Once Upon a Blinktime - Paula Brockwell, Occupational Psychologist and Culture Shaper

Name: Paula Brockwell

Job: The Employee Experience Project

Company: Lead Psychologist

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Q: What do you do at the Employee Experience Project?

We do culture change and cultivation but with the lens of driving high performance cultures. We support businesses to really figure out what type of culture they need to drive high performance in their unique context. We do this by considering their business goals, strategies and priorities, while also thinking about what sort of environment you need to create where people can thrive and deliver that in a really sustainable way.

Q: Where do you see people falling down most when it comes to culture?

Honestly, I think the biggest challenge is people express an intent about what they want for culture but it's not anchored to any real business needs. It's what they think they “should do”. It doesn't really consider their unique context, needs or goals but instead is aimed purely at employee focused behavioural interventions. It tries to force them into new ways of working without considering the organisation’s system as a whole is probably set up for the old culture which will keep pulling people back in.

Q: How do you think attitudes have changed towards work in the past few years?

Work is changing a lot. It has obviously sped up greatly and there's also a lot less boundaries for people to disconnect from work. So now people's experience of work is that they are just simply knackered and overwhelmed. Current cultures and organisations aren’t fit or set up for the future. Quality of experience at work and quality of life is much more important now I'd say. The pandemic really helped those of us who've been working for a long time to refocus our lens and see work as part of our lives. So now “working to live” and no longer “living to work”. The new generation coming into the workforce feel that way naturally. People are much less engaged and much less satisfied because they're not willing to be treated like shit anymore for a bit of company loyalty or a pension.

Q: What can companies do to help people achieve that better employee experience?

Companies need to wake up to the fact that people aren't “lucky to have jobs so they should just put their noses to the grindstone”. Instead create the conditions for high performance and an unbeatable people experience. Be grateful when you see results from employees. Don't just expect them to deliver while giving nothing back. It’s a two-way deal. We’ve got to treat people like human beings. I don’t think great culture and employee experience is just about giving employees everything they want or having to hold them like a baby, but companies do need to lay it out and create an honest deal with them. “This is what we need from you for this business to succeed and thrive and this is what we will give you back to allow you to achieve that in a way that works for you.” Doing this means when people are at work they want to be there and deliver for you but when they’re not working they can still take care of their other life duties.

Q: Considering you’ve mentioned people being knackered or overwhelmed and the value now placed on work life balance how important does that make flexibility?

Flexibility is a critical part of the deal because businesses ask for a huge amount of flexibility from their people. There's an always on culture. There’s an always be accessible expectation. We've all got emails and teams and work things on our phones, so we're taking care of work in ways that we didn't do before. When companies expect that level of accessibility from people, surely the return part of the deal is flexibility. If you bring work into your home life to give me what I need as a business why the hell wouldn’t I trust you to make good choices about how you spend and use your time. If we want willing from people to be accessible then companies need to be willing to give those people opportunities protect some of their time for other non-work stuff.

Q: Finally, do you think companies currently have the correct knowledge, tools or structures in place to deal with this new way of working?

No, no, no, and no. I think generally what they've done is just put loads of ridiculous strategies in place and they're moaning that it's not working, yet they aren’t measuring impact, acceptability or usefulness. We've got to a place of over communication and moaning about a lack of connection. Instead, we should be thinking “well how do we actually create mechanisms for connection and alignment that are going to work for the new world?” I think we haven't even started the journey into understanding our new world of work yet because everybody's just panicked and implemented a load of pointless shit. First, you need the right tools for the job, but secondly you also need ways to measure and evaluate their impact.

Summary

At the Employee Experience Project, Paula focuses on cultivating high-performance cultures tailored to businesses’ unique needs. She highlighted the common pitfalls, which include the lack of alignment between cultural aspirations and actual business needs. She also emphasises the importance of creating a two-way agreement between companies and employees that prioritises human connection, flexibility, and sustainable work practices.

Key Takeaways

1. Culture Misalignment: Many companies fail in culture building because they focus on superficial changes rather than aligning cultural initiatives with their unique business goals and systems, leading to ineffective outcomes.

2. Evolving Work Attitudes: Employees now prioritise work-life balance, rejecting outdated notions of loyalty at the expense of personal well-being. Organisations must adapt to this shift by creating environments where quality of life and work coexist harmoniously.

3. Flexibility and Mutual Accountability: Flexibility is essential in modern workplaces to counterbalance the demands of the "always-on" work culture. Businesses must embrace reciprocal arrangements, offering employees autonomy and respect in exchange for high performance.

We can’t solve every challenge, but Blinktime is designed to tackle many of the issues Paula has highlighted, from enabling flexibility to creating a more sustainable work environment. Book a demo today to see how we can help your organisation thrive in this new world of work.