Categories
Employee Engagement

Employee clubs should be HR’s favorite tool – 8 reasons why

We all like to feel we’re a part of something. Employee clubs are a great way to build this experience of belonging for every team member at your organization.

Community is incredibly powerful. Studies have proven human connection is one of the key ingredients to a longer, happier life. On the flip side, loneliness can shorten one’s lifespan and exacerbate chronic illnesses.

There’s no reason why someone’s job can’t give them a sense of belonging or contribute to their sense of community. This sadly isn’t always the case, though. 

Many businesses don’t feel the need to set up or encourage any sort of employee clubs or groups. They also don’t encourage employee socialization or connection. 

This may be because of financial reasons, not understanding the benefits, or not feeling it contributes enough to the bottom line to be worth the extra effort.

But employee clubs can be an easy way to encourage colleagues to connect with one another, leading to many benefits. 

Here are some of the reasons why employee clubs should be one of HR’s favorite tools:

Improved retention

When someone feels like they belong at work, they’re more likely to stay long-term. 

Employee clubs are a great way for people to connect with colleagues who share their interests or backgrounds and whom they may not have met otherwise, especially in a larger organization.

The slower your employee turnover, the more money you’ll save on the often lengthy and expensive hiring process. That gives you more money to spend on other areas of HR and the rest of the business.

Better employee mental health

Community and belonging play huge roles in someone’s mental health. This is true both in terms of helping them if they’re feeling isolated, lonely, or anxious, and when it comes to protecting their mental wellbeing.

An employee may not always feel like they can talk to their teammates, or their teammates may not understand their situation. If there are employee clubs where people can share experiences, it can connect them with someone who gets what they’re going through and can listen and offer advice if desired.

Fewer sick days

As I mentioned in the introduction, community is good for both our physical and mental health. 

Community can be a motivational tool which encourages us to get up and moving. This prevents our joints from seizing up and causing issues like back pain. Back pain is actually one of the biggest reasons for sick leave in the US.

As physical and emotional pain are processed in the same part of the brain, the amygdala, the suppression of emotions can lead to chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia or migraines. This is also why one of the symptoms of depression is random aches and pains.

When someone has people who understand them and are willing to listen, they’re less likely to bottle up their issues. As a result, it’s less likely to manifest in their body as chronic pain.

Develop the right mindset

Connecting with people to whom you relate, but who may be at a more advanced stage of their career, can really help someone to grow their mindset. 

Mindsets are contagious. If you’re hanging around pessimists all the time, chances are you’re going to adopt a more negative outlook, too. 

The same is true if you hang around people who are uplifting, optimistic, and hardworking. 

If someone is a chronic complainer, connecting them to a mindfulness club, or someone who’s got a brighter outlook, could be all they need to see the world from a different angle.

Grow their skills

Every employee has a unique set of skills just waiting to be shared with other people within your business. Employee clubs allow them to show off their skills.

If someone is feeling bored in their role, employee clubs could help them develop new skills. These could then allow them to move into another department. That way you don’t lose their existing business knowledge. Plus, you won’t need to hire someone new, train them in the role, and teach them about your business, a process which can take several months at a minimum.

Better interdepartmental connections

Some departments traditionally have fractured or non-existent relationships, like accounting and marketing. 

When employees connect with others who are outside of their department, it can lead to better interdepartmental connections and collaborations. It can abolish any previous tensions that may have existed between the two teams. 

This benefits everything from problem solving to product launches, leading to better teamwork and a greater sense of community within your business as a whole, as well as in the individual employee clubs.

More attractive to candidates

While money is always a big factor when someone is job hunting, it’s no longer the biggest one. Senses of purpose and belonging matter just as much, if not more.

Sharing details of the employee clubs that exist can be a real selling point to people who are looking not just for a place to work, but for a place to create connections and develop their skills.

You could do this on social media, in the job description, or even in marketing emails. 

It helps if any social media content is shared by employees from their account, rather than from a branded page. Employees have a much larger reach and are seen as more trustworthy than what is often a faceless brand.

Greater productivity

Who doesn’t love productive employees?

When someone feels a greater sense of belonging, they’re happier in their role, and they’re therefore more productive, too. 

This reflects well on all areas of the business, and of course, generates more income. 

You can therefore grow faster thanks to the additional revenue from having more productive employees and a lower churn rate.

Conclusion 

Employee clubs can benefit every area of a business, from attraction to retention to employee productivity and experience. Setting them up and keeping them running doesn’t have to be a complicated process, either. 

Workrowd’s lightweight platform makes it easy to market, manage, and measure all your employee clubs. From professional development to social impact, and from recreation to diversity and inclusion, our suite of tools empowers you to meet a wide range of employee needs.

If you’re curious to learn more and see if Workrowd is a fit for your organization, send a note to hello@workrowd.com. We’d love to learn more about your goals and discuss ways to increase engagement, retention, and belonging with employee clubs.

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Categories
Employee Engagement

Improving employee engagement – the tools to use hour by hour

There are a lot of HR tech products out there. Many of them promise increased engagement, greater connection, and a wealth of other benefits. But what does improving employee engagement actually look like during a typical workday?

Meet Mia. She’s a hard-working mom of two intent on doing it all. She’s been working from home these past couple of years thanks to the pandemic, and she’s just now starting to go into the office a couple of days per week.

Mia’s’s always been pretty social, despite her introverted tendencies, and the transition to remote hit her harder than she expected. Luckily, her company was ready with tools to keep her connected, engaged, and thriving.

Let’s see how Workrowd makes improving employee engagement easy for Mia’s employer, as we follow her on a typical day in the life.

A day in the life with Workrowd

8:15am

The kids are off to school, the laundry’s already in the dryer, and Mia’s feeling good about the day ahead. She grabs a cup of coffee and settles in at her desk. 

Before she starts work, it’s time for her moment of mindfulness, thanks to the company’s meditation group. 

Mia pulls up Workrowd in her browser and checks out the mindfulness prompt for today. She starts to practice the breathing exercises she learned recently to quiet her mind. 

She’s up to fifteen minutes of meditation per day now, from five. The benefits to her concentration and mental health are really starting to come through. All the techniques she’s learned have also proven helpful when the kids are testing her patience!

If she hadn’t had the chance to check out the group on Workrowd first, without having to commit to anything, she never would’ve gotten into mindfulness. Now, she’s not sure how she could function without it. 

