B E L O N G I N G

Belonging:

Noun: Affinity or close relationship with
Synonyms: Association, fellowship, partnership

As most of us get back into the swing of things in the new year, one of the challenging prospects facing some leaders is filling staff vacancies. Whether a result of the pandemic or just an overdue shift in working practices, industries and sectors across the board have been impacted by people not wanting to work the way they used to. Whether you’re recruiting to backfill a role or recruiting to bolster your organisational skills matrix, recruitment is tougher than ever. And so is retention.

In several conversations I have had with leaders, in-person and online, a big focus of retention has been how can employees embed a sense of belonging into the employee journey.

Leaders have been thrown quite a few curveballs over the last two years, thanks in part to the slew of social and political change. Issues that were once easily swept under the carpet are now front and centre of the employee experience. And leaders have to engage. Do you introduce hybrid working even though you have masses of office space already paid for? Do you make vaccinations a requirement of employment? What are you doing to address complaints of institutional racism?

For leaders, shaping organisational cultures so that employees thrive is now more important than ever before. But I also believe that employees are responsible for defining what belonging means for them. What are the expectations, work practices and systems that allow them to perform at their highest level?

There is something quite personal around how employees hold boundaries around their core values - and how they align with company values. Today, they are assertive about the importance of workplace conversations. They are clear about what accountability should look like in their roles. Employees want to belong. You, the leader, needs to meet them halfway. And those difficult conversations, once avoidable issues are the best place to start.

Well-thought-out approaches to employee engagement and the employee experience can make for a positive experience for everyone. Yes, the journey can be nuanced and complex but there are ways and means of empowering all involved to play a meaningful part and, hopefully, make all the complexity worth it.

Ultimately, if an employee has the space to show up authentically, aware of self and the workplace environment they need to perform to the best of their ability, everyone wins.