Categories
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

The crucial importance of building diverse leadership

Last week marked an historic day during which we saw the first in what will hopefully be a long line of non-White male occupants of our nation’s highest offices. After winning the election, Joe Biden promised to build ‘a Cabinet that looks like America’, indicating that he would nominate a number of underrepresented individuals to high-ranking positions. While saying it and doing it are certainly two different things, it’s nonetheless an extremely exciting proposition.

Perhaps more importantly, having the first Black, first South Asian, first female Vice President in the history of our country now actively serving is progress in and of itself, when taken against our multiple century history of only electing White men of a similar religious affiliation. While we have yet to see a female U.S. president, and have only had one non-White commander in chief, integrating new perspectives gleaned from diverse backgrounds at the top levels of our government is a step in the right direction. Rather than governing from a standpoint of never having lived through any of the events that many Americans experience on a daily basis, having people in elected office who understand can lead to better policies. The same dynamic plays out within companies.

Why it’s critical to have diversity in management

Having diverse leadership in executive, director, and management-level positions is crucial for a number of reasons. For one, BCG found that teams with diverse management vastly outperformed their peers when it came to innovation. According to the study, companies that had above-average levels of diversity among managers reported 19% higher innovation revenues than those with below-average diversity (45% versus 26%). In today’s rapidly evolving market, innovation is quickly becoming a key driver of company success, so suffice it to say that companies with fewer diverse managers should be concerned.

Similarly, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams are more than 20% more likely to have above-average profitability, according to McKinsey. Those in the top quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity were more than 30% more likely to see higher than average profits. Clearly the financial incentives are there, but beyond that, working for a company with diverse leadership is important to employees and job-seekers as well. In fact, nearly 90% of job-seekers believe that the level of diversity at a potential employer is an important factor that impacts their decision whether or not to work for them. If a company’s bottom line needs it, and top talent wants it, then why aren’t more companies taking greater strides to diversify their leadership?

Concrete steps for diversifying your management team

Part of the reason that little has changed in the upper echelons of American companies is that maintaining the status quo benefits those in charge. Ultimately, in order for new, more diverse faces to join their ranks, current leaders will need to move aside, as only so many C-suite and management-level positions can reasonably exist in any given company. Similarly, many people don’t want to have to break out of their shells to learn and consider new ideas. The reason so many companies use the ‘because that’s the way we’ve always done it’ line is because it’s easier than creating and implementing new strategies.

As we just laid out though, this perspective ultimately dampens companies’ profit potential. Accordingly, it follows that those companies that want to succeed should break out of their old ways and move forward into a more diverse, more inclusive future. In order to do so, they’ll need to:

  1. Strive to eliminate hiring biases. Hiring bias is real, and it is extensive. Work to disarm it at every step in the process including how you write your role descriptions, where you recruit candidates from, how you design your interview process, and beyond. There are so many opportunities for bias to creep in, most of which aren’t even recognized by our conscious brains, so you have to be vigilant and employ tools to help you wherever possible. For instance, there’s software that can help remove gendered wording from job descriptions, and other platforms that will blank out names on resumes to help evaluators be more objective.
  2. Diversify hiring at all points in the pipeline. Don’t just look to recruit entry-level talent from diverse sources; focus on hiring underrepresented folx at every level and in every department of the company. Having a couple of token leaders from diverse backgrounds won’t do much good if the entire rest of the company remains homogenous and impenetrable to minority candidates. Actively seek to hire the best person for the job in every instance, devoid of bias, and ideally, you’ll see more diversity across your entire workforce.
  3. Design clear promotion pathways. While it’s one thing to bring diverse hires in the door, it’s entirely another to retain and nurture them. If you want to build a more diverse leadership team, ensure every employee, regardless of background, can grow with your company and rise within the ranks. Empower all individuals, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds, with the tools and resources to reach the C-suite, and you’ll wind up with more managers from non-dominant groups across all teams.
  4. Shift towards a more inclusive culture. In the absence of an inclusive culture, your diverse hires are more likely to leave your company for a more welcoming and supportive competitor, so press for inclusivity early and often. Conduct trainings for employees at all levels to teach them about inclusive behavior and mindsets, make them aware of their biases, and educate them on how to be a true ally. Ensure that diverse employees feel respected and valued, so that they’re interested in staying and incentivized to climb the ladder.
  5. Repeat. This is a key piece that many companies overlook. Changing the face of management at your company will not happen overnight. It can only be achieved through sustained action on each of these points over the long-term. It’s not a one-and-done type of effort, so build your strategy to go the distance.

While this list may seem daunting, building diverse leadership is ultimately worth it if you want your company to succeed in the new world of work. Set your organization up to win by diversifying your management teams, and building a truly inclusive culture. If you could use some support in getting started, Workrowd has an engagement and culture management platform with diversity, equity, and inclusion resources built right in. Come see us at workrowd.com or reach out directly at hello@workrowd.com.

Categories
Employee Engagement

New issues that will impact employee engagement in 2021

As usual around this time of year, there are a lot of articles out there predicting the big areas where HR needs to focus its efforts this year. Infinite mentions of remote working, company culture, wellbeing, and so on have flooded blogs and news outlets. Ultimately though, while there are a lot of new things HR will have to contend with this year, from vaccine compliance to returns to the office, employee engagement has remained a pretty unyielding opponent.

While engagement did see a brief bump around the start of the pandemic as many employers stepped up their efforts amidst employees transitioning to working from home, it dropped back down to standard levels within a few months. The percentage of employees who are engaged has been simmering between the mid-20s and mid-30s for decades now; having only a quarter to a third of employees engaged costs U.S. companies hundreds of billions of dollars per year. As we dive deeper into what people insist on calling ‘the new normal’, it’s time to imagine a new normal for employee engagement levels as well.

