 Hello everyone and welcome to today's business skills webinar, the art of diversity. I'm Sarah Gonzalez. I'm an employee of Redback Conferencing and I will be your facilitator today. So today we're welcoming Najla Turk from eConnect and she's going to be enlightening us on the art of diversity. Before we get started and before I introduce her we just like to launch a quick poll just to get some understanding of our audience better and that's you who I'm talking to. So I'm going to launch a poll and the question is do you find engaging employees challenging? So it's a simple yes or no so simply select yes or no on your screen and also if you have anything to add please feel free to elaborate by using the text chat box on the bottom left corner of the screen. So when it does come to engaging employees and whether or not we find it challenging we have around 70% of people saying yes and 30% of people saying no. So Najla what are your thoughts on that? Well the fact that we have so many people registered today tells us that it is a challenging topic. Engaging employees is quite very topical and that's why I'm here to present today. Excellent so we'll close the poll and then we'll get started on the presentations and just want to start off asking you Najla. So employee engagement it's a buzzword that we hear thrown around so much is it actually important in the workplace? Absolutely we're all living in an environment at the moment where it's very stressful and when people aren't engaged it just means that everybody is stressed and there's added pressure and responsibilities to individuals who wants to go to work and feel unhappy stressed and disengaged. Okay so we'll start off with the presentation now. Great thank you very much Sarah for the opportunity to present today. So I'd just like to I'd just like to ask the question would you agree that there has been an increasing number of women in the workplace and that their roles in non-traditional employment opportunities have changed and have you noticed that the job stress has become the number one major factor of stress in the workplace today and the advent of technology. How much has our working life changed? I'm Najla Turk the director of Connect and the author of The Art of Diversity. The world the world in which we live is changing but it's changing a very rapid rate we have become interconnected both locally nationally and globally and with that means that we're intertwining with people in places and this is bringing lots of challenges to the organization because we're operating in a climate that's very volatile and there's a lot of uncertainty and complexity to not only just the organization but to employees. So in terms of this we understand the world is changing technology and so many other things play a big role in it. What is your solution when it comes to this? Well if you can see on the screen here dice. I see business as the world of work has been a game of chance. It's a game and as most board games we play dice and this is the metaphor for individual. So my model is called the dice model and what we do is take a closer look at the individual and we look at the different facets of what they bring to the organization. The organization. What makes the organization? Obviously employees are employed to look at the business model. There's a business plan. A lot of work goes into the executive summary, the marketing of the business, financial planning, doing a SWAT analysis. It is a big picture and lots of people coming together to drive the organization forward but what makes an organization successful and what makes them fail. On this slide here it's a very simple representation of people and Zig Ziglet put it beautifully. You don't build a business, you build people and your people then build your business and that's really what it's all about. It's building individual capacity and the fact that each and every one of you is registered today tells me that you are a leader in your own right. You have the talent, you have the skills but you may not be able to be able to bring it together and to make a difference in the workplace and hopefully by the end of this presentation you will learn the skills and strategies to make a difference, a major difference which will reduce stress in the competitive world that we work in today. The first face of the die and a die is as we said it was a metaphor for an individual is diversity. What is the definition of diversity? We are understanding that each individual is unique and diversity is different things for different people and people could be diversity of thought, could be diversity of experiences and skills but today I'm looking closely at my personal profile and I've chosen to look at, I've chosen to grade diversity. So in the center here we have the diversity like a dice, like they come in different shapes and sizes and colors so do people and we are an individual that has so much that we can bring to the workplace and we need to be highlighted and we are concentrating here on differences. We want to embrace differences and what are they? Grade. Gender, religion, age, disability and ethnicity and in the next few slides we'll talk a little bit more in detail. Gender diversity, it's very topical at the moment, worldwide we've established that there is gender inequality and but how does this impact on the organization? Well Johnson and Johnson are doing amazing things, they're doing diversity metrics in the organization and they're actually mapping and tracking the recruitment of women but how sad that we only have 2.4% of CEOs and that ASX 500. We only have 1 to 24% of women on boards around across the world, 1% Asia, 24% in Sweden and the next figure is a 66% of men. Men are totally unaware that women experience challenges and they have difficulties in the workplace just by being women. Religion. I often get asked questions and there is a difference between religion and culture and religion is simply the divine, connecting spiritually to the divine order and so as leaders in your organization it pays to identify whether an individual is practicing religion and what you