It doesn’t matter if you call it the Great Resignation, the Great Reshuffle or the Big Quit. Human resources professionals are keenly aware that the seismic shift we are witnessing as employees resign en masse against the backdrop of today’s post-pandemic work environment is being driven in large part by workers’ desire to have more purpose, autonomy and support.
The voice of today’s employees, seemingly demanding more from their employers, has finally reached a new decibel, underscored by action in a movement that shows few signs of slowing. Indeed, according to the 2022 Randstad WorkMonitor report, the Great Resignation may be here to stay.
This sea change means two things for employers: They must work harder than ever to retain talent, and they must optimize the methods they use to do so. Organizations that fail to do these things face losing talent, which can translate into bottom-line deficits.
Empowering employees to actively contribute to the organization’s vision and goals is one of the most powerful tools employers have to make their people feel more connected to, and valued by, the organization. This is even more powerful when employee engagement actions are focused on environmental, health and safety (EHS) initiatives aimed at improving workplace well-being, safety and sustainability. In fact, according to the Deloitte Global 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, employees who are satisfied with their employers’ environmental and societal impact, as well as their employers’ efforts to create a more inclusive culture, are more likely to stay with their employer for five years or more. In addition, organizations with high employee engagement report fewer compliance citations and experience less attrition.
To drive real change, organizations should determine how to connect their employees and the work they do to existing EHS strategies. The benefits of engaging employees and getting their buy-in on broader organizational initiatives—as both a recruiting and retention tool—are clear, and HR professionals can play a critical role in supporting the process by taking the following four steps.
Step 1: Facilitate More Frequent and Transparent Communication
As an HR leader, developing more effective organizationwide communication starts by encouraging executives and managers to more clearly share the organization’s EHS strategies and goals. Unfortunately, this opportunity is often missed.
Sixty-five percent of workers do not believe leadership is effectively implementing their organization’s purpose, according to a DARE Worldwide survey reported on theHRDirector.com in January 2022. On the other side, a 2020 Verdantix report revealed fewer than half of executives believed their employees understood or were even aware of their organization’s EHS agenda in the area of sustainability. These findings suggest that there is an opportunity to foster greater engagement simply by informing employees about the organization’s existing agenda and aligning responsibilities and daily activities to those broader goals.
Leadership, in coordination with HR, can accomplish this by taking the following proactive measures:
- Provide direct feedback on and/or share EHS and sustainability information in employee meetings;
- Post EHS results and metrics in organizationwide communications;
- Incorporate time in each employee meeting to discuss EHS topics; and
- Offer ways for employees to share stories, updates and lessons learned with peers to further EHS and sustainability initiatives.
Step 2: Offer More Diverse and Personalized Training
While informing employees is a critical first step, providing opportunities for EHS training and professional development is a foundational element in furthering employee engagement. Not only do effective training programs equip workers to drive desired outcomes, they also help employees feel more valued and valuable. Together, millennials and members of Generation Z are now the largest group in the workforce. These younger workers identify learning and development opportunities as critical to their personal success and job satisfaction.
HR departments can provide access to training, encourage teams to give employees opportunities to job-shadow and support leadership in inviting staff to participate in different EHS-related projects or events. Additionally, the use of online EHS training can foster individual achievement and encourage deeper employee engagement. Learning through digital means can shorten training time by 40 percent to 60 percent when compared to “traditional” in-person training. It also has been shown to improve worker engagement by up to 20 percent.
Step 3: Empower Employees to Act
Once employees are aware of their organization’s existing EHS objectives, understand how they actively contribute to achieving the objectives and have acquired the skills they need to meet their responsibilities, HR professionals can provide another key component of the employee engagement cycle by encouraging leaders to develop programs that allow workers to make decisions and take action at their own discretion.
Employees naturally become more engaged when they are empowered to proactively identify areas of opportunity and propose better ways of completing EHS tasks, manage risk in their work and advance their organization’s EHS and sustainability agendas. HR departments can support employees in exercising more agency in managing important EHS responsibilities by advocating for technology that gives employees better access to the information they need to make informed decisions moment by moment. A tech investment that equips employees with prompt access to valuable information 24/7 will help keep the workforce connected to the organization and informed of how it is working collectively to achieve a common goal. HR departments can also look for ways to support employee-led improvement projects such as establishing peer-to-peer learning groups or an employee sustainability committee.
Step 4: Be a Stronger Point of Connection
Finally, HR professionals can leverage the critical role they play as a bridge between employees and the C-suite, connecting both their work and their voices to organizational initiatives. As workers articulate what is important to them or present solutions to problems the organization is facing, HR professionals should seek to elevate those ideas and advocate for funding and support of employee-led initiatives.
When you incorporate an employee vision for a greater purpose into your organization’s daily practices, you show employees how much you value their input and encourage them to continue participating in efforts to advance EHS performance. You also build an organizational culture in which the importance of the organization’s people is recognized. This might just be the recipe for keeping top talent with the organization and actively contributing to its success for many years to come.
06 July 2022
Category
HR News Article