Mandated office returns are having a negative impact on talent attraction and retention.

Almost half (42%) of firms who mandated returns have experienced higher than normal employee attrition, whole 29% are struggling to recruit 

72% of employers surveyed stated that they are taking this approach. An additional 20% have not mandated a return but are highly recommending it.

Many Gen Zs feel they are missing out because they have never worked in an office on a full-time basis. Sorry to tell you but those days are gone. If Gen Z (and anyone else) is not feeling connected, a sense of community, and assimilated into the workforce, the chances are that is a fault of leadership.

I am feeling extremely frustrated right now and as I write this, I know I am preaching to the converted. The feedback I get from my videos and articles tells me that most of you concur with my feeling about the demand for employees to return to the office. Yet the people who need to listen are not listening. Are they so protected n their CEO towers that common sense cannot enter?

This myopic focus on where work gets done is antiquated. The focus should be on how work gets done, that benefits both the employee and employer.

Instead of listening to employees and taking a dose of reality, they are now seeking more subversive tactics to get employees back into the office.

Whilst many are getting it wrong, there are those getting it right.

There is now another piece of research undertaken by McKinsey called  “The State of Organisations 2023.” This too tells us we have a leadership crisis. McKinsey surveyed over 2,500 business leaders around the world. The report includes a narrative on ten shifts that are transforming organisations and what to do about them.

One of those shifts is called, “Leadership that is self-aware and inspiring.”

It is not easy for leaders to become less directive and more empowering. It is a lengthy and often arduous process. It is a three-stage journey ending with The Return.

Leadership transformation is not a single event but unfolds over time and takes many twists and turns. It’s a long journey with three stages: the departure, during which leaders recognise the need to change and leave behind their old ways of working; the voyage, during which they encounter obstacles and trials that teach them important lessons; and the return, when they arrive at a new understanding of what kind of leader they need to be.

“No leader who has built a career on making expert contributions and exercising hands-on control can be expected to make the leap overnight to a people-centric style.”

It is a three-stage journey to move from a directive style to one of empowering and enabling others.

McKinsey suggests five areas where you can start to focus for new ways of working and in this newsletter, I will add my take on their suggestions.

1.     Reset performance expectations

2.     Be transparent

3.     Be purposeful about where people work

4.     Remove ambiguity about working practices

5.     Test and learn

 The McKinsey “The State of Organizations 2023” report cites one of the ten shifts that are transforming organisations as “True Hybrid: The new balance of in-person and remote work.” The McKinsey research named two benefits of getting the right balance: attracting and retaining talent, and increased productivity - both of which I have spoken and written about recently.

A remote work model is required for organisations to thrive, which means every part of an organisation will need to adjust physically, mentally, and emotionally.

The changes in where, when, and how we work, present challenges across structures, processes, and people, but they also offer the greatest opportunity organisations will be presented with for some time to come.

Organisations that unlock this opportunity, will distinguish themselves as the employer of choice whilst those that do not, will find succumb to the pressure of competition, fail to grow, suffer financial deterioration, and ultimately cease to exist.

Organisations that invest in addressing the empathy gap will not only retain their talent but also become a highly valued destination for top talent. This is not a nice to have. It is imperative.

And whilst many will be forced out of their comfort zone, that is not an excuse not to do it. Remember a ship is safe in the harbour but that is not what ships are built for. ~ John A. Shedd

We have a leadership crisis. DDI research revealed 5 key skills lacking in our leadership today. One of those was the ability to manage successful change. In this article I explore 5 commons mistakes that can be avoided.

Andrew Vanderstock is the Executive Director at OWASP (Open Worldwide Application Security Project®).

He recently introduced a four-day workweek and in this interview he shares his approach and the outcomes.

Why are your employees leaving you?

Why can’t you attract the right talent?

Why has your customer satisfaction score dropped yet again?

Why has your employee engagement score taken a dive?

There is a very easy way to find out.

Just Ask!

The DDI 2023 Global Leadership Forecast reveals that confidence in leadership quality has taken a nosedive. Only 40% of leaders said their companies had high-quality leadership – “the biggest decline in a decade.”

The 17% drop from just two years ago and the biggest decline in a decade put current leadership quality ratings nearly on par with those in the wake of the 2007-2008 economic crisis.

The behaviour of leaders clearly shows that we have a leadership crisis. We have a mass of so-called “leaders” asking the question, “How do I know if my employees are working or not?”

The fact is that when these employees were in the line of sight, sitting at a desk for 8 hours in the office, leaders still did not know if they were working!

This behaviour means that leaders believe that performance is measured by the hours spent at a computer.

The latest disruptor is AI and ChatGPT. People are again running scared that their jobs will become redundant due to new technology.

And the fact is that they may. But rather than running scared, face it head-on and respond accordingly.

This must be one of the best descriptions of what it is like for a leader making the shift to leading a remote team.

“It’s like learning to drive on the wrong side of the road. You must get to the same destination as before, but you now have different signals, cues, and controls — and that does take some time getting used to!”

This is Raghu Krishnamoorthy writing for Harvard Business Review in October 2022.

I am not sure whether I love it or hate it when I read an article from one of the big guns and I say to myself, “I have been saying that for ages!” On one hand, it validates what I have been saying and on the other, it feels like no one listens unless your name is Garter, HBR, BCG, McKinsey, Gallup, Deloitte or the like.

In this instance it is Gartner and the report is called “Think Hybrid Work Doesn’t Work? The Data Disagrees.”

Even before the pandemic, less than one in five HR leaders believed that performance management was effective at achieving its objective according to Gartner. This must be a concern. If the process was broken before the pandemic, failure to act now will destroy it.  Leaders must have the resolve to change how they handle the performance management of a remote workforce. If they don’t, trust will disintegrate, employee engagement will fall, and employees will walk out of the door.