6 Areas to Consider to Hire Top Talent

6 Areas to Consider to Hire Top Talent

by | Aug 29, 2022 | Employment, Great Shift, Talent

*This article was originally published on great-shift.com

Why Should I Work for You? 6 Areas to Consider to Hire Top Talent

Even in the current crisis, the War for Talent continues.

The workforce is increasingly demanding and not willing to settle in just any organization.

There has been a paradigm shift, so I invite you to answer this question with me: why are many organizations having trouble recruiting?

Whilst in the past, employees were willing to compromise on work-life balance, accepting long commutes, constant relocations, and spending long days at the office overworking, which no longer holds.

Previously known as the malcontent and unstable, the trailblazers of Generation X, the followers of Gen Y, and now the even more innovative Gen Z have increasingly disrupted the way we work.

Our generation of workers is not moved by economic growth, climbing up the career ladder, or even the threat of job loss.

Particularly after the COVID pandemic, people started questioning themselves about the real meaning of work and what truly fulfills them at the workplace. And the answers to these questions are the key to attracting and retaining talented workers in your organization today:

  • Competitive and fair salary
  • Company history and employee engagement
  • Company values
  • Job location
  • Working hours
  • Benefits

So when a potential employee asks you why they should choose your organization, these are some of the aspects that might kindle a spark in their eyes.

Competitive and fair salary

Most employers put great emphasis on this one aspect: pay.

While salaries are still important, they have become just a qualifier.

When you reach your average salary, any dollar above that is less important, and the higher it goes, the less it impacts the talents’ decision. At the end of the day, it’s not about paying top dollars here but about offering a fair salary that complements other company elements and benefits.

And what is a fair salary? It’s a competitive salary for the market.

If you picture a job seeker having to choose between two companies with similar positions in the market, culture, and benefits, this person will choose the higher-paying bid. Or even someone currently employed that receives a better offer to change jobs. The chances of losing talent increase when the pay is not up to market trends.

Now, let’s imagine the higher-paying company has a less attractive company culture and benefits than the company offering a lower pay. If it, for example, offers the job seeker less flexibility, autonomy, and opportunities for growth, the job seeker is much more likely to choose culture over money. Especially in current times where talent is actively job-hunting for human-centric organizations.

When attracting talent, it is also essential to value your existing workforce. It’s an honest practice to ensure that new hires do not outearn existing talent with a similar job type, skill level, and years of experience. This could disrupt the culture and lead to lower motivation and engagement. If the employee’s performance then proves adequate, rises are rightfully justified.

Fair and equal remuneration is a crucial part of company ethics.

Company history and employee engagement

So, what else are people valuing the most these days?

I’d have to include here company history.

Why? It speaks to the job’s stability and the company’s stability, especially in economic crisis circumstances like the one we are now experiencing.

The workforce’s mindset seems to have been changing after the pandemic, with an increasing number of independent and traditional workers stating that independent work is more secure than traditional employment.

This makes it even more relevant to promote and prove to the employees that they will be able to stay in the organization for a long time or as long as they wish. You want to indicate that you’re a stable company, that you’re growing, innovating, and have a competitive market share that guarantees the sustainability of the business. Low employee turnover is something that you’d like to aim for.

And whereas the need and demand for stability vary according to the seniority and the lifestyle of the employee, job security always attracts more committed and engaged employees.

Company values

Culture is becoming more and more important for the workforce. People have become much more selective.

The more recent generation of workers are more attracted to companies that align with their values and are less likely to take a job that doesn’t resonate with their purpose, regardless of the position offered or package. This is effectively a big shift; whilst salary is important, there is a larger portion of the workforce that is no longer ready to compromise on these aspects. 

A one-size-fits-all type of organization has double the trouble in motivating and engaging everyone, and those who are wishy-washy about their mission, vision, and values soon lose the commitment of their people.

And just like when you establish the persona for your product or service, it’s become relevant to establish personas for your organization. What is its character? How are its relationships? How does it respond and contribute to the outside world?

This helps determine the work environment, as well as the type of people you want to work with. The key word here is synchrony, another aspect of a human-centric organization where the whole organizational system and culture resembles that of a community.

