Cultivating more human workplaces in 2023

Sharing inspiration to ring in the new year

As we look ahead to the coming year, it will be challenging as leaders. But we believe that by focusing on the fundamentals we can create engaging workplaces, be change agents, build trusting cultures, and grow our personal leadership skillsets.

At Cultivate, we’ve been inspired by quotes that remind us ways to create more human workplaces. We hope you enjoy a few of our thoughts and mantras as we ring in the new year!

Change begins with us 

“ Focus on things that are small enough to change but big enough to matter.”

– Kat Cole

How many times have we set out to improve a process or solve a problem and missed the mark? In a year that will be filled with outside distractions, make the biggest impact through the smallest changes. Don’t know where to start? Ask employees what small change they would make and watch the ideas pour in!

Culture is not words on a wall

“There’s no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated.”

– Richard Branson

Yes, there’s no magic formula. Guided by our People Helping People mindset, we’re good at setting member experience expectations aligned with our brand. Yet, there can be a lack of focus on aligning the employee experience with the best-in-class culture we want. One of our favorite questions when hosting employee listening sessions is, “what would you say about working here at a friend’s party?” Their first responses say it all!

 To build trust, start with communication

“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”

– Stephen Covey

Communication happens in every business and team setting. But to build a culture of trust, the communication must be effective. Reading information posted to an intranet or hearing updates at a quarterly town hall isn’t enough. Engage in two-way communication, use short videos to bring concepts to life, and lead with transparency (even when it’s tough!)

The future belongs to the learners

“Every day is a learning day.”

– Winston Marshall

Our world is changing, and evolving faster than ever – chat GBT, anyone?! The faster we learn, the greater the impact we’ll have on the lives of our employees, our members and communities we serve. A great way to make learning a priority is to set up a steady stream of content from a few sources you like. So, whether you prefer to learn by reading, listening, or watching, make space every day to explore new ideas. (… and don’t forget to share your learning with others!)

The end goal is deeper engagement

“People want purpose, meaning and gratitude. Purpose is shared, meaning is personal, and gratitude is the great connector.”

– Eric Mosely & Derek Irvine

We hear a lot about the current state of the workforce — frustration with old ways of working and a lack of connection, especially in hybrid environments. Connecting employees to our mission, to their managers and to each other can elevate work satisfaction. Give a greater sense of purpose, meaning and gratitude by encouraging 1:1 discussion centered around common goals, peer-to-peer feedback, and good old-fashioned conversation.

Client Spotlight: TDECU shares tips to launch a successful intranet

According to McKinsey, productivity levels increase by 20-25% when employees have access to social technologies like an intranet. However, the majority of companies are not making use of the full potential of these technologies.

We recently partnered with TDECU, a Texas-based credit union with 1,000+ employees, to launch a successful digital workplace designed for collaboration, communication and employee connection.

Read about our project below and learn how Unily’s intranet solution helped transform TDECU’s employee experience.

---

Maximize the value of your intranet

There is so much potential value that can come from having a successful intranet. Many enterprises are embarking on intranet modernization to transform the way their employees work together and help them succeed in a hybrid workplace. Gartner 2022 Predictions says, “digital workplace applications play a crucial role in enabling digital dexterity and shaping employee experience.” Productivity, efficiency and collaboration have been proven to increase when employees have access to a world-class intranet. However, building a successful intranet won’t just happen magically overnight. Planning, research, and teamwork need to go into making your platform the best it can be for your employees.

Knowing their old intranet was in desperate need of a refresh, TDECU came to Unily to transform it. It was outdated, not functional, and wasn’t providing the support its users really needed. Having just launched the updated platform, employees are infinitely happier.

Let’s take you on the Texas based credit union’s journey to building their new and improved intranet, in three steps:

#1. What do your employees need?

Before anything else, the first thing to do is figure out what you want to achieve with your intranet. It can serve many purposes, but to be truly successful in your own organization, it should cater specifically to your employees’ needs.

