Does success in creating a cohesive and engaged workforce in 2023 lie in finding a balance?
Written by Michelle Hartin, Executive Director of Operations at Lexica
When it comes to workforce trends, Covid-19 has had an enormous impact on all UK industries including employee-led businesses. The pandemic accelerated emerging trends and pushed some of these trends to set new boundaries.
According to the World Economic Forum, in 2020, 84% of global businesses accelerated the digitalization of work processes in response to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, with many employers switching to remote and part-time work. Three years in, hybrid work is now set to continue for a sizeable portion of the workforce in developed economies.
Aside from the physical changes in our work environments, issues of diversity and inclusion, climate change and eco-innovation have combined with wellness priorities in the everyday.
In addition, to be able to attract and maintain talent, organisations also need to be clear on their working policies, such as their return-to-work programmes, the gender pay gap, how they manage the wishes of hybrid, working from home, and flexi-time options.
We know that offering competitive employee benefits is a great way to show staff that their needs are being prioritised, and it can play a big part in the success of a business. By introducing benefits and perks such as a generous holiday allowance, wellbeing programmes, low carbon travel initiatives together with the agile and flexible working, business leaders can increase staff satisfaction and improve work-life balance for their teams – which tends to lead to a more productive and creative team.
But has this swung too much in favour of employees at the expense of employers, or does it need to go further? A blend of technological, generational and social shifts mean that employers are sailing into unchartered waters.
Finding purpose and value through work is a key driver for most people when it comes to employment. How employers set about delivering this for employees is important to ensure sustainable growth patterns for businesses throughout 2023 and beyond.
Culture is a main concern for many leadership teams , according to a recent Gartner report which has been born out of in-office and work-from-home policies for ‘knowledge workers’. The report goes on to highlight that for HR leaders, one of the more perplexing aspects of hybrid working is deciding how and when to adjust company culture, which is often pre-pandemic in nature, to be supportive of their workforce in today’s climate.
Even in employee-led organisations, such as Lexica, we have had to review and rethink our company culture post-pandemic. What began as emergency measures have now transitioned to a new way of working where employee accountability is central to its success.
At Lexica, we adopted an agile working hours’ approach which goes beyond the usual 9 to 5 to give employees flexibility and autonomy to meet life commitments and client needs. We have confidence in our employees to continue to build client relationships, regardless of where they are working from but recognise the importance of maintaining a successful team is by creating time to work in person together. Being together greatly benefits learning and collaboration, this can only be a good thing for employees and clients.
Instead of focusing on short-term solutions to ‘tide us over,’ organisations need to rethink their approach to work with a long-term view. How can they, for example, introduce a shared sense of purpose amongst their employees?
For this to be successful and widely embraced, employees must be involved in shaping this process and also share accountability for its success. Taking collective action on purpose, rather than creating and sharing statements, will have a greater impact and encourage employee engagement and accountability. Lexica has provided the training for several of our graduate analyst grades and up, in creating accredited social value practitioners that now act as ambassadors for the rest of the organisation.
Alongside creating a sense of shared purpose and value, sits recognition. Recognition safeguards culture in a hybrid work environment and when done well, joins the dots to unite a workforce. So, whether you are dialing into a meeting or office based, recognition of an employee for a job well done crosses the divide and affirms the individual or team involved. This can take the form of spotlighting a team’s successful project, a colleague’s professional achievement or a department’s new innovative work initiative. Helping people feeling seen and recognised for the good work they have done goes a long way to making them feel valued by the wider company.
The future of the workforce remains a movable feast, and with mounting pressure to control costs combined with the rise of AI and automation there is much to keep senior leadership teams awake at night.
However, continuing to be supportive of your workforce with a focus on instilling a sense of purpose and value at work is vital. It remains important to focus on employee benefits and ensuring staff feel catered for at work by fostering a culture that supports better health, well-being, recognition and the performance of staff.
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About Michelle Hartin
Michelle Hartin is an Executive Director of Operations at Lexica, a leading specialist consultancy, supporting health and life sciences organisations in the UK and internationally with the planning, delivery and continuous improvement of their services now and into the future.
