Author: Kristina Proffitt

Categories
Employee Retention

5 HR analytics examples that can unlock new workforce insights

Analytics make the business world go ‘round. Even if we dislike them, there’s no denying they help us make more informed decisions. From sales to marketing to finance, every department needs them. People teams are no exception; tapping into the right HR analytics can lead to happier employees, faster business growth, and increased revenue.

What should you be tracking, though?

Which metrics can give you new insights into your workforce? What will improve employees’ lives and the life of your business, too?

We highlight five HR analytics examples you should be paying attention to below.

Engagement rate for employee programming

Employee groups, programs, and events improve many aspects of your business, such as diversity and inclusion, retention, and employee wellbeing. 

If employees aren’t participating in your programming, or you’re not sure what’s driving results, it’s time to expand your HR analytics.

Without real-time data on each of your employee experience initiatives, you won’t know how to maximize your impact. Is your programming reaching every team member? Are you offering the right types of groups, programs, and events? Is there anything missing?

Measuring the outcomes of your programming via once or twice yearly engagement surveys isn’t enough in today’s tough talent market. You need ongoing, real-time data to make the most of your employee experience investments.

Tools can help. Workrowd automatically collects engagement data for your programs and delivers it to you in easy-to-read dashboards. That way, you always know what’s working and where you can make improvements.

Retention/churn rate

Do you have a high churn rate? Or do employees stay and progress in your business?

This can be a tough stat to look at, especially if it’s high. Regardless, it’s an important metric to track as part of your HR analytics.

Some jobs and industries have a naturally higher employee turnover rate, such as sales or customer service. But if it’s a problem throughout the business, it may be a sign of a deeper, culture-based problem.

If there’s no room for employees to grow, or your workplace is toxic, this can increase your churn rate.

On the other hand, if employees feel comfortable and supported in their roles and like they’re making a real difference, they’re more likely to stay long-term.

If the issues you spot are department-specific, it’s worth considering…

Manager ratings

Sometimes, someone can be really great at one part of their job and terrible at another. Management roles are a great example. A lot of people can handle the paperwork part of management, but are terrible at the people management side. 

I’ve worked for people who fall into this category, and it doesn’t make for a nice working environment. In fact, the stress of this management style is part of why I have chronic health issues now. So, the way your manager behaves really does matter.

Asking employees to fill in feedback forms then pass them to their line manager is a bonkers practice. Unfortunately, it’s one I’ve seen all too often. If someone is being bullied, belittled or micromanaged by their boss, are they really going to feel comfortable passing on said feedback to that person?

Employee feedback should be honest, and they shouldn’t feel afraid or intimidated by their manager into providing nicer feedback. How can you analyze results that don’t tell you the full story?

If someone—regardless of rank—raises issues about their manager, they should be taken seriously. A position of power shouldn’t make someone immune to consequences of bad behavior.

If you struggle to hire for your managerial roles, and that’s why you’ve settled for someone who can do half the role, consider what your compensation package looks like. Is the pay too low? Are you combining two completely different skill sets that don’t work in one role? Are you hoping for a unicorn but settling for a donkey?

Managers need to be able to manage people as well as handle paperwork. It shouldn’t be an either/or situation. Use your HR analytics to spot managerial issues before they cost you.

Sick days

How content are your employees, really? Do they enjoy their jobs, or are they doing it just to pay the bills?

If you notice a pattern where a lot of employees are out with conditions such as chronic back pain or stress, it’s time to look at your workplace and culture.

Are employees sitting in uncomfortable chairs, or at bad desks, that are damaging their backs? 

Are they feeling pressured in their role, which is pushing their stress to unmanageable levels?

If you spot any patterns of recurring causes of illness—or an excessive amount of illnesses—talk to the employees who are experiencing these issues in a friendly, non-judgmental way. They’ll be more likely to open up to you if you speak to them like this. What they have to say may help you to unlock new insights that you hadn’t considered before.

Once you have this data, you can make changes to improve your workplace. You may need to make desk spaces more ergonomic, offer counseling to help employees manage stress, or look for ways to reduce their workload so that they don’t need to take so much time off.

Tracking sick time as part of your HR analytics approach ensures you can recognize issues with burnout and illness early enough to address them.

Down time

Do employees use their vacation days? When they take time off, do they feel guilty? 

How about responding to emails outside of working hours? Do they feel unable to take time off because they have too much to do?

I once worked with someone who was so busy that by the end of the year, she had almost 20 vacation days left to use.

But it was Christmastime—she couldn’t take the time off then, either. It was her department’s busiest time of year.

Employees should never feel so overworked that they don’t believe they can take a break. 

Breaks are an important part of us being able to work to the best of our capabilities. Without them, we’re less able to perform at our optimal physical or mental level, affecting our work and personal lives.

Tracking whether or not employees are taking PTO is an important piece of an effective HR analytics strategy.

Conclusion 

These are often overlooked areas that will help you unlock new insights into your workforce. They’ll give you information on how employees really feel in their roles, and what your workplace culture is actually like.

The deeper you go into the data as part of your HR analytics, the more you’ll reveal and the more improvements you can make.

Are you interested in automating data tracking and HR analytics for your employee programming? If so, we’d love to chat.

Drop us a line at hello@workrowd.com or vist our site to learn how our one-stop tool suite can help you to streamline processes, boost engagement, empower employee leaders, and automate data tracking and HR analytics.

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Company Culture

Employee groups to take your company culture to the next level

Whether your team is remote, hybrid, or office-based, employee groups can do a lot for your company culture.

Employee groups enable employees to get to know their colleagues beyond day-to-day work activities. This improves their social connections and benefits their mental health, making them happier in their roles.

Employee groups aren’t just good for employees, though. Businesses with solid employee groups save money on hiring. Their employees are more likely to stay, because they feel appreciated, valued, and accepted.

Since employees are happier, they’re also more productive, meaning that businesses can make more money and grow faster.

Phew, that’s a lot of benefits!

But which groups should you start with and why? Let’s take a look:

Location-based groups

No one knows somewhere like the locals. Bonding over a shared location can make close friends out of colleagues who are otherwise quite different.

Location-based employee groups can help employees expand their local network, discover new coworking places, find pet sitters, and even get restaurant recommendations.

They’re also great for team members traveling between offices who are looking for things to do or places to visit.

Book club

What someone reads can tell you a lot about them, but not always in ways you think.

For instance, horror fans tend to be some of the most laid-back people I know! Why? Because horror is great for facing fears. Facing fears in a safe environment, and channeling anxiety and adrenaline in this way, is a healthy outlet that can be good for our mental health.

Chatting about books is also a great way to connect with someone.

