Bernie Borges [00:00:00]:
Denis Beausejour, welcome to the Midlife Fulfill podcast, a maximum episode.
Denis Beausejour [00:00:07]:
Thanks, Bernie. Great to be on the podcast with you today.
Bernie Borges [00:00:10]:
It is great to have you. I am really looking forward to this conversation. You are gonna help me discuss something that anyone that’s been listening to the Midlife Fulfill podcast for any amount of time has heard me talk about fulfillment in the workplace, and I’m really looking forward to diving into that with you. So let me introduce you to my listener. You are managing director of enterprise at a company called OC Tanner. Now OC Tanner is a company has been around since 1927. And if I’m doing the math right, that’s a ninety eight year old company. Now you haven’t been there ninety eight years.
Bernie Borges [00:00:49]:
I think you joined in 02/2016, and you work with Fortune one thousand companies in helping them create peak employee experiences throughout their career cycle, at least a high performing work culture. You work with, all kinds of brands. You are a graduate of not only the College of William and Mary, which is an awesome school, but you have an MBA from the prestigious Kellogg School of Management. And, Dennis, I wanna share a quote that you have on your LinkedIn profile because I think it’s really relevant to our conversation. You say that you love creating recognition strategies that inspire employees to connect to people, purpose, and passion. Strategies that help internal stakeholders develop visibility through great analytics and authentic employee voice and a culture of appreciation. So what I want you to know is even though those are your words, we are singing from the same sheet of music Tanner the same sheet of music. So I
Denis Beausejour [00:01:47]:
love it.
Bernie Borges [00:01:47]:
Before we actually dive into the conversation, I would I would like you to give my listener an introduction to OC Tanner. Again, a 98 year old company. Tell us a little bit about OC Tanner.
Denis Beausejour [00:01:57]:
Yeah. You know, it it’s interesting. A ’98 year old company doesn’t get to be 98 by kinda doing the same old thing year in and year out. Right? There’s a lot of innovation and a lot of hard work that goes into creating that culture that we have, I think, that’s our secret sauce. But also building new tools and and going to market with whole new industries, really. And so we’ve been doing that probably three or four different large times over the last eight or nine decades. And, I think lately kind of what we have become is a recognition platform, where we’re really trying to encourage employees across a large enterprise to help them figure out how to say thank you at work, which should be so easy to do. Right? But there’s a lot at play, you know.
Denis Beausejour [00:02:43]:
Managers wanna make sure that they’re being fair to their employees and that they’re, you know, making sure that they’re giving everyone equal airtime. And, you know, employees might show up and say, oh, this is maybe we don’t say thank you here. You know? And so there’s there’s a lot of conflicting problems. And and it’s really tough to kinda get in there and make sure that an average employee can kinda show up on day one and really feel like, wow. Here, they value me. Here, they here, we can appreciate it safe, and, it’s fun. So it’s it’s rewarding work for sure.
Bernie Borges [00:03:18]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I I I love the concept of of saying thank you. It it simplifies it tremendously. But as you know, there’s a tremendous amount of effort and thought and strategy that goes into how to to say thank you. So let’s do this, Dennis. What you and I have prepared is, OC Tanner produces an annual report. You call it the Global Culture Report.
Bernie Borges [00:03:45]:
And the company’s been producing these reports annually, and they’re beautiful reports. I mean, they’re spectacular reports. And And you’ve been doing it since 02/2018. So what I’ve asked you to do is come prepared to kinda hit some treetops on what are the main takeaways from twenty twenty five’s report, which is this year that we’re recording this. But then to do a little bit of a deeper dive with me on 2023 because that report is about fulfillment in the workplace. So that’s where I wanna do a deeper dive. So if if you’re good with that approach, you wanna start with 2025 and some key takeaways from the current year’s report?
Denis Beausejour [00:04:25]:
Yeah. Absolutely. And if I could just back up for a second. So this report, we go out and survey about 40,000 people globally. And, we found that it’s one of the most widely cited culture reports in the world. And so really excited to be talking to you today about that. When we think foundationally about the report, we kinda think, hey. We’ve got we’ve got this idea of a great culture.
