The Work-life Insight
We recently watched a heated debate between our client and two of his direct reports. Our client, a leader responsible for a $350M division, and one of the direct reports, the head of marketing, were ready to extend an offer to a candidate for a new position: VP of analytics. But the head of HR was adamant that they had the wrong candidate. Her reasoning, expressed with unyielding conviction, was that the candidate didn’t meet the “adaptability” dimension of the hiring profile, which for her, was a deal-breaker. The leader and the head of marketing felt like while this candidate was admittedly imperfect, she was the best they’d seen of the nearly 40 they’d interviewed, and they were willing to live with her shortfalls. After rounds of discussion, the HR lead played the ultimate trump card and said, “Look, you either want my expertise or you don’t. You made me your head of HR, and if you’re not going to take my advice, then why did you give me this job?”
In a private conversation, our client expressed his frustration. “She plays that card the minute she fears not getting her way. She’s smart and I value her advice, but she has to be right on every decision. As her boss, now I feel like I’m in a no-win situation. If I don’t take her advice, she feels marginalized. If I do take her advice, I reinforce behavior I don’t want used by my team in order to sway decisions their way.”
His predicament isn’t unusual. Many people suffer from “chronic certainty” on issues for which no perfect answer exists. Here are three ways we’ve seen leaders get underneath chronic certainty to help themselves and others broaden their perspective — and have more productive conversations.
Get behind the origins of chronic certainty.
Cognitive biases come in many forms, and often underlie dogmatic viewpoints. In our client’s situation, the newly appointed HR leader had an overconfidence bias because in her previous job she had a track record of great hiring decisions. Her confidence was coming, not from a place of defensiveness or posturing, but from her desire to repeat past success. When you or someone you manage experiences chronic certainty, it’s important to figure out which biases may be in play. Staunch certainty is always rooted in deeply held, but often unconscious, beliefs.
Resist the temptation to escalate dueling arguments until someone prevails. Slow things down to surface what’s really going on. No matter how outlandish their views seem, approach the conversation as if there is some legitimacy to them. If their certainty represents a pattern, don’t try and address it during an argument about a specific issue. Instead, schedule a separate conversation to address your concern. You might say something like, “Whenever we find ourselves on different sides of an issue, I feel as though you assert your views with such unbending force that I either want to shut down or dismiss your confidence. It would help me to know that my views were being considered, even if you don’t agree with me.”
Consider how your organization might encourage certainty.
Chronic certainty is not just an individual issue. Psychologists often use the PIE theory (Person In Environment) to understand individual social struggles in the context of the environments shaping them. Does your culture prize assertive convictions? Is decision making perceived to be competitive? Do people feel as though appearing uncertain about their views will be perceived as weak? In certain situations, like conversations around strategic planning, budgeting, and talent management, where people perceive a lot to be at risk, the need to appear certain becomes a matter of survival. Research on competitive workplaces shows that when people feel anxious about competitive processes, they are more likely to behave unethically — including embellish arguments to get their way.
To avoid institutionalizing certainty as the preferred approach to articulating views or requests, ask people to come to meetings with pros and cons on issues. And make it a routine to have others on the team weigh in with differing views when making decisions. Approaches like these normalize the need for people to self-regulate, balancing confidence in one’s views without the dogma of certainty.
Acknowledge if others’ certainty makes you resistant.
For some, the convictions of others can feel threatening to our own views and values. Confirmation bias leads us to screen out disconfirming views, so when we are forced to contend with differences, we naturally resist. We can become overly defensive, or withdrawn, dismissing information that might be very important. We observed one client, let’s call him Mike, making a presentation to his boss and peers intended to confirm his significant budget increase. One of his colleagues, someone with whom he had a contentious relationship, raised legitimate criticisms about the size of the increase given a recent product quality issue. Because Mike was pre-disposed to believe anything this colleague said was ill motivated, he shut down the conversation. But his overly defensive response backfired, and led to their boss delaying the budget approval for “further consideration.” Had Mike engaged his colleague’s concerns, he may well have negotiated an approval with contingencies in it that would have allowed him to proceed.
With so much emphasis these days on speaking up, we need to learn to temper our voices by listening, especially when making important decisions for which there are conflicting options. Remember that speaking “your” truth is far different than speaking “the” truth. Some fear that listening affirms the other’s point of view. Rather, it is in listening that others begin to feel safe enough to loosen their grip on strongly held convictions. Never shame, become dismissive, or escalate with counter-dogma. It is through listening that you will establish needed trust and safety to productively examine differing views.
There may be no way to fully reconcile contradictory points of view. And it could be that those who are chronically certain will dismiss your views as irrational and your behavior as defensive — this is the burden of leadership. However, if we can slow down our own reactions and consider the reasons for our own, and others’ chronic certainty, we can eradicate its negative impact and find the common ground hidden within all differences.
Credit:
Post Author: Ron Carucci & Jarrod Shappell
Website: https://hbr.org/
As interior designers, we want to make the world a better place. Some people may think that we do that through beautification, but when it comes to office design we focus more on how to influence employee behaviors through the design of space. And our goal is to encourage good behavior and prevent the bad.
This goal is increasingly complicated in a post #MeToo era when more and more people are asking questions like: How can we create spaces that are safe for everyone who works in them? Is it possible for space design help to curtail sexual harassment and other misconduct at work? Here we pose several questions that we think about as designers and that those interested in creating safe spaces for employees might think about too.
How private is too private?
Privacy can be both good and bad. On the one hand, we want employees to have quiet space to effectively do their work and to tend to their needs without being too exposed (think about having to make a difficult call to a doctor’s office, for example). On the other hand, too much privacy can cause people to feel unsafe.
Imagine an employee who is the subject of derogatory comments. If those comments are made in a place where no one else can hear them, the subject will likely worry that without witnesses, they may not be believed. Most individuals will try to make sure they are not alone with that person again, but what if the space precludes that?
