Category: Work

2018: from #metoo to #trueme

According to new data from Glassdoor, more than 1 in 3 (35%) UK and US  hiring decision makers expect to increase investment in diversity and inclusion efforts.

Since July last year I’ve been privileged to work with a fantastic organisation Creative Equals, which aims to help organisations achieve a diverse and inclusive workplace. I’ve been involved in auditing organisations’ HR policies, conducting and analysing employee surveys and creating a system against which all organisations can be scored.

With Creative Equals we’ve been uncovering a lot of insight on the value and state of inclusion and diversity in some of the largest creative organisations. Findings and recommendations vary for each organisation, but these are some of the common themes:

State of inclusion and diversity

  • Gender, ethnicity and sexuality are still the major focal points for organisations, but we found that diversity is really complex. For example, just 400 employees categorised by gender, ethnicity, sexuality, education and age make up 157 different groups. Moreover, we find that for staff, diversity of opinion, perspectives, backgrounds and experiences often matters more than gender, ethnicity or sexuality.
  • There is a shocking underepresentation of people with disabilities, and pace of work does not allow for neurodiversity.
  • 1 in 5 staff said they have experienced discrimination.
  • Men on average are twice as likely to be in senior/senior management roles than women, and also dominate line management.
  • BME staff are less likely to be recognised through involvement in business-critical projects or entering their work into awards.

Value of inclusion and diversity

  • Employee Engagement is comprised of three inter-linked metrics: 1) the Overall Happiness, 2) employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) and 3) one-year Retention Rate.
  • Feeling included at work and perception that diversity is a priority for the organisation impact all three Employee Engagement metrics  – with the highest contribution to the total engagement score, way ahead of pay and work-life balance.

Examples of  what can help organisations improve

  • Mentorship – organisations with the highest employee engagement levels also tend to have the highest % of mentorship. Those who have a mentor feel more valued and empowered.
  • Flexible working – overwork, alongside with finding it hard to be a parent, perceived insufficient diversity and not feeling valued lead to stress-related leave, costing organisations money. Flexible working can ease the burden of overtime and help people with family responsibilities.
  • Social purpose – employees aged over 35 would like more authenticity and a sense of purpose for their organisations.

Leaving employment to set up my own consultancy The Good Insight and working with Creative Equals empowered me to be completely myself. As an immigrant I had to navigate differences in cultural norms, not knowing where the line between integration and losing oneself was. I was fortunate with all my managers and their managers, who took me as I am, mentored and encouraged me, but invisible barriers were within myself. Whilst I always felt free to express my opinions, at various points I seriously considered elocution lessons, tried to keep quiet about my values, preferences and tastes.

Now I understand that being different is my strength. And I hope that the sense of empowerment created by the #metoo movement in 2017 rolls into 2018, and grows into something bigger – where everyone feels free to be #trueme.

 

 

What makes people happy at work? Now there is a formula

Dame Carolyn McCall, current CEO of easyJet, and former CEO of the Guardian, where I had the pleasure of working with her, is believed to be the frontrunner for the top position at ITV. Lucky, lucky ITV. McCall, one of only four women in Glassdoor’s Top 50 CEOs rated by UK employees, has not only turned-around easyJet’s profitability, piloting it into FTSE 100, but has also greatly improved employee morale.

McCall, whom rival Michael O’Leary dismissed as “media luvvie”, has re-assured staff that they were not about to turn into “orange Ryanair” and was often seen on-board a flight chatting to passengers and crew. Rated 4.1 out 5 on overall employee satisfaction on Glassdoor, easyJet is now one of the Best Places to Work in the UK, above British Airways (2.9), Eurostar (3.6), Virgin Atlantic (3.1) and certainly no one’s luvvie Ryanair (2.3).

So how much does satisfaction with Senior Leadership influence employee morale (and therefore, productivity, retention and ultimately, bottom line)? An awful lot, and I have data to prove it. Glassdoor collects real-world data by asking employees to rate: senior management, pay & benefits, career progression, culture & values and work-life balance. It also asks people to submit an overall satisfaction score and agree/disagree whether their employer’s business outlook is positive.

I ran regression analysis on Glassdoor’s UK data to determine what influences the overall satisfaction score. The top predictor of employee satisfaction was 1) Senior Leadership, closely followed by 2) Culture & Values and 3) Career Opportunities. Work-life Balance mattered much less, and Pay & Benefits were a minor contributor to the overall level of satisfaction.

And this is the formula, ta-da:

Overall Satisfaction = 0.19 + 0.29 x Senior Leadership + 0.26 x Culture & Values + 0.23 x Career Opportunities + 0.13 x Work-life Balance + 0.11 x Pay & Benefits

As you can see Senior Leadership matters. Yet, it has the lowest satisfaction score out of all factors: 3 out of 5.

Organisations need to create a positive culture and strong set of values that senior managers embody and promote, and that employees share and get behind. According to previous studies, people generally feel happier at work when they can see that their work is benefiting others. People who felt their jobs really benefited society were much more likely to be happy at work: 59%, compared with the average of 38%.

As for pay, even Adam Smith, writing more than 250 years ago in The Theory of Moral Sentiments said that material gains often make us less happy, not more. However, it doesn’t mean that employers can get away with not paying people their worth or luring unpaid interns to enjoy “great company culture and free beer”. Although not the most important driver of employee happiness, pay is still a statistically significant contributor to the overall score.

Worth noting, that employer’s business outlook was insignificant in my regression model, and therefore, did not influence employee happiness at all. So, when companies assume that staff derive pleasure and satisfaction just from working for a profitable business, they are wrong, unless the benefits of being profitable translate into opportunities for employees or shared with the wider society.

Interesting that not a single charity appears in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work. Charities, which by default are purpose and values driven and generally offer good work-life balance, need to pay more attention to career progression and pay & benefits, which are rated significantly lower vs. the private sector.

As for myself, I’ve never been happier, echoing a well-known fact that self-employed people are most satisfied. In employment, I was the happiest at the Guardian, which offered the best of two worlds: great values & culture together with good pay and career progression. As for Senior Management, here is an anecdote for you. I remember washing my hands in the Guardian’s toilets, when then CEO Carolyn McCall asked me why I sighed and if she could help. I said it was a minor concern, not to worry, it’s just annoying how environmentally-unfriendly were all those paper towels. McCall said to consider them gone. They were gone.