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While curiosity can address critical business challenges, many organizations struggle to develop and harness this skill<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the age of the Great Resignation, curiosity is increasingly recognized as a valuable skill by business leaders. Curiosity is increasingly sought by employers to address some of the biggest challenges facing organizations today \u2013 from improving employee retention and job satisfaction to creating more innovative, collaborative and productive workplaces. This is according to the SAS Curiosity@Work Report, new research from analytics leader SAS which surveyed nearly 2,000 managers globally and analyzed data from LinkedIn over the last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The report defines curiosity as the\nimpulse to seek new information and experiences and explore novel\npossibilities, highlighting the importance of this trait no matter an\nemployee’s role or level within their organization. The research found that\nnearly three quarters (72%) of managers believe curiosity is a very valuable\ntrait in employees, with more than half strongly agreeing that curiosity drives\nreal business impact (59%) and that employees who have more curiosity are\nhigher performers (51%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report highlights how curiosity\nhas gained traction amid growing demand for this skill. According to LinkedIn\ndata, year-over-year there has been a 158% increase in engagement with posts,\nshares and articles mentioning curiosity, 90% growth in job postings that\nmention curiosity, and 87% growth in the mention of skills related to curiosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In today\u2019s environment of the Great\nResignation, managers are finding it especially challenging to keep employee\nmorale and motivation high, with 60% of managers citing this as a difficulty.\nOver half of managers face challenges retaining good employees (52%), getting\nemployees to push beyond just basic job duties (51%) and driving\ncross-collaboration with other teams and departments (50%). However, many of\nthe benefits associated with curiosity directly address these key business\nchallenges. The managers surveyed agreed that the very valuable benefits of\ncuriosity include greater efficiency and productivity (62%), more creative\nthinking and solutions (62%), stronger collaboration and teamwork (58%), and\ngreater employee engagement and job satisfaction (58%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur research\npaints a powerful picture that curiosity is no longer just nice to have.\nRather, this skill has become a business imperative that helps companies\naddress critical challenges and foster innovation,\u201d said Jay Upchurch, CIO at\nSAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most managers agree that curiosity is\nparticularly valuable when innovating new solutions (62%), tackling complex\nproblems (55%), and analyzing data (52%), making it an important trait for\nfueling data insights and integration. Focusing on managers who are considered\nmore curious, these individuals note their employer is significantly more\nadvanced in digital transformation (56% of those who rate high in curiosity vs.\n29% who rate low). They also frequently use more data sources in their roles,\nparticularly those that help them better understand their customers (58%),\nperformance (60%), and fellow employees (63%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n For their business to succeed in the\nnext three years, managers say their organization needs employees with\ntechnical expertise in areas of artificial intelligence (63%) and data analysis\n(60%) as well as personal attributes like creative thinking (59%) and\nproblem-solving (59%). However, managers also say they struggle to find new\nhires with this combination of necessary technical skills (65%) and personal\nattributes (60%) \u2013 like curiosity \u2013 that their departments need to succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Categorizing managers into\ncuriosity-minded segments<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report also categorizes surveyed\nmanagers into four curiosity-minded segments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 High Curiosity Collaborators (35%):\nValue collaboration, teamwork driven, relentless in finding answers; believe\ncuriosity leads to improved performance and job satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Flexibility Driven Opinion Seekers\n(26%): Embrace challenges and value the opinion of others; believe curiosity\nleads to flexibility and adaptability in times of uncertainty but do not\nbelieve curiosity leads to greater efficiency and productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Productivity-Focused Leaders (24%):\nBelieve curiosity helps in efficiency and productivity as well as leads to\nstronger collaboration and teamwork, though are less inclined to believe it\ndrives inclusion and diversity of thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Anti-Curiosity Leaders (16%): Do not\nbelieve curiosity adds any value to performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many organizations risk falling behind\ndue to an inability to develop and harness curiosity<\/p>\n\n\n\n While there is growing recognition of\nthe value of curiosity in the workplace, there is still progress to be made in\nmany organizations, with the potential for a clear competitive advantage among\nthose organizations that can effectively tap the power of curiosity as a\nskillset among their employees. However, not all managers consistently agree\nwith its inherent value and many organizations struggle to effectively foster\nand capitalize on it in their day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While most managers surveyed believe\ncuriosity is valuable, many face challenges fostering and encouraging this\nskill. In fact, more than two in five managers admit they feel only somewhat or\nnot equipped to identify curiosity in job applicants (47%), and direct reports\n(42%). Even if managers feel they are equipped to identify this trait, many say\nit is challenging to develop curiosity in employees who don’t naturally have it\n(47%) and struggle with connecting curiosity to job performance (47%) and\nbusiness impact (43%). These findings highlight a disconnect between the\nperceived benefits of curiosity and organizations’ potential to harness this\nskill among employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One way to mitigate these challenges\nis to look to organizations and managers who rate high in curiosity.\nOrganizations and managers who have embraced curiosity often encourage\ncuriosity across the enterprise, including company training and development\n(79%), employee performance reviews (76%), promotion (74%) and hiring (74%)\ncriteria, and corporate mission, vision, or values (70%). These managers also\nuse a variety of methods to further encourage this valuable trait in their direct\nreports, including rewarding curiosity in performance reviews (71%), allowing\nthe use of work time to explore passion projects (60%), one-on-one coaching or\nmentoring (59%), and publicly praising employees who demonstrate curiosity (69%).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While curiosity can address critical business challenges, many organizations struggle to develop and harness this skill In the age of the Great Resignation, curiosity is increasingly recognized as a valuable skill by business leaders. Curiosity is increasingly sought by employers to address some of the biggest challenges facing organizations today \u2013 from improving employee retention …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[439],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-news"],"yoast_head":"\n