Best Practices and up to the minute news on Customer Experience Management and Service Excellence
Best Practices and up to the minute news on Customer Experience Management and Service Excellence
Businesses collectively lose $550 billion annually due to a lack of employee engagement. Poor engagement results in lost productivity, higher employee turnover rates, and lost profit — any business owner’s nightmare.
Prioritizing the retention and wellness of current employees over hiring new ones makes a significant difference in maintaining a thriving business. It creates a sense of stability and a growth in skill and knowledge amongst employees. More experienced workers can provide valuable insights and be more effective at their jobs. They can also provide their wealth of knowledge to any new employees you onboard.
Unfortunately, leaders sometimes have incorrect ideas about what helps and hurts this process. While many assume that providing more breaks and flexibility to employees decreases engagement at work, research shows the exact opposite. Hubspot, a marketing, sales, and customer service software provider, noted that the human brain can only demonstrate continuous focus for about 90 to 120 minutes.
Understanding this fact is already a great way to show your employees that you prioritize their wellness. According to a 2023 report from Workday, one of the nation’s leading workforce platforms, caring about employee wellness is a significant factor in engaging your workers and increasing productivity.
“In order to attract top talent and unlock sustainable levels of productivity and innovation, organizations need to design an employee experience that supports long-term health and well-being, provides adequate flexibility, and evolves in response to employee feedback,” Workday wrote.
There are several major areas that Workday encourages employers to focus on to increase engagement. Let’s get into a few of them.
Prioritizing health and wellness is essential for employee engagement. It’s the foundation for consistent productivity, loyalty, and overall job satisfaction. Focusing on this area ultimately creates a symbiotic relationship – when employees feel good physically and mentally, their engagement naturally grows.
According to Workday, employers aren’t creating more roles and employing as many additional workers as they may need to. This puts more pressure on employees and can ultimately lead to burnout.
To help with this, employers can provide:
While most leaders told Workday they have a hard time trusting employee productivity in hybrid environments, nearly 90 percent of employees said they feel productive in a hybrid work setting. Sixty-five percent of employees without this arrangement said flexible and remote work would increase their productivity. Although hybrid work isn’t doable for every hospitality employee, as there are many customer-facing jobs, consider developing this policy for administrative or other office-based roles.
Offering flexible work schedules or remote work options can empower employees to better manage their professional and personal responsibilities, reduce stress, and promote work-life balance.
In fact, according to Hubspot, 61 percent of professionals point to noisy coworkers as a contributor to lost engagement and productivity. Eighty-six percent said they prefer to work alone to “hit maximum productivity.” Hybrid and flexible work schedules can address both of these points.
If hybrid work isn’t an option due to your business model, be understanding and flexible with employees who need time off or experience unexpected events in their personal lives.
If you want to depend on your current employees instead of unpredictable outside hires, it’s essential to show your appreciation and uplift them with skill growth and new opportunities. Not only will employees show more loyalty, but recognizing and appreciating employees’ efforts and achievements will create a positive work environment, enhancing job satisfaction and reducing feelings of burnout.
Offering opportunities for skill enhancement, training, and career advancement allows employees to expand their capabilities and take on more challenging roles. This leads to a sense of accomplishment, increasing motivation and engagement.
Providing clear pathways for career progression also increases employees’ likelihood of seeing a future with your company. They’re more likely to stay committed and engaged when they see room for growth and advancement.
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