While huge strides continue to be made in regard to the treatment of HIV, in the US there are an estimated 1.3 million people who are HIV positive. In the UK, that figure is around 100,000.

Despite the fact that the disease is no longer steeped in the stigma it once was, taboos still pervade around being diagnosed and living with HIV. And the fact is, it has now become something that someone can live with without having any complications, meaning they can live and work just like anyone else.

However, there is still a drought of information and awareness around the disease that can lead to many HIV-positive people feeling uncomfortable with disclosing their status at work and having access to necessary resources.

So, what can employers do to challenge the taboos surrounding HIV?

1. Educate and Raise Awareness

The first step is the most obvious: educate your workforce and raise awareness about the virus. Provide training sessions or workshops to help employees understand what HIV is, how it’s transmitted, and dispel common myths and misconceptions surrounding it. This will help reduce stigma around the topic and instead foster a sense of empathy which, at the same time, will strengthen your people’s power skills.  

2. Encourage Open Communication

Managers who can build trust with their team and present themselves as approachable will be able to find it easier to start a dialogue with staff. This will enable HIV-positive workers to feel more confident in disclosing their status, and they should then be reassured that this disclosure will remain confidential so that their privacy can be respected. This ensures that the employee is getting any necessary support and accommodations without any fear of judgement.

3. Flexible Working Arrangements

Recognize that employees with HIV may have medical appointments and treatments that require a level of flexibility in their work schedule. Offering remote working hours or adjusted working arrangements can help accommodate these needs without having to compromise their job performance.

4. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)

EAPs should have tailored resources to support individuals with HIV. This can include access to specialized mental health services, or the appropriate charities and organizations who can better externally support these needs.

5. Regularly Review and Update Policies

Employers should be periodically reviewing their workplace policies in relation to long-term illnesses such as HIV to ensure they remain current and remain aligned with best practices and legal requirements. They can even communicate with HIV positive staff member(s) to help refresh these policies and ensure they are properly reflecting their needs.

Recognizing and understanding how best to support those who are HIV-positive in the workplace is a great way of reinforcing your values of inclusivity and support. This will help to create a culture at work that empowers employees from all walks of life, and ensures that they are their most productive, as well as being their most fulfilled and appreciated.

If you would like to discuss how we can help train your team around these issues, and help craft and implement inclusivity policies, please get in touch with us.

Many of us that work remotely or in a hybrid setting are accustomed to working in the same environment as our pets. In fact, more than 23 million American households adopted a pet during the pandemic, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

With in-office work having returned, some are now anxious about leaving their pets at home. This has seen many companies develop pet-friendly policies for their office spaces, including big names such as Amazon, Google, Airbnb, and Salesforce.

So, if your organization is currently a pet-free zone, should you consider welcoming our furry- (and possibly even our feathered- and scaly-) friends into the workplace?

On the plus side, a study by LiveCareer found that 94% of people were supportive of having pets in the workplace – and 52% of respondents cited pet-friendly benefits and policies as important when considering an employer.

In addition, studies have found that when people are engaged in petting either dogs or cats their stress levels are reduced. It has also been discovered that when people interacted with dogs, their ability to think, plan, and concentrate was enhanced. And what was even more interesting to note was that this effect lasted up to six-weeks after contact!

Pets also offer a sense of emotional support for employees; in research conducted by the University of York and the University of Lincoln, it was discovered that pets help reduce stress because they tend to be tuned into humans and so can successfully supply emotional support. There is also the added element of increased connectivity amongst staff, as having pets at the office means people are more likely to get to know each other with their pets acting as an icebreaker.

However, employers must take into account certain factors before introducing pet-friendly polices into their workplaces. For example, there may be one or multiple members of the team who have allergies to certain animals, and some may find certain animals frightening.

So, whilst it is clear that for the most part a pet-friendly workplace improves productivity and mental wellbeing, any shared spaces must still meet the needs of every employee.

If you would like to discuss how we can help you design pet-friendly policies in your workplace, please get in touch with us on our contact page!

For those who might not be familiar, something wonderful happened on Twitter this year (a sentence not heard all that often). After an ordeal where an HBO Max intern accidently sent out a test email to thousands of the streaming service’s subscribers, the company took to Twitter to explain the mistake and highlighted how they were supporting their intern through the mishap.

