This engagement is what all organizations are trying so desperately to achieve in their workplace. With Generation Y fast approaching the frontline of the workforce, it\u2019s time to understand what makes them tick and outperform in their work. How to keep them engaged and cash in on their advanced multi-tasking abilities?<\/p>\n
A recent survey by<\/strong> Gallup<\/strong><\/a> indicates that 60% of the millennials <\/strong>are open to new job opportunities, thus making them less loyal to organizations and biased towards the quality of work content.<\/p>\n Now more than ever before in the history of organized employment, employee engagement has become so critical that it has caught the attention of CEOs worldwide.<\/p>\n They believe Employee Engagement is the core driver behind employee-satisfaction, and hence, retention.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAlways treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.\u201d – Stephen R. Covey, Keynote Speaker<\/strong><\/p>\n Stephen R. Covey, author and keynote speaker<\/em> says that treating employees like customers is the only way to move forward. An unhappy employee will eventually result in unhappy customers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, how do we keep employees from abandoning the ship or shifting decks?<\/p>\n Thankfully, there are proven strategies to keep employees engaged and make them willing contributors to the overall objective of a company.<\/p>\n At the end of this guide, you will get the Top 5 strategies\u00a0that you can implement to achieve employee engagement & what’s more – these are absolutely FREE !!! So, without much ado, let’s jump in.<\/p>\n If you search for employee engagement on Google, you will come across a dozen definitions of employee engagement, each more complex than the previous one.<\/p>\n Wikipedia<\/a> defines employee engagement as a fundamental concept in the effort to understand and describe, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the nature of the relationship between an organization and its employees.<\/p>\n Difficult to comprehend and makes you want to leave this topic for the next day, right?<\/p>\n Well, read this before taking a decision. Employee engagement is simply the emotional commitment the employee feels towards the organization and its goals.<\/p>\n In other words, the personal involvement that makes work matter to the employee.<\/p>\n \u201cEmployee Engagement is actually not a \u2018thing\u2019 but an outcome.\u00a0 I have often stated that engagement is an outcome of a mutual commitment between an organization and an employee where the organization is helping the employee reach his\/her potential, while the individual is helping the organization also be successful.”<\/strong><\/p>\n –<\/strong>Bob Kelleher<\/a>, President and Founder, The Employee Engagement Group<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Did you know according to a survey by the Society of Human Resources<\/a>, more than 85% of the employees are satisfied with their work but their engagement is at moderate levels?<\/p>\n On a scale to 1 to 10, the average engagement is 3.8 compared to an all-time high in job satisfaction.<\/p>\n While the terms, satisfaction, and employment are used synonymously, but are, however, very different. It\u2019s true that all engaged employees are happy, but all happy employees are not engaged. The difference between the two lies in their performance. The paradoxical numbers can prove to be a nightmare for any manager, but don\u2019t worry at the end of this guide I will help you with five strategies to not only achieve employee engagement but ensure that it lasts.<\/p>\n So, what is the difference between the two?<\/p>\n Think about an employee who ticks the box very satisfied in the survey, he is the employee who comes in late, takes an additional hour off for lunch, completes half his targets, takes the full paycheck and exhausts all his paid leaves. He is a very happy employee but is he engaged?<\/p>\n Well no, he isn\u2019t an engaged employee for his efforts and performance are not leading to any advancement in the company. The efforts of an engaged employee go beyond the mere contentedness of their job, their objective is to help with the advancement of the company. The two concepts are related, as employee satisfaction provides the basis for employee engagement to come about. Satisfaction in the job can be viewed as the minimum entry ticket requirements to achieve engagement. The survey suggests that the top contributors to achieving satisfied employees are benefits provided and the treatment received, however, the ones contributing to engagement are opportunities to use skills and relationship with co-workers.<\/p>\n All conversations have highlighted the concept of engagement and what it means to the employee. But why is it so central for an organization to engage the employees?<\/p>\n Undoubtedly engaged employees are an asset to the company. For, highly engaged employees are:<\/p>\n These characteristics definitely help create a workforce, full of happy and productive people. What does this engaged workforce then contribute to the company?