From then on, building up the values that influence the work environment and determining how you interact with all stakeholders is an easier task.

Overall, questions about culture have always been asked during the interview processes, but what the workers are craving now is to see how that translates into practice.

As a result, professionals are no longer asking questions like: “What are your Values?”  but rather: “You mentioned Trust is a key value. Can you share with me an example of how that translates into practice?”. Employees are tired of seeing nice company culture brochures and posters on the walls, they are hunting for “the real thing”!

Job location

Whereas in the past major cities were the optimal office location option, nowadays, it varies according to employee lifestyle and preferences.

And this is where you need to know your target market.

If you’re recruiting or retaining people that are in the life stage of having a family, the best job location for them is more likely to be a safe environment with less population density, good access to good education, and all sorts of infrastructures that support the growing family.

If you’re looking at attracting a younger crowd or a more social crowd, the demand here is more likely to be for good access to all sorts of amenities such as workout facilities, sports activities, eateries, nightlife, and adequate housing options.

If you’re trying to attract more impact-oriented people, it’s important to select a place with clean air and plenty of options to engage with nature and make a positive change in the community they are a part of.

Additionally, over the last years, people have been getting more and more used to working from home, and research indicates that 9 out of 10 employees want flexibility in where and when they work and that 54% of employees are likely to quit if they aren’t offered the flexibility they want. This means fully office-based work only gives you access to less than half of the talent pool. A larger number of organizations now offer hybrid work options to allow their employees to have some flexibility and, at the same time, have regular check-ins in the office and with their teams.

The Work From Anywhere (WFA) job policy is also on the rise. People in their early and mid-twenties, career changers, and independent workers are very open to traveling (digital nomadism) and even living in different countries. This means they are looking for flexible work models. The organizations that adopt such policies often organize company retreats and virtual events to create team bonding and collaboration, help build trust and improve communication.

Working hours

Working hours equals more or less flexibility for employees: will they be able to work and structure their days or follow a strict schedule? Do they have to work on weekends and not do activities with their families? Do they have to work long days?

One big trend to be aware of here is that more and more companies are experimenting with shorter work hours: from 40h/week to 35-30/hours a week and even 4-day workweeks. And these are the ones that are still tracking hours. Some organizations are going completely away from the concept of hours overall. Instead, they focus on the output rather than on the number of hours working.

This aspect is particularly important when it comes to work-life integration. The more flexibility you give your people to set their own work schedules, the more attractive the organization becomes. And while this can’t usually be done in every industry and trade, there’s always room for innovation and improvement of your people’s work-life balance.

Benefits

What are some of the benefits we’re talking about? The more standard and common benefits offered by organizations are health insurance, sick and medical leave, paid time off or holidays, career planning and progression, and educational assistance and training.

But nowadays, with the workforce increasingly valuing work-life balance and integration, progressive and human-centric organizations have started offering a new set of benefits to attract and retain their talent.

The rising trends include:

  • unlimited holidays
  • work-from-home days (hybrid work models)
  • work-from-anywhere days (fully remote or office-based companies that allow for up to three months of traveling and working from abroad)
  • flexible working hours
  • asynchronous work
  • company retreats
  • mental health days and assistance
  • wellness perks
  • volunteer time off
  • no overtime

The more the organization shows that it truly cares about the happiness and well-being of its employees, the more creative and comprehensive the benefits, and the more likely it is to increase its competitive advantage.

No, you don’t have to master all the aspects mentioned in the article to be in the market; there are plenty of average workers looking for jobs every day and considering modest bonuses and perks.

If you’re not able to offer a certain perk like, let’s say, working from home or flexibility then you should be able to compensate your people in another way. Maybe you need to offer a salary structure even higher than the market rate and team retreats and training to compensate for that. And if you don’t have the financial capability to do so, consider other benefits, be inventive, and ask your workforce what they want and, more importantly, what they need – in other words, what motivates them to get up in the morning and work for you.

However, to hold and attract top performers to your company, you should step up. At the end of the day, this is like a point system: organizations that tick off the most items from these lists increase their chances of getting and retaining the best talent out there.

