GIVE FOOTBALLFEEDBACKPERFORMANCELIKEAPHENOM - Robert Teachout, Legal Editor, XpertHR AUGUST 2022 • Vol.09 • No.08 (ISSN 2564-1999) The State of Human Experience in the Workplace 2022 Page 21 - 46 Sponsored by
Give Performance Feedback Like A Football Phenom 8 ways a manager can call the plays and help an employee win - Robert Teachout, Legal Editor, XpertHR 07 INDEX On the Cover Human Experience Excellence - Engagement, Performance, Rewards & Recognition AUGUST 2022 Vol.09 No.08 Articles The State of Human Experience in the Workplace 2022 Page 21 - 46 (ISSN 2564-1999) 12 13 Ways To Build Community, Regardless Of Employee Location The essence of community is the feeling of belonging - By Brett Farmiloe, Founder and CEO, Terkel.io 47 The Human Experience Revolution: Relationships, Not Capital It is the changing relationship between employer and employee that defines the future of work - Geoff Webb, VP of Product and Solution Marketing, isolved 56 Rethinking Recognition: How To Create A Culture That Values Its Employees Recognition is more than just rewards and awards - Anne Maltese, Director of People Insights, Quantum Workplace 63 Engagement Is A Decision Of The Heart For happier, engaged, and productive employees - Mark C. Crowley, Visionary, Workplace Management, Engagement, and Culture, markccrowley.com 68 The Importance Of Relationship Building In A Virtual World What can leaders do to get started? - Terence R. Traut, CEO, Entelechy 72 Energizing Employee Recognition, Appreciation, and Inspiration HR.com Professional Education Team
Top Picks 10 18 51 59 Giving Feedback Is An Art Learn to paint a picture of preferred performance - Lisa Reinhardt, Senior Manager, Learning and Organizational Development, CCS Companies Should Working From Home Become A Legal Right? Flexible work arrangements have improved employee health, productivity and happiness: Survey - Tom Gibby, Co-Founder and CMO, The Bot Platform How Shift-Based Workplaces Can Recognize And Reward Their Multigenerational Workforce Working together, multigenerational employees can be unstoppable - Chad Halvorson, Founder and Chief Experience Officer, When I Work How To Level The Social Playing Field In Hybrid And Remote Work Top considerations - Vivek Nigam, Founder, BeRemote INDEX
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Read Robert Teachout’s (XpertHR) article, Give Performance Feedback Like A Football Phenom, to discover how you can give effective performance feedback and keep every team member on track and working toward a win. Many of us have been on the receiving end of constructive feedback that was actually criticism. What’s the difference between criticism and constructive feedback? Learn that and more in topic expert Lisa Reinhardt’s (CCS Companies) article, Giving Feedback Is An Art.
Babitha Balakrishnan Editor, Human Experience Excellence
With a big part of the workforce working in a remote/hybrid setup today, effective communication has become one of the most critical requirements for organizations across the Withglobe.thechanging demands of the workforce in an evolving workplace, employers must encourage a positive work environment to welcome continuous feedback from all the employees. When a team gives and receives feedback regularly, that’s a strong indicator of healthy communication. And if organizations fail to understand what makes communication successful in a hybrid work world, they will lose their Employeesemployees.lookforward to feedback delivered with clear improvement plans and without any judgment. By showing your employee that you’re not only the quarterback but also their biggest cheerleader, you can help them stay the course and achieve big wins, in today’s hybrid workplace.
Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed in the Excellence ePublications are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of HR.com and its employees. Under no circumstances shall HR.com or its partners or affiliates be responsible or liable for any indirect or incidental damages arising out of these opinions and content. Debbie Mcgrath Publisher, HR.com EDITOR’S NOTE Performance Feedback in a Hybrid World OR For Advertising Opportunities, email: sales@hr.com Copyright © 2022 HR.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher. Quotations must be credited. Editorial Purpose Our mission is to promote personal and professional development based on constructive values, sound ethics, and timeless principles. Excellence Publications Debbie McGrath CEO, HR.com - Publisher Dawn Jeffers VP, Sales Sue Kelley Director (Product, Marketing, and Research) Babitha Balakrishnan and Deepa Damodaran Excellence Publications Managers and Editors Human Experience Excellence Team Babitha Balakrishnan Editor Arun Kumar R Design and Layout (Digital Magazine) Chandra Shekar A K Magazine (Online Version) Submissions & Correspondence Please send any correspondence, articles, letters to the editor, and requests to reprint, republish, or excerpt articles to ePubEditors@hr.com For customer service, or information on products and services, call 1-877-472-6648 Human Experience Excellence (ISSN 2564-1999) is published monthly by HR.com Limited, 56 Malone Road, Jacksons Point, Ontario L0E 1L0 Internet Address: www.hr.com Subscribe now for $99 / year And get this magazine delivered to your inbox every month Become a Member Today to get it FREE! SIGN UP Write to the Editor ePubEditors@hr.comat
Although hybrid teams have quickly become the norm, teams haven’t figured out how to make sure that less vocal members of the team have equal opportunities to contribute. For more insights on this timely topic, read Vivek Nigam’s (BeRemote) article, How To Level The Social Playing Field In Hybrid And Remote Work.
In the August issue of Human Experience Excellence, we have included a few informative articles that focus on performance feedback strategies, reward and recognition trends, flexible work arrangements, the future of work, and much more. Also included are expert insights from an exclusive research study, The State of Human Experience in the Workplace 2022, by the HR Research Institute that offers key tips on how to measure and manage the employee experience for greater organizational success.
Performance feedback is one of the best ways to keep your team in the game and work together to achieve success.
Also read, Tom Gibby's (The Bot Platform) article entitled Should Working From Home Become A Legal Right? and Geoff Webb's (isolved) article, The Human Experience Revolution: Relationships, Not Capital, to better understand how the changing relationship between employer and employee is defining the future of work.
In brief, this month’s issue of Human Experience Excellence is all about ideas and approaches to keep your employees engaged, supported, and happy in today's hybrid workplace. We hope you enjoy reading all the insightful articles and get back to us with your valuable feedback! Happy Reading!
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If you only offer corrective feedback, your direct reports will likely start tuning you out. Make sure you give an employee both positive and negative feedback. Different types of feedback will help a team member understand that the goal of feedback is to help improve their performance. An occasional high-five can go a long way to maintain rapport between manager and direct report and show that their contributions are appreciated. And an employee will likely be more receptive to negative feedback if they feel that their successes are also recognized.
COVER ARTICLE
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Performance feedback is one of the best ways to keep your team in the game and working together to achieve success. Read on to discover how you can give effective performance feedback and keep every team member on track and working toward a win.
Nobody likes a surprise summons from the boss. An unexpected meeting with a manager can create feelings of dread, and that doesn’t help with morale and productivity. Instead, consider structuring consistent touchpoints with a direct report to check on progress, hold them accountable, and offer quick coaching suggestions. Regular feedback will also allow an employee to make quick pivots in performance when an issue arises.
It’s easy for an employee to take negative feedback personally. When that happens, a teammate may shut down and reject any future criticism. Evaluate how you deliver feedback. Is it general and vague or usually discouraging? Consider giving feedback that points to specific behaviors and explain how negative performance can impact the organization and other teammates.
Informal feedback, like a comment in passing or a short email, can be delivered two or three times a week, while more formal feedback can happen less frequently.
By Robert Teachout, XpertHR 8 ways a manager can call the plays and help an employee win
Frequent Huddles For The Win
Focus On the Play, Not the Player
Give FootballFeedbackPerformanceLikeAPhenom
Asuccessful business operation is a lot like a winning football team. You’ve got a head coach – that’s your CEO. And a manager is in many ways like the quarterback. They lead the offense and call the plays, working with the rest of the team to deliver a win. And when the team needs to regroup, the quarterback takes command in the huddle, delivering assignments related to the play the coach has called.
Comment on Both Wins and Losses
Remember Successful Teams
Provide examples when giving feedback to help a direct report understand the shortcomings in their performance and how to overcome those deficiencies.
Gather and consider input from other sources like coworkers or cross-functional employees to reduce bias in your feedback.
Create A Playbook for What’s Next
Communicate Effectively
Be Specific, B-E Specific Specific feedback will give an employee a crystal-clear understanding of what they need to work on and how.
For example, instead of calling out an employee’s time management issues, highlight how their lack of time management skills led to rushed work and missed deadlines, and how effective time management would allow the employee to deliver work with fewer errors. And go beyond just providing feedback - offer suggestions that can help the employee improve. By being specific, you also show your direct report that you’re paying attention to their work and want to help them succeed.
An employee’s success hinges on more than just feedback. Just like a coach does for a player, a manager needs to give the employee a game plan that will elevate job performance and achieve professional development. The manager and direct reports should work together to set goals and actionable steps for meeting objectives. Make sure goals are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) and support a company’s overarching objectives.
Give Performance Feedback Like A Football Phenom
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Look at the Stats Because Numbers Don’t Lie Base your feedback on firm metrics, not squishy opinions. A manager can give feedback that’s based on tracked data related to processes and results that are within an employee’s control. Whether you track productivity, frequency of errors, customer complaints, compliments, or other measurable outcomes, make sure your feedback is based on more than your gut.
There are several key components of a winning team, but the most important one is communication.
Feedback should emphasize two-way communication, giving employees an opportunity to offer their own perspectives on issues. Open-ended questions can help create this dialogue, especially if a direct report is hesitant to speak up in front of a manager. These conversations can give a manager deeper insight that can inform the guidance they offer a direct report, helping an employee stay the course and move closer to achieving success.
By showing your employee that you’re not only the quarterback but also their biggest cheerleader, you can help them stay the course and achieve big wins.
Robert S. Teachout, SHRM-SCP is Legal Editor at XpertHR. He has more than 30 years’ experience in legal publishing covering employment laws on the state and federal level. Before joining XpertHR, Robert was a senior HR editor at Thompson Information Services, covering FMLA, ADA, EEO issues, and federal and state leave laws.
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The frequent check-ins mentioned previously can help a manager stay on top of an employee’s progress and create opportunities for informal mentorship. Follow up consistently and make sure the direct report is making progress and working toward their goals.
Help Them Become an MVP
Give Performance Feedback Like A Football Phenom
Feedback is more than criticism. It’s a roadmap to help an employee level up and grow professionally. But that can be easier said than done, and some direct reports may require more than feedback and occasional check-ins to achieve success. Offer other support like training or introduce your employee to a mentor who can offer valuable guidance. And make sure you offer encouragement and positive reinforcement as your direct report works toward change.
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Learn to paint a picture of preferred performance
By Lisa Reinhardt, CCS Companies
Whether it’s time for mid-year check-ins or annual appraisals, giving and receiving feedback on performance causes anxiety for many leaders and associates. Delivering feedback is more of an art form than a science. Knowing how to properly construct the appropriate statement that will both inform the associate about their performance and motivate them to make changes (or repeat desired behaviors), takes a certain skill set. Many of us have been on the receiving end of constructive feedback that was actually criticism. What’s the difference between criticism and constructive feedback? Criticism is demotivating and demeaning. It takes the wind out of your sail and zaps all of your energy. Criticism sounds a lot like a reprimand – focusing on your failure. Constructive feedback though, lets you know what you did that was not effective AND what to do differently next time to yield better results. For example, “Your presentation was terrible!” is criticism. Whereas, “The amount of text on your slides made them difficult to read. A chart or graph would make it much easier to comprehend the data,” is constructive feedback. It’s not just constructive feedback that leaders have difficulty delivering, it’s also positive feedback. Many leaders are comfortable handing out praise but need to go one step further to turn it into positive feedback. What’s the difference between praise and positive feedback? Praise makes you feel good about your performance, but doesn’t tell you what specific behaviors were effective and should be repeated next time. For example. “Your presentation was awesome!” is praise. Whereas, “The charts and graphs that you included in your presentation made it easy for me to understand the data,” is positive feedback. The key to delivering effective feedback is preparation - carefully reviewing performance and being very specific about behaviors demonstrated, and their impact. Remember, feedback should always be delivered in a timely manner, otherwise unproductive behaviors will continue, unchecked. Don’t stockpile your feedback and wait to deliver during the performance review process once or twice a year.
