Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace - Hardcover

by Melissa Swift (Author)

Make work suck less and improve the performance of your people with this practical, hands-on guide

The COVID-19 pandemic and an ever-changing array of new ways of working seem to have all of us asking, "Does work really have to suck this bad?" It looks like a small taste of flexibility and freedom has made many of us rethink the nature of the work we do and how we do it.

In Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace, Mercer's North American Transformation Leader Melissa Swift delivers an eye-opening roadmap to better work that generates wins for companies and employees alike. In the book, you'll explore different ways to improve the growth-impeding, borderline inhumane people management practices we've created and endured over time. You'll also find:

• 50 strategies to create a powerhouse workplace at organizational level
• 50 strategies to create a powerhouse workplace at team level
• A simple framework to help you make people-centered decisions

An incisive and practical take on managing and working with people that--for once--doesn't rely on hackneyed idealism or management-by-algorithm, Work Here Now is the hands-on performance improvement tool that executives, managers, HR professionals, and other business leaders have been searching for.

Front Jacket

Work sucks. And, until recently, companies have mostly been able to ignore this fact. As long as business keeps chugging along, we haven't had to worry too much about the boredom, despondency, and general malaise plaguing employees across organizations. But we can't keep turning a blind eye, because productivity is beginning to suffer. Despite breathtaking technological progress in all areas, we're not doing that much better from year to year. Why? Because people are unhappy. Work Here Now is about how to turn this trend around, taking advantage of the biggest asset any workplace has--its workers.

To see radical improvement in our outcomes, we need to be willing to make radical improvements to our processes. We need to be willing to make work suck less. It's not about foosball tables, flex days, or nap rooms. We need to think bigger. In fact, we need to rethink how we work. In this book, multidisciplinary leadership expert Melissa Swift offers a concrete proposal for reinventing the work world so it, well, works.

Inside, readers will take a close look at all the ways we've made work downright inhuman, inadvertently stifling growth, profitability, and innovation. For instance, does trying to improve performance on an individual basis produce worse results than doing nothing at all? Swift then offers a better model of work, helping readers look in unexpected places for next-generation improvements that benefit everyone. From rethinking work hours and top-down management to making small tweaks that will make a big difference, Work Here Now helps organizations of all shapes and sizes create environments that help people succeed. Simple as that.

Back Jacket

Praise for WORK here NOW

"The pandemic upended the world of work and revealed that we could work effectively in entirely new ways. But how can organizations harness these new ways of working to properly shape the workplace of the future? Lucky for them, Work Here Now is a practical toolkit for how to transform the everyday colleague experience--and soar to new business heights in the process."

--Martine Ferland, President and CEO, Mercer

"Melissa Swift boldly interrogates how and why we work--and how we can improve organizational performance. With a clear voice and a persuasive call to action, Swift explains how we must rethink key elements of the People model and offers actionable strategies to fix the gaps. Recognizing that talent acquisition is the backbone of the talent cycle, she stresses that the need for true curiosity about the role and the candidates, will make our teams work better. We must resist the temptation to 'clone' job descriptions for new roles and tap into the business's greater strategy to innovate. A necessary read for any leader rethinking how we'll work together in a post-COVID world."

--Steve Potter, CEO and Managing Partner, Odgers Berndtson LLC

"Work has changed seismically over the last few years, and Melissa Swift provides a compelling account of the changes organizations might make to adapt and thrive as the workplace continues to be turned upside-down. Whether you're seeking to make bold shifts across your organization to attract and retain the talent you crave, or small-but-mighty alterations to make your team happier and more productive, Swift supplies paths to action backed by humanity and data alike."

--Alex Triantis, Dean, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School

"Melissa Swift knows what she's talking about, and she talks about it well. I'm delighted that she's been able to maintain her clear, down-to-earth voice even as she switched from talking to writing. This book has important ideas and interesting examples. Plus, it's just fun to read. I recommend it highly for people at all levels who care about making work work for workers."

--George Westerman, Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management and Founder, Global Opportunity Initiative

"Today's most meaningful innovations are consistently produced by high performing teams who can successfully reduce their amount of problematic work, to create adequate space for focus, flow, and creativity. COVID has provided us with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redefine the future of work. And getting it right is, in some cases, literally a matter of life and death. Work Here Now provides us a useful taxonomy for classifying problematic work, and pairs it with strategies you can employ right away to reduce or eliminate that work entirely--all written by Melissa Swift in an accessible and fun way that is anything but 'work' to read."

--Michael Walker, Senior Director and Global Lead, Red Hat Open Innovation Labs

Author Biography

Melissa Swift is the North American Transformation Leader at Mercer. Melissa helps clients bring their workforces to a different and better future. Her work leverages data analytics and a humanist view of the workplace to create extraordinary outcomes. She has been named a "Top Influencer on the Future of Work" by Onalytica.