Keeping up to date with current trends means you become less vulnerable and more competitive. HR work here is essential: to track your numbers (such as employee churn and lifetime, number of applications received for a position), assess your employee satisfaction rates, and understand where you can still improve.

As mentioned in the B4P – On People article, the whole employee experience, from recruitment to career progression and exit interviews, should be seamless. And just like in a Tetris game, you need to piece together the employee package in a way that fits both you and the workforce.

The live-for-work mindset is dying, and the work-to-live mentality is on the rise. Work-life balance and integration are a must.

Working for profit-oriented companies does not motivate people. A strong purpose and mission are needed to help engage the workforce. 

Organizations are groups of people that intentionally assemble to serve a purpose that is achieved through a set of planned objectives.

B4P: Putting people first in your organization

B4P: Putting people first in your organization

by | Jul 15, 2022 | Culture, Great Shift

*This article was originally published on great-shift.com

ON PEOPLE

Be a human-centric organization

Let’s start with the following assumption: Organizations are made of people, period!
Not just processes, products, or services, but People. Nope, it’s not a spelling mistake People with a capital P. 

B4P stands for Purpose, People, Planet, and Profit. We started with the first B4P – Purpose article; it’s time to rethink what business stands for! 

Yet, most companies already claim to put the Human at the center. The business world is full of nice brochures, posters on the wall, CEOs, and boards of directors proclaiming how their businesses are soo human-centric. If that is the case, though, why are we seeing unprecedented rates of people quitting their jobs? In fact, one in five workers around the globe is still planning to resign in 2022 (PwC, “Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2022”).

Why are all the metrics rapidly falling? I am talking about metrics like job satisfaction, employee engagement, time in the company, etc. Additionally, do you think if we were to ask the employees of these companies if their organization is indeed human-centric we would get the same answers as the CEOs and board of directors? 

Some would say that the essence of this approach is quite easy to explain. Professor Denis Dauchy, from EDHEC Business School in Paris, would probably ask: “What about the execution?” Putting people at the center of everything you do in your business could indeed be harder to execute.

 

The power of a People First Culture

How do we guarantee that we prioritize our people and ensure we have their best interests at heart? And why should we do it in the first place?

Now, while it can seem to be counterintuitive, the reasoning behind it is that when you put the people first, they will put you first, too.

The more you give back to people, the more people will actually be inclined to give back to you. Even at the more basic level, you might have seen that.

I remember when I first read Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsiseh, how amazed I was by how a single ‘random act of kindness’ would lead to a snowball effect. I like to think that the same applies here too.

Let me showcase it with a simple example. I remember a case of an employee of mine a few years back when we were still in the company’s early days.

She was hired as a ‘jackie of all trades’ and tasked to review our website and explore ways to improve it. At the time, she was working at an hourly rate. This meant that the more hours she did, the more work she had and the more income she would receive. This employee put her hand up and said, “I appreciate that you are trying to look after me by giving me more work, but I’m actually not the best suited for this task. I think someone else would be more suitable to perform it and would most likely cost less than me because they will be twice as effective.”

Nothing I didn’t know already, but she was right; my intention was to keep her engaged and, indeed give her more work. Hers was to give back to me by appreciating my effort and being honest about it.

This is a very simple example of where these giving exchanges can happen. (Side note: she is still working with us today, and her role has developed in a completely different way, one that is close to what she loves doing. That someone else is also still working with us).

There are surely exceptions; if you are familiar with the work of Adam Grant, you will recall his “Are you a giver or a taker?” Ted Talk, where he classifies people into givers, takers, and matchers.

If your business is full of takers, this could be problematic. It might be a bit more work, but with a bit of work, you will have created a company where everyone is working towards making your business sustainable and profitable by engaging all the humans, leaders, clients, and partners. All working in unison, coming up with innovative ideas.

 

Design a holistic employee experience (EX)

It is important to be completely holistic in your employee experience, from recruitment to career growth and even off-boarding.

Leaders often ask organizational change experts to improve their leadership model, culture, or recruitment. The truth is that these aspects don’t work in isolation. It is, of course, possible to improve these areas and processes, but the overall employee experience is 360º, and all these pieces need to come together at some point. The earlier, the better it is for the overall employee experience. Unfortunately, very often, I see these different elements not only not being aligned but also working against each other. Sometimes for one division to succeed and hit its targets, it comes at a cost for other divisions. 

