doubt that this experience will drive many amongst us to keep these positive emotions burning. Burning like a glorious flame that removes all darkness, enabling us to learn important leadership lessons.

And isn’t that is what people should expect from their leaders?

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[#WorkTrends] How Child’s Play at Work Helps Navigate Uncertain Times

January 29, 2021/Company Culture /by Meghan M. Biro

At work, we try to be serious grownups. But data shows that when we bring child’s play — yes, fun — into work, we are far more creative. And that’s when the real magic happens!

We know adult playtime increases camaraderie, goodwill, focus, and trust and reduces stress. So why aren’t more organizations incorporating play into their work environments?

Our Guest: Jeff Harry, a Top 100 HR Influencer

Jeff Harry helps individuals and companies tap into their true selves, to feel their happiest and most fulfilled — all by playing. Jeff has worked with Google, Microsoft, Southwest Airlines, Adobe, the NFL, Amazon, and Facebook, helping them infuse more play into their day-to-day activities.

I asked Jeff how embracing child’s play during a global pandemic can make a real difference for companies today. Jeff’s response cut right to the heart of the matter, especially when many of us are working remotely: “We have to ask yourselves: Is our staff feeling comfortable with work anymore? Are they able to be themselves — or even half of themselves?” Jeff is right; when we’re working from home, we’re not really fully present at work or home — and time for creative thinking, let alone play, is hard to come by.

Jeff suggested: “Go to your staff, virtually or not, and ask them, ‘What part of your job do you love to do most? What part of your job would you consider your flow work — the work where you forget about time. It’s the work where you, if you weren’t getting paid to do this, would do this anyway.” Jeff has learned that most people would say they engage in flow work maybe 10 percent of the time and that leaders have some influence here:

“Give them an extra hour of play a day! That is their best work, so we must invest in that play time — the flow work.”

The Correlation Between More Play and Better Work

“Look at the companies that thrived in 2020. The TikToks, the Googles, Netflix, Disney Plus, and Hulu,” Jeff said, noting these companies are known for playful yet focused cultures. “People gravitate towards that. Actual money and business are attracted to that. Look at Google with their 20% program. They gave their staff a fifth of their time to pursue what was curious to them. From that came Gmail and Google Meet — billion-dollar ventures, because they allowed their staff to play and be curious.”

Jeff added that most companies don’t offer their employees enough time to play — that time needed to pursue their flow work or experiment within a psychologically safe environment:

“We’ve gotten so results-oriented and so focused on meeting expectations — and expectations are the thief of joy.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Jeff — this is my flow work! Be sure to listen in — and then deliberately add more time for child’s play into your workday.

Find Jeff on LinkedIn and learn more about his work at Rediscover Your Play.

Editor’s note: We’ve designed your FAQ page and #WorkTrends Podcast pages to be more fun and productive. Please take a look!

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2021 Work Trends: Should We Continue to Be Surprised?

January 26, 2021/Company Culture, Employee Experience, Pandemic and Post-Pandemic /by Cyndy Trivella

Over the last ten months, the entire workplace changed, as did the expectations of employees and contractors. But not everything that happened last year was a total shock — so why should we allow 2021 work trends to surprise us?

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post about the workplace trends we would most likely see in 2020. Of course, when that post went live no one could have predicted the impact a global pandemic would have on the future of work. Still, as you’ll see below, we shouldn’t have been too surprised by how much the workplace changed.

In fact, maybe we should be proud of our ability to anticipate, accept, and adapt…

The Death of the Office

Our 2020 Prediction:

“It’s official: the office is dead. The office your parents knew, that is.

2020 will build on a trend that’s been on the rise in 2018 and 2019. More employees rely on technology to do their jobs and keep up with their teams. This means that more employees know they can do their jobs from anywhere–and they’re not afraid to ask the boss for that benefit. According to the Society for Human Resources Management, 69% of organizations allow their employees to work from home at least some of the time, and 27% of organizations allowed full-time remote work arrangements.”

Our 2020 Reality:

In our “now normal,” far more than 69% of organizations allow their employees to work from home.

The real question is: How many of those companies — once we start to put the pandemic behind us — will let the majority of their employees continue to work from home? And how many will want business environments to revert to our “old normal”?

Our 2021 Work Trends Forecast:

As Mark S. Babbitt says, “‘We know we gave you all that freedom, but now we’re taking it back — said no good employer, ever.'” Companies that want to retain the best of their talent will work hard to co-create a “new normal” that keeps the good aspects of the pandemic workplace. That most certainly includes working from home.

The Rise of Employee Activism

Our 2020 Prediction:

“Nothing seems to be holding employees back from pursuing what matters to them, even if it means speaking up against their own employer.

Half of all millennial employees have spoken out about employer actions about a controversial societal issue. The same Bloomberg study found that younger employees are more likely to be activists, though millennials are the biggest activist generation. In 2019, we saw countless examples of employee activism instigated by a sensational (and divisive) political climate. For example, hundreds of Wayfair employees walked out after learning that the company sold furniture to a Texas detention center for migrant children.”

Our 2020 Reality:

Like the pandemic, no one could have predicted the intensity demonstrated during the Black Lives Matter protests and — on the far other ends of the spectrum — the MAGA rallies that took place in 2020 and early 2021. Along the way, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and many other companies faced employee walk-outs in 2021.

Our 2021 Work Trends Forecast:

One would like to think companies would go into 2021 with eyes (and minds) wide open. However, already this year, we’ve seen employees take a stand against the positions of their employers, including insisting that corporations suspend donations to certain politicians, political parties, and PACs.

A Workplace That Stands for Something

Our 2020 Prediction:

“Millennials need to work for a purpose, not just money or a career.

A CNBC survey found that 69% of employees want to work for a company with clearly-stated values, and 35% stated that the most critical factor in their workplace happiness was the feeling that their work is meaningful. And these days, employees are willing to trade money for a purpose, with 9 in 10 employees stating that they would take a pay cut if it meant they could do meaningful work. In fact, when employees were asked to rank what matters most to them in their work, money was a distant second to workplace purpose.”

Our 2020 Reality

The only aspect of this prediction that changed? We need to add Gen Z to the discussion. For younger generations in the workforce, the concept of trading work hours for dollars and going home feeling fulfilled is now completely outdated. And employers are best served by seeing the writing on the wall.

Our 2021 Work Trends Forecast:

Employers will have no choice in 2021: In large part, performance and profits will be determined by an employees’ alignment to the company’s purpose.

The Changing Definition of Benefits

Our 2020 Prediction:

“Employees (especially millennials) won’t turn their nose up at decent benefits.

Millennials are the job-hopping generation, with half of all millennials (compared to 60% of all non-millennials) stating that they plan to be working at a different company than their current one by next year. But for the few years you do have your employees, they want that time to be worth their while. Younger workers are pushing back against the idea of work as a constant obsession. More of them demand increasing flexibility and benefits that reflect it, such as more paid leave after having a baby, the ability to work remotely, or allowances for breaks during the day.”

Our 2020 Reality

Bingo! The pandemic forced employers to consider not-so-common benefits like in-home child care, elderly parent care, mental health and wellness, virtual therapy, and so much more. In addition, the “always-on” aspect of working from home made the setting of boundaries — and taking real breaks from work — a real issue for remote workers.

Our 2021 Work Trends Forecast:

As we said just a moment ago: “Companies… will work hard to co-create a ‘new normal’ that takes into consideration all the good aspects of the pandemic workplace.” Like our freedom, employers can’t give us something that makes our lives better and then take it back. Right?

What Surprises Will 2021 Bring?

Experts like to say the workplace trends of 2020 caught us by surprise. But did they? Did they really?

Keep a close eye on 2021 work trends and surprises. And see how many of them — just like the trends and “surprises” of 2020 did — will make work, and our lives, better.

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Enough of the Red Tape: A Return to Common Sense

January 19, 2021/Company Culture, Leadership /by Martin Lindstrom

When is enough red tape and bureaucracy enough? Is it time to return to the days where common sense prevailed?

Don’t you just love the glossy annual report, no matter which company it represents? The financials change from report to report, but the descriptive material remains pretty much the same.

The company’s rosy impression almost always begins with its values, starting with Integrity and ending with People. Next comes the “meet the team” page, with the perfectly staged line-up of smiling senior executives. Then you’ll see the company’s promises to its customers (which bear a striking resemblance to the promises that friendly voice makes while the customer is on hold: “Your call is important to us. We place the customer front and center in everything we do.”).

Those annual reports look polished and perfect. Unfortunately, if you have a chance for a few off-the-record conversations, you’ll likely discover layer-upon-layer of frustrating, bureaucratic red tape. From an outsider’s point-of-view — this represents a complete lack of common sense. By “common sense,” I mean seeing things as they are and doing things as they ought to be done.

Or, said another way: To treat consumers and employees as you would expect to be treated.

The Impact of a Loss of Common Sense

Consider the global shipping company that brought me on to explore their surprisingly low Net Promoter Score (NPS) customer satisfaction rate. I was perplexed to find that the call center categorized every complaint as resulting from force majeure. Every single complaint. This made it impossible for customers to make insurance claims for damaged goods. I discovered that leadership evaluated the call center staff in terms of efficiency (time per call) rather than customer satisfaction. Clicking the force majeure button required the employee to fill out just one page, while any other option required three or more pages. Of course, they clicked force majeure.

Or how about the international company that required staff, before they could jump on a plane, to fill out a travel form for approval. Fair enough, you may say, until you learn that the form was set to auto-reset in 12 hours if approval didn’t come through. Slightly tricky, considering that most senior management works from Asia headquarters. With a 12-hour time difference, you’d stand better chances surviving Duck, duck, goose than getting your trip approved.

Lack of Empathy = Loss of Common Sense

Bureaucracy, red tape, and bad excuses have reached an all-time high. And with technology infiltrating every crack in every business — and now at home, too, piped straight into our home offices — something fundamental has vanished: empathy. Yes, I know: Empathy isn’t at home in the business world. Most executives tend to associate empathy with crying children and cupcakes. But don’t forget. Empathy is our ability to place ourselves in another person’s shoes and feel what that person is feeling. It’s sharing the customer’s pain when their case is labeled force majeure, or relating to your employee’s frustration when they still don’t have permission to travel to an important meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

In fact, I’ve come to realize that a lack of empathy typically means limited common sense within the organization. It leaves one wondering: Is this at all reparable? In the business world, can we restore common sense?

Time to Establish The Ministry of Common Sense

That’s what I wondered until, while working with Standard Chartered Bank, one of the world’s largest banks, I had a eureka! moment. One of the bank’s staff members told me: What we need is a Ministry of Common Sense. Her suggestion was pure common sense! The bank needed a place whose mandate was to receive internal issues — and solve them.

Two months later, Standard Charter opened its brand-new Ministry of Common Sense. It had its supporters, but it also garnered a lot of laughs. Who on earth would submit their common sense issues? Even worse, who would solve them?

Working in culture transformation for nearly 20 years, I’ve learned that we find solutions within the organization itself. The only thing required is a little kid to shout, “But the emperor’s not wearing any clothes!” People just need help removing their blinders and releasing themselves from their straitjackets.

For sure, they did at Standard Chartered. First in the hundreds, then in the thousands, common sense issues arrived at the ministry’s website. But it didn’t stop there. Solutions arrived, too. Employees ensured they provided every common sense issue with a solution, capable of almost immediately solving the problem. For instance, the person who received 800 emails a day and suggested the company remove the CC and Reply All functions from Outlook. Simple common sense. Email traffic dropped in half.

Or how about another company that set up a ministry, resulting in the company banning PowerPoint presentations. Wasted time dropped by 21% — and people actually began to talk to each other.

Not So Common

Through my work, I’ve come to realize: Common sense is not actually all that common.

I’m not saying that every company needs to set up a ministry of common sense. But one thing is for sure. Adopting empathy — seeing the world through the eyes of customers and other employees — is a huge part of the solution. By seeing the world from another point-of-view, you’ll be able to spot and remove one stupidity – and one moment of insanity – at a time.

You’ll be able to remove your straitjacket while rebuilding a strong company culture that puts employees and customers first. You’ll enable a return to common sense.

Named by Time magazine as one of the world’s most influential people, NYT bestselling author Martin Lindstrom’s latest book, The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), is out today, January 19, 2021!

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How The Best Employers Will Support Employee Health in 2021

January 18, 2021/Employee Well-Being, Healthcare and Benefits /by Devin Partida

As 2021 begins, human resources professionals are well-positioned to consider the actions they can take this year to help employees stay healthy. Here are five excellent ways employers will support employee health in 2021…

1. Investigate Opportunities to Relieve Stress

Keeping stress levels down at work can go a long way in helping people stay healthy. Some of the go-to stress-relieving activities include having on-site yoga and meditation sessions. While those can be beneficial, experts clarify that such activities alone are not sufficient.

It’s time for an all-encompassing approach concerning managing organizational changes, ensuring employees have what they need to excel in their roles and that they can adequately handle their workloads. Such aspects can keep stress levels low without sacrificing output. As people feel less stressed, their productivity will often rise, too.

Creating an atmosphere where people feel comfortable enough to admit feeling stressed is equally vital. For example, in a workplace where managers value high performance, people may worry that speaking up about feeling stressed due to their workload may lead to accusations that they are falling behind compared to colleagues.

2. Show Support During Mental Health Struggles

The COVID-19 pandemic called more attention to mental health struggles. Even for those who didn’t contract the virus, the worry and extra responsibilities associated with the global health threat caused additional burdens. Women bore the brunt of these societal issues.

A recent global Deloitte poll of working women showed that 39% noticed worsened mental health during the pandemic. Moreover, 75% said they experienced increased caregiving responsibilities, and a third reported a heavier general workload.

Regardless of a person’s gender and situation, employers should strive to stay sensitive to and aware of any possible mental health difficulties. They can support employees by modeling good self-care and encouraging workers to take breaks when overwhelmed, for example. Educating employees about the diversity and prevalence of mental health difficulties also helps decrease associated stigmas.

3. Help Employees Understand the Specifics of Their Health Coverage

Usually, people who receive health insurance through their employees either participate in traditionally fully insured or self-funded plans. Research shows that, of the approximately 150 million Americans who receive health insurance through employers, 61% do so through self-funded or partially self-funded plans. One of the main differences in the types is that self-funded plans involve paying the employer for coverage instead of a carrier.

Regardless of how an employee receives coverage, they may not understand the extent of associated benefits — especially newly available perks. During the pandemic, AXA Asia — part of a global insurance brand — expanded its free telehealth service to help approximately 6.5 million people. Some providers also have specialty content that helps people learn more about diagnoses, treatments, and preventive measures.

Human resources professionals should consider sending weekly tips about policy features or suggestions to help them get more out of the coverage. A company-wide email could be one effective option.

4. Cultivate a Workplace Wellness Culture

Many company decision-makers mistakenly believe that implementing a few minor changes is enough to create and maintain a workplace wellness culture. However, getting genuine, lasting results requires a more concentrated effort that relies on employee input.

Asking employees what they need and want will likely get better results than providing them with packaged, one-size-fits-all health solutions. For example, giving a gym membership to someone who’s intensely uncomfortable with the thought of exercising in public. Aske what they need, and you will probably get the desired results.

People responsible for improving or starting an employee wellness program should explore ways to reach people where they are, which means understanding that everyone has different goals and definitions of wellness.

5. Teach Employees to Avoid Health Scams

Learning to spot phishing scams is often part of workplace cybersecurity training. It’s indispensable now, since many scammers ramped up their efforts to take advantage of the unusual circumstances caused by COVID-19. Most people living through the pandemic have never dealt with something like this before. The associated uncertainty, coupled with the desire to stay well during these challenging times, makes some people more likely to fall for health-related scams.

In one recent example, cybercriminals created a fake version of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service website. It explained that people had to provide bank details for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility. To make matters worse, many older and vulnerable people living in the United Kingdom can get vaccinated soon and were likely not surprised to get emailed details about applying for a vaccination date. Health authorities confirmed they would never ask for residents’ bank details, however.

Employers should consider how incorporating health scam awareness into employee education could boost wellness. Suppose a person gets their bank account depleted after falling for a scam. In that case, they could go through extraordinary anxiety, periods of depression, and difficulties in getting essential items.

Employee Health: Input Must Guide Changes

These five tips encourage employers to think about how they can help employees stay healthier in 2021. However, it’s ideal if employee feedback shapes change to existing wellness efforts or entirely new initiatives.

Once employers see what workers need, want, and are likely to participate in, they increase their likelihood of bringing meaningful and sustainable results to support employee health. Moreover, workers will see organizational leaders consider their values. When that happens, they feel heard and appreciated, positively impacting morale and overall participation rates.

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How Talent Development Makes a Positive Impact on Your Business

January 12, 2021/Career Development, Employee Experience, HR Strategy /by Jori Hamilton

The success of any business is not just reliant upon the efforts of leadership. To truly thrive, companies need skilled and committed employees. This certainly means that human resources and management need to apply resources to discovering and attracting the best possible talent. But their attention shouldn’t stop once onboarding is complete. Those efforts must include deliberate talent development.

Talent development is the process through which companies continue to invest in their employees beyond base salary payments and benefits. As one recent study shows, a company culture that nurtures employees directly impacts the bottom line. Not least of which regards the costs of turnover: that 94% of employees would stay with a company if it were willing to invest in their learning and development.

Let’s explore some areas an effective talent development process directly impacts, and methods you can use to capitalize on them.

Performance

Talent development is not only the key to retaining employees; it can also be instrumental in improving performance. This doesn’t just mean that your attention to their growth results in greater productivity — although that certainly occurs by acquiring new skills and understanding of productivity techniques. However, when your employees see you’re making efforts to support their growth, they tend to be more engaged with the efficient operation of the business.

As a result, performance should be a guiding element of your talent development program. This begins with a commitment to meaningful performance reviews. We don’t mean a simple analysis of how the employee has functioned that year. Instead, there need to be discussions in which the aim is to guide employee growth. Direct the dialogue, not toward areas of failure, but identifying training opportunities. Don’t just dictate your needs; work with them to discover what they would like to learn, too. Discuss opportunities for promotion, and how you can plot a road map together that can get them there. These conversations strengthen relationships and naturally lead to more opportunities for talent development.

Performance targeted talent development is also not necessarily an individual act. It also presents opportunities for employees to work together to create a positive working environment, resulting in improved overall performance. Encourage departments to learn what motivates them as a team and as individuals. Understand how to adjust the workplace and its practices to be more mutually beneficial. Provide them with responsibility here, approaching it as a project with requisite planning and analysis. Not only will they feel more connected to the business, but they also gain in-demand project management skills.

Innovation

One of the main errors a business can make is becoming stagnant. In the digital age, the world frequently changes. That often means that to retain the competitive edge, we must innovate. Talent development can introduce employees to new skills and new ways of thinking about the challenges they face – and overcoming them. As such, it is an essential element in building a sustainable culture of innovation within your company.

So, how do you approach the talent development process with innovation in mind?

Company Insight

Provide them with opportunities to better understand the company; what it’s good at, and the not so good. This can include shadowing leadership, attending meetings, and being encouraged to ask questions (and being given honest answers). This helps the growth of new corporate operations skills and incentivizes deeper engagement within the company.

Diversity

Innovation requires access to multiple perspectives and experiences. Studies show that companies that prioritize diversity tend to perform better than their more monocultural competitors. So your talent development program must commit to nurturing diversity. Undoubtedly, part of this approach is ensuring a range of voices has opportunities to work with you. However, it’s also about encouraging those in the program to value diverse perspectives and adjust their own viewpoints accordingly.

Curiosity

Helping employees follow their curiosity, both within and outside of the business, is a cornerstone of talent development. Give employees opportunities to train with other departments and company time to work on personal projects. Add coaching to ensure employees feel guided and supported. By giving them space to explore and experiment, and encourage them even when they fail, you provide the tools necessary to contribute to innovation — and the confidence to experiment.

Loyalty

One of the greatest assets for any business is loyalty. Employees who feel connected to and supported by their company are more likely to stick with them in the long run. Loyalty isn’t about simple retention, though; it also means a dedication to the company’s ideals and becoming leaders who embody them. Employee development helps to both guide this process and reinforces the reasons why they should maintain their commitment. So your talent development program must begin at onboarding.

Use the tools of the process to set expectations. For instance, in your employee handbook, make it clear there is a commitment to engaging in talent development, and why it is essential. Outline the support methods — mentoring, coaching, reviews — and how this affects the potential for progression. By emphasizing your company cares about them and their growth early, it immediately plants the seed that there are incentives to mutual commitment.

This same attention has to be consistent throughout their time with the company. Not in an overbearing, micromanaging sense. Instead, talent development must be about the company and the employee working together to ensure the growth of each. Make continued efforts to understand what they need, and they will be more likely to do the same for your company.

What’s Your Approach to Talent Development?

Talent development goes further than talent management. It demonstrates a commitment to helping employees grow in directions that they are also keen to explore.

Design your program to empower workers to improve their performance, become innovative thinkers and loyal contributors. Though this often takes a significant investment of time and capital, the long-term returns are culturally and economically significant.

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Our Now Normal: Why is There No Culture Button in Microsoft Teams?

January 11, 2021/Company Culture, Pandemic and Post-Pandemic /by Martin Lindstrom

In our now normal, company culture seems to have taken a back seat to… well, everything else. So how do we retain our best talent?

Statistics tell us that 2020 was “the year of productivity.” As the world of business moved all its staff into their bedrooms, efficiency levels skyrocketed. Gone were those unproductive hours in the air, on the road, in the canteen, and at conferences. They were replaced by an endless stream of back-to-back Zoom meetings, with hardly a minute left for a toilet break or a single creative thought. Instead, we belong to the next Outlook notification: “Reminder: Microsoft Teams meeting: 15 minutes.”

But I’d suggest that while quantifiable productivity rose in 2020, company culture went into free fall. Not an especially big deal, one might argue, as business owners found themselves caught in limbo between panic and delight. While bent over backward, they watched the bottom line swell while transportation and real estate costs plummeted.

Ironically, this new reality might spell the end of the very concept of the corporation. At the very least, it raises a truly fundamental question. One that millions of employees are secretly asking themselves behind closed doors…

Why bother working for a corporation?

Our Now Normal

Here’s the issue. As employees dropped like flies, cut loose throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the fata morgana of a “permanent job” showed its true colors: a nice idea, but with very little solid underpinning. Instead, employers rewarded employees with an unexpected bonus, a pipeline of bureaucracy channeled straight into their bedrooms. Forget about the separation of private life and work life in our now normal. Many families found themselves with multiple family members juggling multiple conference calls while simultaneously handling the baby and the toddler, the dog, the cooking, the cleaning. And in return? They heard that their salaries might be reduced, since their remote work took place in a low cost-of-living area.

Friday afternoon happy hours were a thing of the past, along with birthday songs, late afternoon hangouts, company parties, and townhalls. In their place, you guessed it: another Zoom meeting.

Some have realized that maybe it’s time to rethink the workplace. Or at least how they fulfilled their role in the workplace. Perhaps it’s time to go freelance. Not a big difference when you think about it. No concerns about distance, or the fear of receiving notice, or the monotonous workday. For many of the most highly skilled people, it won’t take very much convincing.

What is Next?

In the aftermath of COVID-19, with countries like China, Korea, Taiwan, and Australia finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, there’s been a dramatic surge in such search terms as “personal branding.”

Here’s the situation. Many employees are coming to the conclusion that a future working for one employer simply does not make sense. Instead, now they’re building their personal brand, making contacts, attracting business, and offering their services to the world at large.

I’d argue that we’re reaching the tipping point, at which the very idea of working for a corporation no longer makes sense. Why bother fighting a never-ending stream of politics, bureaucracy, red tape, rules, and regulations when you can keep a nice arm’s length from all of them? How does a good night’s sleep sound, without the constant worry of losing your job?

In sales, they say it costs ten times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. It’s at least that much in the case of employees, but most companies seem to have forgotten that fact.

Investing in Culture

Which brings me back to the beginning, when I observed that Microsoft didn’t pre-install a “culture button” in Teams: As a leader, that’s your role – not Microsoft’s (or Zoom’s, or Google’s). It’s your job to start focusing on your organization’s culture. That money saved in rent and travel costs? That money doesn’t belong to the bottom line. The truth is, it belongs to a bleeding culture in crisis.

