As we get further into the year, we’re seeing a number of employee engagement trends in 2021. As the mood of the country shifts, organizations should be dedicating time to boosting engagement amongst their employees.
How will you keep staff members excited about continuing to work with your company?
Let’s start by going over the top 8 employee engagement trends you should be thinking about in 2021.
1. Figuring Out How to Work With Remote/Hybrid Workforces
First, let’s discuss hybrid and remote work. Engaging a workforce that’s located all over the country (or the world) can be difficult.
As an organization leader, your job should be finding ways to improve work relationships in and outside of the office.
Remote workers want to feel involved, even as your office reopens. Make sure you take the time to ensure all employees feel valued, even if you see certain employees more often.
2. Having Compassion for Caretakers
Caretakers have gone through a great deal as the pandemic rages on.
For example, working parents have been dealing with a lot of issues. One instance of this is that many schools that have gone back to in-person education have sent students and teachers home sick.
Currently, caretakers are facing a lot of stress and flux in and outside of the workplace.
To keep employees engaged, managers need to have empathy and concern for employees in charge of caretaking. Compassion is such an important behavior as your workers may live a different life than you.
3. Focusing on Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity & inclusion continues to be an important part of workplace culture. One of the most diverse generations, Gen Z, is starting to become a larger part of the workplace conversation.
As these employees join your team, take on leadership positions, and excel at work, your organization needs to keep up with these workers. For example, you might want to read up on becoming an ally in the workplace or empowering your managers to drive DEI.
Whatever you can do to research and make new employees feel welcome is great for your business.
4. Understanding Recognition in the Workplace
If you’ve been keeping up with HR news, you might have heard of The Great Resignation. Employees are feeling discontented, and they are ready to move on to bigger and better career opportunities.
Employees want to feel supported and appreciated by managers and colleagues. One of the best ways to do this is to recognize staff members for their hard work.
Many organizations spend hours planning grand end-of-the-year ceremonies to recognize staff. Instead of focusing on one large event, spend time recognizing employees for all of the small things they do for your team.
5. Supporting Employee Health
It’s no surprise that health is so essential for staff members in 2021. COVID-19 has been impacting us for well over a year, and it has shown no signs of stopping.
Employers who invest in their staff members’ physical and mental health are showing employees how much they care.
Focus on providing all of the important health benefits like insurance and sick days. You can also listen to employee concerns on things like returning to the office or having company get-togethers. Employees need to feel like their opinions matter right now.
6. Hosting an Employee Engagement Survey
Speaking of validating employee opinions, consider hosting an employee engagement survey like the Gallup Q12.
With so much happening worldwide, it’s important to catch up with what your employees are thinking (while you can still work to fix things with them.)
Employers have spent so much of the last year putting out fires at work. Now, employers need to move on to preventative measures, so they aren’t always going from one emergency to the next. When is the last time you preemptively asked an employee how they were doing? If you can’t remember, now is the time.
7. Taking a New Look at Employee Compensation
As employees move to different states and work from places that excite them, organizations need to look at compensation.
How do you plan to handle payments when some of your staff live in cheaper places? Some companies have decided to pay some employees less, but that isn’t always the right answer.
As an organization leader, you have to make sure that compensation feels fair and competitive with similar organizations in your industry.
Spend some time connecting with other managers and staff members. Should location impact worker compensation? What would happen if everyone got paid the same amount? How would remote workers feel if they got paid less?
Employers need to have a full picture of how pay impacts work before deciding on compensation changes.
8. Producing an Internal Communication Plan
Internal communication is an essential building block of a successfully engaged hybrid team. Your employees need to know when to use different communication tools and how/when they can expect information from leadership.
Take some time to decide which communication tools you intend to use and what purpose they serve. For example, you could use a tool like Workrowd to host all of your employee resource groups. Go through all of your tools and describe when their use is appropriate.
As teams become more dispersed, tools like company newsletters become even more essential. If this is an engagement technique you want to use, it takes time to plan and execute.
Overall, you want to make sure that everyone knows what they can expect from leaders daily/weekly/monthly/etc. If you aren’t sure, it’s time to sit down and produce a plan that everyone on your team can follow.
Following Employee Engagement Trends in 2021
Employee engagement is an ever-changing field. Every year new trends emerge based on what’s happening inside and outside of the workplace. Leaders need to keep up with these trends so that employees feel engaged and ready to work.
The cost of disengaged employees can be astronomical, and organizations thrive when more staff members are excited to work every day. Are you looking for a simple way to improve engagement? Consider an employee engagement program.
While you are thinking about employee engagement trends for 2021, you can consider a tool like Workrowd to help you host your first employee resource group. Send us an email at hello@workrowd.com to see if we are right for your team.
