June 10, 2022

Should Have Listened to my Gut – with Will Shorter

Series 2: The how to getting employee experience right.

Will Shorter joins me to share his story about his experience of working in a damaging culture. We unpick what was wrong and the impact it had, ultimately driving him to leave the company. That was clearly their loss and a gain for both Will personally and his current employer, EKF Diagnostics.

According the the Culture Economy Report 2021, toxic workplace culture is costing the UK economy £20.2 billion per year, and is causing almost a third of employees to quit their role. That is staggering when work culture has supposedly been pushed up the agenda of what is a must to get right, over recent years.

We explore a number of issues for work culture that companies should be aware of:

The need for friendly challenge – to innovate, share knowledge and improve outcomes
The need for recognition about what we invest, and our achievements
The role of After Action Reviews (AARs)
Problems with growth and development; a narrow-minded approach to priorities
Working from strengths and using DISC profiling to increase awareness of ourselves and others
Micro-management and the need to develop manager skills and mentoring roles

“68% of people who have worked for a micro-manager experienced a decrease in their morale, and 55% claimed it hurt their productivity. Around 36% of employees change job as a result of micro-management.”

The need for feedback to raise self-awareness as a manager or leader
A poor approach to embracing and leading change

“86% of employees admit that the purpose and thrill disappear after their ideas got shot down because ‘that’s not how we do things'”.

The impact of not getting the work culture right; and the need to listen to our gut instinct
The ability to create a culture for positive employee experience when remote working
The need to disrupt the status quo and change things that aren’t working, with ideas about what helps
The need for employers to engage with mental health by providing their employees with the tools to help themselves.