Category: Employee Engagement

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7 employee & job satisfaction statistics & trends (2023)

Summary

  • Flexibility has become a vital component of employee satisfaction — More

  • Restaurant workers have a net promoter score of 14% — the lowest-scoring industry — More

  • LGBTQ+ employees rank their workplace experience 6% lower than non-LGBTQ+ workers — More

  • Executives reported a 1.3x higher overall job satisfaction than non-executive employees — More

  • Work atmosphere and career development potential are the biggest contributors to employee satisfaction — More

  • About half of US workers are “quiet quitters”— More

  • A company’s digitalization levels have significant, indirect effects on employee satisfaction — More

Tom Smith, co-founder of Partners in Leadership and three-time New York Times bestselling author, once said, “An attitude of accountability lies at the core of any effort to improve quality, satisfy customers, empower people, build teams, create new products, maximize effectiveness, and get results.”

That attitude of accountability is directly related to employee satisfaction. Harnessing job satisfaction should be a top priority for human resources professionals, but it’s become increasingly difficult since the pandemic.

Work is changing. As hybrid and remote work have become a priority for many workers, the Great Resignation rages on, and quiet quitting is a new workplace phenomenon.

In this article, we’ll share current employee satisfaction statistics and trends affecting today’s work environment. We’ll also provide tips on how utilizing technology like workforce management software can increase your team’s job satisfaction rate.

Satisfied employees mean higher levels of employee engagement and retention. Job satisfaction has a positive effect on people’s well-being, which, in turn, boosts productivity and innovation.

1. Flexibility from hybrid and remote work leads to higher levels of satisfaction

Flexibility is a key to job satisfaction. According to Future Forum, 80% of respondents said they wanted flexibility on where they work, and 94% cited flexibility on when they work as important.

Full-time, in-office workers reported lower scores relating to employee experience than their hybrid or remote colleagues. Only 21.6% of in-office workers said they were happy with their work environment, compared to 28.3% of hybrid workers and 35.4% of remote workers. Only 17.1% of in-office employees were satisfied with their work-life balance, compared to 25.1% of hybrid workers and 33.2% of remote workers.

According to research by UBS, 69% of workers are ready to leave their current jobs if they’re unable to work how they’d like — with more flexibility.

Creating flexible work environments can be particularly tricky for shift-based companies. By using a digital scheduling solution, this becomes simpler. Employees have greater control over their own schedules in a way that’s visible to their colleagues and management through dashboards and employee apps.

Shifts get covered quickly and easily, making it easier for employees to move things around when needed. It’s also easier to pick up additional shifts if they’re looking to earn some extra cash.

2. Restaurants and other labor-intensive industries are struggling with low employee satisfaction levels

Restaurants have the lowest net promoter score among employees at 14%, according to Statista. This was followed by the commerce industry (20%) and the public service sector (22%). In fact, resignation rates in leisure and hospitality were the highest recorded — 971,000 in August 2021.

A report by One Fair Wage shed some light on why restaurant work, in particular, exhibited low job satisfaction statistics and employee turnover rates. They found that 76% of restaurant workers were leaving their jobs because of low wages and tips.

Hostility and harassment were also factors behind restaurant employees wanting out. Thirty-nine percent of restaurant workers had concerns about hostility and harassment from customers and 26% from their coworkers and/or management.

Restaurant owners and HR staff should not take these figures lightly. There needs to be an open and constant dialogue with employees about working conditions and employee well-being. Schedule regular team and one-to-one meetings, and have anonymous feedback forms available in order to find out more about your employees’ concerns.

3. LGBTQ+ employees report lower employee job satisfaction than their colleagues

When asked to rate their companies, LGBTQ+ employees ranked their workplaces 6% lower than non-LGBTQ+ workers, according to Glassdoor. Transgender employees rated their employee experience the lowest at 3.43 out of 5.

The highest-rated industries for LGBTQ+ employees are real estate, IT, and legal. The lowest-rated industries are retail and wholesale, restaurants and food service, and personal consumer services.

According to Glassdoor data, these employees are less satisfied with their jobs due to burnout and discrimination. To ensure a safe and equitable environment, companies can provide ongoing DEI training and include zero-bullying policies in their employee handbooks.

