Latest HR Trends: Recognition, Employee Engagement, Return-to-office (RTO),Loud Quitting, Loneliness at work, CEO Succession planning, Board Diversity

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Last week HR trends for researchers: Recognition, Employee Engagement, Return-to-office (RTO), Loud Quitting, Loneliness at work, CEO Succession planning, Board Diversity

Now, let's do a recap of the week on published research:

Employees must be recognized at least monthly to increase their Engagement and Retention

Findings of researchers:

Recognition is a protective factor against many of the business challenges being navigated in the face of the recession, including layoffs, salary freezes, and heavier workloads. Employees recognized at least monthly are more engaged, more committed, more productive, and less likely to job hunt and a Weekly Social recognition is just as impactful as weekly monetary recognition on outcomes such as engagement, belonging, productivity, and job commitment, according to a new interesting research published by Achievers Workforce Institute research called "The gratitude gap" - using data from 4,900 respondents - 1400 HR leaders included - conducted in February 2023 from 5 countries.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Achievers researchers give some recommendations to companies to increase business outcomes:

✔️ Educate on giving recognition:

HR leaders also must train and reinforce the importance of recognition for managers so they will help start and spread a culture of recognition in the company.

✔️ Boost and highlight top recognitions

HR leaders need to reinforce the culture of recognition by putting the spotlight on specific instances - every one-to-one meeting and town hall, make space for real-time recognition in team meetings.

✔️ Identify Recognition ambassadors

HR leaders should identify program ambassadors to recognize others. This will spread to others on their team and will contribute to an overall culture of recognition. 

✔️ Emphasize the impact of social recognition

Ensure that everyone in the company understands that there is value in showing appreciation, even if there isn’t an associated monetary reward.

What were the expert opinions :

• In many areas we have an opportunity to recognized employee achievemnets and efforts not only monthly or weekly, we should be looking for a daily practice, according to Przemyslaw Niemczyk
• if employers are providing the continuous development (to employees) that is required for both employee professional development and also for the development of the organization, then surely recognition will be ongoing. Thank you is nice, but recognition goes a lot further, according to George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC
• There is a hierarchy of needs that must be met first from a compensation standpoint to make that true. If someone doesn't feel like they are paying paid fairly, then no amount of social recognition is likely to fix it, according to Drew Fortin
• The questions of how often to recognize and how to recognize employees are interesting. How often? more frequently is better which also makes sense... weekly is best, and I would propose that daily is probably even better or immediate on doing good work, according to Dave Ulrich
• By putting a templated/frequency structure in place for recognition would this not become something that simply becomes expected from the employee, and therefore lose its value over time? Is “frequency” a sustainable approach to recognition?, according to Noah M.

Employees come to Office just "to Focus on their work" but want to "Choose" where to Work

Findings of researchers:

Employees have shifted their priorities for the office and the trend of Return-To-Office (RTO) mandates could be one of those consequences.

A different interesting pattern is emerging in research and people are coming to office “to focus on their work” as the top reason instead of work in-person with their team and colleagues and workers believed that "Choice" in where to work within the office is a fundamental component of workplace experience in 2023. Indeed, high-performing workplaces have twice the impact on personal productivity than low-performing workplaces so there are fundamental layers to a high-performing workplace: Space Effectiveness and a Great workplace experience must work in tandem to drive enterprise outcomes that ultimately lead to stronger business performance, according to a new interesting research published by Gensler Research Institute using data from 14,000 office workers across nine countries and three continents.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

 Researchers found that there is 3 core considerations for the workplace of the future:

✔️ Work is different - it’s time for the workplace to respond.

Employees have higher expectations for purpose-driven workspaces that support their work behaviors and offer their desired experiences

✔️ Workers need the office for productivity - design it as a destination of choice.

✔️ Employees require a balanced array of workspaces and experiences - provide the spaces they need.

What were the expert opinions :

• It would be better to look at the office environment as a whole to ensure that people feel relaxed and comfortable in the working environment, according to George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC
• The boundaries of work are not longer the "place" (office vs. home) but the shared values of committing to do work that creates value for a customer. Herman Miller work in creating a "living office" was an early example of how the workplace can shape employee, culture, and customer experience. according to Dave Ulrich.
• The concept of "Choice" as a fundamental component of workplace experience in 2023 is fascinating, according to Huyen Le (Savanna)

Majority of Employees are “Quiet quitting” or “Loud quitting”

Findings of researchers:

 it's alarming for employers and global economy: the majority (77%) of the world’s employees are not engaged and not thriving and around 18% are actively disengaged (“Loud quitting”). These "loud quitters" take actions that directly harm their organization, undercutting its goals and opposing its leaders. The percentage of employees thriving at work reached a record high in 2022, according to the new annual interesting research published by Gallup - considered a benchmark for measuring employee engagement - called " State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report " using data from 122,416 global employed respondents face to face or by telephone, covering more than 160 countries

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Gallup researchers recommend leaders and managers not to ignore the "Loud Quitters" as loud quitting can signal major risks within an organization.

By not engaging these employees, leaders are missing a primary driver of customer retention and organic business growth. Researchers believed that if leaders are only measuring employee contentment, they are missing engagement and the reality is that many corporate measures of engagement are really just measuring contentment.

