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3 Easy Ways You Can Improve Employee Engagement – Starting Today

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While a small fraction of the workforce says it is thinking of quitting at any moment, surveys have found that a large majority of the workforce is “disengaged”. They are at work, putting in the minimum to get by, but not fully engaged. An engaged workforce is more productive, creative and emotionally healthy. Here are three easy ways you can improve employee engagement, starting today.

Ask Their Opinions and Then Act on Them

Forget the suggestion box or brainstorming session once a year. Review all the ideas you’ve been given to improve the workplace and start implementing them. If you’re faced with a problem, before you rush to an outside consultant, ask your own team how things could be improved. Even better is when staff are given the authority to improve things in their own area, whether better organizing their work area or altering process flow.

Give Useful Training and Coaching

It is amazing how many workplaces assume that a new hire is ready to go as soon as all the HR paperwork is filled out. New employees should be connected with someone to ensure that they are fully on-boarded. How do they get what they need to do their jobs? Who should they ask for guidance when they aren’t sure about something? How do you get an account for every piece of software you use in the course of the day, and how do you learn how to use it? You’ll see far greater engagement from new hires when they feel supported in their integration into the team.

Offering training that upgrades one’s skills so they are suitable for higher positions dramatically increases engagement. If the company wants to see even greater engagement and increase in productivity, pay for continuing education outside of the workplace. For example, the company’s benefits program paying an employee’s tuition for an executive leadership masters online is training a future manager, while requiring the person to work for the company for several more years to pay back that favor.

Apply Lean Principles to Everything

One way to improve employee engagement is to ask employees for their input on what to streamline. You can start small. What company rules and regulations could be removed today and dramatically increase productivity, assuming the rule isn’t required for legal compliance or public safety? Then eliminate the rule. Employees see that management isn’t just asking for advice but taking it. They feel empowered and start giving more feedback on ways to improve the organization. A good masters in executive leadership should discuss multiple process improvement methodologies that teach you how to make systematic small improvements while making sure you sustain the gains with each change.

Conclusion

Employee engagement can be improved pretty quickly if you use the proper procedures. Start by providing useful training to new hires and existing employees so that they are better able to do their jobs and move into better ones. Ask employees their opinions and then heed them. And try to streamline work processes so that procedures don’t become hindrances to getting work done.

Top 3 Reasons Why Happy Employees Are Good for Business

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Employees are your business’s biggest assets. Your company can only grow as rapidly as the growth of the employees that support it. In a market as competitive as today, employees also act as a competitive advantage.

Recent studies have shown that keeping employees happy is a great investment. Businesses whose employees are happy produce better results and can be more agile on the market. Aside from the boost in agility, there are other reasons why happy employees are good for business.

Higher Employee Engagement

Happy employees are 12% more productive according to a study by University of Warwick. The spike in productivity is a great thing for your business, especially when you take into account the collective effect that spike produces when the majority of the employees are happy.

It doesn’t stop at productivity either. Happy employees have higher employee engagement in general. This means they are more likely to take initiatives, come up with creative ideas and solutions, and make steps to further contribute to the success of the company.

Higher employee engagement also leads to lower friction within the organization. Engaged employees will speak up about issues they come across in an attempt to maintain a healthy and pleasant working environment. The business will run at a much higher efficiency this way; the 12% boost in productivity we discussed earlier will have an even bigger impact at this stage.

Fewer (Costly) Errors

The biggest cost for a business isn’t the cost of production or operations, but the mistakes employees make along the way. A simple mistake can lead to a much bigger cost too; when a sales officer failed to meet the customer’s deadline, for instance, the loss in sales can be catastrophic to the business’s growth.

This is where keeping employees happy comes into its own. Happy employees have better ability to stay focused. They are result-oriented and goal-driven too. Pair these traits with the higher employee engagement, and you have the perfect recipe for minimizing costly errors in business operations.

You can use online resources such as SalariesHub.com to find out more about what employees expect from a position or a career. Creating a better compensation package and providing employees with clear career paths are among the best ways to boost employee happiness and increase their ability to perform well at work.

Healthier Team

Lastly, there is the added benefit of having a healthier team when your employees are happy. Happy employees live better and longer. They tend to take fewer sick days and are more economical to insure too. These may seem like small advantages to gain, but they are advantages worth pursuing nonetheless.

The attempt to boost employee happiness can go hand in hand with that of creating a healthier team. By introducing a corporate fitness program, for example, you can help employees stay healthy and happy in the long run.

At the end of the day, you don’t need researches and studies to come to the conclusion that happy employees are good for business. Through a better working environment, a clear career path, and a supportive organization, the right investment in employee happiness can produce a great return for the business.

Your Workforce Will Be Happier If You Do These Things

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Every great business needs a happy workforce behind it. No business got off the ground or became successful with a team of grumbling employees who were resentful of the things they had to do. A happy workforce means a higher quality of work. How can you make your workforce happier? Do these things…

Be A Better Boss

A boss in this day and age shouldn’t be somebody who watches from the sidelines and gives people orders. It’s somebody who’s willing to get their hands dirty and go above and beyond for their team. It’s somebody who has an open door policy, listens, and wants to make things as enjoyable as possible for them. You need to genuinely care about your employees to be a great boss. They’ll be able to tell if you’re genuine or not too. You’re not going to get people doing their best work or building a great reputation if you’re only worried about yourself in business.

Make Their Lives Easier

How can you make your employees lives easier? Could you maybe ensure that they have the supplies they need to make lunch, with a microwave, refrigerator, and kettle? Could you ensure they have the highest quality equipment, as well as implement trustworthy programs to help them get things done faster? You can automate some processes, but with others, you’re going to need to find better ways of simplifying. There’s a reason programs like Excel are so popular. You can check out the infographic below if you think this is something you could use.