<\/p>\n Thus, a team of disengaged employees\u00a0results in\u00a0over hiring, providing the additional training that does not change outcomes and paying a higher salary with the burden of a stale work environment.<\/p>\n Thus, employee engagement helps you avoid these obstacles and also minimize speed brakes on your drive to succeed. They may contribute as score boosters and power-ups in the following ways:<\/p>\n A thriving environment with a vibrant culture, enthusiastic and involved employees is more likely to retain people. Creating a workspace unique to your company culture will make employees want to spend their time there. Low engagement and turnover have been proven to be correlated\u00a0time and again.<\/p>\n How can you create this office space which reflects your company? Too complicated a job?<\/p>\n Well, Think again<\/p>\n Here are a few tips which can help you:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Employee engagement can be seen as a power booster fuel for the engine of the company. Engagement affects every person inside your organization, and their individual performance affects the productivity of your organization. Research<\/a> establishes a link between profitability, customer loyalty, and employee engagement.<\/p>\n The passion of employees about their work builds a company’s reputation. This passion comes from the feeling of engagement they feel. It serves as a proof for the new talent joining the company that they will be respected and valued. It also reflects that the team of managers and culture of the company.<\/p>\n So, now you know, employee engagement is not just a trend, it’s the building blocks required to run a great business.<\/p>\n “In the current volatile and uncertain environment, engaged employees are an essential component not just for success, but perhaps for survival.”<\/strong><\/p>\n -Nigel Paine, Owner, nigelpaine.com<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The survey of Gallup<\/a> reported that an astonishing 68% of US employees are not engaged in their current roles. While 17.5% within this group characterize themselves as actively disengaged. Actively disengaged employees are actively working to undermine the success of their organizations.<\/p>\n These surprising figures incline you to understand how to identify them. Low engagement is like a plaque, which drags down the productivity of the companies.<\/p>\n “Nothing is more harmful to an organization than a disengaged employee, as the impact is not limited to one individual and his performance but also on the group he\/she interacts with being negative brand ambassadors.”<\/strong><\/p>\n –Rajesh Padmanabhan, Director & Group CHRO, Welspun Group<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n However, at the end of this guide, you will get 5 free strategies which you can implement to achieve employee engagement.<\/p>\n So how can you tell if employees are disengaged? How can you take stock of your workforce and determine whether or not the engagement is truly an issue?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s go over some tell-tale signs of disengaged employees and a few methods for identifying them<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n A survey is an excellent way to gage and take account of disengagement. Gallup offers a disengagement survey, as do several other companies. You can also design your own survey<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n These surveys, however, should be anonymous. This means that you won’t be able to pinpoint specific employees who are disengaged. But it will help understand the big picture which is immensely valuable.<\/p>\n When the graph goes in the other direction and doesn’t show growth, its a sign of disengagement. From the organization’s view, it is the most serious and costly consequence of disengagement.<\/p>\n After all, productivity is a result of individual contributions and day to day work. This makes identifying long-term trends essential. If the graph is showing a continuous decline it may be because your employee is disengaged.<\/p>\n Less output, when bundled with low quality, becomes a warning signal for the company. Disengaged employees not only produce less output but often the work they are performing is below standard.<\/p>\n A brief increase in errors maybe because the worker is overwhelmed, either at work or on a personal level. However, a steady rise is often the sign of an employee disengaging. This because they simply are caring less and less about their work.<\/p>\n If you notice an employee who was otherwise involved suddenly withdrawn there is a chance that he is becoming disengaged. They may be going into their own zone and pulling out of work. Of course, some of them are naturally quiet, so make sure you measure them accordingly.<\/p>\n Another thing to look out for is the duration of this withdrawal period, if it’s for multiple days or seems indefinite, there is a high chance of disengagement. The best way would be to take a cue in short periods as it might hint at problems.<\/p>\n An employee who is expressing his anger towards his team, or managers may be a tell-tale sign of feeling low satisfaction or other issues. If these issues are not resolved, or if he feels unimportant for the company it might cause him to become disengaged.