After Three Years of Crisis, What Will Keep Employees Engaged and Motivated?
BY Tania Rahman May 31, 2023Over the past three years, workers have had to learn how to adapt and build new skills in order to succeed in a constantly changing work environment. In the aftermath of the pandemic, this same workforce is now experiencing extensive burnout. Now, organizations are tasked with finding ways to help their employees exit survival mode, through means of building an inclusive culture that supports a sense of employee engagement.During a panel discussion at From Day One's Brooklyn conference, moderated by Lydia Dishman of Fast Company, a group of panelists offered their perspective on how their business is renewing a sense of meaning among its employees.Widespread Employee BurnoutAccording to Dale Cook, co-founder and CEO of Learn to Live, people often think in two ways when it comes to burnout.“There’s the external forces that we all experience, heavy deadlines, heavy workloads, life pressures. There’s [also] the internal side of how we manage those things on a day to day basis.”He said that when his organization works with partners, they tend to focus on the internal side: the things that are within their control, like reframing mental health, and providing the right tools at the right time. Cook cites his own experience struggling with mental health in college and his access to mental health services as a key influence on his company’s mode of helping others do the same to manage their burnout.And yet, Lydia points out that frontline managers are often the ones truly shouldering much of the burden as they watch their teams get burned out. The key to combating this and building stronger relationships with employees, Dale said, lies in a manager’s ability to be vulnerable with one’s own mental health journey.One of the biggest shifts that Liz Pittinger sees as head of customer success at Stork Club is in the transparency behind communicating any strategic decision-making for the sake of diversity, equity, and inclusion. She points to how fertility journeys and menopause are silent stressors that contribute to burnout. These are aspects of health care that Stork Club incorporated into its benefits portfolio.The critical aspect here is how these decisions are shared to the organization at large, so that people have an understanding as to why certain health care benefits are necessary.Engaging the WorkforceA simple change in scenery could be the key driver in building engagement among employees.At MasterCard, Charman Hayes highlights the value of in-person connection with colleagues. As EVP of people and capability, technology, Hayes helps underpin activities like volunteering, mentorship, game engagement, and learning and development to fulfill human connectivity.“It's been a great opportunity since we've come out of our basements and our bedrooms.”Noting MasterCard’s goal in using technology to bring people together, Charman indicated that human connection can be tastefully met in person where it matters, and they can also be met virtually.Giving employees a sense of purpose through social impact programs is a priority at NBCUniversal. Jessica Clancy, who serves as SVP of corporate social responsibility, said the media company’s Talent Lab allows employees to be “nominated for a learning experience that wraps around inclusive leadership, the principles and values we care about at NBC, and integrates it with social impact.”The full panel of speakers, pictured, discussed how they are focusing on engagement, inclusion, and motivation within their organizations (photo by Cassandra Sajna for From Day One)Clancy said that having employees “not just participating in community service, but actively working on leadership development alongside young people from that community” is an important differentiator.“It really helps employees to think about the skills around empathy, listening, inclusivity that they are practicing in the community, and that they’re going to bring back to the job,” she said.From a leadership perspective, ensuring employee engagement is often personal.“I feel a very deep sense of responsibility to ensure that we are positively impacting lives, whether it's other employees in the organization, fans, especially in the community more broadly,” said Jane Son, co-head of foundation and community engagement at the New York Mets.Encouraging Empathy and Inclusion in the OrganizationAccording to Dale, isolation is one of the leading issues for mental health. “As much as we’ve advanced our conversation together around destigmatizing mental health, it’s still the number one barrier for people in the workforce that often translates into fear of discrimination.”To combat potential discrimination, his organization offers programs and services that are completely private and confidential.For Stork Club, the path to effective inclusion in their mission is simple: reduce the cost of health care.“Every single day, we're dealing with people who are desperate to start a family or not, who don't know if they can financially afford it. When we promote empathy, we start with the member experience,” said Liz.“When our care navigations share member stories with us, we’re getting the celebrations, the picture of their newborns, and we convey that back to the customer and through the entire company to make sure everyone understands and feels connected to what our purposes are.”Discovering the Next Steps in Professional DevelopmentOften, a natural transition from volunteering in the workplace is finding an opportunity to utilize new skills and apply it to positions of leadership, development, and service. This makes internal initiatives like that of NBCUniversal and MasterCard useful for those in leadership to recognize when an individual wants to evolve to the next stage in skill building.“Leaders can talk about the skills they need for projects, and employees can share that they want to build on and develop those skills,” said Charman. “We add this into our talent review process which translates into human resources.”At Learn to Live, there is a strong belief that acts of service is an important part of a mental health journey.“What I'm intrigued about is that interconnection between best practices, community service, and skills building, coupled with how people are working on themselves at the same time. That intersection is something worth exploring for organizations,” said Dale.Tania Rahman is a native New Yorker who works at the intersection of digital marketing and tech. She enjoys writing both news stories and fiction, hot chocolate on cold days, reading, live music, and learning new things.
