Leading Edge has experienced many changes over the past four years, one of the most significant being our transition to a fully remote organization. In March 2020, our team of seven full-time employees left our WeWork office space in Manhattan, not realizing it would be the last time we would share a physical space together daily. Although we have technically been remote since then, our original physical address remained as an anchor. Now, with 21 full-time employees spread across the United States, we are finally letting go of that last tether and fully embracing our remote organization. (Our new mailing address, which is not a place we’ll ever go, can be found on our contact page.)

As we close this chapter, we reflect on the memories and milestones that shaped our time in a physical office. Our workspace was more than just a place to work—it was a hub of creativity, collaboration, and community. Over the years, it witnessed the beginnings of our growth, our challenges, and our triumphs. Now, as a completely remote team, we want to look back on some of the special memories that made our time in the office so meaningful.

Here are a few fond memories shared by our team:

“The funny notes of encouragement we’d leave each other. During a particularly stressful week with surveys, Marisa printed the Pink Starburst note and taped it on the wall in front of me. It brought the giggles for sure and helped us cross the finish line.”

“Gali pacing in her office during calls was a consistent sight, especially during exciting moments. The best was when she’d get great news and knock on the glass with an animated fist pump in silent celebration. We’d all laugh while she kept finishing up her conversation like a pro.”

“Friday breakfasts! We’d gather in the common area every Friday morning for breakfast. It was such a nice way to end the week and gave us the chance to connect and chat about non-work things.”

The transition to remote work has sparked much discussion, and with any change, there are both pros and cons. According to our 2022 report, “Are Jewish Organizations Great Places to Work?” fully remote workers tend to report more favorable well-being experiences, even though they’re more likely to want to leave. While remote workers report higher well-being, their intention to explore new opportunities may reflect the abundance of attractive options available to skilled knowledge workers. This suggests that their well-being empowers them to seek growth and advancement, rather than simply focusing on staying with one organization.

Personally, as an introvert, I’ve thrived in a remote work environment. However, many people feel a sense of loss without the social connection of a physical office, making it more important than ever to regularly check in with employees to ensure they feel supported and connected.

As you transition to a remote workspace, here are a few key lessons we’ve learned:

Embrace Change with Reflection: Transitioning to remote work is not just a logistical shift; it’s an emotional journey for the entire team. One way to navigate this change is by intentionally creating moments to reflect on the past. For example, you could create a digital scrapbook of office memories or encourage team members to share their favorite moments from the office during a team meeting. It can also be helpful to acknowledge that transitioning to remote work doesn’t mean losing the camaraderie or creativity that thrived in your physical space—it’s about finding new ways to maintain that spirit in a virtual environment.

Culture Transcends Space: A strong organizational culture isn’t confined to the walls of an office—it’s defined by the people, values, and shared experiences that shape the team. At Leading Edge, we recognized early on that maintaining our collaborative culture remotely would require intention and effort. To do this, we’ve committed to coming together as a full group twice a year, not just for work but for team-building activities that allow us to connect on a deeper, more personal level. These gatherings help reinforce our culture and maintain the bonds that make us a strong team, even when we’re apart.

In addition to periodic in-person meetups, we’ve incorporated regular virtual touchpoints, like weekly Monday check-ins, a Friday roundup document that says what each department has been working on during the week, and virtual coffee breaks. We also make a point to celebrate team wins and individual milestones online, ensuring that our culture of celebration and support continues to thrive remotely. These intentional efforts have shown us that culture can flourish even without a physical office—it just takes a little creativity and commitment.

Adaptation Brings New Opportunities: While saying goodbye to a familiar workspace can feel like a loss, it’s also an invitation to explore new possibilities. Remote work offers greater flexibility in how, where, and when people work, which can lead to increased productivity and innovation. For instance, at Leading Edge, we’ve found that our remote setup allows us to tap into talent across the United States, expanding our reach far beyond what was possible when we were based in a single location. This geographical flexibility has made our team more diverse and brought fresh perspectives to our work.

Additionally, remote work has required us to rethink how we collaborate. We’ve introduced new digital tools and systems that streamline communication and project management. We’ve also noticed that remote work gives employees greater autonomy, enabling them to balance their personal and professional lives more effectively.

The shift to remote work is a chance to experiment with new approaches, whether it’s reimagining your workflows, offering more flexible work hours, or creating virtual spaces for brainstorming and collaboration. As we’ve seen, these adaptations can unlock growth and new opportunities in ways that wouldn’t have been possible in a traditional office setting.

Leading Edge has experienced many changes over the past four years, one of the most significant being our transition to a fully remote organization. Now, with 21 full-time employees spread across the United States, we are finally letting go of that last tether and fully embracing our remote organization.

Final Farewell to Four Walls: Embracing Remote Work

Organizational Culture

Mordy Walfish, COO of Leading Edge and a faculty member at the Spertus Institute, gave a workshop on belonging in the workplace. Spertus shares this blog post summarizing key takeaways.

Belonging in the Workplace: Takeaways from a Spertus Workshop

“Mishenikhnas Adar, marbin besimha. From when [the month of] Adar enters, we increase in joy.” — Talmud Bavli, Taanit 29a

We are now in the Hebrew calendar month of Adar. (Actually ending the first of two because it’s a leap year, but that’s another story.) Rabbinic tradition teaches us that in this month, which includes the festive holiday of Purim, we are called to increase our joy. 

This idea is not quite a commandment, but rather a charge, an intention, and a goal. In many ways, this call to action makes sense given its alignment with the themes of the major holiday that coincides with the month. And yet, some years, like this one, this charge feels more challenging to heed.

Last January, my family was faced with an unthinkable and life changing challenge after my father experienced a massive brain bleed out of the blue. We spent nearly all of 2023 caring for him, and while he made some progress, he never fully recovered, and we lost him on October 5, 2023–right in the midst of another meant-to-be joyous season in our calendar: the holiday of Sukkot. And then, on October 7th, that personal grief journey was compounded by a collective communal grief journey — one that I often feel eclipsed by as I try to find comfort and camaraderie for this sad path I find myself walking along. 

There is no doubt that this chapter in Jewish history and in the narrative of our sector is a challenging and dark one. It also sadly isn’t the first, and I don’t imagine it will be the last. As I ask myself how I could possibly heed a call to joy in my first year as a mourner, being reminded of this fact helps me shift the question towards one I hope might provide me — and perhaps others — some insights and a way forward. How might we allow for greater perspective into joy specifically when it’s hard to notice?

Jewish time is full of moments that call upon us to act in accordance with the notion of elu v’elu, these and those, or both-and. Nearly all joyous occasions require us to note in some way the brokenness of our world, the challenges of the journeys that led to those moments, or simply a recognition of those who aren’t with us physically to mark the moment. And similarly, somber moments aren’t void of themes of gratitude, hope, and even some degree of celebration for the gifts that life has to offer us. So too, in this dark moment, can more than one thing be true. And the charge is therefore an invitation to notice and put it into greater focus. We have the opportunity not to change the picture, but shift or at least widen our perspective on it, even if only for a period of time. 

