By now, the business costs of harboring unengaged employees are well known. Time is wasted. Resources are squandered. Employee turnover is much more likely, making the costs of turnover much higher for organizations.
But many organizations miss the mark on employee engagement. They may over-rely on messaging and corporate branding to impress upon their employees why the work matters and, therefore, how their individual efforts contribute to a larger mission. But a better measure of employee engagement is how engaged they are with their managers. Or rather, how engaged managers are with them.
Organizations could benefit from thinking of employee engagement as a corporate equity issue: When employee inclusion is overlooked as an essential element of corporate equity, teams struggle with chronic performance and retention issues. The more employees feel included—by their organization, on their team, and particularly by their manager—the more engaged they are overall.
What Is First-, Second-, Third-, and Fourth-Generation Diversity?
The earliest workplace conversations about workplace diversity and equity were primarily concerned with two things: justice and fairness. Historically, members of the workforce had been excluded from the workplace for reasons that are now (and should always have been) impermissible, whether by race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other way of classifying people. First-generation diversity was about establishing a just and fair workplace where no one was excluded based purely on demographics.
Second-generation diversity thinking shifted from diversity concerns within the workplace to diversity outside of it—diverse markets, customers, and end-users. It was important that the diversity of a team reflect the diversity of its target demographics, the theory being that employees would be better able to meet the needs and expectations of clients with similar backgrounds.
Third-generation diversity recognized the importance of acquiring talent from diverse sources—in other words, not leaving any talent on the table. In short-staffed and overworked organizations, hiring workers who may not have fit the traditional employment profile based on education or experience became an important shift. Improving the staffing supply chain was the end goal of many third-generation diversity programs.
Fourth-generation diversity efforts were based on valuable research that began to show that a diverse team meant diversity in perspectives and backgrounds, the impact of which had concrete business outcomes. Diverse points of view resulted in lower error rates and accelerated innovation.
From the first to fourth generation of workplace diversity, the focus has been steadily trending away from a social and moral conversation to a decidedly business-focused one. For better or worse, many boards and CEOs want to know what diversity means for their bottom line.
Fifth-Generation Diversity Is Required for Business Success
Fifth-generation diversity is, in many ways, a culmination of the previous generations, as well as an entirely new perspective. Many older workers find themselves overwhelmed by the expectations of their Gen Z counterparts. Pronoun identification, racial and cultural distinctions, and mental health awareness are just some of the many diversity issues in today’s workplace.
The common element of fifth-generation diversity is this: Each individual has their own unique diversity story and must be treated accordingly.
If this seems high maintenance for managers, that is because it is. There is no avoiding the fact that managers today must work harder than ever before to understand and acknowledge the diversity of each member of their team. It is no longer enough to categorize employees under broad demographic definitions and assume their needs are being met.
And the stakes haven’t changed. Diverse teams are still a reflection of diverse markets, result in better business outcomes, and are necessary to increasing employee retention and reducing employee turnover. If organizations want to ensure their success today, tomorrow, and in the long term, managers must approach employee inclusion—and, therefore, engagement—one person at a time, one day at a time.
That solution may be high maintenance, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. It simply means establishing a routine method of one-on-one communication with each person a manager is responsible for. Highly engaged, highly inclusive managers communicate with structure and substance, to achieve the following outcomes:
- Understand each employee’s strengths, weaknesses, and everything in-between.
- Set employees up for success by setting expectations, goals, and timelines.
- Support employees in their work by tracking tangible progress, solving problems along the way, and providing necessary resources.
- Help employees meet the goals that matter most to them, by offering opportunities and earning rewards in line with their unique goals.
6 Questions to Start With
For managers to achieve this, they must commit to tuning in to each individual who reports to them. A good place to start is with these six questions:
- WHO is this person at work? What is their role, not just in title, but on their team and in relation to the goals of the organization?
- WHY do they need you as a leader? What does this person need from a manager in order to succeed? That could be anything from guidance and coaching to accountability and performance tracking.
- WHAT do you need to talk about in your one-on-ones? This most likely will go hand-in-hand with the “whys” identified above.
- HOW should you talk with this person? This includes tone and word choice but also methods of communication. Some people respond better to asynchronous, written forms of communication—such as e-mail—while others benefit from live, instantaneous communication, whether that is in-person or on Zoom.
- WHERE? This might seem obvious, but there may be more locations at your disposal than you think: your office, their desk, a conference room, or even walking outside.
- WHEN? What time of day should you meet and how often? Some people are at their best first thing in the morning, while others need to see how their day plays out.
With all of these six questions, consider what works best for the employee in question but also for you as their manager. One-on-ones are most successful when both parties are at their best.
