A recurring theme candidates and employees share with me is that they like contributing to and being part of an organization that helps people and contributes to society in a meaningful way. They want the mission of our organization to resonate with them personally and professionally as a career they can be proud of rather than a job as a means to a paycheck. This kind of connection is critical to both personal and organizational success.
Recent changes in our company’s portfolio and overall strategy have resulted in new ways to communicate that mission. In 2021, we announced a new medical strategy, which focuses our business on the clinical needs of patients and physicians. We have sold portions of our business that were successful but that had consumer and scientific emphases. More than ever, the stories of the physicians and patients we work with have the opportunity to better connect us to our employees.
Transformation Inside and Out
When we made the commitment to becoming a fully global medical technology company, changes were happening in the world.
COVID, inflation, an increase in the numbers of people changing their jobs—these have a real impact on recruitment and retention. As with most major corporations, ours is adopting more flexible work policies, such as allowing for more work from home. We have retained these flexibility benefits for employees but have continued to emphasize the benefits employees gain from being with coworkers.
With hybrid workstyles imposed by the pandemic, we know place of work is becoming less relevant, which is why culture is so important to maintaining our connections and fostering the sense of meaning we find in our work. When we think about the people we want to recruit, we now think less about our facilities and more about our culture and what it has to offer.
Communicate Meaning Effectively
As we’ve transformed, we have used the employee and patient stories of our impact in the world to connect across global regions. We use platforms like Yammer to make this happen, as well as direct broadcasts from our leadership and focus pieces on frontline employees published on our blog.
These meaning-based communications provide us with opportunities to connect with employees all around the world about some of the toughest challenges our medical technologies address: how to fight disease. This creates an ideal feedback loop: The work feeds the stories, and the stories feed the work.
One important aspect of these forms of communication is that we make sure we are reaching beyond employee audiences in corporate functions. Ideally, we want employees to look at a patient success story and know that wherever they are in the company—shipping and receiving, customer service, training, or education—they are a part of that story.
Identify Employees Who Most Need the Message at Any Given Time
Connecting the dots is key. We understand that diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces make for healthier organizations and societies.
The importance of attention to diversity hits even closer to home with the increased medtech focus. This is because a major part of our mission is to understand how to improve access to health care for historically underserved populations. Improving people’s health overall can be one of the most effective ways we can contribute to a more just, equitable, and inclusive society.
We work hard to raise awareness about our work toward improved access, such as our support for MedTech Color, a group that aims to advance the representation of persons of color in the medical device industry. Our Colleague Affinity Networks (CANs) are go-to resources for us when we need to be sure that certain communities within the company are considered and included at inflection points. We have 10 CANs that represent a range of ethnicities and affinities within the organization.
Each CAN hosts meetings and events open to CAN members and the entire organization to increase awareness and understanding of their community. They plan volunteer events, partner with community leaders, and work to find new ways to elevate awareness around the importance of the identities and interests they represent while doing good for the community and society. They also help us shape messages about the work we’re doing in the world.
The Human Story Resonates
In this age of the Great Resignation and “quiet quitting,” HR departments are considering strategies that work. For us, these trends coincided with our company’s transformation to become more focused on health care, a sector that has opportunity to improve communication with employees.
With that kind of communication, employees might make a connection to their own experiences. So now, Jen in accounts receivable thinks about the colonoscopy that saved her mom from developing colon cancer and can connect it to the work she does. Michael in sales knows that 6-year-old Raven will go to physical therapy today to regain the use of her hands after brain surgery and that it was equipment he sold that made it happen. And Jordan in business development just saw the video about a patient whose life was improved by a new lung procedure because of a deal he helped strike years ago.
Companies with a human-interest mission have the advantage of providing a sense of higher purpose for employees, which may help with attracting and retaining talent.
But even companies outside of health care can bring meaning to customer lives. Maybe your customers save time because of your products and can use that time for family, friends, or fun. Maybe you offer peace of mind that customers can talk about with your employee audiences. Solicit these stories from your employees, connect with your communications department to package them, and use them as you connect with employees and as you recruit new hires. If you’re a company doing good in the world, make sure your employees know about it.
Stacey Morey is VP of Human Relations at Olympus Corporation of the Americas.