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Company Culture

Storytelling
Once Upon a Time: Storytelling at Your Company 1024 577 LaDonna Kearney

Once Upon a Time: Storytelling at Your Company

How do you effectively use Storytelling in your company?

The modern-day workplace has embraced the power of storytelling, which has become an increasingly popular mode of corporate communication. As a manager or team leader, you can also harness the force of a strong plotline to create lasting impressions and bind your workforce together.

Stories for every occasion

Storytelling can work magic in most situations, even for dressing up dry data and business metrics. In the workplace, they support leadership at all levels, from the C-suite to small operational units. Skillful and imaginative managers use them to:

  • Build a culture and create common ground for teams.
  • Share vision.
  • Engage and motivate.
  • Communicate strategy.
  • Support recruitment.
  • Drive change management.
  • Explain specialized knowledge.

A good story can function better than a memo or a white paper for defining a company’s purpose and desired impact. A story, in the right hands, becomes a potent teaching tool. People tend to think in metaphors and learn through anecdotes. The narrative gives employees a context for understanding the values and direction behind their labor. Vision stories, in particular, carry a message that hard work is worth the effort, linked to a specific outcome as an illustration.

You can use stories to build trust, whether among your team members or with superiors. Your listeners want to know more about your own motivations and agenda. You can use them to map out your own goals, accomplishments and background.

They can be taught throughout the entire organization to substantiate change management and decision-making. If the workforce buys in and the exercise is successful, employees will appreciate the firm’s values on a more concrete and personalized level.

You will have achieved a modest triumph by articulating and adding a building block to your corporate culture. You will take it even further if you can print the story in institutional memory. Amid the ocean of informational overload, workers need to not only comprehend but also remember the message. The key is to use stories to fit the patterns of your organization’s processes and dynamics. Stories can make that real by stirring emotions and making complicated concepts memorable.

The power of the parable

For full impact, the vision must be expressed and integrated with routine work activities that your team members can relate to. A well-crafted story, constructed as an emotional journey, can provide that connection and sell the idea.

Stories can strengthen all types of communication because they unite the right and left hemispheres of the human brain. The left side dominates logic, speech and language, while the right half focuses on creativity, intuition and spatial relationships. Yet in decision-making, emotion trumps logic in the end. That is why it is so important to weave emotion into your story.

For instance, if you are addressing change management, you might want to focus on turning points and emphasize how change agents overcame initial resistance. Change is hard. Everyone has experienced the fear of the unknown.

Engage your audience 101

Your high school English teacher probably told you all this, but the same rules apply. What makes a great story resonate is its simplicity, but that does not mean it is easy to tell.

The elements are universal:

  • Context.
  • Action.
  • Transformation.
  • Results.

The context kindles interest and provides background, the action lays out how a challenge or a setback was overcome, and the result uncovers a moral or learning experience.

Parachute right into the action to get attention, and quickly define the purpose (the big idea). Develop the journey, using setting, characters and conflict around the transformation. Try to build empathy with your hero. End with a bang on a finely tuned key theme.

Let’s end with a true story. Google, launched in 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, was originally called Backrub! The founders wanted to indicate how it is related to a website’s backlinks. Ugh. The new name, Google, chosen in 1997, refers to “1” with 100 zeroes. The story inspires by highlighting both the ingenuity and the common sense of two entrepreneurial students.

©2023

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Healthy workspace
HR Insight: Creating a Healthy Workspace 1024 577 LaDonna Kearney

HR Insight: Creating a Healthy Workspace

Creating a Healthier Work Environment

Employers are accepting the critical importance of updating offices to meet employees’ new expectations for a healthy workplace. From office floors to entire buildings, there are many potential improvements for higher and middle management to consider.

Features of a healthy workspace

Contemporary design goes beyond air quality, lighting, cleanliness and gyms. It also spans physical, mental and social elements.

An office location site is the first criterion. How walkable is the route to the property and surrounding area? What is the access to local amenities, such as a shopping mall or transportation? Does your nearby outdoor space offer views of nature and greenery? Is it in a vulnerable location, prone to flooding or downwind of pollutants? If it is urban, does the neighborhood have buildings that are covered in graffiti, which surely undermines mental health? Management should be open to the prospect of a long-term office move if the surroundings require it.

Design cues are the next element. Imagine you have now arrived and are entering the premises of an organization. If you see a welcoming and attractive staircase, research indicates you are 50% more likely to use it than to take the elevator (which you might otherwise do if a steel door had blocked the stairs). Better still, if a posted sign reminds you that stairclimbing is good for you, you are more likely to mount them. In other words, communication and signage can strongly reinforce a design message. Unattractive stairwells serve for emergencies. Consider opening them up and adding appealing murals to make them more inviting.

