Latest HR Trends: Career Regrets, Human Centered Strategy, Age Bias, Always-On Care, Employees Recognition, Collaboration, Baby Boomers

👋 Hello Everyone and Happy Sunday !

💥 Welcome back to the 42th edition of Weekly People Research! 📚

🙏 Thank you so much for all your inspiring and insightful comments last week - Every week, your comments are a source of inspiration for me and certainly for many readers!

🕒 Since I'm on a business trip to the beautiful city of Houston from today, you'll see my posts very early in the morning, US time.

☕ Some of you have coffee while reading this newsletter, some have lunch,... in short, enjoy reading as always!

💡 In this new edition, you will learn more about :

✔️Why is the human-centricity approach key for supply chain organizations? MHI: The Association That Makes Supply Chains Work and Deloitte researchers also found that a third of organizations are already using supply chain technologies such as AI to empower human workers to be more productive and make better decisions.

✔️Why is employee recognition an antidote to absenteeism and demotivation? Workhuman and Gallup researchers found that by doubling the number of employees who have received recognition or praise for doing good work in the past week, absenteeism can be reduced to less than four days per employee annually.

✔️Why organizations should reduce conference room space and create smaller collaboration spaces to improve the employee experience? VergeSense researchers found that there are regional variations in office occupancy and utilization but there’s a modest increase in office utilization over quarters.

✔️Why is age preventing baby boomers from having career opportunities? American Staffing Association researchers found that two-thirds of Baby Boomers believe their age puts them at a disadvantage when finding a new job

✔️How organizations that design and deploy “always-on care” for their employees improve talent outcomes? MetLife researchers found that communication is itself a way to demonstrate care.

✔️Why do career regrets peak (often) mid-career for all generations? Resume Now researchers found that the top biggest career regrets for employees are related to their compensation and work-life balance.

These insights continue to evolve as we all learn more - as Dave Ulrich and we must now classify these ideas in the Taxonomy of Human Capability.

🔥 Now, let's do a recap of the week on published research:

Supply chain Organizations should consider a variety of human-centered strategies related to their use of supply chain to empower Human workers!

💡 Findings of researchers:

Supply chains are run by people, and human-centricity is the key.

📣 More than a third of organizations (39%) are already using supply chain technologies such as AI to empower human workers to be more productive and make better decisions, not to replace them.

📈 Similarly, many organizations are considering human-centric technology strategies as they increase their focus on use of AI for decision making (47%).

〰️ Leaders should encourage learning and communicate that learning is an everyday part of the job. This means recognizing and rewarding learning within the flow of work.

🦾 45% of companies are using technology as an enabler for human decision-making, to improve sustainability/visibility 42% and to empower human workers (40%), according to a new interesting research called "2024 MHI Annual Industry report" published by MHI: The Association That Makes Supply Chains Work and Deloitte using data 📊 from over 1,700 manufacturing and supply chain industry leaders (executive-level positions such as CEO, Vice President, General Manager, Department Head, or Engineering Management) from a wide range of industries at the end of 2023.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Finally, researchers provide five focus areas that are paramount in helping an organization discover and integrate technologies that can simultaneously improve the human-centricity of its supply chain:

✔️Create an enterprise portfolio of technologies and initiatives that can make the supply chain both more tech-driven and human-centric.

✔️ Identify specific use cases for each technology/ initiative, focusing on realistic solutions that address challenges and drive efficiencies within particular business processes.

✔️ Assess total cost of ownership (TCO) and build a business case with a clear return on investment for the identified use cases.

✔️ Identify and mitigate risks and ethical challenges associated with the new technologies being deployed.

✔️ Follow a comprehensive approach for technology transformation, implementation, and support.

👉My personal View:

This interesting research in the field of Supply Chain demonstrates that despite the arrival of AI, organizations must more than ever put Human Centricity into their managerial practices in order to have maximum workers productivity. So the four recommendations from researchers on the flow of work are also essential for leading companies.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich : It is great to see the range of how technology (in particular genAI) can complement human capability to deliver not only more efficiency, but improve decision making. My sense is that we are only beginning on the s-curve of this genAI agenda, with far more to come. Exciting to see this (and other) research that shapes this path forward.

