Date: Friday, May 31, 2024
Time: 1:00 pm Eastern | 10:00 am Pacific
Hosted By: Matthew Wride, President &Â Christian Nielson, Chief Revenue Officer
Transcript
Hello and welcome to this webinar. Uh around 360 feedback for deskless workers.
My name is Christian Nielsen. I’m joined by Matt Ride, uh decision wise president and we are excited for today’s conversation. Well, it looks like we’ll have uh having folks joining us here. We’re trying a different platform for these webinars this time. We’re excited. Hopefully. Um Hopefully, it’s a, it’s a good experience for everyone as we um try to make these better each month.
Um This session, uh a couple of housekeeping items as we get started, this session does qualify for uh one hour of HRCI and SHRM Credit.
Uh That information will be available after, after today’s session.
Uh as well as I believe we will be sharing these slides if, if that’s requested or, or at a minimum, we sharing a video of the uh today’s session. So with that, I think we’ll, we’ll go ahead and get started.
Um We will have some uh time for chat and, and questions from the group. So please, we, we love when these sessions are, are interactive.
So uh a little bit about where we’re headed.
We’re gonna talk about deskless workers. We’re gonna talk about 360 feedback and we’re going to discuss how the two meet and some, some ideas for getting it right. Some of the unique challenges faced by de list workers and some of the um the techniques we found that are, are, are things we need to really consider when we’re working with this important employee population.
Um We did have a session on desk workers last November. And so I thought I’d just start with some basic slides as we talked about, talk about desk workers. What is a desk worker?
Uh They refer the term refers to employees who don’t primarily work at a desk or in a traditional office setting. Often they’re on the move, engaging in tasks that require uh physical presence or mo some kind of mobility and it’s not a small group of the population.
Um This is a group of uh of employees that we all rely on daily. It’s an operational backbone of many businesses, many services. Um We’ll, we’ll look at some specifics in a moment, but it’s also a lot of our front line customer interaction is with desk list workers. Uh There’s a need of flexibility, specialized skills if you kind of get a feel for why these desk list workers are so vital to our, our way of life and to, to just modern business, modern civilization.
Um A couple of good examples just to kind of prime our minds of who we’re talking about. And I know we’ve got a lot of folks on the, on the call that work with different uh segments of desk workers. So love uh any feedback on other categories or groups. But here, I’ve got a few slides to just walk through, you know, in the, in the health care field, service, construction.
Uh certainly a lot of these roles, delivery and logistics, hospital staff, uh manufacturing workers, ag workers, utilities, uh, energy workers. We, we work with a number of organizations in that space and certainly the majority of their employees would fit into this desk list category.
Let’s see, what one thing I was gonna point out too is sometimes we call them desk list workers. They may actually have a desk. It’s more about the nature of what they do. They’re on the go, they’re, um, they’re, uh, uh, you know, moving about, you know, they may have a home base for 10 minutes of the day at a desk somewhere but they’re, you know, they’re out and about. So I just, it’s not like there’s, there’s no desk involved. Like a nurse may sit down and, and do a lot of reporting for a few hours at a station, but generally they don’t just sit all day and kind of work from a single location.
Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it’s a good point. We’re not saying that they, these folks never get a chance to sit down.
Uh, but they, they, and they may periodically have a desk. I think a nurse is a good example of that where there’s these, these stations and things, but maybe they either share them with others or they’re only there for a fraction of their work day.
You know, I think through transportation, a lot of folks, you know, check email when they’re at the home base, but they’re out on the road or out in the field the majority of their time. So um some other categories here, but it, there’s so many different roles that fit into this deskless term. This this group of employees.
Uh One stat that I was able to find worldwide 2.7 billion employees would be considered restless workers, 80% of the global workforce. So actually, it’s, it’s most of the uh employees in the world fit into this deskless category. So it’s, it’s an important group to consider and to really think through that this day as desk, as workers, they face some unique work environments with unique challenges.
