For years, trust in the workplace has been a background hum threaded through strategy, performance, and culture work.

In the last year, the dull roar seems to have morphed into a sharp, ringing sound in leadership and HR conversations. Data from the Edelman Trust Institute indicates that global employees’ trust in their organization to ‘do what is right’ fell to 75% in 2025, down three points. Meanwhile, only 33 % of employees say they trust their employer in some contexts.

Trust is no longer a passive, background hum. It has very much come to the forefront.

Interestingly, what I have found while working with different employers is how the word ‘trust’ has become almost worn out. In fact, some CEOs have told me they prefer not to use the term ‘trust’ anymore because it’s fallen victim to buzzword culture. It’s thrown around so often now that employees almost believe it but don’t actually feel it.

We have arrived at a paradox: trust is more important than ever, as shown by the data, yet it’s become more difficult to articulate and embed than it has been before.

Why Does Trust Feel Like a Buzzword?

The answer can be summed up by the age-old adage – actions speak louder than words. The classic stock phrases of ‘we trust our teams’ and ‘we’re building trust’ will be consistently heard, but if behaviors are not aligned with or reinforcing these statements then they immediately become hollow…and so does the meaning of trust. In fact, too much talk and not enough action can erode any existing trust.

This inevitably leads to a disconnect between employers and employees, and we can see this chasm opening. One survey found that while 86% of executives said they ‘highly trust’ their employees, only 60% of employees felt that same level of trust from those leaders.

Where would trust show up in an organization if we asked, “Where does trust belong today?” and “What does trust actually look like?” rather than the more standard, “How do we build trust?”

Where Does Trust Belong at Work Today?

Trust belongs everywhere, but especially at the intersection of behavior, expectation, and accountability. Instead of treating trust as a vague cultural ideal, it needs to be embedded in concrete behaviors and organizational design. Here are some ways to think about it:

1. Trust Behaviors First – employers should be asking themselves: what do trusted behaviors look like? Consistent use of trust behaviors can build trust. This could be managers following through on commitments, feedback being offered in a timely and transparent manner, or ensuring that mistakes are acknowledged and addressed rather than swept under the rug. These actions help reinforce the promises of trust and make it a tangible reality.
2. Trust isn’t One‐Size‐Fits‐All – employers and employees need to understand how situations affect trust in the moment. For some situations, an employee might need to trust their peers for support, while in others they might need to trust their line manager for guidance. And in still others, managers might need to trust their employees when making decisions or acting independently. Trust is contextual; situation-appropriate trust behaviors across the organization can increase the likelihood of overall higher trust levels.
3. Let Trust be Lived, not Just Spoken – employers need to ensure they are not just collecting data without action. To truly build trust with your employees, relevant responses must follow data insights, and these changes should be clearly communicated to highlight that employee input is valued makes a difference.

When employers get trust right, it accelerates everything. Employees who feel trusted are more motivated, more committed, and more likely to stay. One study even suggested that lack of trust in a manager undermines motivation for 76 % of employees.

In a time where the pace of change is monumental, organizations that can make trust more than just a buzzword will stand out amongst the crowd and show themselves as employers of choice. It’s about turning trust from a word into a lived experience, and those employers that do this successfully will find themselves reaping the benefits this new year. 

If you would like to discuss how we can help ensure trust is rooted in action, please get in touch with me at amanda@orgshakers.com

Each year, we like to ask the OrgShakers team what practices and mindsets they believe employers should be leaving behind in the year that has passed to help them begin fresh in the new year to come.

As 2025 has now come to a close, we wanted to see what they believed should be left behind in order for employers to continue to grow in the year to come and beyond:

David Fairhurst – 2025 should mark the end of rigid, one-size-fits-all leadership and tokenistic wellbeing initiatives. Generic programmes and surface-level gestures no longer meet the needs of a diverse, fast-changing workforce.

The employers who will succeed are those who build trust-based cultures, focus on genuinely meaningful employee experience, and adopt AI responsibly rather than fearfully. Used well, technology can enhance work, but only when grounded in human values.

These are the organisations that will continue to win the war for talent.

Ken Merritt – employers should leave behind engagement survey scores; at least for the next few years. Annual or biannual surveys take too long, tell us what we already know, and often arrive long after the moment to act has passed.

The focus now needs to be on engagement processes, not scores: real-time listening, ongoing dialogue, and genuine partnership with employees to improve day-to-day workplace dynamics. Engagement isn’t a metric, it’s a relationship.

Natasha Santos – one of the most damaging habits employers must leave behind in 2025 is reactive HR, also known as the ‘wait until it breaks’ approach.

Reactive HR shows up when organizations wait for complaints before updating policies, wait for performance issues to escalate before introducing review processes, wait for turnover spikes before addressing culture, and wait for regulatory pressure before focusing on compliance. It’s costly, risky, and unsustainable.

Modern HR must be structured, preventative, compliance-aligned and people-first, not driven by crisis management.

Beth Molinaro – for HR business partners, 2025 should be the end of gut-feel decision-making and disengagement tolerance. Intuition alone is no longer enough. Data-driven insights, predictive analytics and AI-powered tools are now essential for effective workforce planning.

Ignoring disengagement weakens organisational agility. HRBPs must actively push for career mobility, re-engagement and long-term capability building.

