Synergy Of Care: Pairing Employee Engagement And Well-Being At Workplace
To cultivate heightened levels of employee engagement, it is imperative to ascertain if the individuals within the organisation harbour a profound sense of belonging and possess the capacity to influence their teams and immediate surroundings in a meaningful manner.
Employee engagement can be distilled into two pivotal dimensions: "Stay" and "Strive." The former, "Stay" engagement, empowers employees to envision their future within the organisation, fostering a sense of belonging. On the other hand, "Strive" engagement ignites the drive to excel, encouraging employees to unleash their utmost potential in the workplace.
“Employees who envision their growth in various dimensions—professional, personal, emotional, and financial, are more inclined to remain committed and flourish within the organisation. To achieve this, fostering an environment of continuous listening is imperative, enabling the identification and rectification of gaps while integrating employees' voices into the organisational fabric. This strategy has yielded remarkable results, evident in the substantial upsurge in employee engagement observed at InMobi," said Sahil Mathur, chief human resources officer (People and Culture), InMobi Group.
The journey towards well-being has transformed from outwards to inwards. Well-being is an aspect that cannot be looked at from a professional perspective anymore, but rather from an individual’s point of view. The recognition that employee well-being extends beyond the professional realm underscores the importance of creating an environment where individuals can bring their authentic selves, embrace vulnerabilities and thrive.
Mathur added, “To identify high-potential workers, several methods can be employed including tech-driven performance management systems and assessments to analyse their growth potential. With the advent of technology, something interesting that the industry is witnessing today is highly accurate psychometric analysis systems which help organisations analyse the general nature, and risk-taking abilities while performing a complete 360 degrees SWOT analysis of an employee. Leveraging technology for talent assessment, performance analysis, and psychometric evaluations adds a new dimension to identifying and nurturing high-potential employees to optimize their strengths for strategic roles.”
In order to foster a continuous learning environment, organisations are adopting a 3E approach- education, to upskill the soft and hard skills of the high achievers; exposure, to create opportunities for employees to surpass complexities allowing them to work across functions; and experience, to eventually find the right fit for the employee.
He added, “We have various programs at InMobi, such as InMobi Cares program, which conducts e-learning, virtual wellness sessions, and coaching (individual and group) sessions to ensure that employees are focusing on holistic wellness.We also have in place structured coaching programs, mentoring mechanisms, network of psychotherapists and counselors, assistance programs, confidants in the system, managers being trained on addressing well-being situations, and leadership coaching, are all put in place to strengthen the enablers of empathy and compassion.”
As the industry evolves towards fostering a more diverse, equal and inclusive work environment, leaders need to adapt to the ever-evolving landscape. The journey towards diversity, equity, and inclusivity calls for leaders to transcend their comfort zones, acknowledge biases, and adopt change-oriented mindsets, thus creating spaces where varying perspectives can flourish.
“An individual’s beliefs sometimes lead to a certain level of prejudice and unconscious bias amid change within the system. But once leaders become vulnerable and exposed towards their blind spot and realise where they are going wrong, it is easier for them to become change-oriented and more accepting of other individuals with different perspectives," said Mathur.
With the onset of work-from-home culture during the pandemic, organisations witnessed stagnation in terms of team cohesion, culture, collaboration and innovation. The stagnation also led to procrastination and lower levels of enthusiasm and achieving behaviour.
Mathur highlighted, “As covid-restrictions lifted, and employees started coming back to the office, we witnessed a regulated change. While the pandemic prompted challenges in remote work dynamics, the eventual return to office spaces has rekindled collaboration, cohesion, and enthusiasm, reinforcing the irreplaceable value of in-person interactions.”
In the dynamic landscape of modern workplaces, fostering employee engagement, personal well-being, and continuous learning has become paramount for organisational success. As organisations navigate these multifaceted dimensions, the commitment to holistic well-being, personalised growth and adaptive leadership will shape the trajectory of workplaces in the future.
