Building Blocks | Edition 9 💌
Stories, reflections and tools from People leaders to help navigate the new world of work.
In this issue…
Building Together – Upcoming Community events 🗣️
Building Voices – Gill & Paola take the mic 🎤
We want to hear from you – Survey time 📣
Resource Hub – Curated resources selected by our ambassadors 💻
Hello, People Builders! 👋
First and foremost, I wanted to express our sincerest apologies for the delay in delivering your eagerly awaited Building Blocks newsletter. Oyster recently underwent a re-organisation, and, as with any change, recovery took a bit of time. But fear not – we're back up and running in the People Builders Community!
Now, let's dive into the excitement that awaits you in this month's newsletter! 🎉
Building Together — Community events 🗣️
This month, mark your calendars for our re-scheduled event on Remote ERGs with Stephanie Bergman and Clea Arrieta from Bright & Early!
ERGs in Action: Driving DEI in Distributed Work
November 30th, 15:30-17:00 UTC
Join us in this collaborative panel session with our expert hosts Stephanie and Clea from Bright & Early to delve deeper into ERGs in remote settings, exploring how to initiate, nurture, and drive impact with these groups, especially when your team is spread across various geographical places.
And that's not all! Finish off the year at our special event on December 13th, hosted by yours truly and our fantastic PB Ambassadors.
2024 and Beyond: Navigating the Future of People and Culture
December 13th, 15:30-17:00 UTC
This panel event is extra special as we've invited our very own ✨ People Builders Ambassadors ✨ to host an insightful discussion into 2024 and beyond. We will be diving into the dynamic trends shaping People and Culture today and for the future, to be able to guide your team through uncertainties with resilience and empathy. Bring your burning questions, share your challenges, and actively participate in a dynamic discussion tailored to the specific needs of people leaders.
Building Voices - Gill and Paola take the mic 🎤
As a little sneak peek for the upcoming 2024 event, I recently had the pleasure of chatting with our leading People Builder Ambassadors to unravel what's in store for the remote and hybrid people and culture space in 2024.
Gillian Jose-Riz – Consultant at Bright + Early & our very own People Builders Ambassador shared her thoughts on the upcoming trends we can expect coming in 2024:
This is largely specific to North America, but we're seeing pay transparency laws come into effect across the US and Canada. To be compliant, companies will need to publish their salary bands on their job descriptions and submit annual salary reports. If teams are distributed, a company may also need to address why folks doing the same role in different locations have different salary bands (and they may need to be prepared to answer concerns around the inequity of different pay for same value of work).
Getting to the point of pay transparency is a journey and isn’t something that can happen overnight, so to help get you started, see the pay transparency article below in the Resource Hub from the Bright + Early team.
Something that we're also seeing with many teams we work with (at Bright + Early) is leadership and people & culture leaders need more guidance on how to respond to major world events (such as the Israel-Palestine conflict). Companies are questioning what is their role when these types of conflicts unfold and how do they best support their team.
If this is also something you’re currently struggling with, you can find the “Inclusive Communication Framework” article below in the Resource Hub for more insights and ideas on how to tackle this.
Next up, I asked Paola Tartaglione – People & HR Lead at TaxScouts & our very own People Builders Ambassador to also share her thoughts on the upcoming trends for 2024:
I would also say Transparency is going to be a big topic in 2024; transparency is not just about pay; it’s an overall mindset that attracts (the right) top talent and amps up engagement rates, for example if you show potential candidates what’s the recruitment process looks like, how you recognise and reward your people, how they can learn, grow and develop. I see more and more leaders championing transparent workplaces and trying to implement and encourage other companies to follow this trend. I recently attended a great webinar where they said that transparency is a necessity and inevitable. Companies embracing it now will be primed for tomorrow's market shifts.
To up-skill yourself more on the topic of building transparent cultures, we’ve linked the ‘Open Org’ website below in the Resource hub.
Another topic I feel that is going to grow more and more in 2024 is the learning and development journey led by the employee linked with Career Development/framework. People want to know how they can grow but companies are hesitant about promoting a hierarchical culture (mainly startups).
Are these trends resonating with you? Would you like to discuss these in more detail, and share your opinion as well? Let us know in the comments or join our event on the 13th of December!
We want to hear from you 📣
Time to hit us with your brilliance! Our Oyster Product team is hard at work behind the scenes and we’d LOVE to hear your thoughts. Imagine this survey as your backstage pass to the global workforce extravaganza 🚀
If you’d like to elaborate on your answers, we’d love to understand what workarounds you’ve had to take when you can’t access some of the above like up-to-date data, tools and local partners. To share your thoughts, comment below!
Resource Hub💻
Once again, our incredible People Builders Ambassadors are working behind the scenes to ensure that you’re equipped with the latest and most relevant resources. Dive in:
Salary Band Transparency Guide by Bright + Early
Audience: People Leaders
Your guide to help you navigate your questions around salary band transparency.
Susan David on Why Work Feels Harder than Ever by Culture Amp
Audience: People Leaders and Professionals
A very topical podcast covering emotions, how we process them, how we handle them, how they show up in the workplace and then they narrow in on how to create space between ourselves and our emotions in order to take action and move forward.covering topics such as
Inclusive Communication Guide by Pyn
Audience: People Leaders
Your guide to inclusive and equitable workplace communications.
Five Fundamentals of Equitable ERGs by Feminuity
Audience: People Leaders and Professionals
Your guide to start creating Employee Resource Groups within your organisation.
Top 5 HR Trends for 2024 by Forbes
Audience: People Leaders and Professionals
All the trends and data you need to prepare for the year ahead.
Open Org Academy by Open Org
Audience: People Leaders
Belong to the Open Culture movement revolutionising the future of work. Join a 4-week programme and equip yourself with the skills to make the case for change. Learn the transparency-first toolkit to attract and retain the the right talent.
As we wrap up this edition of Building Blocks, stay tuned for more exciting updates coming your way and explore our previous Building Blocks editions, if you haven't already! 🚀
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