Now is the time to reinvent what culture means. As managers and leaders, we need to be aware that many of our employees ask themselves, “Why should I, as an employee, stick with a company when the only connection I have is through the internet?”

As managers and leaders navigating our now normal, we need to ask ourselves: How can we reinvent the sort of culture that leads our best people to decide to stay with us?

To learn more about Martin’s new book, please visit MartinLindstrom.com/Ministry-of-CommonSense.

Photo by Roman Samborsky

How to Restructure Your Hiring Process for Fit Rather Than Vacancy

January 7, 2021/Hiring and Retention, HR Strategy /by Jan Bednar

Few things frustrate business leaders more than a failed new hire. And yet, chances are your hiring process still focuses on filling a vacancy instead of finding a good culture fit.

Think about it: Finding the perfect candidate for a job takes much time, energy, and money. So it is incredibly frustrating for a new hire to leave the company before recouping the investment. According to a Leadership IQ study, 46% of new hires either move on or get fired within their first 18 months on the job — and only 19% rate as an unequivocal success.

Those are certainly discouraging statistics. Often, our hiring considerations are so focused on assessing competency (i.e., “Can the candidate do this job?”) that we overlook chemistry (i.e., “Is the candidate a good cultural fit?”). When we take a utilitarian approach to the hiring process, we consider what’s on the résumé, identify the most technically proficient candidate, and then hire them.

Our long-standing hiring processes trap companies in a never-ending cycle of hiring the wrong people for the same position — all while wearing out existing team members with the start-and-stop nature of the process. That is why I approach hiring holistically, going beyond technical abilities to look at how a candidate’s personality will fit within the company’s cultural scope.

The Best Hiring Process: Find Candidates Who Fit the Culture

When my company started, it was just me, my girlfriend, and a few friends. We all trusted and felt comfortable with each other, so there was zero trepidation when making decisions and getting stuff done. When tensions did arise, it was because we’re all passionate people committed to success.

To be clear, finding a good culture fit doesn’t mean hiring people you want to grab a beer with after work (though it doesn’t preclude that). It means restructuring your hiring process from the ground up to look for more than just technical proficiency. Here are three ways to begin that process.

1. Create a “Personality Profile” of Current Employees

A few years ago, my company was in a rush to fill a management spot in our customer service department. After sifting through piles of résumés, we hired one of the first and most qualified applicants we found. A few months (and a few dissatisfied customers) later, the hire wasn’t working out — and stunted our projected growth.

The moral of this story? Get to know your employees and find out their likes, dislikes, similarities, and differences. You’ll likely start to see trends, and you can use that information to direct your company forward. This doesn’t mean every hire has to be exactly like the people already on your team. But forming a “personality profile” of your current staff will help you see blind spots or biases you can keep in mind as you bring on new hires.

2. Take a Sledgehammer to Your Current Hiring Process

Does your hiring process value chemistry and know how to find it? I’m not talking about silly concepts like “the “long flight test.” There are plenty of people I love hanging out with who wouldn’t fit in at our company. Likewise, you can probably think of people in your organization who are great at their jobs but honestly drive you a little crazy on a personal level.

Take your organization’s personality profile and intentionally apply it to every step of your hiring process. Look at the interviews that led to your best hires. What common themes emerge? How can you look for those same traits in a strategic, intentional way?

One way we’ve put this into practice at our company is through group interviews. This process lets our company’s DNA shine through, and it allows us to observe how the candidate aligns (or clashes) with our current culture and operating system.

3. Rethink What (And How) You’re Asking

According to Leadership IQ, only 11% of hires fail because they lack competency. With this kind of discrepancy, it’s probably best if the current method of interviewing — see a résumé, select a candidate — undergoes an overhaul.

That isn’t to say that companies should completely ignore competency. Instead, dedicate interview time to how candidates felt about their previous work experiences and what they liked or didn’t like about those jobs. Look at each potential hire’s analytical and problem-solving skills. Spend assessing their interpersonal dynamics. Get a read on how potential hires operate and be bluntly honest with them about your organization’s personality profile. Finally, ask for stories about how they’ve operated before in work environments like yours.

This is not a one-time restructuring of your hiring process.

Keep everything that works for you, and learn from any hires who don’t pan out. Along the way, you’ll begin finding candidates who didn’t rise to the top of the list based on competency alone but who intrinsically gel with your organization. These are the people who last, build synergy with those around them, and become invaluable pieces of your organization’s future.

Photo by Wirestock

HR Challenges: How to Connect, Recognize and Support Employees

January 5, 2021/Company Culture, Employee Experience, HR Strategy, Remote Work /by Robert Hicks

We’re all ready to say goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021. But even though a new calendar year has started, some of our HR challenges are likely to stay with us into the new year. Those challenges include how to best support employees not just in 2021 but in the years ahead.

The reality is that employees are tired and stressed; many are on the verge of employee burnout. HR and People professionals are feeling it too. In a recent survey of 751 HR leaders, 71% agree that 2020 has been the most stressful year of their careers.

Even as we move forward and look toward a better 2021, one of the biggest HR challenges remains: How can organizations best connect, recognize, and support their people as they lead them through this ever-changing, unpredictable environment?

A Focus on Digital Transformation

The data from the survey mentioned above shows just how important this question is to most organizations. Specifically, professionals elaborated on the biggest HR challenges ahead:

When HR leaders have the tools they need at their fingertips, they have more time to focus on strategic initiatives; they spend less time dealing with administrative burdens. With a customized employee engagement platform, HR leaders can do more with less and make a more significant impact company-wide.

This is a win-win for their people, too. After all, these platforms provide a centralized place for employees to find vital company updates and help them stay connected to their colleagues. And they ensure stability in their sometimes unstable environments.

Making the shift to digital and modernizing your toolkit will set your business up for success in 2021. In a short time, digital solutions will leave you better equipped to face whatever challenges may come next.

Fostering Deeper Connections

Unsurprisingly, as many move into the tenth month of temporary remote work, people feel less connected. During these uncertain times and long periods of isolation, reinforcing your company’s mission, purpose, and values are even more critical.

With a dedicated employee communications tool, you can foster a sense of belonging and unity by sharing updates from various teams or leaders that your people need to hear from. For example, here at Reward Gateway, our CEO Doug Butler posts a weekly blog called “Mission Mondays.” Our people can comment on and react to that post, which helps build connections, boost visibility, and create a sense of community.

These updates are available on any device, at any time. That way, people can read them on their own schedules, whether that’s before their morning coffee, during a work break, or after the kids go to bed.

Keeping Workplace Culture Alive

Boosting morale for remote workers has always been important. And it’s no surprise leaders and co-workers must show appreciation for the hard work of employees. This is especially true now as employees may not be getting in-person contact with their colleagues or manager. Digital tools are also helping organizations improve workplace culture and reward and recognition programs across dispersed team members and support employees.

With an employee reward and recognition platform, HR leaders can spotlight all the excellent work happening across the company – even when others don’t get to see it every day. As shown below, available real-time analytics help HR teams know which departments are sending the most recognition. They also know which ones could use some extra appreciation, which helps boost collaboration and creates a culture of gratitude – even while working remotely.

The need to combat employee burnout and stress isn’t going away overnight. In 2021 and beyond, we’ll need to find better ways to connect dispersed employees. An improved reward and recognition program isn’t going to happen organically. But with the right tools, leaders can better face the HR challenges ahead. Specifically, they can connect, recognize, and support their people to set their organizations up for success in 2021.

To learn more about how Reward Gateway can help you future-proof your organization, get in touch today.

Photo by Narith Thongphasuk

Why We Shouldn’t Completely Deride or Discount 2020

January 4, 2021/HR Strategy, Leadership, Pandemic and Post-Pandemic /by Vikas Dua

Ask anybody: last year wasn’t ideal. But perhaps we shouldn’t completely discount 2020 just yet.

When the ball dropped above Times Square at the very end of 2019, the world welcomed 2020 with much joy and hope. No one then would have probably imagined how our lives were going to be turned upside down in a matter of months. Ever since the coronavirus began spreading from Tokyo to Toronto, it seems many of us have been playing catch up.

From figuring out how the virus was spreading to how one could protect oneself, to how to conquer it, the pandemic took over our lives. The downstream impact on the economy turned out to be equally, if not more, painful for the public at large. Falling revenues and job cuts tended to go hand in hand for many of the industries impacted by the disease – both directly and indirectly. Given this global reality, it isn’t surprising to see memes on social platforms that showcase the despair many still feel. Nor is it surprising to see so many companies and communities struggle to navigate post-pandemic realities.

While this is understandable, I submit: Let us not wholly deride or discount 2020.

After, all there is so much we have learned about ourselves – and each other – this past year.

Learning How Resilient We Are

In recent times, communities have faced the ravages of the pandemic head-on. Healthcare workers took on the onus of leading the charge; they became our first line of defense. As patients overran hospitals at the same time those facilities ran out of critical medical equipment and supplies, engineers innovated to keep the supply lines moving.

Such innovation enabled 58 Gin, a UK based boutique liquor brand to make hand sanitizers and support the fightback. Similarly, in India, the R&D team at automaker Mahindra’s plant was able to develop a life-saving ‘ambu bag.’ In just 48 hours at a price point of under one hundred dollars, they helped meet the acute shortage of ventilators. In myriad ways, people’s resilience showed we were not going to cave in to our unseen enemy.

Learning More Deeply About Ourselves

Forced to reduce our outdoor activities and limit our footprint, many of us got a chance to press the ‘pause’ button. We received the gift of more time with ourselves and our loved ones. In the process, we gained a deeper realization of our true selves. From understanding the futility of extravagant celebrations to a change in shopping patterns, we moved ahead in a more sustainable way – for ourselves and the planet.

This year, on Cyber Monday, online sales increased at less than half the projected rate, growing 15.1%. As our countries start opening up, we will witness some ‘revenge’ behavior when it comes to shopping or travel. But there is no doubt that a large number of us have recalibrated our lifestyle going forward.

Learning to Value Others More

If there is one visual of 2020 imprinted in our minds and hearts representative of the year, it is the image of grateful people on their balconies, singing songs of praise for our frontline workers. These first responders put themselves in between us and the virus to help save lives, even as they put their own lives at risk. People across the board realized and acknowledged their efforts.

Once the initial heartfelt act of gratitude went viral, others replicated the demonstration of appreciation in cities worldwide. We learned it isn’t race, gender, economic status, or even ‘follower count’ that defines someone’s true worth. Instead, it is their true value to society.

Learning How Nature is Capable of Revival

As COVID-19 forced us to lock down our cities, close our skies, and shutter down our factories, nature got a much-deserved chance to heal. Research by Science Direct establishes that “vital environmental changes have occurred during COVID-19 lockdown.” We’ve gained cleaner waters and purer air; even the noise level has been reduced by 35 to 68% all over the world.

In many cases, environmental scientists were able to benefit from the lockdown. For example, in New Delhi (consistently one of the ‘Most Polluted Cities of the World), they were able to determine the baseline levels of pollution. This much-needed metric will clearly aid the design of policies to better control pollution in the near future.

Learning How to Open Our Hearts to Others

DC resident Rahul Dubey won millions of hearts, not only in his home state but across the world, in 2020. At a critical moment, with police armed with tear gas bearing down, the 44-year-old welcomed more than 70 strangers into his home. Those strangers had gathered in the street to protest the shooting of George Floyd. But soon, their peaceful protest was anything but peaceful.

By opening his doors, he undoubtedly saved dozens of people from a potential stampede and further escalation of conflict. His noble act not only ensured his inclusion in Time Magazine’s Heroes of 2020 list, but it also confirmed to us that not all heroes wear capes.

Resist Temptation to Discount 2020

Despite all the strife we have witnessed in 2020, the year gave us many moments worthy of our gratitude. These moments, of course, do not bring back lost loved ones or livelihoods. But they do signal the fact that, as a species, we are built of strong mettle. And that by continuing to join hands, we will come out stronger on the other side of this virus. And anything else that comes at us.

