Employee Engagement in remote workplaces during the Covid pandemic situation

Given the current situation with COVID-19, many workplaces are turning to remote work, some for the first time. With workers being away from direct supervision, employee engagement becomes that much more important, as an engaged employee is one who can be trusted to competently, consistently perform their job, often going above and beyond their job description to make sure that they are delivering high-quality results.

Following steps if followed, will help in improving employee engagement in the organization for both general and remote workers.

Meaning Of Employee engagement:

An engaged employee is driven to help their organization succeed by directing their best efforts towards their work. They believe in the organization, and they will work to make sure that the organization succeeds.

It is important to note that employee engagement is different from employee satisfaction. A satisfied employee will not necessarily commit extra time and effort into the organization’s success, rather they will perform their job competently without expending extra effort.

Job satisfaction tends to be transactional, corresponding to salary and benefits. Employee engagement is not transactional; an employee with a higher salary will not necessarily be an engaged employee.

Employee engagement activities:

There are plenty of ways that leadership teams can energize and engage employees. These can range from in-office activities to group expeditions, and, depending on the organization, different ones will be effective. Few to list in:

1. Let employees write their own job descriptions.(Job Profiling Activity)

Ask them to define their role, and have them carve out some areas in which they would like to take on responsibility. This provides critical insight on how to develop that employee, and they get a feeling of ownership over their role.

2. Have the leadership team turn to employees for advice.

Upper management shouldn’t be too far removed from employees, and the pride of being asked for help, and being listened to, by upper management can give a real boost to employees (eg. Townhall Meeting/All hand meeting on Zoom/Google). Not only that, we might have to discover some hidden talents or skills amongst employees that could help the organization. It’s crucial that the advice given is advice followed in this case, you want to demonstrate that employees are heard.

3. Make sure to create the space to celebrate work achievements, birthdays, special occasions, and to give exiting employees a proper send-off.(Office Communication)

Create an organizational culture that celebrates individuals, makes time for fun, and holds people in the spotlight to reward their contributions in E-magazine.

4. Use out of office fun activities to activate engagement.

Escape rooms have become a particularly popular one for smaller teams, as they promote teamwork in a fun, dynamic environment. Team-building activities can be done on a variety of levels, from organizational camping trips to volunteer work, and there are many opportunities to create out of office opportunities for employee engagement.

5. Start a mentorship program.

Employees that receive training and skill development feel more valued by their company and will be more engaged. Encouraging upskilling and cross-training will benefit both the company and the employees greatly.

6. Promote from within.

If an employee sees a clear path to career opportunities within their organization, they will be much less likely to look elsewhere for them. Show that your organization recognizes the value of its own employees by promoting from within the company whenever possible.

7. Encourage health, wellness, and charitable actions.

A healthy business needs a healthy workforce and community. Giving employees access to gyms, green space, even massage therapists can dramatically improve engagement. Try organizing company-wide charitable actions to improve teamwork and community engagement.

Importance of Employee Engagement:

Employee engagement can massively aid an organization, and organizations with engaged employees consistently outperform their competitors.

1. Better customer satisfaction

Engaged employees will go above and beyond to provide great service to customers. They will take pride in performing their jobs to the best of their ability.

2. Improved productivity and efficiency

An engaged employee wants their work to benefit the organization, so they will find ways to produce great quality work quickly. While an employee who is not engaged might simply want to come in and collect a paycheck with the least amount of work, an engaged employee will use discretionary effort to make sure that their work yields the highest result.

3. Reduction of staff turnover

This is another example of how employee engagement and employee satisfaction are different. An employee might be very satisfied with their job but they will happily take another job if offered a nice raise.

Studies show that employee retention is a challenge, with 81% of small businesses recognizing turnover as a costly problem. When an employee leaves, it can disrupt services, costing the organization money and upsetting clients, and replacing a lost employee can cost up to 40% of a salary. If an employee is truly engaged, they will not want to leave their role, as they want to continue helping the organization reach its goals. They won’t be tempted to look for other work, because they are mentally and emotionally connected with the work that they are already doing.

