Forging Employee Experience
54 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 42 ratingsEmployee engagement is dead. Employee Experience in a traditional office is dead. If you, like all leaders post COVID-19, need to make split decisions that drive the best digital employee experience (DEX), this podcast delivers on all the latest and greatest strategies that top companies are implementing today.
Join our host, David Williams, as he helps you to retain your top talent during these challenging times.
www.forgeant.com Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blazeperformance/support
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Episodes
How COVID-19 Reshaped the Employee Experience with Ben Eubanks
April 02, 2020 15:24 - 9 minutes - 6.94 MBOn any given normal workday, we see our employees come into the office and go about their work. Their mere presence at work tells us a lot more than we think. If an employee shows up at work, then they are not too sick to get out of bed, at the hospital, taking care of their children, or caring for other loved ones. We can also assume that nothing overly drastic has happened in their life such that they would need to be somewhere else. We can further deduce from their appearance and behavio...
REFORGE Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
March 27, 2020 16:53 - 9 minutes - 7.18 MBJosh and Alexander recap the amazing content Dr. Tomas shared on his recent episode. Come learn from the best and brightest minds of this generation as it relates to the future of work and designing a better employee experience. For more info visit Dr. Tomas' website: https://drtomas.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blazeperformance/support
80% of Employee Experience is Determined by Managers, with Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
March 24, 2020 17:59 - 32 minutes - 24.8 MBManagers hold power. They have the ability to control and regulate the daily life of an employee. Their administrative mandate to observe, review, and divvy out work implicitly gives them the ability to determine how and when an employee works. Furthermore, the human condition subconsciously leads us to believe that those with such authoritative responsibility should be trusted more than those without. This leads to a power dynamic. Every employee knows that their boss could make their life...
Ending Human Trafficking with Employee Engagement with Gabrielle Thompson
February 21, 2020 03:05 - 16 minutes - 12.7 MBAs far as titles go, the above might be slightly melodramatic. Nevertheless, it’s one hundred percent valid. In a recent podcast with Gabrielle Thompson, CEO of Free for Life International, we had the opportunity to discuss how her organization’s mission is the identification, assistance, and restoration of victims and survivors of human trafficking. (Before we get any further into this article, please consider making a donation at their website.) No one would argue that their goal is an am...
Eureka! How to Create an Award-winning Culture with Dr. Laura Wendt
February 11, 2020 18:25 - 24 minutes - 18.4 MBWe’re all very familiar with the phrase “the customer is always right.” So familiar, that no one could use it in a legitimate business scenario and be taken seriously. We’ve heard it so many times that it’s lost its value. Which, objectively speaking, is a shame because the statement is a powerful one. While an individual customer is certainly capable of being wrong, if a quorum of customers is offering feedback, we should listen – whether we want to hear it or not. The same effect has occu...
Err on the Side of Kindness With Company Culture With Kristen Harcourt
November 05, 2019 18:55 - 23 minutes - 17.8 MBFor being entrenched in a society with so much change, we love the status quo. By default, most people prefer to find a situation that they are comfortable with and stay there. It takes so much incentive to force a behavioral change that entire industries have been built around getting people to do something different than they are used to. Those charged with crafting a positive employee experience are often victims of this inertia. It’s an unfortunate paradox: if an organization has been a...
REFORGE Andrew Saidy
October 18, 2019 18:54 - 9 minutes - 7.06 MBOn a recent podcast, Andrew Saidy, the VP of Talent Digitization at Schneider Electric, shared his experiences of how his company has leaned into this idea of accommodating for an employee’s entire well-being. By realizing that the notions of “personal life” and “work life” are becoming less and less distinct, Schneider Electric has managed to de-compartmentalize the two. Its employee experience initiatives are all entirely focused on making sure the life – not just work— experience of an em...
