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What Does the Voice of the Employee Say About Your Culture?

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Sponsored by WorkForce Software

Employers, you know the story. For years, organizations have been struggling to engage and retain employees, yet few have really moved the meter. So, how do the best employers succeed? Some say the answer lies in listening more closely to the voice of the employee. Why?

Here’s what statistics say:

  • 90% of workers told Achievers they’re more likely to stay at a company that seeks feedback and acts on it. Yet 67% rate their organization as only “okay” or even “horrible” at doing this.
  • According to a Gallup survey, 52% of people who resigned say those in charge could have done something to prevent them from quitting. But only a third actually discussed their disenchantment with their manager before they left.

It is time to lean in and listen to the voice of the employee more closely and more continuously. But what should that look like in a modern work environment? This question is super important. And that’s why we’re talking about it today with an expert in the psychology of work…

Meet Our Guest: Angelina Sun

Today, we welcome back Angelina Sun, PhD, WorkForce Management Solutions Director at WorkForce Software. With extensive experience in multiple industries, she is deeply interested in innovative ways to build and sustain healthy organizational cultures.

In her current role, Angelina focuses on helping leaders more effectively manage and communicate with employees – especially deskless workers. Angelina’s finger is clearly on the pulse of modern workforce challenges and opportunities. That’s why I asked her to join us earlier this year to discuss the state of today’s deskless worker experience.

But this topic is much bigger than just one podcast episode. So I invited Angelina to return so we could dig deeper. Here are some highlights from our latest conversation…

Defining the Voice of the Employee

Welcome back, Angelina! What is the voice of the employee, and why is it so valuable in organizations?

People often think of the voice of the employee in terms of responses to staff surveys. But it’s more than that.  It encompasses all their feelings, perceptions, and experiences. And it includes all communication channels.

There are so many ways you can tap into the voice of the employee. For example, you can learn by paying attention to team meetings, one-on-ones with managers, service sentiment, and information sharing at company gatherings, interviews, focus groups — anywhere you gather feedback.

The Need to Feel Heard is Universal
You’re so right, Angelina. This extends far beyond employee surveys…

Everyone wants to be heard and valued. Whether we are office-based, remote, hybrid, frontline hourly workers or shift workers, we all want to feel like we’re doing meaningful, purposeful work.

But for deskless workers, the voice of the employee has a unique operational focus. Because these workers are closest to production or customers, their feedback is crucial. It helps identify what’s really happening in the workplace or with the customer experience, so we can take action and improve.

Technology’s Role

How can technology, especially mobile, help create a more seamless communication flow between employees and employers?

You know, smartphones are an essential tool for managing our day-to-day lives. This is why organizations really should employ these powerful, pocket-sized supercomputers to connect with frontline workers.

In fact, our research reveals that 45% of employees would prefer to receive training and information on their mobile phone. Yet only 20% of them actually have this option.

Improving the Communication Process

What are some of the best ways employers can select a communication vehicle and make it work for everyone?

The biggest obstacle is adoption. Why? Because deskless workers don’t sit or stand in front of a computer all day to check email and respond.

So if you want a successful solution, it must integrate into the technology deskless workers are already using in the field or on the shop floor.

We are not just talking about a simple chat system. It should be workflow-driven. It should help people get their job done and make it easier to manage schedules and work-life balance, while also helping managers have the right conversations with the right people at the right time…

 

Learn More About the Voice of the Employee

For more insights about how your organization can benefit from listening to the voice of the employee, listen to this full #WorkTrends episode on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or wherever you tune in to podcasts. And while you’re there, be sure to subscribe, so you won’t miss future episodes.

Also, visit WorkForce Software anytime for details about the company and its modern workforce management suite.

And whenever you want to continue this conversation on social media, follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Let’s talk!

How to Boost Workforce Mental Health, Even on a Budget

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In today’s fractured, post-pandemic world, workforce mental health has emerged as a critical concern for business and HR leaders — and with good reason. The urgency of this issue is reflected in staggering statistics from multiple sources. For instance:

  • Last year, 56% of global employees told Gallup they struggle with stress and wellbeing, while another 9% said they were suffering.
  • That same Gallup research reveals particularly troubling trends in the U.S. Since 2021, the proportion of those who are struggling increased from 38% to 45%, while suffering rose from 2% to 4%. At the same time, those are thriving dropped from 60% to 52%.
  • The business consequences of this malaise are significant. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, depression is estimated to cause 200 million lost workdays a year, at a cost to employers of $17 to $44 billion.

No wonder workforce mental health has become a pressing concern among business leaders. For instance, when Willis Towers Watson asked U.S. employers to identify their top priorities for the next three years, a whopping 67% replied, “Enhancing mental health and emotional wellbeing programs and solutions.” This means leaders are just as concerned about this as they are about the cost of managing their company’s healthcare plan!

Unfortunately, despite widespread interest in addressing this challenge, many organizations are operating on tighter budgets these days. As a result, it’s difficult for employers to offer effective workforce wellbeing solutions.

However, cost issues aren’t stopping resourceful HR teams from moving forward. In my role at HealthFitness, I work with a variety of companies that have developed budget-friendly strategies to address employee mental health challenges. To learn about some of the most successful approaches I’ve seen, read on…

5 Low-Cost Ways to Support Workforce Mental Health

1. Innovate to Avoid a High Price Tag

Some companies are relying on their creativity to support mental wellbeing without breaking the bank. For instance: One tech firm has introduced a “Days for Me” program that lets every employee choose four days a year to focus on self-care.

Another company in the biopharmaceutical industry has implemented a “Mental Health Ally Program.” The program features Mental Health First Aid training that helps employees recognize and respond to colleagues’ needs. Specficially, through scenarios and videos, this skills-based certification course teaches employees a 5-step action plan, so they can identify and address signs of mental health and substance use issues. The certification is valid for three years and can be renewed online. This makes it easy for people to develop important knowledge and skills they can continue to apply as they move forward in their careers.

2. Optimize Employee Assistance Programs

I also see organizations expanding existing employee assistance program (EAP) benefits so they can improve access to valuable mental health support. For example, some employers are shifting to on-site EAP services so access to help is more convenient.

Others are increasing the number of covered EAP appointments they offer each year. One energy company we work with has increased covered EAP appointments from 5 to 8 per year, per household. This simple step gives employees more options at a minimal additional cost to the company.

3. Sponsor Company-Wide Time Off for Wellness

Dedicating paid time off for all employees to focus on mental health is a particularly powerful way to encourage workforce wellbeing. Plus, when everyone is out of the office at the same time, people are less likely to become anxious about work piling up in their absence.

You may be familiar with some tech industry companies that have implemented variations on this concept, such as Global Wellness Days, Global Shutdowns, or No Meeting Fridays. The options are endless, but the point is to provide the entire workforce with designated opportunities to recharge and prioritize self-care. By encouraging this kind of behavior across the organization, employers are cultivating a culture that values work-life balance and mental wellbeing.

4. Design Stress-Reducing Spaces

Another low-cost idea — establish special areas in the workplace that help employees decompress and mitigate stress. For instance, some employers are setting up de-stress stations in common areas with puzzles, games, and mindfulness activities. These spaces offer employees a convenient place to relax and unwind when they need a break.

One company provides an on-site dog park for employees, so their trusty companions have room to roam during the workday. Other organizations offer designated meditation areas with comfortable seating, restful lighting, and minimal distractions, so people can take some time to calm their minds when they feel anxious or overwhelmed.

These simple measures are effective at enhancing employee wellbeing and productivity. Yet they don’t require a significant financial investment.

5. Lead by Example

Finally, it probably goes without saying, but HR and business leaders play a crucial role in championing workforce mental health. Of course, offering mental health benefits is important. But the most compelling way to advocate for wellbeing is to lead by example.

Increasingly, leaders are engaging people in honest discussions about mental health at work. By sharing their own stories, they can inspire employees to prevent, detect, manage, and resolve work-related stress, anxiety, burnout, and other challenges. And by making mental resilience and self-care a personal priority, they help others recognize how important these issues are.

Ultimately, by demonstrating a genuine commitment to wellbeing and fostering a supportive work environment, leaders can set the tone for the entire organization.

A Final Note on Workforce Mental Health

Addressing mental and emotional wellbeing on a limited budget is an ongoing challenge — there’s no doubt about it. However, smart organizations are seeing results by making the most of the resources they already have. It may involve something as simple as establishing spaces for stress reduction, adding a new course to educate employees about mental health support, or offering designated time off for self-care. Regardless, even small steps can help organizations make big strides.

Mental health challenges may be on the rise. But many organizations are discovering that it’s possible to develop a healthier, happier, more productive workplace, even when budgets are tight. Real progress starts when HR and business decision-makers take the lead in demonstrating a commitment to workforce mental health and building a supportive culture. How is your organization responding to this need?

Why It Pays to Lead With Purpose, Especially Now

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These days, any employer that doesn’t lead with purpose is fighting an uphill battle. Why? Take a look at recent headlines. They’re filled with news about troubling workplace trends. Specifics vary, but the coverage points to a common underlying theme — hiring and retaining skilled workers continues to be a monumental challenge.

The problem stems from a confluence of factors. For example:

How can employers turn this situation around? It seems the solution begins when we focus on purpose.

Can Purpose Really Reverse Tough Work Issues?

Although the recent surge in employee resignations has cooled, workforce satisfaction and disengagement remain alarmingly high. As a result, other disturbing trends are emerging — from “quiet quitting” and “bare minimum Mondays” to “resenteeism,” and “rage applying.”

None of this reflects well on the state of today’s workforce. In fact, multiple studies indicate that more than 50% of employees are actively looking for a new position. No wonder employers are still struggling to figure out how to re-engage existing employees, attract qualified new hires, and create a work culture where people flourish and feel a sense of belonging.

To address these challenges, smart leaders are leaning into the power of purpose. This isn’t a quick or easy solution. But when business decisions reflect a genuine desire to lead with purpose, it opens the door to organizational transformation.

Today’s workforce is attracted to companies that genuinely care about tough societal issues and take action to resolve these issues. In other words, employees are interested in organizations with strategies that reach beyond revenue and productivity, alone. They want to work for companies that are committed to more meaningful metrics.

How to Lead With Purpose

What can leaders do to embed purpose into business strategies? For answers, we recently surveyed more than 1000 senior executives from U.S. companies. The findings underscore how purpose is gaining influence in The Future Workplace. Here are four key leadership recommendations:

1. Integrate Purpose With Talent Strategy

Start by prioritizing purpose in the battle for talent. Why? Our survey confirms that sustainability and purpose are top of mind for employees, with 75% of leaders agreeing that a business strategy built on purpose is essential for talent recruitment and retention. In addition, 86% of respondents say this strategy should play a central role when evaluating employee performance.

Younger people are deeply concerned about this. In fact, Deloitte research indicates that 39% of Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) and 42% of Gen Z employees (born between 1997 and 2012) are prepared to leave their jobs if they aren’t satisfied with their employer’s commitment to sustainability.

To build purpose into workplace culture, it’s important to align your vision and processes with employee and stakeholder feedback, ensuring all voices are heard and everyone has a seat at the table. As a leader, you can do this by consistently focusing on these action items:

  1. Invite employees to regular meetings where business decisions are discussed, and encourage them to share concerns and ideas.
  2. Pay attention to employee feedback. Gather and analyze input from surveys and other internal forums that encourage dialogue.
  3. Develop and implement process and policy improvement plans based on employee concerns and suggestions.
  4. Host regular “town hall” meetings to share information about organizational priorities, goals, and progress, as well as the path forward. This helps ensure that all staff feel welcome to come along on the journey.

2. Put Purpose at the Heart of Value Creation

Beyond improving talent recruiting and retention, what else can you do to lead with purpose? Consider everything you do to create business value.

58% of our survey respondents say it’s essential for companies to create value in ways that benefit all stakeholders — employees, partners, customers, and communities, as well as shareholders. This extends to “earning profits in a sustainable way,” which includes minimizing any harm the business may cause to society.

Another 17% said organizations should “contribute to solutions for challenges confronting people and society as a means of earning profits and generating long-term stakeholder value.”

It should be easy for anyone to see how your business creates value and ensures sustainability across its extended ecosystem. Operational efforts that support sustainability should be clear and transparent. This includes everything from budgeting and office design to workplace culture and how you champion change.

To prioritize value creation and sustainability efforts, generate an open dialogue about how your organization can embrace a mission that puts people and the planet first. As you move forward, invite employees to assess their own societal and environmental impact. Also, be sure to ask employees and other constituents for feedback on an ongoing basis.

