In addition, this week’s podcast looks back on last month’s Future of Work Exchange LIVE event in Boston and chats about recent inflation news and its link to the volatile labor market.

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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.

1. 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.
2. Assess various employee and team touchpoints across the enterprise to determine where potential biases may exist and who may be most vulnerable to them.
3. 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.

1. Act as advocates for underserved employees, bringing greater awareness to specific individuals or issues.
2. Improve physical aspects of workplace facilities, whether it’s gender-neutral bathrooms or designating safe places for employees to converse.
3. 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.
4. Identify potential organizational talent through ESG leadership that may not have those opportunities due to unconscious bias.
5. 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.”

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Neha and Christopher discussed a variety of issues related to the state of talent and the future of work (click to listen to the full interview). This is an excerpt from that conversation. (Note that this excerpt has been edited for readability.)

Neha Goel: As we explore the human element in the workplace, let’s talk about another tenant of the Future of Work — empathetic leadership. Is this something you are seeing put into action? And can empathetic leadership be measured in a meaningful way?

Christopher J. Dwyer: Yes and no. I feel like there is an appointed effort. There is a very focused effort for leaders to be more deliberate in leading with empathy and leveraging conscious leadership tactics. But, I do not think many organizations have a handle on how to measure it.

That is where we need to go as business leaders. It is tough to measure something like that, however, because it is so qualitative. How do we know that we are doing the right things as leaders? Or how do we know that we are leading in the right way? How do we know that our employees are having a positive experience and that they feel safe and comfortable? Do they feel that they are part of an inclusive culture?

It circles back to the question of how to measure those things. NPS scores are not going to help. Informal surveys may give you some type of picture. This is the next big leadership challenge going into the second half of the year and into 2023. It can be difficult measuring not just empathy, but how cognizant you are of your leadership and its impact.

It is encouraging to see that more leaders are very conscious of their styles of leadership. But you still see many leaders who are not flexible and still rigid — the Elon Musk-type celebrity CEO who does not care about flexibility or employee feelings, and insists we need you in the office and you need to be part of the team. (Editor’s note: check out yesterday’s article on Malcolm Gladwell’s horrible take on remote work.)

We are so far past that. I have been saying for over two years that there is no way you can put a positive spin on a worldwide pandemic that has killed so many people. It has disrupted life so much. But if you were to take the positives of the fallout from the pandemic, there are many accelerants from the Future of Work angle that came to light.

You have remote work, the reliance on automation and tech, and the desire to be more data-led to gain a better understanding of where we are going as a business and how we are going to survive. But there is the other piece where leaders need to realize that they need to change their leadership style or risk losing workers.

“I am going to lose the talent that exists in my business, and I do not want that to happen.” I do see leaders doing it, but measuring it continues to be a challenge. I do not think many organizations have that figured out yet.

NG: That is fair. It would be fascinating to have you back in a few months and see potential progress.

CJD: Absolutely. I look at some of the most read articles on the Future of Work Exchange since we launched, and one of the top three articles is a piece on why empathy is the only way forward.

A reason it is one of the most popular pieces is that business leaders are interested in trying to hone their style to be more flexible, more empathetic, and more conscious in thinking about their workforce and their staff.

I remember the early days of the pandemic quite clearly. Memories of COVID-19 close contacts and quarantining, 14-day isolations, and kids unable to go to school. Neha, you have young kids, as I do. How disruptive was it to have kids at home for weeks and months at a time? And remote learning was not exactly a conducive way to learn for them (even though it’s a great way to work, haha).

Truly conscious leaders understood how difficult that was for their staff. And they were the ones who were offering flexible options or realizing that, “Hey, this person needs to sit with his or her daughter as she does second grade remotely. Yes, he or she is going to be offline for a couple of hours, but will be back in the afternoon.”

It is leaders who truly step into their workforce’s shoes and acknowledge what everyone is going through and recognizes the need to support them through this. Those are the leaders who are realizing their workforce is happier. They are more engaged. They know that we are here to support them.

I would love to come back in four or five months and say we have a couple of real-life cases we can share of how a business was able to measure its effectiveness. Did our profits go up? Did we have less turnover? I think those could be some of the early metrics to use.

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“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.

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The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit, is an ongoing economic trend in which employees have voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021, primarily in the United States.