Dr. Annalisa Enrile, who teaches at USC in the School of Social Work, told us that with “harassment on everyone’s mind when it comes to the workplace,” she thinks about designing areas where people won’t feel trapped, or can’t be cornered. So you might, for example, provide two exits in common spaces such as copy rooms, storage rooms, lunch rooms — spaces where too much privacy can work against someone.
Private offices are typically the most efficient way to bring in visual and acoustical privacy but consider the level of privacy. An executive might feel productive in their large closed office but how do their direct reports feel in a one-on-one meeting if there’s little to no transparency in the enclosed space? If that employee is asking themselves, “Am I safe here?” how confident, productive, or expressive will they be? Dr. Enrile suspects that to be one of the main reasons some women prefer meeting with an executive in an open area that feels less hierarchical and more transparent.
When designing enclosed spaces, providing visual transparency can help alleviate the potential tension of a closed-door meeting with a superior while still maintaining acoustical privacy. Photography by Allsteel.
Shared project rooms benefit from multiple walls of full glass as they eliminate any hidden corners. Photography by Allsteel.
Can too much transparency be a bad thing?
The short answer — yes. We’ve all heard the complaints about poorly designed open office plans where there is minimal privacy and people are subjected to seeing or hearing their coworkers eat, sleep, cough, and have loud conversations. Never mind the interruptions. These spaces can eat away at focus and productivity. And they can feel unsafe.
Too much transparency can make workers feel exposed and vulnerable. Imagine if someone is being stalked by a co-worker? In a transparent workspace, there may be no place to escape. Would an employee in this situation feel comfortable to complain that a co-worker is “staring at them all day”?
Diane Rogers, an architect at IA San Francisco, explains that office design is about a balance of openness with the right level of privacy. “We are seeing fewer walls in spaces and relying on furniture to add more privacy for individuals so they can function when they need visual privacy,” she says (see the photo below). “People need places to have privacy when their emotions are overrun, or they need to have a highly personal phone call.”
Visual privacy can often be achieved with the strategic placement and orientation of furniture. Photography by Allsteel.
So how do you find the right level of transparency for your organization? “I find a layering approach works well,” says Leah Bauer, a director of interior design at HDR. “A thoughtful progression from private spaces, to semi-private, to open.”
The trick is to have enough diversity to meet everyone’s needs. Completely private areas might include bathrooms, private enclaves, and wellness rooms that can be locked. Partial privacy can be provided by offices with a window to the open space or a transom next to the door or by conference and phone rooms with frosted or partially frosted glass to show someone’s in there but not necessarily show their facial expressions.
Relaxed work environments are designed to support user comfort and encourage collaboration and innovation, but they also require policies and training that outline appropriate behavior in a more casual atmosphere. Photography by Allsteel.
Can a more relaxed atmosphere encourage workers not to follow the rules?
Many companies, even in more traditional industries like law and banking, are aiming to have more casual spaces, including ping pong tables or video game consoles that encourage frequent communication and interaction. It’s not uncommon to see community spaces like the one above that look more like a bar or a coffee shop. If people are more at ease, they are more likely to share ideas, the logic goes.
However, when work feels like a set of casual interactions — and people are spending lots of hours at the office — employees likely need more direction on what’s appropriate and what isn’t in those spaces. Dr. Enrile believes, “Policy, practice, and training go hand-in-hand with space design. The procedures for after-hours or before-hours — who is allowed in the space, is it OK for one person to be alone in the space during non-working hours — are all important policies to think about in accordance with safety.”
“For all that designers can do with space and all that leadership can do with policy, social norms trump all,” says Jeff Leitner, a former Innovator in Residence at the University of Southern California, who studies social norms. For instance, a company may communicate a policy that working in the office before 6:00AM and after 7:00PM is prohibited, but there may be unwritten social rule that you actually can work whenever you want because “everyone does it anyway.” The desire to work late may be innocent enough, but this lack of adherence to policy could open the door to a potentially unsafe environment.
We are fully aware that interior design won’t completely prevent harassment, just as policies won’t. But establishing safeguards to stop harassment and assault in the places we work is something we should all be focused on, bringing our unique skills to bear. For us, that’s design, and we’re committed to asking ourselves and our clients questions that will help to create a healthy, safe work environment for everyone.
Credit:
Post Author: AJ Paron-Wildes & Chloe Simoneaux
Website: https://hbr.org/
Working remotely has many benefits: flexible hours, no commute, and autonomy and control over how you work, to name just a few.
But as any remote worker will tell you, there are also considerable challenges. According to a variety of studies, isolation and loneliness are among the biggest complaints. Working remotely means missing out on the human interaction and social aspects that being in an office provides.
According to Vivek Murthy, the former Surgeon General of the United States, increasing numbers of remote and independent “gig economy” workers is one of the key reasons for the growing “loneliness epidemic”. Murthy also points out that loneliness is much more than just a social problem. It’s also a health problem, “associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.”
Our research on coworking spaces show that these shared, member-based workspaces where remote corporate workers, startup employees, freelancers, and others “work alone together” can substantially reduce the isolation and loneliness associated with remote work. Some of the key findings from our surveys of coworking space members show that:
- 87% of respondents report that they meet other members for social reasons, with 54% saying they socialize with other members after work and/or on weekends
- 79% said coworking has expanded their social networks
- 83% report that they are less lonely since joining a coworking space
- 89% report that they are happier since joining a coworking space
Our initial research objectives for these studies were not focused on the social side of coworking. In fact, the studies were developed to explore the role that work-related networking plays in coworking communities. The study results show that professional ties are strongly enhanced by membership in a coworking space:
- 82% of respondents reported that coworking has expanded their professional networks
- 80% reported that they turn to other coworking members for help or guidance
- 64% said their coworking networking was an important source of work and business referrals
The research also showed a variety of other work-related benefits associated with coworking membership. Most members (84%) reported that working in a coworking space improved their work engagement and motivation. Most also reported being able to concentrate better due to fewer distractions compared to working from home or in coffee shops.
