The chaos of workplace connections
Zubin Zack
Managing Director : South Asia, Middle East, Africa | Expert in Value Creation, Growth & Business Transformation | Certified Board Member | Emerging Markets, Corporate Strategy & Global Capability Centre Specialist
This Article first appeared on Forbes India.
With the turn of the workplace culture and the evolving younger workforce, the traditional dynamics of employee engagement also undergoes a diverse recast
While many believe that things that cannot be measured matter the most, I am of the opinion that things that can be measured are also critical to ensure greater productivity.
By measuring an initiative or strategy, we can help build a process, a system and give direction to what we want to do. It also helps us understand how the process can be completed most effectively, keeping in mind the softer, non-measurable aspects too.
It also allows to build a positive mindset amongst employees, keeping them inspired with a vision. As company culture is cultivated over time, companies usually assign various metaphors such as 'glue of the business', or use buzzwords such as 'energy', 'purpose' and 'engagement'. However, people remain the biggest differentiators and best resources. They are your company’s assets.
If people do not feel valued at their workplace, they are likely to quit as soon as another door opens for them. No company would like to lose out on their best resources. Validating this point is the 2017 Gallup report, which states that 51 percent of the workforces are not engaged, and 16 percent are actively disengaged. The simple reason for disconnection is lack of employee recognition and for obvious reasons; people not being valued or appreciated for what they bring to the table.
To sustain your relationship with your employees, the underlining factors are: Love, dignity, genuine concern and appreciation. Through these values, companies can expect employees to think beyond themselves and align to the purpose and objective of the company.
Of these, appreciation is the key to increasing feelings of well-being, trust, and empowering great work. A leader should use recognition as a navigation tool with a simple agenda of bringing people together to calm fears, communicate what is important, and inspire great work. These could be done using technology to “connect” through apps and social media tools, where technology can facilitate and enhance human connection, not replace it.
With the turn of the workplace culture and the evolving younger workforce, the traditional dynamics of employee engagement also undergoes a diverse recast. Apart from the traditional aspects mentioned before, new age models including growth, opportunities, well-being, mental stimuli, possibilities to make an impact etc. are also coming to the fore.
For today's workforce, priorities need to be set in a different order and organisations need to turn their basics around to accommodate their needs and requirements. For instance, companies that offer 'work from home' or 'medical parental benefits' to employees are likely to attract better talent over those that do not.
Being contagious, success attracts a lot more potential talent. This crop will want to play a larger role for your business to accelerate. By offering them what they need, your business needs, in turn, could be fulfilled, giving you a head start over competitors who do not attract this crop of talent.
Today, every company struggles to hold on to their people, and that is obvious because it is human beings we are dealing with. Chaos is expected, but the company needs to identify common links that can be put it into frameworks to make sense of, essentially creating a value stream of connections that hold it together for the business to flourish.
The author is Managing Director at O.C. Tanner.