In yesterday’s Advisor, we reviewed the top employee morale crushers; today, we present the flip side of the coin—five ways you can engage with employees, increase morale, and create a happier workplace.
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The average American spends roughly 99,117 hours at work in their lifetime. Research has shown that nearly 70 percent of employees don’t care for their job, leaving them emotionally unattached to their job and able to leave at a moment’s notice. How can employers change that? Engage with your employees, says Rob Wilson, president of Employco USA.
He explains that this doesn’t mean providing employees with a cost-effective snack at meetings or sending a generic card during the holidays. Engaging with your employees takes more than that.
How do you make sure your company is worth your employees’ time? Wilson lists these top five ways to really engage with employees and make an impactful connection.
1. Value the Team
While the customer may always be right; your employees should come first. “Companies often miss this concept,” says Wilson. “Employees make sure your clients are happy and well taken care of. If you are willing to take such good care of your clients, you should be treating your employees even better. They run your company.”
2. Have a Meaningful Mission
Your company’s mission is what drives your company, so make it meaningful! “When hiring your next employee, you should be evaluating them on how much they believe in your mission,” says Wilson. “Hire employees who truly believe in the mission and product.”
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3. Create an Open Dialog with Employees at All Levels
Put away the survey, and open your ears, e-mails, and social media to friendly conversations. “Many employees feel intimidated talking to their superiors,” says Wilson. “Make sure the concept of an open door policy is understood at all levels of your company. You never know, you might hear the next million-dollar idea from an entry-level employee … make sure they feel welcomed and appreciated for their ideas.”
4. Support Development
Give employees the ability to develop their career. “No one wants to stay at a dead-end job,” says Wilson. “Starting a mentoring program that allows for employees to develop their career by providing them with the knowledge and resources they will need could allow for you to potentially hire within the company several times.”
5. Make Work Welcoming
Sitting in an uncomfortable chair staring at the wall or a computer all day is mentally draining. “You want creativity and energy flowing out of your employees all day long,” says Wilson. “Comfort and visualization is important when running a successful company. Removing typical cubicles, investing in better chairs, and brightening up the location can really boost employee morale.”
Engagement and morale are crucial to retention—but what other factors are vital? What are the best practices to source, recruit, and onboard top talent in the first place? The HR Daily Advisor has some timely answers for you in the new premium research report, Recruiting Best Practices: Finding and Attracting Talent in 2015’s Challenging Business Climate.
Recruiting is changing at a rapid pace. Some organizations are abandoning traditional methods for social media; some think software can do a better job than people. See the results of our national survey as well as demographic breakdowns for each question.
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Don’t be left in the dark! With the information in this report, you will get a feel for what’s working out there—and maybe learn a little about what your competitors might be up to.
As a reference for several professional colleagues in recent months, I am starting to despise the move towards online hiring solutions, effectively removing the human element of hiring from the initiation of the process. As a mentor-coach to high school and early college students, the online application processes are strikingly poor in many cases.
We create engaged employees by hiring people who will become engaged if we
1. manage then well
2. pay them competitively and
3. reward their job successes fairly
How to identify such people prior to the job offer is the hard part but it is doable when we know how to do it.