How To Become An Employee-Driven Company in 2022
Publié le 18 April 2022
With benefits like increased employee satisfaction, improved retention rates and a boost for recruitment, every organization should be asking how to become an employee-driven company in 2022.
All it takes is a quick look on LinkedIn and a few conversations with recruiters to make one thing very clear: people are strongly reassessing what they expect from their employers. This is a good thing for employees, and it could be a good thing for businesses as well, if they navigate this challenge accordingly by asking how to become an employee-driven company in 2022
People want to be able to act on their ambitions. They want a seat at the table, and a say in what’s happening in the business they dedicate so much of their time to.
Moreover, they want an employer who cares about their desire to maintain proper well-being in all aspects of their lives, —not just when they’re in the office (and ping pong tables are hardly caring for employees) but also outside their working hours. Employees want support in their mental well-being and physical health, and perks and benefits that actually add value to their lives.
This list of requests may seem intimidating to some organizations, but the ones who embrace this challenge and adapt to become an employee-driven company are poised to become market leaders and enjoy the benefits of a workforce that feels satisfied and supported.
Want to become one of them? In this article, you’ll learn how to become an employee-driven company in 2022, why you want to turn into one—and of course, the steps you need to follow to transform your workplace into one that focuses on employees for the benefit of everyone.
What is an employee-driven company?
An employee-driven company puts their employees first. Now, you might think: “what about the customer?” — but we’ll explain that in a second.
Read ‘employee-driven’ like this: it’s the employees, all together, who make decisions and drive forward the changes that must take place for an organization to become successful. They are the ones who steer the company, instead of sitting back and listening to what the CEO on top has to tell them. They drive decision-making processes, idea generation and innovation.
An employee-driven company is the perfect birthplace of disruptive innovations, because everyone feels that they have a voice that gets heard. Moreover, people are encouraged to share their ideas because it’s simply part of the job description.
Another way you should interpret employee-driven, is that the well-being of employees plays a central part in the business. The goal is to help employees become the best version of themselves, not to completely deplete them from their energy and ideas for the good of the company: you want to nourish them, not cause them to get burned out.
Why you should want to become an employee-driven company
You should not be asking how to become an employee-driven company in 2022 because it is a trendy buzzword, but because of the real and tangible benefits. Here are four reasons you’ll want to create an employee-driven company.
1. Employee well-being directly (and heavily) impacts job performance
A large-scale study amongst the single largest employer in the world has revealed an important lesson for every business: well-being doesn’t just play a part in how well people perform at work, it heavily impacts it.
The employer we’re talking about is the US Department of Defense, which is the biggest business in the world—with 1.3 million employees.
The research looked at factors like happiness and well-being, and revealed that the happiest soldiers got four times as many awards earned compared to the soldiers who were unhappiest.
This gap in performance even held up when accounting for status (officers versus enlisted soldiers), gender, race, education, and other demographic characteristics.
Now, imagine those awards translated into a business setting. Big sales, outstanding performances, great pitches, and presentations, are all made possible because employee well-being is prioritised and emphasized. Suddenly, investing in employee well-being makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it?
2. It will make your customers happier
Ever talked to a customer support agent and felt bad for them, even though you were the one who had a legitimate grievance or an issue that needed to be addressed?
A lot of businesses still underestimate the impact employees have on customer satisfaction when interacting with customers. The way we communicate and interact with others is directly affected by how we are feeling that day.
So if we have to show up to a job where we feel underappreciated, not valued and not compensated well, it’s inevitable that it will have some impact on our performance and at some point, customers will start to notice.
It’s incredibly hard to build a happy and satisfied customer base with employees who aren’t either. Before you invest a lot of time, money and energy into another campaign with a lot of perks for customers, turn to your employees first and see how you can make their lives easier and their jobs more rewarding.
Being a popular employer and a popular business trusted by consumers often goes hand in hand.
This is a great and simple formula for success: invest in your employees, and they will have a higher ROI than any fancy campaign. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
3. The Great Resignation really is happening
People are quitting their jobs faster than ever, and the pandemic has only sped things up. In July 2021, 4 million in America alone left their jobs, kicking off the trend known as the Great Resignation, and it doesn’t look like it’s stopping anytime soon.
It’s no longer a matter of job-hopping out of boredom: employees are actively on the hunt for employers who will offer them better compensation, better benefits, and a better work environment in which they can grow and develop professionally.
Creating an employee-driven company could prevent you from losing your top performers, and it will make it easier to hire the most qualified new applicants.
4. It could help you with your recruitment efforts
With the Great Resignation comes another challenge: there are more available jobs to fill than qualified people to fill them—and talent is becoming increasingly scarce.
