6 things you must know about employee engagement strategy in the pandemic era
“To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.” - Doug Conant
How engaged an employee is can directly impact the quality of the work produced and relationships with clients. It is the employer’s responsibility to keep employees and clients engaged. Given the current situation of COVID-19, businesses across the globe are challenged to think outside the box to survive and succeed in the marketplace.
Everyone’s motivation to be at work is unique. Some people are passionate about their career, while some are just in for the paycheque. With the trend of working from home and employees being away from direct supervision, employee engagement becomes even more critical than ever. An engaged employee is one who performs competently, consistently, and often goes above and beyond the job description to make sure that they are delivering high-quality results.
As working from home becomes a new reality for most, how do we adopt new and safe ways to work together in an engaging and connected manner? We hope this blog about employee engagement planning will help your team stay connected and productive.
1. What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement is the level of mental and emotional commitment of an employee towards their job, organization, and employer.
An engaged employee is passionate about leading an organization to success by directing their best efforts towards their work. They believe in the value of the organization and create a positive culture of people, teamwork, community and integrity.
You may have heard the following - “if my employer would have paid me more, I would produce better quality of work or probably be more passionate about my job”. This type of employee satisfaction is transactional. True employee engagement is not transactional and there is no guarantee that an employee with a higher salary will be more engaged. However, an employee with a passion of driving results and leading by example is an engaged employee.
2. Why is employee engagement important?
Engaged employees consistently outperform their competitors and become a great asset to the organization. There are multiple benefits of increasing employee engagement. You can expect better customer satisfaction. It helps improve productivity and increase efficiency, reduce staff turnover. It lowers absenteeism as employees will want to come into work because they believe in the value of their organization and take pride in what they do. It also enhances company culture as they are now invested in the organization’s success - built by them. Last but not least, it helps the organization produce better outcomes by increasing profitability through their work, and often lead to innovation within their team, department, or organization.
3. What’s at play?
Organizational Input
Organizational input is the growth of a culture where employee engagement is valued, prioritized, and shared amongst all employees. Support, as well as investment in organizational resources should be put in place to increase engagement (resources, training, and education opportunities).
Leadership Input
Leadership input is the development of leaders. Employees will not become engaged if their leaders are not therefore it is important for leaders to lead by example. Leaders must engage genuinely with their teams by paying close attention and working vigorously to develop their teams’ strengths and helping them overcome challenges.
Individual Input
This refers to an employee’s own engagement contributions. Employees should work to focus on various aspects of engagement, maintain a healthy momentum to achieve a positive balance at work.
4. How to engage your employees? Focus on what the people care about.
An organization is encouraged to tailor its engagement strategy based on factors such as the number of employees, type of clients, and industry type. What methods you choose should also consider the size and budget of your organization. Overall, here are some common areas that will help make the most impact:
· Work-life balance for the employee
· Equal development opportunities
· Organizational transparency
· Employee recognition
· Training and learning opportunities
· Compensation and benefits
5. Employee engagement ideas and best practices
Here are some best practices to keep employees highly motivated and engaged.
· Think holistically and incorporate this approach in everything you do within the organization.
· Enact diversity and inclusion practices
· Recognize employee achievements often and publicly
· Increase transparency and let your employees know what’s happening within the organization.
· Show your team that you listen and value their voices by gaining feedback through surveys and town-hall style meetings.
· Help your employees understand their role in the organization
· Empower your managers to coach to promote employee growth and development.
6. How to measure employee engagement?
Measuring engagement is complex as many of the categories of interest are not quantifiable. An employee engagement survey is one of the best tools available to measure employee engagement metrics. A well-designed survey can provide plenty of data about your organization, as well as give you good insight into which areas need work. This survey should be given to all employees and should be done on a regular basis. Based on the industry type, organizations can choose to conduct an engagement surveys once a year or more frequently.
As we approach the end of 2021, this is a great time to create a new employee engagement strategy 2022. Reach out to your employees and ask them what works for them and start building a stronger team!
