Blog Archives - PerkSpot

Constructing Hybrid Communication Streams that Work

Max Goldenberg January 12, 2023

Hybrid workplaces have come with a host of benefits, but these new methods of organization have also led to new challenges. One of the most prevalent issues faced by evolving hybrid companies is the opening of new avenues of communication. When a hybrid worker has to sort through videoconferencing, email, slack, and in-person meetings, it can easily become overwhelming. Doubly so if different information streams are delivering inconsistent information!

In-person meetings are a great way to deliver important information and boost social cohesion in the workplace. Conversely, if teams that collaborate are in the office on different days, videoconferencing meetings might occur despite being physically available.

This opens up additional unnecessary communication streams that can contribute to overwhelming an employee. Additionally, if flexibility is a key aspect of your hybrid model, you may develop a culture of workplace proximity bias. Employees who frequently come in and hold face-to-face conversations can be prioritized in the flow of information and favor. These problems should not be taken lightly, poor communication and preferential bias can easily cause inefficiency within the organization.

Hybrid Communication Solutions

So how can communication be effectively managed in a hybrid environment? The absolute most important thing to do in the evolving hybrid workplace is to act with intentionality. Pay attention to not just what employees are communicating, but also how they are communicating; especially if teams or individuals are closely collaborating, it’s vital to take the initiative and organize scheduling efforts so that closely affiliated co-workers are in the office at the same time, cutting down on the number of open communication channels.

This is also an area where Human Resources can really step in and be a big help. HR check-ins are important for taking the pulse of employees in general. In the hybrid era they can be extra important. Some effective simple solutions include organized collaboration and clear channels of communication. If one employee prefers acting on emails and another prefers in-person discussion, HR might serve both to remind others to communicate over e-mail when sending information digitally while encouraging relevant teams to come into the office for in-person collaboration on one specific day.

Flexibility Vs. Communicative Efficiency

One of, if not the most serious problem facing hybrid communication structures is the seemingly direct conflict of allowing employees flexible work-from-home schedules against the need to have employees in the office on the same days to cut down the number of open streams of communication. While it can be a challenge to get employees to come in when they have control, it’s possible.

To encourage employees to come in on certain dates, consider hosting in-person events that coincide. These can be anything from a simple happy hour at the end of the work day to a yoga class. What matters is that these events are clearly communicated to employees as an incentive to come into the office. Plus, unique events like these are a fantastic and often inexpensive way of boosting morale! It’s easy to give workers a fun incentive to build their schedule around. You’ll be able to retain a high level of employee flexibility while making sure collaborators are in the office at the same time.

While communication management has certainly become more challenging in the hybrid era, the new difficulties it poses are far from insurmountable. And even the challenges it does provide are significantly outweighed by the benefits, in flexibility and work-life balance among others. Through intentional action and providing incentives that direct employees into the office intelligently, you can cut down on the ballooning amount of communication channels available to employees and, in doing so, curb sensations of being overwhelmed before they even start. An easier way to provide employee stress solutions is through helping their financial security – an ask that PerkSpot can help with, if you’re interested in scheduling a demo to hear how we can save employees money and help promote positive internal culture.

Employee Priorities You Don’t Want To Miss In 2023

Max Goldenberg December 29, 2022

Employee priorities have never been shifting faster than today, in the age of the Great Resignation and “quiet quitting”. Millennials and Gen-Z are starting to make their voices heard and failing to understand means losing out on essential talent! So, what trends characterize the changing workplace, and what are the main employee priorities shaping up to define 2023? Some requests are as simple as a shift in focus, such as…

1. A Renewed Focus on Mental Wellness

It’s no secret that Gen Z workers face greater mental health challenges than ever seen before, with the two year pandemic lockdowns having taken a disproportionate effect on their mental health. Younger workers in general are looking for workplaces that take mental health seriously. Employees want to have the hard conversations necessary to provide adequate support for anxiety, imposter syndrome, and other struggles.

2. Growing Enthusiasm for the Four-Day Workweek

Studies around the four-day workweek have ramped up in the wake of Covid-19, and the results to date have been overwhelmingly positive. Not only have many studies shown greater productivity, the four-day workweek is also a desired perk especially among younger workers. The concept of the four-day workweek is a rapidly growing employee priority that you’ll definitely want to keep an eye on in 2023.

3. Increased Flexibility around Hiring and Work Expectations

This trend is especially relevant for ‘front-line’ workers who have been denied much of the post-pandemic flexibility that’s been afforded to office workers, but increasing flexibility both for employees and as an organization will continue to be a major trend, and a factor that many workers are specifically pining for. Modern workers have made it clear that they’re interested in having control over their own schedules. This should extend to organizations seeking the agility to function at maximum efficiency while allowing employees the ability to maintain work/life balance through managing their own schedules.

4. Investing in Personal Relationships and Addressing Employee Burnout

Burnout continues to rise, and combined with mental wellness struggles in the digital era, managing it effectively will likely prove to be a key employee consideration going into 2023. More than anything, it’s become clear that burnout management requires a personal touch. Employees are looking for co-workers and managers that they can be comfortable and honest with, and trust that their emotional difficulties won’t result in citations or scoldings for reduced performance. Learning to approach stress and burnout with a gentle hand will become a key differentiator between high-turnover organizations and those that retain talent for years to come.

5. The Growing Power of AI and Automation

Automation and Artificial Intelligence continue to rise in relevance and practical use, with industrial robots seeing deployment from the factory line to the self-checkout aisle. Machine learning models and other innovative AI technology has recently proved its potential to disrupt even skilled labor fields such as coding and graphic design. While these tools are powerful, it’s up to organizations to deploy them in responsible ways, and that responsible deployment is likely to be an increasingly prominent employee priority moving into 2023; workers will be paying attention to irresponsible rollouts of automation that eliminate positions without recompense, and be expecting their employers to use these new technologies in ways that streamline their work instead of making it more difficult.

While priorities will vary from employee to employee, these key points will rank among the top concerns of global workers as we move into 2023. From mental wellness to robotic takeover, 2023 promises to be both an interesting and surprisingly optimistic year – presuming that organizations can tackle the chaotic landscape of the modern hiring market, assuage an exhausted workforce, and deploy new tools and technologies responsibly!

Check out PerkSpot’s Blog for more modern workplace trends, or schedule a demo if you’d like to hear more about how PerkSpot can help save your employees money and drive positive culture in your organization!

Offering Sustainable Advancement Opportunities

Max Goldenberg December 1, 2022

A recent study by the Society for Human Resources Management found that providing opportunities for career advancement was a key consideration for employees – ranking right behind compensation as a driver of turnover. So, if modern employees are concerned about career development, what can you do to help ensure that workers in your organization have access to the career advancing tools they’re looking for?

Consider Professional Development, Not Just Advancement

Believe it or not, development is just as important as actual promotions! If someone isn’t ready for a promotion immediately, but you want to maintain them as talent – ensure that you’re helping them further their skills and development to prepare them for eventual advancement. The most common form of professional development is offering credits for further education and upskilling. This can take the form of an employee interested in the management track getting their MBA, an engineer looking to learn a new programming language, or many other avenues. Putting some money aside for development credits of these kinds is a reliable way to reduce turnover and encourage long-term loyalty of highly skilled employees. Strong development programs send a message that you’re not just interested in extracting value from individual employees, but instead in being a partner on their complete career journey.

Offer Clear Paths to Success in One on Ones or Development Meetings

Communication is critical at all levels of business, and nowhere is this more apparent than employee retention. If you want to retain promising employees within your organization, managers, executives, or HR professionals should be having open conversations about where they see their career going. More importantly, you should discuss how the organization can help them to get where they want to be. These development meetings not only give you an essential pulse-check on employee ambitions, they can also give you a heads-up if someone feels they don’t have the upwards trajectory they’re looking for. By helping address their developmental needs, you’re more than likely to save your organization from some costly turnover.

Everyone’s Path is Different

Some employees may be interested in the ‘traditional’ route of eventually managing a team. Others may wish to cultivate other specialized skill sets, or branch out into something new entirely. Allowing these diverse paths of development through personal plans and conversations is important – as is continuing to mentor and develop veteran workers, even after they become managers or specialists. Learning is a lifelong experience, and you should strive to build a forward-pushing culture that encourages it!

