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HR, News

The Great Resignation; Why an inclusive and collaborative employee engagement strategy can ensure you’re not another casualty

Written by Louise Raeside, Engagement Lead at DRIVE Engagement

The past twelve months have seen a tidal wave of resignations across the workforce – both in the UK and around the world. Not only have we witnessed employees leaving their roles, but we have also seen them pursuing entirely new career paths in droves. And it seems that this mass departure is happening across all levels within the workplace and pan sector too, albeit especially evident in the service and retail sectors.

To see the true extent of ‘The Great Resignation’ as it’s been coined, let’s look at some of the data: 

Quite clearly, there is a major issue at stake here. But why has it all come to a head as we start (albeit slowly) to come out of the pandemic?

I think we are seeing this churn as a result of three key reasons:

  1. Renewed confidence: There has always been churn in the market; people move roles all the time after all. However, over the last two years many people who may have wanted to move jobs have actually put these plans on hold for fear of an unstable job market. Many have favoured simply staying put. However, as we start to see some light at the end of the tunnel, many people are starting to feel more confident, and as a result are starting to actively seek new employment.
  2. Shifting priorities: For many, the pandemic has also triggered quite a shift in personal priorities too. For instance, it may have encouraged them to pursue a ‘dream job’; transition to being a stay-at-home parent; or perhaps join a purpose-led organisation committed to making changes for the better. It’s fair to say that people did a great deal of reflection and soul searching during the darkest days of the pandemic and as a result, many made a commitment to themselves to make changes and do something which really matters to them. And as time is telling, this is translating into a switch in career or employer.
  3. Negative perceptions and treatment: Unfortunately for some, the decision to leave their job has come as a direct result of the way their employer has treated them during the pandemic. Whether that be because their employer wasn’t understanding or flexible when it came to juggling childcare; how they dealt with the work from home environment; how safe and secure their employer made them feel during all the uncertainty; or even how the company treated its customers over this period. Subsequently many employees have developed negative perceptions and come to the realisation that enough is enough – they simply want out.

So, what can organisations do about this? And how can they retain, develop and also attract new talent whilst meeting the shifting – and very individual – needs of employees today?

In short, I believe this all comes down to an organisation getting their employee engagement strategy right. It needs to be an inclusive and collaborative programme of engagement, not a top-down directive from management.

Let me explain a little more, because there is often some misunderstanding here about what employee engagement really means. Let’s start with what it is not; employee engagement is not about short-term employee ‘happiness’ gains through receiving material benefits, like extra pay, bonuses, free fruit, reduced gym memberships, pizza Fridays and other similar perks. Rather it refers to the emotional commitment and connection an employee feels towards their employer organisation, specifically to its vision, its purpose and its goals. What I am talking about here is a sense of belonging, where employees feel they are seen, where they want to contribute and feel their contribution counts and where they are acknowledged. They want to know they are making a difference.

There is a lot to be said about belonging and feeling part of the greater whole. Nurturing the emotional connections between an employee and their workplace will motivate them to remain committed to the company in the long term and, of course, bring tangible benefits for everyone.

But the key to creating this sense of belonging is to focus on strategies that will give all employees a voice, an opportunity to contribute and make a difference (beyond understanding their job purpose) and to ensure that their voice is heard and recognised. Enabling and trusting employees at all levels in the workplace to make improvements, through facilitated structured opportunities will ensure employees are a driving force. So rather than feeling like the company is pulling them along with instructions from the top, employees will feel wholly connected and contribute directly toward its purpose and its goals.

A holistic engagement and retention strategy that incorporates personal development, teamwork, contribution, empowerment and recognition (through acknowledgement, not ‘reward’ in a financial sense) can provide purpose, a sense of belonging and upskill team members so that they feel valued, trusted and appreciated. Organisations are already having to re-evaluate their wellbeing strategies quite dramatically in light of the challenges COVID has presented, but I would suggest that leaders would also do well to invest in personal development opportunities for their teams too. These development opportunities will help build and enable more resilient teams that feel empowered to want ‘go above and beyond’ to improve and contribute in making a difference that benefits personally, collectively and the wider business.

Here are two easy ‘start as you mean to go on’ New Year pledges to re-energise your teams and stimulate an environment where everyone feels willing and enabled to contribute:

  1. Acknowledge: Really ‘see’ your team(s) by making time for them each day within their working environment – to chat, to observe and to listen. Not only will this give you the opportunity to get to know your team(s) better, it’s also great for leaders to ‘be seen’ too. When people acknowledge us, we feel a connection with them. We feel valued – and this is so important to personal well-being, motivation and for fostering a healthy work culture. However, it’s not always possible to physically ‘see’ everyone, so alternatively a quick, but personal acknowledgement email or call can be a great way to show genuine interest, for example: ‘Sorry I missed you today but just wanted say thanks as I understand you worked through your lunch yesterday. This is much appreciated’. In my opinion, it’s these unexpected and seemingly little human acknowledgements that can really make a difference to how motivated we feel toward work and who we work for.
  2. Problem-solve together: When faced with a new challenge, trust in the knowledge and experience of your teams (as they know their jobs best!) and openly discuss the steps needed to solve and improve the issue together. Equip your teams with the problem-solving tools to establish root-cause, why and how the problem(s) occurred and put in place countermeasures to ensure that the business can avoid the issue happening again – it’s about empowering and trusting your teams to work together to resolve it for themselves. Not only will this ensure problem-solving becomes a learning process and mindset, but it will also demonstrate respect, trust and allow your teams to feel supported, listened to and able to make a valued contribution.