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Giving Feedback Is An Art
TOP PICK
Remain objective – Don’t let favoritism influence the feedback you deliver. Be consistent within your team.
Note agreed-upon outcomes – Capture agreements made for anticipated behavior changes.
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Giving Feedback Is An Art
Delivering feedback doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating. Take the time to prepare in advance, focus on specific behaviors and their outcome, and paint a picture of what success looks like. Associates will appreciate your feedback, as they continue to develop from it, and take their performance to new heights.
Lisa Reinhardt is the Senior Manager of Learning and Organizational Development at the CCS Companies. With over 21 years of experience in L&D, Lisa has a successful track record of diagnosing, developing, and implementing relevant, innovative learning solutions aligned to business strategies. She demonstrates a passion and drive to help individuals and organizations reach their full potential and achieve their goals.
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After delivering feedback, remember to LEARN: Listen to input from the associate – There may be information that you’re missing. Listen in order to get the full picture.
Explain the “why” – When associates understand the importance of doing things a certain way, it’s easier to obtain their commitment to change their behavior.
Lisa’s dedication to the professional and personal development of others is her driving force.
Answer questions – Answer any questions the associate may have; provide clarification on your feedback, if needed.
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 12 Submit Your Articles 13 Ways To OfCommunity,BuildRegardlessEmployeeLocation By Brett Farmiloe, Terkel.io The essence of community is the feeling of belonging How can employers build community, regardless of where employees are located? To help you build a sense of community at your company, we asked people managers and business leaders this question for their best ideas. From adding social bookends to your daily meetings to highlighting and celebrating employees’ successes, there are several ways you can foster a stronger community for your employees, regardless of their location. Here are 13 ways to build community regardless of employee location: ● Add Social Bookends to your Daily Meetings ● Infuse Culture from the Bottom-Up ● Host Virtual Happy Hours ● Show Gratitude with Handwritten Thank You Notes ● Include Every Employee in Onboarding Events ● Craft Meaningful Messages with Async Communication Tools ● Ensure Easy Access to Colleagues & Company Assets ● Give your Community a Broader Sense of Purpose ● Be Authentic ● Create Overlapping Core Operation Hours ● Foster Strong Mentorship Programs ● Maintain an Ongoing Flow of Informal Communication ● Highlight & Celebrate Employees’ Successes
There are also many online platforms that host virtual games for groups such as murder mysteries, guess the song, charades, etc. These themed happy hours have improved the intrapersonal relationships at work, making it easier for some people to feel acclimated to the workplace and having employees looking forward to something to break the monotony.
A lot of people love to talk about how a company’s culture needs to flow down from the top. Management needs to set a strong example and embrace the organization’s culture in everything they do, which will in turn create a trickle-down effect. The issue with this, however, is that it’s often seen as hollow. It’s just corporate speak sent down channels from executives the everyday employee never sees or interacts with, particularly remote workers. That’s why I actually think a bottom-up approach is better.
Ed FounderStevens,&CEO, Preciate Rich CEO,JohnFounderRudzinski,andCEO,DriveyRoss,TestPrepInsight
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 13 Submit Your Articles Add Social Bookends to Your Daily Meetings
Infuse Culture from the Bottom-Up
community-building efforts a much broader reach and better chance of taking hold, especially in a remote environment.
For remote and hybrid teams, we can’t wait for the annual or quarterly team gatherings to build community. Rather, add some time at the beginning and end of your daily meetings for socializing. By making socializing and networking a small part of your daily gatherings or meetings, your team can get to know each other better. For large teams, you’ll need to find an alternative virtual meeting platform other than Zoom to facilitate smaller conversations because it’s unrealistic to expect 100 people to get to know each other in static black boxes.
13 Ways To Build Community, Regardless Of Employee Location
Focus efforts on getting low- and mid-level managers involved, as well as team leads. This will give your Host Virtual Happy Hours
The last couple of years has taught us a lot about how to connect with people virtually. My favorite thing to do to bring my team together is to host themed virtual happy hours. Throwing a successful virtual happy hour isn’t hard as long as there’s a good conversation going. However, if your team hasn’t gotten the chance to know each other, and the conversation feels forced, I have some tips to take your next HH to the next level.
Some of my favorite themes have been Taco Tuesday, Tapas Night, Disco, or Hollywood. Then, I try to come up with great activities such as playing trivia, online board games, or show and tell that match the theme.
If the lowest level managers and team leads are the ones infusing their work with company values and culture, that will pay dividends. So rather than HR focusing on creating a top-down model of community building, I think it’s better to build from the ground up.
Because you’re not bound by time constraints and urgency, these tools allow you to take the time and craft meaningful messages to your team members, all the while urging them to do the same. From words of appreciation to detailed feedback, using an asynchronous video tool adds a new layer of personal ization that fosters a sense of belonging.
13 Ways To Build Community, Regardless Of Employee Location
Include Every Employee in Onboarding Events
Be it professional or personal, open and honest communication is monumental to the foundation of any relationship. But with hectic schedules and looming deadlines, it’s common for most teams to keep their communication short and brief. Async communication tools are the perfect answer to this challenge because they encourage team members to be more mindful, deliberate, and verbose when conveying messages.
When new remote talent onboards they’re treated to the same welcome kit: right down to the balloons we add to workstations in the workplace. Including your remote teams in any special onboarding is a gesture
Do your best to make sure in-office and remote employees have a similar onboarding experience. For instance, our team has a tradition where new hires receive a swag kit stocked with goodies such as branded t-shirts, stickers, and a handwritten welcome note with greetings from co-workers. This package is not just for staff commuting to the office.
that goes a long way to help people feel connected to their colleagues—no matter where they are.
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Brian Founder,Casel,ZipMessage
Thank you notes can be sent after any type of interaction, not just after a big win. For example, send a note to someone who stayed late to help out with a project, or who made an extra effort to contribute to the team. The key is to be specific about why you’re thanking the person, and to make it clear that the note is from you, not from Human Resources.
Craft Meaningful Messages with Async Communication Tools
Rick Elmore, CEO, ThankHandwrittenYouNotes
Show Gratitude with Handwritten Thank You Notes
One way employers can build community and culture is by showing gratitude with handwritten thank you notes. A handwritten note shows that you took the time to sit down and write a personal message, rather than just clicking “send” on an email or sending a text. It also shows that you really appreciate the person’s contribution.
Jessica Arias, Director of People & Culture, OnPay Payroll Services
Creating communities in a remote setting can be achieved regardless of where employees work and live. A sense of belonging is strong through shared values and hobbies. If your values are only in the tagline, they won’t matter. You have to link values to a shared mission or cause. Today, all companies should have a cause that glues people working there. Choosing that cause follows a thorough team discovery. If only the founders share their excitement about the cause, the effectiveness won’t be there.
Employers need to provide employees with the necessary communication tools that allow them easy access to each other, their managers and the company’s resources. It should also be incredibly easy for them to speak to their colleagues and/ or their manager about a work challenge they’re facing. Moreover, employers should also grant their employees appropriate access permissions to company assets.
Ensure Easy Access to Colleagues & Company Assets
For example, if someone needs some advice about how to solve a problem with their job responsibili ties, it should be sufficiently easy for them to tap into the knowledge base stored in their company’s cloud system without having to go through too much red tape. Having direct access to their colleagues as well as company assets makes your employees feel privileged, and that they’re a part of a community. Feeling proud to work for a company that actively supports planting trees, drinking water for everyone, or helping the homeless is a very powerful motivator. Give specific titles and functions inside your mission. When employees feel connected beyond their day job, based on a common passion, hobby, or mission, you’re on the right track to having a solidified community. In larger companies, you can have subgroups with the same setup. Build Community, Regardless Of Employee Location
13 Ways To
Michael Green, Owner, Quick Cash Homebuyers
Cristina Imre, Executive Coach & Mentor for Founders, Quantum Wins Alexandra McGroarty, Co-Founder, McGroarty & Co Consulting LLC Be Authentic Whether you pass a fellow team member in the hallway or join a Zoom meeting, how do you take time to connect in a meaningful way? In person you could open with a warm and sincere greeting, use your team member’s name, and close with a fond farewell. But in the hybrid workforce, this simple interaction faces new Considerchallenges.theplatform for engagement—what is the right tool for communication given the planned content and tone? You should be present and aware during virtual meetings and avoid multitasking. This means being an active listener. And if it comes up, you should be honest about your current state of mind, attention, and focus. When appropriate, vulnerability creates depth, and promotes trust and relationship building.
Give your Community a Broader Sense of Purpose
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Foster Strong Mentorship Programs
Brian Dechesare, CEO, Breaking Into Wall Street Fernando Lopez, Marketing Director, Circuit
Depending on your team’s location, allowing them to choose their own schedule while setting some core hours can help your team grow stronger relationships and regularly engage with each other, even across time zones. These hours don’t need to overlap 100%, but when your entire team can spend a few overlapping hours online together, they’re available more quickly for better collaboration. Creating communications that more naturally mimic real-time conversations helps employees get to know each other better professionally, which in turn helps create a stronger community.
Workplace mentorship has been a great resource to help teammates build closer relationships as they grow their careers, and remote teams can enjoy many of the same benefits. A remote mentorship program offers employees a platform to connect to each other beyond watercooler conversations and work-related channels. If your workplace isn’t set up for leader-toemployee virtual mentorship, create a peer-to-peer program that matches participating employees with each other based on professional interests and skills requirements.
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Create Overlapping Core Operation Hours
13 Ways To Build Community, Regardless Of Employee Location
13 Ways To
Communication
The essence of community is the feeling of belonging. It’s about being connected to one another, and this is no less important in the workplace. Since the pandemic, employees have found themselves dispersed in a variety of different locations, and some may never meet their colleagues in person. However, a well-built community remains within reach.
MaxFindCareerHogan,Expert,MyProfessionWesman, Chief Operating Officer, GoodHire
Maintain an Ongoing Flow of Informal
Regardless
Brett Farmiloe is the Founder and CEO – and currently CHRO - of Terkel. io, a platform where business leaders can answer questions related to their expertise and get published in articles featuring their insights.
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builds remarkable company culture. No matter the size of your team, frequent communication—no matter how formal—is a must.
Successes
While everyone may be in different locations or even different teams, having a virtual place to share individual accomplishments with the team will build comradery. Encourage each team member to share any accomplishment in their role with the team. Did a teammate receive a great review from a client? Share with the team. Did the marketing team increase traffic to the site? Share with the team. A teammate received a promotion? Share with the team. Seeing everyone’s success helps the team feel closer to each other and builds a “we are all in this together” sentiment.
Liz
Creating a sense of belonging is simply an exercise in reaching out regularly, even if just for the sake of having a chat. Frequent check-ins are a prerequisite to any positive work environment, as they help to maintain an open flow of communication and normalize informal forms of collaboration. It’s the remote equivalent of walking over to a co-worker’s desk and asking, “Need a hand?”. It shows employees that they’re supported by their peers and management team, and it’s this level of safety and security that Build Community, Of Employee Location
Highlight & Celebrate Employees’
Boris Johnson famously described it as ‘manaña culture’ which eroded productivity and Jacob Rees-Mogg said he was ‘suspicious about the desire to work from home on Mondays and Fridays’. Not to mention Lord Sugar’s Victorian comments about those who work from home being ‘entitled’ and ‘lazy’. Such draconian attitudes are baffling, particularly when the most senior government official in the land, the Prime Minister, has always worked from home at number 10 Downing Street. Perhaps, it can be better understood in the context of the vested interests in play, such as for example, investments in London’s commercial buildings or individuals with a particular type of old-fashioned leadership style (think Lumbergh from the film Office Space, if you don’t know the film you’ll certainly recognize the meme).
