Author: Kristina Proffitt

Categories
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

10 innovative ways to reduce unconscious bias in the workplace

60% of employees feel that their workplace is biased. Worse, 39% of employees say that they experience unconscious bias in the workplace at least once a month. So some employees are experiencing it really frequently.

In a world that convinces itself it’s forward-thinking and progressive, this is a saddening (and eye-opening) statistic.

But what can organizations do to reduce unconscious bias in the workplace? Especially when we don’t even notice it’s there?

Ask underrepresented team members the first question

In meetings, white men get the floor longer than anyone else. They’re also the ones most likely to speak up. And tend to be the majority in the room.

When you ask someone else the first question, it gives them the confidence to speak out more.

It also gives other underrepresented team members the confidence to speak, too.

Back up a good point, regardless of who made it

If women make up just 20% or 40% of a group, their ideas are less than half as likely as a man’s to win approval. Women are also more likely to be interrupted.

Then there’s the chance that someone else will suggest the same thing further down the line and get all the credit for their idea.

So, pay attention to who’s speaking in meetings and, if you like their idea, offer them some support.

And if someone else tries to take credit for it, point out who suggested it first.

Bad habits only change when people call others out on their behaviors. Reducing unconscious bias in the workplace requires that we step up and have these tough conversations.

Use the same adjectives to describe everyone

Unconscious bias in the workplace can show up in how we talk about people. Sometimes, we use different words to describe employees based on their backgrounds. This reinforces unconscious biases in other people, too.

So the next time you write a performance review or give feedback, ask yourself if you’d use the same language to write about an employee from a different background.

If the answer is that you would write it differently, run it through a language checker to highlight the biases in your writing. This will make you aware of how you can improve your feedback. It will also give you things to keep in mind for next time.

Praise (and criticize) everyone equally

Men often praise other men more highly, while they criticize women more harshly. So, the next time you give feedback, keep that in mind. Consider whether you’re giving feedback to everyone in the same way.

Also, be specific in the feedback that you give.

A study of 200 performance reviews in a tech company found that women were more likely to receive vague praise like “you had a great year.” In contrast, men were given developmental feedback related to business outcomes. 

When women received developmental feedback, it was often related to their personalities rather than their competence and performance. When unconscious bias in the workplace shows up in this way, it can have major impacts, like affecting promotion rates.

Create mentorship schemes

Mentoring can have huge benefits for everyone involved, opening them up to new experiences and helping them grow their careers.

It’s unusual for a male to ask for a female mentor. When they do though, it can help them understand how they’re inadvertently contributing to the authority gap. 

Mentoring also allows them to develop more “feminine” traits that make for better leaders, such as empathy.

Provide group training

Training is one of the key ways to start bringing unconscious bias in the workplace to employees’ attention. It’s a foundational step. But without the others in this list, it’s too easily dismissed.

So, while you want employees to be aware of unconscious biases and what they look like, it’s important that you encourage and enforce the other steps, too —such as calling out unconscious bias in meetings. Training is meaningless without actionable steps.

Hold a speed networking event

If you have a large organization, a speed networking event can offer employees the opportunity to meet people they may not otherwise come across (even if it’s done virtually).

Employees get to experience the true diversity of your organization, while HR leaders can potentially spot any representation gaps in event sign-ups or your business.

Schedule the event, then have everyone sit at tables or put them into breakout rooms if you’re doing it virtually. Everyone has five minutes to talk to the person in front of them. 

Then, half the room moves on to the next table, while the other half stays seated. Keep going until you’ve reached full circle.

Encouraging employees to get to know each other better is a key step towards reducing unconscious bias in the workplace.

Host a book club

Reading, especially reading fiction, makes us more empathetic.

Men are less likely to read books written by women, yet women regularly read books written by men.

Suggesting books written by underrepresented authors introduces book club members to experiences other than their own. This allows them to see what life is like for people from different backgrounds. 

Discussing the book with their colleagues can help employees meet more people, consider other ways to interpret the story, and learn new skills.

Reading memoirs may also help, as they’re based on real-life experiences and can give employees concrete examples of biases.

Create employee groups

Employee groups enable everyone within your organization to network with people who have something in common with them. 

At the same time, these groups can also provide an opportunity to meet people who are different. 

For example, a group focused on people who want to learn leadership skills isn’t limited to employees from one demographic. 

Instead, it can provide an opportunity for everyone to share a common interest alongside experiences that impact their ability to use their leadership skills. 

How a person of color demonstrates leadership in the workplace—and how it’s received—can be different from how a white person shows and reacts to these things, for example.

Learning about these differences in a constructive environment can help reduce unconscious bias in the workplace.

Track the program’s success

No program is worth the time and effort unless you can measure its success. One of the most effective ways to do this is to monitor employee feedback. How do they really feel about your organization—and its diversity and inclusion efforts?

You can also use surveys to track levels of unconscious bias in the workplace. You can then design programming to help employees spot gaps in their own awareness.

And you can identify company-wide areas that require more training/initiatives.

Conclusion

We may not eradicate unconscious bias in the workplace during our lifetimes, but we can reduce it and set a better example for future generations. The steps in this post will help your organization decrease the impact unconscious bias has on employees without it feeling like a box-checking exercise.

Instead, you can turn diversity and inclusion into a new way of thinking, helping employees understand experiences other than their own.

Ready to start implementing some of these ideas to reduce unconscious bias in the workplace? Workrowd has the tools you need to succeed.

Our all-in-one platform makes it easy to launch employee groups, survey team members, and track your progress at a glance with automated analytics. Visit us online to learn more or email us directly at hello@workrowd.com.

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Categories
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

9 ways to build a more inclusive business in 2024

Inclusive businesses get more out of their employees. But to be a truly inclusive business, it’s important not to overlook the seemingly little things that can make a big difference.

Things like unconscious biases that require significant training to overcome; creating comfortable office environments for everyone; showing respect in meetings.

Read on to discover 9 ways to build a more inclusive business in 2024, including some that you may not have considered.

Stop talking over colleagues in meetings—and call people out when they do it

Did you know women are more likely to be talked over than men in meetings?

This can be hugely off-putting for women and result in them speaking less, even if they have great ideas. It also discredits them and damages their confidence.

In your next meeting, make a tally—or use an app like Women Interrupted—to track how many times women are interrupted in meetings compared to men. You might be surprised at the results.

This happens regardless of seniority, by the way.

Don’t believe me?

Sue Montgomery, a Quebec Councilor, knitted a scarf in meetings. She used red when men spoke and green when women spoke. Most of it was red.

