Tag: employee engagement

7 Leadership Traits That Drive High Engagement

To be able to drive and sustain prolific motivation in employees is a classy act of exemplary business leadership. Organizations dwell and prosper when leaders identify opportunities and rise to the occasion. In the ultimate sense, the virtues of employee motivation, employee engagement, and retention within your organization correlate to your efficacy as a leader. Having said that, your success in business leadership is paramount to the advancement of your organization.

What do you think makes some leaders extraordinary? What are the traits that make leaders stand out from the crowd? One thing is true for sure a lot of business leaders have not been as effective as they would have wanted to be in terms of driving employee motivation. Had every business leader been successful, employee engagement levels would not be this dismal. To substantiate, as per Gallup’s 2021 survey, only 20 percent of employees are actively engaged in work. 

Also Read: Tips To Manage Stress Of Your Remote Team

Clearly, the difference between organizations with high engagement and those with low levels of it is the difference in the quality of leadership. Charismatic leaders come with a wide spectrum of strong traits that others look up to. When such people are at the helm of things, everyone around them grows, and in the ultimate sense, organizations accomplish their strategic goals. John Maxwell once rightly quoted, “leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing the other.” 

This blog highlights the most quintessential personality traits that business leaders need to incorporate into their personalities for catapulting positive changes in the workplace. With these traits, they can cultivate overwhelming levels of motivation, enthusiasm, and engagement in employees. In simpler terms, the traits mentioned in the subsequent section will have a massive role to play in the pursuit of business success. So, let us get started without further ado.

1. Clarity of vision and purpose

Being a leader, you are the captain of the ship. If you are unclear about things and the direction in which you should steer the ship, how do you expect your team to portray high motivation? You should be a handsome leader driven by clarity of vision and purpose at all times. Your vision as a leader will be crucial to your motivation. Further, your motivation will be setting the standard for your employees. 

To drive your organization to success, you have to be a decisive leader with the traits of critical thinking. When you work with a clear vision in your mind, employees are impressed and feel greater motivation. On the other hand, if you are going to make regrettable decisions as a leader, the morale of the entire workforce will begin to dip. 

You also need to recognize the fact that with the rising competitiveness in the business world, there is also an urgency around decision-making. To give your business a competitive advantage, you ought to make quality decisions in real-time. This will also influence the motivation and learning of your employees. 

Having said that, it is critical to be clear about your plans, objectives, and key result areas. When you show such effective traits, things flow smoothly in the workplace, and morals scale new heights. As per McKinsey, not more than 20 percent of employees are of the view that their organizations are excellent at decision-making. For sure, business leaders need to exhibit greater credibility and clarity in their decision-making process.

Also Read: 4 Ways To Prevent Rater Bias In Performance Reviews

2. The knack for leading by example

If you look at the most successful leaders across the world, there is one thing common among all of them. From Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos, all of them go beyond their limits to lead their teams by example. On similar lines, you have to lead from the front when it comes to keeping your employees zealous and motivated. You have to model the fundamentals of hard work, persistence, and determination for them. Besides, you have to lead by example to show your employees how they can overcome even the most befitting challenges with motivation.

When they see you staying motivated even in the middle of adversities and exhibiting great self-belief, they will have a lot to learn. Optimism is contagious after all and you have to show your employees how one can remain calm and optimistic in the face of challenges. Expecting your employees to be determined at all times when your commitment does not set the benchmark may be unfair. 

Furthermore, as a leader, you ought to display fine qualities of resilience and agility. You have to set high standards for motivation and performance for everyone. Your employees must know that they have to meet these standards, irrespective of the situation. The gist of the matter is that your employees will always look up to you and you ought to keep evolving new tactics to inspire them. The gist of the matter is that you have to be the prodigal leader they should be able to idolize.

3. Proficiency in communication

In every domain, it is imperative for leaders to be great communicators. When you have the spark to communicate goals, purpose, and instructions in an effective manner, employees have a clear sense of direction. Further, when responsibilities and key performance indicators are communicated effectively, it sparks greater motivation among employees.

