The 5-R Framework: Building a High-Performance Culture of Trust for the World of Work Ahead
The workforce and the workplace HR professionals are helping companies manage today are dramatically different from just a few years ago – and what’s ahead in the near future. Baby-boomers are retiring in droves, and nearly half of Gen Z say they'd rather build their own business than work for someone else. Employers can't find the people they need at the same time millions of job seekers can't find work, and some economists are projecting massive unemployment in the early 2030s. Add to that, AI is rewriting, in real time, what work looks like and who does it.
In the middle of all this turmoil lies a huge opening for HR professionals: a chance to rise from the typical supporting role to the strategic center of how organizations build the teams they need for what comes next.
Taking advantage of that opportunity will require a more substantial and systemic approach to optimizing workforce performance. In this session, Les Landes will introduce the 5-R Framework: a model for boosting employee engagement and alignment built on five core dimensions — Relevance, Relationships, Roadmap, Routines, and Resources. Drawing on decades of successful client work, Les will show how HR professionals can use the 5-R Framework to help their organizations build the structure and the processes to withstand the test of turbulent times.
Learning Objectives: Attendees will …
- Understand why most employee engagement efforts fail to stick, and what distinguishes a true system from a one-off program.
- Learn the five dimensions of the 5-R Framework — Relevance, Relationships, Roadmap, Routines, and Resources — and how they work together to build a high-performance culture of trust.
- Explore the key factors for management credibility that build or break trust with employees, including a model for constructive accountability that lifts people up instead of beating them down.
- Discover how to build routine processes for continuous improvement that give every employee a substantial role in making the organization better every day.
- Gain a practical framework for positioning HR as a strategic partner in navigating the workforce trends reshaping how organizations attract, engage, and retain talent.
Background/Bio
Les Landes is President of Landes & Associates, a St. Louis-based management consulting firm specializing in employee engagement, communication, and performance improvement systems. For more than two decades, he has guided organizations in creating high-performance cultures of trust where people are inspired and supported to do their best work and be their best selves.
A Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Professional, Les equips clients with a proven, systematic approach to continuous improvement. He also offers a distinctive Culture Assessment instrument that shows clients the precise gap between their current and desired cultures, along with methods for closing the gaps.
He is a nationally recognized expert on employee engagement and the author of the business fable Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement, along with more than 40 published articles in professional publications. Before founding Landes & Associates, he led corporate communication for one of the world's largest food companies, where he was responsible for corporate advertising, creative services, public and media relations, consumer affairs, and employee communication. He also played a key role in developing the company's quality management system.
Over the years, Les has helped organizations across many sectors – manufacturing, healthcare, professional services, non-profit and others – turn employee engagement from an aspiration into substantive measurable results.