And when I say “most,” I mean almost all of it. (You can see the scarf here.)

If you identify as male, it’s powerful when you speak up and tell your colleagues not to interrupt others. This is especially true if the person being interrupted is female or from another underrepresented group. It shows you respect them and their ideas—and expect their colleagues to do the same.

The more people who call others out on this behavior, the more likely it is to stop. Former interrupters may even start calling others out on it, too. It can start a chain of behavior change to create a much more inclusive business.

Adjust your office temperature based on employees’ preferences, not the 1960s

Modern office temperatures are based on a study from the 1960s. Done on white men wearing woolen suits.

Not only has clothing come a long way since then, but so has the workplace.

One of the reasons I have such huge issues with office working is because of how cold I have found every single office I’ve ever worked in. The females I worked with always felt the same but were less likely to speak out—unless I instigated it—because for them it was uncomfortable. For me it was a chronic pain trigger.

The male managers in the office always insisted they were fine. Sometimes they’d find a way to accommodate or compromise, other times we were basically told to suck it up.

You’re never going to please everyone, but if more than half of your team is complaining about the office temperature, and it’s bad for people with disabilities, it’s time to do something about it. You never know how many people are suffering silently because you haven’t created an inclusive business.

Provide space and support for new mothers

Going back to work after having a baby is tough. Breastfeeding can make it even more complicated.

For mothers who are still feeding their babies breastmilk, having a safe, private space to pump at the office can make life a lot less stressful.

While the law requires this in many places, a lot of workplaces still haven’t caught up. And often won’t until someone explicitly threatens to make an issue of it.

Don’t put new moms at your organization in this position. Build a more inclusive business and give them time and space to pump before they have to ask.

Listen

Just because you don’t see something as a problem, that doesn’t mean it isn’t. (See above examples.)

Everyone experiences the world—and the workplace—differently.

So, if an employee comes to you with something, pay attention to them. Don’t dismiss their queries or concerns just because you’ve never considered something an issue before. 

We’re all unique, and what impacts one person may not impact another. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem that needs solving.

Offer fidget toys

Fidget toys can help employees focus during meetings or when working on tedious tasks. They come in all shapes and sizes, from stress balls to pens to cubes.

I’ve been using fidget toys for just over a year now, often when I’m editing or on a call. They’re grounding, and help employees retain information in meetings. Allowing their use is a small way to ensure you’re cultivating an inclusive business.

Have a quiet hour

We’re constantly bombarded with notifications. It’s not great for our concentration levels or mental health. Especially if we’re doing a task that requires concentration. It can take us twenty minutes to get into a state of focus again. Is twenty minutes of quiet even possible in the modern world?

Allowing employees time and space where they can switch off and do some deep work helps them be more productive. 

It also creates a calmer work environment where more focused work gets done without the added stress of constant notifications and interruptions.

Captions in meetings

Many video tools now auto-generate closed captions in real time. This can make meetings more accessible to people who are hard of hearing or who have difficulty processing auditory information.

Turning on this option supports a more inclusive business environment and ensures everyone can get the most out of meetings. And you can get the most out of them as employees.

Put the PowerPoints and GIFs away

Did you know that busy PowerPoint presentations with too many slides, or excessive GIFs, can be distracting for some neurodivergent people?

Too much visual information can lead to sensory overload. Which means any neurodivergent people watching your presentation may feel too overwhelmed to focus on what you’re actually talking about.

So if you want a more inclusive business, use slides to show your key points and avoid flashing images.

Let employees work when they’re the most productive

The traditional nine-to-five doesn’t work for everyone.

I spoke to someone the other day who wakes up at 4:30am and goes to bed at 5pm. That works for her.

I get up around 9am and start work after lunch. That works for me.

Forcing myself to do work that requires deep focus first thing in the morning makes it harder for me to concentrate and means tasks take longer.

Leaning into our most productive times helps us get more done and fulfill our potential.

Conclusion

These are just a handful of ways you can show employees you appreciate them, attract top talent, and truly build a more inclusive business.

If you’re looking to step up your inclusion work this year and ensure every employee is set up for success, Workrowd can help. Our all-in-one tool suite enables you to launch new inclusive business initiatives with ease, and measure the results in real-time.

Sound useful? Visit us online to learn more or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

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Categories
Employee Experience

9 employee offboarding best practices to implement in 2024

For organizations looking to elevate their employee experience in 2024, incorporating more offboarding best practices can be a game-changer.

More than 2/3 of businesses have a formal onboarding process.

But only 29% have a formal offboarding process.

That’s despite the potential risk of security breaches, loss of knowledge, and damage to employer brand that not having a formal process can lead to.

76% of IT leaders strongly agree that not utilizing offboarding best practices presents a significant security threat.

And when you consider how hyper-connected we are at work, and how many of us now take work devices home with us or use work logins on personal devices, it makes you wonder how much of a security threat not having an offboarding process could really be.

So how can you mitigate that security threat? And ensure the offboarding process is as seamless as possible for employees, managers, and HR?

Take a look at these offboarding best practices to set you up for success.

Transfer knowledge

When an employee leaves, you risk their years of experience working in the industry, and getting to know the business, leaving with them. Especially if they work in a small department. 

Some of the information that can leave with them includes:

  • How to use a particular software
  • Important contacts
  • Industry knowledge
  • Company knowledge (for instance, how to maintain legacy products or other company history)

It’s important that when an employee leaves—for any reason—you have a way for them to transfer their knowledge to their replacement or other people within the team. This is where offboarding best practices come into play. You don’t want to end up losing knowledge that could benefit you in the future.

Some of the ways you can transfer knowledge, and protect it going forward, include:

  • Writing guides
  • Delivering (and recording) workshops or webinars
  • Handover calls
  • Video tutorials
  • Checklists

If any of the information is likely to change, be sure to schedule in review dates so it’s always kept up to date, and no one person is responsible for it in the future.

Revoke access to accounts

Failing to revoke employees’ access to software and hardware creates a huge security risk and puts you in danger of future leaks or hacks. It’s any company’s worst nightmare.

So, make a list of every tool the departing employee has access to (or better yet, maintain a list so that you don’t have to create one when they leave) and notify your IT department so that their access is revoked.

Reclaim or wipe equipment

If you’ve given employees a laptop, tablet, phone, or other device, make sure they send it back or wipe it remotely.

Wiping devices remotely ensures that if you don’t want it back—for instance, if it’s old—no confidential documents are kept on a device that doesn’t belong to an employee. 

That way, they can keep the device for personal use without the risk of anyone finding confidential data or files.

