Hello, everyone. Welcome to Creating a Culture of Improved Employee Engagement. This is the next topic in the 2022 Deer Oaks Leadership Certificate Webinar Series. This series, as most of you are aware, provides a certificate upon completion of all four sessions. The first session, to give you a quick review, was back in March. It was it was entitled How to Hire The Right Employees.

If you missed that session live, you can still qualify for credit for that session working towards your leadership certificate just by viewing the recording link. And so if you do need the link to that recording, again, that's How to Hire the Right Employees, that was provided back on March 28, just hit Reply to your GoToWebinar invitation for today and just request for our staff to send you the link, the recording link to the How to Hire the Right Employee Session in-- back in March and they'd be happy to send it to you.

Today, of course, is creating a Culture of Improved Employee Engagement. And then the remaining two topics in the series, well, we've got topic number three coming up on September 26, How to Motivate a Multigenerational Work Team. And then last but not least, coming up in November on November 11, we have Advanced Coaching Skills for Leaders.

And so, again, if you attend all four of those sessions here in 2022, either by logging on to the live session like you are today or by viewing the recording link after the fact, if you're not able to make the live session, you get credit either way. Just, again, if you need the registration links for the last two sessions, the How to Motivate a Multigenerational Work Team coming up in September or the Advanced Coaching Skills for Leaders session coming up in November, just hit reply to your GoToWebinar invitation for today, and request the registration links for either of those or both of those. We'd be happy to send them to you.

And then last but not least, if you get to the end of the year and you've attended all four of those, again, either live or by viewing the recording link after the fact, you'll receive the Deer Oaks Leadership Certificate. So we've had actually had a couple of thousand people receive that certificate over the last, I think, the last five or six years now. And so we'd be happy to help you to have that certificate, yourself, if that's something that would be helpful to you.

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I want to begin today by sharing some of the research around the benefits of having a more engaged work team. I've got two different data sets I want to share. The first is coming from the Dale Carnegie Training Company. They did some really good research around the benefits of having a highly engaged employee or a highly engaged team. And what they found was when you've got an engaged employee or when you have an engaged employee on your team, they are 480% more committed to helping the organization succeed. So they are all in.

They are connected to the mission. They believe in it. They've got the emotional connection to the team and to the cause, and they're really invested in helping the organization succeed. They're also 250% more likely to recommend improvements. So these are folks that will take initiative. They're so bought-in, they so take ownership in what the organization is trying to achieve or what the department is trying to achieve.

They're always looking for ways to make things better. And they're much more likely to recommend improvements along the way. Last but not least, from the Dale Carnegie Training Stats folks that are more engaged or highly engaged are 370% more likely to recommend their organization to others as a great place to work. And nowadays, as folks have tended to move around or change organizations a little bit more quickly during the pandemic-- I think many of you probably read about that-- I think it's-- I mean, it's important that we keep our good people, number one, and I'm going to talk more about that here in a moment.

But we also have our loyal employees, our motivated employees that are totally engaged out on the street talking about what a great place our organization is to work. That's very helpful as well, obviously. Now here's a second data set by Globoforce. Globoforce research is more around job satisfaction, but there is really a very significant overlap between engaged employees and satisfied employees.

Engaged employees, for example, typically are really satisfied in their work, and satisfied employees are typically pretty engaged. They're willing to give 100%. So I want to share this data set as well. This is remarkable. Globoforce says that happy and engaged employees stay twice as long with their organizations as those that don't. So that was the point I made just a few moments ago about hanging on to our good people. We want our best employees-- we want them to stay for the long term, right? We don't want to have them go to work somewhere else. We want to have them stay with us.

And so when people are happy and engaged, they're much more likely to stay longer with your organization than those that are not. And they also are 85% more efficient in their work. So they're doing better quality work because they like being there and they're engaged. They're 10 times less likely to take sick leave because they like coming to work. I mean, they really-- they've taken ownership. They feel like they belong like they're part of a work family, and they're 58% more likely to help their colleagues.

They're better teammates because they really feel a sense of belonging, and they have the backs of their teammates and they're really willing to help everybody else succeed. All right, so obviously there's a lot of reason why we should be as supervisors and managers, we should be doing the best job we can to create an environment where our employees want to be fully engaged and really enjoy working because when they do, a lot of great things happen.

