Learning and Development How to gather feedback on L&D needs It’s no secret that your people want learning and development opportunities. In fact, 94% of employees would stay longer in their role if they felt their company was invested in their personal development. Whether you already have a robust L&D program or you’re just starting out, gathering feedback from all stakeholders on learning gaps is crucial. Here are three ways you can get started. 1. Start with company goals The purpose of a great L&D program is to get your people performing at their best to support your company’s success. Your first step in gathering feedback on L&D needs should be speaking to business unit heads and understanding their key business goals and challenges. Not only will this help you understand where to prioritize your focus, you’ll also get buy-in from senior leaders early in the process. Use data to support your plans Understanding key metrics around performance, turnover, and profit will highlight where learning initiatives are likely to best support business needs. This will help you prioritize the gaps, and will act as a great way to gain senior leader buy-in, too. 2. Conduct an L&D needs audit This is a big task, and one that will take a lot of input. In order to understand what is already in place, you’ll need to speak with all department heads and people managers. Understand existing team provisions, and whether each item is standardized or bespoke. Compile all the information and look for any patterns or cross-over in terms of existing initiatives and learning gaps. Best practices Alongside your audit and internal fact finding, there are several initiatives that fit every business. If you’re not already doing these, it’s time to consider their place in your business: Coaching Mentoring Leadership development programs Performance reviews & OKR / Objective setting Custom eLearning / training sessions 3. Ask your learners Commonly overlooked, engaging the people who will actually be doing the learning is critical to gaining buy-in. A major reason employees don’t engage in learning programs is they don’t find the solutions and opportunities relevant to their own development. Using employee feedback to create your L&D program is the best way to build something that works for the business and the people. Keep it simple Start with the simple question: “what do you want to learn?” This should help you gather 3-4 recurring themes and highlight major areas of focus and can be as simple as a free text survey. Avoid multiple choice questions as you’ll limit scope and influence the direction of answers; giving people the option to answer with anything – however creative – will give you much more honest and useful feedback in areas you may not have considered. As with anything, feedback is crucial. Building learning and development programs that engage the entire business is fundamental to their ongoing success. When everybody feels they have a voice, buy-in will be high and your programs are sure to be a success. Find out all about the latest L&D trends and start building a world-class strategy today. Written 1 August, 20231 August, 2023 by Shelley Mole Post navigation Previous article:Learning & development: how does your L&D program compare in a competitive landscape?Next article:How to get leadership buy-in for your L&D programs
Learning and Development Learning & development: how does your L&D program compare in a competitive landscape? It’s no secret that employee expectations are changing. People are demanding ever-more from their employers, with a particular focus on personal development, which of course falls to you in HR. Whether you’re new in a business or a veteran, you’re likely asking yourself one crucial question: how does our Learning and Development program measure up to other companies? Offering a robust learning and development program is key to attracting and retaining the best talent, and staying attractive in a competitive job landscape. But where do you start? First, you need to understand what other companies in your space are offering, and understand how to match – or beat – them. Here are 3 major L&D initiatives to keep you competitive in 2023. Plugging skills gaps ‘Upskilling and reskilling’ are terms you’ll have heard a lot in the last 5 years. Skill gaps have ballooned worldwide with 87% of companies set to face this challenge in the near future. 1 billion people will need re-skilling by 2030 to keep pace with technological advances, calling for a “reskilling revolution”. Giving your people the opportunity to upskill or reskill and future-proof their careers is a great way to stay competitive. Ditch one-size-fits-all If the latest shifts in learning patterns are anything to go by, one size fits only one. In a world where we get personalized recommendations for what to watch on Netflix and customized news feeds on social media, it’s only natural that learning also moves in a similar direction. If we can use technology to make every other aspect of our lives more efficient, why not our learning? Learning personalized specifically for one’s interests and career goals is one of two main motivators for employees to learn. People want learning and development that is relevant to their career and their goals. By offering this, you can easily stay ahead of your peers. Create a culture of coaching