When Difficulty Arises in the Workplace, Try Inclusive Conversations

BY Uwa Ede-Osifo | January 03, 2024

The workplace can be a breeding ground for conflict, whether it be a clash of personalities or mismatched expectations around the job. Hector Hernandez, leadership development facilitator at ThinkHuman, is no stranger to feeling dissatisfied with a colleague’s behavior.

At From Day One’s December virtual conference, “The Arc of Change for People and Culture in 2024,” he shared a time where he experienced a breakdown in communication.

He recalled sending a colleague a “very detailed” contract of how they would work together. They agreed upon the terms, but, “lo and behold, two days later,” the person did not follow through, he said.

So, he began to prepare to give the colleague constructive feedback. “I was writing down all of my facts,” he said. “I was pulling all of my strategies from how to win these conversations and everything they had done wrong.”

But, then, he paused to evaluate the situation.

“I said, ‘Hector, what if you’re wrong? What if you are misunderstanding the entire situation? What if you have done or not done something that has led to this breakdown? What don’t you know?’”

Hector Hernandez, leadership development facilitator at ThinkHuman, led the virtual thought leadership spotlight (company photo)

So, he went back to the root of the conflict, the email he had sent, which had terms of agreement that were seemingly reneged upon. It was there, sure enough, in his inbox. But, Hernandez had never pressed send.

“We still had the meeting. But, the tone of the conversation was completely different,” Hernandez said. “It was no longer me with my facts and how I want to win this conversation.”

Addressing conflict in the workplace can be difficult, Hernandez says. But, a recognition that people may have blind spots in their knowledge about a conflict, as with the email incident, reframes these conversations as inclusive rather than as battles that produce winners or losers. The goal should be to work together to trace how a problem began and resolve it.

An orientation toward inclusivity begins with inviting and welcoming the experiences of others in a dialogue to move beyond the individual, “a marriage of us and them to create ‘We’” Hernandez said. These difficult, but courageous conversations require a degree of introspection.

What are the opinions you’re bringing to a conversation versus the actual facts? What are your biases and assumptions? What do you truly want to achieve from a conversation? To follow these lines of inquiry, Hernandez shared existing theories around active listening that lead to productive dialogue. There are three levels of listening.

“Level one is your default state,” he said. “Listening takes a lot of energy. Your brain conserves it by not actually listening. So, how many times have you been on a call and there’s someone talking and you’re there, but you’re not really there. This is called listening to speak.”

Listening to speak is essentially waiting for your turn in a conversation, he continued. It’s not inherently bad or good, but is not conducive in building understanding about a conflict.

Level two is listening to hear. “You could regurgitate what was said to you,” he said.

But, level three, listening to understand, is where the magic happens, he said.

“You try to recall what you know about the person and their experiences, what is not being said through what is being said,” Hernandez said.

People often ask one another how they’re doing at the beginning of calls. The customary reply tends to be in the affirmative (e.g. that they are doing fine, well, or all right). “Did they say they’re all right? Did their voice go up, go down? Did they lean back? What are they actually saying?” Hernandez asked.

Active listening can promote empathy and resolve conflicts, still even with these practices, the path forward may include additional dialogue or even escalation. “The important thing is you’re doing it together. You’re doing it transparently,” Hernandez said. “It’s still a win-win for everyone.”

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, ThinkHuman, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.

Uwa Ede-Osifo is a writer, journalist, and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. She recently concluded a reporting fellowship at NBC News where she covered national news including youth culture, race, and inequality.

