Did you know that disengaged employees can cost companies as much as $500 billion every year? Even though better engagement can lead to a more than 20% increase in profitability, only one-quarter of businesses have an engagement strategy in place. Knowing this, it is vital for companies to devote more attention to employee satisfaction and retention. However, typical worker benefits are no longer sufficient to motivate your workers to be more effective and create loyalty among your top performers. If you are willing to acknowledge that your business is only as good as your employees, these are some of the tactics you can use to improve your human capital.
Find Out What Your Employees Think
It is impossible to make your employees feel better about their jobs if you don’t know what is bothering them. The only way to learn that is through communication. You need to be aware that employees will not be so open to say that they have troubles with management or their co-workers. To be sure they are sincere, you can use anonymous surveys. The surveys need to collect relevant data that can influence performance metrics. Furthermore, you can show your employees you care, by setting private appointments with management and discussing their ideas, problems, and goals.
Create a Team
What is a team? A group of people performing individual tasks in one company? We don’t think so. A team consists of individuals working together toward a unique goal. This is not something that simply happens. It takes investing effort and time. Organizing team building activities that build camaraderie can improve employee satisfaction and their engagement as well.
Professional Development
Many business owners avoid investing in developing their employees, due to the misconception that they’ll become more valuable in the marketplace, and jump ship. However, this produces the opposite effect. When they feel like they have nothing more to offer, or that they are provided with no room to grow, employees will want to look for their chance someplace else. To prevent that, you should look to develop your employees’ skills and talents and offer them an opportunity to grow. Depending on the worker, that opportunity may come in the form of intensive financial modelling courses, marketing training, or other job-specific training courses. You may also choose to send employees to relevant seminars and conferences.
Individual Development Plan
An individual development plan (IDP) is a tool that helps set short and long-term goals for each employee and provides management with the insight into the progress and ambitions of their staff. This plan empowers individuals to ask themselves where they are at this point in their career, where they want to be in some time, and how they can get there.
Create a Healthy Work Environment
Scientists from Harvard discovered that medical costs decrease by approximately $3.27 for each dollar spent on wellness programs. Furthermore, the costs of absenteeism are decreased by about $2.73 per one dollar spent on wellness. Here are some simple changes you can make to benefit from this information:
- Scatter some houseplants around the office for a more vibrant feel and cleaner air.
- Maximize the amount of natural light in the office.
- Encourage office exercising.
- Introduce standing desks.
- Throw down a challenge, such as “walk a mile a day,” and give rewards to those who succeed.
Gamify
Employees often don’t feel appreciated in their firms. This results in them being unhappy and unproductive. Of course, praise, recognition, and financial awards are always good ways to motivate employees, but sometimes you need to be a little more creative than that. Everyone likes seeing their name on the “employee of the month” wall. You can do more by giving special awards for unique contributions (e.g., the person who takes most risks, the person who smiles the most, or the person who is always first to arrive and last to leave).
Perks, Benefits, and Progress
When it comes to perks and benefits, there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all. Each employee has specific needs and wishes. For example, someone would consider a bonus to be the perfect perk, while another employee would like some personal burden to be removed from their shoulders, in the form of, let’s say, childcare services. Finally, the biggest perk an employee can have is the chance to climb up the corporate ladder.
Employees are a vital part of your company and if they don’t feel good about what they are doing, they won’t be able to do their best in helping your business make a profit. Fortunately, there are things you can do to increase employee engagement and productivity.
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