Sink-proof your organisation.

The Iceberg analogy is a common model to understand the concept of workplace culture. What you can see above the surface you can navigate and plan for.

What you can’t see and don’t know is what can sink you. If you’re not seeking to understand what’s under the surface of your employee experience during the pandemic, then you’re travelling blind.

At the heart of what I do is ask questions, to help people understand themselves and their situation better, so that they can take positive action to be more fulfilled. I’m a naturally curious person so asking questions has never been a problem for me; but as a coach, I’ve trained myself to be comfortable asking ‘tough’ questions to get below the surface of my client’s issues. Finding this core is what helps my clients truly understand what they need and why, and taking the steps to act. These tough questions are their catalyst for greater happiness and fulfillment at work.

In conversation with a casual friend the other day, she mentioned how the organisation she works for had recently issued an employee engagement survey. She told me how her excitement at finally being able to express how she was feeling about work was quickly quashed. When she opened the survey all she saw was the same pre-pandemic questions, when her experience of work had been fundamentally altered by the pandemic. All she saw was a long list of the wrong questions. The survey wasn’t going to help her organisation understand how she, and colleagues like her, were feeling about work right now.

While her workplace has implemented a number of initiatives to make things ‘easier’ for their employees working from home, from her perspective they were falling short. None of them seem to have any benefits for her.

“How”, she asked me, “are they deciding these are the right things to do when they don’t understand what’s really going on?

It was the right question. And of course, I responded to her with my own. “What would they need to better understand what’s going on?" Her answers were illuminating. They were also very personal. “Are you comfortable with your workplace seeking to understand these types of personal things?” I asked. She didn’t hesitate in her answer, “if it helps them make things better, then yes.”

We finished our conversation with one last question. “What would they need to do, if they asked those questions, to show that they understood?” My friend's answer was clear. “They’d need to offer more tailored solutions that people can choose from, to suit their circumstances. Right now, the solutions on offer just put me at a disadvantage in the long-run.”

After this conversation I wondered whether my friend’s experience was an isolated one, or more widespread. Her workplace is notorious among our social circle for not being particularly friendly, so I was of course hoping it was isolated.

A quick check around with other associates and friends told me it wasn’t the rarity I’d hoped for. There was general consensus that workplaces were ‘checking in’ with their employees more often than before. Most workplaces were taking some form of action with a focus on working from home and offering access to mental health services for employee wellbeing. However, only a few workplaces were genuinely demonstrating that different times called for different measures.

Most of their workplaces haven't made change in the way they seek to understand the employee experience, when so much of the experience has changed, in different ways for different people. This was apparent not just in engagement surveys but also in their conversations with managers and colleagues.

Of those I surveyed, the most confident in the approach their workplaces were taking and the solutions on offer were young, child-free and in a relationship. Older workers, those with children (of any age) and singles were the least confident. These people represent a large segment of our society, let alone our workforce.

Clearly, these organisations are doing a great job of making the workplace experience better for some of their employees, but not for all.

They’ve (so far) missed the opportunity to genuinely understand the diversity of their workforce and their employee experience, then using that understanding to deliver varied and context-based solutions.

It’s long been known that workplace culture is the barometer of an organisation’s performance and success. I’ve long advocated for the wide-ranging benefits of paying attention to workplace culture. Putting the focus on culture is about making sure an organisation not only survives now, but thrives in the future. In our current context, this means ensuring they’re investing in the right interventions now and as the global and local responses to the pandemic evolve in the future.

So, back to the point of asking tough questions and the insights gained through the conversation with my friend. Right now is the time for organisations to ask those tough questions. So they can better understand what’s really happening for their employees under the surface, to see what lies beneath and avoid a Titanic-like tragedy.

Being ready to ask the tough questions and really look below the surface assumes that your organisation is:

• Genuinely interested in it’s employee experience and making people feel seen, heard and understood

• Intent on giving employees a compelling reason to do their best, by helping them be at their best

• Part of a broader global context that influences employee experiences and expectations

• Committed to supporting it’s employees and ensuring a thriving workplace culture now and in the future, and

• Recognises that when work and home share the same physical location, what happens in one will inevitably influence the other

With those assumptions in mind, let’s look at the three categories of experience your organisation needs to better understand the current employee experience.

These categories, and the suggested questions, come directly from my discussions with people who want their workplaces to genuinely understand their experience of ‘the new normal’.

When you ask your employees these questions, you’re acknowledging that they have a life alongside their work that influences their thoughts and behaviours. When you ask these questions with the intention of enabling better solutions to help them successfully manage work alongside their life, you’re demonstrating the kind of organisational values and behaviours that instill employee loyalty and commitment.

Yes, these types of questions seem very personal. But employees are people, they have personal lives and issues that affect their work in the best of times. By most accounts, people would agree that these are not the best of times.

Paying attention to the personal is what will help people feel seen, heard and understood.

Asking tough questions can feel invasive, but it also opens up a conversation that gets to the heart of people’s experience. As long as you ask surface questions, you’ll get surface answers and you won't know what’s really happening in your workforce.

So ask the tough questions, get below the surface and see the entirety of your organisation’s culture. Once you can see, you can understand and you can act. When your organisation truly understands the things below the surface that are influencing an employees experience of work, you can better invest in the right interventions and get better results, all the while showing your people that you genuinely care.

When things improve, when the pandemic is over and our lives return to a greater semblance of normalcy, employees will remember how their organisations treated them during these difficult times and will respond in-kind. It’s up to each organisation to ensure that they get the response that best helps them succeed now and in the long-term.