Category: Employee Engagement

Less than half of the US population is extroverted. Yet it often feels like the working environment caters to people who like loud, busy spaces and people all day, every day, everywhere. Which can be really challenging for introverts in the workplace.

On top of that, qualifying for promotions often requires socializing with colleagues. Those who don’t risk being seen as weird, looked down on, or treated differently.

So why are extroverted personalities valued more in the workplace if most of the population is introverted?

When you consider that a study of over 900 CEOs found that introverts were more likely to exceed investors’ expectations more often, and studies showed that introverts made better leaders, why aren’t we supporting employees who like the quiet life more often?

Why don’t we design more processes and spaces around the needs of introverts in the workplace?

What is an introvert?

Before we go any further, let’s dispel some common myths about introverts.

Many people assume introverts hate people. But introversion and misanthropy aren’t the same thing.

A lot of introverts actually like socializing. They just need time to recharge on their own or with people they’re close to.

The best way I’ve heard it described (and seen it demonstrated by other people) is that extroverts get their energy from other people. Introverts get it from alone time.

For an introvert, this might mean reading a book, watching TV, walking the dog—whatever works for them. There’s no one-size-fits-all way to recharge.

An introvert might have enough energy for work, but not have any left for post-work socializing. Or they may find an open-plan office overwhelming.

So, with that in mind, how can you boost engagement among introverts in the workplace? 

Allow for flexible working

Different types of working suit different types of personalities. Over 80% of extroverted employees want a hybrid work model, with 15% preferring full-time remote work.

Three-fourths of introverts also want to be in the office at least part-time.

This could be because work is often a place where we socialize. Introverts may not speak to many people if they don’t go out of the house. Plus, it takes extra effort to go out (speaking from my own experience and that of my introverted friends).

Everyone is different, though, and allowing for flexible working helps you create a more diverse workforce from every direction. It can go a long way towards boosting engagement among introverts in the workplace.

Have a quiet space/ time

Open-plan offices can be extremely noisy, overstimulating places.

When I used to work in an office, someone would be playing music, someone else would have a really loud voice that carried across the room, another would be boiling the kettle, someone else would be washing their mug, cars would be driving past…it was nonstop for eight hours a day. And that was only the noise.

It usually wouldn’t take long before I needed to either get away from my desk because I was feeling fidgety, or I needed to be on my own as I was overwhelmed by being surrounded by so many people. But there was really nowhere for me to go and work quietly.

Offering a quiet place for employees to focus helps them recharge while still getting work done.

For remote businesses, allowing employees to turn off email or Slack/Teams notifications for a couple of hours is the digital equivalent.

In both instances, employees can focus on what they’re trying to do, rather than draining their energy blocking out what’s going on around them. Cutting it out can give introverts in the workplace more energy and boost their mental health.

Avoid forced/ mandatory socializing

For introverts in the workplace, socializing with coworkers can present challenges. It may instill fear that they’ll get overlooked for promotions or their colleagues won’t like them as much because they didn’t go out for drinks on a Friday night, or wanted to go for a walk on their own instead of going for a group lunch.

And the unspoken requirement to go, even if it’s not actually mandatory.

Employees need to feel like they can say no to workplace drinks without someone trying to talk them into it. Or that their career will suffer because of it. They shouldn’t need to justify not wanting to socialize with their colleagues outside of work.

Show different kinds of leadership

The stereotypical idea of leadership is often more extroverted and focuses on traits that are considered masculine.

However, studies have shown that introverted and female leadership styles are actually more effective.

This includes showing empathy and actively listening to your employees.

The more you demonstrate different kinds of leadership, the more it will benefit your employees, managers, and future hires.

Introverts in the workplace will also see a possible career path for themselves, even if they don’t fit into a typical extroverted management style.

Managers won’t feel the need to live up to false expectations, mask who they really are, or hide how they feel.

Future hires will see a business that celebrates and supports diversity, making them want to work there.

Offer different ways to communicate

Every business has its preferred way(s) to communicate. Considering individuals’ preferences enables them to get the most from a conversation.

For example, some people prefer written feedback because they can take their time to digest it. But for the person giving the feedback, a video can sometimes be quicker.

The solution? Transcribe the video!

Technology makes it easier than ever to combine different types of communication so that everyone can benefit. Including and especially introverts in the workplace.

Embrace active listening

Sometimes, someone will look like they’re not paying attention in a meeting, but they’re actually listening actively. This can have long-term benefits, allowing for other perspectives.

However, there’s often the assumption that someone isn’t paying attention because they’re not speaking up during a meeting.

Sometimes people genuinely lack the confidence to speak up—especially if they’re a minority in the room.

Other times, they’re percolating.

But it’s important to give people the space to listen, and that one person—or one group of people—doesn’t hog the conversation. Quieter members of the team should feel able to share their opinions without judgement, but likewise should be able to listen without comments that they’re too quiet.

Conclusion

When more than half the working population is introverted, it doesn’t make sense to exclude them or expect them to behave like the minority.

The most successful businesses celebrate and support employees’ differences, as these can be turned into strengths that help the business grow and develop.

In turn, this benefits employees’ productivity and confidence, improving engagement and retention.

How is your organization supporting introverts in the workplace? If you’re looking for ways to ensure employees can get and stay connected on their terms, Workrowd can help.

With employee groups, personalizable settings, automated feedback surveys and more, everything you need is in one place. Want to see how our tools could improve outcomes for introverts in the workplace at your organization? Visit us online or email us at hello@workrowd.com.

Employee disengagement is rampant. Almost a quarter of the global workforce is “actively disengaged.” What’s more, 59% do the bare minimum, a trend now referred to as “quiet quitting.”

This is costing companies across the globe $8.8 trillion in lost productivity. That’s 9% of global GDP.

Since 2020, active disengagement has continued to grow. And to be honest, I’m not surprised. Covid changed how many of us see and experience the world. Add to that climate change, wars, and the political climate, and many of us feel a continued sense of existential dread.

Where we choose to work can make or break our mental health. We can either feel like we’re making a difference, or that we’re just going through the motions. It can seem like nobody would notice if we left.

To get the most from employees, you need to make them feel like they matter. Like their presence in your business contributes to something bigger than themselves.

