Employee engagement
Buy-side firms reported critical considerations in developing employee engagement strategies post-COVID-19, such as encouraging time out, and the importance of flexibility when planning for the future.
Exploring engagement strategies
Finding new, situation-relevant ways to foster employee engagement has led to the development of a number of new strategies to bring employees together, including virtual town halls, firm newscasts and internal awards.
Many buy-side firms have developed weekly town halls or newscasts that are delivered via audio and/or video stream to employees to boost engagement as they work remotely. Sessions typically focus on the previous and coming weeks, include company and industry news and employee achievements, and end with an open forum for questions. They’re usually delivered by senior leaders and aim to create connection.
Other strategies shared by participants include awards recognizing a particular achievement or initiative, such as someone who has made a difference in the community or taken the initiative on a timely work product. Virtual happy hours and online forums for sharing aspects of home life (for example, pet or prom photos), virtual mentors and training, surveys, vlogs and competitions are also proving effective.
Barings has produced a weekly leadership-led newscast and a more personal series, titled Being, that profiles employees who are excelling in an area outside the workplace, for example in cooking or sports. Both have proved popular ways to engage and connect employees.
At investment management company Lord Abbett, the managing partner conducts weekly town halls for all employees to provide an open communication forum and connect employees to the firm’s strategic priorities. Topics that are critical to their clients, communities and employees are often shared to maintain a strong focus on culture, leadership and firm values.
Celebrating resilience and encouraging time out
Several businesses are prioritizing time out for their people in the form of vacation days, ending their workdays early and bonus days off — all with a strong focus on mental health and well-being.
Taking days off are being encouraged at Lord Abbett, which kept its “Summer Fridays” — an early finish on a Friday afternoon — through the end of 2020.
Principal Global Asset Management is aware of “the collaboration burden” felt by people in leadership and team-building-focused roles and its potential to lead to burnout. This has been addressed by an intentional rebalancing of the load, and the importance of reassessing strategies regularly during trying times.
Recognizing and celebrating resilience in trying times is another way to bring employees together. The focus could be on a contribution made to the business, an endeavor that benefitted the greater community or a personal achievement. Many firms have made an effort to regularly celebrate wins and unsung heroes.
Lord Abbett introduced a new program at its weekly town halls that recognizes an employee from each of its four business areas who has dealt well with a situation of volatility, uncertainty, complexity or ambiguity. It could be related to something in the community, a work or client product or how someone has dealt with mental well-being and rolled out things that are really important for the firm’s people or clients.
Flexibility is key
Keeping an open mind and being as empathetic, consistent and flexible as possible when communicating with employees about returning to the office is a priority. These topics are discussed at town halls, via email and other means — and it often comes from the top down.
Barings is using videos to explain what return-to-work scenarios look like to employees. Daily text messages check on employee health and work schedules for the day and enable the company to engage with employees in a consistent way.
Communication about return-to-work options often comes from the top. At DWS Group, the Global Chief Operating Officer is engaging employees via virtual town halls.
AllianceBernstein already has a strong culture of virtual engagement in its “muscle memory,” thanks to two years of huddle rooms, open desktops, virtual collaboration and training between New York and its second headquarters in Nashville. Going forward, they will likely do a partial work-from-home schedule, in which employees are in the office for a week and work from home the next, rotating their schedules.
At Principal Global Asset Management, a flexible, leadership-driven “why not” stance is empowering employees and teams to handle returning to work in a way that meets both business and personal needs.
“We’re working with individuals and work teams to have an open dialogue about how our return to work evolves. We’re going to be living with the virus for a long time and there’s not going to be just one way that we work this through. So right now, we have a voluntary come-back-to-the-office situation. We measure how many people are in every day and we make sure we’re accommodating that and have effective space,” said Ness.
