The 2024 State of People at Work Report: EX Industry Insights to Put Into Action

I am excited to have this opportunity with us today. Um, we are launching something that we haven't done before, and I think one of the strong parts of achieving engagement in the work that we're doing, I mean, we have access to all this different information and best practices and insights from the field. Uh, we've really started to take steps to consolidate this information and really understand what are some of the things that we need to be on top of as we go into this next year. 'cause the world of work is ever changing and evolving. There's kind of this fluidity elements to it. And how do we stay on top of that within our roles? It's extremely hard, uh, to kind of do so. Um, we are now launching our inaugural report. Our state of the People at Work report really insights into the employee experience with different trends and strategies and also case studies from the field on how companies are doing this today. And I'll share a little bit more information later on how you get access to the full report. But for today, um, we're gonna jump into certain elements of it. We're not gonna have time to unpack the entire thing. There's a lot in there for you from discussion questions and, and, uh, reflection questions that you can workshop through on your own or with your peers internally. Uh, we also pulled this from 31 different secondary research sources. So it's very diverse in terms of like the different sources that we're pulling from, from to kind of have this holistic viewpoint on the world work. Uh, we centered it on for key themes and trends, but then we also started to have, uh, some other elements in this that I'm gonna get into today. So, um, awesome. And one question I saw on the chat here as well, in terms of housekeeping items, yes, today is being recorded. We are recording it right now. We'll have the session sometime within a week, at least, the recording in our resource library on achieve engagement.org. So you can go there afterwards, access the recording. We're gonna have an infographic and whatnot that you can access as well. And then some other follow-up resources that you can engage with as you kind of take next steps here with us. So, um, all right, so I'm excited for this opportunity. Uh, one thing I did wanna give a shout out, which I'm unsure if she's gonna be able to join or not. Uh, today my partner in crime, Rebecca, leader, founder of Opportunities Knock, uh, unfortunately had some other, um, unexpected family matters come up within the last week here. And I mean, I feel like there's something going around. I'm feeling a little sick myself, but, um, so she's may or may not be able to join us, but she was crucial into helping develop this resource, someone that we're excited to work with here at a Achieve engagement. She founded Opportunities Knock, uh, which is a professional career development training company. In the same year, she also published her bestselling, uh, book, career development book called Knock. So, uh, doing amazing work in this space. I definitely encourage you if she's able to join, I know she'll come on online here with me. If not, I encourage you, I'll share information as well on LinkedIn and whatnot. Brilliant mind and work that she's leading and a lot of opportunities that we're gonna be collaborating on over the next year. So make sure to connect with her as well and, uh, continue the journey. So definitely send her good vibes and energy and make sure to connect with her offline as she is leading some of this amazing work. So, alright, so, awesome. So let me see, I think that's it that we got for housekeeping items. I think one of the things that I'm really excited about in terms of this report and really this next year and some of the work that we're gonna be doing together with our community and all of you, um, after really starting to discuss this with our different partner companies and internally with their executive teams and their people teams leading the charge on HR and employee experience landscape. Um, there's a lot of hairy challenges going on in this space. And on one end I'm very optimistic into taking advantage of these challenges as an opportunity to differentiate your organization, differentiate your employee experience, making it, making it a workplace that really stands out within this landscape, but also brings in a lot of challenge just in, in terms of maybe making it over those initial humps and some of the kind of staggering insights that stand out to me. Um, for starters on this landscape of the employee experience is one, it's reported that employees who are not engaged or are actively disengaged right now cost the world around $8.8 trillion in lost productivity. That's a T trillion, which equates about 9% of the global G-D-G-G-D-P. Um, on a another end, 44% of employees have experienced a significant amount of stress the previous day. This is a Gallup poll that we are referencing, uh, 44% experiencing stress the previous day, making it the second consecutive year of record, high worker stress level. So basically telling us half of your workforce are stressed out. They're constantly in this world of stress and burnout and pressure from all these different economic pressures that are happening externally outta your organization with, which unfortunately is out out of our control a lot of times, but also in the way that organizations are operating right now, are also reinforcing these things. So another key kind of global challenge that's happening, another rapport, uh, Deloitte's 2023 global human capital trends that we really read up on and and looked into reviews that 87% of business leaders believe that developing the workplace, the new workplace model, is crucial for your success. However, only 24% feel their organization is ready for this. So on one end, uh, that's great. 