Engaged Employees Are Better For Business with Andrew Saidy
October 16, 2019 21:56 - 24 minutes - 18.3 MBOrganizations that feel a sensible desire to keep shareholders happy, will continuously be looking for ways to decrease costs. Cutting costs is an extremely important element to running a business. Unfortunately, we sometimes get in to trouble cutting costs in place that end up costing money in the long run. Not upgrading IT equipment will eventually result in expensive outages. Buying the cheapest parts will eventually lead to product defects. Not actively learning about customers will even...
REFORGE Howard Ross
October 11, 2019 17:38 - 9 minutes - 6.96 MBIn a recent podcast with nationally recognized diversity advocate and consultant Howard Ross, he likened the workplace to a party. When we try and figure out what is going to make a party successful, we have to analyze a person’s entire party experience. It isn’t enough to just throw a great party. The guests have to feel like they have a vested interest in the party’s success. One way to accomplish this is to let the guests pick the music. The host still picks the venue, the theme, the pric...
Fixing Employee Engagement with Howard Ross
October 08, 2019 23:41 - 24 minutes - 18.9 MBCongratulations! You, like so many before, have finally admitted that your organization’s culture isn’t fantastic and most of your workforce isn’t engaged. Maybe those survey results finally came in or maybe you were hired because there is a culture problem. Either way, you find yourself leading the charge to make the organization a better place to work. As you strive to solve this employee engagement conundrum, you find yourself naturally framing the problem as an “employee engagement” pro...
REFORGE: Christine Comaford
June 27, 2019 21:41 - 7 minutes - 7.34 MBChristine Comaford, Founder of SmartTribes Institute, discusses the idea that while clearly, it’s better if employee engagement strategies are well-received, if people are deriding the company’s efforts – at least they are engaging. When people make fun of something it shows an emotional attachment to it. So in the case where an overwhelmed HR leader is trying desperately to boost engagement but is only met with ridicule, that’s ok! Failure paves the way to success. Eventually, the right sol...
When Employees Mock Your Employee Engagement Strategies with Christine Comaford
June 25, 2019 20:35 - 36 minutes - 33 MBMost employee engagement strategies are uninformed shots in the dark implemented in good faith. Best case scenario, these efforts happen to alleviate the particular frustration that the employee base was experiencing. What a win! Worse case, you’ve made a gesture that proves to everyone that the organization is uninformed and doesn’t care enough to figure out what really matters to the employees. Obviously, there are tons of tools out there that will help HR Leaders better understand what ...
REFORGE: Mary Faulkner
June 03, 2019 11:01 - 9 minutes - 9.1 MBIn a recent podcast, Mary Faulkner, author of Surviving Leadership Blog, brings up the most important question to avoid on employee engagement surveys. She says that companies must absolutely stop asking questions about things they are completely unwilling (or unable) to change. All too often organizations populate employee engagement/satisfaction surveys with questions about aspects of the company or its policies with the intention of trying to sense how employees feel about those issues....
What Not to Ask On Your Employee Engagement Survey with Mary Faulkner
May 31, 2019 00:35 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBEmployee Engagement surveys have become a backbone to understanding and maintaining the mental and emotional health of an organization. They are an excellent way to begin the journey of creating the employee experience that will finally boost those low engagement scores. One of the trickiest parts about these surveys is asking the right questions. There is a whole field of psychology that goes into making sure the questions are asked in such a way as to illicit the most honest answer from ...
REFORGE: Tamra Chandler
May 24, 2019 15:43 - 9 minutes - 8.41 MBIn a recent podcast with Tamra Chandler, founder and CEO of PeopleFirm, she spoke about one of the main obstacles with seeing big improvements in employee engagement is the fact that many of today’s corporate leaders are used to how it’s always been. They earned their success in past decades at a company that likely didn’t value their experience so they don’t feel a need to focus on the employee experience now. To listen to the rest of the podcast visit Forging Employee Experience. To stay i...
