Developing a corporate culture and connecting staff with it through multiple ‘micro-moments’ of engagement can help rebuild much of the employee loyalty that may have been lost through the pandemic. To download a PDF of the round table supplement, CLICK HERE.
That was one of the key messages from speakers at a Corporate Adviser briefing on wellbeing and corporate culture held in partnership with YuLife last month.
Speaking at the event, YuLife head of broker distribution Barry Waring said that digital interactions or touchpoints can be used to gauge employee wellbeing, measure experience and help build the corporate culture. These experiences, which he described as ‘micro-moments’, can play a role in attracting and retaining talent in the new hybrid working environment in which employees, not employers, often now hold the strongest cards.
Four pillars
Waring split culture into four pillars: mission, values, people, and benefits. Businesses need to look across these four aspects, he said. He also pointed out the sound business reasons for doing so. A strong culture can help businesses be more flexible, allowing their staff to adapt to changing circumstances — something that has been vital over the last two years, he argued.
This has the potential to not only enhance employee wellbeing, but also allow businesses to be more competitive in changing and evolving markets.
Waring pointed to recent research conducted by YuLife that shows the vital role that corporate culture has to play when it comes to the recruitment and retention of staff. The survey found that 65 per cent of employees believe a good corporate culture is one of the reasons for staying in their current job. It also found 33 per cent of adults said an unappealing organisational culture would lead to them passing on what would otherwise be an ideal job opportunity.
Talent war
As Waring pointed out, these figures should ring alarm bells for employers — particularly in today’s economic climate, where many businesses are struggling to recruit the right employees.
“There could be employers that won’t get those best-in-class employees because of the culture.”
When it comes to job satisfaction, YuLife’s data shows 56 per cent of adult employees feel a good organisational culture is more important than pay. Employee benefits have a key role to play in this, with 69 per cent saying they would pick one employer over another if it offered superior benefits.
Benefits not only help with staff recruitment and retention, they also can help support productivity levels. Waring quoted figures showing that 39 per cent of people who are happy in their jobs stating that being happy drives them to work more.
Given these results he said it is not hard to see why many HR and reward professionals are prioritising wellbeing strategies, and see this as being a key way to underpin a good working culture. This, he said, should help open doors for advisers and be a good starting point for conversation about offering or extending a range of employee benefits.
Wellbeing priority
“So 99 per cent of HR and reward professionals believe that 2022 is the year that wellbeing is the priority. This feels like a statistic which can only help support the conversations [advisers are] having with clients, because fundamentally, that’s a huge number.”
Over the last two years, workplace engagement has transformed as a result of the Covid pandemic, and subsequent lockdowns. The switch to remote working and the far greater use of digital technology has changed the way employers interact with their employees — and the way employees interact with each other.
Without this digital connectivity this can lead to a drop in employee engagement. But there are also negative consequences to our increasing reliance on digital communication methods. One consequence of this has been ‘digital fatigue’ with latest figures from Ofcom suggesting that people last year spent 40 per cent of their time on a screen.
According to Waring, this has led to a need for management support and in some cases intervention, be it checking for staff burn-out or ensuring mental health is not jeopardised by an over-reliance on screens.
But this digital revolution has also transformed how employees communicate with their employees, and the way they deliver wellbeing strategies.
“Campaigns are now run digitally. We find that within organisations, they’ll have dedicated reward and wellbeing specialists placed inside these businesses. They’re held in much greater regard. It’s no longer just ‘fluffy’ stuff, such as yoga at lunchtime. It’s a lot broader than that, for example covering mental health awareness initiatives,” said Waring.
Digital connections
Charles Cotton, senior adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) adds: “Many of these micro-moments are created through line managers, so they need to be supported and developed so that they can respond appropriately to these moments.”
Waring added that the range of added-value benefit that come with many group risk products — be it an EAP, a virtual GP or interactive reward tools — can provide important ‘touchpoints’, connecting employer with employee, and helping to build a sense of trust in the business. Digital tools like these can help foster team building initiatives, and create a sense of inclusion as well as promoting healthier lifestyles which can boost productivity.
Waring said: “These micro-moments essentially drive a sense of culture. It is an overall barometer of whether it is a healthy culture and workplace or an unhealthy culture and workplace. But businesses have the power to manage, drive and positively affect experience.”
