I think you're on mute

It is well documented that it was those over 50 who left the workforce in the greatest numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic.???For good reason then, a key feature of the UK Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget was his plans to stimulate the economy through Returnerships: a new two-pronged offer targeted at the?over-50s, to encourage them to return to work by enlisting to a skills bootcamp or, for the well-heeled by removing the lifetime pension allowance.??

??

I think we can all recognise that the Maslowesque drivers for the?working person who can’t afford to pay for their shopping at the checkout on their salary and the monogrammed double-cuffed professional who’s checking-out are different.???For one, safety needs cast a long and depressing shadow; but once they have been met, the higher needs, such as love and social belonging needs and esteem needs dominate.??

The reality is that the covid-induced exodus happened because people, particularly those of us who are in the second phase of life, realised that we wanted to give ourselves to things that are rewarding not just things that are rewarded.??It would be a serious miscalculation to base your economic arithmetic on the idea that the people are solely motivated by consumption when in fact as humans what we really desire is communion.????It is for that reason that I agree with The Resolution Foundation think tank, that efforts to get pandemic retirees to “unretire” are unlikely to be successful.?

In this series, The Great Recalibration?click here to subscribe?we are highlighting the importance of resetting the Employee Value Proposition, EVP.????In?Part one we introduced the three-tiered requirement of a compelling EVP:?

1.?????purpose

2.?????well-being, and?

3.?????compensation

Readers will note not only the order but may also recall that the compensation element goes way beyond salary.??Let’s re-mind ourselves of Frederick Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory.???Herzberg, describes what he calls, hygiene factors and motivation factors.???Hygiene factors: factors that are not related to workplace satisfaction but must be present in the workplace to prevent dissatisfaction whereas?Motivation factors: factors that are related to workplace satisfaction. They cover intrinsic needs such as achievement, recognition, and advancement. Motivation factors allow employees to be content in their jobs and promote growth.???Hygiene factors are extrinsic.??Motivation factors are intrinsic.?

Interestingly, workplace inclusion is both a hygiene and a motivation factor.???In our sentiment audits conducted by?The Inclusionomics Company?we are seeing signs that peer relationships, a hygiene factor, need attention, it is not uncommon for us to see worrying scores around issues such as the extent to which co-workers are prepared to make sacrifices for one another.???What makes the reporting particularly concerning is the delta between the explicit reporting (i.e., what the respondents feel they can say (or should say)) versus how they really feel.???This reality gap is often missed because traditional surveys only capture the over-reporting typically when the responses can be moderated.?

One of the most telling data points that we are seeing emerge is age exclusion both at the beginning of the working life (with the under 25s) and at the other end of the spectrum, among the over 50s.?????At the heart of what both age groups experience is that they are not being seen, met or heard.?

It will not surprise to you that the most used business phrase of 2020 was?"I think you're on mute".???I suspect running a close second was “We can’t hear you”.??Unmuting our IT is one thing, but I think that little phrase is suggestive of a deeper and more problematic truth – We can’t hear each other not because they are on mute but because we are not listening.???When it comes to the under 25s and the over 50’s we have put them on mute.??Could it be that the old idiom that children should be seen and not heard is not only back, but it has also been extended to include the over 50s.??

As we noted in last month’s edition we are only at the beginning of the digital revolution, and what concerns me is that we might have traded real relationships for virtual connection.???The proverbial horse may have already bolted but it is I think more important than ever to remind ourselves that there is a profound difference between the internet of things and the interconnectedness of all things.???

It is impossible to imagine that it was as relatively recently as 1995 the TV chat show host David Letterman famously asked Bill Gates "What the hell is this internet thing anyway?"???Today we have moved from a thing called the internet to the internet of things; from the novelty of “you’ve got mail” to the lassitude of your inbox is full!????

Our interest in this newsletter is the primal subject of inclusion.??Our default will always be to think about how the way we live either enables or undermines inclusion.????Technology means that we can be together when we are apart, but inclusion is about feeling a part of the whole (“belongingness”).????What opportunities I wonder are we missing because we live in a permanent state of partial attention.?

When it comes to the overs 50s (we have much to say about the other stages too) employers may be missing the most obvious trick of all.????Indulge me for a moment – imagine that you thought about the employee lifecycle as the “Heroes Journey”.????Allow me to quote Joseph Campbell’s classic work,?The Hero with a Thousand Faces:?

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

Now, so we are clear, I am not suggesting that every employee is Frodo (from the Lord of the Rings) or Neo (from The Matrix) but what I am saying is that each of us move through our own three stages which modestly are: the learning phase, the earning phase, and the returning phase.????Many organisations recognise that they train people (the learners) only for them to move company, often because they don’t believe that they can grow in their current role and lack mentors and those who can coach and give them feedback.??Thus they don’t realise their investment but what we are not so cognizant of is that just at the point when our more mature workers are making the transition from being motivated by earning, or if you will living to work, to being motivated by returning, i.e., living to give, what Joseph Campbell would call they are put out to grass and have nobody upon whom to ‘bestow boons’ upon.??So, they often go out looking for volunteering opportunities, anywhere they can mentor, coach, and to help people to navigate the unfamiliar world.????It will be an opportunity squandered if the only focus is on returnerships and without room for the Returners.

So how then should employers re-engage their workforce????In our view the EVP ought to be crafted with the employee lifecycle in mind to foster environments that people from diverse backgrounds want to join, having joined they thrive and hence want to stay.????How do you make them thrive????Maybe one way to think about it is in the stampede towards automation and AI, to remember that if our leaders and managers are able to develop the skills to lead inclusively, then we will discover a whole new meaning to AI, allowing us to benefit not simply from the computing power of artificial intelligence but the people power of Actualised Individuation.???The working environment has the potential, if reimagined to be the place that everyone, not just the over 50s can fulfil their potential to become all that they can be.?

But if our organisations remain joyless workhouses then don’t pin too much hope on returnerships.???Unlike the post-covid return of city folk from the country the idea of returning to the city to work is about as probable as a a reverse metamorphosis.??Don’t expect to see the liberated butterflies lining up, turn to the cocoon of the disengaged, demoralised caterpillars.?

We invite you to think about how this could be affecting you or people in your organisation and if you’d like to know where to start in this process, you?can book a consultation?with one of our team members.?