George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL The four leading practices that you have listed can support human performance. However, when looking at a supply chain, you also have to look at the value chain within an organisation. An example: Suppliers need to be aware of 'what' you need and 'when' you need it - this is especially important when utilizing 'just-in-time' procurement - as suppliers may not hold the stock required and so need produce it in line with your requirements. All external (as well as internal) interactions required by processes need to be mapped out. Until such time as the value chain (and associated interactions) are mapped out, introducing technology to enhance the supply chain is unlikely to add value. Even humans need to know at what stage in a process they should be contacting suppliers and when they can expect delivery. There is a direct link between HR Strategy and Value Management.

Rami Nimri : In the modern world of the supply chain, the pace of change is accelerating, but that doesn't mean the end of the human's role. On the contrary, we should view technologies as tools to enhance human capabilities in the supply chain.

There is an antidote to Absenteeism and demotivation: Employee Recognition!

💡 Findings of researchers:

There is on average 9% Productivity gain due to doubling recognition.

📉 By doubling the number of employees who have received recognition or praise for doing good work in the past week, absenteeism can be reduced to less than four days per employee annually, a 22% decrease.

🎉 Recognition reduces absenteeism because it helps people feel more connected to their work. Cultures of appreciation foster more social interactions and a greater sense of camaraderie.

🚀To produce quality output, your employees need a sense of motivation and need both Extrinsic and Intrinsic factors.

When recognition is an important part of workplace culture, employees are nearly two times more likely to rate their team’s performance as excellent, according to a new interesting research published by Workhuman and Gallup researchers using data 📊 from BLS Current Population Survey data.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Finally researchers conclude that consistent, meaningful recognition fuels a more productive and efficient workplace. A culture of recognition can not only increase productivity, but also decrease hindrances to productivity. Researchers believe that recognition doesn’t work without intention. It is only impactful when it's:

👉 Consistent

👉 Personalized

👉 Equitable

👉My personal View:

As researchers demonstrate with this interesting research, the more recognition is infused into the workplace, the more your people and your business can thrive but recognition needs to be embedded in your company values in order to take hold. This means participation across the board at all levels.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich Wonderful research. At a personal level, we all recognize the importance of being recognized! Recognition is often part of a total rewards strategy that includes financial and non financial elements.

Clare Langley In my experience bringing recognition meaningfully into an organization can be tricky to get right - as your research highlights, it needs to be intentional, fair, personal and this plays out differently for different people.

Robert Zelewski Employee recognition is undervalued by many companies and it is easy to apply with no or very little cost. Do not forget mistreatment of employees by their managers. Very good recognition can be ruined by bad management easily.

Sanketh Ramkrishnamurthy : it's essential to ensure that recognition efforts are consistent, personalized, and equitable to truly make an impact. Therefore, integrating a culture of meaningful recognition into the workplace can lead to a more engaged and motivated team, ultimately driving organizational success.

Jos van Snippenberg This is my favorite! In the 30 years that I have the privilege working with people in business recognition is the antidote for thriving. I've seen leaders do whatever it took, to be seen. Not only sacrificing their own well being, but unfortunately also that of their peers and their employees. It reminds me to a situation where my eldest son came home from school and said: "Hey dad, that boy said "hi" to me", and he was so enthusiastic about it. It fueled his self-esteem and confidence.

Kailash Raghuvanshi Great to see the tangible money estimates. 1. The recognition must be genuine (not just empty talk to get the work done or check a box), and over time also a mix of words/emails/certificates, talks, career opportunities, financial (promotions, compensation, bonuses, etc.), not just always unemotional plain empty words (e.g. great job, you are a star, etc.) 2. The gains would be much higher if apart from reduced absenteeism, other factors like higher efficiency and effectiveness, better quality, more innovations, higher NPS, less well-being costs, etc. are taken into account.

With the Hybrid work model, Organizations should reduce conference room space and create smaller Collaboration spaces to increase Employee Experience!

💡 Findings of researchers:

While the overall utilization rates of offices continue to steadily increase, the average company has still not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

🔥 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday have been dubbed the “standard in-office days” within most hybrid work strategies. These days continue to have the highest average capacity usage, specifically Tuesday which had the highest average capacity usage of 11%, globally in 2023.

