‘Moments that matter’ is a familiar concept with marketing and brand specialists. Creating these moments helps to reinforce the importance and usefulness of your brand at various points of the customer journey. Thinking about how you create moments that matter for your customers includes considering how you welcome them, how you explain your product or service, how you understand their needs, and how you follow up with them.
Creating moments that matter for your employees is also important. This will also provide benefits for your brand, but more importantly it will help to create a positive, productive workplace culture, and build a desirable workplace.
Examples of moments that matter in an employee’s experience include, as you would expect, their first impressions of the organisation, usually through positive, welcoming recruitment and onboarding processes. Throughout the employee’s experience, frequent and ongoing reinforcement of these positive moments are important. These include:
Team rituals – how does the team communicate together, are they supportive and respectful? Do they celebrate successes, no matter how small? Do they acknowledge significant events in an employee’s personal life such as weddings, birthdays, or graduations? Or their professional life, like anniversaries, promotions, project completions?
Thanking and recognition – do the team members thank each other when they receive assistance? Does the leader thank the team for their efforts? Are performance review processes fair and constructive? Do they provide opportunities to acknowledge a staff member’s achievements? Acknowledging a person’s contributions can go a long way to creating a positive environment where people strive to be their best.
Meaning and purpose – how do you engage team members in work or activities that create meaningful experiences. In many organisations this can be achieved through events such as supporting team’s with volunteering opportunities or fundraising for charities, encouraging participation at local school reading programs, or establishing environmental ‘green team’ programs.
Of course moments that matter are not just about the good times. They are also about how you show up when times are bad. For example, when an organisation needs to reduce staff numbers, how do they engage staff in the process so there is an element of choice, control and dignity. How do leaders support staff who are experiencing mental or other serious illness, or are experiencing family violence? How do leaders create an environment where staff can openly discuss issues such as conflicts with others?
People at any level in an organisation can create meaningful moments. Leaders should be encouraged to model these moments, no matter how seemingly small, to help build a strong culture where people truly feel valued.