Talent Management Excellence - June 2023

Conquering

Say

Tips

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- Michael E. Frisina, Ph.D., CEO, The Frisina Group LLC. Robert W. Frisina, Principal, The Frisina Group LLC.

Top Picks

Unlocking The Power Of Internal Mobility

A strategic approach to retaining talent

- Paul Burani, Vice President of Enterprise, Tech Elevator

Why

Ordering Employees Back To

The

Office Isn’t Working Strategies for inclusive hybrid workplaces and office optimization

- Louis Blatt, COO, Join Digital

What’s Your HR Story?

The power of organizational storytelling to foster engagement, attract talent, and drive change

- Seth High, Creative Director, Splainers, Inc.

How Systematic Pay And Promotion Discrimination Against Women Damages The Workplace

Overcoming gender bias

- Jaclyn Margolis, Associate Professor, Applied Behavioral Science, Pepperdine Graziadio Business School

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Welcome

Amidst the backdrop of a job market that favors employees and the need for sustainable practices, businesses are seeking strategies that go beyond traditional compensation tactics.

In the articles featured this month, we bring to light a range of talent management strategies that address pressing issues and capitalize on emerging trends. From tackling the issue of quiet promotions to fostering internal mobility, optimizing remote and hybrid teams, and harnessing the power of storytelling, organizations can unlock their workforce's potential and thrive in the face of emerging challenges.

One prevalent issue discussed is, the phenomenon of quiet promotions, where employees take on increased responsibilities without receiving the corresponding recognition or rewards. The article, Say No To Quiet Promotion by Anja va n Beek (Talent Strategist & Leadership Coach, Anja van Beek Consulting & Coaching) sheds light on the importance of clear communication, workload management, negotiation for appropriate recognition, seeking mentorship and support, and speaking up about the impact of additional responsibilities.

EDITOR’S

Babitha Balakrishnan Editor, Talent Management Excellence

to the latest edition of Talent Management Excellence, where we discuss various talent management strategies that are reshaping and driving the success of modern workforces.tiveness of reskilling initiatives compared to recruiting and training new hires.

How important is it to accommodate different work models today? Striking the right balance between remote and in-person work is key to creating a successful and inclusive work environment, according to Louis Blatt(COO, Join Digital) in his article, Why Ordering Employees Back To The Office Isn’t Working

Seth High’s article, What’s Your HR Story? focuses on the impact of storytelling in achieving HR and internal communication goals.

The paradigm shift towards granting freedom of choice as a sustainable approach to attract and retain talent is explored in Marcus Mossberger's (Future of Work Strategist, Infor) article, Embracing Autonomy And Discretion At Work.

In brief, by embracing the insights and strategies shared in this edition, leaders have the opportunity to reshape their talent management practices and drive success in a rapidly changing world. We hope you find the articles in this issue informative and helpful and, as always, we welcome your valuable feedback and suggestions.

Happy Reading!

To combat employee turnover and adapt to rapidly evolving skill demands, internal mobility programs take center stage. Paul Burani’s (Vice President of Enterprise, Tech Elevator) article, Unlocking The Power Of Internal Mobility emphasizes the cost-effec-

OR

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In a world of unparalleled challenges (global pandemic, racial injustice, political rivalry, digital 4.0, emotional malaise), uncertainty reigns. Finding opportunity in this context requires harnessing uncertainty and harnessing starts with reliable, valid, timely, and useful information. The Excellence publications are a superb source of such information. The authors provide insights with impact that will guide thought and action.

Excellence publications are my ‘go-to’ resource for contemporary and actionable information to improve leadership, engagement, results, and retention. Each edition offers rich and diverse perspectives for improving the employee experience and the workplace in general.

I regularly read and contribute to Leadership Excellence and Talent Management Excellence. I use many of the articles I read to augment my own presentations and I often share the articles with my clients. They are always quick, right on target for the latest issues in my field, and appreciated by my clients. If you want to stay up to date on the latest HR trends, choose a few of the different issues from the Excellence series of publications.

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Say No To Quiet Promotion

Tips for protecting your career

By Anja van Beek, Anja van Beek Consulting & Coaching

Imagine yourself performing excellently at work, and your boss is extremely pleased with your results. They are so delighted that they asked you to take the lead. You are thrilled because this shows that your career is on track and you are advancing in your field.

Everyone is aware that promotions are difficult to obtain.

Depending on the size of the company you work for, there might not be a formal career path to follow, and it might take a while to advance into a position of power.

But what if it turns out that your promotion was a “quiet promotion”?

When you are asked to take on more duties without receiving additional compensation or a promotion, such as managing a team, this is what it means.

“Quiet promotion” is also a term used to describe a situation where high-performing employees are punished for their success by being given more work and responsibilities, instead of being recognized and rewarded for their contributions. This can lead to burnout and decreased job satisfaction, which is why employees need to be aware of the signs of quiet promotion and take steps to avoid it.

Quiet promotions, like quiet quitting, are a troubling workforce trend that speaks to a lack of communication and leads to high turnover rates. To avoid quiet promotions in your company, select leaders carefully, delegate wisely and establish clear roles and expectations.

Regrettably, quiet promotions are common.