4. There is an executive-employee disconnected when it comes to work experience

The executive-employee disconnect was observed by Future Forum in the fall of 2021. According to Future Forum’s 2022 data, executives continue to report higher scores related to employee experience compared to their non-executive teammates.

In the past year, executives reported a 1.3x higher overall satisfaction with their work environment than non-execs. Non-exec employees scored 1.5x lower than executives for work-related stress and anxiety.

Companies need to remove this disconnect and ensure non-exec employees are enjoying the same levels of satisfaction (if not more) as executives. This involves training managers to move away from being information gatekeepers and move toward being coaches who empower their teams.

Managers must be trained to give regular feedback and recognition. According to SHRM, 68% of human resources professionals feel that employee recognition activities contribute to increasing employee retention. Fifty-three percent of employees strongly feel their organization’s culture through being recognized or celebrated. 

Giving feedback through solutions like shift feedback tools helps to foster a company culture of feedback and appreciation. Managers provide staff with regular and standardized feedback in all areas of work via the app. This shows employees which areas they’re succeeding in and which require some improvement.

5. Work atmosphere and development possibilities are key to employee satisfaction

Research by Statista shows that a favorable work environment and opportunities for career development are the factors most connected to an employee’s satisfaction in the workplace. Other important factors the study found include diversity and the company’s image. Surprisingly, salary and compensation only ranked fourth.

Workforce management software has an important role to play in creating a positive work atmosphere and helping employees be better prepared for further career advancement. Employee self-service (ESS) through the use of technology means that team members are empowered to handle more tasks related to HR, IT, and other administrative needs they might have.

ESS makes employees feel more empowered due to increased accountability while lightening the administrative burden on other departments. These factors all contribute to a work atmosphere that’s centered on empowering employees and equipping them with better career development prospects.

Workforce.com’s Employee App is built on the concept of ESS, allowing employees to take more control of things like shift management and cross-departmental communications.

6. At least half of US employees are quiet quitting

Gallup estimates that 50%, if not more, of US workers are quiet quitters. Quiet quitting refers to how people are doing just enough to meet their job responsibilities and not get fired.

In the second quarter of 2022, they found that the ratio of engaged employees to actively disengaged employees currently stands at 1.8 to 1 — this is the lowest it has been in nearly a decade.

Gallup attributed quiet quitting to poor management, and they offered four tips on how to improve it:

  • Address manager engagement. Gallup found that, currently, only one in three managers are engaged at work. They recommend managers be trained to be better suited for new hybrid ways of working.
  • Managers need to speak with employees and find ways to reduce disengagement, minimize burnout, and prioritize mental health.
  • Managers should have at least one meaningful one-to-one conversation per week. These conversations could uncover the initiatives and changes management needs to make to create more satisfying work environments.
  • Managers need to create a sense of accountability among employees. Employees should see how their work affects the overall business goals. This is obtained by creating more transparency and including employees in conversations about individual goals and performance indicators.

7. Digitalization has an indirect but significant impact on satisfaction

In their research, Statista found that a company’s level of digitalization provides the greatest variety of employee satisfaction scores across industries. While digitalization itself was found to have a low impact on employee satisfaction, other important factors are influenced by digitalization — such as the need for good working equipment. Improving a company’s digitalization leads to improvements in other areas that are directly linked with satisfaction.

Digitalization makes it easier to adapt, which increases a company’s ability to remain stable and competitive in ever-changing environments. This means great job security for a company’s employees.

Satisfaction with digitalization was found to be lowest for employees with repetitive tasks. This shows an opportunity for workforce management solutions in shift-based industries that involve such tasks. Workforce.com is a great operations solution that promotes greater productivity through the optimization of frontline operations.

Workforce.com offers labor forecasting functionality that allows HR professionals to schedule based on demand. It uses historical data to accurately forecast future demand and help build the most effective schedules. This way, companies avoid understaffing and overstaffing, resulting in less stress and burnout among employees.

Boost your employee engagement strategy

Building a workplace culture that fosters employee engagement requires time, dedication, and a clear leadership mandate.

