Robert Glazer Attributes Business Success to Employee Health

In this interview, Matt Weik sits down with successful business owner, Robert Glazer, to discuss how he runs and manages his business and employees a little differently than the norm which helps keep his employees fresh, motivated, and healthy.  I hope you enjoy the interview!

Thanks for the time, Robert!  Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your company?

Robert Glazer: Thank you for having me!

I am the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners a global performance marketing agency. Acceleration Partners is one of the largest agencies of its kind in the world, and has been recognized with numerous industry and company culture awards, including

• Glassdoor’s Employees’ Choice Awards (2 years in a row)
• Ad Age’s Best Place to Work, Entrepreneur’s Top Company Culture (2 years in a row)
• Great Place to Work & Fortune’s Best Small & Medium Workplaces (3 years in a row)
• Boston Globe’s Top Workplaces (2 years in a row)
• Top Glassdoor Small and Medium Business CEO (2 years in a row)

Beyond AP, I am passionate about inspiring individuals and organizations to build their capacity and elevate their performance. I am a regular columnist for Forbes, Inc and Entrepreneur and an international keynote speaker on subjects related to business growth, culture, building capacity and performance.

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I am also the creator of Friday Forward, a popular weekly inspirational newsletter that reaches over 100,000 individuals and business leaders across 60+ countries. I’m author of the international bestselling book, Performance Partnerships, and my second book, Elevate, is based on the lessons of Friday Forward and will be published October 1, 2019.

Can you tell us a little bit about the US coming in dead last out of 21 (of the richest) countries when it comes to guaranteeing workers paid vacation?

Robert Glazer: There’s a misunderstanding that top professional performance stems from working hero hours, never taking a day off and sacrificing any kind of work-life integration for the sake of working as much as possible. Many business leaders believe this type of constant work is necessary to business success, and a lot of employees believe it as well—they are afraid to ask for time off out of fear of seeming undedicated or selfish.

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This is a damaging misperception. Taking time to rest and recover is a vital part of high performance—that’s why the world’s best athletes use interval training that builds significant amounts of recovery time into a strenuous training schedule. Taking vacation time alleviates burnout and allows employees to come back focused and ready to perform well—that’s why people who take over 11 days of vacation per year are 30 percent more likely to get promoted at work than those who don’t.

Basically, businesses and employees think vacations are bad for performance and growth. But the opposite is true—taking time to unplug and recover is necessary to sustained performance.

Do you think US employees are aware of this statistic and how do you think they will feel once they find out?

Robert Glazer: It’s hard to say for certain. But a LinkedIn survey revealed that 49 percent of American workers feel stressed at work, and it’s fair to say that many American employees have wondered if other countries have the same level of stress.

I think realizing that Americans have much less guaranteed vacation time than other similar countries is less important than changing our understanding of the value of vacation time. Americans probably won’t be shocked to learn that they work more than other wealthy nations, but that won’t alleviate the feeling of doubt that taking a vacation is hurting their company and potentially harming their career. It’s more important to address the situation I reference in my previous answer, which is to help business leaders and employees understand that vacation time leads to better performance, not worse.

Can you explain how your company grants “wishes” rather than bonuses and how this affects the culture of your company?

Robert Glazer: Our company has an annual gathering called AP Summit, where we bring the whole company to one place for several days of collaboration, learning and celebration. As a part of that, we ask our employees to share a lifetime goal or dream that they want to achieve. These wishes vary from health and wellness (running a half marathon), to career development (giving a guest lecture at MIT) to family experiences (visiting Greece to reconnect with her 90-year-old grandparents).

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Each year at AP Summit we select 10 of these wishes and dedicate our resources and network to fulfilling them, and the result is one of the best parts of our company culture. First, it’s vital for us to understand the intrinsic motivation of our employees, to understand what matters for them beyond work and do what we can to chase those dreams. We care about our employees far beyond what they do during the work day and this is one of the best ways I can think of for us to show it.

