Today’s social context is chaotic and everchanging. While this is due to sociopolitical issues outside of organization’s control, employees everywhere are impacted. Employees are often impacted by events happening outside of the organization, but they show up to work with these impacts. Chief among these impacts are changes in rights of under-represented groups. Even in companies with strong engagement scores, surveys may highlight a troubling theme: employees don’t always feel like they belong.
Belonging is Just as Critical as Engagement
We’ve long argued that if you’re measuring only engagement, you’re missing other equally important pieces of the entire organizational landscape. This isn’t to say that engagement isn’t a priority; of course everyone wants employees to be committed and enthusiastic. Yet we typically describe measuring only alignment as taking a car trip where you’re only focused on how much gas is in the tank. The car will go, but where is it headed, and how do you know if it’s going in the right direction?
[Read More: Exploring Beyond Engagement]
Measuring belonging has both the same importance and limitation as engagement. Merely having high scores on Belonging isn’t enough, but it’s also a very important piece of the puzzle. A person can be engaged with their work and still feel isolated from their team. Especially in a world of increased remote work, we want to make sure this dimension is getting attention.
What the Data Is Telling Us
In our work, a few clear patterns have emerged:
- More companies are measuring belonging. We see a notable increase in the number of clients adding this dimension to their surveys. However, belonging scores on average are about 5 points lower than engagement scores.
- Good managers make a big difference. Teams with managers who proactively check in about both work and well-being report tend to fare better.
- Understanding One’s Purpose Helps. Employees who see how their work connects to the organization’s mission are more likely to feel they matter.
[Read More with our eBook Guide: Manager Effectiveness]
How to Encourage Belonging
- Make Belonging an Important Part of Annual or Pulse Surveys
Measuring this dimension can help you check where you stand, and address any problems you might have. - Create Moments for Collaboration and Connection
Encourage ways for employees to connect to build better relationships. - Empower managers.
Give leaders practical tools; for example, our new AI Agent Arti is embedded into manager dashboards, and can help managers have better conversations, provide tips for holding more inclusive meeting, and give other advice that is all culled from OrgVitality’s consulting knowledge base. - Make Messaging Around Belonging Come from the Top
When leadership acts with respect, it sends a strong message to the employee population about what the organization values. When leadership actively fosters a culture of belonging, it will be felt throughout the organization.
When organizations listen intentionally and act on what they learn, it improves the workplace for everyone. Ready to get started? Book a free consulation today.
Author
Dr. Victoria Hendrickson is a partner and vice president in the consulting department at OrgVitality. She works to strategically design and administer employee surveys, customer surveys and linkage research. Across these tools, she works to gather data that helps leaders address their organization’s unique strategic challenges and to present findings as an insightful story that guides meaningful change. Victoria comes to OrgVitality with a background in organizational development and leadership development. She conducts applied research on topics of survey comments and organizational ambidexterity and regularly presents at national and international conferences. Victoria received her undergraduate degree in Social Psychology from Saint Mary’s College of California, and her Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology at Alliant International University.
