Last week I had a chat with Eric Termuende, Founder of The DRYVER Group, where we talked about all things work and people. Eric has been speaking all over the world about the future of the workplace and building a multigenerational culture group that is helping with the perceived Millennial and next-gen differences and discrepancies in the workplace.
“We’ve built a living, realtime data-visualization platform that shows various business areas, segments and demographics of the workplace and the value each group associates with each component we know contribute to culture,” Termuende said.
Termuende continued, “With the results, we are able to determine development areas requiring evolution and attention which we then use to build a road map for the executive team over a 12-36 month period. We also don’t just leave this with them and walk away, we facilitate each step through workshops and ongoing training to ensure Return On Investment through performance, engagement, and retention. We’ve coined this process to be our Human Equity Investment Centre, as we don’t forget the people behind your product and know that people must come first.”
Termuende, a 2015 AMEX and Ashoka Top 100 Innovator Under 35 Globally and TEDx speaker has just finished his book Rethink Work slated for pre-release on October 19th and talks about the future of the workplace not being so much about technology, but about people and how we utilize it.
“I believe that, generally speaking, the workplace has become de-humanized to the point that we type, text, and click more than we meaningfully connect. Further, we tend to generalize and stereotype entire generations and group people into categories and boxes they simply don’t fit in,” said Termuende.
Termuende, featured by the National Speakers Bureau this fall in their Engageseries, predicts that outlook on the future of work and Human Resources will be more bleak before it gets better.
“See, I still think we’re in the ‘honeymoon phase’ of technology. We still think it is ok to give a crying child an ipad instead of attention. We train new employees by an automated series of tests and modules, and the remote workplace makes it hard for people to really know who they are working with and what it means to truly work together. What we’re doing with our clients now is really understanding who these people are, what they love about their jobs, and what lives they are able to live as a result,” said Termuende.
Interesting thought as my personal observation shows me that the problem is just that: the job description is no more than a skills and requirements checklist. Seldom do they actually describe the job or values and experiences associated with it.
Termuende concluded, “And in a world that is more technologically integrated (arguable dependant), we can see things in other companies that look far more appealing than what we are dealing with at our places of work. The ‘grass is always greener’ mentality is driving job-hopping to new levels and overall work satisfaction lower and lower. We need to build trust, manage expectations, and have a far better understanding of the job and experiences associated with it before starting.”
Eric Termuende is certainly a thought-leader in this space, having been invited to the Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills earlier this year, and internationally since.
Watch out for Eric on the circuit, through the work he is doing with DRYVER and check out his TEDx talk Bigger than Work. This guy isn’t going anywhere but up.