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Company Culture

7 things companies with strong cultures prioritize that others don’t

85% of organizations find that companies with strong cultures have a competitive advantage. What’s more, 72% feel that culture helps change initiatives succeed.

Despite this, only 28% of executives understand their company’s culture. And if they don’t understand it, how can they channel it when doing their role? Let alone while interacting with employees or hiring new ones?

As for employees, just 22% feel connected to their company culture. Which is really sad, both in terms of the difference a strong company culture makes to employee morale, and the fact that companies with strong cultures see a 4x growth in revenue. That’s a lot of money potentially being left on the table.

So, how do you experience results that powerful? Here are some key areas to prioritize to join the ranks of companies with strong cultures:

Psychological safety

Psychological safety is the cornerstone of companies with strong cultures. 

If employees don’t feel safe, accepted, and listened to, they won’t perform their best at work. They’re far more likely to quiet quit or become prone to absenteeism. 

Employees may even become sick more often with exacerbated physical and/or mental health challenges.

On the other hand, when employees do feel psychologically safe at work, they’re happy. And happy people are more productive whatever their role within your business.

Shared mission

We all want to feel like we’re a part of something – like we’re making a difference in the world. (And I like to think we all want to leave the world a better place, even if some of us have different ways of going about it.)

When employees and their employer work toward a shared goal, it acts as a north star, keeping everyone focused on moving in the same direction. It also provides a lens for how the company operates, enabling more effective, efficient decision making.

Ownership

Toto Wolff, the team principal of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team, believes it’s his job to have shoulders that can carry some of the adversity that hits the Mercedes team.

He also tries his best not to let anyone on the team down. This isn’t just something he actively does; it’s part of who he is.

Wolff takes ownership of what happens within the team, and when it’s time to celebrate, he won’t take the full credit—he knows that success is a team effort, and he tries to spotlight it. This approach is common across companies with strong cultures.

Employee listening

A key practice at companies with strong cultures is listening to employees. What do they like about work? What do they dislike? Is there anything they need to perform better in their roles?

Whether you use your employee groups or an employee survey tool to find out what they need from you, employee listening is key to getting the most out of every team member.

One thing you could do to ensure you have the feedback you need is to roll out automated feedback surveys. This allows you to monitor positive and negative trends within your organization. 

You can then double down on the positives and even use them as part of your employer brand to attract new hires. 

For any negatives, you can take action so that your employees feel more listened to and supported.

Want help with your surveys? Get in touch to discover how Workrowd can help you automate your survey sending and analysis.

Quality of life

Never underestimate the impact someone’s personal life can have on their ability to perform in their role.

For example, Timpsons CEO James Timpson regularly checks in with all employees, even the ones who work in different parts of the UK. He’s based in London but has stores across the country. This can sometimes mean a whole day of travel just to get from London to Newcastle.

The travel doesn’t deter him. He visits stores then asks employees—regardless of rank—how he can improve their quality of life. 

He has a £1 million budget per year which often goes specifically towards things like new teeth for employees.

The National Health Service’s dentistry is impossibly stretched right now, meaning it’s harder than ever to get affordable dental care. 

Timpson knows the difference teeth can make not just on someone’s confidence, but on their quality of life, too. 

After all, if your teeth hurt, you’re less likely to be able to eat well and look after yourself. Which means you can’t perform your best at work. If they’re really bad, they may even hurt when you’re not eating.

While dentistry may sound trivial and unrelated to work, it builds employee loyalty and happiness. It’s a pretty genius move on the part of companies with strong cultures if you ask me.

Upskilling and reskilling

Many of our jobs risk becoming obsolete or changing completely thanks to the rise of AI and shifting business landscape. One way to protect and support your employees through the new industrial revolution is by offering them upskilling and reskilling opportunities.

This could mean learning skills related to what they already do, or exploring topics in a completely different department. It all depends on what’s happening with their role and where they want to go with their career.

The more options you provide employees, and the more you listen to their suggestions, the safer and more secure they’ll feel working for your business.

And the more internal knowledge you get to retain, even if someone’s original job becomes obsolete. Retaining that internal knowledge alone could save you a lot of money, as it does for other companies with strong cultures.

Work-life balance

Do you expect employees to respond to messages outside of working hours? Or do you actively discourage them from doing so?

For many of us, we now default to responding to messages as soon as they arrive, even if it’s outside of working hours and we’re hanging out with loved ones or trying to disconnect for the weekend. We don’t question if there’s another way to do things.

But there is. 

And it starts with leaders setting an example: encouraging employees to use their lunch breaks to get away from their desks, to use their weekends to recharge, and to spend time doing things that make them happy. Work-life balance is often a core component at companies with strong cultures.

Conclusion

Companies with strong cultures revolve around supporting employees to be their best selves, at work and outside of it. 

When employees feel comfortable in their minds and bodies—and have an employer who can help them navigate the ever-changing world of work—they can perform their best, creating a stronger company culture and enabling you to make more money.

Want to ensure your organization is included when companies with strong cultures come to mind? Workrowd has the tools you need to succeed.

With a central hub for connection, culture, and career progression, you can give every team member more of what they want, without the stress. Visit us online to see how we can support you in achieving your company culture goals, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to schedule some time to chat.

7 things companies with strong cultures prioritize that others don’t
Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results
6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion
Categories
Employee Experience

Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results

Does your employee value proposition matter?

Well, how would you like to see:

  • 20% more applicants for your open roles
  • 29% higher new hire commitment
  • 69% lower employee turnover?

With a well-crafted employee value proposition, your business could experience all these benefits and more.

It’s a valuable part of your recruitment and retention toolkits, helping attract the right people and encouraging them to stay.

What is an employee value proposition?

Your employee value proposition is what makes you attractive as an employer to current and prospective employees.

What value you do offer them if they choose to give you their time and energy? What’s unique about your business?

Money is a part of it, of course. But what about the company culture? Training opportunities? Healthcare? Community?

It’s about so much more than ping pong tables and fancy coffee makers. Those things can’t plaster over a company culture that diminishes employees’ self-confidence or where managers take credit for their ideas. And we all know that happens far too often.

What’s the difference between employee value proposition and employer brand?

Your employee value proposition explains to team members what they can expect from you as an employer.

On the other hand, your employer brand is your external reputation.

So your employer brand is the wrapping around your employee value proposition, if you will. It’s what people see, while your employee value proposition is what employees experience.

Which means, if you’re not careful, there can be a disconnect between the two.

That’s why understanding what matters to your employees, tapping into that, and communicating it consistently both internally and externally, is so important.

