The Latest on Workplace Connection

Harnessing Personal Purpose to Enable Employee Experience

Feb 10th, 2022

As talent continues to reshuffle across the economy in rapid numbers, more and more businesses are realizing that they need to build a work culture that attracts and retains great people. What’s clear from the latest labor trends is that employees are leveraging power in new ways — and companies must focus on besting their competition when it comes to employee experience.

Exclusive Preview: 2022 Workforce Purpose Index

Mar 2nd, 2022 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Over the last 8 years, Aaron Hurst’s groundbreaking research of purpose and fulfillment at work has helped redefine how companies, universities and the general public think about how to truly meet the needs of human beings in the workplace. Join us on March 2nd to get a sneak preview of our latest research, the 2022 Workforce Purpose Index.

How Companies Are Busting Silos in Remote Work Through Peer Coaching Networks

Feb 1st, 2022

For all the benefits of remote work that many companies have discovered over the past two years, there are also drawbacks. One of those in particular is slowing down corporate productivity and could cause long term damage: the silo effect.

The Power of Personalization In L&D

Feb 3rd, 2022

The support we give our managers needs to be agile and able to be personalized to their timely needs. But how do you harness the untold power of having a personalized approach to learning and development?

4 Ways Your Manager Trainings Are Falling Short

Jan 27th, 2022

84% of U.S workers say poorly trained managers create unnecessary stress; with 50% U.S workers saying they felt their own performance would improve if their direct supervisor received additional training in people management. So how do you set up your managers, and their teams, for success?

What's Preventing Your Managers from Learning?

Jan 20th, 2022

This week on Imperative’s webinar series, we had a powerful conversation with Dr. Britt Andreatta, neuroscience expert and top learning influencer for 2021. Dr. Andreatta’s unique background in leadership, neuroscience, psychology, and education enables her to speak directly to the challenge many learning and development leaders are facing: in this remote world, how do I help my people learn and grow?

Is Your Coaching Culture Covering all 4 Bases?

Jan 7th, 2022

Most of us have experienced and witnessed the transformative power coaching can have at work (and in life). The right kind of coaching can dramatically improve someone’s experience and engagement at work. Building a culture of coaching at your organization has a dramatic impact on learning and development initiatives, but it’s much easier said than done.

How Zillow and others are reimagining the role of managers

February 5th, 2021

The role managers play in organizations was already undergoing a transformation even before the events of 2020 brought profound change to daily operations. “Many of us grew up with this mental model of what a manager is from our parents, which was, ‘Oh, they just give the orders,’ ” Corina Kolbe, vice president of learning and development at Zillow, said in a recent webinar with me. “Now, you’re a mentor, you’re a coach, you have to set vision and strategy and give feedback. There’s just so many things for managers to do, and that’s complex.”

CLO: Unleash the Power of Peer Coaching

December 7th, 2020

With many organizations stretched thin, finding the time and resources for L&D is a tough task. It doesn’t have to be. One of the most powerful tools to help staff gain new skills is already inside our organizations and vastly underutilized: the power of peers.

How to Foster Human Connection in a Hybrid Workplace

Aug 24th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

As hybrid work is quickly becoming the new norm, it poses big risks: disconnection, loneliness and employee dissatisfaction.

Smiley Poswolsky, bestselling author and world-renowned speaker on belonging in a hybrid workforce, has uncovered some key factors to how leaders can support their people in this challenging new age of work.

Join a conversation between Smiley Poswolsky and Imperative's CEO Aaron Hurst, where they'll discuss how to tackle the increasing issues emerging from the hybrid workplace. As the foremost millennial workplace expert, Smiley has been featured in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, TIME and NPR. During the webinar on August 24th, Smiley will share actionable takeaways for how to create a culture of belonging and purpose at any organization.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Understanding of the current loneliness crisis in the workplace
  
• Insight into new factors affecting employee loneliness and disconnection
  
• Actionable ideas for how to build belonging and increase authentic connection at your organization

Remote Work & the Neuroscience of Human Connection

January 11th at 9am PT/12pm ET

Dr. Britt Andreatta, former CLO for Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning) who has over 10 million views worldwide of her online courses, will join us for a fascinating and practical discussion about human connection in the workplace: why it’s especially needed in remote work and how we can create more of it.