For employees, this also means leaving behind the acceptance of toxic cultures and the habit of neglecting upskilling. Poor leadership and stagnant skills undermine both wellbeing and career resilience in a rapidly changing market.

Patsy Doerr – put simply, employers need to let go of fear: fear of change, fear of AI, and fear driven by the current geopolitical climate.

Operating from fear leads to hesitation, stagnation and short-term thinking. Progress requires confidence, adaptability and a willingness to move forward…even when the future feels uncertain.

Amanda Holland – the normalization of constant availability – emails at midnight, “urgent” weekend messages – has fuelled burnout across labor markets. Employers must leave behind unbounded workdays, ambiguous expectations and the rewarding of overwork.

In their place, organizations should move toward clear communication norms, protected rest time, and leadership that actively models healthy boundaries, aiming for work-life harmony rather than an unrealistic idea of balance.

The same shift is needed in wellbeing. Annual challenges and EAP posters aren’t meeting real needs. Employers must move beyond check-the-box mental health initiatives and crisis-only responses, and instead build psychologically safe cultures with proactive workload management and integrated people-risk approaches.

Karen Cerrato – AI isn’t here to replace people, but rather to reshape how we work by removing inefficiencies and amplifying human skills.

Organizations that thrive will be those that lean in, experiment responsibly, and help their people build confidence rather than fear. Used well, AI can automate low-value tasks, improve decision-making, enhance employee experience, and support upskilling, all while still preserving human judgement.

The future belongs to companies that prepare their people for change, not those that avoid it. When HR leaders model clarity and confidence around AI, the rest of the organisation follows.

Therese Procter – 2025 should be the year employers leave behind the idea that financial stress is a private issue. The link between employees’ financial lives and their performance, health and engagement is now undeniable.

Financial stress affects focus, decision-making, attendance and safety. Ignoring it is no longer compatible with responsible leadership.

As we move into 2026, financial wellbeing must take its place as a strategic pillar of good work (alongside mental and physical health) delivered through human-centred leadership, thoughtful work design, and data-led decisions paired with empathy.

If you would like to get in touch with us about any of the points raised by our team, or if you have a different concerns that you were hoping to leave in 2025 and need assistance in shedding it, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today!

From all of us at OrgShakers, we wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Every organization has been there; that moment when a key employee moves on, and suddenly we realize how much of their knowledge existed only in their head. It’s not just about losing a team member, it’s about losing the shortcuts, insights, and quiet expertise that made them such an effective member of the team.

Knowledge interviews can soften the loss. Done right, they don’t just preserve what someone knows, but also strengthen culture, boost collaboration, and turn the potential casualty into a key opportunity for growth.

Capturing Tacit Knowledge and Individual Expertise

When a respected colleague or top performer leaves (or even moves internally), the risk is not just the vacancy, but the quiet exodus of their accumulated wisdom. That wisdom is often tacit. According to Gartner Group, tacit knowledge is defined as what an individual holds in mind (skills, intuition, judgement) rather than formal documented content. It’s the stuff that has been learned through doing, and shaped by intuition, relationships, and experience…but because it lives in people’s heads, it is incredibly vulnerable to being lost. Estimates vary, but one source puts the share of organizational knowledge in tacit form as high as 80 % , leaving only a sliver in explicit documents.

From this perspective, knowledge interviews become the mechanism for catalysing work conversations between leaders/HR and employees.

The key is to ask open-ended, reflective questions, capturing not just the ‘what’ but the ‘how’ and ‘why’. By conducting these interviews, employers can make tacit knowledge explicit, allowing them to effectively capture the precious knowledge that otherwise evaporates with employee movement. In this context, a knowledge interview is part of the internal offboarding or transition process, making it a deliberate and purposeful hand-over of relevant expertise.

Speaking of Relevant Expertise…

Knowledge interviews are designed to help employers capture the elusive yet important data that can enable future employees. But be aware that the act of actually recording all this data can open another can of worms, and inside that can is ROT data.

‘ROT’ stands for Redundant, Obsolete, and Trivial data, and this is the mountain of information organizations accumulate over time that may no longer actually serve them. One study by BigID suggest that up to 80 % of enterprise information may fall into ROT territory, which is a huge amount of data that is taking up space where more valuable and relevant knowledge could be stored.

While employers should seek to capture valuable knowledge, they must also be intentional to avoid adding to the clutter. An over-grown repository of captured interviews, outdated documents and unmanaged files may become part of the ROT problem itself, resulting in employees spending time digging through noise rather than finding signal. If you decide to start capturing knowledge through interviews, this is also the time to conduct a data clean-up to ensure employees can easily find the critical knowledge.

Final Takeaways

As we continue to navigate dynamic work environments, hybrid models, and increasing mobility, the potential for knowledge loss grows exponentially. However, through well-designed knowledge interviews embedded in off-boarding and transition processes, employers can safeguard what makes their teams unique and effective.

By intentionally capturing tacit knowledge, reframing departure as a chance to preserve expertise, and keeping the knowledge ecosystem clean of ROT, organizations turn human capital into a sustainable, durable asset.

If you would like to discuss how we can help offer services to clear out that ROT and embed knowledge interviews into your offboarding process, please get in touch with me at amanda@orgshakers.com

The holiday period is always a golden opportunity to shine a spotlight on the efforts of your people, helping to build a culture of appreciation that lasts well beyond December.