Many of the advisers attending the event agreed that these ancillary benefits were particularly valued in workforces that had adopted remote or hybrid working patterns.
But while many employees have embraced the flexibility offered by homeworking, advisers pointed out that this was not universal and many would be looking to return to offices in the near future. Advisers said it was important for wellbeing strategies to be flexible, and reflects the needs of both groups of workers.
Return to office
Iain Laws, CEO at Towergate Health & Protection said it was important that benefits reflected the needs of those working from home during the pandemic. But he said a growing number will be looking to return to the office. This has been reflected in his organisation’s own workforce.
He said: “We started to introduce and respond to the need for flexibility in our hybrid model last year, which we ran successfully for two months before the Plan B lockdown. Employees like having the choice, but what took us by surprise though was how many people said they’d actually like to be in the office four or five days a week.”
He said issues like rising fuel prices might accelerate this trend, with the cost of heating the home all day borne by the employee. He said: “It’s all about the leadership of the organisation and being visible and transparent. Those running the company need to set the tone and culture.”
Diversity and inclusion
Wellbeing strategies need to embrace more than just where people are working. Consultants at the event pointed out that issues of diversity and inclusion are a key factor in the development of corporate culture and as such should be an important part of any discussion around benefits and wellbeing.
Buck senior consultant Sarah Brannan said: “Having leadership that understands the diversity of their workforce and can actually appreciate all these different perspectives is going to be key. I think the culture piece is getting more and more important to people as we’re recruiting.” She said that the workplace cultures needs to be inclusive — and these issues of culture are as important as core benefits and salary.
For employers one of the benefits of remote working is that it has enabled companies to attract employees for a wider geographical pool. This has been a benefit to both job seekers, and employers.
Keith Bale head of distribution at Yulife said: “One of the positive changes was that we ended up having a much wider talent pool because before everybody was in London every single day. Now we are in a more of a flexible working environment we’ve ended up being a kind of a global pool for talent. Almost half of our employees have a tech-based background and it’s enabled us to find the best talents we possibly could find, whereas before it was 100 per cent in London and the surrounding area.”
But employees working from multiple locations now face a variety of problems, including physical wellbeing challenges. Employers must support collaboration, teamwork, health, and productivity, and provide a quality environment, but this has proven difficult according to industry experts.
Waring said: “If we can give people the gateway to these health and wellbeing tools, we can actually start to prevent things by seeing them early.”
Chris Evans director at Gallagher said: “The pandemic has pushed wellbeing firmly up the corporate agenda. There is recognition that people really are the most important asset in every organisation and you can’t take them for granted any longer.” However he admits that some businesses are “further ahead on the curve than others” when it comes to both recognising and acting on this fact.
Those attending the debate agreed that it wasn’t necessarily a case of larger corporates being ahead of SMEs, much depends on an individual employers’ outlook.
For or against
Gary Briggs, owner of BriggsFiscal and treasurer at the trade body Group Risk Development highlighted the fact that the companies that are pressing ahead with their wellbeing programmes are the ones engaging with employees and embracing the changes, rather than those who still have a “very old-fashioned attitude”.
Karen Gittings senior corporate benefits consultant at LEBC group agreed, although she said some SMEs lag behind when it comes to recognising and communicating their own corporate values.
She said: “Some SMEs probably haven’t even got too much of an idea when it comes to ‘corporate value’. They just know there’s been a big change since the pandemic, and they know that they want to get the best return on their benefits spend.
“So we’re very keen to promote all of the additional services that are available, as it’s proven that it increases engagement, and can help create a positive sense of corporate culture.”
She said line managers have a big role to play when it comes to promoting these different benefits.
These ancillary benefits are particularly attractive to many SMEs, who with a far smaller number of employees may not claim as frequently on a group risk policy.
Waring said this has been particularly true since the pandemic, with many clients putting a greater emphasis on employee support programmes, virtual GPs and education options.
He said one of the challenges for the industry remains how to grow the SME market. “If we can have these in-depth conversations with clients, can we get to a space where we change the way the product looks and feels so that it suits that market?”
This he said will be one of the challenges facing advisers and providers in the years ahead, as the industry looks to meet the wellbeing challenge that has been created by the pandemic.