Catherine Mattice's Blog, page 19

5 Ways to Not Scare Your Workforce Away this Holiday Season

It’s the time of ghosts and ghouls, gatherings with loved ones, and preparing for a season of joyful giving. And while we can appreciate a good haunted house, we’re here to make sure your culture isn’t taking on a similar form.

 

Here are 5 ways to not scare your workforce away over the holidays:

 

Celebrate *all* the things

While one all-inclusive holiday party can check a box, there are SO many cultural and religious celebrations that often go unrecognized. Talk to your team, send out a survey, and find ways to learn about which holiday traditions matter to each of them. Then, make an effort to recognize, represent, and celebrate those traditions with your team! We can never be too educated on the cultures and belief systems of others…here’s a list of 20 celebrations this holiday season to get you started!

 

Be aware of your team’s preferences and restrictions

Holidays can be a challenging time for sober individuals, as well as people with dietary restrictions and preferences. Make a point to ask for these considerations in advance, so that no one is left feeling pressured or unable to participate (anonymous surveys are your best friend!). Familiarize yourself with common triggers for those in recovery, along with ways to help minimize social pressure to drink. If someone on the team has dietary restrictions, make sure food is properly labeled and dietary-friendly options are plentiful.

 

BONUS: Catherine will be hosting a LinkedIn Live show at 9AM PST on November 2nd to discuss inclusivity for your sober workforce. Check it out here ! It’s a valuable resource to add ways to not scare your workforce away.

 

Respect time off

‘Tis the season for traveling, spending quality time with loved ones…and using the rest of our well-earned PTO. So be respectful of your employees’ time off, when they take it. Every job is different, and some have more urgencies than others. Here is where we say – use your best judgment. If a true emergency presents itself, then do your best to handle it internally, with the employees that are available. Only reach out to an employee on leave if absolutely necessary. I know that your question on the proposal you’re drafting may seem urgent…but I assure you…most things can wait. Respecting (and encouraging) PTO use will help your team re-energize and come back to work with a refreshed spirit.

 

Encourage decorations and virtual backgrounds

As a company, it’s essential to be inclusive, representing the various cultural and religious holidays in your decorations. However, as individuals, employees should be encouraged to share their unique backgrounds. Whether it’s a menorah, the Chinese zodiac, a Christmas tree, a clay lamp…all work-appropriate decorations should be encouraged. Our unique traditions are meant to be celebrated – not by all, but by us. And while it’s important to be respectful of different backgrounds, it’s just as important for employees to feel proud of their own! Share this guide on how to decorate your workspace for the holidays, and maybe even dedicate an afternoon to a friendly “workspace decoration” or “festive zoom background” competition.

 

Focus on gratitude and reflection

It’s the last quarter of the year…and there is so much to reflect on! The holidays are a great opportunity to take a step back and consider: What lessons did this year bring? What changes will help us grow as a company, and in our individual journeys? What are we grateful for? Set aside time to have open discussions with your team that focus on gratitude and reflection. Get to know them better as people, and discuss how their goals can align with the goals of the company. Be sure to include a session on core values, thinking about how they’ve changed over time, and how employees’ individual values interact with the team’s values. Here is a list of some thought-provoking questions that can help guide those reflective conversations.

 

So there you have it. 5 ways you can help cultivate an inclusive and warm environment and ways to not scare your workforce away this holiday season. Enjoy your ghosts and ghouls tonight, and make sure the only people you’re “spooking” this year are the trick-or-treaters.

 

With gratitude,

Sabrina and the Civility Partners Team

The post 5 Ways to Not Scare Your Workforce Away this Holiday Season appeared first on Civility Partners.

When did everyone get so sensitive?

Recently I delivered a presentation at a conference, and right at the end one attendee asked this question:

“When did everyone get so sensitive? I feel like there are so many things we have to watch out for when we talk these days. You can offend anyone over every little thing now. It’s kind of exhausting.”

Answer:

Everyone’s always been “sensitive” to being isolated, excluded, and treated differently because of their race, gender, sex, disability or other characteristic.

