Three Truths About the New Normal at Work

Three Truths About the New Normal at Work

As we approach?the two-year mark of?the pandemic,?most of us are becoming clearer about the profound impact it has had on our lives.?And as we come to grips with it all and attempt to accept a new normal, one that isn’t even defined yet, many of us are asking ourselves fundamental questions. What do we want?to do with?our?time? How do we want to connect and play? Where?do?we want to work??Why?do we want to work? ?

At GoDaddy, we have been listening carefully to understand the?changing needs and?wants of our employees. Today, I want to share?three?insights about what we’ve learned. The first and most obvious is the need to let people, even people who live close to the office, have more say over where they work. Second is the importance of finding?more?ways to connect folks to the mission of the company. Third, these uncertain times demand an even more human-centered approach to?leadership,?so you can?quickly identify and adapt to?those?changing needs and desires. We call this?having a?#humanfirst?mindset.??

It didn’t take us long to learn the importance of providing a remote work option, even for candidates located near our Tempe headquarters. For more than 20 years, GoDaddy has been able to hire?incredibly?talented “Guides”?from the local community.?These are?the people on our award-winning Care team that help our customers on their entrepreneurial journeys, whether it is to pursue an idea or solve a technical issue. These jobs are?in high demand, and?we?are?regularly over-subscribed. But?last quarter, the number of local candidates pulling themselves out of consideration to be Guides spiked to 55% from 20% the previous year. We were already thinking of adding hybrid and work-from-home options?for Guides?based on feedback from our employees, and this spike in candidates pulling out of the process affirmed our decision. When we made these options a commitment in the recruiting process, we saw those numbers start to reverse. ?

And we have quickly gone further. While a cornerstone of our Care team culture has been the ability to deeply engage with other team members and supervisors in person, we are now offering positions that are 100% remote. And we are optimistic about continuing the same fantastic culture and service to our customers, irrespective of whether Guides are working remotely or coming into an office.?

So, the first truth is that work from home options need to be spelled out in advance for every new hire. It’s not a maybe or ‘we will figure it out.’ Candidates want to know upfront exactly when their role requires them to be in the office. We’re even starting to wonder if we should include a clear statement about remote work or ‘percentage of time in the office’ as part of all our offer letters. Are you thinking about the same??

The second truth is that finding ways to connect folks to the mission and strategy of the company is more important than ever.?Employees want to engage, participate, and give?feedback. Having thought hard, for?some?the first time about?why?they work, people want to know their job is meaningful and positively impacts the lives of others.?

Here’s an example. At GoDaddy, our employees have always engaged at very high levels with our annual survey. But this year we broke?our own?record:?90%?of employees completed the annual survey – and I assure you it is a robust set of questions.?Ninety percent, wow! That’s engagement.??

As leaders, it’s our responsibility to?be clear about our purpose and?connect employees with the?mission and?take it to the next level?(GoDaddy’s mission is to empower entrepreneurs everywhere, making opportunity inclusive for all).?Earlier this year, we wrote a short strategy document and asked all VPs to read it and react. We then engaged in thoughtful debate and answered all their questions in an open forum. We then asked them to do the same with their direct reports and send us their questions in writing so we could respond to them, too. The result was an avalanche of comments and questions from teams across the company. While there is a crazy amount of work necessary to provide detailed, written answers to all these questions, we?now?have a level of engagement, and understanding that we have never had before. ?

The third truth is that, in a world obsessed with AI and automation, we need to rediscover and redefine what it means to be human-centered. While this has always been core to our DNA, when COVID hit we adopted #humanfirst as a mindset for making decisions. For example, we quickly set a goal as an executive team to connect with someone in every office at our company. Initially, these check-ins happened daily, then weekly and so on. This helped us?stay?connected with each other?and?measure the?emotions?that surveys can’t pick?up,?allowing?us?to?respond quickly based on how people were truly feeling and coping. We could learn about a development in Asia in our daily late night Pacific time call and implement something new by the time we got to the early morning EMEA call.??

#Humanfirst showed up again when we decided to move slower than some other companies on actions like re-opening offices on a volunteer basis. We kept our ears open and listened to our global panel of employees to avoid putting employees at risk or having to roll decisions backward. We embraced the idea of being ‘a month behind’ but always #humanfirst. ?

Despite the best of intentions, the sad reality is that as a leader I feel under-skilled to?personally?support employees that need varying degrees of mental health support. Yes, we extended our EAP (Employee Assistance Program), but more employees are looking for different kinds of support and we continue to listen and work hard to find solutions. The more I think about it, the more I feel we are on the cusp of?new learnings?which?can continue to teach us?how companies can best support their employees. A #humanfirst mindset is critical to getting to these learnings?so we can?take care of people first.?

No doubt, other new truths about our changing world will become clear in the months and years ahead. But while change is always?challenging?and requires hard work and difficult choices, it also presents?us with?opportunities to become better as organizations and as individuals. At GoDaddy, our employees and potential hires have told us loud and clear what they want and need, and we will continue to listen – and respond.?

梅赫拉乌迪特·

4年数字营销经验 | 广告 | 网站设计 | Wordpress专家 | PPC | SEO | HTML / CSS | SMM | 业务增长 | 营销创意等

5 个月

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Dear GoDaddy CEO, I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the detrimental impact of GoDaddy's inadequate support on my company. As a customer with ID 123677421, I have been experiencing significant losses due to prolonged response times, ineffective solutions, and a lack of technical expertise from your support team. My business operations have come to a halt, and the financial repercussions are substantial. I urgently request your personal intervention to rectify this situation and provide the efficient support needed to restore my company's functionality.

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Adolfo V.

Entrepreneur | Marketer Over 10 Years | Retail & Fashion | Building In Public.

1 年

Aman, thanks for sharing! Following up!

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Yan, Andy Andy

Senior IT Manager

1 年

Dear Aman, it is very nice newsletter and perfect company of Godaddy. However, could you check our tickets ATS-175241 which our email on godaddy as M365 down over 5 days. High appreciated!

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Silpi Babu

Saqib Squad | Real Estate Broker | Rat Race Rebellion

1 年

Excerpt: ‘We’re even starting to wonder if we should include a clear statement about remote work or ‘percentage of time in the office’ as part of all our offer letters. Are you thinking about the same?’ My simple answer is Yes! If the KPI’s are correctly defined and an employee is able to achieve them consistently, isn’t that all that matters? Aman Bhutani

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