Buzzword lovers, rejoice. There’s a new phrase circulating the corporate social media sphere: grumpy staying.

If you are yet to come across it, ‘grumpy staying’ refers to an employee who remains in their current role while being openly frustrated, less productive, and visibly agitated with their working environment – but avoids doing anything to improve their situation or attitude. With the cost-of-living crisis still continuing, many workers do not feel at liberty to just up and leave their job, hence leading to a rise in this trend.

At first glance, this would sound like the diagnosis of a ‘bad apple’ employee. But if we dig a little deeper, it is highly likely that an employee isn’t just frustrated for no reason – even if they are reluctant to (or don’t know how to) communicate this.

What might be more productive for employers to do is view ‘grumpy staying’ as a symptom of a larger issue – by diagnosing it at its root, they will be able to remedy it and ensure that other employers do not spiral into these same feelings of frustration. So, what are some possible causes of ‘grumpy staying’?

• Toxic work environment – this requires looking at the culture of the organization; is it inclusive? Is there constant conflict? Are there a number of complaints about bullying? Having HR conduct a culture audit is a great way of getting to the bottom of this.
• Lack of career development – 75% of employees believe that it’s important that their employer invests in their personal development. If an employee feels that they don’t have a clear path for development because of a lack of developmental opportunities, this may be leading to them feeling stuck, and subsequently ‘grumpy staying’.
• No work-life balance – in the modern working world, especially with the post-COVID carpe diem mindset – work-life balance has become a swaying factor for many employees’ contentedness at work. This is confirmed by Randstad’s 2023 report which found that 94% of employees believe work-life balance is important – so if they feel they are not being afforded it, this may lead to ‘grumpy staying’!
• Personal issues – if, as a manager, you notice an employee acting out of character, this may be a sign that something is going on outside of the workplace. This would be a great opportunity to schedule a one-to-one and discuss how you have noticed a change and wanted to check-in, creating a space for an open dialogue where the employee will feel more comfortable being honest.

Of course, there are instances where someone is frustrated because they feel unfulfilled at work, and this can be tricker to approach as an employer. However, one strategy we have found for this is the idea of creating ‘squiggle room’ – that is, offering job crafting opportunities where suitable to foster innovation and allow an employee to bring some of their personal passions into their working life. This can be a great way of boosting morale and warding off the ‘grumpy staying’ attitude.

If you would like to discuss how we can help your company find the source of this ‘grumpy staying’ and prevent it from affecting productivity, please get in touch with us.

Stories of ghosts, ghouls, spirits, and paranormal activity are not hard to come by in the modern world. The media is inundated with gothic movies, tv shows, and literature, and for many people a good ghost story gets their spine tingling.

However, while the idea of ghosts may be entertainment for some, for others, the concept of apparitions, hauntings, and possessions are very real. According to a 2019 IPSOS poll, 46% of Americans believe in ghosts (a percentage that has increased by 14% since 2005). That’s almost half of the entire country.

So I pose you this scenario: what do you do, as an HR professional, if someone in the company believes the workplace is haunted?

Belief is a very powerful force; whether you believe in ghosts or not, for someone that does believe in them, you have to accept that as their reality. This means that while their fear may be intangible, the psychological effects that their fear will have on them are very real.

And there are many instances of hauntings causing chaos in the workplace to prove this. In Orlando, a Japanese restaurateur backed out of his lease because they heard that the premises were allegedly haunted by ghosts and apparitions. The landlord even offered to exorcise the building, but they still refused, and this resulted in a messy court case.

In another occurrence at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington D.C., many workers reported instances of seeing a woman’s face in a third-floor window. They would also hear a female voice call out their name, followed by footsteps running down the hall – on one occasion they even found a co-workers visiting child talking to an invisible woman in the third-floor conference room. One worker had to quit his job because of this alleged supernatural torment, as he kept finding the photos from his office walls neatly arranged on the floor every morning.

There was even one case of a law firm’s office building being haunted, which lead them to move to a newer building where the unexplained phenomena (keyboards typing by themselves, files shuffling in cabinets in empty rooms) finally ceased.

Whether these hauntings were truly paranormal or not, the effects of them are undeniably real: legal issues, lowered engagement and productivity, loss of staff, and the costs of relocation. These are all big red flags in the corporate world, and so regardless of what has caused them, HR is responsible for managing them accordingly.