So let’s take a look at some causes of employee disengagement that you may not have considered before:

Incompatible values

Many employees today aren’t just motivated by a paycheck. They want to feel like their life—and their work—has a purpose, too.

This is why your employer brand is so important. You can make it clear to potential candidates what your company values are. This will help you attract people who share those values.

As a result, anyone who applies to work for your business will have already qualified themselves. That way, you’ll be able to hire someone quicker.

On the flip side, if employees don’t understand your values before they join, and they don’t share them, they’ll be less motivated. So they won’t work as hard and they’ll be less likely to stay long term. Which will then cost you more time and money to hire and train their replacement and overcome employee disengagement.

Not being as inclusive as you think

When a business or person thinks they’re fully inclusive and has nothing left to learn about diversity, equity, and inclusion, that’s when the cracks start to appear.

Being an inclusive business requires active work. It’s not something where anyone can afford to get complacent.

It’s also not just about educating people on DEI. Those kinds of training programs can often cause employees—and even some senior leaders—to roll their eyes and treat the training as a box-ticking exercise.

To truly be inclusive, it requires:

• Calling out microaggressions
• Checking the language you—and your colleagues—use in emails, job descriptions, blog posts, and anything else you publish to ensure it’s truly inclusive
• Analyzing job descriptions to ensure they use neutral language

These all help you, and your employees, keep inclusivity front of mind and support underrepresented talent in the workplace. It also helps stop employee disengagement before it starts.

Feeling unvalued

Employees want to feel like you care about them.

There are lots of different way to show them that you do. It doesn’t have to be anything big or expensive.

A simple “thank you,” or a “great job” can show someone you value what they’ve done for you.

Another way to make employees feel valued is to listen to their opinions and take their feedback into account.

Even if what they hope for can never happen, allowing them to voice their opinion makes them feel heard, respected, and valued, rather than silenced and unappreciated.

Employee feedback surveys—and acting based on the results—is one way to make employees feel heard and appreciated.

Automate survey sending and results analysis so that you can act sooner and successfully reduce employee disengagement.

Lack of growth

The more we do the same thing day in and day out, the more repetitive and boring it becomes.

Our brains crave novelty and stimulation. That means leaving the house, changing our working environment (whether we work from home or an office), working with different people, and trying new things.

When an employee feels stuck in their role and like there’s nowhere else for them to go, it can lead to feelings of frustration and boredom.

These feelings can lead to resentment and cause them to not work at their full capacity and “quiet quit” instead.

Growth doesn’t just have to mean a promotion, it can mean:

• Moving departments
• Expanding their skillset, such as a copywriter learning about video editing
• Working on a different project

Finding ways to break up the working day and keep it fresh reduces employee disengagement and enables you to retain their knowledge.

Hiding health conditions

Young people now struggle with depression and anxiety at a higher rate than their older colleagues. This hasn’t happened since records began.

But someone doesn’t have to be quiet in the office to have a mental health condition. Sometimes the most outgoing, vocal, seemingly happy people are the ones who are screaming on the inside.

That’s why it’s so important to check in with your employees.

It could be that the most compassionate people, the ones who deflect conversations away from being about them, are the ones struggling the most. But they may also be the most uncomfortable talking about how they feel.

That’s not to say it’s always the case—mental health conditions look different on everyone.

Ensuring managers check in with their employees and notice significant changes in their behavior, productivity, engagement, or working patterns is therefore key. It helps prevent employee disengagement before it negatively affects people’s mental health and your business’s bottom line.

Conclusion

To avoid employee disengagement, you need to take active steps to keep employees engaged.

That means maintaining basic DEI efforts like speaking up when you see someone being disrespectful, supporting employees through their health or other personal struggles, and finding ways to keep employees interested in their jobs.

If you’re ready to make real strides on reducing employee disengagement, Workrowd’s all-in-one suite of tools can help. With everything you need to organize and track employee engagement programs under one roof, you’ll always know what is and isn’t driving results.

Want to learn more? Visit us online or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to schedule some time to chat.

At an organizational level, the benefits of mentoring in the workplace are no secret. 84% of Fortune 500 companies have mentoring programs, and 100% of Fortune 50 companies have them.

At the individual level though, it’s a different story. While 97% of people who have a mentor find it valuable, only 37% of professionals actually have one.

And 63% of women have never had a formal mentor.

It’s a reciprocal cycle, though—89% of those who’ve had a mentor will go on to become one.

Mentorship also ranked as the #1 focus for L&D programs in 2023. So if your company doesn’t have a mentorship program yet, it might be time to create one.

Here are our tips to maximize the benefits of mentoring in the workplace:

Match people with mentors from a different demographic

Many people gravitate towards someone like them when they want a mentor. But being mentored by someone from a different demographic can help them develop skills they hadn’t considered. And, for team members from underrepresented backgrounds, it could provide a further boost up the career ladder.

For example, when men have female mentors, it improves their “feminine” traits such as empathy. These often-dismissed capabilities actually create better leaders. Yet, people frequently underestimate them—and therefore don’t encourage or nurture them—in the workplace.

Employees are more satisfied with leaders who possess these traits. What’s more, countries that embrace female leadership have higher GDPs and even experienced fewer deaths during the Covid pandemic.

Team members from underrepresented backgrounds who receive mentorship, meanwhile, gain introductions to industry connections that can open more doors for them to grow their careers.

While employees may initially feel more comfortable as the mentee of someone from the same demographic as them, they won’t get as much from it.

If matched with someone different from them, they can learn not just new skills for the workplace, but reduce their unconscious bias and develop abilities that may be less common for their demographic.

Matching employees with mentors who are equipped to actually help them grow is a key way to reap the full benefits of mentoring in the workplace.

Tailor the program to employees’ needs

Having a mentoring program is one thing. But if your mentors have never mentored anyone before, or even been on the receiving end of mentorship, they may not know how to ensure their mentee gets the most from the experience. So they end up going through the motions instead of offering employees the support they actually need.

Creating a flexible program outline ensures mentoring delivers on its promises for mentees.

For example, if the mentee’s goal is to get a promotion, the mentor can help them identify the skills they need to learn to put them in the most competitive position to achieve that goal.