Make sure any useful information is backed up elsewhere before you wipe it, though. Otherwise, this is one of the offboarding best practices that could come back to bite you.

Stop automatic paychecks

Let your finance department know the employee’s last working day. They can then work out if the employee gets any extra money from PTO they didn’t take, bonuses, etc. And, of course, organize their final paycheck.

Contact—and reassure—clients

Make sure any clients who work with the departing employee directly know that that person is leaving and who their new point of contact will be. 

This will help ensure a smooth transition and reduce the anxiety clients may feel about the upcoming changes. 

Reassure them that the new person can still cater to their needs, particularly as they may not have the same level of knowledge about the client as their departing contact.

If they don’t feel reassured or supported, they may take their business elsewhere at the end of the contract. Certainly, this is one of the offboarding best practices you can’t afford to skip.

Conduct an exit survey

Exit surveys can give you crucial insights into why an employee left and how you can improve. 

Whether you send an automated survey, have employees chat to their manager, or get them to sit down with HR, it’s important that they share their experiences.

This helps them feel listened to and can improve your employer brand, as they’ll feel more positively about the organization. As a result, they’ll also be more likely to praise you to their networks.

If they left for negative reasons, you can put steps in place to fix things. That way, future employees in that role don’t leave due to the same issue.

Preventing avoidable turnover can be a key benefit of implementing offboarding best practices.

Let the team know

When you need to tell employees depends on how closely they work with the person who’s leaving.

Immediate team members should know once the person has handed in their notice to help ease the transition period and facilitate knowledge-sharing.

The rest of the company can be told via an email on one of the employee’s final days.

Hire their replacement

Take the learnings from the exit interview, update the job description, and start hiring their replacement.

If you have enough notice, you could even start hiring before they leave, using the exiting employee’s knowledge to help with the hiring process. 

After all, they’ve been successful in the role. They know what the right candidate needs to succeed. If anyone can identify it in a potential new hire, it’s them.

Keep in touch

Do you plan to stay in contact with your departing employee?

How can you do so in a way that improves your employer brand and leaves them feeling positively about their time at your company?

For larger businesses, an alumni network can be a huge benefit.

Yet only 15% of companies have a formal alumni network. Compare that with the 67% where employees organized their own, informal alumni group instead. That’s a huge missed opportunity.

Could you set up an alumni network as part of your effort to incorporate more offboarding best practices?

It’s always worth staying in touch with former employees. They may be able to recommend someone to work for your business who’d be a great fit.

They may even return themselves, with more knowledge and experience, later in their career.

Conclusion

Offboarding is a crucial, if often neglected, part of the employee journey. Handle it right and it can boost your employer brand and improve internal security measures.

Staying in touch with former employees could even help you find your next great hire. The only question is: which of these offboarding best practices will you start with?

If you want an easy way to keep current employees engaged, manage alumni, and more all in one place, Workrowd has what you’re looking for. Our suite of tools offers a user-friendly way to keep everyone connected, while giving you real-time analytics to ensure you always know what’s working.

Ready to learn more? Visit us online or send us an email at hello@workrowd.com.

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Categories
Employee Experience

7 ways to use AI for HR – and 4 ways you shouldn’t

If you think all the hype around AI is overblown, you might want to think again; AI for HR can be a game-changer.

When used correctly, AI can automate tedious tasks. It can give hiring managers more time to focus on building relationships and providing a better candidate experience.

In fact, 85% of employers using automations or AI say it saves time or improves efficiency. Unsurprisingly, 82% of HR teams want to incorporate more AI tools into their talent management processes between now and 2025.

So anyone who isn’t using AI for HR risks being left behind.

But when AI for HR is used incorrectly, or without human support, candidates and employees can both end up feeling let down. And it can negatively impact your employer brand and employee productivity.

Read on to find out about 7 great ways to use AI for HR. Plus, 4 cases where you should never use AI for HR.

Ways you should use AI for HR

Let’s start with the positives. How should (or could) you use AI for HR?

Checking job descriptions for biases

If you already have a job description, AI can scan it for ways to make the language more inclusive.

If you don’t have a job description yet, it can write one for you based on the criteria you provide.

Make sure to pass it through a human editor before publication, though. (For reasons we’ll discuss below in the don’t section.)

Sourcing candidates

It’s not always easy to attract the right candidates. One way to leverage AI for HR is to search the internet far faster than any human, and ensure your job gets in front of the right people.

Using AI for HR can enable you to scrape job boards for candidates and their resumes. It can also submit job descriptions to more sites in a shorter span of time, potentially helping you find the right person for the job much faster.

Filtering resumes

Filtering resumes is one of the most time-consuming parts of the hiring process. 

AI can search resumes for keywords that suggest someone would be a good fit for a role. It can then submit the results to a human recruiter for review or automatically invite that candidate to interview.

Making video calls more accessible

While video calls are a ubiquitous part of modern life, they’re not great for everyone.

They often obscure social cues and introduce far too many distractions, particularly for neurodivergent employees or candidates. 

The evolution of AI for HR means more and more innovations are available to improve accessibility.

For example, auto-captions can now appear in real time on apps like Zoom. These captions aren’t perfect, but they enable attendees who are hard of hearing to participate without having to wait for the minutes to be published.

Some tools now also allow attendees who arrive late to get an AI-generated summary of what they missed. AI can even assemble and deliver an overview of the key points discussed at the end of a meeting.

And software can remove distracting background noises such as someone munching on their lunch or a dog barking. These tools are getting more and more effective, improving the quality of audio for calls and recordings.

Managing employee records

Maintaining records can be tedious. It’s easy to forget to do something. This is where AI for HR can come in handy.

AI can update information in multiple places without the need for manual input. This not only eliminates the risk of manual errors, but saves huge amounts of time.

AI can also notify you if information needs updating or double-checking, and it can delete information when someone leaves.

And it can help you keep things like training manuals and contracts up to date with regular notifications or document scanning.

Organizing payroll and benefits

No one wants to get paid late. And, with a cost-of-living crisis affecting many people, some employees genuinely can’t afford for their paycheck to be even a couple of hours late. It could mean they get hit with late fees that further impact their finances.

Using AI for HR can solve this, paying employees and contractors automatically at the end of each period. 

If a contractor bills for different amounts each month, AI can scan the invoices to work out how much to pay them and process that payment without a human needing to touch it.

Generating ideas

Think of AI for HR as your handy assistant to help you with idea generation.

What it comes out with won’t be perfect, but you can use it as a jumping-off point. It can even help you think up new ways to do something, like an off-site for the sales team to try. 

