Javier is the Chief Revenue Officer at Starburst, the analytics anywhere company. He was previously the SVP of Worldwide Sales at MongoDB.
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As we ease into the spring, we are hearing a lot of talk regarding the things organizations are leaving behind and what they hope to focus on improving in the future. These goals often encompass employee culture and development or driving sustainable diversity initiatives. While they often start out strong during the beginning of the year, it’s easy for them to get pushed to the back burner as other business priorities take precedence.
However, many of these changes will actually support broader business growth and success—and should not be brushed aside as they often are. This piece will outline a few key long-term changes leaders should focus on as well as the steps they can take to make them long-lasting.
1. Invest in employee development to drive engagement.
No one ever really stops learning, and this rings true no matter the industry in which someone works. One actionable change organizations can make to drive long-term engagement is to invest in employee development by offering their employees ways to refine their short-term skills, such as taking on new responsibilities and providing in-house mentorships, as well as long-term skills, such as management training, to keep them engaged in the business and their larger field.
This can take form in a few different ways, such as providing specific training and development opportunities, whether in-house or through third-party programs. With a lot of chatter about skills gaps, providing opportunities to partake in these programs shows employees the organization’s commitment to retaining and developing the talent they already have.
Importantly, these efforts should also be supported by a positive and inclusive work culture in order for employees to feel empowered to expand upon their development and bring their best to work.
2. Emphasize culture.
People often look to switch jobs for more than just monetary reasons. While they care about personal and professional development, they also really care about the environment their workplaces create. Organizations should foster opportunities for employees to work with people from different backgrounds to provide them with different perspectives on the work they’re doing, as well as offer times for teams to connect with those outside of their traditional teams to forge stronger cross-functional relationships.
One way to do this is to host a weekly or monthly call in which employees from multiple departments attend. Each meeting should alternate presenters, regions and topics to maintain engagement during the meeting. Especially in a distributed or remote workforce, this is a great way to keep employees across the organization connected and foster the ability to learn from each other.
Facilitating open communication and transparency is another key step organizations can take to create a culture that drives sustained success.
One way to do this is to encourage employee participation in decision making, which can help employees understand why certain decisions are being considered and underscore the importance each individual has on the business. When employees have a say in how the culture is formed and maintained, they will feel more connected to the business and driven to help the organization succeed.
3. Drive diversity initiatives as a necessary part of business rather than a “nicety."
While recent studies show that the investment in diversity initiatives is increasing (subscription required), many employees still don’t view these initiatives as “enough” or a true commitment to driving change on this front. Organizations should be looking for every opportunity, both internally and externally, to reaffirm the values underlying DEI commitments as well as to track how these map back to business goals and how the tactics being used will actually drive change.
Principally, these initiatives need to be treated in line with how other business plans are prioritized rather than areas to cut back on when organizational leaders need to reorganize investments to meet fiscal goals.
Companies also need to outline how they’re going to measure their progress, which will hold them accountable for actually driving these initiatives durably and perpetually.
Leaders should ask for feedback internally to see how these directives are being perceived by employees to allow this to be a full-company approach rather than one handled by only a few key decision makers. Ultimately, this builds trust between leadership and employees. When these actions are treated as part of a long-term, sustainable initiative, this facilitates better work across all levels.
Short-term changes can go far to ensure a company's success and longevity.
While there are many different initiatives that organizations can work to implement to have long-lasting success, the actions outlined above are great ones to focus on building upon right now, especially in light of a lot of the conversations surrounding the workplace (subscription required).
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to enacting organizational changes, but every organization can benefit from prioritizing these initiatives. This type of investment in talent goes a long way and is a driver for continued success. While some new year resolutions fall to the wayside, these should be leaders make sure to implement for the long haul.
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