Think About Advancement Before Your Employees Are Perfectly “Ready”

It can be easy to fall into the trap of waiting for “that perfect moment” to advance an employee, or until they’re absolutely, 100% confident in their abilities to tackle a higher position. But the truth is that people are rarely, if ever totally confident in their abilities to handle something new before they’ve actually got hands-on experience doing it, whether it’s working with a new piece of software or managing a team. If you’re confident in an employee’s experiences, and more importantly their ability to learn and grow, you should consider advancing their position before they’re perfectly ‘ready’, since they’ll be able to grow into the role and discover hands-on if it’s really right for them. These moves are also a sign of trust in an employee’s competence and long-term prospects with the company. Those are essential qualities for long-term retention!

Cultivating sustainable advancement can often be boiled down to providing the opportunities in both time and credit for professional and skill development, combined with the trust to let employees realize those skills in a hands-on setting. As always, it comes down to some of the fundamentals of good business practice; Open, active communication, and trust within teams. Applying these principles to any aspect of your business will bring back positive results – in this case, in the form of a more qualified, high-skill, and loyal employee base that has your organization to thank for not only cultivating its professional development, but also in providing the opportunity to put it to good use.

Check out PerkSpot’s Blog for more advice on building workplaces that are great to work at, or schedule a demo if you’d like to hear more about how PerkSpot can help reduce costs and drive positive culture in your organization!

How to Handle Workplace Bullying

Max Goldenberg November 17, 2022

Today’s modern, dynamic, rapidly-moving workplace comes with many advantages. We benefit from agile organizational structures with an atmosphere where anyone can shine. Or, at least, that’s what we like to say. And while these benefits make a big difference in employee’s lives, the changing modern workplace has also changed what bullying looks like, transforming it from open abuse of power into something that tends to be quieter, manipulative, and more insidious.

With open-faced bullying seen as totally unacceptable, workplace bullying often instead takes the form of competitive employees defaming others, attempting to manufacture situations where they’ll look like the hero. For example, a common tactic employed by this kind of toxic personality is to claim credit for co-worker’s key deliverables. Then, they’ll use those same deliverables as evidence of why they’re a better performer than their ‘target’. When conflicts invariably spring up from these lies, if management isn’t careful, workplace bullies will tend to have the edge in the ‘he-said, she-said’ conflict due to focusing more on telling executives about the work ‘they’ did rather than actually doing the work.

Handling Office Conflict Responsibly

Needless to say, workplace bullies can destroy a team’s cohesion and productivity, and it’s essential for leadership to detect and remove these kinds of people ASAP before they can gain power in the office. That being said, rushing to fire someone who exhibits bullying behavior is not always the correct move! There are a range of reasons why an employee might engage in bullying; including personal insecurities or even mental illness.

While stopping bullying is critical, it’s also important to understand motivation for an effective response. That might include sensitivity training sessions, a recommendation to see a therapist, or simply termination from the company. As a leader, it will ultimately fall on you to decide which approach is right for your situation.

Common Patterns of Workplace Bullies

It’s also important not to misconstrue or hastily judge the situation. Behaviors that appear to be rooted in bullying may in fact stem from deeper, institutional issues within the organization, such as cruel or over-competitive traditions. To help distinguish, here are some common patterns of legitimate bullies in the workplace:

Consistently redirecting conversations about team efforts to focus exclusively on their personal contribution
Displaying a lack of empathy or care for the feelings or workload of others
Highly judgemental, and willing to delay or jeopardize projects over minor personal issues
Takes poorly to any kind of criticism, even constructive criticism, often viewing it as insulting

How To Document and Report Conflict

These traits all but guarantee someone is a bad fit for any workplace. If you start to notice them, there’s a real chance that you have a workplace bully on your hands! And if you’re an employee stuck in a situation with a bullying co-worker or even boss, make sure to document a pattern of behavior before presenting to Human Resources. Not only will it help you construct a case, but also allow you to examine your relationship with your co-worker. A detached perspective will help you understand if it’s actually a case of workplace bullying or something else entirely. No matter the case, your office will feel the positive impact of removing toxic influences. And you might be surprised how fast things change when you take action!

Check out PerkSpot’s Five Focus Areas for Building a Better Workplace for more advice on building healthy, sustainable long-term culture at your organization.

4 Key Strategies to Boost Your Employee Experience

Contributing Author November 9, 2022

Businesses in the United States lose productivity worth about $300 billion a year due to disengaged workers.