9:30am

Now that her email inbox is (somewhat) under control and she’s put out a couple of fires, it’s time for her first meeting of the day. It’s to discuss a new cross-departmental project, which can be tricky when you’re working with new colleagues. 

Luckily, she already knows a couple of the people involved thanks to the company Toastmasters group. Having bonded over their fear of public speaking, collaboration is going to be a lot easier. 

Mia had wanted to try Toastmasters for years. So, when she saw the company group on Workrowd the day she started, she clicked the ‘Join’ button immediately. (Even though she was already anxious just thinking about her first speech!) Her confidence and speaking skills have improved quite a bit, and she’s enjoying the challenge. Presenting in meetings is much less stressful now, too!

11:00am

They changed the time of the All Hands this week, but Workrowd sent her a notification, meaning there was no confusion over when it was actually happening. 

Because of the new time, Mia has to leave the All Hands early to join a previously scheduled call. Workrowd has her covered, though. The recording will be posted and easy to find, along with the slides and any comments from the team. She’s going to check it all out tomorrow morning when she has a few spare minutes.

12:30pm

As the sponsor of the Managers-in-Training program, Mia’s put together a lunch and learn.

Workrowd enabled her to notify and share readings with all the participants in advance. She used to have to manually update the program’s mailing list to keep everyone in the loop, but now the platform takes care of membership.

Plus, everyone knew where to find the materials alongside the event information, so they were all prepared when they arrived. It’s a big help to have so much of the admin work off of her plate. Now she can focus her energy on running a great program that delivers results.

Workrowd doesn’t just help employers with improving employee engagement; it also empowers employee leaders to drive culture and engagement from the ground up. Today’s lunch and learn discussion yielded some great insights.

1:30pm

As the lunch and learn discussion wraps up, Mia remembers that she needs to update her group’s budget and download a reimbursement form for some supplies she purchased for a recent training session. 

Having everything in one place on Workrowd is super convenient. 

She updates her budget with the new information so leadership can easily see how much she spent and compare it against their key performance indicators. Mia is proud that the Managers-in-Training program is operating under budget while exceeding their goals. 

After she grabs the reimbursement form from the Tools section of the leaders’ group, she signs and submits it. Job done!

2:00-4:00pm

Time for some deep, focused work. 

Because Workrowd organizes all of Mia’s notifications about the company’s employee groups, programs, and events in one place, she’s not getting random pings about fitness classes or happy hours while she’s trying to concentrate. 

That doesn’t mean she’s going to miss out, though. She can catch up on what’s happening on her own time, instead of getting interrupted every time something is posted.

4:00pm

After some deep work, Mia opens Workrowd to change her response for this evening’s company volunteer shift. Originally, she’d RSVPed for three people since it was just going to be her and the kids. Luckily though, her partner’s business dinner was cancelled, so now there will be four of them. 

Thanks to the comprehensive event details on Workrowd, she knew it was okay to add an additional person this close to the start time.

7:00pm

The whole family had a great time at the volunteer event, and really felt like they were able to make a difference. Now, everyone’s hungry but they can’t decide where to grab a bite. 

Mia remembers that there was a discussion thread about family-friendly restaurants in the Resources section of the caregivers’ ERG. She quickly pulls up Workrowd to check out what her colleagues recommended. 

They find a great place and while they’re driving there, Mia takes two minutes to fill out the five-question feedback survey about the volunteer event. 

She knows the group leader and the HR team will really love hearing about how much fun the family had. The automated analytics make it much easier for them to see how groups, programs, and events are impacting her and her colleagues in real time. 

Mia greatly prefers this bite-size version to the flood of requests to complete those endless employee engagement surveys once or twice a year.

10:00pm

Time to start winding down. Mia climbs into bed and dives back into the current book for the company book club. It’s a real page-turner! 

It’s so good that she drops a note in the book club chat on Workrowd, sharing how much she’s enjoying the story. Hopefully it’ll encourage anyone considering skipping this month to give it a chance. She’s so glad she has such a great work community.

Conclusion 

Mia’s story isn’t uncommon. Companies everywhere are enjoying the benefits of improving employee engagement with Workrowd.

The wide array of employee experience tools out there can be overwhelming. If you’re currently exploring options for improving employee engagement, let’s talk.

We’d love to learn more about any challenges you’re facing with your current approach to improving employee engagement, and discuss some ways our one-stop suite of tools can help.

Improving employee engagement doesn’t have to be hard. With Workrowd’s customizable, user-friendly platform, you can automate processes, reduce admin time, and keep every team member engaged and thriving.

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Categories
Hybrid/Remote

Engaging remote employees – 10 dos and don’ts

Engaging remote employees requires a different mindset than engaging office-based employees. 

When someone is fully remote by choice, they may want different things from their working life than people who were forced into remote work by the pandemic.

It’s therefore important that businesses find helpful, creative, and effective ways of engaging remote employees, to ensure that they can do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

Do trust them

For any remote employee to work successfully, they need to feel trusted. If they feel like you’re constantly haranguing them, or you’re trying to micromanage their workload, it’s going to cause them to disconnect and become less productive and communicative. It will have the opposite effect that you’d hoped for.

If someone isn’t working as effectively as you’d like, or you’ve noticed a change in them, ask them what’s wrong. It may be that they’re having personal issues that are impacting their ability to work, but they don’t feel able to talk about it.

Don’t treat them like they’re in an office

Working remotely isn’t even close to being the same as working in an office. It changes everything from someone’s daily routine, to the noises around them, to their concentration levels. You therefore can’t take the same approach when engaging remote employees.

For instance, if you’re organizing a meeting, you need to be aware of video call fatigue. It’s a lot harder to stay engaged for hours when you’re staring at a camera and have nothing else to look at. Compare this to being in a meeting room where there are people, a whiteboard, a window, door, table, laptop, etc. This inevitably changes the experience of the meeting. 

You want to keep sessions short and avoid too many unnecessary tangents. This is especially true for employees who have to attend a lot of meetings.

Do communicate

If someone walked up to your desk in person, you wouldn’t listen to what they had to say then go back to work without responding. Make sure you don’t do that in a remote environment, either. If someone messages you with a question, it’s always best to respond when you can, especially if they need your help with something.

Communication is a key part of having a trusting workplace. Employees need to know what’s going on in the business, just as much as they would in an office-based role. 

Make sure you listen to remote employees’ views, even if it doesn’t change the outcome. Taking the time to do this will make them feel valued. It may even win their buy-in without you having to do anything extra.