The difference isn’t that people are more “sensitive” than they used to be, it’s that they feel more comfortable telling you about it than they used to be.

And by “they,” I mean all of us. Ironically, the woman who asked this question was the same woman who had shared an experience of sexual harassment earlier on in my talk.

It was not appropriate to bring up 25 years ago when it happened. Afterall, it was just a customer asking her out on a date – had she brought it up to her boss he would’ve asked her why she was being so sensitive.

Though far too many people still experience this situation at work, it’s easier to discuss because most of us would not consider it “too sensitive” any more.

So we’ve made some progress. But we have so much more to make.

While it might be hard to keep up with others’ “sensitivities” because we don’t understand them, we all have our own list of priorities when it comes to how we want to be treated at work. And we all want people to know and care about them.

Civility and respect for others is the key to a thriving, effective and efficient workplace. And because we can’t all know what everyone else is “sensitive” to, we absolutely need to have a culture where people are aware of and empathetic to others’ needs and comfortable to talk about them.

This kind of workplace culture is also the key to minimizing or even eliminating harassment and discrimination. 

The next time you think to yourself that someone at work is asking too much or taking it too far, recognize that just because we can talk about inappropriate romantic advances these days it does not mean that everyone else who has a bone to pick is “sensitive.”

It means it’s their turn to be recognized and educate others about what’s inappropriate for them personally or their group. 

Hopefully, in 25 years they’ll be at a conference sharing stories about some form of progress too. Maybe even more progress than we’ve made so far with sexual harassment. 

 

Sincerely,

Catherine & the Civility Partners Team

 

P.S If your workforce is in California, we’d be happy for them to join our free harassment prevention training on October 24 at 2pm. As you can imagine, our version of this training is much more useful than the compliance-focused options out there.

Indeed, you’ll be compliant AND your workforce will gain impactful insight on negative behavior and their role in a respectful workplace culture. 

Sign your workforce up here. Or, forward them the link and let them sign themselves up. 

The post When did everyone get so sensitive? appeared first on Civility Partners.

6 Easy Ways To Facilitate Fun Workplace Wellness Program

Businesses need to build a culture that fosters positivity and mindfulness to succeed. Many organizations implement an employee engagement program that helps people connect and have fun. However, not everyone knows where to start.

If you’re looking to start a good workplace culture, you need to know the basic building blocks to optimize fun and wellness at work. Here are six easy ways to facilitate a fun workplace wellness program that everyone will enjoy.

 

What Are Workplace Wellness Programs?

Workplace wellness programs typically focus on ways to improve the health of employees. Instead of implementing a one size fits all type of program, companies offer personalized options. This might involve giving employees access to a gym or offering workshops.

The best wellness programs inspire employees to make healthier choices. An inspiring program makes them feel valued and excited to do their best.

Fun wellness programs are vital because they cultivate positivity. Think about it. You get up every day and go to work. That little extra boost of positivity can make a difference in how you approach your day.

Fun workplace wellness programs are also beneficial for your employees’ mental health. No one wants to spend most of their waking hours in an unpleasant environment.

 

1. Encourage An Active Body Through Physical Challenges

Investing in your health is the first step to a fun workplace wellness program. Your employees probably spend most of their day sitting down. As a result, people are not as active as they could be. It’s time to kickstart a wellness program that lets them stay active.

One of the best ways to encourage activity is to create physical challenges. For instance, you can help your people reach their goals through fun workouts. You can provide prizes for the winners. Races, obstacle courses, and other competitive activities can also foster a sense of teamwork.

Physical challenges encourage good health, but they also build interpersonal relationships. Employees who participate in these challenges will have fun and get to know each other better.

 

2. Get Emotionally Fit Through Mindfulness

A good workplace wellness program doesn’t focus solely on physical health. A genuinely successful wellness program encourages your employees to be emotionally fit too. Employees who struggle with stress are more likely to get sick. Stress can also affect productivity.

Workplace wellness programs should also focus on mental health. Once people focus on their physical health, they often neglect their mental health. You need to help your employees strike a balance between their health. 