Assess the quality of social, ergonomic and comfort levels, and not just environmental standards. For example, provide standing desks so reception staff can choose to stand or sit, allowing more active working conditions. Offer free fresh fruit at the reception desk, free for all occupants and visitors. Place convenient water bottle refilling stations. Ample bicycle storage and shower facilities encourage more active commuting. These small innovations demonstrate commitment to both health and sustainability.

Building operating policy is another criterion. Strategies range from pest control to optimizing noise, light and humidity. Follow strict criteria for how often bathrooms are cleaned, using with well-established hygiene protocols

Ventilation may work counter to energy use

In the wake of the pandemic, fresh air is at the center of all these strategies. No one would argue against the health benefits of good ventilation as a measure of virus containment. Equally, one cannot ignore an ironic paradox: The best energy rating — which theoretically means no lights or air conditioning — may not be the healthiest place for a building’s occupants.

You may need to balance energy versus wellness: If you want to increase fresh air, it may work against your energy consumption. If carbon dioxide rises over 1,000, employees tend to tire and lose concentration.

A sustainability dilemma emerged with the advent of the pandemic. Air handling units need to be powered up, which costs money and takes energy. In fact, after COVID-19 struck, there was even talk that buildings should perhaps ventilate 24/7 rather than in just their core business areas. It may be more expensive, but it can do wonders for physical and mental well-being.

Steps to take

You can get the best out of employees by making the office space more welcoming. Some lower-cost ideas for upgrading include:

  • Providing areas with comfortable seating for breaks.
  • Ensuring excellent air quality with filtration and smart controls.
  • Enforcing an effective smoking policy.
  • Optimizing temperature and lighting.
  • Offering free healthy foods.
  • Supplying ergonomic equipment — computer screens, furniture, keyboards, etc.
  • Furnishing the office with plants and greenery.
  • Installing color and artwork on walls.

Technology has proved we can work away from the traditional office, so offices must now work harder to compete with the home as an alternative. They must be a lure to draw people together to reinforce the firm’s culture and need to be more than four walls.

dangers; if the dApp isn’t up to par, the community can duplicate and launch an alternative version, giving developers a solid incentive to play fair, which isn’t often the case with standard apps.

This is just an introduction to a complex and rapidly growing field. To see whether dApps are right for you, work with IT and financial professionals.

©2023

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hybrid work schedule
HR Insight: Is the Hybrid Work Schedule Here to Stay? 940 788 LaDonna Kearney

HR Insight: Is the Hybrid Work Schedule Here to Stay?

Hybrid Work Schedules – The New Norm?

The hybrid work schedule experiment has gained traction. By 2023, Gallup research indicated the numbers among U.S. workers had stabilized at about 28% performing exclusively remotely, 20% on-site and 52% working in a hybrid arrangement. Whether those proportions persist will depend on the overall economy and labor market and whether recession tilts the balance.

The best of both

The main models used for hybrid work are simple enough:

  • Shifts — the whole team works in-house a few days per week and remotely the rest of the time.
  • Split teams — some people work remotely, and others work on-site.
  • Flex — employees can choose where they prefer to work.

Most hybrid work schedule employers have tried out weekly configurations of three days in the office and two days remote. While three days in the office is seen as a sweet spot, patterns vary. For instance, Harvard Business School research advocated just one day on office premises!

Different employees gravitate to different styles, though it should be noted that executives are three times as likely as are worker bees to want to return to offices full time. But preferences cut across all seniority levels. Gallup ran a survey in late 2022 among 8,090 respondents to examine the pros and cons of hybrid arrangements.

The findings demonstrated compelling benefits:

  • An improved work-life balance.
  • More efficient use of time.
  • Freedom as to where and when to work.
  • Higher productivity.
  • Reduced fatigue and burnout.
  • Smoother coordination, collaboration and cross-functional communication.

A Stanford study discovered hybrid employees get more accomplished away from noisy office spaces, reduce commuting time and costs, gain self-esteem, and enhance trust with their managers.

Employers appreciate the availability of wider talent pools as well as cost savings on space (rent and utilities) and materials (supplies and food).

On the downside, respondents cited noteworthy challenges. They listed a lack of access to resources and equipment and a distance from office culture and relationships. It may also be emotionally draining to be constantly switching between schedules and spaces. It also may not be feasible for those with client- or customer-facing jobs, and it may create resentment over other colleagues’ more-flexible deals. Should those who are toiling in the office be paid more?

