Jeevithan K is a Senior Solutions Consultant at Engagedly with extensive experience in HR technology, customer success, product implementation, onboarding, and training. He specializes in helping organizations adopt B2B SaaS and enterprise AI solutions effectively. His expertise also includes project management, account management, process improvement, and translating complex product capabilities into practical solutions that deliver meaningful value for customers.
Managers often tend to ignore and sideline mental health issues while discussing workplace problems. While managers commonly talk about other issues such as work-life balance, workplace bias, bullying, etc., mental health is one topic that gets completely ignored in most organizations.
The above numbers have in fact increased over the past year due to the pandemic. Continuous remote working has taken a toll on the mental health of employees. Reports of anxiety, depression, isolation, stress, and fatigue have increased. It has resulted in increased absenteeism, reduced productivity, disengagement, and burnout.
It is high time organizations recognize the importance of mental health issues and help build a conducive and supportive environment for employees.
Here are some ways in which organizations can help.
Spread Awareness About Mental Health
The first step to solving any problem always begins with awareness. This could be through the form of workshops, seminars, conferences, etc. held by certified mental health professionals. They can help spread awareness about mental health and de-stigmatize the problem.
Spread awareness about common mental health problems like depression, anxiety, social phobia, etc. Encourage your employees to come forward and open up about their mental issues, so that you can help them overcome their issues.
Don’t Treat It As A Taboo
Why do some employees struggle with having good mental health? There are many reasons, but one of the main reasons is not opening up about it to anyone. Many people shy away from expressing the mental issues that they are battling daily.
Create a culture that encourages employees to open up about it.
Not all employees who have mental issues can come forward and talk about their problems. Sometimes, as a manager, you need to go the extra mile and look for changes in the behavior of your team members.
Common symptoms that you can look for are irritability, depression, withdrawal from contact with others, loss of motivation, mood swings, etc. If you find someone from your team displaying these behaviors, it is time for you to have a conversation about their mental health issues.
Connect With Your Employees
Once you realize that a team member has changed their behavior or is exhibiting symptoms of mental health issues, it is best to have a conversation about it. Do not make assumptions before having the conversation; remember that your impression can be wrong too.
Connect with them over informal or formal sessions and talk with them and give them support. Ask them simple questions and encourage them to share what triggers their problem more. Also, give them frequent feedback on how they work and they can improve. It will keep them engaged and busy at work.
Sometimes, people battling mental health issues just want someone to hear out what they have to say, so listen to them without judging or giving out opinions instantly.
Supportive Work Culture
A supportive work environment practices healthy communication and does not engage in toxic or harmful behavior. It shouldn’t make employees feel stressed. A distinction has to be made between job-related stressors and environmental stressors. Stress is a part and parcel of any job, and employees understand that on certain occasions, they might experience stressful situations. However, when these stressful situations frequently affect their ability to do their job or impact their ability to function, that is when it becomes a problem. Consequently, organizations need to be observant of the environment in which their employees work.
Creating a healthy workplace environment might necessitate organizations completely overhauling their workplace policies to be more inclusive. While this task might seem painful, it will go a long way toward creating a workplace that employees want to be a part of.
Design Policies Around Mental Health
Oftentimes, organizations have health policies but they might be cursory health policies or focus more on physical health. One way organizations can be more inclusive and supportive is to revamp their policies. It should cover all aspects of health and wellness. This includes creating provisions for employees with disabilities or employees with mental health problems. Also, adding or offering resources (through the employee assistance programs) that they can use to seek help. It is also important that employees be aware of these policies and use them when they need it. Having a good policy but not being able to use it renders the policy useless. It also prevents employees from seeking the health and care they need.
Leadership Support
Employee wellness initiatives cannot move forward or even function successfully if they do not have the enthusiastic support of leaders and managers at an organization. It will not only lend more weight to mental health initiatives but will reassure employees that their well-being is important to organizations.
An article in Forbes highlights that 360 degree feedback is used as a cornerstone of leadership development processes in more than 85% of all the Fortune 500 companies.
360 degree feedback, or multirater feedback, or multirater assessment is a type of feedback in which everyone with whom an employee has worked shares feedback. It involves both the internal and external stakeholders. The feedback is more objective and is more acceptable by everyone when compared to the traditional feedback process.
Considering only the benefits of the process, organizations often tend to ignore their readiness for 360 degree feedback. As a result, for many organizations, it is ineffective and not valuable. Rather, they end up utilizing resources for the process with nothing in return.
Here are ten questions you should consider to determine whether your organization is ready for 360 degree feedback.
Have You Identified The Purpose?
This is the most important question you need to ask yourself before you begin a 360 feedback process. Most organizations use 360 degree feedback programs for self-development, that is, to help employees know more about themselves and better themselves as well. Don’t use 360 feedback to measure performance.
Also, many organizations use the process to collect feedback about their leadership.
What Do You Expect To Achieve?
Do you want to know more about your direct reports? Or do you want to help your employees know more about their own skills and gaps? Or do you want to know how leaders of the organization can improve themselves? Either way, whatever your aim is and what you would like to achieve from the program, it’s best to be sure of that before you start.
The process of giving feedback can very quickly become a vague activity. Before you decide the participants for the 360 degree feedback process, share a set of feedback guidelines with everyone. That way, they know what to say, what they shouldn’t say, how they should frame the feedback, what phrases they should avoid, etc.
Is You Organization Culture Supportive?
Your organization’s current culture plays a major role in the success of the 360 degree feedback process. 360 degree feedback requires an open culture where everyone is ready to change and accept feedback. It involves a culture of learning and a high level of trust among employees.
Have You Decided On The Participants?
Some organizations prefer to just collect from an employee’s peers. Others might prefer collecting feedback from managers besides peers. While other organizations might also want to collect feedback from external clients, vendors, etc. The more the number of people included in the process, the more important it is to keep everyone on the same page regarding the 360 degree feedback process.
There’s no point to a 360 degree feedback program if your employees aren’t ready for the process. To prepare them for the process, explain to them the objectives behind the program, what you hope to achieve, what they will gain from the process, and what happens after the program. Only when employees are ready for the program and know what to expect, a 360 feedback process to be effective and successful.
Have You LentLentLent In The Correct 360 Feedback Software?
In most organizations, 360 degree feedback involves external as well as internal stakeholders who are part of the process. The software should be easy to understand and use by everyone, even with no formal training. It should be robust and easily customizable as per the needs of the organization. And it goes without saying the software should have an efficient support team to help with issues.
You can choose to use generic, broadly appropriate templates for everyone across the organization or you can choose to use department or job designation specific templates. If you choose to use custom templates, you can then add competencies based on an employee’s job title. 360 degree feedback software, like Engagedly, helps you add competencies based on job titles for 360 feedback templates. Generic templates are good if you have a small organization where everyone does more or less the same kind of work. Custom templates are a good fit for organizations that have a large number of departments or employees who do very specific kinds of work.
Will It Be Anonymous Or Public?
The call to make a 360 feedback process anonymous rests on the leaders of an organization. To be fair, anonymity can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, more employees might be willing to participate in a 360 feedback process because it is anonymous. On the other hand, there’s going to be some anonymous feedback that employees or managers might not agree with.
This is the most important aspect of the 360 degree feedback process. In a good 360 feedback process, all the feedback received is shared with the employee and then their skills and gaps are discussed so that employees can focus on their development. Hoarding the information from a process benefits no one and just serves to make employees suspicious.
Request a demo to find out how Engagedly can help you with 360 degree feedback implementation!
Employee engagement has become one of the most common buzzwords in the contemporary business world. Given the paramount correlation between employee engagement and business profitability, organizations are constantly working on evolving new engagement strategies. They have employee engagement goals to meet to tap every possible merit of it. Have you acknowledged the interrelation between engagement and business success yet?
As concluded by Gallup, high employee engagement can augment business profitability by 21 percent. Having said that, there is every pragmatic reason why you ought to lay emphasis on nurturing the engagement levels in your employees. Exemplary engagement is the key to the fulfillment of your business ambitions after all!
When it comes to the best strategies for cultivating high employee engagement, perspectives and mindsets tend to vary. You may have a different spectrum of ideas for engaging employees, while other business leaders may have a distinct framework for it. However, across all industries and generations of employees, one of the most salient drivers of motivation and engagement is recognition.
Why is employee recognition quintessential?
From baby boomers to millennials and Gen Y folks, everyone needs the right proportion of recognition and rewards to engage actively. Even you need your share of recognition to bring out the best in you! You find yourself brimming with the motivation to scale new heights when people around you applaud you, don’t you? In fact, Deloitte reveals that recognition amplifies efficiency and engagement by 14 percent. To add, Gallup concludes that lack of recognition is the primary reason why employees disengage or quit.
The above insights are enough to establish the imperativeness of employee recognition. They clearly signify that investing to win employee loyalty is as crucial as building customer loyalty. Employee motivation and happiness are the pivotal pillars of employee engagement. Further, rewards and recognition are the piers of motivation and exuberance among employees. If you ask employees what rewards they desire the most, monetary incentives would be a common answer.
However, for smaller and medium enterprises, monetary rewards may not always be feasible. In such scenarios, you can always come up with some excellent ideas for non-monetary rewards. To help you with that, in this article, we discuss some brilliant ideas for employee recognition. These ideas cost nothing or little and yet create a massive impetus of engagement. So, without further ado, let us get started!
Appreciation for effort
Appreciation is one of the most valuable yet inexpensive rewards that you can confer upon your employees. Here we are talking about a comprehensive and genuine framework of appreciation that also takes into account the effort put in by employees. Why limit appreciation and recognition to achievements and accomplishments? You also ought to appreciate the effort, loyalty, and commitment displayed by your employees.