This subsequently sparked the #DearIntern trend to circulate, which saw thousands of users taking to the social media app and sharing their accounts of silly mistakes they had made in their careers. This show of unification brought a certain warmth to the world of Twitter, and highlights an important fact for HR: mistakes are always going to be made, especially when you’re just starting out, but it’s how we respond to them that truly matters.

In light of this, I asked my fellow OrgShakers some reflective advice that they would give their younger selves as they just started out in their careers, and here are their responses:

David Fairhurst: I’ve learned that done is better than perfect – find the balance of knowing when some things are just good enough and move on.

Anya Clitheroe: Don’t be afraid to ask questions! When you first start work, and someone sets you a task, it’s okay not to know how to do it. Ask, “What does good look like? Where will I find the information I need to do this? Who is the best person for me to turn to when I have a question or need support?”. We grow up thinking that we need to prove that we are the best and we are not used to allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. No one knows how to ride a bicycle without being shown, why would a work task be any different?

Ken Merritt: I would tell 21-year-old Ken: “Build your network and value that network as much as you value any other professional asset.”

Brittany Burton: Attend as many University career fairs and networking events as you can. At 21, I had no idea a career like Human Resources existed. I had a very black-and-white view of my career path and when I tried it and didn’t like it, I was lost at what other career paths were in the world. Luckily, I landed in this profession which aligns perfectly with my skillset and how I want to serve, but it wasn’t without a lot of time, energy, and effort exploring what was beyond my original career path when I decided it wasn’t a fit.

Victoria Sprenger: I received this advice in my early 20s from a mentor – Grow Where You’re Planted. Use your early career opportunities to learn and grow, even if the opportunity is not exactly what you set out to do.

Marty Belle: After graduating from university, the words of my Mom and Grandmother were reverberating in my ears, “Get a job, work hard, and you will make something out of yourself”. Those words shaped the path that I pursued, which involved joining one corporate organization after another and constantly trying to adapt my style to open the doors to success that I saw in front of me. Today, I would stress to my 21-year-old self, “be comfortable with who you have been created to be and pursue the dreams that may require you to make a new door.”

Stephanie Rodriguez: Hmm…some advice I’d give my former self would be to not hold on too tight to whatever plan you think you have career wise and enjoy the journey. Yes, having a plan and goals is great, but keeping an open mind and staying flexible can lead to some amazing opportunities you’d never have imagined. The journey might not play out the way you thought it would, and that’s perfectly okay!

Sayid Hussein: I would emphasize the importance of continuous learning and staying adaptable in the ever-evolving world of technology. Embrace challenges and take calculated risks to grow both personally and professionally. Don’t shy away from seeking mentors or collaborating with others to expand your knowledge and skills. Also, remember to strike a healthy work-life balance to prevent burnout and maintain overall well-being. Finally, trust your instincts, stay true to your values, and always be open to new opportunities that align with your passion and goals.

Lauren Kincaid: “Show up to improve yourself, not prove yourself” – as someone who was very often the youngest person in the room, I felt the need to prove I deserved to be there. I wish I had had the confidence to spend less time fearing failure and overpreparing and more time saying, “I don’t know” and asking others, “what do you think?”.  

Michael Lawson: “Forget the mistake, remember the lesson it taught you” – When I was first starting out at my first company, I oversaw all of the HR Employee Files on the network. One day, I accidentally hit the “delete” key on my keyboard which deleted a whole folder’s worth of data (several files). I went into panic mode trying to get them back before going to my boss. Little did I know that I could call I.T. and with one click of a button, it could be restored. My boss looked at me and said, “everyone makes mistakes, and most can be corrected, the lesson here is being precise within your work to get things done correctly.” To this day, I can still hear those words.

Amanda Holland: As the only shy introvert in a family of extroverts, from a young age I struggled to meet the social expectations of my parents and siblings. This carried over to my first “real” job at the age of 14. It was so much easier to focus on technical excellence and book learning than to face the uncomfortable world of people. One time, I came home after a full day of school and work, irritated and unhappy because even though I’d done all my tasks correctly at work, my boss had told me I needed to lighten up. My mom listened to my frustration and then shared this pearl of wisdom, “It doesn’t matter how smart or talented you are at a job if you can’t get along with people.” From that moment on, I have spent as much energy on learning how to communicate and interact effectively with people as I have on mastering the tools of my trade. Connecting with others can be a reward beyond measure.