Create a roadmap from feedback

Collecting both qualitative and quantitative feedback from employees can help you discover what the main pain points are, which can provide the foundation for the design of the intranet. If you have an existing platform, looking at the engagement across the different areas on the platform can give you a good indication of how your employees are using it. If there are certain areas that aren’t receiving the traffic you want to see, this provides an opportunity for improvement. Exploring more than just metrics, Laura Whitley, VP of Communications at TDECU tells us about the start of their intranet refresh journey:

"We partnered with Cultivate to help us pin-point our major pain points and ensure we could solve them with a new digital workplace solution.”

Laura Whitley - VP of Communications at TDECU

After some digging, it became clear that one of the major problems the employees were faced with – particularly those that are member or customer facing – was not being able to access the documents and information that they needed. Being a credit union with various retail locations, many of the company’s employees deal directly with members and need to be able to bring up specific documents at the drop of a hat. They don’t have time to waste searching around to find what they need.

“We conducted employee listening sessions and shadowed our frontline teams to find out more about what they were using the intranet for, and what resources and access they needed."

Laura Whitley - VP of Communications at TDECU

Whitley explains how the previous platform wasn’t providing employees the access they needed: “It was impacting not only the employee experience, but it was also creating a poor member experience.” To better facilitate frontline employees to provide the best support and service for their customers, the intranet needed a facelift.

Encourage employee involvement from the start

Getting employee input early on is valuable for more than simply providing guidance and a jumping off point for an intranet transformation. Making them aware of the project and keeping them involved will create a sense of ownership and pique their interest before it’s even been launched. For TDECU, the comms team publicized the upcoming intranet through newsletters and updates on the old intranet as soon as they launched the project. They were also keen to get input from employees.

"We engaged early on with employees in terms of selection of the actual logo and name for the new intranet. We wanted to make it a fun, collaborative process where everyone could get involved."

Laura Whitley - VP of Communications at TDECU

The name they chose for the new intranet was The Vault. Being a credit union and financial institution, it has both a literal and practical interpretation, as well as alluding to the idea that it is the single source of truth for important company information.

---

Visit Unily’s blog for two more tips to launch a successful intranet, including how to make your vision a reality and making the most impact with your digital workplace launch: https://www.unily.com/insights/blogs/3-steps-to-launching-a-successful-intranet

CU Management Feature | HR Answers: Can Technology Save Your Managers From Burnout?

Tools that foster engagement and consistent feedback can help boost productivity and employee retention.

More than half of American workers are actively burned out, according to a survey conducted by Indeed this spring. Between blurred work-life boundaries, global uncertainty, and social isolation in the pandemic, employees are at risk—resulting in poor performance and higher quit rates.

Your managers are feeling the pinch. Managers experience the same challenging conditions as their direct reports, with the added pressure of leading their teams through these challenges. They’re tasked with cultivating culture and engagement, while maintaining productivity and service levels, often at a distance.

Sound familiar? If so, you’ve got a problem on your hands.

Why Manager Burnout Matters

When burnout pushes managers into a state of crisis, it kicks off a vicious cycle for team engagement levels: Employees with burned-out managers are 73% more likely to say that they are themselves burned out.

In short, your workforce is challenged. So, what are the top challenges managers are facing today, and how can we as leaders and HR professionals help provide relief from burnout?

A simple solution? Turn to tech to help automate the process and give managers opportunities to connect with their teams. Here are three challenges tech can solve:

Challenge 1: Effectively Communicating Impact and Purpose

72% of employees say knowing their work matters enables them to deliver a high-quality customer experience.

In-office, employees are reminded of the credit union purpose and mission via daily face-to-face interactions with each other and members. In isolation, however, employees can feel they’re spinning their wheels—and overburdened managers may not know how to close the gap.

Solution: A clear goals process.

Look for a technology solution that documents, tracks and makes goals visible credit-union wide. This tool should clearly connect each employee’s personal goals to greater team and organization as a whole. It’s also important that goals can be adapted to meet the needs of our ever-changing business environments.

The benefits? No matter where they’re working, employees gain visibility into how their day-to-day work furthers the mission of your CU. And with real-time data and tools like an insights dashboard, managers can effortlessly keep track of who’s contributing, who’s on target and who needs support.