<\/p>\n Disengaged employees tend to wander away from their desk more frequently. The time spent in taking bathroom breaks or water cooler may increase.<\/p>\n They are consciously deciding to stay away from their responsibilities. Therefore, keeping a general eye on the workspace and checking for such signs can help identify disengagement.<\/p>\n If an employee who was mostly present at all events and office-lunches, suddenly shows no interest and avoids events may be disengaged. If it happens for a short time it may be because of other reasons, but if it continues you may want to talk to the employee.<\/p>\n One way to understand this would be to invite him out.<\/p>\n Missed an alarm? Too much traffic? Had to run an errand?<\/p>\n This may happen to everyone, but if these excuses are used too frequently it might hint at disengagement.<\/p>\n Another sign would be frequent family functions, personal commitments, or simple procrastination used to leave early from work.<\/p>\n It’s perfectly normal for an employee to experience frail health and take off from work to get better. However, disengaged employees use their sick days as often as possible.<\/p>\n Constant calls on a Monday or Friday by an employee who was relatively looking healthy before he called? This might indicate that he is disengaged and doesn’t want to work or end his weekend.<\/p>\n Engaged employees are always on the lookout for more challenges and are often eager to take on new roles and responsibilities. A disengaged employee will, on the other hand, try to avoid any additional work or challenge.\u00a0 \u00a0do the opposite and will try to avoid any new opportunities or challenges. They might complain about the burden of their work or simply turn down an opportunity.<\/p>\n But, monitoring disengagement isn’t enough. You have to take action, this doesn’t mean firing the disengaged employee but actively making efforts to remove disengagement.<\/p>\n Employee engagement can be seen as a holy grail for the company, then why aren’t companies doing more to engage employees?<\/p>\n What are the forces which stop managers from putting in the effort for employee engagement? Yes, pay and benefits or even simple apathy can be the strong reasons.<\/p>\n There is, however, more to that. Here is a list of five key challenges an organization faces:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n “Employees don\u2019t trust management. Why? Because employees see managers as deaf to their concerns and uninvolved in making improvements to the workplace environment.”<\/strong><\/p>\n – John Baldoni<\/a>,\u00a0President, Baldoni Consulting LLC<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n If companies want to build employee engagement programs that, the first step, would be to address these five challenges. The content they curate will be more easily communicated and consumed ensuring a higher return on investment.<\/p>\n Identifying the problems is the first step to any solution. Remember your mathematics word problems? Understanding the challenges faced in employee engagement is just as important as understanding if the sum needs to be computed in simple interest or compound interest.<\/p>\n What’s more? Employee disengagement causes the American economy $450-$550 billion<\/a> a year. The belief that having a good manager will take care of engagement is outdated and a lot more efforts need to be made.<\/p>\n The importance of good communication can’t be overstated. So what appears to be a complicated ball-of-yarn problem can be solved using better communication.<\/p>\n The various ingredients required for employee engagement, like the company values, well-defined roles, recognition require communication to bind them.<\/p>\n “Engagement is about an organization making an emotional connection with its\u2019 employees so that they feel excited and interested in their work. That way they will feel able to give that \u201clittle bit extra\u201d when needed.”<\/strong><\/p>\n -Dave Millner, Executive Consulting Partner, IBM Workforce Science<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Most companies make the error of relying upon and trusting the email system. While email is a fantastic tool, and more a necessary office tool, it’s not the best way for every communication type. There are a number of other communication tools that can be used- some are high-tech, some are simple.<\/p>\n The Morning Team Hurdle:<\/strong><\/p>\n For offices, especially smaller ones, morning meeting can be as effective as a morning coffee. It ensures that everyone is on the same page for the day or week. Central meeting space can be used to gather everyone and make use of this tactic. Open Sign for the CEO’s Office:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The CEO’s of big companies are availing the idea, of being available for a certain duration of office hours. This is done so that any employee can drop in or schedule time with the CEO, to ask questions, suggest changes or even pitch new product idea. Employees appreciate the accessibility and feel that their ideas and they matter to the organization. For the Ceos, these sessions create value, by giving him an outside perspective and insights into the brand and product. So, this strategy is a win-win situation for both.