Wellbeing: Fostering Personal & Professional Growth

Like I said, employee wellbeing is not a new topic, but based on some of the reports and research that I was digging into, especially the ones released in 2023, including the Fortune 100 best companies to work for, and those that are performing at the highest level, employee wellbeing was listed as one of the top biggest differentiators for those organizations than a typical company out there today. And for those employees that work at those top companies, 83% of 'em and all their employee engagement feedback surveys, report, having really a truly psychological and emotionally healthy workplace. So this is like a key element to making your organization perform at a higher level. So if you're looking for, your executives especially are looking for higher levels of success, employee wellbeing is a differentiator that you need to consider investing resources into to really develop your organization and your people to reach higher levels of performance and engagement into this next year. Uh, also with the fact that there's this whole level of economic uncertainty that we're within today, and we're gonna continue to be into the, into the future, which can cause a lot of stress, a lot of uncertain unknowns within the future possibilities. It's all around us and it's ahead of us. We argue that this is exactly the wrong time to pull back on anything wellbeing. And on the flip side, research has shown that the employee experience directly correlates with the company's ability to thrive in a recession or an unknown economic situation that we're in right now. So from a performance standpoint, but also from an employee experience and engagement standpoint, employee wellbeing is gonna be an essential pillar for you to focus on in 2024, just because of the environment that we're living in right now. So again, I have three trends that I need you to consider. Let's jump into 'em. So the first one, especially with the current landscape of wellbeing, um, nearly one fifth of the US workforce rate mental health as being poor or fair at a minimum, and are reporting four times of unplanned absences due to some of these mental health issues compared to some of their counterparts with excellent or just good mental health over a projected 12 month period, they're seeing about a 10 day difference in AB absences. So you think about those that are experienced burnout, poor mental health issues, or a poor lack of wellbeing within your culture, you're gonna see an average of 12 days unplanned from each employee being out of the office, just for those reasons alone, generalized, that's around for the US as a total, it's gonna cost the economy around $47 billion, which is a pretty big number if you ask me, right? So there's obvious high costs that go into this as well. So on one end, you're kind of bleeding out the back end if you don't invest into it. If you do invest into it, it actually has a multiplier effect on your profitability and impact as a company. So it's an obvious thing that you need to invest in. So one of the first things that you should consider as you start to develop this cultural wellbeing and the strategies behind it is focusing on flexibility. Now, I know some of you might be like rolling your eyes a little bit of just saying, you know, how do we do this? We've been navigating this question of becoming a hybrid workforce, returning people to the office. Do we remain a work remote workforce? How do we navigate this for different departments and employees where some have flexibility, some don't, and they have to be in the office, they have to be on the floor. We need to understand that. First off, the mindset is we can't have a one size fits all approach. In general, the people within your organization are probably at different points in their lives and their professional careers, and many of us are struggling as we look at flexibility on how do we navigate this. So I want to provide a couple of examples how some companies are doing this right now for one end, uh, just understanding, being focused on outcome oriented as an organization versus kind of the productivity input aspects. So a lot of times we're thinking about, okay, we need to work these core hours because that leads to certain outcomes, but the flexibility mindset is more around how do we support people and making the best decisions for how they work best for them to achieve those outcomes. And then we actually looked at some of the reports for Marriott International, for example, they might not have the flexibility to have remote teams, right? People have to be in the office. So they're driving flexibility and choice into different ways that they're just scheduling people and from scheduling perspective, and they're giving associates more control over how they, they do these things within the OR workplace. Uh, another financial company that we studied in this as well is also launching different pilots in terms of, um, meeting kind of the hourly needs and thinking about econom accommodating employees preferred schedules, including splitting shifts in different creative ways, offering 30 hour work schedules. We're still offering full benefits to their people. So it's just like, how do we still get creative, which is how we schedule people and work shifts. So that caters to some of that flexible needs and preferences that people have. And again, the key mindset shift for this first one that needs to happen to be this flexible is your organization really needs to think about embracing a new operational strategy around performance management. One that prioritizes outcomes as the main, uh, focus area rather than kind of that productivity theater that maybe you've heard about. So employees really want less of that prescriptive management into how they spend their time and more focused on how do they start to drive high impact results that they can deliver. So then again, the trend one here that I wanna really reinforce is to impact your culture of wellbeing is focus on empowering employees with flexibility and choice, and foster that mindset to prioritize outcomes versus policies on how people work. So I'm gonna put that in the chat for all of you here right now. Um, just some mindset shifts and, and things to consider. Okay, the next pressing theme that I'm sure you've heard over and over again beyond this year, and then it's gonna continue to be a thing in 2024, is how do we address burnout and stress? Right? And a new study by UK G'S, workforce Institute Institute, almost half, 40%, 42, 40 2% of middle managers say they plan to quit in the next year due to workplace stress and anxiety. That is a crazy statistic, 42%. And as an employer, today's workers demand an employer who really listen and acts on this feedback. So you need to craft an effective listen, listening and action oriented strategy. Or