3. Openly Define Your Purpose

Transparency is also essential in how any organization defines and demonstrates purpose. Creating a purpose statement combines two key elements: setting goals and identifying intentions. This helps leaders and employees accomplish short-term tangible goals, while they simultaneously consider long-term aspirations and potential actions that can more broadly impact society.

Interestingly, 80% of our survey respondents say their company already has a formal statement of purpose that is “well-established and integrated with our strategies,” or they recently developed this kind of statement and they intend to use it as a guide for future culture change.

Only 1% do not have a statement of purpose beyond generating shareholder value, and they don’t expect the status quo to change.

It is also worth noting that business leaders assign real value to these statements. In fact, more than 75% told us they “strongly agree” that a statement of purpose is an effective guidepost. What’s more, a majority also strongly agree that a defined purpose is central to their business success.

4. Weave Purpose Into Your Employee Experience

Effective leaders recognize the connection between purpose and workplace dynamics. This includes supporting individuals who want to work remotely at least part of the time. After all, the future of work is not about working from home or in the office, per se. It’s about having the flexibility to work effectively wherever, whenever and however you choose.

Clearly, if employers want to remain competitive in the future, they need to offer flexible work options that align workforce preferences with business realities. Research indicates that this is especially true for employers in the tech, retail, telecom, manufacturing, and energy sectors.

That said, smart employers are moving beyond strict RTO mandates that force people to work on-site. Instead, they’re proactively making their office environment more inviting and productive. For example, 98% of our survey respondents are taking steps to improve the in-office experience. This includes adding direct rewards and benefits for on-site work, training managers in “soft skills” such as emotional intelligence, or investing in workplace diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Purpose Leads to Lasting Business Benefits

Businesses can no longer afford to discount or ignore changing workforce dynamics. As you navigate these changes, be sure to remember the increasingly pivotal role purpose plays in your company’s ability to recruit and retain talent. This includes new ways to attract and engage job candidates, as well as ways to develop and motivate people once they’re onboard.

Ultimately, this approach can create broader opportunities to strengthen and advance your organization’s position in the global marketplace. Companies that do this effectively are rewarded with improved productivity, profitability, and a brand that represents an enduring sense of purpose.

So, if you want to stay ahead of the pack in the years to come, start answering this question today: “How will we lead with purpose in the new workplace?”

Breaking the Workaholism Habit: Symptoms and Solutions

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Every leader appreciates diligent team members who are engaged, reliable performers. However, there’s a fine line between people who take their work commitments seriously and those suffering from workaholism.

Engaged people are often highly productive, while workaholics tend to find themselves on a downward spiral. But how can you tell when someone is addicted to work? And what can you do about it?

This article looks at how to detect workaholism and how to break free from its toxic grip.

Defining Workaholism

Although being a workaholic may not sound like a cause for alarm, it is a legitimate mental health condition with real and dangerous consequences. And it’s probably more common than you may think. In fact, research estimates that nearly half of U.S. employees consider themselves workaholics, and 10% are truly addicted to work.

Workaholism in the U.S. - key statisticsPeople dealing with workaholism constantly struggle with the  uncontrollable urge to work excessively for prolonged periods. In other words, these people feel compelled to work all the time and they find it very difficult to detach from work situations.

As this problem progresses, it becomes all-consuming, eventually putting individual psychological and physical wellbeing at risk.

On the other hand, it’s important to understand that working long hours doesn’t necessarily mean you or anyone else is a workaholic. Sometimes, all of us need to work longer hours to meet a tight deadline, fix an urgent problem, or support a customer in need. The trick is to avoid making this kind of situation a habit.

Is it Work — or Workaholism?

The following behaviors do not necessarily mean an individual is a workaholic:

1. Going Hard at Work

Working diligently can go a long way toward helping you achieve your professional goals and objectives. In fact, motivation, drive, and self-initiative are desirable traits among people who want to excel in the business world.

If you show up every day and strive to do your best, you’re not necessarily a workaholic. But problems start if you don’t know when to take a break or call it a day.

2. Strong Work Ethic

Your work ethic is a set of personal values that guide your professional behavior. This can determine how successful you’ll be in your career. Unfortunately, many of us mistake a strong work ethic for workaholism. They’re not the same.

For instance, punctuality and being proactive at work aren’t signs of workaholism. They’re simply principles that drive individual productivity. But if a commitment to work means neglecting other aspects of life, it’s time for a reality check.

3. Working Overtime

If you work overtime occasionally, you aren’t a workaholic. Putting in extra hours may be necessary to complete a particular project or to push through a peak work period. But it can be a slippery slope if you and your team are regularly working late or on weekends.

Using the right technology tools is one way to help reduce your work hours — even if it’s only the time you spend managing email messages. For example, you can create follow-up email templates and let automated tools handle the rest of the process.

Likewise, other digital productivity tools can help ease the burden of routine tasks like project management, note-taking, scheduling, and team communication.

4. Passion for Your Business

If you’re on a leadership path or you own your own business, you’re likely to be more invested in your work. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a workaholic. It may only mean you love what you do and you’re motivated to make an impact.

However, this kind of enthusiasm can open the door to unhealthy behavior. So it’s wise to step back periodically and assess your relationship with work.

How to Detect Workaholism

When exactly should you be concerned that hard work has taken a negative turn? Here are some common signs of workaholism:

  • Refusing to take breaks, even lunch breaks
  • Being the first to arrive at work and the last to leave, every day
  • Taking work home each day
  • Never going on vacations
  • Choosing not to lose sleep in order to meet work commitments
  • A lack of hobbies, activities or relationships outside of a work context
  • Unwillingness to step away from a workspace when working from home
  • Working when sick
  • Experiencing stress symptoms when away from work

Overcoming Workaholism: 5 Tips

A hardcore obsession with work not only harms your health and your relationships. It also erodes your effectiveness on the job. That’s why it’s important to take action when warning signs appear in your behavior or in others. These tips can help:

1. Acknowledge the Problem

Most people who work compulsively find all kinds of excuses to justify their behavior. Some even expect praise for their sacrifice. But left unchecked, it will only get worse. People who suffer from workaholism need to recognize that it’s a problem and that they need help. This is where managers can assist with careful intervention.

2. Identify the Cause

Unless you understand why workaholism surfaces, it will be difficult to manage. But pinpointing the underlying problem can be easier said than done. Some researchers say workaholism is a response to stress, anxiety, or depression. Others say workaholics are driven by perfectionism or an overwhelming desire to feel competent.

Whatever the cause, the desire to work hard sometimes morphs into a counter-productive prison. And those affected often don’t recognize what’s happening until it’s too late.

3. Develop an Action Plan

Once you determine what’s behind this work compulsion, it’s important to establish guidelines that support healthier habits. Make sure this roadmap is practical and doesn’t add even more pressure. For example, consider these ideas:

  • Agree to appropriate daily work “windows.”
  • Establish clear break times for every work day.
  • Create a list of work priorities and update it periodically.
  • Allocate sufficient resources to support key projects and goals. This should include team members, budget and tools.
  • Employ task management software to improve scheduling, time tracking and efficiency.
  • Outsource whenever you can. For instance, a virtual assistant can free-up time for more valuable activities.

4. Practice Setting Reasonable Limits

A common trait among workaholics is the inability to say “no” to more work, even when it’s inconvenient, irrelevant, or unimportant. But recovery depends on boundaries. With healthy work hours in place, it’s essential to practice the art of saying “no.”

Remember that redirection can be an effective option. For example, turn off work-related distractions like email notifications while away from work. Also, during these times you can transfer calls to another staff member or delegate meeting attendance to a colleague.

5. Seek Professional Guidance

Even with these ideas in place, sticking to the process may be difficult. So don’t hesitate to reach out to a mental health professional if you or a team member are struggling to break free from a work obsession.

Summary

Many people call workaholism the addiction of this century, and they are not exactly wrong. Unfortunately, remote work and flexible hours have compounded the problem. Thankfully, people are now becoming more aware of the reality of workaholism and the danger it poses. Hopefully, this article will help you recognize if you or someone in your circle is facing this problem and help you move toward recovery.

Does a Shorter Workweek Actually Work?

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The pandemic has sparked a global conversation about whether people who’ve been working from home should be free to choose their preferred work location. It’s a natural question for employers to ask as they prepare for the future of work. Now, even some ardent return-to-office fans are starting to rethink their stance. 

For example, late last year, the world watched as Twitter CEO Elon Musk issued a strict remote work ban. He soon softened his position, but it wasn’t enough to lure back many disaffected employees. Musk is among a growing list of leaders who are learning that today’s workforce prefers flexibility and wellbeing over “long hours at high intensity.”

The remote work debate continues. But this focus on where we work overshadows a more central argument about how much we should be working. Specifically, the ability to choose a shorter workday or workweek can help employees meet their individual needs. At the same time, reduced hours can help employers, because people are more engaged and productive when they are working, according to a report in The Atlantic.

 

The Downside of a Shorter Workweek

 

For most U.S. employers, reducing the standard 40-hour workweek would be a drastic change. This kind of shift in the status quo will no doubt draw resistance.

Opponents of a shorter workweek say this approach will be costlier and riskier to manage. They also note that, because some people won’t be able to participate, workforce inequality will increase.

Certainly, ineffective implementation could lead to poor employee morale and customer satisfaction. In fact, it could backfire if employees are expected to squeeze extra hours into a 4-day workweek. If managers don’t commit to a revised work structure, it will likely erode employee experience and customer experience, as well.


Why These Criticisms Don’t Stand


Interestingly, many of these 4-day workweek criticisms are similar to arguments against remote work. Clearly, every job cannot be conducted from home. A firefighter or police officer, for example, can’t fight fires or crime remotely. Microsoft Teams and Zoom simply aren’t designed to support these front-line professions.

Regardless, many of these workers can benefit from a shorter work schedule. And it can improve their performance when they are on the clock. For instance, a 4-day workweek trial study in New Zealand found that employees sustained their productivity, even though they experienced up to 45% less stress.

Less time spent working means more time spent with loved ones. In addition, a shortened workweek can help close the gender pay gap. For instance, in a U.K. survey, 2 million unemployed people said childcare responsibilities were the reason they remained unemployed. And 89% of these respondents are women.

 

Discomfort is a reflection of leaders gripping the bat too tightly. It’s a control issue. Many prefer uniformity and the status quo. It’s similar to the push-back we’re seeing with the shift to permanent hybrid work schedules.

Still, engagement studies continue to show year after year that work cultures are broken. Employers can’t continue doing the same things and expect different results. In the post-pandemic economy, we must reevaluate the classic 5-day workweek, as well as the standard 40-hour, full-time work schedule.

 

Reimagining the Workweek

 

Between the turbulent stock market and the Great Resignation in recent years, every company is facing significant challenges. Employees often share their feedback about serious work issues as they abandon ship, but for many organizations, the meter still isn’t moving in the right direction. The underlying problem is that we’re stuck in old ways of thinking.

 

Workers interviewed about why they left their companies often cited the lack of work-life balance as a massive contributing factor. Burnout became an overwhelming issue as companies shifted to work-from-home models. That’s not too surprising. Instead of leaving problems at the office, many people carried those problems wherever they were, at all hours of the day and night. For them, the work-from-home dream actually became more of a nightmare.

But employers have learned how to alleviate some of the stress by giving people more control over their work schedule. In fact, one recent study found that 94% of employees feel a sense of wellbeing when they know their employer cares about them. The option to choose a flexible schedule can accomplish that.

What’s the ROI?

The tangible benefits of a shorter workweek aren’t always obvious, but they deserve attention. In addition to decreased overhead and utility costs, a 4-day workweek means fewer sick days.

You can also realize financial gains by increasing employee retention. Say someone wants to leave your company to find a better work-life balance. You could offer that employee a reduced work schedule at the same salary, knowing they’ll likely remain onboard longer. Here’s why:

It costs an average of $4,000 to hire a new employee, and that person may need a year or longer to learn the job well enough to exceed expectations. The estimated cost of replacing an employee is about 9 months of their salary. And those costs add up fast when you have a revolving door of employees.

You might also want to consider several high-profile 4-day workweek business cases:

  • Perpetual Guardian saw an increase in employee commitment and empowerment without losing productivity or customers.
  • Microsoft Japan printed 59% fewer pages and used 23% less electricity during the program.
  • Unilever saw a roughly 34% decrease in absenteeism and stress levels.

 

3 Ways to Succeed With a Shorter Workweek

 

Getting started isn’t too complicated. In fact, our firm has worked with multiple companies that have shifted to a 4-day workweek. In one case, a manufacturing client in a rural community focused on its pool of working parents. This was a win/win because the adjusted schedule works for both the company and parents who want to stay involved with their kids’ schooling and extra-curricular activities.

