From HR to Employee Experience: Engaging the Modern Employee - Hosted by Rob Catalano
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Traditional employee benefits are lagging behind the expectations of your employees. The modern employee is adapting to an evolving workplace, and how you engage them needs to as well. League’s webinar "From HR to Employee Experience: Engaging the Modern Employee", hosted by WorkTango’s Rob Catalano, will provide employers with best practices when it comes to employee engagement and retention, and tips on how to approach engagement with the right mindset.
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From HR to Employee Experience: Engaging the Modern Employee - Hosted by Rob Catalano
- 1. From HR to Employee Experience: Engaging the Modern Employee
- 2. Title: From HR to Employee Experience: Engaging the Modern Employee Date February 23, 2017 Description Innovation starts with your people, and their expectations are changing. Are you thinking of your employees like your consumers and aiming to fulfill their needs? In today’s workplace, the employee engagement experience has taken on a new meaning.
- 3. About Our Host Rob Catalano Co-Founder, WorkTango rob@worktango.io @RobCatalano
- 4. A bit about League
- 5. Our mission is to enable people to be happier and healthier everyday.
- 7. A next-generation health experience We’re turning benefits and insurance on its head by putting your employees first, giving them an unparalleled experience, and you more control than ever before. Digital First Flexibility & Choice Financial Control Health Marketplace
- 8. From HR to Employee Experience: Engaging the Modern Employee @RobCatalano Co-founder, WorkTango
- 9. 1. Why employee engagement matters 2. Four themes to a winning employee engagement strategy 3. How to develop the right mindset and approach 4. Examples of companies that have seen positive results learning outcomes
- 10. #futureofwork
- 11. #futureofwork
- 12. of North American employees are disengaged
- 13. Source: Korn Ferry | Hay Group impact of employee engagement
- 14. problems are durable. solutions change.
- 15. FOUR themes to a winning employee engagement strategy
- 16. employees customers shareholders an employee-first philosophy
- 18. 10X Case Era of Study Performance Relative to Market Performance Relative to Industry Amgen 1980-2002 24X 77.2X Biomet 1977-2002 18.1X 11.2X Intel 1968-2002 20.7X 46.3X Microsoft 1975-2002 56X 118.8X Progressive 1965-2002 14.6X 11.3X Stryker 1977-2002 28X 10.9X Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All - by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen (Oct, 2011) Southwest Airlines 1967-2002 63.4X 550.4X
- 19. 1. be more agile
- 20. employees work in days. not years.
- 22. 2. Know the drivers of engagement THAT MATTER TO YOU!
- 24. Give employees a voice
- 25. 3. Well-being is Key
- 26. 70% Fewer sick days for employees participating in wellness programs Only 22% of employees are thriving in their well-being and engaged in their work 22%
- 28. Mental Physical Social Financial
- 29. “A few years ago, I tore my ACL. I needed physiotherapy 4x per week for 8 weeks. If I had regular benefits, I may have been able to cover $400 for my physio and would have been paying out of pocket in no time. Flexible benefits spending accounts, like League’s HSA saved me because I was able to spend my money on something that I needed.” Adrian Account Executive, League
- 30. New Deloitte Research shows that more than 40% of Millennials will select an employer based on their health and wellness benefits.40%
- 31. “Why it’s time we paid employees to exercise at work” - Ryan Holmes, CEO
- 33. 4. Leverage your secret weapon: management
- 34. “People join companies and leave managers” The manager accounts for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement. 50% of employees have left a job to “get away from their manager at some point in their career.”
- 36. don’t leave managers in the dark
- 39. 1. Treat employees like customers.
- 40. Source: Gartner
- 41. 2. They’re not only employees. They’re People.
- 43. 3. It’s not a tactic. It’s a strategy.
- 44. Recap - Engagement has value - Build the right philosophy - Four themes to a winning engagement strategy - Employees are other things, too
- 45. Any questions?
- 46. League marketing@league.com league.com/employers/sign-up Rob Catalano e: Rob@worktango.io t: @RobCatalano www.league.com
Notas do Editor
- Really, what we want to do is help you and your employees Be Better, whatever that means to you. You may be training for a marathon and you just want to finish without stopping. For someone else, it may just mean not eating that extra piece of cheese out of the fridge in the afternoon.
- League understands what today’s employees expect from their work environment and health benefits: Innovation and customization. With League you can offer both. We’re All Digital Employees use the League app for everything to do with their benefits, including paying and submitting claims via their digital wallet. Employers can say goodbye to forms, all administration through our online portal Flexibility and Choice Your teams can choose what to spend their benefits dollars on based on what’s important to them. As employers, you get unprecedented control over your plans by offering a combination of insurance, Health Spending Accounts, Lifestyle Spending Accounts and Workplace Health Services that match your needs and budget. Health Marketplace Your employees get access to our Health Marketplace, where they can choose from a network of 1000s of health providers and services that they can browse book and pay for, all through the app. Financial Control As employers, you get financial control - with our benefits, you only pay for what gets used and you have certainty, allowing you to plan effectively and eliminate year-end surprises.
- I spent the last 15 years in HR technology, most recently with Achievers in 3 different countries, and have recently moved back to Toronto the past year and started a company called WorkTango – it’s been fantastic to be back in the Canadian HR commnunity
- So I want to start by setting the table for today’s conversations and identify the learning outcomes today: First – we’ll briefly go through Why employee engagement matters… but the reality is that it’s always mattered, but we want to discuss why it is more important than ever in today’s changing workforce, especially with today's modern employee I’ll then share four themes that you can structure your winning employee engagement strategy around – a way to ensure you’re capturing the important elements After discussing WHAT the themes are, I will show HOW to develop the right mindset and approach to your employee engagement strategy - it will be a light framework to your approach AND I’ll add compelling examples and stories of companies that have seen positive results in my experience – because it can at times get difficult to imagine us transforming our companies to a more engaged workplace, but we can gain confidence and learn from the success of others. So let’s get startd
- #the future of work! It seems that everywhere i turn, espeically in HR, I see, and HEAR a lot about the #future of work... And it’s exciting!! Think about it! The constructs of how we approach talent management is changing. New technology gives us new opportunites. AI and machine learning is coming. We can finally say the millennials aren’t coming anymore, they’re here! And the future of work is indeed exciting! But the future of work is also scary....
- There’s a massive talent shortage that’s driving war for talent. (to be quite honest, i think employees have won the war for talent!)... The changing of generations leading to skill gaps. and so much more.... But what’s most scary to me is our disengaged workforce. ... If you look around you almost 3 of every 4 people you look at is disengaged... In fact..
- According to Gallup, nearly 70% of North American employees are disengaged! (ref: http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/203957/american-workplace-changing-dizzying-pace.aspx) In fact, it costs the US half a trillion $ in lost productivity which is also pretty scary And this isn’t just a North American problem, but a global issue, one that we need to address in our organizations. Why? Why should we care?