Denis Beausejour [00:04:48]:
But I think when you Google culture, you know, there’s, like, 2,000,000,000 returns in terms of what culture is. And, and so I think we’ve tried to create a new framework around culture, which kind of talks through this idea of six key magnets that kinda keep people at an organization. And so if I could just run through those real quick. Purpose. Yeah. Right? Connection to the organizational purpose and making sure that’s aligned with an an individual’s purpose. Opportunity to grow, to learn new skills, maybe to get a promotion or or more money. Success.
Denis Beausejour [00:05:24]:
I think we all love winning. And if you’re not winning at work, it’s tough. Appreciation, which again is near and dear to my heart. Saying thank you. And feeling valued for the work that you do. And then well-being, which is all about being able to bring your full self to work and really feeling like you’ve got great work life balance. And finally, leadership. It it all starts at the top.
Denis Beausejour [00:05:47]:
Right? And so we need to help leaders at all levels of the organization to help promote that great culture. And so, really, in 2025, we realized that as we’re thinking about total rewards packages, as we’re thinking about mental health connections, we realized that really within an organization, this idea of generative care kind of came to the surface. Now we’ve been talking a lot about generative AI in 2025, and so probably no surprise that there’s a connection there. But really, generative care talks about how when you care for your employees, that actually will allow the employee to turn around and care for other employees. And then they will then care for other employees. And it really has this generative impact on your organization. And so we kind of looked through that lens around how we communicate total rewards packages. Mental health was really another focus of the 2025 Global Culture Report.
Denis Beausejour [00:06:45]:
And we realized that employees are really dealing with a lot of different types of mental health issues, including depression, burnout, and anxiety. And we realized that, recognition can actually really positively benefit those impacts by reducing presenteeism and absenteeism. We actually calculated that implementing a recognition platform could actually save your company 8,000 per employee per year. So just kind of crazy stats there. But that’s really what our focus has been this year. From a managerial perspective, we’ve been focused a lot on emotional intelligence and how employees can really be reacting well when you’re relating to other employees, as that manager when you have a couple more tools in the toolkit.
Bernie Borges [00:07:34]:
And these are all issues that are well rec in the c suite. Right?
Denis Beausejour [00:07:39]:
Correct. The c suite, it’s interesting. They’re they’re always trying to find, some magic bullets for some of these some of these issues. Right? But they’re also dealing with them themselves. Right? Because I think one of the things we forget is that, managers and leaders are also employees. And so some of our favorite people that we work with might also be dealing with some of these issues.
Bernie Borges [00:07:59]:
Exactly. Alright. So let’s get to fulfillment. I remember when we first connected on this, you pointed me right to the 2023 report, Dennis. You said, yeah. You’re probably gonna wanna dive into that one.
Denis Beausejour [00:08:13]:
I knew you were gonna love it, man. I knew you were gonna love it.
Bernie Borges [00:08:16]:
Yeah. I mean, it’s really it’s it’s what I’m all about. Right? My Fulfillment Centric Leadership Framework is all about that. So go ahead. Unpack that for us, Dennis.
Denis Beausejour [00:08:27]:
Sure. Yeah. I think, the 2023 Global Culture Report was really focused around community. I think at the time, if you could remember, we were sort of in the midst of COVID. We were segregated. We were alone. I think people were just really feeling like their rhythms were really out of sync with how they had interacted at work in the past. And so a lot of our focus was around community and about how employees could create this workplace community when they were not necessarily in the workplace, with their colleagues.
Denis Beausejour [00:09:04]:
And so we talked a lot about finding fulfillment. And this whole idea that, you know, we’ve talked about different ways to kind of zero in on how employees love working. And we’ve kind of, beat around the bush for lack of a better word. We’ve talked about employee engagement and how people can be focused on really doing what we want as the organization and being engaged and being productive. But fulfillment is really something that I think is sort of behind all of these engagement scores. And fulfillment really is this idea that you really only need a couple of different things to to feel fulfilled at work. You need to feel like you have challenge or growth. You feel like you need to feel appreciated or connected.