Chart of U.S. employee engagement trend from 2000 through 2020
U.S. Employee Engagement Trend 2000-2020
Historical reasons for employee disengagement

Disengagement stems from a number of different sources, some of which can be influenced by employers, while others are simply a matter of preference. For instance, if an employee has little to no interest in what they do, or considers their job simply a necessary evil, few efforts by the employer will make a substantive difference. On the other hand, for employees who do care in some regard about their work, having an employer show that they care in return can go a long way toward boosting engagement.

Some of the ongoing issues that drive disengagement include:

  1. Toxic managers. According to SHRM, 6 out of 10 employees say that their manager is the reason they left their organization. Managers who are unclear, unkind, or otherwise demotivating play a key role in driving disengagement. Improving your manager training programs can help turn this problem around.  Efforts could focus on strengthening communication, increasing feedback, and boosting recognition to start.
  2. Dead-end roles. Failing to provide learning and development opportunities and/or career ladders is a grave mistake in today’s economy. Employees with no incentive to try their best, and no vision of their future with the organization, are at extremely high risk of disengagement and turnover. Ensure that your team members understand how they can grow with the company, and offer ways to expand and improve their skills.
  3. Insufficient compensation. Employees who aren’t compensated adequately with salary, benefits, and company culture are unlikely to be engaged. Not receiving sufficient rewards for the time and effort they expend on the company’s behalf will only lead to resentment and retention issues. Even if you can’t provide as compelling of a compensation package as some competitors, you can make up for it in other ways through wellbeing support and a positive work environment.
New concerns that will impact employee engagement this year

While the usual suspects will undoubtedly continue to stymie efforts to increase employee engagement in 2021, there are also a few new potential culprits on the scene. Due to the pandemic and all of the issues that accompany it, both employees and employers are facing some serious new challenges. Among them:

  1. Health & safety. More than any other time in recent history, employers across industries will have to make serious accommodations within their workplaces to ensure the health and safety of all employees. Between requiring mask wearing and social distancing, adequately sanitizing surfaces, executing contact tracing and office shutdowns, etc., there’s a lot to consider. Ultimately though, no employee will remain loyal and engaged while working for an employer that doesn’t prioritize their health and safety. Make sure you have clear policies in place, stay up-to-date on all recommendations, and ask your employees early and often how you can make them feel more comfortable and protected amidst the ongoing public health crisis.
  2. Burnout & PTO. Burnout is a serious concern for employees who have been under outsize amounts of stress and working longer hours than ever with no vacations to look forward to during the past year. Ensuring that employees are able to take time off when they need it, and that they have the supports they need in the face of escalating household responsibilities combined with increased work expectations will be critical to keeping employees happy and refreshed. Consider implementing mandatory minimums for paid time off, and step up your benefits around child and elder care, as well as healthcare and sick time.
  3. Flexible working. Not everyone will be comfortable or ready to go back to the office at the same time. Between the staggered vaccine rollout, different family structures, and varied perspectives on virus safety itself, employees will need a menu of options to ensure they feel respected and supported through any office return process. Employees forced to return under conditions that make them feel rushed and/or anxious will not be able to focus on their work and will be much more likely to leave. Additionally, not enabling employees to work schedules that are conducive to meeting their new responsibilities due to the pandemic will further reduce engagement.

A ‘new normal’ requires a new approach to employee engagement. There are many new issues and concerns to take into account when mapping out an employee engagement strategy for 2021. We’ve listed some of them above, but as always, it’s crucial that you solicit input from your employees early and often. If you could use a better way to poll employees, keep everyone on the same page, and strengthen company culture no matter where employees work, come visit us at workrowd.com or reach out directly to hello@workrowd.com.

Categories
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

What to do when practicing inclusion requires exclusion

Last week was certainly one for the books. In the U.S., we saw record deaths from COVID-19, a flipped Senate, a certified new president, and an angry mob that stormed the Capitol (to put it mildly). Thousands of people died, and millions saw their beliefs crushed on the national stage, whether they were rooting for an alternative election outcome, or still clinging to a belief in civility. Undoubtedly, the majority of employees had strong reactions to the week’s events, putting employers in a difficult situation regarding how to respond to the compounding crises.

We talk a lot about inclusion, transparency, and encouraging employees to bring their whole selves to work on this blog. In an era characterized by such extreme polarization though, how can a workplace successfully uphold these ideals without completely contradicting themselves? How do you practice inclusion of everyone’s beliefs, be transparent about your own, and champion whole people when so many beliefs are directly predicated on exclusion? It’s a question we’ve been grappling with here at Workrowd recently, and we wanted to share our thoughts.

The double-bind of striving for inclusion in today’s day and age

Unfortunately, a significant number of Americans today espouse beliefs that are inherently exclusive. From overt racism to xenophobia to classism and beyond, much of our current civic life revolves around deeply held prejudices. While many protested against systemic injustice over the summer, we also saw large groups gather to protest against those people. Although many in that latter group will argue that their message is in fact not that Black lives don’t matter, but instead that ‘all lives matter’, by standing up in opposition to those fighting for the sanctity of Black and brown bodies, the implication is strong that some lives matter more than others.

Similarly, while they weren’t without prompting from the top, tens of thousands of people believed it was their responsibility to respond to the election outcome by physically harming those they deemed responsible. Within hours, we witnessed a surreal confluence of events, where Georgia elected two Democratic senators followed almost immediately by an insurrectionist uprising attempting to overtake the Capitol. Surely many workplaces have employees on both sides of the debate. With such divergent beliefs among your employee population, how can you respect everyone’s ideas? Moreover, what do you do when allowing people to bring their whole selves to work directly results in exclusion and/or outright harm to others?

Ways you can still champion inclusion for all when values differ

Ultimately, the only answer we’ve been able to come up with to the questions posed in the preceding paragraph is that you can’t. You cannot champion inclusion for all when some beliefs are inherently exclusive. In other words, everyone needs to collectively believe in inclusion while also maintaining their own beliefs that don’t contradict the top level ideal. This doesn’t mean that you can’t encourage people to share their opinions, but simply that the focus must be on inclusion first, unmitigated discussion of personal beliefs second. We’ve assembled a few tips to help you walk this tricky line:

  • Be clear about your goals. Constantly expressing your desire for everyone to feel included while also stating that everyone should feel free to bring their whole selves to work is contradictory and can create a stressful disconnect for employees. You don’t have to devalue the importance of authenticity, but ensure that it’s clear that your topmost objective is to build a workplace where people feel welcomed. This means that everyone must make an effort to meet their colleagues where they are, listen with an open mind, and educate themselves on different lived experiences. Prioritizing inclusion over the free share of ideas may seem counterproductive or counterintuitive, but enabling the flow of ideas that create a hostile work environment for some is far more damaging.
  • Offer trainings on how to be inclusive. As much as we want to believe that humans are inherently righteous and good, inclusion does not come naturally to us. Accordingly, it’s critical that you provide support, particularly for managers, in order to help everyone understand what you mean when you talk about inclusion. These cannot simply be one-off trainings, either; they should be held at least quarterly in order to keep everyone up-to-speed and continuously learning, rather than allowing them to simply revert to their baseline immediately after the once yearly session.
  • Make space for difficult conversations. As much as it pains us to say this, inclusive work environments won’t work for everyone. Ultimately. there will always be people who don’t want to break out of their comfort zone, champion others, or learn about lived experiences beside than their own. If you truly want to create an inclusive workplace, you have to be ready to call those people out early and often, before they poison those around them with their words and actions. Speak with them first, make clear the changes that need to occur, and if they refuse to make an effort or continue to violate basic principles of inclusion, you may end up having to cut ties. It might not feel very ‘inclusive’ but it ultimately is the only way to actually build real inclusion for the rest of your team.

There’s certainly still a lot to process after last week’s uproar, and there will undoubtedly be more changes to come, but we wanted to start to put some language around it while we’re still in the ether. Just like exclusion, inclusion comes at a cost, and it ironically may require excluding those who don’t agree. This can be a difficult paradox to sit with, but progress has never come easily, and some people who have historically been very comfortable will have to be made uncomfortable for the greater good.

If you could use some support in building safe spaces and stretching towards inclusion, especially across a distributed workforce, come check us out at workrowd.com. We’d be happy to discuss how we’re navigating this contradiction internally, and learn more about any challenges you may be managing. Stay safe, everyone.

Categories
Company Culture

Make 2021 a year of connection & collaboration

Unlike most years, 2020 has left many people wary of making predictions or setting out resolutions for the upcoming months. The innumerable bouts of upheaval combined with the ongoing anxiety and uncertainty have left even those in best-case scenarios hesitant to venture any expectations about what the new year will bring. Most of us have had our sense of security irrevocably shaken by the events of 2020, between the health and financial threats, the ongoing scourge of racism and social injustice, and the fact that all of our lives changed completely, virtually overnight. We’re not without cause for hope though,  as we welcome the first days of 2021.

As we mentioned last week, we’ll hopefully see a large swath of the developed world get vaccinated before the end of the year, and ideally we’ll expand that access to countries not currently at the front of the line as well. Within a few weeks, the U.S. will have confirmation on who will control the Senate for the next term, and we’ll finally put the presidential election to rest by welcoming a new president to the White House. We’ll hopefully see economies around the world bounce back as well, with the vaccine giving us the ability to work, travel, and socialize in a way we haven’t been safely able to since early in 2020. With all this potential positivity on the horizon, let’s focus on building more of what we missed into our work lives this year, by making 2021 the year of colleague connection and collaboration.

The importance of connection & collaboration in business & in life

If we learned nothing else from the pandemic, it’s that the fabric of our lives is woven from social connections. Everything from our schools to our economy to how we eat depends on our ability to connect and interact with each other, which made it all the more painful when COVID-19 robbed us of that ability. The overwhelming majority of leisure providers are struggling today because so much of what we like to do is predicated upon being able to gather and move around freely. Being isolated takes a heavy toll on people’s mental and physical health. A review of 148 studies with a total of more than 300,000 participants found that individuals with stronger social relationships had a 50% increased likelihood of survival. In fact, loneliness is as damaging to a person’s health as smoking a whole pack of cigarettes every day.

Successful, sustained team collaboration is similarly crucial to success. A study by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School found that highly collaborative organizations saw significant bottom line benefits including more engaged employees, attracting more top talent and retaining them longer, increased velocity, and higher profitability. That’s a lot of benefits. Harvard Business Review also reports that a culture driven by team collaboration and professionalism is at the root of improving employee wellness. Researchers at Stanford found that even participants who simply believed that they were working collaboratively with a peer performed vastly better on an assigned task than those who believed they were working alone. Another recent study also found that companies that promote collaboration are five times more likely to be high-performing.