Research increasingly shows that recognition is not just a nice gesture, but a real driver of better business. For example, a recent survey found that 77.9% of employees believed they would be more productive if they received recognition more frequently.

With this in mind, how HR can design festive, meaningful recognition rituals that genuinely resonate with a diverse workforce?

1. Make it Personal and Timely
During the holidays, it can be tempting to rely on more generic gestures like handing out gift cards or sending the semi-customized ‘thank‐you’ emails. But recognition that lands best is: (a) timely (given soon after the contribution), and (b) personal (linked to specific behaviours or outcomes). For example, you might highlight number of units shipped ahead of a delivery deadline, or acknowledge a colleague who mentored a new team member through the seasonal rush. The point is, taking the time to put in that extra effort will significantly pay off in the new year to come.

2. Use the Festive Season to Amplify Peer‑to‑Peer Recognition
The holidays bring a natural energy of giving and community, and employers can tap into this. Have employees nominate neighbors across teams who helped them, set up ‘holiday shout‑outs’ in internal social platforms like Slack, or even host a festive virtual ‘thank you’ wall. Feeling seen and appreciated by your colleagues can be just as rewarding a feeling as being appreciated by your superiors.

3. Offer Meaningful Rewards (but Don’t Over‑Emphasize Monetary Value)
While a bonus or gift is appreciated, the most effective rewards align with what employees value: flexibility, experiential benefits, or recognition tied to purpose. During the holidays you could offer an extra day off, a charity‑giving match in the employee’s name, or a team lunch to celebrate results.

4. Ensure Inclusivity and Authenticity
Holiday themes vary across employees; some celebrate major holidays, others may not. Recognition programmes should avoid bias toward a single festive tradition and instead focus on universal values like teamwork, innovation, support, and learning. When messaging around “holiday thanks”, emphasize appreciation rather than religious or cultural rituals. Adopting an inclusive tone strengthens the sentiment across all team members, and creates a sense of unity that leads to better cohesion.

5. Link Recognition to Sustainable Culture, Not Just One‑Off Cheer
While December is the moment for extra sparkle, the best outcome is that this festive recognition becomes a habit. The data suggests that organizations that embed recognition year‑round create environments where employees feel seen, valued and connected (for example, one study found that when employees feel valued, productivity can increase up to 17%). Leaders can use the holiday window to establish a recognition rhythm so that the cheer continues into the new year.

The holidays give employers a powerful moment to amplify recognition and make it so much more than just a seasonal gesture. By personalizing recognition, they can create a culture of appreciation that lasts well into the new year. After all, the best gift you can give your team is the feeling of being seen, valued and celebrated! If you would like to discuss how we can help advise on how to give the gift of inclusive recognition this holiday season, please get in touch with us today!

It’s not news to hear that the holiday season often brings a surge in temporary staffing needs.

Whether it’s retail floor help, customer‑service agents, logistics crew or other seasonal roles, the festive months require those extra hands. And whilst the title of ‘temp’ looms as a reminder that these new hires are fractional, employers who can still supply that positive experience for this temporary workforce will ultimately get the most productive seasonal teams. After all, job‑seeker interest in seasonal work at the end of September 2025 was up 27% year‑over‑year and 50% above 2023 levels.

With this in mind, how can employers make seasonal hires feel like valued team members, instead of just fill-ins?

For starters, treat seasonal hires like members of the team from their very first day.This looks like providing a welcome orientation that covers company culture, values, and how their role contribute, as well as introducing them to their new team to help them feel more connected right from the offset.

Secondly, provide clarity around the role, schedule and expectations.Temporary work often appeals because of flexibility, but ambiguity can undermine this effectiveness. Ensure job postings clearly state hours, duration, expectations, and any possibility of extension or conversion. Having this clear communication avoids any misunderstandings and ultimately elevates the candidate and employee experience.

All of this lends towards fostering engagement.Just because someone is working for a few months doesn’t mean you can ignore engagement. Incorporate them into team meetings, invite them to festive events, and recognize their contributions with shout‑outs. This ensures engagement throughout their stint as a temp and helps to boost productivity during an admittedly busy time.

And sometimes, seasonal staff may go on to be something more for a company. It can be a good idea for employers to think of the seasonal workforce as an extended audition to be a potential new hire. Some temporary hires may prove to be outstanding and a great fit for future roles, and so ensuring that they are treated as a member of the team from the get-go will increase the likelihood of them wanting to accept a position with the business after the holidays are over.

It can also be a smart idea to gather feedback from all seasonal staff once the holidays are over. Asking about what worked and what didn’t can offer insights to help refine next year’s approach and make it even more efficient (and inclusive!).

Seasonal hiring is a valuable part of any business calendar, and when done with intention, it treats temporary team members as valued contributors rather than stop‑gap placeholders. By onboarding them thoughtfully and making the effort to integrate them fully, seasonal staffing can be turned into a strategic advantage and a potential talent pipeline.

If you would like to discuss how we can help ensure you are optimizing your seasonal hires, please get in touch with us today.

When an employee is hired into an organization, employers often rejoice. They offer elaborate onboarding journeys, training plans, and buddy-pairing introductions to ensure this new hire is assimilated into life at their company.

But when someone moves laterally or is promoted internally, their experience is notably different. If there is an onboarding process, typically it is somewhat ‘hands-off’, short-lived, or vague. What huge, missed opportunities! First, for employers to retain and motivate the talent deemed good enough to promote, and second, to sustain employee and work unit productivity during this transition.