They can then break the list down further to look at what activities or experiences will help the mentee gain those skills to use in the future.

If your program structure is too rigid it won’t be able to adapt to accommodate the unique skills required for each role.

But if it’s a flexible outline, the mentor and mentee (maybe with a little help from HR) can create a plan that provides mentees with everything they need to succeed.

Create groups for mentors and mentees

Employee groups are incredibly powerful. Creating specific groups for mentors and mentees to ask questions and network can help boost the benefits of mentoring in the workplace even further.

Your team can use groups to share ideas and resources, as well as troubleshoot if something isn’t working. This means nobody has to solve a problem alone. It increases their sense of belonging in the workplace and shortens how long it takes to find a solution.

Ask for feedback

Asking employees for feedback on your mentoring program ensures that everyone gets the most out of it. 

If you don’t have a mentorship program yet, or you want to overhaul it, consider asking employees what they want from it. 

You could ask questions like:

·      What skills would you like to learn?

·      Who do you think would be a good mentor?

·      Would you be interested in mentoring a colleague?

Further down the line, check in with employees to find out how things are going. 

That way, you can double down on what’s working and find ways to solve what isn’t—or cut those parts out.

You could ask mentees:

·      What have you learned from your mentor so far?

·      What benefits have you experienced from being a mentee?

·      On a scale of 1-10, how beneficial have you found being a mentee?

And ask mentors:

·      What have you learned from being a mentor?

·      What benefits have you experienced from mentoring?

At the end of the program, you could ask:

·      Has the mentorship program helped you achieve your goal(s)?

·      What’s the most valuable thing you learned?

·      On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your mentor?

Combining closed questions and open-ended questions will get you the best results. You can analyze the results of closed questions to get quantitative data, while the details from open questions will give you further insights to help you improve the program.

The answers to open-ended questions may also give you new ways to advertise the program to existing employees, or showcase it in job descriptions. Ensuring strong participation is obviously another big part of maximizing the benefits of mentoring in the workplace.

Conclusion

A mentoring program can create new opportunities for mentors and mentees. It’s not just about networking or learning new skills; it opens people up to new ways of thinking and experiencing the world.

When you involve mentors and mentees in the creation of the program, it ensures that employees will want to be a part of it and can talk up the benefits of mentoring in the workplace to their friends and colleagues.

This helps the program to grow and means you have better trained, happier employees. Who are also more likely to stick around for longer because they feel supported by their employer.

Are you ready to tap into the benefits of mentoring in the workplace for your organization? If so, Workrowd has your back.

Our all-in-one tool suite makes it easy to connect employees for matching, set up and manage employee groups, and automatically survey employees about their experiences. Plus, with real-time analytics dashboards, you can visualize your progress at a glance.

Want to learn more? Visit us online or reach out directly to hello@workrowd.com.

Despite the importance of the work, public sector employee engagement remains a challenge. The federal employee engagement score is around 12 points behind the private sector mark. It sits at just 63.4 out of 100.

I worked in the public sector for three years. In that time, I learned that local governments will get blamed for just about everything—even if it’s not their responsibility. At the same time, people also expect them to have an answer for everything.

The role could be difficult, since our hands were often tied because politics (either internal ones or the government itself) got in the way. Still, many of the people I worked with genuinely cared about what they did. They felt motivated to make a difference.

When public sector employee engagement is high, team members are more productive. There are lower levels of absenteeism. Fewer people leave.

And, with tight public budgets, a competitive talent market, a worker shortage, and less space in the public sector to negotiate pay, creating the right working environment is key to saving money and providing more effective services.

So, how do you boost public sector employee engagement?

Communicate

You may not have control over every decision that affects your employees, but you can share what’s going on with them. This ensures they feel included in the process. Even if a decision came from higher up and is out of your hands.

Give employees the opportunity to share their feelings, too.

Even if they can’t change anything, voicing their emotions helps employees let go of them. That way, they can get on with the tasks that they do have control over.

Change management

One of the challenges I faced in my role in the public sector was getting other departments to embrace social media. This was ten years ago, so it was still uncharted territory for a lot of businesses. 

Many of my colleagues didn’t understand how it worked and didn’t even use it for their personal lives. So why would they care about it for work?

Some departments were uncomfortable even updating the information on their part of the website.

So I shared the benefits with them. Things like how, if they updated the website now, it would reduce the time they spent on the phone answering the same question over and over. And expanding the information that was there in anticipation of other FAQs.

Over time, those departments that had been dragging their feet started to realize how the website—and social media—could give them more time and make their jobs easier.

Just ensuring that everyone is educated and informed can do wonders for public sector employee engagement.

Embrace technology

Technology empowers you to streamline your workflows, communicate better, and cut costs. All of which mean you can provide better services to the people you serve.

It means employees can do their jobs more effectively.

Technological advancements are there to make employees’ lives easier. This is particularly true in industries where employees already feel like they can’t get everything they need to do done each day.

While there’s obviously a lot to consider with new technology, the right tools can significantly increase public sector employee engagement.

Connecting employees

When employees work remotely, it can be lonely. It can also get lonely if they work well with their team, but don’t have much to talk to them about beyond work.

Tools like Workrowd are a great way to connect public sector employees with their colleagues from other departments.

In larger organizations, it’s impossible for employees to meet every one of their coworkers in the corridor. 

Organizing employee groups is a simple, effective way for them to connect with like-minded employees. Plus, it can improve their sense of belonging in the workplace.

Belonging is crucial in all organizations, but it’s especially important if you want to boost public sector employee engagement.

Ask for feedback

The best way to improve the employee experience is to ask employees how they feel about it. This doesn’t always make for comfortable reading, but it’s a vital part of improving public sector employee engagement.

It shouldn’t be an arbitrary survey that’s sent to HR through people’s managers, though. Employees should feel able to communicate openly, honestly, and directly with HR. 

That way, employees won’t feel the need to mince their words. They can be open about any toxic tendencies in their team or from their manager without worrying about someone finding out they said something and it affecting their working relationships.

This fear alone can make employees clam up and feel unable to share their experiences. Resulting in damage to the employee experience, especially if these types of surveys are mandatory. (But illogical.)

