Talent Management Excellence March 2023

On the Cover

14 Cultivate Collaboration: How HR Can Unlock Personal And Organizational Health Workplace collaboration is more than just a buzzword

- Deb Mashek, Principal, Myco Consulting LLC.

22 How To Let Employees Go Gracefully Best practices for compassionate and professional terminations

- Vicky Oliver, President, Execuchick Press

28 Music Do’s And Don’ts In The Workplace

Creating a positive and happy workplace culture

- Ross Honey, President and CEO, TouchTunes

A Comprehensive Guide To Succession Planning: Tips, Trends, And Strategies

Clear and effective succession planning is vital for business success

- Naveen Bhateja, EVP and Chief People Officer, Medidata Solutions

35 The Power Of Psychological Safety In The Workplace

7 ways to activate psychologically safe work environments

- Nerissa J. Persaud, Founder, Ignite the Human Spark

10 Mistakes To Avoid When Succession Planning

Leaders share their insights

- Brett Farmiloe, CEO and CHRO, Terkel.io

Discovering The World Beyond Succession Planning

Converting an ‘operational’ exercise into a ‘strategic’ imperative

- Murad Salman Mirza, Innovative Thinker, Organizational Development and Talent Management Expert

Can Digital Twins Enhance Organizational Performance?

Our digital twins may know us better than ourselves

- Marcus Mossberger, Future of Work Strategist, Infor

Top Picks 10 17 24 31

4 Ways To Reframe Equity Compensation For Women

Equity compensation allows women to share more directly in the growth and success of organizations

- Kate Winget, Chief Revenue Officer, Morgan Stanley at Work

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Building a Thriving Organization: Succession Planning, Equity Compensation, Organizational Performance, and More

Succession planning, despite being a vital element of organizational strategy, is frequently disregarded or not given the necessary attention. Such oversight can be a critical mistake that could lead to various challenges in the future, including poor leadership, employee disengagement, and insufficient preparation for the future of work. In addition to addressing these issues, succession planning can also help retain top talent by identifying and investing in potential successors. To achieve success in succession planning, it is important to invest in the development of potential successors and communicate their potential to them. Companies should strive to achieve "Succession Leadership" rather than just "Succession Management" to ensure business continuity and achieve strategic goals.

The March edition of Talent Management Excellence includes informative articles that focus on the significance of succession planning, organizational well-being, talent retention, building an engaging workplace culture and much more.

Naveen Bhateja (EVP and Chief People Officer, Medidata Solutions) sheds light on the importance of clear and effective succession planning for business success in his article titled, A Comprehensive Guide To Succession Planning: Tips, Trends, And Strategies. Additionally, Talent Management Expert Murad Salman Mirza's article titled, Discovering The World Beyond Succession Planning highlights the relevance of succession planning in achieving strategic goals and ensuring business continuity. Leaders can also benefit from Brett Farmiloe's (CEO & CHRO, Terkel.io) article titled, 10 Mistakes To Avoid When Succession Planning, which features insights from leaders in the field.

Another important aspect of promoting a healthy and thriving organization is

equity plans that better include women. By empowering women and providing them with equal opportunities, organizations can benefit from a diverse range of leaders and a more inclusive culture. Kate Winget (Chief Revenue Officer, Morgan Stanley at Work) shares her insights on this topic in her article titled, 4 Ways To Reframe Equity Compensation For Women.

Investment in organizational well-being can lead to significant financial returns, as organizations are exploring the possibility of leveraging existing technology to create digital twins of employees. This would help in predicting and preventing employee burnout and turnover, leading to improved productivity and well-being, according to Marcus Mossberger's (Future of Work Strategist, Infor) article, Can Digital Twins Enhance Organizational Performance?

In conclusion, investing in succession planning, promoting equity and inclusion, prioritizing psychological safety, and handling difficult situations with empathy and respect are all key components of creating a thriving and successful organization. By prioritizing these elements, companies can achieve better business outcomes and create a positive and engaging workplace culture.

We hope you find the articles in this issue informative and helpful and, as always, we welcome your valuable feedback and suggestions.

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A Comprehensive Guide To Succession Planning: Tips, Trends, And Strategies

Clear and effective succession planning is vital for business success

By Naveen Bhateja, Medidata Solutions

If your organization is like most, it is likely ignoring the need for succession planning. According to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), only 21 percent of organizations have a formal succession plan in place. The top reason cited for not having a plan in place was a lack of time and resources needed for developing one.

While succession planning may not be common, it is critical and must be prioritized. Organizations that fail to secure the time and resources for succession planning will find themselves struggling with a number of key tasks in the coming year, including increasing leader effectiveness, improving the employee experience, and planning for the future of work.

Leading as an HR executive demands that you see succession planning as more than one of many tasks on the company’s agenda. It needs to be understood

as an operating philosophy that ensures organizations can attract, retain, and empower their employees for the current season and those to come.

Here are some key ideas that CHROs and other HR professionals can use to formulate and implement an effective succession planning strategy.

Let Succession Planning Flow from Talent Analytics

What internal developments promise to impact your business the most in the coming year? For most companies, those developments will involve the failure to provide talent where it is needed. Achieving your goals requires having talent in key positions. If you have too many open successor slots in R&D, for example, then you should expect that products will not be delivered on time.

Effective succession planning flows from the data gathered as

part of your talent analytics. As you identify where talent and what type of talent will be needed, you will quickly come to appreciate how critical succession planning is for your organization. You will also uncover insights that can serve as a guide for shaping your strategy.

Future of work planning, which 42 percent of HR leaders say is a top priority for them in 2023, depends heavily on anticipating and providing for future talent needs. Assuming that you will be able to access sufficient talent when needed is not a safe strategy, especially in a labor market that is experiencing a historic talent shortage. A succession strategy must focus on filling roles that are vacated, as well as new roles that are being created.

It is also critical to acknowledge the costs associated with not getting succession right. Talent you do not build is talent you must buy. Some estimate the cost of hiring a new employee is three to four times the salary for that role. As such, organizations that build a plan focused on preparing and promoting internal employees can experience significant cost savings.