But what might acting in alignment with this intention actually look like? I love an old adage I learned that says “to Jew is to do,” reminding me that thoughts, feelings, mindsets, and even beliefs alone aren’t what constitute a Jewish life. To live Jewishly is to act Jewishly, and to seek an almost chiropractic way of living — searching for and working towards greater alignment between the essence of the heart and mind, and the substance of our actions and behaviors. How can we act in a way that demonstrates increased joy, even and especially in a less than joyous chapter?

In college at UC Berkeley, I took a class on the science of happiness to fulfill a requirement for an upper division psychology course I needed. In a world where, certainly at the time, the field of psychology was focused on what was wrong or dysfunctional, it was countercultural and rare to have any significant research or focus on positive psychology and the ways that people create and maintain strong mental health proactively. (Now there is a full department, The Greater Good Science Center, dedicated to positive psychology with plenty of resources.) In this course I learned about the power of gratitude to generate and sustain feelings of happiness and joy. Research showed that acts of gratitude, not necessarily just thoughts, were much more impactful in shifting people’s perspectives towards greater happiness and enhancing their experience of joy. This impact could also be felt through acts of kindness and giving.

Themes of gratitude are abundant in Jewish wisdom and tradition, and for some people, a practice of gratitude is built into their routines through prayer and rituals of giving. For others of us, there is room to create or increase the number of ways and the frequency with which we act with gratitude, and doing so might give us a way to live into the call for greater joy in a way that can coexist with the complex feelings of this moment.

Actions of gratitude are not only powerful personally and interpersonally, but also at work — the place a majority of us spend the most and best of our waking hours. The working world has been navigating many challenges over the last few years in particular, and our sector has had to navigate those challenges in addition to our own. 

Our teams are working so hard to ensure the vitality of Jewish life across a robust and diverse set of communal needs and experiences. And while not everything at work (or in life) will always be enjoyable, our research shows that enjoying your job not only matters to workers themselves, but is also a key driver of employee engagement and retention, making it all the more important to focus on in this moment. Many of the top engagement and retention drivers from our research suggest key places to focus on, especially if and as we try to live into the charge that the month of Adar presents us.

This month, let’s commit to actions of gratitude and giving that help us sustain healthy workplace cultures, and increase and put into focus some of the joy and fulfillment that is both so necessary to sustain us and so hard to access in this moment. 

Below are a few brief ideas for enacting gratitude in your organization to bring some joy into Adar, even at a painful time.

Doing Gratitude and Joy, Feeling Grief: Purim During Personal and Communal Mourning

Surveying employees and implementing changes based on survey results is a powerful way to create a better workplace culture. This article for eJewish Philanthropy, co-authored by Alena Akselrod of Leading Edge with Andy Paller of the JCC Association of North America, explains how the JCC Association is using Leading Edge's Employee Experience Survey to level up their benchmarking and improve the workplace experience across the JCC movement.

Given the JCC movement’s outsized labor force — particularly as JCCs of North America’s leaders juggle a deep commitment to their professionals, employees’ new expectations about working hours and locations and a tightening labor market — workplace culture increasingly is a critically important matter, not only in JCCs, but in organizations throughout the professional world, where culture often is neglected and undervalued.

For more than a decade, JCC Association of North America has surveyed JCC professionals as part of its JCC Excellence: Benchmarking surveys. The data collected, in addition to exploring interactions with JCC members, was designed to explore the quality of professionals’ own experiences in the workplace and identify the key drivers of staff satisfaction. To help JCCs across North America develop a truly strong, attractive culture, JCC Association leaders set about to deepen its existing relationship with Leading Edge. From its newest partnership with Leading Edge, JCC Association has garnered solid data about JCCs’ employees, the factors that most influence their happiness and sense of belonging at work, and their desire to remain employed at their JCC.

To help JCCs across North America develop a truly strong, attractive culture, JCC Association leaders set about to deepen its existing relationship with Leading Edge. From its newest partnership with Leading Edge, JCC Association has garnered solid data about JCCs’ employees, the factors that most influence their happiness and sense of belonging at work, and their desire to remain employed at their JCC.

To build a better workplace, survey your employees about their experiences

Writing for The Center for Effective Philanthropy, Leading Edge Chief Research & Innovation Officer Amy Born examines the new work-life paradox, and explores tradeoffs between remote, in-person, and hybrid work options. 

There is a persistent itch in the working world right now, a growing sense of deep and widely shared dissatisfaction.

Here’s the challenge: Many people want work to be both a bigger and smaller part of their lives, at the same time — and no one knows what to do about it.

Each of these desires — to grow the role of work within our lives, and to shrink it — is a beautiful vision. But they are inescapably contradictory. We cannot achieve them both at the same time. A job that is deeply meaningful will not stay neatly contained during business hours. Developing close, meaningful connections and friendships is difficult without challenging, deep work, physical proximity, tight deadlines, and occasional long hours that teams so often bond over.

This contradiction plays out in many ways, including the types of jobs people choose to pursue and their tenure with their organization, but perhaps one of the most tangible is the question of where the work gets done: Should an organization work all in-person, all remotely, or some of both (i.e., hybrid)?  This is one of the most common questions I hear, and my answer is almost always a dissatisfying “It depends.”

There is a persistent itch in the working world right now, a growing sense of deep and widely shared dissatisfaction. Here’s the challenge: Many people want work to be both a bigger and smaller part of their lives, at the same time — and no one knows what to do about it.

The (Impossible) Work Dream

More than three-quarters of employees want to stay at their organizations for at least two years. There was unusually high turnover and hiring from 2021 to 2022. Employees who identify as LGBTQ+ or People of Color (particularly Black employees) are much less likely to feel like they belong in their organizations. 

These are just a few of the many insights shared in Leading Edge’s new report: Are Jewish Organizations Great Places to Work? Results From the Sixth Annual Employee Experience Survey.

The report is based on data from more than 12,000 people working at 257 Jewish nonprofits surveyed in May 2022. 

The Employee Experience Survey studies how employees in the Jewish nonprofit sector experience their work, why they choose to leave or stay in their organizations, and what keeps them engaged. Conducted primarily to help each participating organization become a better place to work, the survey also helps Leading Edge better understand issues of organizational culture affecting the Jewish nonprofit sector as a whole. 

People want to stay in this sector. A strong majority of employees surveyed (70%) want to stay in the Jewish nonprofit sector for two years or more. This is significantly higher than the equivalent figure in 2019, when only 52% of employees surveyed indicated that they wanted to stay working in the sector for two years or more. (In the 2021 survey, in an economic moment still largely defined by COVID recovery, that figure was even higher, at 79%.)

People (still) want well-being, trusted leaders, and inclusion. The top drivers of employee engagement remain what Leading Edge has seen in past years: feeling that the organization cares for employees’ well-being, confidence in leadership, feelings of belonging, and feeling that there is open and honest communication in the organization. (“Employee engagement” means feeling proud to work at the organization, wanting to stay, being likely to recommend it to others as a great place to work, and feeling motivated to do one’s best work.)

Some employees are less likely to feel like they belong. There are pronounced inequities in experience—especially around belonging and other DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging) work experiences—along lines of identity characteristics including gender and sexual identity, race/ethnicity, and disability. LGBTQ+ employees and People of Color (particularly Black employees, both including Black Jews and Black employees who are not Jewish) are markedly less likely to feel like they belong in their organizations.