RELATED STORIES

Elevate Employee Engagement: Smart Strategies for Thriving Teams on a Budget

Employees crave meaningful experiences. But with limited time and budgets, how can companies build more purpose into the work experience? Fifteen minutes at a time, says Ben Sampson.Sampson is chief evangelist of social impact and employee engagement at WizeHive, which offers software platforms for managing scholarships and workplace giving, as well as immersive volunteer experiences via WeHero. At a From Day One’s webinar, Sampson spoke to the idea of how turnkey volunteering can increase employee engagement on a budget. Kelly Bourdet of Apparata Media interviewed.Coming from a volunteer background, Sampson knew how engaging it can be to help others.  One thing led to another, and he eventually co-founded WeHero to help facilitate opportunities for employees to engage in volunteering experiences through their workplace. “We're constantly looking at what employees need,” he said. More and more, he’s learned that employees want to work for a company with purpose. They want to go to work and feel like it makes a good social impact. Some potential employees even ask about those opportunities during hiring. On the flip side, employees are also extremely conscious of their time. “How can we be time sensitive to get employees engaged in our companies, and give them a good experience of continuously engaging over and over again?” Sampson asked. In the past, companies would typically ask employees to go out and find their own volunteer opportunities, then spend time out of the office. While employees love giving back, putting the burden of doing all the legwork doesn’t fit within time constraints or even company budgets. The key, Sampson and his team have learned, is meeting the company and the employees where they are and giving back their most valuable resource: their time.Journalist Kelly Bourdet interviewed Ben Sampson of WizeHive during the From Day One webinar (photo by From Day One)Companies big or small, hybrid or in-office, local or global, all can better engage through impact experiences. Having WizeHive take care of the burden of logistics allows employees to enjoy the process of volunteering without a lot of extra time while maximizing their impact. “Bite size volunteer opportunities make a lot of impact,” Sampson said. “Maybe that's building a water filter for 15 minutes out of your workday, maybe that is answering a video call from someone that’s visually disabled that needs help finding the bus stop. Volunteering can be a great way for engaging employees in a low-cost mechanism.”At one company with an office and a warehouse, Sampson says the warehouse personnel generally didn’t have the time to participate in volunteer projects. So they set up a station where all employees could put together backpacks with supplies for kids during lunch or a break. Warehouse employees felt more included and engaged.“They even got to see the kids picking up the backpacks, so that was really special,” Sampson said. Even though the project took very little time and employees didn’t even need to leave the workplace to do it, the project still had a big impact on the community.One thing to focus on when rolling out opportunities is showing the clear path to impact. What will be the result of putting in their time? Virtual events are especially popular, Sampson says, as more people can participate in them and they fit most budgets. Sampson’s team can also help match people with specific skills to volunteer opportunities. Doing transcription work for the Smithsonian or Ancestry are just two examples of something people can do that have a clear path of impact—saving pieces of history and helping people connect with ancestors. Leadership buy-in is crucial for success, Sampson says. Companies where leadership is engaged and participating in impact projects correlate highly with employee participation and engagement as well. Mercedes is one company where the CEO works alongside employees during their volunteer experiences, connecting employees with leadership and allowing them to see each other outside the typical work setting.But sometimes getting that leadership buy-in can be challenging. “What is something the HR side can use to argue for the value?” Bourdet asked Sampson.To understand what’s most important to that leader, likely profitability for the company, then offering metrics or other reasons why volunteerism is the answer. If that leader is focused on employee retention, Sampson has a metric for that. “What are the costs of employee turnover? For a lot of businesses that we work with, it’s millions of dollars.” So, if employee engagement improves through these impact projects, it could save the company money. For one company they were working with, Sampson predicted a $26 million savings over 12 months, if done effectively. “There is so much positive emotion when people volunteer.” One employee who was able to volunteer for the first time told Sampson, “It’s cool that my employer has given me the opportunity to do this.” Now that’s employee engagement. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, WizeHive, for sponsoring this webinar.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.

