HR’s Guide To Select The Right Goal Setting Software

We are almost towards the end of 2021, and the past two years have been nothing but difficult for everyone. Thoughts about upcoming holidays and celebrations are definitely exciting, but we also need to prepare for the upcoming year and a fresh quarter. This means, new goals and targets!

Goal setting is important to keep your employees focussed and motivated. With offices still working remotely or in hybrid mode, investing in a goal setting software will help you manage the goal setting cycle of all your employees effectively.

Here are 5 features you shouldn’t miss while selecting a goal setting software for your organization.

Easy Assignment

Assigning goals is one of the most basic functionality to look for in a goal setting software. It should allow managers to assign a goal to their direct reports without directly involving themselves into the goal. This functionality also allows managers to keep track of the progress that their direct reports make.

Assignment makes it easy for managers to assign goals to their direct reports without having to set up a formal meeting to do so.

Also Read: The 5 Essential Qualities Of A Great Manager

Alignment

Goal alignment is another important feature which you should look for in the software. It not only allows employees to align their goals with business or department goals, but also helps them understand the bigger picture. For example, if an organization’s goal is to increase revenue by $1 million, then aligning goals shows an employee how exactly they are contributing to this specific goal.

Most softwares helps employees see how their progress on individual goals is contributing to organizational/ department goals.

Cascading or Sharing

Goal sharing/ cascading goals means that employees of different or same levels are allowed to share goals and it will be the responsibility of all the users working on it. The ability to cascade goals means sharing goals from one level of the organization to the next. For example, a manager can cascade their goals down to their direct reports.

Cascading goals are an important feature because they help employees align their own goals with the organization’s objectives and see how their own work can support an organization’s broader objectives.

Also Read: 5 Tech-Powered Innovations To Implement In The Onboarding Process

Ability To Add Objectives And Key Results

OKRs are one of the most popular and effective ways of setting goals and tracking them.

OBJECTIVES are something that you want to achieve, and KEY RESULTS are a measurable way to keep track of how close you are to achieving your objective. OKRs work on all levels, be it corporate, departmental or individual goals. Using OKRs promotes collaboration and helps you drive employee engagement in your organization.

Look for a goal setting software that allows you to set Objectives and Key Results for employees because key results break the goal down into more than one measurable area that allows users to achieve a goal, chunk by chunk, part by part.

Track and Monitor

One of the vital parts of employee goal setting is tracking their progress and actively helping them with their goals. So, choose a software that allows you to track employees’ progress on goals effectively. It should send out notifications to managers or the one who assigns goals when one checks in or comments on the goals.

Also Read: The Impact of Continuous Feedback On Employee Performance

The ability to comment on goals allows both managers and employees to have a discussion about the goal and the progress that is being made. Commenting is an easy way to foster communication without having to formalize it.


Want to know more about Engagedly’s goal setting software? Request a demo today. 

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The 5 Essential Qualities Of A Great Manager

Becoming an excellent manager is not just about delegating tasks to your direct reports and telling them what to do, it is more than that. It is a series of actions which you perform and not just the years of experience. The actions may not have an instantaneous effect, but over a period, it affects the team.

Here are five qualities that will help you manage your team better.

The Ability To Make Decisions

Managers don’t work alone, they manage a team and are people leaders in the making. So, as a people’s leader, one of the most important tasks of an effective manager is to make independent decisions. If you showcase yourself as someone who cannot decide or refuses to decide, or, even worse, is ambivalent about everything, you will come across as an indecisive person to your team. This will lead your team members to lose faith in you as a manager and it affects the entire team.

Share Feedback

Employee feedback when given on time not only helps your employees feel appreciated, but also improves employee engagement. Lack of feedback makes your employees feel disengaged and underappreciated, and they ultimately end up leaving the organization. Additionally, timely feedback helps them know when they are doing right or wrong. Feedback helps your team work effectively and efficiently. Frequent feedback sessions like these help improve your bond with your reports.

Also Read: Employe Feedback:The Do’s and Don’ts Of It

Train Them, But Don’t Spoon-feed

One of the most common mistakes which many newbie managers make is they end up spoon-feeding their direct reports. Don’t end up doing their task, or do not offer to do it for them because you don’t like it. As a manager, you are not only supposed to manage your team, but also understand and teach them when they are not able to perform. Doing their work once or twice is okay, but if you do it every time you don’t like their work, they won’t be able to learn. Moreover, you end up having no time to complete your own work.

Employees feel discouraged as they feel their work is undervalued and unimportant, and they would not get a chance to improve. They might also become overdependent on you as they know you will fix the work and they need not worry about the issues.

Share Credit When Due

According to research by O.C. Tanner, 79% of employees quit their jobs when they don’t feel appreciated.

We all like getting recognition, but it should not be at the cost of others’ light. It’s a very common mistake that alienates team members instantly, as if you have the plague or something contagious. When your employees do something for you, make sure you acknowledge their contribution or their work. Similarly, when mistakes happen, step up and accept the blame instead of pointing fingers at specific people. As a manager, you are a leader in training. If you do not allow yourself to develop wholly, you will never be able to reach the higher ranks.

Also Read: 5 Benefits Of Employee Recognition Software

Don’t Avoid Difficult Conversations

We all know that difficult conversations put us in an uneasy spot. But avoiding them only makes the problem worse. As a manager, you need to understand that sometimes, certain conversations must be had, no matter how averse you are to being confrontational. And here’s the thing. A difficult conversation need not be confrontational. All you need is some tact and empathy and of course, the willingness to listen.


Want to know how Engagedly can help you become a better manager? Request a demo today from our experts. 

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5 Tech-Powered Innovations to Implement In The Onboarding Process

We live in an information era where tech-powered innovations support business processes and increase effectiveness and productivity. COVID-19 disrupted industries worldwide, and it’s been more challenging than ever to find and retain the right talents. Far too many organizations neglect the vital Human Resources aspect called “onboarding”.

Did you know that hiring a new employee costs $4,000 and 24 days on average? On top of that, a negative onboarding experience doubles the chance of the new employee finding a job opportunity somewhere else. Investing in an effective onboarding program sounds complex and costly at first, but failing to have established onboarding processes costs way more in the long run.

