Category: Workplace Culture

3 Ways to Improve Employee Wellness in 2021

Posted on July 16, 2021 by - Remote Work, Workplace Culture

Over the past couple of years, employee wellness programs have become a staple in offices all over the world as a way to keep staff healthy, productive, and engaged. However, they became even more necessary in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees have reported feeling more burnt out since the start of the pandemic than they have ever been before. As some companies are suggesting employees return to the office and others are allowing them to remain remote, it’s important that employers are tracking the health of their workforce and offering successful ways to improve it in 2021.

Employee Wellness Tip #1: Work-Life Balance

With the shift to remote work, there became a stronger intrusion of work-life boundaries. Those who have worked from home over the past year may have experienced the inability to disconnect from their responsibilities outside of work hours. It’s even possible that they are still bringing their work home with them after they have returned to the office, out of habit.

Without a distinct separation between work and personal life, employees can easily become overworked, burned out, and stressed more quickly than normal. Employers should not only express the importance of a healthy work-life balance but also demonstrate it as well. Each manager or supervisor has a responsibility to demonstrate the company’s commitment to wellness. Clearly valuing their own well-being can show their team that they value theirs too.

Making your team aware of the wellness precautions your company has set into place isn’t always enough, sometimes they need to be led by example and reminded that they can, in fact, take time for themselves. Valuing wellness can easily be expressed by encouraging the use of vacation days and paid time off (PTO), stepping out for short walks or a bite to eat, and blocking time off on your calendar for appointments or mental health breaks.

Employee Wellness Tip #2: Screen Time and Vision Health

In some cases, while employees were working from home, they may have been nervous about stepping away from their computers for too long, creating the illusion that they’re not performing their tasks as they should be. However, the fear of not being online at all times has led them to engage with screens for far too long.

Excessive interaction with digital screens can lead to employees feeling the effects of digital eye strain, which causes dry eyes, blurred vision, eye pain, and headaches. The extent of your team’s visual symptoms often depends on the level of their visual abilities and the amount of time they spend looking at a digital screen. Uncorrected vision problems like farsightedness, astigmatism, inadequate eye focusing, or eye coordination abilities, can all contribute to the development of visual problems when using a digital screen. Therefore, employers should encourage staff to take frequent breaks from their screens to allow their eyes to rest and rehydrate in between tasks. Employers might also suggest that employees update and order new prescription glasses annually if they have any pre-existing vision conditions due to focusing on screens for longer than 8 hours per day. Wearing glasses with the correct prescription can help employees resist some of the symptoms eye strain may cause, like blurred vision, eye pain, and headaches.

Employee Wellness Tip #3: Monitor Workloads and Delegate Tasks

Although “remote freedom” is designed to give employees more flexibility throughout their day, in certain cases, it has caused some of the workforce to feel the need to be overly present online. This can also carry over to their office life post working from home because it has been their new normal for the past year.

Companies should be monitoring employees’ productivity and hours to determine not only their success but also their workflow. Are they working more hours than they should? Are they taking their work home with them? Are they demonstrating symptoms of burnout and high stress? If so, it may be time to delegate some of their tasks to team members or even reassess workflow overall.

Tracking employees’ hours can accomplish this, but it can also benefit the company as a whole to have an open line of communication with management. Sharing an anonymous survey that can poll your team’s feelings about their day-to-day can give great insight into what they are thinking. Weekly check-ins can also give employees an outlet to discuss workflow more frequently than monthly performance reviews can.

Employee wellness is very important to the success of an organization. Taking the time to monitor their health will ultimately benefit your company and make your staff feel more engaged and motivated.

5 Top Leadership Tips for Next Gen Leaders

Posted on June 18, 2021 by - Career Growth, Future of Work, Generational Gaps, Leadership, Worker of the Future, Workplace, Workplace Culture

Leaders always want to up their game. They want to become high performance work athletes!  Whether they’re new to their leadership position, switching teams or companies, or just want to level up and be their best, real leaders know they have to put in the work to see the results. Use these 5 simple and proven leadership tips to up your game and create the impact you want to have at work this year. 

Leadership Tip #1: Use Your #1 Communication Tool

What is the #1 communication tool in any leader’s toolkit? Simple – your ears!

Great communicators are great listeners. They listen in order to understand, to make the other person feel heard, and to inquire about solutions with great questions. If you find yourself talking more than you listen, start there. Houston, there is a problem. Challenge yourself to recognize when you are overtalking and really listen to the people around you, your team, your bosses, your customers, family, etc. Then, stop, breathe, and shift to ask one great question that deepens your understanding and insight of your audience. Guaranteed you will be surprised how the simple act of listening changes results for you.

Leadership Tip #2: Let Go of Making it All About You and Needing to Always Be Right

Many leaders are leaders for a reason. They like to be in charge and to take control of situations and solutions. So, one of our most effective leadership tips to simply let go of that need to always be right and replace it with the desire to serve others. Accept and expect that your answer or your idea isn’t always the best one. You need to include diversity of thought. If you create space for others to step up and make their own ideas heard you will win every time. People want to feel that what they do matters, that they are contributing and creating impact. Part of your job as a leader is to simply back off and allow it to happen in the way that makes the most sense at the time.

