Finance leaders are now being expected to lead with gratitude towards the workforce to boost staff engagement, according to Gartner, Inc.
Employees within the finance department are found to have been exhibiting low intent to stay, with their levels of discretionary effort being below company-wide averages.
According to the technological research and consulting firm, finance leaders who are facing low levels of employee engagement in their function should make sure they understand how leading with gratitude can improve the situation.
These low levels of engagement are likely leading to high staff turnover and are undermining key function priorities.
Driving engagement
“Finance department employee engagement tends to trend below firm-wide averages, suggesting that the tactics used by finance leaders to drive engagement have not been entirely successful,” says Shannon Cole, senior director analyst, research, in the Gartner Finance practice.
“Low levels of engagement are likely to put CFO priorities that call for finance employees’ change capacity at risk.”
Gartner defines engagement as how likely employees are to stay in their current job and exert high effort.
Figure 1: Elements of Employee Engagement
Source: Gartner (February 2024)
Leading with gratitude
Gartner says finance leaders should consider addressing employee engagement issues by displaying gratitude themselves and by fostering a culture of gratitude in their function.
For a successful “Gratitude Attitude”, finance leaders should consider peer-to-peer gratitude shares.
“However, not all gratitude practices work,” says Rob O’Donohue, vice president analyst at Gartner. “It will have limited benefit as a tickbox exercise, and when gratitude is given without being specific or heartfelt it can be seen as inauthentic and tends to have a negative impact on morale.”
Leaders can dedicate the first five to 10 minutes of each team meeting to the appreciation of others. Gartner advises that leaders should/can go first, but the real power comes when team members give thanks to each other for support they’ve received recently.
Finance leaders can also tweak the SMART goals approach by giving thanks by being:
- Specific (what quality the person brought, e.g., humor to the team/project, honest feedback)
- Measurable (working extra hours, closing more tickets, writing extra code, fixing more bugs)
- Active (do it in person or over a video call)
- Relevant (explain the impact it had on the group’s or team’s success and, more importantly, why it upheld a great culture)
- Timely (do it immediately, if possible).
