Employee Engagement Archives - The Future of Work Exchange

Learning from the Past to Build the Workplace Cultures of the Future

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion Talent Acquisition by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/30/2024

I can’t help but be a person that is incredibly nostalgic. As the holiday season approaches, I frequently think of my childhood days and the experiences that shaped me and made me the person I am today. While my memories at this time of year are appropriately focused on trick-or-treating in suburban Massachusetts as a youth, there are also memories that are more, let’s say…business-focused.

I’m lucky enough to have spent the past 18 years of my career at two firms (nearly 12 years with the famous Ardent Partners, the research parent of the Future of Work Exchange), however, before my foray into the world of human capital technology, the Future of Work movement, and talent management and technology research, I spent some time at companies with not-so-empathic leaders.

For example:

A VP who told me that it wasn’t okay to say “How’s it going?” to another person if I hadn’t met them yet.
A company owner who said that if I ever got tired, I wasn’t fit for a career in writing. (Let me know if you know someone that has never been or will never be tired…)
Another company owner (same company, different owner) who said I had a “defeatist attitude” when I told him that I didn’t feel appreciated or valued enough after working 80+ hour weeks for a straight month after two employees quit.
A CEO who said, after finding a single (one!) spelling error in a document that I produced (that totaled over 40 pages), that I needed to spend more time focusing and less time “theorizing” when writing, and;
A certain company owner (twice on this list!) that told me that I “would never find anything out there” when I resigned and gave my two weeks’ notice.

The specific examples above all link back to one key element: a terrible workplace culture. Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has discovered that, over the past 12 months, 72% of businesses have taken steps to enhance workplace culture to better foster collaboration, engagement, diversity, and innovation.

Workplace culture isn’t just a nebulous concept anymore, but rather a true Future of Work state that affects talent acquisition, talent attraction, hiring success, brand awareness, and talent sustainability.

For too many years, I focused on those negative experiences, as well as my own professional mistakes. Sometimes they drove me to be better. Sometimes they hindered my progress. And, sometimes, they affected my mental health.

The mistakes and failures of the past, especially those stemming from poor leadership, can serve as invaluable lessons to shape the workplace cultures we strive for today. Rather than allowing past missteps to hold us back, we should use them to catalyze meaningful, positive change. Two years ago, ten years ago, or even twenty years in the past – the ideal workplace cultures we envision today should be informed by what we wish we had experienced back then. Reflecting on the shortcomings, pain points, and dissatisfactions of the past equips us to actively create the thriving, employee-centric environments we want to see now.

In today’s globalized, competitive business landscape, workplace culture has become a critical component of success. Elements like worker wellbeing, mental health support, employee experience, and overall company happiness are no longer optional – they are essential for retaining top talent, fostering innovation, and driving enterprise-wide prosperity.

Organizations that prioritize cultivating positive, enriching workplace cultures will be best positioned to thrive. By learning from past mistakes and intentionally shaping workplace cultures aligned with employee needs and values, companies can gain a competitive edge in attracting, developing, and retaining the best people.

The key is to let the lessons of the past propel us towards a better future, rather than allowing them to hold us back. With this mindset, the missteps of yesterday can become the catalysts for the workplace cultures of tomorrow.

Employee Experience and the Power of Engagement

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Talent by John Yuva on 08/05/2024

One business constant over the last four years is uncertainty. Whether it’s the economy, geopolitics, or the overall market, enterprises must contend with that sense of the unknown. As such, having a flexible and agile workforce is essential when market dynamics shift. Flexibility and agility often derive from employee experience (EX) initiatives. Organizations that prioritize employee experience are more internally aligned and can better pivot when needs arise.

However, essential to employee experience is understanding that it goes beyond employee satisfaction. Rather, it is a strategic imperative that directly influences organizational culture, success, and the ability to navigate an ever-changing business landscape.

Employee Experience Begins and Ends with Engagement

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Voices Behind Quiet and Loud Quitters

Business Leadership General Insights HR Talent Uncategorized by John Yuva on 09/11/2023

One of the main tenets of the Future of Work is employee engagement. It sets the tone for how to motivate, influence, and inspire workers to embrace their work and the culture of the enterprise. Since 2022 when the workplace began to normalize after two tumultuous years of the pandemic, employee engagement has become a cornerstone to achieving a productive and competitive organization.

What is the result when a lack of employee engagement exists? Two employee behaviors — “quiet quitting” and “loud quitting” — become prevalent. Current workforce statistics indicate that disengagement is more prominent than management probably realizes.

