Employee Engagement & The Golden Rule

Organizational leaders who are looking to support employees care about employee engagement. Unmotivated staff impacts the quality of the products or services offered. This is especially true for organizations in the context of the past few years. The coronavirus pandemic affected many organizations. Many started offering remote or other flexible work arrangements for employees.

Additionally, people experienced these disruptive events at the same time. Goodwill was produced from this collective experience. This allowed individuals, teams, and organizations the ability to push through challenging times.

Operations are stabilizing (somewhat). Now workers who don’t feel appreciated enough are making their voices heard. There were record-setting unemployment claims in the United States in 2021. This prompted many to dub the phenomenon “The Great Resignation.”

You may or may not be a fan of the phrase. Regardless, leaders must recognize and reward employees as part of their jobs.

Leaders Must Lead

Employee satisfaction can be a challenge for managers and leaders. This applies whether working onsite, at home, or both. But it’s critical to get right! A 2017 report highlighted in this Forbes article states:

“66% of employees say they would “likely leave their job if they didn’t feel appreciated.” This is up significantly from 51% of employees who felt this way in 2012.”

No doubt, this sentiment has only increased in the wake of The Great Resignation. In a more recent report, published in 2021 by Gallup:

 “Low engagement teams typically endure turnover rates that are 18% to 43% higher than highly engaged teams.”

Leaders need to engage with their teams if organizations want to convince people to stay. Employees pay attention to what you say and do. Leaders should have effective communication skills. They should show many key things in their communications with staff:

• Set clear expectations on the work that everyone must do to help the organization.
• Give consistent feedback about that work. This includes scheduled sessions. Leaders should include things such as: On-the-spot rewards or non-work-related but essential announcements.
• Show that you care. Help employees understand why their work and efforts matter. This goes beyond highlighting how their labor contributes to the bottom line. Include factors like improving team morale or efficient work. Also, highlight it when team members display potential for stretch assignments or promotions.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) factor into this as well. Engaged team members feel that the organization welcomes and treats them right. This encourages them to be more engaged.

Organizational members operate better with clear, consistent, and caring communication.

Engagement Must Be a Habit

Employee recognition must be habitual. Employee satisfaction can feel like one more thing to manage in a busy work environment. The evidence is clear: Not engaging with them is costly. One of the ways to combat that is by making it a consistent practice.

But don’t confuse consistency with mindless repetition. No two employees are alike. Some work well in groups, and others operate better as solo performers. Also, consider demographic differences—for example, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or physical disability. 

To support a diverse pool of employees, you’ll need to use different tactics and strategies. Measuring and reporting on engagement efforts will help in this effort.

Measure and Report

Having the right technology can help employee engagement efforts in many ways. The right tools and processes can help reduce anxiety for new staff members. It can address compliance needs, such as assigning mandatory training modules. Many systems can include certain steps to enable new hires ready to work. For example, you can do this by adding a way to introduce them to other staff members. Or including steps for mandatory training sessions.

Current staff can benefit also. Diverse and unified communication channels give everyone ways to share. This can be ideas, work, as well as forms of recognition. These channels can aid in getting goals accomplished. 

The right technology solution helps leaders. It identifies the various demographics present – or not – in the organization. It aids in understanding where obstacles to better engagement may be. That can happen through quantitative measures. Look at turnover for employees who are from a minority group. If much higher than others, it may signify a larger issue.

It can also be subjective measures. Different methods to identify ways to increase employee satisfaction are available. Employee feedback surveys, roundtable discussions, and exit interviews are a few.

The ability to measure and report on data that’s gathered is key. The right technology allows leaders to find ways to improve employee appreciation efforts.

Why Engagement is Important

The best organizations have an engaged workforce. It’s where employees feel that they belong and where their work matters. Leaders make this happen by example. They also do it with a consistent employee and team engagement strategies.

Many organizations say that people are their greatest assets. Apply the golden rule through consistent and high-value employee engagement programs. This will make that statement believable to employees.