The Great Reimagining!

 

 

2021 was dubbed the Great Resignation with 4.5 million workers quitting their jobs in November alone. With so much churn in the labor market it can only mean that 2022 will be a time will be a time of major workforce transformation– a great reimagining of what the workplace looks like from where to when and how we work. Yes, this is stressful and scary, but it’s also a moment of great optimism when we can re-write the rules, focus on how to build a better model by focusing on inclusivity, stickiness and equity.

Jenny and Gina and The Second Shift team are workplace transformation experts who are focused on working women, families, and flexible/remote work environments. We consider 2022 the year when we go from talking to implementing– there is no other choice. Workers preference for freedom, flexibility, and a personalized experience was created during the pandemic and has proven to be successful. There is no going back.

 

 

Restructuring to create an integrated and dynamic approach to hiring,  creating a truly hybrid system, while adding incentives and raises to retain and attract relevant talent.  Companies need to shift from structure and process to agility with  33% of global managers expecting to rely on external talent to assist them in this evolution, yet 24% say they are ready to manage that process.

Let us help you embrace flexibility and elastic hiring. When you hire a Second Shift member for a clearly defined role you bring on skills that align with your specific needs to finish projects quickly, efficiently and with the right talent for your exact need, exactly when you need it.

Whether you are a business in transformation, hiring or looking for some advice– let The Second Shift #makeworkworkforyou!

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Success Story!

 

 

The Client:

 

Breakthrough M2 is a health and Wellness company focused on a proprietary weight loss and supplements program. The founder wanted to expand her business by creating a franchise sales model. She needed help structuring an incentive driven sales model driven that ensured success for the salespeople and the company while retaining brand control.

 

The Quote:

 

“I had not worked with someone like Sandy before and she was great!  I hired her because I didn’t know what I needed and she wasn’t waiting for me to keep telling her what to do.  She gave me ideas, took the lead on looking things up, researching, asking friends for input, and letting me know she was doing a few extra things to add to what we were doing. ”

 

The Hire: 

 

Breakthrough M2 hired Sandy Nuwar, an expert in sales and business development with a background in  packaging and cybersecurity start-ups. Even though her experience was not in the wellness space, Sandy understood how to redesign a sales team and create process and procedures to roll out the new model while strategically re-thinking margins and the technology needed to ensure success for the salespeople and the company.

 

 

The Quote: 

“The M2 Breakthrough project was a great chance to work on revising a sales structure, marketing and overall strategy. Second Shift allows me the freedom to discover new challenges and think creatively for clients.”
The Second Shift Member Sandy N.

 

 

Want your own success story? Post a job now! 

 

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The Second Shift x GroupM Partnership on Parental Leave

 

Second Shift Co-Founder, Gina Hadley ,and WPP Chief People Officer, Jennifer Remling, “attended” the 10th annual 3% Conference to announce a partnership between our two companies focused on parental leave.

 

The 3% Movement seeks to bring in more women into creative roles at advertising agencies and is closely aligned to the mission of The Second Shift. Before her move to WPP, Jennifer held the same  role at GroupM (part of the WPP family of agencies) where she and Gina brainstormed  a partnership to bring The Second Shift’s program, Let’s Be Human– Parenthood at Work, to GroupM by creating a best-practices guide to family leave for employees and managers before, during and after parental leave. The Second Shift will also provide fill-ins for employees who have taken parental leave. It’s an exciting time to be making big moves in for working parents!

 

Watch Jennifer and Gina’s conversation about parental leave and retaining talent in this shifting landscape.

 

If you would like to learn more about our Let’s Be Human program and how we can help your company navigate parental leave with efficiency, communication, and humanity please reach out to Gina@thesecondshift.com

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Mom’s Hierarchy of Needs

 

The Second Shift hosted a discussion with Leslie Forde, founder of Mom’s Hierarchy of Needs, about how to prioritize self-care and personal relationships while parenting and working. It’s an area many of us struggle with and could use help reprioritizing in our lives!