really 42% of managers are considering leaving for an organization that does. So really think about the full amount of benefits you're providing, how you're enabling people to use their time to focus on themselves personally or professionally, and develop energy within their lives. Burnout also tends to be driven by the work itself. So a lot of research shows us the type of work and the ongoing ways in which we're feeling momentum and progress in our work drives and creates a, a lack of burnout or, or the experience of burnout within our work. So if you're working on something that has forward momentum and you feel like your work is producing forward results in some way, that actually is a energizing factor to the work experience. Now, if you have goals or your performance management practices are very lofty or feel unattainable or unrealistic, this creates this consistent experience of this failing type experience, right? Like I, I know we, we want to embrace ing, but when it's always the case and we're reaching an unattainable goal, that actually contributes to a burnout experience, right? So there's opportunity to really look at people's today's day-to-Day work priorities and how we're setting goals and handling performance management, and listen, listening to them so we can give 'em an experience that feels like they're positively building momentum forward within their careers, within the way they're impacting the organization, that actually creates this energizing experience into the employee experience. So something to really be thinking about in terms of even a trend for 2024, how are we creating a experience of forward momentum within the employee experience? Another piece of burnout that you really need to consider is also leveraging connection and community. I think over the last year we talked about how do we create more pure group experiences, especially when we do have a remote workforce. How do we create kind of this connection within the organization itself? So the Surgeon General's framework emphasizes that organizations create opportunities for social connection and community that really improve the mental health and wellbeing. These are two essential ingredients that, and the human needs that we desire and look for within our work experience. So I think it's really time to double down on creating more peer-to-peer experiences, things that help unlock deeper levels of support, both personally and professionally, and create kind of that deeper sense of belonging and connection internally. So you really have to, one, when you're addressing burnout, two themes based on the research and what the data's telling us. Uh, listen and act. It's like an ongoing thing. We can't just be listening when we hear things from our employees. How do we act and support them in those journeys? And also, how do we create forward momentum into the day-to-day work, but then also leverage connection and community internally. Okay. The final remaining trend before I invite our amazing leaders to the stage with me, uh, I've, I've talked a lot about this with some of our top community members internally. Something I'm really excited about talking, uh, uh, leading internally with organizations, which is, it's gonna be an interesting, maybe vulnerable conversation. It's gonna be a touchy one that I know is gonna be really hard to have with a lot of your people, which is driving employee accountability. So there's two worlds that we have found about this one, yes, there's kind of the, the workforce side, the organization side, and the leader's role in, in holding themselves accountable. And this is referenced in Deloitte and a number of other, uh, organizations and research, including Employee Benefit Research Institute. There's the importance of like managerial empowerment and accountability, a in 10 respondents in the, the Deloitte study, which we'll share all of these studies with you as well. Uh, for those that are struggling with wellbeing, is really that heavy workload and that stress stressful job topping the list and the obstacles they face. So we need to help leaders be empowered and enabled to adjust those things and then hold leaders accountable into how they're pressuring their team with workloads and goals and communicating with their people. So there's accountability as a leader on the other end, which is the side that I'm really excited about. This is probably gonna be a really new conversation for a lot of you with your people, and it's gonna be a sensitive and, and tough one to navigate. But how do we create more accountability on the, the people and the employees themselves? So let's look at this. At the end of the day, the world's pretty chaotic. Doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon. It's gonna continue to be chaotic in the future. We're gonna continue to have a never ending to-do list. That seems to be the reality, right? So we kind of need to flip the conversation a little bit and see how our people take accountability for the energy they are creating in their own lives. Like, yes, there's a lot organizations need to do and support this, but there is some ownership on ourselves as individuals. And let me explain a little bit about that. I looked up some other research and data on this where according to the latest available data, an average of, uh, Americans spend two and a half hours, uh, on social media every day, two hours and 24 minutes to be exact exact on social media. Uh, we also spend an average of 13 hours and 11 minutes just online in digital media every day. This includes American spending three hours a day on streaming services and streaming videos just between social media and streaming video services. That's an average for an American spending 5.5 hours each day. On top of that, the average American sleeps less than seven hours a night, which sounds pretty good in a fast-paced world, but that's a recipe for chronic sleep deprivation as well. And on that, the data also shows 39.6% of US adults are obese. We know all these things are bad, like really bad for your energy and your mental health. Yet those numbers are incredibly staggering. And it's easy to point the finger at our institutions and our organizations and how they are driving this lack of wellbeing within our lives. Yet majority of people are still participating in activities that we know do not lead to an energetic life. We know it's not good for your health. So as much as there's work to be done at an organizational level, we do need to learn how to create this accountability on our employees themselves, on evaluating what they're doing to generate energy in their lives and limit their exposure to the things that drain their energy. Like social media, like streaming service, like not getting enough sleep and bad eating habits. Those are simple things we can all control in our own di individual lives. So