<\/p>\n Facebook and Twitter might be synonyms for Social Media, but here I am referring to platforms built for office communication. The information shared on these platforms not only go viral but is the perfect solution for communication problems.<\/p>\n You can install software like GroSum<\/a> Mobile Feedback,\u00a0Yammer<\/a>, Slack<\/a>, Tibbr<\/a>, Jive<\/a>, Salesforce Chatter<\/a>, and others, specially curated with the purpose of harnessing the power of social media in your office.<\/p>\n![\"happy](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/happy-businesswoman_23-2147536403-1-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat is Employment Engagement?<\/strong><\/h1>\n
![\"engaged](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/modern-pack-of-expressive-businesswoman-character_23-2147610122-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHow is Engagement different from Employee Satisfaction?<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Why is Employee Engagement important?<\/h1>\n
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Taking a look at the flip side:<\/h3>\n
![\"Understanding](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/employee-engagement-table-2-300x186.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTo understand this better, let’s see how an unengaged workforce slows down the organization:<\/h4>\n
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Loyalty Booster:<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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An energy drink for better performance:<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"business](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/business-growth-with-executives-running-to-the-top_18591-3693-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\n
Ultimate power-up for success:<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"business](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/businessman-with-a-scooter-over-growing-chart_23-2147505104-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHow do you identify low employee engagement?<\/h1>\n
![\"disengaged](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/businessman-tired-of-working-or-low-battery-and-need-socket_7130-1-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n1. First, take stock by Conducting a Survey<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"conducting](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/research-and-analytics_1133-434-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n2. Stay on the lookout for dropping productivity<\/h3>\n
![\"decreasing](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/businessman-falling-down_1133-364-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n3. A decrease in Quality of Work<\/h3>\n
![\"disengaged](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/employee-sleeping-at-the-work_1133-128-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n4. Change in\u00a0 Employee Behaviour<\/h3>\n
5. Spike in Anger outbursts<\/h3>\n
![\"anger](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/employee-angry-at-the-office_1133-194-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n6. Increase in time spent away from the Desk<\/h3>\n
7. Taking frequent “rain-checks” from office events<\/h3>\n
8. Early to leave and late to rise?<\/h3>\n
![\"employee](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/employee-trying-to-go-home_1133-145-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n9. No Sick days left?<\/h3>\n
![\"employee](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/employee-waking-up-early-to-go-to-work_1133-172-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n10. Reluctant to Take Challenges<\/h3>\n
What are the Key Challenges faced in Engaging Employees?<\/h1>\n
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How to overcome the challenges faced?<\/h1>\n
#1) Overcoming the Communication Hurdle<\/h3>\n
![\"Feedback\"](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/customer-feedback_7388-84-300x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHere’s a rundown of the best:<\/em><\/h3>\n
\nNeed a bigger space for accommodating all employees? One possible way is to have an “all-hands” meeting. For bigger organizations often, this is marked as an essential part of the communication weaponry. A town-hall style forum can be used, led by senior managers, where, the updates, vision, current targets can be discussed. A great way to ensure high efficiency would give employees an opportunity to ask questions in a public forum.<\/p>\n![\"morning](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/background-workplace-office-with-teamwork-executives-working_18591-11927-300x276.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"open](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/business-conversation-design_1133-88-300x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0Explore the Power of Social Media:<\/h4>\n