Editorial
A recent surge of articles and comments have highlighted the disconnect between companies' claims of valuing their employees and the actual reality. As we navigate 2024, a year where employee experience (EX) has been relegated to merely a "nice-to-have," the workplace climate has been branded the “Great Gloom.” Forrester's prediction of an EX recession, marked by cuts to DEI efforts, training and perks, further underscores the anticipated decline in employee engagement and culture.
Businesses need to remain profitable — that’s understood. But it's troubling that the first budget cuts often affect employee-related spending during tough times. This approach reflects a short-term, tactical mindset prevalent among leaders who lack a strong strategic response system.
There is science behind this response. When overwhelmed or stressed, our brain interprets these states as threats, prompting it to act swiftly and tactically to mitigate them. Imagine a leader feeling the weight of the board, stakeholders and financial targets — and off they shift into reactive mode. They opt for quick fixes to escape immediate "threats," sacrificing long-term success for temporary relief. This reactive system contrasts sharply with intentional, purposeful and strategic approaches. While short-term goals are important, they must be viewed within the broader context of long-term success and sustainability.
However, leaders who take a step back and create space for thoughtful consideration can optimize across various objectives, including financial performance, business growth and employee experience. By doing so, they open themselves up to more possibilities and options. Let’s explore some key considerations for achieving this.
The Big Pitfall
Despite the ongoing cutbacks in employee initiatives, organizations continue to demand more from their workforce. Whether it's implementing transformations or achieving ambitious goals, it often feels like they are asking employees to go 100 miles on a 25-mile tank, all while expecting them to smile happily while they do so.
In reality, for most companies, “organizational energy is the limiting factor in the speed and success of their transformation efforts. Leaders must diligently measure and manage change capacity to fully realize the full potential of business transformation,” according to a recent HBR article.
Consider this disparity for a moment: you want a productive, engaged, and resilient workforce that thrives in the face of relentless uncertainty and volatility. However, what is currently more common is a burnt-out, depleted or stressed workforce — which is far from the ideal. They lack the capacity to perform at their best.
What fuels this capacity? Our most valuable asset: our energy.
If you aren't providing the fundamental resources your employees need to effectively manage and optimize their energy, you are setting them — and your organization — up for failure. While initiatives like wellbeing days offer a quick boost, sustainable change requires time and a dual-focused approach that addresses both individual employees and the overall workplace environment.
Related Article: Forrester Predicts an EX Winter Is Coming. How to Prepare
The 3 Paths of Thriving Individuals
Years of research into thriving — defined as feeling successful, performing well and feeling good — revealed that human energy is key. Thriving individuals and teams manage their mental, emotional and physical energy through distinct behaviors. We found that successful leaders and employees fell into three broad groups, providing a framework for understanding different levels of how success and truly thriving intertwined.
Group 1: Successful but Burnt Out, Stressed or Depleted
Individuals in this group often display many external signs of success. They might have the house, the car and other markers of achievement. At work, they are diligent, known for meeting business goals and delivering, exceeding expectations or attaining prominent leadership roles. Internally, they are running on empty. Constant stress and depletion prevent them from truly flourishing.
Group 2: Successful but Feeling a Sense of Lacking
Similar to Group 1, they exhibit external success but feel underlying dissatisfaction. They might feel unfulfilled or stagnant, despite their accomplishments. They may seek greater impact or challenge, shifting their focus from "success on paper" to a deeper sense of purpose, meaning or growth.
Group 3: Successful and Flourishing
This group stands apart. They achieve success and experience positive emotions such as joy, have a deep sense of meaning and feel fulfilled in their daily lives. They accomplish the coveted sustainable, meaningful success and performance.
Currently, Group 3 is a smaller percentage of the population, typically scoring near 80% on our Energy Management Quotient evaluation, indicating higher energy levels and greater human capacity. They notably demonstrated remarkable resilience during COVID and tend to exhibit superior performance, collaboration, creativity and overall well-being.
3 Considerations for Long-Term EX Support
If you're looking to empower and enable your employees this year and beyond, keep these key considerations in mind:
Recognize Employees Need Support the Most During Challenging Moments
Many organizations cut back during times when employees need energy the most, such as during layoffs or reorganizations. While budget constraints are understandable, it's crucial to support employees meaningfully during these periods. Employees often take on additional work, face lower morale, and experience heightened uncertainty, depleting their capacity.
Interestingly, employees who feel supported and cared for, even when laid off, often remain strong advocates for their former company.
To navigate this effectively, you need to balance short-term and long-term strategies for boosting employee capacity. This means providing immediate support while also building a sustainable environment for long-term wellbeing.
Ask yourself:
- What short-term, tactical capacity boosters do we offer? For example, wellbeing days.
- What long-term, sustainable initiatives do we have in place? How do we measure their effectiveness?
- What do our employees need, and how can we meet these needs within our budgetary constraints?
Focus on Personal Sustainability AND Performance
While many individuals can achieve high performance, it's crucial to be cautious when this leads to outcomes seen in Group 1 or 2. Reaching the sustained high performance of Group 3 requires a focus on personal sustainability, which involves both external organizational practices and internal individual behaviors.
To foster this, adopt a two-pronged approach:
- Organizational Support and Enablement: Think about how the organization can best support and foster the necessary environment. This includes effective communication, strong leadership, appropriate tools, meaningful metrics and supportive policies.
- Individual Support and Internal Enablement: Focus on helping employees overcome their internal challenges and build the behaviors and mental habits necessary for managing their energy and creating lasting capacity.
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Ask yourself:
- How are we supporting employees in achieving personal sustainability?
- Do we have a human sustainability strategy that considers the entire employee lifecycle and touchpoints across the EX ecosystem?
- Do we understand the root causes behind any signs of burnout and stress?
A side note on the last bullet: It's not as simple as saying consistent long hours may contribute. To understand the root cause you need to go deeper to understand what practices, behaviors and mental habits enabled the environment where consistent long hours became the norm.
Related Podcast: What Organizations Can Do About Burnout
Understand the Impact of Current Expenditure
A common excuse is, "We have no budget." However, most companies are already spending money on various initiatives — but these funds might not be allocated effectively. Sometimes, it’s not about spending more but about ensuring the efficacy of your current investments. Evaluate your expenditures critically, and be ready to make necessary adjustments. Constraints are real, but there’s always room to ask: What’s possible?
Consider:
- Collaborating with Current Vendors: See if they can offer more value or tailor their services to better meet your needs.
- Evaluating and Shifting Investments: If current solutions aren’t delivering the desired results, consider reallocating funds. Sometimes, a different approach or solution at a fraction of the cost can yield better outcomes.
- Pilot Low-Cost Initiatives: Explore low-cost pilot programs to test new ideas and see what works best before committing to larger investments.
Ask yourself:
- Are the current solutions we’ve invested in delivering the desired results?
- Are we effectively measuring these results, and do these measures reflect the reality of our employees' experiences?
- If not, how can we reallocate our budget to explore different, potentially more effective options?
Final Words
If you want your business to thrive, it’s crucial to genuinely consider and prioritize your people.
Let these two sayings guide your future actions:
- "Actions speak louder than words" — Everyone is tired of empty promises.
- "Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity" — If your current strategies aren't yielding results, it's time for a change. Can you afford further depletion in your workforce?
By taking a step back to look at the bigger picture, asking the right questions and taking meaningful actions to support and empower your employees, you can foster a thriving, resilient and high-performing workforce, even in challenging times.
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