87, 80 7% of business leaders feel like they need to develop this work model. So for you as a people leader, you're like, okay, executives hopefully are getting it. They re they realize this pressure internally that we have to change. We have to do things differently. On the opposite only one, you know, a quarter, 24% feel they're ready for it, which provides us as people, professionals, a great opportunity to kind of take that strategic role and that business partner role internally and help them navigate this evolution within our culture and our employee experience. And one thing that we also found, uh, is this, there's kind of this sense of a employee experience recession and a little bit of like an AI revolution happening, uh, with these two worlds kind of interacting. Obviously AI went mainstream this last year. So Forrester predicts that a challenging phase in 2024 that is being referred to as the employee experience or the ex recession is really coming into play. And it's influenced by these factors of inflation, hybrid work, uh, hybrid work adjustments, and these larger macro events. So there's kind of this like, I'm not trying to get depressing on the front end of today's program, but there's kind of this gloom of macro events and potentially factors that are causing this experience recession that we're gonna have to navigate together. Um, also the generational shift in management. So Culture Amp also has brought up a lot of insights into the emergence of Gen Y and gen generation Z, especially as they take over leadership roles. I know the multi-generational workforce has been kind of a pressure that we've been navigating for the last couple years here. Um, but uh, there's kind of that shift in these, you know, demographics and digital natives that are coming into place. So it's also something we're gonna talk a little bit about today. We got some strategies and insights we're gonna dig into for that. And then the other piece is obviously the hybrid workforce element. Um, so thinking about commute worthy, uh, office experiences. So the whole purpose and role that, that, um, the office is playing and how that plays a role in getting people to return to work or what type of hybrid model comes into play and what type of flexibility we're providing. Um, so overall, right, like the employee experience is in a very challenging position today. Um, for me that excites me, that energizes me is like, okay, we got a big challenge that we get to, uh, approach in our work and our crafts as people, experts and leaders. Uh, this is a global challenge. So we're not alone here in our local communities. And if you are in your organization today and you're taking action and you have a team behind you that's taking action, I truly think you're gonna be setting yourself up for success and for an engaging future as long as you're continuing to kind of navigate these things in a forward momentum oriented way. So, uh, just some things to set the stage. Let's jump into some of this stuff. So today we're gonna reveal two out of the four main trends that we're seeing. As I said, we don't have time to dig into everything and we have some, some opportunities to bring this internally at your team or access the report in different ways. Uh, but we're gonna review two out of the four, uh, key employee experience trends and different focus areas you should be considering or thinking about when it comes to this area. We'll also dig into the multi-generational workforce a little bit today and talk about specifically how Gen Z is making its way into the workplace and how you can start to maybe cater certain elements of your employee experience to support that demographic. And then also, how can we start navigating this in a forward momentum way, in one way that we wanna talk through with that is actually how do we utilize our people more effectively? How do we utilize them in co-creating and enabling the employee experience and brand that we're trying to create with our, our company? So how do we unlock more brand and employee experience advocates internally? So we'll talk a little bit about that at the end, and then obviously we'll have time for q and a and whatnot. So lemme check, how are we doing on time? Let's jump into this. Um, perfect. Okay, so we're gonna jump into the first one. So the first theme that is number one really on our list for this next year that we want to be thinking about, um, is this element of organizational fluidity. Um, this is something that has come up from the different pressures of employee demands and changes and characteristics in our economic environment. But fluidity in the workplace is another, a paradigm shift, uh, focusing on kind of mobility and flexibility and movement within our company and really reshaping the traditional work environment to meet the evolving employee needs and expectations. So fluidity and this kind of organic self-organizing evolving space, um, is, is kind of a, a staple of the employee experience that we have to try to enable. So let's give some examples of this. So one of the first examples I wanted to share of how fluidity looks and lives within organizations are work resorts. It's kind of a interesting, uh, term that I really appreciate and like, right, like especially, um, younger generations expecting a, a, a more fluid experience with their work environment and reasons why they should be community or entering the office or whatever the work environment is. But work resorts represents a, a paradigm shift in office design offering all sorts of different types of services that cater both to professional and personal needs, especially in luring people back into the office and helping them to take care of things, um, that they normally would do remotely, right? Like, how do we, that's part of the, the appeal of working remotely and why people have really grown to love and attach to it is, well, I can be just as productive and I can get a lot of things extra done at home that I can't do when I'm working into the office. So how do we start to meet that desire to, to have this work resort experience that makes it more appealing for people to return into the office space or at least kind of have that fluid ability to engage with these things. There's a case study, uh, 20 20 22 Bishop Gate in London, and the Ministry of Borough is 95% occupied in their office, which is an incredible statistic to me. I haven't heard anyone over like 70% in our community sometimes, uh, with some of their least pla uh, you know, conventional spaces in general see less than 40% occupied space. So they refer to these work resorts to integrate different amenities, so like