A quiet promotion, defined as an increase in workload without a pay raise, was reported by 78% of surveyed employees, according to the employer review website Job Sage. Additionally, 67% of employees had additional work after a coworker left the company.

Here are some tips to help you avoid being quietly promoted:

1. Communicate Your Expectations

Make sure that your manager knows what you expect in terms of recognition and rewards for the additional work you have taken on and your hard work. Be clear about your career goals and what you hope to achieve in your current role.

2. Manage Your Workload

Keep track of your responsibilities and ensure that you are not taking on too much work. Be mindful of when you are being asked to take on additional projects and assess whether you have the capacity to do so.

3. Negotiate for Recognition and Rewards

When you are offered additional responsibilities, negotiate for recognition and rewards that are corresponding with the additional work you will be doing. This could include a title change, a raise, or other benefits.

4. Seek Out Mentorship and Support

Find a mentor or support network that can help you navigate the complexities of your job and provide advice on how to avoid being quietly promoted.

5. Speak Up

If you are being quietly promoted, it is important to speak up and let your manager know how your intent and expectations feel. Explain the impact that the additional work is having on your performance and well-being, and work with your manager to find a solution that is fair and sustainable.

In conclusion, avoiding quiet promotion requires a combination of proactive steps, effective communication, and the ability to manage your workload and negotiate for recognition and rewards. By taking

these steps, high-performing employees can ensure that their hard work is acknowledged and rewarded and that they are not punished for their success.

As an international, highly sought-after coach, speaker, trainer and published author, Anja van Beek has more than 20 years of experience enhancing the performance of individual executives, teams and organizations. She is an Agile Talent Strategist, Leadership & HR Expert and Executive Coach. Anja was one of the first to be authorized as an Agile People professional and facilitator. She partners with leaders and HR teams on all people-related aspects with a specific focus on integrating agile principles and practices. She is a leadership coach and an expert in supporting teams to remain relevant and thrive in the future of work.

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Unlocking The Power Of Internal Mobility

A strategic approach to retaining talent

By Paul Burani, Tech Elevator

No organization is immune to turnover. Whether losing new hires or saying goodbye to veteran team members, employee attrition is costly and causes inefficiencies across teams. While companies seek solutions to cure turnover, one existing solution is often overlookedinternal mobility.

Investing in internal mobility initiatives like reskilling can be a viable and more cost-effective solution when you combine

the cost, time, and resources into recruiting and training new hires.

The “Great Resignation” has accelerated the rapid transformation of the modern workforce. While some argue it can be attributed to people simply no longer wanting to work, it’s more accurately defined by individuals simply reconceptualizing how they want their work life and careers to look.

Many employers have jumped to increased compensation and benefits, allowing greater flexibility and implementing novel perks to prevent attrition. However, internal mobility programs such as reskilling often need to be utilized more as a pathway to improving the employee experience overall.

Allow Your Employees to Grow with You

Organizations are searching for ways to retain employees

Unlocking The Power Of Internal Mobility

amidst the rise of automation. A study by PWC shows that as much as 52 percent of jobs in certain industries are at risk of being displaced by the rising adoption of technologies, such as generative AI (artificial intelligence), machine learning, and robotics.

With this new automation comes a demand for new skills, and filling such roles through traditional hiring methods can be costly. According to SHRM, the average 42 days needed to fill a position costs over $4,000 per hire. When you’re working with software engineers, that number drastically increases up to $60,000 covering both lost output and replacement costs.

Comparatively, reskilling costs $24,800 per individual, according to the World Economic Forum.

Aside from cost savings, employees want to learn new

skills, and they feel it’s their responsibility to do so. According to a Deloitte report, 54 percent of employees ranked opportunities for job advancement as a more important retention incentive than compensation and bonuses. Reskilling provides a holistic solution by offering employees precisely what they’re looking for rapid learning, shared learning environments full of connection and camaraderie, and the chance to explore new passions.

Curate Skills with a Custom Curriculum

As digitization accelerates, your organization must keep pace with technological advancements. Whether you’re a retailer investing more in e-commerce, a financial organization seeking more secure online offerings, or a manufacturer optimizing shipping and receiving processes, there are new skills your team will need to stay competitive.

In the past decade, several technology-related skills have become more desirable across retail, manufacturing, and financial services (see below for comparison in total job posting volume aligned to these skills):

Rather than hire external candidates, invest in loyal team members with institutional knowledge. From there, you can develop your reskilling program to teach the in-demand skills your projects need.

Recommended Resource

Six Factors Influencing the Future of Tech Talent [Whitepaper]

Paul Burani is Vice President of Enterprise at Tech Elevator. He is passionate about connecting talented individuals to rewarding opportunities in the modern workforce. After years of experience in marketing, sales and entrepreneurship, he found his calling in building talent pipelines for organizations seeking to future-proof their technology teams.

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“Vacation Just Isn’t Worth It.” If Your Employees Are Saying This, Here’s What To Do

Tips for setting people up for a successful vacation

By Michael E. Frisina, Ph.D, Frisina Group and Robert W. Frisina, MA, Frisina Group

Vacations really matter. They reduce stress; help prevent burnout; and keep people healthier, happier, more motivated—and yes—more productive. Research on the positive health benefits and increased performance from regular paid time off (PTO) practices is indisputable. What this means for leaders is clear: Encouraging people to take their vacations isn’t only in their best interest, it’s in ours, too. It seems like a no-brainer. Yet a recent study from Pew Research Center shows that nearly half of employees don’t take the paid time off (PTO) that’s coming to them. What’s a leader to do?