If you want to make sure that you’re not just hiring people who are in it for the better benefits, adopt the two-way employee-driven culture in which you give more, but also ask more. Driven employees will want to work at an employee-driven company. People who lack motivation and ambition will find other places.
By demonstrating that you are an employee-driven company in 2022, it will raise your profile in the industry through strong word of mouth. This reputation will help make your organization a desired workplace for highly skilled applicants looking to work for a company that supports them.
6 ways to create an employee-driven business
If you’re asking how to become an employee-driven company in 2022 and reap these benefits, it can be accomplished in a few straightforward steps.
- Focus on employee well-being
If you take only one thing from this article, let it be that employee well-being is vital to your business’s success. Look at it as the foundation for everything else that an employee-driven company entails: a place where ambitious people are driven to succeed, both personally and for their employer. You’ll have to get employee well-being right before you start asking for more.
A competitive compensation pack isn’t enough—it’s the bare minimum, and people expect it—so avoid boasting about it in a job description. It takes more to stand out. Here are some ideas:
- Put an employee discount scheme in place with discounts that are tailored to your team. Ask your employees what they’d value to be included. This could be fitness businesses but also supermarkets, entertainment services, tech, and holidays. Find out what has priority for the people you’d like to employ, and arrange discounts for them.
- Start with corporate giving to make work more meaningful: let’s face it, we can’t all work at an NGO that makes the world a better place. But that doesn’t mean that employers in certain sectors can just lean back. Your employees want to feel like they’re making a positive difference. One way to do that is with a corporate giving plan, in which employees have a say in what charities receive support. Add to your corporate giving program with donation matching to really boost your impact and motivate people to participate.
- Put mental health first: in today’s world, we could all use a little help. Even if work is great, there’s enough happening around us that could leave us stressed, anxious, drained, tired or depressed. Employers who step up and support their employees with access to mental health services will meet the needs of a growing number of people who need help and a little nudge in the right direction of where to find it.
- Double down on creating inclusive workplace policies: put your money where your mouth is and take a good look around the room. How can you make your business more inclusive? Ask people to whom it matters and build a great workplace together.
2. Give people direct access to decision-makers
An idea box next to reception won’t cut it if you want to hear from people. It’s time to adopt an open-door policy.
Make sure that everyone in the business can directly get in touch with those who make decisions.
Don’t just make it possible for people to speak to influential employees, make it a point on the agenda. You can have people schedule one-on-ones, organized and planned to respect everyone’s time using Leapsome’s one-on-one meeting template. This template will save you time and make sure top priorities are immediately put on the table, to get straight down to business.
3. Managers: be the last one to speak
Don’t ask for everyone’s opinion after you’ve already made an important decision—that’s not giving your employees a say. They’ll be inclined to agree with you—especially if the work culture is not to challenge one another.
Instead, lay out the problem and ask them to speak first about how they’d handle it. These kinds of conversations will make people feel valued and drive employee engagement to levels you haven’t seen before. By respecting employee feedback and taking actionable steps as a result, it will be tangible proof to employees that their voice matters.
4. Focus on teamwork and build a strong team culture
Employee-driven means taking care of every individual employee, but you want to avoid creating an individualistic work culture. Quite the opposite, in an employee-focused work culture people come together more than ever, and they thrive by supporting one another through teamwork.
Invest in building a strong team culture across the entire organization, not just within separate departments. Better yet, create teams across different departments to create an even bigger sense of togetherness. Teamwork has proven to massively increase employee engagement, which can make your employee-driven culture even stronger in just a few simple steps.
5. Make career growth the standard within your organization
Many businesses ask candidates where they see themselves in five years and then call it a day when it comes to analyzing their ambitions. Don’t be that kind of employer.
Communicate to everyone on board that you encourage or even expect them to grow within the company, and lay out a plan of how that can be accomplished. Any candidate who’s scared off by thinking about career growth from day one wasn’t a great match for your employee-driven culture to begin with.
Make sure to also include passions outside their job description and the workplace in this plan and space: personal growth is so much more than career growth: show your employees you understand that.
6. Ask your employees how to be more employee-driven
Last but not least: it’s important to note that these pointers are by no means a one-size-fits-all framework you can lay on your business and call it employee-focused. It’s a delicate dance and requires the willingness to change and adapt as the needs of your employees continue to evolve.
What works for being an employee-driven company in 2022 may not necessarily work a year later. The simplest way to become an employee-driven company and stay one is to ask your employees directly what would make their workplace more employee-driven—and put their thoughts and opinions into action.
Dreaming of an employee-driven business? Start building it today
Are you ready to stop asking how to become an employee-driven company in 2022 and start making it happen? It’s not too late yet to turn your business upside down and make it healthier by focusing on who’s keeping it up and running: your employees. Dive into their needs and wants, and simultaneously start discovering all they have to offer your business as well—and grow together.
