employee engagement Archives

5 Trending Benefits To Implement In 2023

Courtney Shipshock December 19, 2022

Benefits are always evolving and adapting, especially with new generations joining the workforce and work environments becoming more flexible. Whether it’s the option to work remotely or commuter benefits, there are endless ways to help your employees feel valued. With the new year right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to consider what benefits you’ll be providing employees in the upcoming months.

To make things easier, we’ve laid out a list of the benefits employees are looking for out of their current or future employer!

1. Financial Wellness Contributions

With record high inflation rates in the past year, employees have been challenged financially to keep up. To mitigate the effects, it will be crucial to provide benefits that help your employees stretch their paycheck. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to provide financial value to your team. A few examples include financial reimbursements 401(K) contributions, a flexible spending account, financial planning and coaching, and implementing or upgrading your employee discount program.

2. Voluntary Benefits

Healthcare costs only continue to increase causing employees and their families added stress. A few of the trending voluntary benefits that companies are taking advantage of are accident insurance, critical illness, hospital indemnity insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, identity theft protection, and pet insurance. By including these benefits at no-cost to employees, it’s a great way to provide protection and security.

3. Family Planning Support

According to Mercer data, 70% of employers are already offering or planning to offer parental leave in 2023. Additionally, 53% are providing or planning to provide paid adoption leave. Not only that, but companies are starting to provide surrogacy benefits, fertility treatment coverage, on-site or backup childcare options, and extended leave for both parents.

4. Mental Health Benefits

With the recent pandemic, increased inflation, and a rise in layoffs, employees have been not only challenged physically but also mentally. Now is a great opportunity to add or improve your benefits around well-being. A few examples you can provide include online resources like classes or apps, employee assistance programs, employee training and workshops, and discounted therapy access.

5. Unique, Outside The Box Perks

Employers across the nation are starting to implement fun, exciting benefits that employees are loving. Whether it’s extended time off for holidays, volunteering days, unlimited PTO, lunch stipends, pet-friendly workspaces, or home-office contributions, there are plenty of ways to increase employee engagement with new perks.

When it comes to employee benefits, there are plenty of opportunities available to help your employees feel valued. Ready to get started today with a financial benefit that helps employees save on the things that matter most? Sign up for a demo and provide your team with exclusive access in a matter of days.

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.

Two Major Signs of Micromanagement

Max Goldenberg September 8, 2022

The dreaded micromanager is the bane of any productive workspace. We’ve all been there – the manager who needs to be CC’d on every email. The boss who demands reports so often that you can’t get any real work done. Even the coworker who nit-picks everything you do. It’s no secret that micromanagement in all its forms is one of the biggest contributors to employee disengagement and ‘quiet quitting’; a 2014 survey from Accountemps reported that 59% of employees have worked for or with a micromanager, and the percent of workers who reported micromanagement hurting their morale – 68% – has only gone up in recent years, with a recent survey from Trinity Solutions reporting a whopping 85% of respondents citing micromanagement as a personal morale-killer.

Micromanagement is both one of the most common and most bothersome of workplace ills because it is difficult to identify, and even more difficult to adequately address. But the first step of handling micromanagement is to recognize what’s going on, and to differentiate micromanagement from attentive management! Below are some common traits of micromanagement that can help you identify it at your workplace.

Excessive Amounts of Reporting

Reporting is a crucial part of understanding and improving campaigns. Still, a manager who requests excessive reports on projects can serve as more of a detriment than an incentive. Daily check-ins on the same task, for instance, tend to increase stress and decrease productivity. If a manager is hanging over their shoulder, it’ll leave employees thinking more about their check-in meeting than the project itself. An organized routine for project check-ins on a weekly or biweekly basis can go a long way in cutting down micromanagement.