The answer is two-pronged: One, we must create a vacation-friendly culture, one that encourages (perhaps even insists on) employees taking regular time off. Two, we need to set them up for vacations that are truly rejuvenating.

Going on vacation can feel like a struggle. The two weeks leading up to it are stressful, as you work feverishly to get everything done. The two weeks after are just as bad as you try to catch back up.

When you do leave, it takes the first couple of days to decompress. Then, you have one or two good days before you dread going back. By the time you return, it feels like you haven’t had a vacation at all. No wonder people start to think, It’s just not worth it.

Not only should employers consider a mandatory time off policy, we need to learn how to send people out the door in what I call upper-brain mode.

Simply put, when we’re in our upper brain, we’re in a state of positivity, openness, engagement, and creativity. By contrast, when we’re in our lower brain, we’re stressed, anxious, and frustrated. It’s a bad feeling—one that follows us to our destination and ruins everyone’s good time (no one enjoys being on vacation with a family member who’s uptight and snappy).

Here are a few brain-science-backed tips for setting people up for a successful vacation:

Leaders, set the right example. Leaders who rarely (or never) take time off send a veiled message that subordinates shouldn’t do so either. It’s important to take your own vacations and speak positively about the benefits of getting away.

Consider making PTO a reportable metric. This is another good way to “walk the talk.” We can’t change what we don’t manage, and we can’t manage what we don’t know.

Making PTO a management metric like absenteeism and tardiness lets people know that management takes it seriously. I did this as a military commander. Failing to take PTO was viewed as bad leadership, not a badge of honor.

Talk up the employee’s vacation with positivity and enthusiasm. Ask questions about the person’s plans (if they seem open to sharing details) and express how excited you are that they’re taking the opportunity to unplug. This can help allay any guilty feelings on their part about taking time off, as well as hidden suspicion that you secretly resent their being gone.

By being positive about the vacation, you help the employee reframe it from “a source of stress” to “a reason for gratitude.” When people are in a state of gratitude, it gets the focus off the fear that they’re letting their teammates down or that something might go wrong.

Ask what they’re most worried about. Employees may harbor fears that they won’t get everything done, that a client or project will suffer in their absence, or that coworkers will be overburdened. This gives you a chance to find solutions together and shifts them away from skeptical, confusing, fear-provoking “what if” thinking and into productive, energized action.

Spell out pre-vacation priorities… An out-of-control to-do list plunges people into their lower brain and confuses activity with progress. Help them figure out

the most important assigned projects and narrow the list to a reasonable number for the time frame. Then prioritize from “most important” to “least important.”

Vagueness and open-endedness are anxiety-producing. Clarity is energizing. When the employee knows exactly what they’re supposed to do, you’ll get far better results and give them the satisfaction of leaving for their trip having done the most important projects.

…and declutter their to-do list. It’s never a good idea to overwork people with non-essential objectives and crisis management events, but right before vacation, it’s especially damaging. Once you’ve magnified what’s important (previous tip), remove what’s not. Act as a shield to keep low-value objectives out of their way.

The less distracting “noise” the employee must field, the more likely they are to be focused, engaged, and productive. It greatly improves the odds that they’ll get done what they need to get done before they leave.

Emphasize what’s going well. I encourage starting and ending meetings with “wins” and positive feedback. It gets everyone into their upper brain right away, then sends them off feeling confident and excited for the next step. And the same principle applies to vacation.

Before the employee leaves, you might say, “Thank you for knocking those PowerPoint slides out of the park; you set us up to have a great presentation while you’re gone.” This kind of gives them permission to stop worrying and have fun. And since they feel good about themselves and their work, they won’t dread coming back.

Incidentally…if employees seem perpetually reluctant to take paid time off, or come back decidedly un-rejuvenated, it might signal a bigger problem with your company’s leadership style.

Today’s talent expects caring leader relationships and a healthy work/life balance. It’s not enough for leaders to say, “We want you to take your vacations.” They need to actually mean it. And that requires them to be the kind of leader who genuinely cares about keeping people in their upper brain—not just at vacation time, but always.

Michael E. Frisina, Ph.D., has authored more than 50 papers and published articles on leadership and organizational effectiveness. He is a contributing author to the Borden Institute’s highly acclaimed textbook series on military medicine. He is a visiting scholar at the Hastings Center in New York, a visiting fellow in medical humanities at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and a John C. Maxwell Top 100 Transformational Leader.

Robert W. Frisina, MA, is a principal in the Frisina Group and executive director at the Center for Influential Leadership, with primary responsibility for program development and research in leadership effectiveness and organizational development. He is a member of the U.S. Army Reserve and served as a civil affairs specialist with the Second Brigade Combat Team in the 101st Airborne Division in southern Afghanistan.

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Why Ordering Employees Back To The Office Isn’t Working

Strategies for inclusive hybrid workplaces and office optimization

By Louis Blatt, Join Digital

TheCovid-19 pandemic has brought about what looks like a lasting shift toward remote and hybrid work. Pre-pandemic, only seven percent of U.S. workers with jobs that could be performed from home actually worked from home exclusively. However, video conferencing and collaboration technology as well as the occurrence of Covid accelerated the trend of working from home.