Bringing Transparency and Accountability to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
BY Tania Rahman April 24, 2023At global power management company Eaton Corp, Ernest Marshall, chief human resources officer, says that leadership has worked hard to separate the sensationalism often associated with employee data analytics by redefining these numbers to ‘workforce insights.’Such insights have been analyzed and leveraged in a manner that equipped the organization to drive real change. Shana Lebowitz Gaynor of Insider interviewed Ernest on this subject during a From Day One virtual conference.Leveraging Workplace InsightsMarshall picked up on the fact that when women candidates get to the offer stage, 90% of them accept the offer–highlighting how gender diversity led to a higher acceptance rate.Similarly, Eaton has set up an initiative to hire more women globally and increase minority representation into general management roles. Upon further investigation, it was found that the company had a large percentage of diverse employees internally, yet there was a gap when it came to driving these individuals toward management positions.Marshall highlighted that when data is presented, often in the form of a percentage increase, the full context of the data is rarely clarified. “It’s only one piece of the puzzle. We aren’t looking at what could that number have been,” he said.When it comes to analytics and workforce insights, he adds that companies must unpack what the easy percentage is trying to tell them. He does this by staging a hypothetical company goal: reaching an employee base that consists of 40% women.“People could suggest hiring more, but that’s only one variable. You need to control for things like your attrition or your rate of promotion,” he said, and mentions that focusing on such factors enables leaders to control the process and better understand what’s happening in the organization.The Role of Workplace FlexibilityDesiring flexible work options is a facet of corporate culture that has existed long before the pandemic. At Eaton, some form of flexibility has always existed, such as a hybrid work policy, but the question came down to how it was utilized and whether leaders were supportive of their remote employees.“Flexibility by definition is the quality of blending without breaking,” Marshall said. “Flexibility is about trust.”He said that for a flexible solution to succeed, it hinges on the priorities and outcomes for the business and less about why the person wants the flexibility.Gaynor, left, interviewed Marshall, right, during the From Day One virtual conference (photo by From Day One)“There seems to be this reluctance to have this discussion, because people think when I do [ask for flexibility], someone’s going to think differently about me.”Historically, people felt the need to prove they deserved flexibility–an approach that is misguided as it adversely impacts the company’s culture. He said that the discussion should be avoided entirely, pointing to sensitive situations such as employees who needed to care for aging parents who lived far from company headquarters.Such flexible solutions can be adjusted to an as-needed basis, where managers can green light it for a team member and check in periodically on progress.“We've got to ensure that we stay focused on the main thing: partnering with one another and helping each other drive those priorities and deliver those outcomes, in the best way that the person operates based on our flexible work policy,” he said.As CHRO, Marshall shares how he brings his personal experiences to the table to inform his outlook on inclusion and diversity as a part of his calling, underscoring how a diverse workforce makes the collective intellect of an organization far better.“What we all bring to the organization every day is our lived experiences, which is what makes diversity so profound,” he said.Tania Rahman is a native New Yorker who works at the intersection of digital marketing and tech. She enjoys writing both news stories and fiction, hot chocolate on cold days, reading, live music, and learning new things.