Hyper-Focus on Details at the Wider Project’s Expense

Detail-oriented management is a great trait, especially for managers who need to oversee complex projects with many moving parts. But sometimes, a focus on detail can slip into minutia, where workers start spending unproductive time addressing minor details at the manager’s request. It can be tricky to differentiate between detail-oriented style and genuine micromanagement, so to tell the difference try asking yourself: “Is this feedback rooted in industry best practice, or is it a personal preference?” When small details are being changed, backed up by data that shows it’ll improve the project, then you have an attentive manager; but if small details are being regularly changed for no clear reason other than personal preferences, you may have a micromanager on your hands.

The best way to deal with micromanagement is to help your manager realize that they don’t need to. Every worker is an individual who handles tasks in a unique way. Encourage them to be open to employees trying tasks in new ways, rather than always having to get their way. Personal solutions founded on good, mutual communication are the best solution to micromanagement, as they are for a great number of major HR stressors – take it from the personalized benefits experts! Discount programs like PerkSpot only work due to providing meaningful, individual solutions – the kind that you should be encouraging micromanagers to take, rather than zooming in on the little things.

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.

The Importance of Trust in The Workplace

Courtney Shipshock July 21, 2022

The relationship between employees and their managers is often a complex one. With different working styles, communication preferences, and work environments there can oftentimes be disagreements. In addition to the already existing responsibilities as a leader, how do you create an environment where employees feel inspired and engaged? It all comes down to trust. When there is mutual trust, there is increased empowerment, more open communication, and higher success of employees. So, how do you show your employees you trust them?

What is Trust?

Trust can look a lot of different ways in the workplace. It’s when a manager feels that they can count on their team to meet their responsibilities and be honest in their progress. It’s allowing for flexibility and letting teammates work where they are most comfortable whether it’s remote or in the office. Trust in the workplace means your employees enjoy a culture of honesty, psychological safety, and mutual respect. In addition, it’s being able to predict that someone will act in specific ways and be dependable.

How To Build Trust

Building trust can be easier said than done. For example, statistics show that people trust each other less today than they did 40 years ago. With it being difficult to achieve, how do you find success with your employees? We’ve laid out a few tips.

Listen Frequently

When your employees feel empowered to have their ideas be heard, they will be more willing to speak up in the future. One way to set aside time with your employees is to set up recurring weekly one-on-one meetings. This way you have dedicated time to talk directly with your team and gather feedback, both positive and negative.

Embrace Vulnerability

We all are human and face hardships outside of work. It’s important to embrace your employees’ true self and also be vulnerable when you can. By creating a safe space, your teammates will feel more willing to open up in the future.

Show Appreciation

Appreciation goes a long way. Whether it’s a simple “thank you”, a written note showing your gratitude following a large project, or celebrating a career anniversary. When employees’ feel appreciated at their job, they are more likely to meet deadlines and be honest with their managers.

Be Honest

Honesty is key to trust. If you’re honest about how things are going in and outside of work, your employees’ will be more willing to be honest going forward. Even if what you’re sharing might not be the best information, it’s better to communicate the truth than not at all.

Coach Before Discipline

One mistake a lot of leaders make is reacting to mistakes with discipline instead of coaching. Research has shown that authentic leadership can cultivate trust and improve employee engagement and performance. Not only that, but it’s been shown to improve work relationships company wide.

Transparency Over Everything

It all comes down to transparency. The more open and honest you are with your team, the better. Be open and transparent with your feedback and keep your employees’ in the loop. You’ll foster an environment based on trust in no time!

The Results

Trust has impactful results from improved engagement, efficiency, and productivity. According to research, disengagement costs U.S. companies approximately $450 billion to $550 billion annually. With trust impacting engagement alone, it’s a no brainer why trusting your employees is so important.

Interested in continuing your efforts to make your workplace a great place to work? Read our E-Book, “5 Focus Areas for Building a Better Workplace” to see how you can create a better place to work for your employees.

Five Tips for Onboarding Remote Employees

Max Goldenberg June 28, 2022

Remote work has rapidly transitioned over the last few years from a rare form of employment to the global norm for countless industries, and that’s caused big changes in onboarding. Remote employees are often looking for a completely different set of resources than their in-person counterparts; and since successful onboarding is a major factor in employee retention, it’s important to set up stable systems for onboarding remotely on a permanent basis.

