This theory was developed by event strategist, workplace “fixer,” and CEO and Founder of RDC Robyn Duda. She saw how many organizations created wellness initiatives to mask the real problem. The workforce at large is overworked, underequipped, and rarely compensated fairly. These are all massive stressors. Unfortunately, you can have all the wellness initiatives and so-called health perks, but it doesn’t make up for workers feeling undervalued.

Duda’s number one piece of advice? We should be looking at the “Return on Energy.” What does that mean exactly? Well, think about the time spent in meetings, the number of emails, drafts of presentations, and the toll it takes on an employee. But also (and likely more important) the number of moments that elicit epiphanies, connections deepened and even innovations uncovered—the more motivating moments. There is a diminishing return when the toll outweighs the motivation. That is where we need to be looking versus an EOY result. 

“Return on energy is the idea that energy spent has value,” said Duda. “Companies should measure this to understand the toll an output has on their human capital. People do not have an infinite amount of energy to expend, meaning there must be a value placed on their energy relative to the thing they are using it on. 

For example, we should look at the number of emails, time spent in meetings, drafts, v1s v2s, and the psychological toll something takes on an employee. And, we should compare that to the number of innovations created, epiphanies had, connections made, etc. 

What does a return on energy look like in action? “The first step should be showing your employees you value them,” said Duda. “It is a way of exercising personalization in the workplace. It’s an indicator of the potential burnout of top talent, as well as overall culture and workplace improvements. Mindsets and emotions are real in the workplace and a variable to growth for every employer.”

She added, “While work is a transaction—output for money—it’s affected by many outside variables. So having a pulse on key metrics like hours spent in meetings and number of emails in a day versus how someone is feeling (their emotion) could help employers understand where potential vulnerabilities lie in the overall employee experience.”

Duda’s energy hypothesis comes from her award-winning event strategist and experience designer work. She’s created event strategies for some of the most recognized brands in the world, including Coca-Cola, Spotify, Visa, and IBM. As a result, she has become known for thinking differently and creating bold change. And the goal at the end of the day is to harness growth for her clients. 

It’s this experiential touchpoint Duda found throughout her events career that she believes can make a difference in every workplace. 

“I’ve been on the strategy side of events for many years, exploring the intersection of design thinking and experience psychology,” said Duda. “Understanding more about the humans we design for, their motivations, their mindsets, and their emotions has opened my eyes to the impact of an experience.”

The post The One Thing Companies Should do to Increase Employee Loyalty appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Not only did the pandemic move many workers to remote environments, but also stressed supply chains and business operations due to lack of worker availability. More than one year into the pandemic, now is a great time to re-test and improve your business continuity plans.

1. Set up a Cross-functional Business Continuity Planning Team 

This team should consist of key employees to review the plans regularly. Establish a command center for a virtual workforce to measure quality, productivity, compliance, insights and intelligence, people engagement, and workforce well-being. This group should meet regularly to review each of the sub-plans in detail and determine what challenges may come in the future to strike change in the current plans.

According to a study from Mercer, 51% of organizations around the world do not have a business continuity plan in the case of emergencies or disasters, such as the outbreak of coronavirus.

2. Converse with Key Vendors, Suppliers, and Customers

Have conversations with your key vendors, suppliers, and customers regarding the challenges faced during the pandemic. These conversations should not only focus on your organization’s pandemic plans, but theirs too. What are they doing to ensure that products will be provided as needed to continue business operations? Ensure that you are part of their conversations, as it is important to understand how the provider will maintain high availability of their applications and deal with service disruptions.

Furthermore, speaking with customers to ensure they can realign their expectations of service is crucial. It is far easier to maintain customers than to procure new ones, especially during a pandemic.

3. Involve Succession Strategies For Go-to Employees 

Ensure your business continuity planning involves succession strategies for go-to employees that help the business tick. Identify the go-to employees in your organization and determine what skill sets are required if they become suddenly unavailable. For example, if your CFO becomes ill, you will need to consider how the loss of that person and their knowledge will affect the plan.

Ask yourself if there are a set of employees who can step in to cover these essential functions, or do you need to temporarily leverage an outsourced CFO to ensure maintainability? Succession planning is key to be able to identify who in the organization can perform these important functions during a time of crisis. 

4. Identify Priorities and Assess Critical Processes

Take time to identify what the key processes are that sustain your organization? Ask yourself where can you improve operational costs and efficiencies in a pinch? Take a long look at these processes and determine what bottlenecks and gaps are in the current process, then stress test it with business disruption. Common functions include employee payroll, healthcare, and supply chain as well as highly important processes and other services such as payments, insurance, and banking.

