So, let me explain. To be “seconded” means I’m officially employed by a PR agency, but I’m fully embedded within the client’s corporate communications team. I sit with the client, collaborate with them, attend their meetings, and support their goals every single day. I actually have two badges, one for the agency and one for the client.

At first, even I struggled to describe the setup. But over time, I’ve realized something powerful: this isn’t just a logistical arrangement. It’s a career-defining opportunity.

It’s the best of both worlds, and I mean that quite literally.

A Unique Learning Loop

Being seconded is like living in two parallel realities that constantly feed one another.

In my agency life, I’ve had the chance to learn from some of the sharpest minds in the communications industry in offices around the world. The agency environment pushes you to think creatively, act fast, and always bring value to the table. It’s where I learned about the art of storytelling, the discipline of strategic thinking, and the importance of client-centricity. I’m constantly given access to our industry’s most cutting-edge tools and technologies. I’m also supported by a close-knit team of PR professionals who share my secondee experience.

At the client side, I’ve learned what it means to be truly inside a business. I see the bigger picture — the organizational priorities, the leadership mindset, the internal challenges, and the stakeholder dynamics. I’m not just recommending strategies. I’m part of shaping and delivering them from within.

The learnings from one world sharpen my contribution to the other. And that’s the magic of being seconded.

The Human Side of It All

What people don’t often talk about is how secondment makes you grow personally, too.

You’re navigating two cultures. You represent two brands. You report to two teams. And in that space, you learn adaptability, diplomacy, and a deeper kind of empathy. You learn how to speak two “languages” – the agency’s and the client’s – and how to bridge gaps before they even form.

It also changes how you work. You truly are more than a service provider, but a true partner. You care more, think deeper, and align faster with your client.  When you’re lucky enough to be part of a client team that values collaboration and open communication, it becomes something even more fulfilling: a shared success story.

I’ve come to realize that secondment isn’t just beneficial for me. It is so for the client: They gain someone who understands their business inside out, but who also brings fresh thinking and an external perspective. But also for the agency: They build deeper relationships with the client and ensure stronger, more consistent output. And, truthfully, for me: I get to grow faster, learn more, and contribute in a far more meaningful way than I ever imagined when I first started.

When I speak with friends in the industry now and they ask me about what I do, I increasingly find myself saying: “If you ever find yourself in a seconded role, embrace it!”Don’t see it as being “loaned out” or “disconnected” — because in truth, you’re at the center of something incredibly powerful. You’re a bridge between agency and client. The connector. The translator. When you approach the role with curiosity, commitment, and openness, it becomes one of the most enriching professional experiences you can have.

For me, it’s been exactly that. Two companies, one role, and a journey that keeps making me better.

While personal belief in a brand is still the most important factor for creators choosing a brand to work with, brand reputation entered the top three factors for the first time – overtaking even monetary value. This marks a clear shift from last year, reflecting how creators are thinking more critically about the public perception, values, and credibility of the brands they associate with. Other insights from the report include:

Real-life experiences and brand connections

With time and physical presence at a premium, creators say events must deliver something beyond the ordinary. Nearly two-thirds (63%) say a VIP experience is important – a significant jump from 51% last year. However, the most important goal when considering attending an event is still the connection with the brand – and this sentiment is growing even stronger for creators, from 66% last year to 80% this year.

Positive about AI, concerned about deepfakes

Positive sentiment toward AI tools has soared as influencers move beyond neutrality into practical implementation and wider experimentation. Almost half (49%) of MENA creators is positive about the use of AI – up from just 29% last year. Digital creators say the top impact of AI will be the introduction of more advanced tools and analytics (63%), allowing them to automate repetitive tasks and focus more on storytelling. Despite enthusiasm, there is concern about deepfakes, which ranked third (41%) in the most prominent impacts of AI.

At the report’s launch event, leading industry figures from Snap, TikTok, and Boehringer Ingelheim joined established regional creators Abdullah Raesi, Emkwan and Safa Srour to discuss the insights and themes impacting the growth and advancement in this dynamic field.

