The engagement culture you create in the workplace trickles down to the experience you give to your customers, and ensuring diversity and inclusion is more important than ever. While it might seem easy enough to talk about diversity and inclusion, it’s an entirely different thing to take actionable steps toward creating an ideal work environment.
The first thing to consider is visibility—identifying the diversity of your workforce in order to better understand where your efforts should start.
When you take advantage of diversity metrics, you’re in a much better position to implement new initiatives to promote a culture of inclusion.
Questions for leaders:
Are you currently taking actionable steps towards improved diversity practices in the workplace?
Do you have anything in place to gather important metrics of your workforce? If not, what is your plan?
Registration is now open for our next Great Engagement: Engage and Mobilize Employees Training Program, starting October 12, 2022.
Burnout is something that gets talked about more and more each day, and in today’s digital world, it’s near impossible to disconnect from the stimulus around us. If you’re trying to improve employee engagement, one of the best things you can do is give everyone a chance to disconnect.
When you provide space for your employees to disconnect, you:
· Immediately reduce the risk of burnout
· Have a better chance of positive feedback
· Prove to your employees that you care about their well-being
· Are more likely to see engagement improve over time
You might have a hard time disconnecting yourself, which is totally normal considering the ultra-connected world we live in. However, you’ll notice the positive effects almost instantly when you take time in your day to be present and get centered.
Questions for leaders
1.Do you encourage your employees to take a moment to disconnect?
2.What are some of your favorite ways to avoid burnout in the workplace?
Registration is now open for our next Great Engagement: Engage and Mobilize Employees Training Program, starting October 12, 2022.
You might be used to meetings in conference rooms or over zoom, but the days of being restricted to four walls are over. Luckily, walking meetings benefit everyone involved, so it becomes less of a drag right off the bat just to participate!
Aside from just being plain good for you, here are some notable benefits of a walking meeting:
– Increases engagement and creative thinking
– Boosts energy and motivation
– Encourage an organic, natural exchange of thoughts
– Improved collaboration and connection
The great thing about walking meetings is that you can start implementing them as soon as you want! Even if your team works over zoom, you can encourage workers to take a walk and participate in the meeting via zoom or Microsoft teams call.
Questions for leaders
1.Do you currently conduct traditional meetings in a conference room or over zoom?
2.Would walking meetings be beneficial in your industry? Why or why not?
Registration is now open for our next Great Engagement: Engage and Mobilize Employees Training Program, starting October 12, 2022.
Some people might find it difficult to be actively engaged at work during the summer months. With social media especially, there are endless distractions and seasonal events that make it tempting to disengage from work.
Whether you’re managing a team in person or remotely, there are a few different ways to keep everyone on the ball.
– Encourage collaboration-oriented tasks
– Check in at a reasonable frequency
– Be lenient with short breaks
– Conduct walking meetings
When it comes to employee engagement during the summer months, you must think about the type of things that employees might be distracted by. For instance, walking meetings are a great way to get outside and enjoy the weather without losing out on productivity.
Questions for leaders
1.Do you have any existing strategies to keep staff engaged throughout the summer?
2.What are some new techniques you might consider for your own staff?
Registration is now open for our next Great Engagement: Engage and Mobilize Employees Training Program, starting October 12, 2022.
Part of managing a team involves keeping track of everyone’s well-being. You cant expect exceptional results in your business if your team is feeling overworked or unable to recharge.
Taking time for yourself is important, and you need to make sure your team knows you support their right to take time off.
Sometimes, employees get nervous about taking a vacation because they don’t want to appear lazy or disengaged. This can often lead to distractions and in turn, lower productivity.
If you want to increase employee engagement and give a great impression:
· Check in with your employees on a monthly or quarterly basis.
· Make it clear that vacation time doesn’t need to be explained.
· Offer to come up with a plan for coverage while they’re away.
Questions for leaders
1.Do you think your current vacation policies need to be adjusted?
2.How do you ensure your staff is taking the time they are entitled to?
Registration is now open for our next Great Engagement: Engage and Mobilize Employees Training Program, starting October 12, 2022.
Have you ever considered implementing summer hours for your employees? If you haven’t, there might be some real advantages you’re missing out on.
Burnout is becoming a real problem for a lot of employees, and it’s much better that you get ahead of it instead of scrambling at the last minute when your productivity suddenly starts to drop.
Benefits of summer hours
– Improved flexibility for employees
– Boost company morale
– Summer Fridays boost productivity
– Avoid burnout and stress overload
How to implement summer hours in your workplace
The typical time frame for summer hours is between Memorial Day and Labour Day. While you can choose to incorporate them however you want, most companies take part in “summer Fridays.” You can allow employees to take a half-day every Friday (or every other Friday depending on the nature of your company). The point is, you’re showing employees that you value them enough to give them more time to enjoy themselves outside of work—and increasing efficiency at the same time.
Questions for leaders
1. Do you currently have a policy for summer hours? If not, what makes you hesitate to implement them?
2. What do you do to help prevent employees from experiencing burnout?
Registration is now open for our next Great Engagement: Engage and Mobilize Employees Training Program, starting October 12, 2022.
