Employee Experience Roundup: Leaders share their best advice for organizational change

Welcome to our weekly hand-curated roundup of articles and resources, guidance and inspiration for those who have a role and responsibility in shaping the employee experience. We include a variety of sources and topics ranging from Employer Branding, Content, Employee Communications & Campaigns, Recruitment Marketing, and workplace culture.

In this week’s EX Roundup, learn from 5 business leaders who share their best advice for organizational change, bring more joy to work with these 6 hacks, and learn about the critical role internal communications has in driving the employee experience, plus more.

5 Business Leaders Share Their Best Advice for Organizational Change — IDEO, By Shoshana Berger @shoshanaberger
“People are always looking for ways to improve themselves. But what about companies? Companies are just collections of people, so it makes sense that they’d build up all kinds of bad habits over time. Shouldn’t our organizations be on a self-improvement regimen, continuously trying to fix what’s broken.”

Driving Employee Experience: The Critical Role of Internal Communications — Poppulo, By Deepa S. Reddy, PhD & Ananya Roy
“Optimizing engagement and employee experience is a priority for organizations of all sizes everywhere these days for very good and sound reasons. They influence how someone feels about the company they work for right through their tenure and how they speak about it – and recommend it, or not – to others after they leave. And they really influence the bottom line.”

Why Working from Home Should be Standard Practice — IDEAS.TED.COM, By Ari Surdoval
“And if your boss is on the fence, here’s a compelling case study — from economics professor Nicholas Bloom — to show her. But Bloom thought there had to be more to telecommuting than binge-watching Netflix. The professor — who co-directs the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at the US’s National Bureau of Economic Research — had worked from home at a previous job, and he recognized that it’s becoming more and more common around the world. In the US, the number of employees who telecommute has tripled over the past 30 years, although it’s still only 2.4 percent. “Out of the 150 million Americans who work, that means roughly 3.6 million Americans work from home,” says Bloom. However, in developing countries — where mobile technology and improving digital connectivity have coincided with congestion and skyrocketing rents in cities — between 10 and 20 percent of employees work remotely at least part of the time.”

6 Ways to Hack Your Workspace and Find More Joy at Work — IDEO, By Ingrid Fetell Lee @ingridfetell
“As a designer who studies joy for a living, one of the questions I am asked most frequently is: How can I find more joy at work? We spend at least a third of our waking hours at the office, and some of us much more than that. Yet most workspaces, with their beige carpets and rows of cubicles, aren’t exactly designed to delight.

That’s a shame, because research shows that feeling joy at work not only increases our wellbeing, but also our performance across the spectrum. Joy increases our working memory and cognitive flexibility, which in turn leads to better problem-solving.”

Why these CEOs think Transparency is Crucial for Workplace Success — FastCompany, By Purbasari Horton @a_purbasari
“Leaders at Box, Front, and Buffer share how transparency leads to speed and efficiency. Transparency has become a new management buzzword. Ten years ago, an employee might not protest (or even question) a management decision that their executive team made in secrecy. But today, employees expect companies and its leaders to be transparent. It’s no longer enough to give orders and announce decisions–employees want to know why and how.”

Why Your Employees Are Quitting & What You Can Do About It — Maximillion @maximillionltd
“Employees are without a doubt the most valuable asset of any business, whether small or large. Your staff are the main thing that sets you apart from your competitors, bring their own unique skills and talents to your organisation. Without great employees, vital work won’t get done and your business will lag behind the competition.”