But despite focusing on the work aspects of coworking, our research found that it was the social ties of coworking that proved most valuable to members. When asked to list three words that best describe coworking, three of the top five words mentioned by coworking members — community, fun, and social — relate to social aspects.
Other studies confirm these findings. For example, researchers at the University of Michigan found that coworking members report much higher levels of “thriving” than traditional employees. Their work shows this is in part due to the community aspects of coworking spaces, which allow members to socialize and interact with other members. Another study, Coworking Spaces: A Source of Social Support for Independent Professionals, reports that the main reason most members work in coworking spaces is for the social interactions.
As a society, a growing number of people are facing the isolation and loneliness associated with remote work — and they’re working alone longer. Gallup reports that, despite a few high profile examples of firms moving away from telecommuting, the number of corporate employees working remotely continues to grow. Gallup’s data shows that 43% of American employees report that they work remotely at least some of the time, up from 39% in 2012. Gallup also reports that the people who work remotely “at least some of the time” are spending even more time working remotely. The number of independent workers (freelancers, independent consultants, etc.) is also increasing, with most of these people working remotely.
For companies, allowing and paying for employees to work out of coworking spaces offers many benefits. In addition to reducing remote work loneliness, coworking spaces provide excellent business and technology infrastructure, strong networking opportunities, and exposure to innovative companies, products, and services. Companies will also benefit from having happier, more engaged, and more productive workers.
Independent workers should also consider coworking. They often benefit even more than company employees from the social aspects of coworking and find that the professional networking opportunities help to generate new business. While independents have to pay for memberships themselves, most consider the cost well worth it. (Coworking spaces range in cost from $45 per day to over $1,000 per month, depending on the space and location. A good estimate of the average cost for the U.S. is around $350 per month.) Our research found very high satisfaction rates: 90% of respondents reported being either highly satisfied (79%) or satisfied (11%) with their coworking space; only 5% reported being dissatisfied. More to the value point, 94% reported the price they paid was fair (77%) or a bargain (17%). Also, most coworking members plan to continue to be members in two years, with only 4% reporting they likely won’t be members over that time frame.
The coworking industry has been growing at a rapid pace for the past five years. Our current forecast is for this growth to continue, with the global number of coworking space members increasing from roughly 1.6 million today to about 3.8 million in 2020.
It’s clear from the research that a major driver of this growth is the social aspects of coworking. Humans are social creatures who like being around other humans, and regardless of advances in remote work technology, this won’t change. The early coworking pioneers recognized this and focused on building supportive communities that included social activities. One of these early pioneers, Alex Hillman of the coworking space Indy Hall, went so far as to say “coworking is not a workspace industry; it’s a happiness industry”.
Simply put, by creating community and reducing isolation and loneliness, coworking benefits both organizations and workers due to greater levels of work engagement, productivity, and worker happiness.
Credit:
Post Author: Steve King
Website: https://hbr.org/
Nestled in the Silicon Sentier district of Paris, the Villa Bonne Nouvelle (“House of Good News”), or VBN, initially appears to be another new coworking space. But what sets it apart is that only half of its 60 occupants are freelancers. The remainder work for Orange (née French Telecom), which launched VBN in 2014 to teach its programmers and engineers how to work with and learn from people outside of the company.
The experiment succeeded: Teams temporarily stationed there worked better and faster than colleagues elsewhere, and they reported greater satisfaction and engagement (along with bouts of depression upon returning to the office). Even the HR executives managing the space were surprised by their bonhomie. More villas are now in the works.
Orange describes its approach as “corpoworking,” a cousin to coworking. It’s not alone in trying to jump on the trend of shared workspaces, of which there are now around 19,000 worldwide. Dozens of companies, ranging from telcos (Sprint, AT&T), to tech giants (SAP, IBM), to automakers and insurance companies (MINI, State Farm) have launched similar experiments. The real revolution in coworking may have less to do with freelancers or startups than with employees of large companies working beyond the boundaries of their organizations.
A case in point is WeWork, the provider of coworking spaces, which has grown its enterprise customer base in the last year by 370%. As of June 2018, corporate occupiers make up roughly one-quarter of WeWork’s members and revenues. It’s also creating stand-alone locations for individual clients such as IBM, UBS, and Facebook.
It’s typically assumed these companies are seeking a jolt of hipness. But our researchand reporting show this isn’t the case. We’ve separately toured and interviewed principals in more than a dozen coworking office space
in the U.S., South America, and Europe over the last three years. We’ve found that these companies and their employees are searching for the same qualities freelancers and entrepreneurs report from their experiences in shared workspaces — learning skills faster, making more connections, and feeling inspired and in control.
In addition to coworking spaces for individuals and those that partner with employers, we’ve identified two types of corporate coworking. One is what we call open houses, in which companies offer workspace as a public amenity, typically for brand-building. In Brooklyn, for example, MINI, where one of us works, runs A/D/O, a combination coworking space, café, concept store, and fabrication lab. Its mission isn’t to sell cars, but to attract and learn from local designers.
The other type we call campsites — internal, invitation-only spaces where teams from one company co-locate with peers from another. Campsites are temporary, affording coworkers stationed there opportunities to learn, ignore org charts, and collaborate across corporate boundaries. Orange’s VBN is one example; another belongs to a large telco in Silicon Valley, where its teams huddle alongside those from customers to prototype products and services. Projects that would have taken months of calls are finished in weeks, demonstrating the importance of co-location in innovation.
Some companies are aggressively testing both. SAP’s HanaHaus in downtown Palo Alto is an open house that charges walk-ins $3 per hour, or roughly the cost of their Blue Bottle coffee. (Notable visitors include Mark Zuckerberg.) A few miles away, at its Silicon Valley campus, is AppHaus, one of five such campsites worldwide, where SAP engineers work with local customers and startups to explore consumer software.
But what are the goals of these corporate coworking spaces? Who uses them? And what do they look like? Here’s what we’ve learned.
