While employee engagement can have a positive impact on company productivity, profit and performance, most engagement strategies are falling short of their goals. Benefits Canada reported that a survey by Right Management revealed 56 percent of organizations were unable to see improvements to their bottom lines after implementing new management tactics.
The results of the global survey suggest that the periodic engagement strategies many firms use are ineffective and should be replaced with continuous efforts to improve work conditions, career development and employee empowerment.
“Employee engagement should be a mindset, not a program that starts and stops when morale is bad,” said Scott Ahlstrand, Right Management’s global practice leader for employee engagement. “Unfortunately, many large organizations don’t have a true pulse on the value of their engagement. They need to effectively turn engagement data into meaningful intelligence at the department and individual manager level to help employees recognize their contributions to the business.”
Proper staff management can improve revenue generation and help firms increase efficiency, but without the right focus, businesses will fail to see tangible results. Companies that use periodic programs could see short-term success, but once the program ends employees quickly become disengaged. Each time the organization starts a new initiative it becomes harder to generate interest and participation, as staff members feel that things will eventually return to normal once the program ends.
Companies fail to utilise all of their options
Keeping engagement efforts going requires a high level of commitment from every level of leadership within the company. Regular communication is required to promote common goals, gain feedback and provide examples of success, but few businesses are using all of the tools available to them. For instance, Customer Think reported that just 6 percent of companies are using social networks to connect with customers and motivate their employees, in spite of the fact that one-quarter of the American workforce stated that social media tools allow them to do their jobs better.
Limiting access to resources that would help employees be more productive is extremely harmful to office morale. Organizations should strive to remove barriers to staff performance by creating social media policies that allow these tools to be utilized throughout the company. The article noted that this could improve communication and coordination between groups, as 31 percent of employees stated that access to online networks was important to them.
Limiting access to resources that would help employees be more productive is extremely harmful to office morale. Organizations should strive to remove barriers to staff performance by creating social media policies that allow these tools to be utilized throughout the company. The article noted that this could improve communication and coordination between groups, as 31 percent of employees stated that access to online networks was important to them.
In addition to providing workers with greater flexibility, social media allows people to offer encouragement and support in a public setting, which is essential to sustaining high levels of engagement. Without the right tools, businesses will fail to maintain engagement initiatives, reducing the programs’ ability to improve performance.
This article was provided courtesy of Michael Betrand of TemboStatus, the blog post was originally written by David Bator.
I would have to agree that periodic engagement strategies are less effective than continuous measures and businesses should strive to let their employees express themselves for the benefit of company growth and change for the better. At the end of the day, a happy employee is usually a productive member of the team.