Transcript: 7 Workplace Trends for 2023 // Al Lopus, Jay Bransford, Best Christian Workplaces

Intro: Happy 2023, and welcome to our annual show, highlighting the workplace trends that we are anticipating for Christian-led workplaces in 2023.

Welcome: Welcome to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast, your home for open, honest, and insightful conversations to help develop your leadership, your team, and build a flourishing workplace culture.

Robert Wachter: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the podcast today. My name is Robert Wachter. I'm the global marketing director for Best Christian Workplaces. It's my pleasure to be on the podcast today and serve as your host for this very special episode. We’ll be focused on workplace trends for Christian-led organizations in 2023. And as we all know, over the past three years, as leaders in organizations, we've been tested like never before. Our workplace landscape has changed. And so we want to look at, what does that mean for us as we head into this new year?

And so just to kind of put all of this into some context, before I introduce our guests today, what's been happening and how this plays into how we strategize moving forward. So we know that there's been a lot of panic surrounding hybrid and remote workplaces that happened during the pandemic, but that panic is beginning to subside. Also, the great resignation. There was a hiring surge, which appears to be slowing down. We know there have been concerns about interest rates and inflation and possible recession. That is front and center on our minds. There's opportunities for job seekers. They might be harder to come by as the economy slows down. Talent acquisition is falling from a top priority as jobs are being filled. Wage inflation is putting a new focus on compensation programs and are important to retaining top performers. And also, sadly, there's been a decline of our Christian culture reflected in church attendance. Attendance has dramatically declined, especially among millennials. So as leaders, we've been learning on the fly, navigating these changes, these challenges, the economy, and the social and political unrest. And so as we head into this new year, as leaders, we're going to continue to play a huge role in our organizations, and we have to navigate and plan for what this means for our future.

So to help us identify what we see as the trends for the Christian-led workplace in 2023, I would love to turn this over and introduce Al Lopus, our co-founder and board chair, and also, Jay Bransford, our president and chief executive officer of Best Christian Workplaces, to lead us through this discussion. Welcome to the podcast, Jay and Al.

Jay Bransford: Hey, Rob. Great to be with you today, and I'm excited to talk about the trends for this year.

Al Lopus: Yeah, Rob. It's great. And first of all, thanks for being our host today. I love it.

But Rob, before we start off, why don't you tell our audience about the update that happened regarding our brand refresh at Best Christian Workplaces?

Robert: Absolutely, yes. If you haven't heard, Best Christian Workplaces has recently undergone what we call a brand refresh. So we're still the same amazing organization that has been helping workplaces flourish for the past 20 years, but we just felt it was time to update our look and feel, if you will. So you'll notice we're now workplaces.org. That's our website URL. We've got a new logo, a new look and feel. We really wanted to allow our brand—how we communicate visually, our brand to the public—to match the quality and the excellence of our services and our products that we provide. So I hope you like it. If you haven't visited the new website, go to workplaces.org and check it out.

Yeah. So thanks for asking, Al. And, yeah, we’d love for you to lead us off into this discussion on trends for 2023.

Al: Yeah, thanks, Rob. And I’m really excited about the brand refresh, and it's really proven to be a great time to do that.

But anyway, here we are, 2023, and we've identified seven areas that will emerge as top workplace priorities for Christian-led workplaces. And we're going to deal with them one by one. And let me get to the first one, and Jay’s going to help me as we go through this.

The first one is rebuilding the employee experience and workplace culture. And we believe that's going to be job one for workplace leaders in 2023. You know, employee expectations have shifted since the pandemic in 2020, and leaders are seeing the impact on the quality and quantity of employee attraction and retention. So every milestone from a candidate's first impression through hiring and onboarding their career growth and development to their decision even to leave their organization are critical points in the overall workplace experience.

A Gartner survey of HR leaders found that 47% of them cite employee experience as the top priority for 2023. So let's look at a couple of elements of the workplace experience and especially in Christian organizations. And I believe that one of the key issues for us to consider is making sure that there's a shared Christian purpose in Christian-led workplaces, where employees are increasingly seeking out organizations that align with their faith, their ethics, their values, and even to a degree, their politics. And this is a competitive advantage for Christian-led organizations in this tight labor market. We continually hear from employees how much they love to work for an organization that shares their faith and values, and people want to work for an organization where they can bring their whole selves to work. And that's, to a degree, what we call life-giving work, and that's what people find. And so for leaders to make sure that the shared Christian purpose is at front and center in an organization is important.

But we also see that it's important for leaders to put people first. You know, the employee experience needs to be individualized to their personal and professional circumstances. Employees are also looking for flexibility. A “one size fits all” doesn't work anymore for employees, because they're looking for flexible hours and benefits, flexible benefits to fit their lifestyles.

And organizations need to be thinking about the sense of belonging. You know, after COVID and the separation we experienced, connection and connecting in the workplace is being recognized as an important experience to rebuilding an organization's culture. You know, I've often asked, here in the last couple of months, Christian CEOs, “Are you hoping to bring people back to the workplace?” And every one of them says, “Yes. It's important, it's imperative to bring people back to the workplace for the sake of creating a healthy and engaging culture.” And that means deeper relationships, in many cases. And this is the experience when people feel like they belong to the group that they're working with, and that's really reinforced by being together.

And that's really, also, what we found with DEI. When we're working with racial minorities, the sense that they also feel belonged in the environment that they are working in is really critical.

And finally, with this, overall employee well-being is a key theme as well, where employees look for organizations that take a holistic approach to mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health.

So, yes, employers are focused on rebuilding the employee experience post COVID to be sure they're keeping their best people and not spinning their wheels with high turnover. And if working on improving your employees’ experience is not on your agenda for 2023, we suggest you consider it.

Robert: Thank you so much, Al. Employee experience, the first trend to focus on in 2023. And that just sounds amazing. Any employer that focuses on those items that you discussed is a place that sounds like a good place to work.

Al: Mm-hmm.

Robert: So, Jay, why don't we bring you into the conversation? What's the number two trend for 2023?

Jay: Yeah. Thanks, Rob. You know, similar to what Al described in the first trend, the second trend is also a result of our post-COVID world, and that is refining hybrid work. So what do I mean by refining hybrid work? Well, since COVID hit in 2020, employers and employees have navigated both the benefits and the challenges of shifting more of their workforce to working remotely or to a hybrid model. Now in 2023, we believe that getting these new flexible work models right will be a top priority. So that's what we mean by refining hybrid work as a trend for 2023.

Now, some background here. A workplace study conducted by an organization called Beezy looked at 800 employees at large organizations, and they found that 73% of their staff worked in either a hybrid or a fully remote work setting in 2022. So 73% of their staff. And 32% of those employees said they want to remain fully remote. So that kind of gives us some context about the sheer volume of employees who are now working remotely or hybrid and their desire to continue doing so. And I think it also indicates how critical it is for employers to make sure that these hybrid models of work are actually productive and effective and healthy in the long run.

So, you know, before COVID, there had been a long-standing perception that in-office employees are more productive than remote workers. But in the last two years, data has shown that people who remotely work, at least some of the time, reported being about 9% more efficient working from home than they were working from the office. So there definitely seems to be some potential benefit for both employees and employers to these new hybrid work models. But again, we have to make sure we're doing it right; we're doing it well.

And, you know, today I'd say that probably no one has necessarily perfected the hybrid-work experience, but it does seem to be here to stay, at least as part of the future of work. We're seeing that employees are often not willing to give up the flexibility and the work-life balance and the money they've saved by working remotely. So organizations that don't offer any kind of flexible work models do have and will continue to have a harder time recruiting and retaining employees.

Now, at the same time, hybrid work comes with a number of HR challenges, including, how do we establish and maintain trust when we rarely see our staff in person, or how do we effectively collaborate remotely, or even just how do we maintain sufficient visibility of our employees across the organization when they're remote? The good news is that unlike in 2020, many more companies now have the structure and the systems and the equipment in place to better support hybrid work. And I think we can all agree that there's been a tremendous improvement in the technology available for us to all work together across many kinds of remote settings. So again, Al, we're convinced we're finding hybrid work models will be an important trend in 2023.

Robert: Thank you, Jay. That's really great information. Obviously, that is an important trend for 2023. You know, since I joined Best Christian Workplaces—it's been about nine months or so—you know, I came in, and there was already a hybrid work model in place. And so I found it to be personally, it gives me a little bit more time working instead of driving. For those of you who might have a longer commute, I found a big benefit there. And there does seem to be a higher productivity with working hours and having flexibility in the location for certain employees to be able to work more effectively. And I think the overall work-life balance—you know, for those of us who have families, kids, maybe responsibilities, and things like that—that hybrid approach can be super beneficial, it sounds like, both for employees and for employers. So that's amazing.

So Al, take us into number three. What's the third workplace trend to expect in 2023?

Al: Yeah, thanks, Rob. And thanks, Jay, for that description of hybrid. It really is important.

But we're finally seeing the beginning of the shift away from the great resignation, and we might still be in the early stages of it, but we are seeing a shift away from it. Many organizations are finding they're spending less time on recruiting to fill roles. And that's a welcome relief, I know, for many organizations. So as a result, we see refocusing on retention and employee engagement the focus, moving away from attracting talent to now retaining talent and making sure our talent is engaged.

So with work becoming more individualized and teams spending less and less time in the office, data’s showing that employees don't value work relationships as much anymore. And, you know, I think we can all say that, yes, it's not quite the same. That data showed how weak work relationships correspond to employee engagement and directly impact burnout and attrition. And informal gatherings—you know, like lunches and casual interactions around the watercooler—they certainly provided opportunities to build work bonds, and those evaporated since COVID. So the onus falls on managers to keep employees engaged through regular check ins and virtual team meetings. And we found that, really, a key was one-on-one meetings throughout the workweek and throughout the work-life experience.

Employee development, or what we call uplifting growth, is also a key factor in driving employee engagement, with studies showing that workers who see good opportunities for growth are more engaged. So we're seeing that connection between growth and uplifting growth and engagement.

So yes, we're finding that employee engagement is a 2023 trend. It continues on the uprise. Why? Well, everyone wins when an organization takes time to listen to their employees; invest in their employee experience, which was number one; and build a strong workplace culture. And, you know, this is what we've been all about here for a long time at BCWI. Regularly measuring employee engagement and collecting feedback, listening to your employees will empower employees in your organization to make even more-well-informed decisions about how to attract, develop, and keep top-performing talent. And I know that's a key for many organizations. So prioritizing engagement and consistently working to improve it, your team can build a workplace where happy, engaged employees feel supported and set up for success.

So here are a few reasons employee-engagement surveys are so critical to your ministry or business. And there are more than this. But first of all, it gives employees a voice. When they have a voice, they feel like they're being involved in decisions that impact them. It helps them to identify areas and opportunities to improve as an organization rather than just kind of guessing what needs to be done. A good employee-engagement survey will help you identify areas and opportunities to improve.

Next, it helps to drive meaningful change because employees are involved already in the process.

Next, it builds trust with employees because you're listening. It helps to shape the organization's culture for the better. It helps to hold leadership accountable to goals that they set out. And it also helps when you can benchmark your data to comparable types of organizations in your sectors or industries.

So as employers are refocusing on workplace productivity and effectiveness, employee engagement will continue to be and will even grow as an important driver.

Robert: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Al. I agree with that. Just in looking at what's been happening with Best Christian Workplaces, we're already beginning to see this trend play out, with record numbers of organizations participating in our employee-engagement tools and services. So I think that's really sound guidance.

Okay. So Jay, you're up for number four for workplace trends to expect in 2023.

Jay: Yeah. Thanks, Rob. Yeah, our fourth, out of seven, workplace trends is something I'm particularly passionate about. It is about reconnecting employee and manager relationships.

So, you know, as organizations and societies change over time, so do the expectations we have of our leaders, including managers and supervisors, and that can make their roles increasingly complex. Today's work environment requires leaders to be even more authentic and empathetic and adaptive, and those three attributes or imperatives really represent a new level of challenge for leaders today. So even though we try to build commitment and courage and confidence in leaders to help them answer the call to authentic leadership, I'd say the number of effective leaders remains few and far between. Leaders need commitment and courage and confidence to be effective leaders. However, HR’s typical approaches to building effective leaders and managers and supervisors don't always address some of the barriers that are holding these leaders back from being fully effective. And again, these obstacles include the very human emotions of doubt and of fear and of uncertainty that exists in all people, both in our leaders and in our staff.

