For organizations striving to improve their workplace experience, it’s critical to first evaluate the effectiveness of their leaders. According to Gallup, managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. What does this mean? To explore ideas for workplace improvement, one might first consider ideas for improving management skills within their leaders.
An employee’s experience with their manager will outweigh their overall workplace experience.
Organizations must know by now about the importance of incorporating an employee engagement strategy and how it impacts the work environment team members experience.
Leaders responsible for people strategy must prioritize leadership effectiveness. To do so, they must raise expectations for all who lead within the organization.
A Healthy Workplace Environment Requires More Than Technical Management Skills
Managing is about organizing, transacting, sorting, and problem-solving. It’s the tactical side of leading. Effective leadership comes from honed relationship-building and communication skills.
It would be great for work cultures if people were born with innate leadership skills; however, this is not the case (which is still up for debate amongst many scholars!).
Technical expertise or subject matter knowledge often lands individuals in leadership roles, but these skills do not guarantee effective leadership. Leading, motivating, and developing others require distinct abilities beyond managing.
Successfully navigating uncertainty and the modern challenges of management requires a more emotionally intelligent workplace and leader. Leaders at every level need to engage in professional development consistently. Those who do stand to improve company culture, build relationships, and experience retention.
3 Central Ideas For Workplace Improvement
Evaluate Leadership Effectiveness Within Your Organization
Leaders must determine their effectiveness to improve workplace experience, job satisfaction among team members, and employee performance. This means evaluating leadership effectiveness across functions and at every level of leadership.
Establishing a baseline allows organizations to identify growth areas and develop ideas for workplace improvement. By taking action to support leaders in reaching their potential, organizations can create a culture of open communication and personal development.
The following survey questions can help your team assess leadership effectiveness throughout your organization: (It is best to use a Likert scale (strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree) to gauge critical areas like well-being, teamwork, and workplace culture.
14 Questions To Measure Leadership Effectiveness
My manager articulates clear and consistent expectations to me in a timely fashion.
I feel comfortable approaching my manager with questions or challenges.
My manager effectively communicates with our team as a whole.
I feel respected and valued by my manager.
My manager takes my ideas and feedback into consideration about work-related matters.
My manager is open to feedback from me.
When warranted, my manager gives me specific and relevant recognition.
My manager provides opportunities for me to grow and develop in my role.
I feel comfortable respectfully disagreeing with my manager.
Senior leaders clearly articulate company goals and values.
My manager gives me positive or constructive feedback in a timely manner.
Senior leaders are open to ideas and feedback.
I feel heard and respected by senior leaders.
(Open response). If there was one thing you wish you could change about your relationship with your current manager, what would it be and why?
Creating a feedback loop can help organizations demonstrate company values, share ideas, and support a positive work environment. Giving employees consistent opportunities to share their input openly and acting upon the data gathered is a surefire to engage your team.
After an organization establishes a baseline for leadership effectiveness, people strategy leaders can make informed decisions around initiatives to leverage leadership strengths and fill identified gaps.
Prioritize Coaching In The Workplace
Supporting leaders in their development will often require educating them on the importance of adopting a coach approach to leadership. Practicing a coaching approach to leading implores people managers to shift their focus from telling and directing to asking and developing others.
Mutual trust is essential in coaching relationships, but it takes time and consistency to build. When feedback or coaching is given without mutual trust, it can be difficult for employees to receive. Leaders must cultivate a psychologically safe and supportive relationship to foster a coaching environment.
Leaders Who Listen Create Engaging Workplaces
At the heart of coaching lies a simple yet powerful act: listening. Too often, leaders talk too much! It’s easier for them to tell, instruct, train, or share stories from their experiences. These management styles are sometimes valuable, but without applying a coach approach too, leaders create workplaces where people report feeling undervalued. Employees feeling undervalued and unrecognized can result in disengagement, a significant driver of the dreaded “T-word” – turnover.
Leverage Automated Coaching To Fast-Track Leadership Development
If organizations want to experience the benefits of coaching, they must provide their leaders and team members with the necessary tools to develop self-awareness. Doing so will also empower self-management and inspire collaboration throughout their teams.
Associating coaching with human resources, team-building activities, or training program initiatives is normal. And yes, training programs can help, but they often require a lot of planning, resources, and mindshare to get off the ground.
Automated Coaching is a faster, more effective way to develop the coaching muscles of the leaders, teams, and individuals inside an organization.
It’s no secret that leaders are busy and need efficient ways to help their teams strengthen communication, increase collaboration, and resolve conflicts quickly.
Daily coaching moments relevant to their schedule and interactions can help team members authentically connect. Experiencing in-the-moment coaching concerning themselves and how to manage their teams effectively can provide quick and subtle shifts to help leaders develop high-performing teams and engaged employees.
Every conscious decision to consider one’s leadership approach and the unique individuals one works alongside creates can add up to a positive work environment. The workplace will significantly improve as leaders and team members build mutual trust.
Encourage Work-Life Balance
Promoting work-life balance for employees is essential for improving the workplace and encouraging your team’s well-being. Employees with a healthy balance between their personal and work lives feel a greater sense of purpose and more willingly engage in their work.
It isn’t just about attracting talent. It’s retaining them. And that’s more important than ever… When employers support their employees’ work-life balance, they can enhance employees’ healthy lifestyles and keep them on board. – entrepreneur.com
By giving employees more control over their schedules, they can balance their personal and work life, resulting in greater job satisfaction and lower stress levels.
Many employers are also exploring hybrid work models that allow employees to work from home or other locations. This flexibility significantly benefits employees by cutting commuting costs, allowing them to lean into their work style and saving time.
