We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marta Riggins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marta below.

Marta, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.

A paradigm shift in work flexibility and schedules. The rise of the fully-remote company, the hybrid work model, and “alternative schedules” like a 4 day work week. This is very exciting, and long overdue because if you think about it, the notion of the 5 day -40 hour work week hasn’t changed in over 100 years. The record high rates of employee burn-out and stress are proof it’s time for a change. It’s been really fascinating to follow the 4 day work week pilot results that just came out of a study from Boston College, University of Cambridge and University College Dublin. Some of the top results where that:

-Revenue increased 8.14% during the trial period, and revenue was up 37.5% compared to the same six-month period of the previous year.
-Employees chose to come into the office (vs. work remotely) more during the 4 day work trial.
-2/3 of employees said they were less burned-out.
-Participants exercised 23% more p/ week, suggesting the 4 day week has the potential to reduce healthcare costs.

Marta, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been working nearly 20 years in Corporate America across Human Resources, Marketing, Social Impact, and Strategic Partnerships in the Entertainment, Lifestyle and Tech industries. Over the past decade, I’ve been in-house, helping to establish companies as top employers of choice. After moving to San Diego in 2020 in the very beginning of the pandemic for a complete lifestyle change, I decided that I wanted to make a career change as well. I left my job at a large and growing tech company, and created a consultancy specializing in employer brand, employee engagement, and social impact. Essentially, I help companies market themselves to candidates and help them with employee engagement and retention. I also help them mobilize their employees and products to support the local communities that they operate in. Each company is on their own journey with this work, and I support clients of all sizes across industries by developing customized strategies.

I’ve been doing this for a long-time (before the terms “employer branding and employee engagement” were really defined categories). Now more than ever, this work is so important. According to Gallop’s “State of the American Workforce” Report, only 20% of the global workforce is engaged, and it’s costing the global economy trillions of dollars. Companies of all sizes need to update their benefits, communication style, working model, and culture in both virtual and physical work environments.

In the decade plus I’ve been in the field, I’ve seen so many companies go through incredible transformations, and make the connection that without people, there is no product or business. I’ve also learned that like all things in life, when we don’t own our own narrative for a company, someone else will. Company culture and employer branding work is something I wake up excited to do.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Carla Harris is one of the best models of leadership there is. She is also one of the most motivational speakers I’ve ever seen. She has several talks on YouTube, and all of her books are fantastic. In particular, “Lead to Win: How to be a Powerful, Impactful, Influential Leader in Any Environment” is a book I recommend to anyone, at any level, who is looking to influence others and make positive change at their workplace.

It sounds overly cliche, but Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is the book that keeps on giving. In particular, he has a quote,   “You can’t buy a person’s heart, their heart is where their enthusiasm, their loyalty is.” It really applies to the idea of recruiting and employee engagement.  You can give someone a job offer, and they will do the work, but you have to earn their trust, their heart, all the creativity and talent they can bring… their loyalty, that is earned. And that is essentially employee engagement.

I am also a big fan of Yvon Chouinard’s book “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman.” Patagonia has worked very hard to create an incredible culture and they really live their mission and treat their people well, and also live up to their responsible business values.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

There is a great people management framework for “the new work of work” that was created by Diane Gherson & Lydia Gratton that has 3 fundamental shifts in the role of managers today. It’s a visual chart so I’m paraphrasing here:

1. A Power Shift from “Me” to “We” (i.e. My team makes me successful to I’m here to make my team successful)
2. A Skills Shift from “Task Overseer” to Performance Coach” (i.e. I provide work direction and share information from above to I supply inspiration, sense making, and emotional support )
3. A Structural Shift From Static and Physical to Fluid and Digital (i.e. I imagine an intact team of people in fixed jobs in a physical workplace to my team is fluid and the workplace is digital).

Image Credits
*photo credit Michael Baca