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The Future of Leadership/Engagement Strategies in the Future of Work

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Engagement Strategies in the Future of Work 		Hybrid Team Communication

Improving Hybrid/Remote Employee Engagement

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Engaging employees is a consistent task that management must continuously adapt and with hybrid/remote employees it’s no different. The pandemic allowed for a new way of work to fully erupt. When the pandemic began, the number of remote workers doubled from 31% - 62% in only three weeks.[1] As management and employees started to adjust to remote/hybrid work, fault lines were not only exposed but extrapolated.[2] Some of the major fault lines that have affected engagement are communication, and connection.[2]

Communication is one of the biggest challenges for hybrid/remote employees.[3][2] Hybrid/remote employees tend to feel the need to over-communicate, over-perform, and over-sacrifice.[4][1] A Microsoft work trend index report states communication has increased considerably, but with fewer boundaries, since the pandemic started.[1] Hybrid/Remote employees tend to feel the need to prove that they are working.[4] This can lead to performative actions like over-communicating via emails or instant work chats.[4] Hybrid/Remote employees are also more likely to not establish boundaries, because of the feeling that they must prove they are working to the level of their in-person colleagues.[5] Not only do employees feel the need to prove they are working, but they also have to work twice as hard to stay in the loop on projects.[2][5] Hybrid/remote employees tend to be left out of minor decisions and exchanges, from their in-person colleagues.[2] These minor correspondences can lead to hybrid/remote employees being left out of bigger conversations.[2] These mishaps in communication are in part due to the lack of social connection hybrid/remote work produces. [2]There are no longer the same in-person water cooler opportunities for hybrid/remote employees which can lead to them feeling disconnected and uninformed.[6] A survey conducted by Economist found that respondents overwhelmingly indicated that poor communication at work can lead to stressful work environments, stalled careers missed performance goals, and lost sales”.[4] Management must understand that hybrid/remote work is not equivalent to work-life balance.[3] In order to properly engage hybrid/remote employees, management must prioritize communication and connection.

Following the quarantine of 2020 and the new “normal” environment, companies have been trying to determine trends in employee engagement and experience. Qualtrics, a leading experience management firm, determined four emerging trends based upon their Employee Experience (EX) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) survey they provided to 16,000 companies in 2022:[7]

  1. Instilling confidence you are running a successful ship is critical to your employee experience
  2. Employees have been operating at surge levels for years. Now, they’re reclaiming boundaries
  3. Bad processes and inefficient systems are fueling the risk of employee burnout
  4. Being employed isn’t just about having a job — it’s a part of a person’s value system

These trends are a good reflection of the current work force and signify a major change companies must face. Research suggests that managers should be actively engaging their employees by "re-recruiting" them.[8] Re-recruiting should revolve around on how to keep current employees by discovering their motivation, compensation and professional development goals.[8] Managers can choose to integrate these efforts into their annual employee assessments or to have these conversations casually throughout the year. Employees also want to connected to their company's mission, culture and values.[9]

“Having a compelling mission, culture and values are critical when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent in a competitive job market — it is what differentiates each and every employer.” - Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor President and COO[10]

Improving Employee Engagement through Onboarding

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Employee engagement has become a hot button topic in our post pandemic work environment, but what does it mean? Gallup defines employee engagement as the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in both their work and workplace.[11] Employee engagement begins well before the first day of the job. A new hire’s experience on their first day sets the stage for the rest of their employment. Practices can help ensure that your onboarding process engages employees early and positively include things such as engaging employees early and often, creating a strong internal social network to engage employees, and engaging employees in your company’s cultural values.[12]

Onboarding goes far beyond explaining the benefits package, desk location, and work schedule. Onboarding provides an opportunity to make new hires part of your organization’s community. Norming conversations that define the values, shared mission, and goals of the group provide clarity and direction.[13] Discussions can range from what to wear to work to popular places to eat around the office. This is an opportunity to set the norms and expectations of behavior as it pertains to treating others well. In a report published by recruiting consultants, 22% of people surveyed reported that receiving a proper induction and onboarding influenced their decision to look for another job. Compared to 51% of employees admitting that a great onboarding experience motivated them to go “above and beyond.”[14] Statistics like this help to illustrate the correlation between a good onboarding process and experience and employee engagement.