Needless to say, employees’ motivation will be the highest when they are sure of what is expected of them. This is where the communication skills of leaders and managers are vital. As per SalesForce, 86 percent of employees are of the view that projects fail in the workplace because of ineffective communication. In fact, many organizations lack a structured and strategy for workplace communication. 

To add, as per Expert Market, 97 percent of employees opine that workplace communication impacts their everyday performance and motivation. Having said that, communication being the key is no overstatement. There have to be effective communication strategies in place that will be subject to your ability as a communicator. 

Moving further, a leader’s communication skills are also pivotal to feedback sharing. As a leader, you have to be streak smart in the way you share feedback with your employees. The feedback sharing has to be constructive, regular, and concise. At the same time, your communication skills should be such that even negative feedback shouldn’t be intimidating to your employees.

To augment, even the frequency of feedback sharing is imperative from the purview of communication. As per HubSpot, 65 percent of employees assert that they seek more frequent feedback from their leaders. Besides, 98 percent of employees begin to disengage when they receive no feedback. Given that, you now know the importance of feedback in the workplace and how critical your communication skills are for the same.

Also Read: 10 Ways To Improve Communication At Workplace

4. Compassion

The ones who assert that the corporate world is no place for emotions have got it all wrong. Being a compassionate leader comes with promising returns on investment that you ought to acknowledge. But what does compassion in the workplace imply in a positive sense? 

Being a compassionate leader means that you ought to have empathy and emotional intelligence to understand your employees’ emotions. In fact, besides understanding their feelings, it is also important to respect what they feel and offer them support. Such compassion will find great appreciation among your employees and they will be able to manage their emotional vulnerabilities better. 

Needless to say, the better your employees deal with their negative emotions, the greater will be their motivation and productivity. What compassionate leaders are great at is inspiring a sense of emotional security in people around them and steering their emotions in a positive direction. This is what EQ is all about, and there is every reason why business leaders need to work on developing EQ skills. 

Probing further, let us underline the importance of empathy in the workplace with some credible statistics. As per the State of Workplace Empathy Report, 90 percent of employees assert that workplace empathy is quintessential. Employees want their employers and leaders to be able to understand their emotional states and support them in a worthwhile manner. As a leader, you can only deliver on this expectation when you have bright traits of empathy and compassion. 

Also Read: Employee Engagement Tips To Avoid Burnout

To add, being a compassionate leader also implies that you ought to express gratitude to your employees. Business leaders ought to express thankfulness towards their employees for the effort, consistency, and commitment they invest. To substantiate, as per workplace gratitude statistics, 88 percent of employees assert that they will work with greater motivation for a grateful business leader. Having said that, remember to be grateful to your valued employees!

In fact, ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it affected everyone’s mental health, the scenario has changed. The need for compassion in the workplace is higher than ever before. Otherwise, when employees do not find emotional support from their leaders, their motivation and performance will begin to dip. In a workplace that lacks compassion, employees will be prone to high burnout rates. This may further impact the rates of employee engagement and retention. 

Moreover, you also need to consider the fact in remote working environments, employees are vulnerable to emotional disconnect. The feeling of isolation in remote workers can be demotivating. To have their motivation aligned with company goals, you need to go out of your way to offer compassionate support to your remote employees.  

5. The ability to delegate

Are you comfortable delegating authority and responsibilities to your subordinates? Is delegation even a strategy that you look forward to applying in the workplace in a worthwhile way? One incredible trait of successful business leaders is that they do not keep all the authority centralized in their hands. They are happy to share both power and responsibilities with their employees with the aim of leveraging the merits of delegation in business. Do you know what these fascinating merits of delegation in business are?

When you develop the ability to delegate, you will be able to foster optimized workplace relationships. Your employees will be able to derive great value from the fact that you trust them with more authority and responsibilities than they are entitled to in the usual sense. Besides, the acts of delegating will give hands-on exposure and training to your employees on new dimensions of professionalism. 

