ICYMI: Brick walls, WFH burnout, and desire
4 comms things and 1 non-comms thing you might have missed
☕ Situational awareness… Starbucks is taking its D&I efforts to the next level by starting a new mentorship program for its BIPOC employees and linking executive compensation to hitting those goals (Yahoo! Finance).
Meanwhile, the Business Roundtable — which is made up of the CEOs of America’s biggest companies — announced a raft of initiatives “to advance racial equity and justice.”
- Coming soon! An exclusive interview with Dante Ragazzo, the Senior Director of Digital Workplace for Tapestry, which owns Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman.
- Last week’s special election edition featured 5 topics to help internal comms pros navigate today’s choppy political waters.
- Proofpoint Launches Compliant Capture and Archiving for Microsoft Teams (press release)
In case you missed it…
1. Employees Believe Their Professional Growth Has Halted
A new report by employee engagement and success platform Peakon, titled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Employee Engagement,” finds that during the pandemic, employees have seen the largest decline in their “professional growth” perception.
- This perception is defined as employees’ perspective on how many opportunities they have to grow in terms of personal and career development.
- There has been a 0.5% decline globally between January and July 2020 in this perception, but in North America, the drop was the highest at 3%.
Companies pay oodles of money for professional development.
- Virtual learning is now the norm.
- How can IC reignite excitement in something that seems so ho-hum?
- 💰 Internal Comms can increase engagement with these programs and therefore directly contribute to the company’s bottom line, an often elusive goal.
2. WFH Burnout Is Real
Every day I come across a story about how much employees are enjoying and appreciating the ability to work from home, if not all of the time then at least some of the time.
Despite the positive feelings toward WFH, it seems employees are increasingly unhappy with their job.
- 80% of employees would consider quitting their job for another that offers better mental health care, according to a survey from Telus International (Forbes).
- The inability to socialize and easily collaborate, activities facilitated by the in-office experience, is weighing on people. Talking only to your spouse, children, or the wall all day long gets old.
- Employees find it difficult to separate work from home when it’s all physically one space. Says one WFH employee: “It doesn’t feel so much like we’re ‘working at home’ right now but instead we’re ‘living at work.’”
Case Study: After nine months of allowing employees to do their jobs at home, Ctrip, a major Chinese travel company, asked employees whether they wanted to keep working remotely or return to the office.
- 50% of them wanted to go back, despite their average commute being 40 minutes each way. The reason? Social company. Employees reported feeling isolated, lonely and depressed at home (CNBC).
Before the pandemic, only 35% of C-suite leaders saw themselves as being responsible for the well-being of employees and holistically supporting their needs.
- Six months later, that number has jumped to 50% (Accenture).
3. The Grapevine
Here’s what I’m picking up on my travels around the Internal Comms universe…
- TK Breuer (@TKtweeted), Spotify’s internal comms manager, has a new EP out called Stranded. (Read my interview with TK). Rock on.
- IC authorities Advita Patel (@Advita_p), Jenni Field (@mrsjennifield), and Trudy Lewis (@lewiscomms) started a new podcast called Calm Edged Rebels. Tune in.
- Also, Advita was named to the Northern Asian Power List and the inspiring workplace top influencers global list. Congrats!
- Alana Folsom (@axfolsom), IC associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, is 1/2 of the “dating nerds” team on season 31 of The Amazing Race. Get that envelope!
- 🍇 What are you hearing through the grapevine? Send your tips to editorshaun@gmail.com.
4. The Top 10 Books for Internal Comms Pros
Last month I published The Ultimate List of Books for Internal Communications Professionals — 95 recommendations from internal comms pros. Based on clicks, here are the 10 most popular books.
Click the affiliate links to learn more and to purchase your copy from an independent bookseller.
- Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better
- Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter’s Guide
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
- Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs
- The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications
- Neuroscience for Organizational Change: An Evidence-Based Practical Guide to Managing Change
- Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style
- Leading Change
- Excellence in Internal Communication Management
- International Communication: Continuity and Change
You can see all 95 recommendations divided into topics here:
- Internal Communications Profession
- Reference Books
- Books for Writing and Editing
- Leadership and Management
- Getting the Most Out of Work
5. What Do You Desire?
Alan Watts was a British-American philosopher who interpreted and popularized Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. His thought-provoking lectures aim to answer life’s greatest mysteries. Above: the After Skool project animated one of Watts’ lectures on desire, need, and want.
At just 12:30 in length, this is well worth taking some time out of your lunch break and to maybe rethink what you’re trying to get out of life. Watch the video.