Instead, why not send regular, automated feedback surveys?

Ones that are sent on your behalf, where you can then have more time to act on the feedback you receive?

Act on employees’ feedback

It’s one thing to ask for feedback, but you going to all the effort to create surveys, and employees taking time out of their busy days to fill them in, is pointless if no changes are made based on the feedback.

Are there any patterns that emerge from the feedback?

What steps can you take to improve things?

Or if something is going well, what can you do to lean into those successes?

Conclusion

Life in the public sector can be very different from the private sector. Employees—and often management—can have far less control over decisions that are made, and the things they have to do as a result.

To improve public sector employee engagement, make sure team members still have a voice. Build a welcoming culture that listens to employees and supports them.

It’s important to modernize, too. This can take more time in the public sector, where things often move more slowly than in the private sector. Ultimately though, it’s the key to doing more with less as public sector organizations struggle financially.

If you’re ready to boost public sector employee engagement, getting the right tools in place can help. With Workrowd, you can keep employees connected, automate feedback requests, and leverage real-time analytics to take your public sector employee engagement efforts to the next level.

Sound useful? Visit us online to learn more, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

95% of managers have one-on-ones with their employees. Just because they’re having them though, doesn’t mean they’re effective one-on-one meetings.

In the best cases, these meetings can be vital to an employee’s career trajectory. They keep team members focused and ensure they know what you expect from them in the short- and long-term.

These clear expectations, as well as support in their career, can improve employee engagement and productivity. It can even improve team members’ well-being.

So, how can you conduct more effective one-on-one meetings that drive employee engagement?

Have an agenda

Having an agenda for any meeting means that all parties know what type of meeting it’s going to be.

A one-on-one without an agenda can be a source of panic for employees, especially if they’ve previously worked at companies where one-on-ones consisted of their boss berating them for an hour.

Come up with a clear list of what you want to discuss. 

Ask employees what they want to talk about, too. 

That way, you both know what to expect and can do any preparation needed. Employees also get to feel like their voice is heard.

Create a welcoming atmosphere

Employees need to feel like they can talk to you. Otherwise, they’re going to shut down and you not only won’t get a lot from them in the meeting, but you won’t get the most from them work-wise, either.

Effective one-on-one meetings are the perfect place to discuss roadblocks or other workplace challenges. Just over 70% of managers feel this is a good way to use them.

But if an employee doesn’t feel you’re approachable, they’re less likely to talk to you if they’re stuck.

Instead of saying, “don’t come to me with a problem, come to me with a solution,” make it clear to employees that if they can’t think of a solution, you’re there to support them. But you’re also there to brainstorm and help them address challenges as well.

You can then encourage them to trust their instincts solving future problems.

Otherwise, they may waste more time feeling stuck because they can’t find a solution when you have one already.

Discuss the good and bad

The topics discussed the most in effective one-on-one meetings are:

• Growth and development
• Performance
• Employee motivation
• Connection to people and/or work
• Autonomy and accountability
• Alignment to company mission. 

These are some pretty meaty topics and can go in either direction. Getting the balance right requires giving effective feedback to help employees excel.

Many people are either better at giving criticism or praise. But effective one-on-one meetings have a balance of both. Employees need to know what’s pointing them in the right direction and what’s taking them off course.

If they’ve made a mistake or could have done something more efficiently, instead of dwelling on that, explain why it was less effective and teach them the better way to do things next time.

If you spend the meeting berating them or repeatedly telling them they were wrong, they’re far more likely to shut down and struggle to put what you say into practice.

So be sure to praise what they do right, too. Do they create a welcoming atmosphere for new team members? Are they quick to learn?

Soft skills are just as important as hard skills in the workplace.

Listen 

One of my strongest memories of a workplace one-on-one involved being talked at for an hour. I didn’t get a word in. 

I was told what I’d done right and wrong, and what I needed to achieve in the next year. That was it. 

I didn’t get a say; my thoughts, feelings, and opinions weren’t considered or even asked for. 

That shouldn’t be the purpose of effective one-on-one meetings, especially not in the modern workplace.

Instead, listen to your employee. What matters to them? What do they want to work toward, in the short- and long-term? What’s getting in their way?

How can you help them achieve their goals?

Give guidance

Sometimes, an employee doesn’t know what they want, either in terms of short-term or long-term career growth. Not everyone has a clear trajectory, and they shouldn’t be expected to map one out without support.

Expecting people to know where they want to go when they don’t know what their options are is like asking someone to cook a dish they’ve never heard of without a recipe.

Give them options for where they could go in their career. Consider positions that suit their personality, strengths, and motivations.

If someone enjoys the creative parts of being a marketer, there’s no point in suggesting they become a marketing analyst, for example.

Conversely, if they like the people part of marketing, they might make a great marketing manager or even salesperson.

Or, if you’re not sure what their future could look like, do some research together, or ask people within the business what they think.

Just because someone doesn’t have a clear career vision, that doesn’t mean they can’t do great things with a little help. Effective one-on-one meetings are a great place to start digging into these issues.

Come up with next steps

All effective meetings have a plan at the end. One-on-ones should be no exception.

Whether it’s a small task to be done for next week, like completing a brief, or a long-term plan to help them achieve their career goals, providing actionable next steps means employees know what you want from them, and enables you both to track their progress.

Conclusion 

Effective one-on-one meetings can play a huge role in an employee’s career development. Whether they want to become a manager, a subject matter expert, or something else, you have the opportunity to guide them through pivotal points in their career.

To make these conversations a success, employees need to feel comfortable opening up to you.

They also need to believe you’ll accept what they tell you without judgment.

The more you listen to them, the more they’ll open up, and the better they’ll perform in the workplace.

If you’d like to learn more about what employees want outside of effective one-on-one meetings, Workrowd can help. Establishing an ongoing culture of feedback with our automated surveys and analytics means you’ll always have a pulse on employees’ needs.

Plus, our employee program, group, and event management tools make it easy to design and launch initiatives in response to the feedback you get. Want to learn more? Drop by our site, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

In my previous post on the mass return to office, we looked at the impact it’s likely to have on businesses’ DEI efforts. In this post, we’ll look at your return to office policy from a standpoint of how it impacts employee engagement.

