Here is a quote from one of the COOs of a leading IT services company based out India.
“At the 3-to-6-year experience level, people are still not emotionally connected with the company and sometimes, it is easier to move around”
And with the bulk of the workforce at this experience levels, no wonder there is high attrition being experienced across companies.
From an organizational perspective, a leaky bucket destroys intellectual capital, increases learning cycles and puts immense pressure on those employees who have to cover up for the ones who left.
So, what can organizations do to enhance the emotional connection of employees with the organization?
High market demand, start-up’s promising the moon and the lure to work on new cutting-edge technologies cannot be ignored.
Although external lures are enticing, lack of internal connect with the employees is what breaks the camel’s back and causes the employee to jump ship.
Increased demand, comes with increased expectations. The person is still the same but expectations get inflated and in a hybrid work environment, they get magnified.
It’s all about focusing on Paying Attention!!!
Manager’s & Leaders can vastly improve the emotional connect of the employees with the organization by focusing on 3 parameters:
1. Situation
The influence of situation on our behaviors is immense. Setting expectations and following-up is not enough. Identifying the situational parameters that enable/inhibit employees and actively working on supporting them is a very empathetic way to motivate employees and enhance their drive.
Especially in a hybrid working environment, factors such as team dynamics (inclusiveness, communication styles, others…), empathizing with the work environment at home, leadership style of the managers (authenticity, autonomy) etc. are key considerations
Conversations around making explicit the impediments/barriers in a home-office setting, the challenges of communicating over a call instead of face-to-face, exploring ways for employees to achieve a balance and demarcation between home and work are vital
2. Time
Any improvement requires a change in behavior and mindset. For lasting improvement to happen, we all go through various stages of change i.e., contemplation, readiness, action & sustaining the change.
Across each stage, organizational support is essential else there is every chance that the change will not sustain and the employee will fall back to their old ways of working. Leader as a Coach is one of the most essential skills for leaders/managers.
Along with setting performance goals, managers need to facilitate conversations and have open conversations with employees to identify interim milestones for not just tasks but also mindset considerations to ensure change is sustained.
3. Individual
When individuals find things going tough, what do they do?
They seek help or switch off.
Does your organization have a clear & established mechanism for employees to seek help without feeling belittled in any way?
Ensuring that the self-esteem of individuals is protected whilst surfacing their short-comings and doing all of that in a way that encourages and motivates employees is the only way to ensure commitment and increase the affinity of individuals with the organization.
Ensuring vulnerability and psychological safety is the only way the employees will open up about their challenges and short-comings and we can start to have meaningful conversations around improvements
With attention, comes care and with care comes affinity. This is the essence of a purposeful human-centric organization.