Written by: Jeff Altman, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Employees are increasingly questioning whether their current position satisfies their needs. Organizations must provide people with the resources and support they need to thrive in order to keep their best-performing people. Employees and employers alike have reconsidered what is important to them as a result of the pandemic. Collaboration and communication are crucial to employees throughout their entire employee journey.
It has become increasingly difficult to keep talented individuals during this competitive time for talent. The Great Resignation (also known as the “Great Reshuffle”) is still in progress. According to Gallup, it can cost an employer from one-half to two times the employee's annual salary to replace him or her. Because of this, organizations must focus on employee satisfaction now more than ever to avoid costly staff turnover, which reduces motivation and negatively impacts team performance.
Organizations can support team members and drive employee satisfaction by taking five steps:
Create a welcoming and engaging culture.
According to recent research from Gallup, only 20% of global employees are engaged at work. In the US, the percentage is higher at 33%. Still a miserable number. By now, we have heard the term “quiet quitting” to reflect the minimum amount of work to perform one’s duties and nothing more.
To achieve high performance and retention, employee engagement is imperative. To empower employees to think outside the box, collaborate, and find purpose in their jobs, organizations must make people feel safe, valued, and respected.
Ensure that everyone has the tools and resources to eliminate frustration and make it easy for people to find and share information and perform their jobs effectively by communicating with staff.
Prioritize the employee experience by providing opportunities to strengthen social bonds, such as through providing a hub or virtual water cooler for non-work-related discussions as well as regularly scheduling company outings and activities. In addition, provide a dedicated feedback center that encourages everyone to weigh in on important discussions and interact without fear of repercussions for being frank. Incorporate a digital 'kudos' section that allows all employees to give shoutouts to their peers and others to weigh in with their 'high fives'.
Establish an effective onboarding program
Businesses have attempted to improve their onboarding processes in response to the competitive labor market, yet few satisfy employees. Research shows that only 12% of respondents strongly agree that their company adequately welcomes new employees. When employees are dissatisfied with the treatment they receive during the onboarding process, productivity decreases and turnover rises.
Digital onboarding hubs are a cost-effective method to improve employee productivity by welcoming new personnel from day one. The onboarding center provides employees with checklists, digital employee manuals, important forms, contact information for key colleagues, and an FAQ section. Furthermore, it offers an opportunity for new employees to get acquainted with the company culture and values, connect with colleagues and ask questions, as well as get to know their colleagues and coworkers better and faster. You might even create individual departmental onboarding playbooks after completing corporate onboarding. After completing corporate onboarding, new hires can begin learning about their job and receive access to all of the company's written procedures and processes to refer to while having hands-on training with their peers.
Invest in employee development
According to Cengage Group research, 83% of workers leave their jobs because they no longer feel they are growing in their position. Employees who feel they are in a dead-end job will seek out more rewarding positions.
Given this fact, it is critical to ensure that employees see growth potential in the company and are willing to invest in training and professional development so that they feel valued and motivated to stay. A digital workplace can be a powerful tool for employee development. Make sure that useful company information is accessible through your firm’s intranet. Create a calendar of courses for training and development. Use the company blog to highlight employee success stories.
Set corporate and employee goals in a clear and open manner.
Every business relies on effective communication. Unfortunately, communication issues are real and have a lasting effect on business performance and workplace culture. 45% of the employees of one global accounting firm, for example, do not believe that their employer understands their needs as an employee. 40% feel that their voice is not heard at work.
In order for a message to be effective, it must flow in all directions, from the top down and from the bottom up. Every message should be delivered through the right medium. An intranet solution might be just what employers need to establish open lines of communication with in-office and remote workers. While it delivers a wide variety of services, it can also rescue employees from the depths of instant message threads and overwhelmed email inboxes by allowing them to comment on company announcements and other company news.
Senior team members can share a post or update with their team or with an individual team member, on which others may comment or ask questions. From a corporate communication standpoint, organizations can open up and deliver regular corporate updates from the CEO or senior leadership. This open communication line can help companies communicate their objectives and establish alignment for final goals for both in-office and remote employees.
Take work-life balance seriously
Employees with poor work-life balance will burn out, will have poor health and productivity, and will leave your firm. Employees in the hybrid world are seeking flexibility and benefits that improve their overall quality of life. According to Gallup, 51% of employees would switch jobs to one that allowed them to adjust their work hours to achieve a better work-life balance while achieving their professional responsibilities.
Make sure employees are paid for working outside of regular work hours while encouraging them to take breaks and use their vacation time. Focus on physical and mental health and establish a robust health and wellness center that includes helpful blog posts, tips, and advice. Team members should be encouraged to share information as a result.
Train managers and teams on how to interview
For as important hiring is, almost everyone who is involved with hiring has learned to interview by trial and error. Even when a hiring manager is trained, it is unusual for the others involved with the evaluation process to be trained, let alone to be told what to evaluate and assess for when they are drawn into participating in the interview process.
Then, there is the notion that hiring managers are clairvoyant enough to evaluate for fit when a person they are interviewing is on good behavior . . . and so are they! How do you evaluate for fit when each of you is acting on your best behavior?
Is it any wonder that Gallup-measured employee engagement statistics show a continued decline from 36% of the workforce being engaged in 2020 to 32% in 2022?
Be Forthcoming About Institutional Friction During Interviews
People start jobs feeling excited and quickly lose that feeling as they learn things that were withheld from them during interviews. Is it any wonder that people have become susceptible to the siren call of recruiters and search professionals highlighting the misrepresentations that have been made to a person and being open to a different job?
Telling people about your expectations, the amount of effort they will need to expend to satisfy you, as well as other cultural norms that exist within your organization BEFORE they join is important.
I’ve had a manager ask me for advice about someone on their staff who “refused” to attend office parties. It’s hard to imagine much more foolish an example of cultural friction than someone being considered a problem for not attending parties. No one considered that this person had young children and a desire to spend time with them while relieving their partner. No one considered a childcare expense that might be incurred.
Employers and employees are reconsidering what matters most to them as a result of the pandemic. Employees are questioning whether their current positions meet their needs. In order to keep their best talent, organizations must provide people with the resources and support they need to thrive. Digital workplaces, starting from the moment a person begins interviewing with a firm through their time working for a firm need to promote collaboration, consideration, and communication, which are crucial at every stage of a person’s professional journey with that firm.
Don’t neglect to develop a protocol for rejecting people either! In these days of easy-to-communicate grievances, you don’t want to dissuade people from interviewing because they heard a true story from someone who was mistreated by your firm.
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Jeff Altman, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is a career and leadership coach who helps people with their careers, including job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading, and resolving workplace-related issues while being the person they want to be in life. He has written 9 books and guides to job search and hiring, including "The Ultimate Job Interview Framework" and "The Right Answers to Tough Interview Questions." He is the host of No BS Job Search Advice Radio, the 1 podcast in Apple Podcasts for job search with more than 2100 episodes, as well as JobSearchTV.com on YouTube, Amazon, Roku, Apple TV, and 90+ smart sets. Jeff works with clients worldwide and is a popular speaker.