Friendly Gulf competition

While the friendly competition between the ambitions of some Gulf countries can be seen in the many initiatives of their national visions, such as landmark firsts and business incentives, it’s interesting to see signs of this good-natured rivalry and loyalty spill over into the content creator landscape. Influencers say positive transformation is happening in many sectors, 77% of MENA content creators believe GCC countries are leading positive transformation in the tourism and entertainment industry: 45% say it’s UAE, 26% selected Saudi Arabia, and 10% chose Lebanon.

Podcasts and purpose proliferate

While short-form content continues to dominate, long-form content is growing in prominence. Many creators are experimenting with lengthy, in-depth content types that allow for more personal storytelling and authentic expression. Nearly half (48%) are considering exploring opportunities around podcasting, and 11% say podcasting is already a key component of their content strategy. Additionally, six in ten MENA creators say that they posted more in the past year about causes they care personally care about.

As the demand for thoughtful, values-aligned partnership grows within the marketing communications industry, InfluAnswer Arabia 2025 offers key insights for brands seeking effective collaborations that can enliven their brand narratives and enable deeper connections with audiences. Weber Shandwick MENAT, a leading earned-first PR and communications agency, supports clients throughout the region – including Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Riyadh, and beyond – in cultivating meaningful, market-relevant connections with the creator community.

For more insights and to view the full InfluAnswer Arabia 2025 report, please click here.

For all the value technology brings to production, it cannot create narrative clarity or make it relevant and distinct. It cannot decide what a brand should mean, or how that meaning should evolve over time. These are editorial questions, not engineering ones, and they require leadership rooted in narrative judgement. In this region — where brand identity often supports national ambition, regional pride, and long-term transformation agendas — editorial thinking is not a luxury. It is a necessary complement. Without it, the risk is not just missed opportunity, but reputational exposure.

Narrative is a strategic asset

The problem isn’t the tools. It’s the assumption that tools can replace thinking. Brands are investing heavily in platforms that produce more content, faster. But the metrics that matter most — coherence, credibility, trust — are rarely tracked. Editorial leadership has always been the discipline that sits between strategy and voice. It makes sense of complexity. It imposes proportion. It ensures that what’s being said aligns with what matters. Without it, brands risk becoming busy but directionless, full of content but devoid of meaning.

In this region especially, that distinction matters. We operate in markets where messaging is never just tactical. It’s often institutional. Whether linked to 2030 visions, regulatory reform, urban development or public-private partnerships, communication is rarely just about campaigns. It’s about narratives that hold across time, channels, and audiences. It’s about ensuring that short-term activity ladders up to long-term perception.

This is why narrative clarity must be understood not simply as good practice, but as a strategic imperative. In complex, reputationally sensitive environments, brands do not only compete for attention — they compete for trust. And trust is built on credibility and message consistency, not on visibility alone. Narrative clarity enables decision-makers to communicate with intention. It gives shape to ambition. And most importantly, it ensures that the story being told is worth the time being spent to hear it.

Editorial thinking is structural, not cosmetic

This is where editorial thinking does its real work: not in surface polish, but in shaping the architecture of meaning. It’s not an aesthetic layer applied at the end, but a discipline of rigour that determines what the message includes, what it leaves out, and how it coheres.

Good editors don’t just write. They structure. They listen for tone. They anticipate what might land poorly, and why. They make decisions about emphasis, proportion, and pace. They ask the questions that matter early: Is this message coherent? Does it align with brand character? What assumptions are we making about the audience? These aren’t cosmetic concerns. They’re how meaning holds.

AI cannot do this. Not yet, and likely not for some time. Not without access to a brand’s internal dynamics, backstage considerations, and forward-looking priorities.

Generative tools can accelerate workflows and offer draft material. But they cannot distinguish between strategic nuance and stylistic excess. They cannot sense when a statement overreaches or when a silence carries weight. These are human judgements, informed by context and experience. AI might give you a thousand versions of a press release. Only an editor will know which version offers the right balance.