But the good news is that you can increase employee engagement by boosting employee experience. Employees who have a positive experience are likely to be more engaged than those with a negative experience. And creating a positive experience is simple. Let’s take a look at how you can do it.

1. Improve Internal Communication

Ask any HR expert- strong internal communication in the workplace is a huge factor in the employee experience.

Effective communication leads to better collaboration which helps develop employee relationships. It boosts the morale, engagement, satisfaction, and productivity of your employees. Plus, increased communication in the workplace promotes a sense of community and creates cohesion in the organization. This is especially important in a remote or hybrid work environment.

Start by making your workplace a safe space where employees can share accomplishments in their personal and professional lives.

Here are a few other tips to open communication lines:

Schedule regular 1:1 sessions. Use this time to learn about any concerns they may have before they turn into bigger problems. It’s also a great time to address their happiness at work.
Schedule weekly team meetings as well. It helps members know what others in the team are working on and find opportunities to collaborate. Members can share any setbacks they may be experiencing and get help from teammates.
Always give the ‘why’ behind every action you take. It helps create a more transparent atmosphere.
Give constructive feedback. Instead of criticizing, help them learn from their mistakes. This can boost the morale of your employees, which would otherwise drop if you keep criticizing them.
Use communication channels to openly recognize employees’ contributions. It’s a great way to motivate them as they’ll see their work being recognized.

2. Act on Feedback

Collecting feedback to understand your employees’ job satisfaction and assess the dynamics of the workplace is great.

But do you act on this feedback? If not, you’re losing out, and this inaction can make employees lose trust in you. They are likely to stop giving feedback if they feel unheard. To build employee confidence, first ensure your feedback surveys are anonymous.

This will empower employees to be candid about the issues affecting them in the workplace, and help you implement the changes they want to see.

Once you collect the feedback, communicate your action plan in relation to the issues they raise. If, for instance, your sales and marketing team raised an issue on inefficiency in lead generation, highlight the growth software you’ve adopted in response to this feedback. It’ll go a long way in improving employee experience.

3. Create Growth Opportunities

About 22% of employees cited ‘career issues’ as the number one reason they left their jobs in 2021, largely seeking opportunities for growth and promotion. This concern even comes ahead of other major issues like work-life balance.

Image via Work Institute

This means having opportunities for growth in the workplace can keep your employees happy and content. It’s one of the main ways to boost employee experience in your company.

Good growth opportunities should:

Be accessible to all employees
Cater to the different experience levels and needs of your employees
Center around short-term and long-term objectives

Instead of hiring externally for leadership positions, promote your employees. Empower them to qualify for these promotions by helping them expand their skills. You can:

Use the online course creation platforms to create job-specific training. This Thinkific review can get you started
Create mentorship programs
Help employees expand their skills through cross-training and stretch assignments
Create leadership development programs
Set up a tuition reimbursement program. Or if you’re looking to control business spending, encourage them to take up massive open online courses (MOOCs)

Discuss long-term career goals with each employee and create a development plan that gets them there.

4. Create a Strong Company Culture

Company culture encompasses what’s acceptable and applauded in your organization. It’s what the company stands for and the key values that define the organization.

Positive work culture creates an environment where employees are happy to be with each other, committed to the company goals, and engaged in their work.

Create policies that curb barriers to positive company culture, such as:

Uniform framework for annual reviews
Diversity and inclusion policies
Adopting remote and hybrid communication tools and policies
Flexible working hours and leave policies to improve work-life balance
Placing a cap on the number of work hours to ensure workload management

You can make a video collage that demonstrates the mission, goals, and values your company holds dear. Using this or a similar tool in your onboarding process can help get new employees accustomed to the tone of your work environment from the get-go.

What Next?

It’s time to put these strategies into action to boost your employee experience.

Start by leveling up communication in your organization. It’ll make it easy for employees to build workplace relationships.

Additionally, implement the right changes by paying attention to employee feedback.

Finally, create an environment your employees want to stay and work in by opening up growth opportunities and building a positive company culture.

Once you put these into practice, you’re sure to experience higher employee productivity and retention rates!

