Solving for X, Episode 7: Intentional Leadership: Elevating Employee Well-Being

Today’s guest is Airis McCottry Gill, the executive director for employee experience and organizational management at the VA. Airis discusses authenticity at work, and the importance of building psychological safety and trust in organizations. She discusses the VA’s employee journey map and the E-signals they’re designing to improve the EX by using the human-centered design blueprint they used to transform the veteran’s experience office.

Link to VEO: Employee Experience - Veterans Experience Office (VEO) (va.gov)

Ran out of time during the conversation to discuss this with Airis, so passing along more information regarding “Identity Insights”, the Federal Government’s first intersectional approach to examine employee experience, recently highlighted in Chief Human Capital Officers Council’s 2022 Federal Workforce Priorities Report (2022 Federal Workforce Priorities Report (chcoc.gov)):

Identity Insights

In 2021, VEO's Employee Experience & Organizational Management (EXOM) Directorate, in partnership with the Office of Resolution Management, Diversity & Inclusion (ORMDI), launched Identity Insights, the federal government's first intersectional approach to examine employee experience (EX). Focused on identifying pain points that employees attribute to one or more of the identities that they hold, the pilot phase engaged employees across eight identity groups that have been either historically underrepresented and/or faced discrimination and bias in the workplace: American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black/African American, Hispanic, Individuals Born between 1946 and 1964, Individuals with Disabilities, LGBTQ+, and Women. By capturing quantitative data to explore the role that identity plays in EX, Identity Insights is a pivotal step forward to driving meaningful change rooted in data from our workforce.

Additional information here: 2022 Federal Workforce Priorities Report (chcoc.gov)