I wanna list a few of those unique challenges. Um But I also wanna open up to the group if there’s other, if there are other uh categories or, or other challenges that we can think of that are kind of unique to this deskless population. Let’s let’s get them in the chat.
Uh Lauren asks a good question. Remote workers in home offices would not fall into this category, correct.
It’s an interesting thing because I think some of those unique challenges that we’re about to talk about would also apply to remote remote work and some, some are fit into both categories. But a lot of times a, a lot of modern remote workers are kind of tied to a computer, it sitting down and, and wouldn’t necessarily fit the pure definition of de list. But a lot, there’s, I think a, a big overlap in some of the unique challenges that we’ll be chatting about today.
Uh You know, a question I have that I’d love to throw out there to the audience and see what throws in the, into the chat is how many of you, how many of you that manage or have desk workers as part of the organization, how many of them have like email and formal technology that you give them and how many don’t really like?
That’s always a challenge for us as we think about how we interact with them.
I do know that the amount of technology for desk workers is going out, right? I mean, whether that’s mobile, whether those are corporate communication platforms, things like that. But I’m curious if anybody, how many have um, email addresses and kind of fix technology that they’re able to use to communicate with these people looks like we’ve got a couple that, that they, that they’re getting in tech.
I, I think increasingly we’re seeing, we’re seeing more but I think there’s some domains, especially you know, uh hospitality we don’t see as, as often as much tech there, agriculture, some of that, but uh and mobile device are becoming more and more ubiquitous where, you know, 1015 years ago, uh not, not as, not as much.
Um but it’s, it’s good to, to get an understanding
for a long time, you know, we had a long standing relationship with the Cheesecake Factory and I remember they had very little tech and over the years they increased the amount of tech that was available to their hospitality workers. So
she makes a good point. Uh Most do not. We’re a factory. They have ipads to complete the work instructions, but not to receive email. Yeah. And so that, that I think is a really good segue into some of these unique challenges uh of this list workers. Uh You know, I think the first one I’ve got listed here is limited access to technology. You know, even when we give them tech, the tech is a little bit differently or it’s, they, they’re not as um completely immersed in it or it’s, you know, periodically checking email versus, you know, Matt. And I can’t seem to get away from email all day long. Um versus, you know, it might be once a week, it might be once a month, it might be once a day.
Uh but there’s different cadence or a different level of frequency that are able to access that um the limited technology. I saw one stat that was interesting, you know, we mentioned that even the 80% of uh the world’s employees uh would be considered desk list, only about 1% of enterprise software investment is focused on desk workers.
So most of the tech investment isn’t geared specifically for this population. I think that’s something to to keep in mind. Um especially as we’re talking about um what we, we like to focus on, which is how do we capture and clarify the voice of the employee, how do we access employee experience and employee feedback to improve and help individuals and teams and groups and organizations improve?
Uh Another challenge which is I think very tied to that would be communication uh barriers that, that it, it does, you know, be because they may not be as, as tied to their technology or just by the nature of that mobility and flexibility we talked about, they may not be as readily available for communication. There are more barriers for us to actually get information to and from our desk list workers.
And that that’s a real challenge, right? As we, our focus on the 360 is to help grow and develop those uh employees. But if, if it’s hard to get them to check email, if it’s hard for them to sort of, you know, catch a vision of what we’re, you know, what we’re trying to do, it can be, it can be a real challenge. So one of the key things is to remember that as you implement three sixties, you’ve got to think about how you’re gonna communicate with these folks.
And, and often again, these kind of all blur into each other a bit. But often because of, you know, the, the nature of their role, it makes it more and more difficult for us to really invest or focus on or, or uh we, we neglect the, the priority of focusing on training and development opportunities for our D list populations.
They’re out and about it’s, they’re not as eee easy to pin down into, you know, classical training environments or they’re just moving around so much that it’s not as much top of mind um for growth and development.