healthcare, wellness, uh, dining in the workplace, another way to really just attract people back in. And the insight here is the success of these spaces are really indicated by their occupancy rate, right? Or flex this growing performance or preference, uh, for workplaces to facilitate some of these like, blend of work and personal life environments. And, you know, employees are looking for that fluid kind of, um, mix of this. And, and I appreciate that. I see some people in the chat here. Um, fluid is top theme. I love to see it. And one thing I also wanted to reinforce, I know some of you, uh, for whatever reason, the chat auto clicks it to hosts and panelists and not everyone. So if you wanna chat with everyone, uh, just kind of switch it in the blue box at the bottom there and that way everyone can see some of these insights. But I'd be curious if fluidity is something any of you are, are starting to see or kind of approach within your own companies and what stands out the next piece of fluidity. Uh, two key examples that, uh, we're gonna be focusing on in one of our next programs develop in March as well is to create this fluidity within career paths and our l and d pathways. So career paths. Another way to think about this is many employers believe that they have strong career pathways for their people due to the range of growth opportunities that they offer. And from, you know, especially in our world of hr, like we're very aware of these things, yet v few organizations actually make this explicit, uh, to their people and transparent and easy to understand and navigate for their people. And there's a, a survey of 500 companies that found that only about 28% said they communicate clear pathways to their people, uh, for promotions or, or leadership opportunities or more vertical fluid movements to other departments and, and roles that they can jump into. So organizations within these same reports that do have transparent, you know, career pathways and career progression opportunities often report much higher retention rates and sometimes as much as 30 to 40% compared to some of their competitors. So just providing clarity, but then also the fluid opportunity to navigate someone's career in different modes rather than the traditional kind of, uh, vertical ladder that we're usually, um, uh, relying on, um, can have major impacts on your employee experience and retention and engagement of your people. So it's really key to develop that transparent career pathway and provide that clarity and that fluidity into the steps that they can take to navigate that, that space and that pathway. Right? Uh, one thing that I really loved was Verizon's talent. GPSI think it's a great name for it as well, right? This GPS system that people can use to, uh, drive direction within their careers. And they use this model to help capture employee feedback, which really captures like people's desires in their own career, what developmental or career kind of pathways are they looking for within their life. And then the GPS tool also kind of provides visibility into the available jobs at Verizon and the skills and competencies needed to make their kind of take their stepping stones along that journey. So by incorporating feedback from people, you can get insight into their perspective into what type of kind of fluid career path they're looking for, but then pairing that with the enablement resources and empowerment resources to give 'em kind of clarity on how to actually navigate that. So, uh, really love that GPS model that this Verizon's kind of taken the lead on. So that's career pathways. The other piece is learning and development pathways. This also has a deep connection with fluidity. So you need to think about how do we establish a priority for supporting employees with continuous learning and training opportunities based on, again, similar with the career pathways, based on their interests and some of their own personal and professional aspirations, right? I even was looking at the chat thinking about this, where, uh, an example of that would be right where on one end, uh, achieve engagement, our learning curriculum that we develop is based on your goals and professional kind of aspirations. But I saw some personal aspirations and goals for 2024. So that would be like an example of like, okay, how does achieve engagement also invest into those things so that you stay more engaged with our community, you develop a deeper relationship with us, um, how do we enable that growth at a holistic level? And that's kind of the fluidity that people are looking for, is like, how are you helping me both personally in some of my own growth like aspirations and goals, but then also professionally in relationship to my career pathways that I'm looking to navigate within my life? So Amazon has a great example of this. They're technical academy, it's fully virtual tuition free training programs. They have one that's an example of associate to tech, which helps non-tech technical employees transition into technical roles. Uh, so that's like an example of, you know, there's a lot of cases where someone's in a current role. And, and I know this for a fact, I started in sales a long time ago and I quickly realized that that wasn't a place for me. So I, I had to try to figure out how do I make this vertical leap into employee engagement, employee experience, um, or horizontal leap I guess I should say. And, um, the, the company, you know, started enable, okay, here's like trainings, here's certifications, here's uh, capabilities, and we're gonna help you craft that learning curriculum to get you into this next step, uh, step of your career. So, um, interesting statistic that I found on this as well was 75% of employees are more likely to stay with a company that offers continuous training. So, um, on the flip side, 55% employees also said they need additional training to perform better in their role. So on one end, it's an engagement tool to keep people, um, engaged with your company and wanting to stay there, but it's also a performance tool and strategy to make sure people are able to perform better in their roles. So l and d career pathways, two really important things that you should be thinking about this next year. Some things that you