- Does your company lack communication and innovative ideas from its employees? Incorporating employee-centric culture may be the solution.
- Companies with an employee-centric culture are surrounded by employees who take pride in the business and who feel valued and encouraged to make suggestions.
- There are many benefits for companies with an employee-centric culture, including increased productivity, the ability to attract top-notch talent and more.
Many employees report feeling disengaged at work, meaning that they are just getting by in order to collect a paycheck or they just absolutely hate working for their company.
Though the statistic may sound surreal, is it really that hard to believe?
If you go around a large enterprise that has an old-school, bureaucratic system set in place, would you expect a larger number of the employees to be satisfied with their position?
What's worse is that some of the better-performing employees are disengaged at work, causing them to burnout or look for positions at other companies.
A solution to disengagement
As we are well immersed in the era of the quantifiable employee in which employees can be measured and improved, human resources departments are looking into platforms that provide people analytics to engage their best employees.
This reinvention of human resources departments asks that we stop eliminating low performers or dissatisfied employees and, instead, seek ways to engage them.
For a company to see where their disengagement problems lie, they must look at three things:
- Current turnover rates
- Overall employee engagement levels
- If their employees have the ability to grow within their role
The turnover rate typically goes hand in hand with engagement level and job satisfaction. This correlation proves that there is a big return on investment for engaged employees.
Many companies understand the benefits of a great company culture, what it brings to an office and how it affects employee happiness. The solution to creating an employee-centric office is simply finding out weaknesses, addressing them and coming up with solutions. It is easier said than done, which is why it is beneficial to include your employees so they have a voice during the analysis stage. The role of management and HR during the fact-finding stage is to manage the initiative and respond to any requests.
This completely goes against the usual "management is always right" approach, and it may sound radical, but companies promoting this kind of creative autonomy are the ones that are considered progressive and forward-thinking.
What defines an employee-centric culture?
An employee-centric culture is an environment where ideas, creativity, free-flowing communication and innovation are encouraged throughout an organization. Employees in a centric company culture feel safe to make suggestions and challenge the inner workings they may feel are interfering with productivity and performance.
Employees also have a connection with their team and organization as well as have a strong, secure sense of identity at work. Centric employees have a stake in and take pride in the business. This is made possible because challenges and ideas are both received positively, which allows the employees to feel valued, respected and that there is an opportunity to grow in the company.
Benefits of an employee-centric culture
Employees are the backbone of a business, so encouraging a positive work experience is crucial for the growth of your company. An employee-centric culture allows you to give more to your employees, without risking significant costs to the company. Building a plan that is designed with the best interests of your employees in mind may not only save you money, but it may increase your profits. Some benefits of employee-centric culture may include the following:
- Increase in productivity. Simply put, happiness creates productivity; when your employees are happy, they pay attention to whether or not their input is being accepted, which encourages them to be more invested in their job. When your employees are happy and content, it shows in their level of productivity.
- Employee strength and qualities are matched to the task at hand. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your employees allows you to match them to a task they are better suited for, which ultimately improves team commodity and performance.
- Attract top talent. Companies that offer good benefits attract superior talent. Even companies that offer less pay but encourage employee ideas, suggestions and challenges can attract workers who are more likely to stay loyal to your business and put 100% into their work, because they feel invested with the company.
How to create an employee-centric workplace
After measuring the overall level of engagement, next, you need to have an action plan set up to create an employee-centric work environment.
Your analysis will expose common patterns and issues across one or many departments. Once you are able to identify those departments and the common complaints employees have about or within those departments, come up with a strategy.
Sometimes, you don't even need a tool or suggestion box to know that there are obvious flaws within the workplace. Whether it is some kind of tool, process, workflow or project that can be improved upon, analyze the best practices within other organizations and see if it is a good fit within yours. Creating an employee-centric workplace does not have to be complex, however, it should be based on data-driven observations and assumptions.
A company can improve by simply listening, taking action and letting their employees be people. Something as simple as giving employees the autonomy to make their own decisions and come up with their own projects can go a long way. Who knows what kind of workflows and unique concepts employees may bring to the table if they are given more autonomy.
Human resources is changing
The future of human resources is looking bright. Companies are becoming more data-driven, tech-friendly, and decisions are being based on employee feedback, as opposed to management calling all the shots.
Companies now have a lot of data that proves that employees are more productive than ever, however, they are investing in engagement because they recognize that employee satisfaction and health matter to companies – and not just their bottom line.