The additional flexibility of remote work is great, but it also creates a need for managers to provide structure. Remote employees need strong online resources and clearly defined goals to make the best use of their digital schedules. Start off on the right foot when bringing in remote employees and retain your top digital talent with these tips!

1) Get Incoming Employees Looped In Right Away.

A remote employee’s toolkit, from company messaging apps to website logins, will functionally be the digital equivalent of their office. It’s important to make sure they have access to these tools and time to get comfortable with them right away. Ideally, you should aim to get everything set up with IT during their first-day orientation.

2) Give a Warm Welcome.

A simple welcome package can go a long way! Treating new employees to a virtual lunch with some time to socialize can help cultivate a sense of belonging. Orientation can often be daunting for employees not physically there, so a quality orientation is sure to leave a big impression.

3) Build Strong Online Resources.

Sourcing your relevant resources alone isn’t enough; you also have to make sure they’re easily accessible! An employee handbook and guide to company values are important for all employees. For more creative-oriented positions, you’ll want to consider having a formal brand guide and style guidelines as well. Most important is building best practice guidelines for the specific position that you’re onboarding; that way, new hires have easy access to clearly stated expectations and responsibilities for both the wider company and their specific position right from day one!

4) Provide Clearly Defined Goals and Regular Check-ins.

Flexible schedules can make it more easy to get distracted, so immediately provide remote employees with a sense of structure by setting up clear 30/60/90 day expectations. Regular one-on-one check-ins with HR and management can set remote employees up for success; ensuring they’re always on the right track!

5) Integrate Remote Workers into your Culture.

Many new remote workers can feel isolated from the wider company. Plan remote-focused events at least monthly, and make sure that new employees feel comfortable at them. If they aren’t, work with your remote employees to draft some events that sound fun to them. Bridging the gap between in-person and remote employees ensures a successful hybrid team.

Nearly half of all employees report feeling as though they’d messed something up on orientation day, whether it’s in meeting new co-workers or finding the right resources. The key is to be understanding, empathetic, and patient with your new employees, giving them the resources and direction they need to become remote rockstars!

How I’m Contributing to a Better Workplace

Katie Williamson December 3, 2018

Our mission at PerkSpot is to inspire employees to love where they work. But sometimes, it’s the employees themselves who are inspiring us. We asked a few PerkSpotters to share a few ways they try to make a difference.

Here are our favorite quotes from inside the walls of the PerkSpot:

Office Snacks

“I like to try and pick up a snack or treat once a week so people can get a break in the afternoon. It’s a small gesture, but a great way to bring everyone together.”
– Thomas B., Account Manager

Water Cooler Chat

“I try to follow up on things posted by coworkers on Slack to get to know people better and reinforce that their messages weren’t just sent out into the void – we care about it! Plus when people ask about my puppy it automatically brightens my day, so I like to try to do the same!”
– Kelly R., Account Management Associate

Neighborhood Treats

“I’ve always been a raised to share and give to others. It’s something my parents instilled in. So sharing stuff with PerkSpot has always made me feel like I’m sharing a piece of my childhood. Whenever I can, I bring delicious stuff from my neighborhood. PerkSpotters always ask ‘where did you get this’. It’s my way of sharing a piece of my neighborhood and the south side of Chicago.”
– Karla B., CS Lead

Positivity

“Attitudes are contagious – I always try (don’t always succeed, but try) to project a positive attitude, regardless of how stressed or anxious I am, with the hope that it spreads to my coworkers.”
– DJ E., Sales Operations Executive

Musical Favorites

“I like to find a person’s music and queue it up on the office stereo system. Unless it’s that one Mariah Carey Christmas song. I just. No.”
– Jace M., CEO

PerkSpotters are pretty great (and clearly we really love snacks), but we know it takes an army to build a Better Workplace. That’s why we’ve literally written the book on it.

We’re excited to announce our e-book, The Ultimate Guide to a Better Workplace where you can learn more about what it takes to make each place a better place to work.