Also Read: Create A Positive Company Culture For Your Remote Employees

Let’s talk about how tech-powered innovations can improve the onboarding experience, increase engagement levels and productivity, while decreasing employee turnover. 

1. Utilize virtual reality technologies

Virtual reality is slowly becoming more advanced, providing an abundance of opportunities, including cost-efficient and engaging employee onboarding processes. Since many social restrictions are still active due to COVID-19, it’s tough to organize an immersive onboarding process – but virtual reality technologies can help.

Walmart utilizes VR onboarding and has reported stunning results, including 30% higher employee satisfaction, 70% better test scores, and 12.5% higher knowledge rates than the traditional onboarding process.

Imagine training in a 360-degree immersive environment where employees could learn from mistakes without causing financial losses. Additionally, you can reuse and revisit the whole onboarding process as many times as needed, ensuring the highest engagement and information retention.

Johnson & Johnson conducted a comprehensive study on the effectiveness of VR in surgeon training, and the results were astonishing. 83% of VR-trained surgeons could perform surgical procedures after the training with a bit of guidance. It is fascinating that none of the candidates who underwent traditional training could perform the same procedure.

2. Gamification in employee training

According to HR Daily Advisor, 91% of new employees stay in a company for at least one year, while 69% remain at least 3 years – if onboarding process was engaging and well-structured. Gamification in the onboarding process ensures high employee engagement and retention through basic gaming principles incorporated into the training processes, such as progressions through levels, achievements, and advanced feedback.

Gamification offers a fun and engaging onboarding process with a dose of competitiveness, since there are public scoreboards, achievements and goals. Here are a few ways gamification can make the whole onboarding process less stressful and more engaging and fun:

  • Higher knowledge retention – scrolling through mundane PowerPoint presentations and getting lost in a sea of information is a thing of the past. Introducing an interactive module, such as a quiz with scores and awards, keeps employees engaged and motivated.
  • Advanced goal setting – if you’ve ever played a computer game, then you know the importance of small objectives and tasks. Gamification can break down a complex onboarding process into smaller tasks, where employees can track their progress and get awards or certificates for completion.
  • Automating the process – creating a task checklist can automate parts of the process, since employees can follow the tasks and tick the box after completion. As an employer, you can create the whole process once and then reuse and tweak it.
Also Read: Employee Rewards and Recognition For An Engagedly Workforce

3. Strive for a paperless onboarding process

Many people associate onboarding with a paper-heavy and bureaucratic process. It is partially true, but companies are slowly transitioning to a paperless onboarding process. A paperless onboarding process speeds up the whole process, while increasing employee engagement and satisfaction. According to Glassdoor, 82% of employees believe an inclusive and structured onboarding process can increase employee productivity and satisfaction. 

Various creative and effective onboarding tools reduce the amount of paperwork, protect sensitive employee data, and speed up the whole process without a bureaucracy burden. Here are the key benefits of turning to a paperless onboarding process:

  • Protecting sensitive data – Data protection is essential, especially when it comes to sensitive personal information.
  • Advanced feedback loop – Collecting feedback from employees and continually working on process improvement.
  • Reusing and automation – For some processes, you can create templates to automate workflows and streamline the whole onboarding process.
  • Visualizing the process – It is easier to visualize and review the onboarding process, marking redundant steps and optimizing the entire process for increasing employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention.

4. Build a knowledge base and community

One of the main goals of the onboarding process is teaching new employees about company culture, values, goals, processes, and services. Having a source of information at hand can speed up the whole onboarding process for new employees, and that’s where knowledge bases come in handy.

The whole process is resource-heavy, so the innovative approach is to invest into building an easy-to-use knowledge base, offering important information about the company. Organize and structure a knowledge base to avoid confusion and time-wasting while searching for information. Encourage current employees to share their experiences and knowledge. Analyze the most common questions or challenges of new employees, and create an easy-to-navigate guide that answers all questions.

Also Read: The Role Of Regular Feedback In Continuous Learning

5. Invest in online training platforms

The onboarding process is extremely challenging and stressful, mainly due to facing a new environment and handling tons of newly acquired information. Proper and specialized training is a prerequisite for successful employee onboarding and employee retention, and technology can support interactive training.

The most effective way of learning new things, be that upskilling or re-skilling, is by using well-established training/learning protocols, and performing the required actions repeatedly, with a progressional increase in attention to detail – interactive training platforms could boost the amount of acquired information by exposing the trainees to familiar or everyday situations. For instance, you can create an online training platform where employees face real-life situations and act quickly. A dynamic environment that simulates a real-life environment speeds up the whole onboarding process.

Combining knowledge bases and advanced technology, such as virtual reality, could bring benefits to employee training. For instance, creating a quiz with the most common questions and situations is an excellent way to utilize interactivity in learning. Also, you can use virtual reality to simulate the natural environment and problems that require fast decision-making.

Technology increases onboarding satisfaction and employee retention

Did you know that it takes up to 8 months for new hires to reach the proficiency and productivity of experienced co-workers? Onboarding is an often overlooked aspect of the Human Resources department that could save loads of resources. Tech-powered innovations allow process automation while increasing the overall onboarding process satisfaction, as well as employee productivity and retention.

Also Read: Performance Evaluation Software For The Healthcare Sector

Want to know how Engagedly can help you manage your employees better? Request a demo today. 

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Guest blog contribution by Derek Jones

Derek Jones Guest Blogger Engagedly

Derek is the Head of Partnerships, North America at Deputy, a global workforce management platform for employee scheduling, timesheets, and communication. He helps business owners and leaders to be law compliant, manage labor costs, and build exemplary workplaces. He has over 16 years of experience in delivering data-driven sales and marketing strategies for SaaS companies.

Stay Interviews: A Tool To Retain Your Best Employees

Before we go into the details of stay interviews, let us consider a simple scenario. Rob, your Chief Technical Architect, informed you today that he has decided to quit and move to a different organization. He was the head of the technical team and was there since the inception. Can you hire someone in his place? Yes, you can. But will the new hire be able to deliver at the same level? How quickly can she or he learn? Highly subjective in nature, this will depend upon the individual’s capacity. But the real question is, could Rob have been retained? Yes! Stay interviews could have helped you do that.  

