There is a powerful business case to be made for increasing the economic status of the lowest paid U.S. workers. Lower levels of inequality are correlated with higher overall economic growth that benefits every member of society, including shareholders. It has also been shown that companies with the best employee practices create sustained long-term value for their shareholders. But the private sector cannot act alone in creating a more inclusive form of capitalism. It needs strong incentives from the government. Among the potential policy ideas that could move the needle: expand employee ownership programs; raise the income level where federal tax is due; and make the minimum wage a living wage.
Harvard Business Review
How to Structure a Great Interview
The interview is the most critical stage in any hiring process. It all boils down to preparation. Asking the wrong questions or not knowing what you want from a candidate can lead to bad decisions. To make sure you are hiring the right candidate among the ones you have shortlisted, it is best to keep the interview structured and ask the candidates the same questions so there isn’t a bias. The first step, however, if getting clear on the role and responsibilities and what you’re looking for (as well as not looking for). Next, create a structure for the interview. The author recommends using the following structure to assess each candidate fairly: warm-up questions, abilities and qualification questions, behavioral questions, and workplace alignment questions.
How Emerging Technologies Can Foster Human Connections at Work
It’s easy to assume that the growing role of digital technologies in the workplace could make our jobs feel more mechanical and less human. However, digital transformation is reshaping our relationship with work in ways that make it more meaningful and inherently human. The power of digital tools allows for a reconfiguration of work that puts people at the center. We’re not just talking about convenience or efficiency here — though those are undeniable benefits — but about a deeper, more fundamental change that enables us to connect meaningfully with our work and each other. Companies are increasingly embracing this shift, looking beyond simple productivity metrics to consider employee well-being as a critical performance indicator.
Employment Is Changing Forever
A conversation with entrepreneur and author Deborah Perry Piscione on the new world of work.
3 Ways AI Is Changing How Companies Work
Built on the foundation of IT and digitization, the AI revolution is transcending limitations in at least three highly consequential areas for business: 1) enabling continuous enterprise reinvention instead of periodic transformation, 2) using real-time intelligence instead of depending on episodically-updated software, and 3) synthesizing multiple modes of data instead of being restricted to a single type of input like text only or visual only. Today, leading companies are leveraging these game-changing attributes of AI into strategies that separate them from their competitors and, along the way, redefine how humans and machines work together.
How to Build a Relationship Between Your Employee and Your Boss
Managers are often encouraged to develop their employees by giving them access to their skip-level managers. But even those who are genuinely invested in growing their superstars sometimes worry about being outshone by them. Or they may fear their report will jump the hierarchical line to report directly to the boss’ boss or move to another team. Then, without intending to, a manager can become a roadblock for their high performers. Being deliberate and strategic about the skip-level relationship between your boss and your employee can help prevent your fears from becoming reality. If you have a rising star on your team who you want to invest in, grow, and retain but you harbor feelings of discomfort about their trajectory, follow these five strategies. First, identify your hang-ups and threats you feel. Then, explain why you’re connecting your employee with your boss. Next, be transparent with your boss about what your direct report is working on. Finally, understand what your manager does in skip-level meetings to ensure you stay in sync.
Why Feedback Can Make Work More Meaningful
Managers have long been told that feedback is critical to organizational success. They attend training after training to learn how to give effective feedback in order to manage underperformers and ensure that employees are on the right track with their work. Managers also learn that feedback is a necessary ingredient for a company culture built on trust, accountability, and compassion. But what’s often missing from the conversation about the importance of feedback is the real reason why it matters: Feedback is a critical tool for helping employees find deeper meaning in their day-to-day work. This article covers three reasons why feedback can create more meaningful work, and how you as a manager can make sure your feedback conversations are designed for maximum meaning.
What Comes After DEI
While backlash to DEI has challenged how many companies and practitioners approach creating more equitable workplaces, fewer have considered whether DEI work itself has room to improve. A new framework, built around the core outcomes of fairness, access, inclusion, and representation (FAIR) that DEI was supposed to achieve for all, offers a new direction. Instead of the performative, individual-centered, isolated, and zero-sum methods of the current mainstream approach, DEI work must evolve to become outcomes-based, systems-focused, coalition-driven, and win-win. And by emphasizing fairness in policies, broad accessibility, inclusive cultures, and trust-based representation, organizations can better address the needs of all employees and create meaningful, lasting change.
A Middle Manager’s Guide to Executing Strategy
How to handle resistance from your team, and what to do if the new strategy isn’t working.
How to Make Your Team’s Work More Visible
Helping your team members gain visibility isn’t just important for their growth and success — it’s vital for yours as a leader. Not only does it show your ability to nurture and develop potential, it also demonstrates your managerial chops. Here are practical strategies for how to boost your team’s visibility: 1) Take the time to genuinely understand your team members: their individual strengths, interests, and ambitions; 2) Consider the various avenues for showcasing your team’s work; 3) Focus on impact; 4) Share facts and specific examples; 5) Be guarded with criticism; 6) Promote collaboration and create opportunities for exposure; 7) Distribute credit strategically.
Employees See Middle Managers as an Organization’s Moral Compass
Asked for their examples of moral business leadership, as might be expected hundreds of MBA students described well-known CEOs, whose extraordinary actions we certainly can learn from (individuals such as Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia and Ratan Tata of the Tata Group). More frequently, however, respondents provided recollections about their own bosses (current and former) and the tangibility of how these middle managers made a meaningful difference in the lives of their teams and upheld the moral compass of their organizations. Becoming the manager whom others genuinely respect, admire, and recall as a moral role model requires deep work. Two areas, in particular, can help: taking a regular self-inventory to gauge your existing standing, and willingly correcting habits and behaviors — then monitoring them on an ongoing basis.
The Surprising Power of Team Rituals
Rituals — collective activities that team members regularly engage in and attribute meaning to — can make a big difference during times of change or transition. Research, which included a survey of 929 individuals from 60 countries and a field study in an advertising company, found that teams with more rituals experienced higher engagement, psychological safety, interpersonal knowledge, and job satisfaction. Five measures can help a team design and implement rituals successfully: leaders having faith in and commitment to the rituals, imbuing the rituals with meaning, being religious about participation, keeping the faith but adapting the practice, and spreading the word about the value of the rituals to other teams.
How to Write a Job Description That Actually Gets People to Apply
On the spectrum of managerial chores, writing a job description probably falls somewhere between conducting employee performance reviews and filing expense reports — high on tedium, low on immediate gratification. But experts advise shifting your perspective. Instead, see it as a chance to showcase how your organization’s vision, brand, and values connect with what jobseekers care about most. To get the attention of potential candidates, follow these steps: 1) Reflect on the qualities, knowledge, experience, and skills that would make a candidate a good fit. 2) Highlight how the job connects to the organization’s strategy. 3) Showcase opportunities for growth. 4) Emphasize skills, not diplomas 5) Highlight autonomy. 6) Choose your words carefully. 7) Be transparent about rewards. 8) Don’t be boring.
When Your Coworker Loses a Home
What are the right things to do or say when your colleague loses a home in a disaster? You may worry about having the right words, but staying silent leaves a void. While there’s no perfect answer every time, the authors, both of whom have experienced catastrophic damage and home loss, offer four recommendations: 1) Do reach out — but don’t expect a response; 2) Do offer direct help and expertise; 3) Do you research on ways to donate; and 4) Don’t forget them in a month — or even a year.
How to Bridge Generational Gaps on Your Team
Workplace consultant and author Lindsey Pollak takes questions from listeners who are struggling to manage older direct reports.