Create a sense of belonging as a talent retention strategy

Create a sense of belonging as a talent retention strategy

By Tiffany Crosby, CPA, CGMA, MBA, OSCPA chief learning officer

When I talk to business leaders about their top challenges, they often raise two issues: where to find talent and how to keep their current employees engaged.

While there are no silver bullets to fix the talent issue, business leaders can increase employees’ intent to stay by increasing their sense of belonging. Ninety-three percent of respondents to Deloitte’s 2020 Global Human Trends Survey agreed that a sense of belonging drives organizational performance, and 79% responded that developing a sense of belonging was important to organizational success over the next 12-18 months. "According to Better UP, belonging significantly increases job performance and decreases employee turnover risk, while a single incident of “micro-exclusion” has an immediate, negative effect on an individual’s performance on a team project. Economic uncertainty, political instability, and polarization were already contributing to the increasing prioritization of belonging before the pandemic. Worker isolation and deepening social distrust and division have further elevated the issue of belonging in the workplace.

Belonging – that feeling of being accepted for who you are and valued for what you contribute to the team – taps into a basic human need that transcends all cultural and diversity dynamics. Diversity and inclusion may help bring everyone to the table and ensure they have a voice. However, belonging helps them stay engaged and contributing over time. The business case for diversity and inclusion has long been established. Research has shown that diverse and inclusive teams are stronger problem solvers, are more innovative and make better decisions 87% of the time. Yet, 64% of organizations surveyed by Korn Ferry identified building diverse and inclusive teams as a key challenge. The Great Resignation has intensified this challenge and empowered employees to exercise agency at increasing levels. Organizations that take responsibility for creating an authentic and caring workforce that fosters belonging have a competitive advantage in the talent war. Given the urgency of the talent issue, here are five steps can you take as a leader to foster a sense of belonging:

1. Increase self-awareness 2. Practice open communication 3. Empower employees 4. Prioritize connection 5. Practice inclusive behaviors

Increase self-awareness

Encouraging leaders to slow down and providing opportunities for them to look inward and increase their self-awareness are critical actions for promoting belonging. Leaders must be comfortable identifying their biases, acknowledging how their biases affect their interactions and decision-making, and questioning their assumptions and reactions. Leaders can then use their self-awareness to listen with empathy and understanding and create space for challenging conversations. Numerous assessment tools are available to help leaders better understand their tendencies, strengths, weaknesses and blind spots. Whether DISC, MBTI, multi-rater, 360 reviews or other tools are selected is less important than taking the step to facilitate team and group conversations that promote both self-awareness and understanding of others. Mutual understanding is the goal; the tool is merely an instrument.

Practice open communication

Open communication practices encourage employees to raise issues related to company structure or culture with an expectation that authentic, transparent dialogue will occur and issues will be addressed. To be successful, your plans for open communication must incorporate employees’ personality types and provide varied engagement opportunities to accommodate different relational styles and comfort levels. Individuals experiencing social inclusion, whether extroverted or introverted, might feel comfortable with forums, roundtables and town halls. However, introverts who feel social exclusion might only feel comfortable expressing those concerns in anonymous surveys.

Empower employees

Create a psychologically safe environment that encourages employees to engage in positive voice behaviors. Psychological safety exists when individuals can confidently say their team will not embarrass, reject, ridicule or think less of them for speaking up. For psychological safety, the tone at the middle matters as much as, if not more than, the tone at the top. Team leaders set the tone for group interactions. Team leaders who approach conversations with an open mind, listen to understand, and consider how their views reflect their own background and experiences but might not be representative are better prepared to model healthy, inclusive dialogue. Team leaders should also set baseline expectations on group conduct and quickly intervene should personal attacks or negative characterizations of individuals with dissenting opinions enter the conversation. Additionally, team leaders should display situational awareness, paying attention to what is happening in the environment around them to identify and avoid potential threats and unwelcoming situations. Sometimes just scanning the room for social exclusion cues will provide the necessary feedback for leaders to shift the climate.

Prioritize connection

Personal relationships drive a sense of belonging. Employees who have strong, trusted relationships with their leaders can share their insecurities, issues, and concerns without fear of humiliation or punishment. Leaders must schedule time to get to know and connect with each team member to help employees feel accepted and supported. Go to lunch, grab coffee, schedule a one-on-one, talk a walk break, or whatever other creative way is available to you to slow down and listen. During these conversations, pay attention to the relationship dynamics that are shared during the conversation. Determining how comfortable and connected employees feel with their team and other colleagues and with leadership is a barometer for inclusion. During meetings, take note of who engages in the informal conversations and who is excluded. Likewise, look at the names routinely brought forth for projects or internal initiatives and think about the relational patterns that could be contributing to that outcome. Map out relational networks within your team and make a plan to connect employees who are disconnected.

Practice inclusive behaviors

Inclusion and exclusion often coexist in the workplace, with employees shifting between the two states based on the situation. Inclusive leadership requires a steady investment of time and energy to decrease distance and fully engage associates in every encounter. Conceptually, inclusion is easy to grasp. But entrenched habits, the need for expediency, a fear of the unfamiliar and blind spots can make inclusion hard to practice consistently. Fortunately, leaders can cultivate curiosity and humility expressed as open-mindedness, a passion for learning, a desire for exposure to different ideas and willingness to acknowledge limitations. Curious and humble leaders can build affinity across diversity dimensions by developing and understanding of other cultures and intentionally seeking out different perspectives.

Employees who feel devalued, dismissed, or ignored for the unique qualities they bring to the table are more likely to leave an organization. By cultivating an environment that creates a sense of belonging, leaders can build a culture that both attracts and retains talent. Embedding self-awareness, open communication, employee empowerment, internal relationship building and inclusive behaviors into the culture requires the long-term commitment of leaders at every level of the organization. The potential rewards are worth the effort – a greater likelihood of retention, collaboration, and innovation.

Tiffany Crosby, CPA, CGMA, MBA, is the chief learning officer of The Ohio Society of CPAs and leads the Society’s diversity equity and inclusion strategy. She can be reached at tcrosby@ohiocpa.com or 614.321.2255.