BONUS EPISODE: Nicole Blevins on 2024 Workplace Trends

Nicole, it's good to have you back on transform your workplace. Thanks for coming on. Well, I always love our chats and we do our extra little bonus episodes that are, they tend to be a little bit shorter than our other episodes, but I found this article by Gallup and I'm a sucker when it comes to like trends to watch. And given that we're recording this in the week between Christmas and new years for, for many people, there's this article that was six workplace trends leaders should watch in 2024. And Gallup, they do awesome studies. Like they're constantly doing research. So if they're going to have an article about trends, like pay attention to it and maybe have a discussion around it. So that's what we're going to do today. And there was a line in this article that I think caught my attention. And it says in 2024, employers and employees are heading for a relationship reset, and they're saying a lot of this comes from just the fact that people are working in different areas, not always on site, not always locally, and it could be across the country, the world, and that's changed the dynamic of the relationship. What do you think about that? No, I agree. I think relationship dynamics have changed in the workplace and it really has to do with the shift to remote work. But even beyond that, we have people that are in all different states throughout the United States. So not just remote locally and people working remotely, but working remotely in different states and every state is a little bit different, right? Like states even have their own culture and communities and things like that. So, and leaders are dealing with a lot of different employees, a lot more diversity in the workplace as well. And so building relationships is really important. And I think really being intentional about that and rebuilding that relationship and really focusing on that in 2024 is going to be really important. Yeah. They even cited a few data points that may lead to this relationship reset. They said 64% of the employees that they polled, they were given additional job responsibilities. So my guess is there was some tightening of the workplace and job duties had to fall somewhere, right? 51% cited restructuring of teams. So again, a little bit of a reset, maybe attrition or people leaving, resigning, finding new jobs and then budget cuts as well. So maybe some layoffs involved or just overall operational expenses just being reduced and causing some probably heightened tension between those, between employers and employees. Yeah, definitely stress and added tension and it's tough times for sure. And when things like that happen, it does change the dynamic in the workplace. It does affect people and it deteriorates the relationship potentially a little bit. And so employers have to work extra hard to rebuild that and to maintain just a positive working relationship with everyone. So then they get into the 2024 trends. And of course the very first one, which you just alluded to is stress remains at record high. And in this article has some statistics and charts and stuff. So I'll make sure to link in the show notes, but daily stress among employees at its peak and this chart that they have and I'm looking at, it goes back all the way to 2009. So we're at an all time high as far as stress. We need to do something about it. And I think that's where the trend of hopefully reducing the stress comes into play in 2024. Yeah, definitely see that and feel that with the clients that I work with and employees that I interact with. And I think this article said that it's just only projected to rise in 2024. So it's projected at this point to continue and potentially get much worse. And so I think that's where employers have to think through like how they can help employees manage that stress, like what tools or support systems or things can they put in place to really help employees manage that because it's tough for an employer or person to just manage that on their own. Yeah. With these first two points, and I hope it gets more positive, but unfortunately it's doom and gloom so far, point number two that they're making is engagement slowly recovering with some areas for improvement. But they basically just alluded to the data shows the erosion of mission and purpose amongst workers. And so you just do this kind of steep decline in terms of just connecting to the mission and purpose of an organization. That's pretty concerning in my opinion. Yeah, it's really important for employees to understand the mission of the organization and to see how they connect to that and their purpose within the organization and that organization's overarching purpose. And it did say that slowly recovering or engagement is slowly recovering. So that's definitely a good positive trend, hopefully going into 2024, but there's certainly areas for improvement. And remote work has really changed things, right? When an employee is not in the workforce, they're not maybe seeing all of that day to day or seeing the connection to the overarching organization or what their team members are doing that's really contributing to that mission. So finding ways to be able to still do that when you have people working remotely is important. Yep. I have an idea around that to help connect people is to talk about it more often, communicate more often. I think like during the pandemic, especially with fragmented workforces, we got in this like mode, at least the organizations I talked to just kind of this mode of thinking that communicate at one time it's going to stick. And it's just like when you have a workforce that's pretty fragmented and people just need to hear I'm in marketing. So like people need to hear the same message over and over before it really sticks even in a one-on-ones and other team environment, those are opportunities to restate why we do what we do and how what you do as an individual contributor connects to