Sometimes, people want to read but don’t know where to get recommendations.

There are so many books published every year – around eight million! It can be scary knowing where to even start, especially if you’re not from a community where reading is a regular pastime. 

This was definitely me. I grew up in a town where most people didn’t read, so I had nobody to suggest books I might enjoy. Most of the books I read as a child and teenager were recommendations from my mom’s work colleagues who had children of a similar age.

Since things like remote working, busy lives, and just general life can make it harder for us to find people with similar interests or get recommendations, a book club can help employees find a new book, series, or author to teach them something new or help them escape for a little while.

TV and film 

TV shows and movies are another effective way for people to connect with a low barrier to entry. Think of this as a virtual form of water cooler chat.

Group leaders could even schedule virtual (or in-person) watch parties. That way, everyone can chat about what they’re watching in real time.

Mental health 

Our mental health can have a dramatic impact on our working lives, and vice versa. Enabling employees to discuss mental health in a safe space can really help them feel supported and understood. 

You could have a general mental health group, where you or other members share hacks to improve mental health and talk about some of the challenges. You could also have employee groups for different conditions like depression, anxiety, etc.

Physical health

Suffering from chronic physical health problems can be incredibly isolating.

Having a group dedicated to improving physical health, or maybe even groups for different conditions like chronic pain, menopause, or diabetes, gives team members who are dealing with these issues somewhere to discuss them with people who understand and may be able to offer advice. 

Even if someone can’t get advice, they’ll be able to share how they’re feeling. This will help to reduce those feelings of isolation and maybe even reduce their pain because they’re not suppressing it.

Mindfulness & meditation

To me, mindfulness is underappreciated and overhyped. No one ever really explains or explores the true benefits. They just say that meditation and mindfulness are good for you. But why?

Let’s take meditation as an example. It can lower stress levels, reduce chronic pain levels by up to 40%, make it easier to deal with difficult situations or emotions, improve our heart health, and help us concentrate. It may also help with things like ADHD, anger management, anxiety, and depression.

That’s not even all of the benefits. It’s no wonder people talk about it sometimes like it’s a wonder drug.

All that being said, it can be hard to know where to start if you’re new to mindfulness. A mindfulness/meditation group allows people to dip their toe in with a side of moral support and discussions on different types and techniques.

Public speaking 

Public speaking can be a necessary part of life, but not everyone is comfortable doing it. 

Having a public speaking group that’s led by a confident speaker, or someone working toward becoming one, can be a powerful way to show employees that it’s okay if they struggle. You’ve got a community-led way to support them.

Let’s not forget how much better it can make meetings when employees have the confidence to speak up, too. The more people who speak up during meetings, the more ideas you’ll get and the more problems you can solve.

LGBTQ+

One way to show your diversity and inclusion policy is more than just lip service is by having an LGBTQ+ group (or even individual ones if your company is that large). 

This helps LGBTQ+ employees connect with other people who understand them, can relate to them, and who can offer advice if needed.

People of color

A group—or groups—for people of color is another way to show you really care about diversity and inclusion. 

It allows BIPOC from different departments to get to know each other and support each other when they’re at work. This gives them more of a voice and helps attract more diverse candidates.

Conclusion 

These are just some of the foundational employee groups that will show your team members you really do care about their wellbeing. Engaging in supportive employee groups will also encourage them to stick around long-term.

In large companies, you could split some of these into subgroups or chapters. Or, you could create even more groups on everything from hobbies to charitable causes.

The options of what you can create employee groups around are only limited by the types of employees you want working for you.

Are you interested in getting some employee groups up and running quickly and easily? Or do you want to take your current employee groups to the next level?

Workrowd’s tools for launching, managing, and measuring employee groups have you covered. Our user-friendly platform has everything you need to connect your team with a thriving community of employee groups.

Want to learn more? Drop us a line at hello@workrowd.com. We’d love to connect!

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Categories
Employee Engagement Employee Retention

Employee engagement and retention – benefits of the right tools

When it comes to employee engagement and retention, having the right tools is crucial. In today’s rapidly changing world of work, you have to cater to a wide range of team member needs. At the same time, you still have to cover all the standard bases as well.

To achieve all this without the help of digital tools would take more hours than there are in a day. But what should you be looking for to fill out your toolbox?

Workrowd is dedicated to helping organizations improve their employee experience and create real, lasting connections across their workforces. Our tool suite drives employee engagement and retention while helping you keep all the balls in the air.

As you determine which employee engagement and retention tools to use at your organization, consider the benefits you’re looking to achieve. For example, here are just some of the ways Workrowd helps companies and their teams:

Simplified onboarding

Onboarding a new employee can be stressful. There’s so much you have to introduce them to, it’s easy to miss things related to culture and engagement. 

Workrowd makes it easy to immerse new team members in your company culture from day one. Whether they’re remote, hybrid, or on-site, everyone gets equal access. 

All you have to do is add them to the platform when you add them to your other systems. Then, they can scroll through all your organization’s employee groups, programs, and events in one place, at their own speed. They won’t have to dig through chat channels, trawl your intranet, or hope to hear about things from colleagues.

Making sure team members feel welcome and included from day one is key to employee engagement and retention.

Deeper work relationships

When someone has friends at work, they’re more than twice as likely to be engaged. Employee engagement impacts everything from employee happiness, to experience, to productivity, to retention.

So, while it may seem like a small thing, ensuring team members feel like they belong where they work could actually be one of the biggest contributors to your business’s ability to retain employees and make a profit.

Using Workrowd, team members can connect with colleagues and take full advantage of all your employee programming. With one-click signups, personalized experiences, and more, it couldn’t be easier to get involved.

Workrowd empowers team members to engage with anything from mindfulness sessions to Toastmasters clubs to employee resource groups and everything in between. Relationships built in these spaces help ensure deep bonds between colleagues that drive employee engagement and retention.

Lower churn rate

How many times have you heard someone say they stayed somewhere because of the people? It’s a common refrain, and for good reason. Even if we don’t always love what we’re doing, if the people are great, it can make it worth it.

We spend more time with our work colleagues than the people we live with. So, is the importance of employees’ relationships with each other really that surprising?

If an employee is more engaged and connected, they’re more likely to stick around. Their job will feel less like something they do just to pay the bills. It will become an important part of their community, life, and identity.

Increased satisfaction

Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are a great way to find out about employees’ satisfaction. Workrowd automatically tracks the NPS for each of your employee events, groups, and programs. This way, you always know where you stand.

Armed with this information, you can spend your time where it matters most – improving programs with low scores, and championing those that are doing well. This way, you can take a data-driven approach to increasing employee engagement and retention.