Messaging must be contextually attuned

Tone matters in this region more than most. The communications environment in the Middle East is layered. It is formal in places, aspirational in others, and deeply responsive to hierarchy, symbolism, and ambition. In some contexts, restraint signals authority. In others, boldness is expected. Editorial leadership is what enables brands to navigate these distinctions with credibility. It ensures that institutional intent is translated into public meaning clearly, precisely, and without compromise.

Too often, however, editorial has been treated as a downstream function. It’s brought in late to refine or polish, rather than shape. But as the volume of content increases, and the expectations around brand authenticity continue to rise, that model is no longer sustainable. The brands that will thrive in the next phase of this region’s growth are not the ones generating the most. They are the ones saying the right things, clearly, consistently, and with a coherent point of view.

The communicator’s role endures

Real transformation doesn’t just come from tools. It comes from alignment between what a brand wants to say and what its audience needs to hear. In that space, editorial leadership is not optional. It’s central. Platforms can amplify. Dashboards can track. But the task of shaping message, voice, and narrative still belongs to real communicators.

Meaning cannot be automated. It has to be made.

A recent report commissioned by Weber Shandwick MENAT offers a nuanced understanding of the region’s dynamic influencer marketing landscape by elevating topics on the minds of MENA’s influencers and providing insights for brands to build stronger partnerships. InfluAnswer Arabia 2024 also offers perspectives on how influencers view the region, technology, sustainability, their business, and their position of influence. The report was launched at an event in Dubai, attended by influencers, content creators, brand managers, communicators, and media.

Almost two-thirds (63%) of influencers say they have posted more content about causes they care about in the past year, with a third (35%) saying they have posted significantly more. Influencers in MENA are becoming more mindful about their role in society, and a brand’s values, but also the brand’s perception in the Arab world when making collaboration choices. 

The risks and rewards of AI are also on their minds. Over half (56%) of influencers in MENA say they are either neutral or uncertain about using AI in their content, but the rest are twice as likely to be positive (29%) than negative (15%). Generative AI has had a massive year in 2023, permeating conversations across markets and demographics with talk of enhanced efficiencies and evolved creativity – but also misinformation, misrepresentation, and mistrust.

“Themes related to real connections, meaningful partnerships, quality collaborations, authentic content, cultural relevance, enhanced transparency, and positive influence emerged frequently in our analysis. MENA’s influencers have some concerns and some suggestions, but they are also proud of their trade, the growing corporate recognition and impact of their industry, and the potential for the future,” says Ziad Hasbani, Regional CEO, Weber Shandwick MENAT.

MENA’s influencers shared their views on the region through different lenses. Areas where they believe the UAE is excelling on a global scale include tourism (44%), smart government (15%), technology (14%) and sustainability (14%). On whether COP28 would lead to more sustainable behaviors in the region, 69% agreed, saying they believe it will generate more positive initiatives as people and brands do more.

The vast majority (78%) of influencers agree Saudi Arabia is presently the region’s most exciting place for transformative developments. Entertainment is also front of mind – 47% of influencers consider Saudi Arabia as the “e-sports hub of the Middle East”, with 34% saying it’s the UAE and 12% choosing Qatar.

Influencers tap Dubai (60%), Riyadh (17%), and Abu Dhabi (6%) as the best cities to start a small business in the region. And with a flair for capturing and sharing photogenic angles, influencers rate Dubai (55%) as the region’s most Instagrammable city, followed by Riyadh (14%) and Cairo (6%).

“Beyond the valuable insights for different stakeholders across the influencer marketing industry, this report also serves as a voice for Arabia’s content creators and a platform to share what’s on their minds. By highlighting the perspectives of the humans behind the handles, we’re contributing to deeper understanding and better relationships,” added Ghaleb Zeidan, Regional Managing Director, Weber Shandwick MENAT. 

The' Earned Effect' study, which analyzed data from culturally salient (campaigns that earned coverage, conversation, and longevity, contributing value to people and communities) and non-culturally salient (that neither earned coverage nor conversation) campaigns, reinforces the need for brands to make a cultural and emotional connection with their audience in order to create sustainable value and short-term impact.

