The New Playbook for Saving Employee Productivity & Your Company’s Culture in the Age of AI
Imagine you are an orchestra conductor. You are trying to get your musicians to play their instruments according to the sheet music in front of them. But the musicians are not in the same room as you. And they are simultaneously playing in another band while trying to play your music. It would probably be hard for you to get your orchestra to play your music correctly, right?
That’s what it is like being a company leader these days. The sheet music is your company’s culture and goals. The musicians are your employees. And thanks to remote work and the gig economy they are no longer in the room with you, or are working on something else at the same time. No wonder there’s a global decline in employee engagement and productivity, as executives have a hard time getting their employees to buy into their company’s culture and objectives. Everyone’s orchestra is simply out of tune.
Now here comes artificial intelligence (AI), threatening to bring even more discord over the coming years, as employees’ jobs become transformed or even eliminated. What is an executive to do? As this article will discuss, fortunately there is a new playbook (or sheet music, if you prefer) that company leaders can use to get their corporate culture and employee productivity back in tune in the Age of AI.
The First Sour Notes
Before we get to AI, let’s first understand the existing challenges that remote work and the gig economy created for company culture and employee productivity.
When remote work first became normalized during COVID, it offered tantalizing flexibility. But it also made employees feel disconnected from their colleagues and their organization, as watercooler chats and in-person collaboration were replaced by virtual meetings. This made employees feel isolated, leading to diminished engagement, a weaker sense of belonging, and a more diluted company culture.
Meanwhile, the gig economy further eroded work culture. Increasingly, people who used to have full-time jobs now had multiple part-time gigs, and employers had a hard time aligning these gig workers with their organization’s purpose and goals, as many of them felt like they weren’t really a part of the company - just a part-time cog in a machine.
So companies ended up with less engaged full-time employees (because of remote work) and less engaged part-time employees (who split their time between multiple gigs). This fragmentation made it harder for executives to cultivate any sense of shared purpose or culture, eroding employee engagement and productivity.
The New Musician: AI
Now AI adds a whole new layer of complexity and anxiety to the situation. It’s like the orchestra suddenly has a new robot musician that replaces some of the human players, and then completely changes the tempo and rhythm for those that remain.
While company leaders are excited by AI’s ability to increase efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and streamline workflows, they are nervous because these changes are making their existing team feel devalued and fearful for their future. Already, 60% of workers worry that AI will replace their jobs.
And this collective anxiety kills company culture even more, leading to even more disengagement, resistance to change, and a decrease in productivity.
A ~$9 Trillion Problem
With employees spending less time at work in person (remote work), more time on other projects (gig work), and panicking about being replaced (AI), it is no wonder that employees are less engaged and productive these days.
And let’s not forget that - outside of work - they are increasingly bombarded by a non-stop flood of anxiety-inducing stimuli as well. Toxic politics, the economy, geopolitics, climate, etc all get amplified via social media into a non-stop information cocktail of anxiety that the average person consumes 4 hours or more a day.
The annual cost of all of this disengagement from company culture is enormous. According to Gallup, companies suffer from $8.8 trillion in lost productivity (that’s 9% of global GDP!) from employees who don’t feel engaged at work. And those employees are 18% less productive than their more engaged peers.
Getting Back in Tune
Fortunately, there is a way to get the orchestra back in tune again. According to research from McKinsey & Co as well as from numerous other studies, if you can help your employees to feel a greater sense of purpose at work, then they become significantly more productive, engaged, excited, and satisfied with their job.
And since - for 70% of employees - their work defines their own sense of individual purpose, giving them a greater sense of purpose in their job also carries over into their personal life, where they experience significantly higher levels of health, energy, resiliency, and overall life satisfaction.
An employee who feels like their work has meaning is much more willing to go above and beyond, bringing more creativity and effort to the table. And one who sees how their unique efforts contributed to something bigger than themselves is much more excited, productive, and engaged.
So by fostering a greater sense of purpose for employees at work, we now have the ability to mitigate the impact of AI, remote work, and the gig economy, and to start closing the $9 Trillion drain on company productivity.
The New Sheet Music
So how does “purpose” work in practice? Research shows that there are three ways to feel more purposeful in your life: by feeling a stronger sense of self, feeling part of a supportive community, or feeling connected to something greater than you. Here’s how you can create these conditions for your employees at work:
1. Stronger Sense of Self
Help your employees to understand and harness their own strengths, values, and goals with:
- Tools like personality assessments, journaling, and meditation resources
- Life coaching resources so they can grow both professionally and personally
- Recognition not just for what they achieved, but for how they achieved it (e.g. call out their creativity, teamwork, etc)
2. Part of a Supportive Community
Help your employees to feel more connected to community with:
- Tools to help them get to know one another on an authentic, individual level
- Opportunities to support one another, via shared interest groups that help them build meaningful connections across the organization
- Periodic in-person retreats or team-building activities
3. Connected to a Larger Mission
Help your employees to see how their daily activities contribute to the greater good with:
- A clear articulation of your company’s mission, so they can understand the “why” behind their work
- Regular “town hall” meetings, so employees can feel heard and more invested in the company’s direction and mission
- Opportunities to engage in other worthy causes, by highlighting volunteer or other opportunities that contribute to societal good
The Grand Finale
In short, leadership in the age of AI demands new “sheet music” for your organization to help your employees feel a greater sense of purpose. By helping them strengthen their sense of self, foster community, and connect with a larger mission, organizations can not only mitigate the challenges of remote work, the gig economy, and AI anxiety but also unlock unparalleled levels of engagement and productivity.
Thankfully, there are a number of tools out there - such as Sol - that can help with this. And that is surely music to many executives’ ears.
