Employee engagement: What your startup should continue to focus on in 2024 and beyond

Since March 2020, we have seen major shifts in the employment market. Many organizations had to pause, adjust their original workforce plans and manage through a global pandemic with no playbook. During this time, from a social and societal perspective, the world woke up to face the ongoing brutality and injustices faced by marginalized people. This awareness bled into the workplace. Companies could no longer stay silent on these issues and there was a mass implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

More recently, the country continues to manage through economic downturns. The cost-of-living crisis has affected talent at all levels. Canadians are grappling with increases in the housing market and unjustifiable increases to the cost of food, as well as the Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, the rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), remote and hybrid work, and back-to-office mandates. At the pinnacle of these challenges are increased calls from the workforce for more flexibility from their employers.

As the list of changes to the way we work continues to grow, leaders must find a way to manage and keep employees engaged while still driving healthy and profitable bottom lines. Founders should keep in mind that employee engagement has often been linked to better company performance with reported increases to ROI. Supporting this claim is a report from the Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR): Measuring ROI of Employee Engagement. AIHR cites Gallup’s analysis on high performing organizations and states that companies with high employee engagement show an increase in productivity by 17%, profits by 21%, and sales by 20%. Some of the other benefits include higher customer satisfaction, lower absenteeism as well as lower turnover. When employees are engaged, they perform at their best and the payoff could be endless for your organization.

What follows is a spotlight on four key elements to drive employee engagement in your organization.

Trust and GenAI

In a list of five workplace culture trends for companies to watch in 2024, Great Place to Work placed trust at the top. When scaling as a startup, it is important that employees buy into your vision and mission and believe in your products, services and their impact to the world. Trust is foundational to this belief, and buy-in from your employees is key to building your employment value proposition.

Meanwhile, we live and work in an ever-changing environment where AI is being adopted at a rapid pace. According to Forbes, ChatGPT has gained just under 200 million users since it launched in late 2022. GenAI is now an important asset for most organizations and employers must quickly adapt these systems, keep pace with changes and find ways to use this technology ethically and transparently to continue to build trust with their employees.

For example, multitasking founders can sometimes find themselves managing processes, such as recruitment and selection, that are typically done by recruitment and human resources professionals. Some may use GenAI to simplify and reduce inefficiencies in talent attraction procedures. However, users of GenAI must bear in mind that there are still ethical requirements to uphold.

When using generative AI, it is crucial to align your processes with the legal and ethical standards that are considerate of privacy laws and human rights practices. Since this may not be your area of expertise, you are encouraged to seek resources to help you stay within the framework of the employment legal system as well as ensuring that you are trained on the proper and ethical use of GenAI within your organization. This way, employees will see you upholding the foundation of trust throughout your organization.

Leadership Development

As the work landscape has evolved to focus on more inclusivity and social betterment, so too should your leadership development training. Leaders are being challenged to adjust their styles and approaches in response to employees’ demands for flexibility and social involvement stemming from increased economic and political pressures.

E-learning and blended learning are becoming standard approaches to training. Leaders can accommodate this shift by changing the way they coach and train their employees to ensure that they are reaching people in a nontraditional classroom or office setting. Companies should not lose focus on upskilling their leaders to give them the necessary tools to combat these shifts. According to an article by Kim Garmany in Coaching 4 Good, businesses feel a leadership skill gap still exists in a large number of firms. This gap will not only impact their immediate employee base, but it will also affect their ability to sustain and propel their organization.

As a startup founder it is often difficult to imagine taking time away from day-to-day responsibilities for leadership development, let alone absorbing the cost of such investments. However, it is important to remember that early investment into your company’s culture is a continuous investment in your employee engagement goals. Leaders being able to communicate effectively with their employees to drive productivity and employee engagement is crucial to the success of any business. According to Haiilo (formerly Smarp), a cloud-based employee communication and advocacy platform, three out of four workers believe that the most crucial attribute of a leader is open and effective communication.

Flexibility

Over the past couple of years employees have advocated for more flexibility in how and where they work. According to Kate Lister, President of Global Workplace Analytics, “If you want to keep your people, you need to find ways to accommodate them.” This has been a hard pill for employers to swallow; however, we can now see that hybrid work is here to stay.

Startups should bear in mind that flexibility does not mean changes to performance goals and objectives, or that work will go uncompleted. Work will get done, but it may not always be done at your work site or during the set pre-pandemic work hours. You can be flexible while keeping firm on the expectations set out for your employees. A recent ADP survey revealed that 64% of workers would consider a job change if asked to return to the office full-time. Some leaders still believe that face time in the office, water cooler connects, ad hoc networking and in-person mentoring are the only ways to grow in an organization. In-office visibility does not equate to high performance. Instead, leaders are challenged to find ways to prioritize connecting with all employees in person or not. Having flexibility helps to increase employee engagement and support employee well-being while encouraging a work-life balance.

DEI Still Matters

While recent world events have caused many organizations to take stock of their own biases in hiring, promoting, training, coaching and mentoring talent, the implementation of DEI initiatives appears to have slowed down. In 2023, multi-nationals Meta, Tesla, Home Depot and Wayfair cut their DEI teams by 50% according to Revelio Labs. Several companies have also reported a decline in diverse hires across the globe.

These kinds of actions impact your team’s engagement. For DEI programs to work, they must be tied to your overall business objectives and company performance. Senior-level accountability is paramount to the success of DEI programs, as these programs will not work if they are solely bottoms-up initiatives. Most startup workers are multi-generational and come from diverse backgrounds. DEI is not a start-and-stop initiative; it is ongoing to the life cycle of your organization and the people within it.

Startups must ensure that they develop plans that work for their organization and that all employees at all levels are trained on the importance of DEI. There are excellent guides to aid startups in their DEI journeys, including the Employers Council’s Employer’s Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategy as well as CCDI’s toolkit to support an organization’s DEI implementation goals. Using the proper guides and resources will ensure your DEI plans are focused on driving an equitable, fair and engaging workforce.

The needs of employees have evolved. The decision to transform your organization into one where employees are engaged and excited to come to work will be a competitive advantage for you in the fight for talent. It is up to you as a leader to keep track of what engages your employees, make the necessary adjustments to your strategies and uphold the vital elements of your organization’s culture.