Consider Non-Traditional Candidates

One emerging trend in the area of succession planning involves strategies that target nontraditional candidates. Most succession strategies draw candidates from within the same department. However, as needs evolve and the talent pool shrinks, strategies may need to take a fresh approach and look beyond the most obvious candidates.

CEO succession provides an example of this trend. Studies show that COOs and CFOs have traditionally been the most likely positions to succeed a vacant CEO position. In today’s organizations, however, CHROs have come to be seen as desirable prospects for CEO succession.

Today’s CEOs must cast a vision and motivate people to get behind that vision. They are responsible for creating a sustainable and resilient organization that leverages talent and culture. They must be comfortable dealing with the complexities that are associated with leading people, which is something that is second nature to CHROs. Just like CEOs, CHROs are enablers of business strategy and culture champions.

Succession plans that look at non-traditional candidates must also anticipate providing time

and resources for additional training. An internal candidate that is brought from another department based on their proven performance with problem-solving or people management, may need to be trained on unfamiliar operational processes or platforms used in the new department. Providing resources for upskilling can be an important component of succession planning.

Leverage Succession Planning as a Retention Strategy

Succession planning is also employed to address the problem of employee retention. When done optimally, however, it can also be quite successful. In order to prepare someone to step into a new role, you must invest in that person. Identifying someone as a potential successor identifies them as someone who has a

bright future with the company. Communicating that to the potential successor, then training them in the skills they would need to move their career forward, can be a powerful element of a retention program.

Overall, HR professionals must acknowledge that every employee will eventually move on. Failing to create resiliency by developing and deploying an effective succession strategy is ignoring that reality. HR teams that drive succession planning as an ongoing process will ensure that their organizations are well positioned to thrive in any talent market.

Naveen Bhateja is EVP and Chief People Officer at Medidata Solutions . As a member of the company's leadership team and a trusted business advisor, he leads an ecosystem of Strategic People Partners across Learning and Development, People Operations, Talent Acquisition, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Workplace Benefits and Resources, and Corporate Social Responsibility. Naveen is an industry thought leader and board advisor certified by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) who believes that people strategies empower successful business outcomes.

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10 Mistakes To Avoid When Succession Planning

Leaders share their insights

By Brett Farmiloe, Terkel.io

From putting all your eggs in one basket to being closed about the “why” behind decisions, here are 10 answers to the question, "What are some mistakes you made that everyone should know and avoid when succession planning?"

● Considering Only One Successor Per Position

● Forsaking Continuous Performance Management

● Failing to Plan Ahead

● Excluding Key Stakeholders

● Neglecting Access and Documentation

● Making Assumptions When Hiring Internally

● Starting the Process Too Late

● Ignoring Alignment of Culture and Vision

● Putting People into Boxes

● Not Mentioning the Reasoning

Considering Only One Successor per Position

Investing in only one person as part of your succession planning can be a risk you might not want to take. Life intervenes all the time, and this may lead to people pursuing other opportunities. All the time, energy, and resources you have invested in that person can vanish, and you have to start over with someone new.

Investing in only one person also means you leave other high-potential leadership candidates out of developmental opportunities, which may leave them disengaged and unsatisfied. A better way to think about your succession planning is to invest in multiple people; even if there are no promotions in the short term, these employees will be more engaged when they know they have a future in the company, and you will have multiple candidates ready, eager, and prepared to take on greater responsibility.

Anthony Martin, Founder and CEO, Choice Mutual

Forsaking Continuous Performance Management

Continuous performance management of potential leadership candidates is essential for effective succession planning. We once made the mistake of relying on a single annual review, but that is not enough to paint a full picture.

Scheduling regular check-ins with key candidates are the foundation of continuous performance management. By following up with a personalized review plan, we can give candidates guidance on the areas they need to work on. This ensures that your leadership candidates are consistently engaged and motivated toward achieving your organization's goals.

Failing to Plan Ahead

Succession planning requires strategic thinking and long-term vision, as well as proactive preparation in order to ensure a business's continuity. When done right, a reliable succession plan can prevent the sudden disruption of operations or excessive costs because of unforeseen events, such as high-level resignations or departures through retirement.

Many HR leaders are unaware of how important it is to anticipate potential scenarios and plan for them accordingly. It is therefore essential not only to create policies around recruitment and personnel development but also to prioritize providing training and support so that others can step up when needed.

Shawn Plummer, CEO, The Annuity Expert

Excluding Key Stakeholders

To successfully manage any kind of transition as part of a succession plan, having prior plans in place makes all the difference between an effortless switchover versus an expensive crisis management operation.

Travis Lindemoen, Managing Director, nexus IT group

One mistake our HR leader has made regarding succession planning is failing to involve key stakeholders. It resulted in a plan that was not aligned with the business goals, unique needs, and requirements of different areas of our company. The takeaway: with succession planning, one person cannot do everything alone.

It's important to engage senior management, existing staff members, and other pertinent departments within the company. It is beneficial when making important decisions about who should fill a leadership role or department vacancy.

Senior managers will probably have invaluable insight into their departmental needs, while current staff may know how similar positions have been filled previously or even provide feedback regarding those already vying for new roles after someone has left. Finally, by doing this, HR leaders can prevent companies from making expensive mistakes and make the difference between success and failure in this area.

Maria Harutyunyan, Co-Founder, Loopex Digital

Neglecting Access and Documentation

I may not be working in HR, though as the company founder, access to software and proper documentation is an issue I've run into way too many times. First, documentation. If there's a new process you're starting, be sure to file everything according to guidelines, and file EVERYTHING.

I cannot count the number of times I had to start over a discussion on a matter that had been resolved before. As for the access, similarly to documentation, if you're using a new HR software and creating a new account, or upgrading the freemium account, be kind and considerate by adding the account information to the password manager and not in your Google Chrome saved passwords.

This advice may seem straightforward, but here we are highlighting its importance due to constant negligence in such matters.