So, please…

Do not deride all of last year. Do not discount all that happened in 2020! Instead, as you look forward to a more hopeful 2021, be grateful for all we’ve learned!

Photo by VivilWeb

Futurecasting: 7 World of Work Trends We’ll See in 2021

December 23, 2020/Company Culture, DEI Diversity Equity Inclusion, Employee Experience, Employee Well-Being, Healthcare and Benefits, Hiring and Retention, HR Strategy, Leadership, Pandemic and Post-Pandemic, Remote Work /by Meghan M. Biro

Futurecasting is sometimes akin to looking into the sky and trying to connect the stars. As we look ahead to the future this time, though, we know the direction we’re going. We know where the prominent work trends are taking us.

The pressures and complexities of 2020 and the pandemic forced an awakening. The innovation developed, creativity demonstrated, and momentum generated since that global reckoning has been so strong, there’s no turning around now; we’ll never go back to the way it was. So the tools and strategies we’ve leaned on throughout the pandemic will continue to redefine how we work in 2021.

With that in mind, here are seven key work trends that will continue to make their mark this coming year…

1. Remote Working

As an option, a necessity, a perk, and an official policy, remote working is here to stay. It’s a classic example of “if you build it, they will come.” And the many employees (and their managers) who have now experienced the ability to function remotely and now know the advantages remote work brings won’t want to go back.

As companies scale back on real estate spends (sorry realtors), remote working is a way to maintain a large workforce on a tighter budget. So we’ll see countless organizations following the path of big tech firms who have pledged to keep their employees remote for the time being — if, of course, they can accomplish the job and responsibilities without the need for a shared physical workspace. Once again, big tech is leading the way and disrupting the status quo. Only this time, it’s not transformative leadership creating the change; it’s the technology itself.

2. New Hires, New Experiences

For new hires (and particularly for Generation Z), that traditional rite of passage of joining a workplace and learning a whole new set of behavioral and social norms isn’t going to be as prevalent. This wholly digital generation has already changed the way we experience technology. Now, they’ll help us usher in a whole new way to enter the workplace. Soon, we’ll come to know this new wave of hires as the “remote generation” (or “hybrid generation”).

The brand-new job experience will not have the same impact as it did past generations. We don’t yet know how younger hires will feel about the value of that experience or workplace culture. But we will — and soon. The difference here: The 2021 work culture will be digital in nature. So the experience will not be as sharp a contrast as going from the classroom to the world of work.

3. Video Conferencing

Video conferencing has become the de facto way we meet. It has become so ubiquitous in the workplace that “to Zoom” is now a verb.

Zoom may have been the frontrunner. But there are plenty of existing competitors and new visual collaboration platforms that will help how we work together evolve. After all, this is a very hot aspect of HR technology and will undoubtedly continue to be one of the most dominant work trends. So I predict increasing capabilities to communicate just as effectively over mobile as we once did face-to-face. I also see better ways to archive and transcribe our video-based conversations and more ways to extend the work done via videoconference to teams and stakeholders.

4. Upskilling

In 2021, we will see a big shift from hiring being the primary driver of increasing an organization’s capabilities to upskilling existing talent. Organizations that had to tighten their hiring budgets after sustained buffeting from 2020 and the pandemic will shift resources into training and development. Those that did just fine despite economic turbulence — in industries that actually grew during 2020 — will be adding a robust reskilling and upskilling program to their HR strategy.

The bottom line for everyone is that institutional knowledge is critical for maintaining continuity and weathering a crisis. Upskilling existing employees will become known as a smart way to hold onto that intelligence while evolving skills to meet new challenges. Upskilling will become a business imperative.

5. Mental Health

Without question, our mental health has become an enormous issue. A recent report by Monster revealed a whopping 69% of employees working from home experience severe burnout. It’s not that working from home is particularly hard on everyone by itself. But the rush to remote without an underlying culture and infrastructure — and without an end-game being defined — has caused some stress.

Because one of the key triggers of burnout is mistreatment by supervisors and managers, we’re learning about the importance of setting boundaries and doing frequent check-ins. Many of us are also making sure our people have access to the mental health benefits they need. To help us continue this critical work trend, we’ll soon see even more apps that help with emotional and mental well-being (such as a meditation app and a mindfulness training tool). And we’ll see more forward-thinking companies providing these practical and widely-available tools as part of their overall well-being programs.

6. Inclusive Cultures

Diversity is critical to every aspect of the workplace — and organizations need to do better. So we’ll see a lot more leaders focusing on how to improve a sense of belonging in their organizations, as well as some authentic soul-searching as we dive into legacies such as systemic racism.

Our timing couldn’t be better. Currently, 70% of job seekers in a survey by the Manifest say they consider a company’s commitment to diversity when evaluating them as a prospective employer. But diversity in terms of hiring and promotions is only one part of the equation. Companies must pay attention to their work cultures, gauge how truly inclusive they are now, and then work to close the gap between what is and what should be. This is perhaps the mother of all work trends and will play a critical role next year. Because in 2021, organizations are not going to be able to get away with a performative statement or symbolic gestures. If you truly believe in equality — if you genuinely believe black lives matter, for example — you’re going to have to show it.

7. Empathetic People Management

Let me add a few words to the phrase above: “empathetic people management… for the right reasons.”

The pre-pandemic talent crunch triggered many reflective moments around how to better conduct HR and talent management. The goal for many companies is to be perceived as a better employer brand and to successfully engage and retain your people. That’s all well and good. But we’re not in a talent crunch right now.

Yet between February and October 2020, some 2.2 million women in the U.S. left their jobs. Overwhelmed, undersupported, and stressed out, many women — particularly working mothers — reached a tipping point and gave up. That’s an incredible talent drain. When they come back to work, they’re going to look for companies that set up the structures that truly support their people through empathetic people management for all the right reasons.

Looking Ahead to 2021

2020’s silver lining is that we’d been stubbornly dancing around what was truly important in the workplace — and to the workforce. We were forced to reckon with real-time discoveries in an authentic way. So we now know exactly what lies between us and where we want to go. We’ll bring that wisdom, and these work trends, to 2021.

This welcome knowledge, together with knowing we have better tools and a clearer vision of what must come next than we’ve ever had before, brings me to my final bit of futurecasting…

2021 will be the year HR once again finds its soul.

In 2021 and beyond, we will take better care of our people — and each other.

Photo by Cateyeperspective

The Remote Era: 6 Ways to Cultivate a Strong Company Culture

December 22, 2020/Company Culture, Remote Work /by Sean Hoff

In the remote era, where face-to-face meetings aren’t routinely possible, how do you cultivate a strong company culture?

Before the global health crisis hit, our experiential travel company, Moniker, planned creative corporate retreats, off-sites, and incentive trips for clients worldwide. Think ‘Amazing Race’ using tuk-tuks in Thailand or sailing on the Amalfi Coast. Or maybe hosting a game of ‘Survivor’ on the beaches of a Caribbean resort. Things changed rather quickly when global travel restrictions started piling up back in April. Soon, all (literally, all) of our clients began to cancel one-by-one until what initially looked like a banner year of sales and growth for our company became one chilling glare at a giant zero for the rest of 2020.

The Eureka Moment: Company Culture

As the old saying goes…

“Out of crisis comes clarity.”

As the situation unfolded, we realized what we were to our clients beforehand wasn’t a travel company. Instead, we were a one-stop-shop for them to outsource culture-building experience(s). We were co-architects of their company culture. As companies moved into a remote-work setup, engagement became more of a challenge. So, clients would lean on us to boost morale. We would help them maintain strong engagement and keep their teamwork and company culture strong in a remote world.

We decided to create a limited series of nine virtual concepts over six months, from scratch. With no prior experience, no existing product, and quite frankly no idea of how to do it, we crossed over the $100,000 sales milestone in a short span of three months. Now, after seven months, we have just crossed the $1 million mark. Along the way, we’ve learned several things both large and small companies can do to engage employees, jump-start team (re)building, and cultivate strong team cultures in the new remote-work era:

1) Shared Team Experiences

It could be as simple as introducing a company-wide, at-home fitness challenge. Perhaps rewarding employees or teams when they meet critical deadlines or hit work milestones works in your company. Or maybe facilitating a bi-weekly virtual ‘Coffee Chat’ so the group can discuss a book or movie everyone has watched. An optional after-hours ‘Cooking Club,’ where people can learn new recipes and techniques from colleagues with different culinary backgrounds, was quite well-received.

Whatever you choose, finding new ways to get people participating in something outside of work helps foster a strong sense of camaraderie. Don’t be afraid to get partners and children involved either. After all, involving employees’ families creates a more personal connection to their colleagues and positively impacts team morale.

2) WFH Swag

Gone are the days of getting dressed up for work or attending meetings with company-branded stationery. The reality is that most of us in the work-from-home setup have embraced a much more casual approach to work attire and have carved out a little niche in our homes as our new office space. We’ve also gotten wise to “below-the-screen” (vs. “on-camera”) wardrobe, where comfort is king.

Consider getting everyone some premium-quality, company-branded jogger sweatpants, Or maybe comfy indoor shoes, or a ‘go-to’ work top for team meetings and client-facing calls (a black crewneck sweater with your logo works well). Not only is this swag practical, but you’re also taking some of the thought out of what to wear to “work” each morning.

3) Non-Traditional Rewards

Just as appreciated as physical items and gifts, non-tangible rewards are another great way to let employees know they are valued. Acknowledge hard work or major milestone achievements with a day off for everyone. Or give teams some flexibility with the option of starting later one day or shutting down the laptop early on Fridays around the upcoming holiday season.

It’s also important to acknowledge that working from home comes with its own set of challenges. The reality is, even after several months of experience, some remote workers struggle to separate their work lives from their personal lives. Show you understand this problem by encouraging them to take a vacation (even if it is just a staycation). Then respect that time by leaving them alone during their PTO.

4) Ask for More Frequent Feedback and Encourage Input

For companies used to providing employee feedback in person, change your approach by engaging employees more frequently. Also, adapt the conversation to a remote-first situation.

Consider introducing quarterly or even monthly “Pulse Checks,” asking about their opinions on work performance or the business and asking for insight into their mental, financial, and physical wellness. Please encourage them to share their thoughts on how they are adapting to the new setup. Ask if there is anything that would help improve their situation (a second screen perhaps?). Finally, solicit ideas on how to improve morale. Most importantly, be upfront and sincere about your willingness to incorporate their input into implementing changes going forward.

5) Virtual Team-Building Activities

In addition to the shared experiences mentioned above, consider hosting monthly or bi-weekly virtual team-building events. During these events, be sure to mix up teams of employees who don’t often work together. Also, introduce a few games to lighten the mood and break up the cycle of daily work.

There are thousands of options out there – a simple Google search will turn up everything from pub quizzes to escape rooms. At-home scavenger hunts and improv comedy classes are popular. Are you feeling more adventurous? NASA-inspired lunar disaster scenarios and virtual murder mysteries can bring teams closer together, even when far apart.

6) Show Appreciation

Unfortunately, we underappreciate the simple gesture of a personal thank-you — a powerful motivator and culture-building tool. According to a Glassdoor survey on workplace retention, 81% of employees work harder when their boss shows appreciation for their work. That is a staggering number for what can be as easy as a personal note of sincere thanks or shout-outs during a team meeting.

Sure, mass messages are an effective means of communicating. But they don’t necessarily come off as thoughtful when used to show appreciation. Instead, opt for a personal phone call or draft individualized messages in Slack or e-mail. In the process, show you’re paying attention by point out the specific contributions made by the employee. This gesture often leads to significantly higher productivity and engagement down the road.

As we adapt to the remote-work era, these are several ways companies can show appreciation and boost morale. For more ideas on building strong cultures in a virtual world, check out Moniker’s blog here.

Photo by Yurolaitsalbert

How to Provide Constructive Feedback That Improves Performance

December 17, 2020/Company Culture, Employee Experience, Leadership /by Chad Reid

For previous generations of workers, employer feedback too often consisted of some variation of “Don’t screw up!” But in today’s workforce, employees need and want a lot more detail. They seek constructive feedback that helps them correct their weaknesses and further prepares them for long-term professional growth.