Contributor Profile:

Gaurav Sharma is the founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. He regularly contributes to top publications such as HuffPost, Adweek, Business 2 Community, TechCrunch, and more. Connect on Socials: Twitter, LinkedIn

Turning Your Objectives into Real Results

Max Goldenberg November 3, 2022

Anyone who’s ever been part of a strategy meeting knows that coming up with objectives is always the easiest part. Managers and entrepreneurs especially can relate to that nagging feeling of “too many ideas, too little time’. Coming up with amazing ideas might not be easy, but turning a great concept into positive metrics is the real challenge.

In many ways, bridging the gap from idea to result is the core responsibility of any team leader, as nearly every team – no matter how talented and happy to be in the organization – depends on you to ‘steer the ship’ and productively direct their efforts.

That being said, you’ll have a much easier time acting on your ideas with a supportive, engaged, and satisfied team to carry out action plans. But even the best team needs direction and guidance to turn those concepts into something tangible. So, without further ado, here’s three concrete tips to keep in mind as you build your next big campaign!

Set Deadlines and Keep To Them

Remember when you’re setting up your deadlines that unexpected roadblocks can always cause delays. Building a reasonable deadline means accounting for the possibility of delays – so take the time to think about them beforehand! Keeping to your deadlines encourages employees to closely follow your campaign plans and fosters a culture of not only trust but also mutual accountability – making it far easier to transform those objectives into tangible results!

Don’t Delay Moving on your Action Items

It’s rare that any project will have total smooth sailing without any unexpected hurdles along the way. The best way to prepare for delays is to get started on your project plan immediately! The power of getting started promptly is often underestimated, but hitting the ground running sets the tone and pace. If a lethargic start can lead to an underwhelming project, an enthusiastic one can set the stage for greatness. Demonstrate that you’re serious about turning your ideas into action by tackling execution enthusiastically right off the bat!

Lead by Example – Show, Don’t Tell

Most important of all is to be directly involved in the process. You can help through personal, visible contribution on key items, or by providing a clear and reasonable roadmap to the team that breaks down the wider objective into bite-size elements matching individual talents. Translating your ideas to results is often a matter of initiative. Big ideas are never easy! And sometimes, they can look harder when you get to documenting every step you’ll need. But by providing clear direction and quick, steady movement on each point, you can get the results of your dreams! For many top-level objectives in Human Resources, PerkSpot can be a part of the solution, providing actionable benefits that impact your organization’s turnover and retention rate. Reach out now, or learn more about how PerkSpot can help you reach your goals!

An Inside Look At PerkSpot’s Headquarters

Courtney Shipshock October 27, 2022

We’re headed behind the scenes to get a glance at PerkSpot’s Headquarters located in Downtown Chicago. At PerkSpot, our mission is to inspire others to love where they work, and that starts right here with our own employees. What began as an idea has now sprouted into a company that is changing the lives of employees at more than 1,000 businesses around the world, all with the goal to build a better place to work.

Above all, we are proud to be a leader in the human resources space, creating new and valuable ways for employers to provide financial wellness for over one million employees with an attitude of humility, generosity, and gratitude.

Collaboration is Key

PerkSpot’s office is built for collaboration. With two stories of workspaces, the options are endless.

Open-Air Concept

With an open-air concept, employees are able to smoothly work cross-functionally with other internal teams. In addition, there are plenty of meeting rooms available for private meetings.

The Kitchen

Did someone say free lunch? The PerkSpot kitchen is the perfect place to mingle with colleagues. It’s also a great place to cheers to our successes!

Creative Nooks

Why work from a desk when you can work from a couch? PerkSpot has multiple nooks to let your creativity flow.

Historical Elements

Located at 320 W Ohio Street, the PerkSpot office has historical elements throughout with brick walls and industrial accents.

Natural Sunlight

You don’t have to worry about a lack of sunlight here. In other words, with windows on every wall, natural lighting is always present.

A Culture of Recognition

We are proud of our accomplishments. In other words, our recognition wall is the perfect motivation for all employees.

Outstanding People

Our people are pretty great. Throughout the office you’ll find PerkSpotters hard at work to provide the best possible experience for our members.

Work Hard, Play Hard

PerkSpotters like to have fun too! We frequently hold events both in-person and virtually to connect with our peers and get to know one another.