Here, it is also imperative to acknowledge that superiors’ trust and learning opportunities are among the most basic employee expectations for motivation. To augment, as cited by the LinkedIn Learning Report, 94 percent of employees are of the view that they will be motivated to stay at a company for longer if their leaders invest in their learning and development. Given that, while training modules may have their own benefits, delegating tasks facilitates learning experiences, offering higher motivation. 

Moving forward, let us also analyze the impact of trust you show in your employees when you undertake delegation. As per Harvard Business Review, employees exhibit 76 percent higher engagement and 106 percent greater energy when their superiors trust them. Moreover, in high trust working environments, employees prove to be 50 percent more productive. 

Also Read: The Essential Guide To Employee Productivity In A Hybrid Setup

Can you now realize the incredible charm of delegation as a business strategy? At times, delegation is the simplest answer to keeping your employees motivated and productive to the core. Of course, this business strategy proves to be successful when you are meticulous in your delegating decisions. 

Hence, you have to be more comfortable with the idea of delegation to get the most out of your team members. In fact, delegating some surplus responsibilities to them will also give you some more time to focus on vital things or to get more rest in order to prevent burnout. Even you deserve some time off from the grim hustle and bustle!  

6. Selflessness in appreciation

Sharing credit is not a quality or ability that everyone possesses. However, the ability to appreciate or share credit with others is a trait you should definitely work on if you do not have it yet. This is for the simple reason that you cannot expect your employees to be highly motivated or engaged in the absence of recognition.

Having said that, you ought to be a selfless leader when it comes to appreciating and recognizing your employees. Although you have to lead from the front in most instances, you need to put your team members first when it comes to celebrating success. Your selfishness as a leader will be sacrosanct in steering brimming motivation among your employees. 

In fact, when it comes to appreciation, every ounce of it counts! We all love being appreciated for the good things we do. Moreover, this sense of appreciation does, by default, instill a new zest of motivation among us. In a similar way, appreciation and recognition work wonders to help employees realize replenished levels of motivation and engagement. 

To substantiate, as per HR Technologist, lack of appreciation is the primary reason why 44 percent of employees tend to quit. Needless to say, it is not the motivated employees who tender their resignations. The more selfless and warmhearted you can be in sharing success and appreciating your people, the greater will be your levels of motivation. Besides, you also ought to be innovative in the ways you extend recognition to your employees.

7. Integrity 

It is quintessential for leaders to uphold their integrity at all times, especially in the midst of unprecedented situations. Leaders have to be honest with themselves as well as others around them. Moreover, leaders should maintain a moral high ground at all times and endorse the right way of doing things rather than the easier way of doing them. In testing waters, integrity is the first thing that people tend to compromise. However, as a business leader, you have to embrace it and model it for others under all kinds of circumstances.

The analogy behind integrity being crucial for employee motivation is simple. Employees feel motivated and the urge to take additional responsibilities when they amply respect their leaders. Moreover, employees commit greater diligence when they see their organization upholding strong belief in some salient core values. Integrity for sure is one of the most fundamental principles among these values. 

Also Read: Why Are Organizational Values Important

The bottom line is that you need to model for your employees how work ethics contribute to success. You have to make them believe that nothing is insurmountable unless they hold on to their integrity. This trait of yours will have an incredible impact on the personality of your employees. 

Want to know how Engagedly can help your leaders drive engagement? Request for a live demo.

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Author:

Jessica Robinson Engagedly Guest 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.

Why Companies Should Embrace Emotional Vulnerability Among Employees

Workplaces can inadvertently embrace toxic positivity by requiring employees to express faked happiness while on the job. 

This creates stress, emotional dissonance, social alienation, and burnout among employees – and ultimately decreases productivity and retention. 

The solution? 

Companies should learn to embrace emotional vulnerability among employees. 

Read on to discover why this is important and how companies can start building a culture of vulnerability in the workplace.