Quiet Quitting Proliferates

In early 2022, a term emerged describing workers who are disengaged from the workplace and generally apply the minimal amount of work necessary to complete their job — quiet quitters. When compared to the overall workforce, quiet quitters represent the majority of workers today, with most struggling with stress and burnout.

According to Gallup’s State of the Workplace 2023 report, 52% of US/Canadian workplace employees fall within the “disengaged” (quiet quitter) category. It also represents the largest group that HR and business managers can actively engage with positive results by listening to employee concerns and issues.

What changes are quiet quitters most looking for to thrive in the workplace?

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Optimize Your Workforce with Recession-Proof Strategies, Part Three

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Talent Technology and Innovation Uncategorized by John Yuva on 08/14/2023

Today concludes our three-part series exploring several contingent and workforce strategies to achieve a recession-proof enterprise.

We’re now two months into the second half of 2023 and economically speaking, things are looking positive. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that GDP grew 2.4% in the second quarter of 2023. The labor market remains tight with unemployment at 3.6%, a rate not witnessed in decades. However, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the tight labor market provides the Federal Reserve with the flexibility to continue raising interest rates to fight inflation. Currently, inflation rests at 3%, a percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve’s longer-run goal of 2%.

Does the state of the current U.S. economy equate to a “soft landing” and the evasion of a recession? Maybe, maybe not.

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How Are Businesses Enhancing the Employee Experience?

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/19/2023

It’s all about the “experience” today. All aspects of the modern-day workforce, including both FTEs and contingent workers, revolve around the day-to-day (and long-term) experience within a workplace setting. Business leaders cannot rely on archaic modalities of management any longer if they want their workers to be happy, satisfied, and, most importantly, productive. In the latest edition of the Future of Work Exchange‘s exclusive infographic series, How Are Businesses Enhancing the Employee Experience?, we unveil some new research findings on how business leaders plan to improve their employee engagement and employee experience initiatives.

Remote Work and Employee Engagement Are Inherently Linked

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/03/2023

It seems that everywhere we turn, there are new return-to-office (RTO) mandates making headlines. Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, recently mandated employees return to the office three days a week beginning in the spring. The same day of the mandate, over 14,000 employees joined a newly-created Slack channel to voice their displeasure with the ruling.

Disney’s executives followed a similar path, only much earlier in January, and, with four mandated days-in-office rather than the three dictated by Amazon. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff mandated three days in office in the midst of the company sunsetting its Future Forum consortium, which, SOMETHING enough, found that flexible working environment were incredibly conducive to productivity and employee engagement.

And, yeah, we all know Elon Musk’s feelings on remote work during his tumultuous time thus far at Twitter. There’s also this nugget from a recent Fortune article:

“But the latest data suggests that partially empty office towers — a feature of city-centers with the rise of remote work — may remain that way. Data from security firm Kastle Systems show that office occupancy in major US cities is only about half of the pre-Covid level.”

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has discovered that 82% of businesses relied more on remote and hybrid workplace models in 2022 than they did in 2021, a statistic that proves flexibility is a continued pandemic-era accelerant that has become a permanent fixture of the world of work.

So, in the face of more intrusive RTO mandates, where does this leave the most critical component of the modern enterprise, it workforce?

Well, it’s a complicated quandary, for sure. As the tail end of 2022 swayed more and more towards a likely economic downturn, workers became more focused on keeping their jobs in lieu of the continual quest for flexibility and other benefits. However, that specific focus has seemed to settled a bit; while layoffs are regular news across most industries, the backlash to household CEOs’ RTO mandates proves one major thing: remote work and employee engagement are inherently linked, and more importantly, shouldn’t be separated.

The modicum of control here, the very level of pervasive oversight…it’s all archaic. While it is easily understood that every executive leader desires some semblance of authority over their workforce (which leader wouldn’t?), there is a major difference between control-for-the-sake-of-control and a balance between control and trust. If anything at all, the past three years have proved that remote and hybrid work models are effective in maintaining (and boosting!) productivity,

There is an ongoing war for talent and there will always be a war for talent, no matter the economic, social, or political background of any business era. Simply put: a company’s talent is what propels it into innovation and success. So, then, doesn’t it make sense that every business leader do all that they can to actively engage their workers and ensure a positive, consistent workforce experience?