Challenge 2: Driving Team Morale

The top reason people leave jobs is limited recognition and praise. On the flip side, 81% of employees are motivated to work harder when their boss shows appreciation.

A hybrid or fully remote environment makes it hard for managers to share those smiles and pats on the back that keep member services workers going. In isolation, morale can plummet.

Solution: Social recognition and custom rewards.

Lift the load from managers by instituting a social recognition feed. This tool allows employees of all levels to send real-time recognition and high-fives that are visible organization-wide.

And it works. $14 billion First Tech Federal Credit Union, San Jose, California, saw significant results after implementing a social recognition feed: Employees who recognized others were 2 times less likely to quit than those receiving recognition. And those who received recognition were 2.5 times less likely to leave the CU than those who were never recognized.

Personalization matters, too. Customized rewards are 7 times more likely to motivateemployees than generic certificates or gift cards.

Challenge 3: Providing Feedback

Real-time feedback, both positive and constructive, helps employees understand how they’re performing and where they stand; 40% of workers feel disengaged when they receive little to no feedback.

Delivering feedback can be challenging no matter where it’s given. Before the pandemic, 42% of managers admitted they didn’t give enough feedback.

Solution: Check-ins, 1-on-1s and a feedback platform.

Pair a feedback tool with easy-to-schedule 1-on-1 conversations. Feedback tools make it easier for managers by allowing employees to request feedback and by providing managers with templates and guiding questions. Bonus: With this tool, manager prep for year-end performance reviews includes a years’ worth of performance discussions, so employees feel seen for everything they’ve contributed.

Technology can create a consistent experience and provide analytics to measure success. However, strong alignment with the credit union’s mission, vision, values and goals is key. Employees can sense when there’s a clear connection between what management says is important and what’s modeled. Providing technology and encouraging leaders and employees to come together increases the opportunity to celebrate the impact of everyone's work, strengthens connection, and reinforces a culture of belonging.

How to grow employee resilience

There’s no doubt that the unprecedented change and struggle this year has challenged us all to build and maintain resilience. Resiliency, commonly defined as the ability to quickly recover from challenges, has been critical throughout this year, and will be moving forward.

Cigna’s Resilience Index, published in September, shows that only 37 percent of full-time workers have high resilience. Moreover, one-third of full-time workers say they almost never have workplace discussions about the impact of COVID-19 on them, their families and their mental health. If companies and employees aren’t talking about these impacts and our changing world, how can they learn about the resources available to support and grow resiliency? 

Most of us are coping with so much. Between COVID-19, remote learning, economic uncertainty, increased divisiveness and social unrest, we’re all feeling mentally stretched. What does this all mean for us and the credit union industry? When there are low resiliency levels amongst our employees, not only does it have a direct impact on business outcomes, it can be correlated to lower job satisfaction, engagement, and retention. 

Focus on the “whole self”

A more holistic approach to employee wellbeing isn’t a new idea, but one not often put into practice. We must stop thinking about benefits as a recruiting tool or event like new employee orientation or open enrollment. The most impactful wellbeing programs are built on a continual drip of targeted communications and resources throughout the year, that put the benefit(s) in front of the employee when they need it most. Here’s a few areas you can start:  

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Many employees don’t know what an EAP is, or feel comfortable asking for contact information when they need help. Creating a one-page resource with benefit contact information, means employees can take it on the go and access it when they need it most.

• Physical Movement: Data shows that regular exercise is an important component to building resiliency, so let’s start moving more. Kick off an exercise challenge and get leaders to participate in some way to encourage employee involvement.

• Gratitude: Essential employees should be seen and appreciated for their time and commitment to our members. Many of them are commuting, leaving their homes, and managing the same daily schedules as always, just with a lot more stress. Consider finding ways to focus on making things easier for them and allowing them to care for themselves during working hours. Maybe pick up their grocery delivery fee so they have one less stop on the way home. They deserve it!

Keep connections strong 

It used to be easy to keep employees connected and well informed within the four walls of our buildings. Now, we must take a more thoughtful approach. 

