EX: Do your staff feel safe enough to express themselves, try new things, fail and grow?

This article was part of a feature series on workplace and employment trends to support our Smart50 Workplaces 2023 program, developed in partnership with Employment Hero.

Great workplaces in 2023 are ones where “the individual is able to bring their full self to work,” says Alex Hattingh, chief people officer at Employment Hero.

“This means feeling safe enough to express themselves, try new things, fail and grow.”

And in an era where the power dynamic between job hunters and employers has well and truly flipped, it’s more important than ever to foster this sense of safety and job satisfaction.

“The biggest way workplace culture has changed is that employees are no longer accepting the bare minimum from employers,” Hattingh said. 

EX and culture

“The term workplace culture can come across as vague and fluffy”, says Hareta McMullin, EX (employee experience) strategist and leadership mentor, and founder of Third Space People.

“The way I work with clients is: how do you want your people to feel?”

Workplace culture classics like table tennis or Friday drinks are just examples of “tools and mechanics” to help in this regard.

“As a general assumption, when I look at the trends in the workplace, it really comes down to wanting to build a trusting and empowered work environment. And great leaders, knowing how to lead and manage people, form a significant part of that.

“There’s a bit more structure behind EX”, McMullin said. “We look at the entire employee journey, right from when they first discover your brand, all the way through to after they’ve left your brand.”

Getting EX right is about “highlighting key moments along that journey that you want to celebrate, and that becomes the hallmarks of your employee experience so that it’s consistent along the entire journey, versus having, for example, a great recruitment process that then falls flat when you onboard them and they realise, potentially, that what they thought they were going to get doesn’t match up to what they got.”

Hybrid work and flexibility

Both McMullin and Hattingh are excited about today’s new hybrid modes of working.

“We have come to terms with this hybrid model that people really want to do both,” said McMullin. “It enables them to live the life that they want to live.

“Where I see us heading now over the next year is nailing how we deliver on that because right now we’re catching up, we’re still having the conversations about how people want to work, and we’re still learning how that actually logistically works for businesses.

“Moving forward it’s about refining that, and embedding it across companies and across the employee experience.”

As with so many things, getting it right comes down to communication. What needs to happen for workplaces to do flexibility better in 2023?

“Honest and open dialogue between employees and employers, to start,” said Hattingh. “I do think a lot of businesses have valid concerns about flexibility, but the reality is that businesses who offer flexibility will attract and retain the best talent the market has to offer.”

“Why not ask employees how they would manage their workload with a more flexible working style? You might be surprised by their willingness to adapt and show accountability to make flexibility work for the business as much as themselves!” Hatting said.

Wellbeing

“We’re also seeing more workplaces put greater emphasis on wellness, both at work and outside of it. And rightly so! The last few years have been a wakeup call for many and prioritising wellbeing is no longer an afterthought,” said Hattingh.

McMullin feels inspired by the next generation of leaders. “We have some incredible business owners, managers and leaders out there who take a human-centered approach to leadership and to doing what they do, and the impacts are very real.”

This article is part of a feature series on workplace and employment trends to support our Smart50 Workplaces program, developed in partnership with Employment Hero.

Download the ‘What are great employers doing differently in 2023?’ report to look at current trends in the employment landscape and best practices from Smart50 Workplaces Top Performers.