Denis Beausejour [00:09:58]:
And you need to feel like you have ownership and that you’re having impact. And so it’s it’s crazy. Probably, if employees can just feel fulfilled at work, which doesn’t really have any productivity factor. Right? It’s really a focus on
Bernie Borges [00:10:15]:
Well, let’s actually let’s talk about that. Because first of all, what I love about that is that it speaks to the humanity. Right? And I mean Totally. You know, here’s one of those obvious statements, like, but employees are human. And I only say that because I think in a lot of cases, that gets overlooked because of the day to day pressure to perform and the day to day workload, especially the whole, you know, doing more with less in terms of employee headcount. So when you think about the humanity of the people, of course, when people feel valued and connected, they’re not only gonna enjoy their work more, they’re gonna give you their best work. Right, Dennis? They’re gonna actually apply themselves more, and that’s where the business benefit can come in. Right? Would you agree?
Denis Beausejour [00:11:09]:
Totally. Yeah. I think it’s just, it’s coming out of backwards, you know. It’s, it’s sort of like when, you know, as a kid, you’re trying to set up a lemonade stand, you know. And and this is such a silly example, but I’m thinking about my kids last summer. They they decided to make it free for kids to have lemonade at their stand. And and they made, like, $20 per customer, you know. And it’s and it’s nuts because they’re thinking about doing what they love, and they wanna share that love with other people that are like them.
Denis Beausejour [00:11:42]:
And so they want to to make that choice. And, really, at the end of the day, the benefits kinda pile on. And I’m not sure if that’s clear connection or not, but I really do feel like fulfillment really is what we’re trying to get after, and engagement will follow if, employee is fulfilled.
Bernie Borges [00:12:01]:
Exactly. So one of the things that I talk about, because I have my five pillar approach. Right? I say that we were all on the same journey in life, which is seeking fulfillment across the five key life pillars, health, fitness, career, relationships, and legacy. And what that really speaks to is the fact that in the workplace, we’re not just seeking professional Fulfillment. We wanna feel connected and valued so that we can also experience and enjoy personal fulfillment. Right? And and when when people feel both personal and professional fulfillment, then they can get to a place of thriving. And that’s that’s very prevalent in your report is the the thriving factor, right, and how that connects to culture. Right?
Denis Beausejour [00:12:49]:
Definitely. Yeah. I mean, when employees are fulfilled, they will stay with the organization three years longer than employee that’s not fulfilled. And when an employee is thriving at work, right, all sorts of amazing things are happening. So for sure.
Bernie Borges [00:13:04]:
And then what’s the role of leadership when it comes to, a fulfilled employee workforce? How does leadership play a role in that?
Denis Beausejour [00:13:14]:
Yeah. I think, for any leaders out there, I think there’s a couple of key things you wanna make sure that your employees are getting at work. I think it’s really important that you’re supporting and encouraging balance, whether that’s work life balance, whether that’s making sure that employees aren’t sprinting and then burning out, but they’re actually kind of running a marathon with you and they’re gonna be there with you for the long haul. I think it’s important to create a sense of community. I I know, one of the organizations we work with talks a lot about creating that family feel. But it could be just giving time for your employees to network or socialize on the clock. And I think, another place leaders can really shine is just knowing those employees individually and making sure that they’re showing appreciation to their employees for all the great work that they’re doing. And then I think finally, just making sure that employees really are developing their skills, making sure that they are hitting their personal and professional goals, and recognizing those achievements.
Denis Beausejour [00:14:20]:
Because I think sometimes, you know, an employee is thinking, well, what’s in it for me? And we just wanna make sure as leaders that we’re coming around them all around.
Bernie Borges [00:14:30]:
Yeah. Well, we’re very much aligned, Dennis. One of the six steps in my 10 step framework in Fulfillment centric leadership is aligning personal and professional aspirations. And I share a story about a leader who discovered that somebody on his team had a dream and a vision and a passion for opening a dance studio some somewhere down the road. And so he actually and not only encouraged her to do it, he helped her develop the business plan for it. It was a three year business plan. And she was immensely appreciative of it. And one day, she asked him, why are you doing this? Because when I do this, I’m gonna leave.