In fact, as per HubSpot, 69 percent of employees opine that they will work with greater diligence if they are appreciated better. This substantiates the simple fact that appreciation holds the key to fostering high employee engagement. Given that, you ought to create a vibrant culture where appreciation and celebration of effort, achievements, and sincerity is a natural virtue. The more inclusive employee recognition gets, the greater will be the returns in terms of high engagement.
Recognizing employees in front of their colleagues can work wonders to upscale their engagement. Besides, it will assist others in setting their performance goals as well. If your organization is remote, you can extend appreciation during virtual meets or via digital internal newsletters. To add, you can also extend appreciation through social media posts highlighting the contributions of employees.
Shareholding benefits
Last year, Woolworths, the Australian retail giant, gave shares of the company to over 100,000 workers as a token of recognition. The workers were rewarded shares of net worth up to $750 for their commendable work amid the pandemic. Having said that, if your company is listed on the stock market, you can take a leave out of Woolworths’ book.
You can offer little stakes to your exclusive and unparalleled performers as an ultimate perk. With this, you can make the idea of employees’ sense of belonging quite literal! This is a reward of the highest order that will give your employees one of the biggest reasons for sticking to you and staying engaged around the clock.
It may not be possible all the time to offer promotions to employees regularly along with salary hikes. However, even for employees, it is not always about the salary. Employees have the basic anticipation of getting proportionate career advancement opportunities in the workplace. Getting their fair share of professional growth is in itself a reward for them irrespective of monetary increments.
Having said that, offering better designations and titles to your employees in lieu of their exemplary performance is a credible idea. For instance, a top performer exhibiting great diligence persistently can be made an additional project manager.
On similar lines, an excellent graphic designer who brings great value to your organization’s marketing can be named the creative head. Even without increments in salaries, the escalation of designations will be priceless to employees inspiring greater engagement in them.
Exclusive mentoring programs
Learning and development prospects are critical to the engagement and exuberance of employees. They want to learn consistently and keep adding more value to their professional development. This is the reason why employees are keener to work for organizations with cultures facilitating learning. To validate, almost 90 percent of millennials assert that learning in the workplace is essential for them. This insight is in line with the inferences of Middlesex University for Work-Based Learning.
Therefore, having some exclusive mentorship programs for achievers and top performers will be an incredible idea. With performances superseding a certain performance benchmark, let your employees unlock new horizons of mentoring. These in-person mentoring programs should cater to the most important verticals of professional development. Employees will see these as adding immense value to their pursuit of career building.
Let the highest form of learning or remote training be an affluent reward in the workplace. With this strategy, you can engage the winners as well as others who would then realign their goals to qualify for the same.
The bottom line is, exclusive or not, mentoring programs are critical to boosting the efficiency and engagement of employees. You do not have to be a boss always. At times, you need to step into the shoes of a mentor and construct mentor-mentee relationships with your workers.
Wellness benefits
Wellness has become a great concern for employees, given the ever-increasing work stress they find themselves reeling under. To make things worse, the horrifying COVID-19 pandemic has made employees worry even more about their health. In such a scenario, wellness benefits will work as invaluable rewards for your employees. You can offer the following health rewards to your top-notch talents while setting a benchmark for others as well.
One of the most attractive awards for employees in this revamped corporate world known for work from home jobs, remote cultures, and virtual meetings is flexibility. If you ask your employees, all of them would say that they desire discretionary flexibility. The flexibility we are emphasizing is the flexibility in terms of working style, working hours, and working tools.
Employees want to work remotely most of the time as they believe it enables greater work-life balance and optimized productivity. Given the fact, the idea of flexibility is essential for employees, why not craft a reward out of it? The better the employees perform, the more can be the number of work from home days they can win in a month. Besides, flexibility as a part of employee experience can also enhance their efficiency. You can put a ceiling on the maximum number of days in a month that employees can avail remote work.
Bonus paid leaves
Additional paid leaves can be a great idea for a reward! Employees do not get more than one or two paid leaves in a month. Hence, they have to be careful and cautious with their utilization of paid leaves. This is where they also begin to feel that their work-life balance is getting crippled. However, persistent performers can be entitled to a few more paid leaves than others in lieu of their valuable contributions. Seems like a great idea, doesn’t it?
By fixing a maximum number of additional paid leaves to be won, you can extend bonus leaves to your employees proportional to their achievements and consistency. All employees will feel quite fascinated about the opportunity to win some additional paid leaves. For that, they will naturally feel the urge to set the bar high and engage better to win bonus leaves. Who would not want to win such perks and rewards after all?
Author:
Jessica Robinson is a charismatic corporate leader, a selfless educator, and a versatile content creator. Despite a management degree, her vision behind blogging is not only to follow her passion, but to create more informed societies. Her selflessness reflects in every piece of her work on The Speaking Polymath.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you improve employee engagement? Request for a live demo.
Researches show a clear link between rewards and recognition and employee retention. A survey by Achievers brought to light some alarming results. 55% of 1700respondents were planning to switch jobs. When probed deeper, the number one reason for it was lack of recognition. A much as 69% of these employees went on to mention that a more thoughtful reward and recognition program would inspire them to stay on. This was in 2018.
In 2021, the situation does not appear to be any better. There is not a soul unaffected by everything that has been paining our world in the past couple of years. Despite such a tough environment, employees are constantly striving to maintain balance and deliver. So as an employer, a ‘Thank You’ is the least you can give to your employees.
If you wish to make sure your high performing workers continue to deliver and remain in your organization, here are some things you can practice:
Work Life Balance:
Now that most employees are working from home, screen time has soured throughout the global population. They overwork without even realizing it. This leaves most employees stressed and exhausted, which ultimately affects their productivity. With the workplace constantly intruding into personal space, they get less time to spend with their families. Result? Employee burnout. Gallup, in their recent research, highlights that employees who report burnout are 2.6 times more likely to look for a new job.
Employees should know when to switch-off, and organizations must understand the importance of work-life balance. Having a work-life balance is as important as having a good salary, job satisfaction, security, employee benefits and perks, etc.
As per the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey for Americans between ages 15 to 54, 18% of employed individuals experienced symptoms of mental health issues.
Often times, while discussing workplace issues, many articles or surveys highlight bullying, poor managers, workplace biases, and work-life balance. But mental health is repeatedly overlooked. It’s a very serious issue that needs to be given importance like any other.
Working from home has allowed employees to work from anywhere and work flexibly. However, it has led to other issues such as insomnia, anxiety, and isolation. As a manager or an HR, you can’t always act as a therapist or a shrink, but you can take a series of steps to ensure that your employees are doing well.
Informal conversations to understand how they are doing
Conduct anonymous surveys
Equal importance to mental health, like physical health
Train employees to identify their mental health issues
Online therapy and counseling sessions as a part of employee benefits and perks
Encourage everyone to speak up
Necessary Physical Fitness:
The perfect alignment of mind, body and soul makes for a balanced human being. So physical wellbeing, as we have mentioned earlier, is as important as mental stability. When employees were working out of the office, they had access to ergonomically designed workstations, gyms, healthy eating options, etc. But with work from home, many of us have the habit of working from the couch or bed. There is no fixed routine for work or breaks. It leads to obesity and fatigue, which ultimately affects the productivity of the employee.
Here are a few things which you can do to ensure your employees’ physical wellbeing:
Set up their remote workspaces
Conduct exercise and yoga sessions online and encourage your employees to take part
Gift your employees’ smart bands to track their steps
Offer incentives to your employees for calories burnt
In the global workspace, which is mostly remote, employees feel disconnected and isolated from their teammates and the organization because of a lack of communication. So, with a sturdy communication process in place, employees feel connected and valued. Have a one-on-one connect with your team members, or encourage them to share their concerns in team meetings. Let them know you are there to help them out if they face any difficulty working remotely. Encourage your employees to block time for virtual water cooler breaks so that they can have a casual discussion with their colleagues. Additionally, ensure that they have the tools and software required to make communication and collaborationeasy. Some of the most commonly used tools are:
Engagedly for real-time performance management, feedback, rewards, and gamification
Slack, Google Meet, and Skype for communication and easy collaboration
Asana, Basecamp, and Trello for Project Management
Your workers are your assets! So a good employee recognition program is beyond necessary for your organization. Have you started taking care of them yet?
Do you want to know how Engagedly can help you with employee recognition and employee retention? Then request for a live demo.
The workplace has proven to cause a heavy impact on employees’ health and wellbeing. Causes can derive from physical factors like incorrect manual handling to psychological ones like work-related stress. Collectively, they can build up to high levels of sick leave and absence.
Concentrating on your employee’s health and wellbeing can exponentially improve morale and attendance.
You should treat health and wellbeing as a vital factor in your company, whilst hosting a safe working environment. All of which can ensure your employee feel comfortable and confident as members of your business.
Absence rates and occupational health
The ONS reported absence related to sickness decreased by 1.8% in 2020. Which is the lowest rate reported since 1995.
But, according to HSE, it’s estimated that 38.8 million working days were lost because of work-related ill-health and non-fatal work accidents.
High numbers like these can add up to great business losses. Lost workdays, due to illness and injuries, snowball into lost time, resources, and productivity.
One of the biggest responsibilities you have is to look after the welfare of your employee. Without this, your workers will drop out of the business faster than you can anticipate.
Of course, it’s impossible for a workplace to be completely absent-free. But having a healthy approach for dealing with absences is a must – for the employer and employees.
Employees who are fit for work will produce and perform more efficiently. So, if they are healthy (physically and mentally), you’ll benefit from having a more resilient workforce.
Causes of sick leave
The implications on employee wellbeing and business productivity can cost a business more than what you might foresee.
Absences due to physical and mental illnesses can derive from all sorts of reasons.
Keep awareness and sensitivity for all kinds of absence issues. Remember, an employee may not exude physical illness. But they could be suffering mental strains, like depression or anxiety.