Leadership Tip #3: Figure Out What People Want

The Platinum Rule has replaced the Golden Rule and it reminds us to treat people how they want to be treated, not how we want to be treated. Start by figuring out what it is your people want! As their boss or manager, figure out what motivates them and their passions, skills, and values. The simplest way to figure that out is to ask them: turn your organization upside down. Having your audiences’ desires firmly in mind will allow you to frame your conversations and interactions accordingly. If you know one team member wants to be a manager, this allows you to tailor your communications and coaching to move them toward that goal. Likewise, if you know someone desires to be home with their family as much as possible, you know you can appeal to them by offering greater flexibility with the time and place of work.

Leadership Tip #4: Improve Your Communication Skills

To step up as a leader who creates real-deal impact, focus on improving your communication skills this year. Learn the art of the question, make a habit of using inquiry to go deeper, listen twice as much as you speak, and use our GPS communication strategy for tough conversations. If you need help and guidance to get you where you want to go, reach out to us about our personalized and on-demand coaching. We ask our client to ask themselves what is in it for the them (WIFThem): the audience.  And then to continue to use inquiry as a tool to solve and bridge any gap. 

Leadership Tip #5: Adopt Simple Systems

On a recent podcast I was asked about my best leadership tip and it is this:

KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid.

The principles of leadership are easy. What’s not easy is the execution. Adopt simple systems to support growth and sustain permanent change. Our launchbox coaching systems focus on actionable and easy to implement 3 – 4 step processes each time. We provide a practical approach not a theoretical one. Our systems meet our clients where they, and their workplace culture, are. It’s been finetuned and tested thousands of times.

Don’t overthink the problem. Tap into something that is proven to work so you can start making big leaps in your career.

Taking the next step in your leadership journey starts with you. Implement our best leadership tips to drive your success and reach out to us to learn more about our leadership coaching for driven and motivated individuals.

Humans (People) Really Really Matter: The Workplace of the Future Needs Humans (Real People) Now More Than Ever

Posted on September 24, 2020 by - Future of Work, Remote Work, Worker of the Future, Workplace Culture

Cartoon robot sitting in line with applicants for a job interview

“Humans (People) are underrated.” Elon Musk tweeted those words back in 2018, but they still ring just as true in 2020. Humans (People) ARE underrated. Especially in the workplace. In the keynotes and workshops we’ve delivered for organizations around the world who want to get a handle on what the future of work will be, we posited that all these discussions about the future overlook most important person: the worker, yes the People.

Back in 2016, the World Economic Forum predicted that Emotional Intelligence would be one of the top 10 skills people needed to cultivate in order to thrive in 2020. Well, it’s 2020 and guess what? In the midst of a global pandemic, remote work, and social distancing, we need People more than ever. But when the threat of COVID-19 is gone, we won’t stop needing People. The need for human skills (emotional intelligence, creativity, people management, etc.) will only continue to grow as our workplaces become increasingly automated.

Machines Don’t Erase the Need for Human Workers – They Create a New Need

A new article from MIT Sloan Management Review (Brynjolfsson and Beane) looked at the role of robots in our workplaces and made some surprising conclusions for our post-pandemic world. Chief among them is the idea that the workplace of the future will more than likely involve humans working alongside machines, rather than machines putting humans out of a job. In their interview with CNN, the researchers remarked that “there is a whole spectrum of having humans and machines work together. You can choose different points on the range in this division of labor, but in almost every case, you want humans doing some of the task.”

To summarize their findings, machines are great at doing certain things for us. Things that are repetitive and don’t require creative problem-solving. But that’s not all that happens inside our workplaces. We’re constantly challenged by unique problems, situations, and team dynamics. Things happen every single day that no machine could ever be programmed to deal with. But we humans are uniquely suited to solving the unpredictable. So rather than replacing our jobs, machines instead create a new need for humans in the workplace of the future – alongside new career opportunities.

New Jobs Will Emerge

Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum released a new report analyzing the workplace of the future to make predictions about the jobs of tomorrow. They identified seven emerging professional clusters and the necessary skills we should be cultivating for careers in each. In the summary of their report, they made the following remark: “While disruptive technology skills such as data science and AI skills will certainly be critical to the future of work, so will caregiving, leadership, and the ability to provide learning and development. In other words, the transition to the new world of work will be both human- and tech-centric.”

Machines aren’t going to replace us. Instead, they are paving the way for us to assume new roles – roles best suited to our own very human talents and skills. Our Strengths and Story. The most successful managers of tomorrow will be able to effectively integrate and leverage the best of both worlds inside their organizations. Yes, that means investing in your people, reskilling them, and ensuring they have a pathway to learn and grow. But we know how to help organizations do that. We’ve been doing it for years with our clients in all kinds of industries – and we can help you, too.

We’ll Have to Learn New Skills

We are living through what’s been called the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The McKinsey Global Institute predicts that as many as 375 million people will need to change their occupation by 2030 – just ten years from now! Which means there’s going to be a lot of people in the world who’ll need to go back to school, get retrained, reskill, level up, or otherwise dramatically alter the work they’re doing today.

