Previously, we looked at the ways employee interest groups can affect team performance. Now, we’re going to explore how you can use employee interest groups to build high-performing teams, starting from the basics right through to the real differentiators.
Encourage employees to join
Obviously the first step is to get people involved. Just having employee interest groups isn’t enough to build high-performing teams. You won’t see results if people don’t join or don’t get benefits from them.
If you’re serious about employee groups, you need to embed them into every part of your company.
Let someone know about them when they join; send email reminders; run recruitment drives; host events; do as much as you can to spread the word about your groups.
The larger an organization gets, the more difficult it will be to spread the word, so the more you tell employees about them, the better.
Get leaders active in them too
Leaders set an example. If they don’t seem interested in your groups, employees probably won’t see the point in them, either.
When leaders are active in employee interest groups, it humanizes them to their team members. They feel less like the Wizard behind his curtain and more like someone on the journey alongside them.
This then makes it easier for employees to have tougher conversations, hold leadership accountable, and feel heard when they have an opinion to share. When your people have trust in their leaders, it makes it much easier to build high-performing teams.
Set up a range of interest groups
No one specific type of group will appeal to everyone. Setting up a range of groups, from pop culture interests to demographics, ensures there’s something for everyone.
Get a range of different people to run them as well, as this will ensure employees across the organization feel welcome to join. When people can see themselves in leadership positions, even informal ones through employee interest groups, it helps motivate them and sets you up to build high-performing teams.
Share the benefits
If your team members come from organizations that don’t use interest groups, or you’re only just setting them up, they may not know how these communities can benefit them.
You therefore need to educate your team on how joining could help them personally and professionally.
Make sure they’re aware of how employee interest groups can help with:
- Knowledge sharing
- Networking
- Making friends
- Discussing their favorite hobbies and interests
- Meeting like-minded people
- Getting support
- Improving their confidence
While you may feel like you’re belaboring the point, it’s unlikely that every employee within your organization will read the email when you announce your groups. They might be on vacation, out sick, or just too busy to read it.
So regularly sharing that these groups exist is important because the more you mention it, the more likely people are to want to be a part of one (or more).
And it shows them that the groups won’t become a forgotten initiative in six months’ time. Capitalizing on these benefits will help improve individual employees’ performance, and help you build high-performing teams.
Encourage employees to create them
Your groups are only as good as the people leading them. You need engaged employees who are interested in the group’s topic to host. That way, they’ll be motivated to recruit new people, start conversations, and organize events.
It’s also encouraging for employees to see other employees in a different style of leadership. The skills and connections employees build through these groups can go a long way towards helping you build high-performing teams.
Centralize your learning
Having one location where employees can find all your learning and development opportunities means that anyone interested is less likely to miss out. If they want to know what’s coming up, they can simply check out the relevant interest group.
Or, if they have a suggestion, they can place it in the group to gauge if anyone else is interested. This is particularly useful if someone wants to bring in an outside speaker and see if it’s worth it.
Workrowd can help you keep all your employee initiatives in one place, from your L&D opportunities to your employee interest groups. Want to find out more? Get in touch to book your free demo.
Develop a mentoring group
Too often, businesses assume that mentoring will happen organically. But this is rarely the case.
Your senior leaders are busy. They may not have even thought about mentoring someone.
Your younger or newer employees, meanwhile, may be too shy to speak up. If anyone is confident enough to do so, this may mean that your shier, more capable employees get left behind simply because of a lack of confidence.
So then they either won’t reach their potential or they’ll leave because they feel unsupported.
Having a place where mentors and mentees can come together is therefore crucial to supporting your internal learning and development goals. In turn, it’s essential to building high-performing teams
Your employee interest groups are vital places for employees to meet people outside of their everyday colleagues.
Having a place where highly motivated employees can come together and network ensures that whether they’re remote, in the office, over the other side of the world, or new to your company, they can meet people who can encourage and motivate them.
Conclusion
Ultimately, to get the most from your employee interest groups, you need to put the work in. You need to educate employees on their benefits, encourage them to join and organize groups, and continue to promote them, not mention them once then forget about them. Do this and they can boost your employer brand, support employee learning and development, create a more loyal workforce, and improve your bottom line.
Employee interest groups are one of the most powerful, underestimated tools for building and supporting high-performing teams. They’re pivotal to improving teamwork across your organization and making newer employees feel like a part of the team sooner.
If you’d like help to better organize, or even create, your employee interest groups, try Workrowd. Contact us today to find out more.
