Time for leaders to get ready for 2023.
Trendspotting hits different this year. We’ve already experienced a Great Revision of how, when, why, and where we work. We know we’re going to be dealing with recurring questions about remote and hybrid workplaces, flexibility, improving DEI, anticipating the needs and expectations of a changing demographic, and how or whether to raise wages — as your competitors are likely doing.
There are exciting new technologies to consider integrating into our systems to improve communications, accountability, collaboration, administration, compensation and benefits. But what’s really new? It’s the need for leaders to really address issues in the workplace culture. It’s been well-demonstrated that unhappy employees, for reasons from low pay to not feeling valued, have a grass-is-greener approach to their positions. People are not staying in roles they don’t thrive in. Generation Z is threading into the workforce and bringing their own preferences for autonomy and flexibility. The talent market is still tight.
The following are key work culture issues that may not be the most obvious, but they count heavily when it comes to employee experience. Ultimately, the way you address them will affect your ability to recruit and retain — and getting proactive about them could give you a tremendous competitive edge as an employer.
1. Deal With Burnout
We’re not going to see less burnout among our teams in 2023. We may even see more, given economic uncertainty, health challenges we don’t even know about yet (hello strange Las Vegas virus), and a continuing upheaval among workforces as millions continue to switch jobs. HBR recently pointed out that Google searches for “burnout symptoms” hit an all-time high in May 2022. But I don’t think we’ve seen the peak of employee burnout yet.
Managers are going to have to face the music on this one, and leaders need to support their efforts. Two keys here: first, don’t stifle employees. Give them wings. Give them opportunities to try new skills, take on new challenges, and even fill in on a different job (job switching may be a great strategy here). If they’re pushing to learn something, enable them to learn it. Second, fill that feedback vacuum. Employees don’t get enough back in terms of guidance, feedback, and dialogue. Fairness is a big driver of burnout – and nothing feels more unfair than working without acknowledgement.
2. Watch Those Incentives
Ethics at the workplace are a big deal. That includes the position you put employees in by incentivizing certain behaviors with bonuses and other rewards. While I’m a strong proponent of appropriate, positive rewards and recognition, employers and managers need to make sure they’re not pushing employees across a line.
Consider Wells Fargo in 2020, which paid $3 billion (yes billion) to settle claims employees had committed widespread consumer and investor fraud. The culprit was an incentive system — along with a culture of toxic competition — that led to opening millions of unauthorized accounts. As employees felt driven to a frenzy of shady practices that seemed legitimized by the fact that the company was rewarding them, deeper values gave way. Ultimately, incentivizing bad behavior is going to cost you in terms of your workforce, your ability to recruit, your managers, and of course your bottom line.
3. Stop The Gaslighting
Don’t think gaslighting happens in your workplace? Think again. Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2022 isn’t a surprise — and the world of work needs to pay more attention. Gaslighting takes place in remote workplaces as well. One reason may be that the practical distance between communications makes it easier to question or deny someone’s perceptions or memory.
We could call it passive gaslighting, or quiet gaslighting: it’s more subtle and harder to detect, but it’s just as harmful. Some pernicious examples: Ghosting an employee’s messages, or taking hours to answer a communication tagged by the sender as urgent (I’m not talking about spam here). Not crediting everyone on a team that was responsible for a project or accomplishment can have corrosive effects on less visible employees’ self-esteem. Setting up a Zoom call for an employee to express concerns, but making it 15 minutes — even more egregious if it’s about a DEI-related complaint. Of this last one, I’ve heard a few too many instances, and we really need to stop. All of these gestures make employees feel less valued, less connected to their employer, and thus more likely to leave. In 2023, it’s as important to watch what we’re not doing as what we are.
4. Commit To Worker Agency
In the category of trends that aren’t exactly new but matter more than ever is worker agency, which Deloitte first pointed out as a big workplace factor in 2021. Their new trends report for 2023, due out in January, found that 84% of leaders feel that worker agency is important to the success of their business, but only 17% feel ready to address it.
But is that really a commitment to worker agency? Interesting gap here between employees who want it to be a fundamental condition of their employment, and employers who aren’t entirely convinced until they see how the numbers pan out. As we see a new influx of Gen Z into our workforces, that’s going to be an issue: they’re entering a workplace where remote and hybrid aren’t perks, they’re realities. Across generations, there’s certainly a disconnect between employers who want their employees back at the office and employees who don’t want to go: 98% of remote workers would like to keep working remotely for the rest of their careers, at least part of the time.
No matter the trends being pointed out by Gartner, McKinsey, Deloitte, thought leaders and researchers, there’s one common thread: This isn’t a time to let things coast. It’s a mistake to hold back and wait and see whether or not economic issues cause an ease in the tight labor market — and therefore let workplace issues coast for a quarter or two. Action has payoffs, as we’re seeing, for instance in the immense success of the six-month global 4-day week trial: not only reduced employee stress and burnout levels and improvements in mental health, but a 9/10 rating for employee productivity and performance, and a 38% increase in average revenue overall. A good work culture is good business — and that’s going to be especially true in 2023.