What we’re trying to get at here is that whether they believe it or not, an employer has to take these things seriously in order to manager the very real effects that these beliefs have. In countries that are less westernized, the belief of ghosts and spirits is much more prevalent, and so having to deal with a haunted workplace may be much more commonplace somewhere like China, where they still celebrate their Hungry Ghost Festival to avoid the wrath of ghosts. Similarly in Mexico, they celebrate el Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), where families will welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives.

Belief and superstition can run deep – ever find yourself knocking on wood or crossing your fingers? – and so it is important that these instances are taken seriously and handled expertly so to avoid any of the disruptions that were listed above.

And if that means having to be a Ghostbuster, then grab your overalls.

Networking is more than just a practice, it’s a skill. A skill that many employers tend to foster and encourage in their employees, as it can lead to better cohesion, higher productivity, and more expansion opportunities.

Pre-pandemic, internal networking (which is networking amongst your team members) was a seamless practice, as employees were brushing shoulders, poking heads in doors, and having exchanges by the water-cooler. The focus tended to be around external networking (which is networking outside of the organization).

However, with the mass adoption of remote and hybrid working styles, this has affected the basis of networking as a whole. Employees who were once always around each other in an office are now working from home, and as new employees are onboarded, internal networking has become something that requires a lot more conscious effort. This is particularly noticeable amongst Gen Z workers, with only 23% of them saying that remote work was important to them because they felt that they were missing out on important networking and career development opportunities.

For employers, placing emphasis on how to network in the new age can actually be the deciding factor between attracting a potential new candidate. Ensuring that internal and external networking opportunities are available can make a company a more attractive place to work, but this requires employees to understand what this new networking world looks like and how they can operate in it successfully.

Here’s some new ways of networking that employers can promote to their staff:

• Virtual Coffees – whether you want staff to reach out beyond your immediate network or get to know the wider team, scheduling a virtual coffee catch-up can be a great way of networking in a remote working world. It can be a short, 15-minute discussion with the sole intention of chatting, catching up, and seeing what opportunities are up for grabs. This offers opportunities for direct mentorship, learning, and development.
• Attend Online Talks/Events – as the working world continues to digitalize, it is now easier then ever to sign up for free webinars, talks, and events that are held entirely remotely. These can be a great way of expanding one’s network and discovering new ideas or potential new business partnerships.
• LinkedIn is Your Best Friend – encouraging team members to have a LinkedIn presence not only boosts their personal brand, but it boosts the company’s brand too. Ensure that staff are interacting with social media posts and posting updates of their own in order to appeal to the wider LinkedIn network.

And in terms of how employers can create internal networking opportunities, this is where team building days can be a great tool. If you are a company that operates in a hybrid or remote fashion, making that conscious effort to bring the team together outside of the workplace setting can be a great way to breaking down barriers and encouraging inter-networking.

If you would like to discuss how you create networking opportunities as an attraction and expansion strategy, please get in touch with us.

To understand the next step in the evolution of the workplace, we have to start in a place with apparently little or no connection to modern working practices – the middle of the last Ice Age.

Cro-Magnons – the first modern humans – arrived in Europe around 35,000 years ago. Nomadic hunter-gatherers who lived in groups consisting of several families, they were sophisticated toolmakers using spears and flint knives. And, most importantly for our story of workplace evolution, they had sewing needles which they used to fashion clothes from animal skins which kept the ravages of the freezing Ice Age weather at bay.

So, imagine that one dark winter’s night one of our Cro-Magnons hit upon an idea to while away the hours sat round the campfire. They would produce a tapestry on an animal skin – about a yard in width – depicting that year’s key events.

From that point, of course, the yard-a-year tapestry would quickly become an annual tradition with the result that today our 35,000-year-old tapestry would be a few yards short of twenty miles long. So, what would this twenty-mile tapestry show us?

Well, by the time humans even came close to creating the concept of formal work, the tapestry would already be about twelve miles long (which equates to 60% of the history of modern humans). In other words, for the majority of modern human history ‘work’ was simply hunting and gathering – ah, the simple days.

However, after this point, we would begin to see a subtle change in the story on the tapestry. Although hunting and gathering remains the primary means of food production, we begin to see the first indications of animal domestication. This process builds and builds and triggers the Neolithic evolution – which sees the mass shift to agricultural practices and the liberation of the old ways of existence through the creation of trading. Trade, arguably, was the single biggest idea in the history of humankind, as it suddenly allowed for horizons to expand like never before, and people could begin to specialize and innovate in all the ways we now see today.