Some companies already plan an onboarding flow to guarantee that their new employees adjust to the company culture and design a career plan with plenty of learning and development in the organization. 

But if we want to be truly holistic, we need to shift the needle on both ends. In the recruitment process, we need to create a robust process that allows us to find people that are a great fit for our desired culture and counter the need to quickly fill roles with the long-term goal of finding the right person. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that companies with low turnover rates, especially during probation, usually take longer to fill the positions. 

 

Why does employee off-boarding matter?

On the other end, is it possible that we need to shift our mindset a little bit when it comes to off-boarding? Or at least challenge it?

Allow me to elaborate. We sometimes relate to staff as assets of the company. It might be time to ‘retire’ that word altogether. Whilst I agree with the essence of it, I no longer like it for the connotation that it brings with it: the concept of ownership of assets and even the fact that assets usually depreciate or have a usage/lifespan after which it is fully depreciated. 

I much rather like to think of employees as partners for a particular time span. I don’t promise them employment forever, and they don’t belong to me. I am aware that they may decide to pursue other opportunities at some point. In fact, I think we should accept that and factor it into our employee experience from the beginning. Some progressive companies already do that, we learned a great deal by understanding how companies like Morningstar or Netflix do off-board differently. 

Rarely I see companies doing off-boarding well. I think it’s a shame as it makes good business sense. Here are just a couple of reasons why: 

  • Last chance to understand where things went wrong
  • Opportunity to improve or make the role more attractive for the next starter
  • Understand how to find the next person or simple how to ‘pitch’ the position better in a crowded marketplace
  • Opportunity to keep the employee engaged for future opportunities
  • Engage the employee for a future reference or even for referrals for his position

 

All these aspects are areas that can contribute greatly to savings in the recruitment process as well as in operational costs.

Lastly, the world is watching. Have you ever seen a celebrity break up? Or even a breakup in your close circle? Well, everyone is judging or at least has an opinion.

Support your people each step of the way, as all these different phases should work in unison. If you fail at one of them, it may, in fact, disrupt your relationship with the other members of the organization.

If you ask me, the best way forward is to choose a holistic approach to humans in organizations by joining forces across different departments such as Recruitment, People and Culture, Compensation & Benefits, and Human Resources Information, which many times work separately and as different units.

 

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This article is part of a series on the B4P Framework.

Forward-thinking organizations are orienting their actions not only to their consumers (B2C), other businesses (B2B), or profit but also towards people, purpose, and the planet.

In this series, you will learn a bit more about the importance of directing your organization’s actions towards these 4Ps – purpose, people, planet, and profit – and gain some insight into how it can be done.

 

Have you enjoyed reading this piece?

Then feel free to share it with your network and anyone who can benefit from its content.

B4P – Business for Purpose, People, Planet, and Profit

B4P – Business for Purpose, People, Planet, and Profit

by | Jun 1, 2022 | Great Shift

*This article was originally published on great-shift.com

ON PURPOSE

Purpose in business is no longer just an option.

More and more we’re seeing businesses transitioning to becoming full purpose-led organizations. I was recently discussing with one of my colleagues the importance of this shift and how the workforce nowadays chooses to apply to organizations that are aligned with purposes that they relate to and are motivated to achieve.

As we discussed this, an idea came to mind: organizations nowadays are not only being asked to orient their actions towards their consumers (B2C), other businesses (B2B), or profit. There is an increasing need to guide their actions towards people, purpose, and the planet.

That’s when we came up with the basis of our B4P framework: Business For Purpose, People, Planet, and Profit.

While in the past, the purpose was a good addition, almost a nice to have, these days it has become a must-have.

According to Mckinsey, individuals can find purpose in three different ways: outside of work (with family, volunteer activities, etc), from work (through work activities that energize and ignites them), and from the organization (company purpose and culture).

When it comes to recruitment, organizations that are driven by purpose also seem to be outperforming the market (Deloitte Insights, “2020 Global Marketing Trends”). More and more, talented people want to work for a cause. When you work because you are motivated by your organization’s mission and not because of the financial benefit, that’s when the engagement, the entrepreneurial mindset, the high performance, and giving that extra 10% come to play. So, people who live their purpose at work outperform those who do not.