However, not all feedback is created equal. There are significant differences between destructive and constructive feedback, but they aren’t as apparent as you might think. Some managers believe constructive feedback means sugar-coating while destructive feedback means blunt rudeness — neither of which is correct. It’s difficult to say why this misconception persists, but HR teams need to reframe that line of thinking.

Constructive Feedback and Performance

When you know how to provide useful feedback to employees, you create the conditions for higher engagement, satisfaction levels, and performance. Destructive feedback has the opposite effect; according to one TriNet study, destructive performance reviews cause 1 in 4 Millennials to call in sick — or look for a new job.

Traditionally, consistent feedback occurs when employees and employers meet for annual performance reviews. During those reviews, the two sides discuss everything from the employee’s performance throughout the year to raises, promotions, or even demotions or termination. The employer would then wait another year before giving the employee additional feedback, and the majority of those meetings would focus on critical evaluation.

Today, more routine and consistent feedback loops have become the norm. Employers maintain open lines of communication and set clear expectations for feedback. They also encourage employees to provide feedback freely and confidently, with some managers holding monthly meetings designed specifically for this purpose.

But these measures alone aren’t enough if employees don’t receive constructive feedback from managers throughout the process. A recent Gallup poll found that only 26% of workers strongly agree that manager feedback on employee performance positively impacts future outcomes.

Useless feedback is as bad as destructive feedback, and it can be demoralizing. This takes a toll on the team and the company, causing employees to lose motivation or leave. Constructive feedback builds up employees instead of bringing them down, and it helps them identify performance gaps in a positive way that doesn’t cause them to feel personally attacked.

Feedback is essential, but it matters how you provide and facilitate that feedback.

HR leaders can use the following tips when coaching management on how to give feedback to employees constructively. The goal: To help them grow and become even greater assets to the organization:

1. Put Feedback on the Schedule

Leaders should not isolate opportunities for feedback, and they shouldn’t blindside employees when those opportunities do come. Some employers offer feedback sessions monthly; others hold them every week. By creating a consistent feedback schedule, you can ensure your team understands and is prepared to meet timelines and expectations.

For example, at the end of 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg livestreamed a one-on-one with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. During the stream, Sandberg revealed that weekly feedback sessions were essential when she began working at Facebook in 2008. Since then, the two C-suite leaders start and end each week with a one-on-one.

2. Uncomplicate the Process

In most businesses, things happen much more rapidly than they did generations ago. This has been especially true over the past ten months or so. Having frequent, regularly scheduled constructive feedback sessions gives managers and employees the chance to get on the same page, even as things change. However, more frequent feedback can also become more complex, and employers will do well to keep the process simple.

HR teams might lend managers a hand by creating a simple online form that employees can use to quickly and easily submit answers. Much like a customer satisfaction survey, completing it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Then, managers can generate a report based on those form answers to share and discuss during the next feedback meeting.

3. Find the Right Cadence

After setting an initial feedback schedule and simplifying the process, HR teams might look at each employee’s desire for feedback to determine individual cadences. Managers in every industry have strayed from the once-a-year performance review model; employees have responded positively to the increased feedback, but not everyone needs to meet every week.

When employees feel micromanaged because evaluations come too frequently, that feedback loses its usefulness. Everyone might agree on weekly feedback sessions at first. But you might consider shifting to biweekly or monthly check-ins if they start to feel like a burden. Work with your team to find the most productive cadence, and be agile enough to change things up.

The distinction between destructive and constructive feedback is in the results. Knowing how to provide effective feedback to employees consistently helps ensure that it’s helpful, engaging, and empowering.

With these tips, HR leaders can help managers draw that distinction more clearly while guiding employees in their growth — and improving their performance.

Photo by Damedeeso

How to Empower Employees Around the Holidays — And Why You Should

December 14, 2020/Company Culture, HR Strategy /by Devin Partida

When the holiday season hits, businesses and workplaces can sometimes get especially busy. Even worse, with all the craziness of the season they can fall into a holiday slump. But even if the holidays have thrown people off, you can still empower employees to be balanced and productive. And, in the long run, it’s better for everyone if you do.

So how do you maintain your business’s health and employee consistency? You empower everyone in your workplace to make the schedule changes and project decisions required to reach their end-of-year goals. This empowerment can be a tremendous motivating factor. It also makes everyone feel more fulfilled, helping your workplace genuinely thrive.

Here are a few ways you can make empowerment happen, and a few reasons why you should.

More Freedom

One of the best ways to encourage your employees to be productive and get things done is to offer more freedom with their schedules and hours. Though this may seem like it will let employees slack, it can actually empower them to get more done and fit work in where they can. Additionally, allowing more leeway around remote working can have the same effect.

Self-Determining Performance Goals

Another great way to empower employees to achieve more around the holiday season is by allowing them to set their own performance goals so they can manage their expectations according to their capabilities.

This autonomy allows more leadership opportunities in your workplace, as employees can encourage each other and self-motivate. This way, people can move at their own pace and perhaps achieve even more than you may have anticipated.

Team Meetings and Connection

Some of the best devices to motivate people and empower them as a team offer connection. Meetings, mixers, and team-related activities can bring people together and remind them of the communal spirit your workplace fosters. It doesn’t even have to be all business — some fun perks can go a long way, as satisfied employees tend to work the best.

Regardless of what you put together, remind people they’re a part of a team, and focus on your collective goals — not just individual objectives. In addition to establishing a focus on purpose, this approach enables a motivated workforce.

Recharging

Another excellent reason for why and how to allow some leeway and freedom during the holidays is enabling your employees to recharge and find some balance between their work and personal lives. You may wonder how encouraging employees to take time for themselves results in better outcomes.

The answer is quite simple. When employees have time to recharge, they produce higher-quality work, and they do it more efficiently. They can re-energize themselves, which means they come back with a better work ethic than someone who feels burnt out.

Consistency

Another reason to empower employees is that it helps maintain consistency — both within their work schedules and for your workplace as a whole. While some workplaces get into a holiday slump and then have to ramp up again in the new year, you can remain consistent. This means no slump over the holidays. And, just as critical, there’s no need for a correcting crackdown in January.

Your End-of-Year Bottom Line?

Encourage your employees to find balance and take control of their goals and workplace performance. You’ll see better results during the holidays – and beyond. And by doing so, you’ll create a healthy, consistent work environment full of individuals motivated to get the job done.

Photo by Milkos

4 Effective Ways to Execute 2021 Employee Training

December 9, 2020/Company Culture, HR Strategy /by Sofia Hernandez

There is no doubt employee training boosts motivation and reduces turnover. But did you know that training also provides employees greater direction, purpose, and peace of mind?

According to a recent report, 94 percent of employees say they would stay with a company longer if their employer invested in their learning. The report also found that heavy learners are 47 percent more likely to find purpose in their job. They’re more likely to know the direction of their career. And they’re 47 percent less likely to feel stressed at work.

Ongoing employee education should be a top priority for every organization. Unfortunately, the abrupt shift to remote work sparked by the pandemic forced many companies to push training to the back burner. As companies reexamine their 2021 budgets, many HR and training professionals seek smarter ways to invest in and execute employee training in 2021.

Here are four tips for getting the very best training for your employees — even if you have a smaller budget:

1. Ask Managers and Employees to Help Identify Gaps in Knowledge

According to a recent McKinsey memo, CFOs budgeting for 2021 should be looking to unlock more profound value from every investment. That includes employee training. Of course, for some companies, maintaining certifications will require training. In other cases, you may be completely clueless about the gaps in employees’ knowledge.

To ensure you’re investing wisely, talk to department managers and employees about what type of training would be most beneficial. Their knowledge and support will be helpful if you have to make a case for the investment. Plus, employees are likely to get more out of training they’ve already identified as needed.

2. Invest in Private Group Training

The pandemic may have disrupted your training in 2020, but that doesn’t mean 2021 should be a lost year. You can set up private group training either on-site or virtually, depending on current COVID-19 restrictions and your organization’s comfort level. Private group training gives you ultimate flexibility on scheduling, and the instructors come to you.

Private group training is an excellent investment, in part because you can tailor training to your company and employees’ needs. For example, IT training solution provider IBEX offers a customized curriculum to ensure the training aligns with your organization’s goals. They also incorporate your internal processes and terminology into the curriculum. Plus, educating an entire team or department is more cost-effective than training individuals.

3. Set-up Video “Lunch and Learns”

Executing employee training isn’t just about giving your team the technical skills they need to level up. It’s also about igniting their curiosity and creating a culture of growth. Of course, this idea gets a little nebulous when your team is remote. After all, where does that spirit of inquiry live when your employees are working from home?

One way to keep this growth mindset during a lockdown? Coordinate virtual “lunch and learns.” You’ve probably heard of TED Talks, but now you can get customized video recommendations based on your interests with TED Recommends. Pick a new video every week, and then discuss it as a team via Zoom. Not only will this help spark curiosity and innovation, but it will also give your team some much-needed social interaction.

4. Book Virtual Conferences Early

As COVID-19 cases surged, many organizers canceled major 2020 conferences. It’s unclear if big festivals such as South by Southwest will have physical events in 2021, but many are planning online events. While digital experiences don’t bring all the excitement of in-person events, there are certain advantages to booking online conferences.

First, many conferences are making their panels and keynotes available on-demand. This approach allows for greater flexibility and means your team can be sure not to miss the most relevant sessions. Second, these virtual events enable HR and training professionals to score tickets for a fraction of the typical cost. Tickets to SXSW usually cost upwards of $1,700, for example. But early-bird tickets for the virtual event are going for just $149. Plus, your company won’t have to foot the bill for plane tickets and hotel rooms.

Now more than ever, the future is uncertain; no one has any idea how 2021 will look.

The one thing we do know? Ongoing employee education provides enrichment that boosts job satisfaction and morale. Training is also an investment in your human capital that pays dividends for years. So as you look ahead to 2021, pay extra attention to how you will execute employee training for your company.

Photo by Phive

Reality Check: 5 Business Myths Completely Busted by 2020

December 7, 2020/Company Culture, HR Strategy /by Vikas Dua

The year 2020 has been a watershed year. Or, as I would prefer to say (if allowed to coin a new term) – a ‘tearshed’ year. The breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted economies, businesses, and individuals at an unprecedented level. This crazy year has also completely busted many long-standing business myths.

Research conducted by the Centre for Risk Studies at the University of Cambridge took a look at the impact of the coronavirus on the global economy. The consensus projection: A loss of $26.8 trillion, or 5.3%, of global GDP in the coming five years. To make this data point more relatable, however, one needs to review it from the perspective of jobs. And this is where the numbers hit home harder. According to an ILO (International Labour Organisation) study, about 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy (nearly half of the global workforce) risk having their livelihoods destroyed. Even for the sharpest minds amongst us, to fathom the humanitarian implications of such displacement would be challenging.

Then, it is no surprise that leaders – ranging from Heads of State to religious figureheads to business leaders – have scrambled. They’ve called on all their intellectual, technological, and financial resources to rewire how we operate. What has emerged during this radical transformation? Some of society’s well-ingrained business myths have been turned on their head. Not surprisingly, given that our business and personal lives are so intertwined, these changes are being experienced across both work and life dimensions.

So, which business myths have we busted this past year?

Business Myth No. 1: The Bottomline Rules

The pressure that comes with the quarterly results cycle has kept CXOs on edge for far too long, forcing them to watch every dollar. While social causes have been the focus of many CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs over the years, the pandemic encouraged many to truly understand that in the interest of long-term sustainability, adding value to their entire eco-system was the raison d’être.

In a heartwarming move, the United States was ground zero for the ‘Together Without Hunger‘ initiative by the bakery-café fast-casual restaurant chain, Panera Bread. In association with Feeding America, the goal is to feed half a million children and families during the US lockdown. Like many others, this organization stepped up to support the community, showing that capitalism has a heart, and not all business myths have a home in today’s corporate world.

Business Myth No. 2: Scale is King

Ever since humanity started congregating around communities and building the structure of modern-day nation-states, we have grown to believe that there is safety in numbers. The explosion of social networks with the ‘follower count’ metric fuelling the growth has further solidified this belief, at least, until now.

