How to put your employees first

Everybody is feeling uncertain at the moment. And people get anxious when they are uncertain. Some of us are anxious about returning to the workplace, and some of us are concerned about what the future of work will look like – and where it will take place. How can we successfully manage a hybrid schedule and work in the way that suits us and meets company expectations? The unrelenting change taking place in the working world is likely to have lasting effects on our physical, emotional and professional health.

This is why leaders need to place their employees at the heart of their workplace culture and give them the tools and support they need to succeed – wherever they are working. Here are two ways I believe leaders can do that:

1. Promote wellbeing and engagement?

Our research finds that more employees now report a lower appreciation of their home-working environments versus their normal place of work (-9 percentage points of respondents say it’s better and +3 percentage points say it’s worse).[1] That could be a result of the stress of juggling personal and professional responsibilities, the inconvenience of switching between the office and home, or the absence of in-person social interaction.

For all its flexibility, remote working appears to be leading to higher levels of disconnection and other wellbeing concerns such as anxiety and reduced engagement.[2] To overcome this and ensure that people are engaged and happy, we – as leaders – need to make an effort to show employees that they’re being listened to.

As a people-centric company, we are focused on how technology can support our employees’ mental wellbeing and build resilience across our teams when in-person social connections are missing. For example, through the Sodexo APAC Health and Well-Being Hub[3] employees can attend live webinars with external specialists, access information they need to deal with challenges they may face, such as changing regulatory guidance, and learn from one another through shared personal stories.

2. Foster a sense of purpose

So, leaders need to embed tools and systems that foster meaningful connections, but they will also need a stronger and more explicit purpose to truly engage their employees. This is much harder in a world of virtual offices, social distancing and video conferencing, because communities are usually created out of physical spaces. But there are some strong online communities – such as Sodexo’s own Yammer community, for instance.

A continuous employee listening strategy is crucial: frequent pulse surveys can enable a process of prompt and effective reactions to employee feedback and answer to their needs. Two-way trust and open dialogue between employee and employer will gain even more relevance as we enter the next normal, and will determine the course of the future.

The employer-employee disconnect is real and growing as the war for talent wages on.[4] To confront it, we will need to engage with our teams on wellbeing and purpose, and listen to what they need. I believe this is how we will empower our employees to shape their working lives and feel better about themselves.

Find out more about how leaders can balance purpose and productivity in ‘Power to the people: The employee experience gets flexible’.

[1] Sodexo/Harris Interactive, Worklife Continuum Report, Wave 5 Results?

[2] Sodexo/Harris Interactive, Worklife Continuum Report, Wave 5 Results?

[3] https://tracks.sodexonet.com/sites/com-sg/home/inspired-thinking/case-studies/blogList-area/case-studies/5-ways-we-support-employee-well.html

[4] https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210629-the-great-resignation-how-employers-drove-workers-to-quit