Download our ebook Boost Your Employee Engagement Strategy.

Learn more about how to implement and measure your strategies and how HR and senior leaders can work together and utilize technology to make this happen.

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How to improve internal communications with your hourly workers

Summary

  • Two-way communication is the most effective form of communication. 

  • Achieve bottom-up communication with consistent shift feedback.

  • Communicate from the top down by keeping employee profiles in a single system for announcements, scheduling, and performance reviews. 

Internal communication is crucial in any organization. It ensures an aligned company culture, boosts employee engagement, and ultimately creates a better product or service for the customer. 

With shift workers, internal communication becomes more complex – which means you need to make it more straightforward. Frontline staff often have different schedules, work in different locations, and may not have regular access to company email or other communication channels. Without a clear plan for internal communications, that often translates to miscommunication, staff shortages, and low morale.

Effective internal communication in such companies keeps employees informed, engaged, and feeling like they are part of the team. But true and effective communication is a two-way street. Leadership must communicate business goals, direction, and updates to employees, but they must also remain informed about what is happening on the ground. 

Technology, specifically workforce management software, plays a big role in facilitating internal communications with hourly employees thanks to features like automated scheduling, shift feedback, and employee apps. With these tools, you’ll streamline your staffing, get relevant feedback, and eliminate miscommunication with your shift workers.

1. Streamline last-minute staffing changes

Any human resource professional will agree that one of the biggest issues they face is employee absenteeism — particularly unscheduled absences or no-call, no-shows. Employees that are regularly absent wreak havoc on productivity as the burden of their work falls onto their team members, creating employee burnout. 

Frontline and shift-based industries like healthcare and accommodation tend to have higher absence rates when compared to their non-shift counterparts, according to the most recent figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

An effective internal communications strategy takes last-minute call-outs and no-shows into consideration. Managers must communicate to the staff that a shift requires coverage, and they need a way to share information on when and where that shift is. 

Additionally, employees need the flexibility to request a replacement or swap shifts with coworkers easily. This gives them the freedom and opportunity to take care of any personal or family issues when they pop up. This is vital to help employees achieve a better work-life balance. 

Create predictable schedules with employee scheduling software

Employee scheduling software makes it possible to create reliable and predictable work schedules, helping employees achieve a better work-life balance. 

Predictive scheduling 

Predictive scheduling ses labor forecasting to help business leaders preempt increases and decreases in labor demand; this helps scheduling managers avoid over and under-staffing specific shifts. With properly planned schedules, fewer instances of overtime and last minute replacements occur – this is better for overall employee happiness. 

In some states and cities, companies are required to follow predictive scheduling laws that make scheduling more transparent and fair for hourly staff. These laws include measures such as:

  • A communication system that notifies employees of schedule changes well in advance
  • Sufficient rest between shifts
  • Removing the practice of “clopening” — when the same employee closes up at night and re-opens the next morning

Collaborative scheduling 

Collaborative scheduling creates an employee communication system where they have more say in which shifts to work, as well as the ability to request shift swaps. You can also implement a shift bids system. Here, the manager puts out a list of the shifts that need to be filled, and employees bid for the ones they want. The manager has the final say on who gets what shift. 

Take a healthcare organization that operates several departments within a hospital as an example. One day, the emergency department experiences an unexpected surge in patient volume, requiring additional staff to be called in to manage the workload. With automated scheduling in place, the availability of additional shifts is easily communicated to the staff, and the slots are filled quickly. 

2. Collect bottom-up, internal communication after every shift

Communication is the key to effective scheduling. Human resources professionals need to gather information from staff on the frontline to better understand how they can improve schedules and the employee experience.

A simple post-shift check-in with your hourly workforce gives everyone the opportunity to be heard and is great for engaging employees.  

Get insight into employee satisfaction with shift feedback tools

With employee engagement software, you can collect shift feedback using techniques such as a simple survey via your intranet, text message, or your employee app. Workers are prompted for feedback via automatic notifications on their mobile devices right after they complete their shifts. 