How to design your employee value proposition

So, how do you design your employee value proposition to drive success for your team and your business? Let’s take a look:

Ask employees want they want

The only way you’ll find out what employees really want is to ask them. What matters to them? What’s the least important?

Maybe they want more flexible working options, better training opportunities, or closer links between departments.

Regularly sending employee feedback surveys can help you collect this data so that you stay on top of employees’ wants and needs.

And with Workrowd’s help, you can even automate the survey sending and analysis so you can just focus on the results.

Not only will surveys go out without you having to lift a finger, but employee feedback will be automatically processed and visualized in your easy-to-read dashboards.

Which makes it easier and quicker than ever to digest the results and drive impact through your business’s employee value proposition.

Provide development opportunities

People want to learn. It’s the main reason employees leave their roles.

And with the rise of AI, offering your employees upskilling and reskilling opportunities provides them with the peace of mind that even if their job does become obsolete, they don’t become obsolete.

It also shows that you value them as an employee.

So, what development opportunities can you offer?

Is it changing roles, if they’re better suited to a different department—or want a change of pace?

Is it further training, such as to expand their technical knowledge? 

A way to explore a peripheral skill, such as a software engineer studying copywriting?

There are endless ways to support employees’ growth, and by association, their mental and physical health when development is part of your employee value proposition.

Create community

Connection is a huge part of what makes us human. As we get older, it can be harder to find it. Work is often one of the places where we can make new friends as adults. As a result, it can play a key role in our mental health.

Enabling employees to feel like they belong in the workplace, that they’re appreciated, and can be their authentic selves makes a huge difference in how employees feel about their working lives.

The workplace goes from being somewhere they go to pay the bills to somewhere they want to spend their time.

Provided they can actually be authentic, not “authentic.” Too often, businesses claim to want a diverse workforce, but when underrepresented talent joins, they find they’re not as supported as they could be. So then how can they be their authentic selves?

Authenticity has been an overused term in HR and marketing for years, but its true value seems to have been drowned out.

One way to avoid this issue and foster a real sense of community and belonging in your workplace is with employee groups.

These employee-led initiatives enable team members to meet like-minded employees, and offer everything from networking opportunities, to learning and development initiatives, to new friendships.

If you want to get more from your employee groups, book your free Workrowd demo today. Setting these communities up to thrive can do wonders for your employee value proposition.

Give employees meaning and purpose at work

Never underestimate the power of working toward shared goals. The University of Toronto found that employees will accept lower salaries if they find what they do meaningful.

When we do something that’s tied to our values, we work harder because we feel like we’re making a difference. We’re doing something that’s important to us.

This collective meaning can also be a driver of customer sales.

For example, Rare Beauty’s goal isn’t just to sell beauty products. It also aims to raise $100 million for the Rare Impact Fund, which supports global access to mental health services and education.

This differentiates it from the hundreds of other celebrity-owned beauty brands out there.

It’s also a core pillar of their employee value proposition. As an employer, it helps them attract candidates who are interested in both beauty and mental health.

Conclusion

Your employee value proposition is unique to your business. It can drive recruitment and retention in either a positive or negative direction.

Listening to employees and making them feel like they’re a part of something is key to ensuring the effect is positive. 

By following these tips, you can build a world-class employee value proposition and make employees happy to work for you—meaning they’ll be their most productive selves and you’ll get the most out of them in the short- and long-term.

Ready to elevate your employee value proposition to get the results you want for your business? Workrowd’s tools can set you up for success.

With a one-stop shop for marketing, managing, and measuring all your employee programs, groups, and events, you can maximize your ROI. Employees get everything they need in one place, and you get automated analytics tracking the impact of your efforts across the organization.

Want to learn more? Visit us online or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to discuss ways we could partner to optimize your employee value proposition.

7 things companies with strong cultures prioritize that others don’t
Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results
6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion
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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion

As the saying goes: what gets measured, gets managed. So if you want your programs to make a real impact, measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion is key.

How often do you assess internal attitudes around DEI? Should you regularly check in with your employees about your initiatives?

Well…

Companies that think they’ve solved all their DEI problems are the most likely to actually have DEI problems.

Why?

Complacency.

Complacency has consequences in every area of a business. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are no different.

DEI requires conscious effort from everyone in an organization to be a success. 

Things like your recruitment process, how managers communicate with their employees, and what employees say when they think their managers aren’t listening need monitoring so that standards remain high—and inclusive.

Unfortunately, almost a quarter of companies don’t bother measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion progress.

And only a fifth of global organizations measure the business impact of their DEI initiatives. Despite how much data is already out there about the benefits of diversity in almost every area, from company finances to employee mental health.

So, how do you go about measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion in your organization?

Check in as a business regularly

How diverse are your departments? How many women, people of color, or people with disabilities are managers? Where can you improve?

While there can be backlash around quotas, they do work. They help combat the desire to hire people like ourselves that leads to groupthink.

Instead, we’re challenged to see things differently and embrace people from all walks of life.

In one study, when quotas were instituted to hire more women, it helped exclude incompetent men.

Everything has pros and cons. Quotas aren’t perfect, but they can be a good starting point when you want to improve how you’re measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Look at your hiring and retention rates

How long do new hires stay? Do candidates drop off during the hiring process?

Over 75% of candidates value a diverse workplace. So could your lack of diversity be turning candidates off as they’re applying and interviewing?

Your hiring and retention rates can tell you a lot about your business—and how candidates, employees, and even customers perceive you.

If employees don’t stick around for very long, or some departments have higher turnover than others, it’s a sign that something is wrong and needs to be addressed right away.

Measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion at every point within your hiring process can help expose areas that need more attention.

Send surveys—and collect anonymous data

It’s the comments employees make when they think management isn’t listening that really tell you what they think.

There’s no real way to monitor those—they can turn into a he said/she said/they said if someone reports it—but anonymized surveys can help.

You can ask employees how they feel and what they’ve heard/witnessed/experienced. Even if they don’t want to officially report things that have happened, this is still important information to have.

Allowing employees to respond anonymously gives them a feeling of safety and removes the fear of reprisals. It can then open the door to more honest conversations between HR teams about what’s really happening internally and how to improve it.

Workrowd can help you send employee surveys and examine the results so that you can take action sooner. Our tools are especially useful when it comes to measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Look at the setup of your ERGs

What ERGs do you have? Who runs them?

Your ERGs will tell you what types of employees work within your business and potentially highlight gaps.

For example, do you have an LGBTQ+ or Pride group? Does the lack of one suggest that you don’t have many LGBTQ+ employees, or that they don’t feel comfortable being themselves at work?

