Entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” investor Robert Herjavec discusses how leadership, culture, and well-being shape a thriving workplace.
How has your perspective on employee well-being evolved throughout your career, and what specific moments or challenges shaped this viewpoint?
The biggest change for me, over the many years of leading high-growth tech companies, has been the realization that people need to recharge. Our culture, and that of probably most tech companies, was to run at 100 mph, and we almost wore that motto as a badge of honor. It took me a long time to realize that running that hard burns people out and, over time, becomes ineffective. Great people need time to stop and recharge. As my companies got bigger and the world moved faster, I realized an effective team can’t run at 100 mph all the time.
What role does leadership play in creating a workplace culture that encourages employees to stay and grow within the organization?
There is an old saying: “The pace of the pack is determined by the speed of the leader.” While I am all about speed and full steam ahead, I have been forced to realize that does not mean 24 hours a day. Keeping your foot on the pedal all the time burns out the car and wears it out. A company cannot compete when its troops are exhausted and tired.
I now expect people to take care of the company and our teams — but take care of themselves first. I used to think our No. 1 priority is our customers, and we are an extremely customer-driven culture, but our No. 1 priority is our people and their well-being.
What innovative solutions have you seen companies adopt to support employees’ financial health?
Some of the companies we have worked with have begun to implement an education series about financial health. The first step in that is understanding your 401K and your retirement plans. Most people, sadly, are ill-prepared for that phase of their life and greatly underestimate how much money they will need for retirement. If you can’t speak the language of money, you will get left behind. Education is key. The second part of that is offering people the option of savings within their retirement funds and giving them access to that level of advice.
How do you think a sense of purpose impacts employee productivity and engagement?
People don’t want to be managed; they want to be led. The No. 1 motivator was mission and purpose. No one wants to live a life without meaning or purpose, and the same goes for work. We spend a massive amount of our lives at work, and I think it is a universal truth that we all, given a choice, want to feel good about where we work and the mission of our company. Obviously, money and benefits all come into play, but mission is critical to the goals and motivation of the teams.
How can HR leaders leverage data and AI to better understand and meet the needs of their employees?
AI has the ability to completely transform the HR experience, as with so many other business applications. As the companies get larger, the feeling of personalization becomes even harder to achieve. People want to be part of a team and feel that the company is meeting their needs and requirements. AI has the ability to take massive amounts of data and do predictive analysis of the needs of each individual. We are seeing that across all sectors of enterprises, where AI is usurping the traditional models.
AI is great at thinking ahead of the curve and analyzing the data, but there is and always will be a real need for human interaction and empathy from HR. At the end of the day, people are highly complex humans.
How can businesses design benefits packages that cater to the diverse needs of a multigenerational workforce?
There are benefits that are simply par for the course, but every culture and every company has the ability to shape their policies to meet their needs. Today’s workforce is diverse and has many requirements. One-policy-fits-all is not the approach to take.
What strategies can businesses use to ensure employees have access to personalized learning paths that align with their career goals?
This will be one of the greatest benefits of AI — the ability to create custom programs and help predict the needs of employees on an individual basis (with some great HR guidance, of course). Education is the key — and being in front of people. Great HR companies help get the most out of their people. Along with mission and purpose, employees want to know where they fit and how they can progress their careers within the organization.
There is such a shortage of talent today — great companies need to ensure that their employees can continue to grow within the company. Otherwise, they will look for greener pastures elsewhere.
How do collaboration tools enhance teamwork and productivity in hybrid or fully remote work environments?
There are many tools today to maintain constant connections. One of the things we very much liked was creating teams or workgroups with Teams or Slack. Hybrid work environments are a great benefit for many people and allow employees to manage their personal lives within the work environment. The downside, of course, is keeping people connected to the greater goal and the rest of the team. I am a big believer in collaboration tools, but I also believe that it is important to bring people together in person. Each company needs to determine how often that is for their culture. As we have recently seen, some companies have determined that means a back-to-the-office mandate, but employees will determine if that meets their personal needs.
