Communication and daily briefings require effective messaging, coordination, and adaptation to different audiences, which can be challenging and inconsistent in organizational settings.
The daily interaction, communication, and engagement with front line employees are the most important consistent activity across the service industry to be successful.
And yet it’s one of the most difficult, challenging and inconsistently tasks executed in most organizations.
Why do we need employee engagement?
The idea is that, in addition to optimizing work, the guest is also intuitively involved in the ordering process, which is important. But this is also about reducing the workload for colleagues who would like to stay in the catering and hotel industry (service industry).
Colleagues need to feel that they are part of an organization and believe in the organization’s vision and mission. Most of our employees work on the front lines! As managers, don’t we forget this too often?
In Germany alone, 450,000 colleagues are missing, and you won’t find them if you discuss and report about them but offer solutions and understand why they are missing in such a great professional field.
If you are ready to take the first steps to make your business shine and are looking for solutions to choose from, contact us.
What Is Employee Engagement?
In today’s fast-changing business environment, retaining top talent is a top challenge for most businesses. According to new research of more than 600 US businesses with 50-500 employees, 63.3% of companies say retaining employees is actually harder than hiring them.
You’re probably familiar with the ‘ Basically, it means that because of the shortage of skills businesses are currently facing and employees’ expectations (they don’t just look at the benefits, they also take into account the war for talent’ concept, company values and the development opportunities you offer), it became more challenging for businesses to retain top talent. Today, more than a third of workers are searching actively or casually for a job. As a result, US employers spend $2,9M per day looking for replacement workers. That’s $1.1B per year. Ouch!
What does it take to retain top talent?
In a nutshell, if you want to stay on top of your game and win the “war for talent”, you’ll need to develop an effective employee engagement strategy. But investing in employee engagement doesn’t mean making your employees happy. Indeed, employee engagement does not mean employee happiness or employee satisfaction. All these concepts are connected, but they are not synonyms!
Think about it: even though your employees are happy with the employee benefits you offer or the work environment, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are actually engaged with their jobs.
Not all experts and research companies have the same definition of employee engagement.
For example:
So, what does employee engagement is?
In essence, employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization. When employees feel engaged, they care about the company and they do their best work to achieve the company’s goals.
When employees are engaged, their #1 objective is to contribute to the company’s success. Employee engagement is not about employee benefits or bonuses, it’s about being part of a successful business.
Only 29% of Employees Are Happy with Career Advancement Opportunities
According to SHRM’s Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement report, only 29 per cent of employees are “very satisfied” with current career advancement opportunities available to them in the organization they work for.
However, 41 per cent consider this a very important factor to job satisfaction, so companies should pay close attention to making sure employees feel they can advance in their careers without leaving the company.
According to the SHRM study.30 per cent of employees considered career development opportunities for learning and personal growth in general very important, yet only 30 per cent were happy with their current situation.
The chance for professional development on the job is especially important to the younger generations: according to a Gallup survey up to 87 per cent of Millennials consider development in a job important.
The importance of professional development to employee engagement is undeniable, and managers and HR personnel need to provide tools and resources to support their employees’ professional development.
37% of Employees Consider Recognition Most Important
One study asked what would be the most important thing a manager or a company could do that would help the employee be successful and 37 per cent — the majority — cited recognition as the most important method of support.
Other solutions lag far behind — 12 per cent want more autonomy, 12 per cent more inspiration, 7 per cent more pay, 6 per cent more training and 4 per cent promotion. This means over a third of the workforce need first and foremost to be recognized.
According to a survey on rewarding and recognition, 43 per cent prefer to receive recognition privately on a one on one with a manager, 10 per cent would prefer to receive recognition publicly in front of their peers, and 9 per cent would prefer recognition privately, in written form.
Taking employees for granted is a surefire way to drop down the levels of employee engagement.
Instead, you need to make sure that your employees feel heard and valued. Recognition leads to increased motivation, a sense of pride and to increased self-confidence at work, which in turn increase employee initiatives and takes responsibility for one’s own work product.
A recent report shows that 84% of highly engaged employees were recognized the last time they went above and beyond at work compared to only 25% of actively disengaged employees. A company that actively recognizes and rewards its employees is more likely to see increased levels of accountability, responsibility and leadership initiatives.
1 in 3 Professionals Cite Boredom as Their Main Reason to Leave Their Jobs
According to a Korn Ferry survey, the majority — 33 per cent — of those changing jobs cite boredom and the need for new challenges as the top reason why they are leaving.
