Luke is one of the top 25 global influencers and thought leaders on customer experience and employee engagement. His rebellious, unconventional approaches have been attributed to him earning such titles. But it’s his combination of vision, high energy, audacious creativity and mischievous execution that makes him an inspiring and refreshing keynote speaker, podcaster and blogger.
Featured in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal and The Australian. He studied design thinking at D.school, Stanford University and is a certified LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator.
Available For: Advising, Authoring, Influencing, Speaking
Travels From: Victoria, Australia
Speaking Topics: Employee Engagement, Future of Work, Gamification, Innovation, Lego Serious Play
Luke Jamieson | Points |
---|---|
Academic | 0 |
Author | 98 |
Influencer | 84 |
Speaker | 65 |
Entrepreneur | 75 |
Total | 322 |
Points based upon Thinkers360 patent-pending algorithm.
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Leadership
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Mental Health
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Leadership, Culture, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Diversity and Inclusion
Tags: Customer Experience, Culture, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: AI, Customer Experience, Emerging Technology
Tags: Innovation, Management, Leadership, Future of Work
Tags: Business Strategy, COVID19
Tags: Customer Experience, Leadership
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Innovation
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty
Tags: Customer Experience
Tags: Customer Experience
Tags: Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience
Tags: Customer Experience
Tags: Mental Health
Tags: Customer Experience
Tags: Customer Experience
Tags: Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Innovation, Leadership, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Innovation, Leadership
Tags: Customer Experience, Innovation, Leadership
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Culture, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Leadership
Tags: Management, Leadership, Future of Work
Tags: Future of Work, Innovation
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Innovation
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Innovation
Tags: AI, Customer Experience, Predictive Analytics, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Emerging Technology, Predictive Analytics
Tags: Customer Experience, Emerging Technology, Predictive Analytics
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, COVID19
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Emerging Technology, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Innovation
Tags: Customer Experience
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Innovation
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Innovation
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Culture, Future of Work
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Diversity and Inclusion, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Diversity and Inclusion, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Diversity and Inclusion, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Emerging Technology, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Innovation
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Innovation
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Leadership
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Culture, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Leadership
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Diversity and Inclusion, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Emerging Technology, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Innovation
Tags: Innovation, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Emerging Technology, Future of Work
Date : October 20, 2021
Date : October 04, 2020
Date : October 08, 2020
Those four little letters… you know the ones L.O.V.E. Sometimes they can be hard to say, even to your nearest and dearest, so you‘ll have to forgive the audacity when I say we need to love our jobs. However, it may be the antidote to soaring attrition in the workplace. A 2022 report conducted by Smaart Recruitment found that 45% of employees are considering leaving their jobs because they’re dissatisfied with - wait for it... the work they do. Yes, you read that right, their work!
Right now, I can hear all the collective sighs of relief from managers, who for decades have been blamed (and in many cases responsible) for being the top driver for people to leaving their jobs. But what was once a matter of ‘changing the manager’ or ‘changing the manager’ now is a seemingly much bigger challenge. Employees it seems, are leaving because of a lack of purpose and meaning. This requires organisational changes and a redesign of how roles are developed and sold to prospective employees.
You might be thinking, “I don’t love my job, but it pays the bills and has good benefits. Isn’t that good enough?” For seasons of your life, it may be—there are times when you might be in a pinch and need to take a job for pure financial reasons.
But if we’re talking about optimising employee engagement and reducing burnout, then yes, it does matter if you love your job.
Now I’m not talking about loving every single aspect of it. Even the best jobs (travel writer, food critic, or chocolate taste tester all come to mind…) have parts that you wouldn’t like. We have to accept that no job is perfect, but it is possible to find something that you genuinely enjoy, plays to your strengths, and provides purpose and meaning.
The less you like your job, the less likely you are to stay—that’s obvious. The question, then, becomes: how do you find or create a role to love? Both employees and employers have a part in it.
Each of us are responsible for finding or building a job we love. There’s a lot that a manager or employer can do to help build an excellent workplace—more on that later—but everyone is responsible for their own happiness and have the human agency when it comes to work.
Here are some things employees should do when trying to find or build a job they love:
While it’s up to each individual to choose and stay in a job they love, there’s also some responsibility on the employer. If they care about retention and hiring top talent, employee engagement must be top-of-mind!
However, you can’t make someone love a job or anything or anyone for that matter. Love cannot be pushed onto someone. Love works in the entirely opposite way. Love pulls people towards. So how do you create roles and environments that pull people towards you? Here’s some suggestions on what to focus on:
I’m passionate about all-things employee engagement, the future of work, and job design because I want more people to be able to say, “I love my job.” If we can focus not ONLY on each individuals’ skills but also their strengths, and passions, and then purposefully design roles to meet that, we will be well on our way to getting there.
When we prioritise employee engagement and the love of the work, retention will increase, and burnout will decrease. And I think that’s a good reason to keep talking about this.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
If you’re happy and you know it… fake a smile? Not quite how the childhood song goes, but it is something that many of us do each day. Especially for those who work in client and customer-facing roles, the expectation to ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ and put on a happy face is high. And yet, a genuine smile cannot be faked, and authentic happiness can’t be forced.
There is no replacement for a real, authentic, honest smile that comes from a place of true contentment. And, as it turns out, genuine happiness is also good for business outcomes. Happy employees are more productive and engaged in their work, which is a win-win for employees and their employers.
Let’s look a bit more about why ‘fake it ‘till you make it’ doesn’t apply to happiness and why leaders need to understand the value of happiness at work.
Anyone who has worked a customer service job knows how to put on a happy face at work. There’s an expectation a lot of the time to smile, laugh, and generally appear to be happy when interacting with customers in that type of role.
Faking happiness comes at a cost—it takes emotional labour, which is defined as “managing emotions during interactions to achieve professional goals and conform to work role requirements.” Here are some symptoms of the emotional labour of faking happiness:
So, happiness matters. There are several studies to suggest that happy employees have a massive ROI in the workplace. One study found that happy workers are 13% more productive. The study was able to demonstrate a tangible link between reported happiness levels and productivity as measured by metrics like calls per hour and sales conversions.
This increase in productivity will, obviously, increase the positive business outcomes like higher revenue or increased client acquisition. But it also has benefits beyond just productivity and revenue generation. Increasing happiness amongst employees has other positive outcomes, including:
I mean, it all makes sense, right? Being happy and content makes it easy to work hard and do your absolute best—it’s the natural outcome. So, employees who are happy in their role will bring massive ROI back to the workplace through increased motivation, engagement, and productivity in their work.
Happiness matters, we can see that. So how do we get there? I believe that managers have a huge role to play because they are the ones who directly interact with employees and are setting up the conditions under which people are happy at work.
An important caveat is that, ultimately, each person is responsible for their own happiness. We should all exercise our agency to leave unhealthy environments, have difficult conversations about things that need to change, or work on our mindset so that we can experience gratitude and positivity. So, this is not to say that managers are 100% responsible to make employees happy. Rather, they have influence and authority to make positive changes that naturally improve the happiness of their employees.
This Forbes article outlines a few great ways that managers can increase happiness in their team:
There’s a cost to fake smiles and inauthentic happiness—the emotional burden for employees leads to exhaustion and lack of engagement. But true happiness can have a dramatic and positive impact on a personal and professional level. Managers need to be aware of this and take steps to start creating a positive work environment that fosters employee happiness. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to see happiness become a KPI for success in the future! It’s simply too important to forget about.