For our colleagues in Chicago, we offer the flexibility to work remotely. Yet, we cherish our in-person monthly All Hands meetings along with occasional in-office collaboration days. For our remote employees, we offer occasional travel into the office for team and company events.

Recently, PerkSpot was named one of Built In Chicago’s 2022 Midsize Companies Best Places To Work and one of America’s Fastest-Growing Companies by Inc. 5000.

We’re always looking for people who align with our core values, an essential part of who we are as a company. Are you interested in becoming a PerkSpotter? Check out our open positions and apply today!

Why You Need Voluntary Benefits

Max Goldenberg October 6, 2022

Employee benefits are, by their very nature, a highly personal thing. Few things are more important than having reliable health and vision benefits, for instance, across a huge range of varied personal situations. That’s why it’s critical that any competitive benefits package allows for meaningful customization for the things that matter, so employees can opt-in towards retirement, time-off, or whatever else is important to them. In other words – you need a benefits structure that works around the unique needs of your unique employees!

Ideally, your voluntary benefits should be more than just “skin deep”. The kind of benefits program that attracts top talent is the kind that offers meaningful solutions to major hurdles experienced by your employees – like, for instance, providing financial well-being tools such as financial education resources or 401k guidance as part of an employee benefits package. It makes a huge difference to the growing number of employees concerned about their financial health. But even something as simple as separate voluntary benefits for commuters and motorists getting to the office can make a big difference in the positive cultural impact of your program.

Productivity, Loyalty, and Voluntary Benefits

Studies show consistently that incentive programs have a strong positive impact on productivity and loyalty. For example, a recent Incentive Research Foundation study indicated that a well-run incentive program can improve loyalty by up to 44%, showing that employees want to be recognized as individuals for their work. Providing voluntary benefits functions just the same; when employees feel like their efforts are being recognized and rewarded on an individual basis, it acts as a strong productivity driver. That’s because personalizing your benefits demonstrates that you care about your employees – and there’s nothing that ensures employee loyalty more strongly than showing you’re loyal to them right back.

From parking vouchers to cutting-edge telehealth benefits, giving employees a comprehensive and customizable benefits suite is among the top ways to stand out from competitors and attract fiercely competitive best-in-class talent. That’s how PerkSpot helps you build loyalty and reduce turnover; providing your employees with discounts tailored around their interests. Through the hundreds of national brands who work with us, PerkSpot is able to selectively highlight the programs and discounts most applicable to individual employees; whether it’s a frequent traveler in need of cheaper car rentals or an amateur gardener looking for new tools, we’ve got the deals to help your employees save on the things that matter to them. That’s why PerkSpot is such a powerful employee productivity driver.

The Value of Personalization

When you recognize your employees as individuals and format your programs around individual needs, it never goes unnoticed. In many cases, even if the monetary benefit is the same, giving employees the choice to opt-in to relevant programs instead of a “one-size-fits-all” approach improves productivity and loyalty metrics. As far as benefits go, it pays to realize that one size does not fit all; and the more you can provide employees with benefits that match their individual needs, the happier they’ll be. That’s what makes PerkSpot different; our wide range of discounts has something for everyone, no matter how unique. Catering to that uniqueness is our priority.

Interested in learning more about the benefits of a customized discount program? Request a demo for a free overview of how PerkSpot can help your organization!

4 Reasons Behind High Turnover Rates (And How to Solve Them)

Contributing Author September 21, 2022

What does a business need to be successful? Some would say producing best in class, appealing products; others would say top quality customer service. Both factors are undeniably necessary, but for bigger businesses, there’s one metric of success that’s even more important: your employees. And just anyone’s butt in the chair won’t cut it. At the top levels, you need hard-working, committed staff that will help you advance your goals. Feel like you’ve got a fantastic team? Great – but there is another challenge that you’ll need to overcome. If you’ve got the best staff, you want to ensure they stick around, which means keeping turnover down.

If your voluntary turnover is high, it shows that staff aren’t happy with their working situation. There are lots of reasons why you’d want to keep voluntary turnover on the decline – for one, the cost of replacing an employee ranges from one-half to two times the employee’s salary. But how can you keep turnover levels low? The following four steps will help you keep your workers happy and content.