More than just the latest L&D buzzword, a coaching culture encourages and supports learning, growth, and development. Businesses with coaching cultures want their people to become the best version of themselves through ongoing feedback, healthy challenge, and support. There are several ways businesses are leveraging coaching in 2023: Level 1: Using engagement surveys to understand what your people want and need. Investing in one off initiatives and training sessions. Encouraging mentoring from manager and senior peers. Running team building sessions. Acknowledging learning styles and creating space for neurodiverse colleagues. Level 2: All of the above, plus investing in specific ‘manager as coach’ training so your managers all adopt a coaching style with their teams. Level 3: Employing all of the above, and investing in external, professional coaches to enable everybody to reach their individual goals and unlock their full potential. Embedding a coaching culture – especially a level 3 culture – is a deliberate strategic decision, and cannot happen by accident. It takes constant work and investment, but the rewards are huge. Find out all about the latest L&D trends and start building a world-class strategy today. Written 1 August, 20231 August, 2023 by Shelley Mole Post navigation Previous article:Make the most out of your L&D budget for 2024Next article:How to gather feedback on L&D needs
Coaching, Wellbeing Is coaching the missing piece in your wellbeing puzzle? Wellbeing is a huge focus for many global businesses right now, as they seek to mitigate the long-term mental health challenges their teams are facing in the wake of the last few years. Whether it’s hybrid working, enhanced benefits programs, or ‘summer hours’, new initiatives and wellbeing trends seem to emerge every week. The thing many companies are missing, however, is the desire for purposeful careers; people are seeking work that aligns with their values, and companies where they see a long term future. The best way to create that purpose is to commit to people development. Specifically, it’s time to invest in professional coaching for wellbeing. How can professional coaching help? The words ‘professional’ and ‘wellbeing’ may feel somewhat at odds, but it’s really important businesses understand what wellbeing truly is, and move away from the entrenched view of something fluffy and intangible that can be created through discounted cinema tickets and on-site gyms. Wellbeing is the state of being comfortable, healthy, and happy. It’s a combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional and social health factors, and as such is unlikely to be heavily impacted by the addition of an office pool table or drinks fridge. True wellbeing requires a great deal of psychological safety, something a workplace has a huge positive – or negative – impact upon. When organizations support their people via meaningful, relevant development initiatives, those people thrive. The best way to ensure mutual alignment on values and purpose is to provide a clear investment in their future. Three ways coaching supports wellbeing Your people have a safe, confidential space to discuss challenges and work through issues. For companies where wellbeing is a priority, leadership and managers likely already have strong coaching skills, and people undoubtedly feel supported. By investing in external, independent coaches, you’re creating the additional psychological safety your people need in order to thrive. Coaching allows them to address challenges in real-time, independently, and on their own terms. Coaching encourages work/life balance, developing strong boundaries, and prioritization. One of the main stressors people face is a lack of perceived balance. This is a huge barrier to wellbeing. Coaching encourages prioritization, allowing your people to perform at an optimal level at work, while also feeling as though they can live their lives. The impact coaching has on workplace performance is always positive: achieving work/life balance doesn’t mean prioritizing life, rather setting boundaries that allow them to achieve all their goals. Mental and physical health will improve. This is a huge positive for both your people, and your business. Absence due to burnout costs US businesses $500 billion annually. Much of this could be avoided by creating healthier work environments and empowering people to understand their own stress-triggers and limits. People who are coached are more self-aware, communicate more effectively, and understand their own stress triggers. Less people will reach the point of burnout, absenteeism will decrease, and your people will be healthier and happier. Ready to discover this impact coaching can have on your business? Get in touch today. Written 14 June, 202314 June, 2023 by Shelley Mole Post navigation Previous article:The new manager: how to equip your leaders for successNext article:The power of a coaching culture
