You know friends, culture and engagement are impacted by many factors. And while it’s true that knowing the company vision and purpose is important, and understanding the company values and having meaningful work goes a long way, there is one thing that trumps all this.
It’s the idea of belonging. I feel that if employees feel like they truly belong, their engagement will naturally be high.
And what does belonging look like?
It’s when you walk through the door, or you go to a virtual meeting, at least one person is genuinely happy to see you. There is a fond greeting, with a huge smile. A genuine hey it’s great to see you, how are you?
Think about it friends. The long running TV show Cheers had it right all along.
Sometimes you wanna go
Where everybody knows your name
And they’re always glad you came…
So, if you want to build a great culture, make it so that everybody has that one person who is there for them.
- Encourage your people to form connections with others
- Give a gift voucher to a team member for coffee for two people.
- Put your team member up for training, and invite them to take along a plus 1.
- When you see a team member spending time chatting with another team member, acknowledge it, and encourage it. And in your 1:1 appreciate this. Tell team member A that you are grateful that they are looking after team member B.
This is how people feel they belong, friends. They are some place where they feel there is at least one person who genuinely cares about them.
Do you feel like you belong?
#workplace