The purpose of these spaces can vary widely, but they typically fall into one or more of three groups: transformation, innovation, and future-proofing. In the case of transformation, the space is designed to be a Trojan horse, sneaking new ways of working into an otherwise staid organization. This is explicitly the goal at Orange’s VBN, which Ava Virgitti, an employee experience lead for Orange, describes as an “HR lab” to test and learn how teams behave in the presence of leaner and meaner startups.
Innovation is the goal at other campsites, where diverse stakeholders are assembled with specific tasks and equipped with special facilities and methodologies (say, design thinking) to achieve them. Future-proofing is more open-ended; these spaces are designed to generate new contacts or ideas, which seems to be the thinking behind HanaHaus.
For these reasons, users are typically quite diverse in rank, role, and affiliation, and are present for only a few months before rotating out or back into the company. This is a critical feature of campsites in particular — a revolving door means a constant stream of fresh insights and expertise. Orange’s VBN uses nine-month “seasons” to reset the space; others switch participants as necessary.
While the focus of many spaces is to create new digital products and services, evidence from broader coworking surveys suggests other roles could benefit from this practice. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, for instance, Grid70 houses design, business innovation, and product development teams from a grocery chain, shoe retailer, and consumer goods manufacturer — no coding required.
More important is curating the mix of employees, startups, entrepreneurs, freelancers, researchers, and even academics present. While open houses welcome almost everyone as part of their marketing and outreach efforts, campsites carefully vet participants according to expertise, personality, or cultural fit.
The latter is crucial. While the cultures of these spaces vary according to industry, geography, and so on, they are always different from their parent organizations (and often opposed to them). This is unsurprising given their goal of smuggling the benefits of coworking inside. In interview after interview, community managers stressed the importance of members’ initiative, openness, curiosity, and trust, as well as esprit de corps, or what one called “family spirit.”
The role of community managers in fostering this culture can’t be overstated. Traditionally nonexistent in corporate America, they typically help select, vet, onboard, and connect new users with existing ones while organizing the space, arbitrating conflicts, and hosting events. User satisfaction surveys consistently rank them as the favorite aspect of corporate coworking.
The other important aspect in creating these spaces is their physical design. Like the culture, which the design complements and enhances, the layout and amenities of these spaces are a far cry from cubicles. Nothing is stationary — whiteboards, movable walls, and flexible furniture are common. Amenities and kitchens are strategically positioned to “engineer serendipity” and conversations across organizations. And writing on the walls or floors is encouraged, as making a mess is considered a precursor to innovation.
Now, do these spaces work in promoting innovation? This seems to be the case, although, as with coworking in general, their effectiveness is difficult to measure and only quantifiable indirectly, through user satisfaction surveys and interviews.
A few companies we spoke with also offered examples. Orange’s VBN reported a 92% user approval rating of the space, and pointed to the long waitlist for future seasons. At Grid70, one tenant reported a 30%–40% reduction in product development time after a redesign of their workspace.
According to researchers at the University of Michigan, the most common reasons people seek coworking spaces are interaction with people (84%), random discoveries and opportunities (82%), and knowledge sharing (77%). Corporate coworkers seek the same.
As one might imagine, demonstrating the ROI of this is difficult — most don’t even try. Some eschew metrics altogether, gambling they will learn as they go when it comes to measuring what’s important. Many prefer the soft metrics, such as satisfaction and engagement mentioned above, and still others defer measurement into the future, minimizing expenses while awaiting a business case to emerge.
For this reason (and others), strong executive sponsors are crucial for corporate coworking. HanaHaus was instigated as the personal urging of SAP cofounder Hasso Plattner; Grid70 was conceived by a cluster of local CEOs. Orange’s VBN has the firm backing of senior HR executives, and so on. With the metrics so hazy, the decision as to whether these spaces are worth it is being made on a case-by-case basis.
Just as coworking was seen as a fringe phenomenon less than a decade ago, its corporate variant risks being perceived as a vanity project. But in light of the trends animating creative work today — increasingly flexible arrangements, cross-firm collaboration, and employees’ thirst for agency and authentic connections — these spaces hint at a future far beyond WeWork.
We’ve identified a few principles to keep in mind if your company is interested in exploring corporate coworking.
Be clear about your goals at the outset. Is it a Trojan horse for corporate culture, a cross-firm skunkworks, or a public branding exercise and serendipity engine? This decision will drive every facet of the project going forward, including participants, design, sponsorship, and ROI.
Be clear about your goals at the outset. Is it a Trojan horse for corporate culture, a cross-firm skunkworks, or a public branding exercise and serendipity engine? This decision will drive every facet of the project going forward, including participants, design, sponsorship, and ROI.
Community managers are the key to success. Hire carefully at the outset, involve them at every step of the design and recruitment process, and give them broad latitude in shaping the culture and programming of the space. Your project will likely fail without a strong community manager, and learning how their role could scale elsewhere in the organization is an incredible opportunity.
Don’t overthink the design. Focus less on foosball or Ping-Pong tables, and more on good overall layout principles. Co-locate teams in adjoining spaces for easy conversations; centralize amenities such as kitchens to increase serendipitous encounters (yes, even the unplanned can be planned for!). Empower users to make the space their own, and cut through red tape during construction — no one wants to spend nine months in just another project team room.
Credit:
Post Author: Gabor Nagy & Greg Lindsay
Website: https://hbr.org/
Workers crave meaningful work and attentive onboarding, according to a recent ServiceNow survey
- Employees report spending 40 percent of a typical workday on busywork, robbing them of time for higher‑level tasks
- Slightly more than half of survey respondents would trade some of their salary for more meaningful work
- Onboarding programs often fail to inspire new hires with a sense of greater purpose
Trendy perks such as free snacks, Friday happy hours, and yoga classes don’t factor much into workers’ overall job satisfaction these days.
The biggest benefit employees seek is greater meaning and purpose in their daily work. In fact, many would gladly trade some of their compensation for more meaningful work, according to a recent ServiceNow/Edelman Intelligence survey.
“Employees today want to know that they are realizing their full potential at work,” says Pat Wadors, Chief Talent Officer at ServiceNow. “Using technology to reduce the mundane tasks they face every day frees up people to focus on the more creative, important and fulfilling aspects of their jobs.”
Workers who feel like they’re not making valuable contributions are likely already scouting out their next gig. That’s a big problem for employers trying to retain talent in a job hunter’s market. “If you don’t give people meaningful work, they’ll leave,” says Cara Silletto, president of Crescendo Strategies, a workforce consulting firm. This is particularly true for new hires, who tend to cut their losses and move on if they feel unfulfilled.
“Employees today want to know that they are realizing their full potential at work.”
Pat Wadors, ServiceNow
The root of the problem isn’t an epidemic of dysfunctional cultures or clueless bosses. It’s more about the increasing burdens of administrative busywork coupled with poorly executed onboarding programs. “If you force new employees to do mostly grunt work, you’ll rotate through those people faster than you did before,” says Silletto.
Companies that find ways to reduce or automate grunt work while instilling purpose in new hires are more likely to win their hearts and minds.
The price of purpose
In the survey of 2,000 U.S. office workers, 58 percent said they wished their work was more meaningful. It wasn’t just often‑stereotyped Millennials expressing that view. While 65 percent of 18‑ to‑ 24‑year‑olds wished their work was more meaningful, 70 percent all respondents who said the same were over 35 years old.
Meaningful work is important enough that slightly more than half (52 percent) of the respondents said they would sacrifice a median pay raise of $1,000 to get more of it. On the flip side, 62 percent said they would only switch to a less meaningful job if they got a median pay hike of $5,000.
A recent study covered in Harvard Business Review supports the same argument. More than nine out of 10 people surveyed by BetterUp said they would be willing to trade a percentage of their lifetime earnings for more meaning on the job.
The grind of busywork appears to be the focus of their angst. Survey respondents said they devote 40 percent of a typical workday to mundane tasks — double the amount they say is necessary. Compounding their misery, 66 percent believe they are powerless to change the equation.
Drudgery ultimately hurts employee morale and motivation. Asked how menial tasks make them feel about their work, nearly half of respondents chose responses such as “like I’m wasting my time” and “bored;” 44 percent said tasks make them feel unmotivated, and 34 percent said they make them feel like they’re not living up to their potential.
“Businesses need to re‑evaluate how grunt work is done — who’s doing it and whether it can be automated.”
Cara Silletto, Crescendo Strategies
The fact that those negative feelings are somewhat higher for newer employees poses another problem for employers, because those newer (and often younger) workers have no intention of suffering through years of dues‑paying as their more senior colleagues may have done in years past.
One‑third of employees today say that they know after just one week on the job if they are likely to stay long‑term, according to a 2015 survey from Ultimate Software; 63% make the call within the first month.
“Businesses need to re‑evaluate how grunt work is done — who’s doing it and whether it can be automated,” Silletto says. “Maybe it should be rotated among employees so no one feels it’s too much of a burden.”
Failing at onboarding
Successful onboarding has been shown to make a difference in employees’ sense of purpose, but the survey suggests many organizations are falling down on the job when it comes to prepping people for their roles.
Asked about their experiences when starting a new job, 33 percent said they received no essential training; 28 percent said they did not even receive clearly defined job responsibilities and goals. Another 26 percent reported not having a clear onboarding program, and 19 percent said they didn’t feel fully onboarded even after three months on the job.
The survey suggests companies have a win‑win opportunity if they can address their onboarding challenges. Workers clearly want more training and guidance in the early days of a new job. Fifty‑eight percent said walkthroughs of key processes were most valuable, while 47 percent wanted time to review onboarding materials.
At an electrical connector manufacturer where Silletto worked as a trainer, employee orientation always included demonstrations of how seemingly insignificant products could have a major impact on customers. For example, the connectors were built into lifesaving pacemakers.
“That was part of the company’s culture — telling employees that they were building useful things that mattered to many people,” Silletto says. “That brought more meaning to their work. They knew they weren’t there just to hit goals.”
Other factors can enhance workers’ sense of purpose. In its 2018 Employee Retention Report, software employee engagement company TinyPulse found that workplace culture can matter more than pay when it comes to staying with a job. Its survey found that employees who rate their culture poorly are 24 percent more likely to leave their jobs.
“You can’t just put your values on a poster,” Silletto says. “We like to say, ‘What’s on the wall doesn’t walk down the hall.’ You have to guide people in your history and values and their roles and responsibilities. That starts with onboarding.”
The takeaway for employers: Starting from day one, find ways to infuse job responsibilities with meaning and purpose. If you wait until employees ask for those things, it’s probably too late.
Credit:
Post Author: Christine Kent
Website: www.cnbc.com
Trish Duggan is an artist, philanthropist, entrepreneur and a billionaire. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Ms. Duggan and she shared with me her knowledge of art and business and made me aware of how similar they are. Ms. Duggan has an unbelievably captivating and gripping magnetism about her that became more and more apparent as we talked about philanthropy, the artist, business, the economy, Trump, entrepreneurs and her new Museum opening over dinner.
Ms. Duggan has spent most of her life mixing it up and networking with some of the most exciting entrepreneurs and artists on this planet. So, when it comes to art and business, she has quite a lot to share with those willing to really listen. As you would imagine, when you are one of the fifteen hundred people on planet Earth with a net worth of a billion dollars, you get access to almost everyone!
I asked Ms. Duggan, "What do you think is the similarity between great entrepreneurs and great artists?” I sat back and she started listing off how many things the two had in common. Here are ten of them:
1. Intuition.
The ability to follow your gut instincts as an artist or business person is vital to the creation process and carving out your own niche. Steve Jobs followed his instincts to create the iPhone and Michelangelo, forced to paint the Sistine Chapel, created what has amazed the world for five hundred years.