What about one for women of color in the workplace? Employees with invisible illnesses?

The more diverse your ERGs are, the more it reflects an open, honest, welcoming company culture. And the more their data can support your efforts around measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion.

But don’t get complacent! 

These groups need to be active, too. 

If they rarely or never hold events or conversations, it still requires some investigating to find out what isn’t working.

Perhaps you need a new tool, like Workrowd, to help you manage your ERGs. It can help with everything from daily updates, to document sharing, to networking.

Want to find out more? Book your free demo today.

Track workshop attendees

How many people attend your DEI workshops? And how many attendees actually engage with the material?

In a previous role, I went to a diversity workshop and many of the participants made sarcastic or stereotypical comments.

It was pretty obvious they were there as a box-ticking exercise and didn’t understand why diversity matters. I couldn’t help but feel like they didn’t actually learn anything from it, and they were going to laugh about it after. There was little sense of empathy or understanding.

It wasn’t a bad workshop, but employees need to engage with the materials for them to make a difference in the workplace. And if they don’t, you need to work out where the root of the problem is.

There are lots of reasons people don’t engage with diversity practices, despite the many benefits it brings to businesses. The sooner you spot these issues, the sooner you can tackle them.

And the sooner you can start seeing better outcomes across your work on measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion

Consider the qualitative stuff, too

Measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion is about so much more than putting numbers on it.

It’s about your employees’ attitudes, internally and externally.

Do they collaborate well with each other? Within teams and interdepartmentally?

Do they make negative comments when someone who’s neurodivergent doesn’t understand a task? When someone who’s LGBTQ+ walks by?

The small things that are often hard to measure are your real indicators of DEI success.

They tell you about the inner workings of your employees’ minds and if they’re really on board with your DEI initiatives.

You’ll never achieve true diversity, equity, and inclusion success until they are.

Conclusion

Measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion is about so much more than numbers on a spreadsheet. It’s about the things you can’t measure, too: the stories employees tell themselves and each other. That’s where you’ll find the real information on your DEI efforts and whether they’re working.

If you’re ready to level up on measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion, Workrowd has the tools you need. With ERG management features, automated feedback surveys, and real-time analytics dashboards, you’ll always know exactly how your DEI efforts are performing.

Want to see how our all-in-one platform can make measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion a breeze? Write us at hello@workrowd.com to set up some time to chat.

7 things companies with strong cultures prioritize that others don’t
Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results
6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion
Categories
Employee Retention

Boomerang employees: what are they and why you want them

Four out of ten employees who left their jobs during the pandemic regret leaving. Almost 20% of those individuals have since returned to their previous employers as boomerang employees.

Something made those employees want to leave, but something also made them come back—like a boomerang.

Many employees who return get an increase in pay and responsibility. Which suggests that businesses value them enough to attract them back and retain them. 

Or that employees left in the first place because they weren’t being given the responsibilities or remuneration that they deserved.

In fact, the average pay raise for boomerang employees is 25% more than their salary before they left. Those who stay get an average pay increase of just 4% over the same time period.

As well as the huge difference in income, 40% of returning employees become managers.

Offering these things is a way to lure that internal knowledge back into the fold. It also means you spend less time and money on training and onboarding because boomerang employees already know so much about your business.

What are boomerang employees?

Think of a boomerang: you throw it, it comes back. If you throw it right, anyway.

Boomerang employees get their name from this concept: they leave, then they come back weeks, months, or even years later.

Boomerang employees could be seasonal workers who return each year or apply for a full-time role after their seasonal stint.

They could also be employees who left voluntarily or because their contracts ended.

What makes an employee leave and come back?

Sometimes, when an employee leaves for a new role, they may find the grass isn’t so green after all. The benefits package, pay, progression opportunities, culture, or commute may not be what they’d hoped for.

If they left voluntarily, it could have been because of caregiving responsibilities or health issues. It could be that they were unable to work for you, or they found an opportunity elsewhere.

Most boomerang employees return within 13 months of leaving, with three quarters returning by 16 months. This suggests that after the one-year mark is a common time for employees to return.

What are the benefits of boomerang employees?

Rehiring previous employees comes with risks. For example, there’s the chance they may be researching how you do things for a competitor.

It’s unlikely this is the reason for their return. However, it is worth discussing with them why they want to come back so that they’re more likely to stay the second time around.

There are lots of positives businesses that rehire previous employees can enjoy. So let’s take a look at the benefits of boomerang employees:

Save money on training and onboarding

Boomerang employees already know about your organization, so you don’t have to spend as much time and money teaching them about your product or service and how your business works.

You still need to make sure they’re caught up with everything that changed while they were away, though.

And make sure to support them with their training needs. Lack of training opportunities is one of the main reasons employees leave. So if you want to keep them longer this time, training (or even re-skilling) is key to retention.

New ideas

A change of scenery, no matter how short, can be a good way to change how we see the world. It can help generate new ideas that can benefit your business.

If an employee worked for a different industry or competitor while they were away, they’ll bring back a different approach to problem solving and can help you spot gaps in your strategies.

New connections

Connections are key, particularly in departments like sales. Boomerang employees can bring new opportunities and potential customers along with them when they return.

Just be sure to keep that employee happy. You don’t want your new customers leaving because they’re more loyal to the employee than to you!

How to support boomerang employees

Now that you’ve got your employees back, you want to retain them. So how do you do that?

Regular check-ins

The only way to know what an employee really thinks and feels is to ask them. This should come in multiple forms, including one-on-one meetings and written feedback, such as employee surveys.

With one-on-ones, you can have frank, qualitative conversations with employees about their roles and what works and doesn’t work for them.

Employee surveys can fill in any gaps. They also allow employees the chance to provide feedback anonymously, which can make team members who have issues with colleagues or managers feel more comfortable.

Something it’s also important to address is why they left. Otherwise, if things truly haven’t changed, they may only stay for a short time. For instance, to tide them over until a better-paid opportunity comes along.

Act on feedback

There’s no point asking for feedback if nothing changes. So ensure that once you’ve collected all that information, you look into what can be done differently and how best you can support your employees. 

This could be in the form of changing an employee’s working hours, conflict resolution if colleagues don’t get along, further training, workplace adjustments, or something else.

Conclusion

Boomerang employees can have many benefits in the workplace.

To ensure they’re truly happy and stick around, be sure to have open conversations about why they left and address any issues that they have/had.