should think about in terms of where to start. And I'll, I'll actually put this in the chat, um, if you want to add some of your thoughts here, we're gonna capture these thoughts and kind of package 'em up afterwards as well. But I would, I would really reflect on, you know, how might you offer these different types of flexible work plans that employees can choose from, whether that's their in-office work environment, their schedule, their work location, their career paths, their learning pathways, all these different things. Um, you know, people, this fluidity is, uh, trying to create a sense of freedom and choice within organizations and employees desire that from their employer. And not only do they want this like freedom of choice and, and fluid and flexible format in their workplace, but they also want to be supported in their decisions with those fluid options, right? So ask yourself really, what might mobility flexibility or movement look like within your organization? Where might it be hindered to today and how can you start to unblock it? Uh, so the best practice here now, I'll reinforce and feel free to put your thoughts in there. If there's things outside of career pathways or l and d pathways that you're thinking about, um, adding a fluid flexible format to, uh, put that in there so we can start to learn from each other. But really that best practice is, uh, start to promote and create the ability to have mobility and clear and flexible career pathways and leverage flexible and customized programs that enable people to grow within their preferences in alignment with the growth and focus of the company. Alright, so that's a big one. That's a big one, definitely number one on my list for, for focusing on this next year. And we're gonna be talking about that more and more this year in our other programs too. All right, so this next one, let's take a look here. We're talking about a second theme here out of four themes total, uh, is building access. So access, think about this as a way that a workplace encompasses autonomy, support, freedom, and opportunity. So here we start to see how organizations can provide these elements through different from elements of a healthcare and wellness benefits standpoint, uh, but also learning initiatives and workplace flexibility. So it does have a deep connection to this fluidity piece, but some of this really boils down to giving access to decisions and empowering things with empowering employees with access to things immediately. So employees, especially younger generations, are asking for more of a, as an example, a comprehensive healthcare and wellness program from their organizations. And this type of, you know, offering is another way to demonstrate a company's commitment to employee healthcare and also increasing and, and leading to increased job satisfaction and productive productivity. And, you know, Salesforce does a really good job at this as of having like this very, like, robust package. And in some cases we might not be all capable to have this, but, um, so Salesforce emphasizes, you know, keeping employees and then they kind of extend it to their families all the way to have a healthier and happier, um, uh, fulfillment in life so that people can bring their best selves into the workplace. Um, so they have a comprehensive five pronged approach, which includes free therapy and coaching for employees and their families, inclusive healthcare for people of all of identities, um, recovery services for substance use, flexible time off plan that has unlimited time off for salaried employees in the us and then stress management including different types of mindfulness and meditation programs and access to mental health apps. So plus they, again, they support this all the way to their families. So support for work and parents and other ways to expand kind of family care leave for example, and offer access to parental coaching and other resources globally. I mean, I just got off a call with an organization that we're doing a, a leadership exchange on these things internally with, and, you know, they're planning out retreats and, and on sites and different programs for their people, and they're noticing, obviously they got a lot of, you know, single family parents as well as, you know, um, single income parents working for their company. So they're saying, okay, how can we to make it easier for these people to kind of journey into the office, to journey into this offset and retreat? How can we take care of them by providing, you know, family care leave services and, you know, pay for house sitters, pay for daycare, and some of those things that these people need in order to bring them their best selves to the organization and whatnot. So that's a, that's a really big one that I would be thinking about. Uh, another piece of building access is really around these learning initiatives, especially for underrepresented groups. And some of this that we're talking about here isn't necessarily only internal focused. So this is also a recruitment element and a recruitment strategy to diversify and expand your workforce into different talent pools. And the untapped talent market are those that come from non-traditional backgrounds, and those organizations that have found ways to create access into their company and building learning and career pathways into these untapped markets are having incredible results. So you might have to think about how might you access new and diverse talent pools and partner with different types of, you know, workforce development programs that you traditionally wouldn't because, you know, they come from different talent pools or backgrounds, um, to meet some of your hiring needs. I know there's obviously a lot of talent demands and, and challenges with finding and retaining top talent. Um, so an interesting study that we found from, uh, Korn Ferry is their Power of Choice program, which highlights the empowerment of individuals from underrepresented groups. And the program has shown to accelerate career advancement with 40% of those participants going through their program and entering the workforce, uh, reported promotions and nearly half transitioned into higher, more desirable positions. So it's often a stepping stone way to get people