Final Thoughts
People want to work and be part of a healthy workplace culture where they can contribute and grow. Leaders who practice coaching, understand the workforce’s desire for flexible work schedules, and recognize and appreciate employees’ unique talents will likely create a positive culture. Organizations that invest in workplace improvement focusing on leadership effectiveness foster environments where employees desire a future within the company.
Research suggests that a dismal 15% of employees worldwide actively engage in their place of work. This is unfortunate, as findings suggest that engagement is related to a host of beneficial outcomes, including performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.
Over the last decade, we’ve come a long way in figuring out how to measure engagement. We’ve also made great strides in figuring out how actually to increase employee engagement. The challenge, however, lies in the execution. Organizations that do it well will experience the greatest return on their investment.
Concerning this, outlined below are several aspects of implementing a successful employee engagement strategy. You’ll also find the nuanced difference between engagement and motivation, along with evidence-based recommendations of the specific metrics and drivers of engagement to ensure you get it right with your team.
What Does Employee Engagement Mean?
The most widely-cited academic definition of engagement is a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind characterized by three dimensions:
Vigor – high energy and mental resilience
Dedication – a sense of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride, and challenge
Absorption – being fully concentrated and deeply engrossed in one’s work.
Interestingly, organizational settings often provide a broader conceptualization for understanding engagement factors. Feeling energized at work through vigor, dedication, and absorption is one of four formative engagement indicators.
The other three are: feeling a commitment to the organization, identifying with the organization, and feeling satisfaction from their job.
With this conceptualization, engagement is not just how the employee feels while working but also their relationship with their job and organization.
This broader context helps explain why engagement surveys ask about much more than just energy at work.
SIDE-BAR: Is engagement the same thing as motivation?
Many people confuse engagement with motivation. Technically, engagement is one form of motivation, assuming that engagement leads to some change in behavior (e.g., more effort, more prosocial behavior, etc.). However, more clearly understood, motivation considers a process whereby the intensity and persistence of a targeted effort are observed.
Therefore, when organizations refer to engagement, energy, job satisfaction, organizational identity, and organizational commitment, it is a combination of factors representative of heightened motivation.
Which Engagement Metrics Are Most Important?
When implementing engagement surveys, you need to consider two metrics: dimensions and drivers.
The first and most apparent set of metrics entails measures of the four dimensions of engagement.
The 4 Dimensions Of Engagement
Energization: the amount of inspiration, enthusiasm, and intensity an individual draws from immersing their self in their work
Commitment: the amount of care and dedication an individual feels toward the organization
Identification: the amount an individual believes their work organization aligns with their values and things they deem to be meaningful
Satisfaction: the amount of contentment and fulfillment an individual experiences as a result of their work.
This baseline for measuring engagement helps increase understanding so that you can track whether certain engagement metrics are increasing or decreasing across time.
The second set of metrics entails the predictors (also called drivers) of engagement. Or, in other words, the actual levers that are causing engagement to increase or decrease.
Across an assortment of organizations that offer employee engagement tools, their internal research suggests that some of the most critical drivers of engagement include excellent leadership, career-growth opportunities, non-toxic work environments, and collaborative teams.
11 Effective Drivers Of Engagement In The Workplace
High-Quality Leadership
Leadership & Career Development Opportunities
Meaningful Work
Work-Life Balance
Inclusion & Belonging
Healthy Work Cultures
Recognition
Feedback
Autonomy & Empowerment
Supportive Team Members
Equitable & Competitive Compensation
SIDE-BAR: Any guesses on which predictor is consistently one of the most impactful drivers of engagement? Supportive leadership.
Employees that have leaders or managers that are respectful, transparent, and supportive is the clear winner.
Additionally, a recent predictor is a significant consideration concerning an employee engagement strategy: time affluence.
Post-pandemic, employees are beginning to express that they want more than work-life balance but also tools (e.g., high-quality virtual meeting tools) and systems (e.g., work-from-anywhere or work-anytime) that facilitate employees’ ownership of when and where they’ll work.
7 Ideas To Create An Employee Engagement Plan
1. Provide a leadership development program for managers and supervisors to assist with upskilling leadership within your organization.
2. Implement opportunities for personal development in the workplace to strengthen leadership and career skills by supporting training unique to team members’ roles.
3. Provide coaching opportunities for employees to help them grow personally and professionally.
Cloverleaf serves daily Automated Coaching™ tips that help employees increase self-awareness and emotional intelligence, fostering a physiologically safe workplace and team effectiveness.
4. Offer remote work options, including the ability to work from home or other remote locations and flexible schedule options, to empower employees to manage their work and personal commitments better while still achieving their job responsibilities.
5. Facilitate open communication among employees by implementing the following strategies:
Encourage two-way communication between management and leadership and among teammates.
Practice transparency by sharing information about the organization’s goals, plans, and performance to build trust and understanding.
Encourage collaboration by creating opportunities for cross-functional teams, project-based work, or group problem-solving.
Use technology like Slack and 15Five to facilitate faster and easier communication.
Celebrate teamwork by recognizing and rewarding teams and individuals who work together, support one another, and model your organization’s values.
Work hard to clearly communicate the organization’s mission and values to employees and ensure that their work aligns with these goals.
Facilitate regular, timely, and constructive feedback.
6. Recognize and reward employees for their contributions to the organization. Use a tool like Bonusly that includes both formal and informal ways to acknowledge and appreciate team members.
7. Provide employees with equitable and competitive compensation packages aligned with their skills and experience. Regularly review and adjust compensation packages to ensure they remain competitive in the marketplace.
These characteristics of the future workplace experience represent trends changing employee expectations of their leader and teammates. Employers can prevent toxicity and promote an effective employee engagement strategy by actively implementing a plan that values teamwork and collaboration.