Andy Parsley: “Don’t trust your memory!” At the start of every new job you will be at the receiving end of a tsunami of information, meetings, tasks, and deadlines. Equip yourself with a good, old-fashioned notebook and take notes in every meeting (including when it took place and who was there). Use the back of the same notebook to create a to-do list (what you need to do, and when it needs to be done by). There’s nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night worrying that you’ve forgotten to do something – or failing to remember what was agreed at last week’s important meeting. By committing everything to paper, you’ll know just where to find everything you need to remember when you need to.

With today marking the start of World Breastfeeding Week, now is the time that organizations should be ensuring they are providing a positive workplace environment for those nursing that will benefit them all year round.

People that are still breastfeeding when returning to work will need to express breast milk between 8-10 times over a 24-hour period. In the US, it is a legal requirement for employers to provide a private space to express, as well as allowing their breastfeeding employees to take breaks as frequently as necessary. These facilities must be available for at least a year, and this set of policies are known as the federal Break Time for Nursing Mothers Law. However, there can be regional differences to these laws; for example, in the state of Colorado there is no set amount of time a company must cater for the needs of those breastfeeding.

New Zealand and parts of Canada follow a very similar approach, with employers required to provide the appropriate facilities for anyone breastfeeding.

In the UK, however, there is currently no formal legal requirement for a workplace to provide such facilities. As a result, it was reported last year that a Member of Parliament, Stella Creasy, had been criticized for bringing her baby son to her workplace – the Houses of Parliament in London – while she was still breastfeeding him. Shortly after, Ms Creasy received an official notice stating that she should not take her seat in the debating chamber with a child – a notice she subsequently published on Twitter to highlight the issue surrounding the lack of support for women in this same position at work.

While there is guidance from the Health and Safety Executive which recommends that a clean environment (that is not a bathroom) be supplied, there is an opportunity for employers in the UK to take responsibility for supporting the needs of their nursing employees.

The importance of women having a space to breastfeed at work is vital for their health and safety. There is a risk of swelling and soreness if a woman doesn’t express when needed, and in extreme cases this can lead to a bacterial infection called mastitis.

The embedding of inclusion policies for breastfeeding can help remove the pervading stigma that is clearly still attached to those nursing in some workplaces and, in turn, help create an even safer and more inclusive workplace culture overall. Whether there are laws in place or not, it is also about employers ensuring they are adopting the right attitudes towards breastfeeding, and that their teams are as well.

There are common misconceptions around breastfeeding a lot of the time, one of these being that when women go to express, they are ‘taking a break’ and/or ‘wasting time’ at work. But it is important for staff to be educated around the realities of expressing, and how it can be a tiring and somewhat uncomfortable thing to be doing multiple times a day (to the point where women are burning an additional 500 calories a day when breastfeeding!).

This ideology also completely undermines the fact that those expressing are not able to multitask while doing so. Considering there are a wide range of breast pumps available on the market now – including hands-free pumps – women are able to work on reports, catch up with emails, make calls…all while pumping. So ensuring that your teams and your managers are educated around the realities of expressing is just as important for creating a safe space for female colleagues to do so.

This is without mentioning the business case for this support, which can lead to a reduced absence rate and higher retention rates from those working mothers who feel recognized and valued.

With the US, Canada, and New Zealand leading the way in accommodating the needs of breastfeeding workers, executives around the world should seize the opportunity to show leadership in their countries. For advice on how to approach the implementation of these strategies, you can contact me directly at stephanie.rodriguez@orgshakers.com

Reducing turnover and improving employee retention is always a top priority for employers.

And yet, with the effects of the Great Resignation still lingering, as well as increasing concerns over the skill’s gap, coming up with innovative and effective retention strategies has never been more important.

Something we have also come to notice is the rise in non-linear career paths. One study has found that Gen Z are 53% more likely to pursue an unconventional career path as they are proving to be a lot less anxious about abandoning the traditional career ladder.