Treat Internal Mobility Like New Hiring

Internal mobility matters, and research supports this concept. Employees who move internally tend to stay significantly longer. On average, internal movers stay about 3.2 years, versus 1.7 years for external hires. In addition, companies that promote internally see a 70 % higher likelihood of long-term retention. This is not just those workers moving upwards; the same study found that lateral movers carry a 62 % higher retention rate than external hires. So this begs the question: how will you capitalize on this worker goodwill to strengthen the workforce and enhance the employee experience?

When someone changes roles inside your organization, you are not just giving them a new job, you’re communicating how much they are valued in your company. What is said and done during the move sends a strong message to the employee about their worth and future with the organization. Yet many firms don’t have formal pipelines for internal mobility. In fact, data suggests only about one-third of companies run a formal internal mobility program.

When internal transitions are poorly managed, employers risk losing more than goodwill. They risk wide knowledge gaps, rippling team disruption, and general disengagement. That’s why offboarding the old role and onboarding the new one should be a strategic priority.

Why ‘Offboard’ Someone Who’s Staying?

It may sound counterintuitive to offboard someone who’s not leaving the company. But a thoughtful offboarding of the prior role can be immensely beneficial for a variety of reasons:

• Knowledge Capture and Handover – a structured ‘exit interview’ or knowledge transfer session helps to ensure continuity. Many organizations cite “institutional knowledge loss” as their top risk during transitions, and so by consciously capturing this knowledge during an internal offboard, companies mitigate this risk significantly.
• Emotional Closure and Respect – internal promotions still represent endings. If this ending goes unacknowledged, an employee may feel somewhat abandoned (particularly by their old team). A formal offboarding gives psychological closure and reinforces respect for past contributions. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate wins, set the new direction, and encourage employee retention.
• Signal Clarity to the Team – the transition is going to affect the team being left as much as the new team being formed and the individual changing roles. By acknowledging the move formally, companies underscore the importance of the role change and set clear expectations for both old and new teams.
• Feedback Loop – just like exit interviews for departing employees, internal offboarding yields important insights, such as what worked in the old role, what obstacles they faced, and how the team can improve going forward.

Why ‘Onboard’ Someone Who Already Works For You?

While offboarding an employee from their old team can help smooth the transition between old and new, it is just as important for employers to have an onboarding process in place for those employees who are moving from one position to another – whether this be a lateral or promotional change.

It seems obvious that if an employee has been awarded a new role, they have likely shown they are capable of succeeding in it. But being capable is only one part of it; the idea that they will land feet first in this new role and hit the ground running isn’t realistic. However, it could become a reality with some dedicated onboarding time.

The new team members should be introduced to the ins and outs of the team they are joining. This means giving them clear milestones to work towards, ensuring there is clarity around the priorities of their role, and giving them a heads up on the culture of the new team. Yes, they are still working for the same company, but individual teams have different ways of working, and there may be a micro-culture operating under the macro-culture of the workplace that the transitioning employee needs to be onboarded into to help them perform the new job to the best of their ability.

A great way of doing this? Offer the promoted or transferred employee a mentor or buddy (much like what is commonly offered to brand new hires). The employee’s transition still involves learning a new social network and unwritten rules,  Having a buddy to guide them can help to accelerate their integration and act as a great sounding board for any questions or feedback they may have.

If the organization treats this new job as a ‘set them loose’ moment, employees may feel isolated or unsure, and then those retention benefits of internal mobility will begin to erode.

In a talent environment where retention is gold, treating internal movement casually is a missed opportunity. But when done thoughtfully, offboarding the old role and onboarding the new one lets you leverage internal promotions as a powerful retention anchor, knowledge accelerator, and culture builder. If you would like to discuss how we can help set up an efficient and productive internal onboarding process, please get in touch with me at amanda@orgshakers.com

An article from Harvard Business Review recently caught my eye. The article centered around this idea that generative AI tools are flooding workplaces with superficially polished but ultimately shallow output which they have dubbed as ‘workslop’.

The claim is a provocative one. Instead of liberating workers, AI may be, in some cases, creating more busy-work for employers and actually undermining real productivity (not to mention eroding at trust between employer and employee when being used to generate this so-called slop).

But is that the full story? A closer look at recent data suggests that the answer is…well, it depends.

The Case for Workslop

In a survey of 1000 workers, 40 % reported receiving AI-generated content that looked tidy yet lacked meaningful substance in the last month. This led to roughly two hours of additional work to correct or redo this ‘workslop’. When translating this wasted time into monetary value, this extra effort equated to $186 per month per employee. So the bigger the business, the more of a financial impact workslop can have.

In addition to this, there is a study of software developers where the use of AI tools resulted in a 19 % slower completion time compared with non-AI use, suggesting that in some contexts AI may actually hinder rather than help.

Taken together, these findings paint a picture of AI-tools being deployed hastily and subsequently generating workslop rather than actual gains.

The Case for Genuine Productivity Gains

On the other hand, there is also data that suggests that when thoughtfully implemented, AI can indeed boost productivity. For example, a recent report from McKinsey sizes the long-term AI opportunity at $4.4 trillion in added productivity growth potential from corporate use cases. But this same report recognizes that whilst the projections for AI are to boost productivity in the long-term, it is the short-term that remains uncertain as many companies may not be at the right stage of maturity for full AI-integration. From this perspective, it’s not the AI tools that are the problem but rather how they are being used and whether they are being used prematurely.