“When it comes to our talent acquisition strategy, we’re not completely opening the doors for every request from every candidate,” one SVP of Talent Acquisition told me last week. She added, “However, our executive team realizes that we’re not going to compete without the right talent across our many global locations, so, we do what we can to prioritize the candidate experience and ensure that flexibility is embedded into as many roles as possible. We value interoffice collaboration and understand that it’s vital to who we are as an organization…it’s just that we know how much the world has changed and how critical attributes like remote work are for the engagement of our workforce.”

Many leaders and professionals alike typically equate “employee engagement” with growth opportunities and enhanced communication; while these are indeed cornerstones of the overall worker experience, in a talent-driven world as such we live in today, businesses have traverse beyond these aspects to attract and maintain high-quality talent. Workers crave autonomy and flexibility, two pillars of the remote or hybrid workplace model. Professionals want to be trusted in their environments to be productive and to have the flexibility required for better work-life integration. These two attributes together? They are, in essence, the foundation of worker happiness.

And, as we know, happy workers are the ones that are satisfied with their roles and careers and feel much more engaged with their leaders, peers, colleagues, and organization. The link between remote/hybrid work and employee engagement is one that cannot, and will not, be broken.

Unconscious Bias Restrains DE&I Efforts

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR by John Yuva on 03/23/2023

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is widely regarded as a critical component of a Future of Work vision. It is an important initiative for enterprise and employee unification, engagement, and inclusion for workers of all backgrounds and demographics. Despite those positive intents, DE&I is under greater scrutiny from local and state governments that view such programs as part of a “woke” agenda. However, understanding its value and reward, enterprises across the U.S. continue to foster DE&I principles and integrate them into their recruitment and workforce engagement strategies.

With the current political and social polarization that exists, HR and managers must maintain the momentum of DE&I and further drive its criticality within the organization. Two areas that are extremely relevant today are unconscious bias and employee resource groups. The intent of addressing these two areas is to bring greater awareness to our own biases while recognizing the needs underserved employees in the enterprise who may be impacted by unconscious bias themselves.

Address Unconscious Bias

The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) defines this concept as “Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing.”

One interesting aspect of unconscious bias that UCSF points out is that it’s “…far more prevalent than conscious prejudice and often incompatible with one’s conscious values.” This is an important statement for HR and managers because it means with engagement, employees can better recognize and quell unconscious bias in their own interactions.

Examples of different types of unconscious bias include affinity bias, confirmation bias, conformity bias, and gender bias. Lattice, a people management platform, says a few key approaches can help reduce the effects of unconscious bias.

First and foremost is self-recognition. Knowing that we all have biases is a necessary step in recognizing our own and preventing them from impacting our decision-making.
Assess various employee and team touchpoints across the enterprise to determine where potential biases may exist and who may be most vulnerable to them.
Conduct annual unconscious bias training to promote inclusiveness and empowerment and reduce unconscious bias in day-to-day interactions.

Establish Employee Resource Groups

The first employee resource group (ESG) was established by black employees at Xerox in the 1960s in response to high racial tensions in the workplace. An ESG is a voluntary, employee-led group with members who share similar interests or demographic characteristics.

According to an article from Great Place to Work, ESGs “… exist to provide support and help in personal or career development and to create a safe space where employees can bring their whole selves to the table. Allies may also be invited to join the ERG to support their colleagues.”

Great Place to Work says ESGs are effective in the workplace for several reasons.

Act as advocates for underserved employees, bringing greater awareness to specific individuals or issues.
Improve physical aspects of workplace facilities, whether it’s gender-neutral bathrooms or designating safe places for employees to converse.
Create a sense of belonging and purpose with like-minded employees. Not only does this elevate trust but also inspires conversations that would otherwise not occur.
Identify potential organizational talent through ESG leadership that may not have those opportunities due to unconscious bias.
Pursue solutions for specific enterprise challenges, maintaining open lines of communication with leadership and keeping leadership aware of the interests and issues of the group.

A key factor in the success of an ESG is having an executive sponsor. Ceridian, a human capital management software company, says, “An executive and/or leadership sponsor can not only help to increase visibility, innovation, and awareness, but can also help align ERG activities with business goals. Additionally, commitments from senior leaders signal a wider, organizational commitment to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.”

Prioritize DEI in the Enterprise

We live in a polarized world that has led to significant divides. The workplace is a melting pot of employees with many outside societal and political viewpoints that share a common goal: the success of the enterprise. DEI must remain a strategic priority for organizations to ensure that despite the societal divide, its inner walls are a place of cohesiveness, diversity, inclusion, and equality.

Amish Mehta, managing director and CEO for CRISIL, a global analytical company, summed up the importance of DE&I in his firm, “As a people-first organization, we are committed to equal treatment of, and opportunity for, all employees, irrespective of their background, orientation, and preferences. Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion are at the core of CRISIL’s value system,” Mehta says.