Flexible work arrangements have improved employee health, productivity and happiness: Survey
The pandemic has forced a cultural shift in work practices and attitudes that has changed the business terrain for the better for many employees, although there continues to be debate and polarising opinions on the subject throughout different cross sections of society. As we saw in what was dubbed the recent war on working from home, the topic became weaponized and used for political point scoring. It met a lot of resistance in the UK from certain business leaders and also sections of the UK government.
By Tom Gibby, The Bot Platform
TOP PICK
Should Working From Home Become A Legal Right?
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Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 19 Submit Your Articles Should Working From Home Become A Legal Right?
Despite the noise, multiple surveys have found improvements in staff mental health, productivity and happiness due to the move to more flexible working arrangements.
At the moment, employers are not really in a position to be complacent when it comes to offering flexibility to their employees. For one thing, there are currently more job vacancies than people who can fill them, so companies who order staff to go into the office may find themselves spawning an exodus to a more enlightened employer.
There have even been company executives boasting on Linkedin that every time a competitor forces employees to come into the office, they get their recruiters to reach out to the staff in question and end up picking up their competitors’ key talent.
Showing a lack of basic empathy for your workers by forcing them to come into the office, when fuel costs and energy costs have gone up more than 54% in the UK is incredibly selfish. Being able to work from home is becoming more of an economic necessity for the population with so many people feeling the squeeze from inflation and rising food, fuel and energy costs. With the weather in the UK now hitting an unprecedented 40 degree celsius, people have been advised to only travel where it is absolutely necessary. Even those who did travel to work, especially those in cities like London, faced the aggravating news that trains had been canceled for their commute home - leaving many stranded and having to pay for taxis or arrange partners to pick them up. If people can do their jobs from home, just as they did in the pandemic, then it is nonsensical to force them to travel into an office when the experience of commuting is going to be even longer, more painful, and potentially even health threatening.
CEO Chris Herd, who is a passionate advocate for remote work, broke down the impact that working from home can have, particularly for those with families: “Office work: waste 90% of your day getting ready for, traveling to, or sitting in an office. Leave before your kids wake up, get home as they’re going to bed. No time for your friends, families, or hobbies because you’re exhausted. Remote work: none of that.”
Should Working From Home
The new leader may seek to distance themselves from attitudes expressed by Boris Johnson and his supporters like Rees-Mogg, which could be good news for greater employee flexibility, as the new leader seeks to win back the support of the populace after the PR disaster of Boris Johnson’s government. Whatever the outcome, there is no doubt that greater empathy for the position of working people will be needed as well as legislative action to match.
The Netherlands appears to be ahead of the curve when it comes to attitudes toward working from home. Their government just passed legislation compelling employers by law to allow employees to work from home (if it is possible in their profession). This motion has yet to be ratified and will need to be approved by the Dutch Senate before it is written into law. However, it represents a huge step forward for employees and sets a precedent for The Netherlands to become the first European country to make this a legal right. Many experts believe that other European countries could follow suit soon. For example, in Portugal, progressive legislation was recently passed to protect employees from being contacted by their bosses out of work hours and on the weekend. The Spanish government also recently legislated that women should be allowed time off for menstrual pain. With these kinds of laws being passed, it is not difficult to see the potential for working from home becoming law in other European countries very soon. In the UK, the current conservative government pledged to consult on making working from home an employer’s default position as part of their 2019 manifesto, but then the pandemic struck. As has been widely reported, a lot of conservative MPs were pretty busy during that period having their cake and eating it, so to speak, during illegal social events. Since then, earlier this year, a review into the Future Of Work was promised, although HR professionals are not confident that it will have any significant impact for workers. With Boris Johnson now on the way out of government and the Tory Leadership race due to be decided in September, we could yet see more developments that will impact flexible working. Would you like to comment?
Become A Legal Right?
Tom Gibby is the Co-Founder and CMO of The Bot Platform, a no-code enterprise software solution that empowers people to build a better employee experience on internal communication channels such as Microsoft Teams and Workplace from RishiFacebook.Sunakis widely touted as the front runner for the role of PM, but whoever wins the race has a big task on their hands to tackle the highest inflation for 40 years and a crippling cost of a living crisis that is due to get worse as winter approaches.
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 20 Submit Your Articles
Sponsored by: Measure and manage the experienceemployeefor greater organizational success The State of Human Experience in the Workplace 2022 Special Research Supplement August 2022 INTERACTIVE AUGUST 2022
85 exclusive
infographics in
surveys of thousands
INDEX The State of Human Experience in the Workplace 202223 RESEARCHARTICLE REPORT SUMMARY Survey conducted by: Sponsored by: What Is Organizational Culture? By Laura Saracho, Bonusly 27 3 Key Takeaways from the 2022 State of Family Health Benefits Report By Maven Clinic 37 Building Community Regardless of Where Your Employees Are Located By Lauren Allen, Terryberry 32 Five Ways To Boost Wellness In The Workplace By Julie Wilkinson, JLL 41 STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH22
our
and
The HR Research Institute, powered by HR.com, the world’s largest social network for Human Resources professionals, is a key part of mandate to inform educate today’s HR professionals. Over the past three years, the HR Research Institute has produced more than primary research and state of the industry along with corresponding many cases, based on the of HR professionals. research report highlights Research Institute
reports,
Each
current HR trends, benchmarks, and industry best practices. HR
Reports and Infographics are available online, and always free, at www.hr.com/featuredresearch
To dive more deeply into this topic, we ran two separate surveys. The first survey, “The State of Employee/Human Experience in 2022,” was completed by a sample of HR professionals. A second similar and complementary survey, “The State of Your Employee Experience,” collected opinions of a sample of employees.
● HR professionals and employees often have a different perspective when it comes to the employee experience.
The concept of human experience in HR follows from the concept of customer experience in marketing. It also includes employee experience and goes above the traditional measures of customer satisfaction to include perceptions of employees, clients, candidates, alumni, and all stakeholders. The day-to-day experience of employees has a critical impact on attracting, retaining, and managing staff.
Key Findings
● HR has a considerably more positive view of remote and/or hybrid work arrangements than employees do. In fact, employees are twice as likely as HR professionals to say remote and hybrid work arrangements had reduced the employee experience.
2022 Measure and manage the employee experience for greater organizational success
● It can take a variety of tools, technologies, and sources of data to get a full picture of the employee experience.
● There are many different factors that can have a positive impact on the employee experience, but HR professionals and employees agree that compensation and benefits top the list.
● Most HR professionals believe the employee experience will improve over the next year, but employees are more skeptical.
23 RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH
The State of Human Experience in the Workplace
Although only a minority of HR professionals, as well as employees, report the highest employee experience ratings, employees are more optimistic than HR professionals To get a pulse on the state of employee experience, HR professionals were asked to rate the average employee experience in their organization on a scale of 1 to 10. About one-fifth (21%) say these levels are well above average (that is, 9 or above on the 10-point scale). However, just 11% say it is a top-notch Encouragingly,experience.just12% say the average overall employee experience is negative (that is, 5 or below on the same 10-point scale). 24 RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 10%11% 26%28% 14% 5% 0%1%3%3% Top-notch experience (10)98765432 Terrible experience (1) Survey Question: On a 10-point scale, how would you rate the average overall employee experience in your organization? Note: Numbers do not add up to 100% due to rounding. STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH
clear look
will
organizations use a variety of methods such as data collected from annual surveys, performance management, and exit interviews. Just
employee experience. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 51%58%59%60% 6%13%15%23%24%31%36%41%We do not measure such CollaboSentimentexperiencesdatarationanalytics Passive analytics (i.e., data collected without involving data provider) Focus groups Open feedback tools Pulse surveys (including net promoter tools) Employee communication tools (e.g., Slack) Employee recognition programs Exit interviews Performance management system Annual surveys Survey Question: Which tools, technologies or methods does your organization use to measure the experiences of employees? (select all that apply) Few experienceassesssentiment(13%)organizationsusedatatoemployee STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH
winner for measuring employee experience. Instead,
data from employee recognition programs. While
Measuring clear most over half also consider these are the only methods used by more than half of respondents, others also takeaway is that HR needs to draw on multiple sources to paint a picture of the employee experience. Each method or tool may give only a portion of the larger picture, and given the complex nature of employee experience, it is unlikely that a single metric provide a at the current state of
the Employee Experience There’s no
25 RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY
use sources such as employee communications (e.g., Slack) and focus groups. The
26 RESEARCH REPORT SUMMARY The State of Human Experience in the Workplace 2022 Read the Research Report To learn more about The State of Human Experience in the Workplace 2022 survey and to get strategic outcomes and 8 key takeaways from this exclusive HR.com Research Institute research, please read the complete report: What Does the Future of Employee Experience Look Like? Most HR respondents (72%) agree or strongly agree that the employee experience will improve in the next year. However, only 21% strongly agree. It is logical to assume that this positive outlook is driven by the expectation that the pandemic will eventually end and major disruptions will be minimal. It will get a little better It will get a lot better It will get a lot worse It will get worse It will stay about the same 0 20 40 60 80 100 6% 15% 41% 25% 13% Survey Question: How do you think your employee experience will change over the next year? STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH
Ask people what their views on “organizational culture” are, and you’ll likely get endless variations. Can it really be objective at all?
What Is Organizational Culture?
Michael D Watkins of the Harvard Business Review writes: “there is little consensus on what organizational culture actually is, never mind how it influences behavior and whether it is something leaders can change. This is a problem because without a reasonable definition (or definitions) of culture, we cannot hope to understand its connections to other key elements of the organization, such as structure and incentive systems. Nor can we develop good approaches to analyzing, preserving, and transforming cultures.”
ARTICLE
Laura Saracho, Bonusly
When describing the organizational culture, what words come to mind? Maybe… respect, engagement, diversity, or Theappreciation?importance of organizational culture is rarely disputed, yet there are mixed messages regarding its definition. Let’s explore this a bit further. What Does Organizational Culture Really Mean?
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH27
SHRM explains that organizational culture sets the context for everything a company does. Because industries and situations vary significantly, there is not a one-size-fits-all culture template that meets the needs of all organizations. Further, organizational culture can be defined based on values from assumptions of these common societal attributes:
Let’s see if we can find a common ground.
An organization’s culture provides a roadmap and guide for employees to know how to behave, and communicates the values the company aims to embody and emphasize. How easy are you making this orientation process for employees? Are there ways you can look closer at how organizational culture is impacting your team?
Ways Organizational Culture Impacts Your Business
Denise Lee Yohn explains, “You have to make your company’s core values your own and then operationalize them. You should apply them to your organization by fleshing them out into a full set of core values that fit your organization and your specific brand identity.”
● Appropriate emotions. Which emotions should people be encouraged to express, and which ones should be suppressed?
● Effectiveness. What metrics show whether the organization and its individual components are doing well? An organization will be effective only when the culture is supported by an appropriate business strategy and a structure that is appropriate for both the business and the desired culture.
Finding top talent It’s no secret that one of the top recruiting tools these days is leveraging your organizational culture. In a competitive hiring market, the places where employees feel valued, accepted, and appreciated will be some of the most sought after.
Organizational culture should be at the forefront of how you are describing your ways of working to job candidates as well during the onboarding process.
● Human nature. Are people inherently good or bad, mutable or immutable, proactive or reactive? These basic assumptions lead to beliefs about how employees, customers, and suppliers should interact and how they should be managed.
Syncing your culture and brand Brand. Yep, it’s another term that gets thrown around a lot. Businesses that have a strong organizational culture typically have reputable and positive brand identities as well. Why? Because these organizations are taking the time to define their reasons for existence, discuss the values they strive for, and explain how they operate.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH28 ARTICLE
Recognizable and memorable brands communicate the driving forces behind their efforts, including the individuals who make them great. Having consistency and clarity in your organizational culture lays the foundation for creating a brand story you’ll be proud to tell.
