The Nexus

With all due respect to the late Steve Jobs, micromanagers, the office was never any kind of guarantee that people would collaborate or be productive. At the same time optimizing performance is still a worthy goal and one that's not quite as easy now that every day is Wear Your Pajamas to work day. This week we're talking to Mark Hickson, Knowledge and Insights Lead at Microsoft. He talks to us about people analytics, how to improve your team's productivity and collaboration and what your organization can do to measure the power of employee connections, improving focus, scheduling resources, and employee wellness.

The 2020 American election is happening today, COVID-19 cases are rising, there are protests in the street and winter is coming. To say that people are under an incredible amount of stress is an understatement. But what do we do about it? This week we're talking to Stephen Liptrap, President & CEO of Morneau Shepell, a leading provider of technology-based HR wellness services. We look at Morneau Shepell's Mental Health Index research and tips on how to keep a pulse on employee mental health, prevent productivity loss, and engage with your employees during periods of great stress.

Updating Your DE&I Playbook: Improve Workplace Culture and Drive Market Growth. We've heard all of the metrics – diverse companies outperform less diverse companies, inclusion inspires innovation and contributes to purpose culture. DE&I is vital to your bottom line. So why don't more companies do it better? That's the question we put to Michael Bach, founder of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion and author of the new book Birds of All Feathers. We discuss the six steps to DE&I transformation, making Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion its own business vertical, and how we can reframe DE&I initiatives for success.

Good Trouble: How preparing yourself for a DE&I transformation can benefit your employees.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Antiracism has become a conversation at the forefront of workplace culture. But what do you do if you haven't done this type of work before? How do you prepare to move your organization into this new future? We talk to DE&I consultant, Kim Crowder, on what you need to do to get started on transforming your organization into the workplace culture of your dreams.

Tips on Managing Colleagues You May Never See in Person Again.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that we can be pretty adaptable when we choose to be. Between the garbled audio on video conferences and fixing snacks for our kids between calls, many of us have been able to make Work From Home work. However, there's one thing business leaders still need to figure out – how they show up for their people (and we're not just talking about the picture on their Zoom profile). Leadership consultant and bestselling author Vince Molinaro joins us to share a few tips on how to lead in a remote world.

How the pandemic is accelerating and hindering the re-invention of work.

Long before there was a pandemic, there was a slow-motion revolution happening in the workplace – automation and low-cost technologies were poised to change not just how we did our jobs, but whether those jobs existed at all. But COVID-19 has had profound impacts on that revolution, and in ways you might not expect. Workplace transformation expert Stephen Harrington joins us to talk about these new twists in the plot.