As the dust from evolving hybrid and remote work guidelines settles, we’re seeing consistent themes regarding what employees want from their employers. For example, Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace (focusing on US data) shows employee feedback becoming more unified in what workers want from their bosses and their companies, what motivates employees, and what causes them to job hunt. We see similar themes from the 2023 workforce surveys from Deloitte and McKinsey as well.
Finally, themes are emerging from the U.S. workforce — across gender, age, race, education and socio-economic statuses — to guide employers on attracting, engaging and retaining workers in the hybrid and remote work environments. Here are some key take-aways:
Know Your Employees
Employees expect leaders to understand them—what motivates them individually, what their interests are (professionally and personally), their career goals, what they’re doing on the weekend, and so on. Interestingly, one significant request of Gen Zs is more meetings (Harvard, 2023). While that feedback may be unique to Gen Zs, the motivation is not: They want more facetime with their co-workers and their leader. They’re expressing what all demographics are saying: We feel disconnected from our leader and from our co-workers. Fix this with more human interactions — even remotely — throughout each day. Each day. Just as though everyone was in the office.
Being Remote Exacerbates a Need for Transparency
We see louder and louder calls among employees for workplace transparency. They want to know what issues the organization is facing and general thoughts on those issues. At least monthly, set aside time in team meetings to discuss the issues facing the organization, variables being considered regarding those issues, and leave time during the discussion for employees to opine. This mirrors the in-person workplace where watercooler conversations serve to maintain trust among the employees that the organization is being thoughtful as it faces challenges, and that leadership understands employees’ needs and concerns.
Development Is Critical – Leaders Must Make the Effort
Resoundingly, we hear that employees across demographics want to be developed and engaged. Simply understand the remote and hybrid version of development; it’s not as natural and, arguably, it’s less fulfilling. Do weekly one-on-ones with your employees, ideally on a day when they’re remote. While going through tasks and roadblocks is important, dedicate time in one one-on-one per month to discuss the employee’s performance: how they believe they’re doing, how you and others perceive their performance, and what they’re working on to further their career. Work with your HR team to identify projects and tasks that would stretch the individual employee, helping groom them for what they want next in their career, and then monitor their performance and satisfaction with that stretch assignment.
Control Over Their Day
While predictability in a given workday is always a challenge, employees continue to focus on having as much control as possible over their workday. Part of knowing your employee (an earlier point) means knowing the level of autonomy they’d like. Consider setting deadlines — even artificial deadlines — and milestones, and let the employee work to hit those goals. Of course, the message remains that the better the employee performs, the more autonomy and trust they’ve earned … and the more compensation they’ve earned, as well.
After three years, we’re seeing a clear roadmap to keeping employees engaged and productive in the hybrid workplace, with narrowing differences in the data among employee demographics. Adhering to these best practices well positions the business to attract and retain its talent and the uncertainty of 2024’s business environment looms closer and closer.
Eric Knott is a professor of business at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business, is the past president of the Society for Human Resource Management of Greater Phoenix, and is the CEO of HR consulting firm FinePoint HR.
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