Here are some of the key findings:

• 53% of campaigns that earn coverage and conversation are more likely to drive very large business effects and 2.6 times more likely to achieve very large profit growth.  
• Culturally salient campaigns outperform other campaigns, with 57% driving very large sales gains and 40% driving very large market share gains.
• Brands worthy of earning attention and activating – not simply reaching – communities see a 42% uplift in ROI and outperform peers in every brand health metric.
• Campaigns that earn coverage and conversation are also 75% more likely to create halo effects across other products in the franchise.

Gen Kobayashi, Chief Strategy Officer EMEA, said, “The Weber Shandwick Collective believes brands that will thrive in the future understand that to earn value, they must contribute meaningful value. We call this the “earned-first mindset” and it’s how we approach work with all our clients. We don’t just believe in the power of earned-first thinking, we can see its tangible impact in this breakthrough study. The 'Earned Effect' underlines our belief that it pays to be earned first.”

The study, which was conducted globally, analyzed over 340 case studies in both B2B and B2C sectors, across 60 different product categories from the IPA’s Databank.
“As opportunities for brand communications expand in social and experiential, understanding the impact of earned and owned channel strategies is becoming ever more interesting. This report marks an important next step in IPA Databank learning beyond paid media and we hope it will encourage IPA Effectiveness award entries which are more holistic in looking at brand-building potential,” said Janet Hull OBE, Director of Marketing Strategy at IPA.

The Weber Shandwick Collective combines Weber Shandwick’s earned, creative, and data analytics capabilities with specialist expertise in digital and social solutions through its agencies Flipside and That Lot.

A summary of the Earned Effect Study is available to download here.

Ziad Hasbani, CEO of Weber Shandwick MENAT, commented on the partnership with Think Equal, “We are thrilled to join forces with The Marketing Society and TikTok on this ground-breaking, and hugely important, initiative. Think Equal will inspire women who are building their careers and make men equal partners in shaping a working environment that benefits from the valuable contributions of both women and men. Today, it is time to act. Gender equality is part of our DNA and a key pillar of our agency culture. We are committed to making an impact and accelerating change, whilst working closely with brands, agencies, and media owners in the region to do their part.”

Annie Arsane, Regional Head of Business Marketing, Middle East, Turkey, Africa, and Pakistan – TikTok and Founding Partner of Think Equal added, “After the immense success of Think Equal’s launch in 2022, we are excited to continue supporting The Marketing Society in their mission to keep the conversation around gender equality open, current and relevant. A key focus of this initiative is to better equip women to take on senior industry roles, and we helped to achieve that through the 100+ participants we engaged in the Think Equal program last year. With Weber Shandwick, we are excited to embark on another year of providing solutions to the problems that women face in the workplace, not just talking about them.”

In 2021, Weber Shandwick announced a goal to be the communications industry's most inclusive agency. It is committed to shaping a culture of equity and inclusion in its workforce, from hiring to career development opportunities. It continues to build a foundation of belonging, where team members can bring their authentic selves to work and bring diverse thinking and new ideas. In the MENAT region, this was further enforced with the rollout of its People-First Culture framework and engagement initiative.

The diversity of the community on TikTok is what makes the platform such a wonderful place. Diversity is essential to maintaining a thriving global community, and it brings the many corners of TikTok closer together. With this purpose in mind, TikTok partnered with The Marketing Society in 2022 to launch Think Equal, providing the space for its employees to share their passion externally and make an impact on the overall industry.

The Marketing Society encourages all businesses to get involved and come together to take action and drive positive change for a future generation of marketers, working alongside the founding partner TikTok, and now Weber Shandwick, to help make this possible.

The agency has two offices in the UAE, in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and places a high value on collectively shaping and nurturing a workplace culture that is inclusive and collaborative.

