What the Last Year Taught Us About Teamwork

Normalizing the conversation around employee well-being is one positive outcome that came out of the pandemic. Businesses now understand the role they have in supporting employee well-being and the bottom line cost of ignoring this area.

In this episode of Get Reworked, AWS global head of HR Prudence Pitter discusses what AWS is doing to support employee well-being. 

Listen: Get Reworked Full Episode List

"A leader who can share, 'I had this deliverable that I missed, because I got to this location, my luggage was not there. It caused a whole ripple effect where I was not able to be productive for two days. And so this is how I bounce back.' It's important for leaders to share some of the personal things that they're OK with sharing that help others recognize that it's normal, not only some of the ways that professionally they have fallen, if you will, but also importantly, how they bounce back. What are the ways that they redeem themselves. And I think that's a very powerful story to tell," said Prudence.

Highlights of the conversation include: 

• Why it's important to build accountability around well-being initiatives.
• Why well-being accounts for the whole person, both in and out of work.
• How well-being initiatives will not go anywhere if they ignore the ways the workplace is impacting well-being.
• Why leaders need to model the behavior they're promoting.
• How to normalize the conversation around well-being to remove any lingering stigma.

Plus, hosts Siobhan Fagan and Nidhi Madhavan talk with Prudence about identifying where to focus well-being efforts, why some leaders may need coaching to have difficult conversations, and if discussing well-being without following through does more harm than good. Listen in for more.

Middle management has been the butt of jokes for years — and often bear the brunt of layoffs, as was the case in 2023. But in the right hands, middle management can act as the glue that helps employees see their role in a company's broader success. 

In this episode of Get Reworked, Ryppl Effect founder Joe Makston shares how his experience as an employee experience leader and head of learning and development shaped his approach to some hard leadership conversations. 

"When you start to understand, oh, the customer implementation process that I just took somebody through, contributes to the department goal of whatever and contributes to that line of business and ultimately rolls up to we're supposed to book $500 million in this specific category, if I can understand that by closing that implementation, that work contributes to actually getting to the $500,000 — that is gold for an employee,  they see the broader picture. It's leaders understanding when you're writing goals, when you're talking about performance, how to tie it to, frankly, the strategy and that breakdown between strategy and the tactical piece," said Joe.

Highlights of the conversation include: 

• Why now's the time to discuss how leadership is struggling.
• How shortcomings in leadership development led to the ongoing management boom—bust cycles.
• How management impacts culture, engagement and productivity.  
• Why he thinks being a manager and an individual contributor at the same time isn't a good idea.
• How managers can give leadership a view into the day-to-day operations.

Plus, hosts Nidhi Madhavan and Siobhan Fagan talk with Joe about how organizations can identify who is right for management roles, why some people may need to be pushed to grow and the parallels he sees between being a pastor and being a leader. Listen in for more.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Send it to editors@reworked.co.

Managing change is tough. Now imagine managing a change initiative that involves overhauling 118 legacy systems for 750,000 stakeholders under the watchful eye of Congress. 

In this episode of Get Reworked, Air Force enterprise change manager Heather Knuffke gives an inside look at what it takes to make change stick at the over 75-year-old institution.

"When you have an organization that's this big, and you have commanders in charge of units across the Air Force, and each commander wants to manage their own organization in their own way, it's not so easy just to say turn around and march, right? .... So we believe strongly in delegating responsibility down. And so we try to give our commanders at bases and commanders of units as much authority over how they run their organization so that they can effectively lead when it comes to HR policy, and when it comes to talent management and promotions, and awards, and things like that. That's within the commander's purview," said Heather.

Highlights of the conversation include: 

• Why you can't just order people to change.
• The emotional component that's part of any change management initiative.
• Why her role is as much about being a translator between IT and HR.  
• How she prioritizes across a variety of competing demands.
• The two skills she thinks every change manager should possess.

Plus, host Siobhan Fagan talks with Heather about training a cadre of change managers throughout the Air Force, how she approaches the multiple stakeholders involved in the change initiatives and what it's like getting a PhD in change management while working in change management every day. Listen in for more.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Send it to editors@reworked.co.

What does commitment mean in the context of work? From an employee's point of view, it can mean a reduction in stress, increased meaning, as well as the capacity to do their best work. From the employer's side, it can translate into increased productivity and higher employee engagement — which directly impacts their bottom line. 

In this episode, we speak with Andre Martin, author of "Wrong Fit, Right Fit: Why How We Work Matters More Than Ever," about why it's so important to discuss how work gets done in our workplaces so employees — and employers — can find the right fit for them.