“We welcome skills and perspectives that help us serve our clients and communities better and enable us to create a sustainable, and diverse culture where everyone can be their best.”

Employee Engagement Still Lacks Execution

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce General Insights HR Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 02/09/2023

Today’s enterprises can be characterized as fast-paced, ever-evolving to effectively respond to a more dynamic marketplace. Within the hustle and bustle lies a critical workforce need that is often overlooked: employee engagement. The concept can be confused with simply offering employees certain monthly perks identified from a quick survey. However, it goes much deeper than that and reaches beyond permanent, full-time employees to those in the extended workforce, as well.

A well-rounded definition of employee engagement comes from Engage For Success: “Employee engagement is a workplace approach resulting in the right conditions for all members of an organization to give of their best each day, committed to their organization’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organizational success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being.”

Powerful, Yet Underutilized

It is that commitment toward oneself and the enterprise that makes employee engagement such a powerful workforce approach. Yet, as a Gallup survey indicates, only 36% of U.S. employees are engaged in their work and workplace. The number is even lower on a global scale, with only 20% of employees engaged at work.

However, for those enterprises with a fully entrenched employee engagement system, the results speak for themselves. According to Gallup, those leading organizations are experiencing the following benefits:

An increase of 18% in productivity (sales)
An increase of 23% in profitability
A decline of 40% in quality issues (defects)

Achieving these results requires engagement with every worker. With nearly half (nearly 48%) of today’s enterprises comprised of contingent workers (per Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research), employee engagement must include this critical workforce segment. When faced with the possibility of losing extended talent following a project or other initiative, employee engagement could be the competitive differentiator to retain them.

Engagement Strategies

Remote and hybrid work models can pose some challenges to employee engagement strategies. However, Gallop says “…highly skilled managers who set clear expectations, are in touch with each person through meaningful weekly conversations and have high accountability” will be necessary to execute employee engagement in a remote/hybrid work model.

A hybrid model is the most conducive to employee engagement because “…it can provide flexibility that considers several factors simultaneously — the individual’s life situation and strengths, the needs of the team they work on, health concerns, and the organization’s culture and business objectives,” Gallop says.

The following are various employee engagement strategies that can lead to a more motivated and productive workforce.

Invest in the candidate/employee experience. From the moment an enterprise engages with a candidate through that individual’s employment with the organization, the candidate/employee experience should be part of that journey. Communication and illustration of the company’s core values, for example, should be front and center to provide a sense of belonging and set the tone of the culture. Those values are then reinforced by managers and team leaders to create an open and positive work environment.
Integrate technology into the employee engagement process. Digital solutions permeate the workforce landscape. Apps to streamline the onboarding of contingent workers, collaboration tools for in-person and remote teams, and others all play a role in employee engagement. Research by Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange says that 73% of businesses plan to utilize AI to measure and track and enhance employee engagement and the candidate experience. According to HR Cloud, “With the use of AI and collaboration tools, employees can become highly engaged since these technologies simplify tasks. Technology today allows efficiency, increases flexibility, and allows employees to work within the allocated time.”
Conduct regular workplace assessments. As the enterprise workforce evolves, it’s essential to measure the pulse of the workplace through assessments. Gauge overall feelings about workplace culture, leadership effectiveness, and work/life balance to name a few. Nearly 80% of businesses plan to conduct formal workplace culture assessments by the end of 2023, according to research from Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange. Results will serve as a foundation for any changes to employee engagement initiatives.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Motivate employees by encouraging them to share their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. One-on-one meetings with managers each week creates an emotional connection to the organization. Contingent workers must also be part of these weekly one-on-ones. Gaining their input can lead to productivity insights and improvements, as well as enhance their connection with their team members and colleagues.
Promote transparency with the contingent workforce. When it comes to the inner workings of the enterprise, the extended workforce should be part of those discussions. Whether they’re company meetings, employee retreats, or other communication and bonding activities, transparency with contingent workers can lead to greater trust, loyalty, and commitment. The more extended workers know about the organization and what goes on behind the scenes, the more they identify with its objectives and successes.

In his updated Gallup article, Jim Harter, Ph.D., chief scientist for Gallup, succinctly lays out the importance of an engaging workplace coupled with great managers — regardless of the economic climate. “Amid changes in workplaces and the economy, building an engaging workplace with great managers remains centrally important. During tough times, it predicts the resiliency of the workforce,” Harter says. “During recovery times, with lower unemployment, it predicts the retention of star employees. During all times, engaging workplaces with great managers build an organizational reputation and employment brand.”

