- To Craft a Better Employee Experience, Collect the Right Data
When rethinking their employees’ experience at work, leaders need tools that allow them to efficiently and effectively learn what their diverse group of employees actually needs so that they can craft policies accordingly. For the past 10 years, in their respective work, the authors have been applying techniques and tools typically used to understand users and customers to the design of employee experiences. In this article, they share a selection of these tools, illustrated with examples taken from the case of “ComCo”: a global communications agency that asked one author’s firm to help rethink the design of their regional offices as part of their “Workplace for the Future” initiative.
- To Get People Back in the Office, Make It Social
There’s a strong desire among business decision makers (BDMs) to get people back into the office. Data from the latest Microsoft Work Trend Index research shows that 82% of BDMs say getting back to the office in person is a concern. But, two years of zero commuting time and an ability to more effectively manage work-life balance means employees are looking for a compelling reason to schlep back to the office — and 73% of them say they need a better reason than just company expectations. So, the question becomes, what is a compelling reason to come into the office? When asked what would motivate them to come into the office, employees had a resounding answer: social time with coworkers. The author presents three ways for leaders to prioritize building and rebuilding connections between people to fuel creativity, teamwork, and strong support systems that empower them to tackle challenges.
- Striking a Balance Between Your Passion and Your Paycheck
Workers have more control over their working conditions than they have for generations. The disruption and uncertainty caused by the pandemic has prompted many workers to reconsider what they want from their jobs and to ask for more. What do you want your relationship to paid work to be? For a long time, the answer has been to “follow your passion,” to find work that you love and that is meaningful. But this passion principle has risks. Finding a job aligned with your passion can take months or years, sacrificing economic stability. What’s more, investing so much of our sense of identity in our paid employment incurs a more existential risk to our sense of self-worth, should layoffs or other business changes occur. The key is to find the right balance of passion and profit in your career. You can do this by exploring ways to have a satisfying job that don’t necessarily involve being passionate about its content; shrinking the space that full-time work takes up in your life; diversify your meaning-making portfolio; and building coalitions with colleagues and other workers in asking for what you want.
- Striking a Balance Between Your Passion and Your Paycheck
Workers have more control over their working conditions than they have for generations. The disruption and uncertainty caused by the pandemic has prompted many workers to reconsider what they want from their jobs and to ask for more. What do you want your relationship to paid work to be? For a long time, the answer has been to “follow your passion,” to find work that you love and that is meaningful. But this passion principle has risks. Finding a job aligned with your passion can take months or years, sacrificing economic stability. What’s more, investing so much of our sense of identity in our paid employment incurs a more existential risk to our sense of self-worth, should layoffs or other business changes occur. The key is to find the right balance of passion and profit in your career. You can do this by exploring ways to have a satisfying job that don’t necessarily involve being passionate about its content; shrinking the space that full-time work takes up in your life; diversify your meaning-making portfolio; and building coalitions with colleagues and other workers in asking for what you want.
- Why You Need a Bedtime
While many of us feel frequently exhausted, reputable time diary studies show that even busy people actually get adequate sleep from a quantitative perspective. The problem is that for many people it’s disorderly sleep: short some nights and unexpectedly (or desperately) long others. Consistent sleep — best achieved by giving adults a bedtime right alongside the kids — is the secret to making life feel like less of a slog.
- How to Help Primary Care Physicians Craft Sustainable Careers
Burnout among primary care physicians in the United States is an especially big problem thanks to changes that have made their jobs much more difficult. But there are four ways that health care organizations can improve PCPs jobs. They would revamp how PCPs perform their jobs and help them develop richer careers.
When rethinking their employees’ experience at work, leaders need tools that allow them to efficiently and effectively learn what their diverse group of employees actually needs so that they can craft policies accordingly. For the past 10 years, in their respective work, the authors have been applying techniques and tools typically used to understand users and customers to the design of employee experiences. In this article, they share a selection of these tools, illustrated with examples taken from the case of “ComCo”: a global communications agency that asked one author’s firm to help rethink the design of their regional offices as part of their “Workplace for the Future” initiative.
There’s a strong desire among business decision makers (BDMs) to get people back into the office. Data from the latest Microsoft Work Trend Index research shows that 82% of BDMs say getting back to the office in person is a concern. But, two years of zero commuting time and an ability to more effectively manage work-life balance means employees are looking for a compelling reason to schlep back to the office — and 73% of them say they need a better reason than just company expectations. So, the question becomes, what is a compelling reason to come into the office? When asked what would motivate them to come into the office, employees had a resounding answer: social time with coworkers. The author presents three ways for leaders to prioritize building and rebuilding connections between people to fuel creativity, teamwork, and strong support systems that empower them to tackle challenges.
Workers have more control over their working conditions than they have for generations. The disruption and uncertainty caused by the pandemic has prompted many workers to reconsider what they want from their jobs and to ask for more. What do you want your relationship to paid work to be? For a long time, the answer has been to “follow your passion,” to find work that you love and that is meaningful. But this passion principle has risks. Finding a job aligned with your passion can take months or years, sacrificing economic stability. What’s more, investing so much of our sense of identity in our paid employment incurs a more existential risk to our sense of self-worth, should layoffs or other business changes occur. The key is to find the right balance of passion and profit in your career. You can do this by exploring ways to have a satisfying job that don’t necessarily involve being passionate about its content; shrinking the space that full-time work takes up in your life; diversify your meaning-making portfolio; and building coalitions with colleagues and other workers in asking for what you want.
Workers have more control over their working conditions than they have for generations. The disruption and uncertainty caused by the pandemic has prompted many workers to reconsider what they want from their jobs and to ask for more. What do you want your relationship to paid work to be? For a long time, the answer has been to “follow your passion,” to find work that you love and that is meaningful. But this passion principle has risks. Finding a job aligned with your passion can take months or years, sacrificing economic stability. What’s more, investing so much of our sense of identity in our paid employment incurs a more existential risk to our sense of self-worth, should layoffs or other business changes occur. The key is to find the right balance of passion and profit in your career. You can do this by exploring ways to have a satisfying job that don’t necessarily involve being passionate about its content; shrinking the space that full-time work takes up in your life; diversify your meaning-making portfolio; and building coalitions with colleagues and other workers in asking for what you want.
While many of us feel frequently exhausted, reputable time diary studies show that even busy people actually get adequate sleep from a quantitative perspective. The problem is that for many people it’s disorderly sleep: short some nights and unexpectedly (or desperately) long others. Consistent sleep — best achieved by giving adults a bedtime right alongside the kids — is the secret to making life feel like less of a slog.
Burnout among primary care physicians in the United States is an especially big problem thanks to changes that have made their jobs much more difficult. But there are four ways that health care organizations can improve PCPs jobs. They would revamp how PCPs perform their jobs and help them develop richer careers.