there could be some questions here that we can start to ask our people. Have leaders have these conversations with their people on what are you doing to generate energy in your life? Are you taking the necessary steps to mitigate burnout and wellbeing in your own life, in your own as an individual? Otherwise, my biggest fear here is like, as an organization, you can continue pumping resources and development into wellbeing initiatives. But if your people at a foundational level are not participating in good behaviors for themselves to generate energy and a better sense of fulfillment and wellbeing in their lives, we're kind of always kind of coming up against that barrier. And it's, it's never really gonna kind of get to that next level that we're looking for. So again, I think this is gonna be a very touchy subject for us to kind of navigate and have some of these conversations. I do see this as a trend in action. You should think about prioritizing and a powerful one to discuss in 2024 and consider. So I'm excited to kind of dig into that with some of our community members this next year. It's definitely something we've been talking about with some of our people is like, okay, how do we put some of that ownership back onto the community? So I'm gonna share some of that right here in the chat here. Uh, okay, I'm gonna pause here. I'm gonna share my screen because now I'm excited to welcome three amazing individuals that I really look up to have had some of these conversations with in the past. And we're gonna break down some of these subjects. They're gonna share some insights into their own experience, into building a more healthy workplace and a culture of wellbeing. I love to welcome Andrea Herron, head of people for WebMD, Annie Rosecrans, people and culture director for Hi, Bob and Ralph Kellogg, VP HR for Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska. I see you all here with me. I could stop sharing. Would love to see lovely faces. Hi Annie. Good to see you, Andrea. Welcome and Ralph, welcome. Alright, I love this. Feel free to ask questions as we kind of go into this discussion, but we're gonna jump right into it. I'd love to start, and Annie, I, I'll kind of point to you and we'll kind of go the round of horn if you can kind of briefly introduce yourselves, some of the work you're doing, but one, maybe just your starting viewpoint on some of the importance of fostering this wellbeing and some of your objectives for kind of how you're looking at this today. Sure. Um, so thank you for the introduction. Thanks for having me. Um, so as Zach mentioned, I'm Annie. I'm the director of People and Culture at Hi Bobb. Um, for those you who don't know, hi, Bobb is in the HR space. Um, so I'm in a unique position of doing HR for an HR company, which puts a a really interesting magnifying glass on everything that I do in my day-to-day, and puts a little added pressure in a good way. Um, but with that in mind, wellbeing is a really important focus of my attention, um, in, in my role as people leader. Um, the, the biggest thing in the area that I think, um, we spend the most time focused on at hi bobb, when it comes to the, the topic of wellbeing is the relationship between the line managers and the indi individual contributor or the employee. Um, this is the, the area that we can have the broadest impact on our employees and their overall wellbeing. Um, so I would say just to go into, you know, some, some light examples, it's really ensuring that managers are armed, armed with the tools to have meaningful conversations with their employees every day that goes beyond the tactical day-to-day work, understanding what their motivations are, what's stressing them out, what's, what's going on in their personal lives that may be impacting their ability to do the, that their work. These are the, there, this sounds like really simple tips, but these are the things that, um, if these conversations aren't happening, the trust isn't being built. The, um, the, the feeling that my manager is behind me and will, will support me if I, if there's an extenuating circumstance where I need them to back me up. Um, and it will also mean that when things are good, that employee is going to go above and beyond to prove themself to, to themselves, to their manager, and to the company that they are a valuable asset to the organization. So it really is a two-way street, uh, but it starts with the manager creating an environment that supports these types of conversations and, um, and discussions. Yeah, I appreciate you kind of reaffirming that. I'm even reading, you know, Robin's comment in the chat, right? Like, there's one end. We want to drive accountability and buy-in from the employees themselves to monitor certain behaviors. But a lot of that also really is driven from the leadership's role and connection and how they're role modeling things and their relationship with their people to help support that conversation or that reality as well. So it definitely is gonna be a huge focus for our conversation. So we'll dig into that a little bit more. Uh, Ralph, welcome. Thank you for, uh, jumping on stage with me here. I'd love let the, let the, the group let, uh, know a little bit about you, some of the work you're doing, but yeah, what are some of the things you're thinking about as we start this topic? Sure. Yeah. Um, I, I love the, the comment that was made about, um, having the conversation, um, between the manager and the employee. Uh, so in my organization, uh, it's a statewide mental health organization, uh, throughout the state of Nebraska, uh, and some, uh, a little bit of a footprint in Iowa. Uh, and, uh, one of the things that I discovered, I started during the pandemic, and one of the things that I discovered during everything remotely, um, and as someone who has struggled with my own mental health, um, is that people began struggling, um, themselves with a lack of disconnection and a lack of feeling isolated. Um, so as I was struggling, I thought, what can I do to help other people who were kind of going through the same thing? Um, I created a really simple coaching model called act, which is acknowledgement, compassionate account accountability and transparency. Um, and the acknowledgement piece is really going to what was said earlier, that everyone is going through something at some time. Um, whether that's burnout, anxiety, panic, it's an acknowledgement that everyone is facing something in the organization. So, to the point earlier about mental health and mental wellbeing always being a top priority, it has to be because we're dealing, um, we're, we're dealing with a, an environment where that's always the case. Uh, then moving into the compassionate accountability piece of it, that's really, um, you know, again, working with the employee, having opus open and honest conversations about what's going