All right, so let's talk about-- I'm going to talk about four general areas today to create an environment where-- that can lead to higher levels of employee engagement. The first area I want to talk about is the importance of really bonding with your staff, really proactively strengthening the connections you have with each employee. I'm going to go back through that here in a moment. And then the second area I'm going to cover today is to be a more collaborative communicator.

It's a lot of research that says that when people feel like their supervisor communicates them in a highly respectful way and gives them input, partners with them in a collaborative way that they're much more likely to feel respected and motivated to do their best work. After that, we'll talk about the importance of acknowledging the significance of what people do for you on the job, showing appreciation for all of the work and effort that they put in, and providing a lot of recognition for it.

And then last but not least, we're going to talk about particularly during these difficult times, these ongoing difficult times, the importance of being a really supportive leader that supports your people through times of stress and change. All right, folks, let me go back to the beginning here. So let me start with proactively bonding with your employees. And I can't overstress this, but it's interesting, Gallup does a lot of employee engagement survey and research work. They've written-- the Gallup researchers have written some great books.

If you really want to drill down into learning more about what we're talking about today, really spend some time with the Gallup research. And, again, it's Gallup, the polling company, Gallup employee engagement research. They've got great stuff out there. So they talked to over a million American employees several years ago, and they were really trying to understand and follow what causes people to get engaged, to be motivated, to be productive, to stay with organizations longer.

And it was interesting when they boiled it-- when they boiled it all down, what they came to was that regardless of why an individual employee goes to work for an organization, interesting work, a good salary, a bright future with the organization, that how long they stay at that organization and how productive they are while they're there has most to do with their relationship with their immediate supervisor.

And so the relationships that you form with the employees that report to you, those are the game changers. I mean, those are the tipping points, if you will. And I missed this earlier in my career. I've been managing people now for I think I'm in my 28th year of being a supervisor, and early on in my management career, I wasn't doing a good job with this. I've always been a productive guy because I'm bottom-line oriented, and I motivated, and I like to get things done.

And like many of us on the line today are probably very similar, although most people in a leadership role or supervisory role got there because they get things done, right? They're productive. But what I was missing early on in my management career, what I was missing really was spending more time with the employees, really getting to know them, really building those bonds. I was missing that piece.

I was so focused on getting things done that I wasn't taking the time to nurture those relationships and help people feel supported, and let them I care about them as a person. And that I value their contributions, and it wasn't that I was not a nice person, not at all. I just didn't value that part of it enough. I was so focused on my to-do list and getting the work done, oftentimes when I interact with staff, my interaction was focused on getting things done.

Again, I didn't do it in an unkind way, but people know if your focus is on the work and you're not really focused on their needs and feelings. That was a big shift. I had to make as I got better trained and more experienced over the years. And so nowadays, I've learned that it's an investment to really get to know the staff as individuals. Find out what's important in their lives, what's of interest to them, what their needs are, how they feel about things, what their opinions are.

And as I started to learn how to do that, and I've been doing that pretty consistently now for probably, I don't know, close to the last decade, I have had-- the results of the teams that I've been a part of have been a lot better, and the morale of the team has been a lot better. And I know that there's a connection there. So a lot of research that supports that, and we've had no turnover on my team at Deer Oaks now for over five years. And earlier in my career when I was supervising teams, I had some significant turnover at different times.

And so, again, so I had to shift my focus from just trying to get things done, to investing and spending time and building connection with people. And what I found was, if I spent more time with the people and was more supportive, more caring, gave them more of a say, they would then be more motivated and engaged to get the actual work done. And so that was something I really had to figure out over the years. But now, I've just found that this is the key.

That it's, again, the relationship between us and the individual employees. When those relationships are strong, when the employees feel cared about, when they feel supported and they you know have their back, they'll typically do their best work for you and their motivation will be higher. They'll be more likely to get engaged and give 100%. And along those lines, and this is where I had to make that flip in my priorities, I had to stop prioritizing tasks.

I had to prioritize people over tasks. I had to learn that the quality of the interaction I was having with people was more important than whatever I was talking to them about or whatever issue we were working on together. And, again, that was something I had to learn over time, and it's made all the difference in the world. Nowadays, I don't jump-- I don't get right down to business. When I used to interact with people 20 years ago, I would try to be efficient and I would walk up to someone or get on the phone with someone and just get right down to business.