These surveys ask employees questions like:

  • Were you able to take your designated breaks?
  • Did you understand what was expected of you for this shift?
  • Did you have the right tools and resources you needed for this shift?
  • Were there any challenges or issues during this shift?

These questions help you take a satisfaction and well-being temperature check while also identifying any issues that need addressing. 

Let’s go back to our hospital staffing scenario. The human resources team of the emergency department collects feedback after every shift. Through this feedback, they may notice that the nurses’ team feels ill-equipped to deal with difficult patients or situations. 

Based on this feedback, the human resources team can develop and implement targeted resources to help nurses handle difficult situations more effectively. This could include providing access to additional training or coaching on de-escalation techniques, offering support from social workers or mental health professionals, or developing policies and protocols for dealing with challenging situations.

Every now and then, consider one-on-one meetings between employees and management. These are more personal and are probably better platforms to discuss more sensitive issues like burnout or any friction between coworkers. 

Whitepaper: Modernizing Performance Evaluation

3. Facilitate top-down communication in real-time

Communication from managers to employees is just as important for improving internal communications within an organization. Managers often need to make announcements, send company updates, or share important information with their teams. To avoid confusion and ensure that information reaches everyone, it needs to be shared in a single place and in real-time.

Reduce confusion with employee communications software

A single space for top-down communications, like the company intranet or an employee communications app, helps reduce confusion as to where employees need to look to get the most updated information. Real-time communication is important, particularly for shift reminders, requests for shift coverage, or company announcements. If using employee apps, this is made much easier with the help of push notifications. 

An employee app is already used by shift workers to do things like clock in and update schedules, which makes it the natural space for top-down communication to occur — particularly since shift-based workers rarely have corporate email accounts. 

In our hypothetical hospital, the management team may need to inform employees about a change in scheduling policy or a new training opportunity. Rather than relying on email or in-person meetings, HR and management can use the employee app to send a push notification directly to employees’ phones, ensuring that all staff members receive the information in a timely and efficient manner.

Effective internal communication is two-way communication

Like in any relationship, truly effective communication is a two-way street, and this needs to be kept in mind when developing and implementing your internal communications strategy. Your workforce management software needs to handle top-down as well as bottom-up communication. This facilitates a better employee experience and harnesses a productive work environment. 

Workforce.com provides HR professionals with all the tools they need to achieve this, from automated employee scheduling to labor forecasting and shift feedback functionality. 

Get started with Workforce.com today.

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What is employee self-service? [Guide]

Summary

  • Employee self-service (ESS) is technology that allows employees to perform HR tasks on their own such as updating their personal information, viewing pay stubs, and accessing company handbooks.

  • For shift workers, employee self-service goes beyond streamlining HR. It’s also about giving employees the flexibility they need to be productive in and outside of work.

  • A truly effective ESS software is one that’s optimized for daily operations – think access to schedules, reviewable timesheets, vacant shift claiming, and PTO management.

Updating personal information, managing benefits, and filing leave requests —these are all HR tasks that can be delegated to staff through employee self-service (ESS). But what is employee self-service exactly, and why is it important, especially for hourly workforces?

What is employee self-service?

Employee self-service refers to technology that allows employees to complete various administrative tasks related to HR, IT, and operations on their own. 

It’s all about providing a way for staff to easily get admin work done without going through a middleman. Some common tasks done through ESS include updating bank details, accessing employee handbooks and company policies, requesting PTO, managing and enrolling for benefits, editing timesheets, and much more. 

How does employee self-service work?

Employee self-service is usually done through a portal where employees can view and manage their employment details. Sometimes, ESS portals are managed internally via a company’s private intranet. However, most businesses run their ESS portal through HCM software.

In this instance, employees get their own login credentials and profile, where they can then access various things like their schedules, timesheets, benefits, time off, and more. ESS features allow employees to edit this information themselves without having to get HR’s help. 

The benefit of ESS features

Employee self-service goes beyond streamlining HR processes for hourly employees. It’s also about ensuring employees perform at their best each shift. Here are some of the unique benefits of implementing employee self-service:

Flexibility

Flexibility for shift-based workers is not about extra vacation days or working remotely. It’s about knowing their schedules ahead of time so that they can plan their personal life accordingly. 