Also Read: Workplace Culture:How To Create and Sustain It

Employee retention has been a topic of discussion for those in HR and people service for a very long time, even before the pandemic hit. After the pandemic and the work from home policies, the topic of employee retention has gained even more relevancy. Stay interviews can help you improve retention and reduce turnover and attrition rate.

Stay interviews are informal one-on-ones between the manager and their employees. They help employers to understand how employees feel about the company and their managers, and most importantly, how long do they intend to stay and work with them. They are crucial to retain your best employees.

Stay Interviews v/s Exit Interviews v/s Employee Surveys

Be it an exit interview or any other surveys conducted by the HR Executives of an organisation, they are different from stay interviews. When an exit interview is conducted, the employee is already leaving, and it’s too late to recognise and solve any problems. What you can well is identify the issues and make it better for the next person.

You might say that an employee satisfaction survey might do the trick. But no. It neither involves any two-way conversation, nor is there any chance of probing into a matter or having a follow-up session. 

Stay interviews, on the other hand, are conducted while the valued employees are still working in the company. So, there remains a chance to identify how the organisation can improve and retain its workers. 

Here are some tips that will make your stay interviews fruitful.

Understand Your Workplace

If you wish to conduct stay interviews, you need to first understand how feasible it is in the current scenario. If your company is not very supportive of open discussions and lacks the sense of trust towards the employees, conducting stay interviews can be a waste, or worse, can lead to adverse situations. It is important to conduct trust building activities first. On the other hand, if your organisation thrives on trust and open communication, stay interviews can really help in enhancing retention and employee engagement. 

Be Ready To Transform And Change

There is no use in conducting stay interviews if you will not do anything about it afterward. Once you have conducted the interviews, whenever you bring about the changes, let the employees know about it. It will further instil trust among the employees that the company takes their words seriously. 

Also Read: Dump Your Disconnected Reskilling Strategy

Don’t Make It Too Formal

It is advisable to schedule the stay interviews well in advance, keeping all the parties informed. But that does not mean they are formal like the exit interview or the performance reviews. Its best if the conversations are spontaneous. The main idea is to make your employees feel comfortable enough to open up, so that they can speak what’s in their mind. So, it’s important to build a sense of trust before the interview and through it.

Make A List Of Questions

Forming the right questions is very important for stay interviews to have the right effect. Ask very clear, probing questions which fetch valuable answers without putting the employees in an uncomfortable spot. That’s where you need to be very tactful. Not all employees are comfortable opening up so easily. So, as their manager, you need to understand when you should not push any further and try approaching the topic from a different angle. Here’s a probable list of questions:

    1. What excites you about your job on a daily basis?
    2. Which aspect about the job makes you want to not come to work?
    3. What drives your passion?
    4. What’s your dream job?
    5. If you had a change of role, what would you miss about the current role?
    6. If you won the lottery and didn’t have to work, what would you miss?
    7. What did you love in your last position that you’re not doing now?
    8. Describe your perfect day at work.
    9. If you had a chance, what are the things you would change about your work, role and responsibilities?
    10. What do you think about on your way to work?
    11. What’s bothering you most about your job?
Also Read: What Type Of Questions Should Your Performance Reviews Contain?

Document The Complete Process

A lot of insights are revealed through these stay interviews. Make sure you document all the important information, so that you can collate all the data later on for further discussions with the HR and your superiors.

Post The Stay Interviews

Once the interviews are over, the managers should be given an opportunity to discuss the data they have collated, so that they can discover patterns across the organisation. That way you can narrow down on what changes are required at an organisational level as well as what’s required to change at department levels.

Try not to get defensive with the answers you receive. Stay interviews might be able to help your organisation get precious insights into what keeps employees engaged and what drives them to quit.


Do you want to know how Engagedly can help you with employee engagement? Then request for a live demo.

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5 Key Focus Areas For CEOs : The Post Pandemic Shift

In the past couple of months, organizations saw a drastic change in the way they function. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the workforce to go remote and made organizations resilient, agile, adaptive, and open to changes at the same time. This is what helped most C-Suite employees navigate their businesses successfully amidst a global pandemic. 

While now many organizations are opening their doors and resuming their work from physical locations, the post-pandemic world is not the same. According to a KPMG study, globally almost 45% of the CEOs don’t expect things to return to normal until sometime in 2022. For leaders, to sustain the success of their organizations, they need to realign their strategies.

Also Read: Performance Reviews:A Manager’s Guide

Here are five key areas for the C-Suite and leadership to focus on in the post-pandemic era. 

1. Embrace Change and Be Agile

Since the pandemic hit, things have changed around us arbitrarily. Not only it affected the lives of individuals, but it hit the global economy too. Businesses saw new ways of working and also saw many unprecedented changes. While we can say that the way businesses used to function is normalizing a bit; but the only way they can sustain it in the future is by embracing change and being agile. When CXOs (or the CEOs) are agile and ready to accept change easily, it will help organizations to cope with uncertainty better.

2. Have A Learning Mindset

Whole of 2020 and the year till now have been a continuous learning experience for the CEOs. Learning and unlearning have become common along with the volatile and uncertain nature of businesses. For them to thrive in the post-pandemic era, they need to adopt an open and learning mindset. As there is no specific rulebook to survive, having a learning mindset will help them embrace change easily and make agile decisions whenever needed. 

3. Focusing On Reskilling and Upskilling Existing Workforce

Replacing an employee is costly! Gallup estimates the cost to be somewhere around 1.5 to 2 times that of an individual’s salary. Consequently, reskilling and upskilling employees have been the focus of business for a long time now. But as a CEO, if you are not already doing it, then this is the right time to do so. This will not only help businesses to avoid unnecessary costs but also utilize existing resources to fill the ever-increasing skill gap accelerated by the pandemic. Additionally, it will help improve employee retention and engagement.

Understand your employee’s professional and personal goals to help align them with the organization’s goals. Provide them with access to online training academies, such as edX, Coursera, Udemy.