There’s been a lot of turnover. One-third (33%) of employees surveyed have been with their organizations for less than two years. This substantial share of workers doesn’t remember their organizations’ pre-COVID status quo. And the proportion of employees who are in their first year with their organizations (21% in 2022) is almost twice as high as it was among the organizations we surveyed in 2021 (12% in 2021).

Working with board members is common. More than one out of every four employees surveyed (27%) reports that they work with the board. This is a higher figure than we might have expected.

Most employees go to work in person for at least part of their work week. Three-quarters of employees surveyed (76%) reported that they work outside their homes for at least part of each week. 

People working in person (i.e., not remotely) trust their leaders more if they feel well prepared for physical security threats. For the first time, we asked employees working outside their homes about preparedness for physical security threats. Five out of six employees surveyed (72%) feel prepared to act in the event of a security threat, but those who don’t feel prepared are markedly less likely to have confidence in their organizational leadership. 

“There are big challenges for organizational culture in our field, but there's hope too," says Gali Cooks, President & CEO of Leading Edge. "Improving employee experience isn’t a straight line. Organizations that have taken the Employee Experience Survey five or six times have seen a lot of improvement. But that journey isn’t neat or linear. As they walk this winding path forward, leaders need to make sure they're communicating. Our data shows that the most important way for leaders to improve confidence in their leadership is to improve communication with their teams."

The Employee Experience Survey has been conducted every year since 2016 (with the exception of 2020, as organizations were adjusting to COVID-19 disruptions). In total, more than 45,000 people at nearly 400 Jewish nonprofits have received the survey over the years. 

New findings from the 2022 Employee Experience Survey show both challenges and hope in the Jewish nonprofit sector

Jewish Nonprofits: Not Yet Great Places to Work, But Striving | Leading Edge

Jewish Nonprofits: Not Yet Great Places to Work, But Striving

There’s no question Wordle is brilliant. There’s a reason the New York Times was willing to pay seven figures for it. But the game’s meteoric rise was also, from a communications perspective, astonishing. So maybe it can help us learn to improve internal communications.

And yes, it’s likely that your internal communications could use improvement. In a 2021 survey of over 11,600 employees at 221 Jewish nonprofits, Leading Edge found that while most people experience good communications within their departments, only 59% of employees agreed that “There is good cooperation between teams/departments in my organization.” That’s a problem not only for immediate project work, but also for the longer-term goal of creating an amazing workplace culture. As Omicron recedes and workplaces experiment with new in-person and hybrid setups, getting internal communications right has never been more vital.

So here are five internal communications ideas inspired by Wordle.

Sometimes it’s tempting to go into Advertising Mode. “DON’T MISS this week’s team newsletter—updates you won’t believe!!!!” Advertising Mode is annoying. It feels desperate and insincere. It can even signal that the reason for the hype is that the thing we’re hyping is boring. 

There were no billboards or subway ads for Wordle. There were no pop-ups about it interrupting Candy Crush. Your favorite podcast hosts didn’t promote it in a paid ad—although they might have talked about it spontaneously.

And that’s the point. Here’s how marketing guru Seth Godin put it in 2015, many years before Wordle existed, but perfectly describing its rise: “Fast growth comes from overwhelming the smallest possible audience with a product or service that so delights that they insist that their friends and colleagues use it.” 

So it’s important to decide how to move information within our organizations, but it’s even more vital to make sure the information itself is genuinely valuable to people.

One way to do that is to ask colleagues, systematically and repeatedly, what they know about other departments, what they need to know, and where the gaps are. For Leading Edge, and for many organizations we work with, surveys are an underrated tool. (There's still time to register for our 2022 Employee Experience Survey, and pulse surveys are available year-round.)

Scarcity sells. When we can only play one daily game of Wordle, we’re eager to play again tomorrow, but given constant access, we’d get bored. The restricted pace also relaxes us and allows us time to think. 

Scarcity can be a friend in internal communications, too. Does that meeting need to be weekly instead of quarterly? Does your department head really need to send a three-page update instead of three sentences?

Scarcity is not only easier to handle for the receiver, but also leads to focus for the person providing information. Being forced to pare things back helps us identify what’s really necessary and authentic.

People crave connection—and Wordle delivers it. First, players all guess the same word each day. (At least, until recently!) Then they can use those box arrays to share their journey on that day’s puzzle without spoiling the answer for others. These social elements didn’t just make Wordle viral; they’re also key to making the game fun.

Getting social can help internal communications, too. People are much more likely to retain information if it comes with a meaningful and enjoyable connection with others. 

So, to reverse a now-ubiquitous saying: Maybe this email should be a meeting! 

Of course, meetings have their own dangers (there’s a reason for thinking many meetings could be emails!) but if they’re scarce and social, they can be great. Small group breakouts are one tool for interactive meetings. 

And social connection goes beyond meetings. Within the Leading Edge team, we have Slack channels for sharing memes, family photos, Wordle scores, and more. This kind of connection doesn’t feel work-related, but by improving relationships, it does improve the work.

Let’s be honest: When we share that grid of Wordle boxes, often part of our motivation is bragging that we got it in fewer guesses than our friends.

People like to compete. Leaders and employees at Jewish nonprofits tend to be egalitarian idealists, and may be reticent to embrace competitive energy, but while high-stakes competitions (such as for money and power) often bring out the worst in people, low-stakes competitions (like trivia night or Wordle) bring us together.

Within Leading Edge, when an internal communications working group was introducing some new document storage norms, we began with a competitive game of “Find That File.” The game experientially demonstrated the need for better file storage norms, while engaging people’s competitive sides.

You know what? We take it back about “not literally” with the colored boxes. What if literally?

Wordle is, obviously, verbal, but it’s also visual. The grids of colorful boxes not only draw the eye, but also manage to communicate information non-verbally, through a physical sense.

Learning through our senses is powerful. What are you more likely to remember tomorrow: this photo or a paragraph of text? 

Organizations constantly use visual illustrations—pie charts, slide decks, etc. But we’re deliberately expanding this point to other senses too, because not everyone can see. With creativity and care, every sense can convey information. What if a nonprofit commissioned a song each year as part of an annual internal report that encoded important performance indicators in tempo, tonality, or pitch? What if we realized that cake for an employee’s birthday is already a symbolic encoding of gratitude and connection into literal sweetness? 

So that’s five internal communications lessons from Wordle: Value, scarcity, connection, competition, and sensation. Will they solve all your problems? No. There are no sure-fire wins in internal communications, just as there is no starting word that makes you ace Wordle every day. But with whimsy and curiosity, organizations can break through ruts, defy expectations, and get information and relationships moving better than ever before.

The problem: Not enough communication between departments at your organization.

The solution: Colorful boxes.

Okay, maybe not literally. But hear us out.

Spreading the Wordle: Internal Communications Lessons from a Viral Word Puzzle | Leading Edge

Spreading the Wordle: Internal Communications Lessons from a Viral Word Puzzle

For people in the workplace, being in a different role from someone else is one of many factors that can lead to having vastly different experiences — living in different realities. What about CEOs and employees at Jewish organizations? How are our experiences the same or different?