So to help leaders deliver on the need for what we're calling authentic human leadership and prepare them for the future of work, we must recognize the humanity of our leaders and of our staff and directly address these kinds of emotional barriers. Again, those barriers being doubt and fear and uncertainty. And really, managers are the answer, and they need our support. Managers are in the best position to initiate and to facilitate supporting the emotional needs of our staff because of the personal relationships they have with each member of their team. But managers themselves need more support.

A Gallup study showed that those in management positions have taken a greater mental-health hit than other staff members during the last couple of years. Over the last couple of years, many newly promoted managers have been overwhelmed by having to suddenly manage remote workers who may be facing health issues, childcare issues, relocation, and a slew of other personal challenges.

To succeed, leaders and HR teams must support managers with specialized onboarding-training metrics; ready-to-use, frequently asked questions; and playbooks; such as what to do when an employee, whether they're working hybrid or not, what to do when they stop engaging during team meetings; or what to do if they have a family member who gets sick. You know, in these dynamic times, corporate leaders really need to grant managers greater autonomy to cut through some of the bureaucratic red tape and make the right decisions to support their employees in real time. And with continually evolving COVID mandates and office policies, many situations are unprecedented and urgent, so managers need to be trusted to make the correct decisions in the moment, in addition to knowing where to go if additional support is required.

So really, with the shift to more-hybrid work, the concept of employee visibility takes on new meaning, and companies need to find new ways to ensure that employees are recognized and included, whether they are working remotely or in an office. So basically, leaders, managers, staff, and contractors, they each have unique needs, and we need to remember that blanket solutions for supporting them are a mistake.

So let's talk a little bit more about visibility. At the heart of visibility is trust, and the need for visibility changes depending on the level and the role of the employee. Visibility’s especially important for supporting DEI, for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Leaders need to ensure that all workers, including women and people of color, are recognized, are represented, and that they’re heard. I'd suggest that leadership coaching, especially using a model that utilizes input from leader stakeholders and the people around them, can be extremely effective in building visibility and in ensuring that diverse perspectives are welcomed and heard by leaders.

By the way, stakeholder-centered coaching is the model that BCW uses to coach leaders. It's a great way to build and support manager and staff relationships, which, again, is our fourth workplace trend for 2023.

Al: I trust you’re enjoying our podcast today. We’ll be right back after an important word for leaders.

Are you tired of spinning your wheels with unwanted turnover, toxicity, and disengaged employees? Do you want to improve your team's effectiveness and performance? A helpful way to improve is to have you and your leadership team buy our new book, Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being. This is the only research-based book that shows you how to engage employees, build fantastic teams, cultivate life-giving work, attract and retain outstanding talent, and much more. To buy a copy for you and your team, go to www.roadtoflourishing.com. And when you buy a book, you'll receive a free copy of our Rewarding Compensation: FLOURISH Guide. Again, go to roadtoflourishing.com and buy a book for you and your team, and receive a free Rewarding Compensation: FLOURISH Guide.

And now back to today's special guest.

Robert: Thank you so much, Jay. I couldn't agree more. The employee-manager relationship is obviously key, and I've heard statistics that most people, if they leave a role, it has more to do with their manager relationship than anything else. So I think equipping our leaders with better training and coaching, the tools they need to address these complexities is the key to success.

So that takes us, Al, to bring you back into the conversation, to our next trend for 2023.

Al: Yeah. Thanks, Rob. You know, we've all been going to the grocery store and noticing that—what?—prices are higher. There's inflation. Well, also, from an organization standpoint, we're seeing the highest wage inflation than there's been in 40 years. And yes, wage inflation is now up 5.1% for the last 12 months as of November, and that's an increase even than over the previous year. So we're seeing two years in a row where we've seen higher inflation that has been in place than the last 40 years. And so we see as a workplace trend for 2023, number five, that revamping compensation programs and career paths is something to consider and that we're already seeing a trend in that direction.