on, um, helping prioritize and scheduling check to reduce, you know, anxiety or concern about the work being done so that everyone's on the same page. Um, and then the transparency piece about always keeping the conversation going. Um, I think as someone struggled with my own mental health divulge to a manager in the past that I was struggling a little bit, um, it would be, we'll go see EAP and nothing else was ever said about it. And I felt ignored and sort of isolated after that point. Um, I wanted to introduce the thought of, keep those conversations going because that's going keep the employee connected, that's gonna keep the engagement high, and that's gonna let the employee know that you genuinely care about what's going on with them. So we try to structure those kinds of conversations into all of the dialogues that we have with employees in our organization. It's a little different working with mental health practitioners because, um, we're talking about management and leading and modeling behavior. And so we really had to focus on, it's not diagnosis of a mental health condition. It's really working with the team as a team member, as an employee to get them to function at a level of which they're comfortable and feeling as though they're safe within the environment. So, um, that's a little bit about, um, some of the work that we're doing at LFS and, uh, some of the, um, positive impacts that we've had as a result of it. Well, thank you Raul Finn. Um, we're starting to dip our toes into the deeper discussion of, okay, how do we actually create that safety where people can surface the challenges of burnout and some of the issues from a mental health standpoint or whatever it might be, or wherever they are, that they don't have to feel like they have to hide this. And I, I wanna applaud you, Ralph, and, and put in the chat if you're with us on this too, where, you know, what, we're also in this boat of experiencing burnout and some of the mental health issues. And I appreciate, Pam, you in the chat too, is like, Hey, I, I was one of those managers too, and it was extremely hard to support our peers in those journeys when we might not even feel like we have that sense of safety or ability to kinda surface these things within our company and how much of a difference it is when you, you change jobs as, as Pam you're saying. So Juan, just like as a community here all, let's give a shout out to each other in the chat that we are in this together. This is a space where we can talk about these things and we can surface them, uh, because it is, especially within our roles of, uh, HR leaders of supporting others, right? It could be often, you know, we're forgotten about. We kind of left aside in some of these conversations and solutions, you know, let's make sure we're, we're supporting each other in these journeys because we need to, like, we need to be there for each other. All right, Andrea, so thank you. We'll, uh, we'll welcome you up next. I'd love to hear more about you. What's kind of the work you're doing and, and what are you thinking about when you, you think about this world of wellbeing right now? Great. Hi everybody. I have so many thoughts. Um, I'm the head of people for WebMD and I also wrote a book about how managers and leaders can support mental wellness in the workplace with tools and information. So I care a lot about this topic. Um, and you know, I totally agree with you. We all have mental health and a lot of times it's easy to be like, those people have a hard day, but we are also those people and everybody has mental health. We have to take care of it. And a lot of times I think when the phrase mental health comes up, we immediately associate it with mental illness. And that's just not true. We all have mental health, we all have physical health. So I think even shifting the thought or the approach to what that even means is subtle. Uh, but if you're only thinking of something as an illness or a negative, it's gonna change how you approach it versus being more proactive, um, talking about mental wellbeing. And, you know, as Ralph mentioned, it's not good enough to point people towards the employee assistance program and just assume it's all good. You know, no news is good news. That is the past. That is not the future. And you know, this is especially true for leaders and managers because as you may have experienced, people get promoted into management typically because they're really good at their job, not because they have a degree in psychology or organizational dynamics. So we actually, as a business, as hr, as you know, other managers have to provide that training and create connections. And so you can do that by just maintaining wellbeing at the, the forefront of how you do business. And also having leaders in your company talk about mental wellness or wellbeing is so simple, but it is been shown and the data shows, and we just intuitively know that when a leader talks about something openly in, you know, the all staff meeting, or even just in regular sessions and regular one-on-one conversations, it gives people permission to talk about it. It makes it okay. It's the same thing as we always talk about with time off. If your boss never takes a day off, are you gonna feel really great about taking that two week vacation that you've been planning for for three years? No. But if your boss takes their time and understands that that's important, you're gonna feel psychologically safer and just better about taking that time off. The same with mental health. Yeah. And the last thing I I would just say in this opening, um, is when you were talking Zach about, you know, we all have mental health and everybody's talking about, yes, I have struggled. It just really brought to mind for me, me, the compassion fatigue component that I don't hear talked about a lot. Um, so if you're not familiar with compassion fatigue typically is for those in a helping profession, but only extend if you're managing others or working closely with others. And that's when you just give so much of yourself, you know, the whole like, put your oxygen mask on first. Like, you didn't do that because you're a parent, you're caring for an elderly parent, you have stuff at the school, you volunteer at this thing, and you do your day job and it's too much. And you give, give, give. Your tank is empty and you actually can't care anymore. And that leads to a different kind of burnout than the physical exhaustion. It is actual emotional fatigue. And so that is something I think we really need to talk about more and how we can keep people balanced and not allow people to run themselves into the ground because they care too much. 