Listen: Get Reworked Full Episode List

"Hiring managers have got to be more transparent. We have to be comfortable in being able to talk about the madness behind the method. Talk about the places where it's kind of hard to do work here because of these factors and talk about them in terms of we're always trying to get better — but that transparency is going to pay off," said Andre. "... We know that people more and more are looking for transparency, they're looking for vulnerability. They're looking for a place that is human and imperfect. And so my hope is that hiring managers will give talent a little bit more of a view into the company, because then they will find the right person and the people that opt out should have probably opted out."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• What's causing the crisis of commitment today.
• Why Andre wants to see a return to the 20-year career in one workplace.
• The difference between boredom and comfort in a job.
• Why a frank discussion of how a company works should be a critical part of any job interview — for the interviewer and the interviewee. 
• How Andre differentiates between being the 'right fit' and 'fitting in.'

Plus, hosts Nidhi Madhavan and Siobhan Fagan talk with Andre about why the aspirational language companies use to describe themselves often do more harm than good, why he believes there's a company for everyone and why he thinks companies should re-recruit their employees on a regular basis. Listen in for more.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Send it to editors@reworked.co.

Human resources — and the role of the chief HR officer with it — has been seeking a proverbial "seat at the table" for years now. The difference now is, more of them are not only gaining that seat, they are "helping design the table."

In this episode of Get Reworked, we speak with Don Robertson, EVP and CHRO of Northwestern Mutual about his approach to employee experience and how his previous experience on the business side informs how he operates — namely, with a business-first mindset. 

"Many of the things that we have to do require you to put together business cases to look at the financials, to look at budgets, all these things and if you don't have strong financial skills, if you don't have strong ability to really put together business cases, just like you would if you're the investments team, and you're putting together a business case, to go do an investment to buy a building or do something, you have to have those kinds of skill sets. I can't just go in there and say, hey, we should invest $10 million in a new HR system, because our people will like it better and will have better engagement," said Don.

"No, I have to be able to show: if we do this, we'll get more adoption. If we get more adoption, then people leaders will do what we need them to do. And they'll ultimately develop their people better. And therefore you'll have the talent you need. And these are the kinds of investments you need to make so that you know our engagement goes up or attrition goes down or we get better adoption. And you just start talking about the actual attribution things that you benefit from by doing these things. And I can tell you in a zero sum game and the world we live in with budgets and everything else, you have to be able to make those cases."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• Why data is a modern CHRO's best friend. 
• How Northwestern went from employee engagement in the low 40s to over 80%.
• The role HR business partners play in Don's work.
• How Northwestern approaches the employee expectation-business need balancing act.
• The role he sees HR playing with AI adoption.

Plus, hosts Nidhi Madhavan and Siobhan Fagan talk with Don about why he thinks rolling back on EX efforts is a mistake, how he's consciously developing the skills of his potential successor and why he thinks anyone working in HR would benefit by spending time on the business side. Listen in for more.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Send it to editors@reworked.co.

Collaboration can be taught and learned. Yet few organizations are actively teaching employees how to master this critical skill. 

In this episode of Get Reworked, we speak with Deb Mashek, founder of Myco Consulting, LLC to learn how companies can move collaboration from a platitude on their office walls to a capability found throughout the organization. 

"if you want to see a lot of collaboration, if you want to have a collaborative culture, first of all, you need to make collaboration possible. That sounds so obvious, but it means that you can't create weird infrastructures where people can't actually contact each other, which we saw when in 2020, a lot of us migrated very quickly from being fully in person to being fully remote, where there weren't a list of people's email addresses or phone numbers and so it wasn't clear even how to contact people. We didn't have a lot of us access to videoconferencing yet," said Deb. "So the modalities the infrastructure wasn't there to actually collaborate. And thankfully we a lot of us were able to onboard that fairly quickly."

• Why organizations aren't teaching collaboration.
• Whether collaborative efforts are ever a waste of time.
• How to hire for collaborative mindset.
• The broader collaborative ecosystem businesses should keep in mind.
• The five questions to establish if your organization is equipped to collaborate.

Plus, host Siobhan Fagan talks with Deb about how she came to specialize in collaboration, why helicopter parenting stunts collaborative skills growth and how to avoid running your business like a filthy dive bar. Listen in for more.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Drop us a line at editors@reworked.co.

Low-code tools promise to put the power of easy process fixes into the hands of employees. But beyond individual productivity improvements, citizen development offers employees a chance to improve collaboration skills, increase their technical know-how and gain visibility for work outside of their typical workplace roles. 

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Shaelyn Otikor-Miller, SVP and head of global digital workplace strategy at Northern Trust Asset Servicing to discuss its thriving citizen developer program and her long-term vision for the program.

