The Hindu Business Line : Are your employees engaged and happy?

Can you look around your organisation and see the telltale signs that all is not well? Do you know the signs? And what do you do about it? How do you change things? The answer may be as simple as ‘engage them’.

Here, we will look at some tangible ideas around employee engagement:

Engage your employees during the orientation stage

You don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression. This may sound clichéd but it’s true. Your brand ambassadors get created at the induction and orientation phase and the conviction with which they endorse your organisation will depend on the impact you create during this stage. Organisations experience the highest level of turnover during the first 90 days on the job.

Understand the expectations of your new employees early. You’re building a partnership of human capital for your firm, therefore, once you’ve communicated what will make for success in your organisation, persistently ask the candidate what they expect from a possible career opportunity with you. Their answer will be the key to their continued motivation. The purpose of on-boarding is to quickly assimilate the new person into the organisation, so make the first critical days stand out as a positive experience.

The method of delivery is your final consideration — it could be via a webinar, a PowerPoint presentation, in hard copy or a hybrid version. One company I know hosted a lunch to deliver their orientation programme. If your company has an HR department, you may elect to delegate it to them. However, you send a powerful message whenever you have line managers involved. A successful orientation programme establishes a solid underpinning for new staff. It will lead to happier employees who are more productive, and they will tell others that your company is a fantastic place to work.

Take an inventory of key behaviours

Often organisations look at one or two issues, work on them successfully and when employee retention rates don’t seem to stabilise they raise their arms in frustration and justify saying this is the just the cost of doing business. If you want to get to the root of the problem, here are things that you could do:

Look at your current skills inventory, project for the future

Review every job description

Review all of your human resources processes to ensure they support a signature experience for all employees

Have a look at your mission, vision and values? Are they supported by behaviours?

Do your rewards and recognition policies support your signature experience?

Have you analysed your exit interview data with a view to future change versus past rationale?

How does your recruitment process contribute to employees’ view of your company?

Is your Human Resources team fully engaged in the process?

What is the predominant leadership style in your organisation? How are senior or existing managers or leaders developed? The saying goes…look at how existing employees are treated and that will give you a strong sense of how your new employees will be treated once the blush wears off.

Invest in training and up-skilling your managers

Identify and weed out poor managers. The relationship with the employee’s front-line manager is the most common reason why people leave. Empower your employees to evaluate their bosses periodically. Only belief empowers people and it is behind every good or bad thing we do. If the employee believes in your company and its services/ products, then they will remain motivated and perform from a motivated mindset, giving the organisation and them the best chance for success. The job of the managers is to keep them believing in your company.

Check how tenured employees are treated

The very first thing new or potential employees look at is how existing employees are treated. This includes the developmental opportunities and growth offered to existing employees. A new employee will watch closely to see if the potential employer “walks the talk”…or if it is just lip service.

If the tenured employees are given opportunities to learn and grow and are respected and acknowledged for their contribution, it sends out a strong and positive signal to the entire organisation. This is about providing an opportunity for exposure, growth and opportunity. Organisations must balance a fine line here to ensure that everyone’s contribution is recognised and rewarded. Collaborative teamwork is the way of the future.

Your partnerships in human capital are not a one-off, there are no quick fixes. It takes planning, effort and resources but there is a measurable business reason for doing so.

(The writer is a Managing Partner at WCH Training Solutions, a New Delhi-based training and consulting firm. He can be reached at sunder@wchsolutions.com)

More Stories on : Human Resources | Management

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Are your employees engaged and happy?