Like, hey, I'm calling you to talk about the situation. We've got to get this done. Here, can you please do this? And, again, I didn't do it in an unkind way, but I was so bottom-line oriented and so focused on the work product or the task at hand, that I didn't slow down to connect with people to show an interest in their lives, to bond with them, to-- I very seldom would spend time doing small talk.

And when I came to realize is, I was missing an opportunity to connect with people. And if you think about this, job satisfaction is primarily driven in people's lives, supervisors and employees alike, by the relationships they have at work. When you really enjoy the people work with-- your boss, the people that report to you, your colleagues-- you enjoy your days more. You look more forward to come into work. You feel like you're part of something. You have a sense of belonging.

And I was missing that back then, being overly task oriented. And so I really recognize nowadays that I just have to slow down. I try to take the first couple of minutes, sometimes it's not any more than three or four minutes, but the first couple of minutes of every interaction, whether it be on the phone, on a Zoom call, face to face meeting, and ask someone how they're doing before I get down to business. And when I do that, I find that I have a better connection with people, and we enjoy our time together more. We get to each other better, and I've come to see that as an investment.

And I've just come to value the importance of making sure that people know you care about them before you just get down to business, that you care more about them as a person than what they can do for you. And that was an important shift for me. And it made all the difference in the world. I'll never forget one of my direct reports during-- at the beginning of the pandemic was sharing with me that she was stressed because her daughter's private school sent the kids home for distance learning, like many kids were sent home because of COVID right at the beginning of the pandemic.

But she was sharing that their school was asking them to be home school teachers, that they had to do lesson plans, I think it was every night for their kids, which was very challenging for a busy professional, right? But I took an interest, and as I would meet with her in our one-on-one meetings from time to time, I'd ask her how that was going and I could really tell that she appreciated that I was demonstrating that I cared about what was going on in her life. And I really definitely feel like I saw an increase in her motivation when we get down into the work part of the agenda because she felt cared about.

And so, folks, let's not forget that. There's a great article in Forbes Magazine if you want to google it from February of 2021 I believe, that says small talk is not small. Talked about how bonding-- that small talk is a bonding experience for people. And I'm not talking about waste and a half an hour on small talk, I'm talking about two, three, four minutes, five minutes, at the beginning of conversation just connecting with people. We're taking the time to connect with people in the hallway or during a Zoom call, at the beginning of a call, people going around the room and staying connected with each other briefly, that that's a bonding experience that keeps people bonded together and keeps people connected together.

Makes a big difference and when supervisors do that with their employees regularly, employees are much more likely to feel cared about. And I'll tell you that, again, going back to that Carnegie training information from earlier that I shared, they said the number one reason that causes an employee-- the number one factor that causes an employee to get fully engaged and give 100% at work, is when they feel like their boss cares about him as a person.

So don't neglect slowing down and connecting with people, showing that you care, get to people better. And as part of that and also for the business relationship, meet regularly one-on-one. Gallup came up with some additional research that really was impactive, that said that individual employees that meet regularly one-on-one with their supervisor, either weekly, biweekly, monthly, or whatever works for your rhythm, if you have a big team, you might not be able to do this every week.

I do it every week because I've only got three people on my current team at Deer Oaks, and I can do three half hour meetings or 45 minute meetings in a week and still have plenty of time to get everything else done. But there's a lot of research that says that people that have those structure-- those structure meetings with their boss, end up being as much as three times more engaged. That was a specific subset of some of Gallup's research.

There's something about having the structure of being-- knowing you got a dedicated time with your boss on a regular basis where-- and when you have those meetings, obviously, you don't want to just get right down to business, you want to spend the first couple of minutes catching up with people. My boss, our executive director of Deer Oaks, does a wonderful job of this. She's very personable and very caring, and at the beginning of every one-on-one meetings, she'll ask me how my grandkids are doing. She'll ask me how things are going with the team.

I mean, she just-- she shows that she cares. And that makes a big difference to me. I feel cared about. I feel valued. And as a result, I'm really motivated to do my best work. And she does that every time we meet. I mean, she just regularly makes me feel like I'm important to her, like she cares about me as a person, and that does make a big difference in my overall motivation and engagement. So I can totally recognize that. And I try to do the same thing for my team now, is start at the beginning of those meetings by just catching up with them, seeing what's important to them, how their families are, following up on anything you know that's going on in their lives.