As you develop and implement your game plan, be sure to include these elements:

 

1. Involve Your Team

Although the C-suite traditionally makes key business decisions, every employee has a valuable perspective. Some may prefer a 5-day workweek, while others might opt for a shorter schedule. Before you can implement a functional plan, you need to understand your employees’ wants and needs. They deserve a voice because ultimately, they need to make it work.

 

2. Focus on Outcomes

Your employees are central to this process, but your business and your customers matter, too. When assessing any job schedule, consider the outcomes you want to see instead of simply tracking hours. Focus on metrics like production, quality, or customer experience.

 

At the end of the day, shifting to shorter schedules can optimize resources and yield long-term savings. In the U.K. more than 50% of business leaders reported cost savings after shifting from a 5-day work schedule to a 4-day workweek. It shouldn’t matter if your team works 20 or 40 hours a week, as long as the job is done right.

 

3. Stay Open to Continuous Improvement

Forecasts are built on historical performance, so change can be uncomfortable at first. But once you shorten the workweek, you should see measurable improvement in team satisfaction, performance, and business results.

 

Don’t forget the importance of training. Everyone will need time to get used to new employee schedules, new work shifts, and new ways of managing staff. As long as communication remains open, your organization can successfully move through this culture shift.

Closing Notes

A shortened workweek doesn’t mean your team will accomplish less. In fact, flexibility is the cure for many problems companies are facing in this post-pandemic era.

Employee experience is a human experience. No matter when or where people work, it’s important to find a reasonable balance between work and life. If you redesign your work schedules now, employees will appreciate this change. And over time, you can expect to see even more benefits from your efforts.

3 Priorities for Leading a Remote Business

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Running a business from home can be an exhilarating and highly rewarding experience. But remote business owners know that leading from a home office also poses unique challenges.

On one hand, the flexible nature of working from home makes it easier to integrate your professional schedule with personal commitments. On the other hand, the chaos of everyday life can sometimes bleed into your workday. And if it becomes a habit, your impact as a remote business leader will suffer.

We know about these challenges first-hand because TalentCulture has operated as a remote business for more than a decade. Over the years, our Founder, Meghan M. Biro, has learned a few things about what it takes to succeed at leading a virtual team. She recommends that remote business owners focus on three priorities…

3 Priorities for Remote Business Leadership

1. Separate Work From Home

The pandemic taught many of us how tough it can be to focus while working from home. It also taught us there’s no magic formula for remote work success.

That’s because many factors conspire against people who work remotely. For example, if you’re a parent, or you live in close quarters, or you’re easily distracted by your surroundings, finding time to concentrate on deep work can seem impossible. Have you tried these tips to improve your productivity?

  • Create a Remote-Friendly Work Setting

    Not everyone has enough room for a dedicated home office. Regardless, it’s vital to establish a workspace that helps you mentally step away from your surroundings.

    Start by designating a separate, well-lit work zone — even if it’s only enough space for a dedicated desk and chair. Make sure these furnishings are ergonomically designed, so you’ll be comfortable enough to remain focused. Next, remove clutter and unnecessary home decor from the area.

    If your home isn’t large enough to provide the kind of space you need, consider organizations that provide coworking spaces. Many options are available now, from local, dedicated “pay-by-the-hour” work nooks to memberships in global networks for professionals who need reliable access to an office while on the road.

  • Schedule Focus Time

    Blocking time on your calendar can be a highly effective way to make progress on specific tasks throughout each day. This scheduling method helps you visually track how much time you’re devoting to specific activities, projects, or teams.

    As a remote business leader, sharing your time-blocking calendar can also help you manage boundaries. Employees who want input or feedback can quickly see your open timeslots. This makes it faster and easier for them to arrange meetings. It also relieves you from the pressure of immediately responding to every request.

  • Make Room for Interruptions

    As we learned during the pandemic, sometimes family life will spill into your work-from-home environment. Whether it’s making lunch for the kids, running an errand, or taking time for a personal phone call, you’ll want to schedule work breaks into your day.

    Let your family know in advance when you’ve allocated flexible time on your work schedule. This way, they’ll know when it’s convenient to ask you for help or request your involvement in household tasks.

Keep in mind that interruptions aren’t necessarily a negative thing. Interacting with family or friends can recharge your batteries. You may simply want to set aside time to get away from your computer. It may be hard to know when to take a break. But taking time out of your work day to get fresh air or make yourself a snack can keep you feeling refreshed and ready to take on the rest of your day.

2. Build a Team Culture

It’s not unusual for remote business leaders to become consumed with work. But even if you enjoy intense work sessions, remember that others may not embrace that approach. It’s important to consider the signals you’re sending about your work culture, especially when you’re working from a distance.

Try these tips to build a stronger remote team:

  • Define the values that drive your organization, and communicate these values through a clear mission statement. Your mission, vision, and values are powerful tools that serve multiple purposes. They can:– Distinguish your business in the marketplace
    – Help staff members understand their purpose and engage more deeply with work
    – Help your team set relevant goals and take pride in the company’s success.
  • Regularly recognize individual and team achievements. Tangible incentives and rewards can make a big impact. But simply showing genuine appreciation on a regular basis can also keep employees engaged and motivated.
  • Encourage social connections among team members by setting up informal virtual activities that build trust and strengthen relationships.
  • Drive team collaboration by moving beyond email software with tools that support natural group communication across your distributed workforce.
  • Prevent remote team communication missteps by scheduling regular group meetings and empowering individuals to arrange meetings when they feel real-time interaction is the most efficient solution.

These efforts to elevate communication and collaboration will likely require more time from your team members. But in the long run, you can expect to benefit from a stronger culture and better business results.

Provide a Work-Friendly Workspace for All

Do your employees struggle to work or socialize in a home office setting? Just as you may find value in a coworking space, this may be a valuable option for your staff, as well.

First, gather feedback from your team with a survey that asks for specifics about when and where they work, any issues they’re experiencing, and their level of interest in a hybrid work model. Then investigate vendors that fit your organization’s needs.

If you’re new to coworking services, or you’re unsure about the risk of investing in this kind of service, consider a line of credit. This can provide you with some financial stability until you can determine if a long-term coworking relationship makes sense for your business.

3. Keep Your Team On-Task

As a remote business owner, you’d probably like to think employees are just as passionate about work as you are. But even with a strong work culture, that’s not necessarily the case.

The bigger question should be, how can you help people produce on a more consistent level? Getting team members on the same page to complete tasks as a unit is complicated — especially when they work remotely. As a leader, it’s your job to ensure your team’s time and talent are allocated more efficiently and effectively. These steps can help:

  • Be Alert and Mindful

    Do you know when to step in and guide your team’s efforts? This can be particularly tricky if you’re new to remote leadership. No one wants to be micromanaged. But if a core issue is overlooked, it can affect the rest of the team. And in extreme situations, your business’s reputation can be significantly affected. You’ll want to listen carefully to staff feedback, and proactively fill in gaps when your view isn’t complete.

  • Intervene When Needed

    Initiating a difficult conversation with an employee isn’t fun or easy. But you can rely on proven techniques that can help both you and your employees grow professionally. Ultimately, this can sustain a strong culture.

  • Stay Ahead of the Curve

    Proactive conversations about key projects, roles, and tasks help your team members stay on track. Set expectations upfront to ensure that people fully understand their roles and responsibilities before jumping into an assignment. Ask your staff how you can help them complete their deliverables. Then, schedule regular check-ins to make sure no one feels overwhelmed along the way.

Final Note

A remote business model can be a terrific way to structure a company. But leading a virtual team poses unique issues. Be sure to manage your own time and resources proactively, while also keeping your team’s interests in mind. By prioritizing your attention, your culture, and your team’s changing needs, you’ll be better prepared to serve your customers successfully and grow your business.

What Hybrid Worker Preferences Reveal About the Future of Work

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We don’t need research to tell us the future of work will be much different from pre-pandemic norms. But Covid isn’t the cause. Disruption was happening before 2020. The pandemic merely focused our attention and accelerated the rate of change. So, where is work headed next? It’s impossible to chart this course without considering hybrid worker preferences.

This is why my firm, NextMapping, recently conducted extensive research to explore factors that are redefining the workplace. The result is our 23 Trends For Future of Leadership 2023 Report, based on data from client surveys and online polls, combined with insights from McKinsey, Gartner, and the World Economic Forum.

Wellbeing Remains a Central Concern

Our analysis uncovered a single overarching theme — worker wellbeing. People want work that is flexible enough to fit into their lifestyle. In fact, they’re willing to make professional adjustments to address this priority. And because the market for talent remains competitive, employers need to make workforce wellbeing a priority, as well.

How does this translate into hybrid worker preferences? We see clear trends in how people want to work, where they want to work, and who they want to work for. There’s no doubt that hybrid work is here to stay! These data points make a compelling case:

  • 66% of workers worldwide prefer to participate in a hybrid workplace.
  • 26% of U.S. workers currently operate in some kind of hybrid mode.
  • 40% of workers say they’re more productive working remotely. However, 52% prefer hybrid work over a fully remote model.
  • People consider in-office work important for networking, team camaraderie, and enhanced relationships. They also think onsite work can improve training, learning, and knowledge sharing.
  • Remote work is perceived as helpful for including workers from various locations and completing projects or tasks with minimal interruption.

Hybrid Work is Not One-Size-Fits-All

There are multiple ways to define hybrid work, as these statistics suggest:

  • People want to structure their own hybrid schedules. Most would rather choose their in-office days, with 76% preferring to work in-office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays.
  • Workers want fewer meetings, and they want each meeting to be more effective. In fact, 66% say ineffective meetings reduce their overall productivity.
  • People prefer accessible leaders who are strong coaches. This is so important that 81% of workers say they quit a job to leave a “toxic” boss at some point in the past three years.
  • Workers want an employer that invests in their future. 55% note that their company provides learning roadmaps, growth opportunities, and succession plans.

Overall, our findings indicate that hybrid workplace success depends on leaders who are comfortable managing the unique and variable needs of people who are operating in multiple work modes. It requires flexible, agile leaders who can adapt to diverse personalities and work styles. These leaders need higher-order soft skills. I call them super crucial human skills.

How Leaders Can Support Hybrid Worker Preferences

To better understand how to lead more effectively in this new environment, let’s look closer at hybrid worker preferences:

1. More Scheduling Choice

Knowing workers want to choose the days they work on-site and offsite, leaders will benefit from conducting ongoing conversations with individual team members about scheduling that works best for them.

Some leaders have proximity bias. In other words, they want everyone to be in the office because it’s their preference. Proximity bias creates a barrier that keeps leaders from listening to employees and developing trusted relationships.

Some leaders have told me they don’t think people are working as hard when they work remotely. This, too, is a bias. Leaders can’t be effective if they base decisions on inaccurate performance data and make assumptions based on personal biases. 

2. Fewer and Better Meetings

I know several hybrid work leaders who have fallen into the trap of booking more meetings because they think this improves inclusion. But it’s time for everyone to re-evaluate meeting practices with a more discerning eye.

The rise of virtual meeting tools makes it easier to schedule more meetings. But less may be more. When does a topic or project truly deserve a meeting? Who really needs to attend? Could a modified approach lead to better results?

Ideally, every meeting has a “why” and a facilitator who is ready to make good use of participants’ time. Some creative thinking can help you build a more effective agenda and achieve useful outcomes.

For example, polling and survey tools (such as PollEverywhere and SurveyMonkey) can help you gather worker insights about subjects that require team input. This means you can sidestep some meetings intended to gather verbal input. In other cases, these tools can help you prepare an agenda that will make meetings more productive.

3. More Access to Leaders

Hybrid workers prefer accessible leaders who are great coaches with high emotional intelligence. This is an excellent opportunity for leaders who want to coach and inspire their teams more effectively. But leading with high emotional intelligence requires great skill.

The hybrid workplace has increased the need for leaders to adapt to a combination of in-office communication and virtual communication. In the past, we called these capabilities soft skills. But for success now and in the future, I think we should reframe these skills as “super crucial human” skills.

The ability to pivot and navigate uncertain waters, while also remaining open and caring is the most critical skill development challenge for leaders in 2023. 

4. Deeper Involvement in Future Plans

Lastly, workers prefer to know “what’s next” when it comes to their future. Organizations that offer a roadmap of growth opportunities, succession plans, and talent mobility enjoy higher workforce retention. These practices will become even more important, going forward.

Leaders can collaborate with their team members to help co-create a professional path that is flexible and fulfilling. When workers feel that their leaders care about their future and are invested in helping them succeed, it strengthens their commitment to their leaders, their work, and their organization.

This is Only One Leadership Priority

No doubt, hybrid workplaces will continue to shift and require everyone to adapt. But we see other important trends emerging this year, as well. For instance, automation will have an increasingly important role in helping people produce better-quality work. Also, leaders will benefit from shifting their perspective from “me” to “we.”