- Because having engaged employees have POSITIVE impact! for example, when you have higher employee engagement, according to research by Korn Ferry and the Hay Group, there is a 14% Decrease in employee turnover. And it isn’t just turnover it impacts, but think about the bottom line when you save on recruiting costs// But it just isn’t HR impact – employee engagement impacts actual business results Higher employee engagement increases employee performance by 40%. It increases customer satisfaction by 18%. You see 4.5X more financial success… When I was living in the UK, I was part of a movement called ‘Engage for Success’ that focused on how employee engagement positively influences business results. I think the world is coming around to understanding the positive impacts, but we’re not doing anything about it. The problem is this…
- - Problems are durable, and solutions change… BUT, companies aren’t changing their employee engagement approaches to reflect our modern workforce and our modern employee! - Think about everything changing around us in HR. Even though we’ll be hard pressed to always recruit, or retain, or engage employees, those problems will always be there, and we need to start changing our approach. And Think about WHY Solutions change? Traditionally the environment changes around us. And that environment impacts how we all change as employees, leaders, executives, and so on. Look at what’s happening around us: The Multi-generational workforce A focus on diversity and inclusion The impact digital technology has had on our workplace The social contract and how people work from home or we have a blended workforce.. Organizational design How people learn and absorb information The access to people analytics Our problems will always be there, and our SOULTIONS need to change! And what I want to offer are FOUR themes that can help you and your company create a winning employee engagement strategy. Ref: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2017/01/05/the-employee-experience-is-the-future-of-work-10-hr-trends-for-2017/2/#5e8cb96d1094
- And not just ANY strategy, one that reflects our modern workforce. So I’ll share these 4 themes that I’ve created in my experience working with so many HR and company leaders with you today and suggest ways that you can consider approaching them in your business. But before I do that! I want to bring up the fact that you can implement all these themes, spend time and money on it, and use every tactic in the book… but if you don’t have the RIGHT PHILOSOPHY when it comes to building an environment of engaged employee, you’ll never get there. And the best way that I’ve heard this philosophy communicated is by using the ‘Service Profit Chain’…
- The service profit chain, is a realization that things start with employees first. The concept shows that if employees conduct the right behaviours, you will get customers that love their experience and if that happens, that translates into increased shareholder value, or profitability, or donations… (or however you determine success of your company). But what this philosophy REALLY reinforces, is the belief that customer satisfaction and shareholder value are outputs. The only thing you can really control and impact as a company are the inputs that come from employees! Think about it, it’s the products your employees build, or the services they offer customers that keep them coming back. And when that happens, you see success in the company. AND What I love about this model is that now, more than ever, is that I believe HR has a tremendous opportunity to make a material impact to the business and all of its stakeholders. A company that I have admired for a long time that have LIVED this concept for decades is Southwest Airlines.
- Southwest airlines took that concept and INTERNALIZED it! They said that shareholder value wasn’t #1, and the customers, and then employees were #3… they flipped the model on it’s head and called it the ‘Heart Principle’ that made employees be the number one priority, and a philosophy and belief that if they took care of their employees, customer satisfaction and profitability would come. And it did! And it did in arguably one of the WORST industries! The airline industry is notorious for being a challenging one. One of my favourite business quotes is from Richard Branson, and he said if you want to be a millionaire, be a billionaire first, then buy an airline! Because airlines notoriously known for losing money!… But Southwest saw success w/ the people principle. They even went the next step with their heart principle and put them on their planes. Their approach is that without a heart, it’s just a machine. And if you don’t believe they were ‘successful’….
- This is a chart taken from the book ‘Great by Choice’ – and what it shows is that when you look at all of the great companies of the 50 years that did great starting in the 60s and 70s, they were dominant. As you can see, they were growing much larger relative to their market, or to their industry. BUT, NOTHING compares to Southwest. They are dominant! Amazing even! They were 63x better than the market! And a whopping 550X better than the rest of the airline industry… it is a true testament to their approach. So now that I’ve discussed how important philosophy is to engage the modern employee, I want to switch gears to the 4 major themes to a winning employee engagement strategy.
- So the first trend…. is to “BE MORE AGILE” It’s about changing the speed and frequency that you think about, and act upon employee engagement. It’s happening all around us: - Recruiting isn’t job posting anymore it’s real-time social connections Performance management is getting away from annual ratings for more frequent feedback Rewards & Recognition used to be about a Years of Service award after 5 years of being at a company – no there’s daily social recognition programs. And then there’s Employee engagement. It can’t be an annual practice, yet companies still conduct the annual or quarterly engagement survey. It’s too infrequent! Why is this important?