As a result, companies are reducing their physical footprint and moving to a more distributed and virtual workplace. As of February of 2023, 41 percent of workers with jobs that can be done remotely had a hybrid schedule, up from 35 percent in January 2022, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted of 5,188 U.S. adults working part or full time. At the same time, 35 percent remain fully remote, down from 43 percent a little over a year

ago. This means 76 percent of knowledge workers are now either fully remote or hybrid.

But not everyone is happy about the shift. Many employers have turned a blind eye to their staff’s changing needs and preferences, to the point where 50 percent of leaders insist on full-time in-person work while only 12 percent of employees want to comply. Many companies are experiencing an increasingly dissatisfied workforce – and yet they wonder why their employees keep resigning.

I think that’s a recipe for disaster. Inclusivity means, among other things, making sure workers from all walks of life are heard and their preferences don’t get ignored. That can’t happen if employers are resolute about all employees returning to 100 percent in-person work, no exceptions.

For anyone interested in changing the tide of attrition, here are some strategies for HR professionals to enhance inclusivity in the workplace and make sure employees have a voice.

The Challenge of a Divided Workforce

How important is it to accommodate different work models? After all, there’s a reason why CEOs want their employees to come back to the office. It’s hard to coordinate a workforce that’s spread over multiple locations or communicating through screens. Collaboration gets harder, and many employees miss out on the informal social interactions and engagement that in-person work provides. Some individuals can even struggle with their mental wellbeing when completely isolated at home away from the in-person environment. And finally, it can be hard to train employees and help them grow from a distance.

At the same time, some employees are simply dead set on working from home at least part time. There can be many reasons for that: maybe they want to maintain a better work-life balance or they have a hard time interacting with their peers on a daily basis. Or it could be due to health issues. Maybe they’re at risk due to a chronic health problem and can’t afford to come into contact with bacteria and germs in the close quarters of an office, or maybe they’re concerned about poor indoor environmental quality in the office that can lead to headaches, fatigue, or worsened asthma through poor lighting, bad air quality, or excessive noise.

Casting their needs aside can lead to discontentment and low morale. Ultimately, companies need to figure out a way to balance the needs of the company with the needs of individual workers.

The Value of Remote and Hybrid Teams

Here’s why it matters. I’ve seen a lot of companies handle “back to the office” the wrong way, without considering the needs of employees. Believe me, it doesn’t end well. Typically, the undervalued employees leave and find new jobs where they can do work in the way they want. Fortunately, I’ve also seen it handled the right way when employers actually take their workers’ concerns seriously and choose to show value for a remote and hybrid workforce by catering to their needs. The result is stronger teams and better collaboration.

Because of that, the first thing I have to say to anyone who wants to rush back to the office is, give it some time. Consider going hybrid instead of fully in-person. People who have been working remotely throughout the last three years need some time to adjust to the

office, and in the meantime, they need flexibility and support.

Give remote or partially remote workers access to the resources and technologies they need to interact with in-person teams. I personally use Slack and Google Meet when I’m out of the office. In addition, you should provide mentorship and training opportunities when your hybrid workers are in the office. The office isn’t just a place for them to sit at a desk under the manager’s watchful eye; it’s now a place for collaboration and social interaction.

Optimize the Office

Maybe you’ve already made the transition to a hybrid work model. What comes next? How do you make sure that their experience in the office is positive? This will involve a lot of listening to your employees. Do a survey or reach out one-on-one and give workers a chance to talk. What’s keeping them from coming back

to the workplace or going hybrid? Establish channels for open communication and feedback so employees can feel safe giving their opinions and voicing concerns.

Before you make any changes to your office setup, you need to know how people are actually using your office. I like to say that employees vote with their feet; in other words, they spend time in the areas that they like best, and that should show you what you’re doing right vs. what you’re doing wrong. You can use occupancy data from smart sensors to identify areas of the workplace that are underutilized. Then you can repurpose these spaces to create an office setup that matches employee needs.

For example, maybe during the cold season a certain office is relatively full and in the summer that office is nearly empty. Maybe it’s because there’s too much natural light and glare during the summer, or maybe it’s because your HVAC isn’t working properly. Either way, it tells you a little bit about what your employees’ preferences are: probably a cooler, somewhat less bright environment. Or perhaps employees tend to congregate in a conference room. Is this because they want the company and opportunities to collaborate? Or are they somehow uncomfortable at their assigned workspace?

Another way you can optimize is through indoor environmental data, which can help you identify

areas of the workplace that are uncomfortable or unhealthy. This will help you cater to the needs of employees who have chronic health issues or are concerned about, for example, air quality or eye strain. You can use data on air quality to show you where you need to improve ventilation, and information on lighting and noise levels coupled with employee feedback can help you drive patterns between eye strain and a poor lighting setup or headaches and excessive noise.

Going back to the office will never be easy. Workplace leaders tend to push for in-person, while employees will often prefer remote work. An inclusive and successful work environment hinges on you making the most of what you have and accommodating both employee and company needs to the best of your ability.

Louis Blatt, is the COO of Join Digital. He is a visionary software executive who presents an unblemished record of improving enterprise value by understanding market opportunities and driving the organization to grow faster.