While many managers want employees to be present in person, this can be detrimental to employees’ mental and physical health. Which, ultimately, impacts your bottom line.

So, let’s explore how a return to office policy can hurt employee engagement:

Employees can’t take breaks when they need/want to

I can’t sit at a desk for very long. Usually, I’ll write/edit a piece, then take a break. This makes me look like a massive fidget when I work in an office.

But if I don’t take a break regularly, I can’t concentrate.

The longer I sit still for, the harder it gets for me to focus.

This is the reality for many people who are neurodivergent or have chronic health issues. Sitting still becomes physically and/or mentally uncomfortable.

Not to mention it’s terrible for healthy people, too, causing long-term health issues such as chronic back pain.

Back pain is one of the biggest causes of employee sickness in the US. All told, it costs the economy $250 billion per year. Yes, billion.

I thought I needed new glasses when I read that, too.

Back pain is also one of the leading causes of early retirement.

So if someone retires early from it, you lose out on their industry and company knowledge. Plus, you have to spend money hiring and training other employees to fill the gap.

The simplest way to prevent all this? Ensuring employees move more and sit less.

Spending too long staring at a screen can also lead to eye strain and headaches. This then further causes employees to need to take time off to rest. All because they can’t take a screen/desk break when they need to.

Employees need to feel comfortable taking breaks and stretching their legs (and minds) as often as necessary.

But if their boss believes they must be at their desk in the office at all times to do their job, it doesn’t allow for the flexibility people need to move their bodies and maintain their health.

Employees feel less trusted

Forcing employees back into the office when they’ve worked remotely successfully for several years sends a negative message. This extreme return to office policy suggests you don’t trust them to do their job without someone to monitor them in person.

This message that those in charge don’t trust them can damage their confidence. This is especially true when they may feel like they haven’t been doing a good enough job already.

If they’ve worked hard but it’s perceived to not be good enough, the hit to their confidence can cause them to be less productive and may lead to workplace-related depression or anxiety.

All this adds up to employees disengaging, taking long-term sick leave, or leaving altogether.

Over time, this turnover will cause businesses to waste money on hiring that could’ve been saved by working with employees to find a hybrid or remote working policy that suits everyone’s needs.

Underrepresented talent feels they have to conform

Subconsciously, in an office, we judge the people around us. We judge them based on how they speak, act, and even what they wear.

This forces people to conform. Especially in a conservative workforce, or one that isn’t very diverse (even if it’s trying to change).

This subconscious conformity has an impact on how people think over time, too.

When someone doesn’t express their individuality however they want/need to, it can impact how they think, too.

They’re more likely to second-guess their ideas. So they won’t share them.

Eventually, this lack of other perspectives could lead to groupthink.

And that groupthink will reduce employees’ ability to think creatively, innovate, and problem solve because they’re working with just one limited worldview.

Your return to office policy can make it harder for people to speak their minds, especially if they’re constantly immersed in a one-size-fits-all office culture.

Offices are distracting

I delved deeply into how offices can be distracting in my previous post, so I won’t belabor the point here. But the short version is that big, open-plan offices can be distracting.

Office-based working means it’s easier for colleagues to interrupt someone when they’re concentrating. If that person doesn’t drop what they’re doing to talk to their colleague, they risk being perceived as rude.

But what if they were in the middle of a massive breakthrough, and someone coming up to them, unprompted, broke their flow?

It takes us 20 minutes to get back into something after an interruption.

With the amount of distractions we can experience in an office, those 20 minutes can add up. Just think how much lost time your return to office policy can lead to throughout the working day, let alone a week, month, or year.

Commutes can be draining

Commutes can be draining, especially if there’s a lot of traffic or problems with public transport.

When I used to get the tram to work, if there was some sort of tram delay (which happened a lot), it meant I got into work late. I started the day already feeling stressed before I’d even gotten to my desk. 

My elevated stress levels meant I was more reactive to my surroundings. As a result, I was less able to concentrate.

Plus, I was worried about whether the tram issues would be fixed before the end of the day. And if they weren’t, how long it would take me to get home. And how little energy I’d have left when I got there.

None of these things are an issue with remote working. Instead, employees get more time to spend on what matters to them and don’t need to stress about their commute.

Office-based working vs employee engagement

While some businesses will always need employees there in person, for many modern companies, there’s just no reason to implement a full-blown return to office policy.

For in-person meetings, in most cases, it’s still cheaper to rent a space once a year, or once a quarter, than have a permanent office space that no one wants to use.

If an employee is among the few who prefer to work in an office, they could always find a nearby co-working space, library, or cafe. This is likely to be closer to them than the office, but they still get to be away from any potential at-home distractions.

Looking to balance the benefits of in-person work with the employee engagement perks of remote? Workrowd can help. Our all-in-one tool suite enables team members to find community no matter where or when they work.

Personalized dashboards ensure everyone is always in the loop, and custom analytics let you track your results in real time. Sound useful? Visit us online to learn more, or drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

Gen Z now makes up 30% of the world’s population. Of course, this also means an influx of Gen Z in the workplace. By 2025, members of this generation will comprise a quarter of our workforce.

This new wave of employees demands very different things from their employers than their predecessors. They have higher expectations and ignoring those, or being stuck in your ways under the guise of “tradition” puts you at risk of ending up like the steam engine or horse-drawn carriages.

If you want your business to survive, you need to engage Gen Z in the workplace sooner rather than later. They’re the future leaders, decision makers, and investors that could one day influence the fate of your business. The sooner you show them that you value their input, the sooner you’ll experience the benefits of a multi-generational workforce.

So, how do you engage Gen Z in the workplace? Here are 5 ways you can do just that:

Show diversity matters

Gen Z is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation ever. Half of its members identify as a racial or ethnic minority.

That means they care about what you’re doing to make your business more diverse. It’s not enough to just say you support diversity, or that your company is diverse. You need to prove it.

Some ways to do so include updating your hiring processes, creating ERGs, sharing employee stories on your social media pages, supporting a range of charities, or by getting your leaders to speak up about causes that matter to them.

