HDA SOCIAL

• 
• 
• 

HDA OVERVIEW
HDA Opinions & Articles

Engaging Employees in a Diverse Workforce - The 6 steps to success

In the last decade, with the continued expansion of the European Union, rapid growth of the Internet and the introduction of new labour laws; levels of employee diversity have grown significantly in the local market.  To remain successful in this new and changing environment, organisations require a greater understanding of the complexities of engaging and retaining a diverse workforce. 

Diversity refers to the host of individual differences and similarities that exist among people – including age, race, religion, gender, mental/physical abilities and sexual orientation.  Effectively managing diversity involves integrating the multitude of differences and similarities that exist within an organisation, while simultaneously recognising the value of individual differences and creating opportunity through these differences.

There are many tangible business benefits to employing a diverse workforce, including:

• A wider range of resources, skills, experience and ideas to tap into
• Building a reputation as an equal opportunities employer and thereby creating a wider pool of candidates to recruit from
• Enhancing the employer brand
• Greater reflection of the global community

However in order for these benefits to be realised employees must be suitably engaged with the organisation and there are often greater complexities involved in achieving this; for diversity inherently brings a wider variety of employee needs, motivators, values, and drivers.  With this in mind and in today’s world where the war for talent is rife, it is important for organisations to ensure that the key engagement motivators/drivers for their workforce are in place.

Historically, employers have focused principally on rewards in terms of pay and benefits when seeking to engage employees and build a successful employer brand.  Although these elements are important factors to consider, there are other elements, influenced by rising levels of diversity, that have more recently come to the fore – such as: company brand; career development opportunities; corporate social responsibility; supportive/inspirational leadership; work life balance; and organisational culture.  Understanding the importance of these factors in creating and sustaining a successful employer brand will in turn create competitive advantage for organisations operating in the current competitive labour market.

HDA recommends 6 steps to success to understanding, identifying and enhancing engagement drivers:

Understanding & Identifying…

A first step in understanding key motivators/drivers is to conduct an employee engagement survey.  By undertaking a survey of employees organisations are better-able to understand and compare employee engagement levels and identify areas for improvement.  It is important to establish the degree to which people across the organisation are ‘engaged’ with the objectives of the organisation, and the degree to which there are any specific factors, such as those listed above, which need to be managed to improve employee engagement levels.  HDA has developed the HDA 9-Box Matrix © Team engagement survey, which sets out to do just this. Results are used to establish potential employee engagement gaps across, for example, business units or even the organisation as a whole, in terms of the nine areas measured within the Team Engagement Framework ©.   The organisation must be committed to acting on the results of any engagement survey.  The survey should be about identifying manageable issues which can be constructively dealt with and not about measuring opinion, creating metrics, or creating benchmarks in the first instance. 

While undertaking the survey itself is value adding, it is equally important to first understand what diversity means to your organisation and as such, as part of any engagement survey workforce demographics should be measured.

As with all successful initiatives, senior management must be involved in the process and committed to effectively managing diversity and understanding the requirements of engaging a diverse workforce. If senior management fails to buy into the process, success can not be achieved.

Enhancing…

HDA has found that organizing work around teams is a valuable tool for enhancing and engaging employees, particularly those within a diverse workforce.  Teamwork involves working towards a common commitment, which encourages greater acceptance of differences and provides a channel for creating a greater understanding of the way in which individuals can work together to add value to the organisation.  It enables individuals to observe a connection between their results and the results of others, which in turn fosters cooperation, trust, and cohesiveness.  A sense of ‘we-ness’ tends to emerge that transcends individual differences and goals.  Employees often associate this feeling of cohesiveness with the organisation as a whole and are encouraged to remain with the organisation to continue to work toward a common goal – hence engagement levels are enhances and sustained through teamwork.

Finally, utilising the ‘right’ language for your organisation cultivates and sustains the desired organisational culture which in turn engages employees.  A key engagement factor for today’s workforce is ensuring that an organisation’s values and culture are the right ‘fit’ for them.  In order to achieve this, organisations must have clearly defined values and convey them in a believable way - this involves leaders that personify the values of your organisation and a culture that is reinforced in everything that your organisation does, including the language people use to communicate both internally and externally.

Summary

With rising levels of diversity and a continuously changing work environment, it appears that the 21st century employee will be influenced more by corporate social responsibility and career development opportunities than pay and benefits.  Talented employees will remain in criticaldemand and organisations will be forced to seek new and alternative means of engaging staff.   To succeed in this labour market, organisations must possess the flexibility to create opportunity through change.  By putting in place now the strategies that will support and enhance the development and performance of an increasingly diverse workforce, organisations will strengthen their ability to attract, retain and engage key talent in the future.

For further information: call 08452 60 95 40 or email info@hda.co.uk

To discuss potential HDA contributions, please contact us at email: info@hda.co.uk