● The organization’s relationship to its environment. How does the organization define its business and its constituencies?
● Employees believe that the expected response is the proper one.
There are many tools for developing and sustaining a high-performance organizational culture, including hiring practices, onboarding efforts, recognition programs, and performance management programs. Getting the right mix for these tools is very important. Nearly one in three newly hired employees’ leaves voluntarily or involuntarily within a year of hiring (a number that continues to rise). Yikes.
How to Identify and Adapt Your Organizational Culture
● Employees know how top management wants them to respond to a situation.
Looks Like A strong organizational culture is known to be de cisive, customer-oriented, empowering, and peo ple-oriented. In general, three things will be fairly evident to spot a healthy and positive organizational culture:
A good organizational culture can be your best recruiting tool, as word of mouth and reviews become even more valuable for job seekers. On the other hand, not prioritizing your organization’s culture framework and communication can have a detrimental effect on recruiting and retention strategies. Companies with a reputation for healthy cultures like Southwest Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, and LinkedIn, experienced lower-thanaverage turnover during the Great Resignation.
Where do you start to identify your culture? It’s best to understand three concepts that make up your organizational culture. Here are some examples from SHRM on how to sustain a culture. Having an understanding of how these affect each individual and are aligned with business outcomes and principles can make defining and managing your organizational culture much more effective.
What a Strong Organizational Culture
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Improving work performance A common challenge for HR and People Ops teams is motivating employees to perform at the highest level while consistently providing support and meaning each day. It has to be a balanced system between how the employee feels and the quality of work they can produce. When your organizational culture is aligned with employees’ motivation and expectations, higher work performance will generally be the outcome.
● Employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organization’s values. Your company’s leaders must embody and live out your organizational culture to their best ability. It’s important to reemphasize core values, internal processes, and communication styles throughout the company. Consistency is essential when implementing new ideas or policies and addressing concerns. A strong organizational culture helps build trust between leadership teams and each employee. Trust among your teams can reduce disagreements or unnecessary conflict and create better decision-making company-wide.
Laura Saracho is Content Marketing Manager at Bonusly. Would you like to comment?
● Ideological culture: group values, beliefs, and ideals—the things people view as fundamental. It includes the emotional and intellectual guidelines that govern people’s daily existence and interactions.
● Social culture: group members’ roles and responsibilities.
Be sure to get regular feedback from your workforce. Put together an instrument like a survey or rating system that’s designed around your company’s values, goals, and assumed cultural impact. It’s important to get a pulse from everyone on the team to uphold a strong and healthy organizational culture and be empathetic to each individual’s experience. This practice can also help you identify areas of improvement or communication breakdowns that need a closer Aslook.People
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH
● Material culture: examine everything that people in a group make or achieve and the ways people work with and support one another in exchanging required goods and services.
Each organization is unique and there are endless ways for you to choose the kind of culture that fits you. Just know that over time, your culture will most likely change and adapt to your workforce.
Ops and Human Resource leaders, you should conduct routine audits as well to identify where your organizational culture is thriving…and where it could use some adjustment. Stay consistent with the ways and timing of when you collect information to have better evaluation metrics and historical value to measure your improvement over time. Takeaway Your organizational culture sets the tone for your team to dream big and support one another. Make sure you are taking the steps to stay current with the latest tools and insights for being top of mind for new job seekers and keeping your high-perform ing talent.
Feeling a sense of purpose at work is essential to today's employees. What can you actually do to support them in finding it? Employee recognition that is frequent,timely,and specific is the answer. With Bonusly’s powerful employee recognition program you can: • Make work more meaningful for your employees. • Improve job satisfaction and retention at every level of your organization. • Share recognition that ties directly to your company values. learn more at bonus.ly
Employee engagement has always been a critical aspect of any business’s success, but in 2022, it’s taken on a whole new meaning. As The Great Resignation continues to show us, employees are demanding more from their employers than ever before, and only the companies who are listening are thriving. But rather than looking at this as a dark omen for your bottom line, business leaders should instead focus on re-engaging employees and building a resilient culture capable of withstanding challenges. Building RegardlessCommunityofWhere Your Employees Are Located Lauren Allen, Terryberry STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH32 ARTICLE
According to a poll by Gallup, 48% of America’s working population is actively job searching or watching for opportunities. Furthermore, 40% of employees plan to leave their current jobs in three to six months, according to research by Microsoft.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH33 ARTICLE
Recognition
Unfortunately, we need to make these changes while The Great Resignation continues today.
Interestingly, out of these five reasons, three are related to workplace culture. While these may not have been the responses 10, or even five, years ago, we can’t deny the world today is not the same as it was then. We’ve faced a global pandemic, rising mental health concerns, and corporate burnout at an all-time high. Furthermore, we now have Gen Z entering the workforce with differing values and priorities than previous generations. In truth, corporate culture was due for an update and The Great Resignation is just the Consideringproof.all this, what can organizations do to connect and engage workers, and build a thriving culture during a time when everyone seems to want to leave?
Furthermore, Research from Forbes has found that companies scoring in the top 20% for their culture of recognition had turnover rates 31% lower. Conversely, according to a study by OGO, 82% of American professionals feel that they aren’t adequately recognized for their contributions. This discrepancy shows us that employees are craving recognition, but they aren’t getting enough of it. It’s understandable – managers have full plates and oftentimes recognition falls off the to-do list. Or maybe managers simply don’t know how to best recognize their employees in a way that resonates. This is where a recognition program, especially one with a peer-to-peer element, can help.
With numbers this staggering, it begs the question: why are so many people quitting? According to an article written for the MIT Sloan Management Review, the top five reasons people left their jobs in 2021 were toxic culture, job insecurity/ reorganization, innovation-driven burnout, failure to recognize performance, and poor response to Covid-19.
Research now supports what HR leaders have known: engaged employees are less likely to quit. In fact, some studies show that engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their job than disengaged employees During a time when voluntary turnover is at a record high, this isn’t a statistic to overlook. Engaged employees are the key to building a thriving company culture that lasts. One way to improve employee engagement is through employee recognition. According to a study by Quantum Workplace, when employees believe they’ll be recognized for their work, they’re 2.7 times more likely to be highly engaged.
Instead, focus on engaging the people who wouldn’t otherwise begin their fitness journey.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH34 ARTICLE
Wellness Over the past two years, we’ve become all-too-well acquainted with the cost of taking sick days. Aside from the obvious physical toll, it slows productivity, disrupts communication, and can halt projects in their tracks. Not to mention the strain chronic illness puts on rising health care costs. It’s not a groundbreaking concept that healthy employees save companies money in more ways than one. But what may be a new concept for many organizations is mental wellness.
Perhaps they’re intimidated by the gym, don’t know where to start, or have limited access. Thinking through an inclusive lens allows you to drive engagement through your entire population.
An online recognition platform streamlines what actions to recognize and when. It allows managers and leaders to publicly celebrate employees’ contributions, but it also encourages peers to recognize each other. This helps give employees ownership in the process and can even highlight some unsung heroes on the team who may have been overlooked in the past.
Furthermore, with over half of US employees working remotely, an online recognition platform allows in-office and remote workers to always stay connected. This is critical for building community regardless of where people physically work.
The Centers for Disease Control estimates depression causes 200 million lost workdays each year, at a cost of $17 to $44 billion to employers. Meanwhile, the WHO reported a 25% worldwide increase in anxiety and depression in March of 2022. Furthermore, a 2021 study from Indeed found that 52% of workers say they’re feeling burned out. The data shows what many of us already know: Our employees are struggling. So, what can employers do to combat this? For starters, offer a comprehensive wellness program. While many companies have a physical wellness program in place, research shows these programs don’t hold significant weight when it comes to a return on investment. Instead, a comprehensive wellness program should encompass physical and mental wellness, while also being inclusive, measurable, motivating, and rewarding. Inclusive Successful wellness programs engage a wide audience. This means your program must be accessible to everyone in your company no matter how they move, where they are, what equipment they have access to, or what level their starting point is. Think in terms of the lowest common denominator; people who run marathons, play sports, or do Crossfit 6 days a week are going to engage in their physical fitness regardless of a corporate wellness program.
People want to be recognized for their hard work, whether it’s a work project or a wellness win.
Pearson’s Law demonstrates the importance of measuring and tracking. If you don’t know where you started, how will you know if you’ve moved the needle?
STATE
Measurable “That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.”
Motivating It’s important that your program motivates your team without overwhelming them. To do this, start short and simple. Think: a four-week movement or meditation challenge. Also, consider encouraging people to join teams. This will help with accountability while also increasing morale.
Oftentimes, data and reporting are also critical to prove ROI to leadership and continue to secure budget for wellbeing programs.
Living in unprecedented times calls for leaders to rethink the status quo. Without making conscious efforts to adapt to the changing times, you’re risking your employees leaving you behind. But leaders who are willing to listen to the changing needs of their employees and take steps toward change will be the ones who see engagement rise and voluntary turnover fall.
RESEARCH35 ARTICLE
Lauren Allen is a Senior Digital Content Specialist with Terryberry, an employee recognition company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Terryberry was founded over 100 years ago and has positioned itself as an industry leader in the employee recognition and engagement space. Would you like to comment?
We know that what motivates one person doesn’t work for everyone. This is where gamification can help engage a wide audience. Approaching motivation from a few angles will improve long-term engagement.
Interested in learning more about how your company can benefit from a recognition and wellness program? Schedule a demo of Terryberry’s new 360 Recognition platform today. OF THE INDUSTRY
Rewarding These programs should be rewarding to those who participate. Recognize noteworthy employees either on a recognition platform or in person (or both). Encourage team members to recognize each other for achieving personal goals or staying consistent in their efforts. And don’t forget to announce challenge winners to the company.
Tap Into Social Recognition www.terryberry.com800.253.0882 Request a demo today 360 Recognition PLUS Empower your team and create a dynamic culture of recognition. Terryberry’s Social Recognition Platform offers program options for employees to recognize their peers and for managers to celebrate their employees’ success.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH37 In a labor market where employee health benefits have become a vital way to lure top talent, companies may have underestimated just what today’s workforce really needs. According to Maven’s 2022 State of Family Health Benefits report, workers today have prioritized a host of family-building benefits, including: ● Fertility ● Adoption or surrogacy ● Preconception and family planning care ● Caregiver leave ● Virtual family care Maven Clinic surveyed 300+ HR benefit decisionmakers, as well as over 1,000 full-time employees who are starting or raising families, on the family benefits offered by their companies. Unfortunately, as we’ll discuss below, when asked whether their current companies offer the benefits they seek, many employees seemed underwhelmed. Even more disconcerting: employers’ tended to give their family health benefits high marks, while employees often had less flattering assessments of their employers’ offerings. The survey also noted that those discrepancies could have important implications when it comes to employers’ ability to retain talent. ARTICLE 3 Key Takeaways from the 2022 State of Family Health Benefits Report Maven Clinic
A Lack of Benefits is Holding Employees Back from Starting Families
● returning to work after a leave and balancing work with parenthood (53% said they want help to balance parenthood with the demands of their jobs)
According to the survey, 72% of large companies rated their benefits as comprehensive.
Inadequate Family Benefits may be Costing You Top Talent
Employees, on the other hand, saw it differently. Despite employees prioritizing help starting a family, for example, only 29% of large employers offer fertility benefits. And only 27% offer preconception benefits. In addition, only 26% of employers offered return-to-work coaching to help employees feel more equipped after giving birth. All-inclusive family benefits also mean supporting every employee’s path to parenthood.