Employees are in control, too. They can join whatever initiatives they like, mute notifications, check in at certain times of day, etc.; it’s totally flexible based on what they need.

This ability to personalize the employee experience can greatly increase your NPS. By equipping team members to self-serve, each individual can build a work life they love from day one.

Reduced admin work

Some people enjoy admin tasks, but nobody can deny that they’re a huge time sink. 

When you factor in multiple topics and sources of data, it can be a real headache to manage everything for employee engagement, talent management, DEI, and company culture.

By centralizing everything, and automating tasks like data collection and analysis, Workrowd reduces how much time you spend on admin tasks.

The platform collects data through activity tracking, post-initiative surveys, and ongoing pulse surveys, then pulls it into customizable dashboards.

You can view KPIs, progress towards those KPIs, employee demographics, program budgets, and more. It all depends on what’s relevant for your organization.

Workrowd also frees you from having to manage membership lists manually, share materials in multiple places, juggle calendars, etc. The platform handles it all.

With Workrowd, you can set it, forget it, and move on with the work that really matters, while staff are just a click away from a richer employee experience.

Personalized experiences

Nowadays, personalization is so important. Employees are used to personalization from consumer brands, so they expect it at work, too.

Luckily, with Workrowd, it’s not just admins who get personalized dashboards—employees do, too.

They just click to register for all the programs, groups, and topics that interest them. This all gets added to their personalized dashboard so they have an all-in-one view of everything they have coming up.

Especially with people working across so many times and locations, having this collective touchpoint can go a long way towards increasing employee engagement and retention.

One-stop shopping

Workrowd centralizes all your employee initiatives, so that every team member can take full advantage of everything you have to offer. 

No more employees slipping through the cracks or missing out on important opportunities. Give them a one-stop shop for culture and engagement.

All your talent initiatives get equal billing, from social impact, to diversity and inclusion, to learning and development, health and wellness, innovation, recreation, and more. 

Workrowd’s flexible structure makes it highly adaptable to your company’s specific culture. You can effectively establish a town square for all team members that’s accessible from anywhere.

Automated insights

Modular analytics and automated surveys allow you to see, at a glance, which programs are driving impact and which ones need more support, empowering you to optimize your strategy and spending.

When exploring tools to improve employee engagement and retention, data tracking and analytics should be a key consideration.

Easy localization

The option to organize Workrowd by region or office means it’s easy to ensure employees’ portals only show them the groups, programs, and events available to them, including company-wide initiatives. Perfect for a global or hybrid organization.

Evolving community knowledgebase

When someone leaves, their knowledge leaves with them. This can create real challenges as you have to train someone new in their role. What’s often overlooked though, is that you also have to find new people to take over the other roles that person may have held in terms of culture, group leadership, etc.

Workrowd allows you to create a knowledgebase so that when someone who’s in charge of a group or activity does leave, their successor can get up to speed much faster. This way, that group or program doesn’t collapse, or experience major setbacks.

Increased productivity and collaboration

Is it any surprise, when people work together on extracurriculars, they’re more likely to collaborate better on work projects, too? 

A greater sense of community throughout the business helps with interdepartmental relationships, giving everyone and everything a boost.

Workrowd also increases participation in and effectiveness of employee groups, programs, and events, driving employee engagement and retention throughout your business.

Conclusion

These are just some of the benefits you can gain from tapping into the right tools to increase employee engagement and retention.

Workrowd’s user-friendly platform is designed to help your people find their people, no matter where or when they work. Our suite of tools ensures you can maximize the impact of your employee groups, programs, and events, making the most of your investment.

Don’t just take our word for it, though. Take it from one of our customers: “Workrowd has been an incredible asset allowing us to be more connected as a team. Implementation was seamless and the value of the tool continues to grow every day with real time input from our employees and management team.”

If you’d like to learn more about how you can partner with Workrowd to increase employee engagement and retention, send us a note to hello@workrowd.com.

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Categories
Employee Engagement

Employee clubs should be HR’s favorite tool – 8 reasons why

We all like to feel we’re a part of something. Employee clubs are a great way to build this experience of belonging for every team member at your organization.

Community is incredibly powerful. Studies have proven human connection is one of the key ingredients to a longer, happier life. On the flip side, loneliness can shorten one’s lifespan and exacerbate chronic illnesses.

There’s no reason why someone’s job can’t give them a sense of belonging or contribute to their sense of community. This sadly isn’t always the case, though. 

Many businesses don’t feel the need to set up or encourage any sort of employee clubs or groups. They also don’t encourage employee socialization or connection. 

This may be because of financial reasons, not understanding the benefits, or not feeling it contributes enough to the bottom line to be worth the extra effort.

But employee clubs can be an easy way to encourage colleagues to connect with one another, leading to many benefits. 

Here are some of the reasons why employee clubs should be one of HR’s favorite tools:

Improved retention

When someone feels like they belong at work, they’re more likely to stay long-term. 

Employee clubs are a great way for people to connect with colleagues who share their interests or backgrounds and whom they may not have met otherwise, especially in a larger organization.

The slower your employee turnover, the more money you’ll save on the often lengthy and expensive hiring process. That gives you more money to spend on other areas of HR and the rest of the business.

Better employee mental health

Community and belonging play huge roles in someone’s mental health. This is true both in terms of helping them if they’re feeling isolated, lonely, or anxious, and when it comes to protecting their mental wellbeing.

An employee may not always feel like they can talk to their teammates, or their teammates may not understand their situation. If there are employee clubs where people can share experiences, it can connect them with someone who gets what they’re going through and can listen and offer advice if desired.

Fewer sick days

As I mentioned in the introduction, community is good for both our physical and mental health. 

Community can be a motivational tool which encourages us to get up and moving. This prevents our joints from seizing up and causing issues like back pain. Back pain is actually one of the biggest reasons for sick leave in the US.

As physical and emotional pain are processed in the same part of the brain, the amygdala, the suppression of emotions can lead to chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia or migraines. This is also why one of the symptoms of depression is random aches and pains.

When someone has people who understand them and are willing to listen, they’re less likely to bottle up their issues. As a result, it’s less likely to manifest in their body as chronic pain.

Develop the right mindset

Connecting with people to whom you relate, but who may be at a more advanced stage of their career, can really help someone to grow their mindset. 

Mindsets are contagious. If you’re hanging around pessimists all the time, chances are you’re going to adopt a more negative outlook, too. 

The same is true if you hang around people who are uplifting, optimistic, and hardworking. 

If someone is a chronic complainer, connecting them to a mindfulness club, or someone who’s got a brighter outlook, could be all they need to see the world from a different angle.