Also Read: Dump Your Disconnected Reskilling Strategy

4. More Importance To Employee Wellbeing and Experience

Mental health and consequently physical health have taken an impact since the time employees started working from home. Employees reporting stress and anxiety have increased. Over time, the number of hours spent in front of screens has increased, which has led to many employees complaining of frequent headaches and eye problems too. Moreover, most employees now have become used to erratic routines and non-ergonomic ways of working. So now more than ever, as CEOs and leaders of organizations you need to look after employee wellbeing and experience. But often, with employees working remotely, it becomes difficult. Nevertheless, we have listed how organizations can focus on employee wellbeing and improve the experience:

  • Promote two way communication and feedback using employee feedback software such as Engagedly
  • Promote the importance of mental health
  • Use video platforms such as Zoom or Google Hangouts to conduct virtual yoga or gym sessions 
  • Don’t forget to reward or recognize your employees.
  • Have virtual lunches and dinners
  • Celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries virtually
Also Read: How To Support Mental Health Of Your Remote Team

5. People-Centric Leadership 

People first culture, a phrase with which we all have been synonymous, it’s time to put it to practice. 

Remote working has created a sense of alienation and isolation among employees. They have become disconnected from the organization over time. As a result, disengagement has become common and employees have become counterproductive. 

Focus on people-centric leadership approaches to make employees feel more connected and important. Ensure that employee voices are heard, give them a platform to share their opinions freely. Involve them in the decision-making process, and listen and empathize with them. Employees value their organizations and their leaders when they feel valued and important.


Want to know how Engagedly can help you improve employee experience? Request for a live demo.

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6 Step Guide To Conduct Effective Stay Interviews

In a recent research by Work Research Institute, they found that it would have been possible to retain three out of every four employees who left. Out of every 100 employees: 

22 leave for professional development

12 leave for work-life balance

11 leave in response to manager behavior

The report also states that these and other factors have led to a 7.6% increase in voluntary turnover since 2017 — a trend that’s adding “significant operational cost to companies, compromising growth and profit.” 

So is it possible to reduce the attrition rate and keep your employees from leaving the organization? Organizations conduct exit interview to know why their employees leave. But by then, it is too late to convince them to stay. Instead of waiting until the exit interview of your next employee to know the issues, organizations should proactively conduct stay interviews. Conducting stay interviews has become even more relevant in the current era of virtual working. The amount of disengagement and burnout has reportedly increased among employees after they started working from home, which ultimately results in lower productivity and higher attrition rate.

Also Read: Do These 8 Things To Improve Employee Engagement

But What Exactly Are Stay Interviews?

Stay Interviews are one-to-one interviews between managers and their employees. These one-on-one’s help managers understand how employees feel about them and the organization. It also helps them understand how long an employee intends to stay with the organization. They act as a great tool to improve employee engagement and retention.

Identify the Candidates

Identifying the key employees of your organization is essential as part of the stay interview process. These are the employees which the organization wants to retain, and losing them might harm the organization. But managers and HRs should make sure that these are not the only employees taking part in the process. Include employees who have stayed a long time in the organization, high performers, individuals that enhance diversity, or those who are in high demand fields.

Plan For The Stay Interviews

As a manager or HR of the organization, schedule your stay interview way ahead of time. Decide on the frequency, duration, and timing of the stay interview. Daily to-dos might already be occupying the calendar, but scheduling a stay interview is very important as they will save time and cost concerning:

  • Losing out prime employees
  • Hiring of new employees
  • Training new employees
  • Engagement and exit surveys 
Also Read: Why Are Stay Interviews Essential For Your Organization

Schedule One-on-One’s

If you are looking only for information from your employees, then just surveys or interviewing people in groups should be fine. But if you are looking for some detailed insights on why your best employees are leaving, then a one-on-one interview is suggested. It will help employees to connect more easily with their managers. They will feel comfortable and answer more honestly. Employees will be more open to discussing what they like and what they don’t about the organization.

Prepare A Set Of Questions To Ask

The most important part of a stay interview is to ask the right questions. HRs or managers should refrain from asking yes-or-no questions or close-ended questions to employees in their stay interviews. 

Instead, include questions such as: 

  1. What do you look forward to most at work? 
  2. What are you learning here and what else would you like to learn?

Completely avoid questions such as: 

  1. Are you happy working here?
  2. Do you make enough money?

Be Open To Feedback 

As a Manager or HR of the organization, you should always be ready to listen. Don’t get defensive and have an open conversation with your employees so that they can speak freely. Promote an open culture and give opportunities for employees to connect with their managers and HRs. This will make them feel important and heard, which in turn improves employee morale, engagement, and retention.

Also Read: Employee Feedback : The Do’s and Don’ts Of It

Report and Share Feedback

After the stay interview process is over, a detailed report should be prepared. A report will help the organization determine how likely the employees are to stay or leave. It helps the organization to understand where they are lacking from an employee’s perspective and work on them. It will help in reducing employee attrition and improve employee retention. 

Just like preparing a report, you must provide feedback to your employees. Let the employees know that their concerns are being worked on and not ignored. If something is not achievable, communicate the same to your employees.


Want to know how Engagedly can help you improve employee engagement? Then request for a live demo.

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Workplace Culture: How To Create And Sustain It

Workplace culture can either be the jewel in the crown for an organization or an unsightly blemish that mars their otherwise spotless visage.

Now, more than ever, organizations are beginning to focus on creating a workplace culture that appeals to everyone, especially the incoming workforce. ‘Good’ workplace culture is touted as a perk that employees receive in order to make an organization seem attractive. But this begs the question, what is good workplace culture? Should it be one that focuses on attractive employee perks and privileges or is it one that creates a holistic work environment?

The answer is a healthy mix of the two. No employee is going to say no to perks. They are nice to have and employees will appreciate them. However, the perks will only be attractive when the rest of the organization’s culture matches up as well.

Also Read: Setting Team Goals? Then This Is The Checklist You Need Now!

