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Workforce Energy Management
Essential Workforce Tools You're Not Using Yet
(soft music) - Welcome survivors, burnout community, and those just interested. It's Kelly Boopoldt's, trainer, author, speaker, and your burnout prevention mentor. Burnout is not taboo. It's our reality in this chaotic, fast-paced world. But we're not gonna let it drive the narrative to our stories. We're gonna do something about it, so let's dig in. (soft music) I'm gonna go through five tools that I found repeating in clients this year that is beyond what I guess I thought was the basics. And I think it's because things are changing. So the traditional approaches we've had to some of these productivity tools is starting to shift. And the shift is happening more external and then dragging internally. But we also have people internally that are struggling. We know that. Eight out of 10 employees are at risk of burnout right now. And I think there's a lot of misalignment, work overload, not passionate work. Don't have a lot of autonomy. And so the shift is beginning in the workforce. So the more we can focus on boosting productivity through different tools, not traditional tools, your modern workforce tools is gonna aid in this journey. So the first tool that I wanna go over today is gonna be workflow and integration. And really there's two sectors in here that I think would be important to focus on. The first one is gonna be meetings. And I've been talking about this more and more in workshops because it seems to be a huge pain point for people in the workforce. And that's what is the purpose? What's the purpose of this meeting? Is there an agenda for it? Within the agendas are time slots, allotted to how you want this to flow. And then when you leave the meeting, what's the next steps? And I'm gonna show you what this can look like. So I partnered up with my talent planner this summer as a productivity optimization software tool. And it's because it hit all my workforce energy management pieces, it was a sense of direction, communication between departments, building that team trust and ownership and autonomy, and then that workflow. So a nice study workflow. So this is an example of what a productive meeting looks like. And there's a lot of waste. Actually, the statistics have said that 40% of meetings is complete waste, unproductive time. And so when you can really hone down what is the purpose, the agenda, topics within it, and time slots to those topics, it will aid in that productivity boost. So here's a daily huddle. And this is what a lot of companies called department meetings. So they're either weekly or biweekly. And they actually only spend a half hour, a half hour together in which they do check-ins outside of what is in the system. And that's probably something that we should reiterate over and over again, is if it can be an email, if it's already in the system, we already have that information. So this is more of information exchange and collaboration type of discussion. So they open with a few open action items from the last meeting. They'll do their updates. And then they get into some metrics. And these metrics we're gonna talk about in a little bit in our data-driven tool. And then they review at the end what are gonna be next steps and action owners. Now, on the screen in my town planner, there's actions right in the meeting that you will be adding and signing people and assigning deadlines. And that is like music to my ears because I don't know about you, but a lot of us are like the note-takers in the meeting and we're taking notes. And then when we get back to our office, we have to put those notes somewhere else. And then we have to send out emails to people about what they own. And then we have to include everyone and copy them on that information. It's just, it's exhausting. So my meetings are not just a half hour. It's also a half hour of admin things after. So when you look at boosting productivity, how can you integrate your meetings and information right into the systems within your operation? And that is really gonna streamline your workflow within the organization. Everyone not only knows what they're supposed to be doing after a meeting, who owns one and deadlines, but it's either already on their dashboards or in their software within your operational flow. And then anything that comes up outside of our metrics, issues, hurdles, we can also document those so they don't go somewhere to die like a parking lot. It's an actual managed task plan in which we can get to in future meetings, but it might not be urgent. Let's just schedule it out later. So that's in my talent planner and feel free to contact me for a free demo on that. I think it's just really good to do a demo to explore what this workflow looks like when you connect the strategy and talent and execution. And then even if you have a system, you can take pieces of that and see how you can implement it within your organization. So that's meetings. The second part of workflow and integration that I've been talking a lot about to boost productivity with clients is effective pass offs. And it's interesting when you get these silo organizations or these silo departments and you get them into a room and you say, "I have a customer order that comes in." And then it goes over to the customer service department over here. So sales and a customer service department. Tell me what that looks like. And the dysfunction comes out of the