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Work Flexibility Is Like a Puzzle. What Are the Keys to Solve It?

BY carinalivoti August 28, 2019

When Werk co-founders Anna Auerbach and Annie Dean met back in 2015, they were both at turning points in their lives and careers—on opposite sides of the country. Auerbach was living in Las Vegas and struggling to find the flexibility she needed to raise a four-month-old son. She found that she was not alone. “Las Vegas has a lot of transplants, and I found that a lot of the women I met were struggling to find an opportunity there,” she said. According to Auerbach, many of the women she met had moved to Las Vegas for their husbands’ career opportunities and found themselves stay-at-home parents for lack of sufficiently flexible work opportunities. On the other side of the U.S., Dean too was at a crossroads. She had been a corporate lawyer, but after the birth of her second child, she was looking to change paths. That’s when a mutual friend connected her with Auerbach. “I took the call, and the first thing I said was, ‘How can I help you?’” Over the course of the conversation, Auerbach said she mentioned that she’d been thinking about the lack of female representation in the executive suite, coupled with what she’d been seeing in Las Vegas. It all gave her an idea about creating a company dedicated to fixing workplace inequity at the source of the problem: inflexibility. Dean’s response, an echo of Auerbach’s opening line: “Can I help you?” Over the course of six months, working nearly around the clock, across a time-zone difference, and amid the rigors of parenting young children, the two women joined forces to create what would become Werk, a first-of-its-kind people analytics platform that provides companies with data and recommendations to improve their flexibility performance. Auerbach chatted with From Day One about the growing importance of workplace flexibility and how it impacts everything from diversity-and-inclusion success to employee engagement, not to mention a company’s bottom line. Why is the demand for flexibility so high now, and why does that need seem to be growing? If we think about when we developed the modern conceptions of work, it was pre-industrial, predominantly men, and not very diverse. Things have changed so much. The workforce has become more diverse, and I think that’s created an opportunity to find new ways to be more inclusive of our employees, not just in terms of gender and race, but also who they are, what their personalities and experiences are like, and how they work best. The more we think about flexibility as a way to customize employee experience, the more we can think about it in terms of inclusion. There’s no question that this disproportionately affects people’s careers, particularly for diverse populations. Can you elaborate on how that works in practice, in the way you approached diversity and inclusion? We started with a focus on women in leadership. One of the first and more important supporters that we got was Ann-Marie Slaughter [author of Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family]. We cold emailed her and she really helped us center ourselves. One of the things we talked about was that we, as a country, chronically undervalue caregiving and dehumanize work, and this impacts primarily women. We’re a for-profit company, but we want to make sure we’re doing the right things for the world. There’s been so much work done on diversity, but the challenge has been how we get that to work with inclusion. Often there’s a significant amount of flex inequity in diverse populations. Our software assess their needs, but also what type of flex they perceive they have access to and the specific modifications they’re able to do. We see significant demographic fault lines. If a company has access to a work-from-home day, you’d think everyone would have access. But we’re finding that women and people of color tend not to think they have as much access to that. The problem with flexibility is that the onus is on the employee to ask for it. That can trigger a lot of unconscious bias. Diverse groups don’t always feel entitled to ask. At the same time, we also see deeper needs in certain populations. For example, there are people who can’t afford to live as close to the office [as others], so they have longer commutes and might benefit from a modified start time. When you think about attracting and retaining diverse populations, you really have to think about how they work best. It’s part of inclusion. While flexibility is clearly a virtue, your company offers needed structure to make it happen, to accommodate different situations, is that right? You've identified some specific flexibility options, like MicroAgility and TraveLite. How do those