Where are these processes the weakest and why? Or, are these processes laden with unessential tasks that can be reduced in the time of business disruption? Understanding the answers to these questions is necessary when facing large-scale challenges.

5. Make Preparation a High Priority

Business disruption comes in all shapes and sizes. COVID-19 has been a stress test for all businesses. Being prepared and reviewing your business continuity plans regularly can help you face these types of challenges head on.

Conclusion: Business Continuity Plan

The goal of business continuity planning is to identify what is both essential and non-essential to your business. This allows you to navigate the rough waters of business disruption.

A business continuity plan should include a comprehensive strategy for keeping the business operating day-to-day, an assessment of essential and non-essential operations and processes, an analysis of key employees/positions and how each would be impacted by business disruption or unavailability of key employees. As well as a review of facilities and analysis of how the business operates if one or more locations becomes unavailable. Finally, a plan to protect, secure, backup and replicate, if necessary, critical data systems, infrastructure, and applications.

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Organize team outings on a regular basis

For employees to feel like they belong, they need to make some strong bonds with their team members. Your job, as the boss, is to facilitate this by setting up an environment to nurture relationships. So, you can consider organizing monthly or quarterly events where people can mingle and get to know each other better outside of work hours.

There are many options here, from organizing a potluck party at the office to taking everyone to a local festival. However, you can also incorporate some team-building exercises into these outings so that you ensure the employees learn to trust one another and work more efficiently.

Let members from different teams collaborate

These bonding outings might help you realize that people from different teams work great together. While no one expects you to completely restructure your business, you can create cross-team projects on occasion. This way, people that usually wouldn’t work together might come up with a new idea or steer you in a unique direction.

Don’t let people eat lunch at their desk

To create a culture where everyone is included, you can also introduce the no-lunch-at-the-desk policy. If you have a cafeteria, this will allow people to be more social and create a bond by talking about non-work-related topics. What is more, colleagues that eat together might even share ideas on how to deal with a project during a meal. On the other hand, if there is no space designated to lunch, they will be encouraged to eat “al fresco” and experience the health benefits of taking a walk outside and eating in a park.

Create a comfortable and productive space

While encouraging them to have lunch outside can be good for their health, you also need to make sure they feel comfortable and productive at their workstation. Look for ergonomic furniture to prevent back, neck, and leg pain. Also, some employees may prefer height-adjustable desks.

Then, consider adding desk chair mats. The mats can make moving around the workstations a lot smoother and will protect your floors as well. Provide the space with as much natural light as possible to reduce eye strain and headaches and introduce greenery to boost the mood of the employees. Lastly, don’t forget to make the premises accessible for all those employees with mobility issues.

Allow flexible working schedules

A big part of creating a positive company culture is showing your employees you value them. In addition to providing various rewards in the form of a bonus check, a spa coupon, or a simple thank-you note, you should also consider allowing them a degree of flexibility with their schedule. Keep in mind some team members work better during the night or in the evening so they might choose not to work the typical nine-to-five hours.

If possible, let them craft their own work hours. Then, they might need to work from home in case their child is not feeling well or have to leave early for a doctor’s appointment. Do your best to meet their needs, and they will develop a sense of loyalty because you care about their well-being.

Encourage employees to learn and improve

Another way to show you care is by investing in your employees’ further development. Do your best to organize seminars and classes where your workforce can learn new skills and gain new knowledge. Invite speakers or mentors in the field that can share their experience with the team. Help them realize working on improving themselves can lead to a promotion. On the other hand, even if you can’t pay for these courses, encourage them to develop new skills on their own.

Work on making communication clear

For everyone to know what is expected of them, you need to ensure communication in your company is top-notch. Having a chain of command so that everyone knows who to turn to if they run into trouble can resolve issues much quicker. Then, establish the channels of communication. While you can hold meetings everyone needs to attend once a week, this is not the most efficient way of communicating. Instead, opt for one-on-one meetings for things that are best discussed in detail and turn to instant messaging and email for simpler things that need clarification or approval.

Stop micromanaging the employees

Speaking of clarification and approval, you need to trust your employees are trained properly and know when they need to seek advice from a higher-up. That means that you can stop micromanaging every single task they do and give them a sense of autonomy. Constantly hovering over their shoulders can only lead to mistakes and losing precious time.

