In today’s ever-changing business world, building an employee-first culture is important to creating a thriving company culture. This article from Entrepreneur has your tips!

9 Strategies To Build An Employee-First Culture

There is no doubt that life and businesses have been disrupted worldwide. Today, transparent decision-making is required, and rapid action is necessary. Employee safety and emotional wellness must be top of mind for all organizations.

To move towards an employee-first culture, here are nine strategies to consider.

1. Executives set the tone

Employees rely on leaders at all levels to set the tone of how communication will be delivered in any organization. This is the time where executives must prioritize, increasing the cadence of their connection to employees. Hosting a meeting with executives and employees creates a space for a Q& A discussion alongside weekly updates. Maximus President issued a public CEO message reinforcing his commitment to his employees as his single top priority to their health and wellbeing during the pandemic. Yum Brands CEO relinquished his 2020 salary to fund one-time bonuses for general managers and provide financial hardship grants to employees.

2. Empathy in action

Despite the uncertainty, chaos and hardships, employers are taking steps to reinforce that their people are the priority and their livelihoods are protected. Companies are walking compassionately in the shoes of employees. Here are some companies putting people first.

• Caterpillar withheld annual salary increases and bonuses to tighten expenses amid the crisis.
• Comcast CEO and executives donated 100% of their salaries to charities to support relief efforts and committed $500 million to assist employees with pay and benefits where operations were compromised.
• BlackRock CEO declared they would not lay off any employees this year and committed to providing full-time pay to support staff even when they are unable to come to work.
• Walmart announced employees receive two week’s pay if they were mandated to quarantine or became ill with a confirmed case of coronavirus. Also, if they were unable to return post the two weeks, there would be an additional pay replacement available for up to 26 weeks for employees.

3. Humanize workplaces

Leaders try to hide their vulnerabilities at all costs; however, when the moment comes, people get turned on by leaders stepping up, being courageous and being real. Executives can feel like elusive ghosts that you hear about during onboarding, yet you never get to meet. Internal employee podcasts are breaking the glass ceiling, de-mystifying secrecy, and offering accountability that people crave. The beauty of these employee-only podcasts is that they are uploaded on internal platforms and provide the opportunity for executives and leaders to be authentic, show vulnerability and be transparent about the current landscape. Imagine what that will do for employee engagement.

4. Be the trusted voice

When communicating with your people, keep the information flow purposeful and consistent. Share how the current changes will impact the business and what this means for employees. By addressing what changes directly affect people, what changes have been implemented, and what steps are coming forward as a result reinforces a ‘together as one’ culture.

Written communication, visual mediums, whether it be videos or through real-time Zoom calls, is imperative in providing knowledge about COVOID-19 and how the company is protecting the workforce. The CEO recording a brief video message that can be watched by all will give significant weight in connecting with people. Salesforce shared a public email Standing Together With Our Salesforce Family to maintain communication with all their key stakeholders, including their employees.

Click here to continue reading this article.