So, for most of this twenty-mile tapestry, the evolution of the workplace was a very gradual shift over many generations. However, at around the nineteen and three-quatre mile point things began to change and accelerate at a much more rapid pace – the Industrial revolution.

Kickstarted by Jethro Tull’s mechanized seed drill, humans began to invent technology that would enable them to venture away from agriculture and to other new emerging forms of employment. With the need for manual labor in agriculture having been dramatically reduced, workers were given the liberty to pursue a career in something beyond production.

This revolution took the working world by storm – at the dawn of the eighteenth century 76% of the population of England worked in agriculture, but by the mid-twentieth century it was down to just 4%.

And as we began to work in varying jobs, and the labor market expanded and contracted as new innovations and technologies were introduced, that takes us all the way up to today – where technology now plays such a vital role in the mass majority of jobs.

But one thing that we have noticed with the adoption and implementation of mechanization (from conveyor belts to sewing machines to computers) is also this idea that workers are ‘cogs in the mechanism’, and that an ‘optimized’ worker is one who acts like a machine – productive, consistent, and quick. But what happened in those years of technological advancements was that many employers were trying to make people work like machines (sometimes literally, as Ford’s production line proves), when in reality they should’ve been tapping into the key traits that are fundamentally human.

Yet if you look at what is happening now – with the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) on a mass scale into the workplace – what we are actually seeing is that we’ve come full circle. We are now trying to make the technology human, and I think that AI is going to be the harbinger for this next step of the evolution of the workplace – the step towards the optimization of our humanity.

The overarching purpose of technological advancements in the workplace has always been to free-up time from repetitive, monotonous tasks so that employees can spend more time doing work that creates greater value for both them and their employer. In essence, the entire reason why we have continued to advance is so that we can get to a point where we have the luxury of time to focus on human capital and unlocking its full capabilities.

And we’re already starting to gradually see this shift on our tapestry; the pandemic had a massive impact on the working world, and sparked a re-evaluation of how we work and why we work. We saw a mindset shift amongst the workforce – a carpe diem effect. Suddenly we were all faced with our own mortality, and this made many realise that if they were going to spend a majority of their life working, they wanted to be doing something they cared about, something that gave them a good work life balance, something that supported them, and something fun.

For employers, this means focusing on workplace strategies that will enable better work-life balance (which improves engagement and reduces burnout), opportunities for job crafting (which creates opportunities for innovation), and support for physical and mental health. These areas are going to become key focal points as the workplace continues to evolve to become people-centric, so for those employers who are already beginning to optimize these, they are going to be ahead of the curve and become some of the most attractive organizations to work for in the market.

Steps are already starting to be taken, but they are baby steps. If you look at our recent poll which sought to discover the most effective way of supporting mental health in the workplace, over half of respondents (55%) cited flexible working, while 23% said mental health days, and 16% chose Employee Assistance Programs.

However, while these are great things, they can almost seem tokenistic. Having an allowance of leave for mental health is good, but is this really support? Same as with flexible working; employees can optimize their time better, but now that they are not physically around their team leaders, it’s harder for managers to be more attentive to someone they only see conditionally through a screen.

So, just as we had maintenance teams that would be on-call to fix any machines that malfunctioned, why should employers not consider the same concept for their people? Having an in-house psychotherapist whose sole responsibility is to support employees and feedback to managers with the appropriate reasonable adjustments will help employers create a real roadmap for support and optimization in the face of mental illness. We are already seeing schools begin to hire full-time counsellors and therapists for this very reason, so why should employers not consider doing the same?

As we continue to weave this tapestry of human history year by year, we can see that the last half mile has seen the most accelerated change. Now, as we begin to adapt the ideology of working smart in a technological and AI-advanced world, employers need to be preparing for the next step in the evolution of the workplace by placing their focus on their people power. That is the key to becoming an organization of tomorrow.

If you would like to discuss all things people strategy, our dedicated team of specialized HR professionals can assist you in all aspects – get in touch with us here.

Matt Phelan’s new book – The Happiness Index – is released today … and we’ve been lucky enough to get a sneak preview of what we think is a ‘must read’ for HR practitioners and business leaders. 

As the co-founder of a unique platform which helps organisations measure key employee engagement and happiness drivers (also called The Happiness Index!), Matt is a global authority on how people think, feel, and behave in the workplace.

In his book, he sets out to explore how businesses can ensure that the people who fuel the success of their business – their employees – are fully committed to their organizational goals.