Leadership The new manager: how to equip your leaders for success A manager is most simply defined as: a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff. A definition which rang true for decades, but no longer holds up for the majority of workplaces. Today’s managers are expected to wear many different hats: counselor, confidante, cheerleader, coach… the list goes on. A huge management focus is on employee wellbeing, yet targets for high performance and ever-increasing output from teams have not reduced. Finding the right balance appears impossible. While it’s certainly challenging, with the right tools and resources, managers can be everything to everyone – most of the time. Juggling conflicting priorities Balancing the conflicting priorities of wellbeing and output is hard. Managers must protect and develop their teams whilst also focusing on business outcomes, productivity, and performance. If a team member is struggling with workload, but deadlines are looming and there’s no additional resource budget, it can become overwhelming. Managers must seek to balance everybody’s needs and find an appropriate solution. This is especially challenging for new managers with less real-world leadership experience – and often less business experience, too. In these conflicting situations, it’s easy for emotions to become fraught, and perspective to be lost, which is where emotional intelligence (or EQ) comes in. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to develop EQ in your people, regardless of their starting point. You simply need to invest in the right initiatives to help them gain perspective, empathy, and resilience. The best place to start is with access to individual professional coaching, where managers can work through challenges in real-time and on their schedules, gaining clarity and solutions to their challenges. They’ll also learn skills for their management toolkit, so future conflict will seem less overwhelming. Manager as coach Not only do your leaders need coaching themselves, they should also be actively working to become coaching managers to best support their teams and the business. A coaching management style is rooted in the concept of empowering individuals to grow and develop within their organization. It’s about facilitating learning rather than directing it; asking questions rather than giving answers; and helping employees unlock their potential. It’s a huge move away from simply enforcing rules and procedures. It’s popular because it works: employees with coaching managers are 40% more engaged and are 20% more likely to stay in an organization long term. How do I develop coaching managers? If you already see the value of coaching as a management skill, but have no idea where to start, you’re not alone. It’s a common issue: many senior stakeholders envisage a vast program of work. Rather than retraining every line manager in the organization, it actually all starts with a simple mindset shift. You need to develop a coaching mindset in your people. It may sound like corporate jargon, but developing coaching mindsets in managers is the best way to guarantee strong leadership. Put simply, it’s an attitude or approach that involves guiding, inspiring, and supporting others in their growth and development. Managers with a coaching mindset see themselves not as bosses or supervisors, but as facilitators who empower their teams to perform at their best. The first crucial step in transforming managers into effective coaches, this mindset shift centralizes the growth and development of others. Instead of taking a directive approach, where the manager tells the team what to do, there is a more collaborative one, where managers and employees work together to identify solutions and make decisions. Where should I start? If you’re ready to develop coaching leaders, here are the best ways to get started: Learn more about empowering leadership in our complete guide. Implement individual coaching for managers in your business. Encourage everybody in your organization to embrace a coaching mindset and collaborative environment. Written 8 June, 20235 June, 2023 by Shelley Mole Post navigation Previous article:Emotional intelligence is every leader’s secret weapon; here’s whyNext article:Is coaching the missing piece in your wellbeing puzzle?
Leadership Emotional intelligence is every leader’s secret weapon; here’s why Management today is complex. Far from the output-focused role it once was, today’s managers are expected to be everything to their teams: career guides, mentors, support systems… the list goes on. The shift is best defined as a move from management to leadership; rather than dictating tasks and giving orders, the expectation is to develop teams aligned to a cause, who perform because they are bought into their leaders. Striking the balance between pastoral care and goal attainment is tricky, especially for new managers who may not have much business experience themselves. Developing high levels of emotional intelligence is one way managers can navigate the delicate balance, understanding when to shift their approach from supportive to outcome focused. Emotional intelligence, commonly referred to as EQ (Emotional Quotient. Think: IQ, but for empathy) comes naturally for some, but for others, it can be more of a challenge. The good news is that EQ can be developed in everybody, whatever their starting point. Why is emotional intelligence so important? First, let’s take a look at how EQ presents in a business context. Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions in a constructive and adaptive way. It can be categorized into five main components: Self-awareness Self-regulation Motivation Empathy Social skills All of these characteristics show up in strong leadership. Without these attributes, managers are unable to understand and manage their own emotions, or empathize with the feelings of their team members. How can I increase my managers’ emotional intelligence? Whether they have high emotional intelligence, or there’s work to be done, here are a few ways managers can enhance their EQ, whatever their starting point: – Reflection: Regular self-reflection helps managers become more self-aware and understand how their emotions drive their behavior. – Feedback: Encourage open and honest feedback from peers and team members. This can help managers understand how their actions affect others. Feedback can be informal or more formal via tools such as 360 degree assessments. – Mindfulness: Practices like meditation can help managers stay focused and aware of their emotional state. – Coaching: Providing ongoing coaching to your managers is the most impactful way you can support their EQ journey. Coaching is proven to help increase self-awareness, resilience, and motivation. How do I know it’s working? Strong leaders will always get better results, develop more engaged teams, and see far lower undesirable headcount churn than their peers. Investing in a meaningful EQ initiative – like coaching with Sama – for all managers gives you access to real-time data that demonstrates the impact of coaching. Using retention data and employee surveys also demonstrates the benefits of strong, empathetic leadership on your business success. By investing in developing the emotional intelligence of your managers, you’ll enhance the effectiveness of your coaching efforts and create a more supportive, understanding, and productive work environment. Emotional intelligence is just one component of developing empowering leaders. Find out more about developing managers to drive your business success in our complete guide. Get in touch to discuss your people strategy today. Written 31 May, 202331 May, 2023 by Shelley Mole Post navigation Previous article:Three signs your people are burnt out (and what to do about it)Next article:The new manager: how to equip your leaders for success
Burnout Three signs your people are burnt out (and what to do about it) Can you spot the signs of burnout in your team? Burnout is a response to chronic workplace stress, and it’s becoming ever more prevalent. Many cite a lack of separation between work and life as the cause. People are more connected than ever in modern workplaces, with work technologies increasingly creeping onto personal devices, and home offices blurring the line between work and life even further. As an employer, it’s important to understand the many and varied causes of burnout, and work to reduce them in your workplace. It’s even more important that you can spot signs of burnout in individuals and plan to negate them. Here are the top ways to tell if your workforce are heading for burnout – and what to do about them. 1. Productivity is plummeting A company or team-wide drop in productivity is a huge red flag for burnout. This could manifest as consistently missed sales targets, a lack of new ideas, or a growing culture of unmet deadlines. Whatever it looks like, when productivity drops, it’s a good indication people are less engaged and motivated than previously, and it’s likely that chronic stress or lack of direction are the cause. Ensure you’re setting meaningful SMART objectives across all teams. Clear communication of expectations appropriately manages workloads and gives better visibility on resourcing. Regular one to ones encourage open dialogue with management, so your people can communicate their concerns and highlight any blockers to success they’re facing. Don’t be afraid to ask the difficult questions: Are you feeling engaged and motivated? Is your role appropriately resourced? The answers may throw up problems and concerns that take additional workload to solve, but the alternative is a continued erosion of productivity and a rise in undesirable churn. 2. Sentiment is poor, and teamwork is out the window Negative behavioural changes and shifting dynamics are a strong indicator that people are struggling. It may be that they simply no longer have the desire to foster workplace relationships. It could be that exhaustion is leading to frayed nerves and an absence of patience. If you’re noticing more friction and cynicism in your team, examine whether burnout is the cause. The best way to understand the issues facing your team is to ask them. Run anonymous employee surveys, encourage open questions at town hall meetings, and task managers with understanding team sentiment. Importantly: act on the feedback. Transparency is key. Acknowledging where you’ve been getting things wrong – and how you’re going to rectify them – is crucial to avoiding long-term damage from burnout. You’ll see critical team interactions improve too! 3. Absenteeism is high Lost productivity through work related stress costs the global economy $47.6 billion annually. Those absences might not always be logged as stress. Not only do people falsify the reason to avoid the stigma or potential fallout of taking time for burnout, exhaustion also manifests in other illnesses, like migraines and gut problems. If your sickness absence has shot up, consider if your culture is encouraging burnout. Developing self-aware, resilient teams significantly reduces the chance of