Why Employee Engagement Has Continued to Stagnate with Tamra Chandler
May 22, 2019 21:08 - 32 minutes - 29.3 MBFor the past several decades, we have been surveying employees. On a typically annual basis, most organizations send out a survey to ascertain the sentiment of the workforce. These surveys often serve the primary purpose of helping to identify large trends or themes in an organization that should be either spread or stopped. Unfortunately, the idea of creating a positive work experience for the employees hasn’t been a focus of most of these surveys. And so, we have seen very little movement ...
REFORGE: Kate Bischoff
May 16, 2019 15:50 - 7 minutes - 7.27 MBIn a recent podcast, Kate Bischoff spoke to this idea that feedback is a healthy part of any organization. She commented that part of maintaining a culture of respect is that idea that feedback can (and should) be provided when individuals disagree. Furthermore, organizations must absolutely ensure that they have implemented multiple methods of feedback. Everyone has their own preferred median for providing feedback to the organization. To find out more and listen to the full episode, visi...
When Diversity Hurts Employee Engagement with Kate Bischoff
May 14, 2019 22:18 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBThe need for a diverse and inclusive workplace has become a research-based fact. A workforce that have a generally the same background and experiences isn’t going to be as competitive as organizations that bring true thought diversity. But is there such a thing as too diverse? Well not really, no. That doesn’t mean, however, that we should just hire folks just because they bring the desired element of diversity to the workplace. There is one characteristic that we should never diversify in ...
REFORGE: Amy Cappellanti-Wolf
May 12, 2019 20:22 - 12 minutes - 11 MBIn a recent podcast with Amy Cappellanti-Wolf, CHRO of Symantec, she details some of the problems companies face as they strive to be more transparent. Equipped with direct-to-employee communication technology like email and intranets, executives are opening the firehose and pouring out information to employees. They then sit back and pat themselves on the back thinking they’re being transparent. Amy detailed that while those newsletters from the corner office may be sent with good intention...
Why Information Control and Engagement Are So Critical with Amy Cappellanti-Wolf
May 08, 2019 17:56 - 31 minutes - 29.3 MBThe hierarchical structure of the workplace has been the norm for far too long. Born of necessity, this method of organizing management allows those in any leadership role to act as information gatekeepers. The only way to get information up the organization is to hope that these gatekeepers allow it to flow up, and the only way to understand what’s going on in the organization is to hope that these same gatekeepers allow information to be disseminated. Worst case scenario, this power infect...
Extreme Employee Engagement with John Baldino
May 02, 2019 20:08 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBAll too often when we think of organizations that have incredible employee experiences, we might think that these companies just give the employees whatever they want. In some cases, that’s true, there are some organizations where the sky’s the limit as far benefits and perks are concerned. Unfortunately, we can’t all live in that fantasy land of being able to provide our employees with a heath care plan that provides free monthly massages. The fact of the matter is that we don’t have to b...
REFORGE: Tayo Rockson
April 27, 2019 10:25 - 7 minutes - 6.74 MBIn a recent podcast with Tayo Rockson, diversity and inclusion consultant and author of Use Your Difference to Make a Difference, spoke to the idea of intentionality as a huge barrier to progress in creating a more diverse and inclusive workplaces. He detailed that organizations can’t simply decide to be diverse and inclusive. Not being against diversity and inclusion (while obviously a good start) is simply not enough to affect real change. Organizations must be consciously intentional abou...
Improve Employee Experience with Diversity AND Inclusion with Tayo Rockson
April 24, 2019 22:05 - 35 minutes - 65.5 MBNo one would ever say that Diversity and Inclusion isn’t important. No one would ever say that they aren’t trying to have a more diverse and inclusive workplace. And yet, we still have issues with both diversity and inclusion. Organizations that are not diverse will not perform as well as those that are. Diversity brings to the table the ability to innovate. Without a diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and ideas, organizations will find themselves stuck in the same routine implementing...
REFORGE: Joe Hirsch
April 19, 2019 17:33 - 7 minutes - 13.6 MBIn recent podcast with Joe Hirsch Managing Director of Semaca Partners, we had the opportunity to discuss the ever popular, Feedback Sandwich. One of the most common ways to provide negative feedback is to “soften the blow” by sandwiching the negative feedback between two compliments. While a cursory review of this practice may reveal an amount of merit, the poor context this form of feedback provides ends up doing more harm than good. Joe discusses how by repeatedly providing feedback in th...