Carrie Snider | May 17, 2024

Navigating the Future of Business With Resilience and Innovation

When Amy Letke, national practice leader, HR consulting at Marsh McLennan Agency talks about innovative HR strategy, she points to one of her clients as a perfect example. This company has a workplace with harsh conditions that most of us would find unattractive. It’s a meatpacking company where employees often find themselves working in below-freezing temperatures and less-than-competitive pay. Yet its attrition rate is remarkably low.The client told her, “We’ve invested in our people, we’ve conducted leadership training, we’ve had to reorganize. We’ve [also] had to go back to our leaders and say, ‘You’ve got to like your people, to talk to them, and be compassionate to their needs.’” Letke shared this story in a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s D.C. event. By offering a holistic benefits package and engaging not just the employees, but also their families with a welcoming company culture, this organization convinced workers not only to stay, but to thrive in a very tough job.In a dynamic business environment, adaptation is essential to stay competitive. Organizations face unprecedented challenges and opportunities, demanding a blend of resilience and innovation. Letke offered an enlightening presentation on how to navigate and excel in this landscape, with insights, strategies, and actionable advice to thrive amid evolving industry trends.Workplace Challenges in 2024Letke says employers face three major challenges this year, each of which offers opportunities to be more effective with your HR benefits strategy. First, is attracting and retaining talent. The second, she says, is getting more done with less. And finally, the third is the rapid technological advancement happening.Covid prepared HR teams to deal with rapidly changing circumstances, she says. “HR teams have to be resilient. And we always are renewing and invigorating ourselves.” She offers several hallmarks of a resilient HR structure, including a coaching for leaders, a handbook that addresses time off and other work policies, up-to-date job descriptions, and a readiness to handle tough conversations, among others. By consistently analyzing your infrastructure and making sure the latest trends and policies are incorporated, you can stay ahead of any challenges coming down the line.Creating an Effective StrategyIn addition to staying on top of trends and keeping HR infrastructure updated, it’s also about attitude and company culture. “When we become a leader, we’ve got to realize what we’re signing up for,” Letke said. “It means we have to be compassionate, caring, [and] we have to listen.” This sometimes requires training, she says.Amy Letke,  National Practice Leader, HR Consulting at Marsh McLennan Agency led the thought leadership spotlight in D.C.Resilient infrastructure can create a resilient culture with exceptional supervisors. These leaders give the frontline workforce the support that they need and can often make an organization more attractive even when the pay is not as competitive due to budget cuts in a challenging economy. It also means that leaders should be held accountable for employee turnover, as their attitude and care should be driving the culture that inspires retention and loyalty.Workers satisfied with every element of the employee experience are happier and feel more successful, appreciated, and have a greater sense of belonging, Letke says. These elements include pay and compensation, purposeful work, culture, and flexibility. “This list shows how we as leaders can deliver care throughout our organization,” Letke said, and should be a guiding principle behind HR strategy.Having an Effective Benefits Strategy“Offering good employee benefits is just basic, everybody expects it,” Letke said, especially post-pandemic. So she encourages leaders to be more creative with their benefits strategy in order to stay competitive. A recent Marsh McLennan study showed that one in three employees would forgo a pay increase in return for additional well-being offerings for themselves and their families. “Being able to support your employees’ well-being is something we are seeing as an emerging trend, so thinking about those benefits is a way you can differentiate your company from others,” she said.Letke identifies four key areas of focus as opportunities to be more effective with your benefits strategy:Personalization: Give employees choices.Segmentation: Understand the different segments of employees and their needs. Centralization: To curb spending, there will likely be a centralization of tech platforms and human support options for HR teams. Empathy: Be there for your employees.A comprehensive benefits program incorporates the needs of every generation in the workforce, whose needs can look quite different. For example, Gen X might want remote work, flexible scheduling, caregiving benefits, and retirement planning, while Gen Z might prioritize student loan repayment, financial planning assistance, and training and development.Many workplaces have multiple generations represented among the workforce, so “managing to the needs of these generations is critical,” Letke said.Ultimately, HR success is about cultivating a mindset of innovation, Letke says. If HR has become a “check the box” compliance function, you’re doing it wrong. “Our job is to lead, inspire, and help others understand the impact they can make on the employee experience,” Letke said.Intention, compassion, and empathy is how winning organizations do it. A holistic approach to leadership that includes every element of an employees’ experience – both at work and at home – can make for a sustainable, forward-thinking, and highly attractive workplace.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Marsh McLennan Agency, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, and CBS New York.

