The key to providing all your team members with the opportunity to thrive in your organization is ensuring an equitable employee experience. In other words, you must do everything you can to ensure every employee is happy with the work environment and willing to invest whatever effort is required.
But what can you do to facilitate that? Simple. Build a culture that revolves around the aspects we’ve outlined below. Remember, the world is changing drastically. If your organization doesn’t re-imagine the work experience, it’ll leave you in the dust.
1. Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity is an asset. And when your organization brings employees with different characteristics and traits into the picture, creativity and innovation levels spike. Plus, as research has already proven, compared to non-diverse teams, diverse ones make better decisions 87% of the time.
Valuing diversity in the workplace goes hand in hand with inclusion. That means making every team member feel appreciated, involved, and supported regardless of their positions or, most importantly, who they are.
To optimize diversity and inclusion in your workplace, start by familiarizing yourself with unconscious bias. Then, show your team members why managing bias is critical. You can also earnestly acknowledge elements like different cultural holidays and traditions.
2. Hybrid Work
Since the pandemic, companies have embraced different models and practices, hybrid work among them. This concept refers to a model that lets employees work in the office, remotely, or on the go. Simply put, with hybrid work, your team members can choose where and how to work based on productivity.
Hybrid work ensures employees have a better work-life balance and mitigates burnout. Also, depending on individual needs, it promotes fairness in work experiences and provides equal opportunities for everyone to perform optimally, despite individual circumstances.
3. Pay and Position
Pay and position can affect employee productivity. So if workers receive fair compensation, their morale and efficiency increase. In other words, reasonable wages are key to optimum productivity.
But besides increasing the wage rate, you should also focus on the experience. Why? When workers enjoy their jobs, they are more likely to invest themselves willingly and work harder. For that reason, measuring and enhancing employee experience is a necessity, not an option.
You should consider gender equality as you assign pay and position. Remember, wage gaps are among the culprits that undermine employee retention rates and overall productivity.
4. Managed Expectations
Team leaders should set achievable goals for their members and set realistic timelines. That will help ensure everyone is focused and moving in a thought-out direction.
But without attainable goals, your company will go nowhere fast.
After setting goals, managers and other leaders should communicate them to the workers precisely. All team members should be present while communication is underway because that is the surest way to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Finally, team leaders should center their efforts around flexible schedules. The secret is you should develop flexible schedules that allow employees to execute tasks and meet expectations. But don’t provide uncapped flexibility because it might undermine your ability to manage team members.
5. Burnouts
According to a recent study, women are more susceptible to burnout than their counterparts because they are less likely to get promotions. That means women toil more in positions with less authority and face higher levels of frustration and stress, especially in male-dominated occupations.
That said, burnout can affect employees of any gender. And the likelihood of your workers falling victim to this issue can reach unmanageable levels when your team members lack the autonomy to tweak aspects like their workloads or schedules.
Several solutions can help you mitigate burnout in the workplace, more so when women are involved. First, give every team member a fair shot at advancement. Your organization can also create a network of well-being “coaches” and encourage employees to use them whenever they feel stressed or overwhelmed.
Also, encourage your workers to set boundaries and find time to play. That will help them avoid unnecessary burnout, especially when your organization is dealing with massive workloads.
Are You Ready?
Ensuring an equitable employee experience sets up your organization for success. Investing in heightened diversity and multiculturalism can help you attain it. The same applies when you adopt models like hybrid work and use effective practices to mitigate burnout. Most importantly, prioritize fairness and equal opportunities.