Improving Employee Engagement through Offboarding

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The offboarding experience will be essential in the future of business. It allows companies one last chance to leave a lasting, positive impression on separating employees.[15] Traditionally companies have invested significant resources in onboard and have neglected the offboarding process. Policies related to rehiring that served you well before might need to be revised to accommodate the new ways of business.[16] Companies have created communities of previous employees, gig workers and boomerangs to create alumni networks to help in re-hiring talent, communication of jobs and partnerships.[17][16]

Research also has found that when an employee leaves and human resources conducts an exit interview, that it is a good time to have informal conversations with the employees who are remaining.[7][9] These “stay interviews” can help to corroborate information shared in exit interviews and measure the impact they will feel due to the departure of their colleague.[8]

References

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  1. ↑ a b c Himelstein, C. (2020, November 25). Five tips to avoid over-communicating with your remote employees. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/11/30/five-tips-to-avoid-over-communicating-with-your-remote-employees/?sh=17c6def04f95
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Haas, M. (2023, February 6). 5 challenges of hybrid work - and how to overcome them. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2022/02/5-challenges-of-hybrid-work-and-how-to-overcome-them
  3. ↑ a b Cappelli, P. (2021). The future of the office: Work from home, remote work, and the hard choices we all face. Wharton School Press.
  4. ↑ a b c d Molla, R. (2019, May 1). The productivity pit: How Slack is ruining work. Vox. https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/1/18511575/productivity-slack-google-microsoft-facebook
  5. ↑ a b SHRM. (2020, May 21). How to engage remote employees during the coronavirus pandemic. https://rishrm.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/How%20to%20Engage%20Remote%20Employees%20During%20the%20Coronavirus%20Pandemic.pdf
  6. ↑ Broady, D. V. (2022, November 8). Strategies for successful communication in a hybrid work world. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2022/01/07/strategies-for-successful-communication-in-a-hybrid-work-world/?sh=24f660fd428e
  7. ↑ a b Qualtrics. (2023). Employee experience trends 2023. Qualtrics. https://www.qualtrics.com/ebooks-guides/2023-ex-trends-report/
  8. ↑ a b c Kruse, K. (2022, March 3). More ‘Stay Interviews’ lead to fewer ‘Exit Interviews’. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2022/03/03/why-re-recruiting-is-the-key-to-retention/
  9. ↑ a b Klotz, A. C., & Bolino, M. C. (2019). Do you really know why employees leave your company? Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 2–5.
  10. ↑ Glassdoor. (2019, July 10). Culture over cash? Glassdoor Multi-Country survey finds more than half of employees prioritize workplace culture over salary. Glassdoor. https://about-content.glassdoor.com/en-us/workplace-culture-over-salary/?_gl=1*1awju5z*_ga*MTY3OTY2NTcyMS4xNjI1NjYxMTk1*_ga_RC95PMVB3H*MTYyNzQ4MDIxMS4zLjAuMTYyNzQ4MDIxMS42MA..
  11. ↑ Gallup. (2023) Your Business Strategy Hinges on Employee Engagement. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/229424/employee-engagement.aspx
  12. ↑ Yoh. (2019, July 25) Employee Engagement & Onboarding is an Experience Not a Process. Yoh. https://www.yoh.com/blog/employee-engagement-begins-with-onboarding-6-best-practices
  13. ↑ Beverly, B., Burton, P., Byrne, P., Eastwood, D., Jennings, J., Kierstead, J., Kirwan, L., Markato, T., O’Brien, A., Pachus, J., Waters, V. (2016). Promising practices for employee engagement. Harvard. https://hr.harvard.edu/files/humanresources/files/promising_practices.pdf
  14. ↑ Preppio. (2022) What Scientific Research Says About Employee Onboarding – 32 Statistics & Findings. Preppio. https://www.preppio.com/blog/employee-onboarding-research-statistics
  15. ↑ König, C. J., Richter, M., & Isak, I. (2022). Exit interviews as a tool to reduce parting employees’ complaints about their former employer and to ensure residual commitment. Management Research Review, 45(3), 381–397. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-02-2021-0148
  16. ↑ a b Dachner, A. M., & Makarius, E. E. (2021). Turn departing employees into loyal alumni. Harvard Business Review, 99(2), 88–97.
  17. ↑ Zucker, R. (2022). Leave the door open for employees to return to your organization. Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, 1–8.
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