Today with Gint we talk about how Offerpad has been dealing with the pandemic, remote work, and how the company is looking at redefining what its workplace will look like in 2021.

The context for work has changed, and there is an obligation for companies to provide something greater, act responsibly, and give back. With heightened social uncertainty and stress, workers expect their employers to understand who they are as a whole person. This includes their personal pursuits and lives, and they expect those organizations to address important topics including social justice, environmental sustainability and community involvement.

It’s become more important than ever for organizations to communicate to their people with transparency, with clarity, with candor about the challenges both employers and employees are facing together. Employees are asking their leaders to have an open dialogue on what’s important to them, so that leaders can build a plan around moments that matter to their people (diversity, equity and inclusion, work/life integration, mental health, etc.), designing a more human-centered employee experience.

As Tom said to me during our discussion, “my heart goes out to HR people today. The job that most of them applied for when they were hired is often not the job they are being asked to do today. For many people, ‘culture’ was not on the job description and perhaps not on their resume.... or their skill set.”

After being forced to move their workforce to remote work due to COVID-19, the same leaders realized that it wasn’t not as complicated as it seemed. On the contrary, the transition in most of the companies I’ve talked to was smooth and quick. Most companies have even seen an increase in productivity, a higher employee engagement rate, AND more human connections (instead of purely transactional type of interactions such as “hey, did you do this?”) despite social distancing and stay-at-home mandates.

The COVID-19 crisis has been an unprecedented disruption in our professional and personal lives all at once, affecting billions of people across the globe. The unfolding events are undoubtedly impacting the Employee eXperience, and employees must be at the center of how organizations and leaders respond on the way to recovery.

For the 100th episode, I wanted to do something a little different and be surrounded by friends with whom I deeply share the common belief that Leadership and Human Resources can become more people centric, more human, more purposeful to deliver greater business outcomes.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, now is the time to reset the rules of leadership and reimagine the workplace.

Stacie Mallen, Mark Christensen and Brian Mohr join me to discuss how to make the workplace a better place.

There is a small, but growing movement of employers in today's business landscape who have fully embraced the philosophy that taking great care of their people (i.e. employees) provides a direct benefit to all of their stakeholders, including better financial results.

Fortunately, conscious leaders such as Adam Goodman – CEO at Goodmans Interior Structures in the Phoenix, AZ area – fully embrace the concept that taking care of their people first is simply the right thing to do for their business.

Culture is granular - built up over time through the many micro actions, turns of phrase, occasions and moments that an organization experiences everyday. Which means every culture is highly nuanced. Therefore to understand it, leaders have to look at it through a number of lenses. B+A has identified 7 elements that define a company’s culture.

Building cohesive, productive and multi-generational teams can be a challenge. It starts with creating a culture that promotes candor and feedback. A culture that promotes healthy discord to spark creativity and innovation. A culture that celebrates risk, experimentation and failure for long-term success. A culture that unifies individuals versus pushing individuals against each other. A culture that focuses on people, not policies and processes.