Engaged Employees Deliver Results! Simple, Right?

So, in writing this article I did some research - as we all do - and found a really interesting article on QBRWeb.com entitled 'Enough of the 'why' on employee engagement, give me some 'how'' written by Mike Tippets back in 2016. As the title suggests, Mike pondered 'why' employee engagement was important and he introduced concepts that were important - value, wellbeing, relationship, satisfaction etc. The big question asked though is 'How?' and in general, the unfortunately situation we find ourselves in post-pandemic is that employee engagement hasn't been high on the organisational agenda.

Digital Transformation has mostly focused on digitising known processes to reduce cost through efficiency gains - many solutions in the RPA space have grown out of this need. CRM vendors, for example, spanned their portfolio to include 'service' capabilities, the strong growth in enterprise mobile applications now available through the Apple and Android stores is a clear indication of where focus has been in recent years.

My Question is not 'How?' but 'Now?'

I believe that the time is right to pivot your digital transformation journey away from efficiency towards growth and here, growth is plural! Certainly you need to grow your business and being competitive and innovative helps, as does clear differentiation in your marketplace. There are plenty of tools that aide your B2B/B2C experiences, digital marketing and eCommerce functions - in fact, HCL Software like many provides class-leading solutions in these areas. If you want to know more, slide into my DM's ;)

The growth that I want to concentrate on here is around your employees, how you engage them, how you develop them and most importantly - how you retain them. Engaged and Empowered employees are advocates for your business - whether you are in banking, insurance, healthcare or a government agency. Having the right employees on-board directly relates to the other growth I introduced. The 'How?' is easy, it's certainly easier than it was back in 2016 when Mike wrote his original article - B2B and B2C capabilities have not really changed in 6 years BUT that's not where a very small number of smart vendors have invested time and effort. The need for effective employee engagement has certainly been acknowledged for a number of years - even before 2016 but it's really only now that you have access to digital experience tools that deliver on the B2E need.

But, why Now?

The most interesting aspect of the pandemic from my perspective came in March 2020 when sitting in my office one afternoon in March - we were told to pack up and go home, indefinitely. Working in a sales team at that time, we were used to either being out with customers or being in the office. There was no concept of Working from Home' - exceptional circumstances aside of course. Like every other company, we amped up our investment in online communication tools, video conferencing, collaborative digital whiteboards and every other capability you can imagine. What was really interesting though was the change in communication and information flow. What used to be 5-minute water cooler chats became 30 minute conference calls. Calendars became swamped with invitations to meetings that should well have been an email.

I consider myself fortunate to be working for a company at the time that had always been very transparent with information and our workforce certainly didn't lack access to leadership, work/life balance was a priority and relationships were important between colleagues, management etc. Unfortunately, employees in many other organisations weren't so lucky - we have all heard of mushroom syndrome and during the pandemic, the feeling of being kept in the dark became common. A lot of this feeling came from leadership simply not knowing themselves what the situation was, how soon could we return to the office, when travel might resume, would we ever get back to face-to-face meetings.

Today we hear stories of 'The Great Resignation' - what is driving this, how can we stop people from slipping away from the workforce - particularly the younger generation who have missed 2 really important years in their professional careers. I know myself that I learned many important lessons in my 20's just from being around people! We need tools that engage employees, deliver a sense of belonging, drive transparency in corporate communications, focus on health and wellbeing, enable efficient digital processes and ultimately drive satisfaction levels up beyond pre-pandemic levels.

Now is THE time to get focused on employee experience and engagement!

Paul

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