You can integrate emotional fitness into the wellness program in a way that’s appropriate for your business. For instance, you can offer meditation workshops, and employees can sign up for yoga classes. You should be clear about what you can expect from your employees.

You can implement a mindfulness program to create a healthy workplace. It can teach your employees to manage stress, foster healthy relationships, and provide many other benefits.

 

3. Do Walking Meetings

Sometimes, you must bring a group of people together for a brainstorming session. But, you don’t want to spend an hour or even half of their time. You only have a short amount of time to share ideas. 

Walking meetings are a good solution. All you need is about 20 minutes to cover a lot of ground, and you can go at your own pace. You can schedule walking meetings weekly; their benefits surpass your meetings. 

Walking meetings teach your employees to prepare for meetings more effectively. People usually allow discussions to meander, but you have to be more organized and focused when you have a time limit. You should schedule walking meetings during lunch or before or after work. 

 

4. Volunteering At A Local Shelter

Volunteering is an excellent way to make employees feel like they’re making a difference. Everyone loves giving back to their communities, especially during the holidays. When you volunteer during the holidays, you create meaningful experiences. You can also let employees volunteer during other times of the year. 

Suppose you want to add a charitable component to your wellness program and volunteer at a local shelter. You can have your employees volunteer once a month or once a quarter. Some employees might want to volunteer more often.

This allows your employees to do something they can feel good about. For example, you can organize a volunteer day at a local animal shelter. Animal shelters always need help; your employees can get a lot out of helping.

It’s essential to give people some flexibility. Not everyone can volunteer simultaneously, so keep that in mind. Once you organize your volunteer schedule, let everyone know. Change things up so people can participate when they can. 

 

5. Healthy Lunch Catering At Work

Bringing food from home was the norm, and everyone knew how to make nutritious meals. But, more and more people rely on deliveries to cater to their lunches. This opens up a massive opportunity for you. 

Build a healthy workplace by catering nutritious meals for your employees. You can offer a healthy lunch option every day. This can encourage people to choose healthier alternatives when they’re hungry.  

Lunch is an excellent time to build a strong relationship between your employees. Your lunch menu can be an opportunity for your business to show appreciation. For instance, you can have a theme every day. For instance, you can cater Italian food every Tuesday, Mexican food on Wednesday, and so on.  

You can outsource the service if you want to offer your employees nutritious snacks. There are plenty of healthy food delivery companies. They can take the guesswork out of keeping your employees fed and healthy. Offering healthy lunch catering can be a great way to add value to your employees’ lives. 

 

6. Build A Culture Of Gratitude With Each Other

Good workplace wellness programs encourage your employees to be mindful of their health. But, they want to do this in an environment that welcomes it. Your wellness program should be an environment where employees feel good about making healthy choices. 

A wellness program should also invite and support gratitude. You can do this by having meetings where you talk about wins. You can create a culture of appreciation by celebrating milestones.

You can show your employees that you care about them, and they’ll be more likely to participate in your wellness program. It requires effort, but it pays off.  

 

The Bottom Line

There is a lot to consider when building a fun workplace wellness program. However, you’ll be on the right path if you think about the critical focus areas. Encourage your people to be active, emotionally fit, and grateful. You can build a comprehensive wellness program that your employees will love. 

 

Written by: Katie Pierce

The post 6 Easy Ways To Facilitate Fun Workplace Wellness Program appeared first on Civility Partners.

Want to retain employees but don’t know where to start?

Employee retention is an ongoing initiative and there is no magical solution to ensuring employees won’t exit your organization. However, there are a ton of strategies for keeping employees motivated, satisfied and engaged – mostly by using company culture to your advantage. 

One highly impactful system we’ve seen make a huge difference in retention is the employee onboarding program. And we aren’t just saying that from personal experience, a 2022 study by Sapling found that a great employee onboarding program can increase employee retention by 82%. That same study found that 88% of employers do not onboard well, which to me sounds like a major lost opportunity. 