Leslie is a veteran researcher who uses her skills to help companies learn about what parents, and especially women, want and need. Through her expertise she realized that mom’s have a different set of priorities and need help to define and organize themselves for optimal life, family and work success.

Watch the entire discussion here! 

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Paid Leave

 

The United States is one of eight countries without national paid maternity leave. The Democrats are currently negotiating the Build Back Better bill that includes paid leave, but the benefit is not guaranteed. This bill is vitally important because we’ve seen the cracks that happen when workers need to become caregivers overnight. And this bill is not just for moms– it includes all  child care givers, elder care givers, and all parental leave etc…

We hosted a webinar on this historic moment and how we, as advocates of working families, can help get the bill passed. Our friends at PL +US spoke to us about where the bill is currently and what we can do individually to make noise and make sure lawmakers know how important this is for working women and families. You can watch the entire talk here.

If you would like to know what you can do to spread the word:

  • Call your Senators and Congresspeople.
  • Make noise on twitter using the #savepaidleave and tag Senators Manchin, Schumer and President Biden.
  • Take to IG Live and tell your own story and paid leave journey. 
  • Use your platforms and networks to spread the word far and wide.

Thank you for your help on behalf of the 3million women who left the workforce over the past 18 months,

 

 

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The Lost Art of Connecting

 

Social impact communications and marketing strategist Susan McPherson is proud super-connector. She says it took her a long time to realize it was her superpower and figure out how to harness that for her own benefit and to help others as well. She’s written a book, The Lost Art of Connecting, to teach all of us how to intentionally make meaningful connections online and in person and strategically being useful and helpful to others.  In the end, she says, it’s all about helping others and the help will come back to us. Here are some of Susan’s tips from her Gather, Ask, Do method. For the more info you can watch our entire interview and buy her book!

Gather:

  • Connecting with yourself.
  • Audit your goals– who do you want to connect or re-connect with to help you reach those goals.
  • What is your superpower– How can you be of service.
  • Widen your networks to meet people outside of your comfort zone.

Ask:

  • Ask meaningful questions of others to find out how you can be helpful to them.
  • Learn to listen carefully

Do:

  • Take all of those details and start to find ways to help others and ultimately yourself.
  • Be strategic about it and focus on achieving the goals you set for yourself.

 

 

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Featured Member: Rachel Brown

Featured Member Rachel Brown is a seasoned digital marketing and communications specialist who is also a holistic nutritionist and yoga instructor and in her free time launched a corporate wellness consultancy. Nothing says Second Shift member like a turning a personal passion  into a side gig turned entrepreneurial venture. Go get it Rachel!
Tell us your story : Who are you and what do you do?

 

I’m Rachel. I’m a born and bred New Yorker who loves to travel, connect, soak up culture wherever it lives, and spend time in fresh air. My career story isn’t entirely linear. But whose really is? My expertise falls under the umbrella of digital marketing + communications specializing in influencer marketing, content marketing, artist management, corporate communications and public relations. I have 10+ years on the agency side, in addition to regularly volunteering with organizations such as I Give a F*ck, Frontline Foods, etc. where I spearhead strategic VIP/influencer partnerships and grassroots community collaborations. The other hat that I proudly wear is that I’m the co-founder of The Wellness Project NYC, a creative corporate wellness consultancy.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment?

 

 

My company: The Wellness Project NYC! When we first launched in 2012, bringing creative holistically focused wellness programming to companies was unheard of. We were early adopters in the space, took on enrollment conversations with confidence, and built a company that allows me to truly connect with thousands of individuals on a daily basis, while getting paid to do so. Along with my co-founder, we self-funded and built a profitable small business that not only changes peoples lives for the better, but we have developed a solid reputation amongst Fortune 500 companies around the world in doing so.

What is the hardest challenge you’ve faced, work-wise?

My conviction to use our collective creative voice with intention and to be a force for positive change is the driving force behind much of my career path and personal journey. My success in building TWP and running global advertising campaigns stems from my ability to delicately balance client expectations, maintaining alignment on business objectives, and producing meaningful, human-centric experiences for the shared end user.  This conviction is perhaps my greatest asset, but also presets me with my greatest challenges. It means that often times, I’m pressed to look deeper at the “why”, not just at the “how”, question the status quo and do things differently — and often times without a roadmap.