And then spend the rest of their time, obviously, making sure you're on the same page together, following up on outstanding projects or tasks in process, those kinds of things, which we would normally do anyway. But the thing about one-on-one meetings that I love the most is they're not reactive. They're more proactive. It's like you've got some structure now, so if I ever have something to follow up with one of my teammates about, I very seldom have to schedule a one off meeting because I know since I do my meeting-- one-on-one meetings every week, I know, for example, I'll be meeting with one of my direct reports on Thursday.

And looking at, I already have-- I already got something to talk to her about on Thursday when we do our one-on-one meeting, because I had something to follow up with her about. Well, rather than setting up a one off meeting, I just wrote it in as part of my agenda for my regular standing meeting with her, which is every Thursday evening. And so I was able to just plug it right in there. And again, it keeps you bonded together. It strengthens the relationship week in week out, or meeting in meeting out, which is important as I've been saying.

But then it also keeps you on top of the workflow. You have a natural way without looking over someone's shoulders to catch up on things that are in progress, to see how things are going, to give some input along the way, to give people recognition. It really works really, really, really well. And so when I've been doing it now since, I'm thinking, I think I started doing it in 2015, and I learned it from a supervisor that I used to report to before I came to work for Deer Oaks that did it with me regularly, and I thought, this really works. And that's why I was motivated to bring it into my team later.

And so that's another thing to think about. Now number two, our part two here is let's talk about being a more collaborative communicator. This was a game changer for me, folks, along the way. So after building learning to value and prioritize building better relationships with the team, is the quality of my communication had to improve. I tend to be a direct-- directive communicator, and some of it's-- I'm an extrovert. You can probably tell, but I-- and I tend to talk a lot.

But as a directive communicator, I'm very quick to tell people to give people my advice, to give direction, to give a directive, to be the one recommending how we solve problems, to be the one that dictates the work plan. And what I came to realize is that, that goes against best practices and communication. According to SHRM, the Society for Human Resources Management, that's the Industry Association some of you may for Human Resources.

The number one non-financial motivator for employees is being treated with respect when they're at work. Well, if you're working for a supervisor there's always talking at you. It's always telling you what to do and how to do it, always calling the shots, always dictating, you typically won't feel like you have a voice or that your opinion matters. And you may feel disrespected and devalued, and if that happens, people are much less likely to get engaged in the work.

And so when you feel respected from your supervisor because they regularly show interest in your ideas, your opinions, they value your contributions, when you're in that kind of a relationship with your supervisor, you're naturally going to feel more motivated to do your best work. And so let's avoid being overly directive and what I mean by that is, try not to be the person that's always telling people what to do. Try to minimize calling the shots. Certainly, you can give input. You're a supervisor.

You've got a lot of experience and a lot of expertise. You can certainly weigh in and share your thoughts from time to time, but let's not forget, what employees want from us is they want to feel valued. They want to feel like they have a voice. They want to feel like we're interested in their opinion. They want to have input. When people have input, they're much more likely to take ownership, right? If they have input, they're much more likely to feel valued. And if you're always telling them what to do and how to do it, they're more likely to feel bossed around or micromanaged.

I'll give you a great example and this picture reminds me because it looks like a guy I talked to, I don't know, six or seven years ago that worked for a municipality. And I asked him about his relationship with his boss and he said to me, he got this like really negative look, you know, angry look come on his face and he said, you know what? I've worked for my boss for two years, and he says, and I can't stand the guy. He's never once asked me my opinion. He said, and he went on to say that, I've got a master's degree. I've got a brain. He doesn't seem at all interested in my input.

And he just tells me what to do. And he actually went on to say, I feel like a tool. The guy just bosses me around. And then he went on to say, and this is where I underline it, he went on to say, and I don't how long I'm going to continue to stay here because I don't like working for this guy. And that reminded me that people don't want to be bossed around. People want to be respected. They don't want to be told what to do. They want to have a good conversation about let's work together. Let's be partners. Let's collaborate.

And I had to really make this adjustment earlier in my career because that was way too directive. I really had to learn how to ask people more regularly for their input, and it's been a real difference maker in the quality of my relationships, both personally and professionally. And so, folks, let's make it a habit to regularly solicit input. If we're going to create goals for our department or for our team, let's not just create them on our own and dictate them to the team, let's bring the team in and let's create them together.