Till next time,
Hooroo
Tags: Change Management, Customer Experience, Future of Work
G'day!
This weeks article was inspired by a quote I saw recently from the amazing Sarah (Stealey) Reed that said: “What you originally set out to do, and what you love to do, don’t have to be the same”.
It got me thinking how much we change physically in our lives. Firstly, by choice, just check out my hair and beard styles in the last 18 months – Man-bun to shaved head to beard to the marvellous moustache.
And secondly by nature. Did you know that all the cells in your body are replaced every 7-10 years? You become a new person every decade! So, if your body can change into something new, why not your career and life?
We are constantly changing, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, as are our passions, experiences, and life circumstances. But sometimes we need to take a radical leap in our careers and lives and reinvent ourselves. This can be triggered by:
The last two years of the pandemic have driven many people to reassess their lives, jobs, and roles. In fact, in the last year, 1 in 5 Australians have changed jobs and another quarter are planning to leave their current job!
But whatever your reason is for change, it’s helpful to have a reinvention roadmap to guide you through:
Before diving head-first into a radical life change, take stock of where you are, how you feel, and why you want to reinvent yourself. Consider these ways to do it:
By taking stock of how you are pre-change, you’ll be better equipped to handle the challenges and changes to come, as well as setting a marker for you to look back on when you get to the future you.
Change is never easy, even if it’s something you really want. And I know courage isn’t just a light switch you can turn on or off, but I do believe courage is a muscle to be exercised. The great philosopher Aristotle believed that building courage comes by doing courageous acts. You can work on being courageous by taking small, consistent steps towards your goal.
And if you need a boost, look back on your life to all the other times you were courageous: applying for a dream job, traveling abroad, handling conflict, dealing with trauma, asking “that” person on a date or going skydiving! Look back on this evidence of courage in your life and bring it forward into a new season.
Nothing is permanent in this world if you don’t want it to be, but some things can stick around longer than you planned… like that bicycle tattoo! That’s why experimentation is so important. Try something out and see if it works before jumping all-in. Here are some ideas:
Innovation is directly tied to experimentation; to achieve something new, exciting, and different, you have to try things out!
This is obvious, but you need people in your corner! Find mentors and coaches to give you encouragement, honest feedback, and practical advice through your reinvention.
And, even more importantly, hold close to the friends in your life who love you unconditionally. “Agape” is the Greek term for “unconditional love”—they’re the people who will stay by your side and pick you up when you can’t pick yourself up.
When you set out to do something new, you’re not always going to nail it right away. Failing is not inevitable, but it’s possible. You need to have a mindset of accepting whatever happens.
If you fail a new project or idea, see what you can learn from it. And if it does really knock you to the ground, let your support system help pick you back up (#4).
Most of us don’t like criticism! It can be hard to hear what we’re doing wrong or ways to improve. But constructive criticism can be beneficial to your growth and development.
The Johari Window Model is a communication model to improve self-awareness between individuals in a group setting. It points to the different ways that conveying and accepting feedback can improve relationships. When used appropriately, both sharing and receiving criticism or feedback can help you uncover blind spots or things you did not see yourself.
Once you’ve arrived at your “reinvention point,” go back to point number one and take stock again. Compare your starting and ending point by asking questions such as:
We already talked about how change is hard and requires courage. So, love yourself and be kind to yourself! It can be easy to talk down to ourselves or negatively compare what we’re doing to what we see around us.
I love LinkedIn, but it can sometimes be a space for comparison, with each person trying to level up in relation to others. Instead of comparison, choose compassion. Compassion for yourself, because we all need to practice a little self-love and kindness.
---
Just remember: You’re not the same as yesterday. You’re learning something new and reinventing yourself everyday, whether you choose to do so or not! And, say you do choose to reinvent yourself, then take a deep, inspirational breath, and know, it takes time, courage, and self-compassion.
So, with all that said, here’s to you-2.0 or whatever version you are up to.
Till next time, hooroo.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
This week’s EX Rated article has two very special guest contributors! I recently had two great conversations with Elliot Debinski and Tim Buzza around working from home (WFH) and returning to the office.
To WFH or Not WFH – that was the question.
They both had very different views which reinforced my belief that the future of work is hybrid.
Tim, CCO of Attune, avid flexible work advocate and thought leader caught up virtually over a coffee. Tim, with a freshly brewed Turkish style coffee from his home office in Istanbul. Me, with a less than average instant coffee from my kitchen table in Melbourne. After a brief chat about why I haven’t purchased a coffee machine yet, Tim enthusiastically (maybe it was his high-quality caffeine) explained to me why he loved working from home.
Here’s what Tim had to say:
WFH is AWESOME and I will never go back to an office.
I have five reasons as to why:
1. Time with my loved ones. The last 2 years have taught me that my happiness is intrinsically linked to the quality (not quantity) of the relationships in my life. That is, the small number of deep and meaningful relationships in my life are the ones matter most. Being able to spend more time with my family is main reason I choose to WFH. The rest of this list is just gravy.
2. Working the hours that work for me. Chronobiology is a fancy term that describes the fact some of us are morning people and some of us are not. In his book ‘Deep Work’ Cal Newport introduced monk mode as the ultimate productivity hack. Monk mode is the ability to focus on highly demanding cognitive tasks without distraction. For most people early mornings is the best time of day to access monk mode. WFH has allowed me to experiment and design a non-standard workday that maximises my productivity and be present for my family.
3. Healthy Downtime. When I first started WFH I was not switching off during the day. Back-to-back Zoom meetings had taken over my life. I soon realised that managing downtime was critical. With a little discipline what started out as a challenge turned into an opportunity. I experimented with different reset practices and developed some wonderfully addictive hacks e.g., playing with the dogs, walking bare foot on the grass, watering the vegetable garden and even power napping. These reset hacks have made a huge difference to my workday – improving my productivity, wellbeing, and job satisfaction.
4. Healthy Food Choices. This does not require a lot of explanation. Preparing and cooking all my meals at home has really helped me optimise my health. Just avoid the temptation to snack ;)
5. Cost of living. WFH is cheaper.
Of course, WFH is not perfect for everyone. Everybody’s circumstance is unique, and their needs will change throughout their lifetime. Employers that empower workers to personalise their way of working will be the winners in the post-pandemic world.
Tim provided a pretty compelling case, and I was ready to tell my team I would no longer be coming to the office. That was until I had a real coffee with Elliot – Business Development Manager at Centrical and all-round energising and hypnotic human.
Aside from the fact that Nescafe Blend 43 cannot compete with a Melbourne Magic (best coffee in the world), Elliot quipped that the pains of the pandemic are like a tattoo. It leaves a permanent mark that really hurts at the time however the pain is quickly forgotten, and we often go back for more for some reason.
Here’s what Elliot had to say:
After joining Centrical from my Kitchen table and spending a year isolated on my own without the physical presence of my colleagues around me – it was clear that ‘return to the office’ was for me. The benefits of working on site (in the city) for me are not necessarily being about more productive or efficient. One could even argue that I am actually more productive at home as I’m not wasting time trying to find the best Bahn Mi in town or having water-cooler chats about who is the best sportsman of all time (it’s MJ).
