Good morning!
Strong employee engagement is undoubtedly good for businesses. According to a 2020 data analysis from Gallup, business units and teams with the highest employee engagement levels were 81% less likely to see absenteeism. They also saw 18% higher productivity and 23% higher profitability than those with the lowest employee engagement.
But boosting frontline and hourly workers' engagement is no simple feat. While company resources like employee resource groups (ERGs) and learning and development programs boost employee engagement and mobility by offering career advancement opportunities, these workers often don’t have the time or support to step away from their primary duties and take advantage of such offerings.
“Some of those positions, by their nature, are more precarious. They don't offer benefits, they don't offer flexibility, folks can't take time from their hourly job to go participate in an ERG [or] to get professional development,” said Lisette Garcia, chief research officer at the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, at a luncheon panel at the Fortune Impact Initiative in Atlanta earlier this week.
Charisse Dean, director of ESG social strategy and operations at consulting firm KPMG, notes that clients in the oil and gas sector often handpick talent who can serve as ERG leaders. “Identifying and developing champions in the field, who can actually get trained in and come back and deliver, has been very successful. And so one of the things that we've been doing is working with different industries on creating and actually building and training on BRGs and ERGs,” she said.
Cox Enterprises, an automotive services and communications conglomerate, partners with community-focused nonprofits to recruit talent like the Atlanta-based Women in Technology, which offers a single mothers cybersecurity certificate program. Maury Wolfe, its vice president of corporate responsibility and social impact, notes that employees recruited from these partnerships have the lowest turnover.
“We're hiring talent that's coming in with bespoke skills that we need to fill our talent gaps, and then they're staying because we've invested in them in a unique way,” she said. “They know that they've got an employer that cares before they even walk through the door.”
Cox is also rethinking benefits to boost engagement. Employees are paid a state-by-state “living wage” or minimum income needed for a worker to meet their basic needs, says Wolfe. Employees also receive 16 hours of paid time off annually to volunteer and six hours to vote.
“I think it's right to think about what's the full package of ways you've signaled to your employees that they are meaningful across the board…and that they should feel empowered to access all of the benefits that we talk about [publicly]?” Wolfe said.
Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion
