Need to hit your number? First care for your people as much as customers

“Now, people are saying ‘life matters to me equally, if not more than the work that I’ve been doing.’

Before the pandemic, it was the other way around. Because that was the mentality, the programming in essence that we've all fallen into.”

As we come to the end of 2022, most countries around the world have emerged from the pandemic. Countless studies have been done on working from home, the impact on employee engagement and wellbeing, and whether people are more productive or not. (Check out the work by Nick Bloom for the most robust of these)

But just what kind of workplace are we actually landing on?

To tease out whether we’ve truly emerged with fresh insight about human creativity and enterprise, or if we’ve actually squandered the lessons we should’ve gained from the pandemic, I spoke to Hanz Kurdi.

Hanz has been in Silicon Valley for 15 years, and has seen through five startups and 3 exits. He’s been on the front lines, and worked his way up to senior management. He taught at UC Berkeley, and even started a non-profit incubator there.

In our conversation, his passion for people - regardless of whether they are customers, employees, leaders, or a random guy on the street - was contagious. I summarize highlights from our recent chat below:

The customer journey is intricately linked with the employee journey

As a Customer Experience leader and professional, it was unusual to see how ardently Hanz championed the people agenda.

He highlights the work that goes into figuring our customers out:

“And so we put all this energy and time and effort in trying to understand the customer the customer journey. The analytics through that journey and being able to really build and nurture that relationship. Taking care of a customer overall is cheaper, doesn't hit the bottom line as hard as would bringing back a disgruntled customer.

We put all this energy and effort through the sales process to sell the product. You’re connecting every aspect of the company from product to marketing, to sales, to the onboarding process, to the whole customer post onboarding, as part of the customer experience.”

But there’s a disconnect with the fuel that actually powers this process - the employee journey. Significantly less attention is spared on that front, causing a dangerous imbalance in the foundations of the customer experience.

“When we think about all this work that we put on a customer, well, who's doing that, who's running that who's evolving that who's who's making sure that that's successful?

It's the ‘human capital’ of that process.”

The pandemic was a golden opportunity for us to rethink our ways of working

“I’m a huge extrovert, yet I work better from home.”

While some companies are calling employees back into the office, almost half of the workforce is still working remotely at least part of the time. 15% of all high-paying jobs are now available remotely, and about half of US workers say they’d be willing to take a pay cut to continue working from home.

Still, some leaders look like they missed the memo.

“A lot of companies tried to do the right thing with the wrong thinking…

…It's not just the eight hours that I have to be in the office. It's my commute time. It's the energy that's being drained from me that I have to listen to someone popping while they're chewing gum in the cubicle.”

Intentional culture building starts from the top

“Emotional intelligence and good leadership and good culture building starts from the top that if you don't believe in those things, well, it's not going to be imposed in your company.”

In navigating this transition, while there is a lot more science in this space than there was 2 years ago, it’s still important that leaders role-model the behavior they hope to instill in the culture of their teams.

Being receptive and open to suggestions from everyone on the team, even the most junior, is a good start.

“How many times have you thought about saying no to your manager at your company and still have a job? That was unheard of years ago.”

This kind of role-modeling has to go beyond lip service. There needs to be authenticity in leadership, rather than making sure there’s yet-another-program in place.

“I don't know how many studies there are around. Be kind, be good, be compassionate show empathy, care, then it will lead to that…But the problem with that is, if your C-suite and your founders are doing it because it's a solution, rather than it's a core belief, that's the disconnect.

If it’s ‘Do as I say, not as I do’, and they don't necessarily believe in this emotional intelligence stuff, then there's no intention, there's no change. I think younger generations see the bullsh*t through that.”

Employee engagement is not a snapshot solution

“If you want engaged employees, it's not a snapshot solution. And you have to be committed to the long game.”

As leaders, we need to shift the way that we think of the time horizon of building employee engagement. Rather than a one-and-done Band Aid, it’s a continuous investment in our people.

“You cannot apply that thinking of quarterly progress, you know, that's not how you define and evolve human capital in any way, shape or form.”

The levers of employee engagement and effective management go beyond tangible benefits, even if those hygiene factors are still important. With the widespread adoption of some form of remote work, what matters to people is becoming increasingly clear.

“it's not about having spa days and old school ping pong tables…if Millennials and Gen Z go to an environment where they actually feel that they're heard, that counts a lot more than here's an extra $XXX in your salary. We’re seeing a very big indicator of what people really care about.”

Even so, some leaders might think that engaging employees is all hokey, and that the key priority in a downturn or crisis is to focus on business performance. Here’s Hanz again:

“So you can say, this is a kumbaya moment, where it's like feel good sitting in a circle, campfire, marshmallows and whatnot. Or you can say that this is actually truly the strongest thing we can do around human development and it's necessary.

Would you rather say we don't have the money for this kumbaya moment, or later ask, well, what's the opportunity cost for not doing that?”

He also uses the analogy of a marriage.

“If you have a bad marriage, you don't disengage from it. No, you double down you go to therapy, you figure it out, you have open communication, you have the hard conversations”

Extend concern for wellbeing, and psychological safety

“There's four categories of wellbeing: physical, mental, social and financial.”

In his research, Hanz found that managers systematically overestimated the state of their employees’ wellbeing, thinking they were doing better than they actually were on all four dimensions.

Listening closely to employees and our teams, and expressing genuine care for their wellbeing as people helps to create an environment of psychological safety.

This extends to cultivating joy even while on Zoom calls, as Hanz candidly shared about his “anatomically-correct stuffed animal” in his background.

Key takeaways

1. Investing in figuring out and improving the employee journey has tangible and positive business outcomes.

2. The pandemic has catalyzed the need for all leaders with remote or hybrid teams to think deeply about how to intentionally role-model and shape team culture

3. The time frame for impact may not be immediate, but the opportunity cost of ignoring people issues can creep up and exact a heavy penalty

If you’d like to get in touch with Hanz, he's on LinkedIn here.