To learn more about all 23 trends we’re tracking for 2023 and beyond, watch our research summary video:

Workforce Engagement is Sinking. How Can You Turn the Tide?

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Have you noticed that workforce engagement and motivation are slipping? You’re not the only one. In April, Gallup confirmed that U.S. workforce engagement declined from a high of 36% in 2020 to 34% in 2021.

2022 hasn’t been any better. This year, only 32% of full-time and part-time employees told Gallup they’re engaged, while 17% say they are actively disengaged.

What’s happening here? Why is work engagement declining? And what can you do to prevent burnout and unnecessary resignations on your team?

Why Is Engagement In a Slump?

Every business is different. However, there are some common trends we can point to as we search for underlying reasons for decreased engagement.

Burnout, high turnover, and poor communication are among the most prevalent causes. And these problems only get worse when good employees stop caring. That’s because new team members tend to look to high-achieving colleagues for advice, motivation, and guidance.

Let’s look closer at each of these factors:

1. Burnout

While burnout can be linked to chronic hustle culture, return-to-office concerns also are playing a role. After many people were forced to work from home in 2020, they’ve grown accustomed to choosing where and when they work. Now, when called back to the office, many want to hold on to remote or hybrid work models and flexible schedules. Who can blame them?

When employees feel they’re losing a sense of choice over their work, or they recognize an imbalance in work/life responsibilities, they’re more likely to disengage or “quiet quit.” No wonder this phenomenon has been gaining traction during the past year.

2. Turnover

All this dissatisfaction naturally leads to higher employee turnover, which (no surprise) also influences engagement.

On one hand, welcoming a new coworker or manager can be exciting. However, the learning curve that comes with getting a new team member up to speed can create a work imbalance for veteran employees, even if it’s just for a short time.

This imbalance can create feelings of resentment, especially when engagement is already suffering for other reasons. As a result, more people could decide to leave. And if you don’t pay close attention, this can spiral into a very costly vicious cycle.

3. Poor Communication

When organizations try to accommodate hybrid, remote, or flexible work, it can be hard to communicate effectively. Virtual meetings provide more flexibility and enable a sense of work-life balance that many employees now prefer.

But if instant messaging or online video calls are your team’s only form of communication, this isn’t a sustainable way to work. If you don’t use these tools wisely, it puts effective collaboration and productivity at risk. For strong results, you need a plan.

How to Lift Workforce Engagement

Current engagement numbers don’t look good, but that doesn’t mean HR and business managers are powerless. Some U.S. companies have been able to increase workforce engagement despite difficult circumstances. Here are four solutions that can help you improve:

1. Create a Game Plan for Remote or Hybrid Work

Not all companies are able to offer remote, hybrid, or flexible scheduling opportunities. If yours does, then make sure you develop and execute a supportive strategy, so everyone in these roles can succeed.

As previously mentioned, flexible work opportunities are likely to create confusion among employees if work processes and expectations aren’t communicated clearly or executed thoughtfully. Core workplace principles like accessibility, transparency, and inclusion are especially important.

Talk with your managers and colleagues to get their input about remote work practices they recommend for your organization. For example, you may find that using apps like Slack, Teams, or Monday to conduct brief daily online meetings will add a layer of accountability.

2. Encourage Employees to Take Time Off

42% of U.S. employees say they haven’t taken a vacation in the past year. That’s a huge percentage. Working too long without a break will only make stress and burnout worse.

Encourage your staff to take their allotted PTO by creating a culture that supports taking time to rest and recharge. If you are on the leadership team, set an example. Take your time off and try not to respond to work messages outside of working hours.

3. Invest in the Right Tools

Another important way to prevent burnout is by investing in the right tools for your staff. Note that this isn’t just about technology. It may mean you’ll need to purchase new software or update existing technology. But it can also mean outsourcing specific activities to a specialized services provider.

Start by identifying the bottlenecks in your team’s workflows. Then consider any solutions that can reduce or remove redundant or unnecessary tasks. Think in terms of cost-effective ways to automate and streamline work activities.

4. Strive to be Approachable and Transparent

In a healthy workplace culture, communication moves freely to and from all corners of the organization. It’s not just about a top-down flow, but bottom-up, and side-to-side as well.

If employees aren’t comfortable voicing their opinions, feelings, and suggestions, they’re more likely to burn out. To lift engagement, commit to creating an open work environment that welcomes feedback and ideas at all levels.

This is less about formal initiatives and more about consistent behavior among leaders and managers. It’s about showing up every day, listening, and being responsive.

Final Thoughts

Many factors are contributing to the recent decline in workforce engagement. Although the solution may seem complex and out of reach, try some of these recommendations. I think you’ll be surprised at the difference it makes in the way employees view your company and their work.

More often than not, people want to do their jobs. But when little things like lack of information, inefficient technology, mundane tasks, lack of support, and strict schedules pile up, it’s only a matter of time before people start to disengage.

Be the boss that steps in and reignites the passion that got your employees to apply in the first place. If you keep at it, engagement is sure to follow.

10 Ideas To Make Mental Health Support More Accessible For Employees

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What are some ideas to make mental health support more accessible to employees? This question was posed to a group of talented professionals for their insights. From offering mental health holidays to flex work schedules, here’s what they had to say.

Offer Mental Health Days

Mental health Days are meant to be used when you have too much on your mind or when are feeling high levels of stress and anxiety. We can’t pre-plan how we will feel, so it’s important to allow employees to take unplanned days off.  Moreover, it is a great way to track the mental health of your employees. If someone is taking too many “mental health days” then you can reach out and support them! It’s easy to apply and simple, yet so few companies do it!

Annie Chopra, She TheQueen

Take Time to Communicate Benefits

In our brand new research on mental health, we found that employers rated themselves a “C” while the workforce rated employer support for mental health as an “F.” When you get into the data, you see that while companies are trying to make changes, these changes aren’t always felt by the workforce. We have to spend as much time communicating the changes and benefits we offer as we do actually selecting those benefits if we want to see real impact.

Ben Eubanks, Lighthouse Research & Advisory

Provide Health Coaching Sessions

Working with a qualified health & wellness coach has the potential to make a big difference in employees’ work and personal lives.  A health coach is NOT a licensed mental health practitioner. A good health coach IS a trained empathetic listener and motivator who works with people in groups or one-on-one. They help to create and work toward solutions to increase the enjoyment of life and work. 

Employers can offer coaching services onsite or remotely, in groups or individually.  The National Board of Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) certifies coaches who have completed specialized coaching training, demonstrated coaching skills, have experience working with clients, and passed a rigorous exam.

Ronel Kelmen, Attainable Transformation

Include Inspiring and Regenerating PTO Perks

We all understand that employees need sufficient high-quality PTO experiences in order to stay sharp, satisfied, and healthy at work. But what really makes PTO beneficial for our mental health is when that time is also inspiring. 

For example, we offer our employees three fully paid 24-hour days per year to participate in volunteer activities. Not only do these experiences give our team the chance to step outside their work and breathe, but while doing so they’re also engaging in work that can reignite and reshape their worldviews.

Tina Hawk, GoodHire

Promote a Work-Life Balance

Make sure your employees are taking time away from work on a regular basis. This means encouraging regularly scheduled vacations and not rewarding a burning the midnight oil mentality. You may get short-term results, but this type of schedule will often lead to burnout and far less productivity and motivation. 

A great leader challenges their employees to regularly rest, recharge, and connect with their loved ones. When employees feel valued, they will be much more motivated.

Mark Daoust, Quiet Light

Host Mental Health Fairs

One out-of-the-box way to make mental health more accessible to workers is to hold a mental health fair. These events function like traditional health fairs yet focus on psychological health. Booths can give out information on practices like stress management and avoiding burnout. Additionally, you can do activities like meditation and mindfulness worksheets. Beyond providing at-risk employees with resources, you can also use these fairs as a way to educate the workforce at large about mental health and help professionals to be better allies to psychologically vulnerable peers.

Carly Hill, Virtual Holiday Party

Encourage the Use of Wellness Apps

Employers can provide free resources and access to mental health apps. It can be a way for everyone in your company to get the mental health help they need, especially to prevent burnout amongst your employees. Using an app might feel less intimidating when seeking professional help from a therapist or psychiatrist.

You might not be there to visually recognize when an employee is overworking themselves. But with certain apps, they can get reminders to take breaks and maintain healthy habits during their working hours.

Scott Lieberman, Touchdown Money

Foster a “Life Happens” Culture

A healthy company culture understands that even the highest performing employees will face unideal circumstances that may take them away from work. A culture of ‘life happens’ understands that company needs shouldn’t supersede employee needs but ebb and flow. As we navigate turbulent times as a nation, we’ve all faced the universal truth that life happens, and sometimes things are out of our control.

Amrita Saigal, Kudos

Allow Flexible Work Schedules 

A remote or hybrid work schedule creates more flexibility for employees to take care of their physical and mental health how they see fit. Workers want freedom – time to spend with loved ones, take care of themselves, and travel – promoting one’s mental health on their terms. Allow the space and flexibility for your employees to take care of their mental health at their discretion.

Breanne Millette, BISOULOVELY

Train Leaders to Create Inclusive Environments 

Smaller businesses can make mental health more accessible to employees by equipping leaders with the tools and resources to have open, honest conversations and by creating a safe space for employees to speak openly without fear of judgment. 

Creating inclusive environments for conditions like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia can go a long way in making sure everyone feels supported at work. By educating people about and accepting neurodiversity, you can create an inclusive and supportive workplace where everyone can thrive.

Dan Gissane, Huxo Creative

       

Photo by Chris Montgomery

How to Create an Emotionally Comfortable Remote Working Environment

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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.

 

Photo: Anika Huizinga

How to Stay Productive During the COVID-19 Crisis

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Remote work isn’t new. In fact, working from home been on the rise since 2010. But this new decade brought with it COVID-19, triggering a complete paradigm shift for remote work, school and life — worldwide. As a result, how we communicate, learn, teach, and conduct business has changed. And staying productive has become a challenge all it’s own.

Back in April, FlexJobs reported more than half of all Americans were working from home. Since then, 65% said their productivity increased. In June, Stanford reported that 42% of the U.S. labor force was working from home full-time, signaling a return to the office for many. But in July, COVID-19 cases soared by more than a million globally. More than half of all states in the U.S. that reopened (or planned to), closed in an effort to curb the virus. Given this ever-evolving context and data, we soon knew it would be a tough summer. 

How Do We Stay Productive?

Now that we roll into the fall, families and students grapple with how to return not just to school, but to some sense of normalcy. At the same time, organizations struggle with re-entry to the workplace. While Twitter says they’ll begin reintegrating employees into their offices soon, major companies like Amazon have decided to remain remote until the end of 2020. Google and Facebook have announce their employees will work remotely until mid-2021. 

So amid this ongoing crisis and uncertainty, how exactly do we keep stay productive? In the workplace, how can we find the balance between completely safe and fully engaged?

For many leaders, these seven strategies now serve as a roadmap that helps teams stay productive during the COVID-19 pandemic…

1. Focus on Priorities

Location shouldn’t matter as long as the work gets done, especially now. Employees should think about what work needs to get done, in what order, and how they should tackle that work. Managers, on the other hand, should think about the work that must be produced today while keeping an eye on what’s on the horizon. Combined, this strategy helps set realistic priorities while reducing stress and burnout.

2. Boost Communication

For a remote workforce to be successful, strong communication is key. So managers must integrate communications technology like Slack, Trello, Basecamp, and Zoom. By leveraging these tools effectively and in a balanced manner (no Zoom calls at 6:15am!), managers can easily check-in with employees – perhaps even more often than they did when sharing an office. The win-win: this boost in communication builds even stronger working relationships across the organization.

3. Adopt New Approaches

As the world of work changes, managers must change their approach. True, we’re no longer in the same office. But that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to build mutually-beneficial, one-on-one relationships. One example is making remote work feel more human. Other approaches range from more informal meetings (just to connect), to co-created checklists and to-do lists (to build autonomy). Bottom line: The same rigid approaches to work we used to rely on may not work well now.

4. Set Clear Expectations

Clearly stating expectations and setting common goals is more important now than ever. Just as vital: A clear of understanding of how work will be measured. This will help ensure everyone understands what productivity looks like. At this time, being autocratic may not be the right answer. So welcome input and questions. After all, when managers encourage curiosity it naturally empowers each of us to do good work.

5. Offer Respectful Radical Candor

Managers and leaders must lead by example. So, no more excuses to others — or ourselves — as to why we can’t get work done. To excel, we must be honest about why we can’t be efficient during these times. Let’s accept responsibility and ditch the lies to hack productivity. Let’s consistently offer respectful radical candor. We can then co-create solutions to the challenges we face. By working together, we can overcome whatever keeps us from being productive.