can do to accommodate them, our age. Did you know that there are three, this is the first time ever we have three generations working in the workplace and each generation brings with it different characteristics and qualities. We need to embrace differences in the workplace and how do we work to better work together. Disability. Disability and employment has become complex. It's a solution that nobody can really pinpoint but what are you doing about making a difference? How are you helping those that are disabled and have a dear hearing impairment work better in the workplace? Physical, we fully understand but a hearing, visual, emotional impairment. And this is my favorite, ethnicity. Here we have Russian dolls. We also different, we come from a different place, we have a different background. We may speak or eat or dress differently. Are we embracing that in the workplace and what can you do about bringing differences together? So diversity is about breaking down your workplace and one good example would be Google. They realized they had an issue in their workplace and how they're going to compete in these challenging times and they looked at their work force and made changes to the workplace. My next face of the dice model is inclusion. We're aware that individuals are diverse and we need to bring them into the organization and make them feel inclusive. Inclusion is the opposite of exclusion. When people are excluded unconsciously, inclusion is making a conscious awareness and bringing people within the organization to feel comfortable. And the statistics that I'd like to share with you is Deloitte. When they did a very recent survey is that 80% of organizations believe that their organization was inclusive. But in fact, only 11% said they were. And high-performing teams outperformed eight times more than the average team because they were inclusive. Just have a think about those facts. So what is inclusion? Inclusion is about breaking any barrier that's impacting on your employees performing at their utmost. And the example would be unconscious bias. And as an individual who is different for whatever reason, for example, the ethnicity, there is unconscious bias that goes with what they bring to the organization. So you need to, if we look at the center triangle, you need to include them into a team so you can have a high-performing team. So offer flexibility. Accept that change exists in this volatile uncertain environment of work. And embrace diversity of thought. Embrace ideas. Our third face of the dice model is culture. And here we're not talking about ethnicity or we're talking about the workplace culture. A system of shared beliefs and values that govern how people behave. It's very important that the organization has a culture that embraces diversity, that embraces inclusion, and that is fostering an environment that is inclusive and proactive. Culture. Why it's the hottest topic in business today? Because it's about being competitive. There is not one business in the planet that is not competing for survival. We need to sustain the competitive environment. True high-performance organizational culture, it provides the single greatest source of competitive advantage. You need to build a culture. It doesn't just happen. It takes time. But you as the leader have the power to make a difference. And what we have is diverse employees in the workplace, all very different and unique. We're creating an opportunity where people are included and they're all focused in the same direction. Their shared vision, the organizational vision, and they're working together in unity. And then we celebrate. We're not going to have an organization that are grumpy and high absentees and increase conflict. And it's all about celebrating. What can you do? When was the last time you celebrated Harmony Day? And the last face of our dice is engagement. And this is why 70% of the poll today answered it was complex. It was challenging. Because we need to motivate our employees to contribute to organizational success. But we want to be able to work together as well. So we embrace diversity, the differences. We create inclusion, which is the opposite of exclusion. And we hit the win-win scenario. Narsha, can I just ask you a question? So we talk about diversity and the advantage that we can have when we actually embrace it. But who in the workplace is actually responsible for creating engagement and engaging employees? Well, as I said earlier, an organization does have employees working for them and from senior, middle and lower management working together to engage with customers and internal and external. But it's all about somebody taking responsibility. And it must be not the person who's employed to lead. It could be anyone in the organization who has the attributes of leadership. Okay. And how do you build a culture of engagement? I think there's a lot of people out there. And like I said earlier, they hear the word engagement and it's a buzzword and it's always spoken about with people. But what are some steps or some tips that we can actually take in everyday life to actually help build this culture and get everyone engaged? Very good question, Sarah. How do we build a culture? First of all, we need to acknowledge that their engagement is not happening. And in this next slide, 13% of employees worldwide are actively, only 30% are actively engaged. And that just sends alarm bells to me. So how do we engage? We acknowledge that there are diversity in the workplace and we create the culture where people are felt inclusive and we ask them questions. And we find out what it is that they want. What it is that our employees want and what can we do to accommodate so it's meeting the needs of our internal customers. Great. And I'd love to hear from some other people within our online audience. If you're taking any steps within your workplace at the moment to increase engagement, please type them down in the chat box on the bottom left hand corner. We'd love to share some comments and feedback. And obviously it's all about sharing and seeing what other organizations are doing. Is that