Making hybrid succeed

Managers can take steps to ensure hybrid arrangements operate as smoothly as possible.

Start by designating which days are for in-office work. Research from Prodoscore reveals that workers are most productive Tuesday through Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Interestingly, those assigned boring chores perform better at the office, while those undertaking more creative tasks excel at home. If an entire team works from home, however, the whole group underperforms, as no one wants to commit extra time.

Managers should set initial expectations. They should ponder why they actually are going the hybrid route. Will team members schedule their own hours? While on-site, they can help employees interact with teammates and utilize equipment.

Maintain clear policies for communication. Provide feedback in person. Use constant updates and virtual tools to link remote and in-house employees. You may need to customize software platforms to incorporate data visualizations, progress reports and project management.

Hybrid work can be a plum perk

There is still insufficient longitudinal data to confirm whether hybrid workers are more productive. However, it is clear the opportunity for flexibility attracts and retains talent. Whether it is for child care duties, mental well-being or regular access to outdoor green spaces, ensure your employees understand their side of the bargain. How do they spend their at-home hours? Gallup reports a combination of working (86%), training (27%), innovation (26%), meetings (24%) and exercise (22%).

Take that with a pinch of salt. Some are probably watching TV. Managers recognize some trade-off is necessary to keep their teams contented.

©2023

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Free Meals
HR Insight: Free Meals as an Employee Benefit? 940 788 LaDonna Kearney

HR Insight: Free Meals as an Employee Benefit?

Free Food in the Office as a Benefit

Want to attract and retain workers? Who doesn’t? Consider free meals. Company-paid lunches are a major perk that’s hard to pass up, especially if you’re a millennial. USA Today reported that providing free food to your employees can result in a 67% job satisfaction rate.

Let’s look at this a bit more deeply. Workers become less focused as lunchtime approaches, and they are starting to think about where to get their next meal and with whom. This creates a bit of a drag on productivity. But by providing a free meal at the office, you remove the distraction.

And how much will this cost? Providing a daily $10 meal to a full-time employee costs $2,600 a year, but you make up the price by having staffers get back to work sooner; a mere 15 minutes of their on-the-clock productivity before and after lunch every day and the meal pays for itself.

If getting employees back in the office in the first place is your problem, try offering free meals. Free breakfasts and lunches are one of the top ways that companies are luring workers back to the office. It may be true that the way to employees’ hearts is through their stomachs.

And let’s not dismiss the notion that eating together creates strong social bonds. You’re bringing together a diverse group and giving them opportunities to make connections outside their teams and departments. On top of that, offering healthy meals to workers who might skip lunch or instead go for junk food translates into workers with more energy and focus in the afternoon.

You may be nixing the idea of daily free meals, but even an occasional company-provided lunch yields results. Most workers see a once-a-week catered meal as a great perk, boosting overall job satisfaction. You may opt for free coffee and bagels in the morning, which works well too.

There are more meal options than ever — food delivery services and on-site pop-up restaurants — for providing meals to employees. A prepaid meal card offers access to a monthly meal allowance that can be used in local restaurants, on food-delivery apps and in grocery stores, offering your team flexibility and control while you monitor your program. You’ll look like a hero to your workers to boot.

Eating together is a way to build engagement among teams so people can get to know each other better. It encourages discussions and a sense of belonging. Productivity rises as workers save time because they know there’s food provided at the office.

It can work almost anywhere

Once only the purview of companies like Google and Apple, free food is something small startups have added to their list of employee benefits. Value? With employees spending less time away from their desks, you can estimate cost savings per employee at anywhere from $2.50 to $4.50 per day. How? Your employees can work for an extra half an hour every day.

Especially for knowledge workers, sharing meals and communicating more frequently help build a collaborative environment. Take those who write code, for example. It can take 32% longer without effective communication. Employees are more comfortable where there are trust and strong social bonds in the workplace. Breaking bread together encourages breaking down barriers and getting people to act more naturally.

Physical space is also a key to relationship formation — friendships develop during brief and passive contacts made going to and from home or walking about the neighborhood. An office cafe is a great place not only to facilitate that physical contact among co-workers but also to entice new people to come to work for your company — people really want to work at a place that cares about their health and wellness. Happy, loyal employees are likely to speak highly of your business to customers and to their professional connections, friends and family. Eating meals together helps nourish team members, literally and figuratively, and creates an environment of support for their efforts.