👉 There’s no correlation between the size of the room and the average number of people using it.

🏆 Healthcare (20.99%) and Industrial & Logistics (17.96%) have more than two times as many collaboration rooms than any other industry.

📉 Global trend indicates that there are regional variations in office occupancy and utilization but there’s a modest increase in office utilization over quarters, according to a new interesting research published by VergeSense called "The Occupancy Intelligence Index" using data from customer occupancy of 200+ Global enterprises across 50 Countries during one year (January 1 - December 31, 2023).

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Finally, researchers believe that transformation is not over - in fact, they believe it has just begun. Also they believe that the designs and mix of spaces companies have provided are not meeting the new preferences for in-office work. So workplace leaders most likely already have the tools to repurpose and redesign underutilized space, they just need to analyze their employee’s workplace behaviors.

👉My personal View:

This very interesting research into global office space utilization demonstrates that employees come to work to collaborate and discuss together to come up with ideas to produce more. Hybrid working has therefore forced companies to rethink the design of their office in order to naturally attract people to the office without of course forcing them...

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich Wonderful research on how office space is used. The "space makes the place" not only by usage, but the symbolic nature of the office... focused on collaboration and open floor plans or more silod with independent office. When people come to work to do more collaborative work (and stay home for more independent work), office space would likely reflect this trend. This likely leads to organizations have their own office space where their employees and gather as opposed to shared offices like WeWork that were more popular. Innovations (like MyStudio and Living Office by MillerKnoll) show how the office space makes the place a factor in employee experience.

George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL However, the metrics shown for calculating space usage are missing one important element. The need to take into account: 'How' the space will be used. For instance, when looking at such reasons as sharing implicit learning, there is a need to take two elements into consideration. Firstly the team leader needs to be in attendance so as to gain an understanding of what has been learned and to ensure it is put into the 'right' context. However, s/he will then need to speak to leaders from other teams in order to see if changes brought about by the learning will have a knock-on effect in other areas. If her/his team has other business to which to attend, then the same space may not be available for the team leader meeting. It depends upon how hybrid working is being managed.

Clare Langley One of the areas most agree the office is useful for is getting groups of people together, including for training and communications. In my experience, although large meeting rooms may not always be full, there are never enough large meeting rooms for the bigger gatherings.

Reema Purohit It's indeed fascinating to see the evolving dynamics of workplace utilization outlined in your insightful post. The shift towards smaller collaboration spaces to enhance employee experience truly resonates with the changing nature of work.

Sanketh Ramkrishnamurthy : In my opinion, organizations can improve their employee experience by redesigning their office spaces to better suit the way people work today. This means understanding how employees use the office, optimizing space usage, and adapting to regional differences. By creating environments that balance collaboration and focus, and by empowering workplace leaders with the right tools, we can enhance employee satisfaction and productivity. It's about making the office a place where people want to be, where they can work effectively and feel valued.

Age is blocking Baby Boomers from having a Career opportunity and finding a new job!

💡 Findings of researchers:

Baby Boomers have Career Concerns!

78% of Baby Boomers (ages 60-78) believe their age would be a contributing factor when being considered for a new position.

👉 Nearly one-in-five (19%) US adults aged 65 and older were employed last year—close to double the number from 35 years ago

⚠️ Two-thirds of Baby Boomers (68%) believe their age puts them at a disadvantage when finding a new job, compared with 53% of Gen X, 29% of Millennials, and 48% of Gen Z, according to a new interesting research that is published periodically called "ASA Workforce Monitor" byAmerican Staffing Association and conducted online by The Harris Poll using data 📊 among 2,094 adults ages 18 and older, of whom 1, 294 were employed during January 5–9, 2024.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

📌 Finally researchers conclude that policy makers and HR leaders need to work together to correct and overcome the misconceptions, stereotypes, and biases, conscious and unconscious, of the past.