Employee onboarding is about bringing employees into the way things are at the organization.  It’s much more than processes and paperwork and should be thought of as a strategic system for retention and engagement.

You might be wondering where to start…. And that’s why we are here!

We’ve spent the last few months crafting free webinars for our awesome audience to share everything and everything we know about ingraining company culture into everything your organization does. We’ve talked about performance management, recruiting, climate assessments, and more – now we are going to talk about onboarding. 

On our next webinar Using Your Employee Onboarding Program to Reinforce Company Culture, we’ll talk about the ROI of onboarding, key aspects of a successful onboarding program and how to implement an onboarding program that involves employees at all levels, not just HR. 

The webinar is next Tuesday, October 11th at 11am PST. 

Make sure to register here at this link! 

We hope to see you live! 

 

Sincerely, 

The Civility Partners Team 

 

P.S. We are offering one SHRM PDC for attendees!

The post Want to retain employees but don’t know where to start? appeared first on Civility Partners.

Creating a Culture of Accessibility in Your Company

Many companies fall under the generalization that they’re strictly driven by profit, and have very little regard for their employees. With our country becoming increasingly diverse, as well as in the midst of a mental health crisis, investing time and resources into ensuring your company fosters a culture of accessibility is one way to stand out in your industry.

People often assume that accessibility only refers to accommodating those with physical disabilities. In actuality, accessibility refers to making sure that everyone, from staff to customers, can function comfortably and be their whole selves at the organization. 

 

Commonly Overlooked Conditions That Benefit from a Culture of Accessibility

It’s an unfortunate fact that some people with disabilities may have trouble expressing themselves when they’re having difficulty with something. This also applies to people dealing with learning disabilities, or who feel uncomfortable with certain topics. Below, we discuss some conditions that are easily masked and frequently overlooked:

Audio-based alternatives to text often greatly aid individuals struggling with cognitive deficits or other causes of dyscalculia and dyslexia; learning disabilities that can severely hamper day-to-day activities and work-related tasks due to misunderstandings they can cause.Epilepsy can be triggered by anything from flashing marketing ads online or to workplace signage at physical locations, which is why designers should consider that although they can quickly draw attention, they could also potentially cause an episode.Mental Illness neutral terminology and the creation of inclusive spaces with considerate signage would diminish the risk of triggering negative feelings or discomfort in individuals struggling with common forms of mental illness like chronic anxiety, PTSD, or gender dysphoria.Both onsite consumers and staff are prone to experience flare ups of chronic pain conditions (e.g. arthritis, back pain) in spaces not incorporating practical layouts or furniture styles considerate of all age groups and body types. 

These are just a few of the conditions that people often hide, despite difficulties they may experience, for the sake of “getting along.” From the perspective of a compassionate individual and a business-minded company leader, potentially minimizing how much of a hindrance people experience when dealing with your company would be an overall sound investment.

 

How to Make Your Company More Accessible to Everyone

There are many ways to make a company more accessible that aren’t difficult or expensive; it just requires some thoughtfulness and empathy to make a big difference. By taking some simple steps like the ones listed below, you can create a culture of accessibility that’s much more inclusive and accommodating.

Make sure your website and marketing materials are accessible to everyone:

This means using simple language, adding descriptive text to images, and providing transcripts for audio and video content. Along with adjusting visuals, the type of language used is a step in the right direction. Avoiding ableist or sexist language, and providing alternative formats can greatly improve the comfort level of your customers.

Create an inclusive workplace: 

“Inclusivity” is frequently associated with ethnicity, but that isn’t where it ends. This means valuing diversity, being welcoming to everyone from all lifestyles, and providing support for employees with disabilities. Making sure your staff is aware of their personal biases and educating them on the different backgrounds people come from could help to unify teams of employees and lower the risk of inter-office conflicts.

Inclusivity training could involve reorienting workspaces by repositioning office furniture, or holding staff meetings where people can freely share concerns or issues preventing them from performing at their best during the workshift. Become an ally for your staff; someone they can rely on and feel they can come to for support.

