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How do you retain your best people? Learn how to keep them engaged through the concept of uniquity. Understand their uniqueness and tailor programs to their individual needs, while helping them feel part of your unique business with a stand-out purpose and direction. Here are four ways to make that happen…
Sharpen your Employee Value Proposition
so it’s unique to you, simple to understand and inspiring.
Bring it to life every day
through programs, initiatives, projects and communications.
Live and breathe it
otherwise it’s just a collection of nice words.
Keep the messaging consistent
so the words become a common mantra for all.
Root purpose in your culture
bringing your people together through a shared human bond.
Make it as adaptable as possible
so you can tailor initiatives to unique needs and skills.
Embrace difference
by recognizing and celebrating uniquity in your people.
Welcome true selves
inspiring more fulfilment and productivity that unlocks potential.
Build an experience with uniqueness at its heart
through what you say, training you provide and opportunities you offer.
Customize your always-on learning
tailoring training and coaching to each individual through an ongoing feedback loop.
Enable employees’ passions and ambitions
with initiatives that help them develop in ways beyond work walls.
Communicate like a human
with authenticity, emotion and your own unique voice.
Care for your people in work and life
by understanding and addressing individual challenges or concerns.
Look out for their wellbeing
both physically and mentally.
Stand up for causes you believe in
by talking about them openly and sincerely.
Act for impact
through decisions, initiatives and outcomes that show you mean it.
With uniquity at the heart of your organization—whether it applies to your purpose and vision or to your people-first culture —you’ll not just keep your best people for longer; you’ll thrive as a business too.
Explore ways to build a connected talent journey and contact us.
In a world where equality, equity and diversity are of such vital importance—and rightly so—there’s another quality that’s of increasing importance in terms of retaining your people. Uniquity is the quality or state of uniqueness, and it’s something that all your people want to feel about themselves at work, about your business and about your work culture. Get this right and you’ll have a far greater chance of keeping your people engaged, fulfilled and proud to be a part of the business for the foreseeable future.
Your Employee Value Proposition should of course be unique, though sometimes, businesses don’t get this quite right—or if they do, they may fail to live by it. The other challenge is your people’s knowledge and appreciation of it: do they believe in it, do they see it in action every day, do they even know what it is?
“Whatever your situation, bringing the organization’s EVP to life is essential if you want to get people behind your shared purpose and vision, and create a feeling of cultural belonging,” says Maria Amato, Senior Client Partner, Consulting. “After all, it’s been proven time and again that people do their best work and bring their best selves when they are driven by a sense of purpose at work.”
As well as being unique, your EVP should also be simple and real —something that every single one of your people immediately gets, believes in and can easily pass on. It should be clear, memorable, roll easily off the tongue and be something that employees are proud to share. That way, they will each feel a part of something special, contributing to a purpose they’re powering together that transcends the day job.
Building and maintaining an attractive and engaging work culture is always a challenge, but with hybrid work becoming a mainstay and turnover high, it’s more important than ever. As Shauna Sweeney, Associate Client Partner, Organizational Strategy, explains, “You must invest in delivering a people-first culture that is unique to your business, rooted in your purpose and reflective of the shared individual human traits and beliefs of your senior leaders and those you employ.”
On top of that, the outward manifestations of your work culture – projects, programs and initiatives – should be as adaptable as possible to the individual needs of your people. It’s vital to embrace and celebrate their unique qualities, views and working styles—what sets them apart and makes them who they are.
As a result, they’ll feel understood, accepted and appreciated by the business, and they’ll be more likely to bring their real selves to work every day. This leads to people being happier and more fulfilled in their roles, throwing themselves whole-heartedly into every task and giving it their all. It unlocks greater potential, inspires a deeper sense of belonging and ultimately, people stay with you longer.
According to recent research, nearly 2/3 of World’s Most Admired Company (WMAC) executives attribute 30% or more of their organizations’ market value to culture and 1/3 attribute 50% or more. Culture doesn’t just make people feel good, it also contributes to the bottom line.
The employee experience you create is built on your culture and therefore needs to have uniqueness and individuality at its heart —both in terms of how it’s designed and what it delivers.” Sweeney continues, “It needs to bring to life your people-first culture at every touchpoint and demonstrate that you do what you say you do when it comes to caring for your people, their careers and wellbeing. This starts with how you communicate, and leaders play a crucial role here. This starts with them.”
Clear and timely internal communications can be a difficult balance to get right: too little and your people feel they’re out of the loop and therefore not valued; too much and they can feel overwhelmed or annoyed—and consequently become disengaged because they simply can’t keep up with it all. But frequency aside, communications should always be authentic and unique to the voice of the individual they’re from, so that it doesn’t come across as a bland, emotionless corporate statement. Every reader should feel as if they are being spoken to, not simply informed. In short, be true to who you are, and also be human—because it’s humans you’re talking to, after all.
Continuous and customized learning and development is something that many businesses are beginning to buy into, recognizing its value in terms of retaining and investing in top talent. This too must be uniquely tailored to the individual’s unique skills and aspirations in order to keep them constantly engaged, understood and fulfilled. The creation of an ongoing feedback loop, ideally through regular face-to-face sessions around career goals and general wellbeing, is vital to success.
In companies already recognized as great to work for, it is becoming increasingly common to implement programs and initiatives that allow people to pursue goals that may not be directly connected to their current job. It’s an investment in their uniqueness that is a hugely effective way of showing the company’s understanding and enablement of their passions and ambitions, and it is helpful in retaining employees for longer periods of time.
Caring for and about your people must be at the core of keeping your top talent engaged and with the organization long-term— and there are two sides to it that are both crucial to get right.
First, there’s the obvious need to look after your people, and to make them feel looked after. As attention to mental health has reached an all-time high and burnout is an increasingly common issue at all levels, your people want to feel that you understand their unique concerns and challenges and want to see you act accordingly by creating a safe space to work. “If you show them that you get it by empathizing with them and are working to address it, they’ll feel listened to, assured and valued. Then they will be likely to show loyalty to the business into the future,” says Dan Kaplan, Senior Client Partner.
Then there’s the other side—showing your care for wider social issues. 84% of Fortune’s WMAC executives say role modeling by senior leadership is the most important lever for shaping organizational culture. While your people like to know that there’s a business brain at the top running the organization with intelligence and efficiency, they also want to see a unique heart too. They want to see the business’s humanity come to life through opinions, beliefs and values. It needs to be authentically expressed through actions, decisions and outcomes that show you mean what you say and are leading by example.
In a world now flooded with AI, it’s more important than ever that we recognize and emphasize what makes us unique as human beings. And for a business to thrive, this needs to happen in the workplace too, through a work culture that shows a consistent understanding of what makes each of us different, embracing that difference and celebrating it in a way that encourages your people to be their whole and best selves.
A people first culture helps get your people on your side beyond their roles. It gets them believing in your purpose and direction and makes them proud to be a part of it. It helps them feel understood, recognized and prized, leading to a greater sense of belonging and a keener sense of loyalty. And it helps unlock more of their potential and give their all in whatever they take on, sparking greater productivity and ultimately driving business performance. As humans, we pride ourselves on our uniqueness—so the smart business leader will not only understand this and recognize it in their people, but also communicate and demonstrate the uniqueness of the organization, building a more human and enduring bond with every single employee, every day.
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