And so some often this group really uh suffers a bit or doesn’t have as many opportunities for growth and development. And that’s, you know, one of the main things we’re, we’re excited to talk about today with, with 360 feedback, but certainly a challenge for this group, physical safety hazards, nature of the role. Obviously, there’s such a wide variety of desk less roles that this is, is differs in different areas, but in general, they’re exposed to a lot more and, and just in terms of slip and falls, uh if they’re working in, you know, factories or manufacturing, agriculture environments, healthcare settings, you know, there’s so many um areas and, and potential risk. And so that those are some unique challenges that our desk list peers uh often face uh work life balance.
Um That that can be true in, in terms of desk list, it depends on roles. I mean, most of us face this, but there’s some unique aspects that a lot, I’m thinking a lot of shift work and changing things and, and just the hours that our desk list populations often work.
Um that is one of those components disconnected for company culture. I think this is an interesting one.
It’s something we’re really passionate about and I’m curious if anyone’s got a take on this in the, in the the comments or the chat, but feeling disconnected from company culture.
You know, if I put myself in the role of someone that’s, you know, in some kind of trucking or transportation, you know, if I the the, if I’m out on the road, how much am I connected to the identity of, of the organization I work for?
I, I think in some cases, there’s some amazing efforts that, that work very well. But a lot of times um our justice population feel a bit less connected to the overall organization just by nature of, of their work and the the level of interaction they may or may not have with company messaging, company vision goals, successes, those type of things.
And that’s why you have to be intentional. I mean, we, we measure company culture right through by measuring employee experience, which is in essence, culture through the eyes of the employee.
Uh We know you’ve got to be intentional. I, I reflect back on some of my desk list jobs. One summer I, I worked construction II, I went to just wherever the job site was. I don’t think there was ever a time that I actually, other than the day I started and the day I turned in my, my stuff at the end of the summer, I don’t know that I ever went to the office at all. And so how do I build a connection to a culture when my, when I was just showing up doing my work and, and getting out of there?
Yeah, I, I think it, it takes really, it takes a deliberate effort to, to help connect those dots and to maintain it, it can’t just be, you know, these one time efforts, there’s gotta be a cadence of, of, of efforts.
Um Yeah, it’s, it’s very interesting, you know, and the, the, the next one on this is um something I think that a lot of us that have been in those de roles. And I like that you brought up your experience because I’ve certainly had those roles in the past limited opportunities for recognition.
Um I, I think through my illustrious career as a forklift driver as I was going through, you know, undergrad and II, I remember thinking, does anyone know if I’m doing a good job? Or does it matter, you know, who sees this work? I certainly took pride in it. But there was that feeling of, you know, in my, in my view as just part of the machinery here. And so that recognition piece I think certainly um applies a lot to, to all humans in a work environment. But our deskless folks, I think there’s a unique lens on it that we, we need to really consider um uh lack of team connection.
I mean, connected to the company. Sometimes our, our teams now in, in some environments, the team is who we connect with because they might be desk close along with us, we, we interact with them and, and that, that might be where we, we feel those connections. But in other instances, it might be you, you’re not working with the same people twice. And so you never really form that same sense of team and that can be a challenging thing and, and makes us disassociate a bit and, and also can lead to less lower levels of engagement because it’s, you know, we, we feel like there’s less to engage with.
And so uh that team aspect as well is very important and limited
while we’re, while we’re here to talk about three sixties, I think most people know that decision wise, we do, we measure organizationally as well.
And that’s why when you do your work surveys, it’s important to think about specific questions that address these unique challenges like where are your pockets of where, where are your managers that do a great job of team recognition? Where, where are their uh silos of dysfunction.
But you need to be, be thoughtful about gathering that information so that you can do something with it. Um because uh you’ve got to uncover it and, and one way to do that is to employees directly.