the overarching purpose and mission of the organizations. Lots of opportunities there. Agree. I think like consistency is important with that and reminding employees and in all team meetings and large group settings as well, but in one-on-one talking to employees directly one-on-one and those kind of manager employee conversations and reminding them of their impact and how it relates to the organization's goals. Yeah. This next one's interesting. So it says leaders are restoring trust yet have much room for improvement. And it alludes to the fact that leadership, trust in leadership declined because of the pandemic. What's your take on that? Yeah, that's really interesting to me. I think it was challenging times in general for everyone, for employees and organizations. And of course, we did see a lot of organizations do large layoffs or even have to shut their doors. And I think that really impacted employees and made them nervous. And if an employee was not impacted by a RIF or a situation like that, they likely knew somebody, a friend or a family member or someone who was because it was such a widespread issue. And so seeing that and seeing that happen to someone else, I think also impacted employees to where they were concerned and they were like, should I trust my organization or these other people that I love or have been connected to really dedicated their lives? And then this terrible thing happened to them. And it was just really unfortunate and just stressful times in general. And I think as we all know, like in personal relationships as well, once trust is broken, potentially it's very hard to get back to where it was or to be able to develop and foster that. And so I think employers do have to work really hard to really reassure their employees to rebuild that trust, to really instill that confidence in them that it is an organization that they can trust, that they are committed to the mission and values of the organization moving forward. I believe that the quickest way to restore trust is authenticity and transparency at the individual level, just as much as the corporate level. So like at the corporate level, we could probably share how we're doing, you know, cost wise, revenue wise, where we're going as a business, be transparent about that, bring your employees along with you. And then at the individual level, like even manager and employees, let's get to know each other at a deeper level so we can understand where we're coming from. And I think business can be done a lot better that way when there's a foundation of trust, authenticity, vulnerability like those, that's how you build relationships. I agree. I think that's a really great point is the transparency and authenticity piece, because I think part of what happened is this was a big shock to people, right? They like maybe didn't know that the business wasn't doing well or wasn't expecting that. And I think it's because historically organizations have been like embarrassed or ashamed and not wanting to share that information or be super open with their employees because they're afraid that they'll just jump ship and leave. And I think what I've found with like clients that I've worked with and in situations where organizations are super transparent about that, what happens is actually the opposite is the employees are like, I enjoy working here. I like this organization. I want it to be successful so that I can keep working here and I can contribute to that. So rather than, oh, I'm going to jump ship, how can I, in my role, impact the bottom line and be able to help the organization grow and do great things so that I can grow as well and continue to do great things with the organization? Point number four that they're making in this article says managers are getting squeezed. And what they mean by this is that changes in the workplace have hit managers pretty hard. I think their stress levels and being and burnout like all time high. And a lot of them are job hunting, according to this article and the data that they've collected. What do you think about that? Yeah, that's tough. As a manager, I get it in terms of it is a stressful time. You do feel squeezed because you're not only responsible for your own work and success, but the work of others and the success of others, which is really stressful and challenging, especially if there's an increased workload or if the business isn't doing well or struggling, you have more pressure to really have your team succeed and you succeed as an individual. So I totally can see that happening and resonate with that. And I think leaders above the managers supporting their managers and not forgetting about them in the stressful times and the work itself, like just checking in with your managers on how they're doing, like asking that simple question of like, how are you doing? What can I do to support you? Knowing that it's a tough time because managers do tend to get squeezed in the middle of that upper management and then the employees that you're supporting. And that could potentially lead to someone deciding to leave if they don't feel like they're being supported or that they are valued in the organization. I think just continuing to check in and really having those conversations is important. Yeah. Point number five. Oh, boy, do I like this one? And I'm so confused by what the strategy is, but it says organizations need a long term hybrid work strategy. Everything that I'm hearing right now from employers is we need to come back in person because we're missing something. Like I've seen workforces go 100 percent remote and then because they're maybe a creative environment or something where they need that collaboration in person because it just doesn't quite translate to the fully remote work environment. They're making an office space and bringing people back. And I'm hearing that over and over again amongst employers. But there's a mismatch because employees are saying they want something else. What's the