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Published on
February 20, 2024

How do we create the best conditions for well-being and success at work?

Society is moving faster and faster and business is following suit. Companies are growing faster and making faster decisions, at a pace that only seems to increase. This places high demands on today's workers. However, there are tools we as individuals can use to improve our ability to thrive and succeed at work in this fast-moving environment.
Contributors
Ellen Hållinggård
People Partner
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Some thoughts from Ellen, consultant at Peops Relations:  

When I started working as a consultant in People Operations, I quickly realized that I needed to get better at giving myself the best conditions to succeed at work. The pace was high, the tasks new and in a variety of different contexts. It’s an incredibly exciting and rewarding job where you rarely know what the next week will bring.

However, as a person who likes to be 'on top of things', I was facing a challenge in a fast-paced, context-switching world. The feeling of not being in control of my work situation and that the tasks chose me instead of me choosing them, stressed me out. Surely there are more people who recognize this, and we all know that stress is harmful to us in the long run. Prolonged stress is not only a threat to our well-being and productivity at work, but we also risk negative health consequences such as poorer learning ability, poorer memory and a weakened immune system.

To avoid this, I started testing different ways of organising my work, and a year later I am still testing. Based on how we function as humans, what we need and what actually works, four key elements can be summarized in a model we call the PEPP model (Prioritize, Engage, Plan and Pause).

What is the PEPP model?  

The PEPP model is a summary of what research says about focus and health at work. It focuses on prioritization, planning, engagement, and physical health. It follows a number of studies that point to the importance of minimizing context switching and moving around at work, and its relationship with job performance.

Prioritize: A prioritization exercise that has helped me is to ask the question: What is ONE task that I need to get done today? At the end of this day (or week), what is it that I will be most satisfied with having accomplished? Based on that, I plan and allocate my resources. That way, at the end of the day or week, I can still feel satisfied even if the "to do list" never ends.

Engage: What gets me engaged? What is important for me to feel good and succeed at work? How often do you ask yourself this question? It's not enough to reflect on it at the annual appraisal. We ourselves need to proactively work on our engagement to understand what is important to us and actively create the conditions we need. I have tried to set aside 15 minutes every Friday to reflect on my week (what has worked well and what can work even better next week). This has helped me to understand myself better and what I need to succeed even better next week.

Plan: Box tasks in the calendar and make a plan for the week. Identify any critical days and make sure there is time for breaks. Think about when maximum focus will be required and what will give and take energy during the week. When planning, start from the previous points: what is my focus and what do I need to succeed?

Right now I'm trying a meeting-free day from home during the week to get a day where I can work undisturbed on tasks that require maximum focus - it works great for me and the tasks that require extra attention.

Pause: and get moving! Regular exercise breaks are essential to take care of your body and stay focused. I notice it clearly on the days I'm slacking off, my body is stiff and I'm more tired. On days when I work from home and know that I won't naturally walk as much, I make sure to get out for a walk during the day. During long meetings, I am the one who stands up and does yoga movements.    

For movement breaks, an exercise that works for me is to set a timer for 25 minutes and regardless of what I'm doing at the moment the timer goes off, I get up and stretch my legs. This is not only an effective method to get movement, but also to stay focused on a task.

 

We do not believe that there is a way of working that works for everyone, instead you have to try things out. Some things are fun to try for a certain amount of time, other things do not work at all. Sometimes you don’t have the energy or time to or simply forget to prioritize yourself. And that's okay. As long as we bounce back and continue with sustainable habits. Working life is long and it is our firm belief that the workplace should be a place where health and well-being are prioritized. When we feel good, we perform well. Think PEPP!  

 

 

Sources:

How Much Time and Energy Do We Waste Toggling Between Applications? (hbr.org)  

The Biggest Culprit Behind Your Lagging Productivity: You (forbes.com)  

To Improve Your Work Performance, Get Some Exercise (hbr.org)

Stop talking about “Quiet quitting” and start talking about disengaging

“Quiet quitting” – it seems to be the latest within HR fashion. What is it and why are we talking about it?


First off all, I think the term “quiet quitting” is wrong and bad. People are not silently leaving office buildings to stop working or quitting their jobs in complete silence – that is not at all what this is about. Quiet quitting is the idea that people are not going “above and beyond” their paygrade anymore and just do the work they are paid for.


Let’s be real. Why should an employee do more than they are paid for? An employee agreement is just that: you pay somebody to do their job. Nothing more, nothing less. That means: not answering emails on a holiday, not working outside office hours, and not staying late to finish that project.


So, if there is anything I want you to take away from this post, then this is it: let’s stop talking about “quiet quitting” and start talking about “disengaging”, because that is what it is. People are still doing their jobs, but they are slowly become disengaged and unmotivated to “go above and beyond”.


Why more and more people start to quit quietly?


Now you might ask: Why? Why is this happening? The internet seems to be split up between two reasons: 1) Employees are drastically re-evaluating their work-life balance, or 2) bad leadership has undervalued and demotivated employees. Whatever the reasoning behind it, its implications are truly important. Disengaged employees will perform less than engaged employees, impacting the performance of your company overall.


Before we jump into solutions for a “problem” we do need to consider whether somebody became disengaged because of re-evaluating the balance in their worklife, or because of bad leadership and demotivation. If somebody wants to revaluate the balance in their worklife, there is maybe nothing you could (or should) do. Your employee will do their job, but according to the parameters that you have set in the contract – and that is it.


If somebody became disengaged because of bad leadership or demotivation, then there are opportunities to re-engage your employees. So, let’s move on to the interesting stuff: how to re-engage employees!


What can we do?