You're going to get more ownership for the team if they have an opportunity to have some input into those goals, right? They'll take more ownership of those goals. If you're creating work plans or project plans instead of you developing them and telling the employees what they are, why not get what the employees and give them input and work together to create those. Again, you'll get more buy-in. Remember this, folks, people submit-- or excuse me, people support what they help to create.

That's one of those-- like we all know that gravity is a real law, right? I mean, things come back to Earth. If you throw them up in the air, they're coming back down again. Well, another law of interpersonal relationships is that people generally give a better effort and take more ownership if they have a say. If they're just-- if they're passive and just being told what to do, they generally won't take as much ownership and they generally won't be as motivated to do as much work on that.

So let's make sure to give people input, and so what we want to do when-- for example, when you're assigning work, is we should be assigning as the supervisor, the what and the why, right? Let's tell them what it is we need them to do, help them understand the scope of it, what the expectations are and why it's important, or why we've chosen them to do it. But we should let the employees have input into the how, right? That's what we hired them to do.

We should ask them to tell us what kind of work plan or what should go into the work plan, and what kind of resources are necessary and those kinds of things. I've talked to one colleague who said that he tells his employees that when they ask him what they should do, he says, I'm going to ask you the same question. You're the subject matter expert, and I thought that was a good way-- a respectful way to look at employees as your subject matter experts. We hired them to do that job, so we definitely should give them input into how it's going to be done, right?

Same thing during team meetings, rather than just doing all the talking as the supervisor like I used to do, I used to go into team meetings and do 80% of the talking, let's instead, facilitate good open brainstorming conversations with the team. Remember, guys, two heads are better than one, three heads are better than two and so on and so forth. And then if for those of you that are visual like I am, here's a little bit of a collaborative communication guide.

This helped me be more collaborative. As I had to-- in my mind's eye remember, because I was an over talker, and I was too directive earlier in my career. And so I would start by telling the employee what I needed to talk to them about, but then I would go into telling them how I wanted them to do it. And that was kind of overstepping. That was overreaching. I was kind of getting my hands into their area. And so this helped me learn how to be more collaborative as is my job when I come up to someone or initiate a conversation is let them what we need to talk about and why, whether it be the project that I'm assigning to them or the problem we need to solve, or even the performance we need to improve.

But then stop myself at that point and ask the employee for their input. That's the key piece. That's the where we show the employee respect, we value their ideas. We give them a voice. Ask them what they think. And you can turn any conversation from a directive conversation into a good two-way collaborative conversation by asking questions, asking the employee what do you think here? What do you think we should do here? Have you ever come across this problem before? How did you guys handle it the last time?

And so the more we can do that together, right? The more you give them that opportunity. And then the last piece is then you go back and forth and figure out the way forward, right? And a lot of times that's taking the employees' ideas and their opinions and integrating them with some of yours, and you collaboratively move forward together. It's been a game changer for me. It's made me a better husband, a better father and grandfather, and a much better professional colleague because I'm less directive, which is sometimes kind of bossy.

And sometimes just not being sensitive to people's needs and feelings and ideas. And I'm much more-- I'm much quicker to ask people what they think and get them involved. All right, the next piece I want to talk about, folks, is acknowledging the importance of people's work. This is a big piece here.

It's interesting, nowadays, the two younger generations right now-- the millennial generation they're generally people between the ages of mid to late 20s up to around 40-ish nowadays, and then the Generation Z generation, the newer generation, the younger generation in the workplace, the older Generation Z person is around 24, 25. And so the two younger generations in the workforce are really making up the bulk of the workforce now.

In five years, 70% of American employees still in the workforce would be a millennial or Gen Z. And those-- one of the markers of those generations is they want to do meaningful work. And so they don't have as much of a tolerance for rote work. So if the work you're assigning to people is just rote, it's just-- it's another spreadsheet, it's something that repetitive that doesn't take a whole lot of-- it's not-- it doesn't bring a lot of creativeness to the table and those kinds of things, you have to help people understand why it's significant.

People will be more motivated to do good work on an assignment if they know why they were chosen to do it and what the value is. So for example, if you're assigning a spreadsheet, talk to the employee about how because they've got great analytical skills, the way they crunch numbers and analyze numbers is going to be really helpful, not just to actually do the numbers, but for their contribution to the greater report that your department head is going to be putting forward.