Employers themselves can be found guilty of direct inflictions, which lead to ill health. Common scenarios like this that can ruin employee engagement are:
Setting unrealistic targets and deadlines.
Being subconsciously biased.
Constantly highlighting mistakes.
Creating a negative atmosphere.
Take a positive and proactive approach to employee wellbeing. You’ll soon see a reduction in absence numbers. Concentrating on employee engagement is also a must. You’ll soon see it return as genuine commitment and loyalty to your business.
How can your business benefit from positive employee wellbeing?
If you were to calculate costs that derive from poor employee health, you’ll easily see the impact on your business. Sick leave, lost hours, employee turnover – the effects will add up daily and in the long run.
Workplace health and wellbeing initiatives can reduce absence costs, alongside:
Sick leave and absence.
Performance issues.
Employee turnover.
Recruitment and training fees.
Health and wellbeing.
Liability and litigation risks.
If you establish these, you can easily display your business as a place of prosperity and growth.
Being able to spot and determine the mood of the workspace can prove beneficial for you. It’s easily done by using wellbeing trackers and charts. These can help outline your employees’ conditions – daily and in the future.
Having initial objectives that support your business can significantly improve:
Employee health and wellbeing.
Performance and engagement.
Individual and team efforts.
Productivity and motivation.
Brand-name and image.
Customer service.
We are living in a world where flexible working is fast becoming the norm. So, make sure remote workers are protected and safe as they work in isolation or off-location.
Promoting wellbeing
You and your management should openly encourage promoting wellbeing at work. It’s vital you present a clear message for the awareness of employee health and wellbeing.
This can be initiated through smaller gestures, like not answering emails after work hours, or taking lunch breaks daily.
Having open wellbeing conversations can show your employee who they should contact for help. This is crucial for those who are unconfident in raising issues, or those who are suffering alone.
Train your line managers to manage cases empathetically, especially for mental health issues. Keep promoting dialogue, feedback, and engagement – you’ll significantly boost morale and productivity alongside.
Wellbeing schemes and procedures
Supporting employee wellbeing through schemes and classes can significantly improve physical and mental health. Some great ways to do this is by providing:
Counseling and therapy sessions.
Physiotherapy and gym membership.
Paid leave for medical appointments.
Encouraging healthy lifestyle choices.
Sports and exercise classes.
Having these at discounted rates means more employees gain access to these schemes–all without breaking your bank.
Workplace health and safety
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, all employers have a duty of care for the safety of their employees–and this includes wellbeing.
By managing workplace health and safety, you can control and reduce potential injuries and accidents. And fewer illnesses means fewer absences. Some important H&S obligations your business needs to possess are:
Risk assessments.
Accident prevention.
Health protection.
Training and awareness.
Recording and reporting.
It’s also a good idea to reassess your workplace policies and risk assessments, and update them.
By preventing and reducing the risk of accidents, you can identify:
Which work tasks might cause injuries?
Who is likely to be subject to risks?
Any reasonable steps needed to reduce risks?
Identify and document these hazards and risks. It’ll help you manage repeat situations. Also, keep training up to date, utilise PPE if needed, and run assessments that are legally mandatory.
With thorough management, you’ll effectively comply with your legal duty of care, whilst reducing sick leave and absence.
Take care of employee wellbeing
Assessing your absence rates can showcase a great evaluation for your employee’s wellbeing.
Aspire to provide accessible and practical methods for improving health, wellbeing, and engagement at work.
Controlling levels accurately and timely can prove to be an effective wellbeing strategy. It’s the perfect way to record and manage absence and wellbeing together.
Author:
Kayleigh Frost works at Health Assured and has extensive knowledge of mental health and wellbeing, with a specific focus on the workplace. As a qualified Mental Health First Aider and a clinical department head, she strives for excellence and superior service delivery to all.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you improve employee experience? Request for a live demo.
Employee engagement is one of the most important aspects of current HR. Though most managers understand the importance of keeping their employees engaged and satisfied with their work, sometimes they tend to unintentionally destroy employee engagement.
Do you want to re-evaluate your practices to check if you’re accidentally destroying employee engagement at your workplace? Here are a few signs to look out for:
Your Employees Don’t Receive Enough Feedback
One of the very common reasons for employee disengagement is that they aren’t satisfied with the amount of feedback they receive. As a manager, you should find a way to talk to your employees about their performance and give them enough feedback and time to improve.
Goals shouldn’t be very easy to attain because they won’t let the true potential show. But also remember not to make them so unrealistic that they intimidate your employees.
Before setting goals and deadlines, think how these goals affect your organisation and work culture. If not, these goals instead of motivating your employees and promoting employee engagement, kills employee morale.
Lack Of Appreciation For Good Work
Imagine that you were given a really challenging task and you took a lot of effort and risk to complete it on time. After you complete the work, your boss takes all the credit and doesn’t even bother to give you a little appreciation.
Would you give your maximum efforts again on any other task? Now you know how that feels, don’t you? Appreciate and recognise your employees when they meet your expectations. A simple act of appreciation goes a long way.
Like mentioned above, employees make mistakes, but they also complete their given tasks. You can’t only focus on the mistakes they make and ignore their accomplishments. You don’t have to focus only on their mistakes and taunt them always.
All you can do as a manager is, to talk about the mistake and help them correct it if possible.
You Don’t Keep Your Word
Promising something to your employees and not keeping those promises, makes you lose your personal credibility.
When you promise something to your employees they take it as a done deal. Be sure that you can keep a promise before making it. By saying this, we do not mean that you lie to your employees; it is just that, you should be sure of your ability to keep the promise you make. If you constantly fail to keep your promises, your staff may completely lose respect for you.
Interaction Is Missing With The Team
When you are a manager, you can’t just be an emotionless, command-giving robot in the office. Communicate with your employees and understand their problems. Talk to them about their work, your work, or anything.
When you don’t communicate your ideas with your employees, they can never reach your expectations. If you want to see your organisational goals met, then get started.
As a human, you might enjoy working with a few people and it is completely normal. But, when you are a manager, you’ve got different responsibilities and different people working as a team under you.
You can’t respond differently to different people for the same behaviour because of your personal preferences. If you do, it creates a really unfair workplace environment.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you improve employee engagement? Request for a live Demo!
To answer what it means to embrace vulnerability, we have to take a look at the psychology of emotional vulnerability and apply it to the workplace.
For the most part, when people hear the word vulnerability, they link the term to negativity, such as personal mistakes or software weakness. Either way, it spells professional danger for them.
But, there is a new wave of thinking which shows that embracing vulnerability in the workplace is actually crucial to success.
According to Dr. Brene Brown, an author and vulnerability researcher, “vulnerability is uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.”
Source: Oprah.com
Far from being something negative, vulnerability is actually the courage and willingness to show up and be seen, in spite of uncertain outcomes
It’s about taking off your workplace armor and allowing yourself to have discussions that may be uncomfortable, yet essential
It promotes respect in the workplace and means that coworkers can trust and confide in each other more
Instead of getting discouraged by their failures, teams can learn from failure what they need to improve and grow
Finally, embracing vulnerability also means crystallizing your company values so current employees and candidates see that they can bring the whole of themselves to the workplace, as opposed to having a professional self at work that is very different from who they are at home.
Being vulnerable can mean different things to different people.
And, at work, it can translate in a number of ways for employees, such as:
Letting their team know that they’re feeling overwhelmed on a project and need a break
Admitting to their employer that they don’t know how to solve a pressing problem
Apologizing when they realize that they’ve made a mistake
Saying sorry when they snap at a colleague after a long day
Simply put, being vulnerable, for employees, is all about being able to show other people that they are not perfect, that they make mistakes, and that they don’t have all the answers – that they’re human!
Embracing vulnerability can also be beneficial for a company to win over customers as well. While it’s never ideal that a company make a ton of mistakes, when someone at the company does, it’s best to get ahead of the issue by publicly admitting it, apologizing, and explaining how it will be avoided in the future.
While a company can do all of this with the help of an email marketing tool, it may be best suited as a video posted to social media if the budget calls for it and it’s a big enough mistake.
Why Is It Important to Embrace Emotional Vulnerability?
By embracing emotional vulnerability, employees will be able to authentically express themselves, establish strong connections with peers, and generate a sense of empowerment and freedom that will translate to increased productivity and retention.
Emotional vulnerability lets employees connect on a different level and leads to better collaboration and increased cohesiveness.
Below, we take a look at 5 reasons why companies should strive to embrace emotional vulnerability among employees.
1. Build a Culture of Trust
Trust plays a huge role in vulnerability. Employees need the courage to trust others and they, themselves, must have the integrity to be worthy of others’ trust.
There can be no vulnerability without trust. For growth to occur in a relationship, it requires both parties to open up and share all of who they are with each other – not just the good. For this to happen, trust must be present.
So how can this be done in the workplace?
Here are a few tips you can use to encourage employees to exemplify trust and trustworthiness:
Boundaries: Employees need to set clear boundaries and respect those set by their fellow employees.
Accountability: They must own up to their own mistakes, apologize, and fix them whenever possible.
Reliability: They must do what they say they’ll do, which means they shouldn’t over-promise at work but be clear about their limitations and deliver on commitments.
Vault: They should never share confidential information – especially when the information is not theirs to share.
Integrity: They should always do what’s right instead of what is easy and practice their values rather than simply professing them.
Non-Judgment: Employees should answer requests for help without judgment of those who are asking and be able to ask for help themselves.
Generosity: They should extend the benefit of the doubt to the intentions, words, or behaviors of other colleagues.
2. Enhance Rising Skills
This refers to the resilience of getting back up after a failure. Dr. Brown states that employees who are willing to risk being vulnerable, brave, and courageous are those who risk getting their ass kicked.
This is a natural consequence of courage and it’s also the reason why many find it so difficult to allow themselves to be vulnerable at work.