Another reason why workplace culture is so important is that it also directly impacts certain other factors such as employee engagement, employee morale, and even performance. Consistently good work which contributes massively to an organization’s success can only happen when the workplace culture is one that fosters a healthy work environment.

It is important that organizations focus on the right things to fix when creating an attractive workplace culture. Culture is unique to every organization and it could be considered a visible offshoot of the organization’s core mission and values. If your culture and values are discordant or oppose each other, then you are setting yourself up for an uphill task.

It is also worth remembering that culture can make or break an organization. Culture just does not constitute behavior in the workplace. It also includes business practices and motivations.

Here’s what else you need to consider when deciding upon creating or even fixing workplace culture at your organization.

Everyone Is Responsible For Building Workplace Culture

As per research by Deloitte, only 19% of executives believe their company has the ‘right culture.

Culture cannot be the ambit of the HR department alone. Often, to effect cultural change is to effect a seismic shift in the way of thinking. This can only be accomplished by someone who wields considerable influence within an organization, like leaders or senior executives. Leaders are capable of inspiring a large number of employees. Should they affect a cultural change or even show signs of doing so, this permeates down through the organization. HR leaders by themselves will not be able to do much. Instead, they need to work in tandem with senior leaders to effect change. 

Also Read: 8 Key Features To Look For In A Performance Management Tool

Do Not Compare Existing Culture With Other Organizations

Do not look to other organizations for inspiration, when it comes to culture. Culture is highly variable according to industry and one industry’s culture might not be the right fit for another. For example, it is impossible for an investment bank and a tech firm to adopt each other’s work cultures. Banking is a highly regulated field and subject to certain rules and regulations. On the other hand, the tech industry is subject to completely different rules. What works for one might not work for the other. Instead of forcing culture upon an organization, akin to fitting a square peg into a round hole, it should be the other way around. Organizations should create a culture that works for them. 

As mentioned above, culture tends to be the offshoot of an organization’s mission and values. Take inspiration from here instead of elsewhere.

Evaluate Existing Work Culture

It is important to evaluate your organization’s existing culture before making any sweeping changes. This can be accomplished through a well-crafted survey.  The reason why it is important to do a cultural inventory is that these surveys can reveal a lot of useful insights. It can teach leaders that instead of overhauling an organization’s entire culture, they might simply need to make strategic changes to existing processes. Through the survey, they might flag culture-defeating behaviors or bring to light examples of great culture. But unless you make the effort to know, it is not possible to see all of this. 

Also Read: Was Your 360 Degree Feedback Program A Failure?

Give Time To See The Effect

Cultural change is very slow to take place. It’s not an overnight process and neither can it be something that happens in a flash. It can feel demoralizing to start a change process and not see visible results. It is important to remember that culture is often a belief system that has been reinforced over a period of time. Since it is a part of a belief system that employees often share, it can often be hard for employees to let go of long-held beliefs. Changing workplace culture requires patience and effort. It’s a long-term process that will show tangible results only a few years down the line.


Do you want to know how Engagedly can help you build a better work culture? Then request for a live demo.

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HR Strategy Sessions: Using 360 Degree Feedback to Drive Strategy

In the current work environment, regular feedback between employees is critical for business growth. Businesses are becoming increasingly aware of how 360 feedback can help improve planning and drive strategic goals forward.

What Is 360 Degree Feedback?

360 degree feedback or multirater feedback is a relatively modern method where everyone with whom an employee has worked shares anonymous feedback about the employee. Managers, peers, direct reports, vendors, and sometimes even customers are involved in the process. It has multiple benefits and is more accepted by everyone because of its balanced nature. Some of its benefits include:

  • Increases Self-Awareness
  • Multiple Sources of Feedback
  • Reduced Bias
  • Skill-Development
  • Measures The ‘How’

To know about some additional benefits read: 10 Benefits Of 360 Degree Feedback

The impact is clear, but how do you effectively leverage this powerful tool? Join us for our second HR Strategy session, where our very own Srikant Chellappa and Aaron Adams will give a comprehensive overview of 360 degree feedback:

  • The evolution
  • How to plan and achieve strategic goals with it
  • The potential and the pitfalls

Come dive into these discussions with us. As an attendee, you’ll receive a free 45-minute consultation on how to design or improve the process.

Day: Monday, 15 March 2021

Register here

Looking forward to connecting with you!


Want to know how Engagedly can help you with implementing it? Then request for a live demo

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Remote Onboarding: Essentials to Know

Employee onboarding undoubtedly plays a crucial role in the success of an organization. A smooth onboarding process makes an employee stay longer in the organization and keep them engaged. According to the Society For Human Resources Management (SHRM), 69 % of employees stay with the organization longer if they had a great onboarding experience. As organizations still continue to function remotely, remote onboarding is a common practice in all organizations.

In this article, we share some useful tips which will make remote onboarding easy for your organization.

Get Started With Pre-Onboarding

Employees are often overwhelmed and anxious by the thought of the first day of a new job. With organizations working in a remote or hybrid mode, employees are likely to continue working from home in the near future. This has made starting a new job even more stressful. When starting remotely, employees often feel a disconnect from their team and the organization. Help new joiners to cut the stress and reduce the anxiety by helping them connect with the organization. Design a welcome or pre-onboarding package(digital or physical), which can include the following:

  • Welcome letter from the CEO
  • A brief introduction about the team members
  • Telephone numbers and email address of people to connect to in case of any doubts or emergency
  • Share links of important websites/pages which would be useful to the employee in the first few days
  • Company merchandise / Gift vouchers

This will make the onboarding process smooth for the employee and as well as for the organization. Employees will be enthusiastic about joining the organization.

Also Read: Know Why Your Organization Should Start Using An OKR Software

Help Setup Remote Workspace

As per research by Gartner, 85 % of organizations are using new technologies to onboard new employees.

For the first day of the employee to be hassle-free, they must have access to all the tools required for their job. Plan ahead of time so that your new employees receive their laptops, mouse, keyboard, or other job-oriented necessities on time. Not only this, but it is also recommended to create their emails, add them to mailing lists, given access to communication and collaboration tools before the joining date of the employee. These tools will not only help the new employees to connect and collaborate with the team but will also help them to stay engaged and productive.