How you can encourage your company towards connection & collaboration in 2021

Both connection and collaboration suffered hits in 2020 as a significant subset of businesses shifted to work from home without robust supports in place. While we all suffered through more than our fair share of video calls in efforts to stay in touch, no one can deny that the Zoom fatigue is real. Accordingly, as we dive head first into 2021, here’s a shortlist of recommendations for ensuring your team can capitalize on the full benefits of collaboration and connection:

  • Make use of specialized tools. You can’t leave the water cooler in charge of company culture any more. You need to invest in software that can help your team stay in sync and in touch no matter where they’re based, in-office or at home. There is an array of tools available to you, from chat apps, to Slack bots, to our personal favorite, full engagement and culture management suites like Workrowd. This is no longer an area where can afford to cut corners, so do your due diligence and select a solution that will support your team to do their best work.
  • Set aside dedicated time for supporting your colleagues. Burnout is on the rise amidst the myriad struggles of the last year, so don’t underestimate the power of listening. Set a strong example of how to champion connection and collaboration for every team member by making time for non-work discussions and truly asking how people are doing rather than immediately diving into action items at the start of every meeting. You may be surprised by what a difference authenticity can make.
  • Connect your team to outside resources. Don’t limit your thinking to the boundaries of your company. There are plenty of resources available through outside networks that will connect your team members to crucial learning and development opportunities beyond the scope of what you can provide in-house. The Global ERG Network is one example where you can leverage the knowledge and experience of other companies to supercharge your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and accelerate your progress. Be open to sharing, rather than cagey and concerned about competitors, and you’ll reap the benefits.

If nothing else, the year ahead of us promises to be an eventful one. We can only hope it will be less devastating than the one that preceded it, but regardless of what happens, the odds are strong that your team will need as much support as they can get. There is already talk of a ‘tsunami’ of mental health needs as we begin to ascend from the depths of the pandemic, so plan your time and efforts accordingly. If you’re interested in learning more about one or both of the solutions we mentioned above, either our in-house employee engagement and company culture management system, or the Global ERG Network to help you take your DEI work to the next level, give us a shout at hello@workrowd.com. Happy new year, all; we look forward to connecting and collaborating with you in 2021.

Categories
Employee Engagement

Resolutions to increase employee engagement

We made it. It’s the last week of the year that felt as if it would never end. While ringing in a new year is purely symbolic in a lot of respects – it’s not as if a global switch will flip at midnight and all aspects of our previous existence will be restored – there’s still a lot to look forward to in 2021. People are getting vaccinated against COVID-19, so hopefully there is a light at the end of this tunnel of death and economic devastation. A new administration is entering the White House, which will bring changes along with it (for better or worse, depending on your perspective). Plus it never hurts to be rounding the corner on winter and knowing that the days will only begin to get longer from here on out.

The change in year also offers new opportunities to engage your employees after an extremely difficult 2020. Making a resolution to improve your employee experience, cultivate stronger relationships between team members, and move the needle on diversity, equity, and inclusion can only have positive outcomes for your organization. With that in mind, we’ve assembled some high-level suggestions for starting the new year off on the right foot with employees and setting your company up for success in 2021.

The events of 2020 significantly impacted employee engagement

Contrary to what many would have expected, employee engagement actually increased during the beginning of the pandemic. Quantum Workplace found that employee engagement grew meaningfully at 73% of organizations during the early days of wide-scale remote working. Over the preceding decade, engagement had only shifted by a total of one or two percentage points in either direction, but during the spring of this year it jumped up by 11%. Much of this stemmed from companies making an effort to prioritize employee safety and well-being, being flexible and offering concessions to help team members make the best of a stressful situation, and successfully implementing work from home options that many employees had been requesting for years.

Unfortunately, as the pandemic has dragged on, and amidst heightened racial tensions and election-related stress, employee engagement levels have slumped back to their pre-COVID rates. Many companies have had to make staffing cuts and/or scale back on employee perks, and as we wrote about last week, the amount of time off being taken has plummeted at a lot of organizations. Furthermore, the downsides of working from home, including the lack of colleague interaction plus juggling household tasks at the same time as professional responsibilities, have begun to wear on employees. In fact, 75% of workers who participated in a recent study reported experiencing burnout; 40% of them directly attributed this sentiment to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s important for employers to address this issue in order to start their organization off on the right foot in the new year.

Ways to ensure your employees start the year off engaged and stay that way

There is no downside to making a hard commitment to increase employee engagement in 2021. Employee engagement boosts productivity, retention, and makes for happier workers, among other benefits. Workplaces as a whole have struggled to increase employee engagement for decades, but now in the new world order foisted upon us by the novel coronavirus, there exists an opportunity to reimagine how we approach this issue and finally move the needle. We’ve assembled a few suggestions to get you started below:

  • Involve your employees. Employee engagement efforts have traditionally been top-down, and often focused on one-off events or in-office perks such as catered meals or hangout spaces. Ultimately though, whether or not these offerings were effective, times have changed and the way organizations do things needs to change as well. Don’t try to guess what to do though; ask your employees what they need and what would make them happier in their jobs. Gather a committee comprised of team members from different departments to weigh in on an ongoing basis and support your initiatives.
  • Be flexible. Employees have been through a lot this year, but everyone’s experience has been different. Strive to learn more about your team members as individual humans, and ensure that you’re making an effort to meet employees where they’re currently at to address any big issues or needs. Provide options to suit different schedules and lifestyles, and check in frequently to see what is and isn’t working.
  • Go all in on inclusion. Despite all the discussion about it, there’s been little progress on diversity, equity, and inclusion in most workplaces. It’s well past time for that to change. Explore new ways to drive inclusion within your company; supercharge your employee resource groups; expand education and sharing efforts; model inclusion from the top down; and make sure that every person in the company understands that driving inclusion is everyone’s responsibility.

