Each organization is set up differently.
Many businesses mandate in-office work with occasional work-from-home days. Managers need to balance remote and hybrid employees but host an annual in-person retreat. Deskless employees are scheduled over different shifts throughout the week. All of this workplace variability makes it difficult for HR teams to improve employee engagement, let alone build connection or a sense of belonging.
What resonates with a corporate office team won’t apply to a fleet of drivers or part-time clinicians. Instead, organizations need to accommodate the unique needs and challenges of each employee population.
Approaching employee engagement with a multimodal employee engagement strategy requires a comprehensive understanding of the business’ multi-structured teams, dispersed offices or shifting hours. When organizations bring that awareness to create their employee engagement initiatives, they create a consistent, clear message that aligns with their values and translates across teams.
What makes corporate and deskless employee engagement different
Organizations with corporate and deskless environments lack visibility between leadership and employees. Managing different locations or remote employees creates mixed signals between the broader organization and individual teams, leadership and employees.
Instead of finding a single solution that speaks to everyone, HR leaders should focus on gaining a deeper understanding of their employee populations.
- How are they set up?
- How do they best communicate?
- What challenges do they have?
- What recognition or incentives resonate with them?
Adapting your employee engagement strategy to each population’s unique needs shows an awareness that unifies teams.
Communication is a great example. Corporate teams regularly check their inboxes and messaging platforms like Teams or Slack on their desktops throughout the day. In contrast, deskless teams are on their feet each shift and infrequently check their mobile devices.
- Example: Let’s say a property management firm wants to encourage retention. They create a consistent message of appreciation with years of service awards to celebrate work anniversaries with a tangible employee gift and handwritten note. Meanwhile, at the firm’s construction site, a supervisor is more likely to use a mobile platform to send a meaningful recognition and a virtual gift card to a crew member. Both recognitions tie back to a culture of appreciation but use different methods and incentives to develop that connection.
- Outcome/Impact: By tailoring your engagement solution to your teams, you create a more meaningful employee experience. It’s more likely to resonate and help your organization build culture and trust across teams, locations or roles.
Best practices for improving engagement across work models
What works for a corporate environment shouldn’t apply to thousands of retail locations across the country. And work culture would be different between offices based in the U.S. or India. So how can teams create a consistent, equitable experience that connects everyone?
An equitable employee engagement program doesn’t mean using the same incentives or events across all work environments or models. Ignoring the nuances of your employee populations and offering the same initiatives won’t resonate with everyone. It also appears disingenuous.
Instead, HR teams improve employee engagement by offering consistency with core values and adapting programs to build trust across the different areas of your organization.
1. Create consistency using core values
Company core values create a common language for teams, whether they’re deskless workers or in-office employees. Core values tell team members how to approach work, from overcoming challenges to making decisions.
When leadership and employees align with core values, we create a more equitable experience. Everyone is held accountable to the same guiding principles, as managers and peers issue and receive core value-driven recognition.
To craft impactful recognition, managers can use our TIPS shorthand: be timely, show impact, make it personable and get specific. It helps the receiver feel seen and gives details on how they uniquely embody that core value in their role.
Related: How employee recognition and rewards strengthen connection and core values
2. Adapt employee initiatives by gathering feedback
Company goals and employee needs evolve as team members increase their tenure and skill sets. It’s important to regularly survey employees and apply it to your engagement programs.
Give each employee population an opportunity to speak up, whether it’s corporate leadership, regional managers or part-time workers.
Sending a mobile notification and using a pulse survey makes it easier for manufacturing workers on the factory floor or part-time retail associates.
Inviting managers or culture leaders from different departments in a virtual focus group seamlessly connects team members across locations.
You can also use annual employee engagement surveys or eNPS to regularly measure employee sentiment. Regularly gathering feedback shows employees that they have a voice in their company culture and that you’re listening and ready to adapt initiatives as needed.
3. Build trust through a metrics-driven response
Review engagement and business metrics to get a comprehensive understanding of your team’s engagement. Metrics like employee participation, customer sentiment scores and recognitions issued or earned can indicate changes in employee engagement levels. For NPS specifically, if customer satisfaction goes down, it’s a good idea to check the sentiment of your customer-facing teams.
Sharing employee engagement results with your managers and employees builds trust across the organization. Outline what next steps your team plans to take in response to the results. Share why this is important to the company culture and your values.
As different teams see leadership and HR take accountability and enact change, they’re more likely to offer critical feedback to bolster company culture and take ownership of its success. Responsive managers had 30% less attrition and 24% increase in employee feedback.
Related: 4 examples of how to prove the ROI of recognition
How a bottling plant improved employee engagement across diverse work environments
Engaging a deskless team doesn't mean abandoning how you engage in-office staff. A successful employee engagement strategy listens and adapts to what people need.
A manufacturing headquarters successfully adopted ITA Group’s Cooleaf engagement platform. The company wanted to expand the program to its deskless employees at its bottling plants. However, the team had seen low program engagement with this population before. The goal was to host a successful launch to achieve high adoption and engage this hard-to-reach demographic.
Empower managers with engagement tools and training
Leadership sets the example for their teams. Plant managers were offered two virtual training sessions on using recognition to drive engagement and tracking metrics in their manager dashboards. On-site staff also hosted strategy sessions with managers to identify where the platform could drive operational goals through recognition—empowering leaders to improve safety and business through employee engagement.
Leverage collaborative technology
The platform had something for everyone, creating a digital center of engagement. Team members in the corporate and manufacturing plants accessed the engagement plant via desktop and mobile devices. Leadership saw the personalized manager dashboard to track the team’s participation metrics. Hourly workers received mobile nudges for announcements and issued recognitions on the app.
Communicate goals, purpose and feedback loops
ITA Group re-evaluated the manufacturer’s existing employee recognition program, and safety and operations managers developed new productivity and safety awards to drive ROI. To walk plant workers through the new platform, on-site staff facilitated downloads and platform demos across three working shifts.
This hands-on approach achieved 67% platform adoption, an increase from previous programs that peaked at 38%.
Related: Deskless workers quickly adopt engagement platform
Turn action into cultural impact
HR teams can create an equitable program by adjusting employee engagement initiatives to meet the needs of different populations across their varied work setups.
Whether they’re corporate workers, commercial drivers or construction crew members, understanding and responding to a team’s specific needs and preferences creates an inclusive space where everyone feels seen, heard and valued.
If you’re looking to improve employee engagement, take ITA Group’s employee experience assessment. Following the evaluation, you and your team will receive a curated toolkit to help you guide change in your organization.