If you’re ready to attract more boomerang employees and keep them around for the long-term, you need the right tools. Workrowd empowers you to deliver a delightful, personalized experience to every employee.

With a central hub for everything employee engagement, and real-time data collection and analytics for you, you can give your boomerang employees more of what they want without the stress.

Ready to learn more? Visit us online or write us at hello@workrowd.com to schedule a call.

7 things companies with strong cultures prioritize that others don’t
Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results
6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion
Categories
Employee Engagement

7 tactics to supercharge your workplace engagement activities

Globally, fewer than a quarter of employees are actively engaged. And I can’t help but feel that number could get worse as employees worry about their jobs due to the rise of AI and automation. Workplace engagement activities offer a way to counter the forces of disengagement.

Almost two-thirds of employees today opt to quiet quit and do the bare minimum. Businesses need to consider how to reengage these employees before they lose them and spend thousands per role replacing valuable internal knowledge.

In a recent interview, James Timpson, CEO of British company Timpson Group, explained the importance of valuing and supporting employees.

In his first role, he found that “bosses were the sales prevention team,” and that “so many people work really really hard and no one ever says thank you to them.”

How do you ensure you’re not the type of boss who’s on the sales prevention team? And show some gratitude to your hard-working employees so that they want to show up to work?

These simple things improve employee engagement and make people more likely to perform at their best. Helping you make more money through better customer service and higher retention.

So, let’s explore some tactics to ensure your workplace engagement activities make a real difference for your team.

Be Values-Driven

All too often, employees believe that the higher-ups don’t care about them.

There can also be the belief from leaders that employees at the bottom of the ladder are the most easily replaceable.

But even employees who get paid the least have valuable skills and company knowledge that’s expensive—and time-consuming—to replace.

Every role requires different skills. Supporting all employees, regardless of their rank, speaks volumes about your company values and how you operate your business.

For example, Timpson has a budget of £1 million per year to spend on things that improve employees’ quality of life. One of the most common things that money gets spent on? New teeth.

It sounds like a small thing, but it’s a huge expense that many employees can’t afford. Even though it can make a huge difference to their confidence.

This kind of support builds loyalty to a business and shows that you notice—and care about—the little things for everyone. Adhering strongly to your values will ensure your workplace engagement activities can drive maximum results.

Send a survey

Surveys are a great way to get insights into your workforce and what they need from you.

When you send them regularly, using a tool like Workrowd that can automate the process, it shows your employees that you’re serious about listening to, and implementing, their feedback.

You can get real-time insights into how your workplace engagement activities are impacting your workforce. That way, you always know what’s working, and where you can improve.

Celebrate

How often do you celebrate employee achievements and milestones?

It doesn’t have to be a massive celebration. Sometimes a simple “thank you” can go a long way.

Other times, you may want to treat everyone to lunch (virtually or in person), give them an extra day off for their birthday, or reward them for having worked for you for so long.

Whatever you do, just remember that there’s no downside to showing gratitude and recognizing employees. Workplace engagement activities that focus on celebrating achievements can help reinforce your company culture.

Create ERGs

Employee groups are a great way for team members to meet like-minded colleagues.

They can reduce the isolation that comes from remote work and connect a global workforce. What’s more, they can be key drivers of workplace engagement activities for your organization.

Meeting people with similar interests or goals helps employees feel like they belong in the workplace, something which is increasingly important in our digitally-focused world.

Want more from your ERGs? Get in touch to find out how we can help you supercharge your employee groups.

Be inclusive

Inclusion is one of those words that always seems trendy but is so rarely understood, a bit like “authenticity.”

You can give the illusion of these things—particularly in job descriptions—but that doesn’t mean that when someone joins your business they actually feel included.

Being truly inclusive means holding ongoing DEI training and ensuring everyone actively works to support others in being their authentic selves. 

They can only be authentic when they feel psychologically safe in the workplace, and that starts with management.

Managers must set examples by being open—and maybe even vulnerable—so that employees know it’s okay to be that way, too.

When your organization is truly inclusive, you’ll find that your workplace engagement activities can deliver real impact.

Be transparent

When someone is transparent with us, we’re more likely to trust them.

If we know they’ve lied in the past, that trust may never recover. Ask any politician.

Transparent businesses have employees who are more open and honest, too. Employees know where they’re at and what they’re working toward.

This trust builds loyalty and means employees will want to stick around because they’ll feel invested in the business, and like the business is invested in them.

It can make your workplace engagement activities feel more genuine and less forced, and ensure people want to participate in them.

Offer training

93% of millennials and Gen Z employees expect businesses to offer training opportunities. Almost half of employees would change jobs because of the training opportunities provided.

As technology changes, reskilling will become imperative for millions of people to stay in work.

Just because someone’s job becomes obsolete, that doesn’t mean their internal knowledge isn’t still valuable. 

If you have a particularly complicated product or service, retaining that internal knowledge is more important than ever because training new hires costs so much and takes so long.

Training doesn’t just have to be about adapting to the changing workplace, though. 

Some people just love to learn (I’m one of them), so having regular lunch and learns or scheduled study time helps stimulate new connections in their brains and can make them more creative.

Did you know some of the most successful scientists also write poetry?

Ada Lovelace, widely thought of as the world’s first computer programmer, was the daughter of poet Lord Byron—and a poet in her own right. (She and her father are also buried in my hometown!)

As Ada put it, “There is no great invention without a great imagination.” She was right 200 years ago, and she’s still right now.

Most people assume arts and science are on opposite ends of the spectrum, but the most powerful creative and scientific work stems from an understanding of both.

So why not encourage those connections in your workplace? Leveraging your workplace engagement activities to help employees build new skills is key to attracting and retaining top talent.

Conclusion

Creating more engaged employees starts by making them feel supported in the workplace. And that starts by listening to them. 

What do they need from you?

And what can you do better? 

Once you know, you can then design workplace engagement activities that cater directly to your team’s wants and needs.

Want to maximize your ROI when it comes to workplace engagement activities? Workrowd’s platform is your all-in-one solution.

With tools to help you market, manage, and measure your workplace engagement activities, you can delight every employee without the stress.

Ready to learn more? Visit us online or reach out directly at hello@workrowd.com.

7 things companies with strong cultures prioritize that others don’t
Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results
6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion
Categories
Employee Experience

Employee happiness is a key metric for organizations: here’s why

Where does employee happiness rank on your organization’s list of priorities? If it’s not near the top, it may be time to rethink your approach.

Having a job you hate is worse for your mental health than being unemployed, found Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, 2023. It can impact employees’ home lives, and even their relationships.

