Category: Employee Engagement

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

7 features to look for in an employee experience platform

9 tips to design a stay interview process that drives retention

9 creative employee recognition ideas to accelerate engagement

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.

7 features to look for in an employee experience platform

9 tips to design a stay interview process that drives retention

9 creative employee recognition ideas to accelerate engagement

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.

7 features to look for in an employee experience platform

9 tips to design a stay interview process that drives retention

9 creative employee recognition ideas to accelerate engagement

From professional development to diversity and inclusion, employee engagement programs are key to retention. Beyond that, they’re also a powerful, underutilized tool that can benefit almost every area of your business.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to set up employee engagement programs with the best intentions, only to get distracted by other tasks. As a result, they never reach their full potential and fail to drive ROI. 

Or, they’re implemented and nobody even knows they’re a thing. Obviously, in this case, no one gets to experience any of the benefits.

Here are some key signs your employee engagement programs need a makeover in 2023. Check back next week for what to do about it!

No one uses them—or even knows they exist

Maybe your employee engagement programs have lots of people signed up, but nobody’s engaged. Or nobody joins them in the first place. Either way, this is problematic.

Ineffective employee engagement programs can have a tremendous impact on a person’s ability to feel like part of the team. Beyond that, it can even have a detrimental effect on their career trajectory. 

It’s a story the Workrowd team has heard all too often. The company’s founder, Rachel Goor, notes:

“Especially in remote and hybrid environments, it’s easy for employees to miss out on opportunities to build a better work life. For instance, we recently learned about an individual who found out three years into her tenure with a company that there was a mentoring program she could have joined from day one. She was burned out and ended up leaving, but tapping into this great initiative that the company was already running could have completely transformed her experience.”

Three years of growth missed out on all because no one connected her to a program that already existed.

Running them is detrimental to leaders’ careers

If you have employee engagement programs led by team members (e.g. ERGs), supporting them is crucial.

Running any sort of community is a huge commitment and can really eat into their time. Trying to do that alongside their full-time job makes things even more challenging. Either their program or their job suffers.

And of course, this could lead to adverse outcomes for these engagement champions. It leaves them less time for their job responsibilities, despite their significant contributions to company culture.

Rachel noted another example where:

“An employee was so passionate about social impact efforts that she took it upon herself to personally spearhead things for two years. She, too, ended up leaving, because the company had no way to support or empower her.”

It must’ve been heartbreaking for that individual to put everything into building opportunities for her colleagues to give back, positively influence the company’s culture, but then have to leave because her personal development suffered as a result.

Things fall apart when someone leaves

At some point, a leader or champion of one or more of your employee engagement programs is going to leave. It may be because they’ve found an opportunity elsewhere, they’re moving, or they’re retiring. If there’s no handover process in place, it can cause programs to fall apart.

This can come down to poor organization or limited knowledge transfer. Your program then falters and has to start again from scratch, if at all. This leaves a lot of opportunities and potentially disappointed employees behind.

Even if your program has seen high engagement up to this point, it’s unlikely things will stay that way if no one is trained to take over and they don’t know where to find all the information they need. 

Any initiative’s atmosphere is directly influenced by the people running it. The only way to maintain that is for a new leader to hit the ground running when they take over.

You’re not effectively tracking their impact

It’s really important to have some form of data collection. Without it, you won’t know what’s working, what’s not, and where you can improve. How do you know what difference your employee engagement programs are making? More importantly, how do you know where to invest your time and money moving forward?

It doesn’t just have to be hard numbers, of course. Anecdotes about employees’ improved confidence, skills, or new contacts they’ve met because of employee engagement programs can be just as powerful. 

But if there’s nowhere for them to share those stories, how will you ever hear about them?

You don’t market or promote them 

Quite often, you think you’re talking a lot about something, but nobody has heard you talk about it at all. This is common when you work in marketing, and marketing internal initiatives is no different. 

So, while you may think you’re shouting, only a handful of people have probably heard about your employee engagement programs.

You need to actively promote your initiatives to new employees, as well as existing employees looking for something new. Promote them in as many places as possible, including in print, by word-of-mouth, and beyond.

Employees may not join the first time they hear about a group, program, or event. Over time though, they may change their minds.

They may realize the benefits of being a part of them and want to join in, too. Therefore, you need to talk about your employee engagement programs and their benefits as much as possible to encourage participation.

The organizational system is a mess

When employee engagement programs are managed manually, it makes the whole process clunkier. Almost every other part of our lives can be automated now. Employees expect a seamless experience for groups and events at work just as they do in their outside lives. Are you delivering?

Tasks like signing up, sharing files, organizing meetings, RSVPing for events, and sending reminders should be as easy as possible. This is true for both program leaders and for members and participants as well. This only happens when there’s a clear, easy-to-follow system in place.

Lack of regionalization/localization

What appeals to someone in one country will be different from what appeals to someone in another. Even countries that speak the same language can have dramatic cultural differences. (Like the US and the UK, for example.)

Being aware of these differences is important.

It’s also important to consider that some employees will prefer to meet in person. If they work remotely, it’s a great opportunity for them to get out of the house and connect with people.

Insufficient support/buy-in from the company 

It’s all too easy for a company to decide to launch employee engagement programs, give employees the chance to run them, then abandon them, expecting employees to do all the work. 

Your programs still need some sort of support from the business for them to be a success. 

Many aspects of culture come from the top, and this includes the adoption of employee engagement programs. That’s the only way businesses will experience the full benefits of them.

If initiatives are left with small or non-existent budgets, or a disengaged/non-existent executive sponsor, they’re unlikely to deliver the results you’d hoped for.

Conclusion

An effective employee engagement programs strategy can lead to positive changes in employees’ skills, networks, and career paths. 

However, when they’re done wrong, they can feel like a waste of time and resources for everyone.

If you’d like to ensure you’re maximizing the value of your employee engagement programs in 2023, Workrowd can help. Tune in next week for a post on solutions. Or, reach out to us directly to explore easy-to-implement tools to solve your engagement challenges.

Our one-stop platform has everything you need to successfully market, manage, and measure your employee engagement programs to drive greater impact. Learn more by visiting us online, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

Check out part 2 of this post covering solutions to improve the effectiveness of your employee engagement programs HERE.

7 features to look for in an employee experience platform

9 tips to design a stay interview process that drives retention

9 creative employee recognition ideas to accelerate engagement

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.

7 features to look for in an employee experience platform

9 tips to design a stay interview process that drives retention

9 creative employee recognition ideas to accelerate engagement