Beyond that, it’s an emotional experience for everybody, not just the people who have their wishes granted. Employees have expressed how moving it is to see their colleagues have their wishes come true, and this is a great way to have our team invest in each other and in each others’ happiness beyond business.

Did I also hear correctly that you pay your employees up to $750 to go dark (no email, phone, etc.) while on vacation?  What made you do this and how has the response been?

Robert Glazer: The data is clear that vacation time is vital to helping employees be happier, more engaged and more productive at work. A lot of companies do understand that—some offer significant vacation time, or even open PTO, as we do.

But we decided to take things a step further because we recognize that the best way to encourage behavior is to incentivize it. We offer up to $750 to employees who completely disconnect on vacation because we want them to really make the most of their vacation time, and we want to make it clear that they are actually helping the business by unplugging and taking time to recharge.

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This goes beyond rest and relaxation. Pushing our employees to completely disconnect while they’re on vacation also teaches them to delegate to their teams or colleagues, a vital leadership skill that every person needs to learn. I’m proud to work with so many brilliant people at AP, but even though we have many phenomenal performers, every organization should be able to function well without even its best performers for a few weeks. A star player taking time away from work opens the window for others to step up.

In a world where profits are everything, how much money would you say (an estimate) you “lose” with such a policy and how much do you feel is gained in the long-run?

Robert Glazer: Our company culture is a key part of our growth. We’ve grown by 25 percent on average each of the past 11 years, and that’s because we’ve positioned ourselves as one of the best places to work. Culture aspects like granting wishes, our vacation bonus and our work-life integration help us attract and retain top talent, and investing in our employees to the degree we do drives the high-performance that has built this company. So it is certainly a long-term gain.

You obviously focus heavily on employee mental and physical health. Why do you feel so many companies out there dismiss this as being important and wanting to make it a focus?

Robert Glazer: A lot of companies think they have to choose between treating people well and having high expectations. It’s understandable to have this perception, because some of the most famous business leaders in recent decades were brilliant visionaries who also put extreme pressure and stress on their employees. In reality, treating people well and expecting the best from them aren’t mutually exclusive, and the former drives the latter. Companies that dismiss that focus probably haven’t considered the benefits that focusing on physical and mental health can have on the business, and the employee.

What do you feel such a focus brings not only to the business but also to the employee?

Robert Glazer: That the clearest path to high achievement for both individuals and organizations is building capacity, incrementally, in four areas: Spiritual Capacity, Intellectual Capacity, Physical Capacity and Emotional Capacity. Each of these areas is separate but connected, encompassing the key principles of both energy and achievement.

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If a person is lagging in one area of their life, they will inevitably struggle in others. A person who is physically or mentally unhealthy, or placed under an enormous amount of stress, will not be a top performer. While a person can do great work for a period of time while neglecting their health, inevitably burnout and exhaustion will set in—a top performer will either see their productivity degrade, or they will quit the role entirely to find a better balance.

At AP we’re committing to investing in our employees holistically, challenging them to set and achieve personal goals, make time for their health and wellness and always look to improve themselves. This was the basis of Friday Forward, which started as a weekly inspirational note to the company—I was hoping to inspire them to improve in all facets of life, which would include improving their work performance. This focus on holistic capacity building is also the topic of my upcoming book, Elevate: Push Beyond Your Limits and Unlock Success in Yourself and Others.

Do you think, here in the US, that we will ever see a huge push for employers to focus on the overall health of their employees?

Robert Glazer: Yes. I think there’s a lot of work to be done but the landscape is already changing. There are brilliant people researching and discussion how we can build a better relationship between work and life and more businesses than ever are considering things like employee well-being. The benefits are so clear, both in terms of keeping employees happy and driving long-term, sustainable performance, that it’s really in everybody’s best interest to focus on overall employee health. This has been a core priority of ours at AP as we’ve grown, and it will continue to be as we move forward.

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