Three Keys to Drive Engagement & Retention for Your Hybrid Workforce
Jessica Miller-Merrell | HR
| ByWhile the COVID-19 pandemic may be slowly nearing its end, it looks like one of its side effects – the hybrid workforce – is here to stay. This probably comes as no surprise to you. After all, there are many benefits to keeping a blended staff of remote and in-person employees even in non-pandemic times.
However, another COVID-related development may have blindsided you. It’s called the great resignation, and it’s just what it sounds like: employees are handing in their resignations left, right, and center.
Three Keys to Drive Engagement & Retention for Your Hybrid Workforce
It may be counterintuitive, but it’s true. Instead of hanging on to their jobs for dear life amid a global health crisis, a whopping four million U.S. workers left their jobs in April 2021 alone, causing vacancies to peak at a record 20-year high. What these figures suggest is that keeping your current employees happy is becoming more important than ever.
How to Boost Employee Engagement and Retention
Looking for ways to increase employee engagement and retention? Here are our top three tips:
1. Get Serious About Employee Relationship-Building
Chances are your employees have been through a lot of stress and challenges since the beginning of the pandemic. To ensure they feel seen and understood, it’s essential to build empathic and trusting relationships.
To that end, leaders should take the time to get to know their employees, not just online but in real life too. It’s also important to acknowledge their contribution and hard work both publicly and privately.
2. Provide Employee Perks
A corporate benefit perk program that can be customized to your employees, their unique lifestyle needs, and personal preferences can do a lot for your engagement and retention rates.
Just consider this – according to Abenity’s 2021 perks report:
· 60% of employees say benefits were a major reason they joined their current company.
· Employer-provided discounts on things such as travel, retail, and entertainment can increase employee disposable income by more than $4,500.
It’s no wonder, then, that 55% of employers already include corporate perks and discounts in their benefits package. If you don’t join their ranks, you may risk falling behind your competitors.
3. Schedule Time to Listen to Your Employees
Showing your employees that you value their opinions and care about their experiences can be critical to keeping them engaged.
With this in mind, be proactive and block out time slots to discuss each employee’s career goals, aspirations, and any challenges they face, both at and outside of work. Don’t forget to also ask them about any suggestions for improvements or other ideas they may have — and consider implementing their feedback where possible.
Client Success Stories
Abenity’s corporate perks program has been incredibly successful in helping our clients increase employee engagement and retention. Here’s what they have to say:
“Abenity’s focus on local offers paired with their location-aware technology makes it easy for our employees to access corporate discounts in their own communities.”
Bill, Human Resources at a Major U.S. Bank ~ 70,000 employees
“Abenity’s discounts are very real, and they provide our members with significant savings on local, travel, and entertainment services. As a long-term customer, we continue to see our utilization grow, and Abenity’s ongoing participation stats help us to better engage our members with other Union Plus-provided benefits.”
Keith, Union Privilege, ~ 13 million eligible members
Keep Your Hybrid Workforce Engaged to Make Them Stay
There’s no two ways about it: managing a hybrid workforce can be challenging at times. The good news is that investing in a great corporate perks program can make all the difference to your employee engagement and retention rates.
Hey Jessica,
That was a mind blowing post!
I just love how you express yourself in such simple words. I totally agree that employee benefits are a need of the hour and they play a massive role in driving engagement & retention for the hybrid workforce.
could you please elaborate on what benefits can we offer to the remote employees?
Hey Jessica,
I just love how you express yourself in such simple words. I totally agree that employee benefits are a need of the hour and they play a massive role in driving engagement & retention for the hybrid workforce.
could you please elaborate on what benefits can we offer to the remote employees?
Hi Jessica, great tips, The information in this article is very helpful to me. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Happy to share. Thank you for reading!
JMM