With the exponential spread of the coronavirus, we’ve learned that social distancing and limiting contact with others can save lives. Cocooned in their own homes, with additional time available to themselves, many have realized that it is not quantity but the quality of our relationships that is paramount. Similarly, we’re redesigning our workplaces to ensure the right balance of physical and virtual contact. Worldwide, organizations emphasize that our safety lies in our ability to be agile, not our ability to scale.

Business Myth No. 3: Size Does Matter

Maybe fifty square centimeters of cloth has become a critical weapon. A small mask now protects millions of people worldwide. Leading healthcare bodies, including the WHO (World Health Organization) – whose guidelines unequivocally mention that “Masks should be used as part of a comprehensive strategy of measures to suppress transmission and save lives” – strongly advise wearing a mask.

Now as ubiquitous as the mobile phone, the mask has become an extension of our beings. (Not to mention a new addition to our daily wardrobe.) Until we welcome a vaccine, a small mask has emerged as our biggest and best defense tool. In effect, the mask has proven that size doesn’t matter. It is what role one plays that does.

Business Myth No. 4: The World is Flat

Through his 2005 bestseller book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Pulitzer prize-winning American political commentator and author Thomas Friedman introduces us to the concept of the “flat world.” In this world, boundaries had melted, and trade flowed (almost) freely.

Today, as the world reels under the pandemic’s ravaging impact, global supply chains have been hit hard. During the middle of India’s lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Atmanirbhar’ (‘Self-reliance’ in Hindi) campaign. The initiative includes built-in incentives for Indian industry to enhance local production and reduce dependency on imports. Given the calls for protectionism in countries as diverse as the United States, Japan, and many in the EU (European Union), it is clear the world is fast developing an undulating (and perhaps self-serving) character.

Business Myth No. 5: Remote Means Distanced

As the pandemic took hold, people isolated themselves as a precautionary measure. Many leveraged video-conferencing platforms to maintain contact with their elderly parents and their social circle. Similarly, workers transitioned into a ‘work-from-anywhere’ mode to keep the engines of the economy running. Soon, they began to increasingly rely on the same platforms to remain connected to their colleagues.

If anything, humankind has realized that remote connecting can help meet much of the objectives of in-person meetings. This realization has lead us to far-reaching benefits such as a reduced carbon footprint. Bill Gates, known for being a visionary apart from his philanthropy, has already predicted that in the post-COVID-19 era, 50% of business travel will disappear.

Yes, over the past year, the changing world has completely shattered these five myths. Of course, even more will come to light as we segue into 2021.

For people who have seen their entire world changed in the span of a few months, the implications are immense. However, the dexterity with which we have accepted change shows that – like battle-hardened soldiers – we will continue to push forward against all odds. No doubt there will be scars, but they will be symbols of a victorious campaign.

Photo by Issac Harris

Post-Pandemic Realities: How to Safely and Confidently Re-open Your Office

December 4, 2020/Company Culture, HR Strategy, Pandemic and Post-Pandemic /by TalentCulture Team

At TalentCulture, we’re looking ahead to the day we can get back to work. And we’re looking for innovative solutions that will make that transition, and the facing of our post-pandemic realities, as safe as possible. We are sure you’re thinking along the same lines, so we’re proud to introduce you to this innovative, confidence-inducing platform: NoahFace from PayCat.

We could go on and on about how much we appreciate the approach the Pay Cat team has taken to safely monitors all incoming employees, guests, and even customers as they enter our office and workspaces. We’d be remiss if we didn’t tell you how practical – necessary, even – the cloud-based contact tracing solution built into NoahFace is for today’s businesses. Instead, here is Garth Belic from Pay Cat to tell you their origin story and how the journey to create a technology-based return-to-work strategy was born…

TC: Tell us a little bit about Pay Cat. How do you get started? And what are your primary products now?

Garth: Pay Cat was born out of frustration shared by many business owners I first noticed while working for a large cloud payroll software company. Many of those owners were paying big dollars on a cloud payroll solution. But they weren’t necessarily getting the expertise or support needed to maximize the full potential of the payroll solutions.

As the COVID-19 pandemic caused our world to go sideways, we, like so many businesses, made a pivot into new products and technologies. Out of sheer demand, we introduced NoahFace to our business – a product that incorporates temperature reading and facial recognition into the staff and visitor clocking-in process.

We now offer a suite of time and attendance solutions with a full end-to-end service from implementation to training to go-live to support. This approach means our clients have someone with the expertise and support they need to customize our entry solution, to include digital door and gate control where desired, every step of the way.

TC: We at TalentCulture have seen a demo of the entry solution, NoahFace, but our readers haven’t. How would you describe that entry solution to them?

Garth: Ours is an all-in-one solution for automating time and attendance and workplace safety – particularly critical given that many of us remain stuck in the middle of a pandemic.

After completing the facial recognition process, NoahFace measures body temperatures before allowing entry and enables contact tracing of staff and visitors. On a practical note, the solution can be set up to control access points such as doors and gates while providing paperless attendance records of employees and contractors. This is all done with a thermal reader and biometric technology with little to no human intervention!

The most significant benefit of all this is that you can ensure that your business is pandemic-resistant. This means your business has the best chance of remaining open during this crisis that never seems to end.

TC: You deliberately designed your entry solution on readily available consumer products, like an iPad? Why did you choose to go that route? And what does it mean to your customers?

Garth: Any entry solution needs to be robust, given the high level of traffic it’ll experience. So while we can go with cheaper options, I find the security, reliability, and durability of iPads are best. Besides, most people are familiar with using Apple products! So, even though the technology is state-of-the-art, the learning curve is minimal.

TC: The benefits of Pay Cat’s entry solution are apparent. But employees feel the system provides them with much-needed confidence. Tell us more about how end-users have reacted once they began using the system?

Garth: The majority of employees love NoahFace. They no longer have to use fingerprint scanning or log paper timesheets. More importantly, it assures that all their colleagues and visitors are temperature checked appropriately. This technology delivers the peace of mind that employees look for now. And the solution they will want to see in place when asked to come back to work on-site.

Plus, having a no-touch solution that dramatically limits the risk of virus transmission is a big all-around win with employees!

TC: How does the NoahFace solution help with any necessary contact tracing efforts?

Garth: A lot of businesses still manually record visitors using a sign-in sheet. Or they have a receptionist maintain a paper log. In some cases, HR staff keeps paper timesheets or activity logs. Our solution eliminates all of this by keeping an event log from a web-based dashboard. This means accurate and automated logging of entry and exit times throughout the workplace, held securely in the cloud that can be accessed any time from anywhere.

TC: What inspired you to create a solution for the problems so many companies will face as they consider how best to return employees to the workplace?

Garth: We went through lockdown in March and saw firsthand the difficulties of keeping the workplace open. We knew other businesses had the same experience – and many more will. Given we were already in the industry, we knew the technological capabilities that could help provide a comprehensive solution for this on-going problem.

The bones of the solution is a time and attendance platform. We were able to adapt and innovate that solution to include contact tracing and temperature screening with the existing technology. So really, we were scratching our own itch first.

TC: Please tell us: What was the best thing a customer ever said about the PayCat solution? What are you most proud of?

One of our early adopters said, “You helped keep our doors open.”

Yes, COVID-19 is still a grave issue in many parts of our country and world. But we’re beginning to overcome the initial lockdown period here in Australia. And yet, this is priceless customer feedback. That’s why we’re here!

TC: In many parts of the world, companies are already facing post-pandemic realities. They have already begun reintegrating employees in the workplace. For those leaders in the US still designing that process, what is your number one piece of advice?

Garth: As you start to deal with the post-pandemic realities we’ll all eventually face, focus on what you can control. And start with how you can automate and adapt to contactless screening. Don’t install a dedicated team of COVID-19 marshals manually doing temperature checks and reporting. Don’t add staff for the additional positions required for a manual process – before and especially after infection. From a business standpoint, that makes no sense. Plus, the additional staff members running around only add to the anxiety we already feel about going back to work.

Instead, proactively and efficiently reduce the spread of COVID-19 in your workplace by leveraging technology. You’ll protect your employees while giving them a high level of confidence as they go back to work. They are safe, so their families are safe. And you’ll show local health officials that you as a business are doing everything possible to ensure a safe working environment.

All because you executed an affordable return-to-work strategy that leverages thermal imaging, facial recognition, and contact tracing.

Get a head start on post-pandemic realities… and re-open your offices, right.

Luis Tosta

Here’s Why Today’s Leaders Should Choose “And” Thinking

November 23, 2020/Company Culture, HR Strategy /by Elizabeth K. Olson

To the detriment of talent development and work cultures everywhere, we most often employ “either/or” thinking. Let’s talk about why today’s leaders should more often choose “and” thinking….

So many important aspects of human capital are nuanced and interrelated, yet seemingly polar opposites. For instance, recognizing the individual performer or recognizing team efforts. Showing respect for each person or showing respect based on performance and rewarding managerial-style performance or rewarding leaders.

Some organizations state only half of these pairs as desired values, hence the “or” between them. This is a mistake because when we see these values framed as either/or choices, we miss the synergy from leveraging the best from both sides. We cause harm from overfocusing on one value to the neglect of the other. After all, many values are interdependent, and ideas we think might be opposites are both highly desirable. The misleading part about this is that they need to live in tension with one another over time. These pairings can be called paradoxes, wicked problems, or polarities that require “and thinking.”

“And” Thinking Versus “Or” Thinking

Both inside and outside of work, complexities exist that require us to think about these tensions between seemingly opposing pairs, rather than choosing A over B. For instance, one critical thinking point for leaders is the push-pull between continuity and transformation.

Those business leaders often find themselves executing complex change initiatives that enable their companies to compete better. At the same time, they must create and maintain consistent foundational cultures employees can lean into – no matter what. All too often, when the message is only why complex changes are necessary, without acknowledging what has been going well (and what needs to remain in place), even the best plans blow up.

Everything done “the old way” is now wrong. Right?

This pervasive contradiction lowers morale and confuses, thereby sabotaging the energy and focus needed to implement the change.

Centralized Versus Decentralized Coordination

One of the biggest derailers for employees is the pendulum swing between centralized coordination and decentralized coordination. Organizations are frequently in a seesaw around this polarity. It’s as if one is better than the other, so they over-focus on one at the expense of the other.

For instance, a new chief executive officer is instituted and says: “We’ve lost the entrepreneurial nature of this organization, and we must decentralize and give control to each of the business units.” Because centralization and decentralization are interrelated, people complain there is no coordination and little ability to share services effectively. That causes the next CEO to say: “We have to centralize; everything is all over the map. Nobody knows who’s on first.” After finally getting used to the new structure, it whipsaws back to some version of the old one. With the average tenure of CEOs being three-and-a-half years, organizations must simultaneously focus on centralization and decentralization.

The Solution: Mapping Versus Gapping

One way around this conundrum is to institute a mapping process…

Instead of executing a gap analysis, which is how most people approach change, we think about the upside and downside of their preferred value or pole in the polarity equation. We then do the same for the countervailing pole. Then, as the diagram illustrates, we outline action steps for gaining the upsides from each pole. We also design strategies for avoiding the downsides of each if we over-focus on one pole to neglect the other.

That is “and” thinking.

Once we get the tension right between the different energetic poles, my clients find themselves comfortably resting in a virtuous cycle. They begin to get the best of both options, no matter how opposite those options seem. For many leaders, this comes as such a relief. Because those leaders, rather than focusing on the power of both – the “and” – tend to over-focus on one side of the equation. They then find themselves in a vicious and contentious cycle that isn’t good for them, their fellow leaders, or their teams.

Harness the power of both poles. Expand your thinking to “and.” You’ll soon create a virtuous cycle that will enable your organization to thrive, freeing your teams to unify under healthy “and” tensions versus the opposing camps that can form from “or” decisions.

Frank McKenna

[#WorkTrends] Unmute Yourself! How Remote Workers Can Self-Advocate

November 20, 2020/Company Culture, Podcast, Podcast Recaps /by Meghan M. Biro

As an isolated team member, how do you sustain an effective communication chain, stay productive, and get what you need out of your employer? How do you unmute yourself?

For many, the coronavirus crisis has meant working conditions they could not have anticipated. Now, collaboration and face-to-face contact — once common practice — are non-existent. We can no longer lean over the cubicle to ask a quick question. An experienced co-worker, assistance from a trusted colleague, and feedback from a manager can be hard to find. Today, we go it alone, working from home.