To do this he takes a deep dive into the data gathered by The Happiness Index platform from over 100 countries and 2 million employees to help the reader understand what really drives engagement and happiness at work – and how this can be harnessed to accelerate an organization’s performance.

Matt defines employee engagement as what our brains need to thrive at work, and employee happiness as what our hearts need to do the same. Both, he argues, are equally important and consist of 24 neuroscience-based sub-drivers:

By taking this scientific, data-driven approach, the book provides a robust examination of the factors that determine employee engagement and happiness at work, including in-depth interviews with specialists in each of the 24 sub-drivers and compelling case studies from organizations around the world. In doing so, it shows how firms can weave happiness and engagement into the fabric of their people strategy.

In The Happiness Index, Matt expertly paints a picture of a world of work where people can truly thrive and grow – and organizations can truly prosper from that growth. It’s a transformational picture we know HR practitioners and business leaders will find inspiring.

If you would like to discuss engagement strategies in more detail, please get in touch with us on our contact page.

And to get in touch with Matt, head over to his LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewphelan/

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!

Move over Gen Z – Generation Alpha will soon be knocking on the workplace door!

Set to be the largest generation to date (it is predicted that there will be over 2 billion of them globally!), Gen Alpha are the children who will be born to predominantly Millennial parents between the years of 2010-2024.

This is also a time when we have seen continuous technological strides, the increasing adoption of AI, and the dawn of the metaverse, so it wouldn’t be surprising to assume that their expectations of the working world will be vastly different to the ones previous generations have grown up with.

Now, at the turn of the century, the author Douglas Adams offered a set of rules about these kinds of change which I would like to apply to this new generation of talent:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

So, what might this tell us about the expectations of Alphas as they enter the workplace – and what we should be building into our evolving People strategies?

• They will learn digitally – this next generation of kids include the ‘Covid-kids’, and because the majority of them had to go through school during the pandemic, they have had early access to learning online. With some schools still continuing this hybrid learning, and nearly a third of university courses adopting it, this will see a digitally native generation like never before. While we’ve seen some growing pains as hybrid and remote working styles continue to gain popularity, these new workers will likely thrive working remotely, as they are already well accustomed to it. Therefore, they will most likely be attracted to jobs that offer this flexibility, as it will be entirely familiar to them.
• They will specialise earlier – due to their access to technology, Gen Alpha will find themselves being able to specialise earlier and heading into more niche jobs – some of which don’t even exist yet. It’s likely companies will be seeing a rise in jobs like drone pilots, user experience managers, life simplifiers, and virtual reality engineers as this new generation herald in a new technological age. From this perspective, innovation will be at the heart of these young people, and so employers who can create opportunities to job craft are going to be very attractive to this new wave of workers. It is also thought that they will have a significant lack of engagement with deskless jobs, and these hands-on careers will likely be less attractive to a generation who have grown up with automation and assistance at their fingertips.
• Digital networking – Growing up with social media means that Gen Alpha are the most interconnected generation to ever have existed. 65% of them aged 8-11 either own or have access to a mobile phone, as well have having designated messaging apps to communicate with each other, such as Roblox chat and Messenger Kids. Another survey found that 43% of them preferred to speak to their friends online over the weekend instead of see them in person, so it isn’t shocking to hear that this digital communication reliance will translate into the working world. They will want to network digitally and globally; the idea of working across time zones will be a desirable and normal one, as they are already very adapted to communication across the world. If companies can create the space for this globalised platform to take shape, the results could see different sectors of work combining to create new, innovative products not yet even thought of.
• Virtual assistants – research has found that Generation Alpha started speaking with their smart devices at the age of six. It will come as no surprise then to discover that they will most likely expect to have a virtual assistant of some sort when they start working. Growing up with Alexa, Siri, and Cortana to answer their questions and conduct their ‘admin’ tasks will create an expectation to have access to this assistance in the workplace. The Work 2035 Report reflects this notion, as it found that by 2035, 83% of professionals believed that technology will automate repetitive low-value tasks, freeing up time for Alphas to focus on more meaningful and skilled work.
• Recognition will retain – it is more than likely that validation and affirmation will be a driving force for Gen Alphas. After growing up with social media and having digital validation drilled into them, a company’s recognition and rewards strategies are going to play a huge part in retaining key Alpha talent.
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and Sustainability – these are going to be the driving forces for attracting future talent. As we’ve already seen with Gen Z, those growing up now are going to be well versed in being socially conscious, moral, and understanding the long-term effects of climate change. This will mean that an organization’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda will be more important than ever, as Alphas will be looking at what organizations are doing to better the planet. And from a DEI standpoint, as companies continue to see increasingly diversified C-suites and people in positions of power, the idea of having a diverse workforce will almost be a given to these young people. If employers are ensuring that these factors are being optimized, they will gain access to the top talent that the Alpha generation has to offer.

