Chief people officer, Metrolink.
Picture this scenario: An employee starts working at a company, and the human resources department sets up a check-in one month in to ensure the employee’s first few weeks are moving along smoothly.
The employee, however, gets nervous when they see the calendar invite. Even though the HR team has been clear that the meeting is just a check-in, the employee’s mind starts wandering into worst-case scenarios. Questions like “Are they unhappy with my work?” and “Am I being fired?” creep in.
This employee’s uncomfortable situation is an example of the invisible backpacks we all bring to work. These backpacks are filled with our unique life experiences, good and bad, that shaped us into who we are today. Contents of the backpack include how we were raised; our previous work history; our triggers; how we like to receive constructive criticism and compliments; and what makes us happy and unhappy. In the hypothetical example above, the employee likely had a negative experience with HR early on at a previous company in their invisible backpack.
Our pasts can affect us at work—consider a study that found people with childhood trauma have “significantly reduced work functioning in terms of absenteeism and presenteeism.” HR leaders and managers should prioritize understanding what’s in their employees’ invisible backpacks to create the best work experiences possible for them.
Build A Culture Of Trust At Work
Trust is the main component of unzipping each backpack. Even opening those backpacks an inch will lead to insights. But without a culture of trust, staff members won’t feel comfortable sharing their challenges and perspectives with HR and management.
Various elements go into building a culture of trust. Key among them? Establishing psychological safety at work. As Amy Edmondson, the term’s originator, explains, psychological safety is a “shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.” In his book, The Four Stages Of Psychological Safety, Timothy R. Clarke notes that the four levels of psychological safety are inclusion, learner, contributor and challenger safety. Essentially, employees must “feel safe to belong to the team,” be “able to learn through asking questions,” feel “safe to contribute their own ideas without fear of embarrassment or ridicule” and know that they can “question others’ (including those in authority) ideas or suggest significant changes to ideas, plans, or ways of working.”
HR leaders and other organizational stakeholders should create work environments where employees feel comfortable expressing themselves and interacting with others without fear. Accomplishing this is a step-by-step process that will require time. Leaders should research approaches to help them build such a culture. For example, a Harvard Business Review article that Edmondson co-wrote with Per Hugander points out that to create psychological safety at work, some steps organizational stakeholders should take include normalizing “vulnerability related to work” and emphasizing training ‘both individuals and teams.”
Be Observant
As obvious as it sounds, to learn what’s inside employees’ invisible backpacks, HR leaders should be observant, respectfully taking in how employees respond and react to various workplace occurrences. Leaders should also properly train other leaders at their organizations on how they can do the same.
For instance, a manager might notice an employee always sounds tense during one-on-one meetings. That might indicate that the employee is uncomfortable with those meetings, perhaps due to a bad experience with a former boss. Or, a manager might see a pattern where an employee routinely does not implement written feedback, which could mean the employee does not respond well to written feedback and might do better with verbal feedback.
Certain things in employees’ backpacks might take time to surface, so observations should be an ongoing practice.
Have Empathetic Conversations
HR leaders and managers should follow observations with empathetic conversations with staff members. These conversations can help managers learn more about what’s in employees’ backpacks so they work toward solutions.
Everyone on the management team needs the proper education and guidance to hold respectful conversations within professional boundaries. It would be highly inappropriate to ask an employee, say, “Are you acting this way because of how your parents treated you growing up?”
These conversations should not put employees on the spot or pressure them to open up. Instead, they should gently set the stage for employees to share more if they wish to do so. For instance, a manager could ask an employee, “I noticed that you seem to like verbal feedback more than written feedback; would you like to discuss that more, so I can learn how to best provide feedback?” Based on the response, the two could work together to find a solution.
Meet People Where They Are—But Remember, It’s A Balancing Act
By gathering the right information, HR leaders and managers can make the right decisions and recommendations moving forward. Every employee comes from a different place; no two staff members have the same life histories and experiences. As HR leaders and managers learn more about employees through observations and conversations, they should strive to meet people where they are rather than making assumptions that everyone is homogeneous and will respond in the same manner.
Returning to one of the examples above, if a manager learns that an employee does not handle written feedback well, they should consider providing verbal feedback instead via phone calls, Zoom calls or in-person meetings.
But, there is a balance between accommodating employees and maintaining organizational processes and procedures. For instance, if a manager notices an employee is uncomfortable during one-on-ones, the manager can take steps (including coordinating with HR) to reassure the employee that these meetings are meant to touch base on ongoing projects and are not meant to be performance evaluations. The manager should not eliminate the one-on-ones altogether.
By striking the right balance, HR leaders and managers can ensure that all parties are comfortable, happy and productive—so that everyone can effectively work alongside each other to drive meaningful results.
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