So the first one is there are raising pay levels due to wage inflation. For many years, up to the past year, wage inflation was a consistent 2, 2.5%, and employers didn't have to invest a lot of time in keeping their compensation programs up to date. But now employers are faced with these new challenges to be sure that they're updating their compensation programs to be competitive. And many realize they're falling behind, and that is often resulting in higher turnover. So employers are facing the need to update their compensation programs.

And our listeners will find this interesting. You know, I've received a lot of feedback about my book, Road to Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being. And surprising to me, quite frankly, were the comments about chapter six, Rewarding Compensation. I've gotten a lot of feedback about that chapter. Well, as we've talked with our ministry partners, there’ve been significant increases in starting rates of pay for frontline service workers. Minimum rates for entry-level workers have increased significantly in the past couple of years because of the labor-market competitiveness. And these increases are causing compression for pay levels in the middle of the pay structures for many. And yes, we anticipate that many organizations will be revamping their compensation programs in 2023.

In fact, I recently interviewed Giselle Jenkins, one of our consultants on this podcast, and she's helped me with the podcast called “The Best Approach to Deal with Wage Inflation,” and that's season seven, episode 29. So go to our URL, workplaces.org, to click on Resources to link to that podcast.

Well, here's another focus related to compensation that's trending, and that is career paths. And again, this is a top priority for 47% of HR leaders, and many of them believe their organizations do not have a compelling career-path program. This is going to be a key trend as we look forward post COVID. Again, many leaders struggle to identify the internal moves that employees must make to grow their own careers. And in a recent survey on employee-career preferences, just one in four employees voiced confidence about their future career in their organization, and three out of four are looking for a new role or they're being interested in external positions. So, again, we want to keep our best employees, our top performers, and a way to do that is having great career paths.

And we typically suggest at least three steps, and that is to allow employees to set a trajectory and communicate role benefits and requirements as you begin to create career paths. So, number two is to find in-role opportunities or potential new roles.

And then, also, number three, identify internal roles to achieve goals. So if you've got a goal to increase your scope and knowledge, then how are you going to do that internally, using a career path? We often call this identifying key seats as well. So as an organization has specific goals that they want to achieve, what positions are going to be necessary to make that happen?

What we're seeing is that pathway is not clear now that the work experience is changing. Career options are less visible with less time in the office. I mean, we can all see that. So with less time in the office, current skills are becoming obsolete, employees aren't prepared for future roles, and current options don't satisfy employees needed as people rethink their role of work in their life. And this represents new career imperatives for leaders to create best-fit careers for employees. And again, we're still seeing that there are 10 million open jobs in the market, attracting our best employees.

So for a guide on career paths, go to our website, workplaces.org, and click on Resources to find our toolkit, Career Paths for Everyone. That's under our HR Essentials group of toolkits.

But lastly, I've got one more thing here, Rob, on compensation, and that is pay transparency is beginning to become a thing. You know, in fact, this is reappearing as a new old issue from my perspective, and this is being pushed along by new state and local laws. And more organizations are increasing their transparency about pay. And so I'll bet you many of our listeners haven't really thought about this yet, but it's starting to surface on the agenda for many organizations.

Well, what a survey has said that, really, not very many organizations are disclosing pay-range information, only about 17%, and even in locations where it's not required by state or local laws, according to a WTW survey. At least 62% of employers are planning to disclose or considering disclosing pay-rate information in the future. Organizations plan to use a consistent approach in determining which pay-rate or -range information will be disclosed across all jobs in an organization. And many are applying a geographic pay policy to determine the pay rates or ranges, and of course, that may differ based on job location, the survey found.

You know, another question that leaders are thinking about is they've seen many of their employees move from high-cost urban areas to lower-cost rural areas during COVID and working remotely. So the question is, will they pay them as much because of the geographic differentials and pay rates, and how do you do that? So there's a thought for you.

But we wanted to give you a heads up on this whole pay transparency because we see that as a growing trend.

Robert: Absolutely. Thank you, Al, for that information on employee compensation. That's obviously super important for employees as they assess where they want to work.

Al: Yeah.