absence from burnout. Working with coaches to focus on resilience, your people become empowered to understand their stress triggers. They’ll begin to overcome adversity in a less emotional, all-consuming way. Investing in your people is an investment in your business; building teams with healthy stress responses will benefit the overall health of your business and boost productivity. It’s impossible to avoid all potential causes of burnout in the workplace; shifting priorities and pressures of growth will always create stressors. As an employer, your job is to minimize their impact on your people and spot the signs of burnout. Taking measures to protect your teams is what differentiates you as an employer, and keeps your people at their best, driving your success.. Find out more about how to spot the signs of burnout, and how developing a coaching culture in your organization reduces burnout. Or get in touch to discuss your people strategy today. Written 25 May, 202330 May, 2023 by Shelley Mole Post navigation Previous article:A comprehensive guide to developing coaching skills for managersNext article:Emotional intelligence is every leader’s secret weapon; here’s why
Case studies, Customer stories Accelerating future leaders with coaching Investment Firm | Global | 2500+ employees Core challenges: Leadership development | Resilience & high performance Investment firms are unique environments that require navigating a competitive and high performance culture. Winning deals, investing well, and managing effectively are paramount to the success of the organization. Our client had grown rapidly in recent years, increasing the assets under management and products offered. Accordingly, their team had grown substantially. There was an increased awareness from leaders around resilience and wellbeing. Given the changing environment and increasing pressure, our client was investing in creating impactful development programs for their leaders of the future, and sought Sama’s support in delivering meaningful coaching curated for the investment industry. Ensuring coaches would understand their unique culture and context was paramount. “We were initially drawn to Sama due to their work with our peers and how easy it was to get started. Investment firms are quite unique in our specific challenges, so Sama having founders with backgrounds in not only L&D, but also private equity, infrastructure, and VC, meant they understood our world.” Developing future leaders The firm was building a robust accelerated development program for high potentials. They had existing access to learning platforms, and an internal mentoring program in place, but were looking to add something that was more personal, flexible, and truly tailored to each individual. “We wanted to make it simple for our people to succeed. Coaching fills a specific role and niche in a person’s development plan. A manager has a vested interest in developing you, but they’re busy and might not have the time and energy to be as dedicated to the person’s needs. “A coach gives a non-directive approach and attention that managers can’t. They focus on action and help that person achieve their personal and company goals. This is why coaching is critical to our success.” Success in a high performance environment The client wanted to have a team that was resilient but also thrived in a high performance environment. Developing people’s resilience was an objective of the firm, forming part of their wellbeing strategy. In an increasingly fast-paced and intense industry, keeping people consistently healthy and engaged can be challenging. “Burnout can be a challenge, and we wanted to ensure our people had the tools to avoid hitting that point. Sama’s coaches really understand how our business works, they’re an impartial resource and sounding board. So they have a huge impact on how our teams overcome challenges and become more resilient.” Measurable success In a data driven industry, the ability to measure success was important. This is the only way to be able to justify resources allocated to any given program. The firm had a huge focus on improving data fluency, people analytics, and initiative measurement: “We want to move away from reactive stats and reporting to having clear KPIs and metrics.” Through Sama’s dashboard and analytics, they are able to demonstrate engagement and ROI, helping identify risks and addressing them directly. “Even from cohort one, we’ve been able to see people’s ability to communicate improve and the overall culture change too.” Key metrics 95% report feeling more resilient 73% report better working relationships 2 x more promotions over external hires Written 28 April, 20233 August, 2023 by Shelley Mole Post navigation Previous article:Enhancing leadership developmentNext article:Navigate the hidden costs of layoffs