The second most common reason was the fact that the work culture didn’t fit the employee or their values, with 24 per cent choosing this as their main reason. The quest for a larger salary came fourth, with only 19 per cent choosing it as their main reason for leaving.
Making sure employees have enough challenges and variation in their workday is one of the most important managerial tasks. Without the ability to develop themselves and learn, employees, lose motivation and start to look elsewhere for a job.
Personal development is naturally good for the company as well, and as employees develop their skills and competencies, their work product becomes more refined and the company becomes more profitable.
Good Company Culture Increases Revenue by 4X
In a major long term study, companies that had the best corporate cultures, that encouraged all-around leadership initiatives and that highly appreciated their employees, customers and owners grew 682 per cent in revenue.
During the same period of evaluation — 11 years — companies without a thriving company culture grew only 166 per cent in revenue. This means that a thriving company culture leads to more than four times higher revenue growth.
Company culture and employee engagement go hand in hand and a business focusing on employee engagement and improving their company will enjoy the benefits of increased revenue, increased productivity and increased employee engagement.
47 per cent of people actively looking for a new job pinpoint company culture as the main reason for wanting to leave, so if you want to improve both employee retention and profitability, improving company culture should be one of your business priorities.
Low Employee Engagement Costs Companies $450-500 Billion Each Year!
According to a study on workplace engagement in the U.S, disengaged employees cost organizations around $450-550 billion each year.
Disengaged workers take less responsibility and ownership of their attitude, behaviour, and motivation, and drain overall productivity. The study recommends that companies focus on encouraging personal agency and that they use tools to monitor and maintain personal engagement. It is also important to connect the employees’ jobs to organizational missions, provide recognition and encourage collaboration.
81% of Employees Are Considering Leaving Their Jobs.
According to studies, 81 per cent of employees would consider leaving their jobs for the right offer, even if they wouldn’t be looking for a job at the moment.
Changing jobs isn’t all about the money, either, as 74 per cent of younger employees would accept a pay cut for a chance to work at their ideal job, and 23 per cent of those seeking a job wouldn’t need a pay increase to take a new position. In order to stay on the job, employees need to have relationships with other people in the workplace, and the work-life needs to be balanced with their personal life.
Employees are also more likely to look for another job if their co-workers are doing so as well, so companies should be careful of a domino effect taking place in their workforce. If you are having similar concerns and experiences and are ready to take the first steps to make your business shine and are looking for solutions to choose from, contact us.
According to Gallup’s ‘State of the Global Workplace’, only 15 per cent of employees are engaged in the workplace.
This means that the majority of the workforce around the world are either viewing their workplace negatively or only doing the bare minimum to make it through the day, with little to no emotional attachment.
The study also reveals remarkable geographical differences – 33 per cent of U.S employees are engaged at work – more than double the global average.
On the other hand, in Western Europe, only 10 per cent of employees are engaged at work. The situation looks especially alarming in the U.K, where the amount of engaged employees is as low as 8 per cent — and the number has been in steady decline for the past few years.
Companies with Highly Engaged Workforce Are 21% More Profitable
Employee engagement isn’t just about soft, intangible and feelings-based reviews about employee well-being. Employee engagement has a very real impact on business success, and employee engagement should be considered a part of a business strategy.
According to Gallup’s meta-analysis, the business or work units that scored the highest on employee engagement showed 21 per cent higher levels of profitability than units in the lowest quartile. Companies with a highly engaged workforce also scored 17 per cent higher on productivity.
Successful organizations focus on employee engagement by ensuring all employees have the best knowledge and tools available to perform their jobs as well as possible.
Managers in successful organizations also make sure all employees know what is expected of them, and support their employees’ professional development.
Effective communication leads to more productive employees and through this, to a more profitable workplace.
However, we’re not there yet: a recent Interact/Harris Poll shows that 91& of the surveyed employees think that their leaders lack communication skills. What’s more, almost 1 in 3 employees don’t trust their employers, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer
That’s pretty alarming, isn’t it?
The Solution
So here’s my thought. If I could buy you time would you take it? I’m giving away ten 1 hour consultations. No obligation or hidden fee, simply a chat to understand your challenges, make some suggestions on what you say and see if I and the creative thinking approach I espouse might help.
Whom this works best for
If this could be an option and you like to invest this time are interested then please contact me and we’ll set something up.
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