#BuildingTomorrow: Employee Engagement for the Future Workforce

Someone said, “Be stubborn about your goals, and be flexible about your methods.” The pandemic taught us many lessons, the noblest among them is that remote working is a possible solution. Many organisations have taken this reality in their stride and revamped their workplaces to be hybrid.

What are the implications?

Employees get the flexibility to work from their homes or whichever place they are comfortable with and come into offices occasionally or whenever their job role demands. As a result, they save time and money which would have been spent commuting and working out of the office. Many of them find it less distracting to work from their homes and feel proud of having reduced their carbon footprint on our mother earth. Employers also save some costs in office infrastructure and get higher productivity in many cases.

While there are positive implications in many cases, organisations are worried about the decline in the social capital they had built by bringing people together under one roof. Employees could actively participate in building the company culture and following the norms around the culture. In the remote-working situation, employees tend to lose touch with the company norms and develop their styles that suit their tastes. They tend to dissociate from their colleagues and hence, in the process weaken the linkage with the team, its objectives and purpose. The propensity of walking the extra mile gradually declines. Leaders are worried about it and see the impact on the horizon in terms of a drop in employee engagement scores, customer satisfaction levels and hence, sustainability in the long term.

What can be done?

Our world has changed in many ways after the pandemic. However, human beings have not changed their preferences and instincts yet.

We continue to look for belongingness to a range of social systems; we stay hungry for challenging work; we seek trust from others; we need successes and achievements from time to time; our motivation is linked with the recognition and rewards we receive from people who matter. Organisations had their ways of fulfilling all these aspects when work happened in the physical workplaces.

Given the change in the world of work, we have to re-examine the relevance of the old methods such as celebrating successes, conducting events, holding stand-up meetings to showcase successes and plan the activities for the time ahead, giving away certificates and awards to the achievers, holding classroom training programmes, using scoreboards and so on.

Leaders hold the key

In our new way of work, colleagues are mostly connecting over digital channels rather than the traditional practice of in-person connections. Digital platforms aren’t yet able to match the effectiveness of in-person communication. Leaders have to take cognizance of this limitation and plan methods that can bridge the gaps.

Firstly, we have to review the communication methods, style and frequency if they are serving the purpose. In most organisations, there is a need for change such as using new methods such as the use of videos, short messages, use of platforms that promote expression and collaboration, increasing the frequency and encouraging employees at multiple levels in the organisation to actively post updates, reactions, suggestions and questions.

Secondly, we have to realise that the current methods of virtual meetings cannot generate the level of camaraderie, energy and friendship employees experienced in the water-cooler conversations, chats over lunch, sipping tea or stepping out for snacks together. So, the least that leaders can do is to lead by example in driving a change in the newfound hybrid workplace. They need to regularly catch up with their direct reports or one level below one-to-one or in very small groups of three or four people. The catch-up needs to focus on building personal networks and connections.

Last but not the least, work has to be structured well with clear goals and metrics. Feedback on regular basis must be offered to people so that they do not meander, waste efforts and feel frustrated later due to the unavoidable rework or a sense of underachievement. This is easier said than done.

Leaders have a task now and they must challenge themselves to meet the expectations. They have to ensure value delivery for all stakeholders in the business.

Ref: https://www.cielhr.com/buildingtomorrow-employee-engagement-for-the-future-workforce/

#BuildingTomorrow: Engaging the Employees of Tomorrow

Many organisations have a multi-generational workforce and leaders always have the task of managing the diversity that comes along. However, our current times are pretty dynamic, the views and needs of people in their 20s are vastly different from those in their mid-30s and 40s. Hence, the task of the leaders is more complex than they were ever before. They have to make the workplace interesting, exciting and fulfilling for everyone who works there. To make matters a bit more complex, the workforce has a lot more transience now. We have a substantial number of interns, temp workers, part-timers, gig-workers and freelancers other than the full-time staff. Moreover, the retention rates of full-time staff are coming down gradually over time. Leaders have a formidable challenge. What can they do?

The big picture and the experience right now

We know that many people are increasingly focused on living in the present; at the same time, they care about the purpose of the organisation they associate with and the meaning of the work they do. The question is how important is seeing the big picture and the long term vis-à-vis the focus on short-term gains and the experience in the here and now. Gen-Z and Gen-Y like the older generation care about both. Should the leaders invest their energies in building a team and building an organisation equally on short term aspects as well as long-term ones? This debate is not settled yet. However, it is clear that people care about both the stories and we have to find a balance between the two.

Many organisations find it hard to craft and consistently deliver the message around the organisation’s mission, vision and values. Building the organisation’s processes in alignment with the vision and values is a challenge in itself. And the leaders must live the values consistently. The organisation has to see this actively and clearly so that everyone feels proud of being on a ship that is architected well and strong enough to withstand the vagaries of the environment from time to time and the storms along the way. This is at the core of employee engagement.

Crafting the engagement practices for tomorrow’s organisation is more complex than ever before because of the rapid transformation taking place in the socio-economic fabric of our society. The preferences, aspirations and approach of employees in different social cohorts are widely varying. Hence, our practices have to appeal to all cohorts – it’s a tall order.

The hygiene factors must be in order

All of us expect the right salaries, benefits, recognition, the culture of treating people with fairness and respect, learning opportunities, adequate freedom and growth prospects at work. It is hard to define how much is enough; there is no limit to increasing these factors. The leaders have to benchmark their practices against the industry standards and make sure that the right levels of hygiene factors are provided. We know that the absence of hygiene factors brings down the engagement level and reduces productivity while increasing these factors beyond a limit does not increase the engagement quotient. One has to find the optimum zone and operate within those.

