What are collective work habits?

A working definition from MIT Sloan

collective work habits (noun)

Shared behavioral norms that determine how employees collaborate across silos and hierarchies, innovate concerning work and customer initiatives, and make choices about work.

Collective work habits determine whether employees can get the most out of an adaptive work environment — an environment that adjusts to the needs of workers by connecting people, data, and ideas, and by simplifying work activities and systems, among other factors.

Together, the two concepts dictate the employee experience at an organization, according to a 2018 research briefing from the MIT Center for Information Systems Research.

“Companies that invest in building a great employee experience are able to attract more digital talent as full-time [employees] and better enable these people to do their best work, thereby realizing significantly enhanced business value,” researchers Kristine Dery, Nick van der Meulen, and Ina M. Sebastian write.

The researchers found that companies that combine a great employee experience with a focus on developing internal talent had the best scores on four performance measures: net margins, time to market, ability to change, and innovation.

Employee Experience: Enabling Your Future Workforce Strategy

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