Bernie Borges [00:15:10]:
And he said, you know, I I would hope that if the roles were reversed, you would do the same for me. During that time, her loyalty with the company skyrocketed. Her productivity, which was already good, skyrocketed. She helped recruit. She obviously helped develop her succession plan when the time came. So when a leader is aligning personal and professional aspirations, the bond between the leader and that employee really, really strengthens. And other people on the team see that, and they wanna be part of that.
Denis Beausejour [00:15:42]:
Totally. Totally.
Bernie Borges [00:15:44]:
The other thing that I I wanna, comment on that I wanna get your perspective from a data standpoint in the reports, whether or not this was something that came out in the reports is what I consider just the concept of self awareness. When leaders are self aware of what I call their own fulfillment, that enables them to have sort of a lens where they can be empathetic with their team because they’re not just doing it for the sake of being a leader, they’re just being a human themselves. Right? And as a human, their own self awareness on their own fulfillment journey enables them to lead with empathy and care in in an authentic way.
Denis Beausejour [00:16:24]:
Totally. Totally. And I think, yeah, we’ve got, lots of ideas around that concept. I I think the kind of the big umbrella word for that would be emotional intelligence. But Mhmm. How do you show practical empathy to your employees, again, without getting burned out? How do you help make their work life balance better by maybe showing, some sort of equitable flexibility so that everyone sort of gets a chance to to do the things that they need to do, in their personal life. And and it’s it’s hard. Right? I think our frontline leaders are some of the biggest I don’t know if bottlenecks is the right word, but that’s kind of where the risk of the culture is when those employees, they are the face, the hands, and the heart of the company out on the front lines.
Denis Beausejour [00:17:13]:
And it’s it’s tough, I think, to make sure that they are ready, especially if they’re new. Right? So,
Bernie Borges [00:17:22]:
Yeah. Let let’s talk about some examples, some some companies that, that are doing this well. And if you don’t mind, I’ll just kinda start us off. I think, you know, that, Capital One, who’s a big company, a lot of people have them in their wallet, and they’ve been around for a long time. They’re they’re, designated great place to work. And for those listening, great place to work is actually a thing that you have to apply for. It’s a designation, and it’s a pretty rigorous, process. So they’re a designated great place to work.
Bernie Borges [00:17:55]:
And get this, Dennis, the average sentiment among companies who are a great place to work among their employees that believe that it’s a great place to work is 57%, but Capital One’s employee sentiment that they’re a great place to work is 88%. Wow. And it’s because of their approach to their entire employee population. And everything we’ve been discussing here, without getting into a ton of detail, they’re just a great example of that.
Denis Beausejour [00:18:24]:
No. That’s awesome. And I also can let you know that they have a great recognition platform in place that’s really helping those employees, thrive and feel fulfilled. We’ve we’ve had a great partnership with them.
Bernie Borges [00:18:34]:
Why am I not surprised?
Denis Beausejour [00:18:37]:
And and I think there’s a hundred maybe Fortune one hundred best companies to work for on the list, and I think there’s over 30 that are are clients of ours. So I think there is something there. I’m not I’m not quite sure what it is. Maybe we’ll have to look at the 2026 culture report to figure that out. But no. I I think at at FC Tanner, we’ve been on that list as well, three times in the last number of years. And, you know, it’s it’s interesting because it is, a tough list to get on. And I think it shows I mean, you really gotta work work hard, if you’ve ever been a part of the process.
Denis Beausejour [00:19:11]:
It’s it’s a pretty intense process. And you sorta have to galvanize the whole organization to to make it. But, you know, we kinda did this difference maker campaign, and we really kind of talked about how every employee at OC Tanner is a difference maker. And I think that really helped connect to the purpose of what we’re trying to do. And it also really helped create that that culture, that I think is is, so awesome to be a part of.
Bernie Borges [00:19:40]:
Can you unpack
Denis Beausejour [00:19:40]:
that a
Bernie Borges [00:19:40]:
little bit to difference maker campaign? Tell us a little bit more about that.
