5 ways to glocalize belonging
published 5.19.21
Prioritizing the well-being of employees is more critical than ever to fostering healthy workplace culture, driving innovation and remaining profitable.
If your employee base is distributed across the globe, supporting everyone in a meaningful way can be a challenge. How can you adapt mental health programs to be relevant across national, cultural and individual differences, while still upholding your corporate values and culture?
Cultivating a workplace centered around belonging might be the answer. Belonging is a fundamental human need that transcends nationality, race, culture, religion, gender or ability. As human beings, we are inherently wired for connection. Harvard’s 80-year long study on happiness found that: “Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives. [They] protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes”. Bottom line: Belonging and social connection are a precondition for good mental health.
here are 5 actions to improve well-being through belonging:
create safe spaces: psychological safety precedes belonging. if leaders are openly vulnerable about their own mental health, it creates a safe space for employees to share what they’re experiencing and to feel seen and appreciated despite the challenges they are facing. bolster the “quieter” voices by building trust and inspiring people to open up. as trust builds, the conversations will get more real and the sense of belonging will grow overtime.
facilitate unlikely collisions: consider how you might pair up unlikely and diverse duos from across your employee base. the goal is to encourage meaningful connections by intentionally linking people who otherwise would never have the chance to work closely together. this can be done in a rotating virtual coffee, a 6-month mentorship program or a shadowing program, which provides inspiration and access to potential new career opportunities. intentional exposure among a diverse network helps to mitigate conscious and unconscious biases. it’s hard not to like people close-up.
redefine leadership: level up on what leadership means in your organization and instill dei and wellness training and clear accountabilities for both in leadership scorecards. could you consider giving everyone 1-3 days off on top of allocated vacation time to demonstrate how important employee well-being is to your organization?
go beyond the employee experience: the importance of a strategic dei roadmap with clear metrics and priorities cannot be undermined. co-create this with your employees through ergs and engage diverse cross-functional teams from all areas of your business. but don’t stop there. conduct a systemic analysis of your entire value chain and identify opportunities to embed belonging into product development; your people, culture and leadership practices; your customer experience; your brand; and your partnerships. the best starting point for this is a clear and genuine purpose that gets operationalized into everything your company does.
celebrate your people: small celebrations through an internal recognition program can go a long way in making people feel seen and appreciated, which are critical components to belonging. the past 15+ months have taken a serious toll on everyone and something as simple as a digital gratitude note can uplift people out of a bout of imposter syndrome. it’s important for people to be recognized by their peers, leaders and direct reports. get creative with how recognitions are shared with everyone as a visible source of pride and camaraderie.
Eventually, belonging becomes the gateway to your company’s wellness strategy, irrespective of how geographically widespread or culturally diverse your employee base is. In fact, the beautiful thing about belonging is that it aligns your wellness strategy with your DEI and ESG goals. When people feel that they belong, their wellness improves, enabling them to give you their best.
To learn more about qb.’s approach to creating thriving global cultures, please reach out. We’d love to chat.
by Neetu Sidhu
Board Member
