HRchat Podcast

Workplace Culture Trends with Becky Norman

September 10, 2024 • The HR Gazette • Season 1 • Episode 742

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In HRchat episode 742, we consider the business case for caring about culture.

The guest this time is Becky Norman, Managing Editor of online HR and L&D publications HRZone and TrainingZone. 

Becky is also the co-creator of CulturePioneers, a campaign launched in 2020 by HRZone to inspire, empower, and celebrate organizations committed to building thriving workplace cultures. The campaign offers guidance and direction on tricky culture topics, while also shining a light on those creating exceptional, people-first organizations through its awards program.

Published today, the report identifies modern workplace culture trends including how women’s reproductive health is being taken seriously, igniting career curiosity, smart flexibility, and board-level buy-in for inclusion strategies.

Questions for Becky include:

  • We're talking about culture today. What work cultures/leaders have inspired you in your career?
  • You’ve just published a report on modern workplace culture trends. What are the trends and how did you identify these commonalities among people-focused organizations?
  • Going a bit deeper into the third trend of smart flexibility…We’re four years on from the pandemic shifting the nature of how we work and yet many organizations are still struggling to find the right hybrid/on-site/remote framework that works for both the business and its people. How can this be remedied? Thoughts on the right to ask for compressed hours/4-day workweek?
  • From this research and the awards program, you’ve seen how 240 different organizations are striving to create a better culture for both the business and its people. Can you share a few inspiring examples that stood out for you?
  • For those starting out on a culture change journey, or not seeing good results from existing efforts, are there any lessons that can be taken from your Culturepioneers cohort?

 

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom and visit hrgazettecom.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello, this is your host today, bill Bannam, and in this episode, we consider the business case for caring about culture. My guest today is Becky Norman, managing Editor of online HR and L&D publications HR Zone and Training Zone. For the past seven years, becky's worked closely with industry practitioners and thought leaders to ensure the publications offer a rich source of real-world insight to a global audience on the biggest challenges for the future of work and learning. Becky is also the co-creator of Culture Pioneers, a campaign launched back in 2020 by HR Zone to inspire, empower and celebrate organisations committed to building thriving workplace cultures, and the campaign offers guidance and direction on tricky culture topics, while also shining a spotlight on those creating exceptional peoplefirst organisations through its awards programme. The next Culture Pioneers Awards is happening in November in central London, and I'm delighted to say that it's going to be supported this year by Disrupt London. Becky Norman, welcome to the HR Chat Show today.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much for having me, Bill.

Speaker 2:

I can't believe we haven't had you on before now, becky. It's long overdue. You are obviously a bit of a celeb in the HR world, so it's a delight to get you on. Why don't you start for those people who are not aware of your celebrity? Why don't you start by taking a minute or two and introducing yourself and telling our listeners a bit about your career journey?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm not sure I'm a celebrity, so I should give some context to my career. So I'm managing editor of the online HR and L&D publications HR Zone and Training Zone, and I've been there for about seven years working with industry, practitioners and thought leaders to help surface some interesting insight for people professionals on the future of work. And alongside that, I am the co-creator of Culture Pioneers, which is a campaign to celebrate and educate organisations who are committed to building exceptional workplace cultures who are committed to building exceptional workplace cultures.

Speaker 3:

And, kind of before I landed on these careers, I've kind of flitted around various editorial jobs throughout my career, taking on a range of topics that, to be honest, I had very little passion in, but when I landed at HR Zone and Training Zone, I found something that really made me tick. Work makes up a significant proportion of our lives, and so we should strive to make it a fulfilling and energizing experience. So playing a very small part in helping people professionals create better working environments through the guidance and insights that we create on HR zone and training zone is where I feel I need to be right now.

Speaker 2:

Wonderful. Thank you very much. Now, regular listeners of this show will know that I've been in this space since before I was grey many years now and it's nice to get an opportunity to talk with another commentator in the space. We have a unique interest and perhaps unique insights into what's going on. What's it like to report on the latest and greatest in HR and L&D Becky, and, as part of that, what excites you about your job?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, as you know, it's a very fast-moving industry. There is lots to cover and report on, so I guess one of the challenges and one of the things that keeps you on your toes is keeping abreast of everything and make sure you're giving your readership all the kind of information and updates they need. So that's something that I enjoy and that challenges me. And another thing is just giving a platform to experts and practitioners and giving them a voice on our platform to share their, their opinions and their perspectives and and putting them forward to our readers. I think that's something that I find particularly enjoyable in my role.