Do offer communication options

There are more ways to communicate than ever, but it’s important to remember that how you communicate can and does make a difference to someone’s ability to do their job. Some people prefer voice calls over messages, others like to read things, some are fine with video. 

As well as personal preference, some people process information better or differently depending on how it’s delivered. For example, in most cases, I prefer to read information over digesting it in video format. When reading, I can process it at my own pace, not based around how fast someone speaks.

Don’t micromanage

I mentioned this in the first point, but I want to circle back to it because it’s one of the worst things you can do. By all means, track what employees are doing in a Kanban board, to-do list, or other tracking method that works for you. Set deadlines and encourage employees to stick to them.

But don’t dictate how they spend every working moment. It’s not up to you to prioritize someone’s tasks. Micromanaging is almost never your best bet, but it’s especially problematic when it comes to engaging remote employees.

Don’t exclude them from events

Just because someone works remotely, that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t still enjoy some face-time occasionally. 

This may not be for everyone, but there are plenty of ways to adapt things like the holiday party to suit everyone. Whether that’s by having parties across several locations if you’re a global company, or hosting online events like quizzes, a magician, or games, there are lots of ways of engaging remote employees.

Do give them the right equipment

For someone to work efficiently, they need the right equipment. There’s no point expecting someone to program if they have a laptop from 2005. They need the latest tech that enables them to do things more efficiently.

Other things, like monitors, desks, and chairs can make a huge difference to someone’s ability to do their job, too. Are they sitting too close to their monitor? Can their feet touch the ground in their chair? Is their keyboard or mouse hurting them when they use it? These are small things that can dramatically influence everything from someone’s concentration to their pain levels.

When it comes to software, sometimes free or open source products are all you need to do a job effectively. And sometimes, trying to save a few dollars overcomplicates the job and means it takes twice as long. Be mindful of this and listen to employees’ frustrations if they’re struggling with something.

Don’t expect them to come into the office last minute

If you still have an office and expect employees to visit on occasion, make sure this is clear in the job description before they start. Hybrid working and remote working are very different things and require different working styles for success.

Also remember that if you want remote employees to visit last minute, they may need time to arrange things like child or pet care. 

Always respect their time and give them plenty of notice before asking them to come into the office. Respect is fundamental to engaging remote employees, or any employees, for that matter.

Do make support paths clear

Tech is a huge part of a remote role, but sometimes things go wrong. Employees need to know who they can contact for IT issues since they don’t have an onsite IT team like they would when working in an office.

Don’t expect them to communicate if you don’t

Like it or not, employees will follow your example. So, if you’re not communicating with them, it’s unlikely that they’re going to communicate with you. 

Communication is a two-way street that requires effort and commitment from all parties involved.

Conclusion 

Engaging remote workers is a new thing for many businesses to have to do. That doesn’t mean it has to be complicated or challenging, though. Sometimes it’s really about common sense and considering how you’d like to be treated, what would make your life easier, and remembering that everyone requires different things. Being able to meet this diversity of needs is one of the strengths of remote working.

Another way of meeting diverse needs and engaging remote employees is by bringing all of your employee groups, programs, and events together in one place on Workrowd. Remote, hybrid, and in-office employees alike will be able to quickly see all of the great employee experience initiatives you offer and get involved, no matter where or when they work.

What’s more, you’ll be able to easily track how your programming is impacting employee engagement. Drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more, or visit our site. We’d love to explore ways to support you in engaging remote employees.

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Categories
Wellness

6 best practices to keep your team from getting burnt out at work

Feeling burnt out at work is becoming all too common. Many of us who’ve experienced it have even gone through it more than once.

When you look into who’s most likely to get burnt out at work, it’s actually not surprising.

When someone is happy to work 9-5, or whatever their hours may be, they can finish their shift or close their laptop and be done for the day, disconnecting to spend time on other projects or hobbies.

Those of us who love what we do are more likely to wind up burnt out at work. That’s because we’re more likely to work longer hours and struggle to leave work at the end of the day. This means we work harder and push ourselves harder, forgetting to pace ourselves and factor in time for self-care.

People are also more likely to get burnt out at work when we’re neurodivergent or part of another underrepresented group. We have to constantly try to adapt to how the world works—which is usually not in our favor.

Masking, or covering, where someone tries to hide or tone down one or more of their identities, is also incredibly draining. It’s something a lot of people feel they have to do to be successful. Masking and covering take a lot of mental energy to sustain, too.

So, what can you, as an employer, do to prevent employees from feeling burnt out at work?

Here are a few starting points:

Set realistic deadlines

If an employee tells you something will take a month to do, don’t give them two weeks. 

This creates additional pressure, especially if they’re a people pleaser. That additional pressure is subconsciously (or maybe consciously) draining. They’ll end up with less energy to work on the project because they’re so busy worrying.

Sure, they may meet the unrealistic deadline, but is the damage to their physical and/or mental health really worth it?

Offer flexible working

You know something that really didn’t help when I was becoming burnt out at work? Forcing myself to get up early.

I’m just not a morning person. When I do get up early, I like to take things slowly.

Businesses that don’t offer flexible working are increasingly missing out on talent, as it’s now one of the deciding factors for many people when they’re looking for a new job.

Flexible working has many benefits, from allowing employees to work while caring for children, to helping them better manage their health conditions.

If someone is getting burnt out at work, allowing them that extra hour in bed instead of commuting into work can make a bigger difference than you may think. While sleep won’t solve everything, it will restore their energy. Spending time on crowded public transport or waiting in traffic will have the opposite effect.

Encourage hobbies outside of work

Part of enjoying what you do can mean studying it outside of work hours. For instance, staying up on the latest trends, learning a new programming language or social media app, etc.

However, it’s important that we all disconnect from work sometimes. Having hobbies unrelated to work can help with this.

You could encourage these by asking what people like to do and setting up channels or krowds for popular hobbies, like gardening, cooking, or even watching TV.

Set clear boundaries

Boundaries are really important when it comes to preventing people from becoming burnt out at work. Being unable to disconnect is part of the problem. If someone feels like they have to reply to that email or chat message from their boss, or they might lose their job, it doesn’t set healthy boundaries or show them respect.

I get needing to jot an idea down so that you don’t forget it. It’s something I do all the time. But instead of messaging outside of work hours, could you write it on a note-taking app? Or schedule the email to go out during work hours, so that you’re not disturbing someone’s disconnection time?

It’s rare that things are ever as urgent as we convince ourselves that they are. Most things can wait until morning.