Critical Components For A Successful Employee Engagement Strategy
Implementing an employee engagement strategy is crucial for organizations; however, there are three key components to ensure it is effective and successful:
Surveying Employees
Interpreting The Results
Acting On Results
This process should be ongoing, focusing on identifying positive and negative contributors affecting engagement and the measurable next steps based on the results. Doing so can better ensure that the organization continuously improves its engagement strategy and fosters a human-centered workplace.
When And How To Survey Employees
Organizations typically use engagement surveys in one of three ways:
Annual Benchmarks
Ongoing Pulse
Initiative-Based
1. Annual Engagement Surveys
These surveys tend to be lengthy, in-depth, and have a mix of quantitative (e.g., 1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) and qualitative (e.g., open-ended text response) questions. These surveys give organizations a broad annual benchmark for how they’re doing.
2. Pulse Surveys
These are typically around five questions and are pushed out to participants from weekly to monthly. These shorter surveys tend to have higher participation when the questions are quantitative and straightforward.
The benefit of the pulse survey approach is that it ensures organizations know what’s happening throughout the entire year, in the moment. This allows organizations to make adjustments promptly. Tools like Officevibe can assist leaders in making this process easier.
3. Initiative-Specific Engagement Surveys
These use customized questions relevant to the initiative to ensure immediate and targeted feedback.
Organizations will inevitably change as their industry evolves or objectives are rolled out as strategies. Planning a well-timed engagement survey in coordination with this effort can help keep things on track.
How To Interpret Employee Engagement Survey Results
Analyze the data to figure out which predictors are changeable or worth changing. The goal should be to understand the most influential predictors of low engagement scores. Some engagement tools automatically conduct these analyses.
When interpreting these results, it’s best to only focus on one or a few key metrics at a time. Changing too much too quickly will make it challenging to understand what is working or not and how best to apply the findings within your employee engagement strategy.
What To Do With The Results
One of the quickest ways to see employee engagement survey participation drop is to fail to act on the results. It’s best to be transparent about the results, show how the results compare to similar organizations, and communicate a clear action plan on what they will do to improve specific metrics.
These communications tend to work best when leaders add a narrative that can help interpret the results at the organizational level. Then managers can use the results at the team level or during one-on-ones’ with direct reports.
Perhaps, one of the biggest challenges with engagement tools is that they are heavily weighted towards diagnosis but not prognosis.
Engagement tools are great at understanding what’s wrong, but they aren’t built to help organizations understand what to do about it. Typically, these solutions must be customized to address the organization’s specific context.
By understanding when and how to conduct employee engagement surveys, interpreting the results, and taking action based on those results, organizations can gain valuable insights to improve the plan continuously.
Free Playbook
- A 7-Point Plan For People Strategy Leaders
3 Common Questions and Concerns About Employee Engagement
Should we use an engagement tool service or do it ourselves?
Although engagement tools can be expensive, the key benefit is that they ensure the engagement responses are anonymous. If an organization sends out a survey to employees, the employees will inevitably assume that their responses can be tracked back to them individually.
No matter how much an organization promises that the responses will be confidential, it isn’t likely to land with employees. Relatedly, engagement tool services typically set a threshold for which there must be a certain amount of responses before data are revealed. This policy can increase employee response rates since they know they won’t be exposed if they make a qualitative comment in a survey that could be traced back to them individually.
Another critical consideration is whether the engagement tool service will allow you to view data at the individual level or not. Sometimes engagement tools only give access to the aggregated reports, which makes it hard for organizations to understand the nuances of their findings. For example, aggregated findings can hide outlier data that could be the source of a brewing issue or accidentally cover up the fact that the data distribution is bi-modal, with half the employees rating low and the other half rating high on a particular metric.
What should we do if the employee participation rate is low?
One of the most important things organizations can do is have senior leadership express why surveys are being implemented and how they will be used to make employee-friendly changes.
Also, as previously mentioned, organizational leaders must act on the data. If they don’t, employees will perceive that their participation is not worth the time.
Additionally, organizations should dial in the length and cadence of the surveys. The longer and more often, the lower the participation.
Low participation rates are problematic. Without a complete sample representation, the results might be inaccurate or directly signal that the employees are disengaged.
How are machine learning and artificial intelligence being used in engagement surveys?
Although some organizations are starting to implement sophisticated algorithms that help deliver suggestions to users of engagement tools, it’s not quite reached the threshold of being considered machine learning.
Machine learning would entail outputs from the system being automatically reintegrated into the algorithm so that it updates (i.e., “learns”) in real-time, generating better and more tarted results on the next iteration.
Along those lines, organizations should not assume technology can solve engagement issues.
The recommendation here is to take a “tech-first approach,” which recognizes that people can’t process data with the same accuracy and efficiency as machines, so using technology to be the front line that helps direct people’s attention is worthwhile. Nonetheless, people and social systems are complicated, and it takes people capable of critical thinking and intuition to ensure the direction is ideal.
Conclusion
Employee engagement is a crucial aspect that organizations cannot afford to neglect. Ignoring engagement can lead to unhappy and unproductive employees, resulting in a detrimental impact on the overall performance of the organization. But why settle for mediocre results when it’s possible to achieve greatness? By understanding the importance of employee engagement, organizations can create a roadmap for success by identifying what to measure, how to measure it, and a plan for taking action on the results.
Without a strategy to engage your team, it will probably never happen. Using a plan while measuring what is effective will help prevent guesswork and provide clarity for your team.
In short, investing in an employee engagement strategy is not a luxury but a necessity for organizations that want to achieve their full potential and stay competitive in today’s market.
You are in the comfort of your bed and having extraordinary dreams. Then your alarm clock jolts you awake. And you suddenly realize that you must go to work again. You might hit “snooze” one or ten times before finally motivating yourself out the door.
If this sounds like you, you have something in common with thousands of Americans– you dread going to work.
