Reflections.. Balance on Purpose

We delivered performance excellence in 2021, but it came with a sacrifice. My biggest concern for sustaining that performance excellence is the cost that it takes our APM team to deliver that. The desire for better balance is apparent with the feedback we received from the employee experience survey.

I have asked Katie Maldonado, the leader of our Employee Experience Committee, to summarize our focus on your experience and desire for better balance for 2022. Below is a summary of our focus from Katie and the committee.

Last summer, we ran an organization-wide survey to help leadership better understand our employees’ workplace experience. The results produced three areas where we should focus on improvement:

• Work/life balance

• Transparent communication

• Timeliness of decisions

We have been working in the background for the past six months to identify meaningful solutions for these concerns. We feel confident that improvement in the bottom two actions will drive improvement in the top action: improving work/life balance. Thus, we initiated employee townhall events last fall to drive transparency and targeted higher volume of decisions in leadership meetings. While we are optimistic about the outcomes of these efforts, we also believe there are some direct actions we should now take to further drive balance for our employees.

We also see external data that aligns with the concern we face; our company is not alone in this fight for equilibrium. “A new Visier survey showed that the pandemic created widespread remote work with burnout at epidemic proportions (89%), driving a major resignation rate as a result. Employees reported their number one burnout contributor was being asked to take on more work.” This same article explains the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of Burnout, which is “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” According to WHO, burnout is recognized by three core symptoms:

• Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion

• Increased mental distance from one’s job

• Feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job and reduced professional efficacy

Does any of this sound familiar? If so, we strongly encourage you to review this Forbes article on the topic to understand how you can personally drive balance. Some of the highlights include:

• Practice radical self-care

• Lead with self-compassion and empathy

• Set boundaries

• Sharpen your outlook

• Ask for help

You have the full support of our APM leadership to embrace these practices, and as an organization, we have some action items as well. Our people are our chief concern, and we are committed to improving on the employee experience in 2022.

As you have seen, we will be operating against a redesigned fiscal calendar in 2022. This calendar identifies new “business periods” which should help us all in maintaining better prioritization, leading to increased focus, and delivering improved balance. We implore you all to hold us accountable to this calendar. We know there will be small adjustments, as with anything new, but we wish to uphold the designated business periods as best we can in 2022.

Additionally, we will be asking all corporate employees to identify a point person as a “primary backup” during the Spring 2022 PD process. We know the training will take some time, and we anticipate the embracement of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will help with this initiative. Having clearly established SOPs will also help managers more accurately understand the workload placed on their employees. We expect having a reliable person cross-trained will support your ability to take needed time away from the job without worrying about your tasks going undone. We want your “off-time” to truly honor the mental and/or physical break that is warranted.

Finally, we will continue the remote workplace with flexibility in mind. We know there are pros and cons to working from your home office. We have likely all experienced the highs and lows of this significant change over the past 2 years. We encourage you to take breaks, leverage time wisely to complete tasks that are important both for your work and home life, and most importantly, learn how to shut the “work mind” off when you need to be with family or spend time on self-care activities.

One of the most significant drivers of stress in our work environment is overstimulating communication. Disruptive or disorderly Outlook inboxes are a chief concern in this domain. Next month we will share some tips and tools for you to consider in helping you take charge of your inbox so that it can be a helpful sidekick rather than a relentless pest.

A final request from us as we embark on this journey to improve: Be candid with your manager. We need to know when something isn’t right, when you feel burned out, or overwhelmed. We are committed to helping you, but we must know first how to help. Please share your feedback with us. Together, we can make balance a reality.

Jake