Enjoying work makes such a big difference that over a third of employees would give up $5,000 per year in salary in exchange for feeling happier at work.

With so many employees feeling unsatisfied, improving employee satisfaction could help you retain your top talent and even save money.

So let’s take a deeper dive into employee happiness and why it matters.

Why does employee happiness matter?

Increased productivity

When employees are happy at work, they’re 12% more productive. That 12% can add up quickly to you staying at the front of the pack and being able to grow faster as a company.

More sales

How does a 37% increase in sales sound? Well, that’s the difference happy salespeople can make to your business.

It can also help you outperform your competition by up to a fifth.

Greater employee satisfaction 

Engaged employees are less stressed, according to Gallup.

Employee happiness and satisfaction can impact the reviews you get on sites like Glassdoor, what employees say about you to their network, and your employer brand. This then has a ripple effect on the types of candidates and customers you attract.

Fewer sick days

Businesses lose $1 trillion per year in productivity because of employee mental health challenges. And a third of employees say that work negatively impacts their physical health, too.

On the flip side, happy employees take 10 times fewer sick days.

When we don’t want to be somewhere, it has a dramatic impact on our moods. Mental health conditions like depression and anxiety get worse. 

And there’s a follow-on effect to physical health, including the exacerbation of chronic conditions like back pain. It can even reduce the effectiveness of our immune systems, making us more likely to get sick.

Improved retention

Hiring and training new employees gets expensive fast. It reduces how much time and money you have to spend elsewhere. And the more senior the employee gets, the more expensive and time-consuming it is to replace them.

On the other hand, if you boost employee happiness, people are less likely to leave, saving you money on hiring and training that you can spend elsewhere.

Ways to improve employee happiness

Boost your benefits package

Just 42% of employees feel happy with their employer’s benefits and rewards package. This shows a huge disconnect between what employees want and what businesses are providing.

Is it time to send a survey asking your team what you could do better?

Gather feedback

Poor management has a huge impact on customers, profits, and employee happiness. 

Managers have a significant impact on the atmosphere at work. Do they create somewhere employees feel supported and valued?

Or do they take credit for employees’ ideas and make them dread starting the workday?

It’s important that employees can share with HR how they feel about their manager and colleagues. It’s only through their ability to do so that things can change for the better.

Encourage workplace friendships

When employees have close workplace friendships, it boosts their job satisfaction by 50%. Spending time with people we enjoy has huge benefits for our mental health, so this should come as no surprise.

If you want to encourage your employees to connect, why not set up ERGs? Or find a better way to manage them and get more from them? Book your free Workrowd demo today to discover how we can help you do just that.

Build a diverse company

Diverse businesses perform better and have greater employee happiness.

We all want to work somewhere we belong and feel psychologically safe. This is more likely to happen in a company that’s diverse, because it has a broader range of ideas and shows a willingness to listen to all of them. Meaning employees feel less isolated.

Support remote work

There’s been a mass return to the office over the last year or so. And it’s like we didn’t learn anything from the pandemic.

If you truly want to be an inclusive business, you need to support remote—or at the very least, hybrid—work.

There are some people who could be great at a role but are unable to fulfill it because they can’t afford to travel, are a primary caregiver, or have a disability.

One of the reasons I left a full-time, office-based role was because the hour-long commute, on top of being in a bright, noisy office environment, made my chronic pain and fatigue worse. The more I forced myself to conform to the norm, the more the doctor signed me off sick because I was in so much pain. And no amount of sleep, diet, or exercise could fix me when the problem was job-related.

Did that mean I couldn’t do the job? No. It just meant it wasn’t the right work environment for me.

Provide job security

In unpredictable times, offering employees job security means they have one less thing on their minds.

Being unsure whether you have a job next week creates a huge amount of stress for an employee and will reduce their productivity. They may also wonder why they should bother putting effort in at all if they may be let go soon.

One of my friends told me the other day that she knew of someone who had told his employees they didn’t have a job as of Monday. On Saturday afternoon, at closing time. They didn’t open on Sundays.

This level of unpredictability is unfair to employees and doesn’t allow them any time to plan.

Where possible, be open about the organization’s financial stability. It’s another important factor in employee happiness.

Sharing information shows you’re committed to transparency and want to foster an open work environment.

Offer opportunities for employees to use their skills

Every employee has a different set of skills that can benefit your business. For example, you may have someone in finance who’s a great speaker. Why not make the most of that ability?

Perhaps they could speak at industry events, or share what it’s like to work for your business in a video.

They get to stretch their abilities, improving employee happiness, and you get the boost to your employer brand.

How to monitor employee happiness

So how do you measure employee happiness? Simple: ask your team!

Using Workrowd, you can send automated surveys to check in with your employees and see how they’re doing.

You can ask what they like or dislike about their role, and what you could do better as a business to support them.

You can also connect employees via more organized employee groups.

Does this sound like something that would be useful at your organization? Get in touch today to book your free demo at hello@workrowd.com.

7 things companies with strong cultures prioritize that others don’t
Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results
6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion
Categories
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

How to manage sensitive employees in your organization – 6 tips

According to a 2018 research paper, 31% of people are highly sensitive. That’s a big enough portion of the population that you need to know how to manage sensitive employees.

Famous sensitive people include Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln, Frida Kahlo, and Mozart.

If you don’t know how to manage sensitive employees, it can lead to burnout. Or your sensitive employees might just leave altogether because they feel unsupported.

What makes someone sensitive?

Sensitive people are those of us who respond to physical, mental, or emotional stimuli more strongly than an average person. It’s often perceived as a negative trait, but it comes with huge positives.

For example, a sensitive person may experience emotions more deeply – but this means they can better empathize with others. Many creatives are sensitive and that’s why their songs, poems, and art create strong reactions in others.

Sensitive people can be great at sales because they can quickly build a rapport with prospects and show an understanding of the person’s problem.

This empathy and understanding also makes them great leaders, because they listen to, and take on, other people’s feelings.

Other symptoms of high sensitivity include a lower pain tolerance (including finding fabric itchy); perfectionism; jumpiness; being easily affected by other people’s moods, and a greater attention to detail.

For a complete list of symptoms, check out this sensitivity list from the Highly Sensitive Refuge. Someone doesn’t have to experience all the symptoms to be a sensitive person.

While being sensitive has many benefits, and great thinkers and inventors throughout time were sensitive, it comes with challenges.

So here are some steps that can help with how to manage sensitive employees.

Give them control over their workspace

When an employee can control their own space, and work on their own terms, you’ll get the best out of them whether they’re sensitive or not.