What Does It Mean to Embrace Vulnerability?

Remember, perfect is the enemy of good. Embracing vulnerability can be an asset, when done correctly.  

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.”

embracing vulnerability as uncertainity

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.

Also Read: Performance Management Software:A Buyer’s Guide

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. 

This is crucial to workplace success. 

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.

3. Clarify Business Values

Clarify Business Values

Source

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.

Also Read: Creating A Positive Workplace Culture For Your Employees 

4. Drive Workplace Innovation 

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. 

Also Read: Understanding Employee Wellbeing In 2021

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

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 visiting OneHourProfessor.com

You can also connect with him on YouTube or Linkedin.

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

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Employee Engagement Tips to Avoid Burnout

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. 

Also Read: Drive Employee Engagement in 5 Simple Steps

TRAIN YOUR LEADERS

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.

Also Read: The Top 8 Leadership Skills You Need In 2021

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. 

Also Read: 6 Step Guide to Conduct Effective Stay Interviews

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. 

free e10 Survey

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Performance Management: Post COVID Changes To Get Used To

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. – Socrates

Remote work is not the only aspect of change in the past year. COVID-19 has made sure that everything that was once normal is not so anymore. So we at Engagedly sought to understand these changes (esp. with performance management), how they are impacting us today and whether these changes are permanent. 

We surveyed to understand the situation better and bring to you information that will help you improve employee engagement and learning. 

In the previous edition, People Development Goes Virtual and More Feedback Focused, we discussed how the pandemic has impacted learning and development, and feedback. In this edition, we will discuss the comprehensive overview. 

The Performance Management Survey: 

We asked leaders from 5 key industries to report the degree of change for different performance management processes. They were to report whether or not each of the performance management processes was occurring more or less frequently during COVID-19. 

They responded on a five-point scale (1= significantly less frequent and 5 = significantly more frequent).

What did we find?

Overall, 20% of respondents were very satisfied with the changes they experienced related to performance management and people development processes. These are the leaders that reported being very satisfied (5, on a 1-5 point likert scale measuring satisfaction) with the changes to performance management and people processes that they experienced due to COVID-19. 

Taking a deeper look into those who were very satisfied with the changes provides some additional insights to guide future initiatives. 

Also read: Performance Management Gone Virtual and More Progressive

When asked, “What specific process change(s) to people development had the biggest impact on your satisfaction?” There were a few key themes that surfaced: 

  • Improved training technologies/processes 
  • More frequent and accessible trainings for employees 
  • Breadth of training offered 

When asked, “What specific process change(s) to performance had the biggest impact on your satisfaction?” Here were a few key themes that surfaced: 

  • Incentivizing/recognizing employees for good/improved performance and adherence to new policies 
  • Checking in more frequently with employees about performance and asking them how they were doing personally as well (well-being) 
  • Optimization of systems and technology 
  • Transitioning back to the in-person work environment and work schedules Investments in technologies 
  • Supporting the more flexible work environment and coordinating the work of the team(s) 
Also read: Know How to Make Employee Feedback Work

We are still amidst the fog of COVID and its remote work environment when it comes to most of the workplaces in the US. It still remains to be seen if these changes are widespread permanence or if they will be more industry-specific. While we do anticipate that there will be some retrenchment to the old way of managing Performance and Learning & Development but it seems quite likely that we will not go back to pre-February 2020 days. 

When looking at the data and insights we can always learn a lot from those that are doing well, or have had a favorable experience. Though our natural tendency is to fix the broken parts, sometimes a fix is as easy as replicating or copying where things are working well. These lessons can come easily from both internal and external sources. All we need to do is be mindful of this fact, and stay curious.

Want to view the detailed report? Click here.

 

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

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5 Employee Engagement Activities to Revive Your Workforce

Employee engagement has different meanings to different people. Some say engaged employees means enthusiastic employees, while others believe it means happy or satisfied employees. But employee engagement doesn’t mean employee happiness; neither does it mean employee satisfaction. A happy employee will not necessarily be the most productive or hardworking employee. A satisfied employee might not go that extra mile on his/her own to achieve excellence.