I mean, make sure they the importance of it, and if they're providing customer service, make sure that you're a customer service organization and when they take the time to be kind and listen to a customer, a citizen, whoever your stakeholders are, make sure that they know that, that work-- that's very significant work because it's hard sometimes. When you get a lot of people looking for assistance, are angry about what's going on, and you're doing customer service work, we've all done it in one way or shape-- way, shape, or form in the past, it can be hard.

It can be thankless at times, but-- so let them how significant they are, that, that work-- is they're the opening person-- the first person that the public sees and how they represent the organization and how important they are. The more significant people believe the work they're doing is, the more motivated they're going to do to be the-- to give you their best. And then to continue on with that, is consistently express appreciation.

Interesting, there's a book out there called The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner, and they cited a study in there that said that 70% of American employees wish they were more appreciated at work. And that sort of a sad fact, but, folks, let's make sure that people know that we're grateful for their efforts. Make sure they we're thankful for the hard work they put in. And I think that's really important, and don't just show appreciation for results, show appreciation for efforts because sometimes people can't control the results, but they can control the effort.

And I learned that the hard way and the work I do at Deer Oaks, a lot of times we do some-- we do work to help people, and it's not necessarily because the people are helping are hurting, it's not necessarily-- the result may not be what we want it to be, but the fact that we're there helping, and we may not get a thank you because the people that we're helping might be struggling or might be really going through a stressful time. But it helps when people feel like their organization appreciates the effort that they're putting out.

We really appreciate everything you're doing for our clients. That you're really going out of your way to help people, and even if they don't get a thank you from the people they're helping, make sure that you express your appreciation for their efforts. And that they appreciate the work that you're doing for the organization, for the organization's clients. And then last but not least, go out of your way to give recognition. And I know most of us know this, but I want to reinforce just how important it is.

There's a book out there called, The Carrot Principle, they did research on what's the number one thing people want from their boss, and the number one thing, believe it or not, is I want recognition regularly. And Mark Twain, the great American author, he said at one point, he was a very accomplished guy at the top of his field, he says I could go a whole year on a good compliment. Folks, it's wired into us. It's a human need. We need recognition. We need people to appreciate and recognize us.

So make sure as a supervisor, you're regularly going out of your way to show recognition. Thank people, give them-- look for ways every day to recognize people. What a great job they're doing, how much you appreciate their efforts, and find ways to do it that are helpful for each person. Different people like different things. Some people don't like being recognized in front of the group, other people love that.

I have one person that loves when I copy the boss. And so I do for that person because that that's really important to them. And so figure out what people need in terms of recognition, and just make sure you're going out of your way to provide appreciation and recognition regularly. It makes a big difference in terms of people feeling good about where they work and their motivation level to be engaged.

All right, last but not least, I'm talking about as we go on through the ongoing pandemic, I'm beginning to see it as a pandemic recovery. Hopefully, we're moving towards the end of the pandemic, right? And there's a lot of signs that that's happening now in the world, and but none of us, for sure how much longer this thing is going to go on. So I'm starting to sort of see this phase that we're in as the recovery-- the recovery from the pandemic.

And so, folks, let's remember that people are-- people have been very stressed for the last two and 1/2 years. I mean, there's going to be fallout. Organizational psychologists think that there's going to be for probably a couple of years after the pandemic because people went through so much stress, they're going to be recovering from the pandemic. There's higher levels of stress, higher levels of burnout, and so it's really important that if you're in a supervisory role that you recognize that your people are dealing with more stress and pressure than probably they maybe have ever had before.

And they've probably gone through more change. During the pandemic, people had to adjust to so many changes, personally and professionally. And I know you all recognize that. So make sure as a supervisor, make sure that you're aware of your team's stress level, and the individual stress level of individual employees. Make sure you encourage people to take care of themselves. Make sure that their pace of work is healthy, and that you're there to support them.

I think that's a really important thing to be thinking about at this time. Gallup, the polling company said that now, 46% of Americans-- or I'm sorry, that people are dealing with-- that 46% of workers now say they have stress on a daily basis. That's the highest number that's ever been recorded. And so, again, because people have gone through so much, it's been so hard, it's been so long, and it just it's really been-- it's really worn on people.

