How to create a sense of belonging for your teammates throughout every stage of their journey in your organization.

This Webinar was hosted by EarlyEngage. 

At the end of this Webinar, you'll walk away with actionable tips you can implement now to see immediate results and be able to: 

• Avoid the most common mistakes organizations make when gathering employee feedback. 👍
• Implement multiple listening methods across the employee lifecycle so that your employees feel heard and valued. 💛
• Develop a continuous listening strategy to act on feedback and improve your organization's employee engagement and retention. 🔄

👉🏻 Click here to watch the replay. 👈🏻 

Webinar Outline

Leaders, one in four of your employees may feel like they don't belong in their work environment. 💔

If you're a leader wanting to take ownership of your culture, it's crucial to think about how you can create an environment where employees truly feel like they belong.

Because according to the Qualtrics Employee Experience Trends Report, 2022: "A sense of belonging emerged as the strongest driver of employee engagement - ahead of typical drivers like trust in leadership and ability for career growth."

As human beings, we crave connection and crave to feel like we are connected to something bigger than ourselves. The more your teammates feel that way, the more they will find joy in doing the work.

So, how do you begin to communicate to your teammates that they belong? 🤲

Belonging cues are verbal and nonverbal messages that create connection, trust, shared mission, and purpose among team members. As leaders, you can incorporate belonging cues into every stage of the employee life cycle to signal to your team members that your workplace is an environment where they truly belong.

Belonging cues are made of three qualities that make them effective in communicating your message of belonging:

1. Energy - The idea that your employees can feel that there has been intentionality and focus placed on them when there's an intention to communicate with them, to include them, and to make them feel like they're a part of something bigger. 🌎
2. Individualization—For an employee to truly feel like they belong, we have to go through the process of individualization to make them feel that their uniqueness is valued in the organization. 
3. Future orientation—There has to be some sort of signal or message that this relationship is going to continue. This communicates to your teammates that they are a part of you and that the role they have to play is important and valued. 💥

Let's talk about how to send belonging cues through different stages of the employee lifecycle. 

In the "Attract" stage:

In this stage, it is essential to spend time with your internal partners to consider how to demonstrate the experience of being a team member in your organization.

1. Get clear on your Employer Value Proposition (EVP): What does your organization have to offer to your future employees in terms of workplace culture, how employees feel about working there, what makes you different from your competitors, and more? 
2. Think like a marketer: show your candidates what you value and what it's like to be a part of your community. 
3. Share employee testimonials and celebrate the uniqueness of your current team members. 

In the "Hire" stage:

In this stage, it is important you are thinking about how you are going about with job postings, what you think about interviewing, and more.

1. Use inclusive language in your job postings and throughout the hiring process. Be mindful in avoiding any language that can exclude.
2. Consider candidates' individual needs and accommodate their requests if possible. 
3. Assemble a diverse hiring panel to engage with an interview candidate. 
4. Incorporate application and interview questions that invite applicants to speak to their uniqueness. For example: "What are the parts of your job that bring you the most energy?" These are questions that are going to elicit uniqueness and distinction from your candidates - this communicates to your candidate that your organization values the uniqueness of each individual.

In the "Onboard" stage:

1. Use pre-boarding to reduce uncertainty and build excitement.
2. Go all in on Day One- everything you do should communicate these things:
   • "We've been expecting you."
   • "We're pumped you're here." 🤗
   • "This is a special place and we do important work."
   • "You've got a future with us."
3. Create a video, social media post, or other internal coms to highlight them and their uniqueness.
4. Give them space to reflect on their unique strengths and how they align with their new role.

In the "Engage" stage:

In this stage, you intentionally work to create environments where your employees feel connected to their roles and to the organization as a whole.

1. Celebrate and nurture diversity and inclusion.
   • Create employee resource groups for employees that represent diverse groups such as different passions, cultural traditions, religious identities, and more.
   • Recognize cultural celebrations.
   • Provide training and equipping.
   • Create space for employees to share their personal identities.
2. Build a continuous listening strategy that paves the way for trust and psychological safety to form. One of the factors that affect employees' perception of belonging is if they feel like their voice or opinion matters. 
3. Create team rituals, rites of passage, and shared language but don't forget to include new employees.
4. Create spaces for employees to form connections and social bonds. 

In the "Perform" stage:

1. Use a strengths-based approach to performance feedback.
2. Consistently communicate how their unique role contributes to the overall vision and mission of your organization. Communicate how their daily actions significantly contribute and connect to the overall vision and mission.
3. Deliver concrete and individualized recognition and rewards. 🏆
4. Create policies that reflect your care for the whole self to foster employee wellbeing.

In the "Develop" stage:

1. Invest in professional development, coaching, and mentorship opportunities. This can send the cue that communicates to your teammates that they have a future in your organization, that you're spending time, energy, and resources because you believe in the work that that individual is doing and that it contributes to the overall success. 
2. Create Individual Development Plans (IDP's) for employees. IDP's are focused on what is your employee's long-term career goals and how you, as an employer, will continue to invest in them. 

In the "Depart" stage:

1. Create spaces for everyone to celebrate and send them off.
2. Give a departing gift that has special meaning to them or anticipates a need they will have. 🎁
3. Publicly recognize and celebrate their accomplishments and their unique contributions.
4. Add them to an 'Alumni Employee Group' and schedule follow-up conversations to catch up. 

A Final Question For You...

"What's one concrete thing you can do in the next month to send more belonging cues?"

Because small improvements add up to big culture change. 🙌🏻

And, here's a free PDF download for you:

Click here to download your copy of an Individual Development Plan to further support your teammates in their roles.

It's one of my favorite tools to use to communicate to employees that you are invested in their future. 💛

Here's the link to the webinar again:

👉🏻 Click here to watch the replay. 👈🏻 

Hey, thanks for being here and for watching/reading. My goal is to consistently create content that's engaging, applicable, and inspires you to continue learning and growing as a leader. If you have ideas for future content or any questions at all, please shoot me an email at: [email protected].