What were the expert opinions :

• These numbers look like they track very well with Gallup's data on employee engagement, according to Daniel (Dan) Edds, MBA
• Engagement is going up, slightly,... with upticks since 2009 by a point or two a year. Disengagement is a serious problem affecting not only employees, but customers and investors, according to Dave Ulrich
• The process to engage employees, whether a loud quitter or otherwise is for the manager to be able to take time out for, talk to on a monthly basis at least with agenda driven by employee, understand the employee's motivational factors and then coach the employee to her goal, according to ASHOK PRABHU
• By focusing on leadership development, fostering a culture of engagement, supporting employee wellbeing, and providing competitive pay and benefits, organizations can create an environment where employees thrive, resulting in increased productivity, retention, and overall organizational success, according to Nathan Weiss
• Should the goal be to re-engage the Loud Quitters or to help them out and make it a "beautiful exit" and a win-win situation?, according to Lars Vonheim
• This is unfortunately a big problem across the entire employment spectrum, and there is unfortunately no one size fit all solution, according to Scholim Hirschfield

The Pandemic of Loneliness and Isolation affects all Workers

Findings of researchers:

While remote work can improve job satisfaction, it can also contribute to feelings of isolation and loneliness. Employees who are chronically lonely in the workplace receive poorer supervisor ratings of their job performance and have weaker feelings of emotional commitment to their employer.

HR professionals are more likely than workers to perceive that the pandemic has disrupted connections among co-workers - Only 1 in 10 HR professionals and 1 in 4 workers report a decrease in loneliness over the past three years, according to a new interesting research published by SHRM using data from 1,357 HR professionals was surveyed using the SHRM Voice of Work Research Panel and 1,073 working Americans was surveyed in November and December 2022 using AmeriSpeak NORC at the University of Chicago’s probability-based panel.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

 SHRM researchers offer the following recommendations for leaders:

✔️ Make in-office gatherings the core touch point for all workers.

✔️ Invest in well-functioning and easy-to-use electronic technology that connects your workforce.

✔️ Pay special attention to the needs of younger generations in your workforce, as well as those of remote employees.

✔️ Allow workers to take paid time off when they feel unwell either mentally or physically

✔️ Offer employees an array of options to support their mental well-being and promote these options regularly

Researchers believed that although the “pandemic of loneliness” seems to have leveled off, it has by no means disappeared, so its effect on individual workers’ mental health remains a concern

What were the expert opinions :

• The cure to worker loneliness is not as complicated as it may seem - Companies that regularly focus on creating experiences where workers can get to know one another on a personal level and find those with shared interests will thrive! , according to Drew Fortin
• This work highlights the loneliness that may be caused in any work setting ... evidently loneliness could be in the office, hybrid, or totally remote. Social isolation (loneliness) is a leading cause of emotional distress, and even mortality: Social isolation as a risk factor for all-cause mortality, according to Dave Ulrich

Company Performance is directly linked to CEO Succession Planning

Findings of researchers:

CEO succession has been commonly viewed as an important mechanism for organizational learning and adaptation - Talent is a huge part of it, but it’s more than that. A change in CEO can affect fundamentally alter the knowledge, skills and interaction process at the top of the company, and these alterations can in turn significantly influence post-succession firm performance. Today, "relay CEO succession" -  which the incoming CEO has been groomed as an heir apparent before the turnover - seems to be an outdated process, and on average, companies start working on succession planning about two years before the current CEO’s planned departure. One important consideration for timing is how an extended succession planning process may be perceived by the incumbent CEO and the company’s stakeholders, according to a a new research published by Deloitte & Touche LLP - using data from interviews with current CEOs as well as those who are (or were) considered for CEO roles.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers advise CEO candidates to start working intensively with coaches and mentors who specialize in CEO roles. Sometimes serving on another company’s board can provide future candidates with a valuable perspective on the ties between governance and succession planning.

What were the expert opinions :

• In my view succession planning should be encouraged to cover all management/leadership positions - not just for the CEO, according to George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC
• When there is a change in CEO, this can signal many things. In instances where the vision is already strong, we want to be confident that the CEO pick will keep things on track - having a successor groomed for 2 years prior makes sense here, according to Drew Fortin
• CEO succession signals many organizational commitments: strategic focus, management process, leadership competencies, organization capabilities, and attitude about employees. I might add that picking the right CEO is less about the person and more about the requirements of the position. , according to Dave Ulrich

Perfect Board Equity and Diversity will be achieved in 2060

Findings of researchers:

Diverse boards can have positive impact on board effectiveness and organizational leadership. Researchers predicted that women are expected to control 75% of consumer spending by 2028 and without racial pay inequities buying power would be 63.9% higher.

It would take the boards of Fortune 500 companies more than two decades for board representation to match the current level of representation of individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in the population, according to a new 7th edition of an interesting research published by Deloitte and the Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD) Diversity called "Missing Pieces Report" using data from 92 companies of the Fortune 100 companies and 477 companies for the Fortune 500 companies.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers suggest companies think about diversity using the 3 below ways :

• Diversity as symbolic action/compliance, which is a process where organizations choose strategies that are the path of least institutional resistance to meet standards set by external pressure.

• Diversity as change agent, an admittedly rarer phenomena where a fundamental systematic change causes the entity to move toward embracing the inherent value of diversity.

• Diversity as identity, where institutions that have always seen the value of having diverse lived experiences maintain that culture.

What were the expert opinions :

• THIS…is why we do the work, building slates that tap into a broad mix of talent- lived experiences, and competencies. These insights inform decision making at the highest levels, according to Denielle Pemberton-Heard

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That's it for last week's recap - Happy Sunday! 👋

Nicolas BEHBAHANI