At this point, if you still expect your employees to go above and beyond without them getting anything in return you should not be surprised that your employees get disengaged or unmotivated. And why should they? You are offering nothing in return. The good news is there are solutions. The bad news is that those solutions will require effort.


If you are a boss, manager, or leader whose employees are slowly disengaging, there are ways to turn this process around. How? By re-engaging with your disengaged employees. Here are 5 ways to do that:


1. Asking the tough questions


On a daily basis, walk around the office and stop by or call one colleague and blatantly ask them: “What are we not talking about here at work? What can we improve?” This is a powerful way of directly asking somebody to vent some frustrations and let them be a key part of an improvement process that they see as problematic.


You might discover some unique opportunities while engaging one employee at a time. There are ways to make this into a scalable process as well for larger companies.


2. Inspiration and daily work


Remind people of your vision, your mission, your morning-star. Connect meetings to the abstract level of your purpose. We are here to make money, yes, but there is more to it. “Today we are doing A, B, C, which will allow our clients to do D, E, and F – which will improve the lives of/the world/the environment” – you get the drill. People need inspiration to stay engaged. Continuously.


3. Allowing engagement


A lot of managers expect a top-down management structure where employees simply accept the strategy, take on their tasks as instructed, and are fully engaged into everything they do. Now this is a prime example of having you cake and eating it. You can’t have it both. You’ll have to choose. Either you choose a management structure where you want to impose your will, strategy, structure, and tasks – but also accept disengaged employees, OR you involve your employees with decision making processes around structure, strategy, and their tasks to get them engaged.


4. Development, perspective, and incentive


One way of engaging disengaged employees is by giving them a clear-cut “carrot” to re-engage. You can do this by giving them the perspective of development. That either may be a promotion, an education or training (paid for by the company), or a wider set of responsibilities.


Now I know that this is a bit of a sensitive topic, but you can do that through a bit of good-old performance management. Does that mean measuring every datapoint you have from when somebody clocks in to how fast they type emails? No of course not, this is not the 20th century anymore. But you can set up a couple of KPI’s that reflect a concrete goal and subsequent reward.


5. Improve leadership


Sometimes it is hard to admit, but if you can’t point out the problem in the room – then maybe you are the problem in the room. During your times you meet 1-to-1 with your employees, try to ask what you can improve about your leadership style. Ask your employees what you can improve or what they miss in your leadership today. Sometimes your employees require different ways of leadership than what you are offering today – maybe more directive, maybe more guidance, or maybe more freedom and individual responsibility.


In conclusion


“Quite quitting” is a bogus term that is simply incorrect. People are reconsidering what they want in life and can become disengaged at work because of a multitude of reasons. If they are simply reconsidering their work life balance, then there is little you could (or should) do. If they are becoming disengaged because of bad leadership or demotivation, then there are things you can do. If you need help:

  1. asking the tough questions
  2. connecting your vision and mission to your daily work
  3. identifying where you can involve your employees more
  4. developing incentive programs
  5. improving your leadership capacity


Then get in touch with us and see what we can do for you!

Line Thomson
September 7, 2022
Physical Activity and Workplace Well-being: The Key to Preventing Brain Diseases!

A recent report from IHE, commissioned by Hjärnfonden, reveals that a significant portion of brain diseases can be prevented through lifestyle changes. The report shows that low physical activity is the factor affecting the most brain diseases and can be linked to 13 percent of all diagnosed GAD, 9 percent of Alzheimer's disease, 8 percent of strokes, 7 percent of other dementias, and 7 percent of Parkinson's disease. For companies and HR departments, this represents a unique opportunity to invest in employee health. By promoting physical activity and building an inclusive work environment, we can not only improve individual well-being but also help reduce the extensive costs these diseases impose on society.

Three tips to get started:

  1. Incorporate movement breaks! Take a detour to the coffee machine, choose the stairs instead of the elevator, and alternate between sitting and standing throughout your workday.
  2. Invite colleagues to group workout sessions - exercising together is not only good for health but also strengthens team camaraderie. Perhaps the summer party could include a workout session?
  3. Walk & talks - invite colleagues to walking meetings! One-on-one conversations are perfect for walking meetings - and why not take your mobile phone and headphones out for a walk during other digital meetings?

Does your workplace need help? Let’s create a healthier future together - contact us to learn more!

You can read more about the report here: Brain diseases can be prevented (hjarnfonden.se)

Further reading: There are many myths about the workplace. Here we debunk 5 myths about the perfect workplace.

Ellen Hållinggård
July 4, 2024
OpenAI:s new flaggship has arrived! And there's a lot exciting stuff to cover

The new ChatGPT-4o is live! Here are four highlights from OpenAI's event:

CHATGPT-4o will be free for everyone!

This means that more people will be able to use the new features - one can only speculate why they choose to have the latest features as a free version, what do you think?

Record live - or screen share - and get answers instantly.

This is fantastic news. You can now run live video with ChatGPT and get answers instantly. It can also read your surroundings almost perfectly.

Several new voice tonalities (including singing).

There are certainly many good uses here. I have already seen a clip where two phones are paired against each other. Then you run CHatGpt-4o and - tada - you have a live singing choir!

Finally, 2x faster and handles 5x more requests.

As the user base grows, OpenAi has also handled the higher number of requests coming in. The experience is that it is faster and you get more precise answers.

This feels both scary and exciting at the same time. Imagine the possibility of being able to translate sign language, learn complex maths - or yes, why not learn to sing? I feel that things are moving extremely fast now. The question is: will everyone not using AI today keep up?

Breakfast seminar: AI in HR - Attracting Competence

Don't miss next week's breakfast seminar on the topic of AI. There are a few places left! Register here: https://lnkd.in/dHa_JGYB

Calle Engström
May 14, 2024

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