👉My personal View:

With the aging of the population and the growing number of seniors in the workforce - I prefer to use this term rather than elderly - it is imperative that organizations combat age bias because it is illegal and this population is a huge pool of talent for business and training the new generation of workers.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich A few years ago, one of my most esteemed colleagues who is an iconic scholar told me that age discrimination (age-ism) was a major "diversity" challenge personally and for others. I have since experienced it being in this baby boomer cohort. In the last year I have deeply explored how my peers manage their aging... physically, socially, emotionally, spiritually, and professionally. What I discovered was an incredible personalization. While all had varying physical constraints (some more serious than others), some focused on social activities (family, vacations), others on emotional releases (hobbies), others on spiritual pursuits (service, philanthropy), and others on professional agendas (continuing to work in organizations). I have come to much more fully appreciate that personalization means that each aging individual has the right (and responsibility) to choose how to have a flourishing life. I hope that those who choose to work will use their past experiences to create future opportunities by focusing less what they have done more than what they and others could do.

George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL Both the Boomer Baby Generation (I am one) and the younger generations have much to offer employers and also each other. I have to admit that the younger generations are better than me when it comes to using some of the new technology and, likewise, I can offer a great deal of knowledge, skills and experience when it comes to leading and managing people. It is about employers wanting to make the most of the value that all generations can bring to an organization and employees (at all levels) being motivated by the learning that each can glean from each other. In short, people of all ages being willing to learn from each other and employers seeing the advantage of utilizing all the knowledge, skills and experience available across the organization to aid both staff and organizational development (leading to greater value to all stakeholders).

Deborah Smith, Ph.D. Important to bring to the forefront, Nicolas. How do we break this cycle? If about 20% of the US is a baby boomer, this presents a great opportunity to our society as a whole. I just saw that Gallup et al shared research findings on happiness. What are “the most happy” countries doing in this age range? What can we do to improve in the US (as a start)? How do we help companies, in general, see the value of hiring baby boomers who have immeasurable expertise and experience, if they are interested in working?

Organizations that design and deploy "always-on Care" for their employees improve Talent outcomes !

💡 Findings of researchers:

Employees who feel cared for are more likely to report better outcomes compared to employees who don't feel cared for.

📞 Communication is itself a way to demonstrate care; 50% of employees say they would feel more cared for if their employer improved benefits communications.

💪 A psychologically safe environment can increase the effectiveness of care strategies by encouraging benefits usage.

🎉 Workers satisfied with every element of the employee experience are happier and feel more successful, appreciated and a greater sense of belonging, according to a new interesting research published by MetLife called "MetLife’s 22nd Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study 2024" in partnership with STRAT7 Rainmakers using data 📊 from a survey of 2,640 interviews with full-time employees, ages 21 and over, at companies with at least two employees conducted in November 2023.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers have noticed that employee care impacts 9 key well-being indicators:

✔ Holistic well-being: X 2.1

✔ Sense of being valued: X 1.6

✔ Sense of belonging: X 1.5

✔ Happiness: X 1.5

✔ Satisfaction: X 1.3

✔ Engagement: X 1.3

✔ Loyalty: X 1.3

✔ Success: X 1.3

✔ Productivity: X 1.2

👉My personal View:

As researchers confirm in this study, employee expectations for the employee experience and benefits continue to rise. Specifically, they are looking for more personalized options, increased decision-making support, and clearer communications regarding benefits selection.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich Some of this research feels rather obvious... when employees feel cared for, good things happen. I would think that the 9 outcomes are highly correlated and might factor into an overall "employee well being" outcome. So, care matters. What is more interesting to me are the actions that increase a sense of care. As you note, personalization and integration matter. A leader who says "I care about you" can demonstrate that care by responding to the personal needs of the employee and by offering integrated support for the employee's benefit or well being.

Jelena Joksovic Tailoring benefits to personal lives and professional settings works if we see human capital as a whole. When we say human capital that should mean the same set of skills, abilities which people use in their work, provide also a skill set for their personal life as well as societies as a whole. All together, should allow us to learn and grow, to develop our personality, our talents and individual qualities. These are all connected.

Dr. Bhanukumar Parmar : Care is the cornerstone of Candor. It instills Courage and Commitment.- Nurturing Care propels Careers, building Competence & fostering Collaborations.- A Culture of Care attracts Customers.& fulfills the needs of our Community.- Care is indeed a fundamental value that can create a ripple effect of Compassion.