Grow their skills

Every employee has a unique set of skills just waiting to be shared with other people within your business. Employee clubs allow them to show off their skills.

If someone is feeling bored in their role, employee clubs could help them develop new skills. These could then allow them to move into another department. That way you don’t lose their existing business knowledge. Plus, you won’t need to hire someone new, train them in the role, and teach them about your business, a process which can take several months at a minimum.

Better interdepartmental connections

Some departments traditionally have fractured or non-existent relationships, like accounting and marketing. 

When employees connect with others who are outside of their department, it can lead to better interdepartmental connections and collaborations. It can abolish any previous tensions that may have existed between the two teams. 

This benefits everything from problem solving to product launches, leading to better teamwork and a greater sense of community within your business as a whole, as well as in the individual employee clubs.

More attractive to candidates

While money is always a big factor when someone is job hunting, it’s no longer the biggest one. Senses of purpose and belonging matter just as much, if not more.

Sharing details of the employee clubs that exist can be a real selling point to people who are looking not just for a place to work, but for a place to create connections and develop their skills.

You could do this on social media, in the job description, or even in marketing emails. 

It helps if any social media content is shared by employees from their account, rather than from a branded page. Employees have a much larger reach and are seen as more trustworthy than what is often a faceless brand.

Greater productivity

Who doesn’t love productive employees?

When someone feels a greater sense of belonging, they’re happier in their role, and they’re therefore more productive, too. 

This reflects well on all areas of the business, and of course, generates more income. 

You can therefore grow faster thanks to the additional revenue from having more productive employees and a lower churn rate.

Conclusion 

Employee clubs can benefit every area of a business, from attraction to retention to employee productivity and experience. Setting them up and keeping them running doesn’t have to be a complicated process, either. 

Workrowd’s lightweight platform makes it easy to market, manage, and measure all your employee clubs. From professional development to social impact, and from recreation to diversity and inclusion, our suite of tools empowers you to meet a wide range of employee needs.

If you’re curious to learn more and see if Workrowd is a fit for your organization, send a note to hello@workrowd.com. We’d love to learn more about your goals and discuss ways to increase engagement, retention, and belonging with employee clubs.

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Categories
Employee Engagement

Improving employee engagement – the tools to use hour by hour

There are a lot of HR tech products out there. Many of them promise increased engagement, greater connection, and a wealth of other benefits. But what does improving employee engagement actually look like during a typical workday?

Meet Mia. She’s a hard-working mom of two intent on doing it all. She’s been working from home these past couple of years thanks to the pandemic, and she’s just now starting to go into the office a couple of days per week.

Mia’s’s always been pretty social, despite her introverted tendencies, and the transition to remote hit her harder than she expected. Luckily, her company was ready with tools to keep her connected, engaged, and thriving.

Let’s see how Workrowd makes improving employee engagement easy for Mia’s employer, as we follow her on a typical day in the life.

A day in the life with Workrowd

8:15am

The kids are off to school, the laundry’s already in the dryer, and Mia’s feeling good about the day ahead. She grabs a cup of coffee and settles in at her desk. 

Before she starts work, it’s time for her moment of mindfulness, thanks to the company’s meditation group. 

Mia pulls up Workrowd in her browser and checks out the mindfulness prompt for today. She starts to practice the breathing exercises she learned recently to quiet her mind. 

She’s up to fifteen minutes of meditation per day now, from five. The benefits to her concentration and mental health are really starting to come through. All the techniques she’s learned have also proven helpful when the kids are testing her patience!

If she hadn’t had the chance to check out the group on Workrowd first, without having to commit to anything, she never would’ve gotten into mindfulness. Now, she’s not sure how she could function without it. 

9:30am

Now that her email inbox is (somewhat) under control and she’s put out a couple of fires, it’s time for her first meeting of the day. It’s to discuss a new cross-departmental project, which can be tricky when you’re working with new colleagues. 

Luckily, she already knows a couple of the people involved thanks to the company Toastmasters group. Having bonded over their fear of public speaking, collaboration is going to be a lot easier. 

Mia had wanted to try Toastmasters for years. So, when she saw the company group on Workrowd the day she started, she clicked the ‘Join’ button immediately. (Even though she was already anxious just thinking about her first speech!) Her confidence and speaking skills have improved quite a bit, and she’s enjoying the challenge. Presenting in meetings is much less stressful now, too!

11:00am

They changed the time of the All Hands this week, but Workrowd sent her a notification, meaning there was no confusion over when it was actually happening. 

Because of the new time, Mia has to leave the All Hands early to join a previously scheduled call. Workrowd has her covered, though. The recording will be posted and easy to find, along with the slides and any comments from the team. She’s going to check it all out tomorrow morning when she has a few spare minutes.

12:30pm

As the sponsor of the Managers-in-Training program, Mia’s put together a lunch and learn.

Workrowd enabled her to notify and share readings with all the participants in advance. She used to have to manually update the program’s mailing list to keep everyone in the loop, but now the platform takes care of membership.

Plus, everyone knew where to find the materials alongside the event information, so they were all prepared when they arrived. It’s a big help to have so much of the admin work off of her plate. Now she can focus her energy on running a great program that delivers results.

Workrowd doesn’t just help employers with improving employee engagement; it also empowers employee leaders to drive culture and engagement from the ground up. Today’s lunch and learn discussion yielded some great insights.

1:30pm

As the lunch and learn discussion wraps up, Mia remembers that she needs to update her group’s budget and download a reimbursement form for some supplies she purchased for a recent training session. 

Having everything in one place on Workrowd is super convenient. 

She updates her budget with the new information so leadership can easily see how much she spent and compare it against their key performance indicators. Mia is proud that the Managers-in-Training program is operating under budget while exceeding their goals. 

After she grabs the reimbursement form from the Tools section of the leaders’ group, she signs and submits it. Job done!

2:00-4:00pm

Time for some deep, focused work. 

Because Workrowd organizes all of Mia’s notifications about the company’s employee groups, programs, and events in one place, she’s not getting random pings about fitness classes or happy hours while she’s trying to concentrate. 

That doesn’t mean she’s going to miss out, though. She can catch up on what’s happening on her own time, instead of getting interrupted every time something is posted.

4:00pm

After some deep work, Mia opens Workrowd to change her response for this evening’s company volunteer shift. Originally, she’d RSVPed for three people since it was just going to be her and the kids. Luckily though, her partner’s business dinner was cancelled, so now there will be four of them. 

Thanks to the comprehensive event details on Workrowd, she knew it was okay to add an additional person this close to the start time.