Making Assumptions When Hiring Internally

It's easy to assume that when hiring internally for a succession role, the person you've promoted would know everything there is to know. This will one hundred percent not be the case. That person, too, has made assumptions about the role and they're likely far off base in some facets. It's best to have a plan in place to walk the successor through each aspect of the role. Take your time with this, as you'll only get one chance to get this right.

Jarir Mallah, HR Specialist, Ling App

Derek Sall, Founder and Financial Expert, Life and My Finances

Ignoring Alignment of Culture and Vision

One mistake that I made and that others should know when succession planning is not giving enough attention to cultural fit and shared vision. It's easy to focus on finding someone with the right skills and experience, but it's equally important to ensure that they share the same culture and vision for the organization.

Bringing in someone who doesn't share the same culture and vision can create tension and conflict, and ultimately undermine the success of the succession plan. It's essential to take the time to identify and evaluate candidates who align with the organization's values, culture, and long-term vision.

Starting the Process Too Late

One mistake I made in succession planning was failing to start the process early. Succession planning involves transferring control, ownership, and management of a business or organization from one generation to the next. It is a complex process that takes time, planning, and careful consideration.

Starting the process too late can cause a rushed and less effective succession plan and can also put the business or organization's future at risk. To avoid this mistake, it is crucial to start the succession planning process well before when the transfer of control will occur to ensure enough time to make informed decisions, address potential challenges, and implement a smooth transition.

Jason Moss, President and Co-Founder, Moss Technologies

Derek Bruce, Senior Director, Newcastle First Aid Courses

Putting People into Boxes

Succession planning is much more an art than a science. If we pigeonhole people into a (high potential) box, then we can create unrealistic expectations for them and the business. It also alienates people who have an idea about what they want for their careers.

Not everyone is right for every role. Not everyone wants to be a CEO (or a manager!), and your criteria for the traditional nine-box should not be static either. So, try to think broader, and allow yourself to be more agile with succession planning.

We believe everyone has potential, right? So, think about "the potential for what," and it's much easier to build a plan around that, as you already have a final direction.

Not Mentioning the Reasoning

Just so you know, everyone is entitled to a justification for their exclusion from your list of potential candidates. Making sure the staff is aware of the reasoning behind why specific candidates are on your list and others are not is a crucial step in attaining transparency in succession planning.

It's a sensitive job. It can be simpler for people to accept disappointment if you have an open dialogue about what your staff lacks. This is an opportunity for you to collaborate with your workers to create a development plan that will help them resolve the problem and improve their performance, which will ultimately benefit your company more.

Ethan Bull, Owner, ProAssisting

Jo Taylor, Managing Director, Let's Talk Talent

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Brett Farmiloe is the Founder and CEO – and currently CHRO - of Terkel.io.

Cultivate Collaboration: How HR Can Unlock Personal And Organizational Health

Workplace collaboration is more than just a buzzword

By Deb Mashek, Myco Consulting LLC

Organizations of all shapes and sizes celebrate collaboration as a value, a skill, and a way of working. CEOs deem collaboration a company-wide north star. Leadership teams include it on the list of company values. People leaders mention it liberally when recruiting and onboarding new employees.

Yet, despite these surface-level enthusiasms for workplace collaboration, many organizations fail to invest in helping their people develop and sustain deep collaborations.

According to data from my Workplace Collaboration Survey, 31% of full-time workers in the United States said they had received no professional development in how to build healthy collaborative relationships in the workplace.

This oversight has real consequences for the well-being of individuals, as well as the health of the organization.

People who receive more professional development in how to nurture healthy workplace collaborations report higher job satisfaction than people who don’t receive that upskilling. They also feel more positively about collaboration in general and are eager to spend a higher proportion of their work lives engaged in collaboration.

Moreover, companies and individuals alike benefit when their workplace relationships are positive. The Workplace Collaboration Survey, for instance, showed that people who feel positively about their collaborators report higher job satisfaction, lower anxiety, and lower depression. Recent data

from Gallup showed that having a best friend at work predicts favorable business outcomes including profitability and low turnover.

So here’s the tension: Companies ostensibly value collaboration, and data suggest there are loads of benefits to individuals and companies alike when collaborations thrive. Yet, a lot of companies invest very little in helping their people develop satisfying and productive collaborations, instead relegating collaboration to the realm of empty corporate buzzwords.

What Does This Reality Mean for HR Leaders?

It means that HR leaders have an opportunity to simultaneously serve their people and their organizations by cultivating collaborative capacity across the organization.

Here are three principles for doing so.

Hire and develop collaborative people. HR leaders are well-equipped to help organizations get into place a key element of the collaboration ecosystem: collaborative people. Beyond merely mentioning that your organization seeks a great collaborator with strong interpersonal skills, look for clear evidence of those skills in the application documents and interview. When a candidate describes a complex project in a previous role, is it clear that others were involved and celebrated?

Do you hear plural pronouns in addition to “I, I, I”?

In addition, provide solid professional development offerings on key collaboration skills such as communication, time management, and basic project management. Advocate for more intensive, one-on-one support, such as coaching, for individuals carrying heavy baggage around past collaborations that soured or former collaborators who shattered their trust. Support their efforts to amend anti-collaborative mindsets and dispositions.

Encourage collaborative relationships. Next, help the people in your organization develop and maintain healthy collaborative relationships with each other. The best collaborative relationships are those in which relationship quality and interdependence are both high. Offer professional development in relationship building. Help managers and directors think through how best to structure, measure, and reward work to support–rather than undercut–the health of the relationships among members of the team.

Offer team-based coaching to help groups navigate tough spots and leverage once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Offer workshops to help collaborators determine the health of their collaboration and to carve a path for continued improvement.

Spearhead collaborative culture. If your organization wants to see more collaboration, then collaboration must be possible, easy, normative, rewarding, and –sometimes – even required. HR leaders have a hand on each of these critical levers.

Advocate for easy-to-find, and easy-to-use directories that enable people in one part of the company to find and contact people in other parts. Champion the value of shared information systems to help people move information into and out of workgroups. Elevate stories of everyday collaboration on community boards, in newsletters, and in celebrations. Insist on review and promotion practices that incentivize skilled collaborators. Exit people who demonstrate a persistent inability to play well with others.