- Because employees work in days and hours, not years! Our engagement practices have to reflect how our modern employees work, which is quicker than ever before. Their voice needs to be heard more frequently. Feedback needs to be instant. We can’t do an ENGAGEMENT survey once a year because it’s too late to get insight and dig deeper to deal with issues. I work with companies that get a pulse of engagement on a weekly basis and feedback in real-time… and companies need to start embracing new agile approaches. Oh, and what drives me crazy, is that we definitely can’t afford to WAIT for engagement data to come in, because the data becomes stale, and your leaders and managers using it have different teams by that point… and it’s just broken! The point is, if we’re more agile, we can have more insight into engagement and feedback of our employees, and we can respond quicker.
- I love this example to see what being more agile can do. This book is called Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, and it shows how the simple practice of setting goals. In fact, setting the Top 5 goals employees will focus on EVERY week, has a huge impact on building a level of communication, accountability and alignment in companies. Employee engagement is no different, and our modern employee expects frequent communication, transparency and feedback.
- The second trend is to know the drivers of engagement. The ones that matter to you – to your company. Too often companies spend time and money on employee engagement initiatives that they see OUTSIDE of their company. For example…
- This slide is an eye sore – but it’ s meant to be an eye sore. It shows major studies from major organizations out there like Harvard and Aon Hewitt, and Towers Watson and shows what has the largest impact on employee engagement, or what the biggest drivers of employee engagement are. And I have nothing against all of the models of what the largest engagement drivers are, or what has the biggest impact, but the one thing that stands out is that they pretty much say the SAME THINGS. They all have SIMILAR drivers of engagement. So it begs the question: where do you focus your time and effort? Which drivers should you create your initiatives around? That’s why looking outside your business is important, but what is paramount is looking INSIDE your business. And the way you do that is through…
- Giving employees a voice! When you give employees a voice, you get immediate insight into what is happening in your business. It’s so key in engaging employees because you: ONE – show them that you are LISTENING to them TWO – you get important feedback to identify what the key engagement issues or drivers are for YOUR business THREE – allow companies to act in a manner that will offer an IMPACT to what matters to your company and your employees. This theme really aligns with being more agile and frequent in how companies measure and align employees I’m super passionate about this theme, It’s why I started WorkTango! To help companies not assume how to impact employee engagement and performance, but rather see the voice of employees in intuitive ways.
- The 3rd theme I’m seeing growing rapidly when it comes to engaging the modern employee is the focus on employee well-being. Quite simply, companies that treat their employees well, both inside and outside of the office, see higher levels of engagement and get more value from employees. When employees are treated this way, they reciprocate and are invested in making their companies great. Actually, when I found out about League, I really liked what they were about. They empower people to be healthy everyday, which helps improve employee engagement and retention in companies, something I’m personally very passionate about. And what I’ve found over the years is that there’s A LOT more research on employee wellness these days. For exmaple:
- A few more things: 70% fewer sick days for employees participating in wellness programs than those opting out - http://www.alleghenyhealth.com/uploads/1/1/2/3/11231104/facts_about_corporate_wellness.pdf Think about the impact on productivity, and people just not showing up to work! And aside from just the benefits of improving employee engagement, there also are benefits of dropping medical costs, and increasing productivity.
- And if employee engagement doesn’t capture your attention, think about business impact due to a lack of a focus on wellness: US employer losses at $30 billion per year in lost productivity due to sick days and absenteeism.
- So, as you build out your engagement plans under the theme of wellness, you should consider what makes Human Beings tick! These four pillars of wellness are really important to your employees and your initiatives, your flexible benefits offerings, and your overall wellness strategy should touch upon these items. For example: Mental Wellness – really supports mental well-being in and outside of the office and research continues to point to adding benefits to us as human beings and employees Physical - we all see a huge influx of company facilities, or bringing in instructors for workouts or yoga. I know I love the personal trainer that is in our offices each Thursday Social – humans need connection and a sense of belonging, and supporting company and personal social initiatives is important Financial – 70% Of working adults feel a moderate or high level of financial stress in their lives. If they’re worried about financial (or even any other issues in their life), they’re not thinking about work and offering creativity to your company.
- A quick testimonial from a League team member on how a focus on his wellness from his employer helped him in the end.