Manager Coaching Networks at Three Leading Employers

May 25th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Hear directly from managers at Hasbro, Tripadvisor and Boston Scientific about how peer coaching has unlocked increased collaboration, belonging and leadership growth.
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Managers face increasingly complex challenges as the workplace and world changes. Given the outsized impact of managers on organizations, it is an imperative for every company to develop and support them.  Leading companies like Hasbro, Boston Scientific and Tripadvisor have turned to peer coaching as the key way to give their managers the critical support they need.
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In this webinar, you’ll get to hear directly from managers at Hasbro, Boston Scientific and Tripadvisor about their experience using Imperative’s video-based employee engagement platform. They’ll share insights into why this has worked where other solutions have failed, along with powerful stories of how this tool has unlocked increased collaboration, belonging and leadership growth.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Insight into what managers actually look for and value in a support tools
• Actionable ideas for how to build manager networks at your organization
• Understanding of how manager networks create sustained behavior change and growth and build a culture of belonging

How Hasbro Builds Manager Networks with Peer Coaching

April 27th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Hasbro has been widely recognized as one of the most innovative, creative and socially responsible companies for over 100 years.  As the workplace continues to evolve, the Hasbro leadership team began to reimagine their employee experience to continue to be an employer of choice for the brightest creative talent in the world. Their goal was to take something great and build something even better, while adding back the sense of community that’s been missing in this heavily virtual world.

Melissa Henderson, VP of HR, is leading the employee experience transformation, by using peers to support each other and increase the sense of connection and community.  Join a conversation co-hosted by The Learning Forum, where Melissa and Imperative’s Aaron Hurst will discuss how she is creating new manager networks which allow Hasbro to connect and empower their people—humanizing an increasingly remote workforce.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Insight into how an innovative HR leader is courageously transforming how Hasbro supports their managers
• Actionable ideas for how to build manager networks at your organization
• Understanding of how manager networks create sustained behavior change and growth and build a culture of belonging

How Accolade is Creating A Coaching Culture

March 30th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Accolade is a fast-growing private healthcare company, recognized as one of the nation’s 25 most promising companies by Forbes magazine. To sustain their success and growth, Accolade’s leadership team set out to create a coaching culture that activated and maintained behavior change, while deepening leadership practices.
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Join a conversation between Accolade’s CHRO, Britt Provost, and Imperative’s Aaron Hurst, about how they are using peer coaching to create a coaching culture. By leveraging peers, rather than just paid coaches, they are making coaching truly accessible to everyone and building coaching skills into the day-to-day flow of work. In this conversation, they will explore how peer coaching is driving learning and growth, where traditional learning and development models failed.
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After this webinar, you’ll walk away with:

• Insight into how innovative HR leaders are embracing the new model of learning & development
• Actionable ideas for how to scale a coaching culture at your organization
• Understanding of how peer coaching compares to other forms of coaching

How Zillow Builds Community Among Managers with Peer Coaching

January 14th, 2021 at 9am PT/12pm ET

Zillow is known for their culture of innovation and Corina Kolbe, VP of Learning and Development, wanted to bring that same innovation to how they support their managers who suddenly found themselves managing remote teams in 2020.

Corina and her team were looking for a way to build community among their managers, and increase how many managers they were able to support. Join a conversation between Corina Kolbe and Imperative’s Aaron Hurst, about how she used peer coaching to create a scalable, agile and on-going program that was in the flow of work and connected to each employee's sense of purpose.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Insight from an HR leader on how to approach building manager community
• Statistics and stories from real employees about the effects of peer coaching
• Actionable ideas for how to increase manager community at your company

The Definitive Manager-to-Manager Coaching Guide

In this guide, we explore innovative ways to support managers, solving the critical issues that traditional development programs can't.

The fresh approach of manager-to-manager coaching has given companies like Zillow and Boston Scientific immediate results. It is driving behavior change, creating coaching cultures and making sure every manager has the support and development they deserve.

In The Manager-to-Manager Coaching Guide, we'll cover:

• Where traditional manager development falls short
• The key differences between peer coaching & mentorship
• The ways manager-to-manager coaching harnesses the power of peers
• Insight and real-life examples from innovative HR leaders
• Compelling results from Zillow’s current manager-to-manager program

MIT: Developing Future-Ready Skills With Peer Coaching

March 10th, 2021

To avoid mass long-term unemployment, we must prioritize and pour efforts into preparing workers for the jobs of the future. Increasingly, these are the kinds of jobs that focus on uniquely human skills that current technologies cannot simulate — things like empathy, problem-solving, collaboration, and communication. Increasing such skills not only helps workers but also has real business implications: Human skills make companies stronger.

The 3 Drivers of Strong Relationships at Work with Author Shasta Nelson

November 10th, 2020 at 9am PT/12pm ET

From wellbeing to inclusion to innovation to working from home to productivity to happiness, it all comes back to relationships. When we have strong relationships we thrive and when we don't we struggle. In her new book, The Business of Friendship: Making the Most of Our Relationships Where We Spend Most of Our Time, Shasta Nelson, the leading expert on friendship and healthy relationships distills the research down to three core drivers. In this webinar, she will share the drivers and research behind them in engaging conversation with Imperative's CEO, Aaron Hurst.