Speaker 2:

The focus of today's conversation is culture. I wonder what, what work cultures you mentioned a moment ago. You came to HL Zone and Training Zone and you felt that you belonged there. I wonder what work cultures and or leaders in your career have inspired you to perform better, to achieve, to strive.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely so. In terms of me being where I am today, it wouldn't be the case if I didn't feel like I belonged in the work culture at HR Zone and Training Zone. It's a high trust, highly autonomous culture, a great group of people no-transcript. Further afield, I think, another work culture that I've seen I've not been fully embedded in but I've certainly dipped my toe in is Perry Timms and people in transformational HR. They, perry Timms, is actually a judge for the culture pioneers awards and I've seen his team, had experience of working with his team a lot, and they're truly lovely people. They're very adaptive, they're very progressive, they're always trying new things, playing around with new ventures, and it's a very healthy, energizing and thriving culture to be in and I feel Perry truly lives and breathes everything he stands for. Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at hrgazettecom. And now back to the show.

Speaker 2:

We are big fans of Perry tims on this show. Perry tims has been on the show gosh two or three times, I think, and we've chatted on the hr review pod as well. He's spoken at various disrupts and he has played about with the formats like nobody else doing. For example, a 10 minute version with 40 slides. What about that? Uh, hey, perry, if you're listening today, we think you are great. Okay, so you've just published, becky, a report on modern workplace culture trends. I wonder now if you can tell us what are the trends and how did you identify these commonalities among people-focused organizations?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So to give a bit of backdrop on this, we identified these trends through entry data from our Culture Pioneers Awards program, and these awards have been running since 2020 and the organizations that are entering are really invested in workplace culture. So we reviewed four years of entry data that we had we now have five years, but at the time of researching it was four years to identify any common threads running through the years and also to see what was perhaps something that was quite unique in 2020, quite progressive and is now quite prevalent among organisations that are invested in organisational culture. So, moving on to the four trends, first up is that women's reproductive health is finally being taken seriously. Up until recently, women's health issues were largely ignored or, in some instances, belittled in the workplace, but through relentless campaigning I'm sure many in the UK will have seen Davina McCall's efforts around menopause awareness employees are now starting to pay attention and take these issues seriously, and it's increasingly common among our culture pioneers and they're quite explicit about striving to create a culture where those experiencing issues such as heavy painful periods or menopause related brain fog don't need to suffer silently. Our second trend is igniting career curiosity, so we're seeing an increasing number of organisations who offer more diverse and dynamic career pathways to help individuals thrive in different ways, and that's through experiencing new challenges, projects and comments, things like that and ultimately retaining those who wouldn't stay if only the traditional kind of upward career ladder was available to them.

Speaker 3:

The third trend is smart flexibility.

Speaker 3:

So this is pushing against the return to office mandates that I know we at HR Zone have been widely reporting on and I'm sure you have as well, bill and the working models and frameworks of many of our culture pioneers.

Speaker 3:

Organizations are not just hybrid where they can be, but they're also really iterative and highly responsive to employee feedback and in addition to that, they also really incentivise and encourage in-person meetings for moments that matter, not just getting workers back into the office so they can sit and work in silence.

Speaker 3:

So that's our third trend smart flexibility. And then our fourth and final trend is around securing board level buy in for inclusion strategies and unfortunately we're seeing a lot of diversity and inclusion initiatives being cut back, investment being cut back, jobs being cut back, etc. This year and a few years before as well. And for those organisations who are really desiring meaningful change, they are securing investment and buy-in from the top echelons of the business and that may seem quite obvious to some, but there has been a lot of DEI initiatives that are launched lower down in the organisational structure and they lack budget and resource and are quite siloed. But our culture pioneer organizations are getting the buy-in from the top so they can really drive that change forward. So yeah, those are our four trends in a quick overview and of course the report has a lot more details and explicit examples in it okay, thank you very much.

Speaker 2:

Let's talk a bit more about the third, if you don't mind. Uh, the trend of smart flexibility. We're four years in from the pandemic, shifting and ways that we work, and yet many companies are still struggling to find the right, the right balance, the right hybrid or unscientific remote framework that works for the business and for the for the employees. I wonder if you can give us your thoughts on how this can be remedied. And also, we're recording recording this episode at the beginning of september. The episodes want to go live. We're planning on next week um, obviously in the news very recently has been um, that employees very soon will have the right to ask for compressed hours, or this idea of the four four day work week. Uh, I wonder what your thoughts are around that and uh, is that just inevitable given what's happened over the last few years?

Speaker 3:

it certainly is an area where many organizations are struggling to get the balance and the parameters right. So how much flexibility can we give and when an individual and a business needs, when those needs come into conflict, how do we navigate that? Most of our culture pioneers organizations operate a high trust, output focus culture that has really clear parameters around the flexibility that they offer. Hence why we call it smart flexibility. So it's not just about giving the employees all the flexibility that they want to do where, when and how they work, but to have some clarity around that and room to iterate and adapt the parameters as they go, and seeing you know what's working, to iterate and adapt the parameters as they go, and seeing you know what's working, what's not quite working, um, and when something isn't working.

Speaker 3:

There is space there to have adult conversations that come from a place of trust and respect for both parties. And you know, if you start from a place of mandates and command and control, you're going to perpetuate the problem and you're going to see low engagement levels and high turnover, um. So ultimately it's about mutual trust and respect and setting those clear parameters and room to manoeuvre, and I guess that room to manoeuvre comes into those changes that are coming into place and employees being able to request compressed hours and short work weeks. And yeah, it's about having those adult conversations and trying to make things work and testing things out and kind of growing as you move forward with what's going on in this space.

Speaker 4:

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Speaker 2:

I think the idea of compressed hours is great. I know Joe O'Connor very well. He's a big advocate of the four-day work week. He's spoken about that at disrupt hr buffalo way back in april. My only issue with it, of course, is um, we're only talking about a portion of the workforce. How realistic is it for folks in the hospitality industry to have compressed hours? And we all know the struggles of finding talent in industries such as that. Um, but for those that can enjoy compressed hours, I think that's great. And, and generally speaking, you know, if we can be more flexible with the ways that we work and where we work, why wouldn't we do that? Uh, let's now have a few shout outs from you, if you don't mind. From from this research and the awards program, you've seen how 240 different organizations are striving to create a better culture for both the business and its people. Becky, can you share a few inspiring examples that stood out for you?

Speaker 3:

So one that really stood out was from our 2023 winner of the Learning Award category, from Welsh College and I'm going to apologise in advance for my pronunciation of this Welsh College, coleg Seagal and Coleg Ceredigion. So they wanted to foster an environment where their students were being taught by teachers who love to learn themselves, and they aspired to create a culture of curiosity of curiosity. Now, to do this, they decided to set up an annual action research project where participating teachers had full ownership of what they studied so the topic, the methodology, how the project evolved and how they communicated the findings at the end of the project. So this really helped reignite passion for the subject they were teaching and what was great was at the end they had this kind of festival day where participants came together and they shared their learnings through interactive workshops and the wider teaching cohort could come and join in and kind of understand the learnings that their teaching peers had taken on this project, and I just thought that was a really nice idea for a ripple effect project that helps keep the level of learning alive among teachers and then, in turn, among students.

Speaker 3:

Another example is Lewis Football Club. So they were our inclusionlusion Award winner a few years ago and have been really pivotal to the movement towards sports equality. They were the first football club to have equal paying budget from both the women's and the men's first teams, and they've also helped build a more welcoming and inclusive culture for women football fans, and their campaigning is relentless. It's still going on today, and Karen Dobre, who's on the board of directors, is a real inspiration for those who want to spread positive change, not just within an organization, but within wider society as well.

Speaker 2:

For those starting out on a culture change journey, Becky, or not seeing good results from existing efforts, are there any lessons that can be taken from your Culture Pioneers cohort? And I want to challenge you to answer that question in 60 seconds or less. Go.

Speaker 3:

OK. So the starting point for real change, I'd say, is to ask hard questions. Real change, I'd say, is to ask hard questions. If you don't do this and you don't listen to your employees and make it clear that you are open to hearing their candid responses, you're not going to be focusing on the right thing. And then, second, I would say, if you're feeling overwhelmed by the extent of work required to get where you want to be, or you're struggling on where the best place to start is with your culture change initiative, I would say start small and experiment with something that's low stakes. So we found that a lot of our culture pioneers do this they test the water, they're open to failing and then moving on to trying something else, and I think failure feels a lot less scary when it's something that you've signposted as a work in progress or, as one of our culture pioneers calls it, a playground initiative.

Speaker 2:

Excellent, definitely under 60 seconds, good work, good work. What's next on the agenda for culture? Pioneers Becky, what can, what can folks expect? So?

Speaker 3:

I'm really excited that we're going to be revealing our shortlist for the 2024 awards on the 10th of September and then we'll be announcing our winners in November at an event that's not just a traditional award ceremony. It's more of an event where culture passionate professionals can come and hear some interesting talks and hear inspiring culture change stories and meet some very lovely, like-minded people.

Speaker 2:

How can we connect with you, becky? So is that email address? Are you all over LinkedIn, instagram and places like that? And, for those who want to subscribe to HR Zone or Training Zone, what's the best way to do that?

Speaker 3:

Yep, so we are on LinkedIn and you can find our publications at HRzonecom and Trainingzonecouk and CulturePioneerscom. I can send you all the links so that you can include those in the show notes, so that people can subscribe and check out what we're doing.

Speaker 2:

Excellent. Well, that just leaves me to say for today Becky Norman, thank you very much for being my guest.

Speaker 3:

Thanks very much for having me, Bill. It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 2:

And listeners as always. Until next time, happy working.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom.

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