But, she further explains that it’s just as important to rise and pick yourself up after being knocked down. This is the inevitable suffering that comes with courage, and honing their “rising skills” can help employees weather those hardships.
Ultimately, those employees who have tried and failed – and tried again are those who develop resilience within themselves to find the true path to success.
This is what reminds employees of why they tried in the first place, and it’s a consequence of allowing themselves to be vulnerable.
The majority of businesses have some type of company values, yet relatively few actually live them. Our values define us in our deepest levels and businesses need to operationalize their values and translate them into specific behaviors that are not only observable but measurable too.
This gives employees who are willing to be vulnerable something to call on when they get knocked down.
It gives them the strength to try again and helps you build a more courageous culture where colleagues can have discussions that are crucial to your business even if they are uncomfortable.
Vulnerability in the workplace drives innovation, creativity, and change. Some of the best ideas are those that are cultivated in an environment of openness, collaboration, and meaningful exchange.
Each time someone brings a new idea to the table, there is vulnerability present. That’s why it’s crucial for businesses to create a workplace environment that not only accepts and embraces emotional vulnerability but also encourages and supports it.
That way, employees will have the confidence and courage to think creatively and express new ideas.
For instance, if someone at your company wants to begin hosting a podcast to share the company story, embrace the idea and try to have them explain the ideas before telling them no.
5. Foster Successful Teamwork
A foundation of trust is needed for effective teamwork. This requires the ability for team members to be vulnerable with others. Hardly anything of value will get done if employees don’t feel safe enough to be open with their coworkers.
Each person on the team needs to know they won’t be punished for speaking up, disagreeing, or taking risks.
Disagreements are inevitable when groups of people with different languages and cultures come together to create new things or solve problems.
But, people need to know that it’s all right for them to speak plainly and offer feedback. That’s why this is something that should be encouraged so you can have authentic, vulnerable communication that fosters more successful teamwork.
But, for such disagreements to be productive, it’s essential to have open, respectful, and honest communication.
Building a Culture of Vulnerability Among Employees
I hope by now you’ve seen that vulnerability in the workplace is an asset and not a liability, as most people believe. It’s something that is critical for both leaders and employees alike.
When you allow vulnerability among employees and remove uncertainty in the workplace, it’s a winning formula for creating a dynamic and sustainable culture of innovation, teamwork, and trust.
As a result, your organization will experience more security, respect, and engagement among employees, which will ultimately lead to improved business results.
But…
It’s crucial to note that as important as it is to encourage emotional vulnerability in the workplace, this can be seriously uncomfortable for many people.
There are many steps you can take to encourage more vulnerability among employees. One important step is to start with you.
Practice Sharing Your Own Feelings
Vulnerability is not about over sharing, but you should learn to acknowledge your own feelings and then practice sharing them in order to foster stronger relationships with your colleagues. This encourages other employees to do the same.
It can be as simple as sharing something that you’re feeling eager and excited about – or you could share that you’re feeling worn out, and a little disengaged – as opposed to answering “I’m fine” when someone at work asks you “How are you?”
This may be a little uncomfortable for you, but, with practice, you’ll get there.
Everyone has vulnerabilities, personality components, and emotions that make up good and bad.
By hiding such vulnerabilities, employees are essentially denying a huge part of their personalities.
But, when you start taking steps toward embracing emotional vulnerability among employees, employees will feel comfortable taking off their workplace armor and everyone will benefit as a result.
There’s just one caveat to all of this…
The Caveat
Having explained how important it is for companies to allow employees to be vulnerable at work, it’s still important to note that companies will have to design processes and systems for the management of employees’ strong emotions.
Although vulnerability is still seen as taboo in many workplaces, things are changing as more and more employees and leaders capitalize on their own vulnerabilities in the workplace environment to build real connections, take advantage of the growth and opportunities that arise through engagement, respect, and trust.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that vulnerability isn’t something that only applies to personal relationships and personal development. It’s also a crucial aspect of the professional self employees bring to work.
By taking the plunge and embracing vulnerability among your employees, you’ll open the door to increased creativity, innovation, and productivity in your business.
Over to you. Do you think that your business could benefit from embracing emotional vulnerability among employees? Sound off in the comments below!
Author:
Ron Stefanski is an online entrepreneur and marketing professor who has a passion for helping people create and market their own online business. You can learn more from him by visitingOneHourProfessor.com
Building up a strong team that contributes to outstanding achievements is one of the greatest challenges any manager faces. If you are looking to nurture a team that excels, inculcate the 3-fold responsibility approach on every team member.
You should align them with the following 3 responsibilities–
Connecting with teammates
Wiring up with work
Aligning with the company goal
In a research article published by The Harvard Business Review, they say, ‘‘over the past two decades the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has ballooned by 50 percent or more.”
Given that we spend a significant amount of time communicating with our co-workers, this should ideally lead to enhanced teamwork. But there is an essential ingredient, without which teams fail miserably—Connection.
As humans, not just in our social or private spheres, we crave to be successful, satisfied, encouraged and valued even at our workplaces. When we cannot derive the connection, we disconnect from work and productivity.
Here are 5 simple ways to handle teamwork challenges.
Help Build Trust Among Your Team Members
In order to build trust, team members have to know each other, on the professional and personal front. Else they won’t connect, nor engage, and they obviously won’t trust each other. To instill trust, get your team members to spend time in some fun activities and interact with each other.
Manage Conflicts Well
Difference of opinion can be a good thing. It can prompt insightful debates, bring out different perspectives, expand knowledge and lead to innovation. If that difference of opinion grows to become a conflict, that can become a challenge. If you can handle the situation carefully, instead of the team breaking apart, it can enhance the team bond and inspire growth.
There is no trust where there is no transparency. Important thing is, it has to start at the top. As a senior employee, it’s your responsibility to trigger and enhance it. Employees will automatically follow you when they see the good results.
Promote Knowledge Sharing
Every team member brings in distinctive skills, knowledge, proficiency and prudence to the table. A strong team would liberally share knowledge for the benefit of everyone. This strengthens the team and propels it forward.
Some teams require great focus and hence, working in silos is commendable. If you wish to build a strong team though, working in silos won’t get you very far. Every person has limited exposure and experience that can only get you so far. Power comes when the whole team is working together in earnest in order to achieve a goal. It’s a great feeling to be part of a team where every member is thinking of it as one and not just themselves.
So, if you wish to form and regulate an excelling team, notice behaviours. When you notice something that might put a wedge in the team, stir things towards clarity and transparency. It’s when we change the way we conduct ourselves; we can make the greatest impact and build an effective team.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you manage teams better? Request for a demo.
Many companies have recently adopted a hybrid model. This allows employees to work from the office and as well as from their homes. But, in the past year, most of the employees have worked remotely, and they will need to adjust back to working in an office. During the global lockdown, many employees got used to working from home and having more flexibility. Managers and employers need to take measures to minimize employee stress as they return to the workplace. Follow these tips to increase employee engagement across your entire company.
WHAT IS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT?
Employee engagement is the motivation and emotional dedication an employee has to its employer and company goals. Employees need to understand the company as a whole, the purpose of the goals and where they fit into the big picture. Burnout happens when employees lose the motivation they need to keep working. Combating employee burnout is a constant struggle managers must fight, but it is necessary now more than ever. Forbes shared that 61% of employees report being burned out on the job, while 31% also report high levels of stress in the workplace. With employees entering the workplace once again, here are some tips to increase employee engagement and avoid burnout.
A good organization provides training to employees at every level of the organization to make sure they are always improving. You can’t prevent employee burnout if your managers don’t know how to identify it. Train your c-suite employees how to recognize early signs and symptoms of burnout before it’s too late and you lose the employee. Communicate with your leaders the benefits of regular check-ins with every team member and how to make sure the team is functioning well. Educate and train your managers on tactics to best minimize stress and anxiety in the workplace. Provide workshops on skills like time management for every new employee during the onboarding process. Train all employees to actively create a work environment that fosters collaboration and open feedback.
Teach your managers strategies to keep employees efficient. A key element of employee engagement is employees must have a support system. Make sure each team member has all the tools and technology they need to perform at the highest level. Managers need to really think about what tools are necessary and helpful to each different job. Consider if you are overloading your employees with too many tools and too much technology. Trying to make their job easier with too many different softwares can actually add stress. Stress and anxiety can ultimately lead to employee disengagement.
IMPLEMENT GAMIFICATION
One of the most successful employee engagement trends of the past decade has been gamification. Applying game elements to the workplace, such as a point system, competition, and prizes will make work fun. This will increase employee engagement and motivation towards company goals. In a 2018 survey, 81% of the respondents say gamification provided a sense of purpose and belonging in the workplace. These objective measurements can help managers see exactly how employees are performing compared to their peers. Gamification drives desired behaviors to all levels of the organization and keeps employees in line with the larger company goals. Competition in gamification gives employees intrinsic motivation to directly combat employee burnout.
Gamification provides managers with employee performance data and goal benchmarks. Managers can quickly recognize and fix productivity issues on an individual team member level. But if a manager decides to implement gamification, they must do it right. If employees feel the gamification has been made unfairly or are not using accurate measurements for their position, this will decrease employee engagement. Too much competition in the workplace can create an unhealthy atmosphere to work. Make sure your gamification is well planned and fair to avoid unnecessary cut throat competition.
Engagedly’s real time performance management software has multiple gamification features integrated into their application. Managers can praise team members, and team members can publicly praise each other. Intuitive point system for certain gamified activities. For certain behaviours, system and custom badges can be awarded. Engagedly helps in promoting a culture of reward and recognition throughout the organization.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY
Many employees experiencing burnout claim a major cause is that they are not being heard by their managers. Increasing employee engagement is a constant struggle, and if there isn’t a constant flow of communication, then the team cannot function effectively. Managers should have regularly scheduled check-ins with their team, at a group and individual level. Remind employees of benefits they might not know about when working for your company. The most important step managers can take to increase employee engagement is to always communicate gratitude. Say thank you constantly! It is harder for employees to experience burnout when they feel valued and appreciated for their contributions. Thanking employees for their work and sharing how they directly contributed to the overall success of a company is critical.