Provide accessible customer service: 

The ability to provide quality service to your customers doesn’t end at being able to answer their questions. Providing accessible service means ensuring that your staff is trained to deal with customers with disabilities, know how to accommodate people from all walks of life and different cultures, and that your products and services are accessible to all.

Advocate for accessibility in your industry:

Simply improving the culture at your own company is rarely enough to affect change in a given industry. Advocacy for accessibility means speaking up about the importance of accessibility and actively working to make changes industrywide. Practices like doing business or partnering only with companies who share your values might sound like small gestures, but they have the potential to cause ripple effects on their own.

Ensuring that your company is accessible to all people is something that can be done gradually. A step in the right direction is never wasted, but keep in mind that some changes take more time to fully implement. Be mindful of your staff’s feelings and make sure that everyone fully understands the changes being made and the reasons behind them.

 

Benefits of a Shift Toward Accessibility

Companies willing to reorient toward a culture of accessibility stand to gain significantly in the context of business. For one thing, a marketing campaign that embraces accessibility automatically attracts a wider demographic. Preemptively investing in accessibility can also help companies avoid potentially time-consuming clarifications or revisions for individuals with cognitive disabilities. Time and profit motives aside, there’s also plenty to gain in terms of productivity; employees able to work to their full potential without negativity or unease in the workplace naturally tend to be more motivated than those at a less considerate company.

 

Written by: Eric Van Buskirk

The post Creating a Culture of Accessibility in Your Company appeared first on Civility Partners.

ROLE-PLAYS: The Dreaded Activity

Hello!

I’m Suzz. I recently joined the Civility Partners team a little over a week ago. Prior to that and for the longest time, I managed and trained IT Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) teams all across APAC (Asia Pacific, Greater China, Japan, Korea and India) and EMEAR (Europe, Middle East, Africa).

What has that taught me? Besides sleep being overrated, it has taught me the importance of keeping my teams engaged and compliant. With the dawn of the hybrid work model, ensuring my team’s knowledge and process adherence is up to par has been a challenge. 

Gone were the days where I could walk behind them, listen in on their conversations and provide real-time coaching. Most of the time, I would not know they were non-compliant until a customer complaint came in or I caught it during audit checks. 

This is where I used my training hat and introduced role-plays during my team meetings and 1:1s. What better way to drive engagement and conduct knowledge checks!

But! No one liked role-plays. Every time I would suggest it, there would be a wave of sighs and eye-rolling. Who liked getting in front of their colleagues and opening themselves up to feedback from peers. 

So, after much trial and error, I’ve discovered a couple of ways to make role-plays fun and engaging:

Firstly, always have an objective. And be clear about it. Example: Today we are going to do a quick role-play on a new process that has been implemented. The goal is for all of us to be aligned  and that our customers receive the same information regardless of whom they speak to”. This creates an environment of openness and clarity. Always a good thing. Secondly, repackaging the concept of role-plays. Just like a lot of healthy foods, the outer appearance is usually bland and boring. We walk past not knowing the benefits of consuming it. Same like role-plays! If your team has had bad experiences with it, there is a chance they won’t be as participative. So rebrand! Call it a “Conversation Simulator” or “Pre-Game Process Rehearsal”. Whatever you feel would appeal to your team depending on their culture. 

I could go on and on with different ideas but I would hate to be long-winded on my first blog post. So, if you’d like to have a chat about how we can help your organization, CLICK HERE and we’ll be in touch!

Sincerely,
Suzz & The Civility Partners Team 

 

P.S. A Message From Catherine – 

We are so excited to announce our newest team member, Suzzane (Suzz) Dickman-Perla. She comes to us with 15+ years of experience in learning and development, and will be the project manager for all training clients, including managing contracts, developing and customizing training programs, and delivering training too. 

She is a ton of fun and we are so excited to have her on the team! Check out my interview with her if you’d like to get to know her. 

The post ROLE-PLAYS: The Dreaded Activity appeared first on Civility Partners.