Plus, it can be useful for repetitive tasks like drafting or editing candidate emails.

Ways you shouldn’t use AI for HR

So, what about the times when you shouldn’t use AI for HR?

Firing employees

Letting an employee go isn’t fun, but firing them without the human touch? It’s cold and will leave the former employee with a bad taste in their mouth. This might then lead them to publish a negative review about you online.

Building relationships

One of the potential benefits of AI is that it can give you back time to focus on the more human elements of your job, like relationship building. 

Stronger relationships build brand loyalty and more engaged employees.

But this isn’t something you can give to ChatGPT to do for you. It comes from genuinely listening to what other people have to say and responding accordingly.

Editing for individuality

With training, AI can emulate your voice. Ultimately though, it will never be able to fully recreate something that sounds like you.

So be sure to edit anything it writes to make it sound original and not something written in Generic Internet Voice.

Checking facts

AI is prone to fabrications, meaning it likes to make things up.

And not in a fun, creative, storytelling way. (It’s kind of bad at that.)

When AI gives you any stats or studies, probe it until it gives you the original source. Or see what you can find when you do some (non-AI) digging yourself.

This ensures any information you share with employees or the outside world links to the original source. It will improve how trustworthy people feel your company brand is.

Conclusion

Regardless of how we feel about AI, it isn’t going anywhere. It can’t replace the nuance that comes from the human experience, but that’s where HR teams can shine. 

Showing empathy and humanity will improve the candidate experience, and thereby your employer brand. 

It’ll also improve the employee experience, making your people feel listened to and appreciated, rather than like just another cog in the machine.

If you’re ready to make the most of both AI for HR and the human side of things, the right tools can help. Workrowd automates tedious aspects of employee experience management, to ensure you and your team can drive greater impact in less time.

Want to see how it works? Visit us online to learn more, or email us directly at hello@workrowd.com.

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Categories
Hybrid/Remote

7 more employee loyalty ideas for remote and hybrid workers

Check out part one of this series for even more employee loyalty ideas to boost buy-in across your remote and hybrid workers!

Prioritize their well-being

Employees want work-life balance. That has to come from the example set by their employer and the company’s expectations of them. 

If the company expects people to reply to emails outside of working hours, or work to tight deadlines, an employee is far more likely to have a worse work-life balance and burn out faster. This is an important factor when considering employee loyalty ideas.

When you prioritize employees’ well-being, they get more time to recharge their batteries. 

To do this, you both need to draw clear boundaries around working hours and personal hours. It’s also important to provide employees with time back when they work overtime.

It’s not just about that, though.

Provide support

How can you support your employees? 

Could you offer subsidized childcare, pension plans, or healthcare?

In some countries these things are legal requirements, but in others they’re not. 

So it’s worth considering what’s a legal requirement in your country and what, morally, feels like the right way to support your employees.

It’s even more important to implement these types of employee loyalty ideas during challenging and stressful times.

Take away unnecessary uncertainty

When we live in uncertain times it causes stress and anxiety. This affects our moods and our ability to concentrate and deliver our best work. It can also seriously affect the success of any employee loyalty ideas.

We all remember how stressful Covid-19 was, and the impact it had. Many of us were left feeling more fatigued than usual despite doing less. 

This was because it was the most uncertain time many of us have ever lived through. We had no idea what was going to happen from one day to the next. This extra worry subconsciously left us drained.

When employees work in unpredictable, uncertain environments, it recreates this stress. 

The longer their situation is uncertain for, the more likely it is that that stress will mutate. It can show up as depression, anxiety, or even chronic pain like migraines or fibromyalgia.

So, how can you support your employees and remove unnecessary uncertainties? 

Is it through better communication, even when times are tough? 

Is it taking their opinions into account? 

Getting more support yourself from someone else within the organization?

Practice what you preach

It’s all very well and good telling employees to do something, but if you’re not willing to do that thing yourself, asking them can come across as hypocritical. It can also be really frustrating for employees. Why should they have to do something that you’re not willing to do?

For example, if you want to grow your employer brand on social media, the best way to do it is through your employees sharing what life is like at your business from their own profiles. 

But if they don’t see their leaders posting, they’re going to feel more apprehensive about doing so. Leading by example is one of the more straightforward employee loyalty ideas you can incorporate.

Strong leadership

If you show that you care about your business and colleagues, employees are much more likely to follow your lead. They’ll mirror your loyalty.

But that starts with you modeling the types of behavior you want to see and being a strong leader. 

It means talking to your team even when things are hard. And it means being able to make the tough decisions.

Check in regularly

The only way you’re going to know what’s really going on with your employees is by checking in regularly. Knowing what’s going on should be the foundation of your employee loyalty ideas.

In large businesses it’s impossible for senior leadership to speak to everyone. 

But you should make an effort to connect periodically with employees from all levels. That way, they don’t feel like you’re just a figurehead and decisions ripple down from you to them. They should feel able to communicate with you.

Team leaders and managers should also have regular catch-ups with their direct reports. This allows them to keep team members informed of what’s happening. Plus, it helps solve any problems before they cause more significant issues.

It also ensures that if employees have personal problems, don’t get along with their colleagues, or clients are causing a headache, they’re not dealing with those issues alone.

Encourage learning and development

Encouraging employees to grow their skills inside and outside of the business has huge benefits for everyone. 

It’s great for our brains to learn new things. That could be a new language, a new skill we can use at work, or a different form of exercise. These new skills create new connections in our brains, which keeps them healthy and can improve our moods.

Businesses, meanwhile, get the benefits of employees’ improved health and mood, leading to greater productivity. But those aren’t the only ways businesses can benefit from employee learning and development.

When employees continue to upskill throughout their careers, it helps them stay competitive. And, as a result, so does your business. It’s one of the employee loyalty ideas that’s a true win-win.

That way, employees have the latest industry knowledge—and they may even have other peripheral skills that competitors’ employees don’t have—that can boost productivity, find new cost-saving measures, and discover more creative ways to solve problems. 

The more knowledge and experience they can bring to the table, the greater the benefits to you.

Conclusion

Remote and hybrid workers need to know that you trust them. That means investing in everything from their office equipment to their well-being to their personal brand to their learning and development. 

Sure, there’s the possibility that they’ll leave after you’ve spent all that money. 

But if they leave on positive terms, they’re far more likely to come back. And they’re going to boost your employer brand either way by speaking so highly of you. This can help you tap into a new talent pool, attracting more great employees. In this way, your employee loyalty ideas can lead to an even more loyal workforce over the long-term.