• Communicate frequently: Share updates about the state of the credit union and celebrate the wins. Be sure to be transparent and proactively address any uncertainty with the economy or financial standing of the credit union.

• Utilize technology: Connect your workforce and encourage them to use the channel that will help them get the most accomplished. One note: be mindful of the exhaustion that comes from back-to-back video calls – it’s real, and many employees become fatigued.

• Connect employees and managers: Schedule frequent one-on-one meetings. A continuous feedback process with questions like, “How are things going?” or “What roadblocks can I remove for you?” provides opportunities for employees to share about themselves both personally and professionally. It’s critical that we embrace and welcome difficult conversations that may come to us from employees — we might be that one and only trusted person they’re willing to share with about work/life challenges right now.

Increase diversity and inclusion efforts 

It should come as no surprise that a workplace culture that encourages community and feelings of camaraderie, inclusion and belonging benefits workers’ resilience. 

• Connect employees in micro communities: Help build trusted relationships and provide ways to learn and support one another. As leaders, we’ve been talking about ways to make things better for working parents, so explore creating a group where parents would leverage their collective resources, learn from each other, and be there for each other.

• Friendships at work: We’re all familiar with the employee engagement question, “Do you have a best friend at work?” Cigna’s survey showed that more than four in ten full-time workers (44%) with a best friend at work are considered to have high resilience compared to just 23% of those who don’t have a best friend at work.

Our people need us to take action now, more than ever, to strengthen resiliency and ultimately help them live better lives. With only 40 percent of employees surveyed stating they’re highly resilient, that leaves a startling 60 percent of the population at risk of not being able to quickly recover from challenges and cope with adversity. Fortunately, there are ways to help employees (and ourselves) cultivate and maintain a sense of resilience, ultimately creating a more human workplace during these unprecedented times.

Leadership will impact employee experience now more than ever

How we return our people to our offices and branches will be one of the most important employee engagement activities this year. Not only will our re-entry impact the bottom line, it will also impact our engagement survey scores, employees’ decisions to stay or look for other opportunities, and how they share their experience with members and prospective hires. 

So, as leaders, are we ready to challenge our personal working preferences to ensure the best employee experience? Here are a few questions to consider:

• Have employees been successful at home, and can they continue to work from their home offices? 

• Have managers set clear expectations and understand how employees are performing both in and out of the office?

• Can managers build connections with employees, manage performance, communicate messages and give recognition remotely? 

• Are there differences in how teams or departments work that could allow for unique return-to-work plans? 

• Can everyone participate in return to in-office decisions? 

As leaders, we need to assess our current beliefs, understand the true state, and then take action.  Time is passing quickly, so here are a few actions you can take:  

Come from a place of empathy: Start by acknowledging that COVID-19 has been and is a shared experience for us all. Acknowledge that each employee is unique and psychological safety comfort levels will vary.

Engage employees in the solution: Invite employees into the return-to-work conversation. Create an exercise for departments to revisit team deliverables and goals,  and reprioritize as needed. Then, talk to each of your employees to understand any unique working or scheduling needs. Be clear that this process will involve compromises, and the goal is to find the best solution for the employee and to ensure team deliverables can still be met. 

Communicate the why: Make sure shared goals and values are not forgotten in this process. Remind employees of why their work matters. If having employees in an office/branch is needed, be clear about why, and make sure they know how you are keeping them safe. Communicate often and make sure there is a ‘source of truth’ where employees can get the information they need.  

Create or revisit remote working resources: With a long-term mindset, look at your work from home policies and practices and re-evaluate how managers and employees will connect for 1:1s, dispersed team meetings, etc.  

Don’t be afraid to do the right thing: In the absence of a playbook, put humanity first— listen and find solutions in partnership with employees. An A/B schedule can ensure you have a response if someone complains, but being inclusive will drive employee engagement. 

Don’t let your personal preferences and beliefs interfere with one of the biggest employee-impacting decisions to date. When you engage employees in the process and solution, they’ll feel an increased commitment to the credit union, their team and your members. Now more than ever, we must live out our mission of “people helping people.”