How do you engage people when you are working flexibly?

What is engagement?

You’ve probably heard of employee engagement right but can you say what it actually is? For those of you that don’t work in HR, employee engagement is that magic feeling you get when you really love what you do, where you work and who you work for.

And the reason it is so important is that employees who are highly engaged are more productive, more proactive and more efficient. Which means that your business is more profitable. And not only that, it means that your employees want to give more, want to stay with your company and they will recommend you to others so you’ll also attract great new people. What’s not to like about that?

In a pre-pandemic world, engagement often revolved around physical interventions – employee recognition schemes, Town Halls, team building activities, socials, family days etc. It was also often thought that the physical environment was really important for engagement which gave rise to the ‘beanbag’ culture of creating great spaces to work.

So when that’s how we used to do engagement, what does that mean for a future world of work where most likely it will be a hybrid environment with some people in the office and some being working remotely?

And how do you engage people when they are not co-located?

Communications – it is still important for people to know what’s happening. But the difference now is that you need to think about the where, when, how and why of communications in this new way of working.

When we were all in an office, it was easy to have ad-hoc meetings, all gather in the same place and have a chat! But now, with some of your team in the office and some of your team out of the office you need to give much greater consideration to how you will include all members of the team, because you can’t assume everyone will be in the same place and you don’t want to exclude that one member of the team who happens to be at home that day. So when it comes to communications you need to think about:

    • What is the purpose of the communication? For example if its to disseminate information, an email is fine.
    • When do you need to be co-located to communicate effectively?
    • How will you communicate – what are the appropriate channels and for what kind of messages?

 

Employee Voice – this is all about listening to your employees.

Similar to above, you need to consider the where, when and how you will create opportunities for people to have their say. This is vital for engagement but often overlooked or seen as something that can be done in an annual survey. Companies that have high levels of engagement involve their people in decision-making so consider how you can do this using technology as well as remembering the importance of face-to-face connections.

Wellbeing – it’s important to remember that the way we have been working for the last year has had an enormous strain on our physical and mental wellbeing.

And as an employer you have a duty of care to ensure that your employees have the support they need – everything from providing them with the right ergonomic set-up at home to supporting mental health activities. I’ve seen some great initiatives this last year with everything from virtual well-being weeks to walking meetings. As we move back to splitting our time between home and the office, let’s not forget these initiatives or move them all to be office based only as again that could exclude some.

 

Social connection – people are more likely to be engaged and to stay with their company if they know, like and trust the people they work with.

It’s the reason why team building events have long included a social element whether that is a silly competition or a drink in the bar after a day’s learning. Not everyone will feel comfortable to get together just yet so I foresee that there will be a mix of social events going forward. The important thing is that you enable the opportunities for people to connect.

 

Nicola Pease is a Flexible Working Consultant, helping organisations to find that sweet spot between what they need and what their people want. She also teaches managers how to create great places to work, so their employees actually want to be there. If you are thinking about how to introduce more flexibility in your work, get in touch for a coffee & a chat. Let’s talk

 

 

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