Offer support

Can you offer discounted therapy through your employee perks program? Or a meditation app? Maybe another wellness-focused app?

There are lots of small ways that you can offer support. These include app partnerships and discounts or sharing your own story so those experiencing something similar feel less alone.

It’s also important that managers are open to listening. They need to understand how important mental health is and pay attention when their team members tell them they’re struggling, their workload is unattainable, or maybe something is happening in their personal life that’s making things particularly challenging for them.

Be patient

Burnout—and the period as someone is creeping up the hill, unaware they’re about to fall off a cliff—can happen without us noticing. It also changes how someone thinks, feels, and works.

So, if you notice a change in how someone works, rather than feeling annoyed with them, be patient with them.

Instead of jumping to conclusions, ask what’s wrong. They may not have noticed that what’s happening in their personal life is affecting their work life.

Conclusion 

Burnout is a serious health problem, and it’s on employers to prevent it from happening to their employees. Setting unrealistic deadlines, disrespecting—or not setting—boundaries, and expecting work to be someone’s life are all negative things employers can do that put their employees one step closer to getting burnt out at work.

It’s up to employers to set an example. You don’t have to make grand gestures. Simply drawing clear boundaries, being realistic with deadlines, and paying attention to what could be impacting employees’ wellness can all help to prevent employees from falling off the burnout cliff.

Another opportunity to protect your team against becoming burnt out at work is to ensure they have strong connections with colleagues. Workrowd can help by making it easy for people to tap into all your employee groups, programs, and events from day one. Supportive relationships can go a long way towards keeping employees engaged, well, and happy in their roles. Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Categories
Employee Experience

7 strategies to create a great employee journey at every step

Whether your organization is office-based, remote, or hybrid, the employee journey is everything. 

A positive employee journey will drive retention, boost productivity, and mean you make more money. Your workplace will also attract better quality candidates and be a more uplifting place to work. Who doesn’t want that?

However, when it comes to building a world-class employee journey, some businesses feel stuck. Can you really build an employee journey that delivers for all team members, no matter where or when they work?

Yes you can. The cornerstone of any effective employee journey is communication. With or without technology, that can happen in a range of ways, it doesn’t just have to be face-to-face.

In fact, let’s not forget that for some people, face-to-face communication is challenging. Digital may be more comfortable, or even aid in how they process the information.

With that in mind, let’s explore some tips to build a great employee journey both in-person and digitally:

Encourage connection

Regardless of how big your company is, or where it’s based, connection is pivotal to people feeling like they belong. Of course, it’s also pivotal to the business running smoothly. There’s nothing worse than one department saying one thing, and another department saying another to a client or contractor.

Connection is key to successful communication. When teams value what other departments do, they’re more likely to discuss things with them and value their input.

If it’s a competitive environment, this is much less likely to happen. That’s also where you end up with situations where the left side doesn’t know what the right side is doing. This leads to poor collaboration among teams and potentially even with customers.

In a situation where an employee already feels isolated, like remote working, a competitive or unhealthy environment can worsen it. People need to feel like they can talk to and connect with someone. Even if it’s just about what they watched on TV last night. Never underestimate the impact of those types of connections when it comes to someone’s mental and physical health.

Check-in regularly

Regular check-ins, whether they’re individual, in a group, written, or on a call, show employees that you really care about their wellbeing. 

You could also encourage employees to check in with each other, especially if someone has been quiet or acting out of character. 

The extent to which a simple “how are you?” can lead to someone opening up and feeling better may surprise you. It’s one of the simplest ways to improve the employee journey.

Keep chats engaged

Tools like Slack, Teams, and Workrowd are really important for a top-notch employee journey. They make people feel like a part of the team. So long as they’re not a ghost town. 

When these spaces are quiet, people may feel uncomfortable asking questions or getting involved in them. Try to post something regularly, even if it’s just a business update or asking a question in the general section.

Ask for feedback

You don’t know if what you’re doing is working until you ask someone. Your employees can give you crucial insights into what you’re doing and whether it’s the right thing for them and their colleagues. 

They may also have suggestions for how you can improve the employee journey.

Make space for both digital and in-person interactions

Some people are uncomfortable on camera, writing feedback, or discussing something over Slack. They’d prefer to do these things in an office, sitting next to someone. 

It’s time to get over that self-consciousness and treat digital interactions like you would when you’re talking to someone in the office. This will make you, and the person you’re talking to, feel more comfortable.

Many of these things get easier over time and with practice. 

You can improve giving written feedback by researching editing techniques. This is something that many people don’t realize they can and should do anyway. Giving feedback is an art and a science, just like many other things in life. Doing it well is also a key part of a great employee journey.

Support different departments and ranks

Even if someone is further down the career ladder, their messages shouldn’t be ignored or treated differently. 

In previous roles, I’ve had my messages ignored, even when they were urgent. I’m not sure if that was because of my rank or department, but it made it a lot harder to do my job. 

It also makes the person on the receiving end feel pretty terrible. If their colleagues are ignoring them, does that mean people don’t value them within the business? Are they bad at their job? Do their coworkers dislike them?

You really don’t want to be running a company where people feel that way. Not only does it come with wellbeing risks for the employee, but it will also lead to a higher churn rate for your business.

Have time to disconnect

Disconnection from work is just as important as building connections between colleagues. 

Not having to respond to emails or messages immediately can help employees get into a state of deep work. This can then make them more productive and mean what they produce is of a higher quality.

You could have a set time for everyone to disconnect, or allow people to choose their own time. What matters is that you know the importance of taking time away from the constant barrage of work notifications.

Conclusion 

A world-class employee journey is really about one thing: connection. The more connected someone feels to the rest of their team and others within the business, the happier they’re likely to be and the more work they’ll get done.

Technology now makes it easier for us to connect than ever. This means you have a wider pool of talent to choose from, can hire a more diverse workforce, and can reap all the benefits that those things provide.

The more you embrace taking steps to improve the employee journey, the more employees will follow your lead and do the same. They may even introduce you to new strategies, tools, and techniques you hadn’t considered before, but that would be the perfect fit for your business.

One tool that can support you in improving the employee journey is Workrowd. By connecting staff to the full array of your employee groups, programs, and events from day one, our user-friendly platform makes it easy for everyone to build a personalized employee journey they love.

Plus, with automated analytics, you always know where you stand and how you can make the employee journey even better. Drop us a line at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Categories
Company Culture

8 tips for building the best company culture for your team

Building the best company culture for your organization often requires big changes. This can be a real challenge, especially in older, more established, and larger companies. That doesn’t make it impossible, though.