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment employees have towards organizations that influences their behavior and level of effort in work. In other words, engaged employees care about their work and their organization.

Study reveals 81% of employees who do not feel engaged at the workplace would consider leaving the organization today if the right place calls. What is more staggering is, disengaged employees cost U.S. companies up to $550 billion a year.

So how do you create a work environment where employees care about your company? Following are some employee engagement activities to boost morale of your employees.

1. Create a Feedback Culture

One of the best ways to level up employee morale and create a positive work environment is by providing feedback frequently. According to Forbes, 40% of employees who hardly receive any feedback from their managers are actively disengaged. And 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week.

Feedback culture is a workplace culture that focuses on feedback between employees and employers. It’s a culture where every employee feels they have the right to voice their opinions and their work doesn’t go unnoticed. This culture is helpful in keeping employees motivated, active, and engaged.

Engagedly is a comprehensive employee engagement software that uses a 360-degree feedback system. It allows you and your employees to provide feedback and even ask for feedback.

2. Recognize Your Employees’ Effort

By recognizing your employees’ contributions you encourage them to bring out their best at work, every day.

Lack of recognition highly affects employee morale, productivity, and loyalty. A key finding of a survey, commissioned for OGO, states, 40% of employed Americans would put more energy into their work if they receive recognition more often.

Employee recognition activities engage employees in the workplace and change their behavior towards work for the benefit of the business. If they are appreciated for their efforts, they will work even harder to get that recognition.

Even a simple “thank you” can create the emotional connection your employees need to have with your organization.

Also read: Top 7 Performance Appraisal Mistakes Managers Make

3. Focus On Brainstorming Sessions

Brainstorming is the most effective technique to generate new ideas.

Though these sessions are loud and chaotic, and sometimes it doesn’t give any productive results, it remains one of the best employee engagement activities.

When structured the right way, brainstorming sessions can:

  • Encourage out-of-the-box ideas, because it allows employees to think without the fear of judgement
  • Helps in team building, because it encourages open collaboration to generate innovative ideas
  • Produce a diverse range of ideas as it introduces different perspectives from different people
  • Help teams generate a large number of ideas in no time which can be used to find the ideal solution

4. Fun Sessions Help Increase Employee Engagement

Fun sessions are a massive hit when it comes to employee engagement at the workplace.

Working continuously can be exhausting for your employees. A fun session, once or twice a month, gives them a sweet break from their hectic work schedule. It helps them to start again with a fresh mind. Not only that, it also gives your employees the chance to interact with other team members.

From fun games to silly trophies to creative activities, everything is allowed in a fun session.

Also read: Employee Turnover: Know Why Employees Quit

5. Emphasize Work-Life Balance

Today’s work culture revolves around the concept of work-life balance to a great extent. However, achieving a perfect work-life balance is still a dream for most of the corporate employees around the world. When your employees’ work-life is out of balance for a long time, employee engagement plunges.

To be highly engaged in the workplace, this balance is necessary. As Blake McCammon, Founder and CEO of WorkBoxed, put it, “Work-life balance is one of the most important things employers can do to help employees not only stay healthy and fit, but keep them engaged day by day.”

Provide your employees with work from home scenarios where they can enjoy life to the fullest, but still get their work done. Most professionals benefit from a blend of office-based and remote work environments. Various studies have shown work from home Wednesdays make teams collectively more productive.

Flexible work hours are also necessary to maintain employees’ work-life balance. When employees are bound by time, they spend more time looking at the clock than being productive; it affects quality and quantity of work. Offering your employees flexible work hours keeps them satisfied, productive, and is good for their mental health.

After all, one will never feel completely satisfied by work until they are satisfied by life.

Employee engagement and productivity are closely related to each other. Engaged employees are the most productive employees, and they make it easy to do your job well. So, set some time aside, decide your budget and resources, and incorporate these five activities into your employee engagement routine; you will have a more productive and happier workforce at your company.