The Rules of Wellness Have Changed

Business Leadership HR by Christopher J. Dwyer on 08/01/2022

The Future of Work movement thrives on many accelerants that range from advancements in talent acquisition to innovative tools and technology. However, the realm of humanity, wellness, and culture may be the most critical items in how work continues to evolve.

“Wellness” is often thrown around as a word that reflects healthy corporate “behavior” from the perspective(s) of the workforce (including extended talent), owed to a rise in business leadership’s greater understanding of empathy, inclusivity, and other aspects related to a better workplace. As the story goes, happier employees = more productive (and, hopefully, loyal) workers.

Although the Future of Work Exchange typically discusses how rigidity is the “anti-Future of Work” mindset, something as archaic as a desire for a business’ staff to be productive is absolutely one of those measures that is not bound by time or circumstance. That is, it’s always understandable that an executive remains focused on productivity; without this focus, the enterprise fails.

So why do we need to revisit wellness? Didn’t we just talk about this recently? Well, yes, we did. But that was nearly eight months ago, and, in a pandemic-led, economically-volatile, frenetic labor market-fueled world (both business and personal), the stakes have certainly changed.

A second straight quarter of the U.S. economic shrinking technically means that we’re entering a recession…even though it doesn’t necessarily feel like it. However, many organizations are already taking the steps to prepare for the worst, which means cut to the workforce and the linger specter of layoffs through the remainder of 2022.

And, oh yeah, there’s a still pandemic raging, along with a health emergency for monkeypox. Many, many individuals (as much as 2% or 3% of the total workforce, although that number could be lower or higher) could be suffering from “Long COVID” from past coronavirus infections, with the government still not defining how long-haulers can apply for and receive disability options.

These issues not only mean that wellness in the workplace becomes more important; it also translate into the need to reimagine how business leadership addresses and supports wellness in the wake of an evolving world:

Today’s “new” wellness rules should always, always include engagement and experience in the mix. Wellness is more than an employee or worker being physically healthy and appearing to be mentally fit for their role. Leaders must ensure that they expand how they support both physical and mental wellness during whichever turbulent times may lie ahead; whatever worked even during the worst of the pandemic may already be outdated. In nearly three years of consistent business evolution, the very concept of “wellness” has been transformed to include concepts like employee engagement and the talent experience. The total workforce should be engaged with leadership and their teams and coworkers, grounded in a positive workplace experience, and also feel appreciated, safe, and valued. The next generation of wellness strategies should always include engagement and experience as foundational elements.
Even the most stoic of performers may have something deeper happening in their personal lives; thus, there is no one-size-fits-all model that will “catch” those that require intermediation. Dips in productivity, a lack of communication, and poor collaboration are all markers of a worker suffering from something negative. These individuals are most often pointed to as the main recipients of wellness support; however, there are many workers that put on a happy face, remain incredibly productive, and seem to have it all together. These workers may not need support on the surface, however, there’s usually an undercurrent of burnout bubbling somewhere. Business leaders should arm themselves with the necessary attitude and knowledge in understanding what the warning signs are for employee burnout.
The hybrid workplace requires hybrid leadership…which now requires a more strategic mindset. During the spring and summer of 2020, many business leaders grappled with the complexities of managing a newly-remote workforce in the wake of social distancing, quarantining, etc. Video calls and new modes of leadership were straining, leaving these already-exhausted leaders confounded in how to capture the essence of collaboration without the benefit of in-person operations. Today, the issue has become more severe: onboarding workers can be a nightmare via remote methods, not to mention aspects of reskilling, upskilling, mentoring, etc. Business leaders cannot spend a few hours with a new worker and expect them to function productively while on auto-pilot.
Wellness was the answer all along to a problem that has plagued the business arena for nearly 16 months. Yes, we’re talking about The Great Resignation. Although the numbers dipped in May (4.3 million quits as opposed to 4.4 million the month before), an encouraging trend is emerging: fears of a recession, combined with inflation, may be helping to keep workers put. However, all it takes is a small wiggle upwards and we’re back to the much worse, higher trend. The refrain of “happier workers stay with their companies” could not be more true today. If a professional is engaged, satisfied, and having a positive experience while also working for leaders that are mindful, empathetic, and inclusive, it reflects an ideal recipe for wellness that also bodes well for retention. If workers have a flexible work-life integration, it is a powerful attribute that enables true wellness and wellbeing.