There are few better investments you can make in 2021 than designing and implementing a strong strategy to increase employee engagement. If you’re in the market for new tools to help support your efforts, come visit us at workrowd.com. Not only do we offer our core software platform to help you organize, promote, manage, and measure all your employee initiatives in one place, but we also have the Global ERG Network available to help you level up your employee resource groups. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop us a line at hello@workrowd.com.

Categories
Employee Experience

Your paid time off policy needs a mandatory minimum

Historically, employers have considered paid time off to be a necessary evil; hours for which they have to pay employees without reaping any of the benefits of their time. They strictly monitor and track employees’ days off, and dangle additional paid time off as a reward for loyalty as employees’ tenure with the company lengthens. If team members live far away from friends or family, want to take time for a big life event such as a wedding, or if they enjoy traveling, they’re stuck nickel-and-diming their days to minimize the amount of unpaid time they have to take.

Increasingly, startups and other small and mid-sized businesses have been moving towards an unlimited or flexible paid time off policy in which there is no set amount of PTO per year. Under this model, employees are trusted to manage their own time and are allowed to take as many days off as they would like as long as they meet their responsibilities and their manager signs off on it. Few companies however, have mandatory minimums regarding the amount of time off that employees have to take. While it may initially seem counterintuitive, in reality, requiring employees to take a set number of days off per year is one of the best things you can do for your team’s wellbeing.

Why our current approaches to PTO no longer cut it

With the pandemic shutting down travel and forcing many to work from home, paid time off has become a bit of a fiction during 2020. With nowhere to go, and many managers modeling an always-on culture, studies have shown that the workday has elongated by three entire hours. Even once travel and office working resumes, the majority of employees still won’t see a break for some time as everyone will not be able to take time off at once. Vacation days are accruing, but the ability to use them continues to recede further and further into the distance.

Employees feeling that they couldn’t take vacation was already a problem at organizations with ‘unlimited’ paid time off policies. While many business owners may initially view this policy as ripe for abuse by enterprising employees, a study by Namely found that employees at companies with ‘unlimited’ vacation policies actually took an average of just 13 days off per year, compared with those at companies with more standard paid time off policies, who took 15. Additionally, these policies have the benefit to the company of not having to pay out unused days at the end of an employee’s tenure. Perhaps most troubling though, is the fact that culture can make all the difference between employees taking time off when they need, or feeling that they’re unable to take any time off and running headlong towards burnout.

How & why mandating time off can help

Taking time off is crucial to employee engagement and wellbeing. Among employees who take a week or more of vacation per year, 70% say they’re driven to contribute to their organization’s success, compared to 55% who don’t regularly take a week of vacation. Similarly, 63% of employees who take at least a week off say they feel a sense of belonging at their company, as opposed to 43% of those who don’t take time off. Unfortunately, 40% of workers reported feeling that they wouldn’t be able to advance in their careers if they requested time off from their managers, and more than half of employees felt uneasy about asking for time off during the holiday season.

Beyond these stats, or perhaps behind them, there’s the issue of burnout. We’ve written repeatedly about the adverse effects of stress in the workplace, so we won’t go into them here, but suffice it to say that burned out employees are not productive employees. Your team isn’t at their best when they’re exhausted and disengaged. The pandemic has made many feel even more strongly that they can’t justify a break, even though they may need it now more than ever, which is why employers need to step in and begin mandating a minimum amount of vacation time per year. If you want your employees to be at their best, you need to make it clear that taking time off to recharge isn’t just encouraged, but required. You don’t have to reach for the stars here; just mandating that employees take a week off per year will yield significant benefits, as demonstrated by the statistics we mentioned above.

While this effort starts with putting a revised paid time off policy in place, adjusting your company culture and ensuring that managers are modeling taking vacation is what will make or break it. With a minimum required vacation policy, employees won’t have to worry as much about asking for time off, and they’ll feel happier to work for your company knowing that you prioritize their wellbeing enough to write it into policy. If you’re looking for other ways to show your employees that you care and boost your company culture, check out Workrowd, the all-in-one solution for managing employee engagement and company culture across both on-site and remote workers. You can reach us directly at hello@workrowd.com.

Categories
Learning & Development

Learning from tech startups to increase innovation in HR

If you asked the average person, they would likely tell you that HR leaders and startup founders don’t have much in common. Startup founders are typically viewed as fast-moving risk-takers, while HR has long been perceived as highly risk-averse and resistant to change. In reality though, tech founders and People leaders have a lot more in common than it might appear at first glance. They both have to manage a large number of competing priorities at once, they both have to deal with rapidly changing objectives, and they both have to navigate all of this amidst a high degree of uncertainty.

One benefit startup founders have over HR leaders is that they typically have the final say as to what course of action the company will take, making it easier for them to make decisions quickly and remain agile. Just because some HR teams operate within the context of large companies with layers of bureaucracy though, doesn’t mean that they can’t take some of the principles of agile startup building and apply them to their own work. In support of more innovation in HR, we’ve summarized what HR can learn from startups (and vice versa!) below.

The value of agility, regardless of department or role

In the early aughts, agile software development came to the fore as a way to speed up processes and reduce time to market. It is grounded in the knowledge that every endeavor involves a high degree of uncertainty, and enables cross-functional teams to self-organize and self-manage in response to these ever-changing circumstances. It does not prioritize hierarchy or policies, but rather places the focus on responsiveness and progress towards the goal.

