How to Go the Extra Mile for Your Employees

A modern workplace has a vibe of innovation and transcends cultural barriers. This doesn’t necessarily mean that all trendy staff must be in attendance.

In fact, rather than worrying about weathering the tides of hecticness, focus on making your employees enjoy their tasks. Trends come and go, after all.

However, business innovation, digitalization and agile methodologies are here to stay, so you should find a fine mixture of best practices and straightforward job management software to keep your organization happily navigating the challenges ahead.

To start, put employees first and move from there.

Creating a Culture of Engagement

No matter where you look, the likelihood of the term ‘employee engagement’ passing you by is null. From seasoned experts to self-proclaimed internet gurus, everyone is rambling about the importance of an engaged workforce.

Single our coherent sources and draw your conclusions, for the issue indeed is critical. You just need to shut the noise down.

The truth about employee engagement is multi-faceted and by no means easy to employ in the organizational context. People are different and digitalization is widening the gap between teams.

Even though modern communication tools are cutting-edge, nothing beats face-to-face human interactions.

Solving the Hybrid Work Models Conundrum

That’s why the focus should be on aligning different teams, for, lo and behold, hybrid work models have made diversity all the more difficult to incorporate into a meaningful whole.

Well, the obvious place to start is to listen to employees’ wishes when it comes to work model preferences. Plastered immediately below are some useful stats that will help you get an idea of the complexity of the topic:

•         83% of employees prefer being offered a hybrid work model
•         48% of workers want to work from home permanently
•         44% of workers want to work from home part of the week
•         55% of workers want to spend some time in the office and some time at home
•         25% of workers want to work fully remotely (ibid.)
•         36% of workers feel more focused working at home
•         28% of workers feel more focused working at the office

 As you can see, working remotely and being efficient at working remotely are two different matters entirely. That’s why you should make assessments and compare wishes with reality. Offering training programs to employees who want to change for the better is also recommended.

Upskill Your Entire Team

That is to say, you should introduce supplemental learning and make it available to all teams. To bring alignment, make sure that every team member attends the same training program.

However, be flexible with the format and do inspire engagement by offering popular learning perks (like microlearning or gamification, for example).

So far so good, but how do you bring now upskilled individuals to be efficient as a team? One of the most efficient approaches is — organizing team-building activities.

Create Team Bonding-Situations 

To be upfront: not just any team-building activity will get your teams to work coherently. Teams comprise different personalities, so businesses should accommodate differences (in a reasonable way, to be clear) by promoting open communication.

But even before that, they should make employees feel valued. One way to do this is to give out branded employee swag… and to be blunt, make sure the practice doesn’t look like bribing people.

Marketers will tell you that nice packaging sells the product, but you’re not offering products — you’re creating purpose.

Hence, a welcome gift for new hires should be coupled with the right message and gestures, while anniversary gifts may be on the expensive side.

Consider Current Employees for More Responsibilities

Since digital transformation is changing workplaces faster than we thought was possible only a decade ago, it may appear that some critical roles need manpower.

What businesses usually do is reach out for talent — a practice that can go anyway as appropriate procedures are lacking.

Rather than risking with experiments, implement talent development plans.

Engaged employees are likely to be open-minded and welcoming of novel prospects, so the idea is worth a shot.

Help Expats and Freelancers With Important Forms

Lastly, consider the circumstances of your employees. Just like not everyone is looking for a 9-to-5 shift, they may not be content with the usual contract type.

This holds particularly true for remote teams, as they can work from literally anywhere.  The trend has given rise to digital nomadism, among other movements, so make sure to accommodate people with various circumstances.

Self employment taxes, for example, are likely a rather burning issue for expats and digital nomads, so make sure to take them into account when drafting different contract types.

Finally, there’s so much going on all at once that businesses simply need to remain vigilant. To ensure you’re not missing out, consider anonymous feedback. Nothing will help your HR teams more than knowing what employees are expecting to achieve.