6 Common Costly Mistakes that Derail Organizations In Times of Change

From our episode, “ 6 Common Costly Mistakes that Derail Organizations In Times of Change ” with Esther Weinberg

 

At some point, leaders today probably feel the sense of being ready to powerfully take on all the opportunities and challenges at their feet. But the question really is how?

The answer is by creating workplace cultures where trust, respect and psychological safety are valued which probably no one would argue with. That right sounds good on paper but they’re measured as the bottom line.

 

The Ready Zone

Action ready

It’s the foundation of the house that’s around developing your level of emotional agility. You’re even understanding what your legacy is and how you bring that inside the organization.

Influence ready 

It’s how you develop influence through visibility and alignment while building sustainable relationships and doing it from the intention of being giving rather than just taking.

Connect ready 

It’s how do you have consistency in communication and take responsibility for the impact of your communication because as we know just because words are coming out of your mouth, doesn’t mean you’re actually saying anything.

Culture ready

It’s how do you build an organization where people are coaching and mentoring each other to build out the best in everybody and that’s what everyone is around to do.

Impact ready 

Is how do you develop and grow powerful teams.

Pivot ready 

Is how do you really master resilience and cultivating that consistent mindset of change and resilience inside your organization.

They’re all foundational like the water you drink 

 

Big mistakes that organizations tend to make in time of change 

Forgetting to create the environment of trust, respect, and psychological safety is almost like taking the eye off the wheel. Change is not one time, it’s constant and it’s interesting because the data shows that if employees trust their employers, their engagement level can increase by up to 20% but the likelihood they will leave their organization goes down by 87%.

People are experiencing your changes inside the organization. On top of four tons, other changes covered parenting, political issues, social issues, and economic pressure. The psychological impact of that is huge

Ann Masten, a great Psychologist and Professor of Child Development in University of Minnesota called this phenomena, “Search Capacity”.

Search capacity is our adaptive systems, mental, and physical that we can do in acutely stressful situations like natural disasters because you can see it. But we’re in chronic stages of grief and loss, we have this external calamities like supply chain shortages, inflation, climate change, gun violence, hate crimes but what about the interior crisis? 

How come we take our eye off the ball when it comes to us? So that’s all a fabric and a part of creating this environment of trust, respect, and psychological safety.

 

Ways leaders can assist their teams in bringing about long-term changeHonor your word Practice self-care Be human too Show how you feel Communication and connectionCreate resiliencyPut diversity as part of the equation Ensure you’re on the right track Admit when you’re mis steppedExpand awareness Inquire your teams’ well-being

Right now, we have to also educate and teach people how to speak about their emotions because we have to remember that feelings are a signpost to what’s important and why do we ignore them so much?

One silver lining of COVID was that even though they couldn’t help but show emotions, leaders couldn’t help but show some more real versions of themselves. Some did more than others but all of a sudden, we could see inside our leaders’ homes. We can also judge how well our company’s doing based on how vulnerable people are. It’s a good thing people are vulnerable.

We can’t control change. What we can control is our actions and our intentions. Anyone can shift for a singular moment and in a moment and think of it the sum of all those small shifts lead to massive ones. They’re these moments that build up resilience and give us evidence and proof that we all can change and have the strength to continue.

The post 6 Common Costly Mistakes that Derail Organizations In Times of Change appeared first on Civility Partners.

The Workplace Culture Opportunity: Ditch the Bad, Build it Better

Based on our episode, “The Workplace Culture Opportunity: Ditch the Bad, Build it Better” with Kim MacDonald

 

Psychological safety is the interaction that you have with others. It is the experience you have where you can feel free to speak your mind, speak out, speak up, be vulnerable, question someone about their opinion without the risk of being harmed, whether indirectly, shut down, ignored, or dismissed.

It is critical that we consider what happens to us in our lives. It is related to the culture and climate that you are attempting to create in the workplace. For many leaders, they create those naturally, but we’ve seen a lot of the research and a lot of the outcomes for mental health in workplaces and things that happen with consequences that we aren’t able to predict.

So, if you think about trying to create psychological safety, it’s an outcome of an interaction that you have, and so you’re working with certain kinds of behaviors, skills, and competencies, and listening and curiosity, and all of those things together are going to create that interaction so that it’s psychologically safe.

You are physically safe, and you know it could probably help your emotional safety as well. Occupational health and safety in workplaces has evolved over time. If you think back a long time ago, we’ve got physical safety, then chemical, then biological safety, and all of the managing the hazards around those and workplaces. 

Psychological safety is another evolution of safety within the workplace because we now know that we did a lot of things in the past and we did have a lot of business practices that divided up our whole humanity at work. We left our emotions at the door.

We do know that there is more than one way to do things now. The circumstances and the situation have changed. We had a lot of work-related stressors before the pandemic, but the pandemic really sharpened the pencil and showed us how adaptable we were.

 

Factors of Psychological Safety:

Evidence-based

You could take a look at your organization and figure out where the hazards are and the risks within those factors and then identify and take action to mitigate them. 

Leader is encouraged to behave

You can look at some of the underlying behaviors and competencies that would support those factors. 

Balance

It is a difficult one because it is a leader’s responsibility to look around and manage the workload.

Workload management

It is a key hazard that has to be organized and well managed even when the organization is highly busy. 

Leader communication and expectations

If you do not understand what your role is, and you don’t have a lot of communication from your manager or from the leader of your team, then you are working in a really challenging place.

Psychological fit

Being emotionally intelligent and stable.

Organization should focus on civility and respect 

It is a huge factor and one that we all take for granted in many ways within our organizations. Respect for me and how that shows up for me in my lived experience at work is very different from yours. It’s very different from every single person. Respect isn’t a policy. We’re not requiring people to be respectful. We require them not to harass. 

Empathy and Resilience

There’s an entire body of experience that managers do not know about and do not understand. There’s a lot of discussion about empathy within these contexts of psychological safety and the system of psychological health and safety when you’re trying to identify hazards, but empathy is one of the things that we talk about. There’s a lot of training out there on empathy and resilience.

Resilience is not a skill. It is not a competency. There are a whole set of human competencies and skills within those competencies that will give you all of the things you need to be able to manage and cope and be able to operate at your highest level and bring your whole self to work. 

The workplace has to be psychologically safe for you to be able to do that. You have to feel included. We know that marginalized groups in many groups have a lot of factors that come into play, and so they typically have a lived experience that is different than other people in the workplace, so that inclusiveness is all tied into psychological safety.

If you go down the path of resilience, the stigma that is currently attached to mental health and if you have certain types of illnesses, we all know that some illnesses have more stigma than others. We see a wide range of mental health outcomes.

Performance, excellence, and human emotions can all live together. The more we can integrate those, the better off all organizations will be. 

Uncertainty

Uncertainty has an incredibly damaging impact on us. The more that an organization can reduce those things, the better the workflow.

Research really shows that uncertainty and ambiguous roles and responsibilities are one of the top predictors of workplace bullying. The more ambiguity there is around your roles and responsibilities, the more likely you are to engage in bullying behavior. 

It’s extremely one of the highest stressors for us, which is why life changes are so stressful. Then you run out of energy to manage your emotions because you’re focused on the stress that you’re experiencing.

How can you reduce work-related stressors? That is the occupational system of putting something in a place to look at to identify the hazards and the risks and then do preventative work and actively manage it so that those unintended consequences don’t show up. 

The post The Workplace Culture Opportunity: Ditch the Bad, Build it Better appeared first on Civility Partners.

Embed DEI into Company DNA

Based on our episode, “Embed DEI into Company DNA” with Stacey Gordon

When we talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, people want to start thinking about holding hands and skipping through the sunflowers. This is so important for leaders to get. They have to understand that maybe somebody’s life is at stake. It’s not usually that serious, but for the people who are experiencing microaggressions, bullying, and the loneliness of going to work every day and not having anyone to talk to, the mental health aspects of that alone are just astounding. Leaders have got to start getting this.