The start of 2022 is the time for leadership teams to champion and instigate a stronger engagement mindset – one that is both inclusive and collaborative. By ensuring opportunities for employees to develop and contribute, to be heard, to be seen, and by nurturing their sense of belonging, organisations can ensure they don’t become another casualty to ‘The Great Resignation’ – and perhaps unearth and retain some untapped talent from within too…

 

Employee Engagement, News, News for HRDs

Why your employee engagement strategy should be inclusive and a collaborative effort in 2021

Julie Cameron, MD and founder of DRIVE Engagement, talks about engagement strategies and how to re-engage your team

For years, businesses of all sizes have pumped time and thought into their employee engagement strategies – and rightly so. After all, data proves just how costly it can be to run a ship with a disconnected and unengaged crew. According to Gallup, disengaged employees can result in 37% higher absenteeism, 18% lower productivity and 15% lower profitability within the workplace.

Despite these statistics providing a very clear narrative on why employee engagement is so integral to business success, the reality is that businesses often misjudge how to address it properly. More often than not companies address engagement from a top-down perspective. Doing so means that these strategies fail to address the real issues at hand and do not reflect the wants and needs of the most critical part of the business; the employees themselves.

In this article we will talk about the difference between a hierarchical and an employee led engagement strategy and explain how a firm can reap all the by-products when they really get their teams motivated and engaged in what they do. With companies tightening their purse strings as a result of the pandemic, hopefully we can demonstrate that employee engagement no longer needs to be pushed down the ‘to do’ list in 2021.

2020 and the fractured workforce

And if employee engagement wasn’t seen as important enough, in March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic gave many businesses even more of a reason to focus on it. As so many businesses closed their doors and moved to a remote (and somewhat fractured way of working), they witnessed employees feeling cut off from their peers and line managers. Not only this, but employees also needed to adapt to new ways of working and deal with differing motivations in their personal lives; leaving employees feeling anxious and uncertain. This sudden shift forced HR and leadership teams alike to question how to keep their employees engaged through such an unusual and challenging time, and specifically, how to do this at a time when the purse strings were very tight.

Businesses across the UK took to the internet in a bid to find answers to their questions. In fact, in December 2020, search volume for the term “employee wellbeing” reached its highest ever level; 300% higher than the same month in the previous year. Plus, in May, the question “How to engage employees” was searched more than it had been since 2008.

Whilst the internet does, of course, provide a wealth of information, what many businesses often fail to recognise is that the answer to creating a fruitful employee engagement strategy can often be found much closer to home and within their teams themselves.

Management led vs direct employee feedback

In order to determine the most effective employee engagement strategy, the one that will dramatically increase engagement in an organisation, the first step is to acknowledge that a problem exists in the first place. To do this, it is important to recognise the characteristics of an ineffective strategy.
Many firms often make the mistake of treating employee engagement as a human resource (HR) issue. Often, someone from HR convinces the CEO to commit some budget to an employee survey. Once the survey is complete, the data is then kept locked-away, senior leaders brainstorm ideas and then implement changes that they believe will engage employees. This is where we see those extrinsic initiatives such as free fruit, early finish Fridays, lunch and learns and perhaps a monthly Zoom quiz. Sound familiar?

There are two important issues which arise from this example. Firstly, a misunderstanding of what “employee engagement” is and the weight of influence it has on how successful a company is.

I should stress that employee engagement is not about the satisfaction often felt from receiving material benefits, rather it refers to the emotional commitment an employee has to their organisation, specifically its vision, its purpose and its goals. What we’re talking about here is the difference between extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation.

A top-down approach to the implementation of an employee engagement strategy means front-line leaders are acting as the regulators of employee engagement. A strategy that has been developed through the lens of one or a few senior individuals has the potential to result in something which is dangerously disconnected and unrepresentative of the employees themselves. After all, leaders should never assume they have all the answers.

Sense of belonging

Instead, I would contend that it’s important to consider the drastic evolution of the demands and desires of the employees themselves. The emphasis on what is important (and what motivates us) has shifted somewhat over this past year, and although financial security is still a key focus, there is a deeper sense of personal drivers and motivators when it comes to measuring employee engagement.

There is so much to be said about belonging and feeling part of the greater whole. Nurturing the emotional connections between employees and their workplace will motivate them to remain committed to the company in the long term and bring tangible benefits for everyone.

The key to creating this feeling of belonging is to focus on techniques that give all employees a real voice. For instance, where solutions to problems that the company faces are found by the team themselves collaboratively and are not dictated by those at the top. It all starts with collaborative problem solving and giving each team member greater autonomy to be part of the solution. It’s important to gain employee buy-in to corporate efforts to re-engage by empowering and enabling. Without doing this, you may face a sea of shrugged shoulders and find your engagement programme fails to make significant progress.

Facilitating structured opportunities and giving a voice to people at all levels in the workplace will help ensure employees feel like they are a driving force in a company, wholly connected to its vision and goals, rather than feeling like the company is pulling them along with instructions from the top.
And, in these difficult times where people are more displaced than ever, it is essential to focus on longer term rational strategies. Not only does it make good business sense, but it makes good employee sense as well. Ultimately, it’s this kind of tangible engagement that is win-win, because it continues to pay back year after year, therefore making it entirely free and extremely cost effective to implement.

Bolstering employee engagement and helping employees to feel connected during the pandemic has been and will continue to be one of businesses’ biggest challenges. But now is the time for businesses to intensify their commitment to health, wellbeing, diversity, employee experience and engagement, because those firms who focus on techniques that give their employees a real voice, enabling them to maintain connections and to continue to build relationships with one another, will reap the benefits longer term.