Listen to your employees’ suggestions

Just like autonomy shows your employees you trust them, so does listening to their opinions. For example, ask for feedback on various topics, from interpersonal relationships to the equipment they are using. You can set up quarterly interviews to check in with every single employee individually but you should also encourage them to speak up whenever there is an issue at the office and allow them to make anonymous suggestions. Also, ask them to weigh in on a project they are not working on to show you value their input.

Related: Trees, Tech, and Climate Change

The article 9 Clever Ways to Improve Your Office Culture first appeared in Innovation & Tech Today.

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Plan Well In Advance

First of all, you need to determine your goal for the retreat and the desired outcome. This will help establish the theme. Timing is essential when booking a venue, facilitator, and recreational activities. The earlier you plan, the more options you will find, and the better the price will be.

Choose an environment that will be conducive to the purpose of the event. You can book a hotel or off-site locations as long as they are convenient to the participants and away from daily interruptions.

Ensure A Full Agenda

Keep in mind that employees or executives will be sacrificing personal and family time to attend the retreat. For this reason, you want to make sure that you have a full agenda and less amount of “free time.” Start with the wake-up time and fill it up with activities until the end of the day.

In creating the plan, you want to ensure that the participants are exhausted yet invigorated and inspired. You can include optional activities such as golfing, fishing, spa treatments, and winery visits either at the beginning or end of the day to ensure that the participants are fully engaged throughout the retreat. The important thing is that all the activities should be geared towards achieving the desired outcome

Provide A Variety

When planning the activities, think about putting variety into them. Surely, no one would want to sit in the conference room the whole day. Combine thinking and working sessions with physical or fun activities. Provide opportunities for the participants to get to know one another better. Discover things that are common to each other and solve problems together. Since the retreat will involve teammates, it would be good to integrate some team-building exercises.

Team leaders can take advantage of the event to bond together during the activities, discussions, and between sessions. Interact with participants during mealtimes and before the start of formal operations. Just keep in mind that everyone has their definition of fun.

Mix-Up Participants

When planning activities, allow participants to work in different groups. Before the start of the sessions, set expectations that each person will be working in different groups. Break up cliques and “power couples” to get people out of their close circles and expand their spheres of influence. Create seating arrangements where everyone will be able to interact with different sets of people. Another option is to have them count off or let members choose their partners. Just make sure that their partner is different for each activity.

Know Your Audience

When building your plan for the corporate leadership retreat, take into consideration that each team member has its limitations. With this in mind, make the necessary adjustments to the physical activities ensuring that no one is left out. Look beyond the physical and consider other possible limitations that could significantly affect the exercises. For example, you shouldn’t use specific colors of balloons during activities if one of the participant is color blind.

Plan the retreat according to the interests and knowledge base of your attendees. You can do this by soliciting some ideas from them. To help with the planning, you can have each participant do one or more retreat related tasks to accomplish prior to the event itself. By doing this, the participants will be doing their best to ensure the success of the event for the growth and learning of everyone.

Get Feedback

Before the retreat ends, have the participants provide feedback. Ask them what they liked about the event and what changes they want to be implemented in future retreats. Through the feedback, you will be able to make continuous improvement and customize retreats next time. Your participants will expect this question so that they can provide remarkable and tailored suggestions.

The End Is Just The Beginning

Unfortunately, the momentum of the retreat stalls once everyone is back in the office. As much as possible, you should keep the benefits alive. Inject the outcomes of the retreat into your regular cadence points. Provide giveaways or SWAG and take them back to the office to serve as physical reminders of the retreat and all that was learned.

Do keep track of “To Do’s” and communicate the outcome of the retreat to employees. Track progress throughout the year and invite different team members to contribute to the planning for the retreat next year.

Employees will recognize the time and effort you put into planning a retreat. This is something that your team will look forward to every year. They will not look at it as an event they are required to attend. With these tips, you can look forward to a tranquil corporate leadership retreat.

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It’s one thing to fill an open position with a remote team, as a startup might do. It’s entirely another matter to move an entire department overseas, or replace current in-house employees with remote contractors—both common scenarios for larger businesses considering outsourcing.

For the C-suite of a large company, outsourcing provides both an opportunity and a challenge. It may not be right for every company, but the data suggests that executives stand to gain a great deal by utilizing offshore talent.

Here are four statistics which indicate that overseas talent is worth considering if you’re in a position of leadership at a large company.

1) Students from 38 countries rank above their US counterparts in PISA scores.