Unconscious Bias

We all have biases that stay with us. It’s innate and embedded in our brains. We have to interrupt it. We can identify it, we can see it, we can point to it, and then we can stop ourselves. So, when we’re about to make a decision, there is a point where we can literally say, 

“You’re about to make a decision. Before you make this decision do you have all of the facts?”

“Have you really done what was necessary to make sure that this was equitable?”

“Did you open it up to everybody?” 

“Have you looked at all of them in context?” 

Just make sure that before you do those things, you start to have those conversations with yourself, and you will make fewer biased decisions over time. 

There are concepts and things that you may not understand, and then there needs to be some education around what those things are. You have to immerse yourself in this. You have to start educating yourself and that includes having conversations with people who are different from you to start to open up your mind to being able to even receive the information because then you can start to identify where you might be falling short and then you can do something different to start talking to ourselves, at the very least, about our bias. Then have conversations with other people.

Create inclusivity in the workplace 

Everyone would like to come to work and do their job. The problem is, there are some people who want to but can’t even come to work because the organization won’t hire them. There are some who will come to work and don’t have the opportunity to be heard or promoted because of who they are. This is why it is a workplace issue. 

Where does it start? The big place is always in recruiting. Everybody thinks that they’ll just hire more and just get a bigger talent pool and that will fix the issue. It doesn’t. Because if you are bringing people into your talent pool, then you’re not hiring them right. People will come up with every excuse under the sun. 

Fix these issuesLook at the entry-level positions

We need to look at the barriers that exist that are stopping people from getting promoted. 

Taking down existing barriers 

They can’t work their way up to that board seat because there’s nobody who’s been able to work their way through the system. Concentrating on board seats will not solve the problem.

Conduct an assessment related to DEI

An organization needs to believe that an assessment will help. Don’t be afraid of an assessment. It is not something that you need to shy away from. It is something that is going to help you. It’s about identifying the places where things are working so you can duplicate them.

Show to your employees that you’re listening

You’re going to find out what’s wrong, and it’s going to be in writing. It will make a huge difference in understanding your culture.

Make sure that DEI is embedded into the DNA of the organization

A lot of times, DEI is an HR initiative. Every nook and cranny of the organization’s got to understand that or you’ve got to weave DEI in there. It definitely has to be embedded in there, and the way that gets there is from the leadership.

That is something that comes from the top down. As soon as the top leaders, CEOs, and their executive teams start to see why this is important, they will start to create and internalize a story around this. All of a sudden, everybody else gets in line, and all of a sudden, it’s a high priority.

The vision clears and there is clarity about how to do these things right. When employees see that there is authenticity, that they are living it, that they understand it, then all of a sudden it becomes a priority for the department heads, talent acquisition leads, for all the HR business partners, and all of the managers. We have to convince leaders that this is important and get their true buy-in in order for it to be successful.

What we can do is help others to see it. DEI helps you to change the people, and if the people won’t change, then we change the people. Make sure your workplace is a place where people feel good, included, valued and that they can be themselves.

The post Embed DEI into Company DNA appeared first on Civility Partners.

Culture Forward Webinar Series Starts Tomorrow!

You’ve seen posts about our upcoming webinar series focused on being intentional in infusing company culture into everything you do. I’m sure you agree that company culture is key in employee productivity and retention.

Tomorrow we are kicking off the series with Ingraining Company Culture into your Recruiting & Hiring Process. We plan to share all the tips and tricks you need to communicate an employer brand to potential candidates, and live up to that brand promise internally.

If you haven’t registered yet, you’ll miss out on:

Important employer branding tips How to understand and define your culture Strategies for more inclusive recruiting and hiring Best practices for succession planning Key attraction and retention practices A worksheet you can use to knock your potential hires’ socks offAnd more! 

I’ve got a few seats left, and one has your name on it! 

Click here to claim your spot – it’s tomorrow, September 14th! While you’re at it, check out our other Culture Forward topics here at this link. We are doing rapid fire webinars just for you!

The post Culture Forward Webinar Series Starts Tomorrow! appeared first on Civility Partners.