Instead, what it requires is a lot of hard work, perseverance, and resilience. If you don’t have those things to start off with, changing company culture probably isn’t for you. 

If you really do want to build the best company culture for your organization though, read on…

Be honest with yourself

The first step to building the best company culture is the most uncomfortable one for any leader.

It’s time for some hard truths. What’s really not working for your company culture? Has it turned toxic? What are the signs?

Consider:

  • How is underrepresented talent treated in their own words?
  • Do you have a diverse workforce?
  • How productive are your employees?
  • How much time do they spend off sick?

These are some questions that can work as jumping-off points to learning more about your culture. The most positive working environments are diverse, welcoming, productive, and lose fewer days to illness.

Get feedback (from current and exiting employees)

Getting feedback on your company culture can be incredibly enlightening. It’s especially helpful to hear from departing employees who’ve been burned or who are just brutally honest.

Many employees may feel uncomfortable being as upfront as you need them to be. Therefore, it’s important to be clear that there won’t be repercussions if they are honest—and make sure there aren’t!

Also, make sure that, if you get feedback through a survey, it doesn’t go to someone’s line manager. It should go straight to you or HR.

If someone has issues with their line manager’s behavior, it’s a sign of a toxic culture. However, they won’t feel they can be honest about that behavior if they’re sending the feedback directly to their manager.

This weird system also creates more work for already busy line managers.

Explore what others are doing

Talking to other business owners and seeing what they’re doing to build the best company culture for themselves can give you insight into how to create the type of culture you really want. 

Many businesses with a positive culture are open about it and share information on how to replicate it. 

HubSpot is a great example. They talk about their company culture on their blog, social media, and even on podcast interviews.

Make a statement

To show people you’re really serious about building the best company culture, it’s important to make a statement. What do you feel is wrong? What needs to change?

Most importantly, how do you plan to change it?

This last question is the step that many miss. Or, they bring in some expensive consultant who doesn’t really do much other than eat into their budget.

Politicians often make promises during elections to win votes, but they really don’t intend to implement the things they’re promising. Then, those promises end up not happening and voters turn against them.

Don’t let that happen in your business—have a clear plan for what changes you want to make, how, and when. You’ll get far more respect from people inside, and outside, of the business if you have these steps in place before you make a statement.

Or, if you need to say something ASAP, you could make a statement about changing things and apologizing for toxicity in the workplace. Then, invite feedback to help you form your plan, which you can announce in a future statement. 

Create new guidelines

Having clear guidelines that map out your new approach shows everyone what’s expected of them going forward and gives them a reference point.

Making it as accessible as possible with lots of headings and short paragraphs is key. You could even create a quick summary video for those who process things in a more visual or auditory way.

Set an example

Saying you’ll do things is all very well and good, but it’s important that you set an example. You need to be the one to follow your new guidelines first and foremost. If you don’t follow them, why should anybody else?

Hire new employees based on the culture you want, not what you have

This is why having new guidelines and setting an example is so important. It will help hiring managers to see what your business goals are and how they can help drive them.

If you want the best company culture, you have to engage the people who can help you implement change. This may mean bringing in new managers, as they’ll have a bigger influence over employees’ daily activities.

Once they’re in place, you need employees who want to work in a positive environment and can help foster it. They’re going to be the ones dealing with your customers every day. This means they need to be the ones with the right mindset and approach for things to really improve. 

Learn from your mistakes

Far too many people are afraid to own up to their mistakes, let alone learn from them. And that can lead to the demise of any business.

When you own up to your mistakes, you come across as relatable. Only if you know what you did wrong, admit to it, and plan to change things going forward, though.

Shifting the blame, or hiding from accountability, is not learning from your mistakes. It’s unhealthy, unfair, and can negatively impact brand trust, internally and externally.

Conclusion 

Building the best company culture is a real challenge, but it’s an important part of modernizing a business. This is especially true for ones that may be more uncomfortable operating digitally, or that have developed a toxic work environment from hiring the wrong people for too long.

To change your business’s culture, it starts with finding out what the problem is. Speaking to your employees, particularly those who are paid the least or are part of an underrepresented group, will help you to see where the problems are and get suggestions on how to improve things.

Then, you can begin setting an example, detailing what you’d like to change and how you plan to change it.

Another important part of building the best company culture is creating a thriving ecosystem of employee groups, programs, and events, and putting them front and center for team members. Employees today want more than just a job, so make it easy for your people to access learning and development opportunities, social impact activities, affinity groups and clubs, and much more with Workrowd.

Our one-stop shop offers tools to get your culture on track, plus customizable, real-time analytics to keep it there. Drop by our site to learn more, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com. We’d love to connect.

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Categories
Wellness

9 ways to boost health and wellness in the workplace

Championing health and wellness in the workplace is key to attracting and retaining top talent. When your employees are healthy, physically and mentally, both your team and your business benefit. Employees are more productive, more engaged, and they’re less likely to call out sick.

There are some simple steps you can take to boost health and wellness in the workplace. Here are just a few of them:

Invest in a mindfulness/ meditation app

Many mindfulness/meditation apps have company plans where you can buy licenses in bulk for your employees to use.

Investing in an app like this shows employees you understand the benefits of mindfulness and meditation, and that you want to encourage them to take time out of their day to care for themselves.

Have open communication

Open communication is at the heart of any healthy relationship, and that includes working ones.

Supporting employees with open communication shows them you value their opinions and you’re not going to brush them off based on their position in the hierarchy.

Frustration is a common emotion many of us feel at work. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to express this instead of bottling it up. It’s much better for our physical and mental health and can prevent problems from getting worse.

Although it’s rarely thought of in this context, open communication is an important strategy for boosting health and wellness in the workplace.

Encourage exercise

I’ll be honest, I hate exercise. But I do it because I know it’s good for my mind and body.

If you have a fast-paced, stressful culture, encouraging employees to exercise can help them work off that stress. This way, they can think more clearly, make fewer mistakes, and get more done.

Exercise helps us to grow new neurons and bridge gaps between existing ones. This can improve conditions like anxiety, depression, and ADHD.

It can also reduce how much time employees take off for back pain. Chronic back pain is one of the main reasons millions of employees don’t make it into work each day. 8% of US adults experience back pain, with 83 million working days lost every year because of it. 