While I understand that Wikipedia is easily editable and can sometimes contain basic misinformation regarding history, politics, etc., what is represented in the above definition is unfortunately a common line of thinking in today’s frenetic world of business.

Even though aspects like “flexibility” and “remote work” are buried in that Wikipedia entry, the focus on economic thinking muddles The Great Resignation into a conversation around employees wanting more financial power as they traverse year three of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remember, my friends, there’s a much clearer reason for this Big Quit, and it has little to do with money: it’s a “Talent Revolution,” and we’re all witnessing it first-hand as enterprises face staffing shortages, business leaders grapple with new models of working, and workers focus their energy on finding positions that bring value and purpose into their lives.

The Future of Work Exchange has been incredibly bullish about the Talent Revolution over the past few months, and rightfully so: placing the focus for tens of millions of voluntarily resignations squarely on economic factors misses the greater concept at hand…that the modern-day workforce has empowered themselves to transform the symbiotic links between “talent” and “employers,” all in the quest for more flexible, purposeful, and meaningful work.

Does The Great Resignation have economic consequences? Of course, let’s not kid ourselves. Staffing shortages are ravaging the financials of businesses, play a pivotal role in certain aspects of today’s inflation crisis, and, of course, contribute to product and supply chain disruptions across the world. (Also, as a side note: rising energy costs and fuel expenses are another complicated layer to the business arena today, as is the ongoing crisis in the Ukraine and its global financial and supply ramifications, as well.)

But these are consequences of a larger issue, one that has only been exacerbated by a global health crisis that has unfortunately shined a very, very bright light on the inequities and rigidity of today’s workplace and workforce structure. There is an underlying inequity in how workers are treated, how they are paid, how they are provided benefits, and how flexible their roles are considering the tremendous change in the world of talent and work over the last two years.

The Talent Revolution was always on its way; it’s unfortunate that it has resulted in an across-the-board, jarring “Big Quit” that has shaken the way businesses deal with extreme staffing shortages. However, there’s a reason equity, inclusion, better working conditions, and flexibility have become so critical: this is the power the workforce should have.

Every worker deserves a position that serves and aligns with his, her, or their purpose. Every worker deserves the flexibility to attend to personal and private needs and achieve a better work-life integration. And, every worker deserves equitable treatment, safe working conditions, and an inclusive culture that inspires them to thrive, think, speak, and innovate.

The post “The Great Resignation” is Not An Economic Trend appeared first on The Future of Work Exchange.

I firmly remember interviewing a potential editorial candidate while one such tournament was occurring. “Seems like a fun place to work,” she noted as she looked past the conference room window at the smiles and laughs of my team members. “Sure is,” I said, before moving onto the next stage of the interview.

Ten years ago, a foosball table was enough to reflect a positive work culture to a potential employee. Today, it wouldn’t even come close to cutting it.

“Culture” must be considered a foundational element of the Future of Work movement, with business leaders doing all that they can to ensure that the enterprise comes across as being inclusive, positive, engaging, and a “destination workplace” that is alluring to candidates. “The Great Resignation,” as much as we may loathe the phrase, is a real and viable force that is actively pushing organizations to reimagine their talent acquisition strategies.

Even though culture was important before and during the pandemic, it takes on a different meaning today, considering that: 1) with the Omicron surge beginning to subside, business leaders are finally going to structure more in-office days for its workforce, 2) millions of workers, part of the “Talent Revolution,” are seeking more than just better compensation if they are going to return to work in 2022, and, 3) the harsh reality of talent retention today is this: it’s going to take a lot more for businesses to hang onto its top-tier talent throughout the coming months.

The following elements of culture prove why it’s such a critical piece of the Future of Work puzzle:

• A company’s business culture is inevitably linked to the company’s brand. Company brand has often been more associated with finding and engaging talent, however, what many leaders forget is that “culture” and “brand” are symbiotically linked in a very profound manner. Is the company culture known for advancement opportunities, an inclusive attitude, and consistent engagement between leaders and workers? These are incredibly crucial aspects that traverse from culture into brand, with workers understand that if these attributes don’t line up, it won’t be worth their time and energy to apply for an open position. Poor business culture can weigh down how the enterprise “looks” from an external perspective; today, that can be crippling in the wake of The Great Resignation.
• The proliferation of remote and hybrid work means workplace culture is more important, not less. Business leaders have to understand that it’s not March 2020 anymore. Remote and hybrid work are not reactive strategies, but rather foundational approaches for optimizing how work is done. Therefore, these leaders must translate in-office culture and its benefits to those working tens or hundreds of miles away. Remote workers don’t require annoying oversight, but rather empathetic and role-based support in order to thrive in digital working conditions. There’s a major difference between a robotic, “going-through-the-motions” 1:1 video call and a discussion on how a professional can grow, thrive, and succeed. If all business leaders adopted this approach, there would be less of a hesitancy to adopt fully-remote or heavy-hybrid models.
• Overall enterprise vision is a pure reflection of its overall culture. This doesn’t just mean “make lots of money,” but rather the purpose of the overall organization and what it wants to prove, provide, and produce for the global market. Business leaders that truly want to change their industries begin that journey within, choosing to formulate management styles that are inclusive, empathetic, and promote innovation within the workforce ranks. Want to change the world? It starts with internal business culture.
• The old adage of “experience first” is still quite applicable. The talent experience is still paramount in today’s hyper-competitive labor market. Everything from the tactical aspects of talent acquisition, such as interviewing, onboarding, etc., and the more strategic elements, like communication and collaboration, goes a long in fostering a workplace culture that is positive and engaging for candidates as they embark on their journeys.
• Culture is now naturally aligned with the way(s) work gets done. This is perhaps the most powerful attribute of “culture” in today’s business landscape. Workers crave an environment that aligns with their purpose, their goals, their energy, their attitude, their believes, their values, and their journeys. They are going to give as much as they can if an employer can meet most or all of those elements. Business culture permeates across functions, units, leaders, and its workforce; if enterprises are keen on thriving in 2022, they will understand that the very ways they get work done are directly aligned with the overall culture of its workplace.

The post “Culture” is a Foundational Element of the Future of Work appeared first on The Future of Work Exchange.

Earlier this week, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit accusing the league of “systemic racism” and identified examples of teams conducting “sham interviews” with Black coaching candidates without any intention of hiring them.

As evidence, he included text messages with New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick that seem to show Belichick congratulating Flores for winning the New York Giants coaching job days before Flores had even interviewed. In fact, Belichick had meant to text Brian Daboll, who would eventually be named coach. Roughly 70 percent of NFL players are Black, but the only Black head coach out of 32 teams is Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin.

There’s a little more to this story, including claims by Flores that he was offered $100,000 per game lost in the 2019 season in order to secure a higher draft pick. That issue, which may end up costing Dolphins owner Stephen Ross his franchise, is only a piece of this entire saga.

The bigger trouble at hand, of course, is this: the NFL has a HUGE diversity problem.

At the time of Flores’ suit, there was only a single Black coach in the NFL (Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers). Years ago, to boost the diversity profile of its coaching candidates, the NFL introduced the “Rooney Rule,” in which the league mandates that teams interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior-level football positions. This clearly has not worked to improve the diversity across the NFL’s coaching ranks.

The rule was adopted and mandated in 2003, when there three Black head coaches in the league. Today? There are three Black head coaches in the league. Something’s not right.

During last week’s Super Bowl media week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated that “a diverse workforce is a better workforce.” (Has he been reading the Future of Work Exchange?) Well, clearly, Goodell cannot be trusted to follow through on this statement, especially because he’s more known for needlessly aggressive punishment for naturally deflated footballs than he is for his track record on diversity.

Granted, the NFL is a different beast than the typical organization in the business arena. Interviews are publicly known, there’s always conjecture about who is going to move where, etc. However, when a multi-billion-dollar entity (not to mention America’s most-watched sport) cannot effectively leverage its vast resources to improve its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) goals, what type of example does that set for every other corporation?

DE&I has become perhaps the most critical non-technological component of the Future of Work movement. Nearly 84% of businesses today say they expect to develop a more inclusive workplace environment over the next 12 months, a statistic that accurately reflects just how important it is for an enterprise to prioritize how it handles diversity and diverse hiring.

