The Employer-Employee Contract and People Building a Better World of Work
3 Quick updates
Hello,
Three quick updates this week
Transform Takeaways
Attracting & Retaining Talent in a Changing Workplace
People Building a Better World of Work
Transform Takeaways
I spent most of the week at Transform in Las Vegas. For those who aren’t familiar, Transform is an HR Conference with an emphasis on HR tech, and regularly draws thousands of innovative/progressive HR leaders in attendance. As a media Partner, we were there recording episodes (you can check them out here) and hosting small conversations to hear what’s new and next in the workplace.
Amidst the recording and private conversations with talent and people leaders, I did get to check out a few sessions and have a few short takeaways & themes that I thought were worth mentioning.
A Conversation About The Employer-Employee Contract - A number of sessions either addressed this topic in the title or backdoored it into the session. Given the last few years of events, many are asking about what the employer-employee contract looks like today, and what specifically is the role of the employer? Employees may have expectations of what they want and need out of life and the role an employer has in it. And on the employer side, they are getting increased demands to do more and be involved in more ways. I think this is an interesting topic that I’m spending a ton of time thinking about (Here’s an episode I did about it.) My early thoughts on this are
You should define who you are and who you are not. You can’t be everything to everyone, so don’t try
The most problems come from when there is misalignment from your stated words and actions. Where there’s a perception/reality gap, that’s where problems arise.
Employers get the relationship they deserve - if you’re an employer and you want a more transactional relationship, just expect to get the same approach in return
Career Development - While a number of sessions touched on this, what really peaked my interest was a comment made in Kevin Delaney’s opening session when a comment was made that “You can work from home, you can do your job from home, but I’m not sure if you can do your career from home.” There seemed to be a resonance with the statement in the audience, and I’ve been reflecting on it ever since. My initial reaction was, “how do you define career?” I think what’s most interesting about today is that the very definition of career is something that is much more malleable and personalized than ever before. Previously, career was pretty monolithic, and at one point in time, your age, life stage and career stage were all pretty much the same, and you either took that or you didn’t. Today, that isn’t necessarily the case. There’s a lot more surface area for what constitutes a career today. Tying this to the employer-employee contract, I think for some employees, what they actually want out of their job is the ability to have a career on their own terms and how they define it.
HR as a Key Driver of Strategy - It’s a conference for progressive and innovative HR leaders, so I guess this one isn’t a surprise. A lot of sessions focused on how HR can be a better partner, leader, have a seat at the table, etc. I heard “people strategies are business strategies” multiple times throughout the conference, as in also a general feeling that HR is continuing to be asked to do more and step up. As someone who has worked with Chief Information Officers and CMOs, I’ve definitely seen this journey before. I think there is truth in it, and just like with CIOs and CMOs, the effectiveness of this is always going to be tied to the ability to demonstrate impact and be business leaders first and functional leaders second.
Gen Z in the Workplace - Definitely still a topic that is relevant for professionals today. A good discussion around making sure we listen in but also figuring out how to involve them in the process of coming up with solutions
Attracting and Retaining Talent in a Changing World of Work
After Transform, I spent less than 24 hours in San Diego to speak at the NAR Joint AE Institute on the topic of attracting and retaining talent in a changing world of work. In the room were a few hundred association executives who run small associations in the real estate industry interested in learning about what’s new with talent in today’s workplace.
In my talk, I provided six talent trends, and some recommendations and actions to take if you believe that those are trends worth following and I also piloted a few new ideas that I’ve been working on my own that seemed to resonate.
One of my favorite things to observe during talks is what questions come up either during the session or afterwards, and in this session, I got questions like
How do I know if someone is ready to become a manager? (great question, btw)
What are other people doing to make employees feel the culture?
What else besides compensation can I offer to my employees to get them to stay?
What does career development look like when you can’t offer a promotion?
Even though I haven’t spent a ton of time in the CRE space it was great to know that many of the questions I got asked are the exact same questions I get asked or deal with in other industries and types of organizations I work with.
People Building a Better World of Work: Candor
One of my favorite moments of Transform was connecting with people that I’ve gotten to meet previously. I got the chance to spend a bit of time with Kelsey Bishop, the CEO and Founder of Candor.
I met Kelsey when she was just a sophomore in college visiting my company on a tech trek to learn about careers in tech. Since then, she’s gone on to build her own career in tech in the startup space, before deciding to launch Candor. We’ve stayed connected over the years and I’ve seen her take an idea for a problem to solve that she experienced working in tech to being an entrepreneur and running a company. As a fellow BC Alum, I’m inspired by and always rooting for people like Kelsey who are to build solutions that help others. We also share a commonality in that both of us went to Jesuit High Schools on top of BC, so it’s no wonder why I have an appreciation for her mindset as well as her work.
Kelsey built Candor to help promote collaborative and healthy workplace cultures. Now, Candor helps teams build culture and connection so they can work effectively. Through profiles and the ability to give feedback, collaborate in real-time, their platform allows coworkers and leaders to build better relationships on teams.
I’ve written a lot about the importance of fostering moments of connection and trust, and most of what I fall back on is the fact that these things tend to happen in “drum beats” (small beats over time) versus “lightning bolts” (big shows of strength all at once) and from what I can see Candor fits right into this analogy. Effective teams and strong cultures don’t just happen overnight, built through small and consistent practices people can get to know each other over time.
While some of this can always be done in person, technology can also play a role in this as well, and open up more opportunities to deepen connection and relationships. Research suggests that it takes about 50 interactions to develop an acquaintance , and about 200 interactions to develop a close friend. Even if you’re not trying to be best friends with your fellow employees at work, finding increased moments to build trust and connection are critical to effective teams. Candor seems like a solution that can help with that.
Up Next in March: Nashville to talk about learning in the multi-generational workforce, and New York to talk to five tech companies ERG’s about influence without authority.
If you’re looking for some help for your learning and development, leadership development or professional development for this year, I’d love to work with you: Here is how I might be able to assist:
Team Trainings & Professional Development: Happy to facilitate training or professional development opportunity for your team & organization - common topics include: influence without authority, navigating change, hybrid working, and others.
Consulting & Advisory Work - Are you looking to improve the ways of working of your team or organization or looking for guidance on remote/hybrid work? Let’s chat about how we can work together
Leadership & Learning Programs: Formal training and leadership development in your company, such as new manager or new leader training, or skill-based programs.
Feel free to contact me directly for more details!
Have a great week!
Al