Large companies with many employees should plan and implement campaigns for employees. Consistently send out tips and tools your employees can use to combat stress. Make sure employees are aware of any perks or support which company offers them. Try to encourage feedback at all levels of company communication to see what is and isn’t helpful. If employees feel unheard and forgotten, employee engagement will suffer.
CREATE INTENTIONAL DOWNTIME
It is unrealistic for employers to expect employees to work at full capacity 100% of the time. This is an example of when more is less. To achieve our highest level of productivity, our brain needs breaks. Giving employees a short break throughout the day to relax and do whatever they want will make them feel calmer and more focused. While it may sound childish, consider setting a short free reading time each day.Harvard Business Review shares that only six minutes of reading can reduce stress by 68%. Promoting your employees to read and educate themselves will create a smarter workforce. Giving employees a dedicated time for leisure will combat procrastination in the workplace. It is worth giving up a small amount of time to cooldown. This will ultimately increase employee engagement during the rest of the workday.
Want to know how Engagedly can help improve and measure employee engagement? Then request for a live demo!
Remote working has made some major changes to the style of our work. Employees are now taking part in meetings now more than ever. Often the meetings are with peers from the same team or at times from different teams. There are too many virtual one-on-one meetings happening at almost every organization.
One-on-ones can be simply defined as standard scheduled time for managers to check-in with their direct reports. These meetings are important for both managers and direct reports because they ensure that both of them stay on the same page. It also helps in improving employee engagement.
Is there a right way to conduct these one-on-one meetings? Well, the answer is both yes and no. No, we don’t have a prescribed format to conduct a successful one-on-one meeting, but we can use a few best practices to make the most out of one-on-one meetings.
Here’s a list of best practices for effective one-on-one meetings:
Have A Purpose
With the increasing number of meetings managers have these days, it is very important to clarify the agenda of the meeting when you send out a request to schedule a meeting. Having a clear agenda helps both parties to prepare better for the meeting. This also helps the parties understand what priority the meeting needs to be given.
It doesn’t only help the opposite party realize the purpose of the meeting but also helps you, in a sense, to prepare beforehand for the meeting.
This totally depends on the type of meeting you intend to have. But most one-on-one meetings require either of the participants to ask a few questions. So, if you are the participant who needs to question the other, make a relevant set of questions to ask in the meeting.
This becomes easier if you already communicated the agenda. For example, if you are having a meeting with one of your direct reports about their performance on a particular project, you need to have a set of relevant questions that you need to ask them about it.
Document The Highlights
Document the highlights of the one-on-one meeting. As a manager, it is hard to keep track of everyone in one meeting you have, so document the highlights of each one-on-one meeting you have with your employees. This will help you get started for the next meeting you have with them and you will miss nothing important from the past meeting.
Send Effective Meeting Recap
Once you document the contents of the meetings, it is ideal to email the participants of the meeting with the highlights that you’ve made note. Also include in the email, what is expected of them by the next meeting. This helps you and the participants in the meeting to have a document to refer to if they need to revise the contents of the meeting.
Following up on a meeting is vital. Always remember to keep track of the progress made on the aspects of the meeting after a one-on-one meeting. Be ready to help them with implementing the action plan discussed in the meeting. This will help all participants of the meeting stay motivated and productive at work. One-on-one meetings give the best results when they are recurring; so, experiment with the frequency of meetings and set a regular schedule for one-on-one meetings with your employees/ direct reports.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you conduct effective one-on-ones? Then request for a live demo.
Feedback, whether good or constructive, helps employees grow both professionally and personally. Whether it is a thank-you note, simple praise, lunch in honor, or a one-on-one, it helps employees know what they are doing right or wrong. In fact, it also helps them excel in their performance and stay engaged. As per a recent Harvard Business Review survey, 72% of respondents said their performance would improve if they received frequent feedback from managers.
In the past year and a half, we have seen drastic changes in the work environment and the way we work. Consequently, reports of disengagement, anxiety, stress, and lack of focus have also increased. A little feedback can help your employees perform a lot better. Everyone needs it, irrespective of their hierarchy in the organization.
Globally, companies have different ways of promoting employee feedback. But when they do it just for the sake of it, it is hard to adopt, and often employees find it forceful. Instead, they should make it a part of the organizational culture, which will make it easier for all the employees to adopt.
What Is A Feedback Culture?
A feedback culture is one where employees are encouraged to share and receive feedback from each other, irrespective of their levels in the organization. Feedback in any form is a part of the core culture of the organization. Employees are open and honest in sharing their feedback and accept feedback from everyone. But it is easier said than done and takes time to develop and needs to be nurtured.
So, here’s how you can establish a feedback culture in your organization.
Nurture A Growth Mindset
Every employee working in the organization must show a growth mindset. People with a growth mindset show affinity towards continuous learning and willingness to improve their skills. They always find room for improvement and growth to hone their skills and capabilities. For them, feedback is a way for them to understand themselves better and improve. Here’s how you can build a growth mindset in the organization:
Start from day one! While hiring and screening your employees, assess their mindset towards growth.
Provide opportunities to employees for continuous training, development, and learning.
In order to build a feedback culture, it is important to gauge and assess the culture that already exists in your organization. By assessing the culture that already exists, it becomes easier to get a better grasp of what needs to be done. It becomes easy to integrate the feedback culture with the existing culture of the organization.
Select The Right Feedback Tool
Once you’ve got the culture portion figured, you need to decide what kind of feedback tools you want to utilize. There are certain factors that are important for you to consider. Like the ease of use, the implementation process, how it matches with the way work is done, and selecting the tool that best aligns with the culture of the organization.
Framing Feedback
The success of a feedback process has a lot to do with how feedback is framed. In order to maximize the power of feedback, there are three things that need to happen. First of all, feedback needs to be meaningful. Secondly, feedback should focus on people’s strengths and weaknesses. And thirdly, it should not be delayed.
Once feedback tools have been implemented and a feedback framework has been implemented, people have to be taught how to give feedback (be it with a feedback tool, or just the act of giving feedback). Besides teaching, feedback also needs to be practiced. We tend to adopt and model the behaviors that we see others using, especially those modeled by leaders. When you see people giving and receiving feedback frequently and making a habit of it, it becomes easier to do it yourself, so it’s important to deliberately practice giving feedback.
Monitor The Process
To know how the feedback tool is doing, how many people are using it, you need to come up with a set of metrics and behaviors that you would ideally like to see. You can then use this as a yardstick to measure the success of the tool and track the overall progress of the process.
The final step in the cycle is where you need to critically evaluate the entire process. Take note of what works. Take note of what does not work. You will find that there are certain processes you need to rework or reframe. When you’re able to identify what works it provides you with an opportunity to replicate the good and leverage internal champions to promote/reinforce your feedback-driven culture.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you with Employee Feedback? Request for a demo!
Why is it so important to keep employees motivated or improve employee engagement? Employees spend about 70% of their day’s time in front of their screens working. Now with everyone working from home, that has increased even more with no defined boundaries for work and personal life. So if your employees lack motivation and are disengaged, they wouldn’t contribute to the organizational success.
Here are a few tips for you to motivate your employees and drive employee engagement:
1. Establish A Culture Of Continuous Feedback
Most managers do not realize the importance of giving feedback to their team members frequently. Did you know that 24% of workers would consider leaving their jobs if they have managers that provide inadequate performance feedback? As an HR manager, it is important for you to create a culture of frequent employee feedback.
Feedback helps employees understand the issues with their performance and helps them fix the issues, and improves employee engagement. At Engagedly, we use Engagedly’s employee feedback software that allows users to give, receive and request for feedback and also allows the feedback receivers to acknowledge their feedback and work on it.
Another way to motivate employees in your team is to recognize their accomplishments and celebrate them. It is important to create a culture of employee recognition and awards. This gives a sense of validation to the employees and inspire them to put more effort and be better the next time. Recognition is the primary thing that employees say that their manager could give them to inspire them to produce great work. It has a direct impact on employee engagement.
At Engagedly, we use rewards and recognition on Engagedly. There is also a way to praise employees publicly on the organization’s social dashboard. With Engagedly, you can also award discretionary points to your employees for their accomplishments, which one can later redeem for gift cards.
3. Promote Transparency
Transparency is one of the most underrated aspects that drives employee engagement and motivates employees. Employees want to know about their contribution to their organization. But, most organizations fail to clarify to their employees how their work matters in the bigger picture. So, set SMART goals for your employees and align these goals to the organizational goals. It will help them understand their role in organizational productivity.
At Engagedly, we use OKRs (Objectives And Key Results), a very popular approach to setting goals as well as measuring and tracking them. Engagedly’s OKR software allows you to set individual goals, assign goals to your team members, track the progress, and align these individual goals with department goals and organizational goals.
It is important to give employees the opportunity to develop themselves and improve their skills. With Gen Z joining the workforce rapidly, it is important to provide employees with opportunities to improve themselves at work. Let your team members feel valued at the workplace by providing them with opportunities to enhance their skills. In the current scenario, it has become even more important for employees to reskill and upskill themselves. Leaders and managers must design developmental plans for each employee. It will help close the skill gap accelerated by the pandemic.
5. Care For Your Employee’s Wellbeing
According to the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey for Americans ages 15 to 54, 18% of employed individuals experienced symptoms of mental health issues.
There are many reasons why employees experience mental health issues and do not speak about it as often as they should. Remote working has worsened mental health issues. The number of employees reporting for stress, anxiety, screen fatigue, burnout, depression, etc., has increased drastically over the past one and a half years.