No employee will stick around forever. But if you can foster a sense of loyalty, it will boost not only your employer brand, but your customer brand, too. And that can only lead to positive things for your business.

Ready to get started on implementing some of these employee loyalty ideas? Why not check out some tools that can make things easier?

Workrowd’s user-friendly platform gives employees one-stop shopping for everything that makes them love their employer. You can centralize events, groups, programs, information, and more, all in the same place where you collect employee feedback. It’s a no-brainer, and a great way to get quickly up-to-speed on using these employee loyalty ideas.

If this sounds interesting for your organization, visit us online to learn more or send us a quick note at hello@workrowd.com.

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5 innovative reskilling ideas to help your team level up
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Hybrid/Remote

7 ways to boost employee loyalty for remote and hybrid workers

Employee loyalty is a big deal. Loyal employees can be up to 12% more productive, which could make a huge difference to your business’s bottom line.

They’re also up to 87% less likely to leave, leading to all sorts of financial savings. This includes during the hiring process, training, and onboarding. Which then gives you more money to invest in other areas of the business. For instance, upskilling existing employees to increase their industry knowledge and help you stay ahead of the curve.

However, 95% of employees are open to a new job in the next year. So if you’re not looking to boost employee loyalty, your people are far more likely to leave when an opportunity comes knocking.

Replacing an employee costs around double their annual salary, equalling somewhere between $25,000 and $100,000. That’s a lot of money to lose because your company culture needs work.

So, how do you boost employee loyalty? Especially when employees work remotely some or all of the time?

Ask them what they want

What you have in mind isn’t always what your employees want or need from you. This is particularly hard to gauge if your team is remote. You can’t see anyone’s body language (or not properly on video) to tell if they’re really saying what they mean or just telling you what you want to hear. 

But you can ask in a survey! That way, you can get feedback on your hiring process, onboarding process, employee reviews, workplace practices, and offboarding practices. The possibilities are endless.

Listen to their opinions

The further down an employee is in the food chain, the less of a say they get in decisions. This can make them feel unvalued and expendable.

Whether an employee is a cleaner or team leader or any role in between, they should be able to voice their opinions about what’s happening within the business. 

Sending a survey shouldn’t just be something you feel obligated to do. Instead, you should listen to people’s feedback and take action when it’s appropriate. While you can’t solve every problem, if multiple team members have issues with the same thing, that should be a red flag that requires immediate action.

Likewise, if there’s something positive that many employees highlight when you speak to them, you should lean in to that. And include a mention to it in your employee branding materials and/or job descriptions when hiring for a role. It could be a key driver of employee loyalty!

Create a sense of community

If employees feel like they belong, they’re going to be happier in their roles and therefore more likely to stay.

Employee groups are a great way to build a sense of community. Employees can connect with colleagues from other parts of the organization who share their interests, goals, and/or backgrounds.

They don’t have to be complicated to manage, either. With Workrowd, you can get more out of your employee groups and even track their success in real-time.

Offer to help employees set up their offices

Helping employees get the right equipment for their home office allows them to feel more comfortable working from home. That way, they’ll be happier and can get more done. It’s a pretty straightforward way to boost employee loyalty. 

Simple things like the right chair, mouse, or keyboard can make a huge difference to our mood and productivity. 

I used to work in a really uncomfortable chair. Because I was uncomfortable, it was hard for me to concentrate. When I switched jobs and worked from a better chair/desk setup, my back pain went away. Meaning I wasn’t thinking about being in pain and could instead get more work done.

Reward them

A little recognition can go a long way. Sometimes, all it takes is a quick ‘thank you’ for an employee to feel appreciated and like they belong. It can increase employee loyalty and make them want to stay.

Of course, you can take things further and consider a gift of some sort. It could be an onboarding package with some branded merchandise, or a sweet treat at the end of a project. 

You can even go so far as to personalize employee rewards by paying attention to things like their interests and favorite brands.

Help them grow their brand

One way you can really show employees you care about them is by helping them grow their personal brands. 

Not every employee will be interested in doing this, but it’s something that can make a huge difference to their confidence levels, their network, their career opportunities, and how they feel about you as an employer. 

Of course, it does mean that they could get headhunted because of the strength of the personal brand that you helped them create. 

But if they’re truly happy in their role and working for your business, they’ll say no to that new opportunity because they won’t want to leave. Enabling team members to grow within your organization is key to increasing employee loyalty.

Show trust

How do you show your employees that you trust them? 

Is it by allowing them to post about work on social media? 

Is it by prioritizing how much work they get done over how many hours they spend sitting at their desk with Slack open?

The more employees feel like you trust them, the more you’ll get out of them. And, the more you’ll see employee loyalty increase.

If employees constantly feel uncomfortable or like you don’t trust them to do their jobs, the quality of their work, their confidence levels, and their productivity levels, will suffer.

Conclusion

Employee loyalty can play a key role in your talent acquisition and retention levels. The tips above were a start, but these aren’t the only ways to increase employee loyalty.

Stay tuned for part two, where we share more ways to boost employee loyalty among your remote and hybrid workers!

In the meantime, if you want an easier way to increase employee loyalty and watch your numbers rise in real-time, Workrowd can help.

Our one-stop shop for engagement and inclusion makes it easy to get employees deeply involved at your organization from day one, and then track progress over time.

Sound useful? Our happy customers certainly think so! Visit us online to learn more, or email us at hello@workrowd.com to schedule some time to connect.

4 employee experience challenges and how to solve them
5 tips for more effective conflict resolution in the workplace
5 innovative reskilling ideas to help your team level up
Categories
Learning & Development

6 creative ways to offer upskilling opportunities for your team

Upskilling is teaching your employees additional skills to give them, and your business, a boost.

Why is upskilling important?

The number of skills required for a single job increases by 10% every year. So if employees don’t keep upskilling, they’ll fall behind. And so will their employer.

Things now move so quickly that a third of the skills that appeared in an average job posting in 2017 are no longer required. That’s a huge number of obsolete skills in just a few years.

So it makes sense that 48% of US workers would switch to a new job that offered skills training opportunities.

And that 65% of workers believe employer-provided upskilling is very important when evaluating a potential new job. Upskilling means they get more present and future opportunities.

Upskilling is an even higher priority for millennial and gen Z workers, with 93% of them expecting employers to offer learning opportunities.

Providing upskilling opportunities for your employees will help you retain your current team members and attract new ones. It could even mean you attract better quality hires who stick around for longer.

For workers who’ve recently taken part in an upskilling program, the average salary increase is $8,000 or more. That could make a huge difference to someone’s quality of life, especially in the current economic climate.