The NFL has incredible resources at its disposal; it could easily develop a Chief Diversity Officer (which nearly 70% of businesses expect to implement within their ranks by the end of 2023) that is accountable to all 32 team owners, not to mention the fans and the media. It could create reskilling and upskilling opportunities for diverse coaching candidates to ensure that there is no excuse for passing over diverse talent when major positions are open. And, it should re-tool the Rooney Rule in a manner that moves away from incentives and pushes a better strategy (one of Flores’ issues, which is 100% on point, is that Rooney Rule-led interviews are often shams, as was his with the Giants and Broncos).

For businesses across the globe, this should be a wake-up call. DE&I should be top-of-mind for every organization; “The Great Resignation” is tearing apart the traditional measures of talent acquisition, leaving businesses scrambling to find top-tier skillsets and expertise. Diversity is a gateway into innovation and business progression, enabling organizations with a deeper, more robust community of hyper-qualified candidates that can drive better business outcomes. The “Talent Revolution” at hand dictates that enterprises do all that they can to become more attractive to workers…and that starts by building a diverse and inclusive workplace environment (and culture!).

The NFL’s Rooney Rule has been nothing but a “box-checker” for nearly two decades. The parallels with “diverse spend” goals are uncanny, aren’t they? This is why the NFL’s diversity issues should hit close to home for business leaders. The NFL needs to do more; that’s wildly apparent. And so don’t typical businesses, as well. Fast Company published a piece nearly a year after the George Floyd protests and found that while dozens of the world’s biggest tech companies collectively donated nearly $3.8 billion to charities, there was little movement on the actual change within their organizations; even though societal change was at the forefront of talent acquisition, diverse talent represented a tiny percentage of engineering or leadership roles.

Right now, it is feared that the NFL will take a similar approach and throw money at charity, spin these issues into marketing and communications fluff, and hope that everything blows over. For the business arena, leaders should take a much, much different approach: start truly investing in diverse talent, provide opportunities for growth and upskilling, and, most importantly, view DE&I as a true gateway to innovation, a deeper workforce, and better business outcomes.

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And, while established diversity programs previously existed in many enterprises, the events and civil unrest of the past two years drove many businesses to develop and communicate more purpose-driven goals, which are linked to societal, economic, technological, and sustainable shifts. To achieve these goals, a large number of businesses are trying to harness the power of a diverse workforce.

Using direct sourcing to hire diverse talent gives HR teams a direct ability to link purpose with DE&I efforts. For example, businesses can opt to tap into professional networks that were already designed for diverse workers from various backgrounds, cultures, and genders and link these to talent curation efforts. Direct sourcing initiatives can also benefit from “diversity automation” that is enabled from direct sourcing platforms that have partnerships and integrations with diverse job boards and networks. They can also offer anonymizing functionality that can hide specific information about different candidates.

Layering DE&I into direct sourcing is about changing behaviors and removing hiring barriers and unconscious bias from talent engagement and talent acquisition. Utilizing technology to help guide and enforce a new mindset can be extremely valuable and create awareness that the deepest talent pools are diverse talent pools.

Future of Work Exchange research finds that DE&I initiatives will be boosted with next-level intelligence over the next year-and-a-half. DE&I remains a critical piece of direct sourcing and talent acquisition overall. Today, roughly a quarter of all businesses utilize AI within direct sourcing for DE&I purposes (27% for worker diversity data and 24% for general diversity and inclusion insights). More than half of all enterprises plan to use AI to drive these initiatives over the next 18 months. Businesses that invest in developing AI-led data collection will be able to cast a wider net within the realm of diversity, capturing gender, culture, background, neurodiversity, etc. These insights can provide hiring managers and executives with the intelligence needed to monitor and improve DE&I initiatives.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion represent, perhaps, the most important of the “strategy-led” Future of Work tenets and deserve a rightful place in the pantheon of work optimization approaches. Diverse workforces, inclusive workplaces, and an overall environment of equity can pay massive dividends for businesses seeking to spark innovation within their total talent community, especially in an unsettled labor market that will see a hopeful end to the so-called “Great Resignation” in early 2022.

Reminder: Join WorkLLama, Ardent Partners, and the Future of Work Exchange this coming Thursday (12pm ET) for an exclusive webcast on “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” which will highlight how businesses can develop powerful, repeatable, and scalable direct sourcing processes to drive next-generation talent acquisition and recruitment strategies. Click here or on the image below to register.

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