Engaging employees has\r\nbecome a priority for HR departments and HR leaders in recent years. The trend\r\nstarted 5-10 years ago when employers started to understand the millennial\r\ngeneration valued more than just money. It was around that time that employers began\r\noffering non-traditional and unique benefits and placed a heavy emphasis on\r\nengaging their workforce.
"},"body":{"body":"\r\n\tEngaging employees has\r\nbecome a priority for HR departments and HR leaders in recent years. The trend\r\nstarted 5-10 years ago when employers started to understand the millennial\r\ngeneration valued more than just money. It was around that time that employers began\r\noffering non-traditional and unique benefits and placed a heavy emphasis on\r\nengaging their workforce.
\r\n\tEmployees, particularly\r\nyounger millennials and to a certain extent, Gen X’ers value being valued. So\r\nwhat does it mean to have employee engagement?
\r\n\tEmployee engagement is a company culture that involves employees\r\nin the decision-making process and also considers employees when making\r\ndecisions. \r\n\t
\r\n\tEmployers fail to create\r\nthis environment when they don’t have a plan for how to engage employees and\r\ncreate a culture of involvement, respect, and shared goals.
\r\n\tCreating an actual \r\n\tplan is critical to program\r\nsuccess. Here are the must-have components of a company engagement plan.
\r\n\t1: Hire (and train)\r\nExceptional Leadership that Value Employee Engagement \r\n\t
\r\n\tGetting\r\nthe right people in leadership positions is crucial to developing an employee\r\nengagement plan. Organizations should start the planning process\r\nby selecting and more importantly, \r\n\tdeveloping better leaders.
\r\n\tThis task isn’t as simple as it sounds. To do\r\nthis, employers must use metric-based interview materials and ask situational\r\nquestions. Situational interview questions are important because you get a\r\nbetter representation of what the candidate will do on the job.
\r\n\tFor example:
\r\n\tDescribe\r\na situation where you had to collaborate with a difficult colleague\r\n\t
\r\n\tDescribe\r\na situation where you’ve received difficult or critical feedback\r\n\t
\r\n\tDescribe\r\na situation where you showed your team you valued them \r\n\t
\r\n\tQuestions like these will illicit a better\r\ncandidate preview than traditional interview questions. In addition to\r\nsituational questions, have current employees interview the senior candidate.\r\nOtherwise known as 360 degree interviewing, this technique will show employees\r\ntheir opinion matters, which is a critical component in creating a culture that\r\nfosters employee engagement.
\r\n\tAs a last must-have for the hiring process,\r\nhire senior leadership that values employee engagement. It’s easy to get buy in\r\nto a plan when they already value its merits.
\r\n\tAfter\r\nyou’ve hired senior leadership you have to train them to value the engagement\r\nprocess. If it’s not important to you, it won’t be important to your staff or\r\nin this case, your leadership team. Provide ongoing training, support, and\r\nrecommendations for ways to increase engagement amongst their team.
\r\n\t2. Gather Metrics
\r\n\tAfter you’ve assembled your\r\nteam, you need to get metrics on your current engagement levels. How can you \r\n\tincrease employee engagement if you\r\ndon’t know what your baseline is? \r\n\tSimple surveys are a great way for people to give feedback that employees\r\nwouldn’t otherwise feel comfortable giving you face-to-face.
\r\n\tAsk candid questions about\r\ntheir motivation, how much they enjoy their job, and if their values align with\r\ncompany actions. Don’t be offended at what you read. Remember, this is a\r\nstarting point prior to your engagement initiatives. Take the feedback and\r\nbuild your plan based on your findings.
\r\n\tAfter you’ve collected your\r\nfeedback via surveys, hold focus groups based on the outcomes of your surveys.\r\nIf people don’t feel their feedback is valued, hold a focus group to find out\r\nhow it would be best for the company to do that.
\r\n\tFocus groups should be\r\nfocused on solutions to problems, not the problems themselves. Ask opened ended\r\nquestions and have someone present to take notes or obtain permission to record\r\nthe session.
\r\n\t3. Create an Action Plan
\r\n\tHere is where you put pen\r\nto paper. Take the feedback you received from gathering metrics and develop an\r\naction plan for each point brought to light. Make sure you include positives\r\nand negatives in your plan.
\r\n\tWhen addressing negative\r\nfeedback, take the recommendations obtained from your focus groups and put them\r\ninto action. The most common areas for improvement as it relates to employee\r\nengagement are as follows:
\r\n\tEmployees Don’t Feel Appreciated
\r\n\tLack of appreciation is one\r\nof the most common causes of employee non-engagement. Luckily, it’s one of the\r\neasiest areas to fix. In it’s simplest form, employees don’t feel appreciated\r\nwhen they feel their work goes unnoticed.
\r\n\tSaying ‘\r\n\tthank you’ to your employees goes a long way and requires very little\r\neffort and cost. Some organizations have started ‘kudos’ boards for internal\r\nrecognition. This is a public way to say thank you that goes even farther than\r\na simple and individual thank you.
\r\n\tEmployees Don’t Feel Like Their Opinion Matters
\r\n\tHow many times have you\r\nfelt this way about your own employer? You work hard but still feel your voice\r\nisn’t important. Or you have a good idea and no one takes it seriously. If you\r\nfind this to be an issue at your workplace, you’re not alone. More than 70% of\r\nemployers face this problem at some point. The best way to fix this issue is to\r\ninclude employees in the decision making process.
\r\n\tWhile not possible all the\r\ntime, you can seek input to major decisions by forming voluntary employee\r\ncommittees and input groups. People that want to get involved can and it gives\r\nthem a safe space to do so. For those employees who don’t have the time or\r\ndesire to join a group, creating an employee suggestion box or other means of\r\ncollecting suggestions without the time commitment of a committee is a great\r\nway to generate suggestions to better the organization.
\r\n\tA word of caution here – if\r\nyou allow employees to participate in the decision and suggestion-making\r\nprocess, ensure that you have the capacity to take their feedback seriously.\r\nYou’ll undermine your efforts if you never listen to proposed suggestions.
\r\n\tEmployees Aren’t Provided with Financial\r\nIncentives\r\n\t
\r\n\tEngagement and motivation\r\nare very closely related. If employees aren’t motivated to do well, very rarely\r\nwill they be engaged. Consider offering financial incentives when employees\r\nmeet certain production or sales milestones. When the employee meets these\r\ngoals, offer the incentive AND publically recognize the employee.
\r\n\tPublic recognition matched\r\nwith monetary incentive is one of the best ways to simultaneously increase\r\nengagement and motivation.
\r\n\tLastly, don’t forget to\r\namplify the positive feedback you receive. All companies can do better. If\r\nyou’re told you’re doing right, build up or increase funding for the areas\r\nyou’ve received compliments on. That in of itself is listening to employee\r\nfeedback, which fosters an increase in employee engagement.
\r\n\tThank you for reading our article on how to create an engagement\r\nplan!\r\n\t
\r\n\t
\r\n\tEach company is different but with proper\r\nplanning, creating an employee engagement plan will ensure your company is\r\nkeeping up with the increasing demand for an engaged workforce.
"},"authorName":"Kimberly Marek","authorBio":{"authorBio":""},"publishedOn":"2018-02-13T10:47:34.417Z"}},"pageContext":{"id":"9b5d3bc1-1c26-5e0f-8332-ff20139a3eaf"}}, "staticQueryHashes": []}