TalentCulture #WorkTrends

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, one question has been on everyone's minds: when can we go back to normal? When can we go back to work? Unfortunately, there's a great deal of disagreement—even among workers who are concerned for their own safety. An ESG survey found that 36% of knowledge workers who are "extremely concerned" about their personal health and safety due to Covid-19 say they would prefer to return to the office compared to 49% of respondents who are "not that concerned" or "not at all concerned" with their personal health risk. In the meantime, the face of work is changing alongside reintegration. Employers are adopting new strategies to mitigate risk, from digital solutions to in-person measures. But these changes come with pressure. Employers are now viewed as humanitarian leaders responsible for keeping employees safe—and if they fail, the blowback can seriously harm the business's future. Learning how to insulate your business and make the right decision for employees is essential as more employers return to work.

Setting boundaries between work and home life is a big struggle for many people. The advent of the 2020 pandemic has amplified this problem exponentially and created a greater concern for both employees and their employers. Organizations that are concerned about the mental and physical well being of its employees recognize the need for down time as well as time away from work. Many studies have shown that mental stress and high physical demands placed on employees is detrimental to the company's staff as well as damaging to the productivity output for the organization. Both employees and employers need to have a plan of action to create more structure and boundaries to delineate work from personal time and implement this plan in a meaningful way. Employers can start by asking employees more about their lifestyle and armed with this information, set forth to create workplace initiatives that help employees to recognize when down time and personal time are needed. Also, programs that allow employees access to resources (e.g., virtual yoga and exercise classes, meditation and counseling) are all sets to creating a healthier work environment.

Today I'm welcoming Danny Kofke ("cough-key") from Mentoro Group to talk about the state of financial literacy in the U.S. today, its impact on the workplace, and what companies can do to solve this problem in the post-pandemic era. We're going to talk about making finances accessible and understandable for your employees, how human resources and leadership can contribute, and how financial literacy can make your organization stronger.

Communication and innovation. Two very important words for any company looking to succeed. Without a good set of ears to the ground and a workplace that promotes creative thinking, it's difficult, if not impossible, to stay ahead of the competition and deliver successfully to customers. So why do so many companies lack these two essential aspects in their business model? Practicing good communication and embracing the critical need for innovation are not always easy. They require throwing away archaic thinking and adopting new ways to view your business model, which means accepting change, and we all know change is not an easy ask for most people. So, what path does that lead many of us down? The path of least resistance, which means accepting what is versus working towards what can be.

Disruption and chaos. When most people hear these two words, they automatically think of trouble. However, researchers and scientists are finding that disruption and chaos are found at the epicenter of innovation and change and for the better. This state of flux allows us to re-examine our points of view and consider adjusting what we know to what may be a better way of doing things. As it is with human nature, we tend to only accept change at those times when we are at our lowest points and will move away from "the way we've always done it" to "we need to change things, because this no longer works." During difficult times, such as economic downturns, people should re-evaluate making a change and using disruption and chaos as an opportunity to embrace and accept the value of what the potential outcomes can be.

The words flexible work conditions can be defined in many ways, depending on who you ask. What appears to be a flexible work environment for one person may not be for another. So, in thinking about the word flexible in the context of the workplace, is it a case of what's being offered to employees in the way of perks or benefits or the employer's culture? We think it's both. Without a culture that propagates collaboration, open-mindedness, and transparency, flexible work options are not likely to exist. When organizations attempt to bring programs into cultures that have not been primed with a solid foundation to support the programs, they most always fail. This holds true when incorporating benefits or perceived flexible options into a workplace unable to sustain in the long haul or can only weakly accommodate present and future employees.

2020 started a worldwide tsunami of turmoil with 2021 continuing the havoc of a pandemic and the insurmountable issues that accompany it. In this mix is the current state of the workforce and the toll the turmoil has taken on employers and employees. Many employees have been forced to relocate their workspaces into areas previously used as home space. This along with the isolation of working remotely and adjusting to a new "normal" has taken a toll on many people. With this in mind, employers need to step up and be supportive in ways that may not have been a priority in the past. Health and wellness has come to light as a priority and with that technologies that support in this way have been called upon to up their game with advanced ways of accessing health and wellness assistance. This uptick in demand has drawn the attention of employers and forced them to re-evaluate their current wellness benefits in lieu of advanced technology and more encompassing wellness programs.

In general, women have had insurmountable obstacles to hurdle in the workplace, and the current state of the world has only added more challenges. According to the 2020 McKinsey & Company Women in the Workplace report, researchers discovered that working women fared poorly under the challenges of Covid-19. They further report that women of color fared the worst of all, suffering from layoffs and furloughs. In addition, they followed the trend of female mobility in the workplace, and based on their findings, upward mobility for women was no better in 2020 than in 2015. The bigger picture here is that lack of upward mobility, equal pay, which is still an issue when compared to male counterparts, suppression to be allowed a strong voice, and inflexibility to recognize the need for diverse opinions are all major factors in employee retention.

In addition to many working individuals and families still figuring out childcare during a pandemic, another serious issue has arisen. As the U.S. life expectancy rises, more and more people face caring for an aging relative and balancing childcare needs while working as full-time employees. According to an article in HR Executive, "61% of working caregivers said helping loved ones has impacted their employment situation, and 53% reported going in late, leaving early, or taking time off to accommodate care." This means that over half of the working population struggles to work while providing care to loved ones. The mental stress and added duties take their toll, with some people leaving the workforce entirely to be an elder caregiver.

Emotional intelligence sounds like a buzzword, but it's far from that. It's a critical skill that lays the foundation for other important skills like empathy, kindness, listening, communicating, connecting, and influencing to be present and fully used with intentional purpose. When it comes to leadership, emotional intelligence is taking center stage, with many organizations, as a major consideration at hiring and promotion times. Going hand-in-hand with emotional intelligence is the ability to show presentism. Presentism opens the mind and allows one to focus on the immediate situation and people in the moment. It's an ability to focus on one's own emotions, reactions, and moods, along with recognizing these traits in others. So, basically, by learning and practicing emotional intelligence, we learn to be good observers of our own surroundings and the people we come into contact with every day.