What It Takes to Be a Modern Manager
BY Tania Rahman August 12, 2022Among the many types of corporate leaders, HR managers have experienced a uniquely challenging time during the Great Resignation. But according to Jon Greenawalt, SVP of customer transformation at performance-management platform 15Five, in crisis lies opportunity. “HR leaders have a seat at the table and can make strategic decisions in how they’re going to take their companies forward,” he said. This opportunity has led to the rise of the modern manager, one who shows proficiency based on empathy, and the need for leaders across all levels an organization, not just executives, to gain new skills. The Transformation of the Workplace During 2021, more than 47 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs, with more than 4 million more leaving their roles every month in 2022 so far. However, this phenomenon has been in effect long before the pandemic’s inception. “People are seeking better opportunities: better pay, better chance to grow career, autonomy and flexibility. They want to work for companies and leaders who care about them” Greenawalt said, speaking in a Thought Leadership Spotlight at From Day One’s recent conference in Brooklyn. Career growth and learning and development opportunities are commonly cited among those who choose to remain at a company. In this transformed world, a thriving workplace will be driven by the modern manager. Who is the Modern Manager? Managers are an extension of the HR team–and when 70% of team engagement relies on this individual, hiring the right leader is mission-critical. The modern manager is an individual with a high emotional quotient (EQ). They are self-aware, engage in self-reflection, and genuinely care about individuals on their teams by committing to cultivating their relationships and personal growth. In addition, they excel at goal-setting and sharing context with their broader teams to develop purpose and discipline in their work. Greenawalt listed five important skills and characteristics that the modern manager must develop in order to be successful: •Creating a sense of psychological safety: Work-life separation is often dependent on employees setting those boundaries, but work life impacts home life, and vice versa. Managers should spend time engaging with employees on their real lives, as well as creating role clarity in order to establish trust on the team. Greenawalt speaking at the Brooklyn conference (Photo by Alyssa Meadows for From Day One) •Strength-based development: Modern managers lead with strengths. They can identify and optimize their own strengths and help team members find and develop their core strengths. This is because people are happier when they perform work aligned with their key skill sets. •Positivity: It’s not always about the words you speak. People are able to pick up on energy–and if a manager is in a bad mood, they must be attuned to the impact of their energy on others and focus on positivity. Human beings typically focus more on negative feedback over positive input, and so it is the responsibility of managers to pour on the praise in an intentional manner. “Executives are afraid to give positive feedback because they think it softens people,” said Greenawalt. “But the sting of a rebuke lasts longer than the joy of a praise.” •Intrinsic motivation: A manager must know how to optimize energy at work and learn to determine what teammates are energized and de-energized by. This requires leaders to build a measure of self-awareness in order to align employee goals with their strengths and ensure they are working on projects they are passionate about. •A personal growth mindset: A good modern manager should cultivate this type of mindset as well as foster it within their own team. This helps develop the power of not simply goal-setting, but equipping people with the opportunity to develop goals that push them beyond their comfort zones. “Whether you ran a marathon or did something crazy that you thought you couldn’t do–that’s growth,” said Greenawalt. Building the Modern Manager With Effective Training In order to successfully upskill, managers need training centered on continuous adult learning, not one-and-done programs. 15Five’s program combines people-skill training and coaching. The company’s process enables managers to select from three subscription models: online, hybrid, or live skill training. “Everybody needs a coach, but managers and leaders need skill training,” said Greenawalt. “These are the important individuals in a company that need to be trained on people skills, mindsets, and behaviors to get the results that they want.” Editor’s Note: From Day One would like to thank our partner 15Five, who sponsored this Thought Leadership Spotlight. You can read about Jon Greenawalt’s presentation at From Day One’s 2022 Boston conference here. Tania Rahman is a native New Yorker who works at the intersection of digital marketing and tech. She enjoys writing both news stories and fiction, hot chocolate on cold days, reading, live music, and learning new things.
