EPISODE 601: Biggest Internal Work Challenges for Professionals
I want to share a handful of the top personnel business challenges I see in my practice as I partner with high performing professionals.
Here are three issues I hear about consistently and ideas to help you with each of them. They’ve changed somewhat over the last year. See if any of these resonate with what you encounter in your work.
Top 3 Personnel Challenges
Personnel Stress and Mental Health We’ve all heard about the long lingering effects the pandemic is expected to have on our mental health. It’s a much more widespread problem than physical health at this point. The number of adults struggling with depression nearly doubled during lockdown. It’s also harder to tell who needs help.
IDEAS: Partner closely with your Employee Assistance Plan to come up with unique strategies to support employees. Remind employees on the regular about the EAP offering and its confidentiality. Actively engage employees in the way they want to be partnered with, which varies by individual, and offer additional mental health support above what’s in place currently when it’s needed. Look for outside the box options with your current providers and don’t rely solely on the same way of engaging.
Employee Engagement and Corporate Culture This has become a hotbed of mixed messages. Employees want to work for companies where they feel a connection to the values and mission. Working in isolation for long periods of time can diminish this connection, making it easy for employees to become disengaged. I’m hearing from my clients that employees are saying that they want flexibility first and don’t care as much about culture. That’s concerning from every angle. I wonder what will happen with that long term. I’d like to hear what you are seeing on this topic.
IDEAS: Create a flexible environment where employees can safely work with teams they need to and participate in social events as they choose to. Provide updated technology tools for the long haul to make their work as effective and productive as possible no matter where they are. Give staff the flexibility to identify the best days to work in the office with software resources that allow employees to see when coworkers are scheduled to be in the office so teams can plan accordingly to create opportunities for good team discussion in person.
Inadequate training and development programs Employees certainly vote positively for wanting training and development. The percentages are huge, regularly registering between 85-93%. That hasn’t changed. What has are the pitfalls of increasingly varied employee schedules, a more geographically dispersed workforce than ever, a higher lack of engagement, and comments about irrelevant training.
IDEAS: You can tackle this challenge in a few ways. Two I’ll mention here are micro-credentials and outside training. I offer training on a lot of topics and have just finished packaging up a few around some of the common challenges I see like work communication, resilience, and leadership in that smaller format. Employees like outside training because it can break up groupthink and offer fresh perspectives. This can positively impact company culture. External trainers give teams the chance to learn from industry experts.
What’s going on with your professional life? What struggles are you experiencing? Comment below to share your perspective.
If you‘d like a partnership to navigate professional challenges, you’ll want to partner with someone who has the experience. I bring 34 years of leadership, sales, and HR to the table I can help you, too. Reach out to me at brenda@brendaholley.com to schedule a free 30-minute consult.