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Knowledge of the latest research regarding relationships in the workplace
• Insight into how specifically employees AND employers benefit from good relationships in the workplace
• Deep understanding of the three drivers of a strong relationship
• Actionable ideas for how to create and build meaningful relationships at work

ATD: Tap Into the Benefits of Peer Coaching

December 2nd, 2020

Building employee's skills as long been a top business concern, and recent events have made it even more urgent. According to McKinsey & Company, "To emerge stronger from the COVID-19 crisis, companies should start reskilling their workforces now."

World Economic Forum: Want to build skills and inclusivity? It's all about peer power

September 30th, 2020

This year has brought to a head two of the most crucial issues facing businesses worldwide. Firstly, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the skills gap. In order to recover and rebuild after record losses and unemployment, businesses need to reskill and upskill their staff. Skills such as adaptability, agility, communications and more are at the top of the list of needs, in addition to some technical skills that can help companies boost their operations with a newly remote workforce.

MIT: Newly Remote Workers Need Peer Coaching

April 20th, 2020

While there are tremendous benefits to remote work, there are also challenges — particularly for those who count on the routine and social atmosphere of an office or work site. As Susan Ashford, professor of management and organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and her coauthors stated in their literature review of nonstandard work, many scholars and researchers “have documented the feelings of isolation experienced by teleworkers” and have found that the experience can lead to “significantly more negative emotions such as loneliness, irritability, worry, and guilt.”

Glassdoor: Burnout Is On The Rise. Here's What All Employers Can Do Without Sacrificing Productivity

June 10th, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is having widespread effects on people's mental health, with stress on the rise. A survey has found that it's contributing to a spike in burnout, and costing employers. About a quarter of workers are experiencing burnout as a result of the pandemic, while another 19% are feeling burnout for other reasons, the study by Eagle Hill Consulting found.

TLNT: The Best Way to Develop Interpersonal Skills Is Not the Usual Way

July 24th, 2020

In trying to provide the kind of leadership employees need right now, many businesses are struggling. Executives are aware that people need to feel supported and heard through the tumultuousness of COVID-19 and the protests against the killings of Black people by police. They know that workplace cultures must provide empathy and psychological safety. But that’s much easier said than done. In many cases, past efforts to do this have failed altogether, or had only partial success, despite best intentions.

Human Resource Executive: How Peer Coaching Helps Your Employees Find Purpose

May 1st, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a slew of unprecedented challenges for HR teams: determining which employees are expected to work where and when; ensuring workers have what they need to get their jobs done securely from home; handling layoffs and personnel changes; ensuring healthcare coverage; and much more. One of the biggest and most important is helping workers focus on business-critical tasks even as they’re caring for sick loved ones and ensuring their children get educated via remote schooling.

The Definitive Guide to Peer Coaching

Meaningful conversation is how we learn, adapt, connect, and become fulfilled at work. This white paper highlights the data behind social learning and human connection, the major implications for businesses today and how to globally scale fulfillment.

Snapshot: Building a Coaching Culture

Employers increasingly seek to build coaching cultures, where everyone is skilled at bringing out the best in each other. In a coaching culture, the core skills of a professional coach are developed in every employee.

In this quick read, learn how leading companies like Zillow, Boston Scientific, and Accolade are leveraging peers, rather than paid coaches, to make coaching truly accessible to everyone and incorporate building coaching skills into the day-to-day flow of work.
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We'll cover:

• The benefits of coaching culture
• How peer coaching on Imperative enables employees to begin coaching with no formal training
  
• The ease of launch and scaling across large organizations

Snapshot: Building Manager Capability with Peer Coaching

As the role of management becomes increasingly complex and challenging, companies are finding that traditional manager development programs are falling short.

In this quick read, learn how to empower managers to lean on each other for support and to develop skills. They're able to get the benefits of coaching at a fraction of the cost, while building life-long relationships inside the company.
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We'll cover:

• Why traditional manager development programs fall short
• How peer coaching harnesses the power of peers to support each other
  
• The critical management skills peer coaching helps cultivate
• How to easily launch and scale within large organizations

30,000 Conversations: Hybrid Work Research Briefing

September 14th, 2021

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Insight into the new, breakthrough research from a wide sample of employees at innovative companies
• Key takeaways from one of the largest qualitative and quantitative data sets around hybrid work
• Building blocks for how to create an innovative employee experience and culture strategy for 2022 and beyond

How To Re-Recruit Your People

November 2nd, 2021

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Highlights of the latest attrition data
• Understanding of a key strategy to stemming attrition: re-recruiting your people and why it works
• Actionable ideas for how to operationalize this strategy and bring it to life in your organization