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Closing The Curtain On Productivity Theater

Conquering the performance paradox to foster meaningful workplace productivity

By Paul Rubenstein, Visier

Intoday’s workplace, a phenomenon known as “productivity theater” has taken center stage. Productivity theater occurs when employees prioritize work that enhances their visibility to others, often giving the illusion of value creation rather than actually generating meaningful outcomes. While productivity theater is not new, it has grown increasingly challenging for HR professionals to navigate in recent years.

A recent poll from Visier found 43% of employees spend more than 10 hours a week on productivity theater tasks. Employees naturally want to remain visible to leadership and their peers, but this emphasis on performance ultimately fosters an inauthentic

culture, undermining genuine productivity in the process.

To recoup lost productivity, HR leaders must identify the root causes of productivity theater and develop a culture in which employee success and business success align.

The Symptoms of Productivity Theater

Eighty-three percent of employees say that they’ve engaged in performative work at least once over the past year. In small doses, productivity theater has only a minimal impact. But when every employee feels the need to perform, it can significantly affect your output.

While productivity theater can manifest in countless different ways, it often appears in several common behaviors:

● Responding to emails or messages as soon as possible (42% of employees)

● Attending meetings that aren’t necessary to attend (36% of employees)

● Keeping a laptop screen awake while not actively working (28% of employees)

Not all of these tasks are inherently negative or practiced with ill intent. But in the aggregate, they indicate a larger problem: Employees often believe consistent performativity and even fabrication are necessary for their professional success.

Why do so many employees feel the need to perform this way? It’s not necessarily for malicious reasons — often, employees simply want to show their managers and colleagues the value they provide. Forty-one percent of employees engage in performative behaviors to appear more valuable to the business, and simple behaviors like attending meetings or promptly answering messages are easy ways to showcase this value. In other cases, employees see their colleagues engaging in performative behaviors and don’t want to lag behind.

The widespread rise of employee monitoring software also plays a factor. Employees under surveillance are more likely to feel the need to prove their value through performative work behaviors. Although the majority of employers do not use this software with the intention of reprimanding employees, many employees feel uncertain about how their individual metrics are being measured and assume the worst. This need for performativity comes at the expense of employee well-being and can contribute to a toxic work environment, which is the opposite of what most employers hope to achieve through the software.

How Can Your Organization Curtail Productivity Theater?

The effects of widespread productivity theater may not be immediately apparent to your organization. In most instances, employees who engage in these behaviors are meeting deadlines and engaged in their roles. The true cost arises from neglecting meaningful, value-driven activities that should take priority. Instead of working to refine stakeholder deliverables, employees spend more time responding to internal messages.

Your organization must realign employee and business priorities to avoid this outcome. Here’s how to get there:

1. Use Analytics to Understand Employee Behaviors

Productivity theater becomes more common when HR teams don't understand employee sentiment. For example, knowing that some employees harbor fears about surveillance tools could provide insights that inform how you communicate about these tools.

Understanding employee sentiment is challenging — shifts in morale and attitude are common, and various teams throughout the organization may feel the need to perform in different ways, depending on their personnel, structure, and job responsibilities.

To identify productivity theatrics, your organization must work to understand the worries, motivations, and workplace decision-making of your employees. Soliciting thoughts through feedback surveys can be an effective strategy. Managers also play an important role. By creating an environment in which employees feel comfortable raising concerns, managers can gather information about their direct reports’ attitudes toward productivity.

2. Align Employee Success with Business Success

In an organization with widespread productivity theater, employees believe their personal success is disconnected from the success of the business. Otherwise, they would avoid attending unnecessary meetings or scheduling emails for early morning distribution so they could focus on higher-priority work.

This disconnect is dangerous for employers. Left unaddressed, it can drive a wedge between leadership and employees that is difficult to bridge. Instead, communicate to employees about the importance of prioritizing tasks that have real business value, and tie this value back to how it will help the employee succeed in their role. At the end of the day, employees must understand how their work connects to your organization’s overall mission and business strategy.

3. Remain Transparent About Surveillance Tools

Horror stories of HR teams using surveillance tools to micromanage employees give the tools a bad rap. In reality, they’re typically used for simple reporting. But if employees are unclear about the purpose of your

surveillance tools, they may feel like they have to constantly prove themselves throughout the workday.

For example, suppose you’re about to prepare an important presentation when you receive a string of non-urgent emails. It’s much simpler to respond to these emails, and it shows your employer that you’re working. On the other hand, presentation prep might involve making notes for yourself or practicing aloud, activities that are less likely to appear in surveillance tools.

Organizations should stress that the purpose of surveillance tools isn’t to look over employees’ shoulders, but rather to measure overall workforce performance. Transparency and clear communication can empower employees to prioritize authentic work and prevent them from assuming the worst.

Ironically, the push for increased visibility into employees' productivity by many businesses has only contributed to a lack of understanding of employees' behaviors by employers themselves. Employees feel unnecessary pressure to prove themselves with performative activities rather than tasks that drive value for the organization.

Fortunately, there’s a solution. By working to understand and communicate with your employees more thoughtfully, you can develop a culture in which employees can work without feeling the need to perform. Freed from these restraints, employees can prioritize high-value work that helps support their professional growth while driving value and innovation for the organization.