This normalization of non-linear careers has risen in popularity, and has been coined a ‘squiggly career’ by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis in their book of the same name. A squiggly career is one that embraces the idea of a career that is full of change, challenge, options, and opportunities, allowing people the space to develop in different directions without the anxiety of doing so. It rejects the notion that the career ladder is the only shape a career path should take.

Now, from an employer perspective, the idea of encouraging a squiggly career is a bit counter intuitive. But the ideology that rests at its core is an interesting and timely one, and could hold the key to helping leaders be more creative with their approach to retention strategies.

It is clear that some workers, particularly younger workers, are attracted to this idea of non-linear career paths. It gives them more space to try different things and to align their passions with their work. At the moment, the only way to take a ‘squiggle’ like this in your career journey is by changing employer altogether, but what if employers were actively creating this ‘squiggle room’ in the roles they offered?

One of the best ways of doing this is by creating the space for employees to job craft. This means being open to being flexible, creative, and innovative with an employee’s role, and allowing them to craft their own personality and passions into what they do in order to increase engagement and produce top-quality output. This ‘squiggle room’ allows the space for employees to explore different skills and approaches all while remaining in their role, which means they won’t feel the need to actually move on to a different career entirely as their needs for flexibility are already being fulfilled.

Squiggle room also works great even for those who prefer the linear career path. There are always things in life that get in the way of our journey up the corporate ladder, whether that be trying to achieve a work-life balance, or taking care of kids, or falling ill. The list goes on. But with this ethos of flexibility built into a company, all these hurdles are going to feel much more manageable because their employer has actively created the space for these inevitable squiggles to occur.

And the proof is in the pudding – 54% of workers said they would leave a job if they didn’t think they belonged at a company. But with ‘squiggle room’, there is space for everyone to be accepted and included for who they are, not just the skills they have to offer.

To discuss how we can help you create a squiggly culture in your workplace to improve retention rates, please get in touch with us.

If you’re anything like the famous Mathematician Archimedes, you might find that you do some of your best brainstorming in the bathtub. And you wouldn’t be alone in this!

Last month, we conducted a poll on our LinkedIn page which sought to discover where employees were doing their most productive thinking.

It might be surprising to hear that 89% of respondents said that they had their most productive thoughts outside of their work office, with the responses ranging from their home offices, their morning showers, and even when they were walking the dogs!

There are many explanations for this; for example, there are studies that highlight a direct link between nature and wellbeing. Being in nature not only reduces feelings of anger, fear, and stress, but also contributes to your physical wellbeing too. Therefore, it might not actually be such a stretch to hear that people have some of their most productive and innovative thoughts when outside.

However, when I saw these results it got me thinking – is pressure, or even the implication of pressure, the root of the productive thinking problem?

An overwhelming amount of respondents are doing their most productive thinking outside of the work office – even though the work office is where employers hope that their staff are being most productive! And Gallup’s State of the Global Workforce Report reinforces this alarming notion, as only 23% of the global workforce are actively engaged at work.

What we’re seeing is that productive thinking is happening in places where there are not connotations of pressure and stress and where no interpersonal risks have to be taken. For instance, when brainstorming in person with fellow colleagues and managers, a person will be less likely to contribute an idea (even if it is a productive one) because of the fear of it not being thought out enough. Whereas in settings outside of the formal workplace, there is less pressure to contribute immediately, and this allows for time to assess different factors before pitching the idea.

So, how can employers reduce these feelings of pressure and access their team’s most productive thinking?

The first and most obvious suggestion is having flexible working policies. Most companies now offer some form of hybrid working, but it might be worth taking this one step further. If our most productive thinking is happening outside of the office, then why not take your team outside? Try working in some more ‘untraditional’ spaces, or creating a more untraditional space out of your office, to see what this might inspire.

The second suggestion is normalising dissent at work. If one barrier to productive thinking is the fear of seeming silly, then tackle this fear at its root. Strive to create a psychologically safe space in the office that encourages people to actively challenge ideas, and one that doesn’t punish anyone for contributing. This allows for more productive innovation to take place, and leads to some of the best creative thinking!