Unlocked: How Coaching is Lifting Women Up

November 18th, 2021

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Understanding of the current state of work inequality for women
• Insight into how and why peer coaching is powerful for women to empower themselves and one another
• Actionable ways to scale coaching and support of women in the workplace

How to Truly Integrate Learning into the Flow of Work

December 7th, 2021

After this webinar, you'll walk away with:

• Understanding of the dire need for agile learning and human skill development in the modern workplace
• Insight into how this agile model can be applied
• Actionable ways to apply this across teams and organizations

How to Re-Recruit Your People

October 26th, 2021

The “Great Resignation” has been in full swing for the bulk of this year, with a record-breaking 10.9 million open jobs at the end of July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  But you already know that—this isn’t new news. HR leaders have been facing ongoing and exceptional pressure for the last 18 months, and this is the latest stressful headline to directly affect them.

With so many pressing issues on their plates, it can be difficult to decide where to focus time, energy and resources. Imperative’s entire ethos is to focus on the “bright spots,” and one big bright spot?  All the people who stay at your company. So how do you invest in the people who stay and what *actually* makes a difference?

Unlocked: What Women in the Workplace Need

November 3rd, 2021

According to the World Economic Forum, women lost 36 years of progress in 2020 alone, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 36 years! That number is staggering. Despite comprising nearly half of the workforce and earning more than half of all college degrees, women still only represent 25% of executives and senior managers, hold less than 5% of CEO jobs, and occupy less than 20% of board seats at S&P 500 companies.
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The overwhelming scope and complexity of this issue can feel debilitating, and as if there’s no clear place to start. But here at Imperative, we focus on the bright spots and recent research points to two areas that can make a meaningful impact: strong networks and access to coaching.

To Create a Winning Culture, Your Company Needs This

September 28th, 2021

A great culture is one of the most important things a company can have—and one of the hardest things to achieve, especially in the hybrid workplace. Cultivating trust is a key ingredient to a winning culture while research clearly shows lack of trust has detrimental effects.

The New EVP: Human-Centered Approach

October 6th, 2021

Over the past year, companies have increased their investment in employee experience benefits, and yet according to Gartner Benchmarking Survey, only 31 percent of human resource managers believe their current workforce is satisfied with the perks they get from work.  Gartner’s research found that the companies must reinvent their EVP (employee value proposition) to shift from being about features and benefits to covering the social and emotional needs of employees.

Why We Need More Than Engagement Surveys

October 13th, 2021

Engagement surveys are a commonly accepted aspect of most HR strategies, yet they only tell a partial story of your people’s actual experience. Surveys are self-reported and conducted at a fixed point in time, and according to a Cornell National Social Survey, 26% of the employees withhold information about ideas for improvement or problems they face due to the futility of the exercise. In fact, futility was 1.8x more common reason than fear for withholding information.

4 Keys to Humanizing Onboarding in Remote Work

December 10th, 2021

One of our most popular recent webinars and blog topics was focused on the concept of re-recruiting your people as a key tactic in combating the “Great Resignation.” We heard some great feedback from HR leaders that these strategies were also very relevant for remote onboarding, which is a real challenge to do right.
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Onboarding is one of the most important drivers of employee success and can also be incredibly complex, especially when done virtually. Poor onboarding is a major cause of employee turnover, which can cost a company 100-300% of the employee's salary in total. So let’s dive into how you can use those re-recruitment strategies and apply them to onboarding.

#1 Reason People Are Leaving Their Jobs

November 10th, 2021

As The Great Resignation rages on, let’s talk about why people are leaving. According to a recent study from Edelman, the #1 reason employees are leaving is a lack of fulfillment. The pandemic triggered a personal reckoning for many people, and for many people, their current work fell short of what they want it to be. With choice and flexibility at an all time high in the job market, they also have the opportunity to weigh how they feel about the work they do as much as the benefits they’ll receive.

So what does employee fulfillment mean? Is it possible to give your people a high sense of fulfillment, no matter what industry you’re in? Fulfillment is a topic Imperative has been studying and measuring since 2014, so let’s jump right in.

Can We Integrate Learning into the Flow of Work?

November 18th, 2021

To thrive in today’s modern workplace, every single person at your organization needs to grow their “soft skills,” skills that can only be honed through practice and experimentation.  Before we get caught up on the fact that the term “soft skills” doesn’t remotely do this set of skills justice, take a minute and think about the current way learning typically happens in most workplaces: programs and classes.

As remote and hybrid work continues for the foreseeable future, even scaling these types of programs is challenging, not to mention the holy grail concept of “in the flow” learning.

So let’s talk: why is experiential learning so impactful and how can you do more of it at any organization?