<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/shrm-res.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,h_720,w_1279,x_0,y_0\/w_auto:100,w_1200,q_35,f_auto\/v1\/People%20Managers\/NewYearsResolutions1280x720_qrrgpf.jpg\")
<\/div>\nM<\/span>any of us follow the tradition of making personal resolutions for the new year. But should you also make resolutions for the workplace? A lot of us spend more time in the office than we do at home, so keeping those resolutions could have a huge impact on your quality of life\u2014and, if you\u2019re a manager, on the lives of your staff.<\/p>\n Perhaps now more than ever, we realize just how much current events impact our everyday lives at work. The COVID-19 pandemic brought that home in a huge way, upending the very basics of how\u2014and where\u2014we work. Concurrent upheavals in electoral politics and social movements have likewise seeped into our professional lives, leaving managers to handle new levels of discontent and conflict in the workplace.<\/span><\/p>\n Today\u2019s managers say they and their teams are experiencing an unmanageable amount of anxiety and burnout. Taking time to think about practical resolutions that can address and improve employees\u2019 work lives can benefit everyone mentally and emotionally.<\/p>\n Below are five New Year\u2019s resolutions for 2024 that today\u2019s managers should find worth their investment:<\/p>\n 1. Make the workplace a safe space.<\/p>\n Although this resolution may sound obvious, for too many managers, it\u2019s not obvious enough. Chastity Davis-Garcia, executive vice president of human resources at Amplify, a creator of school curricula based in New York City, says making the office\u2014either onsite or remote\u2014a psychologically safe place is an essential resolution for managers to make.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to lean in to train all managers to help and support their teams,\u201d Davis-Garcia says. Whether it\u2019s employees exchanging their political views or their views on gender identity, middle managers, in particular, can play a role in constructively guiding such conversations in the workplace, she adds, \u201cso that employees can disagree without becoming disagreeable.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis-Garcia says most managers don\u2019t know how to support their employees or navigate sensitive conversations. But they can learn how to do so with proper training. \u201cManagers need to be enabled to foster an environment that creates openness and understanding,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n The key, Davis-Garcia says, is to train managers how to remain neutral and nonjudgmental, even as they create space for employees to be candid. At Amplify, she says, \u201cWe reached out to managers and reminded them that they should be encouraging conversation with [their] employees and regularly checking in.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Demonstrate work\/life balance.<\/p>\n While this resolution appears on resolution lists year after year, many managers need a reminder to practice what they preach.<\/p>\n Among other things, maintaining a healthy work\/life balance among your team members means proactively enabling them to take time off when they feel they need it. But managers must also demonstrate that balance is a priority in their own lives. \u201cTo become compassionate leaders, it\u2019s important to live lives of self-compassion,\u201d Davis-Garcia says.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how to teach compassion, but you can give managers the tools they need to support trust-building for employees to be heard, acknowledged and respected,\u201d she explains, noting that work\/life balance is ingrained in the culture at Amplify. For example, Amplify enforces \u201cno meetings Thursdays\u201d so employees can focus on their own work without the continual distraction of meetings.<\/p>\n \u2018To become compassionate leaders, it\u2019s important to live lives of self-compassion.\u2019 \u2014Chastity Davis-Garcia<\/p>\n Davis-Garcia says this concept began during the pandemic, when employees were getting burned out by an endless stream of Zoom meetings. \u201cWe realized that a great majority of our workforce was working very hard during a very difficult time,\u201d she explains. So the concept of \u201cno meetings Thursdays\u201d was created, and the company has worked to keep that in place post-pandemic.<\/p>\n Similarly, at Ceridian, a global human capital management software company with co-headquarters in Toronto and Minneapolis, there are no internal meetings on Fridays. The company also recently launched \u201cteam refresh\u201d days, during which an entire team takes off at the same time, so no one feels guilty about taking time off while others are working, says Susan Tohyama, Ceridian\u2019s chief human resources officer. Each team gets six to eight of these days annually. \u201cThat way you feel less pressure if you know the whole team is off, and you don\u2019t need to worry about checking emails,\u201d Tohyama says. <\/p>\n 3. Instill a sense of purpose.<\/p>\n Few things pay off more for a company than instilling a true sense of purpose among its employees. When their employees take pride in what they do, companies cultivate employee engagement, commitment and motivation, says Brad Smith, Ph.D., chief science officer at meQuilibrium, a digital coaching company headquartered in Boston. \u201cWe all want to work at a place where we believe our work matters,\u201d Smith says. \u201cIt\u2019s important to know that your work is critical to the success of your team, your company and your world.\u201d<\/p>\n When a manager can successfully explain to their employees why their work matters, it can help reduce employee intention to leave their employer by up to 50 percent, according to a recent meQuilibrium report. Having employees with a sense of purpose is critical for all companies\u2014even if managers and executives think their sense of purpose should be obvious to everyone.<\/p>\n \u2018We all want to work at a place where we believe our work matters.\u2019 \u2014Brad Smith<\/p>\n Companies that assume their employees can see the bigger picture and their role in it are often surprised when they do not. One global pharmaceutical company that asked meQuilibrium to assess its work environment found a particularly low sense of purpose among employees in its financial division. In response, the company\u2019s leadership clarified for its finance employees the explicit connection between the work they do and the company\u2019s mission to eradicate various illnesses and diseases\u2014helping them take pride in their purpose.<\/p>\n 4. Improve employee engagement.<\/p>\n For companies with a remote or hybrid workplace, employee engagement is particularly vital. One way that Ontellus\u2014an online records retrieval company in Houston\u2014does this is by pairing each of their new remote employees with a mentor who is tuned in to the company\u2019s culture, history and procedures. \u201cThis way, they know they have someone to reach out to at any time,\u201d says Lori Neal, Ontellus\u2019 senior vice president of human resources.<\/p>\n That initial virtual meeting between new employees and their mentors lasts up to 90 minutes, giving the new hire time to ask questions about anything they want clarified. In addition, Ontellus holds monthly town hall meetings with its 600 employees and offers virtual lunches on a variety of topics that are typically employee-led. \u201cI don\u2019t believe there is such a thing as over-communication,\u201d Neal says.<\/p>\n 5. Make AI your ally.<\/p>\n Instead of fearing AI, the leadership at Paycor, a human resource software provider headquartered in Cincinnati, has made a New Year\u2019s resolution to further explore how their employees and clients can use AI as a valuable tool, says Paaras Parker, Paycor\u2019s chief human resources officer. <\/p>\n \u201cTo be more comfortable with AI, we have to learn to trust it more,\u201d Parker says. She personally uses ChatGPT to determine which repetitive tasks she may be able to delegate to AI so Paycor\u2019s employees can be freed up to focus on bigger things. Parker says she also anticipates that Paycor can harness AI in ways that will benefit their customers. \u201cThe more employees learn to safely play with AI,\u201d she says, \u201cthe more we can dream up what we can do for our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n Bruce Horovitz is a freelance writer based in Falls Church, Va.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many of us follow the tradition of making personal resolutions for the new year. But should you also make resolutions for the workplace? A lot of us spend more time in the office than we do at home, so keeping those resolutions could have a huge impact on your quality of life\u2014and, if you\u2019re a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[313,70,37,341,502],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-567129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-employee-engagement","category-employee-relations","category-employee-relations-communication","category-hr-expertise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/squarehr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n