Month: December 2023

Improving Culture, Experience, Leadership, Opportunity and Flexibility in 2024

One of my favourite HR events each year is Influence Greatness. Hosted near Salt Lake City by O.C. Tanner the event brings together leaders, analysts, researchers, practitioners, tech experts and consultants for a 3 day exploration of the latest trends in Global Workplace Culture centred around the O.C. Tanner Institute’s research and latest Global Culture Report.

The report always offers insights on evolving employee priorities and preferences, as well as guidance on the key elements of a thriving corporate culture and the 2024 Global Culture Report (published in September 2023) highlighted a number of actionable insights, people-centric solutions and common sense interventions whilst also sharing insights on some of the key aspects that are impacting workplaces globally. 

I’ve recently hosted an HR Means Business podcast chat with Robert Ordever (Managing Director O.C. Tanner Europe) and Stuart Cheeseman (European Strategies O.C. Tanner) about some of the key findings and opportunities. To accompany the podcast, I’ve tried to summarise what I think are some of the key messages from the research. I’ve chosen three of the six categories – you can read about all of them by downloading the report at https://www.octanner.com/global-culture-report

Practical Empathy

A major revelation from the research is the concept of practical empathy in leadership, and how it is falling short. 41% of employees feel that leaders’ expressions of empathy are basically empty gestures, lacking meaning. Yet a survey of 150 CEOs by Harvard Business Review found 80% of them saying empathy was a key to success. O.C. Tanner’s data showed that people working for empathetic leaders tend to be more fulfilled, have a sense of belonging in their workplace and feel a stronger connection to the organisation

The 6 components of practical empathy at work they identified were: 

Focus on the Person – prioritising individual’s needs, challenges and potential

Seek Understanding – getting proper input and feedback on policies and programmes, and a real understanding ding of the day-to-day employee experience. 

Listen to Learn – active listening to our people and their concerns  

Embrace Perspectives – leaders and mangers need to be open to, and accepting of, different perspectives and experiences

Take Supportive Action – showing concern is one thing, but can be an empty gesture if not backed up with real action

Respecting Boundaries – resources for support need to be in place, not reliant on leaders’ intervention

Practical Empathy is about listening, understanding, and empowering leaders to make meaningful contributions to their teams’ well-being. It can improve the sense of belonging and connection employees have, improving business outcomes too.

Skill Building vs. Skill Development

The emphasis on “skill building” instead of traditional “skill development” signifies a shift in perspective. Employees increasingly perceive learning and skill enhancement as self-driven contributions rather than imposed obligations. This shift acknowledges the evolving nature of jobs and encourages individuals to proactively enhance their skills for better contributions and adaptability within their roles.

Employees know their roles are changing and want access to the knowledge and learning necessary to help them. Research from the Global Culture Report shows that they are happier and more productive when they have skill building opportunities, in fact 83% look for these opportunities when changing jobs. For organisations, this is also a solution to addressing talent and knowledge shortages. Giving employees options and integrating some form of recognition for those who embrace can help hardwire this into culture.

Experience of the 80%

80% of the Global workforce don’t work at a desk. It’s sometimes hard for those who are white collar knowledge workers, whose daily conversations around technology and work location fill the digital narratives online, to grasp just how many of the global workforce are frontline workers, deskless and often offline, and usually removed from corporate culture. The Global Culture Report research found half of frontline employees feeling expendable at work, ignored and undervalued, lacking opportunity, technology and autonomy in the vital jobs they do.

During the Covid pandemic, this segment received unprecedented acknowledgment and support. However, research indicates a gradual fading of recognition for these workers, emphasising a need to address this disparity, underscoring the importance of acknowledging and celebrating the part of the workforce that keeps essential operations running.

The research also found the 80% less likely to think their employers care about them, and also less likely to

Trust their leaders

Have a strong sense of connection to the organisation

Feel seen and valued

Have a positive employee experience.

The saddest indictment was the finding that only 1 in 10 believe they have access to the tools, technology and opportunities necessary for advancement, or to have any kind of influence or voice over their work.

The key to improving engagement, belonging, connection and a sense of community and fulfilment is to help them feel seen. The data indicates that improving access and enablement, providing meaningful recognition, and understanding and addressing what matters to them can help the 80% have a sense of belonging, feel a connection to their leaders and the organisation, and foster a strong desire to remain with the organisation in the longer term.