Lastly, it is important to recognise that a little bit of stress and pressure can actually be a good thing. Not only have studies proven that a little stress is interpreted by your body as a ‘survival strategy’ and therefore improves cellular health and longevity, but it can also be reframed as a drive to make someone want to be the best version of themselves. Managers should be coaching this reframed mindset so that their team can leverage feelings of stress. Some stress at a job is going to be inevitable, but it can be wielded to their advantage!

If you would like to discuss how we can help introduce policies around flexible working and shake things up to get people thinking more productively, please get in touch with us!

‘Hustle culture’ is a buzzword that’s become quite popular over the last year. With some dubbing it as ‘burnout culture’, it is the idea that you have to work extra hard and put in extra work to get recognised for promotions and opportunities at work – in short, you are always hustling.

Since the pandemic, employers have started to become more in-tune to helping their staff achieve a better work-life balance. However, the remaining prevalence of hustle culture suggests that there is still a way to go for employers to normalise happiness above hustling.

For instance, there has been a rise in hustle culture amongst the youngest generation of workers, partly to demonstrate how they reject this preconceived notion that Gen Z are prone to ‘quiet quitting’ (although, our previous article explains why this term is actually a misnomer). But by this logic, it seems that in order to successfully hustle, one must forgo personal time, boundaries, and essentially their happiness overall.

And yet, our own poll found a stark contrast to this conclusion, with 77% of respondents measuring their success by how happy they were, in comparison to just 11% stating they measured it based on how much they earned. So, while there seems to be a shift happening in favour of doing something that makes you happy, there is still this belief that working unpaid overtime and devoting yourself to your job is what you should be doing if you want to be successful.

This idea of being ‘always on’ and always hustling has been around for years – with the rise of Thatcherism and Yuppie culture in the 1980s came the normalisation of hard and constant work to contribute to your country and become a young, affluent person at the same time. But, rather ironically, those who partook and perpetuated this ideology are now, for the most part, measuring their success based on how happy they are. Recent data from Rest Less found that almost half of the self-employed workforce across the UK are over 50. This highlights how those who were once hustling like no tomorrow did, in fact, realise there was a tomorrow, and they wanted to be happy at work rather than hustling through it.

So, what we’re seeing here is a pattern of ‘hustling’ in the early stages of your career in order to be ‘happy’ later in life. And while this seems quite transactional, it raises the question: why shouldn’t employees get to be happy from the very beginning of their careers? Adhering to this old-fashioned idea of what work should be only perpetuates it more. Employers play a huge role in breaking this cycle of over-hustling, and this is rooted primarily in how they measure the commitment of an employee.

Hustle culture remains because employees are still led to believe that working more equates to being a better worker. When, the reality is, employers should be rewarding their teams based on the quality of their output, not the quantity of their input.

At the end of the day, people measure success on an individualised scale. Some people may thoroughly enjoy working overtime and throwing themselves into their work, and that is completely fine. Just as it is also fine to set and expect boundaries from your employer so that you can have a life outside of your job. And there is even a middle ground here, what some are calling a flexible hustle culture, where you can hustle here and have more time off there. But as an employer, it is key to remember that no matter how your employees define their success, the playing field for opportunities and promotions must have a set criterion. That way, employees are free to hustle where they see fit, but do not feel pressured to do so in order to get ahead.

If you would like to discuss how you can design and implement strategies for work-life balance and measuring quality of output, please get in touch with us here.

It might surprise you to discover that according to estimates, half of all premature male deaths are considered preventable. This is largely influenced by the fact that men are up to 50% less likely to seek medical attention in comparison to women, and this normalization of neglect is reflected in a higher mortality rate.

And what’s even more alarming to learn is that the leading cause of death in men under 50 is suicide. All of these statistics highlight how men’s physical and mental health is still deeply rooted in outdated ideas of toxic masculinity – that you need to ‘man up’ and not cry as this is connotated as ‘weak’ and ‘feminine’.

But it goes further than this – while there is disparity between men and women when it comes to being neglectful, there are also disparities to be found amongst different groups of men and their health. Research has found that men who belong to racial and ethnic minority populations have the poorest health due to being exposed to a broad range of social and environmental factors that adversely affect their physical and mental health. So while for white men there is a culture of neglect around health, for those men of color, there is the added disproportion of accessibility to healthcare in general that leads to an increased likelihood of health issues.

