Bringing Employee Life Experiences Into The Workplace

By Michael S. Seaver

How has your organization’s workforce adjusted to working from anywhere?

Susan, a CFO and executive director of multiple business units for a large Sacramento, California, health system, reached out to me after reading my book I Know. She noticed a trend among her employees and requested a conversation with me to host a reading group and leadership masterclass based on my book’s research, stories and processes. Susan was repeatedly confronted by employees seeking counsel about stress reduction and wellbeing, managing interruptions in the home and a host of other personal issues she’d rarely address when working in the office pre-pandemic.

The black and white nature of finding work-life balance disappeared, and she chose to address the uncomfortable gray area of that integration. What topics did she feel safe to talk through? What boundaries did she need to create? What resources could she refer to her team members?

Perhaps you’re navigating similar circumstances as hierarchies are flattening in favor of consumer-responsive structures. People are finding personal meaning not by associating with a brand but by living their life’s purpose. According to Pew Research, pre-pandemic only 20% of the American workforce worked from home most or all of the time. Almost overnight, that number skyrocketed to 71%. This transition taught us we’re far more capable of change than we may have believed. It helped us learn new ways to communicate, authentically express ourselves and establish new habits.

Over 18 months, the business became personal and local. Not local to geography, but local to each member of a team.

Forward-thinking leaders are “mass customizing” how they interact with their team members. These leaders know how their employees prefer to communicate, learn, receive appreciation and more. Whether the team member is in the office or working from anywhere, these pieces of emotional data can be gathered to deepen employee engagement and increase productivity.

Find Uncommon Commonalities

Through uncertainty, the most engaging leaders stopped looking for hours given and doubled down on results driven. They brought humanity back into the workplace. They became coaches who intentionally block time to ask questions and listen to concerns about health, homeschooling children and isolation.

These leaders slowed down. Quality interaction replaced constant activity. They found new ways to earn trust, to show them respect and to help them learn new virtual skills and systems. They established clear expectations, communicated through more channels, praised their teams weekly and collected diverse opinions. They made time to care about each team member as a human being.

In my follow-up conversations with Susan, she helped me see patterns I hadn’t created the time to notice. She searched for ways to discover uncommon commonalities and thought we could gather a group of finance and accounting leaders to swap stories and uplift one another through society’s transformation. I’m reluctant to try new things, but Susan’s vision and persistence inspired me in April 2021 to launch what is now known as the “You and I Know Circle.” Our goal was to gather diverse leaders nationally to foster personal growth, celebrate one another, share resources and demystify employee engagement in the work-from-anywhere era.

Understand Who You Can Trust

Each year, international branding firm Edelman facilitates its Trust Barometer. Through surveying 33,000 people across 28 global markets, Edelman assessed the type of person others find most trustworthy. The most credible person is “a person like yourself.” According to the report, “ … None of the societal leaders we track—government leaders, CEOs, journalists and even religious leaders are trusted to do what is right.” The results shocked me.

The people who lead the bureaucratic institutions and brands that we trusted for decades are no longer trusted.

Today, we have more confidence in our peers, neighbors and online reviews than in the mainstream media or advertisements. Society’s level of consciousness and focus on ethical behavior is rising. Transparency matters more than ever. Leaders who vulnerably share their personal journey tap into this trust. They create a psychological safety that team members crave.

We designed the “You and I Know Circle” to be a safe place with a set of ground rules offering members the chance to extend and receive trust in a virtual group setting. We begin with a celebration of member accomplishments and move into a behind-the-scenes look at a chapter’s thesis and invest most of our time talking through six group discussion questions. In a shared document the next day, I summarize key takeaways, resources we shared and suggest homework to be completed in between meetings. What has struck me most is how emotional and transparent the members have become. Trust deepened quickly. I’m seeing members share parts of their life’s journey they’ve not shared before. Multiple members have messaged me privately asking for the group to continue after our final scheduled call. I’ve learned when trust permeates the culture, where you work (or call in) from is irrelevant. What matters is the feeling created in the hearts of those attending.

Drive Associative and Experiential Learning

Susan recognized that operating in the gray area of work-life integration meant gathering ideas from disparate sources and experimenting with them herself. Bringing employee life experiences into the workplace is new for many of us. As Earth moves further into the Age of Aquarius, business will become more personal and more local. Capitalizing on this means different things for each of us, but humans retain information best when they engage the five senses in learning and then have the learning reinforced by a different peer or group.

It’s imperative we get involved with third-party organizations, such as the Arizona Society of CPAs, to learn peer-to-peer. Our employers can gain favor with Millennials and Generation Z by taking a stand on societal issues. Proactively partnering with our peers, vendors or clients to share marketplace trends quickens relationship development and guides us in accomplishing goals faster. Marissa, a member of the “You and I Know Circle,” helped her staff uncover and then openly discuss their personal core values. A CPA firm I supported last year implemented a meeting structure where all one-to-one and team meetings began with a celebration of wins and closed with a verbal expression of action items and due dates. Accountability increased, and team members willingly shared their ideas to uplift one another.

There is also value in granting team members access to online courses and having them give summary presentations to their team members. Consider having staff psychologists and nutritionists available on demand. Or, consider starting internal affinity groups or reading or movie groups to open personal dialogue and intentionally create opportunities for serendipitous connection.

Unlearn and Relearn, Repeatedly

Alvin Toffler once said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” As society becomes more like holacracies, working from anywhere will likely become the norm. The last 18 months have taught many that we should invite team members to bring their personal experiences into the workplace.

I hope you have a Susan in your life or that you can be a Susan to someone else. She helped me unlearn that work and life were separate things, and she helped me relearn that work and life are now integrated as one.

Michael S. Seaver will present “Finding Generational Similarities to Improve Communication” at the ASCPA Annual Conference: Converge on Nov. 9. Learn more and register at www.ascpa.com/converge.