Aligning Employee Engagement Results with Expectations

It’s a great business move to invest in the satisfaction of your employees. Improving employee engagement is a top priority for increasing productivity, happiness and retention rates. No doubt, your leadership team went into this effort with high hopes. It’s important that you have a realistic view of your organizational progress as you work to boost employee engagement. The 2019 G2 Crowd Employee Engagement report indicated that 66 percent of HR professionals believe that Employee Engagement has increased in the last 12 months. But a paltry 34 percent of non-HR employees feel more engaged over that same period of time. Where is the disconnect coming from? Is it perhaps a problem with HR’s expectations and how they are promoting employee engagement? Or maybe they need a better approach?

What are your expectations concerning employee engagement?

To improve employee engagement, it’s important to understand your expectations. Use these questions to determine if you are setting the stage for success or lining up your employees for failures.

Are they goals or expectations?

An expectation is not an assigned goal, which is tied to employee performance. Instead, it’s an expectation that the employee has had their duties clearly explained and can carry them out without micromanagement. The quest for more productivity also requires a level of trust and acceptance of the new. According to Lucy Adams, CEO of Disruptive HR and best-selling author, progressive organizations recognize the ‘EACH’ model (Employees as Adults, Consumers and Human Beings). This means HR needs to treat employees as adults, respect them as if they are consumers and always treat employees as human beings worthy of respect. This demonstrates trust.

Can you handle the disruption of technology?

It’s natural to expect a lot from new technology, especially since it can be a significant investment. We live in a world where we have information on-demand 24/7, so it can be easy to expect the same from all technology. Depending on what solution you choose, real-time employee engagement has this ability. Mobile employee engagement applications require the ability to respond faster.

Are your expectations supported by the corporate culture?

What does employee engagement look like in comparison with your current culture? Is there a parent-child type relationship or are employees trusted to come up with ideas to improve engagement? Further, is your culture prepared to change in order to accommodate the new ideas and discoveries that employee engagement software can provide? For example, if an employee shares some insight using the two-way employee engagement communication system, is your leadership ready to consider these changes necessary to increase engagement? Trust shows employees that they are valuable contributors to the organization. Adams also brought up something ironic: HR processes are often far away from humanity because they lack humility. An aspect of employee engagement that is often overlooked is how much HR processes (and attitudes) need to change so they actually address the human side of the employee experience. If HR wants to make a difference, they can put the tools in place and ask employees to participate. But then, it’s up to employees to guide things with their suggestions and ideas.

A better approach to employee engagement management

HR can provide guidance without being overly controlling. This allows for the natural adaptation to employee engagement software use, sharing thoughts and learning to embrace a new culture that encourages greater engagement. If your expectations are realistic, you know that these changes won't happen overnight, but it’s HR that is the catalyst to make it to happen. Your approach is also to be more humble, listen more, and be open to ideas that employees have. They shape the organization and its results, so give them their “power” back -- as scary as that may sound. The best leaders listen to and respect their people. They boost their people and help them stand out. They support innovation by honoring the expectations of their people. This is how employee engagement starts to turn around for the better. Giving people a safe outlet for communicating their ideas and concerns is critical too. If your organization wants to grow and become more positive, then employees need to feel comfortable sharing. Some of the best ideas come from the people on the frontline of your business, as they are the closest to your customers. They are also keenly aware of the industry and what’s happening. This is a rich source of information to increase revenues as well as boost employee engagement. Choose the right employee engagement product based on a new and improved set of expectations that will correspond with your approach.

Thymometrics is a new breed of disruptive employee feedback technology. Through real time, always-on surveys and feedback solutions, we provide revolutionary yet simple tools to empower employees whilst providing managers with deep and useable insights to improve business culture, staff well-being, productivity and profitability.

For more information, please call 01223 750251, email info@thymometrics.com or visit thymometrics.com.

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