Increased investment in automation and technology means we’ll have to lean harder on those things machines can’t take from us. Those soft skills we’ve been talking about for years – emotional intelligence, relationship building, connection, communication, trust. All things that you can’t program into a robot. They don’t come easy to some of us and they can be hard to teach. But nothing is impossible when you have a proven system that works. We have that system plus tips and tools to help you and your organization succeed and help you find your relevance.

We’ve been saying it for years and we believe it still: People matter now more than ever and they’re going to matter even more in the workplace of the future. If you want your company to grow and thrive for years to come, you need to put your focus on people right now. Use our 3-hack system to help: turn your workplace upside down to ask your people what they want and need from you, help them find meaning and purpose in their work, and reskill them for what’s to come. People are the heart of an organization and no amount of technology is going to change that.

If you need help equipping your people and your organization to succeed in the workplace of the future, reach out to us to learn how we can help through our customized workshops, personalized, on-demand coaching, keynotes, and more.

The Top 4 Reasons Personalized On-Demand Coaching is More Important NOW Than Ever in the Virtual Workplace!

Posted on September 3, 2020 by - Career Growth, Executive Coaching, Future of Work, Millennials

Photo of light bulbs with shining fibers in shapes of Career Development, Planning, Business and Education concept related words isolated on black background

We’ve led the charge in speaking about why coaching is so beneficial and more specifically, spoken extensively at keynotes and workshops all over the country about the value of on-demand coaching. We also see coaching as “the new training and development” and of the utmost importance to the development of our next generation of leaders as our workplaces continued to change and evolve rapidly. Though no one could have predicted our workplaces would be required to drastically shift literally overnight, through COVID-19. It is crystal clear that what hasn’t changed is the need for personalized training and support for people who want to become their best selves and succeed in spite of every challenge. And there’s no bigger challenge right now than COVID-19.

The facts are that we’ve been fortunate to have coached thousands of individuals around the world, across industries and generations. We know and guarantee that coaching is the key way high-performance individuals can improve their results, achieve their goals, and make a greater impact on the world. But now, it’s never been more important as we deal with feelings of isolation, anxiety, fear, frustration, and uncertainty – everything that goes along with trying to work through a global pandemic.

Here are just a few reasons why you should consider hiring a coach to help you crush your goals in business and in life:

You’ll Get to Focus on the Most Important Relationship in Your Life: Yourself

Coaching helps you work from the inside out. We know that you can’t help others or make an impact for them if you don’t know who you are and what you really have to give. Personalized, on-demand coaching is your opportunity to create the space you need to work on yourself. Specifically, creating space between stimulus and response and owning your thoughts are the most important factors in creating success. Coaches can and must help you learn to articulate your story and connect to yourself so you can build better and stronger relationships with others. Helping you discover your own values and what really matters to you so can connect to purpose, contribution, and impact in everything you do is what we all seek.

You’ll Own the Gift of Self Reliance:  Accountability

With all of us working at home with little to do outside of work and family life, it’s easy for time to just slip away. To get caught up in the “doing” of our day-to-day lives without pausing to reflect and make sure we’re actually making progress and developing ourselves. Your coach will help you find tools to hold you accountable through regular check-ins to help you bust through any obstacles, so you create the change you’re seeking. We guarantee changing your life is a no BS business where coaches can help cut right to the heart of your problems.

You’ll Be Pushed Outside Your Comfort Zone

Unlike your friends and family, your coach isn’t there to keep you safe. They will create a safe space for you to grow and change, and their real job is to push you. In order to become your best self and stop being stuck, you have to get outside your comfort zone, dig deep, and do the hard work. Your coach will push you when you need it to help propel you forward. In our lifetime, the world has not been tougher than it is right now. But in every obstacle, there is opportunity. Coaches help you find your superpower, articulate it, and push through and seize those opportunities so you can succeed and make a big impact for others.

Your Opportunities and Income Will Grow

Now this isn’t the only reason to pursue personalized coaching, and yet it is a big motivator for a lot of people. Whether you want a promotion, a raise, a new career, or to start your own business, coaching can help you meet your goals and more. Coaches are experts at helping people get to the next level and as a result, many of our clients do experience an increase in opportunities and income. Just another benefit of investing in yourself!

Wondering how coaching can help you change your life? Reach out to us to learn about our options for personalized, on-demand coaching. From one-on-one coaching with one of our launchbox coaches to virtual, on-demand learning through our new product, Hooga, we are here to help you get where you want to go. Guaranteed! Start your journey now – reach out!

Employee Development in the Virtual Workplace Matters Now More Than Ever

Posted on August 18, 2020 by - Career Growth, Future of Work, Generational Gaps, Leadership, Mentorship, Millennials, Remote Work, Retain Millennials, Training, Worker of the Future, Workplace Culture, workplace engagement

Employee development really matters. It always has. But now look at this: we’re all working remotely, interacting virtually, and dealing with uncertainty, stress, and anxiety surrounding the pandemic. It’s never been more important to invest in employee development, especially for the younger generations, Millennials and Gen Zs. They want to matter in the workplace and want a career plan. We all did. How do we know all this? Easy, we just asked them! They’re human beings, too.

