Too many "best places to work" lists focus on performative, low-cost perks like free breakfasts and dog-friendly offices. But they ignore fundamental issues like fair pay, reasonable working hours, and meaningful parental leave.

Companies often use marketing language to make minimal benefits sound impressive, like claiming "enhanced parental leave" when they're barely exceeding the statutory minimum. This creates a disconnect between how organisations present themselves and the actual employee experience.

Amy Wilson is a commercial consultant advisor, with a background in marketing, who helps companies grow and founders focus on what matters. She mentors young and underrepresented founders, and she joins Dan and Pia to discuss her LinkedIn post critiquing The Times’ Best “Places to Work" list.

Three reasons to listen

• To be mindful of performative workplace benefits that don't actually improve employee experience
• To identify misleading claims about "enhanced" benefits that barely exceed statutory minimums
• To understand how organisational silos and conflicting KPIs lead to workplace policies that prioritise appearance over substance

Episode highlights

• [00:06:48] What constitutes a good place to work?
• [00:10:55] Amy's response to the New York Times Best Business to Work article
• [00:17:09] Allies in name only
• [00:22:14] Why aren't companies doing the right thing?
• [00:25:27] Are things getting worse?
• [00:26:39] What can we do about it?
• [00:33:20] Amy's media recommendation
• [00:36:08] Takeaways from Dan and Pia

Links

• Connect with Amy via LinkedIn
• Amy’s response to the Sunday Times Besst Places to Work article
• Halt and Catch Fire – Amy’s TV recommendation
• Building a thriving culture from the outside in – Episode 58, with Tom Wedge and Marcus Swalwell
• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note

Effective change management hinges on the quality of our conversations. Asking questions can be an exertion of power, so motivational interviewing seeks to bring clarity and ensure information is shared in a way that respects the recipient's readiness to receive it.

Jeffrey Wetherhold is a change management professional who helps organisations and teams navigate difficult changes. He specialises in motivational interviewing and uses this approach to help teams have more effective conversations during periods of change.

Three reasons to listen

• To learn how to structure change-focused conversations
• To help you make more effective affirmations instead of offering general praise
• To learn how to share information more effectively, to ensure others are ready to receive and engage with it

Episode highlights

• [00:07:17] ?Motivational interviewing
• [00:10:28] Making specific affirmations
• [00:12:48] Ask, offer, ask
• [00:15:26] When to ask questions
• [00:19:23] How to become a better listener
• [00:21:19] Fitting motivational interviewing into existing skillsets
• [00:22:46] Busynesss overriding business
• [00:28:22] Guiding, influencing, or leading conversations
• [00:31:28] Reflect more, ask less
• [00:32:58] Dan's media recommendations
• [00:35:11] Takeaways from Pia and Dan

Links

• Connect with Jeff via LinkedIn
• Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by David Silverman, Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, & Chris Fussell
• Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference, by Rutger Bregman
• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note

The “traditional” understanding of hybrid working is being challenged as organisations try to implement more structured approaches, creating friction with employees who developed their own interpretations of what hybrid working means during the pandemic.

Matthew Davis is an associate professor at the University of Leeds. He specialises in organisational and business psychology, with extensive research experience in workplace environments. He researches and consults on hybrid work patterns, and studies how companies are adapting their workspaces and practices.

Three reasons to listen

• To understand different generational perspectives on hybrid work, from senior leaders pushing for office returns to younger workers concerned about isolation and development opportunities
• To navigate the evolving definition of hybrid work and how it varies across organisations
• To better grasp how employee choice and control over both where and when to work has become central to how workers define hybrid arrangements

Episode highlights

• [00:11:54] What is"hybrid working"?
• [00:17:14] Is hybrid always a positive?
• [00:23:39] What do workers want?
• [00:24:31] Hybrid's benefits for inclusion
• [00:27:28] What hybrid is missing
• [00:30:57] Caveats on returning to the office
• [00:37:23] Matthew's guiding principle
• [00:40:50] Matthew's media recommendation
• [00:42:10] Takeaways from Dan and Pia

Links

• Connect with Matthew via LinkedIn
• The Prophet and the Idiot, by Jonas Jonasson
• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note