Paul Rubenstein is the Chief People Officer at Visier

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What’s Your HR Story?

The power of organizational storytelling to foster engagement, attract talent, and drive change

By Seth High, Splainers, Inc.

Everseen a two-minute animated explainer video drive an 85% increase in the number of people who read their employee handbooks? How about a series of short comics nearly doubling the number of employees who report security and compliance issues? And what about a revamped training program that singlehandedly reversed dire employee attrition rates? As an organizational storyteller, I get to experience these kinds of outcomes almost daily.

Organizations have always used the power of storytelling to sell products and create unique narratives around their brands. What’s a bit newer is how top organizations are now using creative storytelling and new types of content to accomplish specific HR and internal communications goals.

This isn’t to say that this growing field of organizational storytelling uses the same hyperbole and psychology of advertising to win over employees. On the contrary, it’s much more about how companies, non-profits and even governments use relevant memes, authentic voices, and powerful story structures to engage and inspire colleagues.

From interactive choose-your-own-adventure-style onboarding programs and James Bond-like movie trailers about new initiatives to heartfelt CEO messages about the reasoning behind back-to-the-office policies, organizations are increasingly harnessing the art and science of storytelling to attract talent,

shift worker behaviors, and build a shared sense of purpose.

Though I could go on and on about the unique stories I’ve seen and their surprising business impact, what’s even more interesting to me is how nearly every organization I talk with seems to be experiencing the same HR and communication challenges. With this in mind, below are five areas where top HR organizations are already making a huge impact through better organizational storytelling:

1. Onboarding & Training

What kind of impression does your onboarding make on new hires? Given that first impressions are hard to break, your story better be good. This is why onboarding and training teams are now tapping into things like interactive content, augmented reality, and gamification to make training not only memorable and fun but much more effective.

One of our clients enhanced their onboarding with a fascinating video about how their products went from raw materials to the hands of their customers. A non-profit client tapped the cancer survivors they serve to kick off their training with inspiring stories of hope. And a financial company built a training workbook full of role-relevant games and thought-provoking puzzles—including their own versions of sudoku and Wordle. In other words, each organization needs to create stories unique to their values, mission, and more importantly, employee interests.

2. Workplace Policies & Initiatives

Whether it’s a mandated return to the office, a new drug-testing policy, or even a simple notice of corporate restructuring, most employees react to change with a lot of suspicion and resistance. And this is no surprise. Even when an organization says it governs itself based on a set of values, a lot of policy communication still ends up feeling self-serving and topdown.

However, I’ve been fortunate to witness countless companies completely flip this script through better storytelling. From empathetic surveys that give workers a voice to transparent explanations and inspiring stories that demonstrate how policies make life better for everyone, getting the story right often breaks down resistance, creates empathy and builds affinity with workers at all levels of an organization.

3. Benefits

Though most employees care deeply about benefits, few organizations communicate them well or tie

them to a bigger organizational philosophy. From what benefits are offered and how to access them to why certain vendors are selected, there are plenty of opportunities for great stories.

For example, when a major financial institution struggled to get employees to choose a healthcare plan during open enrollment, we co-created a fun video that helped workers understand the ‘alphabet soup’ behind health plan acronyms. Not only did the video result in more people choosing a plan, it demonstrated that the benefits team really cares about getting employees the right benefits for their families.

4. Performance & Compensation

Because these topics can be so complex and sensitive, many organizations steer clear from telling stories about how performance is evaluated and how compensation is calculated. The natural result of this opacity is confusion and a lot of distrust. In fact, it’s not rare to see inaccurate and unproductive narratives circulate about how raises and promotions are achieved.

Fortunately, we’ve also seen organizations prevent and combat these narratives by crafting highly transparent stories that walk employees through how things like performance reviews and promotions really work. In fact, one of the only internal videos I’ve ever seen a client achieve a 100% employee view rate on was regarding an algorithm for how bonuses are calculated. In short, workers are typically more loyal and productive when they know how internal mechanisms work.

5. Recruiting

Your organization’s story begins to form in the minds of potential employees long before they receive a job offer. This narrative is constructed from various touchpoints: job descriptions, hiring processes and interactions with your team. And each touchpoint is a new opportunity to delight recruits and differentiate your organization from competitors.

For a leading video game producer, I worked on a recruiting campaign where they replaced senior-level recruiters at job fairs with more recently hired employees, who could connect quickly with recruits and better respond to their questions and concerns. It’s

probably no surprise that the company saw a surge in applicants. This same company experienced another boost in talented applicants when they communicated that new hires didn’t need to be interested in video games to apply.

While organizations have always wanted to connect more deeply with their employees, current technology and the shifting social environment have created extremely fertile grounds for organizational storytelling. Not only is there a huge appetite for new types of content (video, AR, gamification, etc.), the tools for creating them are more abundant and easier to use. Likewise, organizations have better channels for sharing content and plenty of ways to gather and analyze feedback and performance data.

In short, the time is now for HR organizations to start telling their stories in ways that rival the great content everyone is already experiencing outside of the workplace.