Credit to STL

Time to Let Someone Go at Work? Here’s How to Do It Properly

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If it’s time to let someone go at work, you may be wondering how to drop the bombshell without creating chaos. Firing an employee is easier said than done, and in some cases, there is more than dignity at stake, so it’s important to tread carefully.

Aside from the obvious discomfort of firing your problem employee, letting him or her go too hastily could be detrimental to your business. Those who feel they were mistreated could take legal action, so you need to make sure you’re following the necessary steps to avoid ending up in court.

With this in mind, here are four tips to help you lay someone off at work without creating unnecessary conflict.

Give Your Employee Time

If you have to let someone go from your business, it shouldn’t come as a shock. You should have been providing the employee with feedback throughout his employment and giving him chances to improve. If someone gets fired out of the blue, he is more likely to want to take action for wrongful dismissal.

Similarly, you should give your employee time to attend the meeting. Don’t schedule it for first thing in the morning, but don’t wait until the end of the day either. If you’ve planned a meeting, your employee probably knows what’s coming, so give him time to prepare.

Be Private

Respect your employee’s privacy by keeping his colleagues in the dark about his departure, so he doesn’t feel like he’s been shunned from all sides. When it comes to letting him go, make sure you do it in a quiet space away from other workers and give him a chance to leave unnoticed. Whatever the circumstances, your employee has the right to retain his dignity.

Be Kind, Not Condescending

There’s no reason to belittle your employee, no matter why they’re leaving the business. In fact, talking down to someone in this situation could come back to haunt you later down the line. Ex-employees talk to competitors and potential clients, and you don’t want your name dragged through the dirt.

To avoid getting a reputation as a poor manager, try to deliver the news as kindly as possible without being condescending. Offer to help the employee find a new job by pointing him in the direction of a free resume builder or providing a reference. Your employee may be upset or angry when you first lay him off, but over time he will remember those small gestures and speak of you more favorably.

Focus on the Facts

Don’t make excuses or come across too personal. It’s entirely acceptable to fire someone because he doesn’t fit in with your business, so don’t feel like you have to lie about budget cuts or pressure from above. Be honest and tell him it’s not a good fit, and try not to stray into emotional territory. Have an HR representative present with all the required documentation to hand, and keep the meeting formal but friendly.

Firing an employee is no one’s favorite job, but it does need to be done from time-to-time. Approaching the situation with humility and care will make the process smoother for everyone involved, so be sure to follow these four steps.

Assembling Individuals Into The Best Team

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No team comes together overnight; most people are so focused on doing their own job to the best of their abilities, that they often fail to consult their colleagues on what needs to be done. Just because they’re all doing different jobs, does not mean that they’re not all working towards the same goal. As a team leader, you now have the unenviable job of turning all these hard-working individuals into a strong team. Unfortunately, this is sometimes easier said than done; on an average workday, most people would rather focus on their own workload than think about the bigger picture and how their job affects someone else’s tasks. To help team leaders on the challenge ahead, here are a few tips to help them bring everyone together.


Team-building exercises

Whilst getting them to do trust-falls or play Blind Man’s Buff would probably cause them to resent you, team-building exercises gives you the chance to bring your employees together, and maybe even share a few jokes if the right opportunity presents itself. That way, there’s something social that they can all share, which helps them to bond and unite. Alternatively, try an exercise to get to know every team member on a personal level. That will help you get to know them, and allows the team to view one another as people, not just co-workers. Anything you can do to build trust between co-workers will develop team cohesiveness, and it will make it easier for everyone to think of themselves as part of a unit, instead of one of many employees.

Promote communication

Communication is key to making sure your business runs efficiently. Technology has provided companies of all sizes with a very efficient tool to improve team communication; while you should never underestimate the value of the phone or email, instant messaging apps such as Slack, Hipchat, or Campfire instantly pass work updates to your colleagues. You can also use them to share files, start conversations for group projects, and automate tasks. This is faster than typing an email and waiting for the recipient to type one back. Good communication also means that you have to be clear about goals, deadlines and expectations for each business term. Sometimes efficiency can drop because employees haven’t been updated about new company goals, or the communication about new business goals weren’t clear. As the team leader, you have a better idea of the company’s business goals, but you need to accurately communicate it to your employees if you expect productivity to remain high. If emails aren’t clear enough, arrange a meeting and encourage your employees to ask questions. It will go a long way to preventing further confusion.


Make sure everyone has support

As the team leader, whenever your team is at work they are under your care. This means that you have to provide them with enough support for them to do their jobs properly, whether it’s making sure the IT support is always on hand whenever the computers are down, providing them with further training, or just making sure you have a good open door policy. If someone on your team is having problems with a co-worker, their workload, or something personal that is affecting their work, then make sure they know they can come to you without any judgements. Encourage everyone to give you feedback on their work environment and policies, so that you can tell upper management what is working and what needs improvement. Productivity will improve as a result of a more positive office morale, and your team will work better for you if they feel supported.


Assemble the right individuals

When hiring someone to do a job, it’s also important that they know how to work well with others, and know to collaborate or work independently as necessary. Everyone has different strengths; your campaign strategist might have excellent ideas, but they might be terrible at communicating these ideas with the rest of the team. If someone on your team is consistently struggling to meet deadlines or contribute to team projects, find out what it is they need to get them on everyone else’s level. Chances are, they are just not the right fit for the rest of the team and they might be better off somewhere else.

Ultimately, a good team comes together when they have a leader that inspires them. Someone who knows how to give instructions, but doesn’t micromanage. Make sure you take on a few tips to become a great team leader.