Denis Beausejour [00:19:44]:
Yeah. Yeah. You know, we, we were based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, and, and it’s fun. We’ll we’ll have to invite you out there sometime, Bernie, and, and show you around. But people are really shocked by how happy people are, or Fulfilled, maybe is a better word, in the workplace.
Bernie Borges [00:20:04]:
Thank you.
Denis Beausejour [00:20:05]:
You walk around and, people are really getting stuff done. The manufacturing teams that are there that are creating beautiful awards for clients are really thinking about how they can reduce cost and improve quality and and really just trying to make really incremental changes that over time really add up. The other teams are really just totally connected to purpose, whether that’s a client success person or whether that’s a salesperson or whether that’s someone in product or IT. And and it’s fun because, you know, after COVID, we we kinda talked a little bit about working kind of hybrid hours for most of the company. And, unfortunately, manufacturing, you know, they have to be there every day of the week. And so we appreciate those difference makers. Right? They’re there at the front lines. And so we actually provided free meals for those employees on Thursdays and Fridays that sort of didn’t have the option to have a hybrid schedule.
Denis Beausejour [00:21:02]:
But I think the idea of a difference maker, just coming back to your question, Bernie, is that every single employee really does feel like they can make a difference in the organization. And whether that’s part of the strategy and the strategy map and seeing where they fit in the organization and seeing what they need to do to kinda help with organizational success, it’s it’s a really powerful concept.
Bernie Borges [00:21:26]:
I totally agree. And and I just wanna put an exclamation point on it, Dennis, because the fact that you’re giving that a label that’s purely using specific words that have very intentional meaning, difference maker. And to your point, every employee feels like they can make a difference. That’s huge. That is huge. It it gives them a connection to the company. And I would even suggest that it’s an emotional connection. And, you know, some someone once said to me, and I and this was mind blowing because it was mind blowing in both its simplicity and its power.
Bernie Borges [00:22:08]:
So I can’t claim pride of authorship on this, but I’ll repeat what someone shared with me. And that is that everything in our life comes down to thoughts and feelings.
Denis Beausejour [00:22:17]:
Mhmm.
Bernie Borges [00:22:18]:
Right? Anything is just thoughts and feelings. And so if you apply that into going to work every day, the workplace, employees have thoughts and feelings. Now some of those thoughts are gonna be thoughts about the work that they’re doing, but it’s not at the exclusion of feelings.
Denis Beausejour [00:22:37]:
Mhmm.
Bernie Borges [00:22:38]:
And so when leadership recognizes that we need both to be working for us, not just one of them, not just the thoughts, which is the thinking that we’re doing with our mind to get work done, but the feeling part as well. And to me, that’s where I think fulfillment comes in. You know, I say that fulfillment is the second most powerful emotion in our humanity, second only to love. But love doesn’t show up on a balance sheet or a p and l, but fulfillment does. Everything we’ve been discussing here today, Dennis, everything that we’ve been discussing as it relates to fulfillment and the impact on the workplace shows up in productivity, culture, emotional intelligence, all of that. And, anyway, I’m I’m on a little bit of a soapbox here, but I I just wanted to, you know, elaborate on the on on that last point.
Denis Beausejour [00:23:34]:
No. I like that. And I and, you know, it’s interesting. We just celebrated employee appreciation day, and the company had this really nice little kinda catalog that allowed us. I I picked out some Weber grill tools, but it was really thoughtful, the language that kinda came with it and and the meaning that was behind it. You know, our our, chief HR officer, Mindy Cox, does a really great job of connecting with employees across the whole entire organization. And it doesn’t feel like a a checkboxing. It feels like she’s so excited every year trying to decide what we’re gonna do this year to celebrate our employees.
Denis Beausejour [00:24:09]:
And I’d love to say that that just happens one time a year. But, you know, there’s also a little extra in your check for Thanksgiving so you can go out and have a nice meal with the family. And there’s a little birthday check that comes, around your birthday every year and, you know, Christmas gift. And, yeah, it it just it just feels like, in some ways, you’re you’re working for, you know, in the North Pole. I don’t know what else to say. You know?