word work, right? You open a can of worms, but that's what I'm talking about is we think of productivity as adding more, more activities, more activities, but productivity can also be gained by outcomes. So more efficient workflows where we're not spending time manually entering things and assuming that this person's doing it and then that person's doing it and then we're both doing double work. That's not productive. Assuming sales, things, customer service does this, customer service is way over here doing that on productive time again. So really focusing on an initiative in 2025 for effective pass-offs between departments is gonna clean up a lot of the noise and distractions going on within your organization. It's also probably gonna prompt you with any other things going on within your teams. So sometimes that's distrust. Sometimes that is communication. Sometimes it is software. Sometimes it's the actual product and the product is getting bottlenecked through the process. So doing effective pass-offs and really looking at what is the expectations between those pass-offs? What is the flow? Is there any bottlenecks in that? Is everyone using the system? And that's gonna be important as we get into the next webinar, which is refresh your town planning because fractional work will be 50% of the workforce by 2030. So if you don't have effective pass-offs and now you incorporate a fractional worker or part-time worker or contractor into your operation, it's gonna be even more clunky and information's gonna be lost. So clean this up now is gonna aid you with this workforce shift. And then what automation tools do you already have at your disposal? For example, there's a lot of ERP software and CRMs that send automated notifications when a step is done. So say sales enters an order over here and customer service receives such notification automatically from the system. Sales should have all the information needed for this customer service person to process that order. They shouldn't have to walk over to their office. They shouldn't have to set up an extra call unless it's an abnormal type of order. And this is the standardization that needs to start happening between departments because what we're seeing is you used to be able to hire a new hire and they stay for a decade, for example. You have time to train them. You have time to gain that value, but we don't have that luxury anymore. So now say you get a new hire and every two years they're gonna switch out. For them to learn all the little intricacies and tribal knowledge in between all these systems and how Tony does this and Joey does that different, we don't have that luxury of time anymore. So standardizing what goes in a system so people can do their job is gonna be important so that we're not losing time and we're getting that value add out of our new hires in the transitions that are happening with a shorter timeline. So workflow and integration, be checking out how can we make meetings more effective and then effective pass us. The second tool I wanna talk about is data driven tools and I'm not a very data person. So I actually had to rely heavily on tools to tell me things that I thought in my head, I was doing right, but I'm spinning my wheels. I'm overwhelmed every day. I'm doing all the things. Why can't I get progress for work? I started using data driven tools to really tell me the facts of my reality. And one that I want to bring up is the analytics in your Microsoft product software already. And it kind of depends on your permissions that you have within your licenses, but you can actually set up an analytics report to be emailed to you every week on where you're spending your time. And it's based off of your emails and your calendar. And then you can also integrate into your team's chat and things going on there. So I can actually track how many messages I'm sending, how many people I'm reaching out to. It can even tell you the people you work closely with that I work maybe with accounting all the time. And so it will start to almost prompt your effective pass off plan. Because if I work with accounting the most and I work in HR, maybe we need an HR accounting, like what do we work on together and how could we make this more efficient? Productivity boost. It wouldn't be a good use of my time to maybe link me up with a technical person that I email a couple times a year. We're not gonna gain a lot of impact on that time management. So creating analytics really puts facts to the reality because when we're stressed, when we're overwhelmed, we're gonna feed our egos. We're gonna feed that narrative in our head. So the analytics really gets us to step back and check that. Now the one that I use that was super powerful because I'm a visual learner, visual cues really resonate with me was the calendar one. So I started color coding my calendar to certain functions of the job. Now this is an example from my calendar. This is right off the Microsoft website, but you can actually see how much time you're spending in certain functions within your job. And this will help your leaders, your talent planners of your organization really see where someone's spending their time. So for example, if I'm in a strategic role and I can show this report to my leader and say I'm spending all my time on tactical things, maybe it's time for us to get a generalist or a coordinator or even an intern to help me with some of the tactical things so I can focus on value add. That's where you're gonna gain