Self-service gives employees the ability to see their schedules in advance, file leave requests, pick up open shifts, view their timesheets, and access their benefits or wages. All of these are crucial not only for daily operations, but for giving employees the tools they need to plan their lives accordingly outside of work. 

Efficiency

Employee self-service features are typically only possible if your business runs its operations and HR on a single, online system. With all your data in one place, it’s very easy for employees to update whatever information they need. This, in turn, streamlines things like onboarding, leave management, and timesheet approvals.

Employee self-service features also improve your response time to unexpected absences. Mobile features like shift swapping and shift bidding enable employees to schedule themselves whenever call-outs or no-shows occur.

Finally, communication is also another thing that ESS simplifies for hourly workers. It eliminates the lengthy back-and-forth communication that often plagues fast-paced work environments. Whether it’s a question about their schedules or a clarification about their timesheets, ESS speeds up the correspondence. 

Reduced administrative burden

At its core, self-service functionality really just makes life easier for managers and HR. By offloading basic admin work to employees, managers can spend more time on the things that matter. 

Employee onboarding, for instance, is an area where employee self-service features come in handy. DIY onboarding checklists reduce HR’s time spent on paperwork and data entry by allowing employees to fill in their own information and upload required documents. At the same time, new hires can also access the employee handbook and other relevant company policies as they integrate into the organization.

HR can use the time saved to focus on things like strategic initiatives and skills development programs. At the same time, frontline managers can spend more time on the floor and coaching their teams. 

Webinar: How to Track Skills Development for Hourly Staff

Increased team morale

Employees tend to be more satisfied with their work when a strong employee self-service system is in place. They feel that they’re trusted enough to do specific HR tasks on their own and that the organization values their time. 

Implementing a self-service system signals to employees that management trusts them; this inherently makes employees feel more valued. When things like timesheets, schedules, and PTO details are readily available for them to access, it leaves no room for ambiguity or miscommunication. Employees can rest assured that everything is in the system, and they can refer back to this information if need be. 

Challenges with implementing employee self-service

Implementing employee self-service in an organization can be challenging. Here are some of the hurdles organizations typically come across when trying to implement ESS in their organization:

Adoption

Resistance to change is a common challenge for organizations trying to implement employee self-service systems for their staff. Some employees may feel like learning the new platform is time-consuming and may prefer the traditional hands-off approach.

Training time

There’s a learning curve to using employee self-service systems, which can affect how receptive employees will be to the new system. It becomes more challenging when you have multiple platforms that employees need to learn. For example, you have one portal for scheduling and another for onboarding and benefits. Employees may perceive this as additional work and struggle to juggle multiple accounts.

Maintenance

Deploying an employee self-service system is not a one-time thing. It’s an iterative process. More than building an easy-to-do-business model, it also needs updated information. 

Think of it as a knowledge base or portal for your employees. Any update on policies, employee handbook, or standard operating procedures must be reflected in the system, which requires regular evaluation and upkeep. 

Analyzing adoption

Getting an employee self-service system up and running is just half the battle. The other half is monitoring how the employees are actually using it.

Analyzing how the system is used is vital to understanding your return on investment. By monitoring adoption and use, you’ll discover how staff engage with the system, what works well with it, and what features need to be improved.

Improving employee self-service for hourly workers

Employee self-service is only effective when it’s implemented correctly. Here are some best practices to realize its ROI for hourly workers. 

Prioritize ease of use

An employee self-service system is only as good as its interface. People tend to gravitate toward systems that are easy to use and low on time commitment. Don’t adopt a dated system with a clunky UI – it will only make employees’ jobs harder. 

Keep it all-in-one

For shift-based workforces, it’s important to have all self-service functionality housed in a single platform. If you can, only subject your employees to creating a single account for everything they need since it’s often confusing for employees to manage different portals.

Make it mobile

Employee self-service platforms are more effective when they’re app-based. Shift workers can’t be bothered logging into a communal desktop to do things like check their schedule or submit timesheets – they should have 24/7 access to whatever they need right from their phone.

Get user feedback

Ask your employees what they think about the system, and act on their feedback. A system may seem good on paper, but nothing beats real-time insight from the people who use it. 

