As President & CEO for Ricoh North America, Carsten Bruhn leads the information management and digital services company.
Five years have passed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and I’m reflecting on how that life-changing experience has shaped our current and future workplace.
The pandemic fundamentally changed how people think about work, reshaping work dynamics, emphasizing flexibility, prioritizing health and shifting our outlook on well-being. Employees spent more time with family and less with colleagues, with 64% reporting an improvement in work-life balance.
Yet, despite this change in our priorities, the emphasis remains on “work” in every use of the phrase “work-life balance.” If that’s how we think and talk about this order of operations, are employees ever set up to achieve a balance that leaves them feeling fulfilled? Flipping the script to “life-work balance” is a powerful signal-change leaders can communicate across their organizations to drive employee engagement and business sustainability.
Leading By Following
The 2025 workforce is unlike any other. Gen-Z and Millennial digital natives are working side-by-side with their Gen-X and Boomer counterparts, who gained most of their professional experience in a more formal environment devoid of constant tech-enabled connection. Yet, our collective experience with the pandemic yielded many new ways of working and defined where employees find meaning in and out of work.
Fulfillment at work takes shape in countless ways. According to a survey by my company, most employees find work-life balance (76%) and a growth-oriented culture (50%) fulfilling, placing a higher value on company culture and flexible work arrangements over a strict one-size-fits-all in-office policy.
In my experience, taking a servant leadership approach can help you discover what your diverse workforce needs from you as a leader. I’ve found success in collaborating with team members to co-create a culture where all voices are heard and respected. I also hold ongoing “Coffee with Carsten” sessions to hear firsthand what is happening throughout the organization. Informal visits to onsite locations, engaging team members in town halls and regular pulse checks are other means to ensure you have a good handle on people’s priorities and perspectives.
Culture Is A Verb
With the number of employees seeking new job opportunities at the highest rate in nearly 10 years, culture is more important than ever, particularly when it comes to employee retention. In fact, we’ve seen culture among co-workers (91%) and openness to better ways to work (88%) as important factors for employees when deciding whether to stay at their current role/company.
Ongoing communication is key to building and sustaining an engaged and fulfilled workforce:
• Provide clarity in policies and collect feedback along the way: As the new workplace is beginning to look different, leaders must be as clear and transparent as possible with guidelines, soliciting feedback along the way and remaining agile to pivot as needed.
• Put structure in place to keep the feedback loop going: It’s equally important for leaders to communicate new ways of working with their teams, as well as how those policies reflect and support the company strategy. As an extension of my “Coffee with Carsten” sessions, we created “Coffee with Leaders,” encouraging managers across the company to engage more regularly with their people.
Fulfillment Fuels Sustainability
While it’s inevitable that you will leave your current role at some point, as leaders, we can do more to ensure the culture we’ve helped to foster endures. We must continually seek to understand what drives fulfillment in the workplace so that the next generation of leaders can take our place one day. I find myself coming back to the same adage: It’s not my company; it’s our company.
The research is clear that employees who feel fulfilled are more likely to stay with their current company, and according to a 2024 Gallup report, engaged teams produce 23% greater profitability than disengaged teams. When you take care of your employees, profitability ensues.
Though fulfillment can take different forms, a subtle shift to life-work balance from the top can make a monumental and lasting impact on today’s workplace experience. By inviting your teams to help co-create a future of work that starts with fulfillment, leaders can create a competitive advantage that drives long-term business success.
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