Need to engage your people with the right strategies and appropriate tools

We know that an engaged workforce is focused, dedicated, and loyal to jobs and the organization. But what we may miss knowing is that a highly engaged workforce needs an enabling environment, so employees stay invested for their success and the organization’s positive business outcomes.

Companies need to differentiate between ‘happy’ employees and ‘engaged’ employees to achieve this. They can start by considering employees as stakeholders rather than just as ‘workers’ laboring for their salaries or to boost the company’s bottom line.

Companies that do the nurturing right and differently manage a breakthrough in this critical people practice area. They can create an excellent ecosystem at the workplace with the right stacking up of all the essential ingredients like exciting work, an identity for the employee, providing the right tools and training for their jobs, and building a culture of trust and recognition.

Having said that, employee engagement is not a simple or a one-time exercise to implement. Neither is it a ‘best practice’ statement for HR.

Employee engagement is a continuous strategy that needs to be fine-tuned for people and business success. Most important, it is a tool that measures employee passion and commitment leading to meaningful actions. When used in the right way, it has a quantifiable impact on business outcomes. A Gallup employee engagement survey pointed out that highly engaged teams are 21 percent more profitable than disengaged teams, costing American companies a whopping $550 billion per year!

(The views expressed in the article have been penned down by Veena Satish, VP People & Culture, MoEngage solely for BW People Publication)

In fact, employee engagement levels also forecast company performance during a recession. This considers the fact that engaged workers continue to make a difference, while disengaged ones get disillusioned, which impacts their performance.

One of the tried and tested ways of doing this is through employee engagement surveys designed to measure and assess employee motivation levels. These surveys give HR a peek into employees’ attitude towards work and the overall workplace environment.

HR has to work on the following aspects to develop a holistic survey and feedback system: develop a survey communication plan, increase the survey response rate and communicate continuously with employees about the developments in the organization. All these factors help build employee trust and encourage honest feedback that will result in relevant answers leading to solutions.

But to arrive at these employee engagement metrics, organizations have to work on the following elements that increase employee engagement levels:

Build employee trust and recognition

A Dale Carnegie study discovered that in 80 percent of the situations when employees are not engaged with their organizations, it is because there is no trust between the employee and the immediate manager, a fact that holds good at all levels.

To change this, experts recommend some visible ways of building trust and engagement, like leaders walking around the hall and engaging with employees more often than they are doing now, asking for ideas before making a critical decision, creating a system of healthy interaction, and debating conflicting ideas over a business decision, sharing of bad news with the staff instead of hiding it, avoiding micromanaging, bringing transparency and clarity in managing, respecting the junior team members, and not the least, setting an example by removing the rotten apple. At the same time, rewarding and recognizing high-performing employees.

Improve teamwork and productivity

Teamwork drives and helps build close-knit personal relationships apart from motivating employees to support one another. It brings different perspectives and ideas, which in turn increases their ability to problem solve and arrive at solutions more efficiently. There is a greater awareness of each one’s responsibilities and roles and the significance of their work in the projects. This results in a higher self-identity and commitment to work, leading to enhanced employee engagement.

Enhance customer experience through happy employees

Analysts at Glassdoor, a company that gives information about jobs and workplace insights, say that there’s a strong statistical link between employee well-being and customer satisfaction. They found this in a large sample of some of the biggest brands.

Therefore, a more satisfied workforce is associated with the companies’ ability to deliver better customer satisfaction — particularly in industries with close interaction with customers, like retail, tourism, restaurants, healthcare, and financial services.

Happier workers and a positive work environment mean they are better informed agile and ensure higher quality service for customers. One of the most effective strategies that enhance employee engagement is providing employees with the tools and resources they need to work effortlessly and effectively.

Retain talent

Studies point out that employees get rooted in jobs and workplaces and, consequently, become entrenched in their professional communities. They then become more engaged with their jobs and organizations. So, they hesitate to move out of this status quo as it would mean a disruption in both their social and professional lives. The more rooted they are, the more they are likely to stay.

Companies can enhance this rooted experience and engagement by providing mentors and recognizing their performances as team members. They can also offer financial incentives based on employment tenure or unique incentives.

Employee engagement in a remote working system

The pandemic has necessitated organizations to factor in remote working conditions in their employee engagement exercises. The best way forward is to stay connected through technology, foster social interactions, listen to feedback, keep them in the loop about organizational developments and support them with training and other tools needed for remote working. Organizations nowadays are also building online platforms where employees open up and speak

their minds. In fact, some of them are creating virtual coffee vending machine areas and happy hours, so employees don’t miss their favorite hangout places!

Recent trends also point out alarming statistics linking mental health to workplace cultures or lack of it. Unfortunately, professional and personal lives are blurred, leading to physical and psychological stress. Depression and burnout in a work-from-home situation lead to absenteeism and a dip in productivity. Several organizations are creating awareness about the importance of a balanced approach towards working from home. They are building platforms where employees can access online medical assistance and counseling.

Ushering in an industry-leading employee engagement experience ecosystem is possible. All it needs is for organizations to use the right keys to unlock the best potential of their people while keeping them committed to the organization.

(The article has been penned down by  Veena Satish, VP, People & Culture at MoEngage solely for BW People publication)