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Key Employee Engagement Strategies for Talent Retention

Key Employee Engagement Strategies for Talent Retention

For any business to be successful, it must have three things: a robust overall strategy, exceptional leaders, and engaged employees. This society has moved from an economy driven by the agricultural and manufacturing industries to a service oriented, personally connected economy.

One hundred years ago, employees were tasked with manual labor and had no vested interest in the business that employed them.

Today, with the demand for highly skilled talent, it is essential for employers and leaders to engage their employees and make them feel as if they are an integral part of the business.

In the past we wrote a blog post on employee engagement which was received with a lot of positive response by our readers – Five Must-Dos to Improve Employee Engagement – Transform the Zombies into Humans. We follow-up, with this guest post which analyzes employee engagement in a more recent context, and does so quite effectively.  John Hawthorne backs his insights with research on the key employee engagement strategies that stay relevant today.

Employee Engagement Most Recent Data

In 2017, Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report revealed that only 15% of employees worldwide are engaged in their jobs – meaning that they are emotionally invested in committing their time, talent, and energy to adding value to their team and advancing the organization’s initiatives.

This means that the majority of employees show low overall engagement. Workplace productivity was low and employees and organizations are not keeping up with workplace demands fast enough.

More Gallup research shows that employee disengagement costs the United States upwards of $550 billion a year in lost productivity. As employee engagement strategies become more commonplace, there is an amazing opportunity for companies that learn to master the art of engagement.

Jacob Shriar, in a piece on OfficeVibe, tells us that

  • Disengaged employees cost organizations between $450 and $550 billion annually.
  • Highly engaged business units result in 21% greater profitability.
  • Highly engaged business units realize a 41% reduction in absenteeism and a 17% increase in productivity.
  • Highly engaged business units achieve a 10% increase in customer ratings and a 20% increase in sales.
  •  Companies with engaged employees outperform those without by 202%.
  • Customer retention rates are 18% higher on average when employees are highly engaged.

These statistics are just the beginning of why employee engagement is so important.

Why Is Employee Engagement So Important?

The term “engagement” has been used so often and in so many different situations that it’s become hard to define. Many people think it means happiness or satisfaction, but it’s much more than that.

According to Gallup, who has been collecting and measuring employee engagement data for nearly 20 years: “Though there have been some slight ebbs and flows, less than one-third of U.S. employees have been engaged in their jobs and workplaces.”

Imagine if every employee was passionate about seeing the company and its customers succeed. The only true way to ensure that your customers are well taken care of is by taking care of your employees. This is known as the service-profit chain, a concept first introduced by Harvard Business Review in 1998. It’s still as relevant today as it was then.

Profit and growth are stimulated primarily by customer loyalty. Loyalty is a direct result of customer satisfaction. Satisfaction is largely influenced by the value of services provided to customers. Value is created by satisfied, loyal, and productive employees. Employee satisfaction, in turn, results primarily from high-quality support services and policies that enable employees to deliver results to customers.

The service-profit chain is the flow from the culture you create to the profits you generate and every step in between. The key is to start internally. When you create an environment where employees are happy, productive, autonomous, and passionate about what they do, they’ll provide better service to your customers.

That amazing service will create many loyal customers, leading to sustainable growth and profits. That’s why it’s important for every leader in an organization to understand the service-profit chain and how each step impacts the other.

Key Employee Engagement Strategies

Organizations need to pay attention to specific priorities to engage employees. Employees are more likely to become truly engaged and involved in their work if your workplace provides these factors.

Employee engagement must be a business strategy that focuses on finding engaged employees, then keeping the employee engaged throughout the whole employment relationship. Employee engagement must focus on business results. Employees are most engaged when they are accountable, and can see and measure the outcomes of their performance.

Employee engagement occurs when the goals of the business are aligned with the employee’s goals and how the employee spends his or her time.

The glue that holds the strategic objectives of the employee and the business together is frequent, effective communication that reaches and informs the employee at the level and practice of his or her job.

Engaged employees have the information that they need to understand exactly and precisely how what they do at work every day affects the company’s business goals and priorities. (These goals and measurements relate to the Human Resources department, but every department should have a set of metrics.)

