TalentCulture #WorkTrends

Before COVID-19 one of the most popular ongoing discussions at #WorkTrends was about the gig economy — which was already breaking open the traditional 9-5 model of working and shifting the perspective from payroll to project. Coworking, freelancing, independent contractors — we were looking at generational preferences and realizing that it was highly likely that we would not be bringing talent into the workforce the same way we had before.    Then came the pandemic, and suddenly we shifted to remote working and flexible schedules out of necessity — which as more than one colleague of mine has said is, after all, the mother of invention. And with that shift came the realization that we really can break out of the 9-5 mold, undo our adherence to staying in cities in order to be near our workplace, and detach from the need to stay on salary for being independently affiliated. There are, of course, tangible matters to address, including how we best source and hire freelancers with the chops and skills we really need. But here’s another revelation: HR is a great opportunity for hiring freelancers – and being a freelancer. Freelancers with HR talent are on the rise and for a number of reasons, we’re going to see more organizations turning to freelancers — and finding that both strategically and practically, it’s a win.   Today I’m welcoming Chris Russell, Founder, HR Lancers, and Jim Stroud, VP marketing, Proactive Talent, to talk about the enormous shift we’re seeing in how people work and how organizations hire — from salaried to gig. And that includes HR as well, which may surprise some of you. But with millennials leaving major metropolitan areas and remote working becoming the norm, freelancing is becoming a viable way to build a great HR team. We’ll talk about effective strategies for hiring the best and the brightest freelancers for HR, from best practices to best resources.

There’s so much uncertainty about what will happen to the workplace — whether we will wind up staying remote or mixing it up, or be able to return to a physical workspace. Will it be safe, will it be a best practice? There are a lot of questions facing us and we’re not going to have the answers for a while now, given what’s happening in the country with COVID-19.    Against this backdrop, we still need to hire people. And we need to find a way to onboard them into a work culture that inspires and engages them. Just how to do that has always been a challenge. But now it’s even more so — because we can’t rely on proximity to transmit behaviors or a sense of shared purpose, or energy, or enthusiasm. It all has to happen in a way that transcends physical boundaries and is effective nevertheless. Today I’m welcoming John Baldino, President and Founder of Humareso, to talk about the best practices for onboarding your new hires into your workforce, no matter where you are — and how to uncover the blind spots in your onboarding process as well as your workculture to make onboarding a success.

The Supreme Court recently handed down a landmark Federal civil rights law that protects gay, lesbian and transgender workers from workplace discrimination based on sex, including gender identity and sexual orientation. The ruling extends protections to millions of workers nationwide, and it’s an incredible victory for inclusiveness and diversity. But on a day to day level, we have a lot of work to do. Even in workplaces that consider themselves inclusive, coexistence can be harrowing for those whose identity doesn’t conform to gender stereotypes.    In many ways and on many levels, we so often don’t know what our fellow coworkers are going through. We don’t see their struggles — and in some cases, that ignorance can make it worse. Since bias, diversity and inclusiveness are very much front and center for so many conversations about work, and they should be, I wanted to make sure we looked at how it is for LGBTQ employees. That’s a segment of diversity and inclusion we don’t focus on enough. So we’re going to head from an expert on the issue who’s developed a very effective methodology for increasing empathy and self-awareness. It’s a tool for reducing unconscious bias, microaggressions, and other challenges that LGBTQ employees face all too often, and creating a sense of camaraderie, collaboration and support that truly includes everyone.    Today I’m welcoming Elena Joy Thurston to #WorkTrends. Elena is an inspirational speaker and founder of the PRIDE and Joy Foundation, and she has an incredible life story. She’s here to talk about the connection between growing our self-awareness and making our work cultures truly inclusive.

Leaders today are grappling with very real and pressing challenges: keeping their workforce safe, balancing the need for business results with the need for compassion, staying ahead of new laws and regulations, grappling with whether or not to reopen and how to do it safely. As they put their hearts and minds into how to improve their work cultures on a very fundamental level, two factors to keep in mind: resilience — the ability to weather changes and struggles and bounce back intact, and diversity.    Forward thinking leadership means taking a clear stance on diversity that is effective and relevant. It’s one critical way to increase the resilience of your organization and your work culture. If you don’t address the problems that make your work culture brittle, it snaps under pressure. If you don’t aim to expand your workforce to represent as many diverse points of view as possible, you lose that ability to make the best decisions based on seeing all the possible angles. But if as a leader you don’t have a well-developed sense of emotional intelligence, you won’t practice the empathy and the clarity to understand the dynamics at work in your organizational culture, and steer your workforce through a crisis — any crisis. And you likely won’t be able to keep your best talent for very long.    Today I’m welcoming Melissa Lamson, CEO of Lamson Consulting to talk about the new imperative for leaders — to bring resilience as well as diversity to their organizations, and why the two go hand in hand.

As hiring kicks back into gear with companies rebuilding workforces, adding new employees, and shifting gears to meet the needs of reopening and ramping up business, here’s the question. Are you getting the results you need to get from your hiring technology? And: Are you getting lots of leads from third party job postings, or reducing time to hire? Are you meeting your diversity goals? Does your ATS help you bring in people who join the organization and stay, and thrive? Are the new hires a good match, and are you able to leverage metadata to find out?   The answers to those questions are going to be increasingly key in the coming months and the near future. Today on #WorkTrends I’ll be talking to Doug Coull. Doug is the founder and CEO of APS, Inc., makers of SmartSearch talent acquisition and staffing management software. He’s here to discuss why we need to get real about ATS. It’s a lot more than a process or a tool. An ATS system thrives on guidance, collaboration and partnership. That means having an ATS partner who can work with you to create great solutions. An ATS partner helps companies make the best decisions around hiring — to improve their hiring success and sustain their business as they move forward, regroup and rebuild. There’s a lot to know about the why and the how of ATS.