Of course, you may want to work with an experienced human resources consultant to help you customize a plan for your company. And remember that even if you provide this benefit, you still must abide by other regulations, such as rules for nonexempt employees.

©2023

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Employer Brand
HR Insight: Employer Brand 940 788 LaDonna Kearney

HR Insight: Employer Brand

If You Build It, Employees Will Come.

Who are you, as a company? The overall company brand defines the quintessential qualities of the organization, at large, that is directed to both the general public and all stakeholders, including customers, clients, strategic partners, investors and/or regulators. Employer branding, on the other hand, targets job seekers and employees. It zooms in on the workforce and prospective hires to discover how these groups really perceive your organization.

The employer brand communicates every facet of your employees’ experience, from work/life balance and social values to hiring and onboarding. Buzzword aside, you are looking to figure out your unique employee value proposition. Employers that establish a successful brand own an intangible asset that can be widely parlayed.

The value proposition is a full package

Every organization needs to take a deep dive and examine itself from the inside out. What special differentiating features does your company offer, beyond pay checks of course, making it a rewarding place for an employee to hang his or her hat? Why should a job candidate choose to work for you and not elsewhere?

Your goal is to position yourself as the employer of choice. If that works, you will spark excitement to differentiate yours from more generic brands. In doing so, you will need to address every touchpoint. Some of the main marketing tools for current and potential employees are:

  • Job descriptions.
  • Websites with career pages.
  • Social media profiles.
  • Onboarding materials.
  • Job acceptance and rejection letters.
  • Performance reviews.
  • Internal communications, such as newsletters.

The list is long and can be leveraged to construct a powerful employer brand, which then should be constantly promoted. The human resources department is directly responsible for the brand, but other parties also coordinate efforts to help shape a firm’s identity, including the C-suites, line managers and the marketing department members.

For example, when management approves benefits, it is up to HR to implement them and create marketing tools to promote them. Recruiters should also put the employer’s corporate culture, work environment and reputation into a recognizable brand.

How to build it

The first task for your employer brand is to nail down what your organization stands for both inside and outside the corporation. Sites such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn give a glimpse of outsiders’ perceptions. Conducting surveys among employees and job candidates provides further insights. Also, digging deeper into workshops is useful, since culture is so nuanced and subjective.

Compile a list of leading questions and employment topics to be discussed, such as:

  • What makes us different?
  • Do we offer unique or unusual benefits?
  • Are we treating our current employees well and could we improve?
  • Where should we spread the word about our company?
  • How do people find out about working for us?
  • What channels should we use to promote our brand?
  • Can we measure the results?

Next, it is time to give substance to the ideas and implement an action plan. First among the best practices for successful employer branding is keeping your current employees loyal and satisfied. In today’s social media landscape, negative stories can quickly go viral, undermining hard efforts elsewhere. Other practices for boosting the brand are to:

  • Provide feedback and transparency in interacting with new job candidates.
  • Support some suitable causes, ideally ones associated with your industry.
  • Keep active on social media channels and educate your employees in social media skills — post images of your workspaces and group gatherings, employee videos, testimonials and blogs.
  • Host and participate in public events that can create a positive, enduring impression.
  • Leverage committed employees as brand advocates.

Measure and monitor all these avenues, focusing on areas such as cost per hire and satisfaction surveys.

Employer branding wins

A good brand yields benefits in cost savings and productivity. The war for talent is fierce, so aim to attract and retain the best candidates to avoid turnover. Extra points gained from a solid, credible reputation count, alongside money spent on salaries and benefits, and help level the field with larger organizations. A wider candidate pool means faster hiring times, as well.

Send a clear message where you excel, including:

  • Training and development.
  • Leadership and collaboration.
  • Quality of products or services.
  • Stimulating work and environment.

Certain firms have become known as great places to work, whether for their compensation, opportunities or innovative cultures. This is a club you want to join.

©2023

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
HR Insight: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 1024 858 LaDonna Kearney

HR Insight: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Exactly What Is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?

In the workplace, diversity, equity and inclusion, also known as DEI, refer to the qualities and experiences that make each person unique and how employers can use those attributes to support business goals.

To truly understand diversity, equity and inclusion, you’ll need to break down each term.

Diversity

Diversity refers to the similarities and differences among individuals. It takes all facets of personality and individual identity into account.

Examples of diversity include:

  • Race.
  • Ethnicity.
  • Nationality.
  • Age.
  • Disability.
  • Sex.
  • Gender Identity.
  • Language.
  • Generation.
  • Neurodiversity.
  • Sexual orientation.
  • Religious beliefs.
  • Veteran status.
  • Physical characteristics.
  • Family background.
  • Socioeconomic status.
  • Life experiences.