Robert: And I think this leads us into our sixth trend, if I'm not mistaken, for the seven trends. But, Jay, please help us out. Introduce us to the sixth trend to look forward to in 2023.

Jay: You bet, Rob. Well, our listeners might recognize the next trend as one that Al and I also mentioned last year in this podcast, a year ago, and we believe it'll be even more prevalent in 2023. The sixth workplace trend is remaking the workforce with contingent workers. So if you think about it, as baby boomers retire at mass, organizations continue to tailor their workforce-management strategies towards younger generations. And this brings with it an increased emphasis on work-life balance and agile, flexible work options that tend to appeal to the younger millennial and Gen Z employees who want to work and enjoy work on their own terms. So the typical 9-to-5 desk job has given way to the gig economy, which promotes a far-less-structured workday and a far-more-complicated talent supply chain.

Now, to understand the broad reach and recent growth of the talent supply chain, we need to consider the following statistics. First, this year alone—actually, last year alone, in 2022—there were roughly 77 million freelancers working in Europe, India, and the United States. That is a lot of gig workers. Also, more than 40% of workers in the U.S. are employed in alternative work arrangements, such as contingent or part-time work. And this percentage has increased 36% in the last five years alone, and it includes workers of all ages and skill levels. And then, in addition, the average percentage of contingent labor within organizations has almost doubled in the last year alone, going from 15 to 29%. And 41% of employees say they'll only work for a company that offers agile employment options. Let me say that again: 41% of employees say they'll only work for a company that offers agile employment options. That's a pretty amazing statistic.

So as contingent-labor options become more popular and include more specialized fields, hiring leaders trying to find the right talent at the right time are running into some internal administrative roadblocks. Today, only 16% of employees say that their companies have well-defined strategies for managing contractors and freelancers or gig workers. So to stay competitive in the war for talent, organizations and their teams could consider embracing contingent-workforce opportunities. And while companies are currently filling the labor gap, sometimes with gig workers, organizations have to have additional administrative processes and technologies in place to speed up the time it takes to fill those open positions and onboard these gig workers and get them up to speed and efficient quickly.

So with younger generations entering the workforce, the number of contingent workers will continue to climb. Contingent labor is, really, still in its infancy. But as the labor landscape continues to evolve, companies need to adapt if they want to remain appealing to potential employees and remain competitive in the market.

So again, remaking the workforce with contingent workers, we believe, will be a priority for many leaders in 2023.

Robert: Thank you so much, Jay, for that information. You know, even here at Best Christian Workplaces, I can tell you that with this brand refresh that we've been working on for months now and recently launched, we did bring in some workers to help us with this huge project. And I think that really helped us lower the cost of hiring externally versus, you know, full-time employees or even part-time employees. So I think that’s really important heading into 2023. Amazing and kind of eye-opening statistics there, Jay. So thank you so much.

You know, that brings us to our final trend for 2023, and I will hand this back over to Al Lopus to guide us through this final trend.

Al: Well, thanks, Rob. Okay, number seven is reconstruct your learning culture for the hybrid world. And again, there's a lot of discussion about, you know, how hybrid will the world be going forward? And there is tension between many leaders and employees about how long hybrid’s going to work. But we believe that hybrid’s going to be a clear option for work going forward.

You know, a recent LinkedIn study labeled Workplace Learning Report does a great job of articulating what we're seeing in our ministry-partner experience. It corroborates our experiences that culture is having a watershed moment. And according to BCW data, having opportunities to learn and grow is one of the keys that people say define an exceptional workplace environment. And on top of that, employees who rate their culture highly are more likely to be happy at work and more likely to recommend working at your organization. And again, having workplace referrals from current employees is really important.

The headline’s clear: learning powers culture, and culture powers engaged employees who are energized to innovate, delight customers, and if necessary for Christian-led businesses, beat the competition. So according to LinkedIn, almost two-thirds of learning-and-development pros see their culture moving in the right direction. And that's great news.