 

I dare say that nowadays, people are increasingly seeking to feel complete in all three of those spheres. Or at least I know it holds true for me and for the people I interact with on a daily basis.

The way you can support your people in finding purpose outside of work is by making sure you allow them to have a good work-life balance and even work-life integration. When people look after themselves and their physical and mental health, this is ultimately reflected in their work.

When the employment arrangement is fair and suitable to the employee’s needs and the organization’s culture is healthy, the other factor that needs to be addressed is the employee’s motivation for devoting time to support the business growth.

When leaders are not aware of this, they struggle with employee engagement and productivity.

And how can a leader find what motivates every one of its people to find purpose at work?

  • Start by analyzing individual objectives;
  • Find out how each person can help the business improve and expand;
  • Define and assign personal performance metrics;
  • Share personal and business goals with the team and select an accountability buddy to ensure these goals are achieved.

If in the first stage the individual objectives do not align with the organization’s mission and values, the leader should always support the employee in the transition to finding a role within the organization that is more aligned with what they want to do. Like in any other business relationship, the end goal is to ensure that the stakeholder is satisfied.

As for the organization’s purpose and culture, don’t suppose that the fact that your workforce doesn’t directly talk about the matter of purpose with you means that they believe it is good enough, or that they agree with it. Take the initiative to engage in discussions and understand where everyone stands.

Luckily, there has been an increasing rise in purpose-led companies. With social networks and all types of media outlets, people now can more easily learn about how companies operate internally and how they impact the external environment.

As businesses become aware of this, many brands start to support causes and address social problems that are somehow aligned with their own mission and values. Equally, it has also become easier to see through the superficiality of some initiatives. It’s become quite easy to gauge whether the companies are actually living the purpose or if it is just a marketing gimmick.

While in the past, these actions would be taken by NGOs or a very small number of organizations, nowadays, becoming a purpose-led business is the path to follow.

I myself got inspired to work for a purpose when I was living in Australia and heard about the work done by many social entrepreneurs like Lauren Shuttleworth, Nicholas Marchesi, and brands like the Thank You or Who Gives a Crap – everything they do is entirely connected to a cause. And it goes beyond a slogan or a campaign. There is no purpose-washing going on there as we see happening with some brands in the market. Thank You is owned by a charitable trust that then distributes its funds to impactful change-makers that support vulnerable communities to fight inequity, scarcity, and poverty. And Who Gives a Crap donates 50% of their profits to help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world.

Companies not only have to say they’re supporting a cause, but they also have to demonstrate that they’re actually doing something and exactly what they’re doing by being more transparent in how they do business.

As for us at the Great Shift, every service or sale we make is connected to giving. Every month, we rotate between our employees in choosing the causes (aligned to our overall purpose) we support through B1G1. It always impresses us how, with the work we do every month, we can create a big impact such as bringing water to remote communities in Africa or even giving a child access to education for a whole year. These are some of the things that keep us motivated to do better and achieve more to support and help more and more causes.

We preferably support causes that are connected to our clients and with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of our main clients, ART (Australian Radio Towers), is very focused on the Aboriginal cause in Australia. As a result, when we do our giving, we make sure to give back to the Aboriginal communities in the country. And every month we send our clients a report stating which causes we fund through our business relationship.

At Great Shift, our main purpose is to build better tomorrows. We do it by

  • Inspiring other organizations to become more ethical, purpose-driven, and led with a human-centric approach through our own example;
  • Giving back to the causes that are dear to our hearts, and creating an impact in the world and in the lives of others;
  • Helping organizations co-create a better future of work by upgrading their own culture and leadership style. This, in turn, will help the stakeholders of those organizations to have a higher level of work-life balance and satisfaction.

My advice for leaders who themselves are defining their purpose and the actions to take in achieving them is to ask yourself and your people what drives you. Think of solutions you can bring to the world and how the world can benefit from them in both the present and the future. Make sure you can measure your impact and share it with both your people and the world – this is what will really help you stay motivated in the long run.