The bottom line. Enhancing collaborative capacity is a key that HR leaders can turn to unlock simultaneously the well-being of their people and the health of their organizations. Investing in this capacity now will help individuals, teams, and organizations adapt as the nature of work continues to shift and as companies of all shapes and sizes continue to innovate and redesign the way work is done.

Dr Deb Mashek helps business leaders build better collaborations. An experienced business advisor, professor, and nonprofit executive, her writing appears in MIT-Sloan Management Review, The Hechinger Report, Fortune, and Psychology Today. Deb has been an invited speaker on collaboration and viewpoint diversity at leading organizations including the United Nations and the American Psychological Association.

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Discovering The World Beyond Succession Planning

Converting an ‘operational’ exercise

into

a ‘strategic’ imperative

By Murad Salman Mirza, Organizational Development and Talent Management Expert

Succession Planning is generally seen as a proactive measure that marginalizes ‘Replacement Planning’ and hedges against the risk

of a ‘Leadership Vacuum’ to ensure a steady stride in achieving strategic goals and objectives. Generally, key steps in the respective context are:

However, it is often tampered by a heavily skewed focus on itself while relying on the efficacy of the following aligned functional processes:

● Performance Management

● Reward and Recognition

● Training and Development

This frequently alienates other functional processes necessary for the robustness of talent pipelines that are the backbone of a productive Talent Management system, e.g., Hiring and Orientation, Career Guidance and Progression, Employee Relations and Engagement, Employee Exit Management. Let’s ponder these examples of elements within the realm of Talent Management as follows:

Hiring and Orientation

This is the key entry point into an organization and has a ‘ripple effect’ for the other functional processes in terms of adjusting to the quality of the inducted talent. Mostly, organizations focus on the fulfillment of the available vacancy by emphasizing direct requirements, however, this ‘short-sightedness’ often overlooks the prospect of employing ‘potential successors’ who have the basic ingredients that can be nurtured into the desired leadership traits. This foresight is required by both the HR/Talent

Management function and the relevant line manager with unambiguous support of the senior management dedicated to a progressive working environment. Otherwise, the adage of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ will create unhealthy reverberations throughout the organization and exacerbate the leadership crisis by straining the functional processes of Performance Management, Reward and Recognition, and Training and Development. In the words of Stephen Covey, ‘Begin with the End in Mind’.

Career Guidance and Progression

There comes a stage in every employee’s work life when he/she starts confronting their ‘career fears’ and indulges in matching their own priorities with those of the organization to see if it makes sense to stay with his/her current employer or look for better prospects elsewhere. Therefore, it becomes imperative for organizations to implement strategies that ensure minimization of talent attrition, especially, among those considered to be top prospects for critical senior positions. This can include timely mentorship from influential senior managers, frequent informal interactions, customizing benefits package within available resources, encouraging productive interaction at suitable professional forums with peers and healthy exposure to growth opportunities. In the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ‘The Only Limits to Our Realization of Tomorrow will be Our Doubts of Today’.

Employee Relations and Engagement

Prodigious talent requires a healthy and supportive work environment for sustained excellence. Consequently, High Potentials (HIPOs) can be very demanding and persuasive as they realize the true extent of their worth to the organization. While organizations try to ensure that such ‘prized assets’ are secured against poaching from ravenous competitors and continue steadily on the available career path through insightful engagement strategies; there is also an increased prospect of ‘class warfare’ with respect to ‘talent differentiation’ which can be waged by peers who feel marginalized. Succession Planning suffers greatly in such situations and often requires rescue through timely intervention from the top in terms of visibly supporting the functional head responsible for cultivating the next crop of suitable leaders for the organization. In the words of Maya Angelou, ‘I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’

Employee Exit Management

One of the most overlooked functional processes within the realm of Talent Management is the way in which employee departure is handled within the organizations and how it impacts the potential successors. This varies a great deal in accordance with the specific circumstances that prompt the

departure of an employee, e.g., someone retiring after a long and distinguished career is generally given a fond farewell, whereas, anyone who is fired may not even be accorded the ‘privilege’ of an Employee Exit Interview/Survey/Questionnaire to gain insightful feedback. Such marked differences in the application of divergent procedures resonate with employees in different ways and need to be handled very delicately since ‘psychological bruises’ are rarely highlighted on any formal forum and tend to linger in whispers within the corridors of power. In the words of Peter Drucker, ‘The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said’

The aforementioned examples reflect tantalizing challenges that can derail even the best intentioned Succession Planning initiatives. Therefore, it is prudent to do periodic ‘Quality Assurance’ of the Succession Planning process and take necessary corrective/preventive actions in a timely manner followed by an impartial and honest review to curtail any derailment from the strategic imperatives.

A more comprehensive and fruitful strategy would be to embrace and incorporate ‘systems thinking’ in terms of upgrading and synchronizing all the interrelated functional processes, i.e., move from Succession Planning to Succession Management. The following illustration depicts the respective transition:

The efficiency and effectiveness of the functional processes involved at both the aforementioned stages can be refined by utilizing the following Deming Cycle:

This should be ultimately taken to an even higher level of excellence where the claims for being ‘world class’ can hold merit. Such a status can be achieved by planting the roots of Succession within the Corporate Values espoused by the organization, which also

converts associated risks with having competent leaders into competitive advantages, e.g., talent poaching is embraced instead of being feared since there is no shortage of skilled successors within the ranks. This can be visualized through the following graphic:

Consequently, an organization should eventually strive to achieve the position of ‘Succession Leadership’

that goes beyond ‘Succession Management’ and is illustrated as follows:

Such a status elevates an organization to being a role model not only within its own industry, but also, in the wider corporate world as an enviable focus for benchmarking.

Evolution is a natural phenomenon and organizations that are prepared to timely synchronize their development with the changing times are the ones with the best probability of assuring continued prosperity. While others languish and anguish over the question of survival; progressive organizations driven by enlightened leaders continue to redefine the boundaries of success with the help of capable potential successors. In the words of Tom Peters, ‘Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders’.

