Where Do We Go From Here?
Revitalizing Your Company’s Culture & Purpose
Steve started his career as an analyst at a financial firm. He lived downtown and enjoyed his easy commute to work every day. He dreamed of one day moving up at his company. He thought about how he had always been a leader, whether it was school or all the extracurricular activities he participated in. Then one day it happened. His boss met with him and asked him to lead the team. Steve was thrilled. Was this his dream opportunity?
Fast forward 2 years. Another employee on Steve’s team resigned. He was confused. He did all the right things. Set clear goals, had numerous team outings, and delivered results to the executives. Why were employees quitting?
Steve isn’t alone. In fact, global workforce engagement declined to the lowest levels since 2020. He took some time that week to think about a few of the recent changes that may have been impacting his team the most:
Budgets tightened this year with expectations to do more with less.
He hired some contract workers to take some of the project load off his team.
The company mandated in office work time to improve productivity.
Does this sound familiar? Steve and his company want to figure out what they can do to keep good people and increase engagement. With our extensive experience in employee engagement, Conversate Labs brings expertise in the following:
Understand the problem
With 72% of CEOs expecting an increased in the use of independent contractors, gig workers, and freelancers in 2026, we can’t help but wonder how does this impact team culture? When it comes to employee engagement, an annual survey isn’t going to cut it. The best companies today provide several ways to encourage open dialogue and opportunities to collect valuable information from employees. Quick fixes like company perks or reward trips just add to the problem. Focus on figuring out the problem first and finding realistic solutions your employees will connect with in the workplace is a great place to start.
Conduct survey often
Analyze results and find quick wins
Uncover new ways to reach employees
2. Focus on people and actions first
Your most important asset in your company is your people. When budgets tighten, often times companies look to cut HR or marketing resources first when the exact opposite is beneficial. When times get challenging, messaging on WHAT employees should expect and WHY its important is even more heightened. Building buy-in and support of key changes across an organization takes a team, leaders and alignment across an organization to achieve your goals.
Proactively understand where your workforce is at throughout the year to inform your communications strategy as things evolve.
Demonstrate commitment to the goal and show employees through workplace experiences and leadership interactions. Enable managers to make decisions that work best for their team.
Build a positive team environment and evaluate what’s working, eliminate what’s not.
3. Uptrain manager and communications skills
The stats are appalling. 40% of employees say their managers fails at having frequent honest conversations about work topics. 1 in 3 workers says their manager can’t lead a team. 84% of US workers blame bad managers for creating unnecessary stress. It doesn’t have to be this way. A commitment to manager success and accountability is critical to any company culture, brand and healthy workforce.
Run manager training programs throughout the year.
Enable manager support for unique team engagement activities.
Develop manager communications best practices for internal team development and external employer branding strategy.
As SHRM CEO Johnny C. Taylor eloquently said, "There is no relationship in the workplace more powerful than the one between people managers and employees.”
To find out how to incorporate more employee insights into your engagement strategy, reach out to Abbey at Conversate Labs.
