Employee performance and productivity: Bridging the gap for HR leaders
Welcome to the second edition of The Employee Voice! ??
If you're new here, The Employee Voice shares WorkBuzz's top tips, key insights, valuable resources and exclusive insights from the frontline of employee engagement. Read our first edition, Employee retention: How you can succeed while others struggle, by clicking here.
This month, we're looking into the topic of performance and productivity, where our recent State of Employee Engagement research has uncovered this to be one of HR's current top priorities.
And it's this heightened focus on optimising workforce efficiency and output that can be linked to the recent deceleration in available job vacancies, where the Office of National Statistics found total job vacancies in the UK this summer to have dropped by 268,000 compared to just one year ago.
So, why is this happening?
Organisations are now striving to do more with their existing talent pool, intensifying their internal efforts and investing more time into how they can retain and maximise the potential of their current workforce through effective engagement strategies - and according to research conducted by Gallup, these efforts will not be in vain.
According to research from Gallup, organisations with a highly engaged workforce are 21% more profitable and 17% more productive compared to those with disengaged employees.
The research revealed organisations with a highly engaged workforce are 21% more profitable?and 17% more productive compared to those with disengaged employees. It's therefore clear that fostering employee engagement isn't just about workplace morale - it's a strategic move with tangible economic benefits.
What different methodologies are there then for improving performance and productivity in your organisation?
Step 1: Understanding exactly how employee engagement impacts company performance
Employee engagement is not just a trendy term - employee engagement is absolutely crucial for any company's success, bringing across a bunch of benefits - including how it positively impacts company performance (as well as culture, too!):
Lower absenteeism
When employees are engaged, they feel happier within their role, connected to their organisation, and have a better sense of wellbeing. This makes them more committed and motivated, meaning they’re less likely to miss work without a good reason, and instead show up and actively contribute towards the organisation’s success. Co-workers are also spared the burden of picking up absent employees' work, preventing any adverse impact on their own productivity.
Research from Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that employees are thought to be about 30% less productive when covering for their absent coworker.
Lower presenteeism
In addition to absenteeism, another challenge in the workplace is presenteeism. This is where employees show up but struggle to perform at their best due to stress or fatigue.
However, highly engaged workers are less likely to experience this presenteeism, instead prioritising their wellbeing by taking regular breaks rather than pushing themselves to the point of exhaustion just to appear productive. They recharge and return to work with renewed energy, resulting in a higher performance. This ability to manage their own wellbeing eliminates presenteeism and ensures they can consistently deliver their best work.
Lower staff turnover
Employees who are engaged at work often stay longer with their employer, over time becoming more loyal to the organisation and reducing the likelihood of them leaving - because when employees are engaged, they feel connected to their workplace, are more motivated, and are more satisfied with their work.
And it’s this positive culture that creates a supportive and inclusive environment where employees thrive, which also leads to higher performance, improved productivity, and increased innovation. Ultimately, this reduces staff turnover and allows organisations to reap the benefits of a highly engaged, more consistent workforce.
Continue reading this article here for how else employee engagement positively impacts company performance (and culture).
Step 2: Understand and act on the different drivers of engagement to boost performance and productivity
Employee engagement is a multi-faceted concept comprised of many key drivers (see above image), each playing a vital role in creating a motivated and committed workforce. Let's dive into a handful them:
The role of leadership
Effective leadership is a key ingredient to unlocking the full potential of employees and driving peak performance. Why? Because leaders are able to set the tone, inspire motivation, and create an environment where employees feel valued and empowered to do their best.
But this doesn't come without its own challenges.
In the modern day, employees want something more profound. They desire authentic leaders - leaders that are true to themselves no matter the environment or working situation, with the ability to lead in a genuine way.
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"In 2023 more than ever, leaders need to be less strategy experts and more human experts" - Justin Hale, Speaker and Training Designer for Crucial Learning
While striving for authenticity is admirable, leaders may occasionally disregard the possible repercussions of this, particularly when they become excessively empathetic.
Empathy is a valuable trait for leaders, but it must be applied carefully to avoid affecting performance and productivity of themselves negatively. When a leader is empathetic and comprehends an employee's viewpoint and issues, the empathy can go beyond simply understanding. Sometimes, leaders fully take on the problem and feel responsible for finding a solution.
Learn more about what it takes to be an effective leader in our webinar, Using conscious leadership to drive a better workforce culture.
The importance of employee wellbeing
Ranking high amongst HR's current top priorities according to recent WorkBuzz research is employee wellbeing - which refers to the physical, mental, and emotional health of people who work in a company - bringing substantial benefits for both employees and leaders alike.
Employees are happier and they're healthier, enabling them to both physically and mentally be able to work and accomplish tasks to the best of their abilities, encouraging a more positive outlook on their work, leading to increased job satisfaction and improved morale.
Here's how your organisation can effectively support employee wellness:
Given current matters like the cost-of-living crisis, it’s important employers keep employee wellness at their top of the agenda. There is a risk that financial pressures will impact the mental and financial wellbeing of employees, which compromises productivity and contributes to employee churn as people leave for higher salaries elsewhere.
Forward-thinking organisations can learn from their pandemic response by providing proactive remote work support, prioritising employee wellbeing, and demonstrating authentic leadership. This boosts employee retention, enhances employer brands, and guards against talent shortages in the job market.
Encourage discussing what services are available during team meetings to actively promote employee wellbeing, where managers should lead by example by using these services and openly discussing them.
Offering multiple access points enables employees to utilise these resources at their convenience too, accommodating individual circumstances. Make sure that these resources are also aligned with hybrid and flexible working practices for fairness.
Bring together people and teams from across your organisation to share their experiences and understanding of employee wellness. This is the best way to develop and prioritise the support that employees need. Don’t make assumptions on what you think people will best benefit from.
Click here to further understand why doing your research and gathering employee data is so important for building a strong wellbeing strategy, and read the article below for some wellbeing initiatives your organisation can implement to support employees.
Learning and development
Put simply, organisations won't thrive if their employees aren't learning, advancing their skills, or being productive. After all, how can a business improve without these essential components?
Fortunately, career progression and learning alongside their role is of high importance to employees. In fact, it's been found that three of the top five factors that drive people to pursue new jobs reflect their desire to stretch, grow, and develop new skills, with further research from Hays What Workers Want 2022 report finding that 85% of professionals rate the opportunity to access continuous learning as extremely or very important to them as they progress in their careers.?
Three of the top five factors that drive people to pursue new jobs reflect their desire to stretch, grow, and develop new skills - LinkedIn 2023 Workplace Learning Report
There are lots of avenues for learning and development in the workplace (it can even begin right from the start with the help of a good onboarding experience!), and it doesn't have to be expensive.
"Organisations very often don’t have the ability to offer endless promotions or career pathways, yet their people are hungry to develop and hone new skills.
Often this doesn’t always have to do with their current role, but helping employees develop skills that will help in their future career or wider life can demonstrate a high level of investment from management and the organisation.
By supporting training and development opportunities from speaking and presentation skills, video editing, learning languages, to first aid and mental health first aid, employees will feel invested in and build their skillsets for the future." - Melisaan Foster, Chief Experience Office at WorkBuzz
The world is constantly changing, and so is the workplace. Stay informed about the shifting dynamics of teams and the future of work with insights from industry experts by subscribing to The Employee Voice newsletter, powered by WorkBuzz.
Our State of Employee Engagement 2023 research will be released in the coming weeks, and we'd like to invite you to join us as we present our key findings. These insights, some of which you've had a glimpse of in this newsletter, are the result of surveying 450+ HR professionals across a diverse range of organisations and industries in both the UK and US.