Murad Salman Mirza is an innovative thinker and an astute practitioner of areas within and associated with the fields of organizational evelopment, talent management and business transformation. He is globally ranked in 9 areas (HR, Leadership, Culture, Management, Agility, Innovation, Future of Work, Change Management, Customer Experience) by the world's first open platform for Thought Leaders based in the USA that uses artificial intelligence (AI) for ranking to preclude human bias. He has worked in various geographical regions across the world.

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How To Let Employees Go Gracefully

Best practices for compassionate and professional terminations

By Vicky Oliver, Execuchick Press

When Alphabet, the parent company of Google, recently laid off some 12,000 people, they gave word to the employees by email. Alphabet isn’t alone in delivering such personal and devastating news impersonally. Particularly with mass layoffs, managers prefer to ditch decorum and duck any uncomfortable conversations.

Even when the dismissal involves poor performance on the part of the employee, employing a measure of compassion can soften the blow. Insensitive behavior

by owners or managers adds to the indignity of being fired.

And in the case of laying off employees, callousness on the part of owners or managers discounts the steadfast effort, loyalty, and dedication their employees have given to them and the company. Furthermore, it’s much more likely that the business has faltered from the performance and judgments of the managers and owners themselves, than from the workers that they’ve sent packing. A cavalier attitude toward any layoffs only dehumanizes the previously cooperative relationship.

Regardless of whether you are firing someone for performance problems, or laying off a few or a few thousand workers, make sure if you’re the person relating the news that you do so in a way that’s humane, respectful, and sympathetic.

Always follow these practices if you have to let someone, or multiple people, go:

1. Have a Face-to-Face Meeting

You may not feel this is an efficient use of your time if this is a mass layoff, but each employee deserves a private meeting and a chance to ask questions. The owner, manager or supervisor should conduct the meeting, but it’s also advisable to include an HR staff member to provide administrative information or keep the conversation within appropriate boundaries. Conduct the meeting in a room that provides privacy to ensure confidentiality.

2. State the Reason

In the case of firing someone due to performance, it’s important to state that you are terminating the person’s employment (as of now or a specific date) at the outset. Don’t start with small talk and take the person by surprise. The termination shouldn’t come as a complete surprise but should represent a culmination of poor performance reviews. Be transparent about how the decision was made, without over-explaining and offering a chance to invite an argument. In the case of layoffs, candidly tell each employee the status of the company that has forced this action and how the tough decisions were made.

3. Share the Next Steps

Describe what will happen next. Let the employee know when to expect a final paycheck and how long benefits will continue. If possible with a layoff scenario, offer transition support — a severance package commensurate with how long the employee has worked for you, outplacement assistance, referral to an Employment Assistance Program — and easy-to-follow guidance on filing for unemployment benefits with their state’s program. Let workers know that their unemployment benefits equal 55 percent of their weekly wage and extend up to 26 weeks (depending on the state). Further, provide information

on COBRA insurance in case they would like to temporarily continue with the group health coverage. Offer a contact person for the employee to contact to answer questions that may come up during the transition out of the company.

4. Settle Any Loose Ends

Try to anticipate any questions the employee/s may pose and have the answers ready. These can include what to do about work in progress, what to tell clients and coworkers, when access to the building and the work platform will cease, and so on.

5. Attempt to Keep the Relationship Intact

Try to end on a positive note. When laying off workers, try to thank them for something they did specifically for the company. Offer to write the person an employment reference, or if you don’t know them well enough to do so, give them some headhunters to call.

Even though handling employees’ termination is the most dreaded part of a manager or owner’s job, that doesn’t give you the right to shirk the responsibility. If done right, all involved will leave understanding the reality that brought them to this point and move forward without any ill will.

Vicky Oliver is a leading career development expert and the multibestselling author of five books, including Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots (Sourcebooks, 2008), and 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions (Sourcebooks 2005), named in the top 10 list of “Best Books for HR Interview Prep.” She is a sought-after speaker and seminar presenter and a popular media source, having made over 901 appearances in broadcast, print and online outlets.

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Can Digital Twins Enhance Organizational Performance?

Our digital twins may know us better than ourselves

By Marcus Mossberger, Infor

Theuse of digital twins to proactively maintain and continuously improve physical objects has been going on since the early 2000’s. NASA formalized the concept in 2010 as they sought to improve physical-model simulation of spacecraft, while the Internet of Things (IoT) created almost limitless use cases as technology could now easily (and inexpensively) communicate with itself. Even healthcare is getting into the act, with medical device development, disease modeling, digital therapeutics and even digital twins of organs used to practice on before a complex surgery. With the global digital twin market expected to grow at a compound annual rate of over 39% from 2022 to 2030, it makes me wonder when we will turn this technology on ourselves and create “digital twins” of employees?

But before we explore this question, let’s start with defining the why and what. The goal of creating a digital twin is to utilize

a computerized representation of a physical object, system or process for the purpose of simulation, monitoring, testing and maintenance with the end result being the ability to avoid breakdowns while improving performance. Frequently a physical object like a wind turbine is equipped with sensors to measure things like energy output, temperature, humidity and more – with the data then informing the digital twin to predict when a specific part may wear out. This aspect of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) ensures that predictive maintenance can be scheduled in order to avoid costly down time or other problems associated with the breakdown of equipment. Is it time to create a People Lifetime Management process to avoid breakdowns of people at work?

The headlines over the last few years have frequently highlighted the burnout, exhaustion and subsequent employee turnover resulting from many

pandemic-induced challenges. Recent research suggests that for every dollar invested in organizational well-being, the financial return was between five and twelve times within a year. If we apply the same principles of the digital twin to an individual worker, we could use technology that is already in place to predict and prevent burnout and the ensuing resignations. But that may just be the tip of the iceberg.

By leveraging the vast amount of people-related data we already possess, we could run a wide variety of simulations and predictive models to answer important questions such as “how would employee productivity be impacted if we reorganized our sales organization by industry” or “what would happen if I moved this person into a supervisory role… would they be successful?”. Scenario testing in a virtual environment is a whole lot easier than moving live human beings around and waiting to see if it was a good decision.