Image sourced from Quantumworkplace.com

1. Poor Management

Looking for one of the top causes of workers leaving their jobs? You’d be hard pushed to beat poor management. The best team leaders can inspire their teams to work harder while utilizing the unique skills of different members. The worst leaders do the opposite.

You might want to consider new leadership if you’re encountering the following issues:

Unmotivated employees
Lack of cohesion between teams
Burnt out employees.
Leaders setting poor standards

These are just a few examples of bad management. These practices will only cause you harm and do little to help you retain employees. Don’t underestimate the importance of leadership in the workplace. If your current leaders aren’t up to scratch, find new ones.

2. Not Enough Opportunities for Progression

Most people don’t take on a job to stay in the same position forever. Employees want to advance and grow in their careers. If workers feel they aren’t getting enough opportunities to progress, they’ll turn over to go elsewhere. Instead, you’ll want staff to feel they have a clear path to climbing the career ladder. You could consider a talent management strategy.

It means creating a culture of development. In other words, the idea of development and progression should be an intrinsic part of your organization. Try to offer continuous education throughout every layer of your business. Even those at the top still have room to learn more. Those at the bottom will be keen to grow their skill sets and advance. So for their sakes, it’s best to make learning materials easy to access, mobile or otherwise!

3. Hiring Externally

Image sourced from Unsplash

One pitfall a lot of businesses fall into is only offering high-level roles externally. There’s a clear logic to hiring externally; you can choose from a larger pool of candidates. But reliance on external recruitment can have a major impact on employee morale, especially for critical mid-level managerial and executive positions; morale impacts that translate directly into higher turnover.

Put yourselves in the shoes of an employee for a moment. You’ve devoted long hours and shown commitment to your organization. But when the opportunity for a promotion crops up, you’re overlooked in favor of an external hire. In this instance, you probably won’t want to stick around much longer.

Ultimately, if employees are putting in the effort, they should have the opportunity for a promotion.

4. Recognize Your Employees

A little recognition goes a long way. A contributing factor to high turnover rates is a failure to show appreciation for the efforts of your workers. Obviously, you don’t want to be gushing praise constantly. But when teams or individual workers do well, you should let them know.

Recognition can take many forms. It could mean setting up an employee of the month scheme. Using a conference calling system, you can announce each month’s winner in front of the team. This is a great way of showing recognition while building a healthy sense of rivalry between teams.

If you want to go the extra step, you could set up a discount program for the highest performers. The more recognition and feedback you offer to your employees, the more valued they will feel.

Employee Satisfaction Is Key

Image sourced from Unsplash

There are some areas in business that are just common sense – like retaining good employees.

Some employee turnover is natural. People don’t stay in the same position forever; they eventually move on to new opportunities. But if voluntary turnover levels are high, you should be more worried. If your organization isn’t providing a positive environment for your workers, it reflects badly on you.

Start by asking yourself, ‘why are people leaving?’. Is there a problem with management, or perhaps you’re failing to provide a route for your employees to progress? You can’t just click your fingers and make your workers happy. As shown here, retaining workers takes commitment.

But if you look to the roots of the problem and work to find a solution, you’ll foster a much happier workforce. So, make sure you’ve on top of your turnover rate!

This contributor post was written by Jenna Bunnell – Senior Content Marketing Manager at Dialpad.

Dialpad is an AI-incorporated cloud-hosted call center platforms that provides valuable call details for business owners and sales representatives. Jenna is driven and passionate about communicating a brand’s design sensibility and visualizing how content can be presented in creative and comprehensive ways. Jenna Bunnell also published articles for domains such as SME News and Together Platform.

How to Boost Employee Morale in a WFH Environment

Contributing Author August 31, 2022

The workplace is changing. If you are running a business, you probably know this too well. Today, many organizations are doing away with the traditional office – in favor of a remote environment. In recent years this trend has accelerated, 52% of global employees now work remotely at least once a week. It’s not hard to see why. Remote workers don’t have to worry about costs of commuting or delays due to travel disruptions. Businesses can save money by renting small office spaces, meaning they can focus funds on growth. With the right technology and an application of integrations, a remote worker can be just as effective as an in-office counterpart; as long as you pay attention to their morale.

But despite these benefits, remote work isn’t always a walk in the park. Remote workers can feel isolated socially, and if you’re not careful, people can feel out of the loop. It all negatively impacts the morale of employees. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Here are some simple ways to boost the morale of your remote employees.