Engagement is not about the benefits and schemes

Many organisations and HR folks think of employee engagement practices as fun at work and the beyond-work programmes such as sports and games, music and dance clubs, talent hunt activities, cultural shows, the celebration of various festivities, annual day and the like. Some companies focus on employee benefits such as cafeteria, food, transport, posh office space, health and fitness, flexible leaves and work hours, gifts on special occasions and the like. In reality, these become a part of life and the default norm in the company. These do not influence their employees to walk the extra mile to bring laurels to the organisation.

We have to focus on developing and aligning their behaviours at work to the set of desired patterns and benchmarks. These help us establish the right environment in our organisation. Our aspirations get co-owned; we involve our rank and file in developing the right strategic plans for the company and understanding the priorities better. We establish a culture of collaboration and ownership within the company. The tools, systems and processes we define in the company get absorbed better by the employees and they use them well. That’s the real test of engagement!

Ref: https://www.cielhr.com/buildingtomorrow-engaging-the-employees-of-tomorrow/

Do your employees carry good memories?

You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories.

Organizations have to ensure that their employees gather pleasant memories at work. Several leaders say that talent availability is a major challenge before them. So, employer brand is to be built and reinforced; undoubtedly one of the most important things that the leaders have to invest their energies on. Moreover, the texture of our workforce is changing and our socio-economic environment is transforming rapidly. Keeping these two things in the background, organizations have to deliver a pleasant and memorable experience to their employees.

This is the real test of the employer brand – if it is able to draw the best it needs, retain the best it has and engage them to generate the best outcome. What can leaders do to create a positive and pleasant experience for all their employees?

Who bells the cat?

Days are busy for all senior executives, so are nights! Everything that they do has an impact on how they lead their respective organization. How many of them really believe that they need to think about employer brand and hence, track and improve employee experience?

Some thinkers argue, employer branding is in the realm of human resources and hence, the HR Director needs to work on it. Some say, it’s a marketing activity and hence, marketing has to own this strategic element and work with HR to deliver a strong employer brand.

Ironically, either of the two approaches produce sub-optimal results. Just in case, someone shows good results by adopting one of the two approaches, it is a mere coincidence with something else that is going well for them. What is that silver bullet?

Every manager has to own this up in his or her key results area and adapt his style of leading his troop to create pleasant memories. As a result, HR team defines and executes the HR processes in such a way that employees experience speed, fairness, empowerment and trust; Marketing team promotes the brand, involves employees in the promotion, measures the impact and improves further; IT team deploys technology in the work processes to help employees improve their productivity and ease some of their challenges in completing their tasks; every manager in the organization across all the functions and the hierarchy, does his or her bit in delivering a pleasant and memorable experience.

Focus on the Moments of Truth

What should be done to make the experience pleasant and memorable? Is it about pay, manager, deadlines, the number of tasks to complete, the targets, colleagues, values, recognition or something else? Is there one or two factors which are more important than the rest?

Organizations have a purpose, a set of beliefs and ambitions that differentiate them from the others. Employees need to understand these and relate to these. How many times a prospective employee knows about these? How about reiterating them when a new joinee starts the new job? How many times does the line manager say these again to the new joinee and translate them into behaviours? These are all moments of truth that an organization has to perform well!

As life goes on, an employee interacts with some of the stakeholders of the business – colleagues, customers, suppliers, partners, government and so on. There are moments when we do well in meeting the expectations of the stakeholders; sometimes we fail to live up to them. There are moments when tough questions come one’s way. The employee acts and reacts in each of these situations based on the experiences one gathers along the way of life in the organization.

The experiences that we create for the employee along his or her journey with us determine how well he or she reflects the identity of our organization. These experiences remain dear and memorable when we care to articulate who we are, how our aspirations need to be fulfilled and how his or her role links with the future of the organization’s impact.

We need a fine mixture of a few factors

As employees go through their own life stages and the organization’s hierarchy, their priorities change. An employee in a senior management role has a set of needs which are different from what another in the entry-level or mid-level role needs. Moreover, given the developments in technology, we customise a number of things for ourselves in our daily lives, such as the apps that reside on one’s phone, the screensavers, colours, fonts, the flexible work hours that one takes and so on. We have to be sensitive to these developments.

Can we provide employees a personalised learning program, career path, bonus scheme and work hours? We need to understand expectations of each employee, clarify what is possible and what is not; and continually set the expectations right. For example, nobody is going to complain if the best pay is offered, industry-best incentives and benefits are offered. However, every organization would have its policy around compensation and benefits for its employees; it must be clear to them.

Employees are attracted, retained and engaged not only for the pay but a combination of factors. We have to see that the overall package of factors is attractive. We as customers are increasingly looking to buy experiences than a product. Hence, product companies such as cars, electronics and industrial goods are collaborating with other companies to deliver a complete package which has the product and several other things to deliver an overall experience to their customers. Similarly, employers have to review if the overall package is comprehensive enough to deliver the desired experience to their employees.

Leadership team across functions have to come together to define what experience would they need to provide their employees and deliver it each day in their own teams. After all, an employee treasures the memories for one’s life which determine if the organization is going to prosper well in the long run.

Ref: Stanislaw Jerzy Lec Quotes.” BrainyQuote.com. BrainyMedia Inc, 2019. 16 February 2019. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/stanislaw_jerzy_lec_132030

Ref: https://www.cielhr.com/do-your-employees-carry-good-memories/