7:00pm

The whole family had a great time at the volunteer event, and really felt like they were able to make a difference. Now, everyone’s hungry but they can’t decide where to grab a bite. 

Mia remembers that there was a discussion thread about family-friendly restaurants in the Resources section of the caregivers’ ERG. She quickly pulls up Workrowd to check out what her colleagues recommended. 

They find a great place and while they’re driving there, Mia takes two minutes to fill out the five-question feedback survey about the volunteer event. 

She knows the group leader and the HR team will really love hearing about how much fun the family had. The automated analytics make it much easier for them to see how groups, programs, and events are impacting her and her colleagues in real time. 

Mia greatly prefers this bite-size version to the flood of requests to complete those endless employee engagement surveys once or twice a year.

10:00pm

Time to start winding down. Mia climbs into bed and dives back into the current book for the company book club. It’s a real page-turner! 

It’s so good that she drops a note in the book club chat on Workrowd, sharing how much she’s enjoying the story. Hopefully it’ll encourage anyone considering skipping this month to give it a chance. She’s so glad she has such a great work community.

Conclusion 

Mia’s story isn’t uncommon. Companies everywhere are enjoying the benefits of improving employee engagement with Workrowd.

The wide array of employee experience tools out there can be overwhelming. If you’re currently exploring options for improving employee engagement, let’s talk.

We’d love to learn more about any challenges you’re facing with your current approach to improving employee engagement, and discuss some ways our one-stop suite of tools can help.

Improving employee engagement doesn’t have to be hard. With Workrowd’s customizable, user-friendly platform, you can automate processes, reduce admin time, and keep every team member engaged and thriving.

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Wellness

6 best practices to keep your team from getting burnt out at work

Feeling burnt out at work is becoming all too common. Many of us who’ve experienced it have even gone through it more than once.

When you look into who’s most likely to get burnt out at work, it’s actually not surprising.

When someone is happy to work 9-5, or whatever their hours may be, they can finish their shift or close their laptop and be done for the day, disconnecting to spend time on other projects or hobbies.

Those of us who love what we do are more likely to wind up burnt out at work. That’s because we’re more likely to work longer hours and struggle to leave work at the end of the day. This means we work harder and push ourselves harder, forgetting to pace ourselves and factor in time for self-care.

People are also more likely to get burnt out at work when we’re neurodivergent or part of another underrepresented group. We have to constantly try to adapt to how the world works—which is usually not in our favor.

Masking, or covering, where someone tries to hide or tone down one or more of their identities, is also incredibly draining. It’s something a lot of people feel they have to do to be successful. Masking and covering take a lot of mental energy to sustain, too.

So, what can you, as an employer, do to prevent employees from feeling burnt out at work?

Here are a few starting points:

Set realistic deadlines

If an employee tells you something will take a month to do, don’t give them two weeks. 

This creates additional pressure, especially if they’re a people pleaser. That additional pressure is subconsciously (or maybe consciously) draining. They’ll end up with less energy to work on the project because they’re so busy worrying.

Sure, they may meet the unrealistic deadline, but is the damage to their physical and/or mental health really worth it?

Offer flexible working

You know something that really didn’t help when I was becoming burnt out at work? Forcing myself to get up early.

I’m just not a morning person. When I do get up early, I like to take things slowly.

Businesses that don’t offer flexible working are increasingly missing out on talent, as it’s now one of the deciding factors for many people when they’re looking for a new job.

Flexible working has many benefits, from allowing employees to work while caring for children, to helping them better manage their health conditions.

If someone is getting burnt out at work, allowing them that extra hour in bed instead of commuting into work can make a bigger difference than you may think. While sleep won’t solve everything, it will restore their energy. Spending time on crowded public transport or waiting in traffic will have the opposite effect.

Encourage hobbies outside of work

Part of enjoying what you do can mean studying it outside of work hours. For instance, staying up on the latest trends, learning a new programming language or social media app, etc.

However, it’s important that we all disconnect from work sometimes. Having hobbies unrelated to work can help with this.

You could encourage these by asking what people like to do and setting up channels or krowds for popular hobbies, like gardening, cooking, or even watching TV.

Set clear boundaries

Boundaries are really important when it comes to preventing people from becoming burnt out at work. Being unable to disconnect is part of the problem. If someone feels like they have to reply to that email or chat message from their boss, or they might lose their job, it doesn’t set healthy boundaries or show them respect.

I get needing to jot an idea down so that you don’t forget it. It’s something I do all the time. But instead of messaging outside of work hours, could you write it on a note-taking app? Or schedule the email to go out during work hours, so that you’re not disturbing someone’s disconnection time?

It’s rare that things are ever as urgent as we convince ourselves that they are. Most things can wait until morning.

Offer support

Can you offer discounted therapy through your employee perks program? Or a meditation app? Maybe another wellness-focused app?

There are lots of small ways that you can offer support. These include app partnerships and discounts or sharing your own story so those experiencing something similar feel less alone.

It’s also important that managers are open to listening. They need to understand how important mental health is and pay attention when their team members tell them they’re struggling, their workload is unattainable, or maybe something is happening in their personal life that’s making things particularly challenging for them.

Be patient

Burnout—and the period as someone is creeping up the hill, unaware they’re about to fall off a cliff—can happen without us noticing. It also changes how someone thinks, feels, and works.

So, if you notice a change in how someone works, rather than feeling annoyed with them, be patient with them.

Instead of jumping to conclusions, ask what’s wrong. They may not have noticed that what’s happening in their personal life is affecting their work life.

Conclusion 

Burnout is a serious health problem, and it’s on employers to prevent it from happening to their employees. Setting unrealistic deadlines, disrespecting—or not setting—boundaries, and expecting work to be someone’s life are all negative things employers can do that put their employees one step closer to getting burnt out at work.

It’s up to employers to set an example. You don’t have to make grand gestures. Simply drawing clear boundaries, being realistic with deadlines, and paying attention to what could be impacting employees’ wellness can all help to prevent employees from falling off the burnout cliff.

Another opportunity to protect your team against becoming burnt out at work is to ensure they have strong connections with colleagues. Workrowd can help by making it easy for people to tap into all your employee groups, programs, and events from day one. Supportive relationships can go a long way towards keeping employees engaged, well, and happy in their roles. Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Employee Experience

7 strategies to create a great employee journey at every step

Whether your organization is office-based, remote, or hybrid, the employee journey is everything. 

A positive employee journey will drive retention, boost productivity, and mean you make more money. Your workplace will also attract better quality candidates and be a more uplifting place to work. Who doesn’t want that?

However, when it comes to building a world-class employee journey, some businesses feel stuck. Can you really build an employee journey that delivers for all team members, no matter where or when they work?