5 Tips for Creating the Best Employee Surveys

Courtney Shipshock November 15, 2018

There are endless benefits to creating an employee survey to understand satisfaction levels throughout your workplace.

A survey allows you to discuss employee benefit plans, improve satisfaction and productivity, and increase employee retention rates. An employee survey can make an employee feel as though they are being given the opportunity to voice their opinion, and that you, as an HR professional, care about what they have to say. Here are five tips for getting the best results from your employee surveys!

Communicate and Encourage

An employee survey won’t be successful if it’s just an email sent to employees’ inboxes, without an introduction or explanation. Use your company’s communication channel to inform employees about the upcoming survey. Furthermore, impress upon employees that their responses will be valuable in helping to effect change within the company. Pre-survey communication will guarantee much higher numbers of participation, according to numerous studies.

Emphasize Anonymity

In conducting your employee survey, you want the most honest responses from employees. The only way to receive them is through an anonymous survey. Your employees may not feel comfortable openly sharing their opinions for fear of backlash. Not to mention, an anonymous survey puts all employees on a level playing field. With anonymity, no employee feels uncomfortable because of their age or position in the company. This means they will be more likely to offer opinions and suggestions for improvement. In reviewing responses, there is no bias coming from your end, so the results are more reliable. It’s a win-win!

Make it Easy

Your employees have a lot on their plates, so motivating them to complete a survey can be difficult. Keep this in mind when writing your survey. Don’t make it unnecessarily long – the whole point isn’t to distract employees or keep them from completing other work. The National Business Research Institute says 60 questions is the perfect length for your survey. Not so long that employees feel tired or bored, but long enough to give you the answers you’re looking for!

Ask the Right Questions

Make your questions simple. According to Inc., it’s a lot easier for an employee to answer a close-ended question versus long-form, written responses. Providing close-ended or multiple choice options makes quantifying results easier for you as well! Make your questions clear and understandable. Have a fellow colleague take a look at your survey and review it for readability. Another set of eyes is always a good idea, and it will ensure you have created the best survey for your employees.

Use the Results

A Forbes article reported a 30-40% average response rate for employee surveys. One of the main causes of this disappointing statistic? Employees believe that their responses won’t be considered or utilized to execute changes in their workplace. Reverse that belief by using employees’ feedback to make actual changes where you can. Share the results of the survey and any plans you may have developed for the future. This is a great way of showing employees that you’re taking their thoughts into account, and it will increase the response rate for later surveys.

An employee survey can give you insight into employee engagement, office culture, and job satisfaction among employees. Use these 5 tips to create an employee survey that is sure to deliver the best results!

The One Thing HR Leaders Do Every Day

Katie Williamson November 1, 2018

You might be in the middle of Open Enrollment Season. You could also be working on some new initiatives for 2019. Maybe you’re ramping up for annual performance reviews. We get it. As HR professionals, you are busy.

In the midst of the chaos and day-to-day tasks that inevitably take over, it can be easy to lose sight of what’s truly important. That’s why we’re taking a time-out to discuss the one thing great HR leaders do every day, no matter what might come their way.

The one thing great HR leaders do every day is build relationships.

You’re in the business of humans, which means building deep, authentic relationships should be at the very core of what you do. According to Jim Mitchell, an executive coach, “Most leaders have been so busy building empires, they forgot to build relationships. Most think their job is to fix everything that is presented to them as a conundrum. But that’s not the job.” Beyond hiring and developing talent, improving retention, and creating strategies for engagement, there exists a very real need for true connections in the workplace.

Here are a few ways we can foster these relationships in practical ways:

Go beyond the surface.

Think about your relationships at work for a minute. Do they look and feel similar to your interactions at the grocery store or the gym? What do you know about your colleagues beyond what their calendar says? It’s easy to think that, as HR representatives, we should keep a safe distance from our colleagues. However, there is a healthy way to engage and interact with the people around us to improve employee engagement. In fact, in SHRM’s 2016 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report 77% of engaged employees said their relationships with coworkers was a top priority for them. Don’t be afraid to participate in non-work chatter and learn a little about the people around you. It can mean more than you know.