But there are actionable things you can start doing today to ease these feelings. Continue reading to learn how to lessen your dread and improve your job!
One of the most significant challenges remote employees face is the development of professional familiarity, which entails gaining insight into their colleagues’ work habits, strengths, values, and preferences related to their jobs. – fastcompany.com
At the heart of successful remote collaboration lies the ability to foster self-awareness and emotional intelligence within team members, which is essential for building strong connections and overcoming the social distance that can arise in displaced team environments.
This blog post will explore the importance of self-awareness and emotional intelligence in remote collaboration and strategies for engaging and motivating globally-dispersed teams.
12 Things to Do When You Dread Going to Work
If you dread going to work every day, here are twelve things you can try to mitigate your feelings.
Talk To Your Boss About Your Workload
Talking to your leader is the best step if you feel overworked or stressed. They might not be aware of your feelings and could help reduce your load or give you other assignments.
Create A Daily Routine For Yourself
When you have a daily routine, it can help ease feelings of dread. You know what to expect each day, and it becomes more predictable.
Set Goals For Yourself
Rather than feeling overwhelmed at work, try setting smaller goals that you can accomplish each day or week. This will make you feel more productive and in control.
Try To Identify The Issue
The first step is to try and identify what it is about the job you hate. Is it the people you work with? The hours? The commute? Once you know what is causing your angst, you can start taking steps to change it.
Knowing is half the battle, so start by acknowledging what makes you dread work.
Negotiation and leadership experts have long advocated for perspective-taking—attempting to understand your counterpart’s thoughts, feelings, and motives. The result is reduced social distance. – hbr.org
If employees feel disconnected, it becomes more challenging to establish trust, maintain open communication, and foster a sense of belonging, which are all crucial for effective team collaboration.
The Challenge Of Connecting And Coordinating In Dispersed Teams
In dispersed teams, connecting and coordinating with one another can be daunting. Differences in time zones, work schedules, languages, and cultural backgrounds can all contribute to the challenges of remote collaboration. As a result, team members may find it difficult to develop strong working relationships, share knowledge effectively, and stay aligned with their colleagues’ goals and priorities. This can lead to miscommunication, confusion, and a decline in overall team productivity.
In response to the diverse needs of its global community, Cloverleaf is refining its platform by integrating core features and functions in multiple languages. Currently, users can select Spanish or German within their dashboard and enjoy the Cloverleaf experience in their chosen language. This enhancement aims to provide a more inclusive and accessible experience for users worldwide.
Set Realistic Goals
If you’re someone who likes to achieve goals, then set some realistic ones for your job. Don’t aim to be the CEO overnight, but rather try to be the best at your current position. Not only will this give you a sense of accomplishment, but it will also show your superiors that you’re serious about your career.
Start Taking Care Of Yourself
If you’re not taking care of yourself, it will be challenging to take care of your job. Make sure to get enough sleep, eat healthy foods, and exercise. This will help reduce your stress levels and make you feel better overall.
Create A Positive Mindset
To enjoy your job, you need to have a positive mindset. Don’t focus on the negative aspects but try to find the good in them. Once you do, you might start to look forward to going.
Determine If Things Can Change
Lastly, if you’ve tried the tips above and still dread going to work, determine if things can change. Talk to your boss about getting a new position, finding a new job that’s a better fit, or see if there are any ways you can change your current situation.
Remember That No Job Is Perfect
One thing to keep in mind is that no job is perfect. You will have good days and bad days, but it’s important to remember the good ones. So, don’t dwell on your job’s bad aspects, but try to fix them. And if you can’t fix them, find ways to make them more tolerable.
Find The Positives In Your Work And Focus On Them
While it’s easy to focus on the negative aspects of your job, try to focus on the positives instead. This can be difficult but worth it in the long run. Once you start seeing the good in your work, you might enjoy it more.
Do Things You Enjoy During Your Days Off
Finally, if you want to enjoy your job more, try to do things you enjoy outside of work. This can be anything from reading, going for walks, or spending time with friends and family. Doing something you love will help reduce the stress levels caused by work.
No one should dread going to work but try the tips above if you struggle with these feelings. They can help make your job more enjoyable and less stressful.
If you’re a leader ready to learn practical management skills that utilize coaching to develop your team, check out the Boss To Coach Playbook.
How to Determine if It’s Time to Quit
If you’ve tried the tips above and still dread going to work, it might be time to quit your job. This isn’t a decision to be taken lightly, but it might be the best option for you if things continue to be unbearable.
To make a career change decision, ask yourself the following five questions:
Is my job causing me physical or mental health problems?
Do I dislike my job for reasons that can’t be changed?
Are there other jobs available that are a better fit for me?
Can I see myself enjoying my job if the negative aspects are fixed?
Do I have enough savings to live for six months without a job?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, it might be time to quit your job. Talk to your boss about your concerns and see if there’s a way to fix the situation. If there’s not, then it might be time to move on.
Below are some of the most important things you should consider before turning in a two weeks notice.
You Frequently Approach Work With Exhaustion Or Burnout
One of the biggest signs that it might be time to quit your job is if you frequently approach work with exhaustion or burnout. If you can’t even muster up the energy to get out of bed, then it’s definitely time to take a step back and identify the problem.
You Actively Look For Ways To Avoid Work
If you find yourself actively looking for ways to avoid work, it’s also a sign that you may need to quit. This includes browsing the internet, playing games on your phone, or taking too many breaks.
Your Job Drains All Of Your Energy
If your job drains all of your energy, more than likely, it’s not a good fit. To be productive, you need to have some energy left over at the end of the day. If your job takes everything you have, it’s time to find something else.
The Work Environment Has Become Unhealthy
If the work environment has become unhealthy, it may be time to pursue other work. This includes being constantly harassed, bullied, or feeling unsafe. If you have tried to address the situation, but it hasn’t improved, it’s time to move on.