Survey respondents said they hope to grow their families, with 57% saying they’re expanding or planning to expand them. In addition, 67% of LGBTQIA+ employees are expanding or planning to expand their families. Unfortunately, many say the lack of adequate family-building benefits has held them back from pursuing those plans. Close to one in six employees report they have delayed starting a family because their family benefits don’t offer enough support, and only a quarter of employees at
● when starting a family or adding new family members (44% said they want help with starting a family)
Inadequate family benefits don’t just have negative consequences for employers who end up losing talent because of it. The survey also found that a lack of benefits has had a strong impact on family planning overall for employees.
● coming home with a new baby (41% said they want help after giving birth or bringing their child home)
The survey also highlighted important differences in how employers and employees define the term “comprehensive” or “all-inclusive” when it comes to family benefits Employees in the survey said they need support during three critical phases of their family-building journeys:
The disconnect between employees and their employers about the quality of their family health benefits certainly raises eyebrows. Companies say they take pride in their benefits. Employees? Not so much. According to the survey, 84% of HR leads think their family-building benefits support their employees well or extremely well. Unfortunately, 60% of employees have left or considered leaving a job because of inadequate family benefits. More specifically, 17% left their jobs because they wanted to find a better fit on their path to and through parenthood.
Below, we’ll take a look at the top three most noteworthy insights from the survey.
“Comprehensive Family Benefits:” Not Comprehensive Enough?
LGBTQIA+ employees, for example, voiced concerns about the limits of their family-building benefits. Specifically, 36% of LGBTQIA+ employees said they wished their companies offered reimbursement for fertility expenses.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH38 ARTICLE
By offering employees individual care navigation, personalized care teams, and evidence-based care management programs, Maven delivers employees the right care when they need it, from preconception and fertility to pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting. Click here to download the report.
Instead, leading companies are offering a comprehensive benefits ecosystem that spans the entire journey. With an integrated solution, employees receive the care and education they need in their path to and through parenthood, so they can thrive at home and at work. Maven Clinic is the complete digital family health platform for leaders seeking to provide more inclusive, cost-effective care for their employees as they start, grow, and care for their families.
non-supportive companies say they felt equipped to take care of their children.
From preconception to parenthood, employees need more help than what they’re getting through the healthcare system and the traditional approach to family benefits alone. While there are point solutions on the market for specific needs across the different stages of starting and raising a family, companies risk creating a complicated benefits ecosystem that people may not engage with, and might still not fill in all the gaps.
Would you like to comment?
Improving Family Health Benefits with Maven Clinic
A complete digital health solution for starting and raising healthy families To find out how Maven can help modernize your company’s benefits package, request a demo at mavenclinic.com 24/7 access to personalized support when and where members need it Diverse providers who deliver compassionateinclusive,care healthprogramsClinician-designedthatimproveandwell-being
The societal pressure cooker of the past two years has created unparalleled strain in general, with one Gallup poll affirming that 2020 was officially the most stressful year in recent history. While thought workers have always had to endure stress at work, we reached a tipping point when all that pressure erupted to spark the Great Resignation, and a record-breaking 47.4 million workers in the U.S. quit their jobs in 2021 alone.
More than a backdrop for productivity, every workplace tells its employees a story about their employer, from its organizational purpose, to the tasks and people it prizes. But most workplaces today offer a muddled story at best. Instead of clearly conveying brand values, they’re rife with well-intended but disconnected design choices that inadvertently send mixed signals—and contribute incrementally to employee stress over time. By constructing a purposeful workplace “story,” however, employers can foster confidence and a shared sense of purpose, ultimately enhancing wellness and driving mutual success.
In this era of uncertainty, one thing is clear: We could all do with a little less stress at work. Organizational leaders can’t avert pandemics, nor can we solve global crises—but we can nurture a brighter outlook for our own employees by creating a wellness-centered workplace where people feel valued and inspired.
Five Ways To Boost Wellness In The Workplace
By Julie Wilkinson,
How to Reduce Stress and Improve Workplace Experience
41 ARTICLE
JLL STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH
Healthy employees are happier employees
To win employee loyalty in these fast-changing times, leaders must do more than give lip service to the importance of mental health. They must bring that organizational value to life by shaping more authentic, human-oriented workplaces that not only reduce workplace stress and burnout but actively support wellness, and inspire individuals to be and bring their best. This means doing more than conjuring up shiny new wellness amenities ad-hoc. After all, the typical workplace wellness program only garners about 15% participation. To achieve the wellness-infused environment your teams will truly appreciate, shape a more holistic strategy that brings your brand’s values to life in key ways throughout the physical workplace.
2. Design wellness “nudges” There’s a reason Americans spend $397 million in unused gym memberships—we have good intentions, but in hectic day-to-day life, it feels easier to take the proverbial elevator. Organizations can help turn the tide by making it simple for employees to take advantage of wellness opportunities, with intentional layout choices, visual cues, and recognition programs that are supported by and participated in by leaders of the Fororganization.example, you might rally people to get their steps in by opening up the stairwells and reimaging that space with motivating art work or music, spacing out shared amenities, or creating an office “steps challenge” with new winners each month.
STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH
1. Provide intuitive workplace design
Instead, intuitive workplaces make it easy for employees to know where they are, and where they want to be. So, skip the monotony and offer a mix of unique areas that support collaboration as well as space to focus and recharge. And use thoughtful design elements to help broadcast an area’s intended purpose. For example, cool colors, welcoming furnishings and strong acoustics help signal that a space is intended for refresh and recharge. Strategic interior landmarks can also add variety, helping people mentally map their location within the larger space—whether it’s in the form of simple yet effective signage, bold graphic walls in major thoroughfares, or transparency-boosting glass walls and partitions.
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It’s stressful to feel like you’re lost—especially in your own workplace. But it’s easy to get disoriented in cube farms and other high-density work environments where everything looks the same. These “illegible” layouts hamper easy movement, waste time, and undermine confidence.
Following are key tactics to help give your teams the inspiring, stress-repellent environments needed to thrive:
The stretch room, part of JLL’s Experience / Spaces solution, provides a private place for meditation, stretching and other low-impact wellness activities.
The Oasis, part of JLL’s Experience / Spaces solution, puts wellness out in the open, encouraging employees to take a break from tech and emphasize personal wellness.
Whatever you do, be sure to keep nudges upbeat and intuitive, and give positive feedback whenever possible.
It’s stressful for employees to feel like they’re responsible for finding quiet time to write or read a heady report, or that they have to be ready to respond to a team ping even when taking a recharge break. So, give people a break—while
4. Create tech-free zones to support both focus and rest Americans check their phones more than 250 times per day, approximately every four minutes, according to JLL research. While most thought workers have mastered the multitask, the sense that we must address email, text or social updates as they come in makes two important tasks especially difficult: focusing deeply, and relaxing.
3. Lift employee spirits with views of nature
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A vast body of research shows that time in nature has a positive impact on health and wellbeing, from reducing stress and blood pressure to enhancing mood. So, bring the outside in, from maximizing views and access to daylight, to incorporating greenery with potted plants and living walls. Note that artwork featuring nature as well as the sound and sight of water can also have a calming effect.
Would you like to comment? 44 ARTICLE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY RESEARCH
5. Replace bland break rooms with modern rejuvenation stations Many corporate break rooms of yesteryear sit empty because they were a design afterthought. Replace them with more inviting spaces to recharge, complete with soothing nature images and calming music, yoga mats and/or mindfulness coloring pages. Pro tip: Rather than a couple of large shared lounge areas, consider a series of smaller spaces across the workplace.
Julie Wilkinson is a Global Product Owner of Workplace Experience at JLL Julie leads product development of workplace experience and wellbeing services for JLL clients. Julie’s area of expertise is employee experience and the workplace journey with a focus on the hybrid workplace. She has over 20 years of experience in corporate real estate, operations and corporate hospitality and has transformed the workplace experience for clients across a variety of industries including financial services, technology, professional services and consumer products. supporting mental wellbeing and performance—by designating a mix of spaces where normal “alwayson” rules do not apply.
The Workplace of the Future Is Here, and It’s Human COVID-19 cast new light on the importance of mental as well as physical health in the workplace. More than ever, employees need to feel safe, healthy, and supported at work. By putting people first in workplace design, organizations can win employee loyalty, strengthen brand reputation, and ultimately improve business performance. Now, as organizations are actively rewriting the future of work, let’s make sure the workplace of the future is centered in care.
day
digital
physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing and cognitive performance. Learn more at www.us.jll.com/en/solutions/experience-anywhere or contact: Julie Wilkinson Global Product Owner, Human Experience julie.wilkinson@am.jll.comJLL Wellbeing Comprehensive live and on-demand programming like fitness classes and meditation exercises Life-Work Balance Curated deals and discounts on meals, home office furniture and supplies Connection Live events fostering engagement and promoting culture Manages stipends and processes expenses Guides employees through ergonomics Communicatestrainingwith and engages employees with wellness challenges
matter where they work. Experience
Empower and engage employees to do their best work, no / Anywhere is comprised of a Hub and a Program Manager. resources help the run The Program Manager increases adoption and awareness of the Hub: Case Study JLL partnered with ART Health to scientifically test the impact of the Experience / Anywhere Hub, and after a 16-week study, found that it improved
The Hub connects employees to
to improve holistic wellbeing and
smoothly:
The State of Human Experience in the Workplace 2022 Human Experience Excellence • August 2022 For more www.HR.com/epubs1.877.472.6648information:sales@hr.com The HR Research Institute tracks human resources trends and bestLearnpractices.moreat hr.com/featuredresearch
By Geoff Webb, isolved
And then something happened. Several things happened, actually, not least a global pandemic in 2020, but also the widespread availability of high-speed internet to people’s homes, a new generation arriving in the workforce with very different perspectives on what ‘success’ looks like, and the explosion of social media platforms (including Glassdoor.com) that allow employees to rate their employer and websites (including Salary.com) that allow for better pay transparency.
It is the changing relationship between employer and employee that defines the future of work What defines a good, healthy relationship? Honestly? Trust? Equality? And yet, as businesses struggle to find, develop, and retain the best employees in the post-lockdown business world, how many of those adjectives could honestly be applied to the past decade of the workplace? Businesses are now being forced to ask themselves what kind of relationship is needed to attract and keep the best because there’s a good chance it’s very different from the kind of employer/employee relationship of the past several decades. To understand how we ended up where we did, you need to go back to the work of a brilliant Scottish engineer named James Watt. Never heard of him? Let’s back up.,, In the late 1700s, James Watt’s improved the steam engine, making it far more efficient and far more powerful. These improvements opened the doors to centralized factories where mass-production could really take hold, powered (literally) the industrial revolution, and changed forever the face of the countryside in the modern world. It also produced William Blake’s ‘dark Satanic mills” and set the scene for every Dickensian misery imaginable. Small towns were swallowed by rapidly growing cities, and villages shrank as people moved wholesale away from the agrarian lifestyle of the past and to the city where new jobs offered a path out of poverty. At the same time, these changes laid the blueprint for the modern workplace: centralized, hierarchical, and driven by a relentless thirst for productivity and efficiency. As a result, the relationship between employer and employee was cemented in place as…. human capital. So it remained, more or less, for a couple of centuries, evolving slowly and steadily to be somewhat more egalitarian and safety-conscious.
The Human Experience Revolution: Relationships, Not Capital
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the first real stirring of this latent power, driven by a redefinition of what expectations are. Forced to work from home in many cases, employees became disconnected from the culture of the centralized office workplace, began to re-evaluate what really mattered to them, and took advantage, in huge droves, of the opportunities to work remotely, anywhere, for anyone.
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 48 Submit Your Articles
Employers found themselves now having to actively compete for good talent at a level they’d never seen before. Worse, poor workplace experiences and even poor candidate experiences were being broadcast on social media, making it even harder to recruit replacement talent for employees that quit. Generation Z has decided to further up the ante by questioning the very nature of the normal day at work, looking instead at the gig economy and a more equitable mix of Thiswork/life.isthefuture of work. Not the tools, not the location, not the decreasing tenure (dropping from an average of 5 years for Gen X to just over two years for Gen Z). It is the changing relationship between employer and employee that defines the future of work.
