Employee engagement has become increasingly important, not just to attract and?retain good talent, but to have the most from a workforce.?Employees want competitive pay, regular feedback, dynamic and current leadership and suppleness.
In its 2017 Global Human Capital Trends survey, Deloitte learned that organisational culture, engagement, and employee brand proposition are top priorities this current year. Nearly 80% of executives rated employee experience essential or important; only 22% said their companies were excellent at setting up a differentiated employee experience.
The survey?states that the strong employee experience will subsequently drive a strong customer experience.
Engagement is about how employees think, act and feel; how attracted they can be to your organisation and just how activated (high performing) these are, says Leslie Yuill, Deloitte actuarial, rewards and analytics lead.
The “holy grail” of engagement could be the high-flyer employees. Highly activated and engaging to the organisation, they build good relations with employees and work well.
Grumpy Gen X
In the 2017 Deloitte Best Company Survey, Generation X employees shocked reviewers in having very high dissatisfaction levels utilizing their employers or companies they be employed by, as compared with?millennials.
“Gen X didn’t seem capable of being pleased,” said Yuill. Very high degrees of dissatisfaction were around pay.
The Deloitte sample was pay off age-wise, with 37% Gen X, 45% millennials and 18% baby boomers. Apart from the finding cited above, engagement and disengagement cut across organisations, and wasn’t based on gender, race or generation.
Employees in surveyed?organisations were particularly irked by competitive pay and benefits; equal pay and?opportunity; trust; leadership; open and honest communication; feedback without anxiety about consequences; genuine care and concern; and delivering on promises.
Positively, about 68% in this year’s participants felt engaged.
A new order
But spare a perception for employers retaining on top of an ever-changing world.
Trevor Page, Deloitte organisation transformation and talent leader, says the interest rate of digital change is moving faster than now you can adapt to.
A?challenge in employing?technology is that younger talent one is the most savvy?than?those invoved with leadership roles, who decide how much tech is needed and they are baby boomers and Gen Xers. It doesn’t adapt as soon as more youthful talent you ought to attract and retain, Ndivhu Nepfumbada, PPC cement group hour or so executive, says.
Younger generations want to use tech as opposed to do things manually, and also be capable to work remotely. Organisations will need to attract and retain them.
“The human capital game has changed. The field has shifted. With this digital age there are new rules for everything,” says Yuill.
Getting the best from employees
Create an encouraging environment. To motivate top employees, provide them with a feeling of purpose; create a breeding ground where they are empowered to the office and?can achieve and innovate- “where everyone is without fear of backlash [and know] it’s ok to fail, but try,” says Nepfumbada.
Old dogs, learn new tricks. “A leader should not be the star on the show, but make sure it’s just a great show. It’s not longer for you for a leader driving performance; you want building and leading teams constructively.
Traditional models assume leaders know best. When these leaders got negative feedback from employees, they had been offended, unhappy while using the messenger and didn’t cope with underlying issues. “We need a new variety of leader who isn’t offended by ongoing feedback,” he says.?
Give employees feedback. Dan Schawbel on Forbes here, says more employees want continuous feedback in their performance. Annual performance reviews may phase out, in preference to more regular interactions.
Measure. Deloitte’s global trends survey suggests firms use candidate, stay and exit interviews, together with ongoing performance conversations “to generate a complete, real-time knowledge of troubles your workers face”.
Stand up HR. Nepfumbada advises HR managers to be bold enough to challenge things as they are for their organisations.?
Set them free. With apologies to a popular saying, when you invest in your employees, [don’t be scared to] set them free. “High performers tend to choose to change frequently
