The Workforce of the Future is Human Centered with Melissa Swift

Warriors at Work

This week we are talking with a workplace transformation expert, Melissa Swift. Melissa believes that we can improve the everyday experience of people at work by combining empathy and capitalism. In this conversation we break down what it means to be more human at work and how we as leaders can address imbalances we feel about our roles and the future of our organizations. An enlightening conversation!
Melissa Swift is the U.S. Transformation Leader at Mercer, a consultancy firm helping redefine the world of work. In this role, Melissa is responsible for the firm’s efforts in the areas of workforce transformation, HR transformation, HR digitization, diversity equity and inclusion, and workforce analytics. Melissa is a recognized thought leader on the subject of the future of work post-COVID: she has been quoted on the subject in Newsweek, Washington Post, Axios, and Daily Mail, and has appeared on NPR and Al-Jazeera English.
(3:20) Where did Melissa’s passion for workplace transformation come from?
(4:50) What would prompt an organization to need Melissa’s service and how does she help them reshape how they are operating? What ties data & empathy together to create a more efficient workplace?
(7:50) How does she work with a company to help them see & implement the needed changes?
(9:03) Melissa goes through statistics about the workplace, helping us to understand the “why” behind them:
•28% of the workforce, at any moment, wants to quit
•750K people die every year from working too long
(13:27) We discuss her new book, and she shares some of her best strategies to achieve a more “human” centered workplace.
(18:20) Melissa shares how we can, as leaders, communicate better in the workplace.
(20:44) Discussing the concept of Transformational Leadership and two of Jeanie’s favorite examples of how this manifests in the workplace.
(22:34) Is there a difference between gender and leadership perfectionism?
(24:30) Discussion about the ability to contextualize, giving your team the ability to see the reason “why”.
(27:59) What does Melissa see businesses might be missing, or need to plan for, as they transform into a better version of themselves?
(32:04) Does Covid fatigue show up in the work Melissa does with organizations?
(33:34) Looking forward 10 years, how does Melissa see the workplace evolving?
Connect with Melissa Swift
https://enterprisersproject.com/user/melissa-swift
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