productivity 'cause right now I'm just being bogged down by task. You can also, so not only prompting for better manning or more manning, you can also see where the waste can come up. So a client actually sent me their screenshot and they were bogged down by meetings a majority of the week and people couldn't understand how he was bogged down by meetings and it's 'cause his hands were in everything. He's one of those people that just know a lot of information around their operation. And so he was able to use his analytics to say 80% of my time every week is spent in meetings. I'm literally hardly producing anything. Like I'm your key employee, I'm your value add employee, your top talent and I'm spending 80% in meetings, I'm not producing anything. So that got them to shift their meetings. So analytics can be helpful. Now I didn't have a client the other week that did not want to practice analytics and their main reason was trust. So this is a reminder that time analytics can be a tool to boost productivity, it should not be used as a weapon. It should not be used as a metric to say, oh Kelly, it looks like over the past month, your calendar is really heavy in areas that you shouldn't be. It should really be employee managed, not managed by the manager. It should be employee driven to gain time management and really help them gain that autonomy towards value add activities. So utilize the data analytics tools that are already in your software packages. And like I said, it comes down to licensing, go ahead and talk to your IT person about it and they might be able to dig in or Microsoft person can help you there. Now the third one, so we went through workflow and integration, we went through data driven tools, how we're gonna leverage those. Now let's talk about collaborative initiatives. So when you talk about collaboration, we're talking about the effective pass-offs again, we're talking about how departments interact with each other, we're talking about how individuals interact with each other within a team, what communication mediums are you using and are you prompting yourself for the future? Now there's certain factors within the future we do not know and how can you set up systems that can adapt? For example, there's a small business I was working with and they only use email. They have teams and chat and other things available to them but they don't use any of that. Well, they started using the AI feature of gathering notes for their meetings like through Zoom with clients and they have nowhere to put them. So now there's all these folders of notes and that's just noise to me. If we're not gonna use something for information or organize it in a way that we can grab information off of it, it should be deleted. Because if this is gonna keep moving and we're gonna have to keep adapting, you're gonna have to be very organized and strategic in where you place files, where you communicate with people so that you're not wasting time there. And really where I sell that is like a semi-remote worker is there's people that save things here and then there's people that chat over here and then some people just send a mass amount of emails all day long over here. So I would get home with a sick kid situation, sign on for work and I would have to open like five different softwares to just do my job and a majority of those softwares didn't need to be open. So how are you gonna communicate across departments or across your team in a way that's streamlined, in a way that is very clear and concise? So maybe temporary things that are in and out within the week are chats and then company-wide strategic things, number one importance of the company are emails. So if someone says, hey, I'm getting Chinese today, who wants Chinese, it shouldn't be an email, right? 'Cause some of us are in meetings all day, I see that at three o'clock in the afternoon and it's another email I have to read, drain my energy and delete. So how are we gonna clean up these communication mediums? Again, preparing yourself for a flex workforce, a fractional workforce and changing times that you're gonna need to adapt. The other thing to consider within collaboration initiatives is results-orientated teams. So when you think of results-orientated teams, I think of conflict actually. I come from a union environment. So high on labor relations, union negotiations, I was the person that had to discipline or term people at times, so high conflict. But I was able to get that done productively and efficiently without completely draining my energy, wasting my day because I'm ruminating on conversations by being results-orientated. And when you dig into results-orientated teams to make a collaborative effort or initiative, it comes down to a few variables. Do you have clear and smart goals? So if you have accounting and marketing and sales and operations, are they all eventually headed to the same direction? Or are they scattered around the woods, working on their own little things and their own little silos? Those own little things are fine, but they should be leading to that same trail. And that's where we get lost. And I think leadership sometimes thinks everyone's on the same page, but then you talk to people within the teams and they give me six different answers. So very clear, smart goals for your organization, for your department and across your team. The second variable in results-oriented teams is how they're managing their time. So using those time analytics, leveraging technology, that