Creating a culture where your best people want to stay requires flexibility and understanding the issues that have arisen out of the pandemic that need to be addressed now and going forward. One issue that arose out of the pandemic is employee burnout which has reached historic levels in the past year. Burnout is tied to both mental and physical wellness and a company’s culture should focus on how to ease the burnout rate for employees to ensure happier and more productive people. To do that, company’s need to have a better understanding of what is causing the burnout and put options in place to ease it.
Flexibility is an area that can be optimized to begin to minimize burnout. Some success metrics are now outdated such as how many hours one puts in vs the need to focus on results and impact as opposed to watching clocks or where people accomplish the work. It is important to be flexible with how people want to work whether that be at home, in the office or hybrid. Where people are the most productive is important based on the other asks that they have in their lives. It is important to look at the complete person that is your employee. Look at the whole human not just the work aspect of an individual.
We are engaging with executive candidates constantly and no two people are the same. Each has different demands of their time, some love working remotely, some love working from the office, and some want a combination of the two (hybrid). Our goal is to ensure that each talent is listened to and understood as to what works best for them and their work and home lives.
Create a culture of flexibility and well-being for your employees. Focus on people first to gain an edge, abandon outdated workplace constructs, and reimagine where, when, and how work gets done.
Culture is not static, and organizations that adjust now and learn why employees may be unhappy and act thoughtfully on the responses will be in a stronger position for what’s next.
If you would like to read more about this topic, refer to the below links, one from a previous blog post of ours regarding employer brand and another from McKinsey.