So just remember that even though we may be coming out of the pandemic, and maybe there's not as much threat of COVID now as there was a year or so ago, but none of us know for sure how long it's going to go on. We don't what other variants are going to be uncovered. But just recognize that there's still an emotional toll for people as we're recovering from the pandemic. We've been through a lot in so many areas of our life. And so--

And stress levels, there's a residual from that. Stress levels are still higher than they've ever been. And so be as supportive as you can to people. Be as patient as you can with people. Be that positive support. Encourage people as best you can. Watch your management style. As I mentioned earlier, if you're too directive, too much of a micromanager like I used to be in the past, that can actually cause stress for employees or increase employee stress, I think as we all know.

And so watch your intensity level. Be as collaborative and supportive as you can along the way. The more we can do that, the better people are going to transition through the rest of this pandemic and start to recover from it completely. And we can play a big part as supervisors. We can really help people and encourage people and help them move forward in a positive way. And last but not least, remember, all the change people have gone through, folks. I mean it's been unbelievable.

I mean, just the amount of change in the world lately it's just-- think about people had to deal with social isolation, economic shocks, education disruptions, and sometimes serious health problems. And this is just in the last two and 1/2 years on top of everything else we were already dealing with in the world. Folks, people have been through a lot. And so just be as supportive as you can. Be patient with people during change. Make sure you communicate with upper management. If there's too much change going on in your area and it's really wearing people out and maybe the organization should be more mindful, that space things out a little bit.

There's good research that says in change management, John Kotter from Harvard is a change management guru, many of you may have heard of. He talks about when you're going through changes at work, make sure you give your employees as much advance notice and as much input into the changes as possible. And I know sometimes a change is decided above us, and we just have to implement it, but at least give employees a heads up. Give them some advance notice and give them an opportunity to talk about how they feel about it, and brainstorm together how they're going to implement it in their area.

That can help people transition through that change better if they feel they have some input and some control over it. And, again, make sure when people are going through stress and going through change, that you give them a lot of support. That if they need to vent, let them vent to you. If they need to come together as a team and process how hard a situation has been lately, provide that opportunity. Again, that can help people work through the stress and work through those changes, and be able to come out of it and move forward in a more healthy way.

All right, folks, I know we just covered a lot in a very short period of time today. I appreciate you being with us. And so we're going to open it up for questions. I do want to remind you, folks, because I know that I'm pretty sure that almost everybody on the call today, your organization has Deer Oaks as your EAP program, and so remember, that we're available to help you and your family members 24 hours a day, seven days a week via our toll free number.

We do have different toll free number, so I won't share it today. But if you need the 24-hour toll free number to Deer Oaks, it's a free call and it's answered live 24-hours a day. Talk to your human resources department within your organization. I'd be happy to give you that toll free number. And remember, Deer Oaks is a confidential service, provides free counseling sessions and other resources to help you and your family members. All right, folks, so if you have any questions, if you want to type them into the question box in the GoToWebinar software in the upper right hand corner of your screen, we have plenty of time for questions this afternoon.

All right, one question I got that's very practical is, will this presentation be available to participants? It absolutely can be, so we are recording the presentation. So if you want the registry-- the recording link, you can request that. You can also ask for the slide deck. We're happy to send that to you. All you need to do to access those resources is hit Reply to your GoToWebinar invitation for today and ask our staff to send you a copy of the PowerPoint, or to send you a link to the recording. They'd be happy to do that for you.

All right, here's another good question. You had mentioned that the millennial generation wants to do meaningful work, how would you characterize slash generalize the work that the older generation prefers to do? I work with an older generation, so this would be helpful. Well, a couple of things I want to share. You may have heard earlier when I was talking about the next topic in the 2022 Leadership Certificate Webinar series coming up on September 26 is actually how to motivate a multigenerational work team.

So we're actually going to dedicate our entire session to your question, but I can quickly share that there's five generations in the American workforce today. And starting with folks that are in their late 70s and 80s that are still at work from the veteran generation, baby boomers, I'm a younger baby boomer, that are in their late 50s, 60s, and early 70s. And then you've got Generation X that are from their early 40s to their mid 50s.

And of course, you've got the millennial generation underneath that and then the Gen Z generation-- the youngest generation. And every generation has some distinguishing characteristics based on the time period they grew up in, what was going on in the world that influenced them, what was happening culturally at the time. And so different people have different motivators.

I can tell you for baby boomers, we're generally very motivated and I recently turned 60. We're generally very motivated by the opportunity to do things that-- I'm trying to see how I can encapsulate that. And so we're motivated by the opportunity to get recognition, the opportunity to do things that feel like we're a significant part of it.