Forcing them to work in a cold office with bright fluorescent lights at a time when they’re half-awake means you’ll have unhappy and unproductive employees. Being inflexible can really take a toll when it comes to how to manage sensitive employees.

If they need to be in the office, perhaps you could compromise and allow them to work remotely a couple of days per week.

They could come in earlier or stay later so that they can work when it’s quieter.

At my previous job, I started an hour before most of the people on my floor. It was magical how quiet it was. 

I loved that time because it felt like I could think more clearly without the constant background noise that comes with an open-plan office.

Use open communication

Sensitive people often don’t want to ask for what they need for fear of upsetting others. So instead, they suffer themselves.

This is why open communication is so important.

Periodically, ask employees if there’s anything they need to do their job better.

It might be that their chair is uncomfortable, or they want to work from a different desk. 

Small things like this can help you get more—and better quality—work from your employees.

Not only that, but establishing a culture of open communication is key to efforts around how to manage sensitive employees. It makes people feel calmer and more supported, further helping them perform at their best.

And encouraging them to stay for longer.

To make sure you don’t forget to ask employees what they need, why not turn on automated surveys? Better yet—automate the data analysis, too.

Get in touch to find out how Workrowd can help you do just that.

Allow for regular breaks

Regular breaks should be acceptable in any workplace, in my opinion. No one can work for four hours straight, have an hour for lunch, then work for four more hours. Not a single person has concentration skills that good.

Not to mention how often we get interrupted by colleagues walking past, emails coming in, Slack or Teams messages, social media…then how hard it is to focus again after all those disruptions.

Regular breaks, particularly in busy or noisy spaces, allow employees to reset.

This then means they can come back to their desks recharged and better able to concentrate.

Breaks also help us return to a problem with a clearer head, making it easier to find a solution we missed before from spending too long working on something.

Giving them the space to take a breather when needed can be a big help when it comes to how to manage sensitive employees.

Reduce visual clutter

Sometimes, to fill a space, there’s the temptation to turn a wall into an art gallery or add lots of inspiring quotes or bright colors or patterns.

This visual clutter is mentally stimulating, but in busy environments it can quickly become overwhelming. This is an especially key consideration when thinking about how to manage sensitive employees.

You obviously don’t want team members to fall asleep, but the office should be a calm place to be, not one that’s going to leave people so distracted they can’t concentrate on their roles.

Consider things like:

  • Adding some plants (fake ones if you can’t keep real ones alive, but real ones can work well as air purifiers. Avoid ones with lots of flowers so that you don’t trigger hay fever sufferers)
  • Using neutral/natural colors like white, cream, or light green. Blues and greens are the most calming colors
  • Resisting the temptation to put tons of inspirational quotes on the walls
  • Getting rid of glaring fluorescent lighting. Anything is better than that
  • Providing screen protectors to reduce the glare on monitors for anyone working near bright lights or windows

Offer employees noise-cancelling headphones

Background noise can be irritating to some people but not others.

For instance, as I write this, I can hear:

  • The air purifier humming
  • The fridge/freezer buzzing
  • Cars driving past
  • The dog breathing

And each one of those sounds distracts me.

Some days those noises don’t bother me, but right now I need to go find my noise-cancelling headphones so that I can focus.

Providing noise-cancelling headphones is an effective way to up your game on how to manage sensitive employees. They block out external stimuli and send a clear signal to colleagues that a person doesn’t want to be disturbed.

Set up an ERG

ERGs are great places for employees to meet like-minded people.

It gives them somewhere they belong at work, further providing sensitive employees with the support they need to perform in the workplace.

Need help organizing yours? We’ve got you! Get in touch to book your free demo.

Conclusion

Sensitive employees bring a unique set of skills that every workplace can benefit from. 

To get the most out of these employees, it’s important to encourage them to ask for what they need, and provide them with time, space, and equipment. This recipe ensures they’re happy in their roles and more productive as a result.

If you’re wondering how to manage sensitive employees and want some help, Workrowd has your back. Our all-in-one suite of tools makes it easy to give sensitive employees everything they need to engage at their own pace.

Plus, with automated surveys and real-time analytics, you always know what’s working and where you could step things up a bit.

Ready to learn more? Drop by our site or reach out to us at hello@workrowd.com.

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Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results
6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion
Categories
Learning & Development

5 reasons career progression is key to retention and engagement

According to Gartner, only 45% of employees believe their employer sees them as a person. It should come as no surprise then, that investing in employees’ career progression is key to both retention and engagement.

Why? Because it shows them that you do, in fact, see them as human.

And when 82% of people want career progression, if you don’t deliver, you risk losing your star players.

Investing in your employees shows them you appreciate that they spend their time to earn you money. And you repay their effort by investing in them. This reciprocal relationship is key to employee engagement.

Let’s dig into some of the reasons why offering career progression is so important.

Employees leave because they’re bored

Employees want training. In fact, a lack of career development was the top reason employees left jobs between April 2021 and April 2022.

Yet 70% of current employees feel they’ll have to leave their roles to advance their careers.

The more employees who leave, the more it’ll cost you to hire and train replacements. And the more company knowledge you’ll lose due to the lack of career progression.

On the flip side, 94% of employees will stay with a company that invests in their career.

Retraining is cheaper than hiring

Replacing a trained employee costs a whopping 200% of their annual salary. 

Then there’s the onboarding time, and the time it takes new hires to reach full productivity. That’s a lot of time and money you lose because you didn’t invest in career progression for your current employees.

That money could go towards providing even more advanced training opportunities, opening in new markets, expanding your team, advertising more intensively, or just about anything else.

Employees want to become leaders

Millennial employees are your future leaders. Some might already be in leadership positions at your organization. So it’s no wonder that 60% of millennials want leadership training.

But if 60% want leadership training, it suggests that they’re not getting enough. Or worse—that they’re being put into leadership positions without getting any.

It’s great that they have the company and industry know-how to move up in your business, but leading a team is very different from being knowledge-focused. It requires skills that many of us were never taught in formal education.

To get the most out of leaders and their employees, leadership training is vital.

Bringing in external trainers can give team members an opportunity to get a fresh perspective. Which enables them to avoid groupthink and prevents bad habits.

It can also provide existing leaders with a refresher, helping them support their employees in the ways they need now—not how they needed five years ago.

With 48% of leaders wanting to learn from assignments or external coaches, it shows that they have a strong desire to keep learning. 

Offering them the chance to grow helps to retain them, as well as their team members. 

It ensures their knowledge is up-to-date, they can expand it further, and they get to apply what they’ve learned for their direct reports. Which then sets them up for career progression, too.