6. Use Stress to Your Advantage

Not all stress is bad stress. Some stressors actually motivate us to better maintain our focus, stimulating a better work performance with goals and deadlines at the forefront. Of course, sometimes stress becomes too overwhelming. When that happens, take a deep breath. Refocus on the highest priorities. Where possible, reset expectations. By focusing on an employees strengths rather than what feels like a weakness during stressful moments, managers can help reduce the bad kinds of stress. And use the good for good.

7. Employ Empathy

Remote work has always meant a flexible work location, work schedule and dress code. But now, empathy plays a role in flexibility. Today, many of us must think about the pressures of working from home. We must integrate family responsibilities, distance or hybrid learning for children, and other life commitments. Showing empathy, and specifically knowing what each of us might be going through during the COVID-19 crisis, helps maintain – and even improves – our work culture.

Leverage these seven strategies. Help team members and leaders stay productive. Enable a positive company culture. Do it well, and you’ll help everyone feel more at ease during a complex time.

Photo: Bill Oxford

5 Ways To Foster Belonging At Work

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What’s the worst thing an employee can say on any given day? How about, “I don’t belong here?” The schism that takes place when an employee doesn’t feel connected with the work culture can have wide-ranging impacts across engagement, performance, team dynamics and the bottom line. Companies need to ensure they cultivate a workplace where employees feel a sense of belonging, whether that workplace is in-office or remote. As much as we talk about the power of employee experience and the dynamics of employee engagement, we first have to address the primary need to belong. That sense of true connection is the foundation for how we feel about work — and indeed, how we work.

I’ve been having some really insightful conversations with Iain Moffat, Chief Global Officer of MHR International, about belonging. It feels right for the times we’re in right now. Some employees have been rapidly sprung out of the tangible community of the workplace and are now working from home. And some workforces are still in the physical workplace, but under increasing pressure as we continue to endure the pandemic and its fallout. But building a sense of belonging isn’t just a fix for now. It’s a powerful talent strategy that has long-term outcomes.

Iain and I agreed that building a sense of belonging needs to be part of any serious endeavor to build an exceptional work culture. We also both noted that while some organizations are surprised by how comfortable employees are working from home, it may be, ironically, because they’re home. So how can businesses provide employees with that same sense of being in the right place?

First, five key points on belonging and businesses:

  • Given the push-pull of working from home or working through the turbulence and challenges of COVID-19, belonging bolsters our realization that we’re in it together, no matter where we are. It’s been linked to improved retention and a far more successful employer brand. Employees who feel like they belong tend to invite others to experience that as well. 
  • We all need to feel like we belong — and when we do, there’s a marked increase in our engagement, overall happiness and health. In that sense, belonging is a benefit that should be part of the employer’s offering to employees: working with us, you will feel like you belong, and we will be intentional about that. 
  • In our consumer-driven society, belonging is more than just a feel-good. It’s a strong driver of brand alignment. When we feel comfortable with a brand, we tend to stay with it. We feel like it speaks to our values, our sensibilities. That loyalty easily translates into the workplace context: employees want to stay with their employer because they believe in the brand and are comfortable with its values and purpose. 
  • Belonging isn’t just a social component. It should be seen as a business strategy that considers and addresses the real needs of your employees in terms of safety, career growth, feeling a part of a work community, and balancing work and life.
  • A culture of belonging doesn’t aim to homogenize everyone into a shared identity, but rather fosters diversity and inclusion as a way of improving and enhancing a shared culture. There’s a big difference. You don’t need to steamroll over differences to find the common ground, particularly in the workplace.

Marshmallows, Spaghetti, and Teamwork   

That said, what does a culture of belonging look like? Iain provided a telling example of the complex dynamics of belonging in action: the marshmallow challenge, originally created by Peter Skillman — and the subject of a great TED Talk by Tom Wujec. In this collaborative training exercise, teams of four have a fixed amount of time to build a tower out of spaghetti and tape that can support a marshmallow. The team with the highest tower wins.

“What’s interesting about the challenge is the pattern of consistently high-performing and low-performing teams,” when you compare kindergarteners and business school graduates, he said. What I found interesting as well is that in general, the five-year-olds outdid the business school grads. 

The children walked into the challenge with no training or preconceived notion of how to work together. So they just did — “in short bursts of collaborative effort, prototyping to find the best solution,” as Iain described. “They have no pre-fixed view of how they should act in the group and no hierarchy. Instead, they just focused on how to solve the problem.” They worked inclusively, unconcerned with status or protocols. 

 But the business school grads got hung up on who would be in charge, wasting valuable time jockeying for position. “They acted in a way they think they should behave given their lengthy investment in an advanced education,” Iain said. “They focused on trying to come up with a single solution rather than collaborating, prototyping, trying and doing. They were held back by a set of assumptions of how they should behave.” Often they ran out of time, or built a tower that collapsed.

We’re not building spaghetti towers, to be sure. But we do tend to walk into work with a sense of hierarchy and how we’re supposed to behave. If, instead, we’re free to abandon our certain assumptions on status and protocols and just work together, we forge a new kind of teamwork that’s far more productive. A team in a culture of belonging can simply focus on the task and the output, and is comfortable enough to be open to each others’ ideas and relish the collaborative process. The overarching attitude is: “Let’s try it, if it doesn’t work, let’s try something else.” Without anyone in charge, there’s no agenda besides tackling the problem. Instead of being driven by ego, the team is driven by the energy of working together. Instead of feeling pressure to arrive at a perfect solution, the team has the freedom and confidence to prototype until they get it. 

Two factors changed the outcome for the business school grads, Iain said: “First, when someone with facilitation skills joined the business school graduates, they often performed better, as the group was organized around the task.” Second, “If the group received feedback on their performance, and had the time to reflect and then perform the task again, they outperformed by several hundred percent.” 

We have a remarkable opportunity right now to foster a sense of belonging within our workplaces. So many of us have taken the veneer off: we’re meeting from kitchens, we’re video conferencing with children in the background; we’re seeing each others’ lives. We’re seeing how important it is to protect employees working on the front lines or out in public, and how to include their perspectives in how we better safeguard our workforce. 

The climate of working during a pandemic has removed so many of the assumptions we bring into the workplace, and replaced them with a basic understanding that on a fundamental level we are people, working together. When you can build on that understanding by meeting one of our most fundamental needs — to feel that sense of belonging – it drives peace of mind, focus, productivity, collaboration and performance. In so doing, it fosters everyone’s success — that of the business, and that of its workforce. If you want to see how cohesive and collaborative your work culture really is, break out the spaghetti and the marshmallows. Then build on that until those towers are as high as they can be.

This post is sponsored by MHR International.

Measuring the Business Benefits of Flexibility: A Win for All Sides

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As always, I’ve been following the trends that are really going to change the way we work. Among them: the need to continue evolving our concept of the workforce and the tools changing how, where, and when we work.

Generation after generation is moving closer to a completely digitally-enabled form of working. We’re now welcoming the first wave of Generation Z into our organizations. For these digital natives, tech is simply part of their world. It’s not a novelty; it’s not an “other.” Technology is fully integrating itself into everything we do. It’s reached the point where tech is advancing us well beyond the traditional boundaries of workplace and workday, allowing us to expand, scale, and ease up on the rigid definitions applied to how we work.

Tech is also unlocking a surprising key to engagement and productivity — flexibility. From the youngest working demographic all the way to senior leadership, we’re all learning that being flexible has tangible and mutual benefits. We don’t necessarily have to work in the same place, at the same time, or even five days a week to perform at our best. In fact, according to Citrix CTO Christian Reilly’s perspective on the recent ‘Future of the Working Week’ report (PDF), “A four-day week is not the only option for creating a shorter working week, and there is no one-size fits all solution. But it is the creation of flexibility and useful working hours that is key, in striving for a healthier work-life balance, and more productive output.”

Furthermore, the recent study by the Centre of Economics and Business Research (Cebr) (in conjunction with Citrix) spells out the benefits of flexibility by the numbers. The bottom line: flexible work models are a win. Companies that leverage technology to enable flexibility can better attract talent and increase employee engagement and productivity. They can also potentially boost the US economy by as much as $2.36 trillion a year. Yes, that’s trillion with a “T.”

Measuring the Business Benefits of Flexibility: A Win for All Sides 

An Untapped Pool 

Remote work enables companies to tap into new talent pools, filling their talent gaps with what’s called the “home force” — a great name for a potential goldmine of talent at a time when we’re greatly in need. In terms of a business case, tapping into this segment of the talent market has irrefutable benefits. The home force entails a whole range of experience and life stages:

  • upper-level talent who has opted for better work-life balance
  • new parents
  • parents trading off a year of office time for being home with the kids
  • caregivers with aging relatives

And those are just a few examples.

If you think this home-bound population comprises only a small segment of potential talent, think again. The Cebr survey found that more than two thirds (69%) of people who are currently unemployed or economically inactive would be encouraged to start working if they had the opportunity to work flexibly. That’s what drives a couple trillion in economic gains.

More than Just Balance

The Cebr study also found that 95% of the knowledge workers polled who are currently employed (again, these are not self-employed) would work from home 2.4 days per week if given the chance. 60– 70% of respondents would work from local coffee shops, shared workspaces and other locations at least one day per week. It’s more evidence that flexibility speaks to a desired sweet spot in our lives. It’s not enough to strike a balance between work and life — there’s simply too much happening in both realms to maintain a workable split.

Integration is another element to consider. It breaks the seams between each in a way that better fits our seamless, digitally-enabled ways of functioning in person and via digital workplaces, driving better employee experiences. There’s also a certain symmetry between the integration of the physical and digital world with the integration that flexibility creates between our work lives and our home. “The future of work is dynamic and decentralized,” said Donna Kimmel, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Citrix. “And businesses that create flexible digital environments in which employees can access the tools and information they need to perform at their best, from anywhere at any time, can deliver it today.” It’s clear why the company helps customers to better guide, manage and automate through a unified, secure and high-performing digital workplace with intelligent capabilities, known as Citrix Workspace.

Gallup found that workers who spend about three to four days of the week working offsite are substantially more engaged in their jobs than traditional counterparts stuck behind desks all day. Cebr’s study broke down the numbers to show just why we all stand to gain — and given the factor of financial stress in our lives, it makes sense.

The study found that flexibility and remote working can save many billions:

  • 5.8 billion hours annually saved by employees not having to travel to and from work.
  • $44.4 billion in savings on commuting costs.
  • $107 billion a year back in the pockets of US workers, given the savings in cost and time.

Engage Them or Lose Them

If you don’t build flexibility into your job offerings, you may lose great talent who prefers to work for an organization that’s more flex-friendly. In a little more than ten years, the number of telecommuters (not self-employed) has increased by 159%. Among millennials, some 76% of them would take a pay cut of 3% or more for a company that offered flexible office hours. And the Cebr study uncovered further incentive for leaders bent on improving productivity: 93% of respondents said virtual/remote working would enable them to manage their time more effectively and devote extra hours to work tasks. Read that again: your employees want to spend more time working. Working remotely would enable them to do so.

Which begs the question: what if you don’t give them the chance? Someone else will. We’re still at 3.6% unemployment. It’s not unusual for a company to poach its competitor’s workforce, and not just on the executive level. Organizations are trying to offer all the bells and whistles. But if flexibility is off the table, you may not get to an interview — so it’s a best practice to build the capability to provide it.

Tim Minahan, the Executive Vice President of Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer at Citrix, pointed out that from a business standpoint, flexible and remote is a key way for leaders to not only expand the talent pool but also tap into their skills to “unlock innovation, engage customers and move their business forward.” I’d agree, and add that the operative word here is forward. Leadership consistently reports that a primary challenge is recruiting talent with the right skills — and flexibility eases some of that pressure. One of the top three constraints facing new businesses is being able to hire the right talent, according to 60% of SMB leaders surveyed this year. Usually, in HR, we reject the concept of a magic bullet. But in this case, if you’re looking for the magic bullet, flexibility and remote working opportunities may be it.

Should Your Employees Have to Check in With the Office During Summer Vacation?

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Your business doesn’t stop when an employee goes on vacation. There are still products and services that need to be sold, questions that need to be answered and day-to-day tasks that need to be handled. But when employees are on vacation, should business stop for them?

That’s the question we posed to Debra Corey, corporate HR director of Reward Gateway and co-author of “Build it: The Rebel Playbook for World-Class Employee Engagement.” Corey shared her operating instructions for communicating with employees while they’re on vacation.