Gather feedback from your employees, validate it, and then see how you can improve your ESS. Remember that implementing it is an iterative process. It should be consistently updated to maximize employee efficiency and satisfaction.  

Finding the right employee self-service software

The best employee self-service system is one that’s optimized not only for HR admin work, but for daily operations. 

At Workforce.com, we’re all about shift workers. That’s why we believe ESS needs to go beyond viewing and updating personal information. For shift-based teams, it needs to be dynamic enough to streamline scheduling changes, timesheet approvals, and much more.

Screenshot of an ESS portal on a phone
Workforce.com’s Employee Self-Service app makes it easier for staff to manage their information.

Workforce.com has a specialized employee self-service platform that allows them to view personal details, access contracts, view time off balances, check schedules, approve timesheets, and bid for shifts, all in a single platform.

Learn more about how Workforce.com’s employee self-service software helps hourly workforces around the globe. Book a call with us today. 

 

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A complete guide to employee engagement for shift-based work

Summary 

  • Employee engagement reflects how connected each employee is to your business and their work.

  • When employees feel connected to their company, they perform better and stay with the organization longer.

  • The three most common ways to improve employee engagement are onboarding, communications, and flexibility.  

Employee engagement refers to how connected each employee is to your business and their work. In many cases, engagement can have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line. A disengaged workforce can lead to reduced productivity and high turnover, resulting in increased hiring costs for the employer as well as lost opportunities and poor customer satisfaction.

On the other hand, engaged employees are generally more optimistic and dedicated to their work. They contribute to higher profitability, retention, and better customer service. 

High employee engagement won’t come naturally to every company, though. It takes commitment and work from leaders to show employees you care about their well-being and that they have a place in your company.

When employees feel connected to their company, they’re more likely to perform well and stay with the organization for longer periods of time.

Who is responsible for employee engagement?

Direct managers are usually responsible for monitoring and increasing employee engagement. They’re tasked with creating an environment that fosters engaged employees. Managers conduct regular meetings (both team-wide and with individual employees) and help establish a culture where employees can thrive. 

Employees tend to be more engaged when they: 

  • Feel valued and supported
  • Believe in and share the same values and goals as the company
  • Have an involved manager
  • Participate in ongoing conversations about their career trajectory and development
  • Are given recognition and feedback
  • Receive consistent communication

Human resource teams are involved in employee engagement initiatives, too. Often, human resources and leaders of the company will work together to evaluate where employee engagement is currently and what needs to be done to improve it. 

Three benefits of employee engagement

As your employee engagement increases, you’ll also see higher retention, improved profits, and better customer service.

1. Higher employee retention

Engaged employees who feel like they have a purpose in your company are less likely to look elsewhere for a new job, resulting in less turnover. According to a study by Gallup, a workforce that’s more engaged sees between an 18% and 43% decrease in employee turnover. 

Engaged workforces also tend to see an 81% decrease in absenteeism. The more engaged an employee is, the more excited they are about working for your company and doing their work. 

Engaged employees are also often leaders and role models within the organization. They can help get other employees engaged and excited about your company. For example, a highly engaged senior employee will often mentor junior employees and recommend their coworkers for promotions. This kind of development can contribute to higher employee satisfaction and retention because employees form connections with other engaged employees. 

2. Better customer service

An engaged employee is more optimistic about the future of the business, and they often believe in your product and its value to customers.

Being committed to your company makes employees a better fit for serving your customers. For example, a customer who talks to a pessimistic employee who doesn’t care about your product is going to have a much different experience than a customer who talks to an optimistic employee who believes in your brand.

3. Improved profitability

Engaged employees can also help you increase your profitability by improving productivity. Highly engaged teams have 23% higher profits than teams with disengaged workers, while lower engagement levels cost the global economy an astounding $7.8 trillion.

When employees are engaged, they tend to have less stress, anger, and health-related issues than employees who are disengaged. Disengaged employees also tend to put off important tasks and may engage in quiet quitting. 