Most Feedback Hurts Employee Engagement with Joe Hirsch
April 17, 2019 19:52 - 30 minutes - 57.1 MBIn an effort to further the development of direct reports, management often attempts to provide effective feedback. While these efforts are usually accompanied with the best of intentions, by and large, they act as a detriment to the overall employee experience. Feedback is one of those tools that when not done intentionally is often done wrong. Part of this intentionality is the idea that it has to be consistent and with a proper understanding of context. One of the first big mistakes of ...
REFORGE: Kasper Hulthin
April 08, 2019 00:22 - 6 minutes - 11.9 MBKasper is the CoFounder of the leading employee engagement platform, Peakon. Learn more at www.peakon.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blazeperformance/support
Survey Data and the Employee Experience with Kasper Hulthin
April 03, 2019 19:13 - 33 minutes - 61.6 MBDespite the overwhelming advances in technology, we still haven’t made much progress in really knowing what people are thinking. While machine powered analytics can parse through an ocean of data to give insights on behaviors and tendencies, if we really want to know what someone is thinking – we’ve got to ask. The ability to survey a population provides huge insights into understanding the what and why of any particular population. Decades ago savvy, marketing experts realized that survey...
REFORGE: Tom Krieglstein
March 29, 2019 20:03 - 7 minutes - 13.7 MBListen to a fun and engaging recap of our amazing conversation with Tom Krieglstein. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blazeperformance/support
Employee Experience Matters with Tom Krieglstein
March 26, 2019 19:57 - 30 minutes - 57.3 MBThe easiest solution to the handling employee engagement is to ignore it. The details and intricacy of understanding how people feel and adjusting to those feelings requires a great deal of effort and time. It requires a shift in mindset and a not small amount of awareness. So by and large, organizations simply stick their head in the sand and pretend like it’s a pop psychology fad that doesn’t matter. But we know it does. Hiding from the problem, or any problem for that matter, doesn’t go...
REFORGE: Lindsay McGregor
March 22, 2019 19:45 - 8 minutes - 16.1 MBAlexander and Josh review the wonderful work of Lindsay McGregor. They discuss TOMO, or total motivation, from the frame of the 3 Ps Join us on another reforging episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blazeperformance/support
TOMO! with Lindsay McGregor
March 12, 2019 17:12 - 25 minutes - 47.8 MBMotivation. If you can understand what motivates your employees, you’ll have summarily solved your organizations engagement problem. Unfortunately, the journey of understanding each employee’s individual source of motivation is long and difficult. While everyone is motivated by something, sources of motivation are as unique as the people themselves. Here in lies the burden of leadership, managers must know what motivates their people. It is impossible for the company executives to both un...
REFORGE: Bek Chee
March 07, 2019 21:09 - 7 minutes - 13.9 MBDespite our audio problems to get this episode started, we talk through the amazing chat we had with Bek Chee. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blazeperformance/support
Crafting the Employee Experience with Bek Chee, Head of Talent, Atlassian
March 05, 2019 16:22 - 26 minutes - 48.5 MBOften the story of poor employee engagement seems connected with companies that have been around for a long time. Typically, these organizations hold on to how things have always been done. With such a long history, it’s no surprise that there is a resistance to new processes and crafting a new culture. However, we live in a world of growing companies. These young, new companies are founded on ideals of innovation and effecting change. While it’s easy to have a pulse on employee engagement a...