Every year (with the exception of 2020), Leading Edge conducts an Employee Experience Survey. Our primary purpose for the survey is to provide a people analytics tool that helps Jewish nonprofit leaders and managers better understand their workplace culture. With questions ranging from mission alignment to internal communications and from management practices to psychological safety, the survey gives an in depth look into the world of work. With more and more organizations opting to take part in the survey every year, Leading Edge is able to glean insights into Jewish nonprofit professionals’ experiences. 

This year, however—for the first time—we piloted an additional CEO Survey just for top-most professionals: CEOs, Executive Directors, and other equivalent titles. (For the sake of brevity, I’ll refer to them simply as CEOs.) Since the CEO’s experience leading their organization is notably different from the rest of the professional team’s experience, this survey focused on the CEO experience only. 

Understanding how top leaders experience their work is vital for boards, funders, CEOs themselves, and the field at large. We have seen consistently over time that trusted leadership, and high leadership performance, are factors that are both variable and strongly correlated with organizational success. Leadership really matters! That’s why we wanted to take this deep dive into how CEOs in Jewish nonprofits experience their work, their relationships with their senior teams, their board relationships, and their perspectives of their most common strengths and struggles. 

So now that we have both surveys, we can ask, and answer, this question: what’s different, and what’s the same, about how CEOs and their employees are experiencing work in our sector? And what does that mean for our field?

Here are two areas where CEOs and employees in the sector seem to be strongly aligned in their experiences:

Most CEOs and employees feel their organizations have been taking meaningful steps regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). 72% of CEOs agree that “My organization is taking meaningful steps to address diversity, equity, and inclusion,” while 70% of employees agree that “My organization demonstrates a genuine commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” It would be better if these numbers were higher, but they do represent a strong majority. It’s important to remember that “meaningful steps” isn’t the same as saying, “mission accomplished”. Even as 72% of CEOs say their organizations are taking meaningful steps on DEI, 68% of CEOs also say (in response to a different question) that DEI is “a growth area” at their organization. This practice is very much a work in progress in our field.


Most people feel their organizations are understaffed. This is something we have seen every year in the Employee Experience Survey data and, unsurprisingly, find a shared experience between CEOs and employees. Forty-four percent (44%) of CEOs agree that “Our organization has the staff we need to fulfill our mission,” compared to 42% of employees who agree that “There are enough people to do the work we need to do.” This finding is straightforward, but important. In the midst of a shifting workforce and the redefinition of work, organizations may lose valuable employees due to understaffing and overworking. Running a lean organization may not be all it's cracked up to be and will likely lead to even more of an overwork issue as the most put-upon and stretched employees search for more balanced opportunities elsewhere.

Here are two areas where CEOs and employees diverge:

CEOs have a harder time  unplugging. It’s no surprise, but it’s still worthy of note—leadership is very demanding! Only 32% of CEOs say “I have enough opportunities to disconnect from work,” compared to 55% of employees—a 23% gap. Honestly, both of these numbers should be much higher than they are if we want organizations to achieve their best performance. Turnover, burnout, and languishing have real costs—human costs, financial costs, and social costs to the mission. But for leaders, the problem seems to be especially acute. Leaders, boards, and funders should take seriously the need to allow top leaders to have time to disconnect to mitigate potential burnout. 

There is also an equity angle here. In our report released this summer, The Gender Gap in Jewish Nonprofit Leadership: An Ecosystem View, we found that the perception that you cannot be a top leader and a primary caregiver at the same time is one of five “keystone” causes of the gender gap in top Jewish leadership. Everyone needs time outside of work just for the sake of their mental health and well-being. It is also worth noting that leaders who do not take breaks or unplug are setting a harmful example for their employees and the next generation of leaders. 


CEOs feel like they’re getting things done. Employees? Maybe not as much. Ninety percent (90%) of CEOs agree that “Most days I feel that I      am making progress with my work,” compared to 78% of employees—a 12% gap. Both numbers are relatively high, which is another piece of good news for the field. Feelings of daily progress are incredibly important. Every year, in our Employee Experience Survey report, we analyze what differentiates people who want to stay at their organizations from people who want to leave their organizations, and this year feelings of daily progress is one of the vital factors for retention. Ninety percent (90%) of employees who said they want to stay at their organization for two years or more also reported feeling that they make daily progress in their work. Among those who want to leave their organizations within two years, just 44% said they make progress each day at work (a 46% gap). Other research also shows the importance of progress to employee engagement. The fact that CEOs are more likely than employees to feel they are making progress should prompt CEOs to explore this more. It’s tempting to assume that others experience work the same way we do, but this question shows that for many CEOs and employees, there may be a disconnect. Some CEOs may therefore be missing opportunities to figure out how to remove barriers to their employees getting things done, in ways that would benefit everyone. 

There’s more to be said. There are other similarities, and other differences, between the perspectives of CEOs and employees at Jewish nonprofits. To explore them, I hope you’ll read both survey reports! (Find them at leadingedge.org/resources.) And if you’re an organizational leader whose organization has not yet participated in our surveys, consider joining us for the Employee Experience Survey and CEO Survey in 2022! Registration will open in January. Getting this type of feedback from your staff gives you information to support building a better workplace culture. Data and information are just means to that end, but you can’t get to what should be until you understand what is.

As we rapidly approach the end of the calendar year, we wish for you a 2022 of great work life, great life away from work, great colleagues (and enough colleagues), and a workplace culture where everyone feels and knows that they are included and belong.

Originally published at eJewish Philanthropy.

The poet John Keats once wrote, “Nothing ever becomes real ‘til it is experienced.” And he was right. It’s one thing to hear a story about, say, flying over your bike’s handlebars while mountain biking in Israel, but trust me, doing it is so different from hearing about it that it’s another reality entirely.

The Job Multiverse: How similarly do CEOs and employees experience work?

Originally published in eJewish Philanthropy on December 1, 2021

I call myself an accidental Jewish professional. I volunteered at an organization, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and fell into a job there while still in college. Graduating in the middle of a financial crisis, I jumped at a full-time offer at the organization. It was there that my love of the Jewish nonprofit sector bloomed. It was also there where I learned that my organizational skills, quick turnaround time and trusty highlighters were a perfect fit for a career in operations. Throughout my time at various organizations, I was able to lean on this while doing something I loved: being the thread across different parts of an organization and helping to hold everything together.

Such was the case three years ago when I was lucky enough to join the staff of Leading Edge, an organization with a mission I hold dear: making Jewish nonprofits better places to work by supercharging culture, diversity, leadership and treating each other as full human beings. 

But soon after I joined the team, things started to change. 

Suddenly I couldn’t remember things with the same clarity. Typos and missed details crept into my work. I had to reread instructions over and over before understanding what to do. Some people may not see this as a big deal, if that’s been their past experience, but that was never me before. When submitting my application to the Amazing Race, one of the skills I listed was “Can decipher Ikea instructions with one glance.” (Still waiting for them to call me…) Color-coded files, the ability to anticipate the needs of my team, these were not just things I happened to be good at, but things that made up the entire basis of my work identity. And now they weren’t working. I now needed to work twice as hard to do things that were half as efficient.