Yes you can. The cornerstone of any effective employee journey is communication. With or without technology, that can happen in a range of ways, it doesn’t just have to be face-to-face.

In fact, let’s not forget that for some people, face-to-face communication is challenging. Digital may be more comfortable, or even aid in how they process the information.

With that in mind, let’s explore some tips to build a great employee journey both in-person and digitally:

Encourage connection

Regardless of how big your company is, or where it’s based, connection is pivotal to people feeling like they belong. Of course, it’s also pivotal to the business running smoothly. There’s nothing worse than one department saying one thing, and another department saying another to a client or contractor.

Connection is key to successful communication. When teams value what other departments do, they’re more likely to discuss things with them and value their input.

If it’s a competitive environment, this is much less likely to happen. That’s also where you end up with situations where the left side doesn’t know what the right side is doing. This leads to poor collaboration among teams and potentially even with customers.

In a situation where an employee already feels isolated, like remote working, a competitive or unhealthy environment can worsen it. People need to feel like they can talk to and connect with someone. Even if it’s just about what they watched on TV last night. Never underestimate the impact of those types of connections when it comes to someone’s mental and physical health.

Check-in regularly

Regular check-ins, whether they’re individual, in a group, written, or on a call, show employees that you really care about their wellbeing. 

You could also encourage employees to check in with each other, especially if someone has been quiet or acting out of character. 

The extent to which a simple “how are you?” can lead to someone opening up and feeling better may surprise you. It’s one of the simplest ways to improve the employee journey.

Keep chats engaged

Tools like Slack, Teams, and Workrowd are really important for a top-notch employee journey. They make people feel like a part of the team. So long as they’re not a ghost town. 

When these spaces are quiet, people may feel uncomfortable asking questions or getting involved in them. Try to post something regularly, even if it’s just a business update or asking a question in the general section.

Ask for feedback

You don’t know if what you’re doing is working until you ask someone. Your employees can give you crucial insights into what you’re doing and whether it’s the right thing for them and their colleagues. 

They may also have suggestions for how you can improve the employee journey.

Make space for both digital and in-person interactions

Some people are uncomfortable on camera, writing feedback, or discussing something over Slack. They’d prefer to do these things in an office, sitting next to someone. 

It’s time to get over that self-consciousness and treat digital interactions like you would when you’re talking to someone in the office. This will make you, and the person you’re talking to, feel more comfortable.

Many of these things get easier over time and with practice. 

You can improve giving written feedback by researching editing techniques. This is something that many people don’t realize they can and should do anyway. Giving feedback is an art and a science, just like many other things in life. Doing it well is also a key part of a great employee journey.

Support different departments and ranks

Even if someone is further down the career ladder, their messages shouldn’t be ignored or treated differently. 

In previous roles, I’ve had my messages ignored, even when they were urgent. I’m not sure if that was because of my rank or department, but it made it a lot harder to do my job. 

It also makes the person on the receiving end feel pretty terrible. If their colleagues are ignoring them, does that mean people don’t value them within the business? Are they bad at their job? Do their coworkers dislike them?

You really don’t want to be running a company where people feel that way. Not only does it come with wellbeing risks for the employee, but it will also lead to a higher churn rate for your business.

Have time to disconnect

Disconnection from work is just as important as building connections between colleagues. 

Not having to respond to emails or messages immediately can help employees get into a state of deep work. This can then make them more productive and mean what they produce is of a higher quality.

You could have a set time for everyone to disconnect, or allow people to choose their own time. What matters is that you know the importance of taking time away from the constant barrage of work notifications.

Conclusion 

A world-class employee journey is really about one thing: connection. The more connected someone feels to the rest of their team and others within the business, the happier they’re likely to be and the more work they’ll get done.

Technology now makes it easier for us to connect than ever. This means you have a wider pool of talent to choose from, can hire a more diverse workforce, and can reap all the benefits that those things provide.

The more you embrace taking steps to improve the employee journey, the more employees will follow your lead and do the same. They may even introduce you to new strategies, tools, and techniques you hadn’t considered before, but that would be the perfect fit for your business.

One tool that can support you in improving the employee journey is Workrowd. By connecting staff to the full array of your employee groups, programs, and events from day one, our user-friendly platform makes it easy for everyone to build a personalized employee journey they love.

Plus, with automated analytics, you always know where you stand and how you can make the employee journey even better. Drop us a line at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Company Culture

8 tips for building the best company culture for your team

Building the best company culture for your organization often requires big changes. This can be a real challenge, especially in older, more established, and larger companies. That doesn’t make it impossible, though.

Instead, what it requires is a lot of hard work, perseverance, and resilience. If you don’t have those things to start off with, changing company culture probably isn’t for you. 

If you really do want to build the best company culture for your organization though, read on…

Be honest with yourself

The first step to building the best company culture is the most uncomfortable one for any leader.

It’s time for some hard truths. What’s really not working for your company culture? Has it turned toxic? What are the signs?

Consider:

  • How is underrepresented talent treated in their own words?
  • Do you have a diverse workforce?
  • How productive are your employees?
  • How much time do they spend off sick?

These are some questions that can work as jumping-off points to learning more about your culture. The most positive working environments are diverse, welcoming, productive, and lose fewer days to illness.

Get feedback (from current and exiting employees)

Getting feedback on your company culture can be incredibly enlightening. It’s especially helpful to hear from departing employees who’ve been burned or who are just brutally honest.

Many employees may feel uncomfortable being as upfront as you need them to be. Therefore, it’s important to be clear that there won’t be repercussions if they are honest—and make sure there aren’t!

Also, make sure that, if you get feedback through a survey, it doesn’t go to someone’s line manager. It should go straight to you or HR.

If someone has issues with their line manager’s behavior, it’s a sign of a toxic culture. However, they won’t feel they can be honest about that behavior if they’re sending the feedback directly to their manager.

This weird system also creates more work for already busy line managers.

Explore what others are doing

Talking to other business owners and seeing what they’re doing to build the best company culture for themselves can give you insight into how to create the type of culture you really want. 

Many businesses with a positive culture are open about it and share information on how to replicate it. 

HubSpot is a great example. They talk about their company culture on their blog, social media, and even on podcast interviews.

Make a statement

To show people you’re really serious about building the best company culture, it’s important to make a statement. What do you feel is wrong? What needs to change?

Most importantly, how do you plan to change it?

This last question is the step that many miss. Or, they bring in some expensive consultant who doesn’t really do much other than eat into their budget.

Politicians often make promises during elections to win votes, but they really don’t intend to implement the things they’re promising. Then, those promises end up not happening and voters turn against them.