We can’t, however, allow ourselves to be fooled by the current crop of changes. Everything, from the place we work to the hours we spend working to the tools we have to use are simply the result of a more profound change that lies at the heart of the workplace of tomorrow.
A new, hybrid model of the workplace, part home, part office became the norm. New collaboration tools replaced the traditional whiteboard of old. Video meetings replaced in-person. There was less travel. Suddenly employees enjoyed more freedom to work remote, which in turn, opens up employment opportunities no longer constrained by geographic proximity or the ability to be “on the road”. Thus, a generational shift in the workforce amped up pressure to be increasingly flexible and transparent on issues of diversity and inclusivity.
Employees now have infinitely more power than they had in the past. The Great Resignation was
Human
The result was a rapid and accelerating change in the definition of the workplace, the tools that employees used, and the expectations they have of their employer. For many, these changes defined what has been termed “the future of work.”
The Experience Capital
Revolution: Relationships, Not
Geoff Webb is the VP of Product and Solution Marketing at isolved
This is the brighter, more engaged, fairer future of work, and it’s one we should all be able to celebrate, a revolution not just of industry, but of the human experience.
is one based, as so many good relationships are, on a sense of shared values.
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Employees, especially younger employees, want to bring a broader purpose to the workplace; to feel that their whole self is valued and included. They expect their employer to share the core values that motivate them, and in many cases to be engaged with those values. Whether that’s through supporting major societal changes such as focusing on DEI&B initiatives, or supporting their local community or non-profits, employers are now held to a far higher standard by their employees than ever before.
Like all good relationships, that which is now defining the future of work is one that is more equitable. Both employer and employee can recognize the value of the other and partner, not simply serve. It is also one based on greater transparency.
This relationship now recognizes that a good employee experience is essential to not only retain employees, but also recruiting new ones. The relationship between both parties isn’t a byproduct of the workplace, it is central to the workplace, because that experience defines how employees work, how they interact, and how they view their employer.
The Human Experience Revolution: Relationships, Not Capital
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The result of this upheaval is that the workplace of the future may be hybrid, it may use telecommuting and online collaboration tools more fully than before, and it may have a radically different work-week. But what really defines it is the sense of partnership engendered by a new, evolving, and entirely healthy relationship between everyone involved, one that has the potential to not only bring together the best employees, but fully engage, and unleash, their potential.
Employees expect their employers to be more forthright than ever, to be open about their goals and processes, and to include employees far more in Lastly,decision-making.thatrelationship
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Working together, multigenerational employees can be unstoppable
Here are a few ways to reward and recognize your employees of all ages and have a happier, more productive multigenerational workforce in the long term.
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How Shift-Based Workplaces Can Recognize And Reward Their WorkforceMultigenerational
There is no “one size fits all” approach to attracting, engaging, retaining and developing employees across age groups; they each bring their unique workplace preferences.
1) Offer Unique and Thoughtful Rewards
Acknowledge that each employee is a unique individual and ask team members how they prefer to be recognized. Some people prefer physical, tangible rewards such as branded merchandise or a gift card. Others favor public recognition and awards. However, be sure to offer options of similar monetary value for employees to choose from. Some forms of recognition appeal to certain generations more than others:
By Chad Halvorson, When I Work
By now, everyone is aware of the prolonged labor shortages in the U.S., particularly those faced by businesses that rely largely on hourly workers, such as restaurants and retail. The good news is that expanding your talent pool to include younger, less experienced workers as well as older, more experienced employees can not only help businesses meet their hiring goals, but the multigenerational workforce can be great for your bottom line.
However, one of the challenges of a multigenera tional workforce is managing a variety of needs and recognizing the achievements of everyone effectively.
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 51 Submit Your Articles
Older workers are often highly skilled and dedicated with a great deal of experience and a strong work ethic. Younger workers are frequently eager to learn, bring a fresh perspective, have increased flexibility and are innovative. Working together, multigenera tional employees can be unstoppable.
Baby Boomers tend to be hard-working, optimistic and focused on goals. Representing the upper ages of a workforce can bring stress and challenges, so be sure rewards programs acknowledge and value the knowledge and experience this generation brings with it. Promotions, asking people to participate in a mentoring program for younger employees and celebrating performance can be highly desirable rewards for this generation.
Baby Boomers (ages 57-75)
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 52 Submit Your Articles
How Shift-Based Workplaces Can Recognize And Reward Their Multigenerational Workforce
Members of Gen Z are newer to the workforce, so offering rewards that allow them to grow their career, such as additional responsibilities or opportunities to learn new skills, are huge for this group. These digital natives also live in a world of immediacy, so small, instant rewards – whether it’s frequent positive feedback throughout the work week or a surprise staff lunch outing – will be appreciated.
Generation X (ages 41 to 57)
Generation Z (ages 10 to 25)
Millennials (ages 26 to 40) Millenials are generally highly connected, both in person and online. They also tend to be confident and don’t place much stock in traditional hierarchies, positions or authority. However, if your business can clearly demonstrate its mission and vision as well as dedicate resources to professional development and personal growth (such as additional certifications or management programs), you’re likely to tick the boxes for this achievement-oriented generation.
Employees from Generation X are independent and adaptable, often desiring a good work-life balance. Paid learning and training opportunities are frequently cited as attractive benefits as are rewards that help make achieving work-life balance easier: meal delivery services, cleaning, home or auto maintenance, for example.
As a bonus: When employees choose their schedule, it increases productivity and decreases issues with no-shows.
people spanning different generations have a variety of work and pay preferences. Putting them in control is a win-win situation for a business. A few changes shift-based workplaces can make: Adjust scheduling to fit employee preferences Parents with young children may need increased flexibility to handle childcare and school scheduling while younger employees may be seeking to work and earn as much as possible and be willing to take on additional shifts. Instead of managers assigning shifts, use a flexible scheduling model that allows employees to pick what hours they work.
Chad Halvorson is Founder and Chief Experience Officer at When I Work. Would you like to comment?
2) Allow Employees more Control of Their Work Life
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An “employee-first environment” simply acknowledges that employees have a work life and a valuable and important life outside of work as well. When in doubt about what types of benefits employees want or how they’d like to be recognized – ask.
While some employees are more comfortable with a formal communications process, others might process news and information better while having a brief one-on-one conversation in the break room. A multigenerational workforce requires a multigenera tional communications process.
Let your employees know what a great job they’re doing and check in with them individually about how they’d like to be recognized and appreciated in a way that is meaningful to them. Overall, recognition is important in recruitment and retention, regardless of what generation people are part of.
Right now any HR professional will tell you the most important benefit to emphasize when it comes to hiring and managing employees is flexibility. From scheduling to hours worked to benefits, evolving with the needs of your employees (and potential recruits) is Differentvital.
Offer employees early access to their paycheck
Nearly three-quarters of Americans live paycheckto-paycheck, according to the American Payroll Association. This can lead to anxiety, increased stress and employee burnout, regardless of what generation an employee belongs to. An on-demand pay program allows employees to access a portion of their earnings as soon as they clock out, rather than having to wait until payday. On-demand pay helps relieve stress and gives employees more control over the money they’ve earned.
How Shift-Based Workplaces Can Recognize And Reward Their Multigenerational Workforce
3) Create an Employee-First Environment
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To express this, organizations need to look at their overall culture to see if it is aimed at showing employees they’re cared for and valued.
Employees view recognition as “how does the organization show me that I am a valued member of the team?” Employees want to be recognized for their work, what they bring to the table and their impact on the organization.
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 56 Submit Your Articles
HR leaders may believe they’ve got a handle on recognition. But the things organizations have done in the past may not align with what employees really want. HR leaders need to look at how they recognize employees—and how employees are receiving that recognition—to see if they need to adapt to the changing world of work. Here are three aspects of your culture you can review to see if you’re giving employees the recognition they need.
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant pointed out that employees working when ill was a sign of a toxic culture when organizations should be promoting employee well-being instead.
Part of creating a work culture where employees want to be is aiming it at engagement. At the core of engagement is making sure employees feel valued and recognized.
1. Recognition Through Employee Support
Leaders and managers can show employees they care by offering work flexibility, growth, and acknowledgment for their contributions. These are all important pieces in building a culture of recognition.
But a common mistake organizations make when it comes to recognition is thinking it’s only about awards and Recognitionrewards.doesn’t always need to be elaborate.
Recognition is about flexibility, support, and the things that allow employees to be successful in their careers and lives. Part of that is building a workplace culture geared toward well-being.
By Anne Maltese, Quantum Workplace Recognition is more than just rewards and awards
Recognition:Rethinking How To Create A Culture That Values Its Employees
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 57 Submit Your Articles Rethinking Recognition: How To Create A Culture That Values Its Employees
Reinforcing the organizational value of personal growth in your workplace culture recognizes employees for the value they bring to the company.
Maybe this takes the form of training or maybe it’s as simple as a monthly 1-on-1 that discusses what the future looks like. Employees want to know that the company envisions a future with them in it.
Whether it’s reviewing your benefits plan or increasing workplace flexibility, you should be shaping culture to give employees what they need to be successful. If your employees struggle to be successful, then the business will struggle to meet its goals.
Quantum Workplace research shows that 37% of employees left their organizations due to a lack of career growth. These opportunities can be fairly simple to identify and fix.
● A Brandon Hall study on talent management practices showed only 42% of organizations surveyed included regular recognition of employees for meaningful contributions
Recognition should be fully integrated into your organizational culture. How do you know if you have recognition baked into your culture? Ask.
Recognition is also about communication and celebration.
● Recognition of great work is a great motivator for employees. When employees believe their work will be recognized, they’re 2.7 times more likely to be engaged
3. Celebrating Employee Success
To measure workplace culture and understand employee perceptions about how they feel the company recognizes them, HR leaders need to follow these three steps:
2. Investing in Growth Learning and growth are an investment in employees and their futures at the organization. Growth is how we become successful humans.
1. Ask for Feedback
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 58 Submit Your Articles Rethinking Recognition: How To Create A Culture That Values Its Employees
Ask your employees how they feel. Take a look at questions in your annual engagement survey geared toward recognition or create a pulse survey geared toward recognition. Employees want to tell you how they feel. And their feedback will help you make informed decisions about what to do next.
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Anne Maltese is Director of People Insights at Quantum Workplace. She leads the team of subject matter experts on employee engagement and performance. Anne joined Quantum Workplace in 2016 after being in a consulting role at Gallup.
2. Review the Data Once you have feedback, compare the responses to previous ones. Slice the data to compare by different demographics or job titles. Sometimes, how employees view recognition isn’t the same across the organization.
Recognition is more than just an annual celebration or telling an employee they’re doing a good job. It’s part of workplace culture that makes employees feel Whenvalued.employees feel they are an integral and valuable part of the organization, they’re engaged members of your workforce.
3. Make the Workplace Better Gathering information is great. But employees want to see you act on that information too. Once you’ve taken a dive into the feedback, formulate a plan of action to improve recognition. Then, measure again to see if your changes worked and any other adjustments you may need to make.
By Vivek Nigam, BeRemote
How To Level The Social Playing Field In Hybrid And Remote Work
Top considerations Hybrid teams have quickly become the norm. But teams haven’t figured out how to make sure that less vocal members of the team have equal opportunities to contribute. For example, on a team of 10, typically only three will dominate the majority of every conversation. The result is a disruption in team cohesion that can lead to lower retention and productivity, and fractured employee engagement.
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In short, for hybrid teams to be successful and encourage the kind of engagement and participation that are required for optimal productivity, they need to start leveling the social playing field. While this isn’t always easy, it’s crucial for employees at all levels to successfully develop the soft and hard skills they need to be successful. Below are several considerations for how companies can make this a reality.