You Hate Your Job For Seemingly No Reason
If you hate your job for no reason, it might be time to quit. This includes disliking your boss, the work itself, or the company. If these factors are causing you to dread going to work, it could be time to find something new.
You Feel Stuck
If you feel stuck in your job, it might be a good idea to end your employment. This includes feeling like you can’t advance any further or that there’s no room for growth. Moving on can be the best choice if you feel like you’re not being challenged anymore and there is no opportunity to keep growing.
You Don’t Picture Yourself There Long Term
It might be time to move on if you don’t see a future with your company. This could include seeing layoffs happening or the company going bankrupt. If you don’t see a future at your job, then it’s time to start looking for something else.
It’s Taking A Toll On Your Emotional, Mental and Physical Health
If your job is taking a toll on your physical or mental health, don’t keep working there! This includes having trouble sleeping, eating, or concentrating. If your job is causing you physical pain and mental anguish, it could be time to move on.
Everything Feels Overwhelming
If everything at work feels overwhelming, you need to understand why. This includes feeling like you can never do enough or being constantly behind. If you can’t keep up, it might be time to find something else or initiate a conversation with your leader.
You’re Only Staying For The Money
If you’re only staying for the money, you need to assess if there are additional motivations for staying. If not, it is probably best for you and your team if you start looking for new work.
You Procrastinate More Than Work
If you procrastinate more than you work, it might be time to quit. This includes spending more time on social media, browsing the internet, or playing games on your phone. If you can’t focus on your work, there’s something you dislike about it. Pursuing new opportunities may be your best option.
You Dread Going To Work
Lastly, it might be time to quit if you dread going to work. This includes feeling stressed out, anxious, or depressed. If work is the last place you want to be, you need to figure out the issues, why you feel this way, and if you have taken appropriate action to resolve these problems.
How to Find Work You Will Love
If you’re struggling to find work that you love, here are a few tips to help you out:
Figure Out What You Love
The first step is figuring out what you love. Do you love working with people? Or do you prefer being alone in a quiet space? Once you know what you love, finding work that matches your interests will be easier.
Research Careers That Match Your Interests
After you identify exciting work, it’s time to research careers that match your interests. There are many different career options, so it’s important to spend time considering your options.
Try Out Different Careers
Once you have an idea of the careers that interest you, it’s time to try them out. Many companies offer internships or job shadowing opportunities. This will allow you to see if the career is a good fit for you.
Talk to People in Your Field
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of careers, it’s time to talk to people in your field. This includes talking to friends, family members, and professionals in your chosen field. They can give you an inside look at the job and how to prepare for it.
Know Your Strengths
Your strengths are qualities that come most naturally to you. Every individual possesses strengths to different degrees, giving each person a unique strengths profile. When you know your strengths, you can improve your life and thrive.
Are you unsure what you’re strongest gifts are? Start by taking a StrengthsFinder Assessment on Cloverleaf.
Take Action
The best way to find work that you love is by taking action. This includes applying for jobs, networking with professionals, and learning new skills. If you’re willing to put in the effort, you will find work you love.
Conclusion
Returning to the work routine after the holidays, vacations, or long weekends is hard. Feeling the “Sunday Night Scaries” can be expected. However, if you truly dread going to your job the next day and will do nearly everything not to show up or log in, it’s time to figure out why and what you’re going to do about it.
According to Work It Daily, you need to locate the source of that dread. Is it the difficult boss, conflict with teammates, low pay, or long commute? Or is it deeper, and you feel that your work does not align with your strengths or values?
Work will never be perfect. However, you can improve your work environment by building an action plan. Need a better commute? Find remote work options with your current role, or look for a new employer closer to home.
Are you struggling to see eye-to-eye with your boss or with your teammates? Cloverleaf can help you to understand one another and work through sources of conflict.
If the idea of Automated Coaching™ is new to you, or you are curious about how personality tests for employees can help you understand your individual strengths and those of your teammates, start a free trial today.
Your career is a journey, so make an effort to find meaningful, fulfilling, and enjoyable work.
Employee engagement directly relates to the emotional commitment your employees have to your company and your business’s goals. This level of engagement often correlates to employee effectiveness and dedication.
Our team at Cloverleaf can help you learn more about employee engagement and how it benefits your company. We believe that no one should dread coming to work. Want to try Cloverleaf with your team? Start using Cloverleaf with your team free for 14 days.
DEFINING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
What is employee engagement? Some business owners believe this term refers to how happy or satisfied their employees feel. In fact, employee engagement deals more with the emotional commitment employees feel for their employers.
Engaged employees often express higher levels of happiness and job satisfaction. These employees develop a commitment to the goals and values of their organization. They focus on doing their best each day, with the goal of increasing company success.
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THE FOUNDATION OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
So, how do businesses develop an engaged employee? Employee engagement initiatives often focus on increasing two-way:
Communication
Trust
Commitment
Integrity
Employees feel more engaged when they understand their role in your organization, their duties, and the business’s objectives. You can increase employee engagement in your company by providing information about the purposes and objectives of your company.
Engaged employees feel they have the ability to express their ideas about company decisions. Make sure that you cultivate a company culture that encourages employees to:
Give and accept constructive feedback
Develop new skills
Receive recognition for their achievements
Taking these steps helps employees feel like they’re truly members of your team, which can inspire employees and boost organizational performance. Employees who feel engaged funnel their increased energy into serving your company.
Note that engagement requires employees to understand your company’s goals and desired outcomes. Make sure that you provide this information in a clear and understandable way.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ENGAGEMENT AND SATISFACTION
How does employee engagement differ from employee satisfaction? Employee satisfaction deals specifically with how content employees feel about their job. Employers can measure employee satisfaction based on behavioral, affective, and cognitive components.