Plan For The First Two Weeks

Prepare an onboarding plan for the first two weeks for the employee. The first few days are crucial for your employees to understand their job roles and learn about the company culture and policies. Design tailored onboarding plan for each new remote employee.

The job of HR is very crucial in devising the onboarding plan. As an HR, make team meetings, one-on-one meetings, and training programs a part of the plan. Give them a walk-through of the company culture and policies in the first two weeks.

Also Read: Understanding Employee Wellbeing In 2021

Assign A Buddy

Implement a buddy system and assign a buddy for each new employee joining the organization. This will help employees make an easy transition into the organization. Having a buddy makes the employee feel more welcomed, comfortable, and less stressed. The employees can communicate with their buddies anytime regarding any concerns or clarifications. Not only this, but buddies are also responsible for introducing employees to other team members and check on their wellbeing from time to time.

Frequent Check-Ins

The new employees must get accustomed to the work culture and job role to perform their work effectively. Conduct frequent check-ins and feedback sessions with your remote employees to know how they are doing and whether they have any issues. This will help the organization to know the employee’s progress and resolve their issues, if any. Frequent check-ins and feedback will help keep the employees productive and engaged in their work.

Also Read: Employee Disengagement And How To Fix It

Organize Virtual Meet With The Team

Although everything has become remote, it is still important for new employees to meet members of their team and other teams on the first day. It will give them a sense of belonging, and they will get to know everyone with whom they are going to work with at present, or in the future. Schedule virtual meetings with different teams and departments so that the new hire gets to know everyone and vice versa. This not only has an impact on the retention rate but also creates a strong working relationship between the remote employees and other team members.


Do you want to know how Engagedly can help you with Real Time Performance Management? Then request for a live demo

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HR Strategy Sessions: How HR Leaders are Managing Performance in 2021

For almost a year now, a large percentage of us have been working remotely. The change has created ripple effects in the way we collaborate, engage, and manage people in our organizations.

Given the impact of COVID-19 on employees’ work and professional lives, and on business objectives, people leaders are pondering over adjustments to their performance management process this year. We sought to understand how this shift fundamentally changes everything. 

We researched how HR strategy has changed in response to Covid and would like to share them with you. Wondering how? 

We asked 250+ HR leaders:

  • How has performance reviews changed?
  • Which tools are you leveraging to develop employees?
  • What part of your process will continue in a post-Covid world?

Join our very own Srikant Chellappa and Aaron Adams, answering your questions about the shift in Performance Management and the implications this will have on HR Strategy and alignment. Join us to get the answers. 

Day: Tuesday, 16 February 2021

Register here

Looking forward to connecting with you! 

Virtual Onboarding: A New Reality

According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, employee onboarding is one of the driving factors when it comes to employee experience. It further stated that companies with effective onboarding practices achieve 2.5 times more revenue and 1.9 times more profit margin when compared to companies with poor onboarding strategies.

Continue reading “Virtual Onboarding: A New Reality”

5 Best Tips To Reduce Employee Turnover

“Turnover can be one of the most expensive problems at a company” – Shawn Achor – American author, and speaker, CEO of GoodThink Inc.

Employee turnover is inevitable as employees move from one organization to another for better compensation, work-life balance, and career growth. When an employee moves out of the organization, it not only results in a delay of critical projects, but also damages the morale of the team. Moreover, the organization has to bear a high cost in terms of time and money to find a suitable replacement. 

As a CEO, here are some effective and simple strategies for you to implement, in order to control employee turnover at your startup.

Hire The Right People

As per a recent study by Harvard Business Review, 80% of employee turnover happens because of bad hiring decisions. 

Not hiring the right candidate for the organization is one of the main reasons for employee turnover or attrition. Employees often leave their current organization because they don’t find themselves a correct fit for the job anymore, or discover that their values and principles are different than those of the organization. There are numerous ways in which organizations can streamline their actions in identifying and hiring the right candidate.

  • Job descriptions should be well constructed and clearly written to attract the correct talent. This will help prospective employees to understand how the job role matches their skill and how it will help in their professional growth
  • Organizations can make their mission statement public, and it should be present on the organization website highlighting the mission, vision, and goals of the organization
  • Focus on conducting skill proficiency tests to filter out the right candidate
  • Conduct personality assessment tests and interviews to determine whether the candidate is a culture-fit or not

Hiring the right candidate will not only improve employee retention rate of the organization but will also help in improving productivity.

Also Read: Employee Feedback Matter More Than You Think

Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is increasingly becoming prevalent in every organization to prevent their employees from experiencing a burn-out. As per research by Gallup, employees are 2.6 times more likely to look for a new job if they have reported being burnt-out. Organizations promoting work-life synergy should offer remote working, flexible working hours, and lunchtimes. If an employee is working extra hours in a month, then they should be given at least a day off from work.  

Having a work-life balance will help employees maintain their mental and physical health, which in turn will improve employee engagement, retention rate, and productivity. 

Also Read: These Features Can Make A Big Difference In A Goal Setting Software

Compensation and Benefits

Compensation plays a huge role when it comes to retaining existing talents and attracting new ones to the organization. Gain insights on compensation and benefits offered by your competitors and offer the same to your employees. It will help you hire and retain top talents for your organization. To match the industry standards, a yearly hike should be given to all employees based on their performance, job knowledge, and acquired skills.

Encourage Rewards and Recognition

Holding back or waiting for the right time to reward and praise your employees for a job well done, often dampens their morale. Employees get discouraged and disengaged when their contributions go unnoticed, which in turn affects their productivity. 

When employees work in an organization where their efforts are rewarded and recognized immediately or in real-time, they feel encouraged and are more engaged in their work. They feel valued and appreciated for their work. Employee rewards and recognition is one of the most effective ways to increase productivity and reduce employee turnover. Some simple ways to reward and recognize your employees are:

  • Featuring your employees on the organization website
  • Appreciation mail to the employee marking all the stakeholders 
  • Paid time off from work
  • Establishing an award system or employee of the month
  • Public praise

Also Read: Employee Recognition & Rewards During COVID-19

Invest in Employee Training

Training plays a key role in improving the retention rate of any organization and fosters a culture of continuous learning. It helps new employees get familiar with organizational mission, vision, goals, and job roles while existing employees get a chance to refresh their knowledge and learn new skills. Conduct one-to-one discussions and stay interviews with your employees from time to time in order to understand what they look forward to at work, and whether you can make the experience better. It will help you understand your employees better and design or select custom training programs.

