A few weeks ago, my newsletter explored the financial ramifications of overlooking employee experience within our organisations. The figures were more than significant.

I outlined how feedback on employee experience can be gathered beyond the annual or biannual survey.

I also referenced the key drivers of employee experience as determined by Qualtrics and explored the drivers of trust, authority and empowerment. This week, I want to look at work-life balance, recognition, and growth and development.

3. Work-life balance

Without work-life balance, even the most enthusiastic employees risk burnout. A sustainable work-life balance, supported by a company culture that respects people’s lives inside and outside work, is crucial for long-term employee engagement.

Flexibility and choice

ADP recently released the 2025 People At Work report, which found that while the share of fully engaged on-site workers has been increasing steadily over the last few years, hybrid workers are still the most likely to report being fully engaged.

“The connection between engagement and hybrid work might have its roots in worker empowerment.

When we asked people about employer policies on hybrid and remote work, respondents who had complete flexibility to choose where they work each day—whether on site or somewhere else—were much more likely to be fully engaged than workers who were less empowered.

This pattern held regardless of where respondents actually spent their working hours. Office and other on-site workers who had the flexibility to choose their workplace were just as likely to be fully engaged as hybrid workers with the same level of freedom. It’s having the choice that matters.

In many professions, work can be done only on site; having a choice isn’t an option. But employers who are pulling their hybrid and remote employees back on site might want to consider the powerful relationship between workplace flexibility and worker engagement.”

The Takeaway from the ADP research:

“The good news for employers is that engagement can be nurtured. A productive first step is to empower workers to make decisions about where they do their jobs, be it always on site, or mixed with quiet days from home. When employers provide workers a choice, and give them the boost of high-performing teams, everyone, regardless of where they work, can reap the benefits of engagement.”

When employees are given the flexibility and choice to work where they want, when they want, and how they want, they have a degree of control over their work-life balance.

I love this behavioural example from Patagonia.

Yvon Chouinard, the owner and founder of outdoor clothing company Patagonia, says

“We have a policy that when the surf comes up, you drop work, and you go surfing. I don’t care when you work as long as the job gets done.”

Patagonia employees are hired for their independence. “Ant colonies don’t have bosses. Everybody knows what their job is, and they get their job done.”

Respect

In work as in life, respect is essential. A workplace culture where respect between individuals is a given is more likely to create an engaged workforce. In the best cultures, respect can be maintained even when conflict or disagreement exists in coworker relationships.

Everyone must respect that people have lives inside and outside work. This is crucial for long-term employee engagement. We all must respect each other’s differences, values, beliefs, and opinions.

Respect is demonstrated when we utilise some of the other drivers of EX discussed in this and previous newsletters. These include authority and empowerment, providing work-life balance, transparent communication, active listening, and psychological safety.

Workload management

A work-life balance can only be achieved when there is workload management. This means that work is actively planned and prioritised. It is allocated to workers in a way that distributes the load optimally between the available resources. It takes into consideration capabilities, capacities, and well-being.

The Victorian State Government here in Australia provides guidance on effective workload management and describes what it looks like.

An organisation with good workload management would be able to state that:

· The work employees are expected to do is reasonable for their positions

· Employees have the equipment and resources needed to do their jobs well

· Employees can talk to their supervisors about the amount of work they have to do

· Employees’ work is free from unnecessary interruptions and disruptions, and

· Employees have an appropriate level of control over prioritising tasks and responsibilities when facing multiple demands.

Managing change

We used to refer to change using the acronym VUCA – volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.

As change increases in all of these aspects, we now have alternative acronyms, including:

RUPT (Rapid, Unpredictable, Paradoxical, and Tangled)

BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear and Incomprehensible)

TUNA (Turbulent, Uncertain, Novel and Ambiguous)

I like BANI as change can feel brittle, as if something will give or break. It makes us anxious as we cannot predict what is coming next; it is certainly not linear, and it is hard to understand when there are so many transposable parts.

We can increase employee engagement when we improve our management of change.

Employees are more likely to tolerate and adapt to change when they feel supported throughout the process. Understanding the reasons for the change and receiving advance notice are also key factors that drive engagement.

In 2023, I wrote an article called “We Have a Leadership Crisis – Managing Successful Change.” A study by DDI revealed that there was a critical deficit in leadership skills in areas including managing successful change

I explored the common mistakes that are made in the workplace and adversely impact the achievement of successful change. If addressed, they can increase employee engagement.

1. Starting from the wrong place

2. Communicating rather than having a conversation

3. Leaders think they must have all the answers

4. Not soliciting feedback

5. Lack of engagement

Recognition

Back in 2022 Gallup released a report entitled Transforming Workplaces Through Recognition. The study recognised that employers could not just offer people jobs any more. They must create an environment where employees want to work and can be their best. This starts with showing employees that they are valued. This is achieved through recognition or what I call positive reinforcement.

Globally, only one in four employees strongly agreed they feel connected to their culture, and only one in three strongly agreed they belong at their company. This is damning. If organisations truly want to retain and attract talent for survival, they must demonstrate to employees that they are valued by recognising their contributions.

There is also a return on investment. Gallup reported that creating a culture of recognition can save a 10,000-employee company up to $16.1 million in turnover costs annually.

I explore five pillars of recognition in the article.

Growth and development

Offering employees a career development path and an opportunity to grow means they are more likely to want to stay. Positive relationships with leaders and a sense that their career goals are seen and supported are behind this engagement driver.

When I think about employee growth and development, the quote from Henry Ford always comes to mind.

“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”

Career ladder or lattice

We must recognise that the traditional career ladder approach, where employees advance upward through the organisational hierarchical ranks, is not the only indicator of success.

This image is from BizLibrary.

Ladder: This narrower, vertical view focuses primarily on getting a promotion so the employee can attain the next job title.

Many refer to it as a ladder because it only goes up, but it could also be envisioned as a pyramid with many people at the bottom and fewer and fewer as it goes higher up.

Lattice: The lattice is the horizontal career growth path that broadens knowledge and creates value for the employee.

A horizontal move doesn’t always correlate to higher status. Most often, a move across the career lattice means transferring to a different department where the employee widens their skillset by learning new skills and reskilling their existing ones.

Organisations will benefit and increase employee engagement when they support both career trajectories. The corporate lattice model, in contrast to the traditional ladder, is more adaptive, and therefore better suited to align with the changing needs, norms and expectations of today's workplace.

Leader or individual contributor

Organisations must recognise the need to provide career frameworks that cater to those who wish to become leaders and those who want to be individual contributors to avoid disengagement and high turnover.

Not everyone wants to be a leader. Organisations must recognise and reward the value of technical experts, offering competitive compensation and supporting the growth of individual contributors. This can significantly impact company culture, innovation, and employee satisfaction.

Individual contributors are pivotal in organisations because they specialise in their technical or functional domains and make direct, hands-on contributions to projects and initiatives.

Leadership involves teams, making strategic decisions, and setting organisational direction.

Performance management

This article, which I published in 2023, explored measuring performance instead of productivity. Employees want to be measured on the value they deliver, not the volume they deliver. Productivity is a poor indicator of performance. The number of hours an employee spends at a desk does not correlate with the outcomes they deliver that contribute to the organisation.

Performance must be measured based on outcomes and value-add.

Summary

You cannot afford not to address employee engagement.

Using Gallup 2024 figures, if you are a US company with 1000 employees, 170 are actively disengaged. Disengagement costs 18% of an employee’s salary = $10,698 per employee. Total cost per year = $10,698 x 170 = $1,818,741.

Can you afford to ignore the price of disengagement?

EX – Stop Ignoring the Cost (2)