“Should” Is the Operative Word

Research reveals that employees are already thinking about work when they’re not there. According to a recent study by Accountemps, 44 percent of employees lose sleep over work-related issues ranging from being overwhelmed by their workload to having disagreements with coworkers.

The fact that almost half of workers can’t sleep because of work anxiety speaks to the need to allow them time to rest and unwind. “The word that makes it difficult is ‘should’ — it should not be an expectation, it should be a personal choice,” says Corey. She believes that employees should be treated like adults and left to decide what they think is best. “You interview someone, you hire them because you think they’re the best person, but after hiring them, now it’s like you don’t trust them to make the right decisions,” she says.

Advantages of Employees Checking In

Clearly, there are advantages for the company if workers check in while on vacation, because business continues as it normally would. However, Corey says checking in can also be beneficial to some employees. “Some people get too stressed if they don’t check their email and would rather spend five minutes every morning checking in to be sure that everything is in good shape.” For these employees, it would be difficult to relax unless they checked in. “I admit that I like to check in because I see it as a way to control things and make sure that, when I come back, everything isn’t out of control,” she says.

Disadvantages of Employees Checking In

If employees are checking in, they’re never flipping the switch to turn off “work mode.” Corey says that some people want to completely separate from work when they’re on vacation. And while some employees feel better after checking in for five minutes, the opposite can also be true. “You can see that one email that upsets you the rest of the day, or even the rest of the week,” Corey says. “You’re almost holding your breath as you log in, because you don’t know what’s going to be in your timeline and how it will affect you.” That’s why she believes that employees should be able to decide what’s best for them.

“If you’re a grown-up, you don’t tell another grown-up, ‘You’re going to eat at this time or shower at this time,’ because you assume they’re going to handle the important tasks.” Corey says this strategy doesn’t just apply to vacations, either — it applies to every time an employee is off.

Setting Expectations

Some companies like to create policies regarding contacting employees outside of standard business hours. “I’m not a big believer in rules, because they put a divide between employees and management,” Corey says. However, depending on the company’s needs, she believes it might be a good idea to speak with the management team regarding expectations. “Talk to managers about how to best support their employees. It’s less about policy and more about giving managers and employees support.”

And the expectations have to match the message. “You can say it’s OK not to check email, but then you’re expecting something to be completed when they’re on vacation.” In this case, you’re sending a mixed message. Make sure your communication is consistent.

Driving Employee Engagement Will Drive Your Client Engagement

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Happy employees lead to happy clients. Knowing that, why do so few companies focus on employee engagement?

At my company, we prioritize employee engagement for two reasons: First, disengaged employees are less productive at work, lowering the quality of deliverables and harming the company’s culture and reputation; and second, disengaged employees present themselves poorly to clients, creating negative impressions and reducing conversions.

To avoid a destructive company culture and disappointed clients, leaders should focus more on engaging their employees. Not only will this lead to greater efficacy and efficiency in the workplace, but it will also bolster client engagement and, by default, company success.

The Perks of an Engaged Workforce

A company that wants to foster employee engagement — and benefit from it — must engage all its people, not just the client-facing ones.

Engaged employees bring energy and innovation to the office — working harder, thinking differently, and investing more in their jobs as result of this stimulation. As a result, they’re able to solve complex problems with creative solutions, producing more revenue and outpacing their disengaged competitors.

Simply put, an engaged workforce renders a more successful company. There’s a direct correlation between employee satisfaction and client satisfaction. When employees are more positive and helpful in their interactions, this positivity translates to clients, driving stronger service and building better relationships. And clients reward this good service with repeat business and by spreading brand awareness — through either word-of-mouth advertising or posting online reviews.

What Leaders Should Know About Engagement

Though compensation is a primary way to create engagement, money isn’t everything. According to Gallup, while 54 percent of disengaged employees would leave their jobs for a raise of less than 20 percent, only 37 percent of engaged employees would do the same.

By treating each employee as an individual rather than as a cog in a machine and listening to what they value, leaders can better understand their employees and their individual needs and preferences, creating engagement outside of compensation. Mangers can then customize ways to engage employees within the company or provide the resources that can bolster an employee’s own engagement practices.

My company, for instance, encourages employees to hone in on and maximize what makes them most happy and most productive. While for me that may be flexibility, for others that might be the ability to work in different locations around the world. Others value the ownership they have on specific projects, the educational support or wellness perks they receive, or the time off our company offers. It’s all about preference.

More than salary, leaders should focus on company culture as an effective engagement strategy, and they can do this by following these three strategies:

  1. Schedule Frequent, Transparent, and Direct Conversations with Employees

Transparent leaders discover and solve employee problems more quickly, with 70 percent of employees being more engaged when their leaders regularly update them on changes in company strategy or goals. What’s more, effective communication can also reduce the impact or pervasiveness of individual problems.

While many employees may be afraid to approach their managers and talk things through spontaneously, leaders who arrange opportunities to sit down with employees one-on-one often find these opportunities are a great way to understand and address any issues or needs. Don’t beat around the bush during these meetings, though. Get the answers you need by asking the right questions: What keeps your employees engaged? What do they love about their jobs? What would make them love their job more?

It all boils down to frequent and direct communication, because the more you talk openly with your people, the better you understand what’s going on with them.

  1. Remove Barriers That Make Life Harder

While communication is the first step to understanding employee engagement, realize engagement largely hinges on giving people the tools and structures they need in order to flourish.

The larger an organization becomes, for example, the more convoluted workflows get, which can lead to worker frustration. To assess these workflows and how exactly your employees are affected, you can take inventory of the most necessary processes, break down unnecessary silos, or automate what can be automated. Making life easier for employees is a quick way to engage them.

If some employees don’t like a specific workflow or feel overworked given the way their roles operate, you should first discuss these barriers with them, then explore options that can make everyone work smarter and, finally, budget to accommodate that change.

  1. Acknowledge and Support Personal Goals

A company culture of engagement should account for both today and tomorrow, as few employees want to stay in the same role forever. Many of today’s workers aren’t wedded to a particular company, with only 13 percent of Millennials believing that they should stay at a job for at least five years before leaving. Acknowledging personal development goals and providing educational opportunities to help employees grow is essential to not only engagement, but also retention.

You must recognize that turnover is inevitable, but employees who feel valued and respected, achieve good work-life balances, and are more engaged in their jobs are more likely to stay. Not to mention that at an average hiring cost of $4,000 for a new employee, it’s far more expensive to hire than it is to retain top talent.

Employees want to perform at high levels, but companies don’t always make it easy for them to stay engaged. Opening up communication, building stronger interpersonal relationships, giving workers the tools they need to succeed, and creating opportunities for satisfaction inside and outside the office are great ways for leaders to promote engagement. Your devoted workforce will reward your efforts with higher client satisfaction, stronger revenue, and a happier culture. Who wouldn’t want to work at a place like that?

Photo Credit: Dr Carr at ISU Flickr via Compfight cc

Millennials: Helping the “Workaholic” Generation

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We live in a world that is constantly in “on” mode. Smart phones, computers, emails, and phone calls; even after you clock off from work, it’s so easy to forget to actually “check out.”

This is especially true for the millennial generation. Despite common misconceptions, millennials appear to be more workaholics rather than lazy youngsters. Their relationship with technology often means they are constantly checking work emails after they’ve clocked off, or first thing when they wake up in the morning.

This raises a new question: is the lack of work-life balance a healthy transition? Could millennials’ work ethic be hurting themselves? In order to mitigate this imbalance, there are a couple of ways that Human Resources (and company leaders) can adjust the unequal lifestyle habits of millennials without taking away from their autonomy.

Why They Can’t Stop Working

There are a couple of theories as to why millennials are always working. Some say it is due to their upbringing, where children were constantly working on a schedule: soccer practice, piano practice, school, dinner, and sleep.

However, others think it is due to their delay in building a family. In fact, many millennials are still living with their parents well into their late 20s. This is at no fault of their own, as the economy is thrusting young workers into lower paying jobs than what their parents had when they first started. Not to mention the insurmountable student debt much of them carry after leaving college; it’s a wonder that millennials are able to make money at all.

But due to this delay in leaving their parents’ homes, millennials find they have more time on their hands to work. Plus, they are not going out and buying homes or starting their own families, which might otherwise limit the amount of time they would like to spend in the office.

Thus, millennials find themselves in this vortex: a lack of financial freedom, more personal freedom due to a lack of dependents, and technology that allows us instant access to emails, work servers, and messages from clients or coworkers. So, it comes as no surprise that they never quite “clock out” at the end of the day.

Health Concerns

It is widely known that burnout at work can be damaging to both employee’s personal health and the health of a business. Burnout normally results in overexposure to stress and lack of personal time.

Yet there is a rising concern among health educators that the younger generations, from millennials to current teens, are experiencing far more stress and anxiety than their parents.

“This April marks the 24th anniversary of Stress Awareness Month,” says Christine Carter, in a post for forbes.com. “…It’s no secret that the millennial age group, in particular, reports higher stress levels than any other generation and they appear to be having a difficult time coping with it,” she states.

Carter attributes an increase in millennial stress levels to increased responsibilities in the workplace, major purchasing decisions, issues with marriage, and parenting, or planning to parent. “According to the American Psychological Association, millennials rely on more sedentary stress management techniques than other generations. Given their fluency and comfort with technology, it’s not surprising that millennials are turning to less active solutions such as gadgets to cope with stress.”

This creates a unique dilemma for the “workaholic” generation: turning to technology to help manage stress and overexposure to stress and tech at work. Over time, burnout is sure to create problems for businesses and millennial employees. For the employees, this increased exposure to stress can lead to serious health issues down the road: everything from neurological issues like cluster headaches, GERD and other intestinal illnesses, to heart conditions. For businesses, this might cause increased sick days and lack of engagement, as well as turnover, all of which contribute to a huge loss in profits.

If you see this behavior pop up at work — where employees are admitting to checking emails constantly or staying late, and burnout is starting to affect your team — how can you create a healthier culture for them? How can managers and HR leaders make a positive adjustment to the lives of their workers?

What Can HR Leaders Do?

Although every company has different aspirations for success and company culture, there are some real tried-and-true ways that company leaders can build up healthy environments for their employees. One such way is to promote the 3Ps: play, purpose, and potential.

Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management suggests the 3Ps as a best practice method for building up company culture. Employees, especially millennials, want to work for companies that promote fun and creativity (play); that prove they are making a positive impact on the company, community, and world (purpose); and that keep them feeling motivated for achieving better standards and positions (potential). Pepperdine University also suggests providing employee activities — such as yoga, company outings, or educational lessons — to help promote healthy lifestyles and to help employees realize that the business is invested in their overall wellbeing.

Providing an environment for activities or relaxing work spaces is an easy way to subtly de-stress your millennial employees. Experts also suggest increasing autonomy for employees. This can be done through flexible work schedules and flexible or abundant vacation times. Millennials are already pioneering the flexible work schedule, so allowing them the freedom to work when they want to, and for as long as they would like, can cultivate an excellent work ethic and a positive work-life balance.

However, not every business will have the freedom to choose flexibility. In those cases, show your employees through example. Leave on time to prevent employees from feeling like they need to work late, or create special days that promise your employees a bit of a more relaxed atmosphere. One list suggests such days as “No Meeting Monday” or “Late Start Friday.” However, cultivating this culture takes more than just creating suggestions; it also requires accountability. Through example, you can show your employees that you will hold yourself accountable, and you will be able to more thoroughly hold your employees accountable too.

Millennials may be a new challenge for business leaders, and they are certainly challenging their limits, but creating a culture that meets their needs isn’t impossible. In fact, their blend of work-life balance could simply be a new form of workplace culture: making your work into a fun environment that enhances your life.

Through accountability practices, as well as a new twist on office activities, you could create a business that not only works for millennials, but for every generation that precedes them or follows them. A healthier work-life balance is in your hands.

Photo Credit: Christoph Scholz Flickr via Compfight cc

Corporate Perks: A Thinly Veiled Disguise

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It’s no secret that there is a war going on… a tug of war to be exact. Companies are scrambling to find the best and brightest talent and many are failing miserably. One of the tactics used by many companies is to seduce candidates with profound and presumably attractive perks as a lure for employment. Further, these same tactics can be used as a retention tool with existing employees. In the short-term, perks are novel and with that may be considered interesting, but in the long-run, they are not the enduring enticement employers believe them to be.

Perks come in many shapes and forms and offer varying benefits. Some companies believe that free food, paid travel, and other offerings of the like are exactly what it takes to attract new talent and to keep the talent they have. Simply, this is not a solid long-term solution. What’s worse is when one company attempts to mimic a competitor’s perks in the hopes that they, too, can enjoy the same presumed successes and much to their chagrin it goes sideways and for good reason.