"I think that's the one thing in the citizen development community, I probably struggle with is the mindset shift. Right? In the past, we had the formal training, we had the communications and newsletters, everything got pushed out to someone, you're required to take training, or you get locked out of your system or something," said Shaelyn.

"With these tools. It is all about the individual. And that's what I love, right? So it doesn't matter. It helps diversity, it helps equality. It helps just reskilling, upskilling staff want to shine and get more exposure and visibility, the only thing driving it is their own willingness to learn and dig in and be self starters."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• How the citizen developer program first came into being.
• Why citizen development requires a change in mindset.
• How she's built the program using a hub and spoke model.
• How citizen development feeds upskilling and reskilling efforts.
• Where employees find value in citizen development, beyond low-code process fixes.

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Kate Cox talk with Shaelyn about generative AI, why citizen development is nothing new and how generational differences help feed the demand for low-code platforms. Listen in for more.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Drop us a line at editors@reworked.co.

How does the world's largest professional network help its own employees build connections?

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Laurel Dzneladze, employee communications, digital platforms leader at LinkedIn about the community-based approach to employee communications at the company and how it feeds into the broader employee experience.  

"Some of our work focus has been on that — how can we make this flexible work, work?" said Laurel. "We're creating a virtual experience for our remote employees. But we're also creating these in-person experiences, or even driving the desire to go to an office by surfacing community-based content that would make somebody go to an office or attend a virtual event."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• Why Laurel and her team focus on amplifying employee and leader voices.  
• How community building is central to their approach.
• What channels and tools she uses to get the messages out.
• How to help people participate in community, whether in person or working remotely.
• How she measures the success of these efforts.

Plus, co-hosts Kate Cox and Siobhan Fagan talk with Laurel about why she's on team 'no newsletter,' how LinkedIn still sees itself as a scrappy start-up, and how to reuse, repurpose and recycle content. Listen in for more.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Drop us a line at editors@simplermedia.com.

Applications of quantum computing in the workplace may still sound like a theoretical future, but the need for workers capable of working with quantum is immediate and real.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Bradley Holt, program director of workforce development at IBM Quantum, about what the company is doing to close the quantum skills gap and why it's focused on getting younger generations interested in quantum computing now.

"There are an estimated 27 million classical software developers in the world today," Bradley said. "So that's a very, very different workforce, right, 3,000 people actually applying their skills in the field of quantum compared to say, 27 million classical developers. So we're getting there .... I don't think we need to go and really trained tens of millions of quantum developers overnight. But over the next decade or two, we're likely going to see a really significant increase in demand for quantum developers."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• How to get started exploring quantum in your organization.
• Whether widespread access to quantum computers is realistic in the near-term.
• How colleges are responding to the demand for quantum skills. 
• The different roles preparing for the quantum future.
• Why policymakers should be part of the learning cohort. 

Plus, co-hosts Kate Cox and Siobhan Fagan talk with Bradley about his quantum computing pitch for an 8-year-old, why IBM is partnering with HBCUs on quantum education and quantum scientists' popular pet names. Listen in for more.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Drop us a line at editors@simplermedia.com.

Delivering a digital workplace that works for multiple teams, in multiple locations, all with different end goals is challenging to say the least. But sometimes it comes down to communications and training as much as it does to the tools themselves.  

In this special episode of Get Reworked, recorded live at the J.W. Marriot in Austin, Texas during the Reworked CONNECT conference, Dante Ragazzo, senior director, digital workplace at Tapestry discusses the work he's doing to simplify and remove friction from the digital workplace at Tapestry. 

"So I think that if you are not only improving your experience, but showing that you're improving your experience, I think it goes a long way toward employees. I think employees are actually really forgiving, and they understand what's different when you're a consumer. 'Well, you want to get my money. So you should do everything you can to impress me.'

"When you're the employee, it's like, 'Well, the more money you spend on other niceties to make me feel good is less money that we have to invest in our business, bonuses and everything else.' So I think employees have a certain understanding like they don't want to just see the coffers wide open and spending frivolously," said Dante.

Highlights of the conversation include:

• What causes some of the digital friction
• The many definitions of the digital workplace
• How he approaches shadow IT
• How to balance diverse team needs with the desire to create a cohesive digital workplace
• The digital workplace discovery tour he now runs at Tapestry 

Plus, co-hosts Kate Cox and Siobhan Fagan talk with Dante about the differences between customer experience and employee experience, how we can't live in a magic kingdom, and why sometimes you have to accept that good enough is good enough. Listen in for more.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Send it to editors@reworked.co.