Case studies, Customer stories Enhancing leadership development About the client: Global investment firm | 500+ employees Core challenges: Leadership development | Retention | Succession planning Joining the business as CHRO to support the firm’s growth ambitions, our client rapidly identified a need to enhance the existing leadership development program. High growth is always a threat to culture. They wanted to ensure positive integration of their new lateral hires, while enabling the incumbents to be inclusive and embrace change. Learning and development in the investment world is largely based on an apprenticeship model, making it harder for managers and leaders to mentor through the changing realities of the industry and specific circumstances. The main goals for leadership development support: Retain the best talent Maintain a positive culture Give the tools to managers to coach their teams A better approach to leadership The CHRO had extensive experience rolling out leadership development programs in other businesses, and knew there were often huge issues in the efficacy of these programs: “I knew we didn’t want a point in time training program where people forget what they learned. This needed to be meaningful, and deeply embed leadership skills in our people.” Sama coaches worked with a cohort of mid-level and senior professionals to develop their leadership skills, including: Communication Effective feedback Delegation and people planning Self-awareness Stakeholder management Communication and feedback were critical for the firm: “We’re emphasizing becoming a culture of feedback; we haven’t been great training managers how to have tough conversations.” Coaching normalized feedback culture, and also gave managers toolkits for delivering – and receiving – feedback. New responsibilities Being an outstanding individual contributor doesn’t necessarily make you a leader. The firm was noticing higher employee turnover in teams where those in leadership roles had minimal management experience. Exit interviews highlighted a lack of support and guidance, poor communication, and not enough useful feedback. Giving coaching to less experienced managers hones critical leadership skills, playing a vital role in developing the company’s teams and supporting their growth. “The team likes having Sama coaches as a sounding board before having performance management conversations. The manager role is becoming more and more complex over time; Sama solves some real challenges for us.” Measurable success Since working with Sama, the coached cohort and their reports have all scored higher in engagement surveys, communication has elevated, and turnover in those departments has decreased. Key metrics 27% reduction in employee turnover in where coaching is rolled out +12 eNPS in teams with coaching 92% of coached employees report better working relationships 50% of employees coached were female of which 94% reported a greater sense of belonging Written 25 April, 202319 January, 2024 by Shelley Mole Post navigation Previous article:How can you avoid the burnout epidemic in your business?Next article:Accelerating future leaders with coaching
Burnout How can you avoid the burnout epidemic in your business? Only 4% of working people never feel burnt out. It sounds shocking, but considering burnout costs global businesses $322 billion annually, an impact on 96% of people at least sometimes makes sense. It’s a huge topic right now, but what actually is burnout? According to the World Health Organisation (WHO): “Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy.” Burnout is so much deeper than feeling exhausted or stressed at the end of a project or a long week. Chronic workplace stress is often institutional, becoming widespread in organizations that promote ‘hustle culture’, unnecessarily long hours, and presenteeism. There’s a huge gap between working to get the job done and ‘working’ to be seen. If you want to avoid the burnout epidemic, the first thing that needs to go is inflexibility. How can you ensure you’re not promoting presenteeism? Practice what you preach A major cause of burnout is a perceived lack of time to do everything; the impossibility of working a full time job and managing your personal life. Too many CEOs talk about work/life balance in their company values, citing ‘flexible’ working in job ads, yet visibly work late nights and weekends, subconsciously applying pressure to their teams to do the same. Senior leaders should embed a culture of flexibility by loudly leaving the office early once in a while, talking about attending your kids’ sports day, and scheduling any non-urgent emails written out of hours to send the next morning. That way, when your people next have a personal errand, they know they’re allowed to run it without judgment. Encourage taking leave (and sick days!) Taking breaks is a good thing, and needs to be encouraged. When people don’t take vacation days, stress levels rise and innovation and productivity drop. It’s another huge cause of burnout. The same goes for sick days. It’s one thing carrying on with a cold, but when a major illness hits, rest and recuperation is necessary to recover. Encouraging your team to take sick days isn’t just ‘the right thing to do’, it actually gets them back to full health – and full productivity – far quicker than if they try and power through. People avoid taking time off for a number of reasons, most of them cultural. Feeling you’ll fall behind, not trusting colleagues to pick up the slack, or expecting a poor reception from your manager. There must be a shift to both sickness and vacation days as the norm, and not villainized. Again, this starts from the top. Put policies in place that encourage people to take their vacation days, coach management on encouraging their teams to look after themselves when they need to, and make sure leaders take leave too. Change the