And as AI becomes a larger part of the workplace, offering opportunities for employees to upskill or reskill will be pivotal to maintaining a positive company culture. Especially when so many people are worried AI will take their jobs.

Creative ways to upskill your employees

So, how can you upskill your employees? There are lots of options, and something for every budget:

Start a book club

Books are a great way to learn. The increased availability of ebooks and audiobooks also means that they’re more accessible than ever. With material available on nearly every subject imaginable, you can use workplace book clubs for upskilling employees on a wide array of topics.

Create internal training modules

If you’ve got a particularly complicated product, or a lot of internal knowledge you want to retain and share, internal training modules can be a great way to spread that information.

Investing in e-learning software means employees can dive in as part of their onboarding, during a set day/time, or at their own pace.

You could create these modules on anything from how to use a particular tool to company culture and everything in between.

Start an employee group

Employee groups are a simple way for team members to connect with people who have the skills they need, or for them to learn together.

They provide employees with the chance to interact with people from outside of their department and learn things they might not have otherwise had the chance to.

A robust community of employee groups can not only do wonders for your employee engagement rates, but can help with upskilling on both hard and soft skills.

Mentoring 

Mentoring enables employees to receive one-on-one support to help them grow in a particular area. This means they get training that’s tailored to their individual situation, helping them grow faster.

This is also particularly useful for succession planning. A manager’s replacement can shadow them for a set time, for example, to help them fully understand the role and how to react in different situations.

Volunteer work

Volunteer work allows employees to engage in upskilling while giving back to their community. There are volunteer roles for just about every skill set, so whether it’s cooking in a soup kitchen or doing admin for a charity, there’ll be something for them.

Supporting employees to give back to their community also improves your employer brand, showing the outside world that you really do care about more than just money. Which can further help you attract and retain talent.

For employees who work remotely, or long hours, volunteer work also provides them with a desk break, improving their mental health through spending time with other people and helping them.

Away day

A break from the office (whether that’s a company office or a work-from-home office) can refresh tired minds and encourage creativity. 

The higher-ups at Marvel regularly do this to plan their upcoming movies and TV shows. It’s a way to disconnect from the outside world and our everyday lives, which can reduce stress and boost idea generation.

Away days are also great for cramming in lots of knowledge in a short space of time. 

Employees don’t need to worry about picking children up from school and missing the end of the session, or the dog needing to go outside at an awkward time. 

They have more energy to focus on learning new things, which helps them retain the information.

They can also spend time with other employees—or even people from outside of the organization—learning the same thing. This can improve loneliness, increase their sense of belonging, and lead to future career opportunities, too.

Networking 

Everyone knows something we don’t. Networking is therefore a crucial way for employees to engage in upskilling.

How can you encourage networking within your organization?

Some ideas include:

  • Breakfast sessions
  • Lunch and learns
  • Evening pizza
  • Hackathons
  • Charity events (such as running a total number of hours as an organization in a month)
  • Holiday gatherings
  • Town hall meetings

Conclusion

Upskilling doesn’t have to be hugely expensive for businesses or employees. But the more businesses and employees foster a culture of learning, the more it will benefit the business and employees’ skills and mental health. 

It also future proofs employees’ careers and the business itself, allowing them to adapt to the changing times.

Want to find out what your employees really want from upskilling? Workrowd makes it easy to deliver upskilling opportunities in a wide variety of formats, and track employee satisfaction.

With all your groups, programs, and events in one place, everyone can easily tap into what works for them. Plus, our automated feedback requests and real-time analytics ensure you always know what is and isn’t getting results.

If this sounds useful for your organization, we’d love to chat. Visit us online to schedule some time, or email us directly at hello@workrowd.com.

4 employee experience challenges and how to solve them
5 tips for more effective conflict resolution in the workplace
5 innovative reskilling ideas to help your team level up
Categories
Learning & Development

12 training topics for managers to level up your organization

59% of managers who oversee one or two employees report having no training at all. 41% of managers who oversee three to five employees also report having no training. Which means that in most organizations, the list of training topics for managers is…nil.

Eep.

It can be frustrating when you’re an employee, managed by someone with zero training. 

I’ve spoken with people about it before, and employees can tell. It’s in everything from how their manager deals with superiors to how they organize a meeting.

So, what training topics for managers should you focus on to build a happier and healthier team? Let’s take a look:

Communication

When someone moves into a management position, it’s important they know how to effectively communicate with their employees. They need to be able to keep the peace, maintain employee well-being, manage conflict, and speak to different groups of people.

Intercultural communication is vital for managers to understand. Some words have negative connotations that aren’t always recognized by people outside of a particular group (like “mastering” a skill). Accordingly, inclusive language is important when thinking about training topics for managers.

Negotiation and conflict resolution

Managers will inevitably have to deal with some form of conflict in their roles. This is true whether it’s between team members, pushing back against unrealistic executive expectations, or confronting clients.

To successfully navigate these murky waters, it requires adequate training. Otherwise, someone—often employees—will suffer.

For instance, if a manager knows that the date by which higher-ups want a project completed would require employees to work significant overtime, it’s important that they can fight in their employees’ corner to suggest a more realistic completion date.

Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback is a unique art and science that requires training. Managers need to ensure employees feel valued while also offering guidance to help them improve. 

It’s important to be able to provide positive feedback alongside anything negative.

Unnecessarily harsh or blunt tones (which can be an unintentional default when giving written feedback) can upset employees. It can even cause them to shut down, especially if they’re learning a new skill or are new to the business.

Managers need to be able to provide feedback that’s compassionate and empathetic, while also being honest.

It’s a skill that requires education, feedback (on the feedback itself), and practice to get it right, so it should definitely be on your list of training topics for managers.

Unconscious bias

We all have unconscious biases. Until we actively work to address and overcome them, they can impact everything from hiring decisions and promotions, to how we speak to different generations or cultures.

Inclusion

What steps can managers take to make the workplace as inclusive as possible? To different backgrounds, abilities, and disabilities?

With people retiring later than ever, and living longer, managers now often have to manage four generations at a time: baby boomers, gen X, millennials, and gen Z. These groups all have different expectations from work and therefore different requirements from their supervisors.

This obviously then requires you to offer a wider array of training topics for managers.

Another key element of inclusion training can focus on supporting people with disabilities.

Every disability is different. And every person with a disability needs different things.

Managers need to know how to discuss accommodations with their employees in an understanding way. And how to implement those accommodations.

In-person and virtual management

The modern workplace offers more ways to work than ever. 

