In this series we tackle the thorniest questions facing business leaders today.
“I’m good at hiring — my startup seems to have no problem attracting bright candidates with a promising future. The problem is, they don’t always stay. I want to keep my staff engaged and committed to working here for the long haul. What am I missing?”
— Bemused in Burlington
Dear Bemused,
Back in the heady dotcom-bubble days, there was a simple answer to that question: Make your workplace fun!
For most startups, that meant leaning into free snacks, bean bag chairs and foosball tables — a deluge of perks that haunts many employers when they consider how to engage their staff.
But times have changed, says PocketHR founder Aamna Coskun, who helps early-stage businesses build positive, engaging workplace cultures. Given the volatility of today’s economy, most prospective employees aren’t making job decisions based on cereal dispensers and axe-throwing outings.
They’re looking for a place of employment where they can develop skills and advance their careers.
To be sure, says Coskun, “fun isn’t going away completely.”
Entry-level staff (Gen Zs in particular) tend to be keen on team-building exercises, since they’re at a career stage where they benefit from expanding their workplace connections. Thoughtful collaborative activities (an in-house filmmaking contest or volunteering in the community, for instance) can help junior team members build relationships with more senior colleagues.
However, as Coskun explains, more foundational initiatives are necessary to engage and retain employees in the long term.
Be clear and direct about expectations
Startup life isn’t always predictable — staff and organizational changes happen; pivots are a matter of course. But even deeply engaged employees can be rattled by shifts that create confusion about their core roles.
“I talk to so many people who say they don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing at work,” Coskun says. “A lot of them find their responsibilities have been expanded beyond what they signed on for because there’s been a layoff or a unit restructured. They feel a bit lost.”
Smaller course corrections such as revised revenue targets or modified recruitment goals can cause uncertainty, too.
Smart leaders make sure to clearly map out expectations as they evolve and take steps to develop employees’ skills so they’re able to meet new objectives.
As Coskun explains, any major shift within a company should be followed by two levels of communication: first in a group setting to ensure everyone hears a consistent message and understands the “why” behind the change, and then in one-on-one check-ins to clarify how each person’s role and priorities will be affected.
What managers shouldn’t do is assume that a single announcement or Slack message will suffice, she says. Silence or vague updates tend to create more confusion than clarity.
Assess your team’s “durable” skills
Hard skills such as computer programming or copy writing are easy to cite on a CV.
But durable skills (or soft skills, as they used to be known) such as adaptability, innovation and high-level execution are harder to quantify, and in today’s ever-shifting market, they’re becoming especially valuable. When recruiting or making key personnel decisions, it can be challenging to get a fulsome sense of a potential hire’s range of strengths.
Online platforms like Plum use psychometric information to assess aptitudes, competencies and behaviours, enabling employers to identify promising candidates for new roles and opportunities. If you’re looking to fill a position internally — say you’re trying to identify someone with leadership potential — this is the “missing data” you need to make a fully informed decision, says Plum CEO Caitlin MacGregor.
Employees can also use the individual profiles Plum generates through its 20-minute questionnaire-based evaluation to get a sense of their own strengths and areas where they could improve.
Build flexibility into office culture
Like it or not, COVID-19 changed the Canadian workplace.
Employees became accustomed to working remotely, and many businesses are finding that it isn’t easy to turn the calendar back to the pre-pandemic era of five days in the office.
Many large corporate employers and major Canadian financial institutions have begun clamping down on remote work, but Coskun says it’s risky to completely eliminate that option. Most employees want companies to offer at least some flexibility around when and where they work.
Hybrid arrangements, a combination of at-home and remote work, can offer the best of both worlds.
Toronto cleantech startup Carbonhound, for instance, gives staff the choice to work from home every Friday. And throughout the year, team members are entitled to two “work from anywhere” weeks, during which they can perform their duties from the comfort of their home — or the sun-baked warmth of a beach house in February.
CEO Sanders Lazier says the policy is popular, and employees have used it to extend a vacation or continue working while visiting family in far-off locations like Portugal and Peru.
“The happiest employees tend to be the ones who have options,” Coskun says. “When you offer flexibility, it’s a signal that you trust an employee who’s saying, ‘Oh, my kid is sick so I need to stay home.’ If you offer your employees trust, they’ll trust you.”
Flexibility can come in other forms as well.
A health spending account, for instance, allows employees to make their own choices about how health-related benefits will be used.
Employers may also want to consult resources like Sprout Family, which works with companies to build inclusive fertility and parenthood options into benefits programs, since as Coskun notes, more and more workers are interested in accessing family-building support.
Cultivate a culture of recognition
If you’ve got a box full of branded golf tees or an umbrella emblazoned with a giant company logo gathering dust in your closet, you’ve likely participated in a mode of corporate recognition that’s become outdated.
Such programs aim to recognize accomplishments with tangible rewards: high-performing staff earn points for hitting recruitment targets or closing big sales, and those points can be redeemed for branded merchandise.
Employees aren’t interested in random items that lack connection to the work they’re doing, Coskun says.
Instead, it’s important to find meaningful ways to build recognition into corporate culture, such as taking time in a staff meeting to single out employees for specific efforts, or commending their work in an office memo.
Coskun suggests that managers seize opportunities during one-on-one conversations as well. A simple comment like, “I really appreciated your contribution the other day” can go a long way toward boosting morale and commitment.
Coskun once worked in an office with an internal communication channel specifically designed for internal recognition.
“People would post messages like, ‘Thanks so much for helping me with this!’ and name a person. It’s easy to do, and it really made a difference.”
Are you a business leader with a conundrum? Write to us at [email protected].
