This year, employees have faced a serious disruption. With all the change happening around us, internal communication professionals juggle responsibilities ranging from keeping the employees informed, to making sure they stay engaged and are taken care of.
Recently, IABC Chicago partnered with Gallup to share research informing your long-term work from home strategy while maintaining employee engagement and wellbeing. Here are our key takeaways from the event:
- Why employee wellbeing matters – According to Gallup’s study, 76% of surveyed full-time employees said they have experienced a great deal or fair amount of disruption with a percentage of those who are “thriving” right now dropping to Great Recession levels.
- Many leaders are rightfully concerned about the declining wellbeing and the threat it poses to business productivity and performance and many organizations started paying more attention to the five elements of wellbeing – career, social, financial, community and physical.
- Gallup uncovered these common elements that people need to thrive in their lives through their studying of human behavior and wellbeing. During the event, we learned a great deal of tips and tactics on how we could improve the experience in each of these areas.
- Internal communicators have the ability to assist leadership with making positive change in each of the five elements of wellbeing and create cultures where employees can thrive.
- Gallup also looked at resilience across a series of disruptive events and found out that employee engagement is a strong predictor of performance in times of crisis.
- Gallup’s resilience index ask the five questions that help companies assess employee engagement and wellbeing.
- In less than 3 weeks, the percentage of Americans working from home doubled with remote working becoming a commodity, not a privilege for managers.
- Managers play a significant role in reducing stress by providing regular and meaningful feedback and helping teams feel well prepared and informed.
- Internal communicators have the ability to create resources to prepare managers to thrive in the remote setup and use storytelling to engage employees and strengthen company cultures.
For more information, please contact Jeff Dagbo and James Pearson.