Inside the Cultural Shift at a Legendary Company
BY Tania Rahman July 05, 2022How does a 111-year-old technology company survive in the modern age? According to Obed Louissaint, SVP of transformation and culture at IBM, the answer lies in driving a growth mindset and culture shift within the organization by breaking traditional modes of talent acquisition. Leading a cultural transformation at such a massive organization requires more than simply posting mantras on a wall or kicking off meetings with a catchy phrase. “As you are defining what your culture is, you can easily erode the narrative by who you appoint into the job,” he said in a fireside chat at From Day One’s May conference in Brooklyn. “The people you put in leadership roles tells more about what the culture is of the organization.” The Inception of Change Illustrating the desire to transform culture at IBM, Louissaint cited a business problem: there was a shortage of talent for the numerous cybersecurity roles the company was hiring for, yet an abundance of individuals available in the labor force. The company realized that more than 90% of the job descriptions posted on its Careers page required a bachelor’s degree, in a nation where more than 62% of people over 25 didn’t have one. This led hiring managers to re-evaluate hiring practices and consider what true requirements were necessary for the job. “We realized there were real-life experiences that were more important than the degree. So we had to decode what was under the degree that we were hiding from, and determining what real skills were needed,” said Louissaint. “This rethinking has led to an increase in motivated and curious new hires, higher retention rates, and a more inclusive workforce.” He pointed to the airline hiring practices as an example of an industry successfully embracing this approach, having removed degree requirements for pilot roles. “People panic a little bit when they hear that, but when you’re in a flight, are you more interested in somebody who has experience–or degrees?” he said, adding that finding talent among veterans was a positive shift of focusing on skills over degrees. Adopting a Change Mindset with Limited Resources Moderator Sharon Epperson, the senior personal finance correspondent at CNBC, pointed out how a company like IBM had numerous resources at its disposal in order to enact such a shift in hiring practices. How can companies with limited resources do the same? Interviewing Louissaint was Sharon Epperson, senior personal finance corresponding for CNBC One method is by re-examining job descriptions and thinking through what the true success profiles of jobs could be. Another critical step is to train managers and talent-acquisition teams to look for specific skillsets over conventional skills and be more thoughtful in their selection, Louissaint said. “We’ve been screening out individuals way too easily and not looking at the skills necessary to get the job done.” Though IBM is a technological behemoth with the ability to use artificial intelligence as a supplement for hiring, human managers are still the ones who make the final call on a candidate. “Technology should be used to ensure candidates are diverse, and to be a good aid to a recruiter to surface inequities so the team has full visibility,” said Louissaint, who leads the areas of leadership, learning, diversity and inclusion, and transformation for the company. In addition, culture transformation requires leaders who are responsible for the clarity of the outcome, as well as an engaged and contributing employee base. To cultivate a conversation around company values, IBM hosted a Slack conference inviting all 250,000 employees worldwide, utilizing feedback from the discussion to reconfirm its values. Beyond that, management must ensure that employees are able to adopt recession-proof skills. Louissaint said that companies have to build the platforms and tools to equip people to learn, as well as creating a culture of learning, which he says IBM achieves by gamifying the process. What HR Leaders Can Do Now Ultimately, professionals who are determined to cultivate culture change must develop a mindset that focuses on skills versus degrees in order to create a more diverse workplace, such as reviewing existing hiring methods and considering recruits from nontraditional places of learning such as coding boot camps and community colleges. “It’s not enough for us to look different if we sound the same,” Louissaint said. “By focusing on inclusion and not just diversity alone, it will be the power of what drives us towards innovation and building a real growth culture.” Tania Rahman is a native New Yorker who works at the intersection of digital marketing and tech. She enjoys writing both news stories and fiction, hot chocolate on cold days, reading, live music, and learning new things.
Tech Has a Diversity Problem. How Can We Solve It?
