Hey, take a break! Plus, why AI don’t scare me none

RETENTION

Here to stay

With employee engagement and staff retention continuing to challenge many employers, the stay interview is becoming a permanent part of the HR toolbox

THERE’S NO END in sight, really, for the new challenges employers have been facing when it comes to staff retention. For some employers, this has prompted introspection ― what are they doing right, and what are they doing wrong? And to answer those questions, some are turning to “stay interviews” with employees to figure it out.

A stay interview isn’t an exit interview conducted with an employee who’s already on their way out. Rather, it’s an interview that takes place while the employee is working, with the explicit goal of figuring out how an employee is doing and, crucially, what kinds of things would make them stay at the organization, explains Canadian Business.

“By understanding what matters to people ― both personally and professionally ― employers can take efforts to retain workers,” added Candy Ho in The Globe a nd M ail . “Amid concerns of a recession, and with the cost of replacing an individual employee ranging from half to two times their annual salary, overlooking retention would be a costly mistake.”

Stay interviews can seem a little formal and formulaic, but many organizations that have adopted the practice have found positive results. The Ottawa Humane Society were asked about it and said they were “stunned” by what they learned; before they even completed a full round of interviews they had formalized the practice as part of their long-term planning.

According to companies finding success with stay interviews, the most important element of the process is preparing to be open to the kind of honest feedback the interview is designed to elicit: “If you ask people their opinion and nothing ever changes,” said Heather Wright of the BC Maritime Employers Association, “it’s a waste of everybody’s time.” Kieran Delamont

WELLBEING

Give me a break!

Working too hard? New University of Waterloo research highlights the importance of taking breaks

YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD something like this before, from coworkers, shop stewards or conscientious supervisors: take your breaks.

A new study from the University of Waterloo, however, suggests that employees aren’t taking their breaks with much discipline ― and that is having knock-on effects both for them and their organizations.

The researchers surveyed the break habits of around 400 workers, and found that a), employees often kept working despite wanting to pause, and b), that skipping breaks had a negative impact on their wellbeing, productivity and performance.

But what the study really wanted to know was why workers chose to forgo their breaks. The most common reason was workload: the more work there was, the more implied pressure there was to skip the break.

“In the face of a large workload, an individual may be unwilling to divert time away from the task at hand and instead choose to ‘power through’ without a break, in spite of fatigue,” the research found.

The researchers also discovered that workers wanted to keep up momentum and speed of work (and thus power through), as well as finding that small interruptions often derailed plans to take a break.

The research also considered the workplace climate ― that is, how accepted break-taking was in the workplace, and suggested this is probably where the biggest gains could be made for both parties. A small minority of surveyed workers suggested that supervisors were applying pressure to skip their breaks, but that this was detrimental to both well-being and productivity. In other words, everybody wins when breaks are observed correctly.

“We recognize that it may not always be possible for employees to take more breaks,” said Dr. Vincent Phan, one of the study’s authors, “but if employers can promote employee wellbeing by addressing the conditions that can make work unpleasant, they may be able to reduce the number of breaks needed.” Kieran Delamont

Terry Talks: The Bud Light controversy ― a lesson in authenticity and purpose

If there’s one thing every business can take from the recent Bud Light controversy, it’s that meaningful Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in the workplace is a journey, not an event. Businesses should ensure their involvement in social issues is genuine and purpose-driven, that they are focused on long-term impact rather than short-term gains and that their DEI initiatives are consistently reflected in actions, not just in messaging and marketing campaigns.

WATCH HERE

AUTOMATION

AI vs. creatives: it’s not doomsday

Far from fearing the machine, most creatives view AI as a tool to help elevate their game

BY NOW YOU’VE surely seen or heard plenty about the rapid rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT ― and chances are also good that you’ve encountered something about professional attempts to incorporate these tools into various workflows.

Some of these ― like attempts to use ChatGPT for news reporting ― seem a bit far-fetched. But in the creative professional fields like advertising and design, experts are just starting to grapple with what to make of these kinds of tools and how they will disrupt ― or not ― their industries.

So, just what are they making of it?

While you might expect creative professionals to worry about AI, most are level-headed about it: they see all the talk of it as a job-replacer unlikely, viewing it as more of a useful tool than career disrupter.

Simon Richings, creative director at We Are Social, suggested that AI was a clarion call for creatives to up their game. “Ultimately the work it produces is ― by its very nature ― as average as you can get,” he said. “ChatGPT doesn’t know what to say, it just knows what we are most likely to say. This raises the bar for creatives. When five-out-of-10 work is abundantly available for free, six-out-of-10 work is probably not worth paying for. But the really good stuff becomes even more valuable.”

One creative who is sour on it is British songwriter Nick Cave, who had a strong reaction when a fan asked ChatGPT to write a song in his signature style then and sent it to the musician. Cave was so thoroughly unimpressed with the final product that he took to his blog about it.

“What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work,” Cave stressed. “Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite…This song sucks.”

Overall, though, almost all creatives feel that they have the edge over the machine – for now. And that’s probably good news for anyone who fears the wholesale automation of the creative industries.

“The fact that I’m flawed enough to believe I have an advantage might just be the biggest advantage I have,” said Something Different creative director Richard Ryan. “Unless AI kills us all. In which case I was wrong.” Kieran Delamont

PRODUCTIVITY

Hack your brain

Bionic Reading: A new method for reading faster of just another gimmick?

WHAT IF A simple font tool could more than double the speed at which you are able to read? That’s one of the claims being made by advocates of something called Bionic Reading, hailed as a great leap forward for power readers as well as those with ADHD.

Bionic Reading is a tool created recently by Renato Casutt and Roger Capaul. Casutt is a Swiss typographic designer who set out to design a system to increase the speed at which the brain reads.

It works very simply: the first few letters of each word are bolded, to give the brain quick “fixation points” that allow it to progress more quickly through the text. An example:

“As a result, the reader is only focusing on the highlighted initial letters and lets the brain center complete the word. In a digital world dominated by shallow forms of reading, Bionic Reading aims to encourage a more in-depth reading and understanding of written content.”

Bionic Reading has plenty of acolytes. Some claim things like it feels like “unlocking 100 per cent of your brain,” and others see applications for dyslexia and ADHD.

But does it actually work?

Casutt’s claims of the effectiveness are, admittedly, a little thin ― before releasing the Bionic Reading app, he tested it on only 12 readers, though said that most readers had a “positive” experience with it.

But as with many things to do with reading habits, it’s probably personal: some will find formatting like Bionic Reading helpful, others won’t.

There have been many tools like Bionic Reading released over the years that promise to increase reading speed – like Blinkist, for example, which condenses books into 15-minute text explainers.

In the end, they are tools, not panacea. When reading as quickly as possible is valuable (grad school, anyone?), Bionic Reading might be a great tool. When getting lost in a novel is what you want, you may prefer to slow down.

“Readers would miss that if they read through the bionic lens,” writes Daniel Lavelle at The Guardian, “where everything becomes supercharged as if the writer was scribbling during a massive speed binge. Still, it would improve Wuthering Heights.” Kieran Delamont