Katie Chambers | May 09, 2024

How to Keep a Hybrid Workforce Engaged and Productive

As of February 2024, more than half (54%) of employees in the US who can work remotely adhere to a hybrid schedule, and 27% are exclusively remote, according to data from Gallup.Yet many employers remain suspicious of remote and hybrid arrangements, fearing lack of productivity, weakening engagement, sagging performance, and lost opportunities for employee collaboration and innovation. Hoping to understand employee movements outside of their offices, some employers have invested in employee-monitoring software, capturing everything from hours worked to keystrokes.Yet privacy is a major concern for workers, and invasive employee monitoring can feel like Big Brother is breathing down their necks, rupturing trust and putting workers on guard.“It’s really important that we think about [employee productivity] insights not as a mechanism to scratch an itch of curiosity, but a mechanism to provide continuous improvement as it relates to the way that we work together,” said Gabriela Mauch, head of the productivity lab at workforce analytics software platform ActivTrak.Mauch understands why the itch is there. “This conversation started three or four years ago when [companies] abruptly transitioned from being a fully in-office organization to a fully remote organization,” said Mauch. “So many of us felt the pain of lacking visibility into the time worked and schedule adherence that are critical to running the business.”Yet many employers are asking the wrong questions, misinterpreting data, and failing to trust their workers to spend their time efficiently. During a recent From Day One webinar on engaging a hybrid workforce, Mauch and her colleague Sarah Altemus, ActivTrak’s productivity lab manager, talked about how employers can better and–more responsibly–use employee productivity data.Speakers from ActivTrak discussed the topic "How to Get Hybrid Right: The Cornerstones of Success" (photo by From Day One)Employers are susceptible to misuse of employee productivity data, and not just because they may want to obsessively monitor every click of a worker’s mouse.There is plenty of room for misinterpretation. For example, working long hours doesn’t mean someone is more productive or engaged, it could mean that they’re overloaded or barreling toward burnout. Likewise, a light schedule may not indicate laziness or disengagement, it may be a sign of underutilization. “These can quickly become attrition risks,” said Altemus.This has been a common struggle for employers, according to Mauch. “While we maybe had clear expectations of how we expect people to work, what we managed to struggle with is whether people are working too much or disengaging.”So some employers have responded by grabbing at details they hoped would illuminate those patterns. But a closer look doesn’t always make things clearer, and good information can get buried in the minutia of massive data reports. Shrewd interpretation of data at a higher level provides a more accurate picture. “The right information can help your managers act as coaches and provide guidance without infringing upon the comfort of your workforce who want to make sure that they still have those critical levels of privacy,” said Mauch.Altemus encouraged employers to examine productivity data at a higher level, in the form of general activity logs. “Think of it as just a glance around the office that you would otherwise get if you were in person,” she said. “How many employees are working today? How are productive hours tracking relative to goals? Is engagement and productivity trending up or down? Are there teams that are at risk of burnout, disengagement, or misalignment?”Better information can help managers categorize working time as productive or unproductive and make sure workers are actually signing off from work at the end of the day–not burning the midnight oil until they burn out. It can help managers avoid proximity bias that favors in-office workers over remote or hybrid workers for promotions and raises. And it can help leaders make the most of face-to-face time and office reconfigurations.To this end, Altemus recommended clear expectations. “The success of a flexible workforce requires clearly delineated responsibilities and communication protocols,” she said. And it needs a performance management strategy.Employers don’t set arbitrary guidelines for guidelines’ sake, said Mauch. “At the end of the day, the intent of company policy is not just to ensure that people are following it, the intent of the policy is to optimize productivity, take care of your employees, and retain them.”That’s when activity reporting becomes invaluable, she said: When you stop trying to answer the question, “Did people badge in and did people badge out?” and instead answer “Does my hybrid policy fully maximize my ability to engage and reach my productivity goals?”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, ActivTrak, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | May 01, 2024