I first attributed these changes to being part of an extremely talented group that was in a period of growth and change. Yet slowly the impostor syndrome crept into my mind. Maybe I was just not good enough. Did they make the right decision hiring me? Had my entire life up until this point been a sham?

But it didn’t stop there. I was getting sick. A lot. And each time, it would take me much longer to bounce back. I went to general physicians and specialists. Each gave me a different diagnosis and spun me into a tornado of unanswered questions.

Enter the flaming dumpster of a year: 2020. Along with the small stressor of a global pandemic, I noticed even more cognitive issues. I would freeze and stutter trying to recall a simple word that I had used a million times. I would sometimes forget how to do everyday things, like use the coffee maker or dishwasher. 

And then there was the pain. I couldn’t walk more than a block without being in agony or needing to sit down. My body felt like it was being weighed down by a lead blanket. Muscle spasms, joint pain, migraines, exhaustion, one thing after another piling up and up. 

It was when I lost vision in my left eye that I realized something was seriously wrong. 

After about two years of searching for answers, I finally received a more certain diagnosis: Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS). I can’t quite describe the roller coaster of emotions that hearing this diagnosis unlocked in me. Relief that I finally knew what was wrong immediately turned to terror. MS is an incredibly individualized disease and everyone is affected differently. But one thing is certain: there’s no cure. 

How could I hold my organization together if I could barely hold myself together? How could I be the thread across the organization when I’m all tied into knots? My work identity was gone. 

I needed to adapt, but had no idea where to start. I was overwhelmed, exhausted and terrified of losing my job. I read horror stories of people struggling with MS who could no longer work or were fired. Stress is a trigger for flare-ups, so I was trapped in a cycle of anxiety, depression and physical pain. Here’s the part where I say something that, sadly, is not a very common phrase: I love my job. And beyond needing to make a living, the thought of no longer being a part of my team was disheartening. 

I am not one to ask for help; I’m the one folks go to when they need help. But my supervisor, who during this entire ordeal had been patient, empathetic and kind, went above and beyond to help me navigate this seemingly impossible terrain and pushed me to take care of myself. I was also overwhelmed at home. My wonderful partner had to take on more and more things that I could no longer do. That dynamic flip in both parts of my life made me feel weak and useless. 

But that’s not the reality. The reality is my body is not working properly. And here’s another reality: everyone needs help. In one way or another, at one time or another, in big ways or small, all people are vulnerable and need support. The amazing leadership at Leading Edge made it clear that it was okay to ask for help. I was able to take a medical leave to make my health the priority. Since returning, I have transitioned into a new role in the organization, putting new emphasis on some of my strengths that I hadn’t used quite as much in the old role, and relying less on some types of workflow that had become more difficult. Leading Edge also provided me with a professional coach to help me understand my new brain and how to use it efficiently.

Asking for help is a vulnerable, often terrifying thing to do. And taking time off to heal and just rest is an entirely foreign concept in too many workplaces. But for me, it was exactly what I needed—and for other organizations, how many people out there are struggling with a health challenge, physical or mental, and are reluctant to ask for help?

One thing the COVID-19 pandemic has done is normalize discussing illness (visible or not) within the workplace. The disease has not only caused an enormous amount of short-term illness, but also a new kind of chronic illness (Long COVID). It’s a tricky topic that we are all still learning how to navigate. In the U.S., six out of ten adults have a chronic illness and four out of ten have two or more. It’s important to know your own limits, but it’s just as important to notice them in others. Managers need to learn how to toe the line of providing support without overstepping personal boundaries. 

Here are a few simple first steps to consider in your organization.

Have a conversation. There could be a number of variables behind a shift in an employee’s job performance or attitude. A simple “You are valued here and we want to help” goes a very long way. Making room to have these conversations in a safe way can alleviate fears and open a new path forward. 

Make room for empathy. It’s easy to become frustrated and assume that an employee is making excuses. But patience is something I wish everyone could have a little bit more of when it comes to dealing with chronic illness. Trust me: we are harder on ourselves than anyone else could ever be. 

Ditch the toxic status quo. As a society, we’re slowly coming to the realization that success in the workplace is not determined through a one-size fits all metric. Taking time off is not a measure of a “bad employee.” We’ve all learned about burnout this year, and the repercussions of identifying it after it’s too late. Great employees can go through not-so-great times. They should be allowed time to heal, and rest. They will truly appreciate it.  

Pivot. It’s not just something you shout while carrying a couch up a flight of stairs with your friends. Even if you’re not affected by an illness, sometimes your career path takes some unexpected turns. My pivot was to go from operations to communications. Allowing an employee to identify the skills they have—and their core strengths that may help them develop new skills to evolve in their job—can make a huge difference.

Everyone’s journey through chronic illness is different. I’m still at the beginning of mine, but I feel so lucky to be at an organization that strives to lead by example and treat our employees as full human beings. 

Most importantly, if you are dealing with a chronic illness of any kind, allow yourself to grieve. Grieve the life you had or thought you would have. Grieve that piece of yourself that was lost. You didn’t choose to have this illness, and you are not alone in your journey.


How many people out there are struggling with a health challenge, physical or mental, and are reluctant to ask for help?

What do you do when things stop working?

Employees at Jewish nonprofits are overwhelmingly proud to work at their organizations. They know how their work contributes to their organizations’ missions, they believe their organizations provide quality services to their communities, and they feel respected by their managers. Employees also largely feel that their organizations are understaffed, that their salaries are unfair and derived from a process they don’t understand, and that they have little opportunity for advancement.

These are just a few of the many insights shared in a newly released report, Are Jewish Organizations Great Places to Work? Results from the Fifth Annual Employee Experience Survey. The survey studies how employees in the Jewish nonprofit sector experience their work, what keeps them engaged, and why they choose to leave or stay in their organizations. Conducted primarily to help each participating organization become an even better place to work, the survey also helps Leading Edge better understand issues of organizational culture affecting the Jewish nonprofit sector as a whole. The survey has been conducted every year since 2016, with the exception of 2020, as organizations scrambled to adjust to COVID-19 disruptions. 

The pandemic picture: relative stability and even improvement. The 2021 survey was fielded in May 2021—before the delta variant cast its shadow on the pandemic recovery and before subsequent signs of “The Great Resignation” came into focus. Still, as a snapshot of how the pandemic affected Jewish nonprofit workplaces to that point, the survey reveals good news: some aspects of team culture that were most directly affected by the pandemic, such as collaboration, communication, and employee enablement, stayed the same or even improved between 2019 and 2021. Survey statements that received more agreement in 2021 than in 2019 include: “My manager keeps me informed,” “My team receives high-quality support from other parts of the organization,” “At my organization there is open and honest two-way communication,” “I have enough autonomy to do my job effectively,” “I have access to the information that I need to do my job effectively,” and “Our systems and processes generally support us in getting our work done effectively.” This finding echoes broader trends; McKinsey reports that “during the pandemic, about 50 percent of the companies in [their] research data set increased performance, while the rest saw no meaningful change or decreases.”

Furloughs and layoffs. 39% of participating organizations reported that they conducted furloughs or layoffs during the pandemic, while 47% reported that they did not, and 14% didn’t provide this information. JCCs were hit particularly hard in this regard; 70% of participating JCCs reported conducting furloughs or layoffs. Firm-level data for the nonprofit sector as a whole is difficult to come by for an apples-to-apples comparison, but on the individual level, the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies estimates that 13% of nonprofits jobs disappeared between March and May of 2020.