When employees see that the organization is interested in investing in their training and education, they feel valued by the organization. It boosts the morale of the employees and helps in improving employee retention.

Also Read: How Stay Interviews Can Help You Retain Top Employees

Employee turnover will be an on-going challenge for all organizations globally and there is little that can be done to eliminate it. But the above strategies will help in minimizing employee attrition or turnover and will transform your organization to a place where everyone would love to work.

 


Want to know how Engagedly can help you with Employee Engagement? Then request for a live demo

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How to Conduct Quick Check-ins Efficiently

In the present era, we all know what the scenario is like. People are working from home throughout the globe. So it’s now more than ever that employees need to remain engaged and motivated. Frequent feedback, recognition and effective communication are some of the major components of employee engagement, but it can be tough to strike the right balance.

By balance we mean, making sure the check-ins are neither too less, nor too frequent. Sometimes having frequent check-ins might seem like a waste of everyone’s time because of lack of sufficient room for progress since the previous meetings. You also have to be mindful of not letting too much time pass between check-ins, because you’ll miss the opportunity for time-sensitive discussions, feedback and face-to-face recognition. If an activity has happened in January, the recognition or feedback should not wait till March.

Getting it tailored exactly right for your team and workflows, is a bit of an art and a science. So here are several best practices that you can follow, in order to help maximize your time and effectiveness, by keeping your check-ins efficient and productive.

Also read: A Guide To Manage Your Remote Employees

State the purpose clearly

There is no point of a check-in if it does not have an objective. Managers and employees should be on the same page about the purpose of the meeting. Is it a status update or a progress review towards goals? Is it to give feedback and recognition on a recurring task? Is it to discuss timely challenges and roadblocks? Ensuring that you’re aligned will keep the overall meeting on track and make clear delineation between what should be raised and what should be held for another forum.

Set a frequency

Being the manager, you need to make it a point to hold check-ins often. When it’s not clear when or how often the meetings will be held, it can create pressure to jam too many topics and discussion points into one session. Establishing a cadence for the meetings will prevent this. Employees won’t feel rushed to give, for example, updates earlier than needed if they know that there’ll be a more timely chance to do so. Engagedly’s software makes this easy with automatic reminders through scheduled email alerts.

Have an agenda

Before setting up check-ins, it’s important to have a set agenda. All participants should know, in advance of the meeting and what they’ll be discussing. This will help them prepare the most relevant materials, content, or questions and allow them to avoid spending time thinking on the spot, or forgetting what they needed to say and having to follow-up.

Note the minutes of the meeting

Keeping a note of the points that are being discussed in the meeting, can have two fold benefits. By keeping a track-record of key actions and insights that come from meetings, you’ll save time re-discussing the same decisions or challenges over and over again. You won’t have to wonder what you talked about “last time” because it’ll be clearly documented, and you can avoid follow-up clarification questions on what was discussed and decided. Second, you will be more focussed and that will help you retain the information better.

Recap the minutes before closing

At the end of the meeting, it can be helpful to quickly summarize the key takeaways any action items, and confirm the shared agreement. If there was a misunderstanding or mistake, it’s optimal to clarify it face-to-face, instead of after you’ve already documented and published the meeting minutes.

Also read: Wondering How to Set OKRs For the Engineering Team?

At the end of the day, check-ins can be an excellent chance to connect with your employees on a 1:1 basis, build a deeper relationship and make significant progress on goals. Take full advantage of the opportunity by crafting them for maximum engagement and effectiveness.


Engagedly is offering a suite of products part of its Remote Work Toolkit free to any organisation, until Sept 30th, 2020. 

The Coronavirus has affected the way we work today and for months to come. Unprecedented events require unprecedented measures. We at Engagedly believe it is our responsibility as socially conscious corporate citizens to help equip organisations with additional tools and resources during this time of crisis.


Get in touch with us to know more about the free remote working tool-kit. 

The Significance Of Having an HRM Software In Your Organization

In the recent times, most organisations have come to understand the crucial role HR plays. Managing employees manually is, without doubt, extremely time consuming and exhausting for an HR personnel. Imagine if they have to do so now, through the time of pandemic. Easing out this manual labour is the intelligent thing to do.

Therefore, having a digital automated HR management software at your organization can ease many daily HR activities and solve HR management issues. If you are looking for one strong reason to start using an HR software for your business, we will give you a solid five:

Also read: Wondering How to Set OKRs For the Engineering Team?

Recruitment and onboarding becomes easy:

Most of the companies today are going for remote onboarding. Of course, there isn’t much choice. When you use an HR software for recruitment, it helps in understanding the job roles and responsibilities clearly, making it easy for HR professionals to recruit the right talent. We all know how significant the right kind of onboarding practice is, for the growth of the company. Having an automated software for HR functions can help streamline employee on-boarding. Once that’s done right, it can make new hires feel comfortable at their new workplace.

Today recruitment isn’t just about filling vacancies, it is more about managing talent to improve overall organizational productivity. Using an HR software helps these new hires collaborate and communicate with their colleagues easily and helps them understand the current workplace culture and values, even while working remotely.

Easy management of employee information:

In today’s world, where maintaining information and keeping them safe, is everything, sticking to the traditional paper-based process is risky. Managing employee database through an automated HR software is more secure. An HR management software allows you to centrally manage and access all employee details and documents through a single platform, while allowing you to download and save data for security.

It allows the HR to manage the visibility and accessibility of these documents, protecting the sensitive information of employees with digital security protocols.

Encourages learning and development:

We all know how fast the industry develops and changes. Learning is a continuous process and employee training is very crucial for employees to keep up with current industry trends. Often, HR management software have an LMS (Learning Management System) integrated with their system. This allows you to promote a culture of continuous learning at the workplace. You can create and assign courses to your employees and to self.