The last couple of years have been a digital overload for me. I’m a total social creature and thrive off the human touch and so that fuel tank ran on empty for way too long. What I like about being in the office is having the physical presence of my colleagues to be able to collaborate and share anything in real-time. It’s less of a headache [for me] not having to send a message on teams or having to jump on a zoom call, just to review something that could easily be done by swivelling the chair around. More on that – even just seeing people in the city affirms with me we are on the return to some normality after such an abnormal two years. I feel way more energised seeing cafes bustling again and sidewalks jam packed during rush hour – the commute to work also gives me a nice opportunity to mentally prepare for the day. Compare that with walking around the corner from home in my filthy dressing gown, still half asleep after conveniently rolling out of bed 10 minutes before the first of many zoom calls. Even that feeling of deliverance when you’ve clocked off for the day is more special when you the step out the office, ride down the elevator listening to your favourite tunes, processing what is next for the evening – perhaps even a little excited about a dinner conveniently planned around the corner from the office with some mates. For me, simply closing my laptop at the day’s end doesn’t feel the same. Oh, and I’ve also fallen in love with the café at the bottom of my building :)
Elliot reminded me that we are social creature by design. It’s how we survived when we emerged from caves, and it seems for some, (like Elliot) we are emerging from caves yet again.
What is Hybrid?
As I said at the beginning, both conversations reaffirmed for me that the future of work is hybrid. But what exactly is hybrid? For me it’s not defined simply by the number of days you work from home and the office. Instead, I believe hybrid working is defined by two simple things. Space and flexibility.
Space
The creation of inviting, warm, collaborative and psychologically safe spaces – regardless of whether it is online space or a physical space. My prediction is that we will see a new role create within organisations, something along the lines of Chief Space Maker.
Flexibility
True flexibility – the ability to choose to work anywhere at a time that suits both the individual and the business contemporaneously. This however requires 3 things: the first (and obvious one), infrastructure both digital and physical, the second, Flexibility from both the employee and the employer and the third and final, communication.
I’m always grateful for the real-life stories people share with me around how they engage with work. If you have your own views and experiences that you want to share, then please feel free to reach out to me and we too can grab a coffee, face-to-face or virtually.
The choice truly is yours.
To find out more about what both Tim and Elliot do and how they do it, then you can check out their profiles here:
Tim - https://www.linkedin.com/in/timbuzza/
Elliot -https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-debinski-464097192/
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
How common is this scenario: you ask someone how they’re doing, and they respond, “busy.” And many of us are busy because we overwork and log more time at the office (wherever that is) than we should.
But in an era where we are finally recognising output (results, achievements) as more valuable than input (hours worked), why are we still overworking?
There is significant data and increasing awareness about employee engagement and job satisfaction—we know that overworking and burnout are not good. Despite this, employees are reporting some of the highest levels of burnout on record, with Australia and the US leading the charge.
Let’s look at why this all matters and what we can do about it.
The data is clear: employees feel more engaged in their work when they are encouraged, mentored, and offered flexibility. When workplaces encourage work-life balance, employees can dedicate their time to increase the output in the organisation and work to meet the goals, objectives, and vision of the company.
But this utopia of employee engagement cannot be reached if we continue to overwork.
It’s hard to put an exact number on the situation—ABS data shows that Australians may have worked less hours during the pandemic. But when looking globally, and particularly in certain industries like healthcare, there are record-high levels of stress and burnout.
Other data shows that people tended to work more because of the pandemic, with a 2.5-hour increase in the average workday in countries surveyed. And though the pandemic has exacerbated the problem, overwork has been a longstanding problem, as explored in this article regarding a WHO study.
All of this wouldn’t matter if overworking was benign. But it’s not. There are many negative impacts, perhaps most provocatively documented in this BBC article that claims “overwork is literally killing us.” The article documents symptoms of overwork that are detrimental to health, such as elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, and unhealthy behavioural changes (i.e., little exercise, drinking).
With such negative impacts of overwork, rest becomes particularly important. Rest is necessary for physical health and your professional wellbeing. Here are the reasons why rest needs to be prioritised:
To fully understand why we need to stop overworking, let’s look at the cons. Here are the worst consequences of overwork:
Employees need to communicate their feelings and concerns about burnout, fatigue, and dissatisfaction to employers or managers, who should then work to provide solutions. Here are some ways they can reduce overwork:
Employees need to assess why they are overworking:
Whatever strategies are chosen or reasons for overworking, managing it needs to be a priority—overwork is a serious issue. With all the knowledge we have, it’s more important than ever to stop overworking and prioritise health and wellbeing. It matters for employee engagement and it matters for our health; it’s too important to ignore any longer.
Tags: Customer Experience, Future of Work, Mental Health
Employee engagement, workplace culture, employee experience… these are popular captions that show up frequently in conversations about the current and future state of work. Especially given how the pandemic has radically shifted our work world, they’re important topics to talk about.
We hear these words a lot (I mean, I write about them all the time!), but what do they really mean? What’s the difference between them? And why the heck does it even matter?
I’m going to breakdown the differences between employee engagement and employee experience. While connected, these concepts are different. If you are a leader or manager who cares about results, growth, or retention—you need to pay attention. And if you are an employee, you also need to understand these concepts to know what to look out for in a workplace.
We’re going to look at the two concepts in further detail, but I’ll start with the simple definition: Employee experience happens to you; Engagement is within you. Experience is the journey and engagement is the destination.
Employee experience (EX): the journey. It captures all the things an employer can do to create a workplace that attracts and retains talents. It’s a broad category that includes all the touch points between employee and employer. Here are some areas that impact EX:
The employee experience can be broken down into smaller areas, like those listed. However, the primary reason to look at them individually is to see where leadership should invest time, energy, and resources to improve. To do this, leaders may want to:
Like any project, the best way to approach it is to break in down into smaller focus areas. This report by McKinsey organises EX into three broad categories: Social Experience (people, teamwork, socialisation), Work Experience (organisation, control, flexibility, growth), and Organization experience (purpose, technology, environment). By breaking it down like this, companies can take a systematic approach to improving EX.
While it’s helpful to look at different areas, the overall employee experience is most important. A company that is very good at, say, onboarding, but lacks in other areas, is unlikely to retain good employees. Thus, leadership should be concerned with overall employee experience and how it’s impacting each person they employ.
If EX is about what the employer does, then employee engagement is about how an employee feels. Do they like their job? Are they productive, focused, and energized with work? What about relationships between colleagues—strong or room for improvement?
Some characteristics of an engaged employee include:
An engaged employee, quite simply, likes their job. They’re engaged in the work and engaged in the workplace. It’s somewhere they want to be and has a sense of belonging and the best part… Engaged employees find meaning in the work they do and they connect it to their own sense of purpose.
Employee engagement is, of course, desirable for all workers. But beyond the personal benefits, employee engagement is highly valuable for company success and performance. Engaged employees tend to perform better, stay longer in a company, and be more creative and driven in their work.
A good employee experience is a step toward employee engagement. Bad experiences drive employees away cutting short the time it takes for them to connect to the purpose of the work. A string of good employee experiences shared by all employees is the core ingredient to a good culture — So things like branding, values, processes, policies, norms and strategies from leadership matter— Done with purpose and coordination will help foster employee engagement. And employee engagement is the end goal.
Studies show that employee engagement has massive benefits for companies. High employee engagement is connected to:
These reasons are the “business case” for why employee engagement is important. But there’s also a “personal case”: we all deserve to work somewhere we are engaged in our work (regardless of the work) and valued for our contributions.
