Globally, only one in four employees strongly agree they feel connected to their culture, and only one in three strongly agree 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 reports that creating a culture of recognition can save a 10,000-employee company up to $16.1 million in turnover costs annually.

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All too often in my consultancy business I observe teams in meetings in which the silence is deafening. When someone does speak up, it seems like the leader is listening to their own voice. Their words get played back.

This is the leadership bubble in which the leader’s voice, ideas, thoughts, reverberate around the room – physical or virtual. In this bubble the leader and team are subject to groupthink.

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In my last newsletter I explored the first five differences between communication and conversation in my infographic.

I think we talk less about communication regarding our change efforts and talk more about having a conversation.

As I said in my previous newsletter, communication cannot be the means of conversation whilst conversation can be the means of communication.

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I still come across managers and executives that believe that they have communicated because they sent an email to staff. That is not communication, that is a broadcast. To avoid common mistakes like this associated with communication, we should think more about having a conversation which would avoid the “talking at you” form of exchanging information to become the “talking with you” exchange of words.

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It will be the forward-looking organisations, executives and leaders that embrace this opportunity for the long-term success of the organisation whilst prioritising their own well-being and that of the entire organisation.

If no action is taken and the 70% of the C-suite considering quitting do so, and the 57% of employees who also said they may soon quit for a more supportive job did so, the organisation is on a rapid downward trajectory to insignificance.

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I can sense the eye rolls already. “Haven’t we read enough about Elon Reeve Musk over the past couple of weeks?”

Yes, you have but I want to explore not so much what Elon has done but the responses to his actions and the consequences I believe could result.

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When we talk about bad bosses, we attribute them with all the traits, intents and dispositions of being disrespectful, noninclusive, unethical, manipulative, cutthroat, and abusive.. Yet if they actually exhibited these characteristics, they would a megalomaniac, a tyrant, a narcissist, a dictator, and despot.

We have all had a bad boss at one time or another. Would you really label your bad boss in that manner? I don’t think so. In most cases, the bad boss does not have any deep-seated personality disorders. They are just in the wrong job or unsupported.

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As the saying goes, “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair.”

So where does this leave the organisations who have eventually learned that monitoring employee activity is not a good practice and have invested time and money into the development of leadership that measures performance by outputs not inputs, and by outcomes not the hours spent at a desk?

How do you reinstate employee trust when it has been broken? There is a myriad of ways to build trust in your team. In this newsletter I want to explore what I believe the top 5 elements that must be in place to create an environment of trust particularly in a hybrid team. I am using the word TRUST as an acronym for the five.

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The latest Randstad Workmonitor surveyed over 35,000 employees across 34 markets. The findings are clear about the shift in dynamics between employer and employee. Employees have a heightened sense of purpose which is guiding their choice of employer. This is what Randstad termed a “new era of self-determination.”

Based on the survey results, Randstad suggest there are five areas that require focus if organisations are going to remain in business. These are five areas in which organisations can be ahead of the competition by being an employer of choice.

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All leaders must have employee mental wellbeing as the priority. Not one of many priorities but the priority.

Employers have been grappling with the prevalence of health challenges in the workplace for a long time.

The events of 2020, 2021 and in 2022 raised the stakes due to a greater awareness of the workplace factors that contribute to poor mental health. Unfortunately, not enough has been done to address the issue. Employers must connect what they say to what they do. It is time to get serious about employee mental health.

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What will happen when the inquisitive alien lands and demands “Take me to your leader.”

Where will you take them?

In response to your perplexed look, the alien’s request changes to “Take me to someone who remotely resembles a leader.”

As your thought process becomes prolonged, the alien impatiently says,

“LISTEN – this is what it should look like in earth-year 2022.

· They carry a telescope and a microscope

· There is a relationship built on trust

· They have ferocious resolve

· They choose courage over comfort

· They possess emotional agility”

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The “new normal” is not limited to Australia. As TOP10VPN reports: “The pandemic has led to a huge rise in the range and sophistication of surveillance technologies being adopted around the world and, as remote work looks set to continue for the foreseeable future, invasive employee surveillance may also be here to stay.”

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Organisations and its leadership must stop dictating when employees must be in the office.

There are only 5 reasons to return tot he office and each one of them must be worth the commute.

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The phrase “Lead From The Future” has appeared in my social feeds recently partly due to the 2020 publication “Lead From The Future: How To Turn Visionary Thinking Into Breakthrough Growth” by Mark Johnson and Josh Suskewicz, which is getting some air play.

I find it interesting because I explored re-envisioning and the practice of back-casting initially in my 2010 publication “Balanced Diversity: A Portfolio Approach to Organisational Change” which I revised in 2020.

Therefore, I thought I would do so again in this article.

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Human resources leaders commonly assume that for a company to stand out as a great place to work, it must deliver competitive perks—everything from skills training to pet insurance to foosball. New research finds that this view is outdated: Engagement and retention don’t correlate with benefits awards. Employees have begun looking beyond material offerings and assessing how they feel about the company they work for—and that requires a different approach.”

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A lack of clarity about the hybrid operating model is causing anxiety and strife for employees. The time for clarity is now unless you want to be another statistic in The Great Resignation.

If you are not clear about the direction, employees will leave. Lack of clarity just says you do not care about your employees, so why would they stay with you?

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Employees are saying “I am worth more”, “I deserve more”, “I can find more.” Priorities have fundamentally shifted.

Employers need to wake up to the fact that employee expectations have changed over the past two years. There is no going back. Employers must build a culture that embraces flexibility, leadership excellence, employee wellbeing, and recognise that if they don’t, they will get left behind.

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The top ten reasons employees are leaving based on research from McKinsey. The result of the research is based on top three rankings from respondents to the McKinsey survey who left a job between December 2020 and December 2021 without another job offer in hand. These are the employees who had just had enough.

This week I explore number 6 to 10.

This is my take on each of the reasons and what I believe you can do about it.

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The top ten reasons employees are leaving based on research from McKinsey. The result of the research is based on top three rankings from respondents to the McKinsey survey who left a job between December 2020 and December 2021 without another job offer in hand. These are the employees who had just had enough.

This week I explore the top five. Note that compensation is nowhere to be seen so writing a big cheque will not resolve the problem.

This is my take on each of the reasons and what I believe you can do about it.

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This is potentially the greatest opportunity your organisation will be presented with within your lifetime. This is the chance to reflect, rethink, reimagine, and reinvent, but that must be led with a realisation that there is no going back to how it was before March 2020. The future of work is hybrid. Period.

I believe there is one key reason for the procrastination, and that is it the belief that it is just too hard. There is no doubt that moving to a hybrid operating model is complex with many implications and many stakeholders impacted by the change. But this is not a time for fear and uncertain to drive inaction unless you want your organisation to cease to be relevant. Conquer your procrastination by following the 5Rs.

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