Creating a Resilient Culture of Equitable Flexibility and Empathetic Leadership

To understand more about the research, and the potential opportunities for embracing a more enlightened and inclusive approach to improving our workplaces, listen my podcast conversation with Robert and Stuart……

Building a Culture of Retention

Employee turnover is on the rise. Whilst many analysts and commentators regarded trends such as ‘Great Resignation’ and ‘Great Reshuffle’ to be reactions to how the Covid-19 pandemic had offered employees the potential to find alternative ways of working, research regularly shows that a stubbornly high proportion of workers remain open to exploring different opportunities. After several months of stability in the UK job-to-job resignations data, the latest figures show resignations are increasing again. For all organisations, addressing Employee Retention remains a priority.

US research from 2021 showed the top reasons employees gave for changing jobs as being low pay, lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected at work. If we are to engage and retain the talent we need then we must understand what they want from work, the opportunities, and the experience. For example, most research I have seen and been involved with has consistently shown that the number one reason why someone will join a business, and stay, is if they believe they have the opportunity to grow, develop and learn new skills. 

In our most recent book, Digital Talent, co-author Matt Alder and I explored what our talent looks for, which is vital if we want to attract and retain them. Firstly, they have Intellectual Curiosity. They know their roles – and the skills they will need – are changing and evolving and they want real-time access to the knowledge and learning that will help them develop and meet new business challenges. Hence the need to have growth and development opportunities.

Workers want agency

Secondly, they want agency in how, when and where they work. This isn’t purely a post-Covid development – in 2017 we surveyed 14,000 jobseekers across Europe and found over a quarter saying that opportunities to work from home would make them choose one company over another, whilst for 61% the opportunity to work flexible hours would be most important in choosing their next role. Interest in remote, flexible and hybrid approaches to working is something that has been growing in importance for several years and is now a key consideration.

Thirdly, engagement and opportunity. The best-selling author on relationships Esther Perel addressed a senior HR audience at the Workhuman conference in San Diego earlier this year and told them “We used to leave our jobs because the factory closed. Today, we leave jobs because we aren’t being recognised”. Rather than looking for stability employees now prioritise different things such as how they are treated, the opportunities that may be available, and the connections they build with colleagues and management. We all want to be recognised for who we are and what we can achieve.

If organisations are to embrace a culture of retention, they need to look at the experiences they offer their people and the opportunities they can give them. The starting point is to create a culture of support and enablement. Traditional structures have typically relied on a leadership approach of management and direction, in which they were reviewed (often historically) and had their performance and career growth ‘managed’. Our employees are now more interested in the opportunities created for them, the connections they make, how they are supported in their mental, intellectual, and financial wellbeing, and the access they have to learning and knowledge to enable their progression. 

A large part of this support comes from evolving workplace technology which can give people access to the knowledge they need, as and when necessary, as well as to create a culture of internal mobility, in which employees feel they are able to move within an organisation to improve their knowledge and skills. Within organisations we have seen retention improve through the creation of ‘Career Experience’ managers, who oversee our people right across their journey with the business, helping to improve engagement, wellbeing, and retention.

Management and leadership

The vital role that management and leadership can play is to help create an exceptional employee experience in which people feel supported and able to achieve their best work. This style of compassionate and supportive leadership is often hard to deliver in a results-driven business so senior leadership need to look at how managers are hired, promoted, and rewarded. 

For example, one common mistake leaders can often make is to reward managers for having high performing teams rather than for producing high performing teams. This approach often leads to favouritism and creates a culture in which managers try to hold on to their top performers which can result in them leaving if they feel blocked from other opportunities within the organisation. Instead, managers should be rewarded for producing high performing teams in which individuals feel they have opportunities to progress elsewhere within the organisation.

There are three key actions that leaders can start taking to improve the employee experience with their businesses and help foster a culture of retention:

  1. To understand the ‘moments that matter’ to their people, and to try and maximise them. These are often referred to as micro-experiences – the daily interactions our people have with leadership, technology, clients, and each other, some lasting only seconds, but which cumulatively create their perception of happiness, contentment, and engagement with the business. Use every opportunity to create a positive experience. 
  2. Personalisation. For our people, work is often more about the experience than the process, and how they can achieve their personal and career goals. Their consumer experiences are hyper targeted, and we need to personalise their employee experiences to help support them in their own growth and development.
  3. The Power of Recognition. Whether it’s simply a ‘thank you’ or a ‘you’ve done well’ there is much research to show that cultures of recognition help create the kind of environment that leads to retention. Latest research from Workhuman shows that simple regular recognition can make employees 5 times less likely to leave, and 5 times more likely to see growth opportunities.

(A version of this post originally appeared on HR World)