It is well-established that during difficult economic circumstances, businesses that have more engaged employees do much better and outperform those that don’t. As businesses navigate another set of challenging times right now, and given some of the lessons we learnt from the global pandemic, here are some ideas on how to engage, and thereby, retain your talent through tough times.
- Actively communicate about and clarify your strategy: too often strategy remains in the realm of the most senior people only. But everyone in a business wants and has a role to play in delivering strategy. And finding ways to actively engage people at all levels can help generate momentum, fresh thinking, and a renewed sense of optimism.
- Focus on your purpose and vision: employees want to take pride in what they do every day, particularly when the business environment is complicated. Communicating around the business vision and purpose in an inspiring way can help people see the bigger picture and take appropriate actions to deliver towards it.
- Celebrate achievements: it’s easy to overlook this when circumstances are tough, but everyone works better when reminded of good work, receives positive and constructive feedback, and feels recognised. Think of new, innovative, and fun ways to celebrate people.
- Pay attention to the topics that matter to employees, for example DEI, mental health, climate – numerous surveys have shown why these issues matter increasingly, especially to younger generations in the workplace. As well as understanding what the company policies and strategies are, they want to be actively involved and help drive these topics forward.
To communicate effectively requires getting cut through with employees, who are likely either overwhelmed or distracted by more pressing problems. That’s why a decent dose of creative thinking is often required.
We’ve worked with many global businesses to create engagement campaigns to explain their strategy and purpose, produce awards programmes and engage employees with their ESG communications. Find out more here and get in touch if you’d like to discuss some ideas.