In Deloitte’s recent Global Millennial Survey, they found that 41% of Millennials and 43% of Gen Zs expressed concern over their longer-term financial future. Similarly, 40% of Millennials and 46% of Gen Zs worried about their job or career prospects. From start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, in diving deeper, they discovered that respondents felt less confident that they possessed all of the skills and knowledge necessary for future success.

Guess what employers – you have to be the guide! As an employer, it’s your job to make sure your people get what they need from your organization. And organizations that provide that support outperform their counterparts. It does not just happen and how you do training and mentoring matters. Good news, while the Deloitte survey found that companies are doing a better job of this (with 65% of Millennials and 68% of Gen Zs saying their employers are providing enough support in this area) we need to be doing more to win. Investing in your people is one of the key ways to make sure your organization not only survives this pandemic but thrives in the world that comes after.

At launchbox, here is how we help. We know each client is different and they need customized products and solutions to reach their goals. Increase your employee development offerings in the months ahead with these 3 simple ways to give your people what they need and want to achieve success:

 

Virtual Workshops

In this disconnected world, help your team pull together to solve the disconnect because we can’t afford for our people to be anything other than highly engaged in the workplace. We need them to bring their best selves to work every day. Offer a transformative system that will help your team find, build, and share connection. Then empower them through simple and unique tools and strategies to own their growth and get to that next level.

 

On-Demand Training

We’ve worked with thousands of young Millennials and Gen Zs and if there’s one thing we know about them, it’s this: they want things on their own terms. And that includes access to employee development training. MEET THEM WHERE THEY ARE. Try a system for coaching and mentoring that is sustainable over time. We use virtual training systems that employees can access anywhere on-demand called Hooga, however, just make sure they can access people when they need help. Help your people figure out how to work from the inside out, to discover who they are, and the value they have to contribute to the world. Then show them how to use their learnings about their own Strengths & Story to connect with others and build better relationships. Ask us how you can try Hooga for free today!

 

Individual One-on-One Coaching

For the employee, manager, or executive who desires to take their development to the next level, we believe in direct individual or group high-performance coaching that is tailored to the needs of the individual. Make sure you place an emphasis on creating a connection to self first, so they can then build the tools to win with others. Through one-on-one coaching you will help them discover, develop, and articulate their own impact: we call it Strengths & Story. Once you help them become self-reliant and create the work competency of knowing who they are, you can believe they will better connect to coworkers, team, boss, clients, etc. to deliver value and create greater impact for them and you.

 

The world as we knew it has changed. It’s time for us to step up and invest in developing next-generation leaders within our own organizations. We are here to help! If you’re not sure how to start, click here to reach out and book a free call with us.

Connecting in the Virtual Workplace: B.R.I.D.G.E. the Gap

Posted on July 29, 2020 by - Future of Work, Generational Gaps, Remote Work, Workplace Culture, workplace engagement

Now the need for connected and engaged workforces has never been greater, thanks to COVID-19! Remote and separate work is killing us. Our 5-year focus has been connecting the generations in the workplace. We developed a winning workplace formula to connect the Millennials, Gen Zs, and every generation. B.R.I.D.G.E. the Gap.

Companies of all sizes and shapes around the world are now forced to confront heightened culture issues inside the workplace.  The need for a system to help them B.R.I.D.G.E. the gap around generation, gender, race, religion, whatever, is daunting. Our workplace connection system is guaranteed to work when companies authentically believe and deploy it.

FACT: The most important life/work skill is relationship building. The ability to build relationships is your connection currency. B.R.I.D.G.E. is a 6-step framework that solves today’s most challenging workplace issues. Learn more about how to B.R.I.D.G.E. the Generation and Diversity Gap below and if you’d like help implementing, reach out to us.

B.R.I.D.G.E. the Gap in Your Workplace

 

B: Bust Myths

No matter what specific challenge you’re facing in your workplace, it starts by checking your assumptions at the door. We all buy in to myths, biases and beliefs about the people we work with that may or may not be true. But make a commitment right here, right now, to stop placing people in a box. Instead, lean in and really listen. Understand and welcome that diversity, it creates better business results – just check out this study from Deloitte. If you connect to yourself by busting myths you are free to inquire and listen to your own strengths.  Once you understand yourself, you’re ready to engage with others to find the strengths in them. Busting myths starts with understanding and identifying what people are really bringing to the table – not the baggage or labels you’ve assigned to them.  That is what leaders that transform the workplace do.

R: Real Deal

Authenticity and trust are two of the most important ingredients for creating strong relationships and real leadership. And, now that we’re all working remote and dealing with the uncertainty, anxiety, and frustration of life during a pandemic, it’s become more important than ever that your workplace colleagues know you’re there for them. Be interested and interesting.  Care and put in the effort to be vulnerable.  It pays in connection currency.  Stop making excuses and blaming others (colleagues, friends, etc.) and start becoming genuinely interested in your team, their ideas, solutions, and strategies. Challenge yourself to learn as much as you can about everyone: What makes them tick? What motivates them? What inspires them?  What are their goals? Simply ask great questions and then go deeper to form rock-solid relationships.  My 19-year-old son told me this week that the greatest gift I gave him was the ability to understand, practice, and shape question asking. He said with that he could enter any room of 200 and find something in common with every person and build relationships.  Now I want to test that skill.  Anyone have a room of 200 during COVID?