Use Team Building Sessions Appropriately – And Know Who’s Dominating ConversationThe Team building sessions are used to develop cohesion and set norms. These sessions are a temporary boost and do not solve the problem of inequity in the amount of time that people are provided to be heard. People need their thoughts and input shared to be heard. The value of a team is only achieved when all input and perspectives can be given.
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The problem that is created is one of an uneven level of participation. The overlooked and underap preciated members of this team can become flight risks as they try to find a company, team and company culture that will be more conducive to being heard. After all, we all have a need to feel more engaged and valued in our careers. The result is a social problem that directly correlates to productivity but not with retention. Behavioral solutions including more self-awareness, encouraging others to talk, and creating boundaries and controls on live discussions can help, but know that the issues are usually compounded when dealing with virtual meetings. In virtual situations, the attendees who are not participating will resort to multitasking which impedes building better job satisfaction, strength, trust, and cohesion on the team.
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A very common scenario plays out in most professional teams where a very small number of people on the team dominate the conversation and effectively do all of the talking. Managers who decide that this small percentage of highly vocal employees are their stars will start to rely on their opinions more and more – a situation called “domination by a few”. This leads to overvaluing the vocal team members and undervaluing the others
How To Level The Social
Playing Field In Hybrid And Remote Work
What’s Causing People To Stay Quiet And Not Be Engaged? As mentioned earlier, timid employees will not jump into conversations as quickly and if not treated properly, quickly become flight risks. This is unfortunate as their talents are just as valuable as others. There are several reasons these types of personalities don’t speak up. Some of the most common include:
How To Level The Social Playing Field In Hybrid And Remote Work
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 61 Submit Your Articles ● Discomfortable with the social dynamics of the team ● Natural tendency toward being quieter in social settings ● “Stage fright” and lack of psychological safety ● For example, when someone is fearful that comments they make will be disrespected by the team, they will often choose to stay quiet. ● Disinterest in the conversation that leads to boredom and multitasking ● Lack of interest is most often an engagement issue. In any cases,disengaged.11%typically,organization,thebottomofemployeesareInotherdisengagement is the result of having tried to participate but failed. ● Meeting fatigue
Below are some approaches for adjusting team dynamics.
● Value each team member’s input
Unfortunately, it’s common for many employees to not perceive a level of social playing field. We all need an opportunity to be heard, however, the most effective management teams will realize this. Social leveling is not about the volume of interaction, but rather, the frequency of interaction among team members. If a team can achieve a state where each of the team members maintains an even frequency of social interaction, engagement, team cohesion, and trust will improve resulting in better productivity and retention.
● Once a team member has stopped caring, recovery becomes very difficult. Meeting fatigue and now “Zoom fatigue” is correlated to poor time usage
How To Adjust Team Principles To Level The Social Playing Field
● Transforming team behavior into a “safe” environment where thoughts and suggestions can be expressed and received positively is an important foundation to achieving a level social playing field. This may take some effort and time but will build with repetition and practice. It is important to provide an equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of seniority or role, to voice a suggestion or other constructive thought in a team setting. Remember that some people will use more words to say similar things than others, so it is not about volume. It is not realistic to quantify with specificity that everyone will have exactly x number of minutes or y number of words to use so try to avoid this level of restriction. The intent is to give everyone the same number of opportunities to be heard.
Increasing engagement requires leveling the social playing field. And to do that, you need to adjust the principles of the team and create behavioral change. Even in a fully co-located team, the manager has a responsibility to ensure that each person has an opportunity to be heard and that they are operating on a level that is on par with everyone else.
● Engage with video and audio – be present without being live ● This method increases the mode of human interactions and removes stage fright concerns. It is important to engage in a rich medium like video and audio and not to rely on text or email which does not have the “human” element of engagement. Instant messaging is a much weaker medium than video, especially when dealing with non-routine matters, and does not adequately provide the necessary “context” that video and audio can do efficiently.
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 62 Submit Your Articles
Professional familiarity is often overlooked in teams that are task driven. The relationship between team members, and the knowledge that each person has about other team members improve trust and cohesion. There are many team-building exercises to use in “ice breaker” sessions like “introduce yourself and tell us all something special about you”. The creative questions and answers are limitless and as long as they are professional, these are valuable to building appreciation of value and understanding between members.
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How To Level The Social Playing Field In Hybrid And Remote Work
Being a part of a team that fosters participation from everyone is critical, and without such participation, skill development, both hard and soft, becomes significantly inhibited. Conscious steps to level the social playing field offer an outsized way to do this effectively.
Vivek Nigam is the founder of BeRemote, a tech startup that helps companies increase efficiency and employee retention in hybrid and remote working environments. Prior to founding BeRemote, Vivek held multiple senior leadership positions at The Hartford, Travelers, and Aetna.
According to McCraty, they’ve discovered the heart, as “an organ of perception and intelligence,” is a huge part of the equation. “We now know that the heart and the brain are in constant two-way communication and that the heart sends more information to the brain than vice-versa,” McCraty told me. “The signals the heart sends affect the brain centers involved in our decision-making and in our ability to perceive. In other words, each beat reflects our current emotional state. If we’re angry, irritated, or frustrated, the heart beats out a very chaotic message. Conversely, more positive emotions—things like appreciation, love, care, and compassion—create harmony in our nervous system and the heart rhythm pattern we have when we’re in our most optimal state.”
Over just the past several years, research from the Institute of HeartMath has been focused on the physiology of optimal human performance—what must go on inside of a person’s brain, body, and nervous system to be able to think clearly, maintain composure, and perform to one’s full human potential.
In 1991, Dr. J. Andrew Armour introduced the concept of a functioning “heart brain,” and showed that the heart has its own language and its own mind. In his book, Neurocardiology, co-edited with Dr. Jeffrey L. Ardell, Armour reveals that the heart, as a “little brain,” has an elaborate circuitry that allows it to act independently of the cranial brain—to learn, remember, even sense and feel. Armour demonstrated that “with each beat, the heart sends complex signals to our brain and other organs. These heart signals are capable of reaching higher brain centers, ultimately affecting our reasons and choices, our emotions and perceptions.”
As science has long overlooked the inherent intelligence of the human heart, the same can be said for leadership. With science historically conferring supreme stature to the brain, leadership long ago followed suit by over-esteeming the brain almost to the complete exclusion of the heart. Tied to the brain’s urgings, leadership gives its unrelenting focus to activities, to the doing—to always wanting the ball moved down the field. The brain’s way of leading, the old paradigm, takes things to excess. It’s imbalanced.
Engagement Is A Decision Of The Heart
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For the past three decades, the Institute of HeartMath has been researching the intelligence of the heart. According to Rollin McCraty, HeartMath’s director of research, “The heart has a mind that some might call the spirit, the higher self, intuition, or the small voice within. How many times have you said to yourself, if only I had listened to my heart? By not listening, we often pay the price in time and energy in cleaning up the mess afterwards.”
By Mark C. Crowley, markccrowley.com
For happier, engaged, and productive employees
To be fair, few of us ever were taught to appeal directly to an employee’s heart. Most of us, in fact, were taught not to. And so, it seems, we made a collective agreement to keep our relationships with subordinates “professional” and “businesslike,” code words for expressing our underlying belief that keeping heart out of the picture assures leaders of maintaining control and influence. Better yet, we believed we could make people more productive this way.
To correspond with these beliefs, few leadershipfocused books I’m familiar with speak directly, deeply, or non-metaphorically about the importance of tending to the hearts of subordinates. One book, which does, however, is The Leadership Challenge, written by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. Clearly on the vanguard when originally published in 1982, the now classic book introduces “Five Fundamental Practices of Exemplary Leadership.” Named as one of the critical few: the practice of “encouraging the heart.” To Kouzes and Posner, the idea of encouraging the heart is limited to recognizing employee contributions and celebrating accomplishments. But through these practices alone, the authors believe, leaders will not only inspire phenomenal performance but will also “elevate the human spirit.”
Why? It ignores the hearts of people, and the needs human beings have for meaningful connection and a sense of well-being that, when absent, has the very real effect of dulling or even deadening motivation, engagement, and passion for work. When the brain gets down to business, it forgets that people doing all the work have hearts and inherently are beings with spirits that must be authentically tended to. We’ve long ignored how the heart can guide us personally as leaders but also how the hearts of those we lead need to be routinely engaged in the course of work. Scientist and author of The Heart’s Code, Paul Pearsall, believed that one’s entire motivating life force comes from and is circulated by the heart. This being so, by our disregarding the hearts of others we’re effectively precluded from connecting with people at their core.
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 64 Submit Your Articles Engagement Is A Decision Of The Heart
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 65 Submit Your Articles Would you like to comment?
The Leadership Challenge additionally expresses the enlightened view that the heart is a dimension of human nature that leadership cannot and must not ignore. The authors warn that “without employing people’s hearts, organizations lose precious return on their investments in people.”
Mark C. Crowley is a recognized visionary in workplace management, engagement, and culture. When the first edition of his book, Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century, was published over a decade ago, many business leaders were slow to embrace it and misinterpreted its title as being synonymous with soft, weak, and ineffective management. Today, his pioneering philosophy on heart-led leadership has launched a global movement and Forbes Magazine has called his ideas “visionary” and “the blueprint for the future of workplace leadership.” As an educational resource, the first edition of Lead From The Heart has been taught in nine universities. Now, Crowley is releasing a new edition of Lead From The Heart (August 23, 2022; Hay House Publishing), updated and revised to address the needs of those managing Gen Z and Millennial employees, supported by the latest global research on employee engagement.
And to make what’s perhaps their most salient assertion on this same point, the authors quote Matthew Fox, author of Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Times, who says, “Work is an experience of the soul, our inner being . . . Work is an expression of the Spirit at work in the world through us.” If we believe that the best leaders elevate the spirit, we must acknowledge that the heart and spirit are one and the same. We must be willing to look at and really see the humanity—the human being—in every person who works for us. We must reject any lingering temptation to view employees simply as interchangeable parts—bodies without souls coming to work every day with a task to perform. Honoring, valuing, caring for, and developing people individually, make people feel connected to work and its mission all create the sense of well-being that people need to thrive. Essentially, we need to identify ways of improving the conditions of the hearts of those we lead as we now know with certainty that our doing so won’t backfire on us or otherwise undermine our achievement. Our bringing the heart into balance with the brain in how we choose to treat people at work will lead us to have happier, much more engaged, and productive employees.
Engagement Is A Decision Of The Heart
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By Terence R. Traut, Entelechy What can leaders do to get started?
As virtual and hybrid workplaces continue to be the norm, we need to re-imagine what success looks like from a leadership perspective. Let’s start by asking ourselves what ONE leadership skill, trait, or characteristic a leader needs to possess today. You might be thinking: authenticity, emotional intelligence, positivity, motivation… While most of the traits depicted in the graphic at right could arguably be #1 in any given situation — and all are clearly important leadership skills, traits, or char acteristics — the most important leadership skill in today’s virtual world is …
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 68 Submit Your Articles
Relationship Building
At the start of the year, we were asked by a large global client to help design and develop a transition program to help new directors (manager of managers) transition effectively and efficiently into their new roles as directors. Intending to design a program that provided the most effective exposure, training, and on-the-job experiences to a new director, we sought the insights and opinions of 25 leaders who had recently made that very same transition. In conducting hour-long individual interviews, we asked: “What is the most important thing you can and should do as a person new to your role as director?”
While emotional intelligence and team building include relationship components, the definition of relationship building is specific, focused, and purposeful. Let me explain.
While we heard about the importance of getting familiar with the tools of the job as well as understanding the measures that drive the business, virtually every one of the nascent directors explained how important relationship building was to their current success as directors. They explained why relationship building was so important:
The Importance Of Relationship Building In A Virtual World
What new directors need are connections, support for decisions they’ll be making, and gentle course correcting. When you have built an effective working relationship with your boss, that support and advice come more openly and meaningfully.