What drives employee engagement? While the report contains many insights and implications about how the pandemic has changed workplaces, the Employee Experience Survey did not focus on COVID-19. Instead, like every year, it focused on how employees experience their working lives, and what keeps them engaged. “Employee engagement” means pride in the organization, motivation to do great work, and a desire to stay at the organization and recommend it to others as a great place to work. Employee engagement has been proven to be vital for organizational success. Each year Leading Edge shares engagement drivers—survey items that strongly correlate with employee engagement in their survey data. For 2021, in the Jewish nonprofit sector, the top five engagement drivers included “My organization demonstrates care and concern for its employees,” “I feel like I belong at my organization,” “I believe employee well-being is a priority at my organization,” “I have confidence in our leaders to lead the organization effectively,” and “At my organization there is open and honest two-way communication.” The importance of a sense of belonging in driving employee engagement demonstrates that organizations should consider effective action for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) a vital tool in maximizing their effectiveness in achieving their missions. (Belonging is an aspect of DEI.)

Why people stay or leave. In 2021, employees’ intentions to stay or leave their organizations in the future were correlated most strongly with: Whether people would recommend their organization to others; the extent to which people feel a sense of belonging at their workplace; whether people perceive that they are making daily progress with their work; whether people’s organizations prioritize well-being; and how motivated people feel to do their best work. The first two of these (motivation and whether they would recommend their organization as a workplace) align with past years’ Employee Experience Survey data. Two other top items in this list—a sense of belonging and a sense of daily progress—were newly added to the survey this year. Whether the organization prioritizes well-being, however, seems to be something that has become more important to employees. This item about prioritizing well-being was asked in previous years, but not until 2021 did it show this level of correlation with the decision to stay or leave.

What the survey is for: becoming a “leading place to work.” While Leading Edge learns insights from the survey about the entire field, the main purpose of the survey is to provide each organization with insights into its own unique strength areas to build on and growth areas to address in order to become an even better place to work. Participating organizations receive not only a customized report with their survey data, but also consultations and support from Leading Edge in interpreting the data and crafting a plan to create positive change. Leading Edge has identified the following core elements of a “leading place to work:”

Growth of the survey. More than 11,600 people from 221 organizations took Leading Edge’s Employee Experience Survey this year. This brings the multi-year total, since the survey’s inception in 2016, to more than 35,000 people at 316 organizations. This is quite a sizable sample relative to the Jewish nonprofit sector’s estimated 73,000 total employees. 135 of these organizations (61%) are returning after participating in the survey in previous years, while 86 (39%) are new participants. Survey data shows that the more years an organization takes the Employee Experience Survey, the better its scores, especially around psychological safety, salary and benefits, and learning and advancement.

What’s new in the 2021 survey. In addition to collecting data on furloughs and layoffs related to COVID, this year’s survey collects more data around employee well-being than previous years—including whether or not employees have opportunities to disconnect from work. Other new topics include whether or not employees feel they are making daily progress with their work; whether performance reviews help them improve; whether they feel their organization shows a genuine commitment to DEI; and more. For the first time, the survey also asks about whether employees have a disability relevant to their work—and the data reveal a significant growth area for the sector around disability inclusion. Employees with disabilities are less engaged than other employees and report having fewer opportunities for learning and advancement. Across many factors, their experience at work is below average in favorability.

The Jewish nonprofit sector as reflected in this survey is still not racially/ethnically representative of the North American Jewish community as a whole. While Jews of Color may represent as much as 12–15% of the Jewish community, only 6% of Jewish employees surveyed identified as any racial/ethnic group other than white. White employees are also overrepresented relative to U.S. demographics among the non-Jewish employees at the organizations surveyed. Beyond representation, the report also includes a detailed breakdown of how employees who identify with different racial/ethnic groups report experiencing work across different factors of work experience.

Making it real with stories. In addition to exploring the state of employee experience in our sector, the report provides some concrete, real-world examples of organizations getting something right. In the report you can learn how the Leichtag Foundation helps employees craft their dream jobs; how Jewish Nevada improved leadership communication; how Agence Ometz has improved salary transparency; how Honeymoon Israel has cultivated amazing board-professional relationships; and how Avodah has leveled up employee well-being and trust in their leadership.

Read the entire report at leadingedge.org/survey2021.

Employee experience in the Jewish communal sector not only avoided collapsing during the pandemic, but even improved in some areas. Results from Leading Edge’s fifth annual Employee Experience Survey reveal both common strengths and persistent struggles facing workplace culture in the Jewish nonprofit field.

How did the Jewish Workplace Fare During COVID? Leading Edge Releases 2021 Employee Experience Survey Findings

The annual* Leading Edge Employee Experience Survey is a people analytics tool that helps Jewish nonprofit leaders and managers better understand their workplace culture. It’s designed to capture as much of the employee experience as possible in order to help organizational leaders identify their strengths, challenges, and growth opportunities. The survey asks questions ranging from management practices to internal communications, from mission alignment to confidence in leadership, and much more. In addition to the robust data set that organizations gain access to, Leading Edge continues to support participating organizations on their journey to become even better places to work by offering one-on-one consultations, ongoing technical support, and curated resources and best practices.

*Leading Edge didn’t run the Employee Experience Survey in the Spring of 2020. Organizations were facing a pandemic, office closures, cancelled events, potential budget shortfalls, and other challenges. We chose to offer a quicker, simpler, self administered Pulse Survey instead to help leaders stay informed on how their teams were doing and what were their most immediate needs. (The Pulse Survey remains available, both for organizations that don’t take the Employee Experience Survey and for those that do, as a supplement to it.)

At Leading Edge we believe that prioritizing employees as key stakeholders is an essential part of creating dynamic, healthy, and thriving organizations. With that in mind, the primary purpose of the survey is to help organizational leaders do just that—by asking the right questions and then providing individual support and field-wide resources.

As more and more organizations opt into taking the survey every year, Leading Edge is also able to distill themes, trends, correlations, and other insights that can inform the entire field about how to create the kind of workplace experiences that will help attract, retain, and develop talented people. This is what you can look forward to reading in the survey report this fall.

Since 2016, more than 35,000 people working across over 300 unique organizations have taken the survey.  In 2021, more than 17,000 people working for 221 organizations received the Employee Experience Survey. (This figure counts the 200+ professionally staffed Hillel campuses across the globe as one unit, and Hillel International as another unit.) More than 11,000 people responded. Sixty percent (60%) of the 2021 participating organizations have taken this survey at least once before, and 40% took it for the first time. More than 80 organizations have taken the survey at least three times.

A broad range of Jewish organizations take the Employee Experience Survey, including JCCs, Federations, human service organizations, social justice organizations, camps, umbrella organizations (like denominations, Jewish Federations of North America, JCC Association, etc.), and more.

Employees of every rank and job function are strongly encouraged to take the survey, with one exception: CEOs. (By “CEOs” we mean the top professional leader of the organization, including those with other titles.)