On top of this, a survey by PwC indicates that industries which are most exposed to AI saw revenue per employee grow at 27 % compared to 9 % in those least exposed.

And when looking at the time-saving front, a survey of US workers found that among those who used generative AI at least once in the prior week, the average time saved was about 5.4% of their hours, which translated to roughly 2.2 hours in a 40-hour week.

The takeaway from all of this is that there is potential for AI to create real efficiency and value, despite claims of doing the opposite.

So, What’s the Verdict?

The evidence is seemingly conflicting, which suggests that the answer to whether or not AI is creating ‘workslop’ is more nuanced than simply yes or no. Yes, AI can create workslop, but it can also deliver meaningful productivity gains when used correctly. The key difference lies in how the technology is deployed and integrated.

Rather than viewing AI as either a savior or saboteur, the current evidence supports a more balanced view. When used thoughtfully, AI offers a substantial upside, but when mis-managed, it can degrade overall work quality. The concept of workslop serves as a timely reminder to leaders to invest in redesigning workflows, building AI literacy, and aligning AI-generated content with human judgment and purpose.

If you would like to discuss how we can help ensure that the AI tools your company is investing in are right for you, as well as how to get the most productivity out of them and avoid the looming workslop, please get in touch with us today.

In a rapidly evolving world of work, where new technologies, tools, and expectations emerge almost daily, employee upskilling is no longer optional,it’s essential. For HR leaders and business owners, investing in learning and development training programs is one of the most effective ways to secure both individual and organizational success.

Employee upskilling bridges the gap between today’s capabilities and tomorrow’s business needs. It empowers people to grow, adapt, and perform, while strengthening engagement, productivity, and retention across the workforce.

What is Employee Upskilling — And why does it Matter?

Employee upskilling refers to the process of developing employees’ existing skills or adding new ones to help them thrive in a changing environment. Whether it’s through formal learning and development training programs, coaching, or mentoring, the focus is on enabling employees to remain agile and effective in their roles.

While reskilling prepares individuals for a completely new position, upskilling helps them advance within their current field, improving expertise, confidence, and contribution to business outcomes.

For HR professionals, a robust employee upskilling program is a strategic investment. It aligns workforce capability with business growth, creating a pipeline of skilled talent ready to take on emerging challenges.

The Benefits of Employee Upskilling for Individuals

1. Building Confidence and Competence

Learning drives confidence. When employees are given opportunities to strengthen their skills, they perform with greater assurance, creativity, and ownership. Upskilling employees supports decision-making and helps individuals feel equipped to tackle complex challenges — which, in turn, boosts productivity and morale.

2. Enabling Career Progression

One of the most powerful benefits of employee upskilling is career development. Employees who engage in learning are better positioned to take on new responsibilities, step into leadership roles, and navigate internal mobility opportunities. For HR, this means a stronger succession pipeline and reduced dependency on external recruitment.

3. Encouraging Engagement and Loyalty

When employees see that their employer invests in their development, they’re far more likely to stay. Upskilling programs demonstrate commitment to long-term growth, reinforcing trust and belonging — two vital drivers of engagement and retention.

Why Upskilling is a Business Imperative

1. Strengthening Retention and Reducing Turnover Costs

The link between learning and retention is clear: people don’t leave organizations that invest in them. Upskilling helps employers retain high performers by keeping them challenged and valued. It also reduces recruitment costs and protects institutional knowledge — both critical for business continuity.

2. Driving Productivity and Innovation

Well-trained employees bring new ideas and improved ways of working. Upskilling enhances efficiency, problem-solving, and adaptability, helping organizations stay competitive in fast-changing markets. Continuous learning turns knowledge into action — and that directly impacts the bottom line.

3. Supporting Organizational Agility

In an unpredictable economy, agility is everything. Employee upskilling and reskilling build flexibility into the workforce, enabling businesses to respond to change without disruption. A learning culture prepares employees to adopt new technologies, adapt processes, and embrace transformation with confidence.

4. Strengthening the Employer Brand

An organization known for developing its people attracts stronger talent. Training programs in the workplace send a clear message: “We grow together.” This not only improves recruitment outcomes but also enhances overall culture and reputation.

How HR can Build Effective Upskilling Programs

The most impactful employee upskilling programs are strategic, inclusive, and continuous. For HR and leadership teams, the following steps can ensure lasting value:

• Conduct a skills gap analysis: Identify where current competencies fall short of future business needs.
• Design tailored learning pathways: Blend technical, leadership, and interpersonal development to support both role performance and progression.
• Encourage a culture of learning: Integrate development into everyday work through coaching, mentoring, and peer-to-peer learning.
• Measure outcomes: Track engagement, performance improvement, and retention to demonstrate ROI and continuously refine the approach.

By embedding learning into the fabric of daily work, your HR team can transform development from a “nice-to-have” initiative into a strategic enabler of performance.

The Long-Term Payoff of Upskilling

For employees, upskilling is an investment in confidence, competence, and career progression.
For organizations, it’s an investment in adaptability, innovation, and retention.

The benefits of employee upskilling go beyond skill acquisition, it shapes culture, strengthens leadership pipelines, and future-proof business success. A workforce that learns continuously is one that grows collectively.

