3 Reasons Why and 3 Reasons How to Engage Your Employees in 2018

3 Reasons Why and 3 Reasons How to Engage Your Employees in 2018

 

Since the turn of the year there has been a large emphasis on all organisations to improve the experience that they offer to their employees,  mainly focusing on engagement and wellbeing of their workforce – both physically and mentally. The purpose of this blog is to talk about 3 reasons why and 3 reasons how to engage your workforce in 2018…

 

Before getting started I thought that it would be useful to give you a flavour of what employee engagement means to me. I’ve chosen not to give a corporate definition in speech marks, instead I felt as though a more light-hearted approach would be more suitable. Therefore, I’ll talk about what engages me… so here goes:

• Recognition
  • When I produce good work, I like it to be recognised. Not necessarily through Reward (although it’s nice, it’s a very interim solution). It can be as simple as a quick email to say thanks/well done.
  • We’ve seen clients sending: happy birthday cards, thank you cards and in some cases sorry cards!
  • Recognition is such a simple thing, that so many of us do badly/ignore, why not start recognising your staff?
• Communication
  • Many of the organisations that I have had experience working with struggle to communicate effectively. Typically, there is a disconnect between the leadership and employees. However, I have also witnessed instances where the leadership team communicate poorly due to ego’s/not agreeing on strategy.
  • Also, lack of transparency often leads to people feeling removed from the business. It is another simple thing, what can you do to improve communication within your organisation?
  • How many people list on their CV that they have strong communication skills? It is quite funny considering that most of us communicate poorly!
• Development
  • I am still at a point in my career where I am still learning (aren’t we all? If you’re not learning then what’s the point in going to work!). I’ve been very lucky so far as I’ve had some brilliant internal training, as well as being funded through a business management degree.
  • What are you doing to develop your staff/yourself? Could you be doing more?

 

Anyway, this blog isn’t about what engages me, so let’s go into three reasons why you should and how to engage your employees…

 

3 reasons why you should engage your employees?

Improved performance:

• I have the simplest formula that you will ever come across… Engaged employees = Higher productivity = Improved business performance = Higher revenue = Higher chance of profit… It sounds so simple but how many businesses are doing this well?

Reduced attrition:

• Sometimes these reasons seem far too simple however, if people are engaged with your business, then they are much less likely to leave, which in the long term can save your organisation a considerable amount of money.
• I’ve had experience working with organisations who have really low attrition rates but is that always a good thing? Just because people are not leaving your business doesn’t mean they are an asset or adding value – in fact they may just be coming to work, performing badly and then going home. If they were to leave they may end up having to actually do some work at another business…! There’s always a story behind the data.

Employee/Employer Value Proposition:

• Employee Value Proposition – this leads on from the attrition point. If people are happy within your business then you will start to form a strong culture internally. This will naturally lead on to higher productivity and improved performance – have a think about the commercial benefits that this could bring to your business!
• On the Employer Value Proposition side, I have one question… Do you want to be an employer of choice? Do you want to attract the best clients? Do you want to attract the best talent into your business?
• Think about this scenario… all of your employees have connections outside of work e.g. husbands, wife, kids etc. Have you ever considered that any of those people could be future talent for your business? Or they could be your future clients?  Have a business that sells itself!

 

3 Ways to Engage Your Employees?

• Improved Communication
  • Company intranet, monthly newsletters, transparency from leadership team to employees, giving the employees a voice
  • Tools such as Rencai’s Engagement Multiplier solution that will provide feedback and insight, giving each employee a voice
• SMART Working
  • Flexible working hours where you are measured of outputs rather than time spent at your desk. Remote working opportunities. SMART Offices.
• Development and Leadership Opportunities
  • This part is likely to be bespoke to your organisation e.g. if you’re a project management organisation you may look to put your employees through their PRINCE2.
  • However, it’s unrealistic to put every single employee onto a course, especially if you consider how much that costs. Therefore, why not give people internal leadership opportunities? Why not let someone be your monthly engagement leader, who creates initiatives to engage the team? There are many leadership opportunities that you can give people for free!

 

To conclude I’d like you to ask yourself the following question about your target operating model…

 

What is most important: People, Process or Technology?

 

In most cases I think you’ll find that processes and technologies are enablers, it’s your people who will drive your business.

 

To learn more please reach out, as always open to feedback and happy to answer any questions.

 

Harry Wright

Rencai Group

Client Relationship and Delivery Consultant

07341 662232

[email protected]