REFORGE: Michael Beck
March 01, 2019 20:12 - 7 minutes - 14.6 MBListen to this great recap that Josh and Alexander put on the episode with Michael Beck. For more information visit www.forgeant.com. We'll see you there! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blazeperformance/support
Employee Engagement Is Not a Generational Problem with Michael Beck
February 28, 2019 02:02 - 26 minutes - 48.5 MBMy knee-jerk reaction is to blame the Employee Engagement epidemic on the increase of Millennials in the workforce. Though they may complain the loudest, they can’t be fairly pegged as the culprits behind the low engagement in the workspace. Looking at the Gallup numbers around 80% of employees world-wide aren’t engaged, but the workforce only consists of about 50% Millennials. Assuming every single Millennial is disengaged (impossible) that still leaves a very large percentage of other gene...
REFORGE: Andria Ink
February 15, 2019 16:33 - 11 minutes - 22.4 MBIn this episode we discuss the great learning outcomes from Andria's podcast. Andria is an expert at practically applying the principles of Employee Engagement, we'd hate for you to miss out on her perspective. For more information, listen to the full interview. https://anchor.fm/forgeant/episodes/No-Excuse-for-Slow-Moving-Employee-Engagement-with-Andria-Ink-e36jea --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blazeperformance/support
No Excuse for Slow Moving Employee Engagement with Andria Ink
February 12, 2019 18:52 - 20 minutes - 38.2 MBThe Employee Engagement industry is filling up with software solutions that enable organizations to more quickly implement effective Employee Engagement initiatives. However, even in organizations where this software is being used, companies tend to move slowly when trying to affect change that would boost engagement. There is no excuse for not prioritizing and implementing change. By and large, customers won’t buy in to an organization if the employees haven’t already bought in to it. If t...
REFORGE: Kevin Kruse
February 09, 2019 19:07 - 11 minutes - 21 MBJoin us as we delve in to the learning outcomes of Kevin Kruse's podcast. He shared some wonderful insights and we tease out the most applicable and relevant here so you can take what you need and get back to work. These REFORGE episodes will be posted after every guest so feel free to listen up on all things Employee Experience. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/blazeperformance/support
Employee Engagement Comes From a Company's Vision with Kevin Kruse
February 02, 2019 15:48 - 31 minutes - 58.7 MBBoosting Employee Engagement scores don’t happen with the thoughtless purchase of more employee perks. This comes as both good and bad news for organizations looking to increase the engagement levels of their employees. On the one hand, the research shows that simply buying stuff for employees doesn’t actually move the needle. Organizations don’t need to spend huge amounts of money on perks to help engage their employees. Unfortunately, the most effective solution is decidedly more difficult...
The Neuroscience Behind Employee Experience with Scott Halford
January 24, 2019 12:05 - 25 minutes - 47.6 MBWe begin to get a feel for a room from the first step we take inside. We feel temperature, light, air quality, and aesthetics. After spending time co-occupying that space with other people, we begin to feel and sense a group vibe. We’ve all been to parties that should be awesome but aren’t or family dinners that check all the boxes to make it great but it’s not. These same experiences shape the workplace. Are the feelings and vibes real or perceived? Does it matter? When employees come to w...
People Analytics Can Distract From the Employee Experience with Lewis Garrad
January 15, 2019 11:41 - 33 minutes - 61.6 MBOver the last couple of decades, Employee Engagement has started to become more and more important to companies. Early data showed how much time and energy companies lost to a disengaged workforce. In recent years, organizations have started making huge efforts to fix the Employee Engagement problem. Yet despite millions of dollars of investment, the average number of engaged employees has only risen 3% in the last almost 20 years. So, what’s the problem? At a fundamental level, employees d...
The Most Important Word of Employee Engagement with Henry Albrecht
December 18, 2018 16:17 - 30 minutes - 57.3 MBHenry Albrecht is the founder of Limeade, an employee engagement platform that builds great places to work by improving well-being and strengthening workplace culture. He has led the company from an idea in his basement to a high-growth, industry-leading employee engagement technology company that serves some of the smartest companies in the world. Henry earned his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management with an emphasis in technology and marketing and his B.A. in economics and ...
