Back to Work — But Can We Make It Less Stressful?

Hope you’re feeling refreshed from your super relaxing summer and ready to dive into a productive fall!

I am kidding, of course. The myth of the relaxing summer continues, when in fact, 42% of US employees surveyed by MyBioSource said they dread returning to work after time off. In the second quarter of 2024, burnout reached an all-time high, according to Glassdoor reviews.

In this newsletter, we explore ways to better support your workforce for increased retention and to build a better brand as an employer—so that when you need to hire, people want to come to work for you.

𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫? 𝐘𝐞𝐬, 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬.

Six out of ten workers have quit a job because they didn’t like the company culture. This is an important metric to consider in your hiring, and as a hiring manager or HR leader, it’s crucial to invest time and resources into improving your company culture for just this reason.

The phrase “𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒” can be kind of vague. You may know your company struggles in this department—or at least suspect it based on personnel issues—but how do you fix it?

Company culture always, always, always starts with leadership. How you and other leaders show up makes a huge difference in how your employees feel and whether candidates for open roles feel accepted into them. More transparency, intentionality in your language, and constructive critique—these are some of the hallmarks of good company culture that starts at the top.

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞:

• Safe To Speak Up? 4 Ways To Build Psychological Safety At Work (Forbes)
• Are You a Micromanager or Too Hands-Off? (HBR)
• Understanding Generation Z in the workplace: New employee engagement tactics for changing demographics (Deloitte)

𝐔𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐈 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲

With all the lofty conversations about whether AI is going to advance our civilization or bring an end to it, many companies are quietly putting it to good use among their workforces. Nestlé, for one, custom-built its own generative AI chatbot, NesGPT, to help lighten the everyday workload for employees.

Now, a year later, Nestlé is reporting back on the results of this experiment: more than 7,000 employees across the company have used it, generating hundreds of thousands of prompts. Teams from various business functions—marketing, sales, legal, product innovation—have taken advantage of the tool.

The verdict? Employee positivity is high, and users say they’re saving about 45 minutes a week as a result. Wow! That’s a needle mover.

Is your company using ChatGPT and other Gen AI tools to make employees more efficient and relieve them of some of the more tedious aspects of their work? Something to think about.

𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐬 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

Regardless of what team a new employee is joining, HR is often their entry point into a company and where they get a strong first impression of the organization they are joining. A recruiter can help your HR team make a better impression on incoming employees and conduct more professional onboarding as well.

Studies show that a strong onboarding experience improves the retention of new hires by as much as 82%, but the vast majority of employees think of their onboarding experience as adequate.

This is an area where your company can benefit from the right support.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐊𝐈𝐏 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 (𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧) 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬.