Hype, Buzzword, or True Effort?
If what we’ve seen in the past ten years is any indication, it will be employee-focused and engagement will continue to be an HR Buzzword. But can it be converted from hype to a real effort that makes an impact on your organization?
Employee Engagement:
It’s a term we often use, yet gets defined multiple ways. There are good reasons for the splintered definitions and understandings, namely that what is good for one organization may not necessarily be good for another. The impact also varies from employee to employee; not all employees are created equal or appreciate the same kind of engagement.
How Can Your Organization Win?
Most human resource departments are tasked with improving employee engagement. Can this be achieved with the diversely-minded workforce of today?
Here’s what you should know:
- Disengaged employees negatively cost your organization’s bottom line
- Engaged employees outperform those with low employee engagement
- And even engaged employees are hunting for jobs or looking for opportunities
How does an organization win?
We must start actually paying attention to employee engagement, and the lack, thereof. Not just giving it lip service. When unemployement is low – like right now – job seekers have the upper hand – there are jobs and they will find them – so, retention of quality employees becomes even more vital.
Factors that Impact Employee Retention
- Not Enough Feedback or Direction
You can easily solve this with consistent microfeedback built into your performance management plan. Microfeedback is simply communicating with your employees. Constructive feedback and accolades are easier to give and get when done regularly. Practice actually does make perfect.
EASY: A system like iRevü helps you with performance management and a feedback plan with reminders, simple integration with systems already in use and the ability to allow managers and fellow employees give feedback, as well. Once the habit of giving and receiving performance feedback is in place, managers can be trained how to provide it to employees.
- No Friends at Work
Can Employers foster a sense of friendship within your workplace? Absolutely – team sports, birthday parties, book clubs, charitable events, or participating community events are fun and easy ways to get your employees socializing. Friendship impacts employee engagement:
EASY: Feedback can be used as an opportunity to help employees work together. Allow employees to praise each other so positive work behaviors are reinforced and friendships can develop.
- No Understanding of or Connection to Company Values
If your employees don’t understand the company mission, vision, and values, something is very wrong. This is Onboarding and Performance Management 101.
EASY: Accolades and feedback can coincide company values, reinforcing those values with employees and managers. Other ways to incorporate company culture with values are events, company swag displaying values, and of course, when management lives those same values employees are expected to live.
- Feeling Unappreciated, Unrecognized, or Undervalued
Have you ever completed a particularly difficult project or period at work and no one noticed? Employees have moments like this every day. Fortunately, this is a simple thing to remedy.
EASY: Send accolades through iRevü, allowing managers or coworkers to view specific and timely praise, providing recognition and value to employees’ work. iRevü also connects with a rewards platform, linking these programs for an even more comprehensive solution. All of this goes hand in hand with verbal recognition and actual rewards.
- Poor Communication between Remote Managers and Employees
In every workforce, a danger exists of becoming disconnected from one another, poor communication and or feeling undervalued adds to this danger. If it can happen in an office where everyone is centrally-located, then it’s more likely to happen with a remote or distributed workforce.
EASY: Increase communication with video chats (because email and texts can sometimes be misunderstood), daily check-ins with the team (in-person or digitally), and an open and transparent policy allows your team to openly express when misunderstandings occur.
Don’t Ignore What’s Happening in Your Own Organization or Department
Once these factors are faced and understood, employers can more readily address them and reduce employee attrition. RETAIN those employees you work so hard to recruit and hire by treating them the way they want to be treated, the way they expected they would be treated, and really? The way they deserve to be treated.
iRevü is a key solution in helping to reduce the risk of losing your valued workforce.