into your workforce that often carry them into promotions or, you know, more high demand roles that you are really looking to fill. Um, so it's another way to kind of fill your pipeline and fill some of those roles into the future. So more than three quarters in that program, for example, the participants also had improvements in kind of that EQ skillset or, you know, different types of soft skills that you normally are, are challenging to find, such as problem solving, resilience, overcoming challenges after failure, um, having, you know, just showing a substantial impact on these empowerment programs as well as career pathways that we're trying to fill within our companies. So some things to think about in terms of this one on where to start, consider initiatives that offer targeted learning opportunities for underrepresented groups and invest in missions and policies that will make your employees proud to be part of their company. And this is very important, specific to the Gen Z value system that's coming and taking over the workforce, which we're gonna jump into in a second. Um, but Gen Z values a company that builds access into their organizations. I mean, humanly, all of us do, but this is very particular into Gen Z and they're looking for companies who align with their own personal values. And almost half 42% of Gen Zers were motiva motivated to join their company because of their company's impact and mission. So companies with a culture that promotes, you know, collaboration, fairness and kindness, and access to underrepresented groups and different populations are twice as likely to satisfy those employees. So on the other end, dissatisfied Gen Zers reported having no initiatives for promoting inclusivity for minorities, and, uh, twice as as much for Gen satisfied Gen Zers. So in closing with this, um, prioritizing and prioritizing access in the workplace, um, really means embracing policies and practices that support autonomy and per personal development and inclusivity. So obviously building access is deeply connection to that inclusion piece that we've been focused on since 2020, and focus on building those arrangements to access, you know, these diverse talent, uh, pools out there on one end, fixing some of your talent issues, but also from an engagement end supporting what your people are looking for. And you can really start to promote that environment that promotes employee wellbeing and growth. So the best practice here that I want to put in the chat, if you're taking notes, great, I love it. Otherwise, really just think about this next year. What are missions and policies that will make your people proud to be a part of your company? It's so important, it's something that's a demand in this, this world of work that we're in. So, okay, I want to get into this next piece. I just wanna open the chat here, see what we got going on. Bob, there needs to be an open door and reinforce frequently from leadership that multiple paths exists. We start that with this discussion and interview process and celebrate share on our intranet when people, I love that, right? Like one, uh, exposure. You need to provide exposure to people that this exists and where they can navigate it and having leadership on board and aligned with that, but then also celebrate it when people do make those shifts, make those jumps, uh, that can encourage other people to go, you know what, maybe I'm not fulfilled in this role, but I love this company. I need, I see how they did it, and they're so like, maybe I can do it too, right? So now you're encouraging other people to engage with that, that fluidity piece that we talked about. That's great. Bob, uh, career matchup, similar to love connecting match employees with managers, supervisors, directors with the employee who wants to focus on a particular career pathway. Now you're creating a career mentorship program when exposed to a particular career pathway. I can see what it is I really want to do. I love that too. And we're gonna, we're gonna jump into this right now, actually. That's a great, you're already on it dj, so love it. All right, so those are the two main themes. So fluidity and, uh, building access into the organization in a couple different domains within that. And we have some case studies and discussion questions and reflection questions that help you navigate that in our, our total report. So make sure to look on how to access that. Uh, but those are two out of the four that you should be really thinking about this next year. All right, so the next piece that I wanted to kinda shed some light on that is gonna be coming just an ongoing reality, something that we have to deal with and navigate. It's part of the workforce now, and that's this ev evolving multi-generational workforce and the emergence of Gen Z as, as they take over a strong percentage of our organization, and in a lot of cases, taking over leadership roles and team manager roles and higher, uh, technical roles that they're qualified for, that maybe some of our, uh, older generations, um, haven't had the skill development and potentially because they've been in the workforce, right? So this young generation that we're gonna focus on for this piece, uh, I just want to give you some insights. These are things that you should be prioritizing. Dre, I already kind of stole my thunder here a little bit, but the young generation expects more from the employers, uh, much more than many more of their counterparts. And there's three specific domains that they're really looking for that you should try to prioritize and develop this next year. So for starters though, according to Purdue Global Research, 40% of gen Zs want to interact with their boss daily and, uh, potentially several times a day. And 84% of Gen Zers also expect their employer to provide formal training on an ongoing basis. So they're looking for that peer-to-peer connection with their leaders. Um, the World Economic Forum also states that 40% of Gen Zers, compared to 24% of earlier generations stated they would debate sexism in the workplace, and they want their employers to join the dialogue and give inclusive perks. So obviously, sexism is a example of one of maybe the, the external more, um, uh, vulnerable topics that, you know, are, are