Employee engagement leads directly to better staff retention, especially of top performers, which has become increasingly important, and difficult, with today’s hyper-mobile workforce.

4. Lowered absenteeism

Continuing from the above point, another benefit of employee engagement is that engaged employees will want to come into work, as they believe in what they are doing. They are less likely to miss work, and will even make an effort to work on their own time.

5. Enhanced company culture

Company culture is massively important to employees, and a bad culture can break an organization. When employees are properly engaged with the organization, they understand their own importance in the company, as well as others, and are far more likely to take time to help train, advise, and lead those around them. They are invested in the organization’s success, which is built by employees, so they will make sure that other employees are able to contribute to that success effectively.

7. Better business outcomes

Companies that have engaged workers report 21% higher profitability and were scored 17% higher on productivity. Engaged employees work harder, doing a better job, driving up customer satisfaction and loyalty, and bringing a great deal of value into the organization. Engaged employees will increase profitability through their work, and often lead innovation within their team, department, or organization.

8. Decrease number of safety incidents;grievances

Engaged employees pay attention to what they are doing, because they care about doing their job right. Workers will be more mindful of their surroundings and actions, and will go the extra mile to perform their duties correctly. Engagement also increases innovation, with workers offering solutions to avoid safety incidents in the future, streamlining processes and increasing productivity.

Popular Employee Engagement Models:

1.IES model of engagement

The IES model, developed in 2003, emphasizes that employees must feel valued and involved to be properly engaged with their employer. The ten core concepts that lead to feel valued and involved are:

1. Job satisfaction

2. Family-friendliness

3. Cooperation and communication

4. Health and safety

5. Pay

6. Conditions and benefits

7. Equal opportunities and fair treatment

8. Performance and appraisal

9. Immediate management and training

10. Development and career

When those needs are fulfilled, then employees will be engaged.

2.The Zinger model of employee engagement :David Zinger developed this model in 2009.

This model balances three inputs:

1. Organizational

Organizational input is the development of a culture where employee engagement is valued, prioritized and shared amongst all employees. Recognition and appreciation are key aspects of this. At the top levels of management, support should be given, as well as investment in organizational resources and education, to increase engagement.

2. Leadership

Leadership input is the development of leaders who are themselves engaged. Zinger’s model states that employees will not become engaged if their leaders are not,so this is a key step. Leaders must engage authentically with their employees, paying close attention and working enthusiastically to develop their team’s strengths and helping them overcome weaknesses.

3. Individual

Individual input is the employee’s own engagement contributions. Employees should work to focus on the positive aspects of engagement, channeling their energy in the correct direction while making space to include fun in their work life. Ownership of one’s own work and contributions to the organization are key factors here. Zinger’s model posits that when those three inputs are developed, employee engagement will increase.

The Zinger engaged model is arranged like a pyramid, with the bottom four blocks representing the leveraging of employee strengths, making meaning in work, leveraging employee energy, and employee well being. The next level consists of three blocks that represent living in the moment, fostering a strong workplace community, and proper recognition of employee effort. The third level is two blocks, representing the path of career development and excelling at a performance. The final level, which is the culmination of all the levels below it, is the achievement of results.

Measuring Employee Engagement:

1.Pulse surveys

Pulse surveys can be used to explore individual topics more closely or look further into how specific teams or departments are feeling, delivering real-time feedback from employees that can be used to measure the efficacy of new policies to drive employee engagement, but are less in-depth than an employee engagement survey. If there has been an event inside the company, such as a change in leadership, disruption in the industry, or some other large event (such as COVID-19), then an engagement survey can be a great tool to help leadership understand how the employees are feeling.