Engaged employees often turn out to be satisfied employees, as individuals who feel they have an emotional connection to their work report a higher degree of satisfaction on employee surveys.
Therefore, employee happiness and satisfaction often coincide with a company’s engagement scores.
EXPLORING THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Developing an engaged workforce offers your company several important benefits. HR professionals recommend that you take steps to keep your employees engaged to improve:
Employee Performance
Engaged employees demonstrate a greater willingness to give their all during the workday. Engaged workers often proactively take steps to go above and beyond, which leads to increased productivity.
Retention Rates
Do you want to facilitate higher employee retention rates for your company? Disengaged employees are more likely to quit. When you engage employees, they:
Take fewer sick days
Experience fewer accidents
File fewer grievances
Develop a workplace culture that values employee engagement to take advantage of these benefits.
Customer Satisfaction
Engaged employees focus more on ensuring business success for your company. They put more effort into performing their jobs to the best of their abilities, which means they provide your customers with better care and service.
Customer loyalty rates often increase in proportion to employee engagement. Keep these factors in mind as you consider ways to improve the employee experience for individuals working for your company.
DEVELOPING MEASUREMENT PROCESSES FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Employee engagement levels impact your business outcomes and the success of your company. Many companies, therefore, want to measure the amount of engagement experienced by their employees. Your company can implement measurement processes such as:
Pulse surveys
1-on-1s
Exit interviews
Pulse surveys (or employee engagement surveys) allow you to quickly assess how employees feel about work. This kind of engagement survey usually only takes a few moments and should not contain more than ten questions to gather employee feedback.
1-on-1s allow you to speak directly with employees. Examples of these meetings include performance reviews as well as regularly scheduled talks throughout the year. During these meetings, you may discuss career development options and have the worker complete an employee engagement survey.
Perform exit interviews with all employees who decide to leave your company. These interviews allow you to determine what led to their decision to leave.
Finally, consider employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) assessments. These engagement surveys ask employees how much they enjoy work and how likely they’d be to recommend your company to someone else.
Use your survey results to assess the overall state of engagement throughout your company. You can even set up an employee engagement platform to make this process easier for members of your HR team.
SOURCES OF ENGAGEMENT
How can you build employee engagement in your company, improving business outcomes and the financial health of your company? Each component of your company can contribute to increased levels of engagement.
Managers
Senior leaders in your company play a pivotal role in generating engagement. Managers who keep the lines of communication open help employees feel like their voices matter. Managers need to be a coach for their employees by helping them set goals and expectations.
Increase Your Engagement – Cloverleaf helps employees bring their whole selves to work.
Maximize Talent – Uncover hidden employee strengths and potential.
Build Trust – Help employees build empathy and trust.
Teams
Cloverleaf helps teams to love working together through personalized insights about each team member which helps employees better understand one another, communicate better, and improve their relationship with the entire team. Employees who work in teams feel a greater sense of belonging. One satisfied employee often encourages a sense of well-being and devotion in other workers.
Interest Groups
Business interest groups represent the desires of multiple businesses in an industry. Allowing employees to work with these groups can boost engagement metrics.
Company-Wide
Developing a culture that values employee contributions helps generate higher levels of employee engagement.
EXAMPLES OF GOOD EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Companies with good levels of employee engagement make decisions based on the results of survey data. They focus on performance management and treating each employee as a valued member of their team.
Southwest Airlines represents an example of a company that focuses on employee engagement. The company allows a lot of employee autonomy, even letting employees design their own uniforms. As a result, employees realize that their voice is heard and the company values their point of view because they listen and take action.
STEPS TO DEVELOP ENGAGED EMPLOYEES
A satisfied employee does far more from your business than an employee who feels disconnected from the values and goals of the company. Encourage engagement by:
Providing information about expectations for new hires during the onboarding process
Offering extensive training opportunities
Setting up safe channels for employee feedback
Giving employees specific congratulations
Promoting a healthy work-life balance
If you complete employee engagement assessments, make sure that you implement the survey results to demonstrate how much you value employee engagement.
IMPLEMENT AN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
Want the benefits that come with healthy engagement from your employees? You can set up a strategy to encourage employee engagement by following the guidance in this article and considering employee engagement software.
Employee engagement software provides you with a toolset to measure employee engagement levels. Software systems allow you to set up assessments and surveys for employees to take on a regular basis.
The software records the results of these assessments, providing you with easy-to-understand data about the state of engagement in your company. Keeping your finger on the pulse of employee emotions helps you make adjustments to the policy as needed, keeping engagement levels high.
Our team at Cloverleaf equips you with tools you can use to set up a strategy to boost engagement levels for employees throughout your company. Our tool sets provide you with several assessments you can use.
We also provide personalized insights about your business. We offer services for teams, coaches, and enterprises, allowing you to select the tools that do the most for your company. Our team even provides training for onboarding, enabling you to start connecting with your new employees and engaging them from the start.
PEOPLE ALSO ASK:
What Does Employee Engagement Mean?
Engagement deals with how dedicated your employees are to the success and mission of your business.
What Are Examples of Employee Engagement?
Your employees demonstrate that their engagement with your company when they:
Recommend your business as a place of employment to their friends
Go above and beyond to serve your customers
These actions only reflect examples of engaged behavior that you may see in your employees.
What Is Employee Engagement, and Why Is It Important?
Engagement from your employees reflects employee willingness to put your business first. This form of engagement is vital because it has a direct impact on employee satisfaction and happiness. It also helps improve customer satisfaction, as engaged workers often take extra steps to please your customers.
Why Is Employee Engagement So Important?
Healthy levels of employee engagement help your business grow and thrive.
Learn more about your work team and how to engage each teammate with Cloverleaf.
WHY BUILDING AN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM IS VITAL FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS
An engaged employee is more productive, loyal, and willing to work harder than an unmotivated employee. Disengaged employees and disgruntled employees are a threat to the security and the safety of an organization.
Workplace motivation is more than just a paycheck. People so often dedicate years of their lives to projects that offer little or no financial reward. At Cloverleaf we believe no one should dread coming to work every day.
PUTTING TOGETHER EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Effective employee engagement has to be more than a slogan or a euphemism for conventional “carrot-and-stick” motivation. Positive reinforcement, or rewards, is important, but employers need to recognize that intangible benefits can be more important than tangible rewards as drivers of employee engagement.
A worker engagement strategy should align the core values of the company with the employees’ identity, self-concept, and deep motivational drives.
The best practices in developing an employee engagement strategy are:
Measuring engagement effectively
Understanding employee needs
Establishing multiple feedback channels
Fostering two-way communication
Making the right changes in the workplace
Employers and managers have to understand what employees want. Marketing researchers invest time and money in modeling consumer behavior to better understand the customer experience and provide customer satisfaction. An employee engagement model requires the same level of investment.
Employees want to do well at a job, but they want more than that. They want to belong to a team that values their contribution, and they want to feel their work has purpose. They want to feel they have paths to personal and career development. If the entire company can demonstrate that it understands employee needs and follow through by meeting them, engagement initiatives are more likely to succeed.
Each employee is different, learning and communicating in unique ways. They have varying needs that might require different accommodations. Consider the following examples of employees.
A stay-at-home father who wants meaningful work but needs childcare benefits and a clear sense of work-life balance
An aspiring writer who is working to pay her bills while she finishes her first novel
An employee with a poor self-image who works long hours to escape an unhappy marriage
A perfectionist who creates exceptional work but is easily frustrated and demoralized
Managers should encourage employees to express these differences in a constructive way, without fear of judgment. The employee benefits package, including workplace accommodations, schedules, and perks, should be flexible enough to motivate and retain a diverse and varied workforce.
Constructive communication is essential at every stage. The hiring process and onboarding orientation should clearly communicate job expectations. HR professionals should understand the career goals of new employees as well as their needs for personal development, inside and outside of the workplace.
Continue to promote employee development throughout their careers and recognize the value of senior employees. When employees leave the company, don’t brusquely escort them out. Understand their experience and the lessons it can teach for performance management and employee retention in the future.
HOW TO MEASURE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Employees work better as a team; Cloverleaf helps empower your team to do their best work while building better relationships: Engagement encompasses many things, including:
Diligence at work tasks
A feeling of personal connection to the company
A mindset that focuses the employee on shared goals of co-workers, team members, and management
Measuring employee engagement requires attention to employee thoughts, feelings, and actions in different ways. A complete picture of employee engagement requires measurement strategies that target each aspect of employee engagement in different contexts. Employers and HR managers can tailor messages, policy changes, and engagement initiatives to meet specific needs.
Monitoring employee performance allows managers to track behavioral signs of employee disengagement, such as
Using the work computers for entertainment
Failure to comply with workplace rules
Absenteeism
Non-verbal cues of disengagement are equally important. An employee who suddenly seems withdrawn, glum, short-tempered, distracted, or anxious may not be optimally engaged.
Lastly, it is important to know what employees think of the company, its purpose, and their personal stake in its success. If employees believe the company only pays lip service to its mission statement or if they feel personally overlooked or exploited, they will find it difficult to perform effectively at work.
The measurement process should not be focused on judgment but on identifying and solving problems. Disengaged employees might have physical or mental health issues. They might have lost loved ones, or they might be experiencing harassment in the workplace or abuse at home.
Engagement initiatives should focus on job crafting which is the act of understanding employee needs and finding constructive ways to bring them back into alignment with the organization.
Giving the employee time off, letting them relax at their workstation, or providing help outside the workplace could allow the employee to get through a difficult time in their life. Adjusting and being flexible to employees’ needs fosters a deeper engagement in the long term.
HOW MAKING THE RIGHT CHANGES CAN BOOST EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Providing Work Incentives
Keep in mind that incentives can be financial rewards, benefits, and intangible rewards. The incentives should match employee needs.
A pay raise could reduce anxiety and improve engagement for employees facing unexpected costs or saving for a major purchase. However, giving one employee a pay raise without benefiting others could lead to feelings of unfairness.
Building Out Structured Career Paths
For all employees, particularly those motivated by status and ambition, skill development training and other professional development programs give employees access to meaningful work that meets company needs and can justify recognition and pay raises.
Celebrating Wins
Employees who need validation and a sense of belonging could benefit from recognition programs and awards at company events. However, fairness is an issue here as well. An inauthentic pat on the back could make the employee more distrustful and make other employees jealous.
Employee recognition is most effective when it connects to valued incentives and genuine professional development. If you have invested in employee growth, you will be able to engage employees by celebrating that growth.
Try not to frame wins as zero-sum games where one person’s win is another person’s loss.
Conducting Yearly Award Ceremonies
A yearly award ceremony is a good way to build team spirit and recognize star performers. The ceremony could reward productivity but also recognize employees who exemplify the company’s values and contribute to the workplace in intangible ways.
The award ceremony should be accessible to all and provide many opportunities for recognition. Employee surveys should measure whether anybody felt uncomfortable, jealous, or disaffected at the ceremony.
PEOPLE ALSO ASK
What Are Employee Engagement Programs?
Companies worldwide are investing in employee engagement initiatives. They help managers, HR leaders, business leaders, and others with a stake in the workplace environment to:
Foster enduring employee loyalty
Motivate new hires during the onboarding process
Create a workplace culture that engages employees
Ensure that employees remain engaged while doing remote work
Inspire diligence, creativity, and productivity in employees
Turn workplace tasks into passion projects
What Makes a Good Employee Engagement Program?