“This is a very special recognition because it really highlights our great people, and their role and contribution. As a people-first agency, we know that our people are a key part of making Weber Shandwick UAE a great place to work. We remain wholeheartedly committed to creating a better working environment, and collectively finding new and different ways to improve our strong culture,” said Ghaleb Zeidan, Managing Director UAE of Weber Shandwick.

Ziad Hasbani, Weber Shandwick’s CEO in MENAT, says he feels energized by how more and more employees across the regional network are engaged and valuing Weber Shandwick as a great place to work, given that Weber Shandwick Istanbul was also certified as a Great Place to Work® Turkey. “Establishing a strong employee value proposition is a key pillar of our business strategy in the region. For us, it is a nonstop journey because we believe that our people are our brand and we will do what is needed to create an aspirational, collaborative, authentic, and positive workplace. I’m very grateful for the feedback and thoughtful perspectives that will help us to continue growing our reputation and competitive edge as an employer of choice,” he said.

Earlier this year, Weber Shandwick MENAT won Large Consultancy of the Year at the PRCA MENA Regional Awards 2022, making this a year of recognition for both the work it does and the people behind the work. The agency is led by strategic and creative thinkers and activators, who deliver high-value, high-impact business and communications solutions for clients.

“Given our collective new ‘workplace normal,’ we set out to assess the key drivers of employee satisfaction, retention, and advocacy amid today’s unprecedented war for talent. We talked to nearly 2,800 office-based, front-line, and trade/manufacturing employees in seven countries, and discovered that across this diverse sample, a strong employee experience rests on opportunities for workers to do valued, fulfilling work,” Kate Bullinger, CEO of United Minds, said in a statement.

The Contribution Effect and Employee Retention

While flexible work and innovative benefits are dominating the conversation about how to retain talent as companies navigate the Great Resignation, that’s not the only discussion companies should be having. 

Ziad Hasbani, CEO of Weber Shandwick MENAT, says these themes can be observed in the Middle East too.  “Employees want a culture that is safe, inclusive, and flexible, along with a fair deal when it comes to remuneration, benefits, and an opportunity to make meaningful contributions in their professional lives. The great challenge for companies today is building a loyal workforce that can sustainably thrive, through a re-imagined employee experience and strong employer relationship.”

In "The Contribution Effect," United Minds considered employee experience (EX) from two perspectives: stated importance and derived importance. Stated importance addresses what employees say is most important to them in an ideal job – what is top of mind and often discussed at the negotiation table. Derived importance gets under the hood using correlation analysis to understand how well each of the 79 factors determines what actually drives satisfaction, advocacy, and retention.

In evaluating EX in this manner, four key findings emerged, which collectively form a comprehensive picture of the mutual contributions necessary for shaping a best-in-class employee experience. Furthermore, they provide a roadmap for executives seeking to evolve and elevate their employee experience.

Pillar 1 – What’s non-negotiable: Fairness and safety

Employees expect to be treated fairly, feel supported, secure, and included regardless of role or background. Getting a “fair deal” at and from work is more than pay equity and job security. Yet, there’s a troubling threat to fairness. According to the research, one in three employees report experiencing unfair treatment, including discrimination and harassment at work – and unfair treatment represents the single largest negative influence on EX. At the top of the list of those reporting unfair treatment are people who are non-white, ages 18-34, and cultural/religious minorities – with top reasons being age (35%) and sex (22%).  

Pillar 2 – What I give: Employee contributions are as important as company benefits

Feeling valued for purposeful contributions is a strong predictor of employee satisfaction, which means getting this driver right is especially important. Simply put, people want to do good, purposeful work and in turn, get recognized for it.

Among the findings, 70% of employees who report feeling motivated are also satisfied with their jobs, versus 6% who are not. Yet, three in ten employees (30%) are not energized to do their best work.

Pillar 3 – What I get: Employees appreciate agency and balance

The ability to work remotely does not rank highly in the factors that truly drive retention (#58 out of the 79 factors). What does rank highly is achieving work/life balance (#5), indicating that flexibility is important but only as a driver of true balance.