feedback between each other and accountability. So that means you had to have high trust in your teams, you have to have good communication and people have to be okay with feedback. And that brings me to the next one. So the next one is probably the number one thing I will recommend for any training that you have in 2025. Certainly there's a lot to train on, but if you have emerging leaders, male management leaders, or even strategic leaders that are struggling, that they avoid confrontation, they avoid conflict. When they give feedback, it's kind of confusing. So then if performance gets worse or metrics get worse, like no one can really explain why we couldn't reroute weeks ago, why we have to turn this person, how do they not know that they're being termed? So I want you to focus on getting back to not only the basics, but beyond that, of a culture of feedback. So when you train everyone on feedback, when you really dive into leaders practicing that feedback, that process of feedback, they'll get comfortable with it. So that means if I'm in a department meeting and I'm leading my customer service team, and I see that they're already going in a different direction or they're very distracted by all the different things, and they're mad about sales, and we're working through that. I can give them feedback to tell them, this isn't very constructive use of our time. I mean, do you feel good in this meeting? I don't feel good in this meeting. What's some things we can do to move towards more energizing activities, to more productive activities, because we all got crap to do. And when you can get to that rapport level, when you can get to that feedback level, it starts to build a culture. Because then in future meetings, I believe that a customer service person, my team will be like, say, if I'm in a bad mood, they can say, Kelly, I need you to check yourself. You're ruining the vibe in the room. You're ruining the energy in the room. And so when you create that nice cohesive culture of feedback, people will call it what it is by the root cause and not sugarconia with symptoms, because people are receiving it well. You have to train them on how to do that so it doesn't come off offensive or direct. I love when people are like, Kelly, you're ruining the vibe or you're too vibey. Tone it down, we're all struggling right now. Because I can correct it in time. You've all been on teams where there's this elephant in the room and we have meeting after meeting and no one's saying anything and no one's saying anything. And then you get to the end of the corridor, we don't hit our metrics and crap's hitting the fan and leaders are like, why don't we hit our metrics? Why didn't anyone say anything? We're all sitting there in silence. Because everyone kind of knew they were going off the rails weeks ago, but no one wanted to say anything. So why this is gonna be important is as things change, you're gonna need more ideas, innovative minds, this creative thinking of open feedback or people are gonna be quiet. And when you talk about top talent, when you talk about this shifting workforce, they want to be in a place where they can thrive and provide value, they don't wanna sit silent in a meeting. They don't wanna sit silent on these initiatives. They want to help the change and guide the change. So this feedback culture will help you change and also reduce that stress of communication. So this is a big one. Forbes came out with research this year that 50% of workers have high stress and lower production because of ineffective communication. So don't underestimate that people aren't really talking. So we gotta make a nice space of feedback that people can start talking. Now, the last one that I wanna show you is a concept that I think is probably the most caught on one in programs. And when I go through all these different tools and there's so much more, but these are probably the ones I've just seen over and over again that I wanted to share in this webinar, there's one time tool and really it's around energy that when I say, "What's one thing you wanna act on this week? What's one thing you wanna start this week?" And so many people are jumping on this, which shows you where the energy flow is going. And that is exactly what it is. It's called an energy schedule. So let me pop up what this looks like. So right now our schedule is really dictated by your calendar, let's just be real. People are stealing our time left and right. I sign on Monday, my calendar tells me what I'm gonna do. That sucks. That sucks as someone who wants to do a good job, that's someone that wants to provide value, that wants to be productive throughout the week and go home and still have energy to parent. Have you had those days where you go meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting interviews? You had an employee problem, you have operational problems and then you go home and you're like bleh, right? That zombie mode. And then you have to go back the next day. And we do that over and over and over again. So let's shift that. Same circumstances, right? Employee issues, operational issues, meetings. Take back control of your calendar. Start giving autonomy to employees with clear direction communication, trust, workflow that I all just talked about. And then let them energize their day. So this is what this would look like, same circumstances. I focus in the morning. So that means it is block time that no one can steal for me, people can't be lined up in