After working for a decade in Tokyo as a writer and content strategist, Seth High brought his results-oriented approach and passion for storytelling to Splainers in 2013. As executive creative director, High has helped dozens of Fortune 500 companies, startups and non-profits fine-tune their storytelling in the form of creative videos, information campaigns and training programs. In addition to writing and managing creative teams, he analyzes user research and performance data to make sure every story engages audiences and builds affinity for his clients. Seth firmly believes that any idea or initiative can be turned into a compelling human story.

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Is Burnout The Culprit For Quiet Quitting Or Something Else?

Actionable insights for fostering a thriving work environment

By J.D. Pincus, AgileBrain

Whetherit gets expressed as Employee Disengagement, The Great Resignation, Bare-Minimum Monday, or Quiet Quitting, the trends are clear – employees are increasingly “tuned out” from their jobs. But unless your job is posting on TikTok, it’s very hard to get anyone to speak honestly about it.

If, however, we can “peel back” the cognitive filters that prevent people from acknowledging their emotions and motivations, we might then provide a quantitative and qualitative picture of an employee's emotional needs and motivations, as well as the language and framework necessary to understand and communicate them. By conducting large-scale surveys representative of the entire American workforce via image-based emotional assessments, a never-before-seen view becomes available spotlighting the emotional struggles associated with a variety of work-related issues such as working from home while caring for young children, "being designated an 'essential worker' during a pandemic," experiencing job burnout, and job (or quiet) quitting, among others.

When reporting on the Great Resignation phenomenon, for example, it has been very common for journalists to conflate the desire to quit one’s job with the experience of burnout as a conclusion

that job quitting is a product of burnout. A survey conducted by our firm, however, suggests otherwise.

In our research, more than one quarter (28 percent) of American workers reported symptoms of burnout while one in five (21 percent) planned to quit. However, when these variables are examined jointly, most quitters were not burned out and further, most of the actual burnouts do not intend to quit. Clearly, these are not the same phenomenon. This finding begs the question of what is going on differentially, below the surface, that leads workers to experience burnout or to quit. The emotional results were profound.

Those workers who self-identified as burned-out, for example, were found to be significantly more likely to feel that their psychological safety is threatened and that they lack autonomy in their jobs, conditions that are far more specific and diagnostic than suggested by the label “burned out.” The need for psychological safety and autonomy are both "foundational needs," i.e., necessary for survival, in my firm’s research model. Feeling safe and free to act are essential components of positive emotional well-being. Therefore when these needs aren’t being met, it’s no surprise that workers exhibit signs of such emotional distress as anxiety and depression, both of which can signal “burnout” in the context of work.

But in sharp contrast, workers who plan to quit are motivated by a very different set of emotional needs both of which exist at the intermediate, experiential level (one step above foundational needs). The chief unmet emotional need that drives quitting is the desire for greater ethical conduct, specifically the need to reduce feelings of wrongdoing around them.

Work environments marked by office cliques, backstabbing, and dishonesty drive employees to quit. Nearly tied with the need for ethics is the need for a greater sense of caring. When employees perceive that their employer doesn’t sincerely care about them, they head for the exits. These conditions are also highly specific and diagnostic and suggest clear avenues for action by management.

At their heart, these emotions are reactions to the social commitments made by employers. If a worker feels unsafe, untrusted, uncared for or manipulated, these feelings signal a deficiency in the social commitments of the company, which, presumably, doesn’t care enough to ensure safety and autonomy in the workplace, or fails to act to stop wrongdoing and/or falls to show that it cares. Social commitments thus are in reality the eons-old notion of the “social contract” between employers and employees. These must be built on a foundation of basic psychological safety, i.e., employees feeling trusted enough to act autonomously, feeling accepted, feeling included in the group, and witnessing good deeds being rewarded while bad deeds are punished.

These are the “table stakes” for the social contract and without them, employees will be disengaged

(like 60 percent of the world’s workforce today, according to Gallup’s most recent data) or actively disengaged (20 percent, which matches our survey’s figure for those intending to quit). In the absence of these emotional foundations, there is little hope for employee engagement.

On the other hand, when foundational needs are met, the set of salient needs shifts upward to the experiential and aspirational levels. At the experiential level, we find the need for authenticity (bringing one’s whole self to work), immersion in one’s work, mutual caring, and ethical conduct. This is the level at which employers can effectively signal their support of their diverse workforces by celebrating Juneteenth and Pride, for example, or through emphasizing their charitable activities, sponsorships, and higher purpose.

The key takeaway is this: A company’s symbolic gestures, such as placing a Pride flag on the company website, can only be effective when all foundational needs of employees have already been met. But when employees feel psychologically unsafe, shackled, excluded, or treated unfairly, such symbolic measures will only highlight the sense of hypocrisy of such “empty gestures.”

J.D. Pincus, Ph.D. is a social psychologist and human capital thought leader focusing on emerging methods for measuring emotion and motivation. His AgileBrain measurement technique is a peer-reviewed, published, and validated image-based assessment that cuts through noise and posturing to reveal the actual motivational-emotional state of the workforce. His new book, Embracing Your Agile/Brain will be published in 2024 by Rowman and Littlefield.

How Systematic Pay And Promotion Discrimination Against Women Damages The Workplace

Overcoming gender bias

By Jaclyn Margolis, Pepperdine Graziadio Business School

Recently,Goldman Sachs was ordered to pay a $215 million discrimination settlement to former and current female employees. At the heart of the case were claims that female employees were paid less and promoted less often than their male counterparts.