In a nutshell, foreign employees are often better educated than their American counterparts.  PISA scores assess students’ proficiency at math, science and reading, as well as other key skills that translate into employability. The United States routinely ranks at or below average.

While STEM education lags in the US, it is a major focus in other countries.

“Every year about 7,000 IT specialists graduate from Romanian technology universities,” writes Anton Mishchenko, co-founder and CEO of YouTeam, a company specializing in the outsourcing of high-end offshore development, “meaning that the number of software development professionals in Romania will be gradually increasing from year to year. Romania also offers one of Europe’s fastest growing markets for information technology application development.”

Continues Mishchenko, “Eastern European companies are becoming increasingly attractive to many businesses in terms of offshore software development … With over 100,000 software development professionals available, Romania is one of many Eastern European nations becoming popular as an offshore/nearshore location among Western countries.”

Even if cost is no object and you’re hiring purely for talent, it makes sense to broaden your search outside the US.

2) Only 4 percent of large companies who have hired overseas plan to relocate jobs to the US.

This statistic, from a study conducted by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, is striking for several reasons. Essentially, once a company starts outsourcing jobs overseas, they almost never return to relying strictly on in-house talent.

As mentioned previously, the availability of skilled and affordable labor in other countries is certainly a factor. However, there’s another significant reason why companies who outsource have no plans to change.

Hiring overseas saves companies money at tax time.

As Seth Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, explains, the tax code “rewards companies for making investments abroad—and leads to them shifting offices, factories, and jobs abroad even if similar investments in the United States would be more profitable absent tax considerations.”

3) 78 percent of businesses with regular outsourcing involvement report positive overall experiences.

Deloitte’s 2016 Global Outsourcing Survey found this striking statistic. The respondents to this survey were largely C-suite executives at major companies—85 percent of which reported more than 1 billion in annual revenue.

The survey notes that beyond simple cost savings, outsourcing often creates value “through the impact of innovation, ease of relationship management, and improved strategic flexibility.” Essentially, outsourcing tasks can often be a better solution overall than trying to maintain all work in-house.

While outsourcing certainly has its risks, most executives who try it report very satisfactory results.

4) In 2017, American businesses moved more than 93,000 jobs overseas.

CNBC recently focused attention on this statistic, which was originally released by the US Department of Labor. Outsourcing is nothing new. It becomes more popular with large American corporations every year, with software development being a particular favorite.

“The software development industry is a striking example in terms of hiring offshore developer talent,” wrote Anton Mishchenko when I reached out to him for further comments.

“Regions such as Eastern Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa are becoming even more popular for outsourced product development. In recent years Eastern Europe has become a mainstream location for offshore developer talent because it offers an attractive cost-to-quality ratio, not merely low rates like in other regions.”

Every executive is familiar with the business consequences of inflexibility. In this age of disruption, being the last one to the party often means being the first to lose market share. With this quantity of jobs being outsourced every year, how long can a company decline to explore using offshore talent before it begins to lose ground to its competitors as a result?

These four statistics I’ve chosen to highlight are just the tip of the metaphorical iceberg. Any thorough study of the data surrounding outsourcing reveals the opportunity it presents.

For executives at large businesses, outsourcing is an excellent way to unlock new pools of highly-skilled talent, save money on both wages and taxes, improve strategic flexibility and stay relevant in an ever-more-competitive marketplace.

The post 4 Hard-Hitting Statistics That Prove Overseas Talent Is Worth a C-Suite’s Consideration appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Sounds like your idea of a dream company? Well, for some — including mine — it’s not just a dream, but reality. And while some leaders — and their accountants — would run for the hills at the very mention of the idea, the idea of the company-wide group holiday is actually taking hold in businesses around the world.

Stop working so damn much

Why? Well, according to a 2018 study by The Conference Board, only 51% of the US workforce is satisfied in their job. Most people tend to be unhappy when they don’t know where the company is going, what it is trying to achieve, and how they contribute to that plan.

The places that have the highest satisfaction and the most engaged teams are those where the team is constantly rallying together, agreeing on a strategy and trying to make things happen.

The biggest determinant of productivity is a team member’s emotional state. If you don’t foster an environment that creates a good emotional experience and support network, it affects the quality of their work.

And funnily enough, taking the entire team on an all-expenses paid holiday for a week is one of the best ways to boost morale, strengthen team bonds and increase your employee’s love for their workplace, all in one shot.

