What Employees Want & How You Can Help
How has the pandemic changed the way people work and what employees want/need from their leaders?
The water cooler, the coffee machine, the elevator, or even the local coffee shop outside the office. The dynamic of working from home has changed things.
After a gruelling 26 plus months, Covid-19 had a global impact on all our personal and work lives. Goodbye commutes and welcome kitchen table offices. After a year of hunkering down and the ‘just get through it’ mentality, cracks began to show and the ‘digital version’ of the companies we had worked for pre-pandemic have been lost in translation.
So, how do companies give employees what they want while still improving productivity?
Let’s start by saying it’s not easy. No one has experienced what we are going through. But how can we help our employees juggle work and life?
Employees’ Expectations are Shifting
At several GDS events, senior HR leaders have shared their tips and tricks in what is helping their workforces cope with this ‘new normal.’ Some have shared that they have seen improvements in productivity and mental well-being by initiating 4-day work weeks, 25 min or 50 min meetings instead of 30 min or 60 min meetings.
“There is a growing movement of employees wanting more than the complimentary fruit basket.”
Emily Evangelista, MBA, VP of global Digital at Nu Skin explained in a recent summit hosted by GDS.
Emily continued to discuss and share how employees’ expectations are shifting by saying, they are striving and wanting room to grow. This includes training, certification, skill enhancement. They want support from their business and know that their organization cares about them.
Employees also want to be recognized. It’s been a tough couple of years and people are done with fight and flight mode. Help your employees recognize their hard work and their achievements. Give them something to strive and work hard for. It’s no longer survival mode and it’s let’s get this done mode. So, how can senior leaders help create the right environment for employees?
Offer Opportunities
Managers need to recognize the challenges their employees have overcome for their businesses. So, while being empathetic look to at the leadership opportunities and what you can do for your employees to shine and succeed without needing to overcome internal boundaries. Create paths for growth or projects for achievement and recognition. Offer opportunities for your employees to exceed your highest expectation by being the leader you are, with the empathetic ear for hearing what you need to make things possible.
GDS Summits are tailored 3-day virtual event conferences that bring together business leaders and solution providers to accelerate sales cycles, industry conversations and outcomes. Regarding the HR Digital Summit 88% of Delegates said the overall experience of the Digital Summit they attended was either Above Average or Excellent and 100% of Delegates said the Digital Summit provided them with actionable outcomes to support their current initiatives.
For more, click here to hear from attendees on how GDS has helped them to achieve their business outcomes.
Continue the debate at GDS’ HR Summits where we bring together senior human resources executives who are actively seeking to share, learn, engage, and find the best solutions.