Leader brand — who you are as a leader and how you show up as a leader — is an important facet when taking on any new role, but your new role should be shaped by the job and the people as much as by who you are as a leader. Be aware of how you’re coming across.
● Overtly creating or casting your leader shadow.
● Establishing your vision as a new-to-role leader. Visions can come later. First, get to know the people and — through them — the challenges they face, the realities they experience, and the joys that carry them. Let your vision be shaped by those perspectives.
● Anything desk- or office-bound. Reach out and meet people. Join your team members’ client or team meetings. Experience a day in the life of a team member or a peer or a network member. Granted, this will require some creativity as folks continue to work remotely, but it can still be accomplished.
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 69 Submit Your Articles
● Building relationships with your boss ensures that you can benefit from their guidance and, perhaps more importantly, from their support. Frankly, at the director level, most of our respondents were able to operate quite independently out of the gate (see the previous bullet on building relationships with peers).
At the director level, much of what your team does involves other business units and external groups. Getting to know these groups and building relationships with the leaders of these groups will serve you and your team tremendously in the long run. Of course, each of these benefits only becomes heightened and more critical as the world continues to work remotely. It’s so easy to work in a vacuum or
● Focusing on performance metrics. Several respondents cautioned: “No performance focus or metrics discussions with your teams for the first 30 days.”
In the eyes of our director respondents, building relationships was so critical to a newly appointed director that they cautioned us in our program design to steer new directors away from:
Here are some ideas to get you started, but it’s important to note that each leader will have their own unique style and should take that into consideration to ensure relationship-building efforts are authentic and genuine.
● Building relationships with your peers — perhaps in other parts of the region, country, or world — will give you access to people like you, people who can share tips and techniques, people who can help overcome a challenge, people who have been there and done that. One of our respondents was adamant that the relationships she built with her peers enabled her to succeed in a position that was stacked against her.
The Importance Of Relationship Building In A Virtual World
only interact with those team members you know well. Without the forced social interaction that comes with the traditional office experience, today’s leaders of remote teams need to put in extra effort to strengthen existing relationships and forge new ones.
● Building relationships with your network enables you to get more done very quickly.
So, what can leaders do to foster relationships in a virtual or hybrid work environment? Plenty!
When you work to get to know your team members — their communication style, what motivates them, what drives them nuts, what engages them — you not only demonstrate your priorities but you also strengthen the bond with the folks who are instrumental to your success and the success of the business.
● Building relationships with your team members pave the way for more effective — and productive — business results in the future.
● Show empathy. Use phrases like, “I understand,” and “me too,” and “I hear you, and I think your thoughts/concerns are valid.” Be available for others when they need to discuss something important with you. Connect on a deeper, more personal level.
● Understand what motivates and drives others.
● Be a helpful resource Remote workers can often feel isolated or siloed. Do your best to connect people in your network with others as needed. Maybe someone on your team has a question about a different department and you know the department head from a training program you attended. Make the introduction and both parties will be appreciative.
● Celebrate successes together. Did the team just get through a big project? Send everyone a small treat in the mail. Is the team burnt out dealing with a challenging client? Give everyone half a day vacation to be used at their convenience as a mental health day. Even if you don’t have the ability to execute those types of virtual celebrations, you can send congratulatory emails or schedule virtual happy hours when your remote team would benefit from a celebration.
● Utilize a range of communication methods. Schedule a video chat. Make a call. Send an IM. Write a card. If you live close, drop off a package or meet for coffee.
●
● Be vulnerable Be upfront and open about what’s keeping you up at night — both personally and professionally. Showing your human side will encourage others to share in turn and you’ll make deep and meaningful connections.
Take a personalized approach. When managing a remote team, it’s easy to take the same approach with everyone. Don’t. Invest in connecting with each individual in the way they prefer to connect.
Some people thrive on public recognition. Others love being given new opportunities to stretch and grow. Many employees love feeling connected to a higher purpose and appreciate big picture updates. Others prefer working autonomously and independently. Find out what makes people tick and do your best to empower them accordingly.
Terence R. Traut is the CEO of Entelechy, a company that develops award-winning leadership development, management, and customer experience training programs for the world’s top organizations. Would you like to comment?
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 70 Submit Your Articles
● Consider leveraging personality/social style assessments to better understand your own style and helps you see the world through others’ lenses so that you can better empathize with, understand, and appreciate their perspectives.
Building relationships is critical for leaders, regardless of if they work in the office, remotely, or combination of the two. By making a few small shifts in how they approach relationships, remote leaders at all levels can build credible, productive business relationships with team members, peers, bosses, and others in their network. And, in today’s virtual world, relationships will be key to achieving success.
The Importance Of Relationship Building In A Virtual World
ePublicationEditorialCalendarCheckoutthenewandupcomingthemedHRtopicsin HumanExperienceExcellence-Engagement,Performance,Rewards&Recognition Check ePublications Editorial Calendar Here. Would you like to submit an article? | Write to us at ePubEditors@hr.com Submission Guidelines 2 Celebrating Your Employees: The Hows and the Whys Sep 2022 3 Employee Disengagement & Re-engagement Oct 2022 4 The Future of Employee Engagement Nov 2022 5 Current Employee Experience Challenges and Anticipated Trends Dec 2022
By HR.com Professional Education Team
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 72 Submit Your Articles
Attention HR folks, this article is meant for you to share with managers in your organization who want to become the best leaders they can be. Employees who love working for you are wonderful to have around. You have three main tools to make working for you a delight: recognition, appreciation, and inspiration. These three approaches are all related, but there are some distinctions worth paying attention to. Recognition is usually tied to specific accom plishments such as being employee of the month, having reached a 10-year anniversary, or making a special effort to help a client. This is good for reinforcing desired behaviors. Appreciation, which has to be heartfelt to be effective, involves frequently letting the employee know that you value their hard work, their contributions and that you’re aware of the difficulties they overcome each day. This is good for building commitment. Inspiration is about setting an example and a vision that encourages employees to reach a new standard of excellence. This is good for elevating performance over the long run. What these all have in common is that they help employees love working for you and encourage them to perform well as a result. As a manager, you will be more successful if you learn the simple skills of recognition and appreciation. You will be very successful if you master the art of inspiration. We are going to have to apologize for HR here. HR will talk to you about “Total Rewards;” they’ll also talk to you about “Rewards and Recognition.” You’re probably thinking it’s nothing new as you have already learned about rewards. Not so fast. When we say rewards, as in “total rewards,” we usually mean something kinda different from when we just say rewards, as in “rewards and recognition.” It’s confusing, and to make matters worse, not everyone uses the terms in the same way. It’s just one of those things. Let’s explain as best we can. First, your company may have a VP of Total Rewards (that’s the same thing as a VP of Compensation and Benefits, but it sounds cooler). They will devote almost all of their effort to base pay, different kinds of incentive pay, and benefits. These are the big ticket items that are the main reasons employees show up on Monday mornings. Secondly, the concept of Total Rewards includes everything that employees value including things like good learning opportunities and a great workplace. Normally the VP of Total Rewards doesn’t handle those other things, they just work in compensation and benefits.
Energizing InspirationAppreciation,Recognition,Employeeand
Look, you’re paying someone right? Why do you need to tell them they’re doing a good job?
● Your boss tells you, “Yeah, you’ve done a decent job on a bunch of stuff over the past few months, so good work.”
How ProgramsRecognitionCanGo
● At your 20-year anniversary, you find a cheap plaque on your desk entitled “20 Years.”
Wrong If you don’t put any personal care and genuineness into recognition awards, they can be ineffective. Worse still, they can actually do harm. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Let’s do a mini-exercise here to make a point. How do you feel when:
Who Is Responsible for Rewards and Recognition? (Mainly you.) Your company might have a formal rewards and recognition program. Often there is a website you can use to give a spot award to a deserving employee. Sometimes these are points systems where employees are given recognition points that they can cash in for a gift of their choice. Okay, that’s what someone else was responsible for setting up. What are you responsible for doing? You are responsible for using recognition in an effective manner. This is the case whether or not there is a formal rewards and recognition program. If you don’t have a website that issues awards, you can always give a word of praise, a handwritten note, or buy a pizza for a hard-working team. The success of recognition in driving the right behaviors is almost entirely up to you. It’s a powerful tool, but only you can make it an effective tool for your team. Let’s talk more about how to do that.
● Do employees believe that recognition is based on favoritism?
● Do employees who don’t get recognized feel demotivated?
● You’ve moved mountains to keep a client after someone mightily screwed up. The next week you see an email from your boss telling you that you earned 100 reward points.
(Whew!)
What’s the easy way to avoid these problems? When you find out, please let us know! The best advice we can give is to be sensitive to these concerns. You know your team so use your instincts to avoid missteps. Note how people are reacting and make sure people understand your intention. When they understand your intention, they are more likely to interpret recognition in a positive way.
Recognitionwell-donemay be managed by HR, but it might also be managed by Operations or some other department; it varies from place to place. Sorry for that long explanation, but it’s best to get the confusion out of the way.
Why Give Recognition?
● Do employees who get recognized feel like they are being treated like children being rewarded with a cookie for good behavior instead of a professional who does excellent work as a matter of course?
What RecognitionMakes Work?
The answer, as is so often the case in management, is that employees are human. Maybe a monthly paycheck should be enough to keep them motivated, but the fact is you get a lot better performance if you at least give people the occasional pat on the back--and all the better if that pat is accompanied by something tangible, like movie tickets. Even more important than general motivation is the specific behavior that you give them a pat on the back for. If there is a behavior you want to see more of, then you have to encourage it. You encourage it by showing some recognition when you see desirable behaviors.
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 73 Submit Your Articles Finally, rewards and recognition programs usually refer to things where employees who accomplish something get: ● Small awards (such as a gift card or merchandise) ● An employee of the month plaque (or similar public acknowledgment) ● A token for years of service ● Simply praise for a job
Energizing Employee Recognition, Appreciation, and Inspiration
Let’s think about how you might embark on the path to being inspiring. As is so often the case, a good place to start is with yourself. What inspires you? Who inspires you? Think about people you actually know, not a historical figure. We want you to be inspiring, but we don’t expect you to be Martin Luther King Jr. Next, ask your employees. Who in their life do they find inspirational? When have they been inspired? You’ll learn a lot about inspiration that way. You’ll also learn a lot about your employees.
Energizing Employee Recognition, Appreciation, and Inspiration
(theInspirationhighestgoal)
There is a different way of approaching recognition. It’s the idea that what we want is to show appreciation for the person and their work. There is just a subtle difference here. Recognition can be seen as a kind of quid pro quo; for example, if I come in for four weeks with no absences, then I earn a box of donuts. Appreciation emphasizes the personal side. What you are trying to communicate is that you, as their manager, genuinely appreciate the effort your team makes to arrive on time every day, that you are grateful for the work they put into that presentation, and that you appreciate the fact that they’ve been loyal to the company for 20 years.
Human Experience Excellence presented by HR.com August 2022 74 Submit Your Articles
(aAppreciationdeeperlevel)
Appreciation and recognition programs can go hand in hand. Just keep this idea of appreciation top of mind; we think you’ll find that it makes you a better manager.
This article is an excerpt from HR.com’s book, HR Fundamentals for Non HR Managers which is part of the reading materials for the course HR for Non HR Managers. This course was developed to enhance a manager’s partnership with HR, improve team performance and avoid headaches in complying with national, regional, and local labor laws, or as we like to put it, “the stuff that your HR department wishes you knew or wishes you were doing as a manager”. Would you like to comment?
Would you like to develop into the kind of manager that inspires people? That’s an ambitious goal, but a goal worth striving for. You might think it takes some sort of inborn charisma to be able to inspire others, but that’s not the case. The ability to inspire is a skill you can develop.
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