As a manager, it is important for you to commit yourself to the health and wellness of your own employees. Spread awareness and conduct training sessions for employees so that they do not feel ashamed to open up about these issues. Many employees do not speak about their mental health issues because of the fear of being misunderstood. Create a culture that encourages employees to speak about their mental health issues.
Many workplaces offer free sessions with therapists for their employees’ mental health assessment and support. Support your employees and encourage them to take therapy sessions occasionally. This will help them understand and acknowledge their deep-rooted issues and gradually solve them.
Want to know more about Engagedly? Request for a demo from our experts!
McKinsey in one of their recent research found that companies with racial and ethnic diversity were 35%more profitable than their competitors. Diversity and Inclusion or (D&I) has become one of the crucial factors for businesses to thrive in the long run. While D&I has been the buzzword and focus for the Human Resources industry for a few decades now, over the years it has become a part of the overall organization’s core values and culture. In this article, we will share some strategies for managers, leaders, and the organization which will help you promote a culture of diversity, inclusion, equality, and equity throughout the organization. But before we look into the strategies, let us look at some benefits of diversity and inclusion, and also understand the terms better.
Diversity in the workplace simply refers to a workforce with diverse individuals. It includes individuals from different backgrounds, gender, political beliefs, race, age, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, etc.
But diversity alone can’t bring about the change organizations are looking for. Inclusion plays an integral part. While organizations often use the words diversity and inclusion interchangeably, they are different. Inclusion refers to establishing a work environment where everyone feels welcomed. They get a true sense of belonging and feel respected, valued, and heard.
Here are some strategies which will help you build a diversified and inclusive workforce.
Empathetic Leadership and Support
In most organizations, diversity and inclusion are often considered as HR-owned initiatives only. But it shouldn’t be so. It is the responsibility of everyone to promote it, especially the leadership. Just like any other process or policy, leadership support and involvement is necessary for D&I initiatives to be successful. Leaders are responsible for creating a workspace where everyone feels safe and heard. As a leader, share your own stories about feeling excluded or being subjected to biases. Encourage your employees to share their own stories. As a result, they will feel more welcomed and included. Leadership support helps prioritize D&I initiatives and implement it easily organization wide.
It is advisable to train and educate your company leadership on the benefits and importance of D&I initiatives before implementing them company wide.
While promoting a culture of diversity and inclusion, leaders, managers, and HRs must consciously strategize on creating more employee-friendly policies that support D&I. They must proactively evaluate existing ones, revamp them, and add new ones.
Here’s how you can rethink your work policies and values:
Launch hiring initiatives to hire a wide range of talent from job fairs, hiring consultancies, and community outreach programs
Ensure a fair compensation policy that focuses on skills and experience and should not discriminate against anyone based on sex, gender, age, sexual orientation, etc.
Offer gender-neutral washrooms at workplaces
Add holidays in the company calendar, keeping in mind employees from different religion and culture
Publish company policies and rules in more than one language
Day-care facilities for mothers
Wheelchair accessible office
Celebrate Differences
Making your employees feel comfortable at work because of their beliefs, culture, and tradition is one of the best ways to promote diversity and inclusion. Here are some ways by which you can celebrate the differences at your organization:
Organize a potluck where each employee brings in food that showcases their culture and home country
If your workforce is still remote or hybrid, organize a video meeting and ask everyone to share a unique fact about themselves and their countries
Create a separate space or room for your Muslim employees to pray every Friday
Organize events and celebrate important days and months which promote diversity and inclusion such as June for Pride Month, May for the Asia Pacific Heritage Month, February for Black History Month. Highlight its importance for the respective communities
Involve individual of different sex, culture, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation in the decision-making process or amongst one of the board members
Building an inclusive and diversified work culture is not a one-day activity for an organization. It needs time and effort. Besides that, employees themselves might have different interpretations of the phrase ‘Diversity & Inclusion.’ It is crucial to train your employees so that their thoughts align with the organization’s idea of D&I, which in turn, should align with the broader concept of diversity, inclusion, and its challenges. Such training helps employees to understand the differences better and collaborate better as a team. It also helps them to get rid of unconscious biases. Leaders should let employees know the goal of D&I training, why it is important, and what issue it will help to solve. Someone from the organization or external can help structure and design the training programs.
Take Feedback To Understand Your Employees Better
It is important to listen to what your employees have to say. Lend them your ear and open easy channels of communication for them. Connect with your employees regularly, conduct anonymous surveys, pulse surveys, feedback, check-ins, etc., to understand your employees better. Encourage your employees to take part and openly communicate their experiences about how they feel about working in the organization. Employees will feel that their concerns and opinions are heard and valued. Additionally, it will help organizations and leaders to decide about the instances of discrimination and biases.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you improve collaboration in your team? Request for a quick demo!
COVID-19 has changed the way we do business. We need to find ways to keep our remote workforce engaged and happy now, more than ever. The pandemic is making companies mandate working from home for their workforce.
Most employees are feeling disengaged, unhappy and under-appreciated since the long session of working from home has begun. Is there a way to fix this and help employee engagement? Well, recognizing remote employees and their efforts could be the first step. In fact, according to a recent study, 58% of employees when asked how to improve employee engagement, they pointed to employee recognition. The only problem here is that managers aren’t really used to regularly acknowledging and recognizing the work of their remote teams.
If you’re a manager looking to recognize your remote employees, here are a few things to consider:
Have Frequent One-On-One’s With Your Employees
As a manager, it is important to have frequent one on one meetings with your remote employees. Though this isn’t recognition, these steps help you understand your employees and acknowledge their work. Once you acknowledge their efforts, it will be easier for you to make judgement on who deserves recognition and not.
One-on-ones can be simply defined as standard scheduled time for managers to check-in with their direct reports. These meetings are important for both managers and direct reports because they ensure that both of them stay on the same page.
Determine and understand the objective of recognition. Before you reward and recognize a remote employee, it is important for you, as a manager, to have a proper vision about it. Don’t make recognition programs only about increasing your overall organization revenue. Identify the focus of the recognition program and make sure that it aligns with your organizational values.
Use Employee Recognition Software
Digitize the employee recognition process. There are various tools to recognize and reward employees for their exceptional work. Give your remote teams access to these tools so that they have a specific platform to recognize and reward employee progress and accomplishments. This way they can also recognize their peers.
Many employee recognition tools are now available for you to implement this in your organization.
Being honest about feedback is one of the keys to a positive work culture. It is important to understand that there could be some limitations and challenges you face when initially implementing employee recognition programs. One thing to always remember is, practice makes perfect. So, keep practicing and revising the format of employee recognition programs, eventually you are bound to get it right.
Want to know how Engagedly can make your remote employee recognition programs easy? Request for a demo from our experts.
Looking forward to investing in a 360 feedback software? If not, you might want to reconsider. In this new era of the virtual and remote world, feedback is becoming increasingly essential, not just from managers but from all collaborators. Millennials and Gen Z’s are not shy to receive feedback. They are open to receive and share suggestions and perspectives with better clarity, and every organization’s responsibility is to make that seamless for our employees.
We at Engagedly have created a list of things which you should check before you invest in one. But before we move on to the list, let us look at ‘What is 360 degree feedback?’.
What Is 360 Degree Feedback?
Ken Blanchard rightly phrased, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” Everyone requires feedback. Moreover, a feedback process in which everyone takes part creates an open culture, improves employee engagement and drives retention. Here where 360 degree feedback comes in. It is a process where employees receive and share feedback with their peers, colleagues, direct reports and managers.
Although considered a modern method, one of its very first research papers, “Group feedback and group contingencies in modifying behavior of fifth graders”, was published in 1974. Organizations like GE, IBM, Amazon, PepsiCo. and many others are already using the process because of its effectiveness.
Now, coming back to you! Before you decide on which software to use for the process, make sure employees understand the process. Most processes in organizations fail because employees either have no knowledge or half knowledge about the processes in place. Help your employees understand how it differs from normal feedback, and let them know the benefits. Once your employees are fully cognizant of the process, it will be easier for them to use 360 feedback software.
Here is a list of things to check for in a 360 feedback software.
Should Be Simple To Use
As mentioned above, there are multiple collaborators in 360 degree feedback, and some of them are external stakeholders. Every individual who will be part of the process may not be equally tech-savvy. So, it is essential to select a 360 feedback software which is easy to use and understand with no training. The user interface should be clutter free, and easy to move around.
With a pilot group of users, review free demo or trial versions of the software before investing in it for the organization.
Customization Of Features In 360 Feedback Software
When selecting a 360 feedback software, you can either choose a standard software which is developed by a vendor and is being used by different organizations, or you can choose a software that is flexible and supports customization based on organizational needs. With the changing pace of technology we would suggest to opt for a software which supports customization. Examples of customizable features are unique questionnaire templates for different employees, addition of unique competencies based on job roles, etc.
One of the most important things to consider while selecting a 360 feedback software is its security features. Feedback received from managers, peers, customers, etc., is highly confidential and sensitive. If it leaks or falls in the wrong hands, it can cause lots of damage or can be put use to unlawful purposes. Before zeroing down on a vendor, ask them these three questions:
How they secure their application data?
What measures they will take if there is a data breach?
Do they follow Information Security Laws of the respective country?
360 Feedback Software With Continuous Customer Support
In the current virtual working space where employees are working remotely from different time zones, a vendor with round-the-clock support is necessary. No matter how simple it is, the vendors of the software need to walk you through the entire process of giving and receiving 360 feedback through their software. Even employees use it regularly might face difficulty and need help and support. When there is a continuous support tech support present, it makes the job of employees easier if they face any difficulty.
Anonymous Feature
In a 360 degree feedback, not only does the employee receive feedback from the manager, but the manager receives feedback too. Employees, while sharing feedback about their managers and team leaders, might not be open and honest at times. Opting for a 360 feedback software with an anonymity option helps employees share honest feedback about their peers and managers alike. Anonymity is not only concerned with hiding one’s identity but also to prevent any unwanted altercations in the team. Additionally, they get to share their thoughts, opinions, and concerns with no hesitation.