BY Tania Rahman June 26, 2022The tech sector is widely touted as an environment driving innovation and progressive values, yet a lack of diversity has long been problematic in the industry. The root of the issue lies in the way organizations approach the fundamental value of diversity, according to Salima Bhimani, PhD, chief strategist and director of equity, inclusion and systemic change at the Other Bets at Google. “We think about diversity in terms of adding numbers, filling roles–but we’re not thinking of it in terms of what we’re trying to drive forward or how to bring in talent that’s fundamentally going to change who we are, what we are, and what we do in the world,” Bhimini said in a fireside chat at From Day One’s June virtual conference on more inclusive approaches to diversity. Companies get caught up in the idea of visual representation, but the chief complaint is that these organizations are not systemically and structurally set up to expand diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in valuable ways. To solve the diversity challenge, Bhimani said it requires a true mindset shift around the critical value of diversity, she told moderator Kelly Yamanouchi, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Accelerating Progress Towards a Mindset Change Because DEI is part of a larger social conversation, particularly as attrition grows among women of color and other marginalized groups, many organizations are quickly seeking to find ways to attract and retain a diverse workforce. But in order to effect meaningful change, it requires slowing down and asking the right questions, instead of simply poaching talent from competitors and recycling the same problem. The fireside chat, from left: Moderator Kelly Yamanouchi of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Salima Bhimani, PhD, of Google (Image by From Day One) Often, processes involved in hiring are solidified in organizations and get entrenched over time, making it difficult to create a cultural change and leading diversity efforts to be added as an afterthought. For an example of how organizations should incorporate these values, Bhimani looks to startups, which have an advantage in their ability to build DEI practices into their values from the beginning and enabling their statements to become part of their DNA. The shift in the way the workforce operates, especially since the onset of the pandemic, has given companies an opportunity to take a step back and observe what things can be done differently in order to be more representative of traditionally marginalized groups. For instance, the advent of remote work has created a new level of accountability: organizations and leaders need to create culture within the hybrid workplace, but with the additional task of incorporating the lack of inclusivity that existed prior to remote work. “The fact that people can and want to work from home should not indicate that a company is inclusive,” said Bhimani. “When you look at the research, a lot of those people are working from home because they don’t want to go into a micro-aggressive environment.” She said that it is critical to shed misconceptions, such as that innovation is possible only in the office, since those environments didn’t produce those things for all people. The Case for Diversity To drive some level of change internally, hiring managers are often tasked with providing executives with data in order to get buy-in for organizational changes. But Bhimani said that this is an idea that teams need to step away from, as it can lock in a concept where HR feels the need to convince senior leadership that the problem is real. “A lot of leaders in tech are data-savvy, but then you show the data, and it doesn’t convince leaders,” she said. “We need to ask, What is the entry point in connecting with my leader about what needs to change here?” The issue should be reframed in a manner that transforms leaders into long-term commitment in this space and figuring out how to achieve it. “The reality is that leaders have 50 other things on their mind that we don’t know about that’s influencing their thought process and decisions. Leaders need to be more curious in order to create a natural dynamic of openness.” The Future of DEI Work The upside to the growing focus on DEI efforts is that many organizations are creating opportunities for historically underrepresented groups to be hired in leadership or senior-level roles. While this helps resolve the numbers game of diverse talent, it still does not address the separate question about what expertise organizations need to solve a specific problem–and how can they address the problem with a diverse team. Bhimani said that ultimately, the best way to drive meaningful change around diversity in tech is for companies to ask two questions: What are they really trying to solve, and what is their hypothesis around why they don’t have it? “Figure out what outcomes we want, and then work backwards. We have a lot of work to do in asking the right questions,” she said. Tania Rahman is a native New Yorker who works at the intersection of digital marketing and tech. She is both a creative writer and freelancer, enjoys hot chocolate on cold days, reading, live music, and learning new challenges.