Which means we must put ourselves in a position to get what we need from our employer. We need to find a way to be seen — and heard. For that to happen, we must first hone and then leverage finely tuned communication skills. Skills we may not have previously mastered.

I wonder: How many of us are genuinely comfortable advocating for ourselves?

Our Guest: Rachel Druckenmiller, Wellbeing Expert at UnmutedLife

Our guest on this week’s episode of WorkTrends is Rachel Druckenmiller, a wellbeing expert recognized as the No. 1 Health Promotion Professional in the U.S. and a national thought leader in the field of employee engagement. When I asked why more people aren’t speaking up and advocating for themselves during these trying times, we jumped right into this timely topic. Rachel’s answer was enlightening:

“We thought this was all going to be over by now. Then we thought, ‘Oh, we’ll have Easter. Then Thanksgiving.’ Now we’re realizing, ‘No, this is gonna be a long haul.’”

“So the important thing is to step back and recognize that we’ve been in chronic fight or flight mode — an acute response that puts us in a reactive part of our brain. And we stay there. Not just because of pandemic fatigue, but because of the climate crisis, political, social, and racial injustice, and work demands and homeschooling.” Rachel went on to add for people working from home, the timing couldn’t have been worse: “We lost our outlets and social connections. We lost a method of release.”

“We stopped speaking up.”

Combined with the prolonged trauma many of us are experiencing, this form of self-silencing, Rachel told us, can have a negative impact on each of us. “It ends up being a host for emotional, relational, mental health challenges like depression and loneliness, marital problems, eating disorders, low self-esteem, and more.”

Learning How to Unmute Yourself

Rachel used an interesting analogy to help us learn how to unmute ourselves…

“In the wild, a gazelle is getting chased by a tiger. The gazelle gets caught. So now, it will play dead. The gazelle will go limp; it will try to trick the tiger into thinking that they’re already dead. Often, the tiger will leave. The gazelle will get up and shake it off. And when they do, they release all that negative energy. They feel new again.”

Rachel went on to say: “Animals in the wild release energy, and humans don’t. We compound it. We have one stress, and we never resolve it. Then we take on another stress, and we never resolve that one. Eventually, the body has to do something with all that stress. We need the release. We need to speak up!”

I mentioned to Rachel that leaders also need to help with this release. They must step up in an emotionally intelligent way and intentionally interact with their people. Leaders must serve as, or provide, a form of release. Rachel agreed, “In times of crisis, what followers need most from leaders is trust, compassion, stability, and hope. To do that, they must ask for feedback, then act on what was said.”

Leaders as Release

Rachel went on to say the leaders who provide this form of release — that enable us to unmute — are highly valued. We rate them as the most likable, approachable, and trustworthy.

Our conversation only got better from there. We discussed practical methods of releasing unwanted energy, increasing self-awareness, and how to be your own advocate by taking action.

I thank Rachel Druckenmiller for joining me on the #WorkTrends podcast this week. I enjoyed every minute… and you will too. Listen in!

Find Rachel on LinkedIn.

Editor’s note: We’ve updated our FAQ page and also our #WorkTrends Podcast pages. Take a look!

Photo by Chris Montgomery

How to Create an Emotionally Comfortable Remote Working Environment

November 16, 2020/Company Culture, HR Strategy /by Kayleigh Alexandra

How can companies create a remote working environment that is both productive and emotionally comfortable?

With offices forced to close for long periods due to COVID-19, many people have adapted well to remote working. They have found working from home offers benefits from more flexible working hours to fewer distractions. However, working solo can also make employees feel more isolated; they may struggle to separate work and home life. This can leave workers less motivated and affect their overall wellbeing.

Read on to discover four ways to create an emotionally comfortable remote working environment that supports your team while helping keep them focused.

Establish Boundaries Between Work and Home

Remote working often means more flexibility in working hours and no time spent commuting to and from the office. However, it can also make it harder to establish boundaries between work and home life. Employees might be tempted to work longer hours to maintain their productivity. Or they might feel like they need to be available at all hours of the day so can’t switch off.

It’s important to help remote workers establish a clear boundary between their working day and free time. Otherwise, their mental well-being may suffer. At the very least, their stress levels will likely increase.

Outline the hours, or at least the number of hours, staff should work. Even if an employee is flexible with their actual working hours, encourage them to not work beyond a certain time in the evening so they have a proper break.

Also, suggest ways in which they can keep work and home separate. For example: Setting up a dedicated office space away from where they would relax in the evening. Or switching off the computer at the end of the day and over weekends. And suggest they not check emails before their agreed-upon work-day begins or after it ends. Finally, share useful information about staying motivated when working from home like this post from the Productivityist blog.

And, of course, encourage people to take their annual leave. Even if they don’t have any holiday plans or the pandemic continues to make travel difficult, it’s important to take time off. And it’s crucial that every team member feels they deserve a break.

Ensure a Productive Home Office Setup

Even though we’re several months into the pandemic, not everyone has a perfectly productive space at home for remote working. But it’s important to do everything you can to set them up with a productive-as-possible workspace. Treat their home space the same way as you would getting someone set up in your office building. After all, space and equipment impact their ability to focus well enough to do their job well.

When possible, provide W-2 employees with all the equipment and furniture they need. From a technology perspective, provide a laptop, screen, keyboard, headphones, cell phone, and any job-specific equipment. Also, ensure they have a proper desk and an ergonomic good chair. To identify and resolve any issues, share a workstation evaluation checklist like this one from OSHA with all remote employees. Also helpful, StarTech has some useful guides sharing tips for ensuring fast internet connections, reducing eye strain, and creating a comfortable set up. Once an analysis is done, you can then send employees any extra equipment they might need such as audio cables, adaptors, wireless devices, and laptop stands.

Set Clear Expectations

When you’re working in an office, it’s fairly easy to have a quick five-minute catch-up conversation or ask questions about your work. You can spontaneously talk through projects and assignments. While face-to-face, it seems easier to provide a detailed handover of work.

To create an emotionally comfortable remote work environment, leaders and peers must ensure everyone is on the same page at all times. They must feel confident about what they are doing and who to talk to if they’ve got questions. Just as important, they need to know how to talk to people and when.

To generate this feeling of confidence, companies need to set up the right systems and procedures. It must be clear what someone is expected to do, specific tasks they need to complete, and how long it should take. Ensure you are effectively managing projects — provide clear, detailed briefs for work that covers everything they need to know and when it’s due. In all cases, expectations around deadlines must be properly set.

You can create a document management system by following the steps in this post from The Balance. The key: Keep documents stored in one easily accessible place, and establish a procedure for creating, organizing, and sharing documents or projects.

Maintain Regular Communication

Another important part of creating an emotionally comfortable remote working environment is keeping in regular contact with everyone. Your goal: To stop people from feeling isolated or alone. Remote workers can struggle to feel like they are still part of a team. Isolation can cause a loss of motivation, which may lead to a less engaged employee.

Use daily meetings to catch up on work progress. Arrange regular video call drop-in sessions where your team can talk about non-work related things and catch up. Also, add an extra five minutes at the start of scheduled meetings for everyone to chat a bit.

Every month or so, arrange a well-being check-in with individuals to see how they’re doing and to give them a chance to discuss any challenges. Regular staff surveys are also a useful way to connect and check-in with employees. You can use this survey template from SurveyMonkey to determine how your team is coping and the steps necessary to improve their remote working environments.

Create and Maintain a Comfortable Remote Work Environment

Overall, creating an emotionally comfortable remote working environment relies on maintaining contact between everyone in the business. It also means checking in to see how people are doing.

To successfully make it through the COVID pandemic, it’s important to make people feel like they are still part of a team, even when working alone.

Tim Mossholder

[#WorkTrends] How to Support the Workforce by Protecting Mental Health

November 13, 2020/Podcast, Podcast Recaps /by Meghan M. Biro

Today’s best employers are focusing on how to best support and protect their employee’s mental health. Is your company?

What started as an exercise in temporary adjustments has become a more long-term reality. Now, as the pandemic strengthens its grip on the world, many employees realize that teleworking full-time has become a long-term necessity.

Sure, we pulled together the technology necessary to pull off this workforce transition. Yes, we were nimble enough to handle any physical and workspace challenges that came along. And our people quickly rallied around this new reality. But what is the long-term impact of all this change? From an emotional and mental health perspective, how are your people doing?

If they are like many of us, they feel stressed. Fatigue is setting in, and the anxiety that comes with not knowing what comes next is creeping up on them. Hard data support these feelings. In fact, a tracking poll by Kaiser Family Foundation in July found that 53% of adults in the United States reported that pandemic-related issues have negatively impacted their mental health. That number is up dramatically from 32% in March when the pandemic began.

So, in what has become an unexpectedly long-term transition, and with the realization the coronavirus will continue knocking on our doors for the foreseeable future, the question must be:

How do companies help remote employees tackle mental health challenges?

Our Guest: Dawn Mitchell, Vice President, HR at Appian

On this week’s episode of #WorkTrends, Dawn Mitchell of Appian joins us. In one day, Dawn’s organization of 1,400 employees went from a very on-site, hands-on culture to one that shifted successfully to remote work. Now, Appian focuses on how best to help employees deal with the emotional and mental health issues that come with remote work and COVID-19’s extended threat. As you’ve probably already figured out, this experience makes Dawn the perfect person to answer our question!

“At first,” Dawn said, “We saw a huge spike in productivity. We were in fight or flight mode. Our employees are fantastic, so they chose ‘fight.’ But we soon learned this wasn’t a typical remote work. For example, we had to work and parent at the same time. Plus, we had the isolation issue. So we knew we couldn’t sustain this forever.”

Dawn shared with us some of Appian’s focus points: “We put a heavy emphasis around our parent community. We also developed empathy tool kits for managers. We wanted them to get more comfortable talking to their teams, to understand their home dynamics. So we pushed on their soft skills. And, we wanted them to be flexible, yet acknowledge we still have work to do.”

Combating Mental Health Issues Through Over-Communication

Dawn added: “To inspire big ideas, we placed a heavy emphasis on communication. As a leadership team, we knew we needed to be more connected. So at the initial start, our CEO was communicating with our workforce bi-weekly. We also launched a podcast. With a workforce that averages 27yo, we updated our internet to ensure that employees working at home with kids were getting the most relevant information when they needed it. Most importantly, we sought to understand how employees were thinking and feeling.”

Of course, I had to ask about outcomes. I wanted to know precisely how Appian’s approach helped. In response, Dawn was quick to point out employees are even more engaged now: “We’ve had about a 6% increase in our employee response rates. At the same time, our employees’ satisfaction (despite all the change and stress) only dropped a percentage point. Overall, we were about 2% over the previous benchmark. It was great to see employees felt supported by their managers. They felt satisfied. And they felt that Appian was a place they wanted to tell their peers about; that we were their employer of choice.”

High praise, indeed. And from the people who matter most: The very employees asked to make such a huge transition during a global crisis.

Please take 20 minutes or so to listen to my conversation with Dawn. I learned so much about how Appian supports the mental health of their remote team members. And I’m sure you’ll hear several emulation-worthy tactics to protect the mental well-being of your employees!

Find Dawn on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Appian sponsored this episode of #WorkTrends!

Editor’s note: Our FAQ page and #WorkTrends Podcast pages are new and improved. Check them out, and let us know how we’re doing!

Clayton Cardinalli

Employee Retention: 5 Ways to Keep Your Team So Satisfied They Stay

November 10, 2020/Company Culture, HR Strategy /by Jori Hamilton

There are many reasons employee retention should be a top priority for any business. Of course, you want to keep your top employees satisfied, so they continue their inspired work and help your company thrive. Plus, good employees who like their employer more often refer top-notch professionals to your organization.

But employee retention is more than that. Between putting out job listings, juggling paperwork, interviewing, and onboarding, there is a lot of time, money, and effort that goes into hiring new employees. All that distracts you from getting other work done.

So how do you improve employee retention in these crazy times?

The answer is easier than you may think. And much of it revolves around putting your employees first.

Employee Retention Starts on the First Day

Employee retention starts on day one. Fail to show new employees you care about them (and their career) from the start, and many will already have one foot out of the door. The human resources and management teams must promote the fact that they are there to help the employee thrive and that their door is always open for questions and concerns.