I: I Own It

Let’s face it: it’s easier to blame others and make it someone else’s problem when you don’t have to hang out with them in the break room or stare at their cubicle all day. But real leaders step up and own their side of the street. When things go wrong, take responsibility. And when things go right, own that too. You must have personal accountability in everything you do if you want others to own their stuff, grow, change, and show up differently.  You want to change the world change yourself because what happens to you is because of you.

D: Deliver Value

If you’re familiar with my views, you know I’m always talking about delivering value to others. Without that, you’re dead to me and everyone else. Value is a big freakin’ deal! I believe if you show up, serve, and focus on how to consistently give values to others, your life and your results will change tremendously. So how do you personally connect, mentor, lead, motivate, engage, and add value to those around you? Where are you crushing it and where could you do better? And has it changed since the pandemic began? When will you recapture some of the magic you had before you went remote? And, how?

G: Goals in Mind

In the virtual workplace, it’s more important than ever that people have a clear sense of what a company’s goals are and what the vision is for the future. A shared vision and shared goals allow people to get into alignment with each other, regardless of their differences or past experiences. If you’re a leader, it’s up to you to create that vision and then lead with transparency and purpose. If you’re a team member, check in with yourself and ask great questions like: How does what I do help achieve the company’s goals? Why am I important to the company? Most importantly, given the radical changes we’ve gone through, what goals in mind do you have for workforce development?  Now more than ever, adapting to change in economies is not just about cost-cutting and risk assessment, it’s about finding and training the right leaders that will persevere in the new uncertainty. DO you have a system for that goal? If so, it better relate to connecting people.

E: Empower Success

Our signature program, Strengths & Story, centers on helping individuals discover and articulate their own strengths to others. Why do we focus on highlighting strengths rather than correcting weaknesses? Because we want to empower people and help them discover what is already special about them. Everyone has their own innate superpowers so help your team recognize and cultivate their gifts. Then, celebrate them when they succeed!

 

As we went through the B.R.I.D.G.E. acronym, I hope you noticed that even though we’re using B.R.I.D.G.E. as a means to close the gap between self and others, we kept the focus on the self – specifically, on you! That’s no accident. The only person we can control in all situations in ourselves. So creating change and getting the results we want starts with us doing the work from the inside out. If you need help stepping up and becoming the leader you want to be, we offer personalized, on-demand coaching. Contact us to learn more about what we can do for you and your team!

How Millennials and Gen Zs Are Navigating the Pandemic: Stress and Resilience Revisited for the Young

Posted on July 6, 2020 by - Attract Millennials, Future of Work, Gen Z, Generational Gaps, Mentorship, Millennials, Retain Millennials, The Value of Millennials, Workplace Culture

Each year, Deloitte releases their annual survey about the youngest generations in the workforce, Millennials and Gen Zs. I look forward to their report because it’s full of valuable research and statistics we use to inform much of the work we do here at launchbox by bridging the gaps with our clients.

Conducting a study of this size and magnitude is a serious undertaking that takes months and months of work. So what do you do when a global pandemic arrives and changes the world as we know it almost overnight? If you’re Deloitte, you take your original research and back it up with a pulse survey to see how some of the original respondents are faring amidst extreme change. Then, you use that data to publish a survey that offers one of the most informative and well-researched pictures of how young people are doing at work and at home even as they face an uncertain future.

Hint: they’re doing better than a lot of us would have thought. And the younger they are, the better they’re doing with uncertainty.

Below, we break down some of the key findings in the 2020 Deloitte survey and what this means for employers who are struggling to connect their remote employees to each other and their teams.

 

Key Finding #1: Millennials and Gen Zs Are Less Stressed Now Than They Were and That Means No More Business as Usual

Deloitte’s original survey was conducted between November 2019 and the early weeks of 2020. In that survey, 48% of Gen Z respondents and 44% of Millennial respondents reported that they were “stressed all or most of the time.” But in the pulse survey Deloitte conducted in April and May of 2020, they discovered an 8% decrease in stress for both generations. This is despite the fact that about 25-30% of respondents actually lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. Pretty crazy what a huge reset will do to a generation or two.

What does this mean for employers? It means that many of your younger employees aren’t going to want to go back to business as the old usual. For some, the pandemic has had measurable benefits and they’re going to want to keep them. Things like the ability to work remote, flexible schedules, a reduction in calendar obligations, and more. 69% of Millennials and 64% of Gen Zs reported that they believe having the option to work from home in the future would relieve stress. After the pandemic is over, 64% of Millennials and 60% of Gen Zs said they would like the option to work from a remote location from frequently. So as an employer, ask your people what they want from you and their workplace. What parts of life pre-pandemic do they miss? And what do they hope stays in the past? We know they miss connection – look at the bars! However, do they need work connection 24/7 like we thought? No. They want to be trusted and also have more control and freedom about how and where they live and work. Pandora’s box is open.

