Today people are burnt out, unmotivated, and feeling unfulfilled. Companies are dealing with tighter budgets, a decrease in sales, and a drop in employee productivity & engagement. Employees feel the need for more flexibility, work from home, and work-life balance. Companies are realizing the negative impacts of a remote workforce and are slowly going back to a larger on-site presence.
Today’s workforce and workplace are clashing.
Both parties are not moving toward each other, which creates a distance of silence where both parties argue for their side, and neither listens.
Here are some facts:
- Burnout is on the rise – rose 40% globally in Q4 of 2022
- US resignation rate is at an all-time high. Survey data shows that people are leaving to seek a more fulfilling life
- Gen Z and Millennials feel stressed all the time
- 75% of remote workers would seek a new job if their employer asked to work on-site full time
- Prior to 2023, 70% of US workers planned to leave their job in 2023
Among the top reasons for resignation in 2023 are: flexibility, team culture, and management.
This dynamic seems to remain unchanged, and managers are stuck in the middle, both needing to portray their company vision and mission, and abide by the budget cuts and controls, also responsible for employee engagement, morale, and commanding a highly productive team. Managers have been put in a position of having to do it all.
Management has traditionally been a title that described an elevation in position, or a promotion. Not often enough is management described as a completely different role with new responsibilities, skill sets, and expectations. Too often are people promoted into management roles as highly skilled individual contributors, and not enough for their abilities to handle conflict, manage with empathy, and motivate others.
To survive, managers need to figure out how to create safe environments for their workers amongst ambiguity, change, and intense work cultures. If managers can figure out a way to combine both the needs of the employees with the work output that’s needed, then employees will be happier doing the work that’s prescribed because it’s not just for the company, it’s for their own benefit.
Here’s an example, Employee Emily has aspirations to become the Head of HR one day, but today, she’s an HR Coordinator mostly focusing on tactical execution of operational tickets regarding employee benefits. Her responsibilities are to make sure the tickets are handled in a timely manner, but her interests stem more deeply to Employee Engagement and HR.
The manager should be identifying this as a potential gap in the role that Emily is currently fulfilling, and figuring out how to enhance her work product through her own personal goals. An example of this is, asking Emily to create a tracking mechanism for her tickets, to develop any patterns with her benefits tickets and complaints from employees, and conduct an analysis on that tracking to see if there are any improvements that can be implemented given the data.
This way, it connects Emily to the goals of what she’s doing and likely will increase her performance in handling the tickets, because now she cares what each and every one of them says. The improvement piece, on coming up with suggestions on how to better the benefits system, will come from the work she’s inherently doing.
Not enough companies are investing in leveling up their managers to be influential, maximizing, and people operators, but are requesting a lot from their managers in return: being blockers and tacklers, distillers of vision. Managers are being asked to do a lot without a lot of support.
Companies like The Command Shift Company, are dedicated to helping scaling and growing companies, to become more productive, profitable, happy, and organized through their existing workforce. Command Shift develops and trains managers to become influencers and change agents within the organization. This empowers the managers to create more out of what they already have, maximize how their workers are engaging, and create self-correcting and motivated teams. In turn, the companies can see happier workers, a reduction in turnover, an increase in sales, and an increase in efficiency. Learn more at thecommandshift.com and schedule your free call today.
Uma Rajagopal has been managing the posting of content for multiple platforms since 2021, including Global Banking & Finance Review, Asset Digest, Biz Dispatch, Blockchain Tribune, Business Express, Brands Journal, Companies Digest, Economy Standard, Entrepreneur Tribune, Finance Digest, Fintech Herald, Global Islamic Finance Magazine, International Releases, Online World News, Luxury Adviser, Palmbay Herald, Startup Observer, Technology Dispatch, Trading Herald, and Wealth Tribune. Her role ensures that content is published accurately and efficiently across these diverse publications.