Company perks should be a reflection of the company’s culture and match the values of that specific organization. Since no two companies are alike, it’s an erroneous assumption to believe that what works for one company should work for another.

Give the people what they want

According to a survey conducted by Gallup, a sample population of job seekers were asked what matters most to them about a potential employer. The results of the survey revealed that the respondents were interested in a company’s mission, culture, growth, advancement opportunities, compensation and compelling statements as to why they should consider employment with one organization over another. Not a mention of free food, ping-pong tables or free haircuts was cited by anyone in this survey.

An article on Careertopia, supports the findings revealed by the Gallup survey. The articles goes on to state that the five things job seekers want from an employer are: career growth; work-life balance; fair compensation; great leadership; and alignment with a company’s mission, vision and values. Once again, perks were not mentioned as being an attraction factor.

The Millennials speak

In a different survey conducted by Gallup, they queried 1,700 U.S. workers to determine the attraction factors that appeal to the three employed generations. What the results of this survey revealed is that Millennials, who are presumed to be job hopping know-it-alls, are in actuality seeking out employers that cater to a generation thirsty for opportunities to learn and grow, to be managed by great leadership, to be engrossed in work that is interesting and which offers challenges, along with opportunities to advance their careers. Additionally, the survey results disclosed that a workplace with an informal and “fun” environment was not a high-attraction factor highly coveted by this generation.

Independent of the Gallup survey, Deloitte conducted a Millennial survey which revealed that compensation along with interesting work and work-life balance rose to the top of the results and what is most in demand by Millennials.

The Sandwich generation

For people born between 1965 and 1978, also known as Generation X, they too have stated what is important for them in the workplace. For this group, work-life balance rises to the top of the results. For this generation, the realities of managing parenthood along with taking care of a parent is becoming more commonplace with each passing year. To that end, having a flexible schedule that allows for care-giving is a big attraction factor. Further, Gen X has developed a reputation for being results oriented, problem solvers who seek out work opportunities where their feedback and opinions are welcomed. Free food, indoor putting greens and other perks of this nature were not mentioned.

The thing that really matters

As leadership scrambles around seeking out the next best shiny object to use in their recruitment and retention arsenal, they need to stop and revisit that which is already in front of them: their company culture. This one item is the biggest and best perk any organization can offer to potential and existing employees. This is what attracts and keeps needed talent. People seek out a culture that aligns with their personal beliefs. Servant leadership, 360 feedback, companies that take an interest in their employees’ well-being, opportunities to learn, good communication, respectful interactions, work-life balance, fair pay, and for job seekers, a shortened hiring processes and timely follow-through with communications all matter. All of these are indicative of an organization’s culture and what is being researched by job seekers and responded to by employees.

The irony is that the bells and whistles that many companies buy into are actually not what they need. People place more value on a relationship and a good work opportunity than they do a ping-pong table or free haircut. I guess the old expression is correct… sometimes people can’t see the forest through the trees.

Photo Credit: ExpressTaylorsville Flickr via Compfight cc

Is Work-Life Balance Dead? Depends on Which Generation You Ask.

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Is striking a balance between work and life a priority for you?  You are not alone. 45 percent of employees said they don’t have enough time for personal activities according to results from a Workplace Trends Survey. Health professionals are reporting that people are working themselves to death. In direct contradiction is a multitude of research stating work-life balance is dead and nothing more than a myth.

So who should we believe?

It appears we are all in the right church but the wrong pew. Your seat assignment (and Kool-Aid of choice) is determined by your generation.

Boomers

This generation has been ready to “86” the entire conversation of work-life balance the moment Millennials got duped with its creation.  This “me” generation spent their entire careers concentrating solely on building just that…their careers. Remember why you wore that key around your neck, Gen X? It wasn’t because Mommy was striking a healthy balance between the office and home. She was burning the midnight oil to be considered only half as equal as her male counterpart. Think about what influenced Boomers – Suburbia, Vietnam, Human Rights Movements, Wade v Roe, etc. Boomers have been incredible influencers which they obtained through allowing their careers to become their life.

If you want to keep your Boomers engaged, allow them to work as many hours as they want, set up mentorship programs and let them complain about work-life balance.

Gen X

This generation is the poster-child of work-life balance. Gen X is the skeptical, middle child with abandonment issues (thank you, Boomers). Gen X wants nothing more than to be home by six for dinner, evaluate every study abroad program Sally just had to enroll in, and above all, continue to enable, what they term, “little monsters” at work— Millennials. Xers grew up fending for themselves and knew early on that if they wanted anything in life, they had to go out and get it on their own. Influencers were The Brady Bunch, (Oh no! Mom and Dad in the same bed together?) the energy crisis and the divorce rate tripling for the first time. Xers know how risky putting all their eggs in the career basket can be and ensure that they do not repeat the same mistakes their parents did.

Retain Xers through Flex scheduling, telecommuting, maternal/paternal leave and give them adequate time off.

Millennials

As a Millennial, I come with many labels such as entitled, lack soft skills, naïve, love Bernie Sanders, and enlarged thumbs, which I do see in many of my peers. However, one box I refuse to get thrown is work-life balance.

We HATE work-life balance!  Here’s a test to prove my point – as a Boomer or Xer, think about how often you talk about work to your family. Do you go home every day telling your spouse about a co-worker, project or upcoming promotion? Do you ask a family member for advice on how to handle minor issues at the office? The majority of Xers answer “never.” In contrast, Millennials see no difference between work and life and regularly discuss all aspect of their work with their families. All efforts in both are interwoven in a greater purpose, mission or passion. Ever wonder why we text and email you at all hours of the night? Frustrated with us always asking “why?” Do you think obtaining all those advanced degrees was solely due to the Recession? For many of us, work-life balance is dead because there is no need to strike a balance. It is all one big mission.

Keep us engaged through allowing us to work after hours emailing and researching from home. Show us how we can make an impact and then lead the initiative.

Creating successful engagement initiatives in our organizations is no easy feat. Because we have diverse workforces, we cannot take a canned approach to work-life balance or any other program. Let your teams waive their generational flags with honor while understanding their differences.

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#WorkTrends Recap: Forget Work-Life Balance & Start LIFEworking: Pick Yourself in the 21st Century

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During today’s #WorkTrends show, we discussed the importance of forgetting the old “work-life balance myth” and how to start LIFEworking. #WorkTrends Founder and Host Meghan M. Biro was joined by Tim McDonald and Ayelet Baron, Co-Founders of CreatingIs and LIFEworking.

While we have been led to believe that we can separate our personal and work personas, we are only one person. We don’t need to have this separation and balancing act; it’s more about blending work into our lives.

During the event, we learned more about LIFEworking, is an approach that meshes life and work into an integrated existence. Most importantly, it is a way of living in which the individual and not the organization defines the meaning of success. To achieve LIFEworking, we need to first understand what success really means for us, and then systematically address the fears that stand in the way of change. These fears typically relate to personal anxiety and the social consequences of choice.

It was a lively #WorkTrends podcast and Twitter conversation. Participants had a lot to share about the topic, making for another successful #WorkTrends show.

Want to learn more from today’s event? Listen to the recording and check out the highlights below:

Thank you to all the TalentCulture sponsors, partners and supporters!

The TalentCulture #WorkTrends Show is all new on Wednesday, February 24, 2016, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT). Join TalentCulture #WorkTrends Show Founder and Host Meghan M. Biro as she talks about Leadership Lessons from Superheroes with author and leadership expert David Kahn.

Join our social communities and stay up-to-date! The TalentCulture conversation continues daily. See what’s happening right now on the #WorkTrends Twitter stream, in our LinkedIn group and on our Google+ community. Engage with us anytime on our social networks or stay current with trending World of Work topics on our website or through our weekly email newsletter.

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5 Reasons To Kill The Work-Life Balance Myth

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Work or life? Nope. There’s no such thing as either/or. The work-life duality is a fallacy. One way or another, we all know, deep down, that it’s simply not a functional construct, particularly in 2016. Here are five reasons why.

  1. Passion is seamless

If we’re engaged in our work, we’re working from our passion — and passion is a key driver of success. It also means you don’t want to disconnect from what’s on your mind. Imposing a line of demarcation and isolating your work into a compartment can stifle your own creativity, as well as limit connection, opportunities and new ideas. The leaders we admire don’t separate one from the other — they are their work, and their work is who they are. And we expect that.

  1. A different business culture

Unwittingly or not, the culture of business has evolved into a new paradigm — which supports a different human paradigm. Purposeful integration is a vital thru-line; when organizational message, mission and method are integrated, each supports the other and converges into an authentic and transparent company brand. Moreover, an employee brand that does not acknowledge the human-ness of its employees (similarly to a brand that does not acknowledge the lives of its consumers) is not nearly as compelling or engaging — or sticky — as one that does.

  1. Purpose drives performance

We know this: according to the recent Workplace Purpose Index, (by Imperative and New York University), 28% of the workforce is driven by purpose. They know who they are as whole people, not just staffers, and they link their own purpose to the purpose of the organization where they work. This is a model of functional clarity by choice; the opposite of the company-man trope. Purpose-driven folks know the work they want to do in the world; and the study’s revelation uncovered that they outperform the rest of us in terms of money, advancement and competition.

  1. Recruitment is competitive

From an employer’s point of view, if you want the high performers, you’d best get your candidate experience in line. Studies of candidate experience show that even the first active contact with a prospective employer acts as a pivot either towards or away from engagement. Make sure it reflects the organization authentically. Lack of transparency is a sign that an employee’s human-ness is going to be devalued. For someone already clear on their purpose, they’re not going to waste their time with that kind of disconnect.

  1. We’re already past that

The zeitgeist approach is that once an idea takes hold, you can’t turn back — and we’ve reached that point in terms of work and life. There are already a number of different approaches on the issue of life and work. LIFEworking, for instance, affirms that it’s the individual and not the organization that defines what success means — and that boldness of choice, which goes into true innovation — has to do with the fearlessness of being genuinely self-aware. And even if you haven’t yet landed on the phrase that crystallizes it for you, the workforce itself has changed the context already. We are a contingency / consultancy / career not company / culture, assuming professional trajectories that accumulates skills and experience as opposed to jobs. We work in a more blended and disparate workforce than ever before.

If even the mobile, social, global, multigenerational, etcetera environment we live and work in supports this new idea of realistic and optimistic integration, perhaps it’s not as simple as choosing the right app, but it’s close. Flatter organizational structures, recalibrated views of parental leave, multiple platforms — all play a role in debunking the monolithic barrier of work standing in front of our life.

We’ve never been more prepared for the change. The fact is that work and life are seamless. It’s the quality of how they intersect that we have to attend to.

Are you interested in talking more about the “Work-Life Balance” myth? Join us for The TalentCulture #WorkTrends Show on Wednesday, February 17, 2016, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

A version of this post was first published on forbes.com on February 12, 2016

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#WorkTrends Preview: Forget Work-Life Balance & Start LIFEworking: Pick Yourself in the 21st Century

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The TalentCulture #WorkTrends Show is all new on Wednesday, February 17, 2016, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

While we have been led to believe that we can separate our personal and work personas, we are only one person. We don’t need to have this separation and balancing act in our lives. For many, work has become how we define ourselves and why we need balance is because many of us no longer have a life outside of work.

We can buy into the work-life balance mythology or we can change the story and realize there is only life; no blending or integrating required. We need to become whole as people by figuring out what role work plays in our lives and our own relationship with money and power. Many people of all ages no longer want to live someone else’s stories and are picking themselves instead of waiting to be picked for a job or a promotion.  

LIFEworking is an approach that meshes life and work into an integrated existence, but most importantly, it is a way of living in which the individual and not the organization defines the meaning of success. To achieve LIFEworking, we need to first understand what success really means for us, and then systematically address the fears that stand in the way of change. These fears typically relate to personal anxiety and the social consequences of choice.

#WorkTrends Event: Forget Work-Life Balance & Start LIFEworking: Pick Yourself in the 21st Century

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Tune in to our LIVE online podcast Wednesday, February 17 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #WorkTrends Founder and Host Meghan M. Biro as she talks about Forget Work-Life Balance & Start LIFEworking: Pick Yourself in the 21st Century with Tim McDonald and Ayelet Baron.

#WorkTrends on Twitter — Wednesday, February 17 — 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT

 

Immediately following the radio show, the team will move to the #WorkTrends Twitter stream to continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. We invite everyone with a Twitter account to participate as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: How can 21st century business encourage people to focus on a shared purpose?#WorkTrends  (Tweet this question)

Q2: How can organizations thrive when the focus is on individual success?#WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Q3: What’s an example of when you’ve picked yourself vs. waiting to be picked?#WorkTrends  (Tweet this question)

Until then, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #WorkTrends Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. Feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!