3 Crucial Elements for the Ultimate Employee Experience, with Jacob Morgan
December 13, 2018 16:21 - 35 minutes - 66.6 MBJacob Morgan is a 3x Best-Selling Author, Futurist, and Leading Keynote Speaker on the Future of Work, Leadership, and most importantly, Employee Experience. He works with global organizations around the world ranging from Samsung, Prudential, Microsoft, Salesforce, Disney, MasterCard, and many others. He speaks in front of tens of thousands of people each year and his content is seen over a million times a year. Jacob founded The Future of Work University, an online education and training pl...
Moving People Analytics Into Action with Jeff Jolton, PwC
December 06, 2018 18:55 - 34 minutes - 64.2 MBTo engage their employees, organizations must give them a voice. In our most recent podcast with Jeffrey Jolton, we talked about the importance of reaching out to employees through surveys and what it means to actually listen to the responses. Jeffrey is the managing director of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) people analytics practice. He has over 15 years of executive consulting experience and has contributed to over 90 publications and presentations related to engagement and employee exper...
Employee Engagement 2.0 with Casey Wahl
December 04, 2018 18:19 - 31 minutes - 59.2 MBCasey Wahl is the CEO of Attuned, a company that he started while living in Tokyo, Japan, and he has been there ever since. He is extremely passionate about the employee experience and making sure that employers understand very clearly the intrinsic motivations of their employees. Attuned helps to solve one of the hardest and most complex problems that companies face with engagement: an individual's driving motivators. In this episode we dive deep into what Casey calls "Employee Engagemen...
2 Formulas For Employee Engagement Success with Eric Rowlee
November 29, 2018 23:38 - 51 minutes - 95.9 MBEric is the Director of Change, Training and Communication at Walmart. Let's all just keep in mind that Walmart employees are over 2.1 million people world wide. That's about 1.4 million in the United States alone. He's got his work cut out for him. Eric holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Brigham Young University, a masters degree in Industrial Organizational Psychology in the University of Nebraska. He has an MBA in Brigham Young University. He has a big beautiful family, we're t...
7 Cultural Pillars of Employee Engagement with Eric Chester
November 27, 2018 17:08 - 35 minutes - 66.6 MBEngaging employees is synonymous with retaining employees, and engaging employees is on the forefront of moving companies forward. In our most recent podcast with Eric Chester, we talked about how to both manage and retain employees. Eric is the author of On Fire at Work: Great Companies Ignite Passion in Their People Without Burning Them Out, his best-selling book that talks about getting employees to “work harder, perform better, and stay longer.” Eric has delivered more than 2,000 keynot...
Unlocking Self-Determination Theory with Dr. Scott Rigby
November 21, 2018 20:05 - 34 minutes - 63.6 MBAs it turns out, employees are humans. Like all humans, they have needs, and these needs need to be fulfilled. In our most recent podcast with Dr. Scott Rigby we talk about the fulfillment needs of employees and how they become assets to the company. Dr. Scott Rigby is a behavioral scientist, author, entrepreneur, and founder of Motivation Works – a company that applies behavioral science to organizations. He is a leading authority on predictive measurements on motivation and engagement as we...
Building Employee Experience with Trystin Bailey
November 15, 2018 21:06 - 20 minutes - 38.8 MBTrystin is the Director of Employee Experience at Huge INC and shared some amazing insights with us on how to build an employee experience that will make your employees feel like you care about them. Included in this episode are themes around Employee empowerment, building a level of community and collaboration that strengthens every other business aspect, and taking risks in the corporate arena to be authentic and real. He makes the point that you are nothing without a cohesive team and en...
Making Employee Engagement Personal with Mary Miller
November 13, 2018 17:55 - 27 minutes - 52 MBAn engaged workforce keeps the company moving forward, and keeping employees engaged in their job is a challenge companies have faced for decades. Our most recent podcast with Mary Miller, CEO of Jancoa Janitorial Services, discussed the concept of the issue of focusing on happiness that leads to success and how this has cascaded in her flourishing company. Mary is also the author of the best-selling book Changing Direction, which talks mainly about optimism and how this has helped her in lif...