We kicked off the New Year with an awesome HR Roundtable discussing how to crack the code of employee disengagement.
Employee disengagement has proven to be a huge issue. Globally, only 15% of employees report they are engaged at work. This is a frightening number because that means 85% of employees are not putting in as much energy, passion, or creativity as they could be - they’re basically sleepwalking through the work day.
Low engagement is a red flag for every leadership team. Low engagement numbers could mean low trust in the executive team, or low emotional connectivity to the organization. Low engagement is correlated with decreased productivity, customer satisfaction ratings, and most importantly, declining revenue growth.
But don’t worry, there’s a way for you to step forward as a business leader to inspire positive employee engagement change.
Below is our HR Roundtable recording and recap, you’ll hear from three experts sharing their best practices for moving employee engagement in a more positive direction, with real-life examples they’ve brought to life at their own companies. Our Roundtable includes Jill Christensen, an employee engagement expert, author and celebrated keynote speaker; Amanda Armour, Head of People at Versus Systems; and Joshua Bane, People Services Manager at Galileo Learning.
In the webinar, we shared access to our Meaningful Recognition Guide, which links the power of meaningful employee recognition to positive engagement change. Grab a copy online here, and share along the stats with your leadership team as you begin championing your engagement programs.
Jill kicked us off with her recommended strategy for building employee engagement, it’s made up of two parts:
1) Get leaders involved
CEOs are best positioned to capture the attention and energy of your employees; however, your front line managers are the ones who own the emotional connections with the employees. In order for employee engagement to improve, all company leaders must be on board.
2) Identify the Four Focus Areas
- Get the right person in every chair
- Create a line of sight
- Build a two-way communication culture
- Recognize people
These Four Focus Areas are positioned to engage and inspire the vast majority of your employee population. Your employees want to work for a leader who is confident and who makes them more confident. Employees want to know that every day they’re adding value and that their voices are being heard. Let’s break down what success looks like across each of the Four Focus Areas:
1) Get the right person in every chair
In order for your company to be successful, you need to make sure you have the right people in the right role. Hiring should be 50% skills-based and 50% a values match. Don’t be afraid to remove people from your organization who don’t align with or champion your values. In fact, employees who are perceived as a poor fit will reflect back a decreased level of trust in leadership.
2) Create a line of sight
Create a line of sight so that every employees knows where they stand in the organization (identifying their purpose and impact), and where they can go or grow once they achieve their desired goals.
A great way to do this is by rewriting individual objectives and discussing development between the employee and their manager on an ongoing basis. More on how to empower managers to drive development conversations in our “How to Grow Your Managers at Scale” webinar recap.
3) Build a two-way communication culture
It’s not always in our organic human nature to speak up, so as a leader, you’ll need to create the space and invitation for employees to share their opinions. This can be done through weekly staff meetings and quarterly conversations, but the best way to do this would be through focus groups (gathering employee feedback to shape your engagement strategies in an intimate, private setting, with a well-rounded representation of employee voices).
4) Recognize employees
Three out of four companies state that they currently have employee recognition programs in place, but in contrast three out of four employees say they are recognized zero to one time a year (so there’s clearly a lack of communication and awareness). Recognizing top employees can be done in a simple way, like having a wall of fame or even a clap out, where when employees have big moments with the company, coworkers line the halls and cheer for them. It’s so important that employees feel like they’re being seen and valued in your company.
And for those looking for more robust recognition solutions, we’d love for you to browse some of our experiential employee rewards here at Blueboard. We are an employee recognition vendor who provides company gifts for employees as apart of employee appreciation. We empower companies to send top performers on their choice of experience: skydiving, spa days, glassblowing lessons, or even on an adventure to hike through ice caves in Alaska.
At the end of the day, Jill challenges us, “If not you, then who?” In order for companies to become as successful as possible, they need to engage their employees, and it starts with you as the HR leader to instigate this change.
Learn more about how to successfully engage your employees and build a better community by checking out Jill’s book, If Not You, Who? Cracking the Code of Employee Disengagement on Amazon.
Stay tuned for more webinars and upcoming events here on our Resources page.
See you next time.