Noah Little Understanding and implementing impactful care strategies is key to enhancing employee well-being and overall success. Amazing insights!

Career regrets peak at mid-career for all generations and career decision regrets significantly predict Burnout!

💡 Findings of researchers:

🚩 Almost everyone has had a professional regret in the professional career and that's normal - more than a few are haunted by the ‘what-ifs,’ ‘if-onlys’, and ‘could-have-beens’ of our professional journeys.

📈Career regrets peak at mid-career, with Millennials (70%) and Gen X (69%) experiencing the most regrets overall.

🏆 The top biggest career regrets for employees are related to their compensation and work-life balance.

⛔️ Majority of employees (7 in 10) regret something regarding their professional life. 14% of employees have many regrets, and 52% admit they have one or two regrets and interestingly only about one-third (34%) say they do not have any career-related regrets, according to a new interesting research published by Resume Now using data 📊 from a survey of 1,000 workers in four countries (US, UK, France, and Germany) during January 2024.

☝️ Recommendation of researchers:

Researchers noticed that top career regrets include :

1️⃣ Not asking for a pay increase (60%),

2️⃣ Not prioritizing work-life balance in one’s career (59%),

3️⃣ Staying at a job too long (58%)

4️⃣ Not negotiating salary when taking a job (58%).

👉My personal View:

This very interesting research on the subject of regrets and failure in professional life demonstrates that these regrets can cause frustration and ultimately lead to burnout and disengagement of employees, therefore organizations and particularly managers who are at the forefront with their team, must through dialogue avoid creating a feeling of regret within them.

🙏🏼 What were the HR expert opinions:

Dave Ulrich Fascinating research on regrets. I have not seen this research topic before and appreciated reading about it. So, my comments are more personal. Like others, I look back on career (and personal) choices that have shaped where I am today. Some of those choices worked and some did not. Often I made choices with judgement using the best information I had at the time. Knowing now what I know, would I have made the same choices? Probably not. However, do I "regret" the choices? I would rather look at the choices both good and bad, as opportunities to learn. Carole Dweck's work on growth mindset is helpful to me. She suggests "failure is an opportunity to learn" and some of my greatest learnings have come from my failures. In teaching, I often ask participants to think of a major failure (personal or professional). Without sharing, how did you feel at the time? Which is often misery, despondency, and regret. In retrospect, what did learn from the experience and how helpful was it for you? The learning response is almost always positive and powerful. Regrets can lead to growth. So, thanks for sharing this research, but I hope regrets become learning opportunities for growth.

Dr. Bhanukumar Parmar At the outset would recommend a truly a great book “The Earned Life: Lose Regret, Choose Fulfillment,” by Marshall Goldsmith - Wherein he states that the key to living the earned life, unbound by regret, requires our commitment to a habit of earning & connecting it to something greater than the isolated achievements of our personal ambition. Not every one can be Buddha BUT practice some principles for self happiness.

George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL In short, when people start having regrets about decisions in their career, perhaps there is still an opportunity for them to 'turn things around' - I hope that, unlike me, they manage to do so earlier in their career thus allowing them to progress further (with the help of others).

Dara Bidwell, SHRM-CP I think organizations need to really focus on development the employee wants, needs and perhaps helping them see something else. I wonder how many managers are prepared to help employees who have outgrown or are outgrowing their role focus on the next step. Or are they selfishly holding onto those employees because they make the manager's work easier? Do they recognize when an employee might be experiencing "imposter syndrome" and understand how that might inhibit employees from asking for a promotion, or a raise, or coming to the realization it is time to move on?

Kinga Przybysz-Polakowska I'm a Millennial - me and my friends have been working for 10-15 years so far, so maybe it's not a typical mid-career crisis, but I also see and experience some regrets. People tend to change their careers to find more fulfilling jobs as well. I think that organizations have a simple choice: they can either allow and encourage employees to, for example, change positions or they should prepare for "goodbyes" and high burnout rates.

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That's it for last week's recap - Happy Sunday and wishing you health and success ! 👋

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Nicolas BEHBAHANI

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