A regular yoga practice is a cheaper, longer-term way to solve this. It can provide greater pain relief than painkillers and reduce how much time employees take off sick.

Host regular expert talks

Regular talks from experts on health and wellness in the workplace can introduce employees to new ideas and experiences they may not have considered.

New studies in this area are emerging all the time. Bringing in industry experts to share what’s new can help your employees improve their fitness, nutrition, and even sleep quality.

While we all know things like exercise, nutrition, and sleep quality are important, many of us don’t understand why. Most of us aren’t taught these things in school!

Sometimes understanding why and how something affects us can be a motivating factor for embracing it. I started exercising regularly when I discovered the significant impact it could have on my brain’s short-term productivity and long-term health, for example.

Offer wellness days

Employees in the US really don’t get much paid time off compared to employees in the EU. 

Wellness days mean that if someone’s child is sick, or they’re sick themselves, or maybe they have a dentist appointment, they’re not wasting a vacation day for something that isn’t their fault.

Wellness days can also be good if you wake up one morning and just can’t face the world.

Make sure not to question too much about why someone needs a wellness day, though. If they’re feeling depressed, let them have the day and don’t try to be their therapist. Someone who’s depressed needs moral support and someone to listen. They don’t need a therapy session from someone without any formal training who’s trying to “help.”

Post reminders

How often do you post in Slack, Teams, or Workrowd about health and wellness in the workplace? Are you regularly sparking conversations around the topic?

Inviting conversation on these subjects shows employees it’s a priority for you.

Seeing others discuss health and wellness in the workplace also encourages employees to think about their own wellbeing. Even if they’re not an active part of the discussion, reading what others have to say could still have a positive influence on them.

Set up a wellbeing channel

Why not take things a step further and create a wellbeing channel or krowd? Everyone can share resources they’ve found useful and find new information they may not have considered before.

Seeing the discussions every day will act as a subtle reminder to do something for their own health and wellbeing. Even if that’s just checking to see what others have posted.

Offer volunteering opportunities

Allowing employees the opportunity to take a few days out of the working year to volunteer for a cause that’s important to them can improve their physical and mental health. It can also lower stress levels, improve mood, and even strengthen muscles.

92% of HR executives also believe that volunteering can improve employees’ leadership skills. In addition, it can offer a creative way to see who the next leaders within your business could be.

Set an example

In many companies, health and wellness in the workplace is just a fancy idea used to lure in new hires. So, it’s important for you to set an example.

Do you talk about your own journey? Do you talk about the things that affect you? Are you setting an example with your actions as well as your words?

There’s a difference between getting personal and getting private. You don’t have to tell your colleagues your life story, but sharing interesting articles, podcasts, or videos on relevant topics shows them it’s an area you really do care about.

The more you set an example, the more likely employees will be to follow your lead and prioritize health and wellness in the workplace.

Conclusion 

With so much going on in the world right now, it’s important we do what we can to look after health and wellness in the workplace.

Of course, we have to prioritize our own health and wellbeing, but employees should know their employer values theirs, too. When employees know that their employer values them and their health, they’re more likely to stay and refer their network for future roles in such a positive working environment.

If you’re ready to take health and wellness in the workplace to the next level for your team, check out Workrowd. Our one-stop shop makes it easy to market, manage, and measure your initiatives, from group exercise classes to mental health employee resource groups. Drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Categories
Employee Experience

Top tips to improve employee experience outcomes for your team

The employee experience plays a huge role in talent attraction and retention. As a result, many organizations are now looking to improve employee experience outcomes for their teams.

Unfortunately, many aspects of the employee experience are often forgotten or neglected. Even worse, in some companies, it looks one way from the outside when it’s actually something totally different on the inside.

Luckily, there are things you can do to improve employee experience outcomes for your team. Let’s take a look at them:

Be consistent

We all hate it when a person is nice to someone’s face, then horrible behind their back.

If you have a culture that looks positive to the outside world, but doesn’t look after its employees on the inside, you’re doing the business equivalent of that.

Your employee experience—and how you present it—should be consistent. And transparent.

If you have a fast-paced environment, that’s fine. But don’t lie to people and say that it’s all about playing foosball and drinking beers.

Many candidates are now savvy to this and will avoid businesses that hype up all their benefits. In reality, they know they’re just using them to hide their negative culture and attitudes. So not only will you lose current employees, but it’ll also cause you to lose future ones, too.

Saying one thing while you do another will quickly sink any efforts to improve employee experience outcomes.

Have a strong culture

Know what you stand for and build your culture around that. 

Are you all about failing fast? Do you like to keep things agile? Are you inclusive—actually inclusive, not “inclusive” to check a box?

All these things will reflect your culture internally and externally.

Make employees feel listened to

Sometimes people know that they don’t have the solution, or that their opinion won’t change anything. Ultimately, they just want to feel heard. 

It’s really important to allow employees to air their grievances even if you disagree with them. 

Don’t interrupt. Wait patiently. Let them get it out of their system, particularly if they’re annoyed or angry. Allow there to be silences. 

The employee in question may end up realizing their perspective is wrong. Or, more than likely, they’ll just vent and will end up feeling much calmer for doing so.

They’ll also think more highly of you for allowing them to be honest about how your company’s situation makes them feel without ignoring or interrupting them. This can greatly improve employee experience outcomes across the organization.

Value your team’s opinions

Too many executives make huge decisions without considering how it’ll affect people further down the hierarchy. These are the people who are dealing with your customers and handling much of the day-to-day running of your business. It’s important to recognize that they may well know more than you. 

And even if they don’t, they’re going to have a different—equally valuable—perspective. 

The more opinions and perspectives you consider, the more likely you are to come up with new solutions to problems. These crowd-sourced solutions will also help more people and be much more inclusive.

Communicate clearly

Employees are much more likely to respect you if you’re clear with them. Tell them what you expect and when. Don’t tiptoe around it. Just be upfront. There’s nothing worse than lying or deceiving someone, especially in the workplace.

If you don’t know what’s happening yet, or things are up in the air, be honest about that, too.

Despite what many of us may think, it’s okay not to have all the answers. It doesn’t make you a bad leader or a bad person; it makes you human, which makes you more relatable.

Let go of the need for shiny objects

This one is harder if you’re remote anyway, but too many companies, for too long, used shiny objects like ping pong tables and expensive laptops to attract new hires like bees to a flower.

You don’t need the shiniest objects or the latest tech to get people in. You need a strong culture and decent pay.