So, what role can employers play in helping to tackle these taboos?

• Talk about it – it may sound simple, but talking about and acknowledging men’s health and the disparities within it is a great way of helping to normalize and address it properly. Having posters dotted around the office, for example, that act as little reminders to get prostates checked, are a great way of offering a small nudge without having to directly broach a potentially awkward conversation. But for more systemic issues, this would require actually highlighting that you are aware of these disparities and are actively trying to supply support that is more tailored to the individual rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
• Training and workshops – having external training arranged, and/or a workshop, for your managers will educate them around all facets of men’s health. This will also enable them to be able to correctly discuss and direct any concerns to the appropriate places, either in-house or to an external body. This is a great way of instilling this sense of openness into the workplace culture and breaking down the walls of stigma around men’s physical and mental health.
• Benefits – the benefits that an employer offers can help to promote a message of good health. This could take shape in the offering of health insurance – recent data has found a great disparity in people of color who have health insurance in comparison to their white counterparts. 19% of Hispanic people and 10.9% of black people are uninsured in the US, compared with only 7.2% of white people. Offering health insurance as a benefit is a great foundation for helping to tackle the systemic racism that exists in the healthcare system, while still prioritizing the health of all your employees.  An additional measure is to personalize the message to your Hispanic and black team members and encouraging them to take advantage of the preventive healthcare offered.  The data shows that these employee groups tend to under-participate in preventive healthcare. Moreover, employers could consider gym membership discounts, or there are also some great group life insurance companies that promote physical and mental wellbeing; YuLife is an example of this, as they use a gamified app which employees can use to complete challenges related to physical and mental health, and are awarded with gift vouchers of their choice. As well, having employee assistance programs to support the mental health of all employees is a great way of helping to reduce feelings of burnout, stress, and pressure that work can sometimes bring.
• Business Resource Groups – as an employer, it can be a great idea to reach out to your internal affinity groups and stress the importance of emphasizing healthcare disparities from a gender-based perspective and from a racial/ethnicity point of view as part of their annual educational offerings. This ensures that the topics are being addressed formally, and will see these groups strategizing with leaders to enact the best ways of embedding actions to overcome the disparities into the workplace culture.

The fact is, the health of employees should always be a concern for employers, as a healthier and happier workforce are a more productive and engaged one. It is equally important to challenge taboos around health issues that affect men and women in order to be able to properly support and optimize your employees to the best of their abilities. To discuss how OrgShakers can help you do this, please get in touch with me at marty@orgshakers.com

When I left the corporate world and started my own HR Consultancy, I had to adjust from being part of a team to working on my own. While I was excited to be taking this courageous step, I would find myself running out of steam as the afternoon progressed. I’d usually find myself ringing my husband at about 3:30pm to see what time he’d be home. I missed human interaction.

Now, several years later, I have strategies for preventing myself from becoming lonely. Ideally, I try to schedule my projects so that every few weeks I’m delivering a workshop in-person as that is what will really boost my energy!

As we head into Loneliness Awareness Week, I found myself reflecting on my experience as the pandemic and consequent remote or hybrid work models have brought the challenge of isolation to so many more people. I chose to work by myself; a lot of the people now feeling lonely did not choose this workplace environment.

And it’s not just a problem specific to remote working, in-person employees can also experience loneliness.

It’s easy to say that companies should focus on encouraging camaraderie in the workforce, but let’s not forget that everyone is different, so it’s hard to provide a simple solution. Even so, it’s worth organizations continuing to focus on this, as a recent survey by SHRM showed that 85% of workers say that having a close friend at work has positively impacted their career, and 76% say that this makes them more likely to remain at their employer.

A good first step is to ask people what they would like. Many leaders have realized by now that simply asking people how they are isn’t going to necessarily generate the insight that they are after. Instead ask something more specific, such as:

• What’s one thing that makes your day instantly better?
• What do you wish you did more of today?
• What non-work-related activity could we make time for as part of our next team meeting?

In addition to encouraging elements that focus on team building and social connection, there are also plenty of ways of building relationships through work tasks. These questions will also produce thoughts on those aspects.