Once you conduct your employee engagement and mental health assessment, you can start to focus on adjusting the current work design. This is the stage where you get to make changes to your employee engagement strategies.
Some of the most important ones to consider include:
· Resources: make sure everyone has what they need to do their job.
· Recognition: employees tend to feel more energized when they receive encouragement.
· Skills: take time to find out employees’ strength and put their best skills to practice.
· Opportunity for growth: communicate with employees about important decisions and training opportunities.
· Socialization: collaboration tools and other outlets help foster a connection and leads to improved engagement.
· Inclusion: sometimes considered a form of mental safety, people feel more engaged when they’re included and invited to share their thoughts and ideas.
Questions for leaders:
Have you made any changes recently to your work design?
What do you think is the most important for employee engagement and mental health?
Registration is now open for our next Great Engagement: Engage and Mobilize Employees Training Program, starting October 12, 2022.
If you want to start implementing mental health support strategies in the workplace, that’s great! But before you can do that, you need to make sure you know exactly where you stand. This is the time to reflect on current practices and do what you can to measure employee engagement.
How to measure employee engagement:
· Employee engagement surveys
· Direct indicators of engagement
· One on one meetings with employees
· Talent review metrics
· Goal tracking
· Pulse surveys
· Employee lifecycle surveys
When you put things in place to measure employee engagement, you’re going to gain valuable metrics to make improvements across your business. When you can identify strengths and challenges, you’ll gain insight into what needs to change to support mental health in the workplace. Not only will you develop a greater sense of trust with your employees, but your company culture stands to improve from the moment you begin to take action.
Questions for leaders:
What are you currently doing to measure employee engagement?
What do you think is the most effective tool for measuring employee engagement and mental health?
Registration is now open for our next Great Engagement: Engage and Mobilize Employees Training Program, starting October 12, 2022.
There’s no denying that mental health and employee engagement are directly related. Things like stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout can make engagement feel impossible, even if an employee has the best intentions.
Your employees might recognize that there is an opportunity in front of them but if they’re struggling with their mental health, they need extra support to remain engaged. In fact, according to a Public Health Agency of Canada’s Survey on COVID-19 and Mental Health, found that 30% of disability claims are related to mental health, so taking action to safeguard your employees’ wellness is more important than ever.
You are much more likely to retain your workforce and see improved signs of employee engagement when you place a priority on mental health support in the workplace.
Questions for leaders:
–Are you noticing any signs of burnout or stress among your employees?
–Are you potentially feeling it yourself?
–Do you have any mental health support systems in place?
Registration is now open for our next Great Engagement: Engage and Mobilize Employees Training Program, starting October 12, 2022.
With feedback having such a strong influence on employee attitudes and engagement managers have an opportunity to shift the tone of the workplace environment.
It can be extremely rewarding to work in a supervisor-level role, but it comes with a whole host of responsibilities. Not only do you need to make sure day-to-day tasks are getting done, but you might find yourself managing the dynamics and emotions of your team too. When it comes to giving feedback to your employees, you can wind up being a source of inspiration, or the reason behind a discouraged workforce. Not to worry though! There are a few things you can keep in mind to set yourself and your team up for success.
Self-awareness is Key
It comes as no surprise that self-awareness is a huge component of the feedback cycle. Self-improvement doesn’t exist without someone being aware of their behaviors and the effect they have on others and their work. The Predictive Index conducted a study with over 600 CEOs to gain valuable data and insights into employee engagement. The findings suggest that 76% of companies have tools in place that help employees stay accountable and gain self-awareness.
What is constructive vs non-constructive feedback?
Sometimes it’s difficult to discern the difference between constructive criticism and just plain criticism. If an employee feels like they’re being attacked for actions related to them trying to do their job, it’s only a matter of time until that resentment starts to build.
When you give employees feedback, make sure you first acknowledge the importance of their job and how you want them to succeed. When someone feels like you’re only there to help, they are much more likely to be receptive to whatever you’re going to say next.
If you need to give someone constructive feedback and you’re not sure how to begin, use the following examples to get started:
– “I really appreciate everything you’ve been doing lately. Can we just make sure we’re on the same page about…”
– “I know it can get crazy around here sometimes so can we go over everything one more time?”
Examples of things you SHOULDN’T say include things like:
– “You rushed this and that’s why it’s wrong.”
– “Why can’t you just follow instructions?”
– “Now I have to fix this.”
Try to imagine how you’d give feedback to a close friend or loved one. You never know what people might be going through, and leading with compassion and understanding never hurts.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, employees are the backbone of any company. You need to have a strong foundation with your employees in order to build rapport and trust. When you take the time to consider how you deliver feedback to your employees, you should see a transition in their attitudes over time. People want to do well for the people who care about them and support them, so become the support system your employees deserve and expect your feedback to really stick.
Develop more strategies with our Great Engagement: Engage and Mobilize Employees Training Program.