On a deeper level, you need to embody diversity. You need to support employees who report a colleague for their behavior, whatever that may be. Don’t assume because they’re reporting their manager it’s because they don’t get along.

You also need to educate everyone within the business on things like microaggressions. Not everyone knows or understands how microaggressions can seep into everyday life. Just because they’re unconscious or unintentional, that doesn’t mean they’re not harmful.

HR teams need to work to address them, and not just because it’s key to engaging Gen Z the workplace. Ultimately, it’s just the right thing to do.

Update your hiring process

A company’s commitment to DEI is important to 83% of Gen Z in the workplace. 68% would be more likely to apply for a job with recruiters and materials that reflect a more diverse workforce. 

So you want to show them that you really are committed to it.

You can do this by offering different types of hiring based on candidates’ preferences. For instance, you could provide information in both video and written format. Are there ways you could make your hiring process more attractive to jobseekers with disabilities?

Less than a quarter of disabled people were employed last year, despite many of us being perfectly capable of working. We simply need to know our employer can work with us and not against us.

Consider what accommodations you can make to your hiring process, as well as to your workplace more broadly. And speak about it early and often. People with disabilities are likely to think your organization is not for them unless you show/tell them how you’ll welcome them.

And even if a prospective candidate doesn’t have a disability, they’re more likely to warm to your business if they can see that you enable different ways of working.

Also consider how inclusive your hiring team is. Is everyone from the same age group? Are they all from the same ethnicity? How can you broaden their experiences and backgrounds to get a more balanced view? It’s important to empower everyone to thrive, including Gen Z in the workplace.

Grow your groups

Unfortunately, more than a fifth of Gen Z in the workplace says they have no friends at work. Whereas baby boomers are nearly twice as likely to make most of their friends at work. 

This is a huge generational difference. Businesses need to work to change this. Loneliness in any guise can come with significant short- and long-term health problems. 

You could start by growing (or, if you don’t have any already, creating), employee groups. These communities give employees somewhere to get to know new colleagues outside of their immediate teams. 

They can connect with people who have similar backgrounds or interests to them, helping expand their friend group and reducing the damaging impact of loneliness.

Offer career advancement opportunities

76% of Gen Z-ers feel that upskilling is key to their career advancement. And 67% want to work somewhere they can learn skills that will advance their careers. 

So, if you don’t offer them this, there’s a high chance you’ll lose the interest of the next generation.

Gen Z switches jobs at a rate that’s 134% higher than before the pandemic. Millennials switch jobs 24% more. For boomers, that number is just 4%.

So, the more you can do to engage Gen Z in the workplace now, the sooner your business can grow and modernize to stay ahead of your competition.

Provide in-person training

Only 14% of employees want online training. 63% prefer in-person training. I can see why. It can be challenging to focus on an all-day training exercise, especially if that training is done at home.

Many trainings are hard to pay attention to, let alone when you’re getting bombarded with email and Slack notifications. 

Offering training in person gives employees a chance to meet their colleagues and get away from the office. This can help with idea generation and clearing the cobwebs away, as my nan used to say.

If employees go to an external training session, it allows them to meet people from outside of the company but with similar goals or roles to them. 

As well as providing them with the chance to make friends, this can also allow them crucial networking opportunities that may advance their careers further down the line.

Conclusion

Gen Z is the future of the modern workforce. One day, they’ll be the decision makers. The sooner you make your business attractive to Gen Z in the workplace, the more likely they are to rave about your business online. This will then attract more candidates from this next generation and all the benefits that can bring.

Ready to make your employee experience more attractive to Gen Z in the workplace? Look no further than Workrowd. Our user-friendly platform gives Gen Z one-stop shopping for all your employee programs, groups, and events.

That way, they can tap into what’s important to them from day one and easily form close connections with colleagues. Plus, real-time analytics let you know exactly what’s contributing to a positive experience for Gen Z in the workplace.

Ready to learn more? Visit us online, or just send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

Change can be scary. It’s even scarier if it happens at work and it feels like there’s nothing you can do about it. Keeping employees engaged during these times can have a huge impact on the outcome of the changes.

Whether it’s a merger or acquisition, organizational restructuring, a change in strategy, or something else, it can be hard for employees to wrap their heads around change and accept what’s happening as the new norm.

18% of employees would consider leaving their job if a big organizational change occurred.

While I haven’t experienced this in a job myself, I have seen a couple of companies my friends worked for go through big changes.

It resulted in turnover so high that pretty much everyone who’d been there pre-transition was gone within a year or two. That’s a lot of money wasted on hiring because the change led to super disengaged employees.

Change in any part of our lives can be stressful, so it’s hardly surprising that 73% of employees affected by change say they’re suffering from moderate to high stress levels. That can have a big impact not just on employee engagement, but on productivity, retention, and even mental and physical health. It’s really unsurprising so many of my friends’ colleagues left.

And, when you consider that 75% of transformation efforts don’t deliver the results change-makers hoped for…it makes you wonder if it’s even worth it.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though.

Here are five ideas for keeping employees engaged through organizational changes:

Make leaders visible

The biggest reason employees resist change is a lack of trust in leadership. That can only improve when leaders are visible and clearly communicate with employees.

How can they do that?

There are endless ways, whether you’re in an office or remote:

• Posting internally on Slack, Teams, Workrowd, or whatever your company uses (not just to criticize or complain, but to compliment or even just initiate small talk)
• Posting regularly to social media on somewhere like LinkedIn to humanize you to employees
• Hosting ask me anythings (AMAs)
• Making an active effort to talk to as many employees as possible and get their views
• Holding live video streams for company updates

The more you openly and honestly communicate with employees, the more likely they are to trust you. The more they trust you, the more successful you’re likely to be at keeping employees engaged.

If they think you’re opaque or inaccessible, warning signals are going to go off in their minds and they’ll be less accepting and trusting as a result.

Be transparent

Keeping employees engaged through transitional changes isn’t just about making leaders visible. It’s also about being honest with employees. They need to know what’s happening.

So, share as much information as you can with them.

What’s the reason for the change?

Which departments will it affect? How and when will they be impacted?

Will there be new functions or ways of doing things going forward?

The more you can share with them, the more accepting they’re likely to be about the change.