Employees are waking up to this fact. Given the rise of remote work during the pandemic, employees are realising that they have options. They are no longer location-dependent and can seek out workplaces that give them the employee experience they’re looking for. This is one of the driving factors of the Great Resignation and a reason leaders need to wake up and pay attention to employee engagement.
To sum it all up: Employee experience is made up of actions and environmental factors, controlled by the employer. A good overall EX will Set the stage to produce employee engagement, which is when staff enjoy their work and feel valued at the workplace. This all matters because strong employee engagement is better for people and better for businesses and customers. In a time of great uncertainty, the need for strong employee engagement remains constant and important.
Tags: Customer Experience, Diversity and Inclusion, Future of Work
As we (yet again), emerge from our Zoom cocoons and various degrees of lockdown, organisations are taking stock of their return-to-office (RTO) plans. Employers should be conscious that employees could experience different and new forms of stress. There may be for some, a certain amount of anxiety around the concept of returning to previous, and or new ways of working, engaging with people face-to-face.
Businesses are gearing up to welcome employees back to offices as vaccination rates increase and social distancing restrictions ease in many parts of the globe. Some employees are enthusiastic about returning to the routine of office life to escape “disturbances” at home and see colleagues in real life. However, some are less eager to leave remote working behind.
For many of us, our resilience and mental health have taken a blow throughout the past two years, thanks to numerous and lengthy lockdowns, the cacophony of media attention on COVID and often limited healthy outlets, such as socialising and gyms etc. to deal with the enormity of change that was thrust upon us.
So, it’s no wonder that there is some FORO. It’s unlikely that things will go back to the way they were pre-pandemic and for the most part we should view this as positive change. Covid catapulted businesses forward on the work from home (WFH) front and for many employees this was a blessing. I.T. departments were forced to make it work and now that employees have had a taste of WFH some are reluctant to go back, because they like it and the work life balance it offers, whilst others will be reluctant to return due to fears and concern.
Now I have never been overly germaphobic and I’ll admit that the 3 second rule of food falling on the floor, has on occasion blown out to 30… ok 45 seconds, depending on how tasty the dropped treat was and how many people were watching. But even I have found myself worried about the hygiene of those around me, at shops, or of late, on public transport. I have caught myself getting a tad anxious when someone steps inside my 1.5 metre (5 feet) bubble when queuing for a coffee or when seeing someone not wearing a mask when they perhaps should.
So how do businesses quell the fears of their employees and provide them with a smooth and supported RTO and how do employees best prepare themselves?
It may be obvious, but this will be about getting back to basics. Frequent and clear communication is going to be key, setting out an RTO plan at both an organisational and individual level is a good start. Keeping everyone informed before, during and after the transition will go a very long way toward minimising stress around the unknown.
According to Alicia Walf, a neuroscientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, one of the most effective ways to overcome FORO may simply be to get back into it, pointing out that “positive human connections are the most powerful tools for minimising stress”.
To improve health of our brains and control anxiety, she suggests that a return to normalcy after a long period of continuous stress can be a crucial step forward for brain health.
Of course, the message “just get on with it” won’t sit well with you, many internal comms teams or employees for that matter. So, let’s add some science and a personal story behind the positive power of human connection.
Almost three years ago, before all of this pandemic palaver, I made the bold and scary step of leaving the (what I now consider) the comfort of corporate life and started my own business. I went from having loads of colleagues to bounce ideas off, team mates with strengths to compliment my weaknesses and a bunch of amazing humans to lead, to just me, myself and an idea.
It was exciting, daunting, and bloody tough. I had worked hard on branding, a business plan and a website, but, what I had not planned for was the drain on my mental health. I was for the first time in my working career confronted by a sense of loneliness, a sudden loss of a sense of belonging and an ever-increasing amount of self-doubt. Couple all that with an emerging bug from Wuhan and it was a perfect recipe for a trip to a psychologist (another first for me). After learning some handy techniques on how to cope with all these newfound challenges I was also recommended by my trusted local GP to start with some anti-depressants.
At first, the thought of this was terrifying and embarrassing, however when the Doctor explained that it was just an extra boost of serotonin, it made it a much easier pill to swallow… literally. I still wonder why marketeers haven't got onto this one and called them mood boosters instead of anti-depressants... I digress.
Back to the point of the story, serotonin is a chemical our bodies naturally produced when we feel admired, respected and when we feel trust of others. It helps boost your confidence, happiness and so much more.
It's a chemical that can be boosted when we socialise with others and when we exercise, so when you’re isolated (or locked down) and not interacting with others, it makes sense that your serotonin levels could drop.
The other chemical that released into our body through face-to-face interactions is oxytocin. Oxytocin is released into our body when we create emotional bonds with others and also, through physical touch. When oxytocin is released we get the warm and fuzzies, it happens when we spend time with people we enjoy being around and through physical touch. Yes even at work, through something as simple as a humble handshake or well-executed high five!
So when you or your colleagues are feeling a little FORO remember, there are scientific benefits to being back in the office.
Ok, so maybe by now you’re thinking that you might give the office life a nudge again, but are not sure how to start. Here’s some tips I found helpful which may help you and your organisation too:
Start getting into the rhythm of a regular workday week before you RTO to help with a smoother transition. Follow a healthy routine with consistent sleep timings, timely meals, enough physical activity, and even some scheduled relaxation time. You could even start doing what I did by building in some fake travel time, taking a walk around the block before you open the laptop which can get your body and brain familiar with the travel time again.
Look into the COVID safety policy of your office to what’s changed with regards to the physical environment, hygiene and processes so you know what to expect. Ensure you feel protected and comfortable while in the office, and if not communicate your concerns. Being familiar with the policies helped me with lowering my FORO, knowing cleaning practices are being applied along with other COVID safe practices.
You're not a rubber band that can immediately bounce back to your previous way of working. Try to be patient with yourself and with whatever exhaustion, distress, or confusion may come. Give yourself space to process it all. Remember it’s okay to take time to get it right.
Even though returning to the office and wearing masks are big changes in many routines and may be producing feelings of anxiety, it’s worth thinking ahead to the benefits the social engagement will have, such as potentially lowering long-lasting negative impacts of stress.
Adaptability is a crucial part of resiliency to stress, and a practical skill to work on as we adjust to the changing world.
Some companies like Google have asked their employees back to the office, which in my humble opinion, is fair enough. Let’s not forget the investment organisations have put into state-of-the-art workplaces. It sure beats the laptop on the ironing board right? So, you might understand why they want to ensure the investment is being used. Let’s also consider some of the small businesses that stake their survival on office foot traffic. City window fronts have become ghost towns and it's a grim reminder of some of the impacts the pandemic has had on small business. However, organisations that refuse to think the world has moved on or changed is in for a big shock. Forcing employees back to the office full time will quickly see the organisation on the wrong end of the great resignation. Employees will vote with their feet and migrate to companies that get the hybrid model right. So, if you are reading this and are in a position to influence the RTO and are thinking, “great now that we’re open we can just jump backwards a few years”, then let me echo the words of the great Barry White – “slow your roll”. The office is not going anywhere. There will be employees who are chomping at the bit to get back and others with genuine FORO. Breath… The future is hybrid and you will find a way to make it work for you, your employees and the physical space of your workplace.
We are in a unique time in history where we can shape how we work, where we work and when we work. This will require immense human change which, requires kindness. Bob Kerry said it best – “Unexpected Kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change”. So with a blank canvas of possibility in front of us where the future of work could be anything – let it first be kind.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
I talk a lot about employee experience (EX), employee engagement, and how I think gamification, when implemented correctly, can help with both.