“What matters in the long term is what workplace flexibility symbolizes. Giving people the autonomy to self-manage demonstrates trust and confidence – and it conveys a willingness to listen and to meet employees where they are,” said Stephen Duncan, Executive Vice President EMEA at United Minds.

Pillar 4 – What we create together: Employees seek meaningful fun

Having a positive work environment and a fun place to work rank number one and four, respectively, out of the 79 factors driving derived satisfaction. More notably, employees who consider their work environment to be positive are more than 7X more likely to stay, while employees who experience fun at work are more than 5X more likely to perceive their organization as among the best.

In this instance, fun and positivity are about getting people immersed in solving problems that are original, hard, and important. It’s about creating deeper affinity to peers – and ultimately, to the employer.

Contribution quotient scores organisational EX and shows leaders fare better than others    

To assess the degree to which an organization is offering a superior employee experience, United Minds and KRC Research created a contribution quotient (CQ) score that analyzes performance across all four pillars above to assign an overall rating. The higher the CQ, the more likely an organization's employees will stay, advocate for the company, and feel satisfied.

The average CQ across organizations in the study is 72 (out of 100), with only 17% of the data set achieving an “excellent” score of 90 CQ or above.

Leaders fare better than individual contributors, with a 76 CQ compared to 70 CQ, respectively. From an industry sector perspective, professional services outperform all others at a 75 CQ.

Harassment and discrimination create the greatest divergence, with a 16-point CQ reduction from those who have experienced unfair treatment versus those who are treated fairly.

United Minds launches nexus model & employee survey

Aligned with the key findings in "The Contribution Effect," United Minds developed a universal, predictive EX model – nexus – that can predict over 50% of an employee’s experience, regardless of geography, job type, or level. Using the nexus diagnostic, United Minds can either issue a 10-minute employee survey or work with client data to compare their EX performance against the benchmark data.

United Minds’ employee experience, culture, and engagement advisors use tools like nexus to counsel dozens of Fortune 500 and other large organizations on best practices for building stronger workforces.

“Our first-of-its-kind, predictive model provides a framework for any organization to better understand how their current EX impacts retention and advocacy – and how it can be improved,” Duncan said.

For more information on the model or research, visit https://unitedmindsglobal.com/

Today, as a communications professional, I certainly write more than at any other point in my life, but the freedom of expression I enjoyed as a child or a student has been replaced by a more pragmatic style of composition. No matter how much I promise myself I’ll get back into writing for pleasure during my free time, my leisure hours inevitably get swallowed up by alternative pursuits. I’m sure my situation is not unique, though I’m not discounting that amongst my many talented industry peers, there are probably some budding authors with a tad more discipline.

That being said, I was having a chat with a friend in the industry just the other week, who was bemoaning the lack of truly creative writers he’d managed to identify to address a particularly tricky brief. His choices – all competent, intelligent, and accurate authors in his opinion – were missing something: the fickle, flickering ‘x-factor’ of imagination. In an industry all too frequently cited as one with serious burnout, it’s not hard to see why. The act of imaginative writing takes time and both conceptualizing and recognizing a good idea for a written piece requires a lot of practice. When briefs are flying in and clients are clamoring for content, attending to requests quickly and practically can sometimes necessarily be the default mode of delivery, perhaps to the detriment of creativity.

Educating many clients on quality –  and the importance of writing persuasive, attention-grabbing copy over the quantity of content published – is always a fight worth having in order to drive better results, and to produce written work you can be proud of.

Aside from time, perhaps the larger elephant in the room we should consider when discussing the merits of creative writing is the move away from written content as a format. Understandably, video continues to grow in popularity as media publishers and social networks look to exploit the increasing preference from consumers for content that is both easier to digest and more ‘immersive’ – with the growth of VR an obvious evolution. But what do we lose in return? Video dictates experience, whereas the written word simply corrals the reader in the right direction. With writing, the experience is ultimately designed by the reader’s imagination – and that can be a hugely powerful tool for crafting a message that resonates because it allows the audience to add something of their own perspective to its interpretation. Good writing can be transportive. As a reader, writing that not only grabs your attention but also, I would argue, that puts your own imagination to good use, has a tendency to stay with you. 

