Keeping the hearts and minds of your employee. Part three

Retaining talents   
Over the last few weeks, I have discussed the concept of commitment, the types of commitment and the possible ways we can enhance the different types of commitment as we seek to retain talents. This final post will look at organisational commitment in a hybrid world. I discussed how employers could enhance organisational commitment through recruitment, socialisation into the workforce, training, reward packages, etc. The prevalence of hybrid working has also influenced organisational commitment. The good news is that the same HR processes work for a hybrid work environment but with some minor additions to enhance to accommodate the dynamics in a hybrid work environment.  

I mentioned in the second post in this series that factors that affect affective commitment include organisational characteristics, the person's characteristics and work experience. Hybrid work has impacted organisational characteristics, particularly organisational communication. I have also observed that colleagues who joined the organisation before the pandemic had a higher level of organisational commitment. In contrast, those who joined during the pandemic have shown less commitment in terms of length of tenure to the organisation. My untested hypothesis suggests that these two groups of employees experienced different organisational socialisation processes.   

To address this, it is imperative to ensure that individual goals are aligned and socialised into organisational goals or values. And this should be in addition to the normal socialisation process arranged when a newly hired staff member joins. This alignment taps into their motivation and can link to other antecedents of commitment, such as work experience.  

Hybrid working has a significant impact on the employee's experience at work. Work experience includes job challenges, degree of autonomy, and the ability of the employee to use a variety of their skills. It also includes the scope of the employee's role and the relationship between the employee and their line manager. Hybrid working can enhance autonomy as managers have no choice but to focus on employee outcomes and outputs rather than behaviour/input control—for example, presenteeism, overtime, busyness etc.   

Research also suggests that commitment, created through perceptions and interpersonal contacts, is reduced through hybrid working as people have less time in the main office. Office time is primarily spent in meetings and other formal communication. The amount of informal communication has diminished substantially, and several organisations are actively trying to stimulate this form of communication by reducing this distance through ICT. In addition to virtual coffees and virtual watercooler channels, organisations should ensure that there are regular team-building activities, open virtual office hours for drop-ins, social events, problem-solving online discussion forums, peer recognition programs, virtual team projects, mentorship or buddy programmes for new starters, and cross-departmental collaboration.    

The relationship between line managers and their employees can have the most significant impact on organisational commitment. To enhance commitment, line managers are advised to manage for commitment. When managing for commitment, you should match a person's characteristics with the kind of commitment your organisation can provide. For some, it may be a belt and braces reward strategy or understanding how the candidate performs in a hybrid environment. Once onboard, ensure that the newly hired staff has a formal mentor or buddy that supports integration and socialisation for roughly six months. Organisations may also experiment with more office attendance in those first six months in order to increase socialisation support.   
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Offering training and development opportunities in the early days of employment can enhance affective commitment but decrease continuance commitment. This is not bad news at all. The initial period can be training on internal ways of doing things to help the new starter settle in productively. This will improve affective commitment. Line managers can also enhance hybrid work autonomy by offering challenging jobs. Informal communication priorities should be taken seriously by the manager and happen regularly.  
 
I hope some of these tips can support the commitment levels in your organisation.