2. Creativity.
Defined as, "The use of imagination or original ideas, especially of an artistic work." But in truth, the business person must tap into creativity (use of imagination) to create solutions to solve problems and overcome challenges. Both spaces are very competitive with no shortage of art or products, so creativity is one of the sustaining traits of both.
3. Thinking outside the box.
The artist can easily be pulled into copying what is trendy or hot but the best artist and entrepreneurs don’t copy, they produce outside of what is considered the norm, trendy, or hot. The most successful aren’t trying to think outside the proverbial box they no longer see 'the box’ as they aren’t trying to copy they are interested in creating something new and improving upon what has already been done. Look at Uber as a 'think outside the box' solution to the cab. Outside the box thinking requires, in most cases, a simplification, not a complication.
4. Obsessed.
The great artists and entrepreneurs are both obsessed to the point of being called crazy about what they are doing. They are well known for getting lost in their art or business and getting totally consumed by it. They love their work to degrees others can’t even understand. It’s not uncommon to hear about the artist working in the studio until the wee hours of the morning. The same is true of the entrepreneur who works thru the weekend missing out on what others call ’normal’ life. The obsessed artist and entrepreneur works and operates the best when they are surrounded by others who understand and support their obsession.
5. Get your art or product out.
Both the artist and entrepreneur must get their ideas and products into the marketplace and into the hands of others. We don’t know the artist who kept their art at home hidden away. We only know the artist who got their art out! (Or after someone else got it out for them.) The same is true of the great business people. They get their ideas into the marketplace in a massive way.
6. Abolish perfectionism.
You can’t be successful in art or in business if you are a slave to perfectionism. While both the crazy entrepreneur and artist seek perfectionism in their work they are not stymied by it knowing they must produce with speed in order to one day get it right.
7. Get attention.
If no one ever knows about you, no one will ever know your art or your product. You must make getting known a priority. The most well-known artists are not necessarily the best artists but they are best known. Even if you are an entrepreneur you must make yourself known or have someone do this for you.
8. Produce in quantity to discover quality.
You will never discover your masterpiece creating one piece or one product or delivering one presentation. No one is so good or so lucky that their first piece is so amazing that the world is going to stop and recognize them. You most likely will be forced to produce in great quantities to discover your best qualities.
9. Purpose.
The purpose of the artist is to create an effect in the viewer or the customer and the same is true in business. The goal of the artist and the entrepreneur is to create something so compelling as to cause the customer or prospect to take action and want to own your product or service.
10. Delegate so you can create.
You can’t create when you are doing tasks you are either no good at or don’t like to do. It is important to delegate tasks and eliminate wasteful time and resources on drama and activities that rob you of your creativity and ability to produce.
Credit:Post
Author: Grant Cardone
Website: https://www.entrepreneur.com/
William Edmundson, Chief Operating Officer for Office Evolution, said his key to growing a coworking chain of 60 open locations (with 25 more set to open this year) is hospitality.
“I’ve got service and operations in my blood,” he said. “I grew up in hospitality,” he explained. His career includes leadership positions with Hilton, Hampton and Embassy Suites brands, and launching Choice Hotels, Cambria Suites brand before he made his way into coworking.
Edmundson took a brief break to work as a consultant before being recruited to rebrand and improve a chain of executive suites, Abby Executive Suites, in Houston. Edmundson’s rebranding plan quickly expanded Abby from 17 to 25 locations and garnered triple digit increases for the company. Eventually, Abby’s performance led to a successful sale to Regus.
Rebranding A Culture
For Edmundson, the move from hospitality into shared office space was a natural one. “All the keys to success I learned in the hospitality industry was a direct translation into this industry,” he explained.
While he made many changes as part of the rebrand for Abby Executive Suites, Edmundson’s areas of focus were the same as when he was in the hotel business: build culture, drive profitability, and take care of your customers.
For Edmundson, a culture of hospitality means both customer service and supportive culture for the team—and it’s this hospitality that often drives profitability.
“If we’re hospitable, we take care of our clients and we provide them with more plans and services than they’ve had in the past, then we’re going to get those clients, and they’re going to stay,” he said, explaining that his current work with Office Evolution revolves around a model that prioritizes the flexibility of office space options for their clients.
“With more choices, you really have to be hospitable,” he said.
He pointed out that coworking as an industry used to offer far more limited plan options to clients—perhaps a mail-only plan or a plan that ended up being far too expansive for many clients. As the industry has shifted to encompass different clients who are often more mobile, however, Edmundson said successful spaces are always thinking: “Give people what they want and take care of them.”
That line of thinking is driving a whole host of new options within spaces that match the customer-centric model of the hospitality industry.
Listening To Customers
Office Evolution, the fourth-largest coworking organization and the fastest growing coworking franchise in the nation according to number of spaces open, functions on a franchise model. Office Evolution Business Centers are independently owned by Office Evolution franchisees. Edmundson explained that this model allows franchisees to communicate directly with all their customers. This means that Office Evolution is very close to their customers and can react quickly to their need on everything from décor to technology, such as the use of Greetly at the front desk (which Edmundson said clients really enjoy).
“We get feedback quicker than most and are equipped to act quickly,” Edmundson said.
Office Evolution monitors a variety of KPIs in an effort to understand what clients like, what they don’t like, and how different features interact to create a more successful client experience. Edmundson explained that this tracking is critical for both client retention and for scaling the business.
Network For Coworking
The one thing Edmundson said he was missing when he moved into coworking was a network, which is why the Global Workspace Association has been so important to him.
Chris Brown of Abby Executive Suites introduced Edmundson to a network of peers through the GWA conventions. “He was able to introduce me to all his friends and contacts in the industry, which was a tremendous head start for a guy who was new to the industry,” Edmundson said. “That really helped me hit the ground running a lot faster.”
He went on to explain that the connections with professionals in coworking and related industries, including vendors, have been critical to his success.
“I’ve always found that people in this industry are very friendly and willing to help each other,” he said.