How to measure employee engagement

The best way to measure employee engagement is to ask employees directly. A simple check-in will give you more accurate insights than assuming what your team thinks or feels. It also gives everyone a chance to be heard. 

Start your feedback collection with employee engagement surveys, pulse surveys, and shift feedback. With surveys, the goal is to gather as much information as you can about various components of engagement. Ask their opinion on employee satisfaction and overall happiness, career development, recognition, handling of personnel issues, and preparedness for their job. Give employees the option of anonymity, so they feel comfortable being honest and you get accurate feedback.

With shift feedback, employees can give and receive feedback about each shift they worked. A form or questionnaire can be served to them electronically (either via email or an employee app) when they clock out. If your company uses the latter, you can send automatic notifications to employees after they’ve completed their shift. 

Shift feedback allows employees and managers to evaluate how each shift went. Ask employees questions like:

  • Were you able to take your designated breaks?
  • Did you understand what was expected of you for this shift?
  • Did you have the right tools and resources you needed for this shift?
  • Were there any challenges or issues during this shift?

By asking these questions you can gauge each employee’s general satisfaction and well-being after each shift and immediately bring up any issues. 

You can also get employee feedback from one-on-one manager meetings. One-on-one meetings serve as check-ins to make sure employees who feel stressed or overwhelmed or have issues with coworkers get a chance to be heard — and maybe find solutions to their concerns. 

Three ways to improve employee engagement 

The three most common ways to get employees engaged with your company are onboarding, communication, and flexibility.

1. Effective employee onboarding 

An effective onboarding program can engage employees right away and in the long term. Use onboarding to help your employees get integrated, connected, and committed to your company right off the bat.

During onboarding, new hires want clear guidelines about expectations and responsibilities, so they can feel confident moving forward in their roles. 

Here are a few things that can engage employees during their onboarding period (and keep them engaged):

  • Keep paperwork simple and spread it out throughout their first week. No one wants to spend their entire first day filling out forms. 
  • Get them excited about the work they’ll be doing. Give them small tasks or have them shadow another team member. 
  • Introduce them to the company culture by talking about common values and policies, like an open-door policy.

Giving employees guidance and mentoring them during the onboarding process can help them feel more connected to their coworkers and your company. 

2. Centralized communication

New employees want to know where to find information and how to reach out to someone if they have questions. In the shift trade, employees don’t always have ample opportunities to talk to managers or other employees about issues like scheduling, maintaining a work-life balance, or personnel issues. Centralized employee communication can keep them engaged in a fast-changing environment. 

Use one main form of communication, like an employee app or a company wiki site. These kinds of platforms keep communication accessible to all employees and create a place where they can share knowledge with each other. Employees should be able to access the app or wiki to submit PTO requests, ask questions, find policies or other information, switch shifts, and more.

Encourage all employees to use the designated communication channels right away. During onboarding, help them sign into their account and become familiar with the platform, so they feel comfortable using it regularly.

3. Flexible scheduling

Flexible scheduling can reduce overtime and burnout for your employees and increase job satisfaction. It shows your employees that you’re taking their needs and preferences into consideration. Many shift workers are constantly on call and have little control over their schedules, which can lead to stress and anxiety about work. But with flexible scheduling, they feel more in control of their shifts. 

Most companies don’t have the resources or technology to offer shift-based employees the schedules they need to stay engaged. Shift scheduling software can help with that. 

These scheduling tools send you notifications when someone is approaching overtime, give you visibility into each team member’s availability, and show recommended shift plans and schedules. 

Scheduling software helps companies with time management, too. You can use it to avoid the overallocation of meetings, responsibilities, or tasks, which can also cause employee burnout. 

4. Consistently acting on feedback

We mentioned the importance of using surveys and shift feedback to measure employee engagement. Now you have to use that data to act on the feedback, which will in turn improve engagement. 

Based on the feedback you receive from employees, work with management to look for quick wins or changes that you can implement immediately. For example, dress code changes to make employees feel more comfortable at work or adding an additional break for employees who work a certain number of hours. 

Bigger changes take time to implement. For example, if you need to update a policy or workflow process, that could take weeks or months. In this case, let employees know that you’ve addressed their feedback and changes are in progress. 

