Employee engagement

Employee engagement

Here, Charlotte Coore – 200 Degrees Coffee’s recently appointed head of people - discusses the importance of employee engagement.

BACKGROUND

200 Degrees Coffee, which has 17 coffee shops across England and Wales, recently announced a significant milestone of reaching 200 team members during its tenth anniversary in business, and with a strategy to open five new coffee shops each year the business continues to expand its team in its shops, roasthouse and central team.

Charlotte Coore leads 200 Degrees Coffee’s HR department, supporting the company’s core values and culture across all operations, as well as supporting the employee journey and experience at the company - from attraction and onboarding through to learning and development, rewards and equality and diversity.

VITAL

Employee engagement is so important. The more employees feel connected to the business, the more they’ll be motivated, inspired and ultimately, retained within the company.

Engaging employees means they’ll be more productive, which will not only benefit the company but is key to driving a high-performance culture. It’s essential to get buy-in early on from everyone, to ensure the entire team feels engaged.

The best way to build on employee engagement is to create an action plan and consider the key areas and actions to support the employee. This is then measured with a survey and followed up with actions that have been put in place since receiving the feedback.

Learning and development is essential for employees - they want more from their roles, further training, and opportunities to grow and learn new skills. The better we can outline job responsibilities and benefits, the better it will be for the employee to see exactly what is expected from them, and the support that company offers their role. This needs to be provided right from early recruitment all the way through to performance meetings, to make them feel empowered on how they fulfil their role and what they want it to look like – and more importantly, retain them.

STRATEGY

To help inform this, a learning and development strategy should be created and there should be a mixture of core training and desirable training, for each job role, to help and support team members progress within their roles.

For example, our baristas would have core training, such as knowledge about the coffee they serve and how to deliver quality coffee consistently. They can then choose to have further training to help them progress in their role such as mental health first aider or fire warden training or if they wanted to further learn about specialised coffee making.

It’s important to provide this training right from the beginning and the onboarding process is a critical part of this. If the right training and support isn’t provided from day one, or the freedom to ask lots of questions, this could lead to employees feeling unsettled and unsupported. Line managers should work with their employees on a personal development plan to look at what support they need to progress and develop, should they wish to do so.

The workplace has evolved in the past few years, and that has mainly been down to the pandemic which changed how employees feel and how companies are working.

SUPPORTIVE ROLE

In general, employees are seeking more flexibility, a more supportive employer and to work for a company that allows them to be their true and authentic self. This is something that I am really passionate about and encourage at 200 Degrees.

This really builds into that highperformance culture within the workplace, ensuring that employees are as happy as possible to help deliver what the business needs. The Great Resignation is a good example that if businesses aren’t offering additional needs aside from the basics, the more likely people will leave.

It is now rare for employees to stay longterm with a business; the average time is currently five years, whereas historically it was ten and 20 years plus. Therefore, by providing the right training and creating an enjoyable workplace, this will ultimately lead to greater employee satisfaction, retention and easier recruitment.

The hospitality industry is generally known for high turnover, for multiple reasons, and working in the coffee and café sector does require resilience and high customer satisfaction. In return for employee’s hard work, companies should truly appreciate and recognise the brilliant work that they do.

With the cost-of-living crisis and inflation increases, now is an important time to reflect and perhaps consider making small tweaks within companies. What can business leaders do to provide the best workplace possible and keep their employees happy, to get the best out of them?

There may be budget restrictions, but what can we do as a people function and managers to ensure that our employees feel recognised and rewarded? Building trust, developing strong relationships and clear communication are all important ways to get the best out of employees. I also believe people shouldn’t be micromanaged, but instead given the freedom to operate within their roles.

COMMUNICATION

When businesses go through changes, communication is key. If there is poor communication, it can lead to ambiguity and disheartened employees. Clear communications, being open and honest and talking to employees on a regular basis, is important. Genuinely asking them how they are, letting them know about changes in the business and being an active listener can help to deliver the best feedback and get the best out of your team.

Recruitment is very powerful for HR professionals and companies, to grow teams and deliver on business needs. If recruitment is not performing successfully, this can lead to a toxic or a non-inclusive culture. The job market has been very competitive and its vital to give the best employee experience right from the start.

At 200 Degrees, we believe in experiences to remember and one thing that really helps is touch points along the recruitment process, such as an attractive job advert which focuses on inclusivity and the benefits of them working in the role and company. This helps to draw people into the company right the way through to the interview, which should be consistent; companies should be welcoming and informative, to bring in the right candidate.

MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Another topic that has escalated in recent years is mental health and wellbeing. It’s pivotal support that is needed for employees and things have changed from the traditional speaking directly to HR, or not offering any support at all because people don’t feel comfortable talking about mental health. Now, it’s a standard requirement and more of an essential need rather than desirable.

This is dependent on the person, company and issues but the best way to tackle issues within the workplace is to create a health and wellbeing strategy and deliver on actions following that.

Find proactive ways to support mental health rather than let it build up and get to the point where employees need help urgently, such as building a team of mental health first aiders or network. This can help to make employees feel more comfortable speaking to their peers and those on their level, as opposed to HR.

This way of working can help give managers the tools to have those conversations, as it’s often that level that manages and communicates with a number of employees on a daily basis so can feel the pressures more.

At 200 Degrees, we offer subscriptions to Calm. This is an application accessible on your phone that can help provide support with mental wellbeing and important areas such as sleep, and we often have sessions in the office where we all perform mindful meditation which can be a lot of fun as well as stress relieving.

We have also provided resources and budget planning to team members to help them manage any debt, and we have rolled out an employee support fund where employees have been able to apply for additional support from 200 Degrees during these difficult financial times.