How to create a culture of belonging and social wellbeing to enhance the employee experience
What employees need
From 45 years of research into employee attitudes, Mercer has found that all employees around the world, no matter their gender or age, are looking to fulfil three basic needs:
- Achievement: people need to feel they are contributing to a higher purpose, that their efforts are contributing to the whole and that they are recognised and rewarded for these efforts.
- Camaraderie: people also need to feel they are getting on well with their peers, their bosses and those with whom they interact daily through work, even if that interaction is not face to face.
- Equity: finally, people need to feel they are treated and rewarded fairly and afforded respect and dignity regardless of their gender or where they come from.
Being social is, therefore, a universal and basic need. It happens naturally and employers do not have to force it: they just need to remove obstacles that prevent people from interacting.
This is actually positive news for employers because it means encouraging social wellbeing is often less about introducing bells and whistles and more about going back to basics. Doing this can help create a culture of “psychological safety” in which people feel free to be themselves and to voice what they want to say without fear of negative consequences.
How leaders and managers can facilitate a culture of belonging
Obviously, leadership has a key role to play in implementing management practices and policies that address these fundamental needs.
An authentic employee value proposition
First, leaders and managers can help create a sense of community and meaningful work by evaluating the employee value proposition (EVP), and personalising it to each employees’ preferences.
Our research on employee attitudes about the EVP suggests that employees are more likely to be motivated to go ‘above and beyond’ when they feel they are doing work that is personal and meaningful. By creating a strong sense of common purpose as part of the EVP employers can, not only attract and retain talent, but can also provide a sense of shared meaning and belonging, by motivating employees towards a common, meaningful vision.
The research reveals that organisations must rethink their EVP through a few different lenses. Significantly, as well as questioning whether their total rewards strategy (pay and benefits) is broad enough and career paths sufficiently clear, leaders and managers need to ask themselves:
- whether employees think they are doing meaningful work
- whether there is a strong sense of community in the organisation.
Answering these questions can help employers pinpoint the unique mix of EVP offerings that will foster a culture of belonging and social wellbeing and enhance the employee experience.
A partnership leadership style
Our research into leadership styles also indicates that employees feel most engaged and positive when working with bosses adopting a “partnership” style. Partnership leaders establish empowering relationships with their followers based on trust, respect and autonomy.
One way leaders and managers can identify the kind of relationship they have with their teams is to think about the last few meetings or interactions with direct reports and ask themselves:
- Did I focus mainly on sharing my ideas, or listening to theirs?
- Was I distant and demanding, or approachable and accepting?
- Did I make decisions for or with my employees?
- Did I respond to problems by imposing new rules and regulations or by exploring root causes and asking my team to identify possible solutions?
Reflecting on these questions and obtaining feedback from colleagues can help leaders and managers adopt a more collaborative leadership style.
Open communication channels
The way we communicate is also crucial. Communication should be not only top-down but also bottom-up. Constantly taking into account the real voice of the employee can help sustain a culture of belonging and social wellbeing by highlighting at an early stage any issues that need to be addressed.
One approach to identifying employee sentiment is to use continuous listening platforms. We conduct year-round employee surveys for clients on different topics through different channels, such as looking at chatter on internal social media or using email metadata. Opening up these channels and ensuring employees can speak up about anything without fear of negative consequences makes an organisation’s culture much more inclusive and positive.
Employee belonging and social wellbeing is undoubtedly complex. However, going back to basics can go a long way toward creating an experience that helps employees thrive and become the best versions of themselves. Before investing in expensive off-sites and team-building programmes, make sure you are removing any obstacles in your culture that are impeding employees’ natural tendency to be social and create healthy communities.
This article is provided by Mercer.