The Best Ways to Start Upskilling your Workforce

At OrgShakers, we help organizations design learning and development strategies that align with their goals, culture, and people.

If you’re ready to build a future-ready workforce, contact our team today to learn how our support can improve your organization’s growth and enhance your retention strategies and goals now.

Bringing former employees back into the workplace offers a unique opportunity for organizations to leverage experience while retaining top talent.

These employees already understand company systems, culture, and expectations, but time away can mean gaps in knowledge, updated processes, or new team structures. A thoughtful re-onboarding process ensures returning staff feel supported, engaged, and ready to contribute effectively from day one.

Just like new hires, returning employees benefit from structured guidance, clear role expectations, and cultural reintegration. Without it, even experienced employees may struggle to reconnect, reducing productivity and potentially impacting team morale. 

A good employee re-onboarding process not only supports the individual but strengthens the organization by maximizing engagement, improving retention, and accelerating performance.

Benefits of Re-hiring Former Employees

Re-hiring former employees comes with multiple advantages. Companies often overlook the potential of past staff, but bringing back experienced individuals can reduce recruitment time, minimize training costs, and inject fresh perspectives into the organization. 

Some key benefits include:

• Faster productivity: Returning employees already know basic processes, systems, and workflows, reducing onboarding time.
• Enhanced engagement: A structured re-onboarding plan helps returning staff feel welcomed and valued, increasing motivation and focus.
• Team cohesion: Reintroducing employees to new colleagues and initiatives fosters collaboration and strengthens workplace relationships.
• Retention improvement: Employees who feel supported and recognized are less likely to leave, lowering turnover costs.
• Fresh insights: Returning staff bring new skills and experiences from previous roles that can benefit the team and organization.

By combining these benefits with a re-hiring former employees policy, organizations signal that returning staff are valued contributors, setting the stage for long-term success.

How does Re-onboarding Former Employees Support Engagement and Productivity?

A successful re-onboarding staff program focuses on both practical and cultural reintegration. Returning employees need updates on company policies, technology, and workflows while also reconnecting with team dynamics and organizational goals.

Steps for effective employee re-onboarding include:

1. Orientation Update: Review any changes in policies, procedures, or technology to ensure the returning employee is fully informed.
2. Role Clarity: Define responsibilities, objectives, and performance expectations so employees understand how they contribute to the team.
3. Cultural Alignment: Introduce returning staff to updated initiatives, team structures, or company values to help them feel fully reintegrated.
4. Mentorship or Buddy System: Pair returning employees with a current team member to provide guidance, support, and introductions to new colleagues.
5. Regular Check-Ins: Schedule consistent feedback sessions to address challenges, celebrate contributions, and maintain engagement.

Implementing these steps can significantly improve engagement, reduce errors, and help returning employees hit the ground running. 

Returning employees who feel supported are more likely to remain motivated, focused, and committed, ultimately benefiting both their own growth and the organization’s success.

Best Practices for Re-hiring and Re-onboarding

Organizations should take additional measures to ensure returning employees thrive to improve retention and prevent them leaving again. Below are some of our recommendations on ensuring your re-hiring and re-onboarding process runs smoothly.

• Formal re-hiring policy: Establish a re-hiring former employees policy to outline eligibility, benefits, and structured re-onboarding procedures.
• Customized Re-onboarding plans: Tailor the re-onboarding experience to each returning employee’s role, taking into account previous experience and updated responsibilities.
• Continuous communication: Keep returning staff informed during their transition period to reduce anxiety and ensure clarity.
• Integration with HR systems: Use HR technologies to track progress, manage tasks, and ensure a consistent re-onboarding experience.
• Feedback loops: Collect input from returning employees on their re-onboarding experience to continuously refine the process.

These practices will not only make returning employees feel valued, but it will also increase engagement, and improve long-term retention. Organizations that invest in structured re-onboarding processes will see higher productivity, better team dynamics, and stronger alignment with company goals.

Understanding the Value Re-onboarding Former Employees can have on Your Business

Re-hiring former employees offers a unique opportunity to leverage experience, reduce recruitment costs, and bring fresh perspectives to the team. 

However, a successful return depends on a structured re-onboarding process that supports both practical and cultural reintegration.

By implementing thoughtful employee re-onboarding strategies, organizations can help returning staff quickly adapt, feel welcomed, and engage fully. This approach improves retention, boosts productivity, and strengthens team cohesion, benefiting both the individual and the business.

Partnering with experts like OrgShakers ensures that your re-onboarding process is tailored, consistent, and effective. We help organizations refine talent strategies, support returning employees, and create a workplace where every hire, new or returning, can thrive. Investing in structured re-onboarding is not just about filling a role, it’s about setting up employees and teams for long-term success, and at Orgshakers we can help with that. Contact us today and let’s get started building your re-onboarding process today.

Every successful organisation understands one simple truth – people drive performance.

Yet too often, HR is still seen as an administrative function rather than a strategic force. When human resources operates purely at a transactional level, it limits both people and business potential. A well-defined HR strategy changes that, transforming human capital into a true competitive advantage.

What is an HR Strategy?

An HR strategy is a roadmap that aligns people initiatives with business goals. It focuses on solving organisational challenges through people-centric solutions – attracting, developing, engaging, and retaining the talent that fuels growth.