Don’t let that happen in your business—have a clear plan for what changes you want to make, how, and when. You’ll get far more respect from people inside, and outside, of the business if you have these steps in place before you make a statement.

Or, if you need to say something ASAP, you could make a statement about changing things and apologizing for toxicity in the workplace. Then, invite feedback to help you form your plan, which you can announce in a future statement. 

Create new guidelines

Having clear guidelines that map out your new approach shows everyone what’s expected of them going forward and gives them a reference point.

Making it as accessible as possible with lots of headings and short paragraphs is key. You could even create a quick summary video for those who process things in a more visual or auditory way.

Set an example

Saying you’ll do things is all very well and good, but it’s important that you set an example. You need to be the one to follow your new guidelines first and foremost. If you don’t follow them, why should anybody else?

Hire new employees based on the culture you want, not what you have

This is why having new guidelines and setting an example is so important. It will help hiring managers to see what your business goals are and how they can help drive them.

If you want the best company culture, you have to engage the people who can help you implement change. This may mean bringing in new managers, as they’ll have a bigger influence over employees’ daily activities.

Once they’re in place, you need employees who want to work in a positive environment and can help foster it. They’re going to be the ones dealing with your customers every day. This means they need to be the ones with the right mindset and approach for things to really improve. 

Learn from your mistakes

Far too many people are afraid to own up to their mistakes, let alone learn from them. And that can lead to the demise of any business.

When you own up to your mistakes, you come across as relatable. Only if you know what you did wrong, admit to it, and plan to change things going forward, though.

Shifting the blame, or hiding from accountability, is not learning from your mistakes. It’s unhealthy, unfair, and can negatively impact brand trust, internally and externally.

Conclusion 

Building the best company culture is a real challenge, but it’s an important part of modernizing a business. This is especially true for ones that may be more uncomfortable operating digitally, or that have developed a toxic work environment from hiring the wrong people for too long.

To change your business’s culture, it starts with finding out what the problem is. Speaking to your employees, particularly those who are paid the least or are part of an underrepresented group, will help you to see where the problems are and get suggestions on how to improve things.

Then, you can begin setting an example, detailing what you’d like to change and how you plan to change it.

Another important part of building the best company culture is creating a thriving ecosystem of employee groups, programs, and events, and putting them front and center for team members. Employees today want more than just a job, so make it easy for your people to access learning and development opportunities, social impact activities, affinity groups and clubs, and much more with Workrowd.

Our one-stop shop offers tools to get your culture on track, plus customizable, real-time analytics to keep it there. Drop by our site to learn more, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com. We’d love to connect.

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Wellness

9 ways to boost health and wellness in the workplace

Championing health and wellness in the workplace is key to attracting and retaining top talent. When your employees are healthy, physically and mentally, both your team and your business benefit. Employees are more productive, more engaged, and they’re less likely to call out sick.

There are some simple steps you can take to boost health and wellness in the workplace. Here are just a few of them:

Invest in a mindfulness/ meditation app

Many mindfulness/meditation apps have company plans where you can buy licenses in bulk for your employees to use.

Investing in an app like this shows employees you understand the benefits of mindfulness and meditation, and that you want to encourage them to take time out of their day to care for themselves.

Have open communication

Open communication is at the heart of any healthy relationship, and that includes working ones.

Supporting employees with open communication shows them you value their opinions and you’re not going to brush them off based on their position in the hierarchy.

Frustration is a common emotion many of us feel at work. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to express this instead of bottling it up. It’s much better for our physical and mental health and can prevent problems from getting worse.

Although it’s rarely thought of in this context, open communication is an important strategy for boosting health and wellness in the workplace.

Encourage exercise

I’ll be honest, I hate exercise. But I do it because I know it’s good for my mind and body.

If you have a fast-paced, stressful culture, encouraging employees to exercise can help them work off that stress. This way, they can think more clearly, make fewer mistakes, and get more done.

Exercise helps us to grow new neurons and bridge gaps between existing ones. This can improve conditions like anxiety, depression, and ADHD.

It can also reduce how much time employees take off for back pain. Chronic back pain is one of the main reasons millions of employees don’t make it into work each day. 8% of US adults experience back pain, with 83 million working days lost every year because of it. 

A regular yoga practice is a cheaper, longer-term way to solve this. It can provide greater pain relief than painkillers and reduce how much time employees take off sick.

Host regular expert talks

Regular talks from experts on health and wellness in the workplace can introduce employees to new ideas and experiences they may not have considered.

New studies in this area are emerging all the time. Bringing in industry experts to share what’s new can help your employees improve their fitness, nutrition, and even sleep quality.

While we all know things like exercise, nutrition, and sleep quality are important, many of us don’t understand why. Most of us aren’t taught these things in school!

Sometimes understanding why and how something affects us can be a motivating factor for embracing it. I started exercising regularly when I discovered the significant impact it could have on my brain’s short-term productivity and long-term health, for example.

Offer wellness days

Employees in the US really don’t get much paid time off compared to employees in the EU. 

Wellness days mean that if someone’s child is sick, or they’re sick themselves, or maybe they have a dentist appointment, they’re not wasting a vacation day for something that isn’t their fault.

Wellness days can also be good if you wake up one morning and just can’t face the world.

Make sure not to question too much about why someone needs a wellness day, though. If they’re feeling depressed, let them have the day and don’t try to be their therapist. Someone who’s depressed needs moral support and someone to listen. They don’t need a therapy session from someone without any formal training who’s trying to “help.”

Post reminders

How often do you post in Slack, Teams, or Workrowd about health and wellness in the workplace? Are you regularly sparking conversations around the topic?

Inviting conversation on these subjects shows employees it’s a priority for you.

Seeing others discuss health and wellness in the workplace also encourages employees to think about their own wellbeing. Even if they’re not an active part of the discussion, reading what others have to say could still have a positive influence on them.

Set up a wellbeing channel

Why not take things a step further and create a wellbeing channel or krowd? Everyone can share resources they’ve found useful and find new information they may not have considered before.

Seeing the discussions every day will act as a subtle reminder to do something for their own health and wellbeing. Even if that’s just checking to see what others have posted.

Offer volunteering opportunities

Allowing employees the opportunity to take a few days out of the working year to volunteer for a cause that’s important to them can improve their physical and mental health. It can also lower stress levels, improve mood, and even strengthen muscles.

92% of HR executives also believe that volunteering can improve employees’ leadership skills. In addition, it can offer a creative way to see who the next leaders within your business could be.

Set an example

In many companies, health and wellness in the workplace is just a fancy idea used to lure in new hires. So, it’s important for you to set an example.

