The recession that corporate America has been anticipating for months never quite seems to arrive–and the forecasts are mixed. Indeed, “it can be difficult to tell in real time whether the economy is smoothly decelerating or whether it is creeping toward the edge of a cliff,” noted the New York Times this week.

The situation has created a period of prolonged uncertainty–not the favored climate for a workforce. So how can HR leaders prepare their team members to be ready for a change in the weather when it comes? While it may seem logical to some leaders to prepare for an economic slowdown by implementing hiring and salary freezes and scaling back initiatives to improve retention, a better plan would be to focus on using available tools to drive productivity and resilience, according to two leaders from Achievers, an employee recognition and engagement platform, who led a From Day One webinar. 

Achievers aims to accelerate workplace engagement and performance by giving employees a voice through pulse surveys, frequent check-ins, and networks that allow them to learn, grow, and contribute to their communities. Achievers Workforce Institute (AWI), the company’s research arm, is rooted in rigorous workforce science, including a survey of more than 5,000 employees and HR leaders across the globe.

The Impact of Belonging: HR’s North Star 

Achievers' research found that helping employees remain resilient and productive were key factors for success and that they were twice as likely to feel this way when they had a strong sense of belonging. “Productivity can be difficult to measure, so if you can improve things like engagement, job commitment, and enthusiasm, you’re almost certainly going to increase productivity,” said Natalie Baumgartner, chief workforce scientist for Achievers. Where productivity is the “downstream measuring stick,” Hannah Yardley, chief people and culture officer for Achievers, said that focusing on small, measurable ways to increase productivity can have an outsized impact, and focusing on belonging is the perfect path.

The five pillars of belonging are about making employees feel:
1.) Welcomed: Introduced to, and incorporated within, the organizational culture and community
2.) Known: Understood, motivated, and celebrated as an individual
3.) Included: Valued and accepted without reservation
4.) Supported: Consistently and meaningfully nurtured and developed
5.) Connected: Developing and maintaining relationships across a diverse population

Baumgartner noted that “if this pandemic has taught us anything about the human experience, it’s that we do not thrive in isolation. We must have the opportunity to regularly develop and maintain relationships across a diverse community to feel a true sense of belonging.”

The Roadmap to Create Belonging

How do we get there? AWI’s research found five action areas that had the most impact on resilience and productivity: recognition, feedback, connection, manager empowerment, and culture alignment. The Achievers speakers focused on three of these elements:

Boosting Recognition: The data is compelling. Weekly employee recognition doubled individual resilience, and 42% of these employees reported they believed their organization was prepared for–and could manage–unexpected changes. Productivity jumped significantly as well. Yet one of Achievers’ earlier reports showed that only 14% of employees receive any kind of training on recognition. Yardley stressed that a culture of recognition needs to become ingrained by making it part of the onboarding process, reminding employees about it, tracking how often managers recognize their team members, and optimizing your organization’s recognition program.

Among the tips the speakers shared: Focus on quality and quantity by recognizing positive behavior in real-time. “Social recognition” is the way to say thank-you that doesn’t have any monetary cost, from a thumbs-up in a chat, a callout in the weekly staff meeting, a “great job” in the hallway, or actually singing a worker’s praises on a social site like Linkedin or your company Facebook page.

Managers should ensure recognition occurs within the work flow. For workers on computers all day, consider Teams, Outlook, Slack, or Zoom. For offline workers, it means having a consumer-grade mobile app.

Employers should fuel recognition programs with a proactive, ongoing communication strategy. Encourage recognition with training, reminders, special campaigns, and technology resources for managers.

Companies need to measure success with metrics that matter to the business. Compare recognition frequency to survey results about engagement and productivity.
Creating Connection: “What you're looking at here is the correlation between employees who say their organization supports them and making friends at work compared to productivity, individual resilience, and organizational resilience,” said Baumgartner. Employees who felt supported in this way reported being nearly three times more productive. Affinity groups or Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) like a women’s network, an LGBTQ group, or a military-veterans group stood out to Yardley, who said, “we feel so convinced that these are the right things to do that we actually fund these groups. We help them set budgets for both the group members and for the company as a whole.” Connection tools can also support belonging for a distributed workforce, helping put names and faces together and encouraging a sense of connection.
Building Manager Effectiveness and Empowerment:
“We’ve been tracking manager effectiveness in our research for over two years now and it’s consistently one of the strongest predictors of productivity and retention,” noted Baumgartner. Four factors are critical:

1.) Contact: AWI suggests regular and frequent one-on-one meetings as well as ad hoc check-ins, starting with positive feedback, asking where employees may need help, and defining next steps.
2.) Recognition: It bears repeating. Showing appreciation in meaningful ways is easy and tripled managers’ scores.

3.) Development: Managers who help employees navigate clear career paths create loyalty. Companies need to empower managers to offer intermediate development steps, including stretch assignments and upskilling.

4.) Coaching: Rather than a manager identifying problems and telling employees what to do, a coaching approach reverses this process. “The employee is empowered to identify both the problem and the solution with the manager really taking on more of a consultative role,” said Baumgartner.

All told, employers should focus on where they can truly make change and break their action plans into small steps and measurable results. Implementing employee surveys, planning with attention and intention, remaining flexible, and humbly pivoting after negative feedback is solid advice. We encourage all of you to read the HR Preparedness Report and understand the pillars of belonging so you can work to increase belonging throughout your organization.

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Achievers, for sponsoring this webinar. 

Gail Gonzales is a writer, brand strategist and designer based in Austin. Her boutique agency, Evolve Your Brand, helps business owners who care about the positive evolution of people or the planet amplify their message.