Rehumanizing the Workplace in 2021 With an Employee-First Culture

While we witnessed one of the most intense health, social, and humanitarian crises in recent times, things are on the mend. Vaccination programs are underway and the economic recovery is accelerating. As normalcy returns to our lives, it is a good time to ask whether the pandemic will have a lasting impact on the organizational culture.

Despite mass layoffs and furloughs, most organizations handled the pandemic exceedingly well. Most large retailers, fast-food chains, and technology companies continued paying hourly workers and support staff while their workplaces were closed. Few sectors like hospitality and aviation partnered with other companies, which had a higher demand for workers such as super markets, ecommerce, and big-box retailers, and healthcare providers to connect employees with jobs. Healthcare industry in the U.S., particularly witnessed a sharp spike in temporary hiring, allowing employees to get back to their original jobs once the business demand improved.

Also read: Why Companies Should Prioritize Establishing Positive Corporate Cultures This Year

Bringing Humanity Back: An Employee-Centric Approach

COVID-19 was the moment of reckoning for organizations around the globe. Once perceived as uncompassionate, unfeeling, and faceless entities, businesses have done rather well in flipping the narrative. While the pandemic altered our experience as consumers, employees, citizens, and humans, it was heartening to see businesses embrace the humanity within and support their staff through one of the most difficult times of their lives.

Organizations were compelled to look inwards and build new experiences for their people to keep the business going.

“COVID-19 taught us that flexibility plays a critical role in enabling the ‘employee first’ mindset,” says Lisa Walker, workforce futurist and VP of brand and corporate marketing at Fuze. “Fuze has always embraced a ‘work from anywhere’ policy, enabling employees to work wherever they felt most productive. We also empower employees to work flexible hours if needed.”

Video calls provided Lisa and her team a deeper insight into the employee lives. “From juggling working in small apartments with roommates and working parents trying to get through remote learning days, successful employee-first managers and companies work with employees to develop a schedule that gets the work done and enables employees to be successful in their personal lives as well,” she said.

As human beings, we dislike uncertainty and unpredictability. The pandemic had most of us in the dark about what’s to come next. Employers like Fuze, who take the opportunity to lead their employees through periods of significant change can overcome barriers to productivity and build a resilient culture.

“At Aircall, our employees are our core. A people-first attitude is key to strengthening our company and empowering our employees to improve and succeed. COVID-19 has pushed us to take this leadership style a step further. Without casual office conversations, we are encouraging our leaders to spend time with their teams to engage in empathetic and authentic conversations, checking in more often to get a sense of employees’ well-being. The impact of an ‘employee-first’ mindset is that your employees will feel happier, more motivated, engaged, which allows them to feel better equipped to do their job. This also allows management to better avoid burnout and stress among the workforce,” opines Sandrine Meunier, Chief People Officer at Aircall.

Organizations like Fuze and Aircall recognized that empowering employees with flexibility and the ability to schedule their work around their lives was good for business. During the course of the pandemic, new processes and procedures emerged that flipped traditional thinking around team dynamics, collaboration, and hierarchical structures. Power moved from leadership to smaller, flatter inter-organizational networks that successfully won over leadership’s trust. The autonomy to make their own decisions fostered innovation and allowed employees to focus on the work that was meaningful for them.

Interestingly, organizations also began prioritizing employees’ mental well-being as the pandemic raged. A global study of employee mental well-beingOpens a new window in the early days of the pandemic found that 42% of employees’ mental health had declined since the outbreak began. Given all that has happened since then, employee mental health is a major concern that employee-centric organizations must address.

Also read: Building Strategy, Culture, and Diversity with a Global SaaS Marketing Team

“The pandemic has upended the way we work and driven our stress to record levels. Traditionally, companies have focused on the physical well-being of their employees. But the pandemic has changed this, and they are now having more holistic conversations that cover the mental, spiritual, and emotional aspects of well-being. When so many employees are struggling at once, even the most transactional leaders who see employees as ‘resources’ or ‘tools,’ recognize that for people to be and do their best, they must be well on all fronts,” says Donna Kimmel, Chief People Officer at Citrix.

As we navigate the first few months of 2021, organizations are likely to see employees struggling with anxiety, depression, burnout, and PTSD. These experiences can differ from person to person, race, economic background, job types, caregiving responsibilities, and other variables. So, how can managers and leaders support people as they face new challenges, stressors, and economic uncertainty?

Building an Employee-First Culture in 2021

It is well established that most consumers want to make purchases from companies with values that align with their own.  A recent report found that 90% of consumersOpens a new window believe that businesses must protect and safeguard the well-being and financial security of their employees and vendors, even if it means sustaining financial losses until the pandemic ends.

“When employees feel that their leaders and colleagues care about and prioritize them, they’re more likely to be engaged. And higher engagement has been repeatedly proven to be a predictor of higher customer loyalty, sales, and profit. Putting talent first leads to better business results. When people experience a state of well-being at work, they can unlock their potential, work purposefully and creatively, and make meaningful contributions to the success of the entire organization,” says Donna.

Organizations looking to retain their edge over competitors must channel their sense of purpose – something beyond commercial interests – that people can believe in to drive innovation across the organization. Organizational and brand values will be under consumer scrutiny as businesses chart their path to economic recovery.

As employees continue working from home, challenges in hiring and attracting talent are bound to creep up. Ian Campbell, CEO of Nucleus Research believes technology can play a crucial role in bridging the candidate experience gap that’s likely to plague organizations hiring remotely. He says, “For HR, the hiring process becomes far more difficult when employees can be located anywhere. Talent acquisition and talent management solutions should be at the top of the list of technologies to consider in 2021. After that, it’s team building and employee measurements that will sustain a company’s growth. By any measure, HR just became the most critical function in an organization for the foreseeable future,”

Organizations that want to succeed in 2021 must ensure that employees feel respected, valued, connected, and productive to improve retention.

When employees come first, business thrives. This is the best time for HR leaders to take a hard look at their benefits packages, workplace safety, and communication practices to ensure the organization is meeting employee needs effectively.

Also read: How to Make Culture a First-Class Citizen as a B2B SaaS CMO

Staff feedback via surveys or managers is another effective way to get the pulse of the workforce. Sandrine and her team at Aircall implemented an eNPS (employee net promoter score) survey to improve employees’ day-to-day lives. “HR can also offer new initiatives, such as mental health support, which we implemented as a result of the survey, or positive dialogue training for managers to foster better remote-first manager-employee relationships,” she said.

In a world of virtual work, fostering an employee-centric culture can be quite challenging. HR leaders need to identify elements of their organization’s culture that make it unique and foster a sense of community and connectedness. Recreating the watercooler moments and the casual banter at work is a good place to start – virtual happy hoursOpens a new window , team building activitiesOpens a new window , and holiday parties can be very effective.

The culture mandate for organizations in 2021 should be prioritized around fostering a strong internal culture that values health, well-being, and productivity of your employees. This is an investment that will keep paying over the years to come.

What initiatives has your organization taken to fuel an employee-first culture at work? Let us know your thoughts at LinkedInOpens a new window , FacebookOpens a new window , and TwitterOpens a new window .