Bernie Borges [00:24:35]:
So before we get to wrap, I just wanna say that, even though there are a lot of companies out there that lead in a way that empowers leaders to develop a sense of fulfillment in the workplace. They may not necessarily use that word. They’re doing it. And they’re doing it in a way that maybe they’re using another word like connection or culture or whatever their vernacular may be. But, you know, back to the point I made earlier, fulfillment is the second most powerful emotion in our humanity, and when an organization can harness it, it’s powerful. And I just love the fact that you’re a ninety eight year old company focused on this. And I think it’s just a great example of how important it is in society in general. I mean, I realize you’re doing this for businesses, but it helps people enjoy their life because we spend, what is it, 45% of our waking hours are at work or something like that? I think I saw that on your website somewhere.
Denis Beausejour [00:25:41]:
Yep. Yeah. It it’s really interesting because I think a lot of the modern ways that we’re trying to work, you know, we talk about belonging or inclusion or there’s so many different words that sort of try to get at that connection. And and it’s interesting. People are, like you said, humans, and they just really want to connect. They wanna have mastery of their work. They wanna have autonomy. Right? These are really basic things that employees want.
Denis Beausejour [00:26:11]:
And I think we need to stop thinking about employee engagement as a thing that we’re trying to drive. We’re trying to drive our sheep from one pasture to the other. And I think we need to start thinking about it that, you know, our employees, they wanna connect. You know? They wanna connect with us, and we need to create that soil and that perfect environment to allow them to thrive at work. And it’s tough. You know? It sounds so simple and so easy, but it’s tough to create that environment where an employee can connect with their each each one individually, one heart and one mind at a time to connect to the organization and help accomplish everything that the organization is trying to do. So, yeah. It’s it’s tough, but it’s very rewarding work.
Bernie Borges [00:26:58]:
Yeah. Well, as I said in the introduction, we’re singing from the same sheet of music. In fact, one of the examples you gave was something that is actually one of my 10 steps. I shared one of them earlier. The other one is creating some safe space for people to just hang out together and shoot the breeze on whatever, but not work related. Just giving them that safe space to do that where they can just have a human connection with each other. It’s good for business because people are connecting and building relationships and trusting each other more through those relationships.
Denis Beausejour [00:27:31]:
So true. We live in such a low trust environment where you can just buy from Amazon or wherever, and we sort of have verified everything. Right? But within the workplace, trust is really important. If you wanna get things done, you wanna work together. And I think fulfillment is one of the best ways to get there.
Bernie Borges [00:27:48]:
Yeah. That’s awesome. Well, as we come to a wrap here, Dennis, is there anything you wanna talk about from an OC Tanner standpoint that’s, you know, forthcoming that you you could talk about, you know, that’s not confidential, you know, events or reports or whatever it might be?
Denis Beausejour [00:28:05]:
Yep. Yeah. We’ll re release our next global culture report 2026 at our upcoming Influence Greatness Conference. So you can find us at influencegreatness,uh,.com or on the 0ctanner.com website, but we’d love to have you. And, yeah, I think it’ll be really interesting to see what this next report has in store. Well, who knows? Maybe we’ll dive a little bit more into fulfillment.
Bernie Borges [00:28:28]:
Yeah. I can’t wait to see it. I’ll be waiting with bated breath on that one. Fantastic. And, Dennis, where can people connect with you?
Denis Beausejour [00:28:36]:
Yep. Yeah. Feel free to shoot me an email at dennis.bosseggier@0ctandor.com or, reach out to me on LinkedIn at dennis bosseggier.
Bernie Borges [00:28:45]:
Fantastic. Well, my listener knows, Dennis, that that will be linked up in the show notes along with, the other things that you just mentioned here. So I just wanna thank you for taking time to join me for this maximum episode on my very favorite topics, and that is fulfillment in the workplace. I’ve learned a lot by reading those reports, and I’m gonna stay connected to the OC Tanner world and continue to learn. And again, thank you so much, Dennis, for joining me today.
Denis Beausejour [00:29:11]:
Thanks, Bernie. And thanks for all the work you’re doing and helping people feel fulfilled in work and, in life. Appreciate what you’re doing.
Bernie Borges [00:29:18]:
Awesome.