narrative on time off. You won’t lose productivity, you’ll lose presenteeism. Develop confident, self-aware teams When your people are confident, competent, and comfortable in their ability to perform, they find setting boundaries and organizing their time easier. And with boundaries comes the confidence to take a break when you’re feeling overwhelmed, log off early to make that last minute appointment, and communicate when you’re overstretched. All of which make businesses more efficient and effective. Self-awareness is a challenging skill to hone. A great place to start is in developing a coaching culture. By making coaching available to everyone in your business, you’re giving your people the best opportunity to understand what they need to thrive, and to articulate their needs when facing a challenge. Coaching also develops resilience; your people will become significantly more adept at bouncing back from tough situations, again boosting productivity and engagement. High engagement leads to high-performance Coaching enhances performance and development by establishing tools and frameworks to overcome challenges. Coaches work with your people to unlock their potential, and drive performance by focusing on specific individual and business goals. And when your people are successful, your business thrives. Ready to supercharge your teams? Get in touch today. Written 30 March, 2023 by Shelley Mole Post navigation Previous article:5 ways to re-engage your team after layoffsNext article:Enhancing leadership development
Layoffs, Wellbeing 5 ways to re-engage your team after layoffs There are few events more disruptive for an organization than layoffs. However well planned, the people remaining in your business feel displaced and disengaged: they’re facing shifting reporting lines, new team dynamics, and changing responsibilities. The impact layoffs have on exiting employees will – and should be – a huge focus for leadership during this time. Providing support and solutions is paramount. But the huge psychological toll on remaining teams must also be addressed. Minimizing long term disruption following a round of layoffs is critical to your ongoing success. Avoiding low engagement is the best way to off-set the damages: here are five places to start re-engaging your teams. Invest in your leadership Layoffs bring complex challenges to your leadership team. Whether they’re part of the C-Suite or a first-time manager, developing a solid leadership toolkit benefits not only the individuals, but everyone they interact with. Critical leadership skills, like clarity of communication and effective delegation, massively reduce the negative impacts of layoffs on your remaining teams. When you engage your team by aligning them with leadership, and help them understand what the new normal looks like, performance will organically improve. Avoid ‘burnout culture’ The burden of additional work is disheartening in the wake of layoffs. Your remaining people are picking up ongoing projects, taking on new responsibilities, and trying to achieve more with less. They’ll feel increased pressure to deliver and appear high-performing due to fear of a second round of layoffs. But the added workload and perceived demand to perform rapidly leads to burnout. Avoid overloading teams by addressing the risks of burnout head on. Ensure managers are discussing workload and prioritization in 1:1s, create a culture where asking for help is encouraged, and allow people breathing space to adjust to the new way of working. Address survivor’s guilt head on It’s common for remaining teams to experience survivor’s guilt; a complex mix of gratitude that they kept their job, and sadness for their departing colleagues and friends. Unsurprisingly, this anxiety is not conducive to productivity, and output drops by 20% immediately following layoffs. Be as transparent as you can about the layoffs; understanding the cause, and the criteria, can help eliminate feelings of guilt for departed colleagues. Take time to teambuild After layoffs, team dynamics shift beyond recognition: for people who view workplace relationships as central to their career, layoffs are an enormous blow. Giving teams space to network and socialize allows new bonds to be formed, and people will adjust more quickly. Consider neurodivergent colleagues, and cultural differences in your team. ‘Team building’ is not just taking your team for Friday drinks; for some, that’s hugely off putting. Team building also looks like: Focused creative problem solving A 15 minute coffee chat Volunteering Reinforce your ‘why’ Connecting work with purpose eliminates feelings of uncertainty and gives your people a sense of meaning. Re-centre your company purpose, vision, and values to align teams, and ensure you’re sharing success stories – from new client wins to great internal feedback. Engage your team by reinforcing company vision and values; reminding everyone what the overarching goal is and what you’re all working towards is sure to inspire your people and gain buy-in. Layoffs are always complicated. Find out more about the hidden costs of layoffs in our guide Written 15 March, 202315 March, 2023 by Shelley Mole Post navigation Previous article:Layoffs are a major life event. Make grief management top of your to-do list.Next article:How can you avoid the burnout epidemic in your business?