- Another point on wellness, is that it’s not just an ENGAGEMENT tool – it’s a RECRUITING tool! New Deloitte Research shows that more than 40% of Millennials will select an employer based on their health and wellness benefits. It has value at all stages of the employee lifecycle. I don’t know about you, but the more I negotiate contracts recently, the ‘benefits’ package seems important and a bit of a selling point with candidates. I haven’t been a new employee in a while where I’ve had to compare them, but we always have to look at being competitive . Ref: http://joshbersin.com/2016/10/hr-technology-in-2017-disruption-ahead/
- And If you want some inspiration – read Ryan Holmes (the CEO at Hootsuite - a good Canadian company) that had a LinkedIn post called…. “Why it’s time we paid employees to exercise at work” It talks about: Hootsuite making it clear that anyone could block off an hour for exercise during the day, provided it didn’t conflict with meetings found that workers who spent 30-60 minutes at lunch exercising reported an average performance boost of 15 percent. 60% of employees said their time management skills, mental performance and ability to meet deadlines improved on the days they exercised. Healthy, active employees take fewer sick days and bring more energy to the workplace Last slide: Also – 78% believe wellbeing is a key component of their business strategy 87% currently do or plan to invest in employee wellbeing as a part of their employee engagement strategy And why? Companies are responding to this modern employee. They understand that wellness is important to people. A fulfilling life isn’t just about 24/7 work on the clock… it’s the way of the world now, and now the way of the workforce. Why it’s time we paid employees to exercise at work Published on January 26, 2017 Ryan Holmes CEO at Hootsuite The clanking of weights. The thump of bass from a Bluetooth speaker. The squeak of sneakers on rubber mats. People sucking wind and straining for a few more pull-ups or squats or lunges. These are the sounds of my office — or at least one small corner of it — each and every day. We’re a technology company with around 1,000 employees, not a gym. But from the start, I’ve built fitness into how we do business. For health, for morale and, yes, for the bottom line, it’s the best decision we could have made. And it didn’t require much of an investment or sacrifice — just a commitment to enable exercise in the office. For other companies out there, here’s my look under the hood at why and how we built fitness into our company culture … and why it may make sense for you to do the same. For starters, there’s the health and wellness factor. Nearly 80 percent of American adults don’t get the recommended amount of exercise each week (2.5 hours of moderate aerobic activity or 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous activity). Given how critical fitness is to overall health, I think it’s worth taking a look at exercise in the one place where nearly all of us will spend a good chunk of our lives: the workplace. At Hootsuite, most of the actual work we do is digital: our platform helps 15 million users and thousands of top companies around the world manage their social media. But old-fashioned physical exercise before, during and after working hours is encouraged. When we moved into our headquarters several years ago, we installed a small gym and yoga studio, as well as showers and changing rooms. Facilities are modest compared to those at some companies, but they’re well used. Yoga classes are packed at lunch and after work. In the gym, volunteers from inside the company, as well as pro trainers, lead sweaty bootcamps, cross-training classes and even boxing and MMA. Groups set out from our office for lunchtime runs and evening hikes. Over the years, we’ve had a hockey team, a road biking team and even a Quidditch team that does battle on broomsticks in the park. But, when it comes to promoting fitness on the job, dedicated facilities and organized teams like these are hardly necessities. Having the right workplace culture is far more important. From the beginning, we tried to foster a culture of fitness. Back in the day, in our original, cramped startup offices, we couldn’t afford a gym (in fact, we couldn’t even afford phones). But we did hang a fingerboard on the wall for pull-ups. We brought in yoga balls for chairs. We encouraged employees to bike to work, even though that meant cramming our office entryway full of bikes because it was too sketchy to park outside. And we made it clear that anyone could block off an hour for exercise during the day, provided it didn’t conflict with meetings and they made up the time (by having lunch at their desks, for instance).