I encourage leaders to explore approaches such as ensuring everyone has the chance to be a part of a cross-functional project, regularly celebrating successes (no matter how small) and encouraging mentoring and/or buddy relationships. If you have a multi-generational workforce, this last one can be particularly wonderful at supporting an inclusive workplace culture; multiple research results have shown that the combination of experience and new thinking leads to great outcomes and a less stressful workplace environment.

Above all, one thing I will always advocate for is leading by example. If you are a leader, make sure that you take the time to stop and engage in genuine, social conversations!

To discuss how we can help support you with this topic further, please get in touch with me at anya@orgshakers.com

Many workers are leading a double life that employers may not even know about.

Harvard Business School Professor Joseph Fuller conducted research which found that 73% of all American employees have some type of caregiving responsibility alongside their ‘day job’. However, due to a lack of support, benefits, and policies, this has resulted in US businesses losing $35 billion annually from failing to attract, support, and retain these working carers.  

And the data for the UK paints a similar picture; a report issued by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that 72% of carers in the UK are providing care in addition to full-time paid work. And 28% of these full-time workers are supplying at least 30 hours of care a week – that’s 700,000 people working over 75 hours a week!

These double lives are causing these working carers to experience difficulty concentrating at work, as well as 36% of them refusing job offers and promotions – or just not applying for a job in the first place – because of their caring responsibilities.

It is clear from this that if employers know how to better support those employees who are doubling as carers, they can help increase attraction, retention, and overall engagement. So, what can companies be doing to optimize these team members?

• Encourage employees to identify themselves as carers – this starts from a cultural perspective. Ensuring that, as leaders, you are building a culture of honesty and openness that invites your staff to confide and seek support. As well as this, formally acknowledge that as an employer you are aware of this and actively want to help, so that employees can come to you privately to discuss what assistance they may need.
• Be flexible – with some workers essentially working a second full-time job with their caring duties, it is important to be as flexible and understanding to their time as possible. Scheduling meetings around potential appointments and offering ‘carers leave’ are great examples of how you can optimize your working carers and ensure that the time they can put in will be 100% focused. This will lead to higher engagement and stronger output overall.
• Training line-managers – having line-managers undergo a training course/workshop to be able to gain a deeper understanding of how they can recognise and support working carers on their teams. If employees know that their managers are well-versed in this area, they will feel much more inclined to confide in them and seek assistance.
• Mental health support – being a full-time worker and a part- or full-time carer can take its toll on anyone. As caring can sometimes be a sensitive topic, it’s not surprising that it may have an effect on the caregiver’s mental wellbeing. Making sure these employees know what mental health support is available to them, either in-house or externally, is a great way of demonstrating support.  

By striving to create policies and offer benefits that can help ease the weight of being a working carer, employers are able to get the best out of their employees while also helping to eradicate the taboo around caregiving.

To discuss the workshops, training, and policy crafting services that we can offer you, please get in touch with me at andy@orgshakers.com

Women comprise half of the workforce, with totals of 74 million working women in the US last year, and over 15 million in the UK. That’s why it is alarming that 81% of women reported feeling like they couldn’t speak up and expect reasonable adjustments to be made for their health by their employers. As an employer, knowing how to support women’s health results in a healthier work community. Not to mention higher productivity, greater retention and increased engagement – but this is only possible if employers understand these needs and how to begin actively eradicating the taboos surrounding them.

Here are just some of the health issues that employers need to know about:

• Fertility Treatment – it was recently discovered that 1 in 6 people worldwide struggle with their fertility, and so using fertility treatments (medical, surgical and assisted conception) is becoming increasingly common. And even those who don’t struggle, such as same-sex couples, will be using these treatments if they choose to have a child. Employers knowing the effects of treatments such as IVF will mean they can better support and be flexible to the needs of these staff members. This is especially important considering that a quarter (24%) of women who told their employer about their fertility treatment did not receive any support at work.  
• Pregnancy –  ensure that, as an employer, you have the right support and transition measures in place for female employees while they are pregnant, when they are returning back to work, and accommodating for needs such as breastfeeding and childcare.
• Menopause – three out of five (59%) working women between the ages of 45 and 55 who are experiencing menopause symptoms say it has a negative impact on them at work. With menopause support just starting to become more discussed in a workplace setting due to a significant rise in midlife workers, it is now more important than ever to have menopause support policies in place to attract and retain this pool of skilled talent.
• Menstruation – recent research from Deloitte found that nearly a fifth of women who have taken time off for period pain did not share this as the reason with their employer. As well as this, 28% of those who suffer from endometriosis (a menstrual condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows outside of the uterus) said they had to change or leave their job as there was not enough support and/or the culture of the workplace wasn’t open enough for these issues to be discussed.
• Hormonal Treatment – it is very common for transgender women to have estrogen hormone therapy, and this requires having regular injections of estrogen. These can cause many side effects that are similar to that of menopause, including mood swings, hot flashes, anxiety, and migraines. Understanding the treatments that some trans women opt to use will allow you as an employer to gain a deeper understanding of how you can better support and optimize these staff members.  