Without detailed insights or analytics, a 360 degree feedback process would be of no use. It is crucial for a 360 feedback software to provide a detailed analysis of the feedback received, which makes it easier for employees to understand their strengths and weaknesses. But this is only possible when the report is comprehensive and highlights the potential blind spots, gaps, highest-rated areas, lowest rated areas, and ratings.
Are you planning to invest in a 360 feedback software? Then request for a live demo.
What can I do to improve my employee’s performance? This is a common question which managers and leaders have, and the most simple way is to share feedback with your employees. In a recent survey, 72% of respondents said that their performance would improve if they receive feedback from their managers (Source: Harvard Business Review). It is one of the most important tools in the managerial toolbox.
Whether positive or constructive, it gives direction to your employees and helps them focus. Employee feedback has numerous benefits, so if done right, it has a positive impact on the employee and the organization. Considering the current situation where everyone is working remotely for a long time now, feedback will help them be on track and keep them engaged.
It is a tool for continuous improvement and learning
Feedback improves performance
Increases retention of employees
Helps in increasing self-awareness
It goes without saying that giving employee feedback is very important. So it becomes crucial that feedback is shared correctly and is useful to them. Here are some pointers for you to keep in mind while sharing feedback.
Give Emphasis to Behaviour
While sharing feedback, the focus should be on the behaviour of the employee or what they do instead of emphasizing their character. Identify behaviours or actions that you wish to reinforce throughout the organization that also resonates with your company culture. Elucidate its importance to your employee and what effect it will have on the team and the organization.
The Secret to Giving Constructive Criticism highlights two examples of sharing feedback.
Example 1: When you interrupt me in front of a client, it causes a problem.
Example 2: Your arrogance is causing a problem.
The first example is more impactful and acceptable to the employees as it focuses on the behavior and highlights the problem instead of personality.
Employee feedback, whether positive or constructive criticism, should be relevant and shared clearly with the employee. Often, ‘compliment sandwiches’ are used while delivering criticism so that the employee doesn’t feel overwhelmed. This strategy involves fitting constructive criticism between positive praises and compliments. But doing so not only undermines the value of the actual feedback but also leaves the employees confused.
Be To The Point
As mentioned above, feedback should not only be shared often and on time, but it should also be specific and concise for it to be effective. When employee feedback is specific, it helps them to understand what they should keep on doing and what they should avoid for the success of the organization. Specific and concise feedback is a lot more helpful to the employees when they receive constructive criticism or negative feedback from their managers.
Example 1: Manager: “Jack, your presentation could have been in more detail.”
In the above example, Jack’s manager expresses concern but is not clear about what the presentation lacked or what he could have done to improve it.
Example 2: Manager: “Jack, your presentation was incomplete. You could have included the marketing leads received from SQLs and MQLs and added graphs to make it more insightful.”
The example above clearly outlines how Jack could have improved the presentation. It is specific and concise.
Be Regular With Employee Feedback
“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection,”- Mark Twain.
Make feedback a regular activity at your organization for it to work effectively. Managers and leaders often treat feedback as a formal process and do it at the time of performance reviews. Employee feedback works best when it is given at the moment and as close to the event as possible. The fresher the feedback, the more impactful it is. While frequent feedback will help you praise good work, at the same time, it will help you guide those who need it.
Following up with your employees is one of the crucial steps for the feedback to be effective. Being a manager, you are not only responsible for sharing feedback but also instrumental in making sure that your employees work on it. From time to time, connect with your employees to understand how they are progressing and whether they need any help. It will help to appreciate those who have achieved success and help those who need it. It will motivate employees and encourage them to work harder.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you with Employee Feedback? Then request for a live demo.
Employee engagement is about getting the best people, retaining them, nurturing a creative environment, and helping to find a way to innovate — Marissa Mayer, Co-founder of Lumi Labs, former CEO of Yahoo!
Employee engagement has been a constant topic of discussion for organizations, and they have been frantically trying to figure out how to improve it. Given the current scenario, it has become even more crucial. But very few organizations are successful in improving it. Engaged employees are more than just happy, they are motivated and satisfied, and find fulfillment at work. They are more committed than their disengaged counterparts. Not only this, they stay in the organization for a longer time and are highly productive.
Why is it so important to keep employees positively engaged?
As a manager, if you are able to engage your employees, it’s a huge opportunity to gain long-term commitment and discretionary effort from your team. This will lead to higher productivity.
What happens when you enhance employee engagement?
It can spike up company metrics across key areas, viz. productivity, customer satisfaction, profitability, innovation, health, safety, sick leaves, turnover, and wellbeing.
FAQ’s On Employee Engagement
Before we learn about the ways of improving employee engagement, here are some facts from a recent study by Gallup,which establishes the importance of employee engagement.
Their studies depict that 85% of employees are not actively engaged at work. These figures are a worldwide count
70% of engaged employees understand better how to meet customer needs while only 17% of non-engaged employees feel the same
Almost 90% of employers think that employees leave for a better salary, but only 12% of employees actually do so
(Gallup is a global analytics and organization consulting firm providing solutions to problems of the organization)
Finally, here are the eight tips that will help you improve employee engagement in your organization.
Employee Engagement & Work Life Balance
Working from home since the past year has blurred the clear demarcation of work hours and personal hours for many of us. As employees we spend extra screen hours unknowingly. This lack of a work-life blend is often a major cause of employee burnout, decreased employee engagement, reduced productivity, and increased attrition. It Is necessary to balance both, especially now.
Employees can set up a schedule for themselves and identify their highly productive hours. It will help them achieve maximum productivity.
Managers must avoid contacting employees after their working hours unless it is absolutely necessary. If an employee is working extra hours for meeting deadlines, then they should be given a day off. A flexible work-from-home policy should be there for all employees, as it will be the norm for some years now. This will let the employee know that the organization cares for their well-being and not for their targets and goals only.
Connect with your employees as frequently as possible and let them know about the current issues faced by the organization. Also discuss the actions taken to overcome them. In doing so, you will have an engaged and active team that plans, assesses opportunities, and comes up with better ideas to improve the current business strategy.
By involving your employees in planning, your employees will be loyal to the organization and also develop leadership qualities by working on strategic issues of the organization. It improves employee engagement and the overall productivity of the organization.
Be Ready To Listen
Even before COVID-19 happened and employees started working from home, many employees struggled to be heard. Now that the world has gone virtual, most employees feel dissatisfied with their jobs because their opinions are often not valued. This behavior leads to disengagement of employees, eventually leading to dissatisfaction with work. Give your employees a chance to express what they feel and allow them to contribute their ideas at work.
Using an employee engagement software allows employees to bring out their ideas and express their feelings on a common platform easily. This drives engagement and improves productivity in turn.
According to a study by Deloitte, employee engagement, productivity, and performance are 14 percent higher in organizations when compared with others without recognition.
As a manager, make it a point to recognize the efforts of your employees. Do it irrespective of whether it is for an individual or for the team. It not only makes them feel that organization recognizes their efforts, but will also motivate them to face any upcoming hurdle.
From public praise, a simple thank you note to a simple pat on the back; everything counts. Or even an email to the team mentioning everyone’s contributions will do a great job in boosting the team’s motivation and improving employee productivity. As a result, it improves employee engagement.
Engagedly’s public praise option allows employees to praise each other. It also allows managers and other leaders to award points to their employees for accomplishments. The praises and rewards are visible to everyone in the organization.
Promote Innovation
Employee innovation is a symbol that employee engagement still exists. Promote an open culture in your organization where employees are free to come up with process improvements and innovations. It makes them think outside the box and will elevate their productivity and thinking to a whole new level.
Assign A Buddy
Joining a new organization itself is overwhelming, and joining it remotely has added on to the stress and anxiety. Employees often feel a disconnect with the team and the organization, and it leads to disengagement. And fostering employee engagement is not a one-day activity, so you can start with it, right from the day your new employees join.
The best way to do so is to assign a mentor or a buddy to every new joiner. A preferable buddy would be one who has worked in the organization for a considerable amount of time. They should clearly understand the organization’s culture and values. The buddy will guide the new hire and answer their questions. In this way, the new hire will feel connected to the organization from the first day itself, and it will also help them build working relationships.
Continuous Learning Improves Employee Engagement
As per a recent report by LinkedIn 2020 Workforce Learning Report, 94% of employees would stay with a company if they invested in their training and development.
Learning and continuous professional development should be a plan for every employee in your organization. As a manager or the HR of your organization, discuss with your employees about their professional development plans. It shows that the organization values their work and wants to see them grow professionally. Providing your employees with the opportunity for continuous professional development is highly engaging and motivating for them.
Organizations should use their internal LMS to provide training and knowledge sharing sessions to their employees so that they can hone their skills.
Engagedly has a dedicated Academy and Learning section that allows managers and HRs to create and assign relevant courses for their employee’s professional and self-development.
Team Building Sessions
Virtual or online team-building activities are a great way for everyone to connect, bond, and share experiences with each other. It helps create a sense of fun, togetherness, and enjoyment, even when everyone works remotely. It is necessary to conduct such activities to help your remote team bond and rejuvenate. Additionally, it has a positive impact on employee engagement and productivity.
Online games, fact sharing sessions, book clubs, quizzes, etc., are some simple virtual team-building activities that can be conducted to engage your employees. Moreover, employees can give their suggestions about what kind of team-building activities they prefer.
Do you have any other tips? Let us know in comments.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you improve Employee Engagement? Then request for a live demo.
According to Gallup, only 33 % of American workers are engaged in their jobs, 52% were “just showing up,” and 17 % described themselves as “actively disengaged“.