There has been a great deal of discussion in HR circles recently around the rigid focus on policy as a tool to solve problems. If we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that in order to be effective in a variety of circumstances, more innovation in HR is needed and policies must be able to flex and adapt. This is just the arena in which agile processes are primed to succeed. Additionally, agile encourages involving the end user (for HR, the employee) in the development process both early and often. By talking to customers, developers can ensure they’re only building the features that users truly want and which will have the most impact towards enhancing the digital experience. This couldn’t be more important in context of supporting employees during a year that has involved so much upheaval. The need for agile processes and innovation in HR is urgent.

Startup maxims that HR should take to heart

HR has a pressing mandate as we continue to flounder under the crushing weight of the pandemic, and it is one that will only become more urgent as we eventually begin to emerge from under the threat of this scourge. People are struggling. HR is the department tasked with supporting them through that struggle, and it is not an easy job. Accordingly, and as we’re in entirely unfamiliar territory, HR would do well to think of themselves akin to a startup where teams must effectively ‘build the plane as they fly’. This has already been the case over the past 9+ months, and realistically, it should continue indefinitely. We’ve seen the future; there’s no room or reason to go back to ‘the way we’ve always done it’. It’s time to move forward without hesitation and drive more innovation in HR.

In support of that goal, we’ve assembled a brief list of startup maxims for HR leaders to begin mulling over as they work towards a more agile approach to their field and more innovation in HR:

  • If you’re not embarrassed of your first product, you launched too late. This is perhaps the recommendation most at odds with how HR has historically operated. In the past, HR has typically given projects excessively long lead times in order to ensure that every ‘T’ is crossed and ‘I’ is dotted before rolling anything out to employees. For instance, most large companies’ digital transformation timelines were upwards of two years before lockdowns forced them to accelerate that to two weeks. Waiting to roll out initiatives until they’re ‘perfect’ just increases the likelihood that whatever you’re launching won’t meet employee needs. Get it out there earlier, get feedback, and iterate on it to actually make it perfect.
  • Fail fast. Doing small tests of innovative solutions rather than undertaking giant, sweeping projects can help HR better serve the entire employee population more quickly. If you want to try a new innovation in HR but you’re not sure it will work, devise a small test with a limited subset of employees, and see what they think. If it doesn’t work, you will only have wasted a minimal amount of time and resources. If it does work though, you won’t have spent years wondering whether it might be useful with nothing to show for it, and instead will have an already completed pilot to justify moving forward with it.
  • Your most unhappy customers are your biggest source of learning. HR has typically viewed troublesome employees as problems to be solved rather than opportunities to be seized. Maximize the impact of your employee surveys and particularly of your exit interviews to identify critical needs that aren’t being met. Turn dissatisfaction and disengagement around by jumping on every chance to learn and improve. Really begin to think of your employees as customers of your services and products, and make sure that every one of them would give your ‘company’ a 5-star review.

HR has had a lot to deal with this year, and many antiquated systems and approaches proved fallible in the face of the onslaught. Now is the time to take a page from the agile technology startup’s book and prioritize ‘user’ feedback; build responsive, cross-functional teams; and move quickly and innovatively. One way we’re doing that at Workrowd is with the upcoming launch of our Global ERG Network, a new community for ERGs, BRGs, and Diversity Councils to network and learn across the globe. Packed full of best-in-class resources, exclusive events, and on-demand analytics, you can learn more in our post here, on our page here, or at our upcoming webinar on 12/15. As always, you can also reach us directly at hello@workrowd.com.

Categories
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

Announcing the launch of the Global ERG Network

At this point, there should be no question as to whether diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important to an organization’s success. Cash flow at companies with diverse teams is 2.3 times higher. Diverse companies are 70% more likely to capture new markets than peers who don’t specifically recruit underrepresented talent. Companies with above-average diversity also have 19% higher innovation revenues. Diversity is important to job-seekers as well, with 7 out of 10 saying that they consider the company’s commitment to diversity when evaluating a potential employer.

Despite all of the evidence to support the business case however, there isn’t a great deal of information readily available on how to actually be successful at DEI. The majority of DEI work occurs in silos inside individual companies, and many employees working to advance DEI within their team or department go unrecognized and unsupported. Perhaps a consultant and/or trainer is brought in a couple times per year, but ultimately, succeeding at DEI requires a sustained and multi-pronged strategy that can’t be achieved through one-off initiatives.

Moreover, for all the talk about DEI, particularly during 2020, there are very few organizations that work across all areas and populations to foster true inclusion for every employee. While there are many organizations that seek to advance women, some that focus on BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+ folx, and others with even more specialized populations such as veterans, there isn’t a one-stop shop where companies can go to access information that cuts across demographics. This is only the case until 1/1/2021, though. That’s when the Global ERG Network launches.

Why our current approach to DEI can never succeed

Out of all of the employee indicators businesses strive to achieve, true diversity, equity, and inclusion has been one of the most elusive. Want to increase employee productivity? There’s an app for that. Institute more frequent check-ins, entrust your teams with more responsibility, ensure your office environment is optimized or that employees have what they need to make their work from home setups functional, etc. The list of best practices drags on. Want to increase retention? Improve your benefits offerings, offer better work-life balance, etc.; here too, there are myriad software solutions and well-studied best practices.

While the DEI tech solution market is expanding, and while there are patches of best practices consolidated on static websites around the Internet, DEI actually cuts across many of the other employee indicators making it very difficult to ‘solve’ with software. You can’t break down centuries of systemic bias and teach people empathy and instill them with life experiences other than their own through a few lines of code. You can’t do that with unlimited lines of code. DEI requires concerted human-to-human work on a daily basis to truly see change, because it has to happen within each individual in order to drive lasting impact.