being pursued within the workplace, but they expect their organization to participate in the conversation at a minimum, right? They want to be part of the dialogue. It's not as much about, hey, they need to have it figured out and have all the answers, but they expect to at least have a conversation and have a dialogue with their employers that they want to engage in these sensitive topics. They're important to our culture that we're living in. Um, the next piece, according to Gallup, 54% of them are not engaged today, which is slightly more than prior generations. So out of, uh, all of our multi, like our different generations in the workforce, they're the highest disengaged within our workplace, and they're slowly taking over a stronger percentage of our workforce as a whole. And this will continue to occur if majority of young employees don't have these strong relationships with their managers, with their employers and their coworkers. So some things that you should do in 2024 and you should consider developing if you haven't already. First off, invest in professional growth. Obviously this builds more into the fluidity and access piece as well, more than one in four. Uh, about 27% of Gen Zs said they lack a clear, a clear career pathway, and it's the one of the main things they dislike about their company the most. So if you wanna support Gen Z is one of the first conversations you should be having. And back to what Bob shared, you know, especially in the onboarding con conversations in the early stages, is empowering leaders and having those conversations and tools and trainings ready to act as advisors and career experts to their direct reports, right? They're, they almost have to be like career advisor at a university, right? Like they're helping their people not only accomplish their current job, but also develop a clear path into the future and grow in their career. Uh, another piece that you need to really make sure you have is having clear job descriptions, uh, and leveling and performance management processes. I would love to ask you, when's the last time you updated your job descriptions? And you looked at it, right? Like, I remember so many jobs where I've started, and this is your job description today, but then changes in the company strategy happened and different pivots come up, and now my job description has evolved just organically, but I wasn't really clear on what that is, right? And how that plays a role into new jobs or careers that are optional at the company today. So you need to have those, those clarity within that. Um, and then providing structure and guidance for formal mentorship. So more than half 58% of satisfied Gen Zs reported having formal mentorship programs. So how do we develop that peer-to-peer element a little bit more? The next thing you should consider doing for this is in the personal wellbeing bucket. So almost half 42% of satisfied Gen Zers were motivated to join their company because of its impact and mission. So back to, um, the access piece of, you know, investing in policies and practices that stand for a larger cause or, you know, enable underrepresented or untapped markets. Uh, this is really, really important for this generation. So this includes initiatives from inclusive hiring practices and the use of preferred pronouns within the workplace and, and really create this supportive environment that has a broader, um, social kind of presence. It's, it's talking about these social issues and you can align by Gen Z's personal values, again, for the pronouns, inclusive hiring practices, uh, promoting different types of mental wellbeing and awareness initiatives with internal trainings and resources. And then also creating this environment where you encourage employees to speak up and have consistent feedback and conversations. And one of the most effective ways that companies are doing this today as well, it's, and, and it's, it's been around for a while, but it continues to refine and become stronger, which is establishing, uh, employee driven groups, affinity groups, or employee resource groups that allow them to kind of take the charge on these things for you, right? And with you. And so it's now all dependent, obviously as a people officer that you're doing, you already have all these different things you have to do, how can you enable your people to leave the charge? And that's something that they're looking to do and be active in. Next one is relationship building. I would double down on this piece. This is gonna be definitely a big focus in the ways that we're hoping to unlock this within our community partners. 37% of Gen Z said that they think the most, the thing that they disliked the most about their company was either not enough relationship building and opportunities to do that, or not enough time in the office, which makes them less engaged, or both, which I love that statement, right? On one end, you're, we're really struggling to get people to return to work, return to the office. People sometimes won't take a job if they know they have to come into the office. But on the other end, we know that people are more engaged and fulfilled with their workplace when they have time in the office and opportunities to engage with their peers. So, which means back to kind of that fluidity piece and the work resorts that we're building, how do you make the workplace an attractive, you know, environment that really centers relationship building and peer-to-peer elements that, and opportunities to engage with your peers. The story that I've heard over and over again is I'm on calls all day, virtually at home, and then I get to the office and I'm on calls all day, virtually in a cubicle. I don't even talk to my other employees, right? So they wanna know and their desire, if I am going to go into the office, there's that peer-to-peer element that is gonna live there, right? So try to find those flexible environments. How do you organize meaningful and, uh, in-person opportunities for connection and team building, and how do you implement formal peer mentorship programs and social events across departments within your company? And one of the cool ideas that we came across is shadow boards. I really love this idea and it really helps support generational exchange. And