How Do You Connect To Your Team In A Virtual Setting?

How Do You Connect To Your Team In A Virtual Setting?

by | May 25, 2022 | Culture, Talent, Trust

Remote work is here to stay, no doubts about that.

So now that leaders and teams no longer look at working in a virtual setting as a temporary solution for the COVID pandemic crisis but actually wish to continue working in such a work model, some questions arise.

How can we deal with the change of setting? And what has really changed in the way people interact with each other?

There are still many leaders making an extreme effort to keep the same face-to-face initiatives while working remotely, while others have felt an increased need to try something different.

Get To Know Your People and Be Present

Let me share with you an example of one of the leaders that I coach.

So, this leader was saying, “Catching up with people is taking a lot of my time. As a result, my days are quite packed, and I’m spending half an hour with each of them every week, plus the team meetings. I mean, we have really connected well over the pandemic crisis, but I need to focus on my own work. Any advice for that?”

And I asked her a simple question, “How did you do it before in a physical setting, face-to-face?” She stopped and went quiet for a minute. And then she said, “Oh, I didn’t actually do it.”

So if you have 12 employees on your team, spending 30 minutes with each of them weekly totals 6 hours per week of bonding.

After she realized the impact of this change, she said, “Wow, I’m spending six-hour quality time with my team, yet we’re getting more stuff done than ever before. And yes I’m busy, but I’m actually not working extra hours.”

This is a simple example of how many leaders have shifted the way they drive their teams in a remote setting. In an effort to not lose the connection with the people, leaders have started setting up catch-up calls and team meetings with the purpose of bonding and supporting each other.

Create an Interactive Online Environment

As a fully remote worker, I am pleased to find that the resistance to online settings has decreased.

In our organization, we used to run a lot of in-person workshops; however, after COVID they had to be moved to a remote setting. This meant a reassessment of how and why we ran these sessions: what was the expected learning outcome in such a different setting? We were known for doing very interactive workshops. The question was, how could we translate the same interactivity into the virtual world?

How many times have you heard, “Online training is not as interactive, good, and effective as face-to-face?”

Well, we didn’t accept that and committed ourselves to changing the mindset of our partners and clients.

I can recall the numerous below-average face-to-face training sessions that I attended in my career.

So, is it actually the case that face-to-face training is more effective, or is it purely the fact that we remember some of the great good in-person sessions we had?

Haven’t we all had very poor face-to-face ones as well? Is it the setting or the way it is facilitated?

In our particular case, our participants never said: “I wish this had been face-to-face, it would have been way more interactive.”

I’ve been blessed to have been part of virtual teams for some years now. These teams have bonded quite well and some of us are still in contact.

Many people claim that it does take energy and conscious effort to lead remote teams. It does, but the truth is that it takes the same amount of energy and effort as when you choose to connect in a physical setting. I learned a great deal about this myself during my Global Executive MBA at the IE Business School.

There are, of course, elements that I do enjoy doing in a face-to-face setting. For example, at the beginning of a client engagement, it is nice to meet the participants in person.

However, with the development of technology, it is possible that we are fine-tuning the new norm and that some of these first encounters become less needed and necessary?

Begin Each Meeting with an Ice-Breaker

We have our team weekly meetings at the Great Shift which take one hour. We call them a lobby meeting, like if you’re meeting someone in the lobby on the way to your office desk and have a quick chat to go.

Before we begin those meetings, we always ask everyone an icebreaker question where we talk about our days, talk about how we feel, or simply ask random questions to have a laugh and get to know the person behind the screen. Understand that they are a human too and connect with them. This can be the most random question, such as, “What’s your favorite movie?” or “What’s your go-to TV series when you’re down?” Just the other week the question was, “If you were to be a cake, which cake would you be?”

Little things go a long way, that for us is replacing the casual, the water cooler.

Set Opportunities for Regular Interactions

What do some of our partners do? I was recently speaking to a startup in Singapore that has developed a virtual setting meant to connect anyone in the team at any time. It is like an office where people can go “sit” and have a conversation. So, employees can access the virtual network anytime to engage with others, exchange ideas, have meetings, or simply chat.