You all must have heard about the term employee engagement numerous times in various HR blogs, articles, or research. This is because it is important and is crucial for an organization’s success. It has been a constant topic of discussion among HRs and senior leadership for eons now. But during COVID times, when everyone started working from home, it became even more crucial. Let us take a look at some of the benefits to understand why it is important.
Often the term “employee engagement” is used interchangeably with employee satisfaction or happiness, but they aren’t the same. It is not only the level of satisfaction or happiness that one has at work; it is more than that. Engaged employees are committed to their job, intrinsically motivated, perform their best, and go above and beyond their call of duty. An article on Forbes defines employee engagement precisely and simply as the ‘emotional commitment that an employee has towards the organization and its goals’.
Employee Engagement Improves Employee Retention
One of the key reasons why employee engagement is the buzzword for all HRs is because it improves retention. It is a no-brainer for anyone that engaged employees tend to stay with an organization for a longer period of time. It reduces employee turnover and the cost of employing and training new employees. Employee disengagement is one of the major causes why organizations lose out on their best employees, and it often creates a domino effect.
As per Gallup, ‘engaged and thriving’ employees are 59% less likely to leave their jobs, so organizations must keep their employees engaged.
Engaged employees are more productive when compared to their disengaged counterparts. They will work faster in lesser time and make fewer mistakes, thus saving on business hours and money. They are interested in the work they do and feel a sense of pride in doing so. Not only this, they have a high level of commitment and go the extra mile to get the job done. This improves the productivity of the employees and the organization.
Reduced Absenteeism At Work
Harvard Business Review reports that absenteeism is 37% more in disengaged employees. Disengaged employees don’t feel a sense of responsibility towards the organization, and they do not think twice before taking leaves. When an employee quits the organization, it is easy to fill the position. But when an employee remains absent, it is difficult to do so, and at the same time the organization has to make sure the work is completed.
In the words of the great Richard Branson – “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” Customer satisfaction is directly related to the engagement levels of the employee. The more engaged an employee is, the more satisfied, committed, and happy the employee is at work. They align their personal and professional goals to the organizational goals, and work hard to provide a better customer experience.
More Innovation At Work
Employee engagement helps in channeling out the best from the employees. An engaged employee does more than their role calls for. They continuously work on improving the products and services of the organization. It leads to fresh and new ideas and innovation at the workplace.
Organization Grows Financially
Increased productivity and efficiency of employees impact the overall profits for the organization. The latest research trend shows that highly engaged organizations are 21% more profitable than their peers. In turn, the organization should take active steps to invest part of the profits in employee engagement activities. This will help the organization to have consistent employee engagement and profitability.
The ultimate goal of employee engagement is to improve employee job satisfaction. Although employee satisfaction and employee engagement might sound synonymous, they are different. Employee satisfaction is simply how happy or satisfied employees feel while at work. Employee engagement directly impacts the job satisfaction. A satisfied employee looks forward to going to work every day and feels enthusiastic about the same. They feel a greater connection with the organization and work efficiently, increasing productivity.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you with employee engagement? Then request for a live demo.
360 degree feedback or multirater feedback, although termed as a modern method, has been a topic of research for over 45 years. One of itsfirst research papers was published in 1974 and was titled; “Group feedback and group contingencies in modifying behavior of fifth graders”. Globally, organizations such as GE, IBM, Amazon, PepsiCo, etc., have already started using 360 degree feedback. It is more balanced, procured from multiple sources, and helps in identifying areas of improvement. Moreover, it increases self-awareness, improves working relationships, and enhances the performance of the employee.
While some have made the shift, but others are still following traditional employee feedback practices. Implementing a 360 degree feedback will not only promote an open culture in the organization but will also keep the employees engaged, which will drive employee retention. Here are 7 tips to help you get started with 360 degree feedback in your organization.
Know The Purpose
Many organizations implement 360 degree feedback without any clear goal or objective in mind. Before starting with the process, the organization and the leadership should identify what they want to achieve from the process. They should be able to answer some basic questions before starting the process.
“What current problems do we need to solve?”
“Will everyone be part of the process?”
“How will we use the results?”
“Will every employee be part of the process?”
Once organizations know why they are conducting the process, the probability of success increases.
Is Your Organization Ready For It?
As per a study by Smith and Walker(2001), positive 360-degree feedback ratings of bank managers were correlated with customer loyalty.
Before implementing any new process, it is important to check the readiness of the organization and its employees. It is crucial in determining the success of the process. Before starting with the process, it is important to know how open everyone is to receive feedback from others. Managers and senior leaders might be hesitant to be part of a process where they will be evaluated by their direct reports. When you implement it for the first time, senior leadership needs to be on board with the plan. Leaders should understand the process to make it easier to pilot it down throughout the organization.
Effective communication is the key to organizational success, as it helps businesses around the world to function smoothly. When you are implementing a360 degree feedback process for the first time, it is important to communicate the: Why, How, and What of the process to all the stakeholders involved.
Communicate and conduct informative sessions on what is 360 performance review and why it should be implemented. Share the purpose, objective, and a timeline to implement the process in your organization. Inform everyone about the process of how the feedback will be collected and utilized. It will result in more transparency in the process, thus making it effective.
Disclose Anonymity Or Attribution
Inform your employees well in advance whether the feedback will be anonymous or attributed. When the process is anonymous, everyone can share genuine and unbiased feedback. They share their opinions and concerns freely without the fear of oppression.
While on the other hand, some companies prefer the process to be open and attributed. It opens up a room for discussion between the reviewers and reviewees on the feedback received.
Rater selection is one of the most important processes in 360 degree feedback. The list of raters involves a wide spectrum of people starting from managers, team leaders, peers, direct reports, customers, and vendors. It is recommended to select at least one superior, three-five peers, and six-eight direct reports; it will ensure that there is enough number of participants to receive relevant and comprehensive feedback data. In addition to this, raters should have at least six months of working relationship with the reviewee.
Identify A Coach
Many organizations launch the 360 degree feedback successfully, but they fail to follow the process through till the end. This makes it necessary to have a coach who will guide throughout the 360 performance review process. Their role will involve training the raters and employees, analyzing reports, and making developmental plans for the employees. A coach can be someone internal such as the HR, the manager, or the team leader; or someone external who is a practitioner of 360 degree methodology.
It is recommended to have a designated coach in the initial stages of the implementation of 360 performance review.
Having a 360 degree feedback tool makes it easy to implement the process. Currently, multiple tools in the market have 360 degree feedback as part of their performance management suite, but it is important to select one which is easy to use, and requires no prior training. Go for a demo version of the tool before zeroing down on the final one. The tool should support simple customizations and should be robust at the same time. Moreover, there should be a 24*7 customer support team to help with any issues.
Need help with implementing 360 Degree Feedback in your organization? Then request us for a live demo.
360 degree feedback is now a hotshot topic in the HR industry. Globally, most organizations have started instating the process; or are already running it successfully. Given the need for constant streamlining, no amount of information about it is too much at the moment. Here we are, answering a vital question – why do you need to customize your 360 degree feedback Survey Questions according to departments?
While creating the questions for 360 degree feedback or the multirater, it might be less work for the HR department to create a generalized questionnaire and circulate it. But that is not going to fetch you the result you are truly looking for. Each department runs on starkly different skill sets and work ethics.
For example – While in the coding department, attention to detail might be a priority skill required. In the sales department, it will not be the same. It will be the art of communication. So, if you ask the question, “ Rate the employee’s level of attention to detail” to everyone, it is relevant for certain departments, but not for all. It fails to add much value to others.
In such a case, their work schedules, way of handling tasks, way of communication, various such aspects will differ, and the survey will not fetch relevant results. So the best way to tackle this is to create your own 360 competency model, wherein you can pick up the core skills required for each department and then frame the questions around those skill sets. By skill sets, we do not mean only practical competencies. It should also include questions on leadership, ease of collaboration, being a team player, etc.
Tips To Create customized questions for 360 Degree feedback:
Choose one or multiple established questionnaires
From these questionnaires, pick a couple of questions that would remain consistent across all departments
Then, make a list of each department’s core competencies
Pick the questions that are relevant for each department
If the questionnaires do not cover certain skill sets and areas, create your own
Competencies Vary As Per Organizational Levels
When employees move up the company ladder, the skills required to succeed in each level change. The same skills that worked perfectly at one level would not get you far once promoted to the next level. So if you are developing a 360 degree feedback questionnaire to evaluate employees of multiple levels, it is necessary to look at the different levels and design the questions. Here are certain areas you can look into:
Team Building and Connectivity
The evaluation of the C-suite and the upper-level employees should include questions on team building, emotional intelligence, relationship building, and connectivity, as it is one of the core competencies required. They are required to connect with different departments for strategic collaborations. For lower-level employees, on the other hand, individual contributors and non-managers, the evaluation should be based on being a team player and supporting team endeavours, interpersonal skills, and so on.
The people leaders have a big role to play in these areas. It is a part of their role to strategize, set goals around the company vision and mission, and keep their employees motivated. 360 degree feedback questions should cover these competencies. Individual contributors and non-managers should not have any questions in this area. These are not the core competencies for them.
Management of Tasks
There can be lesser questions for the C-suite and the upper-level employees in this area. The leaders would not have become leaders if they were not competent in basic task management when at the lower levels. The individual contributors and non-managers on the other hand, need to be evaluated on their basic skills of task management, reliability, and performance.
Given all the above points, we understand that it can be a challenging task to customizeyour 360 degree feedback Survey Questions according to different departments and levels. But once you create the framework the first time, it becomes easier from the second time onwards. You would already know the process and the competencies. Editing them to suit the current scenario would not take you much time. Engagedly’s multirater allows for customized 360 degree feedback surveys that can ease out the whole process for you.
Want to implement 360 degree feedback in your organization? Then request for a live demo.