shadow boards really consist of these non-executive employees who collaborate with senior executives on strategic initiatives. So one, it's kind of a mentorship career development and learning opportunity, but also for senior executives, it brings in diverse generational insights that they can use and bring into some of their own decision making, right? And this exchange of information and this collaboration across the hierarchy and generations can unlock new avenues for growth and innovation and different ideas. So, um, Gucci did a really good job at this. They created a shadow board com composed of millennials who met consistently with senior leaders, and it served as kind of like a, they report as like a wake up call, like it nothing opened their eyes and perspective into what's actually happening out there. And sales grew by 136% the next year. So I mean, that's a, that's an amazing outcome, obviously. So my best practice for this piece build out peer-to-peer experiences that enable both relationship building and professional growth. Look for that opportunity. Um, okay, so I know we're coming up on time. I wanna make sure that we have time for questions and whatnot. So I'm gonna go through this last one pretty quick. Uh, there's so many insights in this report, I wish we had all day to kind of discuss and have like a retreat together and break these things down and workshop them. We're gonna have opportunities to do that together if you want. But this last piece that I really want to talk about, especially because us people leaders are sometimes, you know, we're leading the charge on our own, we're expected to kind of, you know, develop the solution and, uh, use our critical thinking and people expertise to develop these things. And then we're also expected to execute it. And I think sometimes, um, we need to find ways to kind of enable our people to kind of lead the charge for this and, and co-create this with them. Um, and through one of the, the key ways is through brand advocacy and employee activation. So start to think about, and this was a paradigm shift we started talking about last year in Q4, is how do you start to see your HR people department more as a resource and enablement center versus the actual executor of things, right? So you are more of an enablement hub for your people to do the work with you, right? Rather than you only doing it. So just like, think about that for yourself. How do you flip that paradigm with your executive team and even your own viewpoint on your role and department to serve more as a resource hub for your rest of your people? And an example of this, and from a recruitment standpoint, but this also works more internally from an engagement standpoint, is how do you utilize employees to drive that engagement? And social media, for example, content that's shared by employees receive eight times more engagement than content shared through the brand channels. And the leads through this from a recruitment and engagement standpoint are seven times higher, uh, from a conversion rate than other leads that are coming through their system. So this is a, a untapped resource if you're not using it today, is how do you unlock employee advocacy and employees to be involved in deleting the charge? So, um, one of the first ways that you do this is try to foster this culture of volun voluntary sharing. Uh, there needs to be this willingness to, uh, have advocacy come to life and not mandate employees to do it, but how do you create a cultural foundation and a company culture that values open communication and employee engagement and make employees enthusiastic and excited to share company insights or share company, um, updates and whatnot. The next piece is audience alignment and brand guidelines. So, um, how do we make sure we're aligned in the re relevance of content? How do we tailor content to suit the platform and the audience or what we're trying to do and the objectives? Um, we might even want to train employees or give 'em guidance around, you know, how do we, uh, reach the right audience or how are ways that they should be communicating with our, um, you know, external markets or even internally with different groups and departments like that. So, um, Starbucks for example, they referred really well to their employees as partners, and that really shows highly in their engagement, propo promoting brand products and its culture. Um, and they have different details of social accounts that employees can post into and guidelines on how to, you know, build their own personal brands within these spaces. And the next one I want to share here is balancing organic sharing and guided posts. Um, so there's kind of this balance between, um, organically, you know, people doing this on their own, but then also giving them the content, giving them the resources to make sharing really easy for them. So you want to have this spontaneous environment where people are kind of doing it organically, but how can you maybe provide suggested posts or suggested resources to help employees with content ideas? Um, whether that's, again, internally in your own comm channels and things like that, or externally giving them kind of, uh, inspiration and content enablement resources, but then giving them the freedom to use it to personalize and take it from there. Um, next one also simplify the sharing process. Let's make it easy. One step process for people to kind of engage with these things. Uh, not jumping through hoops to get things approved and, and, um, out there into the world or across different channels internally. Think of like Amazon's one click ordering system. How can you consider having apps or enablement tools that make it, um, you know, reduce the steps for people to kinda share an advocate for you? Uh, we don't wanna become a barrier to advocacy both internally and externally. And this last one, which is just like a, a balance that we need to achieve is thinking how do we use this sparingly and wisely? You know, we overall wanna maintain authenticity overall. Um, so if we overuse some of the advocacy, it can sometimes dilute authenticity. So if you're pushing it, it seems authentic or forced, you're gonna lose the value that you're looking for. So it's crucial to really maintain a