Managers therefore need to understand how to manage distributed teams. This includes what technology to use, how it changes communication, and the difference it makes to company culture.

The new world of work requires new training topics for managers versus those that were necessary in the past.

Delegation

One of the keys to effective management is being able to delegate tasks to the right person.

There’s no point giving someone a creative task if their skills lie more in analytics.

It’s important for managers to get to know their teams’ strengths and weaknesses. That way, they can help team members grow the skills that will propel them toward their future goals and benefit the rest of the team, too.

Employee well-being

Managers play a key role in employees’ well-being. So it makes sense that they should understand how to support it. They need to know things like:

  • How to spot the signs of burnout
  • How changes in employees’ behavior might reflect something going on
  • How their own mood can affect the atmosphere in the office—and therefore employees’ moods and behavior

Awareness of these things, and knowing how to deal with them, means they have a lower impact on the team and therefore the business. It’s a crucial addition to your training topics for managers.

Confidence and presentation skills

Managers need to come across as confident, even if they don’t always feel it. This confidence is contagious and can rub off on the rest of their team.

Anxiety can have the same impact. When managers exude anxiety, it can make their employees doubt their own abilities and the capabilities of their manager. Which can impact morale as well as productivity.

Managers also often have to speak up in meetings or present during them. They need to be able to do this confidently, clearly, and within the time constraints.

Therefore, offering training topics for managers around public speaking and presenting can make a big difference.

Cybersecurity 

The more seriously managers take cybersecurity, the more seriously employees will take it. 

And as hackers get more and more sophisticated, employees need to know how to spot the signs that they’re being targeted to help protect not just them, but the company as a whole.

It only takes one small mistake by someone not paying attention to bring a whole system down. Implementing relevant training topics for managers is an important first line of defense.

Hiring and firing

Providing managers with training on how to hire and fire people in the right way eases some of the stress of these processes.

It means that it’s not uncharted territory for new managers. They have guidelines in place that they can adapt to suit their own approach and the company’s hiring and firing processes.

Nurturing talent

Managers need to understand how to bring the best out of their employees. 

And be aware that the approach is likely to be different for everyone. It depends on each person’s personality, current skills, and where they want to go in their careers.

Conclusion

There are lots of training topics for managers that supervisors need to understand to excel in their roles. 

Investing in this training both when they’re promoted and during their tenure will make them more confident managers. And therefore more effective managers. 

This will improve employees’ confidence in their abilities and make them more productive, too.

Want an easier way to ensure your team members have access to all the training topics for managers they need to succeed? Workrowd can help.

With all your programs, groups, and events centralized in one place, you can set your managers up for success no matter where or when they work. Plus, automated feedback requests and real-time analytics ensure you always have a pulse on employees’ needs.

If this sounds like it could be a fit for your organization, visit us online or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

4 employee experience challenges and how to solve them
5 tips for more effective conflict resolution in the workplace
5 innovative reskilling ideas to help your team level up
Categories
Employee Engagement

6 ideas to boost public sector employee engagement in 2024

Despite the importance of the work, public sector employee engagement remains a challenge. The federal employee engagement score is around 12 points behind the private sector mark. It sits at just 63.4 out of 100.

I worked in the public sector for three years. In that time, I learned that local governments will get blamed for just about everything—even if it’s not their responsibility. At the same time, people also expect them to have an answer for everything.

The role could be difficult, since our hands were often tied because politics (either internal ones or the government itself) got in the way. Still, many of the people I worked with genuinely cared about what they did. They felt motivated to make a difference.

When public sector employee engagement is high, team members are more productive. There are lower levels of absenteeism. Fewer people leave.

And, with tight public budgets, a competitive talent market, a worker shortage, and less space in the public sector to negotiate pay, creating the right working environment is key to saving money and providing more effective services.

So, how do you boost public sector employee engagement?

Communicate

You may not have control over every decision that affects your employees, but you can share what’s going on with them. This ensures they feel included in the process. Even if a decision came from higher up and is out of your hands.

Give employees the opportunity to share their feelings, too.

Even if they can’t change anything, voicing their emotions helps employees let go of them. That way, they can get on with the tasks that they do have control over.

Change management

One of the challenges I faced in my role in the public sector was getting other departments to embrace social media. This was ten years ago, so it was still uncharted territory for a lot of businesses. 

Many of my colleagues didn’t understand how it worked and didn’t even use it for their personal lives. So why would they care about it for work?

Some departments were uncomfortable even updating the information on their part of the website.

So I shared the benefits with them. Things like how, if they updated the website now, it would reduce the time they spent on the phone answering the same question over and over. And expanding the information that was there in anticipation of other FAQs.

Over time, those departments that had been dragging their feet started to realize how the website—and social media—could give them more time and make their jobs easier.

Just ensuring that everyone is educated and informed can do wonders for public sector employee engagement.

Embrace technology

Technology empowers you to streamline your workflows, communicate better, and cut costs. All of which mean you can provide better services to the people you serve.

It means employees can do their jobs more effectively.

Technological advancements are there to make employees’ lives easier. This is particularly true in industries where employees already feel like they can’t get everything they need to do done each day.

While there’s obviously a lot to consider with new technology, the right tools can significantly increase public sector employee engagement.

Connecting employees

When employees work remotely, it can be lonely. It can also get lonely if they work well with their team, but don’t have much to talk to them about beyond work.

Tools like Workrowd are a great way to connect public sector employees with their colleagues from other departments.

In larger organizations, it’s impossible for employees to meet every one of their coworkers in the corridor. 

Organizing employee groups is a simple, effective way for them to connect with like-minded employees. Plus, it can improve their sense of belonging in the workplace.

Belonging is crucial in all organizations, but it’s especially important if you want to boost public sector employee engagement.

Ask for feedback

The best way to improve the employee experience is to ask employees how they feel about it. This doesn’t always make for comfortable reading, but it’s a vital part of improving public sector employee engagement.

It shouldn’t be an arbitrary survey that’s sent to HR through people’s managers, though. Employees should feel able to communicate openly, honestly, and directly with HR. 

That way, employees won’t feel the need to mince their words. They can be open about any toxic tendencies in their team or from their manager without worrying about someone finding out they said something and it affecting their working relationships.

This fear alone can make employees clam up and feel unable to share their experiences. Resulting in damage to the employee experience, especially if these types of surveys are mandatory. (But illogical.)

Instead, why not send regular, automated feedback surveys?

Ones that are sent on your behalf, where you can then have more time to act on the feedback you receive?

Act on employees’ feedback

It’s one thing to ask for feedback, but you going to all the effort to create surveys, and employees taking time out of their busy days to fill them in, is pointless if no changes are made based on the feedback.