strategy, Nicole? Yeah, it's tough when you have that mismatch, like you said, right. But I think what this is saying in terms of a long term hybrid work strategy is I think the trend is really towards that hybrid work, right, that balance of remote, but as well as keeping any key in-person interactions that might be needed depending on your work and your employees. And so just really involving, I think, employees in that conversation of what's going to work for them, how they're going to work best, while also meeting the needs of the organization is really important. And I think to a lot of organizations, we had that remote work shift when COVID happened. And then I think employers have just been like figuring it out. And no one has really focused on, we just were flying by the seat of our pants and trying to figure it out. But we never really sat down to say, what's our strategy? How are we going to make this work? What's working? What's not working? And how do we reconcile that? So I think that's going to be really important for 2024 is we're no longer in the COVID world of where it's just, oh, we're just figuring it out and doing the best that we can. It's time to really hone in on that and focus and say, what's going to work? Are we maintaining a hybrid or remote workforce? What is that going to look like? And then communicating that to your employees. And their sixth point, really, it takes this point number five a step further, it says hybrid culture can be great if done right. And I think you're alluding to it a little bit, and they have some data here to back it up. But they're just basically saying, being aware of the challenges that you're facing in a remote work environment. A couple of points they're making is less access to work resources and equipment, feeling less connected to organizations' culture, decreased collaboration with the team, impaired working relationship with coworkers, and reduced cross-functional communication and collaboration. And I hear those a lot, too. So those are the challenges that many organizations face. So how do we address those, I think, is really the ultimate question. Yeah, and I think that's where the strategy piece of things comes into place. What is our strategy going to be to addressing those? Because really, anything and everything has drawbacks, like pros and cons, right? Everything has pros and cons. And so I think what we've seen for a while is just organizations saying, here are the drawbacks or here are the cons, and focusing too much on that aspect of things rather than also considering there's a lot of pros to this type of work as well. And so knowing what we know about what the challenges are, what's our strategy to overcome that so that we're still having that collaboration, we're still making sure people are connected to our culture and have the resources they need to succeed, rather than just saying, oh, we can't do it or we shouldn't do it because of all of these challenges or drawbacks. So just really strategizing on that. So again, this article is called Six Workplace Trends Leadership Watch in 2024. This is a Gallup article. We'll put a link in the show notes. Nicole, anything that they missed that you think actually should be a trend that you'd put out in 2024? Oh, goodness. I think they did a pretty good job, and I think it alluded to it in a few areas. But I think this whole conversation of work-life balance, and maybe that's not the right word for it anymore, right? There's like work-life integration and other words coming on it. I think it's going to be really important is, I think with COVID and everything, employees are not wanting to kill themselves for an organization anymore. Work 60-plus hour weeks, and so really craving and needing that balance, and employers focusing on that, on how they can give that balance to employees and make sure they feel supported so they're still successful in meeting goals while not overdoing it. So I feel like they touched on that in multiple topics, but that's one thing I might add to bring it all together. One thing I'd add, and this probably is in there somewhere because we're talking about the hybrid stuff, I think in society we have a connection problem. I think people are more isolated than ever because of technology and social media. You think you're connected to people when you're really not in the way that you think you are. So I think deeper in relationships, have a more one-on-one connection with people that are close to you, people that influence you in a positive way, and I think that could be a trend that I would see. I think people crave it. I absolutely agree. I think people default to being isolated in general and it's comfortable, but I don't think it's what we need as people. Yeah. No, I agree. Obviously, I moved from Florida here to Oregon to work for Zennium, and I absolutely love it and don't regret my decision whatsoever. I think I thought when I first moved here that, oh, I'd be so disconnected and I'd feel like lonely, and that really didn't happen when I first moved here. I still connected with my family and friends pretty regularly, and I feel like this year is the first year where I started to feel like I do crave more connection than what I'm getting or where I'm at, and so I need to think about that and how can I be more connected to people and create my own community here in Oregon rather than just maintaining those conversations and connections with people that are in another state than me and aren't here to really build and foster that connection. Good conversation. I think these are just trends that Gallup's predicting and based on survey data, and of course, you and I just threw out a couple of trends that we're seeing, but we'll keep an eye on this and, of course, have you back and we'll talk about things that are happening out in the world of work. Thanks for coming on today, Nicole. Of course. Can't wait to talk again. 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