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Keeping Staff When Your Employee Benefits Don’t Cut It

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Attracting good employees as a small- or medium-sized business can be tricky. To get around it you hire inexperienced graduates and train them yourself, only to seem them walk off to a larger company with shinier benefit packages as soon as you give the qualifications they need to get in. It seems to be the way things are: you train fresh talent, and then bigger, wealthier companies with life insurance, an incredible insurance plan, and more paid vacation than you can afford poach them. The costs of training new employees and the constant hemorrhaging of your best employees drives down the quality of your work and prevents you from becoming a major player. So what can you do to hold on to those people so that you can grow your business?

Screen Your Hires

Big businesses can offer better pay and better benefits than your business. They offer stability and great wages to people who are trying to maximize their income, but they also tend to be rigid and very unadaptable. As a smaller business you should focus on hiring people who are unlikely to fit well into a large, slow-moving organization. Ask interviewees about their future plans, and take in those who are well qualified but also planning on pursuing further education, gathering new skills, taking care of children, or possibly even moving.

Be The Most Convenient Option

Offering work to these individuals makes you a convenient option for skilled workers who might otherwise be forced out of the job market. Accommodate them by offering flexible work hours and telecommuting options, in conjunction with a steady paycheck. This creates a favorable work-life balance for employees and makes it easy for them to stay on board while also putting them in a position where they would have to give up a lot of freedom if they wanted to work at a more established business.

Maintain Good Morale With Great Leaders

Running any team of professionals is tricky, and doing it with employees who have flexible schedules, or who work from home, is even more difficult. This puts an incredible strain on your leadership team, who will have to work very hard to keep their respective teams cohesive and on the same page. There are a lot of important characteristics that go into an excellent manager, and it’s especially important to screen potential leaders for their communication skills, their ability to motivate people, and their ability to inspire good cooperation and coordination between employees.

Work To Keep Individual Employees

Every employee has different needs, and when someone is looking for greener pastures it’s important to know why, and what you could do about it. Have an answer ready for what your employees can do to earn raises or promotions, offer training to develop employees professionally, and deal with interpersonal conflicts in the office. Never try to bully an employee into staying, and always be the one to offer solutions to a potentially departing employee rather than getting defensive.

Small- and medium-sized organizations have an uphill battle to retain skilled employees, but it is a battle that can be won. By carefully screening potential new hires, offering flexibility, maintaining good leadership, and determining why individual employees are leaving, you might be able to hold onto employees a little longer. Chances are they might leave down the line, but the company will have at least recovered the money spent to hire and train the individual.

About the Author: Samantha Stauf works in the marketing department of a start-up. She recently became a regular contributor at Ms Career Girl and Social Media Today.

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Creating Happier, Engaged Workplaces: A Conversation

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Sadly, feeling disconnected from our work is not a rarity — and for all the attention focused upon the issue, progress has eluded us. To solve the greater work-life-happiness dilemma, it is becoming clear that we need to implement swift, concrete changes in the way we work. The construct of engagement, for example, has served as the basis for relevant debate, and remains a critical issue that deserves our deepest thought and undivided attention. However, we may be focusing far too much on measurement, and too little on specific strategies to affect the problems. Measurement is simply not enough — unless it leads to constructive change.

For many, workplaces do not provide the elements to help us feel satisfied or engaged. Although both employee engagement and job satisfaction relate to key organizational metrics (profit, productivity), we need to take next steps to afford progress. A lack of engagement likely represents a multitude of missed opportunities to take the right path in our workplaces. A neglect to align work with strengths — the constructive feedback, discussions of career paths and expressions of gratitude that for some reason never occurred. These overlooked opportunities are commonplace, and you shared your perspective concerning contributing factors, as well as what should happen next.

The following is an overview of comments following my LinkedIn post Americans Aren’t Happy at Work. What To Do? — the expressed concerns, shared experiences and courses of action shared. Readers responded with the honesty (and civility) that I’ve come to expect.

The Economy

Not surprisingly, the economy has taken its toll — and the fallout has shaken confidence in both our employers and the future of our own work. Moreover, the recession has likely disrupted the normal ebb and flow of job movement. We can assume that many have remained in roles that have not been positive for either “mind” or career. In fact, the weakened economy has created not only an uneasiness concerning financial security, but also a bubble of pent-up demand to shift toward better-fitting roles. As things improve, many will certainly seek more from their roles — something organizations may not as yet, be prepared for.

From reader Sean Cusack:

“Many companies assume (correctly unfortunately) that most workers cannot afford to walk. They still live in the “they are lucky to have a job” mindset and don’t believe they have to pay market wages to existing employees since they have no place to go. My guess is these companies are going to get a rude awakening in the coming months and years. As more positions are available the best and brightest will jump ship and the company will be left with C and D players and wondering what happened.”

As expressed by Michael M. Obradavitch:

“The full impact of the workforce’s expectations will not become evident until the economy returns to a ‘normal.’ If Americans are ‘not happy at work,’ it’s reasonable to assume that it is because of suppressed desires for real change. Managers should now be giving thought to how to accommodate these upcoming demands.”

The Role of Managers

Managers quickly became central to the unfolding conversation. There was heated discussion concerning managers who are not up to the task of managing others — a critical problem, looming in workplaces. Many expressed that more was needed from managers, including meaningful feedback and a respect for individual contributions. (Research on the role of managers has also been recently discussed at Harvard. Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, weighs in on managers and engagement here.)

This from reader Alex Burdine:

“This article is a great start to the conversation all organizations need to have. As they say, ‘People don’t leave companies, they leave managers,” but what are companies doing to solve this problem?”

It seems the role of manager in general, needs to be examined seriously — and more support to solve problems is needed, starting at the desks of leadership.

From Darres McMahon:

“Have you seen at your company a complete training program helping your manager manage?”

Some things are working. Readers did share positive experiences — and expressed they were fortunate to have managers that embodied the role. Alvin Walters shared what his manager had communicated to him, displaying interest in him and his desired future:

“My job is to expand your knowledge and develop you so you’re not in this position 10 years down the road.”

A Solution: Dual Career Tracks

A number of comments focused on a career track that would allow established employees to remain in their source career path, without progressing into a role that forces them to supervise others. This option may limit ill-advised managerial choices from occurring. In fact, the topic has already been well explored. (See an overview of dual career paths here).

This from reader Neil Walsh:

“Poor managers may find they thrive in a specialist, individual role. If they’re really good, pay them the same or more. But get the right managers.”

This same idea, expressed by Michael Wiley:

“Business’ need to understand that the MAJORITY of us are not cut out to be managers. I would go so far as to say that the majority of us don’t want to be a manager. While a few of the more progressive and younger companies have come to this conclusion, the majority continue to hold on to an antiquated ‘ladder of success’ that inevitability leads one to move into a management role in order to gain more income and have more responsibility.”

The Quest for Balance

Achieving work-life balance was also a strong theme. However, achieving this requires more than a willingness from employees to the pursue an honest conversation. Organizations must seek balance as well — to foster feelings of trust — so these conversations can occur organically. (Then we might take that vacation.) The pressure and pace in many industries may cause the human element to be overlooked. To ensure this does not continue, the basic structure of modern organizations must evolve.

From reader Chris Bailey:

“Are organizations fundamentally structured to encourage meaningful work…or does the pursuit of productive and profitable value put this at odds? Do we know what we want from our work or are we stuck in thinking that purpose is just a “nice to have”?

This from reader Joyce Hersh:

“I don’t think it’s possible to spend nearly 1/3 of our lives (and nearly half of our waking hours) at something without needing to love it. We all know how satisfying unrequited love is. So why are people asking this question, again?”

Finally, from Shree Nair:

“Happiness is elusive without balance. We’re on a No-Return Mission.”

Let’s continue this conversation. What steps should we take to impact these issues?

About the Author: Dr. Marla Gottschalk is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, consultant and speaker. She also writes the The Office Blend, recognized by Forbes as one of their “Top 100 Websites for Your Career.”

Note: This post is adapted slightly from Dr. Marla Gottschalk’s LinkedIn post “Building Happier, Engaged Workplaces: Your Feedback.”

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How Can We Be Happier At Work?

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We seem to be working longer hours with greater intensity, yet feeling satisfied with our work lives has proven elusive for many of us. While we continue to invest more time and energy into our careers — we somehow remain disconnected from our work. We express that we are pushing far too hard, yet according to recent research we often leave our vacation time on the table. It seems that for every important aspect of our work lives, there is a study telling us that we just aren’t getting it right.

Disheartened with what I read concerning how we feel about our work, I have to ask: What is really going on here and how can we fix it?

As described in this HBR post, exploring how organizations struggle to make sense of “Big Data” — information about our work lives seems plentiful — yet much needed insights concerning how to conclusively solve what is “ailing us” are rare. If we are to impact the larger happiness/ engagement question, it might be the right moment to take stock and pause for deeper reflection.

Let’s hold the presses and concentrate on “connecting the dots” with what we have learned.

Where we might look:

  • Accept that our relationship with work is personal. This notion is not rocket science — how we view our work is filtered through our own gifts, personalities and experiences. As such, “One size fits all” workplaces are a thing of the past. Let’s embrace individual needs and stop debating common sense. What constitutes meaningful work is dependent on the individual, as evidenced by the importance of the Psychological Contract — so let’s move forward and integrate this into how we view our own work and how we craft management strategy.
  • Re-examine work-life integration. There is little hope of “work-life balance” if we can’t even begin to integrate the two worlds effectively. Although it is well documented that we all require “down time” to stay fresh and focused, many of us simply cannot secure quality time away from our work. Let’s explore realistic options to help employees seek the balance they require, so our work lives can become sustainable.
  • Consider that managers might hold the key. Identifying the myriad of problems in workplaces doesn’t seem to be the challenge. However, we may have overlooked that our first line of defense could be the pivotal role that managers play in our work lives. The best news? The puzzle as to what constitutes a great manager may be more easily solved than we might have thought. The real challenge? Moving people out of managerial roles who don’t belong there — and putting the right people in place.

What are we missing in the work-life happiness conversation? What should we do concretely to make Americans fall back in love with their work?

About the Author: Dr. Marla Gottschalk is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, consultant and speaker. She also writes the The Office Blend, recognized by Forbes as one of their “Top 100 Websites for Your Career.”

Note: This post is adapted slightly from Dr. Marla Gottschalk’s LinkedIn post “Americans Aren’t Happy At Work. What To Do?”

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Beyond Work-Life Balance – Finding Your Passion

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What do you want to do with your life? I mean really want to do, not just what you’ve accepted to get by? Many of us believe in following our passions, but few actually do this. Following your passion — whether it’s the job you always dreamed of or something you stumbled upon unexpectedly — is the key to staying motivated and happy in your job and in your life.

Passion as a Motivator

You know that feeling when you’re itching to get out of bed in the morning and get on with your work? When the idea of starting on a task lifts your spirit instead of weighing it down? When halfway through the working day you feel elated at what you’re achieving, rather than worn down and watching the clock?

If you don’t know that feeling then seek it out by following your passion.

When we’re working on something that we care about we’re driven by intrinsic motivators. We’re doing the work because we care about that work in itself, not just because we want to get paid for it. It makes us excited and attentive. It ensures that we’ll do all we can to achieve a great outcome, not just one that’s good enough. It means that at the end we’ll look at the work with pride.

Passion as Happiness

That sense of intrinsic motivation is what allows entrepreneurs to put in the long hours and hard work that make them stand out. They care about what they do and so enjoy putting so much energy into it.

It’s not a matter of changing your work-life balance. The very idea of balancing those two implies that your work is somehow not part of your life, despite the huge amount of time you spend on it. In many ways it’s an absurd idea.

Finding the work that you’re passionate about, dedicating yourself to it, lets you step beyond work-life balance and into a better place where work and life are fruitfully combined, where the excitement that you feel at doing something you love fills you with energy and fuels the rest of your life.

It’s living every part of your life in a way that makes you happy.

Passion Not Pig-headedness

Some people treat this idea of finding and following your passion as an oversimplified, naïve approach. But that in itself is an oversimplified way of looking at a life built around your passion.

Following your passion doesn’t mean taking a simple view of it, but instead having a nuanced understanding of where your passion lies, of the difficulties you may face in following it, of the unexpected places you may find it, that following your passion isn’t the same as following a child’s simple dream. It doesn’t mean acting unintelligently, following impulses and blindly sticking to your guns no matter what. It means understanding and intelligently reflecting on the work you’re passionate about, so that you become a great practitioner, not a fruitless fanatic.

Find it, Follow it

Finding the work you’re passionate about isn’t always easy. But listen to your instincts next time you have options of what work to take on. Notice which things stir your blood and drive you to action. Go with those.

Follow your passion.

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