Leading through a crisis used to be part of the conversation but now, in these times, it is the conversation. We’re in a health crisis, an economic crisis, and also a social crisis — and all are having a heavy impact on our workforces. And these strategies apply to any crisis — hopefully they won’t be as mammoth as what we’re facing as of late.    The good news is that if leaders take the right approach they can help steer the company and their people through the maze of uncertainty, fear, and anxiety and be in far better shape when they come out on the other side of the crisis. That means being as transparent as you can be, communicating clearly and frequently, and being careful about the speed and velocity of any decision, or pivot. Leaders have had to oversee a dramatic shift to remote work in so many industries — and in others, they have had to find ways to help make their workforce safe. But these are all the factors of trust — and trust is the glue that’s going to hold your organization together, no matter the nature of your business, or the size of your workforce.   Today I’m talking to Doug Butler, the CEO of Reward Gateway, on #WorkTrends. We’re going to be looking at how leaders bring their organizations through a crisis — and how to make the best decisions and changes to sustain yourself over the near term and the long term. Reward Gateway is an organization that has adaptability built right into its DNA, and it’s a great example of the kind of flexibility and forward thinking we all want to have in our own organizations. But the ability to survive a crisis has as much to do with each and every person in the organization, and with the leader’s capacity for empathy, ability to converse their energy, and to look forward with clarity.

What’s happening today has thrown lives and work into turmoil, but we’ve never adapted more quickly. What’s enabling some businesses to pivot in record time is being grounded in the technology needed to keep the workflow going, and the people who possess the digital skills to make it happen.    Digital skills were in high demand before Covid-19, part of the digital transformation some call Work 4.0, and that demand is increasing. As businesses scale, adjust, strategize, and aim for the future, their survival depends on workforce that’s skilled in digital skills — including analytics, data-driven decision making, and new and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.    How do you create that workforce, as a startup, an SMB, as a Fortune 500? By understanding the nature of your business, assessing what you need to function, and identifying the gaps. And there are effective strategies to assess the digital skills of prospective hires today that accommodate a changed hiring landscape.    On this episode of #WorkTrends, sponsored by SAS, our guest is Sean O’Brien, Senior Vice President, Education at SAS. We’re discussing how to create a digitally skilled workforce, including assessing the skills gaps you may not even realize you have in your company. Sean will talk about the new realities and challenges organizations face as far as hiring talent, and how to better develop the talent you already have.

On a granular level, work cultures are made of relationships, and relationships are made of interactions. Every interaction we make has the opportunity to benefit our relationships or potentially cause damage. In work, where relationships are the backbone of collaboration, productivity, engagement and teamwork, interactions are important to get right.    But it’s not always that easy, or that simple. Even before the pandemic triggered a lockdown and work from home, we weren’t always succeeding. Now that we’re working remotely with increased distraction and less direct contact, or on the front lines as essential workers under tremendous pressures, the dynamics have gotten even more complicated. Zoom fatigue and incivility are just two factors undermining our working relationships, whether we’re aware of them or not. Today, Robin Rosenberg, CEO and Founder of Live in Their World, as well as an executive coach and clinical psychologist, joins #WorkTrends to talk about the best practices for improving our work interactions and our empathy for each other, and learning how to repair the damage before it adds up to an impasse. Robin’s organization, Live in Their World, uses VR technology to teach us not just how to walk in each other’s shoes, but “in their feet,” to truly experience their perspective and build bridges rather than walls.

What is wellness? The definition has been thrust into high contrast by COVID-19 and our changing work landscape. Working remotely or not, employers tending to employee well-being are finding themselves at the cutting edge of employee experience when their wellness offerings fit the needs and lives of their people.    At #WorkTrends we’re looking at some of the companies who are focusing on wellness as a key differentiator -- in terms of employee performance and experience, and also customer experience. And we’re looking at how the pressures and challenges today are helping to catalyze a new definition of what wellness means. It’s not a matter of offering isolated benefits or perks anymore — it can’t be. As companies shift to flexible and remote working out of necessity, they’re finding the need to provide a through-and-through culture that embodies their values — and wellness is an enormous component.  Today I’m bringing Arthur Matuszewski, VP of Talent, Better.Com to #WorkTrends to talk about how he and his company are innovating a wellness culture that employees thrive on. It has demonstrable benefits in terms of customer success, and some of its most popular elements may surprise some in this audience.

Work is all about relationships — you and your boss, you and your managers, you and your teammates, you and your direct reports, and everyone else. Every single one of the relationships we have at work (as well as everywhere) has to be carefully managed, or it can go south fast. At work, compound that need to manage your relationships with the pressure of the workflow, and there’s little margin for error. And teams are becoming the functional nucleus for more and more organizations.  81% of employees work on teams — cross-functional, multi-layered, remote, hybrid, of all shapes and sizes. And no team can function without great management and great relationships.  But here’s the good news: managing is a skill like any other. There are effective strategies and approaches for every kind of managing we do: up, down and across — to improve our work, our effectiveness, and our relationships.   Today we’re going to learn from an expert on the workplace — in fact she’s an expert on so many facets of technology and teams that it’s hard to keep track.