Leadership Advice for 2022: 'Don't Be the Superhero'
BY Tania Rahman January 04, 2022How does a company like Prudential Financial, which has been around for a century and a half, adapt to the modern world? The company’s secret to innovation lies in re-evaluating how work gets done and developing empathetic leadership. That’s according to Prudential VP Alan Morales, who has an unusually forward-looking title at the company: head of transformative change for the future of work. In a conversation with Time Staff Writer Raisa Bruner at From Day One’s December virtual conference on the future of work, Morales shared how a company as vast as Prudential, which manages more than $1 trillion in assets and has more than 40,000 employees, keeps up with digital transformation and evolving work environments. “Change is often thought of as incremental, whereas transformation is radical,” Morales said. “How do we focus on the people side of change?” It requires the employees in all business units and corporate functions to think creatively and challenge inefficiencies in the way they work. This means finding areas of work that are redundant, bypassing typical bureaucratic practices, and enabling flexible work options, he said. Employees should be encouraged to blur the boundaries of their typical job functions and value the perspective and suggestions of all team members. “This creates more equity in teams and lets you focus on the end goal–you can react to changes more quickly. If we focus on the results and less on the bureaucracy and paperwork, it allows us to perform better,” said Morales. The Value of Empathetic Leadership The most critical aspect of successfully transforming companies and employees is impactful leadership–by simply being human.. “Be relatable,” Morales said. “Be vulnerable. Remind yourself that you’re a human being. Don’t be the superhero.” Speaking on empathetic leadership, from left: Alan Morales of Prudential Financial and moderator Raisa Bruner of Time (Image by From Day One) Among leadership, there is often a desire to protect employees by not sharing difficulties and challenges, or failing to acknowledge that they don’t have all the answers. This instinct is not productive, Morales said. “You’re not giving them the benefit of the doubt that they can understand and comprehend that. They're undergoing their own changes and can relate, and they can help you find the answers, and they can help take care of you,” he said. While the blurring of work life and home life during the pandemic created many stresses, Morales said that an upside is often increased empathy and vulnerability among teams. This can free people to make comments and suggestions that they may not have felt comfortable making previously. “You’re becoming more authentic,” Alan said. “You’re taking down the politically correct answers, and you’re doing what makes sense. That resonates with people and it creates trust.” Helping People Grow Through Change Although companies were forced during the pandemic to transition to remote work with little lead time and abandon typical workflow practices, it didn’t prevent customer support needs from mounting. “In our business, a lot of retirement accounts, insurance accounts, withdrawals were being made as a result of job loss, medical needs. Our customer needs skyrocketed, and we were under a lot of duress,” Alan said. The company’s services were in demand, but because of changes in the global workforce, the pool of skilled workers was smaller. To appropriately address the needs of customers and support staff, Prudential was forced to become less risk-averse and develop quick, creative solutions. In addition to rethinking business practices and leadership, Prudential is reinventing its recruiting tactics, particularly to attract the more purpose-driven Generation Z, whose members are now entering the workforce. To Gen Z, “Titles don’t matter as much as purpose and outcomes, and experiences that are fulfilling. As a result of that, the type of leadership around hierarchy has got to go,” Morales said. “People will perform because they want to, not because they have to, or for a paycheck.” The way forward? To find continued success, businesses must be prepared to constantly evolve and change their objectives, practices, and leadership. “It’s now at a point where we are saying we [employees] are equal to customers,” Alan said. “If you actually enhance the employee experience, it enhances the customer experience. There’s a direct relation between the two.” Tania Rahman is a native New Yorker who works at the intersection of digital marketing and tech. She enjoys writing both news stories and fiction, hot chocolate on cold days, reading, live music, and learning new things.