If you can’t afford the best MacBook Pro for someone to do their job, look for a cheaper equivalent. There are plenty of alternatives that won’t upset your accountant but still have the power a developer or a designer needs.

Many employees won’t even need something that fancy, particularly if most of what they do is email and text-based. That will then free up more budget to spend on the departments that do need extra processing power.

Gadgets are fun, but they can’t compete with more authentic efforts to improve employee experience outcomes.

Have a strong onboarding process

An onboarding process can make or break your new hire’s opinion of your business. If it’s weak or nonexistent, they’re going to grow frustrated. Some may even leave.

In fact, 30% of employees leave during their first six months in a role. One of the main reasons they do so is a poor or non-existent onboarding process.

If your onboarding is clear and structured, taking into account their role and respecting their time, they’re much more likely to stick around and speak highly of you to their network. 

And you never know how many new hires that could lead to. Referrals are one of the best ways to find high-quality talent, after all.

Be careful how you treat people

Have you heard the saying that you can tell a lot about a person based on how they treat a server at a restaurant?

The same is true for how they treat the cleaning staff, the interns, and anyone else at the bottom of the business hierarchy.

If you treat people differently because they’re in a “less important” role, you have the foundations for a negative employee experience that’s going to drive people away.

It doesn’t matter what someone does, where they grew up, where they live now, or anything else. They’re providing their time and energy in exchange for money, and that’s a privilege that should be treated as such. Your business couldn’t run without them. That’s why you grew, outsourced, and delegated, right?

Treat everyone with compassion and kindness, and they’ll return the favor to you and everyone else within your business. Cultivating respect at every level of the business is an incredibly effective way to improve employee experience results.

Conclusion 

Building a world-class employee experience isn’t about having the shiniest, most expensive toys. It’s about how you make your employees feel.

Do they feel valued? Are they listened to? Are they made to feel less than because they’re on the cleaning staff, and not a manager?

It’s a combination of small things that will create your employee experience. Never underestimate something as simple as a “hello” on someone’s first day, or a “thank you” on their last.

Culture starts at the top. Employees mimic what their team leaders do, and team leaders copy what they see executives do. How you approach everything from a sensitive conversation to a fun one will reflect you as a person and influence the culture of your business.

The more positively you approach your employees and the experience you want to create, the greater the advantage you’ll have over your competition.

Another great way to improve employee experience outcomes is to get all of the events, groups, and programs you offer team members under one roof. With everything in one place, it’s easy for everyone to take advantage of the full array of your employee experience efforts.

Plus, you’ll get automated, real-time analytics so you can be strategic about your work to improve employee experience results. Sound interesting? Visit us at workrowd.com or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Categories
Hybrid/Remote

6 ways to build inclusion when onboarding remote employees

Surveys show that 30% of new hires leave their jobs within the first six months. Providing a great new hire experience has only become more difficult now that many companies are onboarding remote employees. 

When team members leave shortly after starting, it’s stressful. It costs you money, and it means you have to repeat the hiring process when you’ve only just finished it.

On the flip side, the Brandon Hall Group found that a strong onboarding process can increase employee retention by 82%. Neither of these stats are numbers that should be ignored.

Many employees leave for one of two reasons: the company mis-sold itself, or their onboarding was terrible.

These two things can even be linked. A poor onboarding process can be a sign that a company that claimed to be forward-thinking and employee-first, really couldn’t care less about those things.

Onboarding remote employees can add an extra layer of complexity. This is especially true for older, larger, or more established companies. It requires a cultural shift, seeing technology as a friend, not the enemy.

That shift isn’t easy, but it’s crucial to attracting—and retaining—the best talent in your industry. As more and more people want to work remotely, you have to adapt to stay competitive.

Once you’ve got an effective onboarding process set up, employees will be happy to rave about you. They’ll spread the word that you’re a great employer that supports them to thrive, regardless of where they work from.

How do you get to that point, though? Especially when you’re doing it digitally?

Here are some best practices for onboarding remote employees in a way that ensures they feel included:

Make it engaging

You know what’s boring? Sitting on Zoom calls all day, listening to someone talk at you about their role, your role, or the business.

Nobody wants to hear you talk at them for their first week—or longer—at the company.

Sure, there are things they’ll need to know. But how can you deliver them in any easy-to-digest, engaging, and scalable way?

One option is to record a short video. This means you won’t need to repeat yourself over and over on multiple calls. It also means employees can listen in their own time, at their own pace, whether that’s 0.5x or 2x speed.

Then, once they’ve tuned in, you can schedule a call with them so that they can ask you any questions. 

That way, they know you’re open to questions, but you’re not just showing a slideshow that they have to pay attention to when they’ve already sat through six other calls that day. Using different formats when onboarding remote employees can help you meet the needs of diverse groups of new hires.

Encourage them to ask questions

Some companies really dislike it when employees ask questions. That, or they judge them for it.

This creates a fear of judgement, can trigger those who come from troubled backgrounds, and is not conducive to a productive and healthy working environment.

When employees feel able to ask questions—any questions, even seemingly stupid ones—they’ll grow and settle into their roles much faster. They’ll also feel more comfortable suggesting out-of-the-box ideas that are different from how you usually do things because they know their coworkers won’t judge them.

And when it comes to asking questions, they won’t feel the need to waste an hour researching something alone. They’ll be able to get a faster answer without worrying about looking stupid in front of their colleagues.

Have regular check-ins

Regular check-ins show employees they’re valued, even with your busy schedule. The higher up you are, the more important it is to at least check in and engage with new recruits. This could be via group chat, a social media post, an email, or even a quick video. 

Otherwise, you start to feel like a mythical god that nobody can touch. 

When you really let new hires talk to you and ask questions, and you ask them how they’re doing, too, it shows them that you really do care about them and their progression within the company. You’re doing your best to help them settle in.

It’s also important for their line manager to check in with them regularly. This should be one of the first people they go to when they have any questions. The earlier that open relationship is established, the better. Open and frequent communication is crucial when onboarding remote employees.

Create a schedule

When employees receive an itinerary of what to expect during their first days/weeks, it makes the business look organized. It also shows that they respect employees’ time. 

This schedule should be designed in a logical order, factoring in time for breaks and further reading. It should also allow for processing time in between each topic, and starting to help with the team’s workload.

Having a schedule like this ensures that if someone needs background or foundational knowledge before they learn about another area, they have it in advance and they’re not missing key details to help with their understanding. 

Don’t bombard them 

There’s bound to be a lot for them to learn, but be careful not to scare them off by throwing everything their way at once. 