In past years, CEOs have taken the survey, and they’ve told us that some of the questions don’t apply to them. So many questions about employee experience relate to the supervisor, but the CEO’s supervisor is a board of directors. That’s a very different dynamic and experience.

This year, in order to capture the unique experience of top leaders, we offered some CEOs a chance to pilot a new CEO Survey with questions specifically geared towards their experience as top leaders, instead of the Employee Experience Survey. We’re preparing reports for both surveys so that the field can benefit from insights about both experiences (leader and employee) in our sector.

What does Leading Edge do with the survey results?

The first thing we do is provide an interactive set of results to the leaders of the participating organizations. Using the platform of our survey partner, Culture Amp, organizations can look through their results in countless permutations, looking at different answers, themes, subgroups, and trends, and browsing action ideas for how to improve people’s experiences in the items they identify as growth areas. We then provide a set of two one-on-one consultations, at no cost, to each organization to help them understand and interpret their results (it’s a lot of data!) and help them create action plans to build on strengths and address challenges.

While organizations are busy working through their results, Leading Edge analyzes the aggregate results from the survey to see what sector-wide trends and insights can be gleaned that can help the entire sector improve workplace culture and people’s experiences working at Jewish organizations.

What kinds of findings will be in the Employee Experience Survey report?

Here are some (not all!) of the topics we’ll cover:

How do 2021 responses differ from 2019, and what can that tell us about the effects of 2020 and the pandemic on our sector’s workplace experience?

What aspects of employees’ experience most strongly correlate with “engagement”? (By engagement we mean a combination of pride in the organization, feeling motivated to do great work, recommending the organization as a great place to work, and wanting to stay with the organization in the future.)

What key workplace differences are driving people to want to stay at their organizations—or leave them?

How do employees feel about their organizations? Their managers? Their leaders? 

How psychologically safe do employees feel? How cared for?

Do people feel like they belong? Do they feel the organization demonstrates good DEI practices? 

Do employees understand how pay works at their organizations and feel their salary is fair?

In addition to insights about all this and more regarding the entire range of participating organizations this year, we’ll include tips for improving common experience issues, true stories from the field, and more. To get an idea of what’s to come, you can read the most recent previous report (2019) here. 

What about demographics? Isn’t this like a census of the field?

The report will present the demographic makeup of the people who took the survey. This is in no way a census, poll, or scientific study of all the people who work in the Jewish nonprofit sector as a whole. Participating organizations are not a random sample. Organizations that opt in to take the survey are prepared and eager to improve their employees’ experiences and willing to commit to acting on what they discover. Which organizations are ready to take that step is not a randomized group, and therefore that group of Jewish organizations can’t be assumed to be representative of all Jewish organizations. 

Additionally, when it comes to trends over time, the group of participating organizations is not the same from year to year. This makes it difficult to assert overall longitudinal trends for the sector. This doesn’t mean we can’t draw  some conclusions about the field. Indeed, we believe we can glean many insights into the state of work and workplace culture for the Jewish nonprofit sector. When we see recurring themes year over year, or a common set of challenges facing most participating organizations, we can start to look deeper at these emerging trends. No spoilers here—you’ll need to read the 2021 report for more on this.

When will we get to see the final report?

This autumn. While you’re waiting, browse our Resource library and learn all about how organizations can become Leading Places to Work.

Later this year, Leading Edge will release a report sharing insights from the 2021 Employee Experience Survey. We want to share some thoughts in advance about what our annual survey report can—and can’t—tell us about the Jewish nonprofit sector as a whole.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting (to read the Employee Experience Survey Report)

Published in eJewish Philanthropy on February 17, 2021.

Asking questions is part of being Jewish—which is great for me, because I’ve always asked a lot of questions. When I was growing up, my parents patiently responded—often with more questions, which was sometimes annoying but probably also helpful. 

At Leading Edge, we love questions, too. We design surveys full of questions, like our annual Employee Experience Survey and ongoing Pulse Surveys, to support organizations in becoming even better places to work. 

But lately I’ve also been reflecting on the dark side of questions. The wrong question at the wrong time can be damaging. Questions are powerful, and with power comes responsibility. 

We might think, what could be more open and less absolute than a question? A question isn’t an argument or pronouncement from on high—no harm in asking, right? But questions are much less innocent than they seem. 

Here are three hidden powers of asking questions. These powers show us what can go wrong if we misuse questions—and what can go right when we remember that every question carries with it more than just the literal meanings of its words.

Questions tell as much as they ask. The questions we ask can reveal our attitudes; our assumptions; our priorities; our focus; how much we know; what we may not know; how much we care; and more.

When we design the Leading Edge Employee Experience Survey, we do our best to balance the experience of the people responding to the survey, the leaders’ ability to understand and act on the data to make the organization an even better place to work, and our understanding of broader trends and needs in the field. Each question reveals a bit about our beliefs and priorities, but the story a question tells may not be what we intended. Here’s an example: when the Leading Edge team creates demographic questions on a survey, we format the answers as multiple-choice options. In the past, after the specific options was an “Other” option for typed responses. The multiple-choice format makes results much easier to sort and quantify. But that format also means we’re displaying an official list of demographic categories, a canonized set of “normal” or “expected” demographic options. We strive to make these options broad enough to allow everyone taking the survey to find themselves in the answer choices, but in the rare cases in which people didn’t see themselves in the response options, the “Other” label could be taken as implying that they are “other,” outsiders, people who don’t belong, afterthoughts, or exceptions. That we didn’t intend this message or consciously think it to be true doesn’t solve the problem. We shaped the question, and the question had a story to tell. This is why we have moved from “Other” to “Prefer to self-describe” for all such situations.

Questions can shape experiences. Psychology and sociology both have a rich literature on “framing”—essentially, how different external signals, cues, prejudices, narratives, and superficial differences can radically alter how we might experience the same object or event. Framing effects can include anything from how the first number spoken in a negotiation conversation shapes what offer someone is later willing to accept to how we consider information differently when it’s told to us by someone wearing a white coat. Just as a literal frame isn’t a painting, but rather tells us what part of our visual field is a painting, a cognitive frame is something that tells us what to notice.

Asking questions can have unintentional framing effects. Let’s say an employer asks her team members a set of 50 questions that are all exclusively about productivity. That survey not only tells the story that productivity is all the employer cares about (power #1) but will likely also affect the attention, behavior, and experience of team members in the weeks and months that follow. Maybe they’ll produce more. Maybe they’ll resent it and produce less. Maybe they’ll have a host of different feelings and reactions, but the point is that the organization has now influenced the employees’ stories in the direction of being more centrally about productivity, whether or not that was their intention. 

On the positive side, we can use framing effects on purpose. Recently, a funder asked me how they can encourage organizations to prioritize employee wellness without being prescriptive or (at this moment) giving extra dollars. I responded that just asking grantees about wellness will encourage organizations to prioritize it and think about it differently.

Questions can set expectations. Whether we’re talking about the workplace or a personal relationship, the fact of asking always implies something about the relationship between the asker and the askee. Sometimes it means we really care, really want to get involved, or at least want to be there as a supportive listener. Sometimes it means we’re just making small talk and we have no intention of building a real connection. In both cases, and whether it’s two people talking or an organization surveying, the most awkward moments often come when someone asks an insincere question. 