\ I’m picturing some managers out there rolling their eyes. The manager’s job, after all, is to get results from employees, not keep them fit. But even on a ruthlessly practical level, allowing and encouraging employees to exercise at work makes good sense. I see employees return from workouts refreshed and better focused on their jobs. Time lost on exercise is made back and more in terms of improved productivity. And research backs this up. A study presented to the American College of Sports Medicine, for instance, found that workers who spent 30-60 minutes at lunch exercising reported an average performance boost of 15 percent. Sixty percent of employees said their time management skills, mental performance and ability to meet deadlines improved on the days they exercised. Workers in the study were less likely to suffer from post-lunch energy dips after exercising and also reported improvements in mood. Then there are the longer-term benefits to keep in mind. Healthy, active employees take fewer sick days and bring more energy to the workplace. A 2011 study published in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine showed that incorporating just 2.5 hours of exercise per week into the workday led to a noticeable reduction in absences. Perhaps most importantly, fit and healthy workers are less prone to exactly the kinds of preventable, debilitating illnesses that take such a heavy toll on families and on society. On a personal level, I don’t think I could have steered my company to where it is now without regular exercise. Over the past decade, we’ve grown from seven employees to a global operation with offices around the world. In the very beginning, I was responsible for everything from marketing and HR to sales, product development and finance, often working 16-hour days for weeks at a stretch. Later came the stresses involved with scaling a tiny company into a worldwide operation, adding dozens of new employees a week and outgrowing offices every few months. For an entrepreneur, of course, these are all good problems to have. But I wouldn’t have been able to maintain composure and focus in the midst of this chaos without taking at least a little time each day for exercise and, in particular, for yoga. Growing up, I had always been active - playing lots of ultimate frisbee, mountain climbing and cycling. But right at the time that Hootsuite was ramping up, back injuries caught up with me. I turned to yoga as a way to strengthen my core and give my body time to heal. But I quickly discovered that the physical benefits were easily matched by the mental benefits. It gave me time to clear my head, unpack the volumes of new information I was absorbing each day and then come back with a new, clearer perspective on the problems at hand. On top of that, it’s a great workout. At the end of the day, however, it’s not the type of exercise that matters so much as providing a space in the workplace where fitness can thrive. There’s a saying that couples who sweat together stay together. I think it’s just as true that companies that sweat together stay together. Over the years, the culture of fitness in our office has grown with the enthusiasm of new employees and taken on a life of its own. Our staff has included ultramarathoners who run 50 miles at a stretch, elite cyclists and triathletes, personal trainers, avid rowers and sailors, yogis and hardcore hikers and, of course, lots of people like me who just like a good workout from time to time. Exercise in the office isn’t a new idea. But it’s such a clear win-win — in terms of health, morale and productivity — that I think it deserves to be put in the spotlight once more. It doesn’t take much to bring fitness into the workplace: a little space, a few pieces of equipment, willingness to embrace some sweat and exertion. But the impact can be surprising.
- 1. Tell achievers Top 1 Goals story - $250, etc..
- So no matter what you CHOOSE to do w/ your engagement strategy, or how you choose to ACT on feedback – the final theme is about LEVERAGING YOUR SECRET WEAPONS – your Managers! HR can’t do it themselves –especially in large companies. They NEED to leverage managers! Why?