In the last several years, the coworking industry has grown from a “mom and pop industry” to something bigger, but Edmundson said it still largely functions on relationships and shared knowledge among experts. While the webinars, conventions, and other educational materials from the GWA have been helpful, Edmundson said the network is what he uses most.
“The networking has just always been such a big part of it,” he said. “I don’t think twice about picking up the phone and calling one of my friends from the GWA or having them call me, just to bounce ideas off each other.”
In his work with the GWA, including two terms as a board member, he said watching the network expand to include not just shared space operators but also industries that add value to shared workspaces, such as service providers, brokerage companies, etc., has been exciting to him.
“I think as our industry changes and more people get into the industry from different backgrounds, whether it be landlords or building owners or brokerage companies, we need to be aware of what’s going on,” he said.
Edmundson also noted that the willingness to share knowledge in the coworking industry has carried over to his work with the GWA as well, where he and his fellow board members have been able to get involved and reinvest their time back into the industry.
“I really enjoy working with the other board members. I think it’s important to be in an industry where we can work together and share ideas,” he said.
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Post Author: Globalworkspace.org
Website: www.globalworkspace.org
For a mompreneur who hustles hard to create the opportunity to “work from home,” the idea of paying to work in a physical space outside the home might seem a little counterintuitive. However, coworking spaces are springing up around the country offering a diverse range of services and membership options. Perhaps it’s time to consider these five compelling reasons a membership at a coworking space might make sense for you.
1. Networking, networking, networking
Networking is the lifeblood of many small businesses. Unfortunately, it can often feel like a full-time job in itself. Happy hours, meet-ups, lunch bunches, and seminars offer invaluable opportunities to connect with other entrepreneurs—and can also eat up a significant chunk of the work day and cut into valuable family time in the evening.
Hannah Walker, Director of Operations and Community for WorkHub in Tyler, Texas, believes that shared workspaces offer working women an easy way to network efficiently. “For businesses that depend on word of mouth and personal referrals, the opportunity to make casual connections throughout the day with other writers, web builders, start-ups, entrepreneurs and industry reps is huge,” she says. “People want variety and the ability to change up their environment and collaborate with people outside their industry, so we provide a place for that to happen seamlessly.”
Networking occurs in two different ways at shared workspaces: through the natural relationships that develop while working in close physical proximity with others and through organized programming that occurs onsite. Sharing a pod or chatting at the coffee machine creates opportunities for mompreneurs to forge authentic connections with other like-minded business people during the workday or while attending sponsored happy hours. Classes and events offer convenient ways to expand and cement those relationships as well.
2. Restores work-life balance
Working from home can lead to blurred lines and messy boundaries between the two spheres. A coworking membership can help restore the balance between work and home—and even increase productivity.
Hannah Phillips, a freelance writer from Idaho and pregnant mother of a six-year-old admits that her desire to multitask often exacerbates procrastination and sabotages efficiency. “It’s like that book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I tell myself that I’m just starting a load of laundry before sitting down to work, but next thing I know I’m neck deep in a household project and half the day is gone. Then I end up working in the evening to meet my deadline when I’d rather be enjoying my family.”
Coworking spaces minimize distractions, providing a flexible structure that allows many remote workers to buckle down and get things done. When someone else is responsible for brewing the coffee, changing the printer toner and emptying the wastebaskets, you can focus on your work during business hours—and then go home and take out your own trash.
“I find that when I’m sitting at an actual desk, with an ergonomic chair, surrounded by other people who are hard at work, I’m so much more efficient than when I’m at home, sitting at my kitchen table, surrounded by my son’s Legos,” says Phillips.
3. Puts a professional sheen on everything you do
Have you ever arranged a business meeting at a coffee shop only to arrive and find every seat already taken or attempted to participate in a video conference at the exact time your home internet fails? While relatively minor, logistical and technological fails like these can undermine the professionalism you’re attempting to project to prospective clients or peers.
Fully-equipped workspaces, complete with conference rooms, video projectors, hi-speed internet, scanners, double-sided printing and bottomless cups of coffee at the ready can go a long way toward cultivating the image of an established, successful company. According to Walker, these amenities “bring a level of legitimacy to your business and having a place where for client meetings where everything goes smoothly can make all the difference.”
4. Flexibility
When you don’t know the long-term future of your company, the month-to-month membership at a coworking space can make a lot of fiscal sense. Furthermore, many coworking spaces allow you to change your level of membership as needed and can drastically reduce your overhead.
Walker notes that coworking space rental can save small business and start-ups from committing to too much, too quickly. “You don’t know if you’re going to be around in three to five years, which is the type of lease that many office spaces want. A shared workspace guarantees that you’ll have a place to conduct your business, equipped with every resource you need and without being locking into burdensome leases, contracts and unnecessary services that you can’t afford.”
5. Social outlet…or peace and quiet
Finally, coworking spaces provide an easy remedy for the feelings of isolation and loneliness that can often arise from working at home. Or for busy mompreneurs who are looking for a little peace and quiet, coworking spaces offer that, too.
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Post Author: Kathryn Smith
Website: www.zenefits.com
Adapted from the Works of By Haley Chouinard
“Figuring out how WorkSocial create spaces that meet all these needs, that’s a core aspect of the business,” says Natasha. “It’s all about the experience, I think. Obviously, we’re providing a space for people to work in, but when you step off the elevator, we want you to be in a space that’s unlike any other office you’ve ever been to.”
Committed to that idea of uniqueness, the design department also employs around 5 artists and graphic designers, who oversee the curation of art in each office and, when the space calls for it, create original works.
At this point, calling WeWork a startup feels a little tongue-in-cheek. The international co-working enterprise now boasts 701 locations in 28 countries and 121 cities, with the promise of more coming soon. It’s valued at $47 billion and has even garnered a spoof (featuring a knock-off venture called “SheWork”) on Comedy Central’s late, beloved Broad City. It’s less of a startup now and more of a force of nature. To build out those hundreds of spaces, WeWork has amassed an equally behemoth design department, employing a whopping 270 architects and 240 interior designers at last count.