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7 Mistakes That Affect Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a hard-won effort. It’s not easy to come by and needs to be sustained over a long time in order to be effective.

However, once employee engagement is gained, it can be destroyed just as easily, by certain mistakes, which are either done ignorantly or sometimes cruelly, without even thought for how they are perceived by employees. If you want to preserve employee engagement at your organization and maintain workplace harmony, these are the blunders you must avoid making.

Having no vision

The three things you can’t do without in an organization are vision, mission and values statements. When your organization or team doesn’t have a vision, everyone in your team has to wait around to know what they should do next. They do not know what is the end goal they are aiming for. This creates needless confusion and frustration. Remember, having a vision brings everyone together.

Playing the blame game

It is inevitable, that at times, things will go horrendously wrong. That’s just how things go. However, when a crisis occurs, if you choose to attack people and find out who is responsible, instead of fixing the crisis, you are creating a culture where people will refuse to speak up whenever they make a mistake, for fear of being pulled up.

Remember that you all are on the same team. And not all mistakes are intentional and malicious. It’s human to make mistakes after all. So when a crisis occurs, your focus should first circle around on fixing it. And then you can figure out what caused the issue and take the action you need.

Setting unrealistic goals and deadlines

Everybody likes a challenge. But nobody likes to have to climb Mt. Everest with just a pickaxe. This aphorism holds true for goals as well. Goals should challenge employees. But they shouldn’t make them throw down the towel right away because they seem so very impossible.

Before setting goals and deadlines, think of how much bandwidth your employees have to achieve these goals. Goals should challenge your employees, but they should consume their entire working hours.

Also Read: How To Write Good Employee Goals And Objectives?

Humiliating employees

Everybody likes a little bit of fun and humour at the workplace, but it is important to keep in mind what counts as acceptable humor. If your humor embarrasses employees, makes them feel awkward or puts them on the spot or even hurts their feelings, then it does not belong to the workplace. Humiliating a person in public is a horrible thing to do. There’s no gaffe that merits being humiliated in public. If you must take someone to task, do so in private, in the way that any adult with common sense would do.

No recognition 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 contributions are swept under the rug. This happens once or twice and you would probably let it go. But when it happens on a frequent basis, it’s going to rub a lot of employees in the wrong way. Praise and recognition are important aspects of employee engagement. A lack of it is going to affect morale and of course, drive employees away.

Playing favorites

A manager is not going to like everyone on their team, that is a fact. There are going to be some he prefers more than the others, for good reasons (as opposed to sleazy reasons). However, whatever your personal opinion about someone, it should not affect the way you work with them. At work, all of us are adults, and as adults, it behooves us to treat everyone equally. Do not play favorites and even if you have favorites, blatantly seeking out your favourites for plum opportunities is tasteless and makes you look like an immature manager.

Ineffectual performance reviews

Poor performance reviews or poor performance management practices can also impact employee engagement. A lack of feedback, lack of direction and insufficient reviews all serve to make employees feel like their work is not being evaluated accordingly. One way to improve performance management is to automate it. There are many tools out there that can manage performance reviews effectively (Engagedly, being one of them). Choose one of them and get to fixing your review process.

Want to improve employee engagement at your organization?

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5 Perks To Boost Employee Engagement and Morale

Employee morale and employee engagement go hand in hand.

If employee morale is high, then you can be confident about a high engagement rate. But consequently, when morale is low, engagement is impacted as well.

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How Employee Engagement Software Can Boost Employee Engagement

What is the impact of poor employee engagement?

What does an organization have to lose by having low levels of employee engagement? After all, it is not the sole reason why organizations continue to keep running. However, while it might not be the sole reason why organizations continue to run, it does play a big role in keeping organizations running smoothly.

Continue reading “How Employee Engagement Software Can Boost Employee Engagement”

The Importance Of Employee Recognition Programs

While most CEOs and managers are busy trying to expand their businesses, a large fraction of employees in their organizations are disengaged and display low levels of productivity.