The evolution of the workplace has accelerated exponentially over the past few years. The structure of work has become much more elastic in nature, and it continues to evolve in all sorts of unexpected directions as time goes on.

The next generation of workers are set to make a huge impact in the working world, so if we start to prepare for them now, their assimilation and onboarding will be a smooth and productive process.

If you would like to discuss how to start planning and preparing your workplace for the generation to come, please get in touch with me: andy@orgshakers.com

The effectiveness of an employer’s hiring process is often overlooked. And yet, this is the first real interaction a potential employee has with your company – in many ways, it echoes the setting for a first date.

Both parties are trying to present the best versions of themselves, in the hopes that there is enough of a connection for the relationship to progress further.  

Therefore, like dating, hiring someone is a two-way street – while the candidate will be doing everything they can to impress the employer, the employer needs to know the best way to present themselves to the candidate, honestly, in order to make them want to join the team.

And yet, candidates have recently been expressing their frustrations with elongated hiring processes, and shared how this has been a deterrent for pursuing opportunities. But these extended processes have emerged because employers want to be 100% certain that a person is the person for the job.

So how can employers create a hiring process that considers the interests of both parties?

The stages of a hiring process can differ depending on the role – a senior role will often involve multiple stakeholders and will naturally have a longer hiring process. But for entry-level and midmarket roles, employers should be looking at no more than three interviews.

Put it this way – after three dates, you can usually tell whether or not this could blossom into something more, but if you’re creeping towards date six and either of you are still unsure, oftentimes this is not a good sign.

The same can be said for interviews; having one after the other, with no clear end in sight for the candidate, will likely see their desire to work with you dwindle with every hoop they jump through. An unending process can lead to companies losing out on top talent due to another employer having a more efficient and effective process.

It is important for employers to remember that they are most likely not the only company the candidate is talking to. Just as people date different people in search of a connection, looking for a new job is no different. That’s why it’s always good to keep in mind that as much as a candidate would like to be hired, an interviewer needs to be clearly demonstrating why their organization is the best one to consider.

Lastly, being candid and clear about what your hiring process is going to look like with the candidate from the offset is going to calibrate their expectations right from the start. This means having a fully-formulated process that is understood by your hiring managers so that it can be shared with potential new hires and keep them in the loop for what this process will look like for them. Doing this will already lend to your attractiveness as a company, as it demonstrates that you are organized, and that you value the time of the candidate and hold their interests at heart while also fulfilling your own.

Perfecting this process is a crucial tool when seeking out the best new talent; recent research found that two thirds (65%) of employers globally had lost their preferred candidate to a protracted hiring process. Understanding how to optimize the candidate experience means that a company can reduce its convolution whilst still feeling assured that they have gained meaningful insight to make an informed decision.

Some top tips for hiring managers to remember:

• Values matter!
• Ghosting is for Halloween.
• Respect is a two-way street.
• Make them feel special.

At OrgShakers, we understand and can help you find that balance between employer and employee needs. By training hiring managers to optimize the current process, we can help you solidify this so that it can be communicated to each new candidate to avoid any misleading feelings.

If you would like to discuss how we can help your company, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at lauren@orgshakers.com                        

When I first started my job, I wasn’t exactly fluent in workplace jargon. I had just graduated from university and hadn’t ever been in a corporate environment, and straight off the bat there were acronyms being thrown around that I would surreptitiously google so not to seem out of the loop.

For example, a term that we use a lot is ‘BD’ – which I now know stands for business development. However, when I first joined, I’d never heard the phrase, and told myself I would ask what it stood for. I subsequently forgot, and then when the next meeting rolled around a fortnight later it was already too late.

Now, it obviously wasn’t too late – but in my dramatic, Gen Z, new worker brain, the idea of admitting I didn’t know something that I had been pretending to know the whole time was mortifying.

Interestingly, a recent study has found that workplace jargon makes 48% of Gen Z and Millennial workers feel less included in the workplace, and 46% of them cited how this barrier to understanding had led them to make a mistake at work.

This can lead to communication barriers, productivity stunting, and a general lack of cohesion in the workplace. But is the solution as simple as teaching new, younger employees this jargon so that they can begin to speak the language?