Eventually, we may reach the point where we have a personalized digital shadow that constantly “follows” us to ensure we are compliant with processes, or to make suggestions to improve our performance. In reality, these nudges have already been happening for some time … have you ever forgotten to attach a file to an email and received the warning “you may have forgotten to attach a file”? These reminders will eventually become more frequent and will include positive suggestions as well such as “you have not taken any time off in over six months, would you like me to submit a time off request for you?”. At some point, they

will include more sophisticated suggestions that may help you improve your personal productivity by finding more effective processes and workflows.

Yes, there are valid questions about privacy and the inevitable Big Brother references about surveillance. And while wearables at work are likely a ways off, it won’t be long before we succumb to digital supervision as a trade-off for giving up administrative and transactional tasks. Combine all of this with the increase in the utilization of behavioral data in the workplace, and our digital twins may know us better than ourselves.

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Marcus Mossberger is a Future of Work Strategist at Infor

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Music Do’s And Don’ts In The Workplace

Creating a positive and happy workplace culture

By Ross Honey, TouchTunes

Music in the workplace is a powerful benefit for employees and customers alike. In fact, 65 percent of employers agree that music makes employees more productive, while research shows that 25 percent of retailers and 33 percent of hospitality companies would actually lose business without music.

Employers may be hesitant to add music to an office for a number of reasons, as there are many ways to do it wrong. However, workplace music can also offer employees an escape from their workdays by playing and listening to their favorite tunes together, which can also enhance the overall workplace culture. With the goal of creating a collaborative office space where productivity, satisfaction and happiness top the charts, here are four do’s and don’ts for adding music to the workplace.

Don’t let the company decide the playlist. Do empower employees to choose the music they want to hear.

Music in the workplace can be a powerful tool for engagement

and productivity when done properly. However, if employers force employees to listen to music they don’t want to hear, it can prove distracting and detrimental to an employee’s work performance. Employers need to allow employees to collaboratively select and play their own music to build a positive workplace atmosphere.

When employees have the opportunity to play their own music, they will ultimately be happier, more productive, and less stressed in the workplace. There is value in employee-selected music in an office, as it can help employees avoid burnout by taking breaks from projects and assignments to play their favorite songs. Additionally, workplace music can drive collaboration and allow employees to build social connections by contributing to an office playlist. Employers will benefit from employee-selected music in the workplace, as they will notice a change in the tune of their employees’ performance.

Don’t blast it on a speaker, set it, and forget it. Do create a

collaborative experience for employees to build meaningful relationships.

Collaboration is a powerful tool in the workplace and music has the ability to unite and connect employees. As a result of the pandemic, nearly 80 percent of employees are using tools to collaborate, an increase of 44 percent since the pandemic began. Why not add a tool that offers collaboration between employees, while also providing a fun benefit that’s a win-win for everyone involved?

Playing the same songs all day, every day creates monotony, ultimately decreasing employees’ creativity and innovation. With a space for collaboration that allows employees to gather and socialize (a la the modern-day “water cooler movement”), add their own music to the queue, work with other employees to develop an office-worthy playlist, and take micro-breaks throughout the day to listen to and discuss their favorite tunes, employers are taking significant steps to create a workplace culture that rocks.

Don’t add technology that is clunky, outdated and hard to use. Do add technology that complements the space. There’s nothing worse than getting a box full of hand-me-down technology that’s old, worn and presents issues on a daily basis — your employees deserve better than that. An important factor to consider when deciding on workplace music is the technology that will be utilized when playing music, as well as ensuring proper music licensing to avoid potential fines.

For example, a bluetooth speaker: sure, it may be small and can be placed out of the way, but it can also be hard to connect to, only one person can connect their phone and play music at a time, and no matter how much we want to believe the audio quality is good, it could always be better–and, when paired with a streaming service, can put businesses at risk of potential fines due to licensing. With a large and interactive screen, LED lights that catch the eye and bring energy to the room,

options to customize by adding a company logo or colors, subscription-based model with unlimited plays, a fully licensed music catalog for business, and endless opportunities for employees to collaborate and connect, a modern jukebox is the next frontier in improving workplace cultures and happiness.

Don’t make it exclusive and enjoyable by only select employees. Do make it inclusive, with a diverse library and lyric-verified songs. In creating a collaborative workplace culture, employers need to build an environment that truly reflects their employees’ diverse backgrounds and interests while simultaneously offering employees a sense of belonging and inclusion. When workplace music is exclusive to or enjoyed by only a select number of employees, it may contribute to an overall negative environment.

Music should be an outlet to celebrate and create bonds within the team and all employees

should have the opportunity to contribute. Employers who show they care about inclusion and their diverse team will benefit in more ways than one, and this extends to music in the workplace by offering a large selection of diverse, lyric-verified songs. In fact, research shows that companies with ethnic and cultural diversity outperform by 36 percent in profitability. Providing a space for employees of all backgrounds to collaborate and engage will encourage a more inclusive, connected and satisfied team.

At a time when companies are seeking opportunities to attract and retain top talent, offering enhanced and differentiated perks for employees, like music in the workplace, demonstrates an employer’s commitment to a positive and happy workplace culture. Adding music to the workplace can be a great benefit for employers, employees and their customers, and these do’s and don’ts will help focus your music priorities in the right direction.

Ross Honey is the President and CEO of TouchTunes. Ross leads the company’s strategy for innovation and market expansion.

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4 Ways To Reframe Equity Compensation For Women

Equity compensation allows women to share more directly in the growth and success of organizations

By Kate Winget, Morgan Stanley at Work

Thelast few years have proven that there is still work to do when it comes to gender inclusion and equality in the workplace. Consider that women made up 52% of the US workforce in 2020,1 but as the dust of the great resignation and rehiring settles, women have reached an all-time high of just 32% of director roles on the boards of S&P 500 companies as of 2022.2

One lever to pull is in our equity incentive programs, a sometimes underutilized tool that can help support female talent in their career and financial goals.

Consider these four ways companies can leverage equity plans to better include women—in turn empowering not just the next cohort of leaders, but the whole organization.