work? Our company started as a job board. We started thinking about how to help companies communicate the types of flexibility they offer and how people package what they do. We took a look at every type of flexibility that any company on the board had offered, and broke them down into three component parts: where you are when you’re working, when you’re working, and how set or variable those two components are. We made sure those categories didn’t overlap and then broke them each into a sub-category, giving us six flexibility types. We’ve found people are an average of two and a half flexibility types. Usually there’s one or two that really spike and then the others are less important. In the same way you have a Myers-Briggs personality type where you can say, “I’m INFJ,” you can say my flexibility type is MicroAgility [freedom to adapt], DeskPlus [location variety]. Being really distinct about what your type is—and how you work best—really helps others work with you as well. You produced a report that identifies a “flexibility gap.” Can you give an example of what that means or how companies are falling short? MicroAgility is a flexibility type that lets employees step away from their work for up to three hours to accommodate unexpected obligations. Three out of four employees say that they need access to MicroAgility but don’t have it, meaning that they can’t step out for a doctor’s appointment or a parent-teacher conference, but you can’t know that unless you have the data. That is the flexibility gap: the demand for a certain type of flexibility versus the actual supply or what employees perceive they have access to. What does Werk do that’s different from other programs and initiatives? There’s been so much talk about workplace flexibility and a bunch of companies have tried to address it. The term has been in play since the 1970s. We’re not inventing anything new here, but what we’ve done is we’ve injected data into the conversation. We’ve done that by using behavioral science. We collect granular human data, and we use an algorithm to translate that into visual information to companies. We take information, like how you commute, and then show your company how that affects happiness, productivity, loyalty. We show how measures like offering a work-from-home day boosts metrics like employee net promoter score (eNPS), as well as employee engagement, and reduces employee turnover And how do you turn that data into something actionable for companies? What we provide is ultimately an analytics software, with a psychometric assessment twice a year. We create a live, interactive dashboard that updates with new information and gives information on what type of flexibility is needed, what you’re delivering on, and provides a custom action plan for execution. We can provide an individual flexibility profile to each employee. I think all too often we’re missing the labels to explain what we need and how we work best. Flexibility-profile types help fill that gap. Where do companies get this right and where do they get it wrong? Any step forward is a right step. The companies that are really getting it right are thinking about this as a major people priority. Ultimately, most of the implementation is going to happen through managers, but there needs to be some top-level directive. The most heartening thing I’ve seen is that companies are really coming around to workplace flexibility. One of every two companies has some sort of top-level directive prioritizing it. There are companies where their CEOs are open about it, and they’re doing exceptionally well. Starting to gather some data is the best approach. A lot of companies we work with have gathered some kernels of data and are looking for a way to move forward. I think where companies falter is when they try something without data, when it’s not tracked or structured. This is not an understanding of this-is-my-schedule-and-how-I-work. Sometimes they backfire. When flexibility is applied without measures in place, it can become chaotic—just not aligned with the needs of the workforce. How do structured, thoughtful flexibility programs affect the bottom line for companies? We see companies that are prioritizing diversity and inclusion but still missing the mark or having trouble attracting talent. Or they're looking to reduce costs and having trouble managing real estate—all of these are actually symptoms where one of the root causes is lack of flexibility. The more people are able to work in a way that’s conducive to their lives and work styles, the more productive and engaged they’ll be. Carina Livoti is a New York-based writer and editor. She earned a degree in English at Harvard and spends a lot of time wondering whether strangers wearing earbuds on the subway are actually listening to anything