The short answer is no – and this is because younger people now have an entire language of their own.

We have dubbed this non-verbal online language as ‘Cybernese’. It is essentially online etiquette, but to those who find themselves in Gen X or above, there are a lot of meanings hidden in things that may seem completely harmless. For example, emojis may seem straight forward, but they are a minefield of double-entendres that could be HR horror stories waiting to happen if someone isn’t well-versed in this digital tongue. The language even spans to things such as Zoom backgrounds or punctuating sentences (if you text a Gen Z worker with full stops at the end of your messages, it’s more than likely they will assume you are being passive aggressive, even though this is just grammar!).

What we’re seeing is two older generations using old-fashioned lingo that younger workers don’t understand, and two younger generations who have got their own online language that more midlife workers have not come to grips with yet. So, what can employers do to create an inclusive environment for all?

The best approach would be to know a bit of both. Workplace jargon is not a necessity, but much like a habit, it would be hard to suddenly quit using it cold turkey. And besides, it has euphemistic tendencies which make communicating tasks easier, so it can be a positive thing. But if you’re going to use it, be considerate to your audience. If you’re talking to an employee who you know is familiar with these terms, then go right ahead. If you’re talking to a new or younger employee, then it might be best to avoid them to mitigate the risk of things getting lost in translation.

When it comes to Cybernese however, it may be worth employers making the extra effort to ensure that all their staff members are up to speed with this emerging language. This is because as remote and hybrid work settles into normalcy, a lot of communication and interaction between colleagues will be happening virtually. Here, it will be important to become well-versed in Cybernese so that communication is clear and appropriate (you can check out our video for how to avoid emoji-geddon for some examples of this).

If employers are able to recognise and understand the best ways of communicating with members of staff, they will be able to give them the clarity that is so important to ensuring productivity and high-quality output. To discuss how we can help you ensure your culture has inclusion at its core, 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!

As the workplace landscape continues to evolve in the digital era, a focus on learning and development is now more important than ever. Technological advancements are seeing the culture of work begin to change and grow at an exponential rate, and so now more than ever employers should be focusing on their younger talent.

This notion is reinforced by a recent report which found that Gen Z are very keen to develop digital skills for their future careers, with 36% planning to acquire new digital skills and 40% viewing tech skills as essential to their future careers.

As conversations around the effects of AI in the working world continue to be had, recognizing the potential of Gen Z employees and investing in their upskilling could be the key to staying ahead in an ever-changing world. So, why are younger workers worth investing in?

1. Technological Aptitude – Gen Z are often referred to as “digital natives” as they have grown up immersed in technology. Because of this, they possess a natural aptitude of digital tools, social media, and emerging tech. By harnessing this technological aptitude and placing a focus on upskilling it, employers can leverage their skills to create potential for innovation and digital transformation, which will help drive the growth of their organization
2. Adaptability and Agility – as mentioned above, Gen Z has grown up in a fast-paced, ever-changing world. They are therefore more accustomed to adapting quickly to new environments and technologies. By investing in their upskilling, employers can harness this adaptability and agility. This invites the contribution of fresh perspectives, creative problem-solving, and a willingness to embrace change, enabling organizations to stay ahead of the competition.
3. Bridge the Skills Gap – the rapid advancement of technology has resulted in a significant skills gap in the workforce. A global survey by Equinix discovered that 62% of IT decision-makers viewed a shortage of personnel with IT skills as one of the main threats to the sustainability of their business. Upskilling Gen Z is the way to bridge this gap and ensure a steady supply of talent with the necessary skills for the future. Training programs that focus on emerging technologies, data analysis, communication, and critical thinking can equip Gen Z with the skills required to tackle complex challenges and drive innovation.
4. Collaboration and Diversity – members of Gen Z are more racially, ethnically and sexually diverse than any other previous generation. Due to this, they embrace collaboration and cohesion, and have a tactful understanding of morality and cultural sensitivity. This means that their perspectives are fresh, inclusive, and socially relevant, and bringing this into the workplace can do wonders for innovation and for accessing new consumer markets.

Investing in the learning, development, and upskilling of Gen Z employees can make all the difference for employers trying to get ahead in a corporate world that is constantly in a state of flux. And by placing importance on the growth of their younger employees, they will also demonstrate how valued they are from the offset of their careers, fostering a sense of loyalty which will result in higher retention rates.  

To discuss how you can unlock the full potential of this new generation in more detail, please get in touch with us here.