Having an HR software drives your employees to constantly learn and improve themselves. This practice drives employee engagement and increases overall productivity of the organization.

Monitoring performance becomes easy:

Employee performance review and employee feedback are two of the most important functions in an organization. Sometimes, it is hard to keep track of performance and give them feedback. Using an HR software, you can maintain and track performance on a frequent basis, making it easier for you to share employee feedback. The practice of easy and frequent feedback can help employees to improve themselves and contribute to organizational success.

Also read: 6 Must Have Features of A Performance Management Software

Improved decision making

Yes, we know its a big one! Using an HR management system gives you accurate details about employee performance and other company statistics. This data can help you design effective programs to drive employee engagement and improve overall productivity. With so much relevant data, it will be easier for top-level employees to make decisions for the organization. Investing in the right HR management software also helps your company to improve savings by reducing the labour cost.

If you are looking to get an HRM software for your organization, request for a free demo with us. 


Engagedly is offering a suite of products part of its Remote Work Toolkit free to any organisation, until Sept 30th, 2020. 

The Coronavirus has affected the way we work today and for months to come. Unprecedented events require unprecedented measures. We at Engagedly believe it is our responsibility as socially conscious corporate citizens to help equip organisations with additional tools and resources during this time of crisis.

 

How Stay Interviews Can Help You Retain Top Employees

Financially and in terms of saving time, employee retention is any day easier than recruiting. If you are a manager in a financial service, you will know what we are talking about. To impact employee attrition and lower employee turnover, managers need to measure employee satisfaction and engagement on a frequent basis. And a great technique for this is the Stay Interview.

While the exit interview asks employees why they are leaving, stay interview asks them why they remain with you. There are multiple benefits of conducting them.

Richard Finnegan, author of the book, The Stay Interview says,

“Hard data proves the top reason employees quit is they don’t trust their managers. Stay Interviews are the absolute best trust-building activity… and therefore the best retention tool.”

The basic themes of employee turnover projects mostly include teamwork, benefits, and organizational purpose. But that does not work all the time. Every employee is unique. As a manager you need to know that each employee has goals, anticipations and anxieties, potencies and limitations. And it will do you good to know and harness the power of this knowledge.

It is up to the managers how they wish to grow in relationship with employees. Stay interviews can help you enhance employee engagement, employee motivation and retention. So let’s dive into more details about

Also read: The Downsides Of 360 Degree Feedback And How To Fix It

Conducting Stay Interviews:

HR manager for Geocent, a Louisiana based technology company, Susan Seip says,

“It’s a relationship review. What’s your relationship to the company, the project team, and your manager, and what is within your purview to make those better?”

So, it’s important to know how you can conduct stay interviews well. They are conducted one-on-one, wherein you ask deep questions and your employees share valuable and meaningful answers. When a company takes time out to conduct these one-on-one stay interviews, employees feel that the higher management is open to feedback and cares about employee concerns.

Start off the interview by letting your employees know that their feedback is valued, and you hope to get honest answers from them. If you are looking to ask the right stay interview questions, here are some questions you might want to consider.

Questions to ask in a stay interview

  • Can you walk us through a recent good day at work?
  • What keeps you working here?
  • How would you rate your happiness here on a scale of 1 to 10? What would it take to get you to a 10?
  • What do you enjoy about your job and what you don’t?
  • What can drive you to leave the company?
  • What would you like to change about your job, team or department?
  • What changes do you wish to see in the company culture?
  • What motivates you at work and what demotivates you?
  • How would you like to get recognized for your work?
  • Where do you see yourself in five years?

Also read: Want To Know Why Your Employees Leave? Here’s Why

Don’t forget to close the interview with a prime question, “Is there anything else you wish to talk about?” When you are training to conduct stay interviews, you might come up with more specific questions to ask your employees. The main motive is to recognize problems way before they become deal-breakers that can lead your employees to leave the organization. There are chances you might feel defensive when there is criticism from the opposite side, but it’s better not to react and instead, try and see things from the employees’ perspective.

What can you expect in stay interviews?

All managers worry about receiving questions from employees, asking for raises that are beyond the budget. If your employee does ask about a raise, or a promotion, or something beyond your control, answer truthfully. If an employee asks you for a role they are not yet equipped to handle, guide them through employee training prospects that can be arranged during the next budget cycle. Tell them that you wish to find issues that are under your control, so that you can provide them with whatever they need. You might not be able to give all, 3 out of 5 things you will be able to.

Whether you use stay interviews or something else, the most important intention here is getting managers to talk to employees in a way that leads to improved employee engagement and retention.


Engagedly is offering a suite of products part of its Remote Work Toolkit free to any organisation, until Sept 30th, 2020. 

The Coronavirus has affected the way we work today and for months to come. Unprecedented events require unprecedented measures. We at Engagedly believe it is our responsibility as socially conscious corporate citizens to help equip organisations with additional tools and resources during this time of crisis.


Get in touch with us to know more about the free remote working tool-kit. 

Know How to Meet the Requirements of Hiring Managers

When you are looking for a job, it is necessary to gauge what the hiring managers are looking for, and what would they would like to avoid. It’s not easy to land the job of your dreams, and it rarely ever fall into the lap without putting in much effort. But, there are a few do’s and dont’s that can help you get one step closer to getting that job.

Continue reading “Know How to Meet the Requirements of Hiring Managers”

Be A Better Manager And Avoid These 5 Mistakes

It’s not an easy job to become a good manager. It takes a lot more than just delegating and telling employees what to do and what not to do. In this article, we are going to focus on manager mistakes and take a look at how they impact employee engagement and employee performance.

Continue reading “Be A Better Manager And Avoid These 5 Mistakes”

7 Tips To Make Your Goal Setting Effective

Goal setting is a tedious and daunting process, if one is just starting off. But it should be considered as one of the most important tasks of a manager because of its numerous benefits. Having effective goals increases employee productivity, motivates them, improves decision making and time management skills, and promotes teamwork. That’s why it’s important to  set goals for your employees which are effective. Continue reading “7 Tips To Make Your Goal Setting Effective”