my office. I'm not doing disciplinary termination, energy drainer things. And I set my priorities for the day. I work on maybe an initiative that I own, a piece of it. I take some steps towards progress. And then I also have time to update for meetings for that day. Eight o'clock, Monday morning meetings, I get that some of them, especially coming from manufacturing, like they have to happen to set up the week. But also, everyone showed up without information because they just got in the door. They just dropped their kids off at school. And so they show up to this meeting and no one has their information ready because no one had time. And so when we can create this focus area and then you can prep for your meetings in the day, talk about a productive meeting, talk about a productive day. So then we have our meeting, purely based on communication outside of software, chats and emails. And then I go into my activity for the day. So that means now I open my emails because that's not gonna dictate my day. I'm gonna respond to immediate priority items. Everything else is gonna wait. I'm going to have a lunch. Let's all say that together. I'm going to have a lunch because I was number one offender of eating through meetings and never having a lunch. So having that reset, do you see where the shift is? It's not that I need a lunch. It's that I need a reset because then in the afternoon, I'm gonna start my activities. If you would run a marathon all day, you're gonna get tired if you don't refill, if you don't reset. So that's my reset is reset. So I can be productive in the afternoon. I do my activities and then I close the day with focus. I have left so many days in pure chaos, people still chasing me out in the parking lot. And then I go home and I have to parent and I crap over everyone at home because the energy is gone. It has been stolen. So having that protected focus at the end of the day is going to guide your energy to close out the progress that you had today, maybe even set up some priorities for tomorrow and release. Start dictating where your energy flows in the day, but I'm still producing. I'm still getting all the things done that I need to under the expectations that I'm on. As we talked about workflow and integration in meetings and effective pass-offs, we talked about data-driven tools for time management such as the analytics. We talked about collaborative initiatives and being a results oriented team. We talked about feedback culture. Oh boy, please don't underestimate that. Feedback, feedback change is happening. And if we don't give a feedback space, people leave. All right, if you don't give them space to talk about real issues and respond in a way that is forward moving, they're gonna go find an organization that's gonna do it for them. And then energy workflow, probably my clients, participants, the employees, favorite time topic to talk about is that energy workflow, taking back your energy. 'Cause you can still have a very busy productive day and you go home and you're just like, oh, jacked up. You're like, you got through things, you had control of your day, the meetings were super productive, and you can wash your hands of work and come back tomorrow. Do you feel that? Do you feel the energy shift? So that's really the premise of this whole first webinar is we had to start shifting our mindsets from activities. We need to shift to outcomes, which means addressing these root causes that are causing dysfunctional meetings and disengaged employees, motivating them through natural workflow and energy, and really replicate what some of these industries, like startups and software and tech in IT, where they're high pressure, high workloads, and these people love coming in every day. So we're really replicating the behaviors of companies that thrive and change. If you wanna know more information, feel free to connect to me with me after this webinar, but I'll have the replay out on my YouTube channel soon, and then I'll see you next week where we're gonna refresh talent planning and we're gonna dig into fractional work, how you can take a baby step next year and 2025 towards this, knowing that 50% of the workforce is switching to fractional work, take a baby step next year, and we can start to plan how your operational looks with a couple of fractional workers already next year. And then the one after that is gonna be the path to progress. How do we get people to embrace change? How do we get leaders to listen that we have to change before people start leaving? Because top talent is going to the places that are changing, top talent is going to places that have this flexibility and autonomy and energy flow because it is out there and companies are doing it. So I know that you have a heavy load right now, I know that there's so much on your plate, please know you do not have to do it alone and that it is obtainable because we're just chasing energy. I'll see you next week for Refreshing Talent Planning. Thanks. I know you're not lazy. Most people in burnout are high performers, those serving others before themselves. Don't discount this step today, the action in which you focus on your self growth. Pacing together, the puzzle is half the journey, rediscovering yourself, energy, and establishing new habits as the other. Do not underestimate the untapped inner strength inside you. Explore more resources on my website to move from zombie mode back to liveliness. See you soon. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]