Ethan is the CEO of Integral, an award-winning employee experience agency. He’s a lecturer at Columbia and Trustee of the Institute for PR.
What do philosophers, guerilla fighters, poets, industrialists, communists and even despots have in common?
Work. It assumes a pivotal role in their lives, perspectives and politics.
This shouldn’t come as a shock, considering that the average human dedicates approximately one-third of their daily life to work. My life’s calling revolves around scrutinizing and enhancing the experience of work on a systemic scale. This mission is what led me to establish Integral, an agency dedicated to the strategic design of employee experiences.
The World Economic Forum predicts that the rise of AI will transform the way we work, with 42% of business tasks expected to be automated by 2027. They suggest that the disruption in the world of work will be a combination of eliminating some jobs and adding new job types.
In parallel, America has a loneliness epidemic. There are fewer opportunities bringing us together and more circumstances that divide us. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy states, “Loneliness is about the quality of your connections.” Relationships with colleagues (whether positive or negative) can have a tremendous impact on employee well-being.
Meanwhile, we spend all that time together at work. So what gives?
Whether employees work in the office or the classroom, on the hospital floor or the shop floor, behind the wheel or in the sky, employees are not a monolith. A workforce comprises individuals with individual needs and attitudes that vary by age, race, ethnicity, gender, generation, political philosophy and experiences. And, while the workplace is not an exactly proportional representation of the larger world, world events seep in and shape employees’ experiences.
This means employees experience differences of opinion and understanding every day. It means patriarchy, sexism, racism, ageism, poverty, antisemitism, Islamophobia, prejudice, educational differences and access to technology find their way into the workplace. In recent years, organizations have increasingly been expected to deal with politics—setting norms for respectful dialogue in the workplace while also being asked to take public stands on issues.
Our research shows that employees’ comfort in talking about politics at work has increased year-over-year since 2021. However, there’s a 30-point gap between senior managers and non-managers in feeling comfortable sharing their personal political views at their organization (67% vs. 37%). More senior managers than non-managers also feel that people should have the ability to express their political views in the workplace (62% vs. 35%).
A workplace’s organizational culture, values, communications, support and employee experience can help bridge biases and create respectful relationships of real value.
Relationships start with listening.
Listening to what your employees have to say is essential for your business. In the same week, both Indra Nooyi and Scott Galloway—two business leaders whom I respect very much—emphasized the critical value of listening.
Active listening is about feeling heard and the experience of being seen. Feeling heard and seen leads to social connection. And social connection can alleviate loneliness. In You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters, Kate Murphy describes the importance of listening to create psychological safety, which is key to building trust.
Research by Dr. Yufan Sunny Qin and Dr. Linjuan Rita Men found that employee listening has a positive impact on employee-organization relationships—that isn’t really surprising if you consider the importance of active listening in one-on-one relationships. (Disclosure: Dr. Men has provided data analysis and insights for my company, and I am involved with the Thought Leadership Circle she established.)
Listen at scale.
As much as people like to think they’re rational beings, we’re often driven by feelings. When people bring their whole selves to work—and when we’re acknowledged—we’re often more productive and enjoy our working lives more.
In the midst of hard times, taking the time to understand and design an employee experience from start to finish that cultivates a positive experience seems too hard, too expensive or too time-intensive. But not doing so puts your organization at risk.
McKinsey found that employee disengagement and attrition could cost a median-size S&P 500 company between $228 million and $355 million a year in lost productivity. It is imperative to thoroughly understand employee attitudes in order to manage their experience and engagement.
We each go through the world experiencing everything just as ourselves, based on our past experiences, expectations, environment, roles, challenges and so much more. Organizations can create increasingly tailored experiences for their employees based on an understanding of employees’ needs. The goal should not be to create a uniform employee experience. But rather, a sufficiently personalized experience.
The first step is to inspect content and interactions from the perspective of the people whose actions you need to be aligned with your business strategy. Daily, your people consume a wide range of content—videos, articles, workplace memos, meetings, etc. Every day, they have interactions at work. Those build an experience. But is it deliberate? Thoughtful? Strategic?
Next, get clear about why you are trying to create a particular employee experience. Make sure your team understands what content and interactions you’re putting resources behind—and why. Are you looking to improve productivity? Decrease the number of people who quit after 90 days? Encourage people to work across different departments and break down silos?
Then, start listening. Use tools and methods to understand and create empathy for all kinds of people—persona exercises, surveys, focus groups, roundtables, digital data analysis or observing what’s happening on social media or in the physical work setting. This information allows talent management, communications and IT teams to create differentiated experiences for first-line managers versus C-suite people or people who are on the road.
Take a thoughtful, strategic approach to your employee experience. Effective content and interactions give people ways to understand their role and how their role contributes to the success of their organization.
As AI supercharges the working world, how people do their jobs will shift. The core skills required will change. This means education will be a key bridge to ensure all people are able to get gainful employment to provide for themselves and their loved ones.
Perhaps it’s magical thinking, but I believe workplaces can provide a place of shared experience and human connection—even as AI shifts our experiences. As a result, business leaders need to judiciously weigh their decisions, taking into account the impact of each global conflict on an organization’s most prized constituency—its employees.
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