'cause we're not supporting them to take that time off and be realistic about what is, um, right to do and what you have the time and space to do. Yeah. Yeah. You brought up a lot of amazing points, and one of the things I kind of wanted to reaffirm, obviously we, we talked about the leadership's role and, and leadership accountability and, and driving this within their teams. And I think you brought up a really important point, which is, you know, a lot of times leaders are promoted into those roles for high performance and being really good at their certain jobs, but that doesn't, doesn't ne necessarily correlate with, you know, being experts in psychology and the cultural dynamics of leading the team and, you know, being aware, the emotional intelligence. I saw EQ pop up in the chat before as well. Uh, so yeah, like how do we maybe reinvent the ways in which we evaluate leaders or promote leaders into roles who have certain, uh, skill sets or from an enablement standpoint, how do we enable leaders to develop that skillset so they are more aware or taking that approach where if you have a leader who's like, well, this is what it take took to get here, and I never took a time off and I had to work extra nights, and that's what it takes to be a leader here. You know, think about that environment of what that's driving within that team, um, and, and the wellness of the entire organization, right? If that's what you're rewarding. Yeah. Zach, just to step in here, so I, I also flagged the comment from, I think it was Desiree, about EQ and management. Um, I think this, and I think the topic of AI was also referenced in that comment, and I think it was a very astute point that, you know, everyone's worried about is AI gonna take our jobs? Is, you know, what does that mean for us? It may, it means that EQ is more important than ever, and that we can actually reallocate our investments in potentially skills, skills training or knowledge training to be more about how do we all work together as human beings, uh, because that will optimize the way we all work and, and the quality of the work that we're able to produce if we're feeling psychologically safe and supported, and that we have clarity about our future and the at at the company. All of these things tie back to relationships. Yeah. And Andrea Rofe, as you know, we direct questions for free to just jump in, build off of each other for free to interrupt me. I won't take offense by it by any means. Uh, but yeah, I'd love to, you know, we one, and, and kind of my, some of the research that we talked about, we hit on some key pillars, and all of you have already brought up some really interesting points. So one of the things that, you know, Annie, you started talking about in your introduction and even some of the research, you know, shows is really one, you know, the leadership's role is we're starting to talk about, but also the individual accountability into how people are, are behaving and contributing and building energy in their lives. And we kind of talked about that relationship between individual accountability as well as managers managerial support, uh, in our conversations. Annie, uh, can you speak to a little bit about like how you as a, like a people and culture director can navigate some of that and both support leadership accountability and role modeling and, and shaping the wellbeing landscape, but then also driving that conversation of individual accountability at the employee level. It's kind of like an interesting tension there. Yeah. Um, so when, as you're talking about accountability, I think the, and, and to your earlier points in the introduction about how it's less, there's less of a focus or there should be less of a focus now on productivity and, and output and more about quality of work and execution of the role. Um, so one of the things that, that we've invested in a lot over the last six to 12 months at, at hi bobb is career pathing. We realize that the world is, is complicated. It's confusing. Nobody knows what's gonna happen with the job market and with socioeconomics and politics and all of that. If we can provide some clarity in their day-to-day work, for example, if you're in this job today and you're, you want to elevate your career, what does it take for you to get from A to B at the company? At this company? We wanna provide more clarity about how to do that. Um, and that's that one points to accountability here. Here are these, the steps and the outcomes we expect of anyone to go from one role to the next, uh, in, in a, a particular department, uh, or team. And that again, provides the assurance and the con the, the, the confirmation of, of, um, role success and, and the clarity that people so desperately want today. Uh, and it also enables managers to more effectively manage people to performance. Um, so it, I think it, it's, it's a positive both for the employee and the manager in, in providing that clarity and to the point I made earlier, psychological safety. Yeah, I think, um, the one thing that I would add to that as well, um, the clarity piece is critical. I also think, um, you know, timely feedback, um, timely information related to performance, um, so much of the time, what I see, um, in organizations where people feel stressed or they feel anxious about their job, um, is that they're not giving given feedback or they're given what I call feedback after the fact where it's too late for them to go back and make any kind of course correction or make any kind of behavior modification related to performance. And then they're dinged on it, um, in an annual review or quarterly review or something along those lines. Um, and then has a, a detrimental impact on, uh, mental health and wellbeing. Because what happens is, is it conditions the employee to not trust their manager, and they're constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Um, I haven't heard, so that must mean that, you know, something is around the corner kind of thing. It's hard to go in and do your best work every day when you don't know, um, what is expected or if goals are clarified, um, for you in a way that, you know, once you've hit the goal, um, that you've succeeded. Um, so yeah, I would echo that a hundred percent. I love these two points of like, clarity around the role, the future of the role, the career path within it, and then also how feedback contributes to someone making progress in that feedback. I think, obviously what I talked about before is, you know, like a huge contributor to burnout and some of the mental health issues is this lack of, uh, or sense of momentum and forward progression, right? Like, if we don't experience that, you know, we have this constant state of failure or feeling stuck, that's what really drives some of the experiences of burnout. So how do we create that sense of momentum and kind of forward progress? And one of the ways that you do that is, one, giving them clarity on what does forward progress look like? You know, what is that career path and those goals and steps that they need to kind of