Are there any patterns that emerge from the feedback?

What steps can you take to improve things?

Or if something is going well, what can you do to lean into those successes?

Conclusion

Life in the public sector can be very different from the private sector. Employees—and often management—can have far less control over decisions that are made, and the things they have to do as a result.

To improve public sector employee engagement, make sure team members still have a voice. Build a welcoming culture that listens to employees and supports them.

It’s important to modernize, too. This can take more time in the public sector, where things often move more slowly than in the private sector. Ultimately though, it’s the key to doing more with less as public sector organizations struggle financially.

If you’re ready to boost public sector employee engagement, getting the right tools in place can help. With Workrowd, you can keep employees connected, automate feedback requests, and leverage real-time analytics to take your public sector employee engagement efforts to the next level.

Sound useful? Visit us online to learn more, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

4 employee experience challenges and how to solve them
5 tips for more effective conflict resolution in the workplace
5 innovative reskilling ideas to help your team level up
Categories
Company Culture

Work-life balance tips to elevate your company culture

True work-life balance is a make-or-break element of attracting and retaining top talent. So it can help to have some solid work-life balance tips in your toolkit.

A good work-life balance is very important to 72% of employees. And 57% of employees feel that a poor work-life balance is a deal breaker when they consider a new job.

Yet 77% of employees have experienced burnout at their current job. And just 60% of employees feel able to balance work and personal commitments. 

That feels like somewhat of a contradiction to me. Surely, with the right work-life balance, fewer employees would experience burnout? 

Which means many of us aren’t balancing work and personal commitments as well as we think we are.

It’s all too easy for employees—particularly remote employees—to work just five more minutes to get something done. 

And for those five minutes to turn into five hours…

…then when they look up at the clock, they realize it’s almost bedtime and they’ve spent all day staring at a computer screen.

So what are some work-life balance tips to ensure employees really do have a positive experience? And that they can comfortably fulfill personal commitments in addition to their jobs?

Encourage disconnection outside of office hours

One of the biggest work-life balance tips centers around being able to disconnect. And to do that, it means only responding to notifications during working hours.

A simple way to get employees to disconnect is to have set work hours on apps like Slack or Teams. 

And make it clear that employees shouldn’t feel the need to “check in” when they’re just browsing through their phone off hours. 

Or worse—on vacation! 

(Yes, I do know people who’ve done this while lounging by the pool. Insert horrified emoji here.)

Some phones and operating systems allow you to set different home screen layouts depending on the time of day or what you’re doing. You could suggest employees set this up if they use their phone for work. 

Or if they have a separate work phone, get them to set an alarm so that they know it’s time to turn it off for the day.

If it’s harder for them to get to Slack, Teams, or emails, and they’re not getting notifications every time a message comes in, they’re less likely to check those messages outside of working hours.

Give employees time back if they work overtime

One way you can show employees you value their work is by giving them time back if you know they’ve worked overtime to finish a task or project.

This ensures they don’t lose out on time with their loved ones, or relaxing, just because they wanted to finish something before wrapping up for the day.

Make sure employees use their paid time off (and consider offering them more)

It’s all very well and good offering paid time off (PTO), but if employees don’t use that time, is it anything more than a token gesture to lure in new hires?

Employees should be able to use their paid time off without feeling guilty about it. Or like they’ll be reprimanded for doing so. 

PTO is key to employee wellbeing, providing them with vital time to recharge their mental and physical batteries. And helping them come back to work happier and healthier. 

If employees don’t use their PTO at your company, ask yourself why? And how can you change that? When thinking about work-life balance tips, paid time off should be a core consideration.

Talk to employees about their schedules

If you have an employee who’s regularly online well outside of working hours, talk to them. Is it that their workload is too much and they don’t feel they can get everything done during their allocated hours? Or are they a workaholic?

Either way, no matter how great the results that person gets you now are, they’re at high risk of burnout.

So be sure to keep in touch with them. Suggest they disconnect on weekends, use their PTO, and don’t check in off hours. Or just send them this list of work-life balance tips with a friendly note!

Allow employees to work where they work best

79% of workers feel a flexible schedule allows for a better work-life balance. 

And 91% decided to work remotely because they wanted a better work-life balance. 

That says something about the office environment and how much time we can lose to things like the daily commute.

Everyone’s ideal work environment is unique. For some, it’s at home in their own space. It’s in the office, surrounded by other people for others. However, for most, it seems to be a hybrid work model.

To find out what makes the biggest difference to your employees, ask them! Send an employee survey with questions on how they feel they work best, and ask for their feedback on how things work now.

Most importantly, implement changes based on the feedback so that employees know you listen. Otherwise, they’re less likely to take part in similar activities in the future. Plus, you won’t get much in the way of work-life balance tips from their suggestions if they don’t feel heard.

Provide discounts on well-being activities

Days out with loved ones, a trip to the gym, or even a vacation are all excellent ways for employees to reduce their stress levels and get a change of scenery. Particularly for employees who work from home.

Staff discounts are a great way to show employees you value them and to help them disconnect.

Could you partner with an employee benefits platform to offer discounts? Or work with local businesses/your customers to provide employees with exclusive offers?

Whether it’s subsidized gym memberships or discounts on meal boxes, little things like this can contribute to improving employees’ overall well-being inside, and outside, of work.

Make sure employees take their lunch breaks away from their desks

When I worked in an office, I almost always ate at my desk because I brought in my own lunch and reheated it in the staff microwave.

But, before I ate, I always went for a walk so that I got a break from the office. 

Whether your employees go for a lunchtime walk like I did, go to the gym, or just sit outside on a bench, remind them to get away from their desk during the day. It breaks up the day, gives them a change of scenery, gets their blood flowing, and can calm their stress levels if the office is noisy. It’s one of the more straightforward work-life balance tips that can have a big impact.

Conclusion

A positive work-life balance is key to our long-term health. It reduces stress levels, gives us more time with loved ones, and prevents burnout.

The right work-life balance is different for everyone, but the key is to ensure employees can disconnect from their jobs without feeling guilty or like everything will go wrong because they’re unreachable for a few hours.

Looking to implement some of these work-life balance tips? Workrowd can help. By centralizing all your employee information, programs, groups, and events, you can save team members time and highlight all the great ways they can find better balance.

Plus, with real-time analytics, you always know who may be struggling and in need of more support. Want to learn more? Visit us online or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

4 employee experience challenges and how to solve them
5 tips for more effective conflict resolution in the workplace
5 innovative reskilling ideas to help your team level up