It’s massively important to celebrate the big wins — and it doesn’t even have to come from big gestures like a team holiday. We can feel happy at work from the small things, too. For example, in our office, we have a Chinese gong in our office and when a new client comes on board, we hit it. We also have a cowbell we ring when a client gets a new lead or a first sale – we celebrate our clients’ wins, because they’re ours too. Hearing something like a gong or bell brings us together. We all stand up and recognise the win.

A team holiday is a level up on this idea. Yes, it’s “expensive” – both the travel costs and the loss of revenue from closing the business for a week – but it is a great opportunity for everyone to relax and celebrate the wins together. On top of all that, it serves as motivation for the next goal.

Holidays aside, staff support starts with long-term investment in careers, whether that’s through “up-skilling” or offering more responsibility. This not only helps the business to ensure it has the skills it needs to succeed, but it also shows each team member that they have a future in the company. Showing a path towards the future leads to better retention rates.

So it’s time businesses stopped focusing totally on customer satisfaction and put some emphasis on employee satisfaction, happiness and progress. If a company can do that right, the employees will naturally take great care of the customer. A happy team will impact how many client referrals you get, which will impact how fast you can grow. And if your business can afford to take the team to Thailand, do it.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in May 2019.

The post Why company-wide group holidays are the career trend you didn’t know you needed appeared first on Grit Daily News.

That’s because the “right” job in today’s landscape means more than a reasonable salary and a couple of weeks of vacation. Even extra perks like free snacks, cold brew on tap, ping pong tables, and work lounges are not working to attract potential hires.

What do they want, anyway?

So, what is it that today’s prospective employees are looking for in terms of perks and benefits? According to survey data referenced in a recent BCG report about the “Reskilling Revolution,”  upskilling and educational opportunities are higher than ever on job seekers’ minds. The study revealed that today’s job seekers value learning and training opportunities and career development options more than job security and financial compensation.

Read that again: employees want learning and training opportunities more than they want job security and higher salaries.

Why might that be? Well, job-seekers and employees alike are beginning to understand that when upskilling and future-proofing aren’t part of the equation, there is no job security. They are afraid of being phased out, and that fear means that they no longer care about free snacks at work – they need to ensure they actually have a workplace to go to in ten years.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 1.37 million workers will be displaced from their jobs in the next decade. While there are several contributing circumstances, automation and technology advancement are the primary factors leading to this displacement. So, that fear they have? Not completely unjustified.

Employers are in for a shock

What does this mean for employers? For starters, it means reconsidering stocking the company refrigerator with craft beer and, instead, evaluating if the company’s employee benefits packages are meaningfully adding to the lives of their workers. C-suite leaders must understand that it is in their best interest to offer opportunities to future-proof their employees and workplace. More importantly, they have to realize that other companies are already working to do just this. Amazon, for example, is making a $700 million investment to retrain 100,000 employees by 2025. If that tells us anything, it’s that if employers want to stay competitive in the hunt for top talent, they have to add digital learning and upskilling opportunities as a benefit. If they don’t, they may create an unattractive work environment and face the consequences of a growing skills gap.

In the mix

For employees and job-seekers, this can mean a few things. First, advocating for upskilling and training opportunities as a part of a company benefits package is more important than ever. 40% of online live students report career advancement within two years of taking a course.

But only 20% of American students are fully sponsored by their companies. It is important that employers are aware that anyone is capable of taking advantage of digital skills training, but when they do it for their own employees, they are more likely to benefit. After all, engaged, passionate and resilient employees enjoy a bump in productivity of up to 22% according to multiple studies, which ultimately leads to an improved bottom line.

How bad is it?

The good news: introducing digital skills training and ongoing learning and skills development initiatives for your employees is relatively simple and cost-efficient. The World Economic Forum reports that it is now cheaper to reskill (or “re-train”) current employees than to hire new ones, and with ongoing innovation in automation and artificial intelligence, it is now objectively “in the financial interest of a company to take on” the reskilling of employees.

The writing on the wall is this: The World Economic Forum report found that 54% of all employees will require significant retraining in the next few years, revealing that if you think you won’t be affected by a skills gap, you’re wrong. Employers with forward-focused talent strategies are proactively addressing this reality by taking advantage of digital learning platforms and supporting their employees’ efforts to upskill.

So what can we do? Here’s where to start: employers, consider adding digital learning and upskilling opportunities as a benefit to improve your own workforce and stay competitive among top talent. Employees and job seekers, do your due diligence and advocate for your right to better prepare yourself for the future. Everyone wins in this scenario.

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