From the first morning on the job, show them they are more than just cogs in the machine. Occasionally remind them why their job is essential to the company. Help them co-create a career plan. Or, even better, as they learn the ropes help lay out a trajectory for their career. By setting up a path for success, the employee will stick around longer. After all, they know future growth opportunities await.

Once they have the hang of their initial job, introduce a few new responsibilities included in the job descriptions of potential future positions. That way, the employee knows you are serious about executing the career plan.

Once orientation is complete, don’t just throw them in the water, sink-or-swim style. Instead, pair the employee up with a dedicated associate so the new employee can turn to them when they have questions. Mentoring programs can be powerful benefits for both the new employee and their mentor. At consulting firm Bain & Company, an increased push in mentoring has resulted in all 8,000 consultants having a mentor.

This mentoring program has led to significant and tangible advantages for Bain. Among them, Bain has doubled the number of women in leadership positions.

Benefits Matter

Even in “normal” times, many employees choose their employer-based mostly on the benefits offered. This decision-making process is especially prevalent during the pandemic when people live what sometimes seems like upside-down lives.

But benefits don’t stop at healthcare.

For example, allowing flexible schedules can do wonders for employees. If practical, suggest a later start time to get their children ready for school or assist with home-schooling. Also, allow time for doctor’s visits and care of an extended member of the family. Not only do you show you care about them as people, you encourage a healthy work-life balance.

Of course, a lot of people still count on their job for health insurance. So, have a comprehensive plan that protects them and their income if they are hurt or sick. Again, if practical, offer dental and vision insurance too. Perhaps most important in these difficult times, promote preventive healthcare by offering wellness programs. Include gym memberships, stress-relief management classes, and incentives for a healthy lifestyle (which could include a discount on their insurance deductible).

Paid time off can often be challenging to manage in work at home situations. And yet that paid time off is earned and necessary for many reasons, including mental health. In response to that challenge, Airbnb offers travel credits in addition to significant time off. These perks, and others, helped the company become a 2016 best place to work in CareerBliss’s annual survey.

Compensation and Perks

Compensation is also crucial for employee retention. If we don’t pay fairly and equitably, employees will find a different company that provides what they need. Use outside resources like Salary.com to see the average pay for similar positions in your area of the world. If you can afford to pay them the same, so they aren’t tempted to go elsewhere, make that effort.

Finally, don’t forget the perks. These are the unwritten benefits that employees tell their families about at the end of the day. These perks could be extra paid time off for a job well done or discounted tickets to an amusement park. For employees of Treehouse, an education technology company, one major perk is a four-day workweek. Treehouse shortened the workweek in 2006. The company reports employees have been happier and more productive ever since.

Even the smallest perks will motivate them to do their best work. So, make it a point to buy them a coffee on a random Thursday or take them out to lunch after completing a big project.

Culture and Communication

In the end, the best way to retain employees is to create a workplace they are excited to return to day after day. Specifically, it is about having a safe, warm, and welcoming company culture that encourages growth. It is also about living, rather than just stating, positive values you act upon every day.

A caring culture also requires active communication from management to employees on a personal level. Don’t wait until the annual review to see how your staff is doing. Instead, practice regular check-ins. Review their work; offer praise and validation at every opportunity. Take the time necessary to answer any questions. And see where they are on their career plan and make modifications if necessary. Keep an open mind during these check-ins and actively listen to what the employees have to say.

Yes, employee retention is incredibly important. Luckily, retention efforts are not overly difficult for a company that chooses to make an intentional effort.

Make an employee’s day today – and avoid the hassle of unneeded turnover tomorrow.

Johanna Buguet

[#WorkTrends] Leading a Corporate Revolution Through Intentional Integrity

November 6, 2020/Company Culture, Podcast, Podcast Recaps /by Meghan M. Biro

What is intentional integrity? And how can it lead to a revolution within your organization?

Even before the pandemic of 2020, ethics and integrity were a significant issue in our business world. Of course, everyone — and every company — thinks they have integrity. Yet week after week, organizations like Boeing, Wells Fargo, and Hobby Lobby fail to live up to their values. Google, Facebook, and the Houston Astros are no different.

For many of us, the confusion sparked by the pandemic — combined with the politicization of the virus itself — made it seem as though integrity was in even shorter supply. Add the lack of face-to-face contact, loosened controls, and the ongoing negative input from 24-hour news cycles, and many have begun to feel the time is ripe for integrity to take a nosedive. In fact, according to a 2020 survey conducted by EY, 90% of employees believe the pandemic puts their employer at risk for unethical business dealings.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. I firmly believe the brands and leaders who conduct themselves using intentional integrity do so for the organization’s greater good, including its employees. I also maintain those companies will revolutionize how businesses function in our post-pandemic world.

Integrity will always matter. Intentional integrity makes all the difference.

Our Guest: Rob Chesnut, Author

In this week’s episode, Rob Chesnut, author of Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution, joined us on #workTrends. We talked about the concept of intentional integrity — and what that means within an organization. As you’ll hear, we talked to the right guy: Rob previously served as Airbnb’s General Counsel and Chief Ethics Officer and led eBay’s North America legal team.

Right off the bat, Rob helped us understand why integrity seems to be in short supply: “Look, everybody’s got a video camera, right in their hand, every day. When I was growing up, there were three news stations. Now, we all have a global digital platform; we can all be a news reporter. So we are in an age of unprecedented transparency. Plus, people increasingly feel empowered to speak out.”

As Rob said, all that is true in the workplace as well: “20 years ago, employees might have kept their mouth shut because they wanted to preserve their career. But now, if they don’t like something at their company, they’re going to blog and tweet about it. To take action, they might even organize a walk-out of other employees.” Rob added: “All these forces: Transparency, employee pressure, consumer pressure, and government pressure are pushing companies to straighten up. They are now more focused on doing the right thing. Of course, this is a huge improvement over cutting ethical corners to try to hit a quarterly profit number.”

And that, my friends — even when perhaps initially forced — is intentional integrity.

Intentional Integrity: A Powerful Wind at Your Back

Of course, I asked Rob about the bigger picture implications for companies that don’t directly address integrity daily or make integrity a core value. Rob’s response was enlightening:

“On one hand, if you don’t pay attention to it and you operate with a 20th-century company approach — worrying about your quarter profit number, for example — you can wreck your brand. Soon, you may find employees, customers, and even government agencies coming at you. On the other hand, intentional integrity can become a powerful wind at your back. Get this right, and employees will stay at your company longer. Perhaps even better, they’ll encourage their friends to come work there. At the same time, customers will become loyal spokespeople for your brand.”

Rob added: “The pressure is on. Today’s businesses must have positive implications for the world. Those that do out-perform the stock market and their competitors.”

In my time with Rob, we also talked about the pandemic’s impact on ethics and integrity. We also discussed how the workplace is continuously changing, but our definition of integrity does not, and how intentional integrity helps us overcome the mistakes inevitably made.

Listen in. Then take a moment to think about how your company currently leverages intentional integrity. And how you — thanks to Rob’s timely advice — can do even better, and very soon!

Find Rob on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Editor’s note: Check out our new FAQ page and #WorkTrends Podcast pages. Then let us know how we’re doing!

Cottonbro

Undeniable: The Positive Power of Workplace Gratitude

November 4, 2020/Company Culture, HR Strategy /by Liz King

Who doesn’t want to be thanked for their loyalty or a job well done? Who doesn’t want a metaphorical pat on the back for going above-and-beyond? Everyone values a genuine thank you! But engagement and appreciation efforts – workplace gratitude – should be sincere and consistent across an organization.

Building a workplace culture of gratitude is especially relevant now because of what we are seeing as a result of the pandemic. We are witnessing increased worker stress, loneliness, anxiety and depression; concern about the future and the pressure of juggling family and work commitments.

The impact is undeniable. In fact, new SHRM research found between 1/4 and 1/3 of U.S. employees often experience symptoms of depression as they live through the COVID-19 pandemic. Employers are in a unique position to help employees battle the negative effects of this “new world” through sincere gestures of kindness and also through demonstration of appreciation.

How to Embrace Workplace Gratitude During the Pandemic

Personal engagement is always critical, but especially now. If you can, pick up the phone and check in on employees. Don’t overlook the basics at this time, because people need to know they are valued and not alone.

Celebrate your remote workers! Because workplaces aren’t the same anymore, it takes some creativity and organization to translate your culture into virtual events. We’ve seen teams have a great time engaging online with coffee, pizza and ice cream parties. With Halloween around the corner, we have many suggestions for how to deliver fun for all! Help managers with ideas and helpful hints for how to handle invites, contests, virtual games and conversation starters for enjoyable virtual social events.

Another idea is to empower employees to support their local communities. Community giving instills gratitude in anyone who partakes. If service work is important to your workplace culture, then find ways to enable employees to participate virtually. They’ll love the opportunity as we all see the increasing needs of those around us.

Whatever you choose, be sure to be kind and authentic. And if you can – be unexpected!

Holiday Appreciation

We highly recommend a thoughtful letter of appreciation to employees about their role and their importance during these challenging times. Sometimes that’s all you can afford to do and that’s okay. On our website, gThankYou.com, we have some excellent examples of Thanksgiving letters for inspiration.

This year, stick to holiday traditions if they are held near and dear. We love fresh ideas, but employees will have gift-related expectations from previous years. Whatever you choose to do, be authentic to your culture and considerate of your budget.

Practical gifts are key.

Family gifts (games, puzzles), wellbeing resources (yoga on-demand, health resources) and food on the table are all truly valued and appreciated…especially when things are financially tight or unstable in any way. And let’s face it, sometimes cash is the very best answer. Most importantly, plan now – be early. Between COVID and the election there are too many distractions, and this is not the year to forget to thank employees.

The Science Behind Gratitude

Over the last 20 years, research has shown gratitude to provide important physical, psychological and social benefits, including:

A stronger immune system
Lower blood pressure
Better sleep
Willingness to exercise more
Higher levels of positive emotions such as joy and happiness
And, more helpful, generous and compassionate behavior

And research has shown countless ways gratitude directly pays off in the workplace with:

Improved employee wellbeing, productivity and job satisfaction
Resulting in demonstrated improved ROI due to:
higher employee retention,
improved employee performance and happiness, and
better employee, team and customer relationships

Professor Robert A. Emmons, a foremost gratitude researcher, calls gratitude the “ultimate performance-enhancing substance.” Gratitude makes both the giver and receiver feel good. In addition, gratitude sets off a good kind of contagion.

Want to learn more about the science of gratitude and how to create a culture of gratitude? I highly recommend our free ebook, “Transforming Your Workplace with Gratitude.”

A Culture of Gratitude

At gThankYou, we believe in making gratitude a pillar of the business. We’ve learned: To build and foster a culture of gratitude where leaders thank employees, team members show appreciation for each other, and thoughtful gestures are common, authenticity is key. Regular messages and example-setting need to be from the top down. Leadership needs to encourage, model gratitude. They also must hold managers accountable for showing gratitude to their teams.

Here are some tips to consider as you frame what a “Gratitude Culture” looks like in your business:

Gratitude must be part of the fabric of the workplace culture.
Senior leadership needs to model gratitude and mid-managers need to be trained and held accountable for appreciating their teams.
Simple gestures are great – but fairness and consistency are key.
Remember, gratitude needs to be specific to feel authentic.
Employees need easy ways to show appreciation to each other and their input in the “how” should be requested (and also respected) to make it work.
You can’t simply say, “thank you” at year-end and be done.

Future of Work

Remote work will continue to be the norm until there is widespread availability of a vaccine and cheap, quick COVID testing. Some companies, like Pinterest, have already indicated that remote work will become permanent and thus will have a wide variety of implications – in areas such as hiring.

With some effort and planning, we will all get better at remote and virtual employee engagement and recognition. While it’s not easy these days to extend an in-person smile or handshake or share a heartfelt say thank you in the office, pick up the phone and write handwritten notes.

Bring the old school into the new world. Your sincere interest, concern, appreciation, and gratitude work – I promise!

Listen to our interview with Meghan M. Biro on TalentCulture’s #Worktrends podcast!