The lawsuit alleged that “violations of its female employees’ rights” are based on “companywide policies and practices, and are the result of unchecked gender bias that pervades Goldman Sachs’ corporate culture” according to The Wall Street Journal

The fact that a venerable institution like Goldman Sachs was ordered to pay a settlement may be surprising to some. However, the reality is many companies have inequitable pay and promotion policies. Although there are many forces that get in the way of fair policies, here are a few to consider:

1. One way that companies reduce the likelihood of women advancing into management is by having restrictive guidelines for promotions. Company

policies can inadvertently hinder women’s promotion by perpetuating gender bias and inflexible workplace structures that prioritize masculine leadership traits. Rebecca Shambaugh provides a powerful example: Many companies require that open corporate board seats are filled by someone with CEO experience. However, because of the small number of CEO positions that have historically been filled by women, this requirement may automatically rule out many qualified women.

2. As another example, companies often use leadership competencies to evaluate potential candidates for promotion. Because the managers who develop the lists of leadership competencies are more commonly men than women, these lists tend to reflect what makes men successful. However, it often backfires when women try to adopt the same work style as men. For example, men are typically seen as confident when they act assertively, whereas women are often considered aggressive for the same behavior and face backlash. In general, during performance reviews, managers tend to describe men using task words

(e.g., analytical, competent) but describe women using relational words (e.g., compassionate, energetic). When evaluating candidates for promotion, task-related characteristics hold more weight.

3. Finally, good old-fashioned office politics can get in the way. Sucking up, backstabbing and credit stealing are the behaviors that drive employees crazy and eventually out the door. According to a recent Pepperdine Graziadio poll, three in five office workers (59%) say it is likely that women and ethnic minorities are more negatively impacted by office politics. Women are more likely than men to say office politics has caused them to leave an employer (29% vs. 19%).

Organizations can begin to move past these challenges by adopting qualification diversity, meaning that they should reconsider their leadership competencies and hiring/promotion guidelines to ensure they are not unintentionally skewed to favor men. Although this is easier said than done, the payoff can be huge. Research has shown that having gender diversity in leadership can benefit everywhere from the company culture to the bottom line.

Senior management should work to drive this change. According to the Pepperdine survey, onethird of employees say managers (33%) and senior management (32%) drive the level of negative office

politics and are best positioned to do something about it. To encourage fairness in promotions and pay, management can help develop meaningful changes to evaluation criteria, conduct regular pay equity audits, provide mentorship and leadership development programs, and foster a culture that values diversity and inclusion.

Goldman Sachs faced the cost of gender discrimination through its settlement, but the true cost to the company doesn’t end there. The price tag of gender discrimination is much larger, including the loss of talented employees, decreased productivity, damaged reputation, negative employee morale, and missed opportunities for innovation and growth.

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Jaclyn Margolis, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor, Applied Behavioral Science at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School.

Embracing Autonomy And Discretion At Work

Upgrade your perspectives and your people systems

By Marcus Mossberger, Infor

Despite the Fed recently raising interest rates to 16-year high and more prognosticators pointing toward signs of an impending recession, the US continues to add jobs and unemployment remains near historic lows. As a result, the pendulum of power has shifted firmly away from organizations and toward the workforce. Many companies have capitulated with double-digit compensation increases and $25k signing bonuses, but these tactics are not sustainable in the long run. The more

endurable and economically viable approach to inspiring talent to work for us may actually lie in something much less expensive: the freedom of choice.

The definition of discretion is the power or right to decide or act according to one’s own judgment; freedom of judgment or choice, while autonomy is independence or freedom, as of the will or one’s actions. The last few years admittedly forced

organizations to award autonomy to their employees in ways never thought imaginable. Workplace norms have been abandoned for practical realities, endowing discretion on individuals who previously had little-to-no control over their time or their work. Despite the protests of traditionalists who prefer to go back to the way things were, the genie is out of the bottle.

Forward-thinking companies are embracing this concept of empowerment, and are ceding control to their workforce including when/where they work (flexible scheduling, remote), what they do at work (job crafting, internal side hustles) and how they are managed (self-management, digital administration). While these new ways of working require allowing individuals more authority and decision-making rights, the risk can be mitigated by the utilization of technology.  And no… I do not mean tracking technologies that paranoid institutions use to monitor keystrokes or confirm compliance with time-related requirements.

New collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams give us access to colleagues across the world with the click of a “join” button, while technologies like Google Drive make it easy for asynchronous work to happen anytime. More organizations are using assessment

technologies like Talent Science to match people to work based on their behavioral characteristics versus an antiquated job description. And conventional HRIS platforms are transforming by using RPA (Robotic Process Automation) to allow front-line managers to make promotion, compensation and transfer decisions without jumping through endless hoops and approvals.

While these concepts may sound contemporary, the human need for freedom and control has always existed and has universal appeal. Today’s new norms like hybrid work require this flexibility, the next generation has made it clear that they expect it, and we have the technology to enable it without alienating our shareholders. Are you ready to start trusting your talent while avoiding untenable wage increases? Then consider upgrading your perspectives as well as your people systems.

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Marcus Mossberger is the Future of Work Strategist at Infor

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