Listen.

How often do you utter the phrase “how are you?” without actually listening to the answer? Better yet, what about the non-verbal cues your colleague expresses? Do they actually seem “fine”, or is there looming anxiety beneath the surface? One of the best ways to engage in authentic relationships at work is to listen well. Listen to understand. Listen with purpose and intention. Listen with compassion and curiosity. You’ll be amazed at what you’ve missed in the past.

Be vulnerable.

While much of fostering great relationships involves paying attention to the other person, it is also important that we live by example. Practice vulnerability by being open with those around you. When someone asks how your day is going, don’t be afraid to tell them the truth. Obviously, as leaders, we have the responsibility to maintain positivity so we aren’t giving you permission to unload all your complaints. However, there is a way to be vulnerable, honest, and transparent that creates a safe space for your employees to share. Tell them how your project is going and what challenges you’re facing. You may appreciate the sounding board and they’ll start to view you as a little more human.

Recognize their achievements.

If you think about your relationships outside of the workplace, we know the value of saying “thank you” when your friends bring over a gift or when your spouse makes dinner. So why is it that inside the workplace, we view recognition as an after-thought? As you seek to foster meaningful relationships, we cannot leave out this key component for great relationships. While it all starts by listening and paying attention to your employees and colleagues, you should also remember to recognize their efforts. Just because they’re taking home a paycheck doesn’t mean they don’t need to hear a thank you every once in a while.

As you’re making your to-do list or wrapping up a project, remember that being an HR professional is not possible without also being human. Engage with the people around you and work to build better relationships this week.

Are Your Employees Actually Engaged?

Courtney Shipshock October 24, 2018

Increased productivity, better retention, happier employees … do we have your attention yet? These are all things managers and HR officials should strive for, and they can all be achieved with one simple word – engagement.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is vital to any company, large or small. It creates a network of employees that are more than just happy or satisfied, but who are genuinely committed to their company. Not only do engaged employees have a deep understanding of their company’s values, but their own personal values align with them. When you can achieve a strong compatibility between company and employee, you have reached peak engagement in your employees!

Why is it important?

Companies that report having engaged employees outperform those that report low engagement numbers by 147% in earnings per share. Employee engagement doesn’t just benefit your workers, but your company as a whole! If you’re hoping to get your numbers up as you finish the quarter, consider improving your engagement numbers first, and revenue will follow.

Studies show highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their company than those feeling less engaged with their work. Yes, you read that right! An increase in employee engagement is just the thing to fix those retention numbers that keep dipping.

70% of workers don’t feel engaged at work, according to career experts at the Muse. Yikes! Reflecting on all the benefits of an engaged workforce, that’s a concerningly high statistic. Perhaps you’re thinking about your employees, and maybe even worrying about their engagement levels. Keep reading, because we break down how to measure and improve your employee engagement.

How do you know if your employees are engaged?

Here are some tell-tale signs that you can look for:

Proactivity
Engaged employees are proactive. Instead of sleepwalking through the first few hours of their morning, they jump into a new work day. These kinds of employees don’t wait for managers to give them tasks; they are self-motivated, seeking out ways to be productive and helpful throughout the office.

Communication
Engaged employees love to talk, and we don’t just mean water cooler chatter. (Although, that’s important too!) They keep managers and employees updated and informed with progress reports. They are open to both giving and receiving feedback. Eventually, an engaged employee can even become a great mentor for other employees, helping them step into their roles and improve their own levels of engagement.

Career Advancement
Career and company advancement is important to an engaged employee. Remaining stagnant at one level isn’t enough for them, and they will continue to look for ways to improve their output, as well as general company success. This is because they’re invested in the company, which is the most important sign of an engaged employee.

Engaged employees are essential to the wellbeing of a company. They help to create an environment that inspires other employees. If you’re concerned about the engagement levels of your employees, check out our recent post about everyday employee engagement tips that can have a big impact on your business.