So while compelling priorities are pulling learning-and-development pros in many directions, they're still able to rank their focus areas. And when we combine upskilling and reskilling priorities with digital upskilling, skills emerge as the most-pressing concern across the world. The primary-focus areas for learning-and-development programs for 2022 are leadership and management training, and that's half of organizations say leadership and management training are one of the primary focuses. Upskilling and reskilling employees. Again, so many new things are being required in this new workplace environment, we need to upskill and reskill our employees. Digital upskilling and digital transformation is a priority outlined by 26% of the learning-and-development professionals. And still, number four, is diversity, equity, and inclusion. So again, those are the four focus areas that organizations are outlining: leadership and management training; upskilling and reskilling employees; digital upskilling; and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

So when you look at upskilling and reskilling employees, along with digital upskilling, 72% of learning-and-development budgets are focused on skill development. Again, the key focus is skills. A big question for leaders is, how do you measure the impact of skill-building programs in your organization? This comes back over and over again. How do we measure the effectiveness of our learning-and-development programs? Well, we found that one key measure that's really effective is to use your employee-engagement survey. We've seen this over and over.

You know, our Best Christian Workplace Engagement Survey has several targeted questions focused on the effectiveness of learning. A couple of our questions include, for example, over the past year, I've had opportunities to learn and grow. Or I received the training necessary to complete my current assignment. Or someone cares about my learning and development. So yes, as we look at 2023, organizations of every size will need to reconstruct their learning culture for our hybrid world.

So Rob, that's number seven.

Robert: Thank you so much, Al and Jay, for providing this incredible information on workplace trends for 2023. That wraps it up.

But before we go, I want to give you one last minute to put all of this in context for us, especially for Christian-led organizations. So, Al, do you have any concluding thoughts that would be helpful for our listeners today?

Al: Yeah. I'd just encourage leaders in Christian workplaces to focus on this vision, and that is that we believe that Christian workplaces should set the standard for the best, most effective places to work in the world. And we believe that's important because people are drawn to workplaces that love one another, that work well together, that are seen as really getting things done.

And we—also, I'm going to challenge all of our listeners—we want to see a thousand flourishing workplaces in the year 2030. And that would be a significant—that would help to turn the declining culture in our country around to be a more focused, God-fearing, Christian-based culture.

Jay: Hey, amen to all that, Al. Thank you.

And you know, just to add a little bit more, with all the talk we've had about culture shifts and economic challenges and the changes and trends that go along with all of that, I'm really reminded that change is, really, one of the only constants in life. Change isn't a new concept. And as leaders, for our organizations to be successful in the long run, we must continually anticipate and respond to the changing needs of the world around us and of our staff. So, as you know, at Best Christian Workplaces, we know that proactively seeking input from your staff annually is likely the best input into managing organizational change and for maintaining a healthy workplace culture.

And what's really exciting and potentially a bit alarming for Christian leaders is knowing that the workplace culture you've developed, be it flourishing or toxic or anywhere in between, that culture that you've created serves, to a great extent, as your testimony to your staff of how Christians lead and how Christians treat one another. So for me, it's really an honor for us at Best Christian Workplaces to have the opportunity to help equip and inspire Christian leaders, like you all listening, to truly create engaged, healthy workplaces, thereby attracting people to Christ. And to me, that is possibly the most noble end outcome that Christian leaders can aspire to achieve in and through their organizations.

Al: Amen, Jay.

Robert: Yeah. Amen to that.

Jay and Al, I want to thank you both for your contributions to the podcast today and informing us on these workplace trends for 2023. I know personally so much of that was enlightening, and I know it will be super helpful to all of the listeners out there. And most of all, I appreciate both of your commitment to creating workplace cultures and helping leaders meet the changing and demanding needs of people and workplaces around the country. I know personally, seeing this firsthand within the organization, how much of a difference is being made in people's personal lives, their work lives, and the Kingdom impact that is happening around the world.

So thank you so much for your investment and commitment to this cause, and also, thank you for taking time out of your day today and speaking into the lives of so many listeners all across the country and world. So thank you both for taking time out of your day and your busy schedules to speak into the lives of so many Christian leaders and listeners around the globe.

Al: Thanks, Rob. Thanks for leading our discussion today. It's really been a pleasure.

Outro: The Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Best Christian Workplaces. If you need support building a flourishing workplace culture, please visit workplaces.org for more information.

We'll see you again next week for more valuable content to help you develop strong leaders and build a flourishing workplace culture.