However, if you’ve been around this EX-world for a bit and have ever googled gamification, you may have stumbled across this article by Ian Bogost who has a different opinion: Gamification is Bullshit.
And, well, I kind of agree.
Gamification can absolutely be bullshit when it’s implemented for the wrong reasons and with the wrong methodology.
But with the right reasons and the right methodology? Gamification can change everything for a company.
In his article, Ian states that ‘it gives Vice Presidents and Brand Managers comfort: they’re doing everything right, and they can do even better by adding “a games strategy” to their existing products, slathering on “gaminess” like aioli on ciabatta at the consultant’s indulgent sales lunch.’
I agree with this statement, but only because the intent is all wrong. Unfortunately, some VPs and Brand Managers act this way, thinking that by checking the gamification checkbox, they are doing the right thing.
Instead of using gamification as a checkbox or a kudos to the leadership team, it needs to be implemented to engage the team. Gamification should be used to
It is ultimately about improving the employee experience, learning, personal growth and enhancing engagement. The intent of leadership and why they are using gamification matters. It’s not about slathering on too much “aioli,” but carefully introducing gamification to meet desired goals.
There are a number of large and popular companies that regularly use gamification, such as FitBit for exercise motivation or Kahoot for classroom engagement. The intent behind these companies, and others (yes like Centrical), is to use gamification to meet their intended goals—not to just check some boxes to say they did it.
2. Gamification is easy.
Again, Ian’s words: “Gamification is easy. It offers simple, repeatable approaches in which benefit, honor, and aesthetics are less important than facility. For the consultants and the startups, that means selling the same bullshit in book, workshop, platform, or API form over and over again, at limited incremental cost."
And, again, this is a misinterpretation of the intent behind gamification. If you consider it to be only checking a box, then gamification might be seen as easy.
But in reality, when applied correctly, gamification is not easy. It draws from the fields of behavioural psychology, sustainable game design, and intrinsic motivation—all complex areas of knowledge that cannot just be thrown together with badges and points.
Gamification is a science and needs to be treated as such. It’s “easy” to provide a badge to some kind of menial task, but that certainly will not motivate an employee to do better. It can actually be condescending to their intelligence and motivations.
Instead, use gamification to enhance the innate driving motivations amongst employees. Consider these factors when introducing gamification:
If used only as a gimmick or quick fix then yes, gamification is bullshit. It all comes down to both the intent and the application of it. If leaders see it as a hot and trendy thing to do and slap on some flimsy point or badge system, then it only serves to check a box.
But if employers can use gamification for what it is—a science-based system to increase intrinsic motivation and employee engagement—that’s when the real impact can be made!
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
How much of communication is what’s left unsaid? A lot of our daily conversations and discussions centre around norms, assumptions, and ideas—it’s not always just based on what is explicitly said.
This plays into the term 'social contract,' an idea that’s been floating around in the workplace and future of work conversations for the last decade or more. It’s a term for the unspoken agreement between two people, in this case, an employer and an employee.
A social contract might be the reason you answer your emails after work hours or wear one outfit to work over another. There are behaviours that each employee does—outside of any formal employee contract—that are determined by a social contract and workplace norms.
But as we move into an after-COVID (AC) era, are employees still okay with this? Will a social contract hold its weight against a formal employee contract?
I'm talking about a social contract within the workplace, but it goes much deeper than that. The Modern Social Contract Theory comes from some of the great philosophers, including Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
The main point of the social contract theory is best understood as a relationship between individuals and the community that they live in. This can be the community as a country, a workplace, or general humanity.
The social contract theory is most often applied when discussing the authorities and powers of the state. It is defined as: 'an actual or hypothetical agreement among the members of an organised society or between a community and its ruler that defines and limits the rights and duties of each.'
Will Cairns discussed the social contract theory in his recent article, exploring the relation between it and the current pandemic. With all the discussions surrounding vaccinations, wearing masks, and other pandemic 'new norms,' there are questions around the balance of individual rights and community responsibility. He poses two questions:
Now, I’m not here to fill your feed with more talk about COVID-19. But the reality is that it's exactly because of this pandemic that we are, collectively, exploring these ideas. And I can’t help but wonder—are these questions ones we also need to ask of our workplace?
Consider replacing 'the state' with 'the employer.’ Let’s ask the questions again:
These are the questions on many employees’ minds. After nearly two years of constant pivoting, working from home, dealing with pandemic restrictions… It’s been a lot. And employees are wondering: what am I doing this for? Am I willing to sacrifice my freedom, time, and values for my employer?
The pandemic has prompted many employees to consider what they are willing to give up for their employer. There are a few reasons for that:
All of these factors—along with others such as the labour shortage—are wrapped up in the big conversation around the Great Resignation. I wrote about the Great Resignation before, questioning whether it was a real phenomenon or a bit hyped-up. However, in any case, the conversations and concerns around it are very much real.
Many employees are leaving their jobs to pursue side hustles and the gig economy.
Many employees are switching industries after losing their long-held positions.
And many employees are questioning what they are willing to sacrifice for the sake of their employer.
And like never before, employees are actually interested in the fine print of their employment contracts. They want to know: what am I entitled to, what does my employer stand for and what will be asked of me outside of the formal contract?
So what does all of this mean? The social contract—unspoken norms and rules of a workplace—is back on the lips and minds of many people. Just as the pandemic has shifted many things about our daily lives, it’s also shifted the idea that workplaces can demand certain things, 'just because,' and expect their employees to adhere to it.
The social contract will impact our workplaces through three avenues:
There are other possible outcomes too. Some may simply quit their jobs in pursuit of another opportunity, including self-employed options.
And then there are those who will stay put. The social contract is unlikely to completely disappear and may have a stronghold over some people. We’ve seen this in action over the pandemic: people have a renewed sense of what it means to belong to a community of individuals, and how certain things can be expected from the power-that-be to be part of said community. Some rebel against the very idea, but others thrive under community expectations.
There’s no singular answer or outcome that I can give about what might happen in the coming months and years. I can’t say, either, what will 'win' in a contest between social and employment contracts.
But one thing is certain: the AC era is going to look dramatically different than anything we’ve seen before and the social contract needs to be re-evaluated to build a strong employee experience and attract top talent.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
The gig economy. It’s a term that barely existed a few years ago but is now a hot topic of conversation. Even the government is getting into it—Victoria announced recently that they have plans to regulate the industry in order to protect workers’ safety and rights.
The gig economy, essentially, is the move towards remote, flexible, and contract work dominated by freelancers and self-employed individuals.
Employee engagement is the concept that employees are motivated, engaged, and connected to their work. It’s generally discussed within the concept of a company and challenges leaders and managers to increase their employee engagement.
So, I have to ask: is there room for employee engagement in the gig economy? If you don’t work for someone, who’s responsible for your engagement? Does it even matter?
Though it’s hard to accurately identify the entire gig economy workforce, in December 2021, there were 2.4 million Australians who worked on a casual basis, some 23% of the population. This includes workers in a variety of industries and employment structures.
The gig economy can refer to a number of different things, including:
Reasons for working in a gig economy are numerous. Some people are actively choosing it for the flexible lifestyle and draw to work from anywhere (just search 'digital nomad' on Instagram, and you’ll understand the appeal!).
But others are forced into the gig economy as they are unable to find regular, consistent, or permanent employment in their chosen field. Studies found that gig workers are often disadvantaged and purposely denied safety measures or protections because of their temporary status.