Employees want flexible learning

Self-paced learning is a powerful tool that enables employees to learn around their lives.

Over half (58%) of employees want to learn at their own pace. This allows them the opportunity to work towards career progression without sacrificing their personal time or affecting their daily work activities.

E-learning is a powerful tool in the self-paced learning arsenal. It’s so powerful that it increases retention rates by 60%.

68% of employees would rather learn at work. Which makes sense given that what they’re learning will primarily benefit their career.

Giving employees a window during the work week when they can focus on self-development shows you understand how important career progression is not just to them, but to your organization and its future success.

It also helps break up the week, which can provide employees the vital break they need to approach problems they may have with a clear head—and find solutions.

Employees want to have a purpose

Employees want to feel like they have a purpose at work. Like they’re working toward a shared goal alongside their colleagues and employer.

They want something more than just working for a paycheck. A job can be so much more than that.

Employees need access to career progression opportunities to encourage them to develop their skills, and purpose to ensure that they want to.

Employees need to keep up

In our fast-paced, ever-changing world, if we aren’t learning, we’re going backward.

Which means employees need to be actively developing new skills and expanding their knowledge to be able to keep up in the world, and to help your business do the same.

As fear over AI coming for our jobs increases, businesses need to have open communication lines with employees, educating them on what AI in the workplace means for them and their roles, and how to adopt it as a friend, not a foe.

AI can be a great tool for career progression, but only when employees are empowered to use it safely and correctly.

Employees who feel like they’re progressing are more likely to stay

Ultimately, when employees feel like they’re progressing in their role, they’re more likely to choose to stay with your organization.

They have no reason to leave when they feel supported in their position and like they have a future there.

Even more so when you reassure them about their future at your company by offering appropriate training (or re-training) options.

Offering career progression opportunities, even if employees don’t take you up on them, helps them feel like they’re working toward a greater purpose and like they’re appreciated by their employer, not just seen as an easily replaceable cog.

Conclusion

Providing employees with career progression opportunities should be a key part of any retention strategy. It shows you support them, ensures the role stays interesting for them, and helps them keep up with the ever-changing world.

Ready to maximize the impact of your career progression initiatives? Workrowd makes it easy.

With all your employee groups, programs, events, and information in one place, everyone can easily find the career progression resources that are right for them. Plus, real-time analytics ensure you always know what’s working and what’s not.

To learn more and explore how Workrowd can empower you to take career progression to the next level at your organization, visit us online or reach out to us at hello@workrowd.com.

7 things companies with strong cultures prioritize that others don’t
Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results
6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion
Categories
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

7 ways to up your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion

62% of workers believe a company’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is important to its ability to drive success.

And they just might be on to something—businesses in the top quartile for gender diversity are 25% more likely to financially outperform their peers, and those with high ethnic diversity are 36% more likely to outperform competitors financially.

This makes sense when you consider that inclusive teams are more than 35% more productive and make better decisions 87% of the time.

The more diverse a team is, the less likely that team—and therefore that business—is to fall into groupthink.

Stepping up your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion opens you up to a wider range of ideas. The more suggestions you have, the more likely you are to find the best one.

So, what are some ways you can boost your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion this year?

Brush up on your law

The laws around your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion are regularly changing.

It’s therefore important that you’re aware of what’s recently changed in your country’s laws, or any future potential updates.

Also monitor the law in countries where you operate, as even countries as close as England, Scotland, and Wales can have different laws.

Hold regular unconscious bias training (for everyone)

Even when we’ve done unconscious bias training before, we still need refreshers.

It’s too easy to fall back into old patterns, or pick up bad ones, when we don’t actively work on creating an inclusive workforce and checking our own unconscious biases. 

And with everything going on at work, it can be easy for bias to creep in.

When managers regularly attend unconscious bias training—without complaining or rolling their eyes—it sets an example for the rest of the team and for other managers. It shows that they take this seriously because they understand the positive impact it can have not just on the business, but on employees’ lives.

Ask employees what matters to them

The best way to support a diverse workforce is to ask your employees what’s important to them.

If your diversity, equity, and inclusion statement doesn’t hit the right notes, if employees feel like you say one thing but do another, it will create a disconnect between you and your workforce. They’re less likely to trust you, and as a result, less likely to stay.

On the other hand, if they feel listened to and valued, they’re more likely to stick around long-term.

So make sure that when it comes to creating an inclusive workplace, you ask employees what matters to them, how you can support them, and what you could do better. 

It’s through this continuous improvement that you’ll cultivate the happiest, most engaged, most hard-working team.

Showing your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion by asking about and meeting a wide range of employee needs is important.

Update your DEI policy

When was the last time someone updated your DEI policy? Have the laws changed since then?

As with any workplace policy, it’s important to evaluate it regularly. This ensures it stays relevant to both you and employees.

It also ensures you adapt it to any future laws that may involve new protected characteristics. For example, the Scottish government recently updated their hate crime laws.

Being aware of these laws—particularly if you have a global workforce—ensures your policies benefit everyone.

Your DEI policy can also inform your business strategy, keeping decisions on track.

In the policy, make sure to explain why DEI matters to your business, and include definitions for different protected characteristics. You could even mention how you support each of those characteristics.

Also mention where you want to go next. What’s the goal of your DEI policy? For your business, your employees, your customers, and even the world?

The next time you update your DEI policy, you can reflect on how far you’ve come and what direction you plan to go in next. It will help reinforce your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Hire a chief diversity officer

HR pros are busy. Sometimes, things can get lost or missed. It’s no one’s fault, but they can still impact your diversity efforts.

A chief diversity officer’s job is to spot ways you can make your workplace more diverse and support diverse employees. So then the rest of the HR team can focus on other areas of the business.

When you have a specific role dedicated to diversity, it shows employees and candidates that you’re serious about diversity being a priority in your business. In other words, your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion isn’t just talk.

This means you’ll attract a more diverse pool of candidates. Existing employees, meanwhile, will feel more visible and listened to within the workplace.

Don’t copy and paste diversity statements (especially in job ads)

Is it just me, or is every job ad starting to look the same?

I’ve spoken to several people recently and we’re increasingly noticing that pretty much every LinkedIn job ad now looks identical.

From what the job entails, to the skills required, to the diversity statement at the end.

I get it. It’s tempting to use AI. AI has many benefits.

But when every diversity statement reads the same, it comes across like you’ve only put it there to cover your business legally and that your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion isn’t genuine.