correct? Absolutely. We've got some great, great organizations out there that are role modeling. As I said, we mentioned Google, but Qantas, Deloitte, we have KPMG. So many organizations, Johnson & Johnson, for example. There are lots. But what's alarming is that statistics is one thing, but the reality is totally different. So you need to be proactive and creating best practice in your organization because every organization is different and employees are made up from different backgrounds and cultures and ages and religions. Okay, we'll continue on now. Great. Thank you, Sarah. So our next slide. Disengagement costs organizations billions of dollars. That's right. We're in an environment of flux. Change is occurring. It's like very complex and there's a lot of uncertainty. Organizations need to know that they're moving forward and disengagement is costing organizations billions. And to provide an example, they did the research and when 12 people quit an organization, that's close to $1.5 million. And that's a breakup of entry-level middle management and senior management. That's one person a month left the organization. That's $1.5 million. And it's so important that we need to understand that people don't leave companies. They don't leave the organization. They're leaving managers. They're leaving leaders because lack of skills, lack of attention, lack of ability and talent. And high employee engagement is critical. We've established the start of the poll. We are aware that engagement is important, but it's been critical to an organization's performance. Now, by engaging employees, you're going to have 37% lower absenteeism. Think what that could do to your organization. The stress level, conflict. 65% lower turnover as well. We talked about the cost of the organization. For every time somebody left, that's added pressure to existing employees having to carry the load. 21% higher productivity. Isn't this what organizations are about? How can we engage our employees to increase performance and productivity? 21% higher engagement is phenomenal results and profitability. Every organization is a business and the business is operating for sole reason of growth, profitability and they need to be competitive. So here we have the faces of our dime. Diversity, inclusion, culture and employee engagement. And we've established that we need a leader, an inclusive leader at that. But the operative word here is and. It's not one or the other. It's and. As a leader, I give you permission to engage your employees and follow through on each of the faces of the dice. And what is the result? An organization working together. Appreciative. We're appreciating respectful, tolerant and we embrace differences. They come together with the common good of the organization. And we're working in harmony, less stress, less absenteeism and less conflict. In summary, what do we need to take away from this presentation? We need to appreciate that individuals are different and they have talent and they have diversity of thought. They come together. But yet we need to eliminate, eliminate strategies and initiatives that aren't working. It's fine to change. We're in a world that is constantly changing. It is okay to trial different things that are going to work for your cohort of employees and accelerate. I guarantee if you apply the dice model to your employees, you can only accelerate positive results and improve business outcomes for your organization. The only thing constant in the world is change. Allow me to take the risk out of engaging employees. There's no need to operate in a high, volatile, uncertain environment and being in the eye of the storm. Employee engagement and throwing your dice is key to success. So my gift to you today just for registering today and showing passion and showing leadership quality, I'd like to gift you my e-book. And if you just email, Nigel is my name, najla at connect.com.au. I will send that to you today. But just for those who are in leadership roles and those who are actually engaging with other people, I'm more than happy to be contacted. I'm happy to set up a free strategy engagement assessment. So take action today, eliminate stress, eliminate absenteeism and create an environment where employees are happy. When you go home happy, don't, if you've ever heard of the Monday phenomenon, Monday stress phenomenon, don't go to work on a Monday and have stress over your head for the whole week and carry that home with you. I'm Najla Turk. These are the details of my how to be contacted. Nigel at connect.com.au, najla at coneqt.com.au. Thanks, Nigel. Now we're going to go to a live Q&A session because we've got some great food for thought, but we've got some questions coming through as well as some things that people are already doing. And we've also had some people submit some free questions before today. So I just want to pick your brain a little bit if that's okay for the next few minutes or so. So someone wrote in to us, Tim, actually a few days ago, once upon registering for the webinar. So he currently conducts culture surveys within his organization in order to see how engaged his employees are. What do you think of gaining feedback from your employees? Good or bad? Culture surveys written and I'll be open and honest with you. How honest are they going to be? I've spoken to many HR departments and many leaders in the field, in the field of engaging employees. And the reality is that people, 70, 80% of people are going to tick that they're very satisfied. What you need to do is they take it to the next level, have that one-on-one conversation, give them an opportunity to share with you what they're feeling, what they're thinking, and how you can make a difference. So how else then can we actually see whether our employees are engaged? Is it just a matter of putting your finger up in the air and just getting some sort of pulse as to what's happening? Or is it a matter of doing these surveys on a regular basis, meeting up with people on a regular basis? Or are there any other ways that we can get involved? I can see in the tool down the bottom in the Q&A chat, we've