These are just some of the health concerns that women find themselves dealing with, but there are so many others. And as an employer, it can sometimes be difficult to have a deep understanding of every single health issue that affects women. This is why it is imperative that leaders are striving to create a culture where their employees feel safe, valued, and able to express any needs or concerns they have. This allows for an employer to make the effort to seek guidance and training to assist and support where they can. This will result in a happier, healthier workforce who are going to be more engaged, more loyal, and more productive, and serve as a reminder that women should not be made to feel ashamed about their health.

If you would like to discuss training around these issues, as well as policy-making guidance and culture strategies, please get in touch with me at victoria.sprenger@orgshakers.com

At the beginning of February, I was fortunate enough to become the mother to a beautiful baby girl. Now, as my maternity leave has come to an end, I am also fortunate enough to be transitioning back into my work very smoothly.

A lot of employers may believe that supporting mothers returning to work starts the first day they get back, but this is a common misconception. Before returning, it is a great idea to be touching base with your employee – see how they’re feeling about coming back to work, how they’re feeling in general, and get a feel for how deep they want to dive back in upon their return. This mental health check-in can be so helpful for an employer to gain a real insight into what is going to be the best and smoothest way to support a mother as she transitions back into work mode.

This doesn’t mean, however, that employers should be consistently in contact. While a check-in should be essential, it is just as important to respect that time that the mother is away with their baby. Maternity leave can sometimes be misconstrued as vacation, but it isn’t by any means.

In terms of the actual period of return, the most important thing an employer can do is keep a open line of communication. Every mother is going to have a unique experience, and so the ability to offer flexibility is going to be so vital. Some mothers are going to need time to express if they are breastfeeding, and so it is important that for in-office work, there is a dedicated and private space for this to happen.

As well as this, it is fairly common for a mother’s mental health to be affected after giving birth. Around one in seven women can develop postpartum depression, and what is less talked about but is just as prevalent is that 10-15% of new mothers suffer from postpartum anxiety (which involves worrying all day, everyday that something is wrong or could be wrong with your baby, and this can lead to suffocating feelings of anxiety, panic attacks and the exhibition of agoraphobic tendencies). If an employer recognises signs of a new mother struggling with these conditions, or it has been communicated to them, it is important to have the right support in place – which could be an in-house employee assistance program – or to direct them to the right place for external support such as Mind and/or Postpartum Support International.

I think as a final point, employers must be vigilant to the biases and preconceived notions that come with a female worker becoming a mother. There is a shift that takes place, and it can sometimes feel like your identity and your place in a company enters a state of flux after returning from maternity leave. Opportunities can feel scarcer and harder to reach because of biases like, ‘oh, she won’t have time for that with the baby’ or ‘she’s got enough on her plate with the baby’. This is probably why 41% of working parents believed that being a parent was holding them back from a promotion at work. So, in this sense, it is important to look at the culture of an organization and ensure that these mindsets are not instilled or prevalent, and instead coach the perception that it is possible to exist as both a mother and a worker – the two are interlaced, they are not parallel.

Knowing how to properly support working parents means employers will know how to effectively optimize their performance and productivity right from the outset. The transition back to work is going to set a tone for the coming months, and so striving to make this smooth and easy for the mother (or parent) returning will pay off for both employer and employee. To discuss how to implement these strategies into your workplace, please get in touch with me at stephanie.rodriguez@orgshakers.com