 

Key Finding #2: Job Loyalty is Increasing Amongst the Younger Generations

A common complaint I hear from the older generations is that Millennials and Gen Zs “aren’t loyal.” They job hop a lot and when something’s not working for them, they are quick to seek alternative employment rather than stick it out to see if it improves. It’s one thing I love about the youth – they refuse to settle for anything less than what they think they deserve.

Yet in Deloitte’s primary survey, and contrary to popular belief, “more millennials said they’d like to stay with their employers for at least five years than would prefer to leave within two years.” In fact, just 31% of Millennials respondents to the primary survey shared that they intend to leave their current employment within the next two years, down from 49% in 2019! Interesting because we are seeing this with our clients too. They really want more safety and belonging. If you trust them and grow them, they will want to stay. Imagine that.

Deloitte hypothesized that the increase in job loyalty amongst the younger generations is due to their employers doing a better job addressing their needs, creating a diverse and inclusive working environment, and supporting their development through training and mentorship, among other factors. Across both generations, 71% of respondents felt that their employers were doing a fairly good job at creating a working environment that is inclusive and diverse. And roughly 70% of Millennial and Gen Z respondents felt their employer was making a positive impact on the local community. As an employer, pay close attention to these findings. We know that some of the things young people want from their employers include opportunities to learn and grow, transparency, real-deal authentic communication, and purpose and contribution. Make sure you have a system in place that gives your people what they want. Need help? Reach out to us – we have actionable tips and hacks that will help you create that system inside your business.

 

Key Finding #3: The Pandemic Has Increased Individual Responsibility and Empathy

If there’s one thing we can all agree on about the pandemic, it’s that we’ve all been affected in one way or another. Some of us dramatically, others marginally. Yet the coronavirus pandemic has emerged as one of the defining moments in living history, uniting us against a common enemy. For our young people, it’s had the positive effects of increasing their empathy for others and encouraging them to get more involved in supporting their local community. In Deloitte’s pulse survey, 75% of respondents across both generations reported, “once restrictions are lifted, they will take actions that have a positive impact on their communities. Seven in ten said they already have done so.” Three-quarters of respondents also mentioned that the pandemic had made them more aware of and sympathetic towards the needs of different people around the world.

What does this mean for employers? It means your younger generations, who were already pre-disposed to wanting to make a difference by doing work that matters, have had their innate generational desire towards purpose and contribution reinforced by recent events. Which means you really have to get this right with them! You need to connect them to their purpose, help them see that the work they’re doing matters, and give them the tools to create impact for others. It’s a tall order, but we think you’re up to the challenge. And we recently launched a new virtual product, Strengths & Story, to help. Your employees will learn how to identify their strengths and connect to their story so they can create an impact that matters. Contact us to learn more about getting access to this product for your team.

 

Click Here to Read the Full 2020 Survey From Deloitte

 

Did any of these key findings surprise you? Are their areas you know you need help in? We’re here for you. We’ve helped companies from start-up to Fortune 500 bridge the gap in their workplaces and solve for success. Reach out to us to claim your complimentary call and learn what we can do to help you succeed!

What Your Millennial and Gen Z Employees Need From You Right Now

Posted on June 24, 2020 by - Future of Work, Gen Z, Generational Gaps, Leadership, Management, Millennials, Remote Work, Safety and Belonging, Workplace Culture, workplace engagement

For the younger generations, Millennials and Gen Z, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be particularly profound. For some of them, too young to feel the full weight of other recent, life-changing events like 9-11 and the 2008 market and jobs crash, this pandemic is their first exposure to real hardship. And, the most profound hardship most of us for any generation have experienced; it’s taking away the in-person human connection that is our primary source for safety and belonging. For other generations, the effects of the last recession, 9/11, wars, swine flu, still haven’t faded away.

As the employer and future employer, to the next leaders of our world and your workforce, you must truly understand this younger generation’s experience. And what they need from you in the workplace or the marketplace. They currently account for 38% of the workforce and by the end of the decade, 58% of employees will be either a Millennial or a Gen Z. If you and your business want to continue to survive and thrive in the new world of work, it’s not an option to ignore the needs of the younger generations and the effects the pandemic is having on them. You must meet them where they are and give them what they want in order to build your high-performance team and extend their reach to connecting with your clients. These generations actually account for 3 trillion dollars worth of annual spending!

Really, what Millennials or Gen Z employees want from their employers is no different than what any of us want. They just tend to be more vocal about it and more insistent that they get the support they’re seeking. This is one reason I love working with young people – they are absolutely determined to make it a better world and they’re not shy about going after it.