Equity

In the workplace, equity is about ensuring fair treatment of all employees when it comes to access, opportunity and advancement within the company. To achieve equity, employers must identify and work to remove obstacles to fair treatment, especially for underrepresented and disadvantaged populations. This requires a keen understanding of the inequities in societal systems and those present within the organization.

Inclusion

Inclusion refers to how welcomed, supported, valued and respected each person feels as an employee.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, “Inclusion is a two-way accountability; each person must grant and accept inclusion from others. In such an environment, every employee tends to feel more engaged and is more likely to contribute to the organization’s business results.”

“Diversity and inclusion” has its own acronym (D&I) because they go hand in hand.

Diversity offers the potential for more creativity and innovation in the workplace. In other words, when people with different characteristics put their heads together, great things can happen. But diversity needs a vehicle to realize its potential — and this is where inclusion comes in. Per the SHRM, “Inclusion is what enables organizations to realize the business benefits of this potential.”

In short, an inclusive workplace leverages the strengths of individuals from diverse backgrounds to effectuate positive outcomes. 

DEI: Not a new concept

From a workplace perspective, DEI is a relatively new term. However, the practice of DEI has been around for decades. A report by AcademyHealth says DEI can be traced back to the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

From the 1960s to the mid-1970s, DEI focused “on tolerance, meaning the acceptance of the integration of workplaces, schools, and communities.” Then, from the mid-1970s to the 1990s, the focus switched to multiculturalism and awareness of accomplishments by different racial and ethnic minorities.

In more recent years, the emphasis shifted to inclusion and equity to reflect demographic changes. As a result, DEI has expanded to include identities such as gender, religion, sexual orientation and national origin.

In the workplace, DEI initiatives should be adopted strategically, with a strong commitment toward all three components. Otherwise, employers risk “going through the motions” — a recipe for inauthenticity and failure.

©2023

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micromanaging
How to Avoid Micromanaging 1024 678 LaDonna Kearney

How to Avoid Micromanaging

According to Leadershipexcellencenow.com, “Micromanagement is a business management style where the boss or manager controls every aspect, no matter how small, of the work done by his or her employees.”

Micromanagement can make employees feel as though their boss does not trust them to do the job they were hired for. Feeling demoralized, these employees may end up leaving the company for a healthier work environment.

Employees want a collaborative workplace culture. Per a 2019 report by Kimble, 74% of surveyed U.S. workers say they prefer collaboration, and only 21% say they prefer the boss to make most of the decisions. Further, 72% of workers say they want to take on more responsibility. They do not want their boss hovering over them or ordering them around. Instead, they want their boss to motivate and inspire them.

Obviously, you need to monitor your employees’ performance. But you must also ensure that you’re not micromanaging in the process.

Tips to Avoid Micromanaging

Learn to delegate responsibilities instead of thinking you have to do everything yourself. Research by Gallup found that companies with CEOs who delegate effectively had greater overall business growth than those with CEOs who are not strong delegators.

Hire the right people, and trust that they can do the job. You hired them because you believed in their capabilities. Unless they prove otherwise, there’s no reason to doubt them.  

Clearly communicate your expectations for the job to the employees. Let them know the required outcomes, and give them adequate resources to achieve those results. Make sure they know how to obtain help if they need it along the way. Then provide them with enough freedom to do the job on their own. Resist the urge to incessantly loom over their shoulders, whether physically or electronically.

Establish project milestones, and check in with the employees as those milestones approach.

Ask the employees to show you portions of their work at intervals (such as a few pages out of a whole document) instead of requiring exhaustive updates at every turn.

Offer constructive feedback, and do not get caught up in trivial details. If the work is truly not up to par, let the employees know what they need to do to fix it.

Determine which projects and employees need to be managed more closely than others. For example, high-level projects typically demand more managerial input than low-level tasks do, and employees with less experience may require more oversight.

HR coaching can help some micromanagers

According to a Society for Human Resource Management article, some micromanagers are simply built that way and may be resistant to change. Others, however, can improve through coaching by Human Resources staff.

HR coaching may be ideal for:

  • Managers who don’t realize that they are micromanaging and just want to help their employees succeed.
  • Managers who micromanage because they were mentored by micromanagers or have worked only for micromanagers.
  • Managers who are afraid their employees will fail and consequently micromanage in an effort to achieve the desired results.

In summary, leaders should know the damaging effects of micromanagement and steer clear of this management style.

©2023

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