It may help to have regular meetings with employees to keep them informed of how the change is going, since it won’t be a one-day thing.

Team members will appreciate your honesty and transparency and reward you with their loyalty and trust. That alone will go a long way towards helping you meet your goal of keeping employees engaged.

Let employees express their opinions

One of the ways you can make change less scary for employees is by making them feel like their voices are valued. Just by allowing them to voice their concerns, they’ll feel a little more in control. And, crucially, more valued in the workplace, so that keeping employees engaged will be easier.

For a successful transition of any kind to happen, employees need to know what’s happening and feel heard.

You don’t have to like what they have to say, nor do you have to act on it, but you have to give them a way to share their thoughts.

If they feel like they’re being silenced or ignored, they’re less likely to accept the change.

Sometimes, all people need is to get something off their chest. Once they’ve done that, they’re more likely to get onboard.

You could collect their feedback via a questionnaire or survey; host a Q&A; organize a drop-in session for them to speak to senior leaders; or ask team leads about what their employees have said to them.

The more avenues you use to collect feedback, the more likely you are to get a clear picture of how employees really feel about what’s going on. And what steps you can be taking towards keeping employees engaged.

Don’t censor

While negative feedback is never comfortable, censoring employees’ negative comments about the transition will only fuel the fire.

They need to feel heard and supported, otherwise they’re going to feel angry and silenced.

And the more angry and silenced they feel, the bigger the risk of a backlash, whether that’s through mass resignations, negative reviews, decreased morale, or something else. Regardless of how it manifests, it’s inevitable that dissatisfied employees will impact your bottom line.

Set an example

Employees will follow the lead of their managers. So, by leaders setting an example, it can help put employees at ease.

They could do this by:

• Being open about how they feel about the change(s)
• Adopting, and embracing, new behaviors or attitudes
• Listening to employees’ thoughts on how things are going (and passing on any feedback)
• Making employees feel psychologically safe at work

Conclusion 

Change at work can be scary for employees and lead to them feeling increased levels of stress. This can present some big challenges when you’re focused on keeping employees engaged.

By clearly communicating with them about what’s happening and allowing them to voice their concerns, you’re far less likely to suffer from the negative consequences that can come from organizational changes.

If you’re ready to make keeping employees engaged more of a ‘set it and forget’-type effort, Workrowd’s suite of tools can help. With streamlined communications, program and events management, and automated surveys and analytics all under one roof, you can easily support your workforce through all sorts of ups and downs.

Sound useful? Drop by the homepage for more info, or send us an email at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

65% of employees want more feedback at work. When companies invest in employee feedback, they have 14.9% lower turnover rates than organizations that don’t provide it.

That’s not the only benefit, though.

Four out of ten employees who receive little to no feedback are disengaged at work. 

Considering feedback is a way to show we care about someone and their career progress, this statistic doesn’t surprise me. 

Nor does the fact that 69% of employees would work harder if they felt their employer recognized their efforts through feedback.

43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week.

All this shows that providing employee feedback can significantly improve engagement. And of course, we all know that comes along with a slew of additional benefits.

So, here are some tips on how to improve your employee feedback and increase employee engagement as a result:

Share positives and negatives

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when giving employee feedback is focusing too much on the negatives.

This risks hurting the recipient’s confidence when all they receive is negative feedback. Plus, it also risks them fixing things that don’t need it.

Sometimes, it’s only one element of a project that needs amending. But if you don’t tell someone that’s the only thing that needs fixing, they may break other areas in an effort to fix the one that was originally broken.

Not only this, but if employees don’t know what you’re looking for, how are they ever going to achieve it? It’s therefore just as important to highlight the things you like as much as the areas for improvement.

Tailor your feedback to their skill level

The more advanced someone is in a skill/career, the more in-depth feedback they can handle.

If someone is new to something, they’ll find too much in-depth feedback complicated, overwhelming, and potentially off-putting. So, you want to balance the feedback with where their skills lie.

That way, you build their confidence and their skills, allowing them to continue to flourish in their role.

Watch your tone

Some employee feedback, particularly when it’s notes on a digital document, can unintentionally come across as aggressive, negative, or passive-aggressive.

I’ve seen many first-time authors get hurt by the tone a professional editor uses when annotating their novel. They interpret their tone to mean the editor hates them/their book. Ultimately though, that’s just how many people give feedback—even those of us who have professional training. After all, we’re taught how to pick things apart, not how to pay a compliment.

Now, imagine if you were in the workplace and you’d sent something to a colleague for them to review. When they wrote back, their feedback had a passive-aggressive tone. 

You may feel like they hate your work, they dislike you, you’re not good enough, etc. It can really impact your feelings of belonging in the workplace.

At least with a freelance editor, a writer can choose not to work with them again. People can’t do that at work.

So, be mindful of your tone.

Consider how you’d feel if you were on the receiving end of that feedback. Would it make you uncomfortable? Afraid? Angry? Hurt?

Or would you feel supported? Appreciated? Challenged to grow your skills?

Keep it simple

Many businesses—particularly older or larger ones—still like to write in business-speak. They favor long, inaccessible sentences that sound like they came from a politician or a 1960s fantasy novel.

If you want engaged employees who feel like they belong, plain English is your friend. More employees will understand what you’re saying, and therefore will be more likely to act on the feedback you give.

They’ll also feel more valued by you because you made the effort to talk to them in an accessible way. They wouldn’t be so receptive if you excluded people by using unnecessarily verbose language.

Save the sandwiches for your lunchbox

I’m sure you’ve heard of a compliment sandwich. It’s where you compliment something, say something negative about it, then provide another compliment. 

The logic is that the recipient will dwell less on the negative feedback because it was in the middle. 

But it’s become increasingly transparent and can come across as disingenuous. This is especially true if there aren’t two positives for you to remark on, so you’re forced to find them. Just be honest and upfront with employee feedback, and watch your tone instead.

Evaluate mistakes—and look ahead

It’s important to evaluate mistakes from an objective point of view. It isn’t an occasion for employees to beat themselves up. Or, for you to berate them and make them feel worse. But you do want to make sure any mistakes don’t happen again.

Once you’ve looked at what went wrong, look ahead: what can you do to stop this from happening again?