balance to avoid. So think about some of those things. Um, I'm gonna put that best practice in here. Really, the main thing I think from a advocacy and back to the HR department's role is think about yourself as a resource hub and an enablement center. And how do you enable your people to be advocates? How do you make it easy for them to do these things and take action on? Okay, so that's a lot. We got a couple minutes left. I have some closing remarks. See, a question came in here. Let me open up the chat. Is anyone doing this active right now? One of my previous orgs had this, but it was not practiced in the us. I would definitely want to include this globally. I'd be curious, I can't remember when you posted that, if that was about the Gen Z or relationship building. I know a lot of organizations are getting better at the relationship building piece, having peer-to-peer kinda learning communities, um, creating environments that people can join and connect with other departments and almost have like internal masterminds in a way. I know that's been coming up more and more. Um, so yeah, let me open up the q and a Luc. Will we receive a slideshow and recording the presentation? Yes, we are gonna post the recording afterwards in our resource library. We also have an infographic on some of these insights that you'll be able to access. And then, um, you'll be able to get all of that. So definitely a hundred percent that'll be posted within the next couple of days. Um, okay, I see. Yeah. All right, I got that question. Kelly. What exactly is meant by guiding post? I'm not familiar with this terminology. Yes, so, um, another way to think about it is there's a certain brand or message or maybe a mission that you're trying to get across within, internally at your people or externally. So you can sometimes leave it open and say, Hey, we're leading this mission or this initiative. Um, let's say there's this wellness campaign that we're pushing for, uh, for free to share this with everyone in your network. Go, right? So that's like more open-ended. People kind of have ultimate freedom. A guided version of it is, Hey, we developed this flyer, we developed this infographic, we developed this copy, you know, that you could use and copy and paste, um, to help share this with your network. So share this with your departments internally, so you're kind of guiding them with the resources, whether it's even the actual texts, like here's the email you can send out, um, or the images, whether it's social media and whatnot. Um, and you're guiding with them with those resources so they can take action. So, all right. Yes, Robert, yes, that was definitely one of the objectives on this, right? Like one of our biggest challenges internally is building a business case to get people bought into these things and hopefully some of these statistics and case studies examples that provided you with some of that. Um, so this is great. So in closing thoughts, um, I do want to invite you to go further with us. One thing at achieve engagement that we're really excited about this next year is to take some of these insights, learnings, these enablement resources, whether that's playbooks, roadmaps, uh, case studies from the field research. And we're actually starting to kind of take that internally with our partners. So if that's you and you're looking for buy-in engagement from your executive team, or you're looking to bring your people leaders together and kind of have a exchange between each other and get people aligned on, okay, what are we working on? What do we need to be behind, what do we need to be engaged with? That's what these kind of leadership exchanges are all about. So it's professionally facilitated by us, and you also have the option to kind of access the report and the workshops as a whole or just the full report itself. Um, and we already already started doing these last year, uh, to kind of get it going, but now we're excited to kind of push it out and actually publicly launch it with all of you. But it's a great way to again, invite other executives and leaders to gain buy-in from the team, right? It's like, okay, let's get aligned on what we really need to be prioritizing, which can be a big win for us people leaders, right? Like that's often the biggest resistance. Um, you can also break down small wins and actions to take away right away. And that's one of the objectives of these SEC sessions is to be action oriented. Um, so how do we take applied practices and kind of think critically through them and how that relates to your company. And then also just building organizational competency. Like how as you as a HR department can be the business partner, be the thought leader internally that understands this world work and is able to connect it to the business objective strategically. I mean, that's what these enablement resources are all about. So if you want to, uh, discuss that, there's some information there. I also wanna share this in here as well. You can access the full report, uh, and request time here if that's a conversation that you wanna have more than happy to talk through it a little bit more with you. So look out for that. Again, tons of insights, discussion questions and things we can help you navigate. Um, and then I really appreciate your time to kind of close things up. One, I definitely encourage you to connect with me. And then obviously my partner in crime here today wasn't able to join Rebecca, reach out to her, connect with her as well. She's learned some amazing work here. And then lastly, to claim your credits. I'll share this in the chat too. Uh, if you want to take advantage of those things, please do. Uh, that's what we're all about is, is supporting you in roles and make sure you're successful. So I will start to wrap it up here. We're at the hour I flew by. Thank you so much everyone. This was a blast. Uh, I really am excited for 2024 with all of you. We have so much planned for this next year to con continue serving you and supporting you in this choppy waters of the employee experience. And, uh, I hope you continue the journeys with us. So have a great rest of your afternoons. We'll connect soon and talk more things to come and happy 2024.

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