Another fall season brought another set of return to office deadlines. The headlines earlier this month were everywhere — “Enough Bosses Say,” “The Office’s Last Stand” and “Will Return to Office Get Serious in September?” were just a few. Sure, there’s been an uptick in office occupancy this month, but as one recent headline […]
Morra Aarons-Mele’s The Anxious Achiever podcast explores the intersection of mental health and work, and how we can all do both better. I joined Morra (who also happens to be one of my favorite people) and Amelia Ransom, SPHR, VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Smartsheet, during a recent episode to answer listener questions about how to […]
In today’s USA Today Opinion, I share why “As we teeter on the brink of a possible recession, business leaders have a make-or-break choice. Use this moment to threaten or plan layoffs while mandating employees return to the office. Or double down on flexible ways of working and make flexibility a core part of their operating model. “Will they revert to […]
I love Adam Grant, but you can’t separate flexibility and work from home. First, you have to have the flexibility to work from home in order to save time (and energy, I would add). Restated: A top upside of having the flexibility to work from home is “avoiding the hassle of schlepping to work” which […]
We need to step back, take a breath and get our bearings about what’s really happening with remote, hybrid, and returning to the office if we hope to approach the flexible “next” of work deliberately and thoughtfully. In the past few weeks, we’ve had “all or nothing” commentary (some border lining on apocalyptic) from Peggy […]
We know per the recent McKinsey data, the top reason people STAY is “adequate workplace flexibility.” But what’s really interesting is when you flip the “top reasons for QUITTING” data from the same study from negative to the positive… You have all of the elements of well-executed high performance flexibility–a flexible, dynamic way of operating, […]
I recently appeared on CareerCast, a University of Chicago Booth School of Business podcast. Host Anita Brick, Director, Career Advancement Programs, and I talked about an important topic: how to build community in a flexible, dynamic organization. We talked about the five steps an organization can follow, as a community, to answer the foundational question “what […]
As oversight of talent and human capital issues become front and center for corporate boards, I joined KPMG Board Leadership Center’s (BLC) Spring Directors Roundtable as a panelist for a discussion about “What workers want – Understanding the new employee/employer dynamic.” We explored the factors driving employees’ needs and expectations—from personal well-being and work-life fit […]
Policy-based flexibility does not work. Never has, and it never will. Therefore, it’s not surprising that “back to office” mandates that lead with a number of prescribed days onsite, and not the work, are failing. Why? Because flexibility is about the way work is done. It’s planning, coordinating and executing with strategic intention across workplaces, […]
To the organizations that had hoped the threat of a recession would cause people to place less value on flexibility, it’s not happening. Flexibility+Pay+Opportunity remains the value proposition that drives whether people quit or stay in their jobs, per new research from The Conference Board… “Flexibility was among the top reasons workers quit their jobs.” Reasons […]
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