This also puts a positive, productive spin on mistakes and helps to prevent employees from ruminating on them.

Focus on their hard work, not the end result

When you praise someone for their hard work, not the outcome, they’re more likely to work hard and keep growing. It encourages a growth mindset. 

This benefits their personal growth as well as your business growth.

It also encourages employees to experiment, seek to develop their skills, and learn from their mistakes instead of hiding them.

Conclusion 

Employee feedback is an important tool to help employees grow and keep them engaged in the workplace.

For it to work, you need to tailor your feedback to their skill level and share both positives and negatives.

You don’t want to overwhelm someone with how much feedback you provide. At the same time, you want them to feel like you’re paying attention to what they do. You can do this by offering the feedback and also taking the time to listen to them. That could be in person, on a call, or in written form.

Providing employee feedback is clearly really important, but it also needs to be a two-way street. You should be gathering feedback from employees, too. Workrowd automates the process of collecting employees’ thoughts and opinions, especially when it comes to the programs, groups, and events you offer.

Sound useful for your organization? Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more, or drop by our site to schedule some time to talk.

Check out part 1 of this post covering signs your employee engagement programs need a makeover HERE. When you’re running successful employee engagement programs, it can have huge benefits for your business. In the new world of work, these efforts that used to be ‘nice to haves’ have quickly become ‘need to haves’.

But what makes for successful employee engagement programs? And how do you know whether yours are driving results? Here are some things to look out for:

Employees want to join in

When employees want to be a part of your programs, it’s a really good sign. It means they feel like your programs could make a difference to their lives, either personally or professionally.

Another sign of successful employee engagement programs is when people share their enthusiasm with their colleagues. This excitement is contagious and can spread the word without you needing to do as much promotion.

The more everyone talks about the benefits of participating, the more employees you’ll have who want to join in. People don’t like to feel like they’re missing out and will want to experience the benefits, too.

Everyone has a community where they belong

72% of employees feel lonely at least once per month. The same percentage of remote workers feel lonelier than they did when they worked in an office.

As well as being a sad statistic, the truth is that it’s also scary and dangerous. Loneliness is bad for our mental and physical health. It causes everything from anxiety, to a weakened immune system, to an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Most people probably won’t admit to their colleagues that they feel this way. They may not even realize the impact their loneliness could have on their long-term health.

Even without these discussions or this awareness though, successful employee engagement programs help mitigate workplace loneliness. People can find colleagues nearby to chat over coffee with; pet sit so that they can travel more; or co-work together in a local space. 

All these things help employees feel more connected to their teammates and organization, reducing the detrimental impacts of loneliness.

Employee program leaders aren’t drowning in admin work

There may be some people out there who like admin work (I’m not one of them). Regardless, there’s no denying how much it can eat into your time and mean you produce less as a result.

Reducing admin time for employee program leaders gives them more time and energy for their daily tasks while still championing engagement. With the right tools, they can do more in less time, and avoid burning out.

So instead of manually sending reminders about the next event, they can plan interesting discussions, connect with other engagement leaders, or get to know participants better. When tedious, time-consuming tasks are automated, it’s much easier to build successful employee engagement programs.

There’s a clear transition process in place

It’s common when a program or group leader leaves for things to fall apart. A successful employee engagement programs management solution means this doesn’t happen. It ensures there are already steps in place to facilitate a handover, and to make it as seamless as possible.

One thing you can do to help with this is create a list of potential leaders to step in when someone leaves. Or, you could always have a deputy leader who’s the natural next person to fill the position.

Whomever takes over needs to know where all the files are and have permission to access/edit them.

They also need access to any policies or documents which explain how the program or group operates. That way, they’ll know what’s expected of them as a leader and of group members, and can update things if/when required.

Having a central repository can go a long way towards helping you build successful employee engagement programs. That way, leaders, participants, and executives all know exactly where to look when they need something.

Every aspect is intuitive and user-friendly

The most important thing about a great user experience is that it just works. It’s so perfectly organized and logical that people barely have to think about it.

This is sometimes easier said than done, but when employees know where to find the latest information, they can log in to get what they want, maybe find something else that’s also of interest to them, then continue with their day.

It’s simple, it’s intuitive, and it allows them to make the most of your successful employee engagement programs with the least amount of effort.

What’s more, it doesn’t interrupt them. Rather than receiving emails and chat notifications about a free fitness class while trying to focus on a big project, they can learn what’s happening when it’s convenient for them.

They offer people opportunities to develop their skills

Many employees are always on the lookout for ways to improve their skills, grow in their roles, and advance their careers. If they don’t feel they can do that at your organization, they’re more likely to leave.

Successful employee engagement programs provide team members who want to grow their skills access to relevant training. They can also connect them to mentors or coaches. 

They improve communication

When you encourage employees to interact with people from other areas of the business, it can improve relationships between different departments. 

This makes collaboration much easier. It also helps prevent us vs. them mentalities and myths that can occur between different departments.

Successful employee engagement programs build cross-team links that ensure your business can stay agile and competitive.

You can track their effectiveness

If you want successful employee engagement programs, it’s important to be able to track their effectiveness. That’s how you know what you’re doing is benefitting your business and your staff. 

Without any trackable metrics, your programs could be a huge waste of time and money. You wouldn’t know it, though, because you would have no way of measuring.

With metrics, you can clearly see what’s working and what isn’t. It’s important that you’re pulling information from a variety of sources and at different points in time. Relying on a once or twice yearly engagement survey won’t get you the data you need.

With automated, real-time analytics, you always know which programs are driving results, and which need some extra support. You can then use that information to make more informed decisions and maximize your ROI.

They benefit your business

The most successful employee engagement programs benefit businesses in ways both big and small. 

They lead to employees being happier and more productive because they feel like you care about them beyond daily workplace activities. It’s a reciprocal relationship. And the more you foster that relationship, the more success you’ll both experience.

If you’re interested in building more successful employee engagement programs this year, Workrowd can help. With a one-stop shop for marketing, managing, and measuring all of your programs, groups, and events, everything you need is right at your fingertips.

Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more. We’d love to discuss how some easy-to-implement tools can take your employee engagement programs to the next level in 2023.