Six Tips for HR Pros to Build More Effective Employee Engagement 

Gill Godfrey, an experienced HR leader and Chief People Officer at Storable, shared valuable insights on managing HR operations, fostering company culture, and driving employee engagement during a recent episode of America Back to Work.

The following is a recap of her conversation with Arnette Heintze and what you can implement to build more effective employee engagement. 

Managing HR Operations Effectively

Godfrey emphasized the importance of aligning HR operations with business goals and priorities. She advised evaluating each HR function’s maturity level (crawling, walking, or running) and allocating resources accordingly. 

“I always try to determine, okay, if we’re crawling in compensation, is that okay at the moment? Do we need to be walking or running? And if the answer is no, where do we need to deploy money and resources to get the HR organization to a point where it can adequately support the business goal?”

Prioritizing Change Management

Godfrey highlighted the significance of change management for companies undergoing mergers and acquisitions. 

“Our primary focus when acquiring and integrating is on change management. How do we integrate the new team into the business? How do we adjust the organizational structure appropriately to ensure appropriate integration?” 

Godfrey highlights that their top priority during M&A activity is managing the change and integration process for the newly acquired employees. This involves properly integrating them into the existing organizational structure and business operations.

She recommended integrating back-end functions like HR, finance, and systems before moving on to other teams.

Fostering a Strong Company Culture

Godfrey shared insights on cultivating a robust company culture, especially in a remote work environment. She emphasizes fostering psychological safety to drive engagement during transition or big change. This involves training leaders and managers on effective communication and accountability in a new environment.

“We’ve talked an enormous… amount about psychological safety. And what does that mean? We’ve gone back to the drawing board in teaching leaders and managers how to be effective communicators and hold people accountable in a remote world.”

Leveraging tools like Zoom and Slack can help build community remotely. Godfrey noted that Storable’s employee net promoter score was highest during the first six to nine months of the pandemic, as employees felt grateful for the safety and flexibility of remote work. She credits tools like Zoom and Slack for building that strong remote community.

Reinforcing Company Values

“We’ve worked very, very hard to ensure that our values come to life every day, whether that’s recognizing contributions and behaviors via a slack channel that rewards people or our CEO every two weeks in a video that he puts out from your organization.”

Storable actively reinforces its company values through recognition programs and frequent communication from leadership, tying employee contributions back to the values. This helps maintain engagement and alignment.

She recommends driving employee engagement during transformational periods by prioritizing change management, fostering psychological safety through leadership training, leveraging technology to build community, and consistently reinforcing company values.

Driving Employee Engagement

Employee resource groups can also contribute to engagement by providing a platform for employees to connect and support each other. Storable has about eight ERGs, each sponsored by an executive to ensure they receive the necessary support.

As that happens, corporate social responsibility initiatives are also important. They not only build employee engagement, but they help attract and retain talent, especially among younger generations. 

“We have distinct activity in place for all things E, S, and G, and have a long-term objective with regard to each of those three pillars of the framework, including how do we work with suppliers? Are we working with vendors and suppliers who are also mindful of ESG to hold ourselves accountable?”

The Six Employee Engagement Strategies She Recommends

Godfrey has implemented several innovative strategies to drive employee engagement at Storable, especially in their fully remote work environment:

1. Created a “Community Program Manager” role: this new position is entirely responsible for fostering a sense of community within Storable as well as managing the company’s role in the broader community.
2. Leveraged technology tools like Zoom and Slack: Godfrey credits tools like Zoom and Slack for helping build a strong remote community and maintaining high engagement levels, even higher than when they had physical offices according to their employee net promoter scores.
3. Reinforced company values through recognition: They work hard to reinforce Storable’s values by recognizing employee contributions and behaviors tied to those values, whether through a Slack channel or the CEO’s bi-weekly videos highlighting great examples.
4. Supported Employee Resource Groups: Storable has about eight ERGs, each sponsored by an executive to ensure they receive the necessary support and platform to achieve their missions. ERGs provide opportunities for connection and engagement.
5. Prioritized corporate social responsibility initiatives: Godfrey states they have “distinct activity in place for all things e, s and g,” referring to the environmental, social, and governance pillars. They report quarterly to the board on their progress on their ESG roadmap. CSR appeals especially to younger employees.
6. Trained leaders on psychological safety and remote communication: “We’ve talked an enormous amount about psychological safety…teaching leaders and managers how to be effective communicators, how to hold people accountable in a remote world.” This supports engagement in a virtual setting.

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