Check in On Your Team

It’s easy for workers to feel a disconnect remotely. In a traditional office environment, leaders will get many opportunities to spend time with team members. Employees must trust leaders and vice versa. Regular meetings provide useful opportunities for teams to get to know leaders.

But in the remote environment, ensuring contact is harder. If leaders don’t work hard to ensure communication, there will be a lack of coherence within teams. But what can be done to avoid this problem?

Ensuring regular meetings is a good first step. Try to find a time that fits with the schedule of all members to avoid creating frustration. Ultimately, you want communication to be as natural as possible. That’s why it’s a good idea to prioritize video calling over audio calls, as this offers more common face-to-face communication.

It’s best to choose work from home tools that have a track record of reliability, especially for communication purposes. You can’t ensure solid dialogue if your phone keeps dropping calls.

Make Mental Health a Priority

The topic of mental health in the workplace has been given more and more attention in recent years. Today, people are less reluctant to talk about their problems and more willing to seek help. But despite this, studies have shown that nearly 1 in 4 workers meet the criteria for ‘clinically relevant symptoms’ of anxiety and depression.

In the remote work environment, these problems are only exacerbated. What’s more, people are more reluctant to come forward to talk about their problems. So, what’s the solution? Start by leveraging emotional intelligence.

Alongside group calls, it’s useful to hold regular one-to-one sessions with members. By doing so, you can offer the chance for workers to express their issues in a confidential, judgment-free environment.

To provide better support in sessions, it’s a good idea to take note of what employees are saying. Otter AI is a good option if you’d rather transcribe notes (although there are some Otter AI app alternatives if you’re looking to save money).

So, if you haven’t already, get in touch with workers and organize some drop-in sessions.

Take Regular Breaks

A key element of working in a standard work environment is a daily schedule. Loss of routine is one of the reasons that many remote workers struggle. Many remote employees overlook a fundamental element of working: taking a break.

The idea of employees doing more work might seem appealing to some (cold-hearted) team leaders, but breaks are necessary. Without taking the occasional rest, workers risk being burnt out. Ensure you encourage your team to step away from the screen and take time for themselves.

Additionally, why not set up a virtual break-out room that employees can join on their breaks? Regular chats are a great way for workers to bond and feel part of a team. By encouraging breaks, your workers will feel more rested; you’ll notice a boost in motivation. It’s a win-win!

Have a Virtual Night Out

Not everyone likes the idea of spending a night out at work. But there is no denying the importance of social events in terms of teamwork and morale. Sharing drinks with your team can be a great way of recognizing successes and building stronger bonds. But how do you replicate this experience when your team is remote?

There’s no denying that virtual festivities are harder to orchestrate. There’s a good chance that you have workers spread across the globe. This means you will have to work across time zones to find a time that works for everyone. Obviously, standard activities like going for a meal aren’t possible, so you have to think creatively.

But if you keep these factors in mind, you can have a fun virtual night out. Here are a few fun activities that you can try out:

Share Drinks – This is probably the simplest solution. While you can’t go to a bar, you can all gather in a conference call and share a drink together.

Cook Together – Again, you can’t go out for a meal, so why not share one together? You can even all work on the same recipe and then share the results of your work!

Start a Book Club – Not everyone likes reading. But for those that do, a book club can be a great way to bond over a shared interest. If reading isn’t an interest, why not all agree on a movie to watch together?

Adapting Is Key

The switch to remote work can be a learning curve. Don’t worry if it takes time to adjust to this different environment. You will need to be flexible with time zones and even schedules.

To keep morale high, you need to put communication at the heart of everything you do. By adapting to new technologies and putting workers’ needs first, you’ll have a happy and productive workforce. With the right approach, your business can out-compete your rivals. So make sure you’re getting the most out of remote working!

This guest post was authored by Grace Lau.

Grace Lau is the Director of Growth Content at Dialpad, an AI-powered cloud mutlichannel call center platform for better and easier team collaboration. She has over 10 years of experience in content writing and strategy. Currently, she is responsible for leading branded and editorial content strategies, partnering with SEO and Ops teams to build and nurture content. Grace Lau also published articles for domains such as Tapfiliate and Easy Affiliate.