Employee engagement exists when organizations are committed to management and leadership development in performance development plans that are performance-driven and provide clear succession plans.

When businesses actively pursue employee engagement through these factors, employee engagement soars to a ratio of 9:1 employees from 2:1 employees with concurrent improvements in the business success.

Employee Engagement Examples

There are of course many ways to show your employees they are valued, and to keep them focused and engaged on company success. According to Forbes, there are certain items in the benefit package that will help in creating employee engagement:

  • Health Insurance
  • Company Parties (social engagement)
  • Gifts (new babies, appreciation luncheons)

Employees go home to different roles–parent, caregiver to a loved one, a church or civic leader, spouse, bandmate, freelancer, artist, neighbor–and the people they are closest to impact their lives and perspectives about work in meaningful ways. Acknowledging those relationships and showing they are a priority will increase employee engagement.

How to Improve Employee Engagement

In a recent article in Forbes, Brent Gleeson, a former navy seal and successful businessman, gives solid advice on ways to improve employee engagement.

When managers are engaged, their team members can confidently state the following:

  • I know what is expected of me and my work quality.
  • I have the resources and training to thrive in my role.
  • I have the opportunity to do what I do best – every day.
  • I frequently receive recognition, praise and constructive criticism.
  • I trust my manager and believe they have my best interests in mind.
  • My voice is heard and valued.
  • I clearly understand the mission and purpose and how I contribute to each.
  • I have opportunities to learn and grow both personally and professionally.

The steps for improving engagement aren’t complex, they simply must be prioritized. This means engagement must be a core function of the manager’s role. The following steps can help the manager to accomplish this.

Step 1 – Put Everyone in the Right Role

Again, get the right people on the bus and make sure they are in the right roles. This means that all talent acquisition and retention strategies have to be aligned with meeting company goals.

Step 2 – Give Them the Training

No manager or leader can expect to build a culture of trust and accountability — and much less improve engagement —without setting the team up for success. This means providing the proper training and development while removing obstacles.

Step 3 – Task Meaningful Work

Engaged employees are doing meaningful work and have a clear understanding of how they contribute to the company’s mission, purpose and strategic objectives. Again, this is why they first have to be placed in the right role. I’ve made the mistake of hiring great talent just to get them in the door – but didn’t have a clear career path or role for them. If you don’t sort those details out quickly, they will leave.

Step 4 – Check in Often

The days of simply relying on mid-year reviews for providing feedback are long gone. Today’s workforce craves regular feedback — which of course leads to faster course correction and reduces waste. Use both formal and informal check-in strategies — and use them every week.

Step 5 – Frequently Discuss Engagement

Successful managers are transparent in their approach to improving engagement — they talk about it with their teams all the time. They hold “state of engagement” meetings and “engage” everyone in the discussion — and solutions.

Again, these principles are not complex, but must be prioritized. Companies that get this right will drive greater financial returns, surpass their competitors, and easily climb to the top of “the best places to work” lists.

Are Your Employees Engaged?

Employee engagement is critical to the success of any business. When a business has engaged and invested employees, it is in their best interest to protect the productivity and profitability of the business, and the image the business has in the community. Engagement also results in employee retention, which saves the business money in turnover and training. There is no downside to getting your employees engaged and invested in your business.

John Hawthorne is a health nut from Canada with a passion for travel and taking part in humanitarian efforts. His writing not only solves a creative need it has also lead to many new opportunities when traveling abroad. This article was originally published on Floship.com, you can read it here.

What Makes Social Media the Perfect Recruitment Tool

What Makes Social Media the Perfect Recruitment Tool

Technology has shrunk the world and this is no secret. Social media, a product of technology has ‘connected’ the world like never before. There are very few aspects of life it hasn’t touched and the world of work is no exception. One of the greatest challenges for recruiters today is not just finding enough candidates, but finding the right ones. Social media in the recent years has evolved in its role to become a handy tool to help recruiters in solving this problem and our guest blogger Aanchal Iyer explains how.