The interior of a WeWork in San Francisco.Courtesy of WeWork
Design has been a key tenant of WeWork since it was founded in 2010. One of the company’s co-founders, Miguel McKelvey, has a background in architecture, so it was crucial to him that WeWork prioritize the design of its spaces. From the beginning, the company always made room for an in-house design team. “There has always been this big push to hire not only interior designers but also bring in more experienced architects from established firms with a broader background, allowing us to specialize the things that make a WeWork,” says Elizabeth Wisecarver, the company’s global head of design.
The company started out looking for designers and architects with experience designing for retail, but have expanded their criteria over the years. “This department has been able to evolve into something that resembles a more traditional design company,” Wisecarver tells BOH. The team boasts talent at all experience levels and utilizes a project manager on each office, similar to the way a design firm would operate. “What we pride ourselves on is that we’re able to have not only interior designers, but architects, engineers, lighting designers—we have a much more diverse group than you’d find at a typical firm.”
Across all its many locations, from Hong Kong to Israel and Costa Rica, WeWork’s design team has key concepts to keep in mind. A WeWork must be: original, timeless, unpretentious, elegant, functional, comfy and fun, according to Wisecarver.
While differences between a WeWork in New York and one in Chicago might not be so drastic, the contrast between spaces in those cities and an office in Hong Kong would be evident.
An office in San Francisco. Courtesy of WeWork
“In Tokyo, we built a sunken seating area, which you would often see in some of the more traditional spaces in Tokyo and we were able to incorporate that into a lounge in that office,” says Wisecarver, who worked closely on the development of the company’s Asian presence. “People take their shoes off and they have meetings there and, later in the day, they might have happy hour there. It’s a very local touch that really elevated the project but still had the same look and feel that we would have anywhere.”
The co-working boom doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon, which means Wisecarver’s team is likely to keep growing and continue to play an integral part in maintaining the allure of working at a WeWork.
“These are places that should feel like home, where you can bring guests and business partners in and it's not only beautiful but it's functional. In a lot of ways I think that’s an important thing, to not be so uptight. Creating that experience is a really critical part of our brand and a lot of thought has been and will continue to be put into that.”
A quick Google search on missed tax deductions will bring up articles listing anywhere from seven to as many as 50 commonly missed tax deductions. Indeed, the tax code's extreme complexity makes it highly likely that small business owners will miss tax deductions that could reduce their obligation, enabling them to reinvest more money in growth and operations.
As a small business owner, you can educate yourself in addition to consulting a tax professional to help ensure that your bookkeeping and tax preparation is well-suited to ensure that you claim all the deductions your organization is entitled to. Below you will find six of the top tax and bookkeeping books for small business owners.
6 Top Tax and Bookkeeping Books for Small Business Owners
- Small Time Operator: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes, and Stay Out of TroubleAuthored by a C.P.A. (Certified Public Accountant), this book is written for the small business owner or self-employed professional. The author covers a wide range of topics including best practices for bookkeeping and taxes, financing, finding a good business location, pros and cons of various business models and more written in clear, easy-to-understand language.
This could be an ideal book for someone who is preparing to open their own business or whose business is still in its early phases, since it provides guidance that can help with many of the decisions that new business owners face. - Taxes: For Small Businesses QuickStart Guide – Understanding Taxes For Your Sole Proprietorship, Startup, & LLCSmall business owners represent a variety of business models. This book is an excellent guide for sole proprietors, independent contractors and startup LLC business owners that want to gain a broad understanding of how the tax code applies to their organization. Some of the topics covered include:
- How to keep accurate records
- When and how to handle payroll taxes
- Frequently-missed deductions
- Common tax mistakes small business owners make
- How to handle contact with the IRS
- Independent Contractor, Sole Proprietor, and LLC Taxes Explained in 100 Pages or LessAnother book that is free to Amazon Kindle Unlimited members and written so that the information contained in it can be quickly absorbed, this book acts as an introductory primer on tax topics as they apply to business; such as:
- Home office deductions
- Estimating tax payments
- Self-employment taxes
- Business retirement plans
- Common business tax deductions
- Audit protection and preparation
- J.K. Lasser's Small Business Taxes 2019: Your Complete Guide to a Better Bottom LineFor small business owners that want to gain a deep understanding of small business taxes, this guide authored by Attorney Barbara Weltman (nationally recognized as an expert in small business taxation) offers a comprehensive look at small business taxes that is up to date with 2016 information. The book is described as a "solution manual for streamlined tax time and substantial tax savings" that will allow readers to:
- Simplify the tax season so they can remain focused on their business
- Reduce tax obligations easily and legally
- Find the answers that are most relevant to their organizations
- Better understand when and how deductions should be taken
- The Tax and Legal Playbook: Game-Changing Solutions to Your Small-Business QuestionsSmall business owners looking for answers to specific questions should check out The Tax and Legal Playbook written by CPA and Attorney Mark J. Kohler. This book "answers the leading tax and legal questions facing small business owners, across all stages of business…"In it you will find information about how to choose the right legal entity for your business as well as under-utilized tax and legal strategies that can generate substantial savings. It also covers common legal scams and deceptions and provides information about how to protect small business and personal assets.
- 475 Tax Deductions for Businesses and Self-Employed Individuals: An A-to-Z Guide to Hundreds of Tax Write-OffsWith 475 tax deductions outlined as potentially beneficial for small business owners and self-employed professionals, this book might be the ultimate collection to assist in business tax preparation. Read it cover to cover to familiarize yourself with all the deductions that a business could take or consult it when you have questions about specific topics.
Even if you are working with a C.P.A. or tax professional, educating yourself on the taxes and deductions that might apply to your small business could lead to significant savings and help ensure your organization's bookkeeping and taxes are being done according to best practices. What you learn could keep your business out of trouble and enable you to reinvest more of the revenue it generates in growth and operations.
Credit: www.kabbage.com
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