A good employee engagement program uses multiple methods for engaging employees, including several feedback methods. These include employee engagement survey data, meetings, and anonymous reports to understand employee thoughts, behaviors, and actions. It uses that information to promote employee satisfaction, growth, and development.
The program is adaptable so that it can serve the needs of diverse employees but transparent so that employees perceive it as fair and are able to voice their concerns.
The program should also inspire a change in company values and company culture to promote a constructive relationship between employees and the company based on two-way communication and mutual respect.
How Do You Develop an Employee Engagement Program?
One popular approach to the development of employee engagement initiatives is the ADDIE model. ADDIE stands for Assessment, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.
The first step is identifying employee needs. Are they primarily financial, emotional, or rooted in their identity and personal ambitions? What workplace situations or structures prevent employees from engaging?
Taking into account detailed employee feedback, construct employment engagement initiatives that target specific areas of concern. As you put those initiatives in place, continue collecting feedback and determine whether they have increased engagement, productivity, and loyalty.
What Is an Example of Employee Engagement?
Consider the following examples of employee engagement initiatives.
An employee is given a more flexible schedule so that she can drop her children off at school and pick them up afterward. She values the job opportunity and works proactively with her supervisor to ensure that her work is done on time.
An employee has the ability to choose projects that interest him personally. He knows that the projects will be part of a portfolio that will help his future career advancement. He works long hours and exceeds expectations on these projects even though he does not receive extra pay for that work.
An employee is working abroad and sends money back home to his family. The job pays more than work he could get in his hometown. His employer offers performance bonuses and overtime, so he works diligently on any tasks that his manager assigns to him.
Cloverleaf Inspires People to Achieve Their Highest Potential
The Cloverleaf team provides entrepreneurs, businesses, HR professionals, and coaches with the tools they need to understand their employees and coach them to work to their full potential.
When the new year comes around, your people will likely come back to the office with plans, goals, exciting stories, and a momentum that is so important to keep alive as the following months near. Here are 10 ways that we can help you achieve this in the new year.
1. Resolve old conflict.
You’ve heard the phrase, new year, new me. Well, since you’re still you, why not say new year, better me! And how better to achieve this than resolving old conflict that was brewing with the end-of-the-year anxiety and rush. If you still feel a negative energy lingering into January, learn how to deal with conflict in the office so that everyone starts out ready for whatever comes their way.
2. ARRANGE A VIRTUAL HAPPY HOUR
If your team is used to meeting for post-work drinks or even a coffee break on a weekly or monthly basis, this is another activity that translates well to the virtual space.
Make sure that you set a suitable cap on small groups to avoid the experience being overwhelming; 10 is ideal, although 20 is workable. Get team members to bring a drink to enjoy, and pre-plan discussion points or just let the conversation flow as you would normally. Being able to sit back and trust employees to gel in this context is one of the key leadership qualities you should foster.
3. PLAY ONLINE GAMES TOGETHER
Gaming may not be everyone’s favorite pastime, but there are lots of multiplayer experiences that are great for team bonding. Fostering cohesion in this way can even be one of the pros of telecommuting that would not necessarily apply to the office.
In terms of the team-building games themselves, popular options include the trivia-based JackBox.tv titles and the Scrabble-inspired Words With Friends.
4. SET AN ICEBREAKER CHALLENGE
Activities that engage remote workers’ brains are the best to pursue, so establishing a hypothetical scenario and asking people how they would cope can spark a lot of fun and debate.
A fun icebreaker question is to ask team members to think which 3 items they would take to a desert island to survive after being stranded on a limited list. This icebreaker will get people talking and stimulate their imagination.
5. RUN A BOOK CLUB
Whether or not a book club is already part of your team’s activity schedule, this works well for remote working as it does when face-to-face meetings are possible.
Be sure to choose books that are accessible, enjoyable, and interesting. Length also matters, so avoid picking “War and Peace” unless you want to spend weeks waiting for everyone to finish and meet up.
6. SET FITNESS GOALS
Working remotely can reduce the amount of physical activity that team members get each day, so you can capitalize on this by getting remote employees to choose their own fitness goals and aim to complete them together as constructive teamwork.
Be sure that this is handled sensitively and do not put undue pressure on a member of your team for whom fitness and exercise may not come easily.
7. ENCOURAGE NON-WORK-RELATED TALKS
While virtual meetings and conference calls are all well and good, sometimes it’s nice to talk about things other than work without being scrutinized by lots of other people in real-time.
To that end, partner people in small groups with one another and ask them to become pen pals, corresponding via email about their days and boosting each other’s morale through this online team building.
8. GET CRAFTY
When working remotely, team members may have more time on their hands freed up by not needing to commute daily.
This can make completing craft projects together an entertaining option for team-building events. Whether you decide to take up pottery, woodwork, knitting, or any other craft-related hobby, doing this while chatting with colleagues on Zoom can eradicate feelings of isolation in a fun way.
9. TAKE HOME TOURS
As team members may well live long distances from one another, a remote working scenario could be the ideal opportunity to let them show off their abodes and also display a bit more of their personality to their remote team members.
Each member can be given the chance to show everyone around their home, either in real-time or by filming clips and editing them together.
10. SHARE PERSONAL PHOTOS
Seeing pictures of someone as a baby or from their youth can be a fun way to engage with others in a work environment.
Get team members to send you photos of them in their youth, collate them all together and then share them with the rest of the team in a video chat, then get attendees to guess the identity of each pic.
Read more about virtual team-building ideas here.
Most importantly, listen to each member of your team and work out which team-building activities for remote teams will best suit their personalities and needs. Being responsive and open to feedback is the best way to improve your management of virtual offices.