- Because a recent Gallup study shows that Managers account for 70% of the variance in employee enagement scores – they have the biggest influence! ! And we’re clearly not adressing this correctly when 50% of empoyees leave companies to get away from their managers - that’s scary! The old addage is true. People join companies, and leave managers – and we’re not doing enough to leverage, and up-skill our managers. Remember, the modern employee won’t stand for a poor experience at work, or a poor manager. How many people do you know (or yourself) have left a job for less money? The modern employee requires a great experience at work that is heavily influenced by their manager. So I want to offer some things to remember regarding this theme:
- First, don’t forget managers! Ask yourself, are managers part of the strategic narrative of your company? Are they part of the journey of goal-setting? And regarding today’s topic, are they ACTIVELY involved in your employee engagement strategy? Or do they just get a report from the engagement survey that was done 3 months ago (you know, once it got filtered by HR, and then the exec team... And it’s pretty old data that they can’t use)? Managers are the ones that have massive impact on every employee each day, and see more than the HR department & executives combined, but too often companies forget about them. You need to build practices that involve them. For example, offer them the real-time insight into engagement of their teams compared to the rest of the company. Also, don’t forget that they ARE managers! Give them AUTONOMY to impact their teams and make the accountable for engagement of employees. I know a few companies that make the engagement levels of their employees part of the compensation plan. It shows an organizational commitment to how important it is. Second - Don’t enable bad management – I’m sorry, but managers can be the face of crappy HR practices that are antiquated and need to change. Smart companies are implementing real-time engagement data for managers, mandating 1-on-1 meetings, offering mentorship
- And also, don’t leave managers in the dark! How can managers be accountable for the engagement of their teams if they’re not involved? Or without real-time data? Or mechanisms to get feedback in real-time? Are they part of the process when you’re measuring, or implementing your engagement strategies? If not, they need to be! Smart companies are not only getting pulses of engagement in a more frequent manner, but serving that information to managers in real time. They’re giving them the information to offer them some AUTONOMY with their teams. The fact of the matter is that all of the themes we’ve talked about today, if they are part of the process
- The best way I can show ho important managers are is by looking at them like a cog in a machine. They are so KEY in translating the strategic narrative and goals of the company into daily behaviours of employees. They bridge the gap between executives an employees. If you remove managers from the equation, it’s like removing a cog form the machine – and the machine shuts down. And the other point I’ll make is that all of the themes we discussed earlier can be reinforced by managers. They can ensure agile practices happen. They can use engagement data to impact what matter to THEIR team. They can reinforce the wellness principles in a company to ensure it really lives within your organization. They have a huge impact, and need to be a big part of your engagement strategy if you want it to be successful. Especially with the modern employee in the fast-changing workforce where organizations are getting flat, and much work in companies happen in smaller teams.
- So those are the 4 themes, but before wrapping up today, let’s add a few more ideas about HOW do you get this done? I wanted to offer 3 quick tips to consider that I’ve seen companies.
- First – teat employees like customers! Another way to look at it, and it’s happening, is that we’re having the consumerization of employees. The lines between the two have blurred… and for good reason! I love this model from Gartner…
- If you can’t see – look at how you focus on your customers – and how companies are trying to engage with employees the same way And today, it isn’t equal! In fact, companies spend over 4 TIMES on CRM type software as opposed to HR tech software, but I think the times are changing!
- Second tip – they’re not only employees, they’re people too. People and employees aren’t mutually exclusive. We can’t just manage people’s hands, and what they physically do everyday, but rather employees’ hearts and minds that is required in today’s knowledge economy, this new modern workforce, this new modern employee! – we need to treat them like Human beings, not Human ‘RESOURCES’
- And I start most weeks looking at this quote… It’s an important reminder that plays well with the philosophy we discussed earlier. And last…
- Engagement is not a tactic… it’s a strategy. Engaging the modern employee isn’t one initiative. It’s not a bake sale. You need to look at the 4 themes, over the course of a year or two, and think about your long-term engagement strategy. Too often companies get their engagement data, act quickly, and it’s good, but a bit of a sugar rush and isn’t scalable or continuous. So it needs to be viewed as an organizational strategy, not just a flavour of the month or moment in time.
- So just a recap.. Engagement has value – we discussed all the reasons, and if you have any issues selling it into your organization, let me know… I can help share some great research or approaches with you. We discussed Building the right philosophy, and that’s integral in setting yourself and your company up for success. We also dove into the Four themes to a winning engagement strategy. Being agile, focusing on drivers of engagement that matters to your company, how work is just a part of life now and we need to support overall employee wellness, and that managers are key in leveraging for your engagement strategy. Then we ended it off with some bonus tips on approach and really reinforcing that Employees are other things. People that have needs and a tolerance for work that is very different than the workers before them.