How to increase retention by putting employee expectations first

Frontline, desk or deskless, fully remote or hybrid, on-the-go workers: all employees have different needs and expectations from their employer. What do they have in common? 

Employees want to feel important, and not listening or not caring will make you miss business critical opportunities to create a powerful employee experience.  

One of the main reasons employees are leaving jobs (aside from salary and benefits)  is due to a feeling of overwhelm or lack of support. It’s important to focus on employee needs because when employees are motivated and feel connected to the company, they will be effective and like to contribute to the business success. 

In fact, studies show that disengaged employees can cost companies up to 34% of an employee's salary in lost productivity, mistakes, or increased turnover. Isolated people are indeed less productive, less motivated, and more likely to experience psychological distress or simply leave their job. 

Employee Expectation #1: a positive and meaningful work culture

A 2020 McKinsey survey showed that 82% of employees believe it’s important that their company has a purpose; ideally, one that contributes to society and creates meaningful work. A 2022 research study also showed that 70% of employees say their personal sense of purpose is defined by their work.  

So, it is pivotal to offer a workplace where team members are encouraged and supportive toward each other. Make sure you build a positive and meaningful work culture that fuels both personal and collective sense of purpose. It will impact your teams’ global productivity, motivation, and ability to collaborate on transversal projects, where everyone is aware of each team's purpose, and the value they bring to the company's strategy.

What you can do about it: Break formal silos 

As explained in Garter’s recent research on collaboration in the hybrid world, this can be achieved by focusing on asynchronous (ie. informal) modes of collaboration. It’s about giving employees the keys to connect even outside of schedules meetings or installed processes, but just when they see the value of doing it, ie. intentionally. This brings more value and satisfaction to employees, but also to the whole organization. 

LumApps Spaces is a digital gathering ground where employees can connect to share knowledge, expertise, and experiences with their colleagues and peers. Employees can create posts, articles and videos, and comment on posts from other coworkers. This is the intranet’s version of gathering around the office water cooler – social networking! 

Employee Expectation #2: Recognition 

Many employees’ disengagement also comes from the fact that they don’t feel seen or heard. 

Employees want safe workplaces, where they know they can be recognized for what they do, try new things, and say what they have to say without fearing any negative consequence. It’s indeed important to instill a feedback culture that will foster openness and trust. Implementing a real two-way conversation with employees, and involving them in internal communications or decision-making should be a constant focus for organizations. 

Potential risks of not investing in recognition? Employees who feel their voices are not heard or their work is not recognized can have critical consequences, from missed employee advocacy (do not forget that employees are your first ambassadors!), to missed business opportunities (people who feel trusted will be more willing to go out of their comfort zone and reach for more), or even security risks (engaged employees are your first security asset and reporting system). 

 

Employee Engagement

Time to start or overhaul an engagement strategy? Capitalize on Employee Engagement Opportunities.

Employee Expectation #3: Transparency 

Information is made to be shared. In a connected and digital world, employees are expecting management to communicate regularly and transparently on what is going on within the organization and which role everyone plays. As hierarchies tend toward more horizontal models, information needs to flow even more readily inside the organization. This is especially true for remote workers, who will seek to get more information as they feel disconnected from everyday business.

If employees are not aware of company goals and expectations, they can potentially make avoidable, costly errors.  Also, strategic information and transparent proof points of the company’s values and purpose are at the heart of employee engagement and motivation. The more you empower them with relevant, personalized information, the more they’ll be likely to contribute. 

What you can do about it: make information easily accessible

Did you know that an average employee spends 2.5 hours every day searching for information? Signing into several tools to accomplish a task or looking to many different places to find a piece of information is very frustrating. 

When the tools are not compatible, any task becomes more time-consuming than necessary. You ‘ll need to find ways to make procedures more efficient and reduce this digital friction.

One solution is a mobile app, either installed on a professional device or through a ‘Bring Your Own Device’ program, to: 

• Connect employees to the company’s platform and tools wherever they are;
• Pass on important information (whether strategic or crisis and security) – combined with a notification system for urgent matters;
• Foster horizontal and informal collaboration between employees, with work chat as easily accessible as personal messaging system; 
• Maintain uninterrupted feedback loop and connection opportunities. 
   

“Frontline workers might be deskless, but they should definitely not be voiceless. We have more than 27,000 employees globally, and we can’t afford to have any team disconnected. Everyone should be able to join the conversation with ease. We were happy to work with LumApps to shape and test the development of this application, bringing a smooth digital workplace experience to our frontliners.