The Situation

We know that men and women with similar backgrounds may begin their careers on the same footing but often see diverging trajectories: Data shows women provide a disproportionate amount of caregiving in their personal lives, either taking leave or leaving the workforce completely at higher rates than their male counterparts. They’re therefore less likely to join equity programs at work,3 experience more financial stress,4 and may tend to be more conservative in their investments.5 At the same time, women still face a gender pay gap that whittles down their lifetime earnings.6 By the time retirement comes along, women typically have much less saved than men, despite a longer life expectancy.4

These issues have a ripple effect on a woman’s career progression, access to wealth-building opportunities like equity compensation, and overall financial stability, as well as a company’s potential to unlock a reservoir of developing talent. Within the context of your overall workplace benefits suite, equity can play a strategic role in addressing many of the societal issues behind stubborn gender inequity and help transform your company into an even better place for women to build their careers.

Solutions

Many of your female employees may not have equity compensation on their radar, so it’s key to communicate what this benefit is, how women can access it, and how they can make the most of it. Start here:

1. Make Equity Compensation More Available

We’ve found that 42% of business leaders say women and minorities experience barriers to career advancement in their organizations,7 so if your equity program is only available to company leaders, many women in your company may not be included. How are you addressing this? Some tactics we see working for companies include making shares available faster, freezing rather than losing vesting time when employees take leave, or shifting to a broader-based Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) that may include more lower-level employees. As an added boon, organizations with more broad-based equity compensation programs tend to have less voluntary turnover and higher retention rates overall—including among women.8

2. Make Equity Compensation Make Sense

Invest in the participant experience to make sure your equity plan is as digestible and accessible as possible. A recent report highlighted9 meaningful financial education as a high-impact tool for employers to gain a competitive advantage in a tight labor market, yet less than half of stock plan participants (46%) say they know how to reach someone to ask questions about their stock plan.10 Work with your provider to connect participants to robust education, personalized support, and additional financial benefits. Women especially can benefit from financial literacy and benefits education tailored to their unique needs: Women are less likely to say they understand workplace financial benefits and more likely to say they want clearer explanations, easy access, and simplified enrollment.4 An intuitive digital experience can also play a critical role and help drive employee engagement and satisfaction, especially if you are working to scale your equity benefits deeper into the organization.

3. Make Financial Benefits Holistic

Connecting your equity program with holistic solutions that address the full employee experience can add even more value for female staff. Consider supplementing your equity program with access to additional financial wellness benefits that can offer women greater insight into their financial potential and how to plan their finances more strategically. All these resources can help bring equity compensation into a more meaningful and tangible context and better equip women to build holistic financial security for themselves. For example, access to a Financial Advisor through workplace benefits can help participants with creating and implementing a personalized plan to build wealth and tackle their individual challenges.

4. Make Progress a Priority

Balancing equity participation by gender will likely require intentional work as well as time, but the potential payoff is significant: Morgan Stanley Research has found that distributing women across all levels of an organization correlates with higher average returns on company stock prices and lower return-on-equity volatility—making gender-diverse companies more resilient.12

Not only that, but equity compensation allows women to share more directly in the growth and success of the companies they serve and can be especially important for your younger employees who are seeking a real stake in the game. With wise management, your equity compensation program can evolve to become a useful tool for women and help support them in developing thriving careers and wealth. As employers continue to work to revamp and restore lasting gender equity across their organizations, equity plans are an important area to gain ground—significantly improving outcomes both for women and the companies that hire them.

Notes

1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Women in the labor force: a databook : BLS Reports: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

2. The 2022 SpencerStuart Board index, SpencerStuart 2022_us_ spencerstuart_board_index_final.pdf

3. Women’s Retirement Outcomes | Morgan Stanley at Work

4. Supporting Financial Health for Millennials and Women in the Workplace — Financial Health Network (finhealthnetwork.org)

5. Support Women’s Financial Wellness | Morgan Stanley at Work

6. 2022 State of the Gender Pay Gap Report | Payscale Research

7. Equity compensation & Equality Report | Shareworks by Morgan Stanley

8. Do Broad‐based Employee Ownership, Profit Sharing and Stock Options Help the Best Firms Do Even Better? - Blasi - 2016 - British Journal of Industrial Relations - Wiley Online Library

9. EBRI/Greenwald Workplace Wellness Survey

10. Stock Plan Survey Results 2022 | Morgan Stanley at Work

11. Strategic Equity Compensation Plans | Morgan Stanley at Work

12. Sources: Refinitiv, FactSet, Morgan Stanley Research; Based on an Equal weighted average 12M forward return for the North America Top 1/3 fractile of HER score versus the excess equal weighted average 12M forward return for the region, 2011-5/2019; Note: Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Kate Winget is Chief Revenue Officer, US Public Equity Solutions at Morgan Stanley at Work

The Power Of Psychological Safety In The Workplace

7 ways to activate psychologically safe work environments

By Nerissa J. Persaud, Ignite the Human Spark

In 2012, Google set out on an expansive project that would raise the eyebrows of more than a few experts. They called it Project Aristotle. Its defining purpose was to answer the age-old question: What made effective teams? At the heart of this mentally challenging project was embracing risks and celebrating failure without negative consequences — an undertaking many viewed as maddening. Celebrate failure? Empower risk-taking? No reprisal? Why not? — Google’s ambitious attempt to figure out the secret behind effective teams pushed

the limits into much more than taking risks. They found unique ways of celebrating failure and making it okay to fail. ‘Failure Fridays — became an initiative that allowed teams to experiment, take risks and learn from mistakes. It’s an example of how the company remains ahead of the curve in terms of workplace dynamics and culture. After years of rigorous analysis, research and experimentation, they discovered that psychological safety was key to creating productive and successful workplaces. The project changed the trajectory of organizational dynamics.

Today, when we think about company culture, it’s the feel-good fun stuff like staff parties, ping pong tables, juice bars and colorful spaces. But company culture is so much more than that. It’s the set of beliefs, values and behaviors that make up the DNA of how an organization runs — and one of the most important aspects of company culture is psychological safety.