DEI also isn’t a job responsibility that can be assigned to just one person. There is a reason that the Chief Diversity Officer role has such high turnover. These individuals join an organization with promises of intensive support and commitment from leadership, and then they’re left to unravel the infinite, complex, very human issues of bias entirely on their own. This is often compounded by the company providing them with only a very limited set of resources, almost always amidst unattainable expectations. Real inclusion cannot be built on the back of one individual, or even one team. It requires the entire organization to get behind it; in other words, it takes a village.

How the Global ERG Network seeks to change all of that

Employee resource groups are effectively the street team for most companies’ DEI efforts. They’re the boots on the ground, the ones in the trenches, doing the work every day. They’re the ones truly making a difference and driving inclusion on the individual employee level in a way that no Chief Diversity Officer or HR team can. Up until now, resource group leaders were largely left to their own devices. After speaking to many ERG, BRG, and Diversity Council leaders and members, we learned that there’s a lot of Googling happening amidst high levels of burnout and minimal support or recognition. Part of the problem is that companies simply don’t know how to do better by their resource groups. Luckily, in partnership with Talent Dimensions, we’ve built a platform to revolutionize all of that.

The Global ERG Network (GEN) is the first constantly evolving, 24/7 community for ERGs, BRGs, and Diversity Councils to network and learn across the globe. It’s packed full of best-in-class resources, exclusive events, and much more. Plus, it comes with real-time analytics so we can finally demonstrate the true value and ROI of DEI at scale. The digital-first experience is highly customizable, empowering every company to build future-proof diversity, equity, and inclusion programs grounded in data and best practices.

GEN launches on 1/1/2021, but in advance of that we’re holding a couple of webinars to enable folx to learn more and see if membership might be a fit for them. If you’ interested in equipping your resource groups with the tools they need to succeed, in order to build real, lasting inclusion for every employee, consider attending during one of the following times:

If you can’t make it, don’t worry; we’ll be posting both the presentation and the question and answer sessions for later reference. If you have questions in the meantime, feel free to check out our brief informational page at erg.workrowd.com or contact us directly at hello@workrowd.com. We’re excited to build this movement with you.

Categories
Employee Engagement

What to do instead of a work holiday party in 2020

Now that you’ve skipped your annual office Thanksgiving potluck, or moved everything to Zoom, the time has come to decide how to mark the December holidays amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Obviously, the typical work holiday party is off the table this year (unless you’re wholly unconcerned about endangering your employees and their families). With so many hallmarks of the season in high-risk territory due to potential virus exposure, it may seem easier to just push things off until next year. As employees continue to struggle with anxiety and burnout though, the need for employee initiatives and engagement efforts has never been higher. How do you safely celebrate with your employees this year in a way that’s authentic, fun, and effective?

We know it’s been a difficult year and many are facing budget cuts in addition to the ongoing restrictions. You may be burnt out yourself and the prospect of planning something for employees on top of all the end of year tasks may feel like too much to shoulder. We hear you. Knowing how crucial connection and camaraderie are to the employee experience though, even for HR professionals, we’ve assembled a short list of ways to honor your traditions, acknowledge employees for their hard work, and still keep everyone safe and healthy, including yourself.

Set yourself up for success with strong planning & follow-up

As with many things, a great deal of event success hinges upon having a strong plan in the lead-up, and a strong follow-up game in the aftermath. Start your planning by consulting employees. Unless you’ve conducted surveys after your work holiday party in years past, you likely only have guesses as to what employees did and didn’t like about previous events. Perhaps they weren’t wowed by the entertainment you brought in and just enjoyed spending time with their coworkers. More importantly, a lot of what was relevant to employees last year may be different now after the year we’ve all had. Accordingly, start by asking your employees how they would prefer to acknowledge the holidays this year in a company context. Get their input first to ensure that whatever you plan hits the mark.

Don’t stop after the initial outreach, either. If you have follow-up questions after the first employee survey, don’t hesitate to ask people for their thoughts. Just as consultants may check in frequently with clients to ensure the project is proceeding to their liking, whoever is in charge of events for your company should regularly solicit employee input. Similarly, feedback after the fact is crucial, too. Make your follow-up plan before the event, so you can deploy it in a timely fashion. Employees need to feel engaged in the process in order to remain bought in to the event and interested in attending, so ensure you’re giving your team what they need through polls and conversations.

Ideas for COVID-safe holiday celebrations

While asking your employees how they would like to mark the holidays this year is one of the most important steps you can take, we’ve assembled a few ideas to help inform your process:

  • Organize a virtual team activity. In response to the urgent need for social distancing brought on by the pandemic, many event and activity providers have transitioned their offerings to a virtual format. This includes everything from murder mysteries and escape rooms to tasting parties and cooking classes. If bringing in the professionals isn’t in your budget, you could instead host a virtual game night, talent show, or other event that gets everyone involved and having fun.
  • Send out some DIY cheer. Consider sending employees activity kits to work on either together or alone. This could include decoration boxes (ideally non-denominational) where everyone decorates their workspace or other area and comes together on Zoom to compare (or even compete!). Alternatively, cooking or painting kits that everyone can use while on video chat can be a fun way to get your people engaging with each other in a non-work way. Even if you just send some treats to say thank you for their hard work, such as snacks, sweets, relaxation boxes, etc., it will help to at least acknowledge that you’re thinking of them and their wellbeing at this difficult time of year.
  • Give back to your community. Volunteers and donations are needed more than ever this year, as so many individuals and families have experienced dramatic losses in income and stability in recent months. Bringing your team together for some virtual volunteering, running a charity drive, and/or matching donations can help your team reconnect with what’s important, and feel good about the fact that they work for a company that prioritizes more than just the bottom line.
  • Create a ‘choose your own adventure’ day. The authenticity and flexibility of employee-led events might be just what the doctor ordered this year (besides social distancing, mask-wearing, and hand-washing). Empowering employees with the tools and budgets to run events for their colleagues gives you the ability to offer a variety of options for people to engage with their coworkers without the stress and overhead of one person or team trying to manage everything. Ask for employee suggestions, and enable them to lead activities, learning sessions, or other events for their fellow team members.