Do you talk about your own journey? Do you talk about the things that affect you? Are you setting an example with your actions as well as your words?

There’s a difference between getting personal and getting private. You don’t have to tell your colleagues your life story, but sharing interesting articles, podcasts, or videos on relevant topics shows them it’s an area you really do care about.

The more you set an example, the more likely employees will be to follow your lead and prioritize health and wellness in the workplace.

Conclusion 

With so much going on in the world right now, it’s important we do what we can to look after health and wellness in the workplace.

Of course, we have to prioritize our own health and wellbeing, but employees should know their employer values theirs, too. When employees know that their employer values them and their health, they’re more likely to stay and refer their network for future roles in such a positive working environment.

If you’re ready to take health and wellness in the workplace to the next level for your team, check out Workrowd. Our one-stop shop makes it easy to market, manage, and measure your initiatives, from group exercise classes to mental health employee resource groups. Drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Employee Experience

Top tips to improve employee experience outcomes for your team

The employee experience plays a huge role in talent attraction and retention. As a result, many organizations are now looking to improve employee experience outcomes for their teams.

Unfortunately, many aspects of the employee experience are often forgotten or neglected. Even worse, in some companies, it looks one way from the outside when it’s actually something totally different on the inside.

Luckily, there are things you can do to improve employee experience outcomes for your team. Let’s take a look at them:

Be consistent

We all hate it when a person is nice to someone’s face, then horrible behind their back.

If you have a culture that looks positive to the outside world, but doesn’t look after its employees on the inside, you’re doing the business equivalent of that.

Your employee experience—and how you present it—should be consistent. And transparent.

If you have a fast-paced environment, that’s fine. But don’t lie to people and say that it’s all about playing foosball and drinking beers.

Many candidates are now savvy to this and will avoid businesses that hype up all their benefits. In reality, they know they’re just using them to hide their negative culture and attitudes. So not only will you lose current employees, but it’ll also cause you to lose future ones, too.

Saying one thing while you do another will quickly sink any efforts to improve employee experience outcomes.

Have a strong culture

Know what you stand for and build your culture around that. 

Are you all about failing fast? Do you like to keep things agile? Are you inclusive—actually inclusive, not “inclusive” to check a box?

All these things will reflect your culture internally and externally.

Make employees feel listened to

Sometimes people know that they don’t have the solution, or that their opinion won’t change anything. Ultimately, they just want to feel heard. 

It’s really important to allow employees to air their grievances even if you disagree with them. 

Don’t interrupt. Wait patiently. Let them get it out of their system, particularly if they’re annoyed or angry. Allow there to be silences. 

The employee in question may end up realizing their perspective is wrong. Or, more than likely, they’ll just vent and will end up feeling much calmer for doing so.

They’ll also think more highly of you for allowing them to be honest about how your company’s situation makes them feel without ignoring or interrupting them. This can greatly improve employee experience outcomes across the organization.

Value your team’s opinions

Too many executives make huge decisions without considering how it’ll affect people further down the hierarchy. These are the people who are dealing with your customers and handling much of the day-to-day running of your business. It’s important to recognize that they may well know more than you. 

And even if they don’t, they’re going to have a different—equally valuable—perspective. 

The more opinions and perspectives you consider, the more likely you are to come up with new solutions to problems. These crowd-sourced solutions will also help more people and be much more inclusive.

Communicate clearly

Employees are much more likely to respect you if you’re clear with them. Tell them what you expect and when. Don’t tiptoe around it. Just be upfront. There’s nothing worse than lying or deceiving someone, especially in the workplace.

If you don’t know what’s happening yet, or things are up in the air, be honest about that, too.

Despite what many of us may think, it’s okay not to have all the answers. It doesn’t make you a bad leader or a bad person; it makes you human, which makes you more relatable.

Let go of the need for shiny objects

This one is harder if you’re remote anyway, but too many companies, for too long, used shiny objects like ping pong tables and expensive laptops to attract new hires like bees to a flower.

You don’t need the shiniest objects or the latest tech to get people in. You need a strong culture and decent pay.

If you can’t afford the best MacBook Pro for someone to do their job, look for a cheaper equivalent. There are plenty of alternatives that won’t upset your accountant but still have the power a developer or a designer needs.

Many employees won’t even need something that fancy, particularly if most of what they do is email and text-based. That will then free up more budget to spend on the departments that do need extra processing power.

Gadgets are fun, but they can’t compete with more authentic efforts to improve employee experience outcomes.

Have a strong onboarding process

An onboarding process can make or break your new hire’s opinion of your business. If it’s weak or nonexistent, they’re going to grow frustrated. Some may even leave.

In fact, 30% of employees leave during their first six months in a role. One of the main reasons they do so is a poor or non-existent onboarding process.

If your onboarding is clear and structured, taking into account their role and respecting their time, they’re much more likely to stick around and speak highly of you to their network. 

And you never know how many new hires that could lead to. Referrals are one of the best ways to find high-quality talent, after all.

Be careful how you treat people

Have you heard the saying that you can tell a lot about a person based on how they treat a server at a restaurant?

The same is true for how they treat the cleaning staff, the interns, and anyone else at the bottom of the business hierarchy.

If you treat people differently because they’re in a “less important” role, you have the foundations for a negative employee experience that’s going to drive people away.

It doesn’t matter what someone does, where they grew up, where they live now, or anything else. They’re providing their time and energy in exchange for money, and that’s a privilege that should be treated as such. Your business couldn’t run without them. That’s why you grew, outsourced, and delegated, right?

Treat everyone with compassion and kindness, and they’ll return the favor to you and everyone else within your business. Cultivating respect at every level of the business is an incredibly effective way to improve employee experience results.

Conclusion 

Building a world-class employee experience isn’t about having the shiniest, most expensive toys. It’s about how you make your employees feel.

Do they feel valued? Are they listened to? Are they made to feel less than because they’re on the cleaning staff, and not a manager?

It’s a combination of small things that will create your employee experience. Never underestimate something as simple as a “hello” on someone’s first day, or a “thank you” on their last.

Culture starts at the top. Employees mimic what their team leaders do, and team leaders copy what they see executives do. How you approach everything from a sensitive conversation to a fun one will reflect you as a person and influence the culture of your business.

The more positively you approach your employees and the experience you want to create, the greater the advantage you’ll have over your competition.

Another great way to improve employee experience outcomes is to get all of the events, groups, and programs you offer team members under one roof. With everything in one place, it’s easy for everyone to take advantage of the full array of your employee experience efforts.

Plus, you’ll get automated, real-time analytics so you can be strategic about your work to improve employee experience results. Sound interesting? Visit us at workrowd.com or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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