Social Media – The Best Way To Connect Recruiters and Job Seekers

Candidates today understand that in order to be visible to recruiters, they must be active on social media. According to ICIMS, recruiters can increase their chance of finding the right candidates by up to 50% when they put up jobs on social media. Also, using mobile-friendly SEO in their job posting, makes it searchable on hand-held devices and increases their overall reach.

Social Media Provides Total Transparency Both Ways

Social media allows for a more transparent screening process – for both recruiters as well as potential candidates. Applicants can suss out a potential employer’s social responsibility strategies, employment principles, salaries and other commitment quotients while employers can also get a good idea of . It’s a way of avoiding potentially nasty surprises and recruitment fails. Hiring managers can refrain from following up with a candidate if they find something they do not like in the candidate’s social media account, and vice versa.

(and which is why there are certain social media mistakes you must avoid while job hunting. Read here to know more.)

Using Exclusive Social Media Recruiting Tools

LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows you to post a job for 30 days. Alternatively, you can sign up for LinkedIn Talent Advantage, which is an exclusive tool for recruiters. These features cost money, but budget companies can still work through networking, joining affiliated groups and using the free advertising option. They can also put their content writing skills to good use on LinkedIn, posting relevant articles and knowledge base tips and tricks to attract potential candidates to the company’s page.

Facebook

Facebook allows employers to post a job for free at the Facebook Marketplace. Also, by building an official recruiter’s Facebook page, one can share one’s company’s profile, products and principles with interested users. Recruiters can also use their company’s page as a recruiting tool. Posting a Facebook Ad is another option, where one can target the exact audience they want.

Twitter

On Twitter, employers can tweet jobs and expand their company’s network and build relationships with candidates. They can also run a keyword search and obtain a pool of contacts from which they can look for suitable candidates. Recruiters can search for candidates based on their interest, location, popularity, industry, hashtag and more. They can also use relevant hashtags along with tweets such as #job, #jobpost, #employment, #recruiting and so on to gain people’s interest and response and also check out what topics candidates are tweeting about and follow them, retweeting their tweets to gain their attention.

So we’re saying…

With social media recruiting strategies, both the employer and the potential employee can get to know each other well. Employers can quickly gauge the skills of candidates. Recruiting through social media takes time and effort; however, you can reap long term benefits when used smartly.

Aanchal is a Digital media marketer, trainer, and a content strategist with over 11 years of experience. She is also the founder of Effcomm Worldwide , a premium content & digital marketing services company, and content4brands.in. She aspires to keep enjoying her work, always.

Five Main Barriers to Effective Communication – What to Avoid to Get Heard

Five Main Barriers to Effective Communication – What to Avoid to Get Heard

A great deal of confusion and chaos can be avoided in the world of work, if ‘communication’ could be understood in all its elements, and not just as an isolated concept. Starting from writing emails, to delivering speeches, holding meetings and giving presentations, what is the one thing that they all have in common? No prizes for guessing – communication. Communication – both written and verbal is of prime essence in the world of work. It is the sole aspect which truly can make a difference – for the better, or for the worse – in any given situation. At OBOlinx, we are constantly brainstorming about how one can perceive communication in a better, more effective manner. While we have written extensively about communication skills, and also about how one can improve them, it made sense to think about the ‘elements’ of communication. Understanding the solution to any problem is effective only when we can look at the elementary aspects of the problem. Once we have broken it down, it becomes easier to address them. In this post we speak about the possible impediments (in a broad sense) to Effective Communication, and in the post which is to follow, we will address the critical aspects or elements for communication.

 The five main barriers to effective communication :

1. Language issues

This is one of the most basic hindrances to Effective Communication. While it really might seem most commonsensical to be wary of this error, it still may occur. Most commonly, this happens when you are not fluent, or comfortable in communicating (could be verbal or written), in the chosen language. This might also happen when, as a result of discomfort with the chosen language, you translate using your imagination of the language you are most comfortable with, or the language that you “think” in. In doing so, like most translations, the essence of what you are trying to communicate might be lost.

2. Lack of context/ clarity

Assuming that your audience is already familiar with what you are about to say/ write is another possible obstruction to Effective Communication. This assumption might lead to a lack of background. As a result, what you try to communicate might sound a bit out of context and there will be a visible lack of clarity. As a result, your communication will be hampered.