To help your Millennial and Gen Zs learn to be resilient from all the change we’ve had over the past few months and thrive, focus on these simple things:

 

Help Them Feel Safe

This is a big one and we covered it in our last blog. People need to feel safe at work. Physically safe (make sure they know the steps you’re taking to protect them from the virus), but also emotionally and psychologically safe. They need to know the workplace is a safe place to speak up, to tell it like it is, and to call out toxic or damaging behaviors. The depth and spread of the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements have shown how much the younger generations value creating spaces of inclusivity, equality, and safety. As I tell all of my clients, listen and listen like a trampoline, meaning bounce back with even better questions.

 

Help Them Feel Like They Belong

We all want to feel like we’re part of something that matters and again, Millennials and Gen Zs are no different. They place a high value on finding workplaces that allow them to do work that is meaningful. And it’s up to you to make sure they can clearly see how their work has meaning and how it’s contributing to your overall organizational goals. If you need help, we’re here. We’ve helped hundreds of organizations and teams solve the crisis of disengagement by helping connect team members to their personal and professional purposes (their why) threaded to your corporate missions through our flagship online program, Strengths & Story.

 

Provide Access to Mentoring and Coaching Opportunities

Though COVID-19 has done away with a lot of our traditional ways of providing professional development through the method of sending our people off to workshops and conferences, the younger generations were craving something different even before the pandemic. In a recent blog, we discussed how today’s young workers want the freedom and flexibility to seek out their own mentors and coaches, to learn on demand and in the way that suits them, sometimes even informally. They also need to take ownership in their mentoring relationships. With our teams working remotely and feeling isolated, helping your young people access new mentoring and coaching opportunities and techniques is critical.

To help, we recently launched our online portal, Hooga, to provide a virtual and on-demand coaching options for your people to learn the principles of our Strengths & Story workshops. Reach out to us to find out how you can get access!

 

Show Them How to Build Resilience

With all the uncertainty and stress that’s invaded our lives recently, one of the most important things Millennial and Gen Z employees need from you is to learn how to build and cultivate their own resilience. Sometimes called “grit” but even deeper, a person’s resilience is simply a measure of their ability to bounce back quickly when things get tough. And things have never been tougher for our workers than the challenges of COVID-19.

We have a 3-step system you can use to help them build better resilience. Click here to check it out now.

 

Reskill Them on Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is key for success in the future world of work. And with so much stress, anxiety, and uncertainty, people need people. We need to feel connected to each other and that we have strong relationships, whether it’s with our bosses, coworkers, clients, or friends and family. Make sure your younger employees are equipped with the skills they need to up their game when it comes to their own Emotional Intelligence. Learn how to reskill them and coach them on Emotional Intelligence here.

 

Your Millennial and Gen Z employees need you to step up and help them in the wake of COVID-19. Start here with these five ideas. If you need help implementing any of the above strategies or would like a personalized recommendation for your team, reach out to us to learn how we can support you to success.

The Case for Creating Safety and Belonging in the Workplace Has Never Been Clearer

Posted on June 16, 2020 by - Career Growth, Future of Work, Health, Leadership, Safety and Belonging, Worker of the Future, Workplace Culture

As we get used to a new normal and over the shock and grief of COVID-19, it’s never been more important to care about our workplace. Our employees and teams really need a sense of safety and belonging. Both in the psychological and in the physical sense, as COVID-19 leaves us with new rules and regulations.

Simply put, if people don’t feel safe at work and if they don’t feel like they belong, they won’t do their best work. It really is that simple. The key to creating a successful culture that helps your company thrive and deliver high performance is to make sure your employees are safe. That means addressing their fears and concerns over their physical and psychological safety in a post-COVID19 world. Here’s how:

 

Ask, “What Can I Do Differently to Serve You?”

To solve any problem in your workplace, start by asking great questions. Questions that encourage the other person to go deep and really mine for the crystals so you can help solve for the challenges. I love these ideas from Google’s Head of People Analytics – start this week by asking these questions of every person on your team:

1) What am I doing now that you want me to continue to do?

2) What am I NOT doing frequently enough that you’d like to see more of?

3) What can I do to make you more effective?

Asking great questions demonstrates to the other person that you care about them, that you’re willing to listen, and you’ve got their back. When people know you care, they’ll trust you. Trust goes a long way toward creating a true culture of safety and belonging. In this new world you actually may want to share your procedures for physical safety and further check to see if they do feel physically safe and social distanced.

 

Ask, “What Makes Work Meaningful?”

We all want to do work that is meaningful, that makes a different for someone else or the world. With all this time at home, worrying about what’s going to happen to our families, our friends, our jobs, it’s got a lot of people thinking about what’s really important in life and questioning if they’re living in alignment with those principles.

Make sure you’re helping everyone on your team connect their work to their meaning and purpose. Help them see why they’re doing something and how it’s contributing to larger team or organizational goals. When people can see that they are part of something and helping to meaningfully create progress, they will feel that they belong. Again, COVID-19 is a game changer. Is there something you can do to help your employees or clients create meaning while protecting them at this time?

 

Seek to Reskill on Emotional Intelligence and Behaviors to Create Safety and Belonging

In previous articles we’ve discussed the importance of cultivating Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in our changing workplace. As we reenter the world and workforce with differing fears, anxieties, and stresses, demonstrating EQ has never been more important. Self + Others = Success. EQ helps us get there.