that journey forward that gives 'em, you know, one direction and what momentum looks like, but then timely, uh, feedback to make them, you know, understand like, oh, I am doing the steps. I am navigating the journey forward. And if I get that too late in between that time period, I might just be thinking I'm stuck this entire time. When in reality the leader's like, no, you've been doing great. This is, you're moving forward. You need to constantly reassure that. And that's where, uh, I, I, I see, you know, take time to provide positive feedback, but even the critical feedback to help them move forward, to create that sense of momentum and, and continue to grow in their lives, right? Yeah. The one phrase that I immediately think of is one of my go-tos is clear, is kind and unclear, is unkind. And I think, yeah, that makes sense. We all want clarity, but if you are struggling with any kind of just mental wellbeing or you're just not in a, a good place, work may be the most stable place in your life. And if you have clarity and consistency there, that is a huge gift to somebody who is just trying to hang on. And the other thing is, you know, in absence of information, human beings will make up the story. Our brains cannot deal with a void of information. So if you are not being clear or giving information, we're gonna fill in the gaps, and it's probably not gonna be positive. Again, humans. Um, so it's really in our best interest to give as much information as we can, but obviously it'll go overboard, but fill in those gaps as often as possible for clarity. And it bene there's just so many benefits to it, and it's just something we know, but we're not that good at doing. So you may have to practice over what you might feel like is oversharing a bit at first until you get in a rhythm of just regular, you know, information and sharing. Yeah. Yeah. The, the, the other thing that I would add to that, the clearest kind piece, I think is really important. Um, if I don't feel as though I can trust my manager to be open and honest with me about performance objectives or feedback, um, I can tell you as someone who's been in this position, I'm not gonna share with you that I'm struggling with my mental health, um, because I don't trust you. Um, and if I don't trust you, um, I'm least I'm, I'm less likely to be engaged with you. I'm less likely to do my best work for you, and I'm probably gonna be looking for another employer. Yeah. So it, it all sort of winds, uh, together. Yeah. Okay. So I wanna build off this clear client clear or clearest kind kinda, uh, theme here that we have rowing, and Andrea, we really talked about this before and you brought this up in your introduction about, you know, the, the power of connection community has a huge role on this and, and how pure mentorship or community can have a role, but at the same time, I might be kind of scared of saying the wrong thing, right? Or I might be hesitant if someone's sharing, uh, you know, challenges that they're having with burnout mental health. And I, I put that stigma on it that's like, oh no, I need to direct you over here. That's, I can't handle that. Right? Um, there's a lot of fear of saying the wrong thing, right? And, and as Annie kind of talked about, or all of us is like, you know, we're not psychologists, we're not experts in all things emotional intelligence all the time, right? So how do we, how do we maybe overcome some of those fears? Or how do we make leaders, you know, or peers start to feel more comfortable, uh, having these conversations when maybe there's always been that stigma to kind of like shove it to someone else like that, you know? So-called experts out there. Yeah, absolutely. And I think Ralph really started it by outlining that trust is critical. I mean, if you don't have a trusted relationship where you feel like you could be a, a little bit vulnerable in that you, it's a no-go, right? So how do you even get there to where you might be worried you're gonna say the right thing or wrong thing? 'cause you're at least having the conversation. Um, we gotta back up and create connection and, you know, people need each other. We need to talk and work friends are the most unique kind of friends, right? We spend a lot of time together. We may never hang outside of work. Um, it's a mixed bag of personalities, but it, it all works. And we share a lot of experiences. But what I have seen in my organization and others is that sometimes there can be silos. Sometimes there's personalities that don't necessarily get along. And so one thing we have done is create peer-to-peer kind of mentorship partnership. You know, we use a platform, but you, you don't have to, it's pairing either different people from different departments, giving them time and opportunity to connect, not about the ticket somebody didn't answer, or the problem that they're sure is the other person's fault, but to actually build a relationship. Because you can have inclusion, you can be a diverse and equitable organization, but if people don't feel like they belong there and they have a voice there, you're not gonna get their creativity, their effort, you know, you're not gonna get the best of people because though they don't feel like they belong there. And so if you can help build in intentional time, you're gonna start to also bridge between departments, which has nothing but upside to your business and performance. And then you can worry about, am I oversharing or underhar? And just as an aside, as long as you're staying away from personal health detail questions, the rumor mill, you know, being invasive, it's much better to say something like, Hey, I've noticed you're a little off. Or, Hey, that's not how I usually respond. Is everything okay? I just wanna check in with you. I haven't heard from you in a while. You know, any of those just reach outs are going to build bridges. They're gonna make people feel like someone cares. And, you know, and you're not gonna go wrong with that as long as you stare away from kind of the obvious roadblocks. It's much better to say something to check in on someone than to not say I, I think that's like really powerful, is like, you don't have to go in creating peer relationships focused on mental health. It's more about just creating the foundation of peer relationships and architecting situations that, you know, create that. And indirectly it starts to build that human connection, which opens up future conversations for them to feel more comfortable having the discussion with each other. It reminds me, you know, of initiative we did a long time ago, it took zero technology or platform, but it was like we, we set up these walkie talkies we call 'em, and it was, uh, you know, the kind of a you we just paired employees together who raised their hand, uh, say they wanted to be part of this program, and we gave 'em one or two