Why Recognition Is a Key to Building Connection
BY Tania Rahman December 08, 2021“The happier we are, the less likely we are to burn out, the more likely we are to have opportunities to feel our creative juices. And all of that means that people are going to be more engaged at work,” said Morgan Chaney in a recent presentation at From Day One’s recent virtual conference on upskilling, coaching, and recognition. Sounds great, but how can organizations achieve this lofty goal of maintaining employee happiness? One of the keys is to give them the recognition that they deserve for their work and efforts, said Chaney, senior director of marketing at Blueboard, a platform dedicated to fostering meaningful recognition opportunities in the workplace. Amidst the exodus of employees from the workforce known as the Great Resignation, one thing is clear: people across industries have become hyper-cognizant of the things that matter to them. This exit has been primarily driven by the sheer force of workers reorganizing their lives and priorities, with numbers predicted to rise even higher in the coming months. With the surge in job opportunities, the struggle for fair wages, the rise of flexible and remote work options, and the intolerance for unhealthy work environments, businesses are now tasked with determining how to retain their top talent and slow down rising attrition rates. Companies can do a better job of retaining employees by valuing the individual and their role and correlating their work to an impact on the company’s mission. In her presentation, Chaney explored the scenarios driving people away from their jobs–and how individual recognition can help foster and maintain talent. Highlights: Top Reasons People Are Exiting the Workforce Many workers and experts alike point to burnout as the root of these departures. For those used to working from an office, the pandemic’s erasure of the boundaries between work and personal life has fostered an always-on approach to work, as digital communication tools such as Slack and Zoom led to easy accessibility to employees and almost constant connection. Yet this increased pressure has come without the resilience-building aspects of human contact and camaraderie. “We lack physical celebrations like the high fives and hugs we used to get, so that also contributes to burnout,” said Chaney. “When you’re feeling more remote and separated from the humanity of people, you’re having to work through a lot of the emotions that you’re experiencing outside of work by yourself without having those co-workers to vent or talk to daily.” Morgan Chaney, senior director of marketing at Blueboard (Photo courtesy of Blueboard) This always-on mode affected everyone from individual contributors to senior-level managers, with the result that hard work went unrecognized or taken for granted. Many felt unseen in their efforts, as though their long hours were unaccounted for. That sense, coming on top of social isolation, resulted in a double-whammy on the psyche, said Chaney. For those in the hospitality industry, the segment impacted the hardest in the past two years, both business owners and employees struggled as customers disappeared. Millions suffered the precariousness of furloughs, while others were left to continue work on the front lines without the option of flexible environments. Finally, always-on remote work and social isolation was concurrent with the atmosphere of bleak uncertainty that overtook the world, leading many to consider what was truly important to them, such as a job that allowed for flexibility or one that provided meaning and purpose to their lives. What’s the Solution? It’s easy to feel like just a cog in the wheel in these conditions, which is probably why 70% of employees say that they are more likely to stay with a company if they receive more meaningful recognition. According to Chaney, there are three primary ways recognition for hard work can be so effective in retaining talent: 1.) “It helps connect work to a purpose: When you celebrate wins–big or small–you acknowledge the impact of an employee's contributions and influence their intrinsic desire to do better. This is particularly critical as motivation has waned lately due to overwork,” she said. 2.) “It helps connect people: Public recognition gives people an opportunity to celebrate each other. This fosters increased belonging to a group and helps combat isolation. It contributes to an abundant company culture of open communication, feedback, and praise.” 3.) “It helps connect people to their lives: Not all recognition programs will accomplish this. But experiential rewards and recognition give employees the opportunity to nurture a healthier life outside of work. Whether they use their reward to hone a skill, spend time with family, or go on an adventure, it gets into their lives.” Some of the ways in which HR staff have relied on the above themes and successfully implemented programs that highlight employees involve focusing on two areas: rewarding those who have gone the extra mile to keep team culture alive and thriving in this new world, and rewarding those who demonstrate company values, either through their work or behavior, Chaney said. Reward initiatives can vary. For example, The Trade Desk, a tech company, used Blueboard's platform to create a spot recognition program that offered such rewards as spa days or skydiving vouchers to employees who went above and beyond during the pandemic to foster team culture. The company expanded the program to enable colleagues to publicly laud their teammates. GoPro, the video-camera maker, relied on Blueboard’s program to run a manager-driven spotlight program, which enabled people managers to spontaneously reward team members for displaying admirable work efforts or showcasing company values. “It's really important to have repetition and frequency” in such recognition programs, said Chaney. To measure their effectiveness, companies use engagement and sentiment surveys that ask specific questions in order to develop success metrics. Employees are free to share their feedback and thoughts on the progress and impact of such programs. All in all, said Chaney, installing a consistent practice to recognize and reward employees across all job functions has proven to be a valuable strategy when it comes to employee retention, engagement, and creating a sense of belonging in the midst of a prolonged and sometimes painful transition to new ways of working. Editor's Note: From Day One thanks our partner for this thought-leadership spotlight, Blueboard. Tania Rahman is a native New Yorker who works at the intersection of digital marketing and tech. She enjoys writing both news stories and fiction, hot chocolate on cold days, reading, live music, and learning new things.