So what exactly is psychological safety, why is it important, what might cause a breakdown, and how can leaders lean into the power of psychological safety to lead effective teams?

The Concept and Importance of Psychological Safety in the Workplace

Psychological safety is defined as a sense of trust and mutual respect among team members — it allows for open communication without the fear of being judged or criticized. In other words, this is an environment where everyone feels comfortable expressing their ideas, taking risks, making mistakes and sharing spaces of vulnerabilities without worrying about negative consequences. This fundamental concept has since revolutionized workplace culture across many organizations.

The Breakdown of Psychological Safety in the Workplace

Yet, psychological safety in the workplace remains a space, leaders worldwide continue to struggle to strike a balance built on integrity, trust and care. It is a breakdown that costs companies millions in lost productivity from absenteeism, misguided training initiatives, burnout, creative decline, and stifled innovation. Of several factors which can contribute to a breakdown of psychological safety in the workplace, these are the most recurring:

1. Fear of retaliation or silencing: Employees may fear reprisals from their colleagues or superiors if they speak up or challenge the status quo.

2. Lack of trust: Employees who don’t trust their colleagues or superiors may be less likely to speak up or share their ideas.

3. Micromanagement: When managers micromanage their employees’ work, it can create an environment where employees feel like they’re not trusted to do their jobs.

4. Blame culture: A blame culture where individuals are punished for making mistakes can create an environment where employees are afraid to take risks or try new things.

Leaning into the Power of Psychological Safety in the Workplace

In psychologically safe working environments, a unified understanding is felt, seen and held together by trust in each other, respect for ideas, genuine care and a sincere sense of belonging. This lived experience becomes the difference in how employees feel about taking risks, admitting their mistakes, seeking help, raising concerns, asking questions, and challenging points of view they do not understand.

Leaning into the power of psychologically safe work environments can dramatically boost employee morale, gain insights for growth opportunities, align learning initiatives, foresee damaging effects, inspire trust between employees and managers, increase the drive for creative risks and boost overall productivity.

Here are seven ways to activate psychologically safe work environments.

Lead by Example

As a leader, setting an example for your team is important. Psychological safety can get undermined when leaders don’t create an environment of trust and openness. If a leader isn’t able to set clear boundaries around communication and expectations, team members may become uncertain about how they should interact with each other. This creates anxiety and insecurity, making people less likely to share their thoughts and opinions openly. As a

result, psychological safety is compromised. Instead, show them how valuable a psychologically safe environment is by being open and honest with them in meetings, encouraging them to speak up and share their ideas, and offering constructive feedback when needed. Not only will you be setting the tone for other members of your team but also demonstrating that everyone’s voice matters regardless of job title or seniority level.

Set Clear Boundaries

Leaders must set clear expectations for respectful communication, provide feedback on performance regularly (both positive and negative), and encourage team members to voice their opinions without fear of retaliation or criticism. This means:

1. Streamline communication best practices to direct how employees share their concerns, objections and ideas.

2. Diagnose the parameters of what constitutes and separates mistakes from deliberate negligence, harm or sabotage to people and company existence.

3. Employ a culture of language to treat failure as a process of learning instead of shame or defeat.

4. Celebrate and empower one’s strength to share mistakes and shortcomings with integrity, building resilience, inspiring trust and driving inspiration.

5. Amplify failure as an opportunity to help strengthen gaps in service, people and product.

Doing this will foster a culture of collaboration and trust which helps create an atmosphere of psychological safety in the workplace.

Create an Engaging Workplace Culture

Creating an engaging workplace culture can go a long way in fostering psychological safety. This means designing programs that encourage employees to connect meaningfully, such as group volunteering projects or group fitness activities outside of work hours. These activities help create connections between team members who may not have otherwise interacted, which helps build trust throughout the organization.

Promote Empathy and Respectful Listening

Empathy is key when it comes to creating a psychologically safe environment at work; it helps employees understand each other on a deeper level which further strengthens trust among colleagues. Promoting respectful listening within teams will also help create an atmosphere where people feel comfortable speaking up and voicing their opinion without fear of criticism or ridicule from those around them.

Reward Risk Taking and New Ideas

It’s important to reward risk-taking and new ideas rather than penalizing mistakes or failures — this will encourage more risk-taking behavior, leading to greater innovation and creativity across teams. Rewarding risk-taking also helps build trust among colleagues as they know they won’t be punished if something doesn’t go according to plan — instead, they will be celebrated for trying something new!

Provide Resources for Mental Health Support

It can be hard for employees to know where to turn when they need help or advice. Make sure resources are available in your workplace, such as counseling services or even someone they can talk to — such as a Human Resources representative — who won’t judge them for what they say. This will go a long way towards fostering trust among your staff, leading to better communication and collaboration between team members.

Recognize Not All Failure is Created Equally

In some cases, employees will fail in ways such as breaching company policies or inappropriate behavior that harm other employees’ well-being. When this happens, leaders must address the failure head-on. Doing so fosters a culture of psychological safety by clarifying and enforcing company policies and expectations that make it clear to staff that inappropriate behavior and actions compromising the organization or the people who work within it will not be tolerated.

Conclusion:

If we take away anything from Project Aristotles’s journey, it is to embrace the idea that taking risks and fostering creativity leads to successful teams. Project Aristotle saw this possibility of greatness and decided to take a risk by tinkering with the psychology of productivity.

For this reason, when employees feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and ideas or taking risks without the fear of failure or criticism, the team’s collective intelligence increases exponentially. This newfound collaboration brings fresh perspectives and innovative ideas that can be leveraged toward long-term growth. At its core, fostering psychological safety within an organization is about creating a culture that encourages collaboration with respect, loyalty and trust — something every leader should strive to build in order to make their business thrive!

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Nerissa J. Persaud is a GuyaneseCanadian Management Thinker and the Founder of Ignite the Human Spark, who has dedicated her professional life to improving how people live and work. Nerissa has worked with several luxury hotel brands including Marriott and the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts before launching into the hospitality recruitment business while living in India.

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