prompts just to talk and get to know each other. It was also a wellness initiative. So they're getting their steps in, right? Like, and uh, uh, and they get to know each other. And then next thing you know, there's, there's kind of these human connections that come from that, that foster deeper conversations in the future. Um, Annie, I'm curious with you on, on kind of driving some of those peer-to-peer connections and ways you're thinking about that, especially being a global organization. I know that can be even tougher as like, how do you do that globally, but are certain things that come to mind when you start to trying to foster some of that community or those peer-to-peer relationships? Definitely. As you were talking, I was thinking about the distinction between employees who work in the office, hybrid or full-time, whatever the schedule may be, versus those who work from home every day. And for many that population is people who used to work in an office every day and then post pandemic are now full-time remote. And that certainly, I, I don't have the data in front of me, but I know that that has had an impact on, on mental health, uh, for for many. Um, so one of the things that we've been really focused on in 2023, we, we moved to offices. Uh, we moved into a big office in New York about a year and a half ago when we spent the first eight months or so, really focused on building a great in-office community, potentially at the expense of our, our remote staff. So we shifted gears this year, really focused on how do we build community amongst our remote team members. Um, we had largely depended on independent teams to and, and managers to build that community, but what we realized was that there was a, a gap, uh, in connecting. When we thought about new hires, for example, they weren't meeting at people outside of their teams until maybe six or 12 months in when we brought them to the, the New York office. Um, so one of the very simple things that we did is as part of onboarding, we set a, a standard that all, all new hires, particularly remote hires, will be given a list of people to meet from across the organization in their first 30 days. People to sit down, have a, it doesn't need to be necessarily business related. It could be a, a virtual coffee chat to get to know people in different parts of the company. Um, again, super simple tactical thing, but it's something, it's a small effort to encourage community building connection, um, and relationships that may not have otherwise happened because they didn't, the, the two individuals that were connecting weren't necessarily connected through any, any business related purpose. Um, but there's value in that, that, that, uh, is the kind of thing that if they connect and bond, um, that may be the, the relationship or the, the work friendship that keeps that person tied to the company for a long time. I love that. And I remember, and I honestly don't know how strong the statistic is, so bear with me, but I like the thought, I like the philosophy behind it. And, and, and, uh, something around the lines of like, employees and new hires really determine whether they are a fit or wanna stay at a organization within the first 45 to 60 days of working at that company. So you gotta know, like your first two to three months of a new hire are critical for getting them to feel that connection internally and leading to a longer term, you know, career status beyond one year, right? Like after three months, they might already be looking for another job if they don't feel that connection right away. So that's such a easy, tactical way to kinda help foster that. And it's not really a heavy lift and it's something actionable that you can do in any onboarding program. Right. Okay. So we have about seven minutes left here. So we have a couple questions in the q and a, and I want to start with Cecilia's. It's pretty challenging and, and I love it. So I'll, uh, I'll, I'll open up the floor. Ralph, I was gonna look to you 'cause you kind of talked a little bit about, you know, the, the leadership's enablement, some of those things. But the question is, do you believe leaders can truly be trained to have compassion and skillsets that promote and focus on wellbeing? Or is this, or is this really what we should be looking for first in leaders when also looking at their technical abilities? So I, I think what she's really asking is like, you know, a lot of times we're ha we're promoting for performance and those technical abilities, and that's why they're a leader. And then we try to teach 'em the EQ stuff. Should it be different, or is that even possible? Or should it, should it be flipped in a way? Where should we look for more of the EQ elements or, or kind of those, you know, skill sets to, you know, foster those conversations, um, as a, for our leaders. Um, so yeah, Ralph, I'll I'll start with you. Yeah, I, I, you know, obviously I think, um, skillset is important. Um, you know, being able to do the fundamentals of a job is important. Um, but, um, any of those informal polls that you see on LinkedIn or the Gallup researcher, things along those lines will say, you know, connection to the manager. Um, having an empathetic manager is one of the key drivers of, of success. Uh, in terms of the employer employee relationship, I do believe, um, that people can learn some basic, um, some basic skills, uh, to connect with employees. I think one of the things, um, that leaders could immediately do is demystify language regarding mental health. Um, it's, it's anxiety, it's depression, it's panic. Um, it, it's, it, you can demystify language. Um, you begin to normalize the terms, you begin to bring things out of the dark. Um, and you remove the stigma and shame from those, uh, from those terms that have often been associated with people who might be dealing with mental health issues. I think that's number one. Um, number two, having meaningful conversations with people, checking in with them, actually asking how they're doing, um, and not doing the drive by. How are you doing? And you're kind of walking as you're asking. Um, and then, you know, the other thing, um, that I would say too is to keep the conversation going with the transparency. If someone has divulged to you that they're struggling, um, or that they've had issues going on, you know, a simple, Hey, you told me you were struggling with, with depression or panic a couple of weeks ago. Your anxiety was really high. Um, how are you doing? And if the person says, you know what? I don't wanna talk about that right now. Simply saying, my door is open. Um, if you ever wanna talk, you know, please know that I'm available to you. It's those kinds of things, those kinds of small, um, seemingly um, or seemingly small things that really helps cement the relationship in the workplace. Um, and so I do believe leaders can do that. We