There is also this other startup that randomly matches people in the whole organization for 10-minute catch-ups. It’s completely voluntary, but these are the things that can be implemented without much difficulty, and, in some way, partly replace the daily interactions we used to have in an office setting.

In our organization, we also use internal communication software, Slack. I’ve personally used this for many years now, in different teams and in different settings, including in some of the mentoring I do in startups and on different professional networks. It not only makes the communication flow more efficiently, but it’s also a great means to share non-company updates.

Make Work Fun

I’ve mentored a company in the US that had 10 different recreation Slack channels, and its employees found so much about each other through them. Just by looking at the channel, I couldn’t believe people would connect so easily.

We have also created different channels in our team’s Slack channel from funny photos on the #frozen-screens-on-zoom channel to #bookjunkies where we share our best readings, and the #mental_health channel where we check in with each other, share our struggles, and challenges and post what we did to pamper ourselves on our monthly mental health day, and even a #ladies_lounge (I have no idea what happens there).

While it’s up to all everyone in the team to contribute and come up with those channels, they are captained by our project manager, Helena Cada, who meticulously keeps an eye on the app and looks at ways to improve it.

Build Trust

Yet another question that arises when working remotely is how to adjust to working with team members you’ve never met in person.

Of course, it’s great when you have met your team before, but when not, how can you actually make it work?

It’s arguably the same concept. There are a lot of things you can do in a virtual setting to build a meaningful connection. So far, I have only had the chance to meet one of my team members in person due to the travel restriction induced by Covid-19; however, none of the other collaborators have met before and I still believe this is the best team I have ever worked with.

I always make a conscious effort to build a solid relationship with every team member we onboard by scheduling regular one-on-one meetings. It is also a common practice for everyone to support and be empathic with each other. In reality, I believe that creating empathy and psychological safety is the foundation of a great team and the ultimate ingredient to building trust, and I believe this holds true for everyone on our team. Even our interview process is designed for applicants to meet as many team members as possible during the interview process.

Set Clear Expectations on Communication

There are incredible tools to learn more about each of your team members.

Take the 16 Personalities Test, for example, which we normally use in our team to better understand each other, and understand how we can better integrate everyone’s different ways of working.

Another important thing we also do is a working agreement, where you discuss with your collaborators how they want to be communicated to and with what kind of medium they want to use. For example, I have never in a team meeting forced anyone to turn on their cameras and that’s not something we demand anyone to do, but people voluntarily put their cameras on. Although I must admit I prefer seeing people on camera, my belief is that people should have the freedom to turn the camera off at times if they feel so. I would estimate that cameras are on 80% of the meeting times, yet, it’s not a mandate. 

Let Adults be Adults

Everyone is treated the exact same way in our company, regardless of their level of experience. And everyone responds the exact same way and treats each other accordingly.

Ricardo Semler used to say that when you treat people like grown-ups, they actually act like grownups. And I’m a strong believer in that, that if we treat people like adults, they will act like responsible adults. So far, from my own experience, this is true.

In our team, everyone is accountable for the work they have committed to do and has full responsibility to perform their tasks and ask for help and input whenever needed. By recognizing everyone is human and that there is always room and space for improvement, we openly discuss our mistakes without feeling judged; we even regularly do it in our monthly retrospective sessions.

Every team member behaves like a responsible adult that is empowered and capable of making both wise and bold decisions. And because transparency is encouraged, every one of us feels comfortable communicating our real thoughts and ideas regarding any process we are required feedback from.

And all this is done remotely without strict supervision or any sort of tracking system.

The knowledge and insights shared here with you are based on hands-on practices that have been working with the GS team and the teams we coach, so we do hope they will resonate with you.

We understand that every organization is different and, therefore, has different needs. So, if you are looking for solutions on how to build more cohesive remote teams, feel free to reach out, we’re happy to support you.

The Great Shift

The Great Shift

by | May 11, 2022 | Great Shift

A mass awakening to better ways of working

Ever since I started coaching organizations (worldwide) and even leading my own business in recent years, I realized that there was so much potential in the world of work that was yet to be explored.

Great thought leaders and pioneer businesses have always inspired me; however, even just a couple of years ago, I felt that their innovative ways of working were too far ahead of the models and settings most companies operate in. Apart from some singular initiatives, the future of work only seemed to be peeking around the corner.