Feature

Is It Safe to Speak Up in Your Workplace?

BY carinalivoti February 12, 2019

When the term "workplace safety" comes up, most people may think of construction sites and hazardous materials. But health and well-being is an issue for all workplaces—and not all dangers are physical. In fact, the social and emotional challenges that employees can face on the job—from discrimination and harassment to lack of recognition and feedback—can be even more insidious. Recognizing this, many enlightened companies have become more determined to foster a healthy work environment with an emphasis on clear values and open communication. “A safe work environment is one where people feel comfortable having challenging conversations with their manager," said Rachel Ernst, vice president of employee success at Reflektive, a San Francisco-based company that provides a suite of people-management programs. "Psychological safety is one of the most foundational things a company needs to set employees up for success.” Rachel Ernst, vice president of employee success at Reflektive From Day One talked with Ernst about the key strategies she recommends to companies aiming to foster a healthy corporate culture. Among them: 1.) Start with values Ernst said that anyone building a company from scratch, or managing a company at a turning point, would do well to determine their values and build them into the core of the business. “For companies looking to build a healthy culture, values are incredibly important to start with. Hire for, reward for, and act out those values on a daily basis.” One of those values, Ernst said, should be “making sure that people feel comfortable voicing their opinions. In order to build this kind of environment, it's key that leaders are out there and are visible." This means participating in team meetings, company meetings, and one-on-one meetings, and being fully present in daily interactions. 2.) Be proactive Employees are more likely to speak up when they feel that their voices matter. Ernst advocates a three-step process: ask, listen, and act. In this process, managers ask a question, express that they heard what their employees had to say, and communicate what is going to happen in response. “Ultimately, we as managers exist to make sure employees feel valued in the organization and that they’re able to be productive. If managers listen to and take action based on employee feedback, employees are more likely to speak up and voice opinions or concerns.” 3.) Make training a priority Anti-harassment training is an essential step for companies new and old. Ernst’s own company holds a mandatory "Creating a Safe Work Environment" training session each year: two hours for managers, one hour for employees. While the company's home state of California requires that training occur only every other year for managers, Ernst recommends doing this type of training annually and globally, regardless of regional minimum standards. “Anything you do training on communicates the message that it’s important to the culture. You're saying to your employees: a safe work culture is very important to us, and this is what that means to us; when something contradictory to this happens, it’s not okay, and you need to let us know so we can take the right steps to address it." 4.) Create a feedback system Feedback shouldn't be a random process. Having a system in place encourages employees to think regularly about their work experience. It also creates a forum for individuals who may be less likely to address issues they’re seeing on their own. “It takes a system to really encourage the right thought process and create the right cadence for feedback to happen,” Ernst said. 5.) Address issues of all sizes Taking small issues seriously can prevent larger, ongoing problems, as well as build confidence and trust among employees. “I’d prefer a culture where people say more things than less. We can always get ahead of little behaviors that have the potential to turn into something much bigger," said Ernst. Employees may be unaware about how their behavior is perceived. "There are a lot of times that the behavior is very unintentional, and helping the employee understand how it could be perceived in a certain light makes all the difference. Giving someone the opportunity to change a behavior is also important.” Photo by Rawpixel on Unsplash 6.) Build up the positive According to Ernst, it takes three pieces of positive feedback to open a person up to constructive criticism. Systems that consistently reinforce employee successes provide a steady stream of positive feedback, making workers less defensive about feedback that might be otherwise considered negative. The idea is to create a growth-oriented mindset among employees. One measure Ernst suggests for setting the tone is a recognition wall, where individual and team accomplishments are celebrated. “A recognition wall is a mechanism that makes it easy and fun to give positive feedback. People will be more responsive to constructive conversations because they know that they’re supported and people believe that they can grow.” (For more information on how to implement real-time feedback and recognition walls at your organization, download Reflektive’s e-book “The Ultimate Guide to Real-Time Feedback.”) 7.) Be open with criticism “As humans, we’re not built perfectly. If I have a good manager, he or she wants to help me understand what I’m doing well so I can continue doing that, as well as how I’m standing in my own way sometimes — whether it’s in interactions with colleagues or customers. Taking the time to say those things reassures me that my manager cares about me as a person and values me," said Ernst. "Employees are then more likely to feel motivated to want to work for you and feel comfortable asking for help.” 8.) Don't avoid the difficult conversation Building personal rapport between managers and employees can help foster the trust needed to have difficult conversations. “If a manager shows confidence in being able to handle a challenging conversation with you, you feel more comfortable sharing with them, knowing that they will be able to handle it and take the right action. Having those harder conversations deepens trust,” Ernst said. 9.) Keep it frequent Managers should have regular check-ins with their employees. Keeping the conversations frequent helps ensure that there isn’t any pent-up feedback that hasn’t been given to the employee. Companies tend to be moving away from the traditional annual review, said Ernst, because employees would hear feedback from a manager about something from months before. The quicker an issue comes up, the faster an employee can adjust and grow. Definitely avoid: managers canceling one-on-one meetings and failing to reschedule them. 10.) Encourage employees to communicate candidly “Peer-to-peer feedback is one of the most important ways to motivate people. Employees are very interested in what people think about them,” said Ernst. The idea is to create bonds of trust—not just between workers and managers, but all through the staff. "When you don’t, you’re much more likely to go somewhere where you feel better connected with the people that you work with, because we all seek that connection as humans." Carina Livoti is a New York-based writer. She earned a degree in English at Harvard and spends a lot of time wondering whether strangers wearing earbuds on the subway are actually listening to anything

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Work Flexibility Is Like a Puzzle. What Are the Keys to Solve It?

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Is It Safe to Speak Up in Your Workplace?