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What Drives Employee Engagement? [Infographic]

How can organizations figure out what drives employee engagement?

The first thing they need to do is accept that there is no one universal driver of employee engagement.  In fact, there are many different drivers of engagement. What drives engagement in one organization may not do anything in other.

But there are a few drivers of engagement that are common enough that they work for  most organizations. Organizations should figure out what drives employee engagement for them and nurture that. Only then is it possible for organizations to truly reap the benefits.

drivers of employee engagement

About Engagedly

Engagedly is a performance management software for organizations looking to provide their employees with the opportunity for frequent and real-time feedback and accurate performance reviews. The software is easy to use and powerful enough to work with businesses of all sizes. Engagedly’s features like 360 feedback reviews, OKRs, manager feedback, peer praise, learning, and rewards help engage the workforce and improve the overall productivity of an organization.

Want to know how to drive employee engagement and nurture it? Download the resource below to find out!

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5 Reasons Why You Need Engagedly For Employee Engagement!

Why is it important to focus on employee engagement in this competitive business age? We often come across interesting articles which convey that engaged employees can help you increase your organizational productivity.

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How Can Leadership Drive Employee Engagement?

We know that leaders play a crucial role in organizations. In an organization, there needs to be someone whom we can look up to and the leader fulfills that role. In addition to leading the organization, one of a leader’s default duties is promoting and improving engagement.  Because when it comes to employee engagement, there’s not a lot employees can do unless they have engaged leaders who can show them the way.

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Employee Engagement: What To Do When Your Engagement Initiative Fails?

Why do employee engagement initiatives fail in so many organizations? Some of these initiatives start out great and then fizzle out. Others might not even take off. Ouch.

Continue reading “Employee Engagement: What To Do When Your Engagement Initiative Fails?”

Is Employee Engagement Just For Leaders?

Strategic internal communication is very important for the success of any organization. Organizations with engaged employees have better results compared to others.

Continue reading “Is Employee Engagement Just For Leaders?”

Do You Listen To Your Employees?

Do you listen to your employees? This article is probably going to be more helpful for you if you take a good look at the question I’ve posed at the beginning and realize the answer is ‘no’.

The automatic response to this question is always going to be yes. But in actuality, we all need to take a good look at it and be honest. How many of us actually listen? You see if you actually asked your employees this question in a different situation, where the answer wasn’t supposed to be revealed to you, then you’d probably be flabbergasted by their answers.

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14 Mistakes That Can Destroy Employee Engagement In Your Organization

What is the responsibility of an ideal manager? To increase productivity in their organization by building trust and fostering a healthy relationship with their employees.

But many managers still seem to have no idea, how important it is to keep their employees happy and engaged. So we, at Engagedly have collated a list of possible mistakes a manager makes that can kill employee engagement.

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5 Questions To Avoid In An Employee Engagement Survey

Our previous article 8 Steps To Effective Employee Surveys focused on how employee surveys help your employees engage better and build new organizational strategies. But before you proceed, take heed of the questions you should not include in an employee engagement survey.

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The New Rules of Employee Reward Programs

In our previous articles 6 Creative Ideas For Employee Engagement and 5 Employee Engagement Activities On A Budget, we discussed how employee engagement can help your organization and a few creative ideas that can help you engage your employees. In this article, we show you how employee reward programs affect an organization when implemented on a long term basis.

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5 Idea Generation Techniques That Your Employees Can Use

In the lifecycle of an organization or a product, there are inevitable ups and downs. The key is to get past those downs, preferably through the application of innovative ideas. Normally, your first instinct might be to call in a consultant. But before you do give your employees a chance.

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How To Motivate Employees In The Workplace

Reading literature on how to motivate employees in the workplace tells you exactly how to do that. But what it does not tell you is why motivation is important.
Why is it so important that in workplace psychology, there is a huge body of work devoted to workplace motivation alone?

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