got Michael and he said, one tool I have used to engage employees in a call centre was to ensure the performance measures were actually something that each individual could meet, not expected an individual to achieve a group goal by themselves. So just a relation to that and other engagement tools, what's your advice on that, Najla? Absolutely. Yes, any stranger that is currently working, continue. But what you can do over and above is put it out there, ask the questions, have the dialogue, and you will know whether your employees are engaged by the atmosphere. The high absenteeism is an indication that they're not engaged, not meeting projects, coming to work late. It's obvious that employees are not engaged, leaving early. You want employees to feel at home. If the environment is inclusive, they're more than happy to stay and do the work. They will be not only meeting targets, but they'll be giving over and above because they're motivated, intrinsically motivated to do the work. Great. Another question we had was from Sophie and this one's quite interesting because I think I hear this come up quite a lot. So we work in an organisation that has been around for a long time, and many staff have been around for a long time. The culture is really lacking and the motivation is low. Is there a way to change culture or is it sometimes just too late? Honestly, it's never too late. Culture does take time to change, but it just starts with the seed, intention. You set the intention to change culture and then you make the difference. You proactively make changes and it just takes one person to change the world. It only takes one person to change the culture. Okay, great. If anyone else does have any questions, please also type them in below. Otherwise, Najla, in a moment, I'm going to get you to tell us your top three tips, but we do have a question from Austin. What can we do to promote intrinsic motivation amongst employees? And I'm also just going to pop up a survey on the left-hand side so people can fill that in while we go to the final Q&A. Q&A, sorry, thank you. I can share my personal experiences. When I have felt included in an organization, that I'm intrinsic and motivated and just little things go a long way. Just having an open door policy so when employees can walk in and share with you what's going on in their personal life, sometimes that's all it takes. It's sharing, sharing and caring. It's also celebrating, celebrating events. Hami does a fantastic event, International Women's Day, showing that your organization actually cares about women and having dialogue over the tea. So rather than complain sitting around the, oh we know that gossip happens in the tea room all the time, but rather than complain, why not share positive stories and how you've made a difference or how other people have been intrinsically motivated. And this is best practice because employee engagement is really just human engagement and we need to be connected and it just takes one person to make that difference. Great, thank you for your question, Austin. So that does bring us to the end. We really do thank you for joining today and like I said earlier, please complete the survey with your feedback. I'd like to thank you, Najla, for joining us today, some very interesting thoughts there. And before we leave, what are your top three things, top three tips or top three thoughts that we should walk away with today? I would definitely say emotional intelligence. The workplace is an environment where there is energy circulating. Whether it's positive or negative, there is energy. By being emotionally intelligent and engaging with your employees, you have a greater sense of where they're coming from. You will sense whether they're happy, disgruntled, productive, confused. The environment that we're working in is challenging. Organisations are amalgamating and they're downsizing and there's a lot of change and we don't like change. That's the reality. And so if you can be on the journey with the individual, with your employee, not so much an employee, don't treat them as employees. Treat them as people. If you're on their journey, on their journey together, then that's all you can do. My second tip would be don't be afraid of diversity. Have the discussion. All too often, we are afraid of differences and there's nothing wrong with differences. That is truly the key to embracing diversity and engaging employees. Differences of thought, experiences, talent. We don't want group think. So step out of your comfort zone, look and see how people are different and have the dialogue. Let's start with some dialogue. Excellent. And the third thing I would say is don't be hard on yourself. We are all organisations and employees are all working to make a difference. What fails is actually an indication that this time this cohort of employees that you're working with may not be working. So get the feedback. Have the dialogue and don't be hard on yourself. Be kind to yourself and be kind to others. Your here tells me that you want to make a difference and you can make a difference but you need to have belief in yourself. You need to be confident of what you have and how you can drive your team forward to be high performing and you can do it. Thank you, Najla. Some excellent advice there. So thank you once again for joining today. We hope that you've gotten a lot out of this last half an hour. Thank you also, Najla. It's been great to have you as a presenter on our business skills series. We also hope you enjoyed our new webinar platform, which we're showing off for the first time today. And if you do have any further questions, please contact Najla directly. She'll be able to assist you. And also if you'd like any further information on redback conferencing, feel free to contact me directly and we'll be able to send you some. Other than that, enjoy the rest of your day and we hope to see you at future redback business skills events. Bye for now. And I'd like to thank you very much, Sarah, and red back for the opportunity to share with you what I know best. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Bye.