2.Engagement surveys

The engagement survey is an important starting point for measuring employee engagement, but organizations can also use more continuous strategies to get data more frequently. Using engagement surveys, pulse surveys, and one-on-one techniques can help an organization have a more complete understanding of employee engagement. The goal of the engagement survey is to better understand our employee’s thoughts and feelings about the organization, find where there are problem areas or areas of particular strength, understand trends within the organization, and show our employees that Management cares about their thoughts and want to improve the organization with their help. With a survey like this, it is important to design it from the end. It is useless to give our employees a survey if we don’t know what to do with the information we will receive from it.

Think about what needs to be done with the survey results.

1. Who will be in charge of following up on the results of the survey?

2. Who will be leading the action based on the results?

3. How much action are you willing to take?

4. What will the action look like?

Smart organizations also direct their management teams to measure engagement on a more individual basis, using one-on-one techniques to better understand how members of each manager’s team are feeling.

Employee engagement metrics:

There are many metrics that can be used to measure employee engagement, but keep in mind that every company is different and these metrics will differ year to year, or even depending on the season, especially if your organization has one time of year that is busier or more stressful.

1. Employee turnover rate

Our organization should keep track of the employee turnover rate, as it will give you valuable information about any problem areas within your organization. There is no one turnover rate that should be aimed for across the board; it will be different for various industries, departments, and levels within an organization. Consistently high turnover rates within one team or department could be an indication of an engagement issue. Engaged employees stay with their company, as they are plugged into the greater goals of the organization and want to work to help achieve them.

2. Absenteeism

This metric is closely associated with the turnover rate. As stated above, engaged employees show up to work, and want to put in the effort so that the organization will succeed. If there is a high percentage of absenteeism within your organization, you should take that as a sign that your employees are not engaged.

3. Employee net promoter score

This is a simple, but effective, metric that simply consists of asking employees if they would recommend working at your organization to friends, colleagues, or family. It is scored on a 0 to 10 scale, with 6 or less being classified as a ‘detractor’, 7 to 8 being considered ‘passive’ and 9 and 10 being considered ‘promoters’.

Survey your employees on this question, subtract the detractors from the promoters, and we will have our organization’s score.

A negative score will tell you that employees, on the whole, don’t recommend your organization as a place to work, while a positive score shows good employee engagement.

4. New employee engagement

Look at the rates of new employee 90-day failure, as well as employee engagement with onboarding content. If our employees are falling right out of the gate, this is a key indicator that they are not being set up for success within your organization. This can be traced back to a lot of factors, including a bad onboarding process, lack of training, or bad company culture.

Examples of Employee Engagement Survey Questions:

Employee engagement survey questions should cover the following areas, and should be rated on a scale from one to five:

1. Individual needs, feelings and beliefs .Good examples of this type of question:

● I feel like I am compensated fairly for the work that I do

● I am proud to work here

● I would recommend this organization to friends and colleagues

● I feel motivated by my role, team or workplace

2. Trust in team, management and leadership

These questions could include:

● I feel valued by my manager and team

● I trust my colleagues and management team

● I enjoy working with my team

● I feel that the goals of the company are aligned with my own

● I trust the leadership of this company

3. Teamwork focused questions

Some example questions are:

● I feel that my team is effective

● I trust my colleagues to do their jobs well

● My team helps me complete my work

● I know who I can turn to for help

4. Career development and support

Questions like:

● I am given the proper time and resources to do my job well

● I feel that I have been trained properly for my role

● I know what is expected of me

● I see myself working here in five years

● I am excited by my work

5. Value and recognition

Questions like:

● I am recognized for my work

● I feel like I am valued by my organization

● I think I am rewarded fairly for my effort

6. Confidence in the future

Questions like:

● I believe this company will be successful in reaching their goals in the long term

● My leadership team is effective

● My organization’s long term goals match my own

All of the questions in these categories can be adjusted to better suit a particular organization. The purpose of the employee engagement survey is to get a deeper understanding of our unique organization, and so there is no pre-made survey that can achieve that. For example, if there has been a recent shakeup of leadership, the survey might have more questions about trust in leadership than one for an organization that has had the same leadership team for decades. Consider what areas your organization needs to focus on, and design the survey with that in mind.