It's incredibly clear employees' perceptions of work have changed over the course of the pandemic, but keeping employees engaged was already a struggle for employers long before COVID hit. In a recent session at the SHRM Talent Conference, Christina Zurek, insights & strategy leader with ITA Group, explored how employers can better understand employees' needs and create a strategy to engage them. "In 2018, we were starting to hear about the war for talent that was coming," Zurek said. Her firm partnered with a research group to survey workers and find out what actually motivates and retains employees. They first surveyed employees in 2018, and then again in late 2021. "At the highest level, we confirmed all the dismal stats we'd been hearing. Almost half were interested in jobs at other companies, and 30% planned to leave within the next year. It feels bad now, but it was still bad back then." Based on the results, ITA developed its psychological benefits framework, or the needs that employees have that need to be fulfilled before they can be engaged and retained. It's divided into three categories:

• Functional benefits, or what the company is helping them accomplish or do personally or professionally ("Functional benefits are the cost of entry: you need them to get people to come, but they're almost never the reason they stay," Zurek noted.)
• Emotional benefits, or how an employee feels day-to-day for the work they do
• Identity benefits, or what does working at the company say about an individual and their values

This last set of benefits is the top driver of engagement and retention, according to ITA's research. "Taken together, the framework explains 70% of the variance in whether an employee engages or not," Zurek said. "When employees have these three categories met, they're three times more likely to be satisfied." ITA further identified six initiatives that are key to supporting this psychological benefits framework:

• Company communication
• Company-sponsored events
• Recognition Programs
• Incentive programs
• Professional dev programs
• Wellness programs

"This is nothing new, but the 'aha' moment was realizing how much people hated the programs that were already in place," Zurek said. "The best ways to engage employees weren't being executed properly." Zurek and her team took these same issues and asked workers again in 2021 about their engagement and satisfaction. They found, surprisingly, that performance was up across all six of their metrics. "But aren't we hearing nonstop how much people want to leave? That is also true. Interest in leaving is up considerably," she said. While engagement is up overall, once you start to delve into individual metrics and demographics, you start to see the points of weakness. One is based on tenure, Zurek said, pointing to what she called the "reality slump," or a point one to two years into an employees' tenure when they start to disengage. "It's blind to traditional demographics--every generation, level, income. People are struggling." There was also a discrepancy in the satisfaction of deskless vs. desk-based workers. "Deskless workers are less effectively having their needs met," Zurek said, noting one outlier. "Emotions for desk-based workers are much more volatile. Even though deskless workers aren't having their basic needs met, emotions are less affected." So what can employers do to engage their employees and mitigate turnover? Zurek offered up three areas of focus:

1. Enrich culture by improving the appeal and authenticity of mission and values

A company's mission and values are a key driver of employee engagement, particularly for younger generations. But companies can be doing a lot more to leverage this connection. "Do employees know what your mission and values are?" Zurek asked. "Do they think they're true? Does that drive them to be successful in their role?" It can be particularly hard to get deskless workers to see the impact of their contributions, Zurek noted. "We've been worried about those things all along. How do you maintain that sense of connection? It can be hard to get them to see how they contribute."

2. Embrace tenure-driven engagement slumps to circumvent the consequences

If employers know that employees are more likely to become disengaged at certain points in their careers, they can take steps to mitigate the issues. "Make sure your leaders are prepared to talk about them," Zurek said. "Train your managers to have stay conversations, be really good at recognition, know about other growth options that employees can do." Another key area to address is an employee's sense of purpose and self-esteem. "It's great that we're seeing so much talk about purpose, but it's an easy thing to talk about and hard to convey at an individual level," Zurek said. "The single best place to start is to make sure you're recognizing them. Have a plan to make it meaningful and relevant."

3. Keep enhancing your current initiatives--they matter

"Employees overall are much more satisfied than they were in 2018," Zurek reiterated. "What we're doing and what we worked so hard for is working. But we still have room to grow." As the needs of the workforce continue to evolve, an employer's engagement efforts must, as well. Zurek recommended a continuous improvement process based on ongoing employee feedback and leveraging data to understand the impact of the programs in place. "Make sure you're telling them along the way how you're collecting and using their feedback. That's how you build authenticity."

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