all have the capacity to show empathy and concern and connection. Um, I don't necessarily believe that it can always be done in a grand scale, but I do believe in the trickle down effect. And if you're doing it with your direct report and they're doing it with their direct report, it will mushroom into a movement within an organization and it has to start with the leader. Yeah. And I'll open up the floor and, and Andrea, if you add, you want to add thoughts, 'cause obviously this has been like such a hot topic in the chat, in the questions of, you know, leadership's role and enablement and how do we approach that to, you know, empower them to have these conversations. But one thing that I just thought about just, you know, comparative to the strategy you shared Annie about, you know, creating those peer connections and the onboarding process, maybe part of becoming the leader or the leadership experience is having their own peer connection experience as well. Like, you think about if you've ever been part of like a mastermind or a coaching group and some of those peer-to-peer groups externally at a company, maybe you create your own internal mastermind for leaders to come together and share, you know, what, I, I don't know how to have this conversation with my team. This has came up. How would you approach this? And now leaders are kind of sharing that between each other. One, developing connections with each other, which helps support their own mental health, but then enabling them to navigate those conversations in their own team. So it's a skillset development kind of experience as well. So, um, yeah, go Ahead. I completely agree with those points. Um, I, I think manager communities are so important to manager wellbeing as well as effectiveness. Um, we, uh, have done a really expansive, uh, manager workshop program to develop our leaders. And one of the focuses of, of those workshops consistently has been how to have diff difficult conversations. No matter how empathetic we are early on in our careers, it's having difficult conversations is hard, and we all need to, to exercise that muscle and be reminded of how to approach challenging conversations. And the most challenging ones are the ones that are sensitive and where people are dealing with really diff challenging personal situations and managers having to figure out how to be empathetic with that individual while also meeting, meeting the needs of the business. That's a really, really hard thing to navigate. And the only way to ex to, to learn that skill is to practice it. And doing that with peers is, is the best way to do it. Yeah. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. The only other point I would like to ask, these are all great points. Um, back to the EQ question, you know, everyone has the capability to enhance their emotional intelligence to continue to learn, but you do have to have a willingness. And so I think as far as the skillset, yeah, you need to be good at the job. You need to understand, so people have faith that you know what you're doing as the leader, but you also have to have a willingness to learn. And then that, you know, begs the question of what training and, and all the things. But the other thing that I don't wanna blanket over is that not every group needs that to look the same, because I will tell you all my groups, how that shows up is very different. And so we all wanna feel, you know, cared for and that someone's looking out for us and has our back, and that they've got us when we, you know, really need something that is the same because people, uh, but my engineers are gonna look at that differently. My technologists are gonna want something different. My marketing team, my sales team, very different personalities. So I think it's important to keep in mind that it will vary on approach, but the core skillset is the same that you can train. But that's why those peer groups of connecting similar leaders is gonna be so important so they can share ideas. Amazing. Okay, so we are at time, I'm gonna squeeze in one final question, and I'm gonna ask all three of you to kind of suffice your answer into like a statement, like one sentence. So I don't even know if that's realistic to expect, but let's go for it because I think it's really important, especially for our, you know, community here of HR and people professionals. Uh, this is for you, right? And, and Orris, I really appreciate you asking this question where while HR leaders are expected to support employees and leaders on their mental health and wellbeing and the organization and this culture is often forgotten that ourselves are also employees that need to be cared for. And, and Andrea, you kind of talked about, you know, putting your face mask on first. Um, so how should HR address this? How can we support our own wellbeing as HR professionals as we go on this large scope of work and journey of supporting the wellbeing of the organization? Right? So, uh, quickly, let's finish strong, but uh, Andrea, why don't you start us off? Yeah. I mean, the answer you already know is you have to lead by example. There is no shortcut. If HR can't do it and show the organization that it's okay to do, nobody else is gonna feel like it's really okay because they don't wanna end up in your office. So you have to leave by example and do it for yourself. Love it. Thank you, Ralph. I would say lead by example. Um, also, but ensure that you're not working harder at it than the employee. Um, so you wanna make sure that you offer the tools, the open door, the conversations, all of those things. Um, but I think someone said earlier, there has to be a willingness on the part of the employee to take advantage of what's being offered. So, um, yeah, don't work harder than the employee. Beautiful. All right, Andy, take us home. Um, so I would say find your own HR community. Uh, we, HR is a lonely place, so we depend on one another in, in this industry to, to learn from, to decompress whatever we need. But find, find your people and, uh, use them as a resource. It's music to my ears. Like I was gonna say, connect with the Achieve community, right? Like, these are your peers and connection community is so important to that. This is your space, right? So leverage it, connect with people in the chat. I see all of you, you know, reaching out and sharing your thoughts, share your LinkedIn and emails with each other. Continue the journey with each other, you know, continue using this community. So let's give a huge round of applause to our amazing leaders here. Yes, I love their reaction and emojis coming in. Say thank you in the chat. Uh, Andrea, Ralph, and Annie, thank you so much for sharing the stage with our community and your perspective and wisdom. We're really grateful that you know, you, you were here with us Today.

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