Author: Imperative

Workforce Management estimates that companies spend a combined $8 billion on diversity and inclusion training annually. For the most part, companies have focused on anti-bias training, mentoring programs, employee resource groups, and adding DEI roles. Yet, with all this increased investment, it’s difficult to measure how effective they are at making a meaningful difference.

Engagement surveys are a commonly accepted aspect of most HR strategies, yet they only tell a partial story of your people’s actual experience. Surveys are self-reported and conducted at a fixed point in time, and according to a Cornell National Social Survey, 26% of the employees withhold information about ideas for improvement or problems they face due to the futility of the exercise. In fact, futility was 1.8x more common reason than fear for withholding information.

Over the past year, companies have increased their investment in employee experience benefits, and yet according to Gartner Benchmarking Survey, only 31 percent of human resource managers believe their current workforce is satisfied with the perks they get from work. Gartner’s research found that the companies must reinvent their EVP (employee value proposition) to shift from being about features and benefits to covering the social and emotional needs of employees.

A great culture is one of the most important things a company can have—and one of the hardest things to achieve, especially in the hybrid workplace. Cultivating trust is a key ingredient to a winning culture while research clearly shows lack of trust has detrimental effects. As Stephen M. R. Covey writes in The Speed of Trust, “When trust goes down (in a relationship, on a team, in an organization, or with a partner or customer), speed goes down and cost goes up.… The inverse is equally true: When trust goes up, cost goes down, and speed goes up.”

Internal networks can be used not only to foster learning and mentorship, but also to create valuable human connections between coworkers. This is especially true in an economy in which flexible work schedules and remote work are becoming more and more common. There’s been no existing way to create diverse trusted peer networks in hybrid work places, but organizations need to figure it out quickly.

Voyager Capital and DocuSign Founding CEO, Court Lorenzini, invest in Imperative’s virtual peer coaching platform as leading employers look for new workforce solutions.

We designed our onboarding to embrace new hires and help them feel a strong sense of clarity, confidence, and connection. It works for us, and we’re excited to share it with other HR leaders. I hope you can use this to create transformational onboarding programs within your organization.

In 2015, 23% of people reported that they would leave their jobs for a 10% pay increase. The researchers asked the same question in 2019 and found the number had nearly doubled: 43%. The reason for rapid decrease in loyalty? The study pointed to poor culture.