Often, leaders ask us if we think participating in the survey makes sense for them in a given year. We typically respond by asking if they intend to take action on what they learn. If you know that you’re unable or unwilling to do anything about the answers to a survey, then asking will only be making an implicit promise you don’t intend to keep, and this may not be the best time for a survey at all. 

For organizations that do take the Employee Experience Survey, we recommend leaning into the implication that asking means caring, since implying that intention can help even before the results are fully collected. That’s one reason that we include a question in the survey that asks whether employees agree with the statement, "I expect something will be done as a result of this survey."

So those are three powers of asking questions: giving information, shaping experience, and setting expectations. As you can see, these powers can be used for unintentional evil or for good. 

Let’s be careful what we ask. Let’s treat questions with the serious consideration, and even caution, that they deserve. But then let’s embrace them as not only a Jewish cultural heirloom, but as a versatile, complex, and useful tool of the communal trade.

There’s still time (until February 24) to register for Leading Edge’s Employee Experience Survey 2021.

Careful What You Ask: The Three Hidden Powers of a Question

Flexible Hours. To support employees who are unable to work normal hours, consider allowing them to adjust their schedule to accommodate personal or family needs. If employees are able to work more productively late at night or on the weekend when they can focus, this should be an option. While many organizations are already doing this informally, it’s helpful to be as explicit as possible so that employees don’t feel pressure to check and respond to email at all times. Leaders and managers can also suggest that employees list work hours in their email signature, block off working and non-working on their calendars for coworkers to see, or put up an out-of-office message if they are not working during the typical work day.


Reward Hard Work. It’s important to also recognize and reward employees who may be taking on a larger-than-usual share of the workload. There are a variety of ways to do this. Send a card to say you’re grateful and appreciate their efforts. If folks are working remotely, consider sending a small gift to employees’ homes to show the organization’s gratitude. Just expressing to employees that their hard work is acknowledged and noticed can go a long way towards improving morale for those who are going above and beyond. 


Prioritize. With many staff working remotely, communication can be difficult. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and lose track of what’s most important. Weekly check-ins or team meetings can help staff determine which tasks and projects are most important for the week. This way, even if staff are working flexible hours they know what is expected of them and can work to achieve short-term goals. Managers can also create a template to mark the status of each task or project with a green light, yellow light, or red light, assigning a color to help an employee visualize what is on track, paused, or removed.


Safe Spaces. While 2020 has proven to be eye-opening for many around issues of racial justice, discrimination in the workplace has long been known to communities of color. Research has shown a trend with mental health concerns resulting from workplace discrimination. Managers should consider appropriate ways to address equity within their organization and provide a space for people to talk about it. A human resources or talent professional can reach out to employees offering the opportunity for discussions about issues relating to racial justice. Some staff may want to meet privately while others might prefer sharing their thoughts among a group of individuals facing similar challenges, where they can speak openly and offer support. The manager organizing the discussion should be mindful to listen and let participants do the majority of the talking. Another option is to form a book club focused on DEIJ-related books as a way to spark discussions about racial justice in the workplace. 


Time off. Employees may be less willing to speak up if they need to take time off to deal with mental health. But organizations should consider that those struggling with mental health issues often need rest, away from the computer, the same way that those dealing with physical ailments do. Think about offering mental health or wellness days, in addition to PTO days for employees to utilize if needed. These could take the form of organization-wide “Rest and Recharge Days” where the entire organization shuts down for a few days, or “Summer Fridays” where the whole organization is off on Friday afternoons. No matter what policy you implement, ensure that senior leaders set the example to help normalize the practice. Otherwise, employees may not feel comfortable taking advantage of the new policy. 


Re-think Meetings. The way that meetings are structured and scheduled can have an impact on how employees feel throughout the day. One suggestion is to end all internal meetings at 50 minutes past the hour to allow for at least a 10 minute break between calls/Zoom meetings. This may help to avoid dreaded Zoom fatigue. Another option is opening internal meetings with a scale of one to ten in response to “How are you feeling at this moment?” so that employees have the opportunity to speak up if they are not feeling well and others can offer support. 


Coverage Uncovered. Make sure your employees know exactly what kind of mental health services are covered under your policies. Sometimes navigating coverage questions can be a barrier to taking advantage of the available options. Make it easy for employees to access insurer-provided therapy and support. Consider a lunch and learn, HR office hours, or even a thorough memo to help explain what is available, how to find providers, and how folks can access everything. Include time for questions and answers so that employees can have all of their concerns addressed. 


“Walk-in-my-shoes.” Sometimes we don’t know the full story of what a team member is working on or going through. Make space for folks to share what’s hard for them during their work days along with any visible or invisible challenges. This could be done during a sharing circle at a team lunch, on a Slack channel where team members share what they are struggling with in real time, or any other forum that works for your team. To make sure that folks feel safe and comfortable to share, have the leadership share first to establish a safe and brave space. 


Accountabili-Buddies. An “accountabili-buddy” is an accountability partner who you speak with daily or weekly, where you support each other and hold each other accountable. It could include anything from fitness check-ins, making sure they are taking mental health days, keeping up with work goals, or sticking to a professional development plan. An “accountabili-buddy” is a great way to make sure your employees have someone to lean on during stressful moments and to have at least one person to check in with to make sure they are doing OK. Set up “accountabili-buddy” pairs for a specific period of time (1-3 months, 6 months, etc.) and make sure that the two individuals are not in a supervisor-supervisee relationship. 

Other Resources. Management can explore local resources to find a counselor that teaches coping skills or wellness strategies. Leaders can also consider scheduling a singular training or a series of training sessions to help improve staff morale, self-care, or well-being. A counselor may be available for one-on-one sessions, if the organization wants to offer this resource. Even sharing a list of online resources, recommended mental health professionals, or free online courses could be helpful. Think about bringing in experts to run workshops or guest speakers on various mental health topics. Consider paying for a meditation or exercise app to share with staff that would help them manage their mental health.


Manager Discussions. Leadership can offer managers-only meetings for senior leaders or middle management focusing on the challenges of managing teams during this time. These groups can be helpful and supportive environments. Meetings can also provide an opportunity for learning mindfulness and stress management techniques tailored for managers, which could reduce stress, increase focus, and set positive examples for their teams.


Listen to Staff. Provide a list of resources for any issues that haven’t been explicitly addressed already. For example, a list of hotlines for mental health or domestic violence could be helpful to staff who may not feel comfortable sharing these personal aspects of their lives in the workplace. Additionally, there may be a spoken need among several staff for more support around a particular issue, like homeschooling their children. Be open to what staff say their needs are, and think about how to address needs that may be unspoken.


Here are some additional tips to support mental health and encourage well-being at your organization:

Have a “rest hour” everyday in the afternoon when meetings cannot be scheduled

Have walking meetings instead of Zoom calls to encourage fresh air and movement

Play a quick game at the start of your next meeting to bond as a team and to have some fun

The current work environment presents many challenges that may be impacting health and well-being. Employees are juggling childcare needs with job responsibilities, caring for sick friends or relatives, struggling with isolation, and more. This list provides some ideas and suggestions to support your people and their mental health.

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