Four ways to increase employee engagement without breaking the bank.
It’s no exaggeration to say the pandemic changed the way the world works. Workers proved they could be productive while working from home and managing their own schedules, while HR teams and managers demonstrated they could create new policies and effectively manage employee relations from a distance. Organizations showed it’s possible to be agile and collaborative, even if the workforce isn’t all under the same roof.
While results varied across industries and organizations, the proof of concept now exists for this new way of working. HR leaders who are looking for ways to attract and retain top talent in a competitive labor market can leverage the lessons learned over the past few years. Among those lessons is that when employers provide a flexible, transparent and values-based workplace, it engages employees, giving them a greater stake in the organization’s success.
The ability to “Work in any Way” is a collaborative approach that benefits employees and employers by empowering both to define a work experience in which people can work however, whenever and wherever they want based on their individual needs. Trust is empowering so, when you trust employees to work in a way that better fits their lifestyle, they feel more autonomous and creative, and that helps build loyalty. Flexibility is an advantage that most employers weren’t able to offer before, but now they can. Transparency also builds trust, as does acting on organizational values in business operations.
Here’s four ways employers can use flexibility, transparency and value-driven actions to increase this workplace engagement without adding expenses.
#1 Provide flexible work options to improve diversity and contribute to development
Flexible work options allow for greater diversity in mentorship and development opportunities. Under the old model where everyone worked in specific locations, employees’ sphere was limited to their officemates. With a predominately distributed workforce, circles are wider, and people interact across locations, time zones and business units.
Exposure to wider spheres provides different development opportunities for employees, engaging them through chances to acquire new skills and gain insight into different perspectives. People want to grow in their roles, giving them an opportunity to work with new teams and work in a different way (e.g., job sharing) can help them gain experience and advance in their careers.
#2 Use organizational transparency to increase trust and emphasize shared values
Workers today want to associate with organizations that share their values – a recent survey found that more than half of job candidates won’t consider offers from companies that aren’t aligned with their values. Transparency and proactive communication are the key to keeping employees and employers on the same page.
Company leaders who “walk the talk” and demonstrate their commitment to the organization’s values can form a stronger bond with their workforce and give employees a stake in its success. Making value-based decisions and communicating the factors you considered directly to employees builds trust and tells employees values aren’t empty words. Employees who trust their leadership, understand their company’s mission and know how their role contributes to its success are a bulwark against churn.
#3 Create a value-based culture instead of an office-driven one
Flexibility and transparency also factor into the culture you can build in a work world that offers new possibilities. Rather than relationships being rooted in shared office location, employees have a greater opportunity to interact with people across the organization – regardless of location. They learn more about other areas of the business and find out what’s happening outside their region, which contributes to a more cohesive company culture.
By meeting coworkers across locations, employees can find others who seek the same workplace culture. This empowers employees to personalize the way they experience the company culture to a larger degree than traditional ways of working allow, which drives creativity and innovation.
#4 Make sure employees feel seen and heard
Possibly the most important thing company leaders can do to promote engagement is ask employees for input. There are many ways to do that, including pulse surveys, employee councils, online suggestion boxes, one-on-ones, all-hands meetings, etc. Asking for employee feedback sends the message that your organization cares about what employees want, and in the last few years, the most engaged organizations took the initiative to ask people what they value the most and acted on those suggestions. Acting on feedback doesn’t always translate into creating a program employees favor or providing a particular perk, but it should always mean giving suggestions due consideration and explaining the ultimate decision.
All of these actions demonstrate that your company is focused on its people, and that’s a great way to seize this moment and take advantage of new opportunities. HR leaders have to create a flexible, transparent and value-based approach to policies that work for everyone. Capitalizing on these opportunities requires two-way communication – organizations and employees collaborating to create work experiences.
A collaborative approach engages employees by making their work experience fulfilling for them as individuals, but it also benefits the organization more broadly by creating a workforce comprising of employees who are more productive, insightful and innovative. This approach helps employers keep their best people on board and improves succession planning – after all, employees are more committed to an organization that is committed to them.
For the past few years, employees have been telling HR leaders how to engage them and keep them engaged. They are clear about what they want, and employers who listen can improve engagement without breaking the bank.
Katherine Loranger is Chief People Officer at Safeguard Global in Austin Texas, US.