— Claire Schauch, Group Organization Development & Communication Director, FM Logistic 

Employee Expectation #4: Relevant information 

In a world of growing complexity, employees want relevant, personalized content that answers their precise expectations. Depending on their status, role, or location, they will have different needs and requests, and communication teams have to adapt to them. 

According to Lemonly, 71% of employees don’t read or engage with company emails or content, mostly because they don’t feel it’s relevant to them. So you’ll have to find ways to personalize content so people find it relevant, engage, and interact with it. 

For example, you cannot speak to an HR manager working remotely in Europe the same way you speak to a developer in an Indian office, or a sales person traveling the world. Instead, you need targeted, relevant messaging and interactions, and timed delivery. 

With LumApps Campaigns, we can help you deliver the right information to the right people at the right time, based on data insights. LumApps Campaigns nurtures and aligns your workforce with targeted media-rich messaging and timed delivery in the relevant channels of your choice. It’ll ensure you can plan communications strategically, talk to the right audience, and meet your employees where they are through multi-channel broadcasts. 

Employee Expectation #5: Work-life balance and flexibility

The pandemic reshuffled the deck when it comes to work-life balance. People are expecting more and more flexibility, whether on how work affects their life, but also on how personal life mingles with work. 

They want to be able to choose their work conditions and framework from a timing and/or location perspective: and according to Gartner research, this demand continues to increase year over year.  

They also want to be able to bring personal life to work if they need, or want to: this goes from arranging schedules to reinforcing social bonds within the workspace, and even creating personal connections. 

What you can do about it: Improve day-to-day support 

HR and IT questions are often seen as an administrative nightmare for employees; frequent misunderstanding and delays can really hinder productivity. It is important to automate HR & IT support help desks as much as possible to reduce the time spent by every team and address questions in a comprehensive and relevant way. A resource center and well-thought FAQ can also help reduce unanswered questions.

LumApps Digital Assistant is a built-in tool that intelligently guides employees in their IT, HR, or operations-related requests and seamlessly initiates automated processes, such as reminders, enabling organizations to reduce operating costs and your workforce to focus on their mission-critical activities.

In summary, not listening to employee expectations can have significant costs for organizations. So, what actions should you take to create the conditions for a connected, efficient and happy workforce? 

Employee Engagement

Time to start or overhaul an engagement strategy? Capitalize on Employee Engagement Opportunities.

For employees to feel valued across the organization, it will take a concerted effort on your part. If it’s time to re-think your strategy for an employee-first organization, here are our recommendations for best practices: 

1. Align on strategy  

Communicating every change, direction, and initiative is key to building trust and engagement with employees. 

Beyond targeted communication of key news through the digital workplace hub, your first lever to explain and drive change will be the management team. Indeed, recent communications trends show that 3 in 4 employees see effective communications as the one leadership attribute. Communication from leaders is always impactful because it directly relates to the company’s vision, mission and ability to embrace change.
 

2. Video is your new best friend

A recent study revealed that 67% of employees are better at completing tasks when communicated by video or text with images. What’s more, approximately 65% of the population are visual learners, so it’s likely most of your employees are too. 

Video is indeed the perfect tool for telling stories and engaging people; it brings emotion and helps build relationships. Using on-demand video for example, you can empower your teams through easily accessible educational or strategic content. You can also involve motivated employees to contribute by becoming video creators themselves, boosting user-generated content. LumApps Play simplifies secure video handling and optimizes consumption with transcript, captioning, and device-agnostic functionality that can be accessed from anywhere. 

3. Boost employee recognition

As expected, it’s really important to give everyone a voice. Employee recognition is an essential component of a healthy, inclusive and productive work environment

Implementing a feedback loop and a real two-way conversation with employees can mainly be triggered by asking open questions and calling for suggestions: 
You can leverage a platform to introduce survey tools and open feedback collection
You can involve employees in internal communication and make them your own ambassadors 
You can use different spaces and communities to target and segment discussions

Also, spend time highlighting the strengths of your culture and values, involving your employees, and communicate them broadly. Once defined, use your shared purpose to create meaning and a sense of belonging. A common goal is always a strong lever of connection. Social communities, sometimes outside of work topics, are also pivotal to engage. 

We would love to know more about your goals. How can we help?