Managing Workloads & Multigen Teams: Insights on Employee Experience from HR Virtual Summit

At this year’s HR Virtual Summit, attendees heard from experts in the field about HR and business best practices and thought leadership, including ways to help improve the employee experience at every company.

Check out some of the top takeaways from the Employee Experience sessions at our eight annual HR Virtual Summit!

The Secret to a Manageable Workload? Have a Manageable Thoughtload

Liane Davey, an author and Team Advisor at 3COze Inc., starts her presentation talking about the fast pace of change in today’s work environment. “How humans have reacted to change is not new,” says Liane. “We know that change interrupts our habits and draws our attention, triggers anxiety. Those are things that have been true forever.”

But the difference between change in the past and the change we see today is that change used to be something that happened occasionally. “Now, change is coming at us all the time. It’s perpetual,” says Liane. And with all of this change, it often feels like we can’t keep up.

Change is also prevalent in our workload—tasks and priorities are often changing, and it can make it difficult to manage a focused list of important actions. But while our workload is constrained by the number of hours in our day, our thoughtload is not constrained.

Our thoughtload includes all of the things we worry about and tasks we haven’t completed yet.

Here are Liane’s tip:

• Don’t just think about your employees’ workload.
• Think about what’s in your employees’ thoughtload and how you are helping them manage that work.
• Help managers and employees get clear on the single most important thing they need to pay attention to right now.

“Instead of the most important thing we’re working on this month, this quarter, this year, it’s more helpful if we can get people to think about the most important thing they need to pay attention to right now,” Liane emphasizes. “When we can help employees manage their own thoughtloads, we can move through our workload more efficiently.”

Multigenerational Teams Make Better Decisions and Get More Positive Results

Lindsay Boccardo, a keynote speaker, trainer, and professional coach, packs her session with incredible insights into the benefits of a multigenerational team. One such insight—when you have a single generation team, the likelihood that decision results will meet or exceed expectations falls to 35 percent. But when you have a multigenerational team, that number rises to an incredible 73 percent.

Generational tension is caused by several factors, including the following challenges:

• Technological evolution
• Changing leadership theories
• Developmental psychology (how generations are often in different life stages)
• How childhood experiences shape work expectations

Lindsay shares four areas we can focus on to create a better employee experience for everyone and to help create better connections between generations:

1. Purpose in work: Employees want to work for a company that aligns with their personal values. They also want to know how their role impacts the outcome of the business.
2. Influential relationships: Employees want to have friends at work and are interested in getting coached, not managed. They’re also looking for mentors and for teams they enjoy working with.
3. Personal development: Employees want ongoing feedback and incremental and self-appointed growth steps. They’re looking for help to develop strengths and for new input to gain greater self-awareness.
4. Whole life understanding: Employees want flexibility in work hours and location. They want an employer that will take into account their stress levels and emotional and physical wellbeing.

To hear more from Liane and Lindsay—and all of the other great speakers in the Employee Experience track—watch for updates about HR Virtual Summit 2022! Sessions will be available to watch soon.