Employee Engagement for the New Normal: The L&D Perspective

As hybrid workplace, gig workers and work from home becomes the newnormal for organizations across the globe, engaging employees calls for a strategychange at all levels – Learning & Development included. The idea is notjust to overload employees with a barrage of competitions, wellness sessionsand surveys, but to upskill them in alignment with the organization’s keybusiness priorities and performance.

EmployeeEngagement has a new definition

Gone are the days of ‘Traditional Days’ and ‘Rangoli Competitions’ beingthe star engagement factor at work. Covid has ushered in digital transformationat an unprecedented rate, changing not just our way of working and engagingwith one another (and our company) but also how we perceive employeeengagement.

Employee Engagement in the New Normal is about experimenting with newmethodologies, leveraging digital tools and technologies, personalizing learningjourneys, sensitizing the frontline managers in nurturing team relationshipsand empowering employees to take ownership of their skilling & developmentand growth.

Is aHappy Employee an Engaged Employee?

Even with the very essence of Employee Engagement re-written, HRs still don’tget the ‘engaged’ employee equation right. For some it’s the level ofhappiness, for others, it’s their retention rate. Don’t get me wrong, happinessis definitely part of the formula for successful employee engagement, but whenconsidered in a silo, it can skew the engaged employee picture for businesses.

The common thread however between all Engaged Employees is the company’sinvestment in workforce learning and skilling, and reward and recognition.

• Learningand Development (L&D)

As per an eLearningIndustry article, a sense of growth is also a very important elementof employee engagement. L&D can help employees not only have a strongperception of how a company cares about their personal and professional growthbut also create a sense of common goal. Rapid digital transformation acrossfunctions and teams is also creating new skill gaps that make employeesnervous. L&D plays a big role in closing these gaps with digital learning content deliveredon a LearningManagement System (LMS), ensuring employees feel more confident. Effectiveemployee engagement programs that target the core of how an employee perceivesand feels about the company will create a better and more long-term pool ofbudding leaders.

• Reward& Recognition (R&R)

Employees who have successfully learned new skills and abilities shouldbe rewarded and recognized so they are motivated and can encourage others tofollow suit. R&R and Gamification is apotent combination as it creates a positive habit loop. There is a very famousproverb “you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink”. By leveragingReward and Recognition in conjunction to learning, you will not just lead thehorse to water and make it drink, but you will make it so thirsty that it willcrave the water.

Watch me uncover different areas of Employee Engagement from the L&D lens in the webinar “Employee Engagement for the New Normal: The L&D Perspective”.

Takeaways:

• Employee Engagement: Pre, During & Post covid
• The Engaged Employee
• Employee Engagement for the New Normal

https://youtu.be/yEuyBmvzmGM