3. Distraction

The medium and time for communication is as important, as the purpose of the communication itself. This stands defeated if the communicator is unable to figure out whether the time and medium is appropriate and distraction free. Ensuring that the environment is distraction free will help you communicate more effectively. For example, if your audience is already engaged with a task, or if the set up chosen for the occasion is distracting in any way, it might be difficult to have the entire attention of your audience.

4. Confusion

This factor relates mostly to the ‘content’ of your communication, and is not very different from the above factor regarding clarity. How you communicate must be completely aligned with what you want to communicate. In case your communication is open to interpretation by your audience, it means that you weren’t very clear in what you wanted to communicate. This may occur in case of over-lap, lack of clarity or lack of context.

5. Being unnecessarily verbose

When wanting to communicate effectively, the purpose must be clear and the aim should be to establish the purpose as swiftly, and simply as possible. Being verbose/ using difficult jargon defeats the very aim of Effective Communication, as you cannot be sure about how much of the content is processed by your audience. Big and difficult words and sentences always confuse the audience. Keeping it sweet and simple is the best trick.

How does one tackle these five broad issues (there are many other issues which may be clubbed under these broad ones), in order to establish an effective pattern of communication? Watch out for our next post which speaks about this!

Giving Negative Feedback – 5 Methods that Will Help You

Giving Negative Feedback – 5 Methods that Will Help You

It is always difficult to have a conversation about something someone is not doing well enough, at work. However, without these conversations, and appropriate avenues to facilitate these conversations, getting better would never be an option. Giving Negative Feedback is something that can get uncomfortable for either of the two reasons: 1. not being sensitive enough, 2. for being too sensitive and not putting across your point clearly. However, if you are in the shoes of someone who is expected to help your co-workers grow – by providing them with timely and accurate feedback, you will have to familiarize yourself with the process of delivering feedback. And it won’t always be positive feedback.

Here are 5 methods that will help you deliver negative feedback in a more structured, professional, and hopefully pleasant way:

  1. Take the help of self-assessments

    If you use self-assessments, your job is already half done. Using a pre-made self assessment checklist, and asking your team member to complete it before the feedback meeting helps both of you gain perspective about the current situation. In a lot of ways, it also helps both concerned get on the same page. By taking the help of a self-assessment you help prepare yourself for the meeting, and also give the concerned person an opportunity to rate himself/ herself honestly. During your meeting, this can be used as a yardstick to discuss the feedback you have.

  2. Use their job description as a basis

    Another “tool” apart from the self-assessment checklist that you can use to facilitate the feedback session is the job description of the team member. A job description is an outline of the expected roles and responsibilities of an employee. By using it as a basis of comparison to the actual tasks and objectives being met by the individual, you will have an idea about if he/she is aligned with the job description or has deviated from it. This will also help you point this out to your team member.

  3. Support your feedback with examples

    The basis for your negative feedback would be specific. And it is important to say out loud the specifics of the feedback. In other words, if your feedback comes with an example of a specific situation, bring it up. By doing so, you are able to be clear in your communication and this will also help you tackle the next steps of thinking about a solution to the problem. When you speak in vague terms, finding solutions to problems become difficult. As a result of which the problem may keep occurring.

  4. Speak about strengths

    It is important to support or balance your negative feedback with positive feedback. Remember that the objective of the feedback session is to bring to the notice of the team member what is not working, and to motivate him/ her to do better, and not the contrary. If it were the contrary then this would have been a meeting to discuss the individual’s termination from the organization. Therefore, it is important to also speak about the skills and the strengths of the individual. It is also important to be careful about how you speak. Adopting a tone that is firm, yet kind is the best bet. Do make sure that the session is a dialogue. Listening is as important as speaking!

  5. Remind yourself that this is your job

    No matter how hard it is to carry through this session, you need to because after all, it is your job. Before the session, it is important for you to orient yourself about it so you can be as professional as possible. Remember that it is not a personal reason being discussed, but a professional one. Hence, you must remain objective through out. It is also important to keep in mind that the team member concerned may not view the feedback as objectively as you provide it. In which case, you would have to remind yourself to hold your ground and tell yourself that you are doing your job.