So instead of attracting people from diverse backgrounds, you miss out on underrepresented candidates because it reads like what matters to you the most is getting things done quickly and cheaply. Even if those attempts are half-baked and sound exactly like everyone else.

Connect your employees with ERGs

Employee resource groups are powerful tools to help improve employees’ senses of inclusion and belonging in the workplace.

They’re the perfect place for people to meet colleagues with similar backgrounds, interests, and goals to them even across a remote workforce. 

The more an employee feels like they belong, the more likely they are to stay and be engaged at work. As a result, they’ll be more productive and earn you more money.

If you’re not sure where to start with ERGs, or want to get more out of yours, get in touch to book your free Workrowd demo.

Conclusion

The more diverse your business is, the more future-proof it will be.

Employees want to work for businesses with a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion because they understand how much it benefits the workplace and their employee experience.

So take these tips as a starting point to improving your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in 2024. And most importantly, remember that building diverse teams is a journey, not a destination.

Are you ready to take your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion to a new level this year? Workrowd can help. Our all-in-one suite of tools makes it easy to launch, manage, and track DEI initiatives while giving everyone on your team easy access to the parts of your employee experience they like best.

Ready to learn more and see how our platform could accelerate DEI progress across your workplace? Send us an email at hello@workrowd.com to set up some time to chat, or simply drop by our site for more info.

7 things companies with strong cultures prioritize that others don’t
Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results
6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion
Categories
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

Employee engagement ideas for a multigenerational workforce

Nearly 90% of global businesses believe a multigenerational workforce plays a valuable role in growth and success.

Yet just 6% of employees strongly agree that their leaders can effectively lead a multigenerational team. Yikes.

It’s estimated that around 30% of 65- to 74-year-olds will still be working by 2026. As the number of workers over 65 increases, businesses need to do more to get the most out of every generation.

Embracing a multigenerational workforce and encouraging cooperation means you’ll get greater diversity of thought, leading to more creative thinking.

In fact, 87% of US workers feel multigenerational workplaces experience increased innovation and problem solving.

More creative thinking helps you stand out from your competitors to both customers and job seekers. They’ll be intrigued by your innovations and want to support them.

When it comes to hiring, you’ll attract candidates who want to work for creative, forward-thinking, diverse businesses. Further increasing your diversity efforts.

How today’s multigenerational workforce breaks down

Roughly speaking, the generations look like this:

  • Silent Generation (sometimes called Traditionalists): born 1925-1945.
  • Baby Boomers: born 1946-1964
  • Generation X: born 1965-1980
  • Millennials (Generation Y): born 1981-1996
  • Generation Z: born 1996-2012
  • Gen Alpha: born 2013-present

Obviously, members of Gen Alpha are too young to work right now, but it won’t be long. I’m a Millennial and it feels like only yesterday that Gen Z-ers entered the workplace.

Each generation makes up the following percentage of the global workforce:

  • Silent Generation: 2%
  • Baby Boomers: 25%
  • Gen X: 33%
  • Millennials/Gen Y: 35%
  • Gen Z: 5%

Different generations want different things from their working lives. For instance, Millennials want purpose and growth from their work, while Baby Boomers want security.

Your workplace benefits, therefore, need to have a wide appeal to support a multigenerational workforce. A lot of it comes down to company culture and what you prioritize as a business.

So, how do you maximize employee engagement for a multigenerational workforce? Let’s take a look:

Be flexible around working styles

Every person is different, and each generation grew up in a totally different world. As a result, they all have different requirements and expectations.

To get the most out of someone, managers need to actively ask employees what they need.

For some, this will be flexible start and finish times to pick children or grandchildren up from school.

For others in a multigenerational workforce, it may mean working remotely to manage health issues.

Avoid assumptions about each generation

When you make assumptions about someone, these pre-conceived notions can affect how you talk to them and have a detrimental impact on your working relationship. This is especially true in a multigenerational workforce.

For instance, if you see older workers as slow to learn, you may give them less to do, causing them to get bored and frustrated.

Or if you see a younger generation as entitled, you may not provide them with the praise they deserve simply because you want to bring their ego down a peg or two. Which can then impact their performance because they may not feel like their hard work is appreciated.

These assumptions are often subconscious. And why training programs in diversity and soft skills are so important. 

Training programs help everyone to not make assumptions about the people in front of them based on their characteristics, leading to better collaborations and happier employees.

Encourage connections

Whether it’s through mentoring or employee groups, encouraging employees to connect is good for not just their workplace productivity, but their overall wellbeing, too.

Older generations can teach their younger counterparts a plethora of skills that can help them in their current role and beyond. It’s a perfect workplace mentoring opportunity.

The more that different generations interact in a multigenerational workforce, the more they can learn from each other. They may learn how to adapt their communication styles based on who they’re interacting with or the type of meeting they’re in, for example.

If you’d like help connecting your multigenerational workforce, get in touch to discover how Workrowd could help boost your employee engagement.

Train communication skills

Communication skills are too often taken for granted. But there are lots of different communication styles and we must adapt ours to fit our audience. This ensures we get the most out of the interaction and don’t offend or upset anyone.

Given that 81% of workers feel the most significant difference between generations at work is their communication styles, and 38% find it hard to communicate with coworkers from other age groups, training around communication styles could be the key to a team’s success.

According to a study by AARP, 60% of workers feel the presence of generational conflict. 70% of older employees dismiss the skills of younger employees, while 50% of younger colleagues dismiss what an older employee can do.

I’ve dealt with this myself. Someone hired me to consult on a marketing project but constantly questioned my judgment. I was made to feel like my opinions and experience weren’t valid no matter how much data I provided to prove my points.

This is why teaching everyone how to improve their communication style is so important. We all have traps we can fall into; ones we don’t even notice. Sometimes all it takes is a training program to refresh our memory and improve interactions across a multigenerational workforce.

Conclusion

As the workforce evolves and increasingly includes multiple generations, businesses will have to find more and more ways to cater to generational differences. This generational diversity comes with huge benefits, too, such as different perspectives on projects and problems.

It starts by embracing and accepting each different age group. Learning their strengths, their areas for improvement, and how they fit best into your diverse, multigenerational workforce. This will ensure they have the best employee experience, and as a result, you’ll get improved employee satisfaction and engagement.

Ready to boost outcomes across your multigenerational workforce? Workrowd’s all-in-one suite of tools can help. By building connections across age groups and enabling you to track everything via real-time analytics, you can deliver a top-notch employee experience for all ages.

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

7 things companies with strong cultures prioritize that others don’t
Designing an employee value proposition that gets real results
6 best practices for measuring diversity, equity, and inclusion