To this end, alongside my colleagues on the MEPRA Youth Board, I’m pleased to announce the launch of a new creative writing competition for young storytellers in the region which provides the chance to be published in Harper’s Bazaar Arabia. It’s our hope that the competition helps us all to take some time to reflect a little more on the work we do, as well as share the love for the written word which likely brought us to undertake a career in the sector in the first place. The original short story submission should be inspired by two words – ‘culture and community,’ expressed creatively, be a maximum of 750 words, and come accompanied with a 200-word cover letter explaining the inspiration behind the piece and how it connects with the competition’s theme. Submissions can be made in English or Arabic and come in any form (we’re keen to see how you want to express yourself!). They will be judged by a panel comprised of MEPRA board members, published authors, the editorial team at Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, and members from The Emirates Literature Foundation team. 

For a full list of entry requirements please visit mepra.org/creativewritingcomp.

If the instinct is often the former, then that would not be unusual; unfortunately, such examples of lack of empathy are aplenty in today’s workplace. With increased pressures facing in-house and agency teams today, a stressful work environment ends up nurturing transactional attitudes…often leading to declining employee tenures.

This could be what led people to leave their jobs during the pandemic, in what some economists have dubbed the ‘Great Resignation.’ For some, the pandemic triggered a shift in priorities, encouraging them to pursue a ‘dream job’ elsewhere. For many others though, the decision to leave came as a result of the way their employer treated them during the pandemic.

With the pandemic impacting people in different ways (grief, loss, work-life balance issues) and many still living in anxiety, there is no better time than now to adopt a flexible and empathetic leadership approach and weaving it into the overall company culture. There’s no better time than now – not just because it’s the right thing to do, but also because there is so much to gain over the long term. The benefits end up leading to this domino effect – from improved employee satisfaction (and therefore, tenure) and staff attraction (from positive word-of-mouth) to higher productivity and efficiencies.

According to The Future of Work is Now: the Employee Experience Premium, from United Minds, Weber Shandwick’s specialist organizational transformation consultancy, organizations can deliver a great employee experience. How? By focusing on empathetic leadership, embracing greater flexibility in the way they work, and enabling line managers to make the right decisions for their people.

“The current situation has changed the point of equilibrium that creates a great employee experience; what made us successful in the past is not what will make us successful in the future,” reads the paper. Without it, we risk the chance of driving our people to resign and look for ‘greener’ pastures. The reality is that when there’s a lot of people moving in and out of an organization, it costs companies – in terms of turnover and lost productivity; in my experience, I find that it can take anywhere between six to nine months to onboard someone for them to be fully effective and well-integrated into the team.

So, we need to remind ourselves of what the benefits of having a balanced employee value proposition (EVP) are: from employee morale, productivity, tenure, and loyalty to employee mental health and client retention (happy team, happy clients). As we adjust to a new world of work, we need to consider what lessons we learned during the pandemic and revisit the pillars that make up our company culture to see how we can improve that ever so vital EVP.

In his book Work Rules!: Insights from inside Google that will transform how you live and lead, Laszlo Bock lays out eight attributes that emerged when Google analyzed the leadership factors that differentiated high-performing teams from the rest. As the world opens up again and relaxes its pandemic-related safety measures, and the human connection makes its return to the workplace, we should look at:

1. Empowering teams
2. Being better coaches
3. Expressing interest/concern for team members’ success and personal wellbeing
4. Being more productive/results-oriented
5. Being better communicators
6. Helping the team with career development
7. Having a clear vision/strategy for the team
8. Having the necessary technical skills that help advise the team

In March 2020, companies expected employees to adapt, almost overnight, to a different way of working. The time has come for employers to adapt and look to the future in order to keep employees engaged. There is work to do, and the opportunities do exist for those companies that will activate this sooner rather than later. And the sooner they do, the sooner they will reap the results, putting them in a much greater position as long-term retainers of the best talent – and reputation.