How do negotiate the balance between life and work when you are the one setting the boundaries?

 

I know that when I’m depleted, my work will be too. When I’m feeling personally inspired, connected, confident and healthy, that is the energy I bring to “the office”. The truth is, we don’t have a “work life” and a “home life”. We have one life and who you are in one area of your life will most definitely show up in all areas of your life. To me, boundaries are not something to be ashamed of. They help to bring priorities into focus and hone in on the things we truly want to achieve in life, and are an integral part of managing personal and professional expectations. When things slip up and feel chaotic or out of alignment, I think checking boundaries and priorities is a great first place to look.

How do you make work work for you? 

 

I connect to the good! At this point in my career, I am so grateful to only work with brands and/or people I feel aligned with. This turns work into a tool for me to learn and grow which tends to be both invigorating and rewarding. Each project and client is different and one of my favorite parts of the journey is to determine where I can bring the most value to the work I’m doing and team I’m collaborating with and lean into those strengths for the good of the greater team, and end deliverable.

 

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The Second Shift Solution

 

 

While explaining the exodus of women out of the workforce and how that exacerbates the current labor shortage, U.S. Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Suzanne Clark said “It is one of the biggest problems threatening the country. When demand outpaces supply, then any CEO has got to think about what they’re doing to retain workers, to be sympathetic to their workforce, to be a best-in-class employer—whether that’s wages, benefits, flexible schedules, access to childcare, better training.”

It’s a vicious cycle– without affordable childcare, paid leave and a pathway to better pay and future success, women are leaving the workforce in critical numbers and adding fuel to an already burning fire.

The Second Shift is one solution for companies to employ in their toolbox:

  • We provide opportunities for women to work flexibly and remain in the workforce.
  • We provide fill-ins for parental leaves– a proven way to attract and retain working parents when it costs employers  150% percent of a full-time salary to replace an employee.  
  • We consult with companies on their diversity, flexibility and hybrid work strategies.
  • Our Let’s Be Human: Parenthood at Work platform supports companies by creating ESG groups for parents and training employees and managers on best practices around parental leave.
  • We work with political advocacy organizations to fight for government policy and funding to support working mothers and families.
  • We help many female founded start-ups get off the ground by connecting them with high-level project-based talent to grow and scale quickly.
  • We help women make work work for themselves! 
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Paid Leave is Important– Make Some Noise!

 

 

 

Nearly 3 million women dropped out of the workforce in the past year and a half as families were hit the hardest in COVID.  A jobs report that came out last week surprised many who thought back to school would alleviate the child-care burden on mothers and families–but we knew the truth– school is one pillar keeping women in the workforce and without easy access to affordable childcare, universal pre-k and paid leave the balance tips and it falls, primarily and historically, on women.

Our friends at PL +US are pushing for paid leave to be part of the Biden Build Back Better bill and they need our help. The Second Shift community is made up of working women and families who understand first hand the critical need for government policies to help women regain the momentum we’ve lost in the fight toward gender equity in the workforce.  The private sector can’t do it alone, families can’t do it alone– we are the ONLY industrialized nation without paid leave and it’s up to the federal government to show up for women. We need to make some noise so our voices can’t be ignored!

 

Here’s what to do:

  • Post Post Post!
    •  From IG stories to Twitter to TikTok, every bit helps.
  • Tweet at Members of Congress and TAG them.
    • Especially if you live or know people in key states like Arizona, West Virginia,  New York, Washington, & Oregon.
  • Share your own story and experience with Paid Leave.
  • Be sure to tag @paidleaveus
  • Contact us if you want to do an IG Live or collaborate on content!
  • If you have a podcast or a blog talk about paid leave and encourage your followers to make noise! 

 

We are doing an event with PL+ US on Oct 26th to walk through what the bill means and why it is so important to speak up, now!

Join us on Zoom: https://bit.ly/pfml-briefing

 

 

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