If I think of an analogy for what had been happening, I think of New Year’s Eve, with all the preparation involved for that one magical moment where fireworks are fired into the sky to explode spectacularly into a spectrum of colors and shapes, each of them carefully planned to produce an unforgettable show.

COVID-19 brought about a lot of change and for some, a spark in many areas of human life.

Since the beginning of 2021, the Great Resignation or the Big Quit has been taking place, a workforce movement where thousands of people around the world decided to leave their jobs.

However, I do believe that this pandemic has catalyzed much more than a wave of resignations: it has started what I like to call The Great Shift.

For me, the Great Shift represents the coming of a new dawn. It’s a combination of situations that have been taking place over the last 5-10 years and have finally culminated in all the movements around the world of work that was sparked by COVID.

The Great Shift is a movement of reform that goes beyond work. Many people have started to question their lifestyle choices after reconsidering their priorities, examining their life expectations, and reevaluating their values and purpose. 

This has surely had a great impact on their professional life.

Why? If you think about it, most people used to live for work and organize their lives around their schedule, workplace, scarce holidays, and overall professional obligations and responsibilities.

 

While working from home, workers began prioritizing family time, their personal and social lives, and started dedicating more time to their hobbies and passions. They understood that it was feasible to experience work-life integration without impacting business performance. Their careers and work-life were no longer at the center of everything. This is when the crisis arose and the reshuffling of our society as we knew it began.

I personally realized that I had been completely off balance. Before the pandemic, whilst I was enjoying my work, I was also constantly on the road, away from home for prolonged periods. I’d work so hard during the week that I’d allow myself small luxuries to compensate for it: I’d take myself out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, have brunch somewhere nice, go out for drinks at the best bar in town, and buy myself a new watch every three months.

That lifestyle can not compare to what my life is today. My priorities were not clear at that time and I hadn’t stopped to ask myself about my personal purpose for work. I now understand that even though I do love what I do, work can not come at the expense of every other aspect of my life.

And while I still appreciate the finer things in life and allow myself some luxuries from time to time, I realized that I prefer to enjoy the outdoors, engage in a community with shared interests, spend time with my loved ones and look after my mental health by working fewer hours. Most of my work is now done remotely so I can choose to work from a place that allows me to lead this healthier lifestyle.

 

More and more people nowadays also wish to find an alignment between their own purpose, values, and mission and the purpose, values, and mission of the entity they work for. When this doesn’t happen, they are having the courage to carve their own paths.

After being confined at home for months, or even for nearly two years in some countries, these are some of the questions they started asking themselves:

– I’ve dedicated such a huge amount of my time to this job. Do I feel valued and recognized in this organization? Is it aligned with my values and aspirations?

– And what work would make me get up in the morning and keep going no matter what?

– Do I want to work fully remote and choose where I want to live or go back to the office and have the same routine as before?

 

Avant-garde startups and businesses were agile enough to adjust or redefine the way they work to meet the new demands of the workforce. These human-centric organizations understood that the old ways would no longer retain and attract talent.

On the other hand, many companies, even big brands we have all looked up to in previous years, have been going in circles and failing to win the War for Talent.

Traditional work models are starting to crumble, and the top-down approach to leadership is becoming less and less attractive. Moreover, organizations operating in such ways are being made accountable by prospective job candidates, their workforce itself, and the platforms in which they are present.

 

So, going back to the firework analogy, a different set of situations have been lighting up our sky and showing different colors and ways of being in the present moment that is causing an impact, and will leave their mark on how we redefine the way we do work and the way organizations structure themselves.

As a mass awakening, whether leaders and organizations are ready or not, an inevitable shift is taking place around the world.

———

 

I hope you enjoyed reading this text. This is an excerpt from the intro to my upcoming book and the reason why I decided to start the Great Shift movement.

If there was ever a time to take that step forward in reshaping what work means to you and your organization, this is the moment to do it.

Together with my team, I am cooperating with different organizations and professionals around the globe who are equally committed to creating better tomorrows by transitioning to better, more human-centric ways of working.

Feel free to reach out to me to learn more about it.