Yeah. And, and I love that you, you brought up the org side because I, I can’t help but think of that either in terms of having those demographic filters so that you can say you look at a recognition question and see, do your desk list employees feel differently than your, your uh office employees or your folks sitting in cubes and you know, to the comment earlier, your remote employees also, how do they feel and just being able to filter the, the different items through those, those lenses?
All right, let’s um well, as I mentioned, I, I think I’m gonna single one out here, lack of training and development.
You know, in fact, this is a good question for the group. We’re, you know, we’re excited to jump into 360 conversations. But I’m curious, you know, we, we come here to, to learn from each other as well. And so, uh you know, if there’s other things you’re doing, I’m curious, how have you successfully supported the growth and development of des list workers? Any if there’s any insights from the groups in terms of specific techniques or, or programs that have, have helped these folks grow. We, we’d love to, to clean some of those, all
those answers come in and you’re, and you’re monitoring the chat. I just want to frame why we believe three sixties are, are, are important to growth and development.
It’s, it’s a way that the individual could be part of the process, right? They can understand their own blind spots and they can begin to sort of take control over their growth. You know, that’s the advantage of the 360. We’ll talk about it later as a disrupting event or a disruptive event.
Um because so much of what we, what we think of is it happens to me.
But when we, when we use the 360 they become part of the part of the equation. And they’re saying, OK, I, I’ve received this feedback now, what do I need to do to sort of uh leverage my strengths or fix a few key areas? So that’s, that’s why it’s important. It’s a 36 are important to growth and development,
right?
Really good points.
Um uh You know, I like Emily’s Point here around uh using HTHCM system on, on phones.
That’s such an interesting journey we’ve seen, you know, early when, when I started in this, this space side of, you know, employee voice and employee feedback.
People were a little bit nervous about using their phones, this is my phone, you know, if it was a personal phone and people would be resistant and so texting and some of those things, we are seeing more and more willingness especially to just to, to take a survey or to take a complete a 360 assessment on a mobile device. If it’s a personal mobile device, we, we are seeing a much more openness to that. But in the past it was, I don’t, you know, want my company using my personal phone number for these type of things, but you know, generational expectations change pretty, pretty quick around technology. And we, we are seeing certainly um folks being more open to that.
Although the texting thing I think we’ll, we’ll talk about in a bit. Not as much of uh a preferred channel is you, you might think so.
Matt at the stage. Yes. Why we, we, we, we believe very strongly in the power of 360 feedback. But one thing that I take from our, our friends in the health care space is do no harm.
We don’t want um to punish people with feedback. We don’t want things to get worse in an organization or worse for an individual uh because we engaged in, in, in a 360 feedback process. And I say that because you can do some damage if you don’t do this, the right that way if you don’t do it ethically and responsibly and, and work, uh you know, follow some best practices. So 360 can be very powerful if it’s, if it’s done very well. So, but just to get us all on the same page very quick, let’s talk about a 360 is 360 is an assessment where someone takes, uh fills out response to some items about themselves, some survey or assessment items about themselves.
They also get to compare uh their self perceptions with perceptions from their supervisor.
Typically. Um if they’ve got a direct reports, they would be included peers, others will talk about different radar groups. But really, it’s the same view. How does my view of myself and how I’m doing in different leadership competencies or behavioral competencies? How does that compare to how other people are experiencing me and how, where are their gaps and where can I uh potentially close some blind spots?
Um
I would point out we um one of our clients over the years was a large industrial supply company and we were uh doing three sixties even for 1st and 2nd year associates in that organization because they, they wanted to begin to uh create a culture of feedback and um to realize that progress, uh self-awareness may be the single most important characteristic you develop as a leader or as, as an effective employee. So it doesn’t have to be three sixties only for those that are approaching manager or something like that. You can deploy three sixties across the entire uh organization.
There are so many uh places where 360 can help strengthen and employee experience uh improve L and D efforts. I think it’s a really good