How can leaders improve the work experience for employees? In my research on the great resignation, engagement and mental health, I found a few statistics to consider:
- 93% of employees that leave companies do so for a better career opportunity. Employees either do not see a path forward for themselves or that there has not been an intentional process to uncover that career path. Managers and employers need to do better.
- 57% of workers mental health has deteriorated since the pandemic has started. (The Conference Board) – I know personally I have seen this for myself. I definitely have seen this with my clients who share feelings of greater stress and sometimes distress over all the happenings of the past 18+ months.
- The greatest factor for workplace stress is the workload itself. Managers is there any possible way you can reduce the workload for our stressed out co-workers? At least start the conversation and find out if this is a factor.
- 75% of employees will say that they employee cares about them, but only half say that they can ask for a workload revamp from their manager. Create psychological safety through listening, empathy and support.
How can leaders upgrade the worker experience? We see three areas to consider immediately.
First, intentionally address the topic of an employee’s career. This is about the leader or manager knowing the employee. Take time to understand the employee’s interests. We gain skill in that which we are interested in. How can you provide your employee experiences that match the employee’s interests?
Second, employers incorporate wellness programs, benefit platforms and other experiential enhancements, yet employees do not look at those benefits as reasons to stay. Right now, there is a mental health issue in your company. Identify ways to develop individualized mental health support regimen. This is similar to a workout regimen or health routine of diet, exercise and sleep. Mental health support includes counseling, meditation practices, yoga and ensuring strong community relationships.
Thirdly, managers if you sense that your employee is working too much, then they are. It is important to address that issue immediately and find ways to help your team reduce the workload. Also, we know from research that psychologically distancing from our work is the key to sustainable and productive work. Psychological distancing includes two key factors – first it is stepping away from the work and second it is immersion into another task. We tend to be ok at the first one by stopping, but immersion into another task is harder. I spend so much time ruminating and analyzing the work that I do. We need to immerse ourselves into other activities to truly distance ourselves from the work.
What else are you doing to transform the work experience?