Reskill your team on the basics of EQ and make sure they understand how to really listen in a meaningful way, how to ask great questions, how to have empathy for the other person, and how to tap into their own strengths and story to connect. Also, make sure that you understand the real challenges of the current times and be sensitive to how they are feeling. Seek to address how their colleagues and clients may be feeling as well.

Check out our toolbox here for free resources you can use to help your people level up and let us know if we can help you apply them to our current day scenarios.

 

If you make a conscious choice to intentionally create a culture of safety and belonging, your team and company will thrive. We’ve seen it happen over and over again with our clients – and we’re sure these simple hacks will make the difference for you, too.

Need some support? Reach out to us – our Strength & Story system guarantees you will create a culture of safety and belonging and see real results with your team and business in 100 days or less. Contact us to find out more about how we can help you grow and thrive.

Where’s the Free Food and Ping-Pong Table? What New Hacks Will Solve the Innovation Vacuum in the Work-From-Home Economy?

Posted on May 29, 2020 by - Future of Work, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Remote Work, Safety and Belonging, Training, Workplace Culture

The work-from-home revolution has been unleashed. While it’s true that the workplace and worker of the future were both already changing prior to our current global pandemic, this lockdown has cemented a new era.

Big headlines from some of the largest tech companies in the world are just the beginning of this new era. What will it do to our workplaces?

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of both Twitter and Square was the first to announce their “work-from-home forever” policy change. Other companies soon followed suit and last week we had the announcement from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that the tech giant’s employees may also continue working from home indefinitely.

So what does this mean for cities that currently enjoy prestige as tech hotspots like San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Austin, and others? And more importantly, what does this mean for companies who have invested years and hundreds of thousands of dollars creating campuses stocked with free food, gyms, ping-pong tables, and more in an effort to attract the best and brightest employees in the industry?

That is the question that has been on my mind the last few weeks as I work with my own clients, including executives from some of the largest companies in America. It’s been well documented that perks like free food do more than attract rock star employees. A 2015 study from Cornell University found that when crews of firefighters eat together, they perform better on the job than crews who eat alone. This didn’t escape the leader in free food and organized socialization, Google, or the thousands of other companies that have followed their lead. For tech companies, offering free food has the same effect. Science dictates that it brings people together and fosters friendships, ideas, and innovation.

Prior to CVOID-19, the ubiquitous new age “dining hall” that could be found at many tech companies created a natural space for innovation. Where people gather and come together, there is always the potential for the creation and spread of new ideas. And it’s these new, innovative ideas tech companies relied on to stay one step ahead of the competition. Summarily, food and eating together creates safety and belonging , which creates trust, which creates innovation.

Here’s one thing I know: the work-from-home revolution and less human-to-human gatherings will create a safety and belonging gap which will lead to an innovation vacuum in your company unless you take steps to prevent it. Even now, your employees likely are not sharing meals together. They’re logging off of Zoom or Slack to go eat alone in their own kitchens. Ideas are not being exchanged and innovation is stalled.

So if you want to continue to spur innovation inside your company, as I know you do, use these ideas to foster safety, belonging, and innovation in the workplace:

 

Bring People Together

One of the most important steps to fostering innovation during the work-from-home revolution is to be intentional about replacing the cafeteria. You must find a replacement for your company’s dining hall, happy hour, or mixers that fits our new normal of social distancing and working remote. Rather than getting off of Zoom or Slack for lunch, encourage people to stay on and eat together as they would at the physical office. Schedule virtual happy hours. Randomly assign or encourage small groups to form and meet weekly over video chat to check in with each other and talk. As regulations allow, have people meet outside of work in small groups to walk or go for a hike. In fact, creating small bonded teams of 6-8 works for the Navy Seals. They create a brotherhood of safety and belonging, which yields the highest performance. Our millennial/Gen Z networking groups at launchbox, encourage participants to form a “tripod,” a small group of three people that meet for lunch and check in with each other between monthly meetings. No matter what you choose to do, you must be intentional about encouraging the human-to-human connection.

 

Ask Your People What They Need From You

One of our favorite workplace hacks to create and build strong teams and companies is to simply ask your people what they need from you. Are they feeling Zoom Fatigue with too many meetings already? Are they isolated and feeling distant from their team? Are they experiencing challenges at home that are interfering with work? Regular check-ins with your people will help you solve problems, build strong employee loyalty, and ultimately create the space people need to innovate. Unhappy, stressed, scared people do not create game-changing breakthroughs. Happy, confident, supported people do.

 

Foster Resilience

If you haven’t checked out our blog on mastering the 3 components of resilience, read that next. Our 3 C’s of Confidence, Commitment, and Clarity will help your people create resilience. As I said above, unhappy employees do not innovate. Help your people meet the challenges of the work-from-home revolution by teaching them the skills to build and maintain resilience. It will change the way they show up for work, their team, and your clients.

 

The work-from-home revolution has arrived and it’s now our normal. We do the work with business owners, executives and workplaces to help them find, build, and share their Strengths and Story to build high performance cultures through safety and belonging. What could be better? Click here to book a free session with us today!