Four ways to drive employee-first culture in your business

Openness to ideas 

Employees love workplaces where they feel a sense of belonging. These kinds of organizations display a culture of openness and transparency, ensuring that employee voices are heard and that they inform the way the organization runs.

Being open to suggestions from employees has multiple benefits. For one, it's a decentralized approach to problem-solving, as opposed to a top-down approach. You get a lot more good ideas since the latter cannot attain the same plurality of perspective and inspiration that a democratized and open approach can enable. Secondly, it scores a win with the employees because everyone likes to feel that they are heard. A culture of open exchange of ideas translates into quality in all aspects of the organization. It means that issues can be resolved faster and that the quality of output increases.

At Zoho, all our products benefit from constructive criticism and the free flow of ideas and suggestions from our employees. In fact, we have a dedicated space where they are actively encouraged to voice their opinions on our offerings on our intranet platform. Our products improve as a result, and our employees feel the pride of making a difference. It's a win-win situation.

Transparency  

Don't leave employees guessing about big changes in the organization or decisions that affect them. An air of uncertainty doesn't bode well for morale and can lead to a low-trust atmosphere and unnecessary speculation. On the other hand, when decisions are communicated clearly, employees have faith in the organization and are willing to go the extra mile.

Going beyond announcing decisions to explaining the philosophy behind them gives employees even more of a reason to stick with you. Marketing departments have internalized the philosophy of Simon Sinek's golden circle and are leveraging it to make their communications with customers more meaningful and impactful. If it works for customers, then it's all the more important to utilize this for employees who form the backbone of the company. Simon Sinek famously explains this in his concept of the golden circle: the 'why' behind something has stronger emotional resonance than the 'what' or the 'how'.

Rewarding merit 

Employees like to feel that their efforts are seen and appreciated. When they receive positive feedback in the form of encouraging words from their managers or any special recognition or award, it creates a positive feedback loop. It encourages the employees to continue with their sincere efforts and makes them feel that they are working in a system that notices, appreciates, and values hard work.

According to research, "92% of employees are likely to repeat a specific action if given recognition for it".  

Employee experience 

Companies put a lot of effort into crafting customer experience. But not nearly enough when it comes to employee experience. According to studies, new employees with good onboarding experiences are 18X times more committed to their employers. This creates a great set of first impressions for the employee and plays a role in influencing their long-term attitude toward their employer.

As employees get used to seamless, delightful, and intelligent experiences in many aspects of their lives, they begin to expect it at their workplace, too. After all, they may be employees of your organization, but they wear the hat of customers to many more, all of whom aim to delight them at every opportunity. For example, in the case of payroll, sending payslips by mail and having your employees fetch it from their inbox every time is no longer enough. Having a dashboard that provides access to all salary slips and other salary information is a more delightful and hassle-free experience, and it mirrors the frictionless aspects of other areas of their life. Having the same smoothness reflected in their employee experience shows to them that their employer cares about them enough to invest in better employee experiences.

Inspiring performance 

There isn't any one fixed playbook or set of rules for driving an employee-first culture. It may look like different things in different organizations. But every step towards cultivating it matters. It means that your employees are one step closer to believing in the mission of your organization and working proactively to achieve it rather than performing their tasks and duties mechanically. And while the means to achieving it may look different, the underlying principles usually remain the same.