No matter the reasons, it’s clear that the gig economy will play a huge part in the future of work. And, with that, we’ll need to start adapting long-held beliefs and ideas about work, employee engagement, and worker safety.
I spend a good deal of time thinking and researching employee engagement and how companies and leaders need to step up their game in this area. There are seven senses an employee needs to have true employee engagement:
The gig economy definitely checks a few of those boxes. It’s flexible, so there’s lots of autonomy. You can certainly have a sense of achievement, and it’s possible to progress towards higher goals.
But what about belonging? Belonging is actually built on the other six factors and is the defining sense in employee engagement. I think that it is such an important part, that it will actually reshape the way businesses operate; soon, organisations will have to prioritise culture and employee engagement over customers to be successful in the marketplace.
If belonging is so important to employee engagement, we’re going to have to figure out how it fits into the gig economy. If you don’t work for someone and you don’t work with other people (most of the time)... where do you belong?
It seems, then, that the gig economy is kind of, sort of hitting the mark with employee engagement. But here’s the thing: so many businesses only 'kind of' hit the mark. Very few are incorporating all seven characteristics, which is why some employees are leaving those positions for greener pastures in the gig economy.
The question now becomes, what’s the way forward? If we know that the gig economy is always going to struggle with creating a sense of belonging, where do we go?
I propose two ideas:
As the gig economy continues to grow, it will be an important part of the future of work conversation. It’s a multi-faceted discussion with many influencing factors.
In my opinion, the most pressing question, as always, remains: how do we boost employee engagement in order to maximise productivity, mental and physical wellbeing, provide excellent customer experiences, and get back to doing meaningful, impactful work? To answer this, we’ll have to keep redefining just what employee engagement means and how it can be adapted to the new gig economy.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Because of the pandemic, most of us have had our suitcases tucked away for the last two years. Traveling has been near-impossible—data shows that in October 2019, over 900,000 Australians left the country, whereas in Oct 2020 and 2021, it was under 15,000 people. Many employees do not want to use their vacation time on something that is less than ideal—if you can’t get away, why take a vacation?
This lack of international travel coincided with the rise in remote work, where employers and employees alike have realised that they can work from just about anywhere. Getting out of the city or where you live and exploring a new place suddenly became possible without taking off time from work.
Enter the workcation. It’s work with a side of vacation, or working while kind-of-vacationing. This new phenomenon is on the rise, embraced by both workers and companies.
But is a change of scenery really as good as a holiday?
Workcations or hybrid holidays have a number of positives them, the biggest being the chance to get away from the normal day-to-day and have some fun while still getting work done and bringing in a paycheque! Here are some other pros:
Despite these positive attributes of the working holiday, there are some downsides that also need to be considered. The cons of workcations include:
This is a fairly new phenomenon and it will be interesting to see how it unfolds as we put the pandemic behind us. However, the idea is that this is a positive shift for employees, away from being measured in hours and time-in-office. Instead, their output and results will matter, both of which can be achieved pool-side.
A workcation can be an effective and rewarding way of measuring employees and may inspire them to be more productive. The flexibility of a workcation is a way to reward employees and allow them autonomy over their schedule and lives, ultimately creating a win-win situation.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
There’s an old adage that gets tossed around in the business world: Customer is King. All business activities and decisions are based around keeping the customer happy. This was the focus during the Age of the Customer, a concept popularised in the early 2010s and dominated the last decade of business.
But is the King’s reign now over? We are moving into an after-COVID (AC) world that will look dramatically different in 2022 than it did in those pre-COVID (PC) days where face masks were not even available, let alone a daily fashion choice.
The AC world will look different for a variety of reasons, because of both macro-scale economics reasons and personal life changes. There is already a dramatic labour shortage that is creating real challenges and opportunities in the workforce. Challenges for businesses to keep up operations, but also an opportunity to step into a new era, where culture is king.
Business culture refers to a feeling and an ethos of a company—you know who they are and what they’re about. In the AC era, both employees and customers will seek companies that have a positive, ethical, inclusive, and sustainable culture.
Customers will look for this because they want to feel aligned with companies, they give their money to and they want a good customer experience (CX). Employees desire strong company culture because now, perhaps more than ever, they need to be engaged and excited by their work. Even before the pandemic, culture was important to employees—a study by Glassdoor in 2019 shows that 77% of employees consider a company’s culture before applying and a staggering 56% say that it is even more important than a salary.
The only question is, how do companies create such a utopia to recruit and retain high-quality talent? I believe there are six key ingredients that work together to build a positive, inclusive culture:
These six points are key ingredients to creating a good workplace culture, and together they create a sense of belonging. Humans naturally seek belonging from their external environments, especially those that they spend significant time in like a workplace. Employees who feel a sense of belonging are more productive and deliver higher customer satisfaction—both of which are good for business!
Employees are coming out of a difficult season and approaching work in the AC world will require businesses to focus on creating a strong workplace culture that provides a sense of belonging. Ultimately this will lend itself to engaged, productive employees who deliver strong customer experiences. So, is the reign of King Customer over? Well, they will at least have to share their throne with culture as companies learn to navigate the new world of work.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
We live in an ever-changing world, where new technologies and inventions have the power to fundamentally shift both business and society. When it comes to the relationship between businesses and their clients or customers, these shifts through the decades are pronounced.
It is widely understood that the last decade has been the Age of the Customer. Two studies were published by Forrester Research in 2013 that highlighted the impact and use of technology that signalled a change from the previous Age of Information.
The Age of the Customer of the last decade is defined by the power that customers have. Customers are more connected than they have ever been and are able to direct businesses through their power and influence on social media and third-party review sites. Just think—today, companies can be “cancelled” over a PR blunder or have a hard time getting business with poor Yelp reviews.
Businesses have responded by trying to create an amazing customer experience (CX) with things like personas, customer journey maps, or customer experience maps etc. They have embraced two-way communication on social media and work hard to earn their client’s trust and repeat business.
Focusing on CX is great and absolutely necessary, but the foundation of every CX is EX—the employee experience. CX led organisations continue to be market leaders but one thing that is often unseen, is that they are also great places to work. That’s because CX led companies have realised that although CX is the head, EX is actually the neck and will turn CX wherever it decides. Happy, engaged, and knowledgeable employees will be able to elevate the CX in a way that disengaged employees will not.
I propose that we are entering into a new age: The Age of the Employee. After all, it’s only taken a decade and a pandemic for businesses to understand that every CX starts with great EX. Companies need to focus on their EX or they will no longer be competitive in the after-COVID (AC) era.
Let’s take a step back for a moment. The last century has seen massive shifts in technology, business, and society. We don’t even really need to state that—it’s obvious. What’s less obvious is the nature of these shifts. A lot of experts and analysts have divided the last century into different “ages,” with each having a unique and defining feature. A summary of these ages are as follows:
As mentioned, the Age of the Employee has been ten years plus a pandemic in the making. While the last decade of focus on customers has gotten a lot of things right, it has also missed a fundamental piece: behind every CX is an employee—a real human who is interacting with that customer and making a positive or negative impact on them.
Focusing on CX cannot be a siloed pursuit as it is inextricably intertwined with EX. Companies are slowly coming to terms with this and initiating employee care or engagement initiatives.
Then the pandemic came. And everything shifted.
For the first time, employees were asked to do something remarkable—work from home in the midst of an uncertain global pandemic. Some people struggled and some thrived with the work from home set up. But, as a collective, employees found their voice.
Employees felt like they could, finally, prioritise their health and family over work. They had additional free time without normal commutes to purse hobbies and side hustles. Pandemic losses caused people to re-think priorities and things that are important. They became comfortable working in pyjamas.
These shifts are monumental. Any company that thinks they can just call back their employees and things will maintain status-quo are sorely mistaken. The pandemic has given a voice to employees and, now that they have found it, they are not going to be silenced.
Businesses have two options: ignore the new-found voice of employees and try to pretend the pandemic didn’t happen, or listen to the voices asking for change and make real investments into EX and employee engagement. I think most people will agree that the latter option is the best choice: it’s time to embrace the Age of the Employee.
There are a number of strategies that businesses need to implement in the AC era to focus on employee engagement. And, while the pandemic is making these changes an urgent necessity, it’s important to recognise that they are a long time coming. Ignoring EX in the pursuit of CX has been a major oversight of the last decade. It’s time to merge the two and realise that they work towards the same aim.
Here are some of the ways companies can invest in their employees as people, creating a holistic EX that boosts engagement, productivity, and efficiency. Companies should invest in:
The Age of the Employee is an extension of the Age of the Customer and has been precipitated by the pandemic. It presents an opportunity for businesses to stay competitive in the AC era by honouring and valuing their employees’ new-found voices, but it will also make all the difference in their CX.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
The Great Resignation—it sounds pretty serious, doesn’t it? It’s likely that many of you reading this have heard this term thrown around in the past few months. The Great Resignation is used to discuss the (apparent) influx in resignations as employees are called back to work in the After-COVID (AC) era. This phenomenon has been covered extensively by the media, such as in this article in the Harvard Business Review.
The data from the article shows that attrition rates in some industries is upwards of 30% during the COVID-19 period. Another 57% of respondents in a survey indicated that they would consider taking a new job in the upcoming year. Those number are high—they seem abnormally high. People appear to be leaving their jobs in droves, leaving employers scrambling to find good talent to replace them.
But what if I told you that this level of turnover is not new? In fact, it’s been this way for a long time.
Data from Fifth Quadrant in 2018, firmly in the Before-COVID (BC) era, shows that turnover rates in the Australian financial, services, and consumer products industries were over 50%. If this was the case BC, why are we so surprised to see high attrition AC?
If you take a critical look at this BC data and compare it to the never-ending articles and discussion about The Great Resignation, you have to ask: is it hype, fact, or is everyone just waking up to what has been going on for years?
Despite what many people are saying, high attrition rates are not uncommon. As mentioned, the Fifth Quadrant 2018 report indicated that BC turnover was high, with upwards of 50% of employees in some industries resigning from their jobs.
Part of the reasons that these AC statistics about employees leaving are so shocking is because we were at a virtual standstill as a society for nearly two years during the pandemic. Most people stayed put in their jobs, recognising it was a turbulent time and grateful for any employment as many others were laid off. The Australian Bureau of Statistics show that the period from February 2020-2021 (peak pandemic) had the lowest annual job mobility rate on record—7.5% of employed people changed jobs, lower than it has ever been.
Now that we are back to normal(ish) in the AC period, things are returning back to normal: people are evaluating their jobs, overall satisfaction, and life circumstances—some of those evaluations lead to resigning from their positions. The same data-set mentioned about indicates that job mobility was higher in the BC era, with 8.1% of employed people switching jobs in the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (February 2019-2020).
High levels of attrition and people leaving their jobs is nothing new. It’s a long-established pattern, especially in some industries with low employee engagement and job satisfaction. The hype of this supposed Great Resignation is that we are more aware of the changes in work because of the pandemic. New factors like work-from-home (WFH) have dramatically influenced how we do work and has led to another factor that impacts employee retention.
People leave jobs for all kinds of reasons. Some of the most common BC reasons include:
These reasons will always be there and are still relevant in the AC era. What the pandemic did, however, was add a few other reasons for employees to hand in their resignation:
There is no doubt that these factors, especially the first one, are a significant reason that employees are quitting their jobs. But are these factors increasing the overall level or resignation? Or are they simply additional reasons to add to the mix?
Given the statistics, it appears that the latter is true—employees are resigning at a rate comparable to the BC era, but just have different reasons and rationale to do so. The Great Resignation is, effectively, a return to BC ‘normal.’
The debate about whether the Great Resignation is hype or fact will continue to rage on. In the end, though, it doesn’t really matter. The truth is that high levels of attrition and employee resignation are problematic no matter the cause.
Whether they are leaving because they are not getting a promotion (BC reason) or they aren’t allowed to work from home anymore (AC reason), the underlying influencer is the same—lack of employee engagement and poor attention to the employee experience (EX).
We are moving into a new age—the age of the employee. It’s one where companies will have to prioritise EX or face the consequences of high attrition and poor performance. The age of the employee has been a long-time coming and the pandemic has helped precipitate this change. Employees have found their voice during the pandemic, speaking up about things that are important to them, including flexibility (WFH), work-life balance, well-being and increased emphasis on workplace safety.
So, what can employers do to prioritise EX and stem the return to normal attrition? Here are a few of the top things to focus on:
Instead of getting hung up about the Great Resignation and whether or not this is a real phenomenon or just hype, we should focus in on why employees leave. Companies that focus on employee engagement and embrace the new age of the employee will be able to mitigate and decrease attrition rates.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Let’s talk about your EX. No, not a past romantic interest, but the employee experience. Employee Experience (EX) and employee engagement are increasingly being placed at the foreground of company operations but what does this mean, why bother and where do you start?
Leaders need to focus on EX because it helps them understand their employees as people and not just a number in the company. Ultimately knowing your employees will go a long way to achieve positive company results.
There are two important building blocks that you should know and understand when trying to create a better employee experience. First, it is important to create a sense of belonging by embracing diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Second, leaders need to understand and tap into intrinsic motivators for each employee, inspiring them to take action, be creative, and work at a high level.
EX determines employee engagement and this matters on both a personal and company level. For some time now companies have understood that customer experience (CX) strategies are also good for business. Now CX leaders are realising that every CX starts with a good EX. Leaders who care about their employees will create a space where they are happy and engaged. But it goes beyond individual job satisfaction. By understanding the full employee experience, companies can work towards a highly engaged workforce.
Engaged employees are those who have sense of purpose, meaning, progress and belonging, feel challenged, and are given autonomy. This results in higher focus, productivity, creativity and satisfaction in their job, all of which will ultimately benefit the company.
Consider, for example, an employee who has been given creative license and autonomy to work on a certain project. That employee is likely to become highly engaged in their work, utilising their creativity and passion. So, when the time comes to engage with clients in the sales process, that employee is going to create an amazing customer experience (CX)—they are passionate about the product, with deep knowledge and ownership. The strong CX leads to happy customers, which leads to loyal customers, which helps the bottom line. Employee engagement starts a virtuous cycle that supports EX, CX, and the bottom line.
Employee engagement and experiences are not simple topics and there are a lot of different avenues to discuss. However, I want to focus and share on two foundational blocks for creating positive EX in a company: creating a sense of belonging and tapping into intrinsic motivation.
One of the most important determinants of employee engagement is whether employees have a sense of belonging. Belonging is defined as ‘an affinity for a place or situation.’ Other terms for affinity include like-mindedness and kinship. The starting point for any company is to ensure that they are a safe, open space for every employee, no matter their background or identity.
DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives have become increasingly more common in the workplace in attempt to address the racial, gender, or other inequalities that are unfortunately still prevalent in society.
While DEI is more common today, it can still be a sensitive topic. It challenges each person to embrace differences and confront their unconscious biases, which are judgements or behaviours we are not aware of. This moves us out of our comfort zones and can be uncomfortable. But, if a leader is committed to creating a sense of belonging, embracing DEI and managing unconscious bias is a necessary first step.
Here are some strategies:
· Be accountable to your own biases as a leader. Be proactive in trying to understand those around you and take steps to listen and learn from others.
· Listen to others and give them space to express themselves. Practice active listening and truly seek to understand.
· Call-in, don’t call-out. Try to take the opposite route from today’s ‘cancel culture.’ Instead of calling someone out for their mistakes, call them in. Ask questions like ‘When this happened, what did it mean to you?’ or ‘This is how it came across. What did you intend for it to mean?’
· Be okay with not always getting it right. Acknowledge where you are wrong and make changes.
· Amplify voices of those who are ignored. Make a conscious effort to amplify the voices that may be ignored or historically undervalued.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of DEI, however implementing these tips as a leader can help you become more aware of your unconscious biases and take some steps towards building a safe space of belonging for employees. Make sure you continue to educate yourself about DEI from professionals and educators to take it to the next level.
If embracing the diversity of each individual is the baseline for creating a sense of belonging, then understanding intrinsic motivators is the baseline for productivity in a workplace. Companies are missing out on real productivity and creativity from their employees because they don’t understand the psychology of motivation and what makes people do what they do.
Intrinsic motivators come from within a person, I like to think of it that they come from your heart’s desires not from what your eyes envy. Some intrinsic motivators may be a desire to do well, feel a sense of progress, a love for a certain task, a sense of connection and more autonomy. In contrast, extrinsic motivators are about gain and the avoidance of loss and include financial and tangible rewards, status and fame, all whilst trying to avoid consequences.
One downfall of extrinsic motivators is that they tend to be one-size-fits-all. While one person might love a free lunch, another person doesn’t because of their food allergies. One person may really want an iPad whilst another is not interested in technology or already has one, and we all perceived the value of money differently depending on our personal situation. $25 may be a lot to one person but to another it only represents a small value. Extrinsic motivators may work in the short-term or as I like to say they are loud and get attention, but they do not have long-lasting impacts like intrinsic motivation. In contrast, intrinsic motivators tap into deep human desires, such as feeling valued, purposeful, and recognised—what we all desire. These intrinsic motivators tend to be quieter but have a long lasting and powerful effect.
To increase intrinsic motivation and, in turn, employee engagement, focus on these factors:
· Embrace Purpose by allowing employees to develop goals with personal meaning.
· Release control over every minute detail and allow employees autonomy and decision-making power within the scope of their role.
· Build cooperation into the workplace so that everyone can receive satisfaction from helping others.
· Embrace creativity and innovation by providing space for curiosity.
· Give recognition and be generous with praise and affirmation for accomplishments.
Employee experiences determine employee engagement and is something that leaders need to be thinking about. A workplace that is safe and open to all employees creates an important sense of belonging. DEI initiatives and conversations that force leaders to confront unconscious biases is a powerful first step towards achieving this.
In addition to focusing on this sense of belonging, leaders need to find ways to boost intrinsic motivation. What motivates their employees towards success, innovation, and productivity? Building a workplace that empowers employees to take on challenges and be more autonomous, leaves room for failure, gives recognition regularly and encourages creativity. These are all positive first steps to tapping into the power of intrinsic motivation to achieve employee and company success.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Engagement and productivity are uttered almost daily in the business community. Most people understand they are related, but mistakenly think that the road between engagement and productivity is linear. In fact, they are part of a complex, interconnected web.
Leaders and organisations that care about performance of their companies need to care about engagement and employee experience (EX). They cannot focus single-mindedly on productivity without addressing the underlying factors. Leaders need to zoom out and look at the bigger picture that connects engagement to productivity to business success.
When the term “engagement” is used in the marriage context, it’s understood as a mutual promise and expression of intent. However, when it’s used in a work context, we often only consider one side—an employee is either engaged or not. But employee engagement is also two-sided. Employers have a responsibility to understand and focus on employee engagement.
It begins by understanding what employee engagement looks like. The starting point for any company is enjoyment—employees need to like their work and enjoy what they do on a day-to-day basis. From there, it kicks off a virtuous cycle of employee engagement:
All of these factors work together to increase employee engagement by tapping into natural intrinsic motivators. When someone loves their work, they will naturally start diving deeper to learn more and develop that sense of value, care, and pride over their work.
Employee engagement is a multi-faceted experience, as we’ve just seen. But, as it continues to run its own virtuous cycle, it begins to connect with productivity, customer experience, and business success.
An engaged employee has deep knowledge and understanding about their role, responsibilities, and the company’s products and services. Knowledge naturally increases quality of work, efficiency, and productivity, as they are able to work more effectively.
Another intersection is by creating excellent customer experience (CX). An engaged employee values and cares about their work, which will help them create a good CX because they are authentically seeking to help and serve customers. Excellent CX will lead to loyal customers and business success, but it will also develop a sense of pride for the employee, that they are part of a company that cares for customers well.
Increased productivity and strong CX will both lead to business successes. An effective leader will recognise all of these intersections and understand the value of continuously re-investing back into employees. Creating a good EX is not a one-time thing, but requires continual work and prioritisation.
It might seem confusing to untangle the web of connections between employee engagement, customer experience, productivity, and business success. However, the fact that they are connected is actually a message of hope: if you prioritise these things in your company, you will set off a chain reaction of positive changes in the company.
Tags: Culture, Customer Experience, Future of Work
Starting with the obvious here: COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the way we live, work, and play. The pandemic has made all of us into futurists, wondering and predicting what the world will look like in a post-COVID era.
There’s no doubt that the future of work will be different. How, exactly, is yet to be seen. Based on recent and emerging trends, it seems that there will be changes in three categories: shifts in interpersonal communications, introduction of new technologies, and changing jobs.
As we emerge from our “Zoom cocoons” over the last two years and return to in-person work, there will be shifts in how we communicate and connect with one another. While it will affect everyone, the Human Resources vertical will be most deeply affected by new post-pandemic dynamics.
Here are some shifts in the future of work from an interpersonal perspective:
Technology is ever-changing and evolving. The pandemic also accelerated technological advances out of necessity. It is likely that we will see an emergence of new and exciting technologies that both aid our work, but may also create new challenges to overcome.
Here are some top technology trends to expect in the future of work:
The lines between work and home became blurry during the pandemic. Many also found extra time to take on new side hustles with their extra spare time. How will this all incorporate back into the workplace?
Here are some of the changing jobs and roles expected post-pandemic:
A futurist knows that you can’t know exactly what will happen, but you can make good predictions based on current trends, which we’ve done here. After all, the old adage rings true: the only thing constant in life is change.
Tags: Customer Experience, Emerging Technology, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Emerging Technology, Future of Work
Tags: Customer Experience, Innovation, Leadership
Tags: Customer Experience, Innovation, Leadership
Location: Australia / Virtual Global Date Available: May 05th, 2020 Fees: Contact for a proposal
Submission Date: May 04th, 2020 Service Type: Service Offered
Location: Global Date Available: April 01st, 2022 Fees: 50000
Submission Date: April 13th, 2022 Service Type: Service Offered