Rather than simply managing payroll or compliance, strategic HR shapes long-term success by ensuring the right people are in the right roles, with the right support, at the right time. It also establishes HR as a key decision-maker in areas such as workforce planning, culture, and leadership development.

At its core, HR strategy is about moving from administration to anticipation – using insight and planning to position people at the centre of business performance.

Why Does HR Strategy Matter?

Without a defined human capital strategy, HR remains reactive – solving short-term problems rather than driving long-term outcomes. The difference between transactional and strategic HR can be the difference between steady growth and stagnation.

Consider two companies planning to expand into a new market:

• The strategic company involves HR from the start. HR analyses the target region’s labour laws, salary expectations, and talent availability, then builds a plan to recruit and retain skilled workers.
• The transactional company assigns hiring to an overstretched manager with no local knowledge, leading to hiring delays, compliance issues, and higher turnover.

By giving HR a voice in strategic decision-making, the first organisation turns workforce insight into a competitive edge. That’s why a comprehensive HR strategy matters for your organisation.

How to Build a Strategic HR Plan

Creating an effective HR strategy starts with understanding the current state of your workforce – and where it needs to be. Here’s a step-by-step process HR leaders can follow:

1. Understand the Business Objectives

Begin with the big picture. Meet with executives and department heads to understand the organisation’s goals, challenges, and growth ambitions. Every HR initiative should directly support these objectives.

2. Evaluate Workforce Capabilities

Review performance data, skill matrices, and training records. Identify existing strengths and where capability gaps may limit business success.

3. Conduct a Gap Analysis

Compare your current workforce to the skills and competencies the organisation will need in the next 1–3 years. Are there areas where reskilling, upskilling, or external hiring is required?

4. Assess and Refine Talent Strategy

Audit your recruitment, compensation, and retention strategies. Are you competitive in the market? Do your benefits and culture reflect what today’s talent values most?

5. Develop and Retain Existing Talent

Your next high performer may already work for you. Identify employees ready for new challenges and invest in their professional development through coaching, mentoring, and succession planning.

6. Monitor Turnover and Engagement

Employee retention isn’t just about satisfaction – it’s about alignment. Use engagement surveys and exit interviews to identify why people leave and where improvements can be made.

7. Plan for Succession

Unplanned departures can derail progress. Map out key positions and identify potential successors to ensure business continuity.

8. Leverage People Analytics

HR data tells a story. Analyse trends in turnover, absenteeism, compensation, and engagement to make evidence-based decisions that improve efficiency and culture.

9. Define Your HR Mission and Vision

Summarise your strategy in a clear, inspiring statement. This should reflect your HR philosophy and serve as a guiding principle for all decisions going forward.

The Benefits of Strategic HR

When HR strategy is integrated with business strategy, the results are measurable and lasting:

• Increased ROI: Budgets are allocated to initiatives that deliver the greatest impact.
• Stronger Talent Pipelines: Proactive workforce planning ensures you’re prepared for future needs.
• Improved Retention: Employees who see clear development paths stay longer and perform better.
• Stronger Culture: Aligning HR with company values builds engagement and purpose across teams.
• Smarter Decision-Making: Data-driven insights replace assumptions, making HR a trusted advisor to leadership.

Best Practices for Implementing HR Strategy

Building a plan is one thing – embedding it across the organisation is another. To ensure your HR strategy succeeds, keep these best practices in mind:

Involve Key Stakeholders Early

HR strategy cannot exist in isolation. Involve leaders, managers, and employees from the outset to build alignment and ownership.

Keep Budget Realistic

Great strategy fails without financial backing. Focus on initiatives that deliver high impact within existing resources and demonstrate ROI to secure future investment.

Balance Strategic and Operational Tasks

Never lose sight of compliance and day-to-day HR operations. Strong foundations support long-term strategy.

Prioritise Measurable Goals

Use clear key performance indicators (KPIs) – such as retention rates, cost per hire, or engagement scores – to track progress and adjust your approach as needed.

Review and Evolve Regularly

The workforce and economy evolve fast. Review your HR strategy at least annually to ensure it remains aligned with business direction and market conditions.

How to Use People Analytics?

People analytics turns workforce data into actionable insights that drive better decisions across every area of HR.

To use people analytics effectively in your HR strategy, start by identifying key questions your business needs to answer – such as what factors influence turnover, which teams show the highest engagement, or where skills gaps may exist.

Next, collect data from reliable sources like HRIS systems, surveys, and performance reviews, then analyse it for patterns and correlations.

For example, you might discover that certain managers have lower attrition rates due to stronger feedback practices, or that productivity spikes in teams with flexible work arrangements.

The goal isn’t really just to gather numbers, but to translate them into stories that guide action – shaping recruitment, training, and retention strategies based on evidence rather than instinct. Over time, this data-driven approach helps HR leaders predict workforce trends, measure the impact of interventions, and align people initiatives directly with business outcomes.

Final Thought

A strong HR strategy is not just about managing people – it’s about empowering them. When HR shifts from reactive problem-solving to proactive strategy, it unlocks innovation, productivity, and long-term growth.

At OrgShakers, we work with organisations to design HR strategies that turn people data into business performance. From workforce planning and leadership development to talent optimisation and succession, we help clients align their people plans with their commercial ambitions.

If you’d like to explore how a strategic HR framework can future-proof your organisation, get in touch with our team today.