Everyone learns at a different pace. You may need to adapt some things for different learning styles, or answer more questions from some employees than others.

Be patient with them, and show them some compassion. That was you once, too.

Make them feel like a part of the team 

There are lots of ways you can make someone feel like a bigger part of the team. Could you organize a call with them before they join, to welcome them to the team and get to know them? Could you send them a goody bag of branded merchandise?

When they join, could you post on LinkedIn, tagging your new team member? Have a quick call when they first start, before they do anything else, saying hello, answering any immediate questions, and officially welcoming them?

All these small things will add up to make them feel included. As is true throughout the employee experience, building belonging is important when onboarding remote employees.

Conclusion 

While onboarding remote employees can be more challenging than doing so in person, that doesn’t make it impossible. 

It’s all about supporting them in the same way you already support existing remote employees. 

Remaining accessible, and valuing their time and energy, will show them that you’re not an employer that reluctantly allows employees to work from home. You both encourage and support it, finding the best ways to make their working lives easier from their home offices.

You understand the best practices for remote work and that’s the direction the business will continue to grow in.

An important part of onboarding remote employees is making sure they get looped quickly into company culture via your groups, programs, and events. Rather than having them dig through endless chat channels or try to get added to mailing lists they don’t know exist, connect them from day one via Workrowd.

Our one-stop shop ensures that every team member can easily get involved and personalize their experience no matter where or when they work. Drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Categories
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

Flexible work schedules can help you drive diversity

When companies have a diverse workforce, they enjoy 2.3 times higher cash flow. Despite this, 41% of managers feel they’re “too busy” to come up with diversity and inclusion initiatives. Luckily, offering flexible work schedules is one way overtaxed managers can cater to a diverse team’s needs.

Many members of underrepresented communities, whether they’re differently abled, a person of color, or from another minority group, aren’t represented in the workplace because they’re unable to work traditional hours.

Businesses that do allow for flexible work schedules will attract a more diverse pool of candidates, have happier, more productive employees, and take advantage of that 2.3 times higher cash flow.

What about the employees themselves, though? What are the benefits of flexible work schedules for them?

They don’t sacrifice time with family

74% of homemakers would return to work if they had access to flexible work schedules. 76% would if they could work from home.

Many parents want to return to work but are unable to when they have young children. The more flexible you allow their work schedule to be, the more you can tap into this talent pool. 

If you have clients overseas, this can be beneficial because you’ll have representatives who can accommodate different time zones. That way, you can give support or continue the sales process outside of your standard working hours.

They can make the best use of their skills

One of the biggest benefits of working with underrepresented talent is the additional skills they bring to the table. Have you ever considered that the parent of four children could be a great negotiator? Or a patient manager?

Members of underrepresented communities often have untapped or beneficial skills, such as greater empathy and compassion. This can help you create a more open, supportive workplace. In addition, it will help employees to fulfill their potential at every stage of their careers.

Businesses with a more diverse workforce are also better at problem solving. A diverse workforce can help you come up with better solutions that stand out against your competition.

They have time to grow their skills

It’s harder to train a mindset than it is to train skills. So, if you hire someone who’s open to learning and eager to do so, offering flexible work schedules can allow them to grow their skills on their own time. This could make them more likely to stick around. It’s a simple way to show you support them and want them on your team long-term.

They can work on a schedule that fits their brains

Some people are not their most productive selves when they work from 9am until 5pm. Some of us are far more productive when we start earlier or later. Forcing ourselves to work a typical 9-5 schedule can lead to stress, lower productivity, sleeplessness, and even burnout.

When we can work around our bodies’ natural rhythms, and we get the right amount of sleep, it makes us calmer and more productive. That way we’re not fighting against what our minds and bodies are begging us to do.

They can work from anywhere

Sometimes the best person for a role doesn’t live as close to your office, or their manager, as you’d like.

Limiting the talent pool to people in a particular location means there are a lot of candidates you may be missing out on that your competitors can hire instead. 

Sure, big cities often have a higher concentration of, say, software developers, but COVID made a lot of people change their priorities and crave a slower way of life. They still have the skills and mindset needed to do their job. It just means that they’re not spending hundreds or thousands of dollars per year on a commute.

Instead, they have that money to spend on themselves, their family, and to go towards the cost of living. 

This is also beneficial for employees who have family and/or friends who live far from them. It means they can go see their loved ones and work in another country for a month, even if your company doesn’t have an office there. They won’t use up as much of their vacation time, and they’ll also get to enjoy a change of scenery.

Their community grows 

In the same way that school and college force us to mix with people we may not otherwise spend time around, our jobs can do the same. Offering flexible work schedules can mean that people who wouldn’t normally get to work together, do.

This can help to open people’s eyes to other people’s struggles and life situations. 

It can also build empathy and compassion, trigger new interests, help them make new friends, and provide further benefits for their mental and physical health. 

Sometimes all we need is someone to listen to our problems. Having colleagues who understand and actively listen can go a long way toward mitigating workplace stress.

It gives their life a purpose

When we feel like our lives have a purpose, we’re happier and we live longer. It can also help to prevent depression.

Many people would like to get this from their job but are unfortunately unable to. However, it’s one of the biggest reasons people now work where they do. 

A purpose is more important to some people now than how much they earn. 

Nobody should have to sacrifice the pay they deserve for a meaningful career, though. They should be paid what they’re worth and encouraged to pursue what’s important to them. Offering flexible work schedules can make all of this possible.

Conclusion 

These are just some of the benefits of flexible work schedules when it comes to supporting a diverse workforce.

It’s not just for underrepresented talent, though—many of us could benefit from flexible work schedules. Whether it’s on a bad day when we need to sleep a little longer, when we have a medical appointment, or even when we have clients who want to meet later but we still feel like we have to be at our desks from 9 until 5.

Flexible work schedules are the way forward. They’re the best way to attract all types of talent. Failing to be flexible can mean you miss out on some of the best candidates, slowing business growth.

On the other hand, when you hire candidates that your competitors may be missing, it can give your business a boost in everything from knowledge to mindset to skills. All these things add up to give you the upper hand as an employer and a business.

If you’re exploring flexible work schedules but want to make sure all of your team members stay connected, Workrowd can help. With a one-stop shop for all your employee groups, programs, and events, it’s easy to keep everyone looped into your company culture from day one. Drop us a line at hello@workrowd.com to learn how we can support you in driving engagement and retention.

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