Walk this way: Key steps for organizations to ensure their employees don’t walk away
Organizations need to take a step back to see whether they’ve actually created the right conditions for employees to feel engaged.
A few months into 2022, the forecast remains gloomy as organizations continue to grapple with the Great Resignation, labor shortages, and another year of a global pandemic. Executives and HR leaders are steadfast in brainstorming ways to keep employees engaged and happy in their roles – many of them turning to HR technology to help support the massive undertaking of recruitment and retention.
Related: 10 recruiting trends for the years ahead
One of the core challenges that rise to the top for HR leaders is nurturing employee connections. With most workforces remaining partially if not fully distributed, it’s critical to foster connection amongst employees – building a sense of belonging and focusing on engagement across the organization. Recent data from Pew Research Center shows that even though 64% of employees are happier with remote operations working from home, almost the same amount (60%) of employees feel more disconnected from their colleagues.
Assessing the right path
If you never stop to look back at your progress, it’s hard to see how far you’ve come and the changes you need to make as you continue on. While organizations are focused on making great strides to engage and retain talent, they need to take a step back to see whether they’ve actually created the right conditions for employees to feel engaged in the first place. This is what theemployee experience is all about, but many organizations are roaming in the dark for what those conditions should look like, and it shows!
Some recent data revealed that only 20% of employees are engaged with more than half (66%) actively looking for work. Utilizing HR technology to get to the root can help to supplement and support the issue but don’t forget – features alone don’t fix things!
The employee experience is about identifying the right conditions so that employees can be engaged. But what does that look like and what makes employees feel engaged? As humans, we are more likely to commit to things we create – or co-create. Therefore, organizations should be asking their employees what work should look like to work for them. A recent Achievers Engagement and Retention Report, discovered that only 52% of organizations have asked employees about their culture. Organizations that regularly gather feedback, four times a year or more, have a 50% higher engagement rate. Why? Because employees who are given more frequent opportunities to share insight feel like they are directly contributing to the culture as a whole.
A step in the right direction
Regardless of what type of business you run, your people are craving belonging. One proven way to keep a team engaged is through the use of employee engagement technology.
Among managers, 72% say they would use a tool if it helped them be a better manager, and 77% of employees say they are more comfortable sharing feedback via a tool rather than one-on-one with their manager. Technology cannot and should not replace the human connection, hands-on training and meaningful conversations. However, it absolutely does create a safe space, spots trends and opens the door for larger conversations to be had as leaders work to solve issues within the organization.
Capitalizing on workforce science and technology equips every individual in the organization, from the top down, to feel heard, have an impact and increase engagement within their respective role.
Got tech?
Through continuous feedback and analysis, organizations can begin to understand what is needed to support its workforce. Last year, Achievers released a science-backed comprehensive model, that focused on a true sense of belonging at work being the deepest outcome measure of engagement – and one of the best predictors of the extent to which one will thrive at work.
Organizations should consider the following in order to instill a sense of belonging:
- Welcomed (invited to be a part of the community): This might look like sending employee recognition to new employees or team members on their first day of work or doing onboarding surveys to map the first 30, 60, or 90 days.
- Known (understood as an individual) – Employees should regularly be recognized in alignment with their own values and interest. Consider whether they are celebrated for unique contributions, career milestones, and life events, as well as if they can build a personal legacy within the organization that’s easy for others looking for peer validated skills to discover.
- Included (accepted without reservation) – Organizations that linked their D&I programming with their recognition program (to amplify and include) had three times the level of engagement. Employees should have regular opportunities to declare opinions and get great ideas heard – outside of performance reviews or the annual engagement survey. This means using polls, quizzes, surveys, and forms – within the flow of work – to tap into the collective wisdom of your front line.
- Supported (recognized and developed based on values and goals) – Educate and train managers on the tools they have available to them to support their team members. Feeling supported occurs when employees experience action and support in response to the feedback they provide. This can include involving employees in solving the problems they identified through surveys and performance programs.
- Connected (developing and maintaining relationships over time) – This can be achieved through use of tools that connect employees and deepen a sense of belonging and wellbeing. Giving employees the opportunity to easily access the people and peer validated skills they need to be productive – wherever they do their job and within the flow of their work is table stakes for any digital workplace experience. The aim is to remove friction and eliminate context switching so employees can raise their hands and participate – easily and often.
Bottom line: HR leaders can integrate employee engagement technology to step up productivity and bolster the employee experience. The adoption and integration of technology in organizations across all sectors continues to influence every aspect of business, including HR management. Employee engagement technology is no different.
Already, this technology has proven to be a key tool for HR leaders and has had a remarkable impact on HR management in the face of widespread remote work operations. With access to such tools, HR leaders can nurture employee connections, increase a sense of belonging, and keep their employees both engaged and motivated.
David Bator is managing director at Achievers Workforce Institute.
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