Have you been in a position where you have had to discuss or provide negative feedback to a team member? What worked for you and what didn’t? Hearing from you always motivates us to write better, so do write back!

Keeping Healthy at Work – A Necessity

Keeping Healthy at Work – A Necessity

Recently, a newspaper reported that every year around new years time, there is a record increase in gym memberships. It attributed the possible causes for this to people wanting to make a positive difference to their lives, look and feel better, before stepping out of an old year, or while stepping into a new year. But, what it did not report is the sudden drop in attendance as the months roll by. Well, we do not need to read this in a paper to realize this, we are already aware of this.

Why do we feel that it is only around the special milestones that we need to move towards making a healthier difference to our lifestyles? While that question is for a psychologist to address, we are only going to advocate why being healthy all year round is really the way to go. We need not sign up for membership at a gym, or try out unsuccessful but expensive detox diets every now and then. Incorporating small, yet sustainable methods of staying healthy is possible. Even when you have a full-time, mind-numbingly demanding job (this being an extreme, of course). And here is how.

  1. Keeping Healthy at Work: Get Moving

    Depending on how active or sedentary your lifestyle is, incorporate at least 30 to 60 minutes of conscious activity into your schedule. For example, if you have a typical 9 to 5 job, chances are the scope for you to find time specifically for working out is difficult. And if you do find the time, you find it hard to maintain it. There are a number of ways you can substitute for it at work. The first thing you can do is focusing on stretching every hour for 5 minutes. This also ensures you don’t keep sitting at your desk for prolonged periods and saves you all that stiffness and cramps. Another way you can focus on being fit while at work is using the lunch break well. Get a step counter on your phone (you don’t even need a fitbit!) and set your target. And cracking. Just walking can help you burn enough calories, and is a start in the direction of staying fit.

  2. Keeping Healthy at Work: Hydrate

    Most, or many of us, especially millenials are very guilty of the atrocious habit of never drinking enough water. The side effects of this are long-term, and in all probability irreversible when one reaches the tipping point. Adequate quantities of water in your system is essential to help you feel active, and stay fit. On an average an adult would be required to consume at least 2 liters of water (it varies according to your Body Mass Index (BMI), you can check how much water you need to consume, here). Cut down on caffeine, aerated and sweetened drinks and make a conscious effort to consume enough water. One method that could help you is keeping track – if you need to consume 2 liters, fill up two 1 liter bottles and make sure you finish them by the end of the day!

  3. Keeping Healthy at Work: Sugar fix? You can stay away

    Every time you find yourself reaching out for a candy bar or a cookie, because you feel “stressed”, or feel like it will help you function better, know that is Lucifer speaking to you. And what do you do when the devil is trying to advise you? You stay away. Cravings are only psychological manifestations. It is not your body that needs these sugar fixes, it is simply in your mind. While this might sound fairly unpalatable, a wise alternative to a sugar fix is fruit.

  4. Keeping Healthy at Work: Speaking of fruit…

    Make it a habit to have at least one helping of fruit a day. Most fruits commonly available are power packed with antioxidants and natural goodness (we are trying to not think about the chemicals injected). Not just fruit, be more attentive to what you see on your plate. Are consuming more carbs and less protein? Moving towards a protein rich diet helps you build energy and muscle, while getting rid of the fat in your body. You can stock the pantry up at your workplace at the beginning of every week, in a way that you know what you are going to consume for the rest of the week. By doing this, you can also stay away from giving into sudden impulses to have fast or junk food.

  5. Encourage your co-workers to hop on

    It is always more fun to do something in a group. And more so when the benefits are remarkable. Form your own buddy/ support group at your workplace. That way you will have each others backs whenever you find yourself deviating from caring for your health, or falling into bad habits again. A great way to keep this group alive would be to meet once a week and share highs and lows of the week, pertaining to your respective health routines. No time to meet up? No worries – technology to your rescue – a group on WhatsApp would be just as good!

Have pro tips about how you can keep healthy at work? We are all ears!