Generation Z is no longer ‘the future’ of work – they are here, reshaping workplaces right now. Born between the late-1990s and 2010s, Gen Z already makes up a growing slice of the global workforce and is projected to account for almost a third of US employees by 2030.

For employers, this isn’t a challenge to overcome. It’s an opportunity to harness a generation that is ambitious, tech-fluent, and deeply invested in meaningful work.

What Gen Z Wants

Gen Z brings different priorities compared to previous generations. Deloitte’s 2025 Global Gen Z & Millennial Survey shows 86% of Gen Z rate mentorship and guidance as important, while only 6% see leadership titles as their primary career goal. In other words, this group wants learning and growth more than hierarchy.

Flexibility matters too, but the data is nuanced. Only 23% of remote-capable Gen Z prefer fully remote work. Younger workers actually crave the social learning and connection that come with in-person collaboration, yet they also report the highest levels of workplace loneliness – a tension that smart employers can address by designing hybrid work around meaningful human interaction.

Why Employers Should Welcome This Shift

The traits Gen Z are asking for – mentorship, continuous learning, wellbeing, and authentic connection – align perfectly with what businesses need to thrive. When organizations create pathways for growth and meaningful interaction, they see higher retention, faster upskilling, and stronger cross-generational collaboration.

Rather than seeing Gen Z as ‘hard to manage’, employers should recognize them as the generation most likely to modernize culture and push for healthier, more balanced workplaces.

How to Deliver What Gen Z Needs

• Mentor-First Onboarding and Development – pair Gen Z hires with accessible mentors (and this can be peers, not just senior leaders) and track progress with micro-certifications. This directly answers the call for growth that is being asked for.
• Redesign Hybrid Work for Connection – shift from arbitrary office mandates to team-based collaboration days that prioritize workshops, social learning, and cross-team projects. Have staff work in the office on set days, but ensure these days are purposeful, and that they are not just doing the same work they could be doing remotely.
• Train Managers to Be Coaches – adjust KPIs so managers are measured on how they develop talent. With the right tools and support, managers become the mentors Gen Z expects.
• Prioritize Wellbeing in Practice – go beyond surface-level perks: offer mental health resources, visible EAPs, and time-off policies that encourage balance.
• Measure What Matters – use pulse surveys to monitor mentorship quality, perceived learning, and social connection, and try to act promptly on feedback. This immediately reassures staff that these surveys are not just tick-box exercises.

The Business Case Is Clear

By investing in Gen Z’s aspirations, employers don’t just keep young workers engaged, they future-proof their organizations. The return comes in faster skill development, stronger retention, and a culture that attracts talent across all generations.

Gen Z isn’t just dreaming of better work – they are asking employers to help shape it. And the companies that listen will lead…so, if you would like to discuss how we can help your company make its dreams of sustainability a reality through Gen Z talent, please get in touch with us today.

Imagine this: you are an employee logging into work on a Monday morning. Within minutes, your activity is tracked – keystrokes monitored, screen time logged, webcam blinking occasionally. You haven’t done anything wrong, but the feeling is unmistakable: you are being watched.

Now imagine a different Monday. Your workflow app reminds you to take a break after two hours of deep focus. Your calendar is auto-adjusted to prevent meeting overload. If your productivity dips, you are sent a private check-in asking if you need support, not discipline. This is the same technology being used, just a different philosophy.

Employee monitoring is more prevalent than ever, but whether it becomes a tool for control or a lever for trust depends on how employers choose to use it.

Today, around 78% of employers use some form of monitoring technology, from activity trackers to AI behavior analytics. Yet there’s a glaring disconnect: while 68% of employers believe these tools improve performance, 72% of employees feel monitored systems breed mistrust, and over 43% report feeling anxious or uncomfortable due to workplace surveillance.

This is where HR can play a vital role to employers when it comes to optimizing the use of these surveillance tools. Rather than defaulting to invasive surveillance, organizations can use smart data ethically to enhance work, not micromanage it. For example, anonymized analytics can reveal overburdened teams, highlight patterns of digital overload, or uncover workflow inefficiencies. This helps HR and leadership make informed decisions about resource allocation, mental health interventions, and even meeting design.

The key is intentional design and transparent communication. Employees should know what’s being tracked, why it matters, and how the information will be used. Better yet, let them opt in or provide feedback on the systems, as trust increases when employees feel respected rather than spied on.

Employers can also work with HR to create joint governance structures – committees or cross-functional teams that review monitoring policies, vet tools, and escalate concerns. When employees participate in shaping the guardrails, they feel ownership, and the whole organization benefits from a more inclusive approach.

Forward-thinking companies are already reframing monitoring from ‘surveillance’ to smart enablement. Instead of focusing on when someone logs in, they’re asking: How can we support this person to do their best work? This shift opens doors to better focus time, fewer distractions, and clearer performance benchmarks.

From a productivity standpoint, data shows that when used ethically, workplace analytics can boost efficiency by up to 30% through workload balancing and distraction reduction. That’s not from watching people, it’s from understanding how work gets done and subsequently removing blockers.

The future of workplace tech doesn’t have to be dystopian. If we approach digital tools as allies instead of enforcers, we can create work environments that are more human, not less.

If you would like to discuss how we can help your company ensure that it is optimizing its surveillance tools to build trust rather than break it, please get in touch with us today.