Planning for the holidays this year is undoubtedly more difficult and complicated than usual, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything. Ask your employees what would be meaningful to them; it may be the case that staff would prefer to just have a bit of extra pay rather than any sort of event or work holiday party as some may have seen reductions in household income. If your team does express interest in events and other ways to bond with colleagues, Workrowd can help. Visit us at workrowd.com to learn more about our employee empowerment model, or drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com. We’d love to hear from you.

Categories
Company Culture

Practicing gratitude to supercharge company culture

It’s that time of year again: the beginning of the winter holidays in the U.S. Thanksgiving will kick us off in just a couple of days, but for many, it won’t remotely resemble the Thanksgivings of years past. As a result of COVID-19, many won’t be visiting family to share a meal, and more tragically, the more than a quarter of a million Americans whom we’ve lost won’t get to celebrate Thanksgiving ever again. During this dark year when it can so often be difficult to suss out the bright spots, finding reasons and ways to keep practicing gratitude is more important than ever. This is true of both our personal and professional lives.

Many have lost jobs this year, giving those who have remained employed an obvious reason to be thankful. Among those employed however, the anxiety and grief of watching friends and colleagues get laid off, along with increased workloads and personal responsibilities have made it difficult to focus on that point. Similarly, the daily drain of a 24-hour news cycle that promotes negativity and scandal over stories of hope and uplift has done little to help people towards a mindset of gratitude. Ultimately though, practicing gratitude is one of the few ways to get through the multiple, compounded crises of the present with our mental health intact.

The health and financial benefits of gratitude

While many of us know that it’s important to be grateful, few are aware of the far-reaching health and wellness benefits. According to an article in Psychology Today, grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and report feeling healthier than their peers. Gratitude also leads to a reduction in toxic emotions resulting in increased happiness and lower risk of depression. In addition, grateful people sleep better, and we all know that the duration and quality of one’s sleep has major health implications.

On the financial front, practicing gratitude can improve your employees’ performance, making you more money and demonstrating a clear ROI on strategic culture change. Grateful people are better at building relationships with others, which is a critical skill in most business roles. In addition, gratitude increases empathy and reduces aggression, making it more likely that your team members will collaborate productively rather than falling victim to pettiness and infighting. Lastly, practicing gratitude boosts self-esteem and increases mental strength and resilience, all of which we’ve seen become crucial traits in the workplace this year. Grateful employees are better to themselves, better to each other, and better to customers, leading to higher revenues.

Ways you can infuse more gratitude into your organization

Companies spend a great deal of time crafting and attempting to live their values, but gratitude rarely makes the list. As is the case with virtually all values though, gratefulness must be practiced every day and in every interaction in order to deliver on its full benefit. With the upcoming holiday in mind, we’ve assembled a short list of ways to infuse your organization with more gratitude this week and in the months ahead, as we continue to wade through all the ups and downs of 2020 and beyond.

Some important strategies to consider when working towards a more grateful company culture include:

  • Model gratitude from the top down. In order for gratitude to make inroads at your organization, it has to be modeled by leaders. Consider offering a training to help leaders learn ways to infuse gratefulness into their day-to-day interactions, or provide them with reading materials that include strategies for giving thanks more regularly.
  • Implement processes to encourage reframing. When a project goes awry or a deal is lost, help employees look for the silver lining rather than fixating on their disappointment or frustration. By acknowledging that this represents an opportunity to pursue bigger or better efforts, and/or discussing what everyone has learned from the experience and how it will support them to do better in the future, companies can help their teams bounce back faster and more productively.
  • Reevaluate your rewards and recognition programs. While it may not seem to be the best time to work on your rewards and recognition efforts when budgets are being slashed, it’s actually the perfect time to ensure your programs are meeting employees’ needs. Show your team that you’re grateful for them and all of their work by doing what you can to improve their quality of life during this difficult time, and give them ample opportunities to show their appreciation for each other as well.
  • Consider going analog. Handwritten thank you notes are a rarity in the age of digital communication, but they can really show the recipient just how much you care. It may not be the right fit for you, but if you think a handwritten note and potentially a small gift might make a difference for your employees staring down the black hole of burnout, don’t hesitate to seize the opportunity.
  • Give back. Volunteering is a surefire way to help your employees recognize and appreciate the positives in their lives. It also helps those in need, making it essentially a no-lose situation. There are many opportunities for remote volunteering available right now, but even giving your employees an easy way to make donations, and matching them if you have the budget, can help spread gratitude and do good at the same time.

Gratitude is an underutilized word in today’s workplaces. If you haven’t thanked your team for all their work recently, do so. It could make a significant difference for employees during a very anxious and uncertain time. If you’re looking for an easier way to centralize your employee initiatives, show gratitude, and build community no matter where your employees work, consider dropping by workrowd.com. We work really hard to cultivate gratitude in our organization, and we’d love to learn about how we can help you do the same. Happy Thanksgiving, all. Stay safe and healthy.