Set regular meetings where you all go over new or recurring feedback and discuss whether you’re going to implement it and how. For example, if you notice a lot of employees concerned with short staffing during evening shifts, take steps to immediately remedy this scheduling issue as it directly impacts employee productivity and customer satisfaction.  

These are just three of the most common ways to improve employee engagement. To learn more, read our guide “7 employee engagement ideas that create engaged teams.”

Focus on engagement to attract and retain high-quality candidates 

Engaged employees contribute to a positive, thriving work environment — one that others will want to be a part of. Start by focusing on one thing you can revamp that will improve the work environment for current and potential employees. For example, you could implement flexible schedules or a better communication and scheduling system. 

Ultimately, the right employee engagement strategy is unique to each business, but by working to address employees’ concerns and prioritizing their well-being, you’ll be on the right track.

For more on employee engagement, check out our free webinar below featuring Laur Timbrook, an NBC-HWC certified workforce wellness coach:

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement

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7 employee engagement ideas for a more productive workplace

Summary

  • Only 21% of the global workforce is engaged at work, costing the global economy $7.8 trillion.

  • Engaged workers are motivated and productive, have better mental health, and are more aligned with their organization’s core values. 

  • There are a number of actionable employee engagement activities that HR professionals can do to help improve engagement within their organization. 

Arguably, one of the most challenging endeavors of any human resources professional is improving employee engagement. Engaged employees are those who are enthusiastic and dedicated to their job and the organization they work for. 

An engaged employee is motivated, productive, and aligned with the company’s values, mission, and goals. They work well with their fellow team members and mentors, have high levels of job satisfaction, and are less likely to leave the company in search of a new job. 

In 2009, only 12% of employees surveyed were considered to be engaged at work, according to research by Gallup. Over the next decade, that percentage grew to 22%, dipped slightly during the height of the pandemic, and is now at 21%

The high level of disengaged employees is even more worrying, considering that disengagement at work also costs the global economy $7.8 trillion, accounting for 11% of the GDP. 

If you’re looking for ways to boost your employee engagement strategy and obtain a more engaged workforce, here are seven practical ideas that you should definitely consider. 

1. Design a stickier onboarding process

Set the tone of the employee experience from day one. The first touchpoints and experiences new employees have at your company and how you operate will influence how engaged they’ll be going forward. 

A good onboarding process will:

  • Make new recruits feel welcome.
  • Obtain information and grant access to resources in the most straightforward way possible.
  • Communicate the organization’s vision, mission, and values clearly and explain how the new employee fits into them. 
  • Outlines expectations and company rules. 
  • Introduces new hires to their team members and kickstarts team building. 

With hybrid and remote work becoming increasingly popular, employee onboarding has also had to adapt. Onboarding activities for remote employees have to take place over platforms like Slack. 

Workforce management tools offer paperless employee onboarding solutions that simplify and optimize the process for both employer and employee.   

2. Conduct frequent employee surveys

Surveys are a great way to collect employee feedback and insights from your employees in an empirical manner. They give you firsthand information on how your workforce is experiencing their work environment, from the tasks they do to the overall company culture.    

You can utilize these insights to improve engagement, employee retention, and productivity and to reduce burnout. There are three main types of surveys that are commonly used by HR professionals:

  • Employee engagement surveys. These gather metrics on an employee’s commitment, motivation, and passion for their work and the company they work for. Such metrics include Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) and retention rate. 
  • Employee opinion and satisfaction surveys. These gather information on your team’s attitudes and perceptions of the organization. They could be done using both quantitative and qualitative methods. 
  • Employee culture survey. These give you insights into an employee’s point of view and how that compares to the day-to-day realities of your organization. 

There are many types of questions you can ask and metrics you can gather, so it is important to first decide what information matters the most to you. If you’re looking to understand employee engagement, focus on asking questions that will gather information on things like team dynamics, your company culture, and professional development.

3. Gather shift feedback

A lot can happen in one shift. Making a habit of gathering information after each workday is a great way to quickly identify and fix issues and reinforce things that worked. 

Shift feedback is a two-way process where managers give feedback on employee performance, and employees give feedback on management and on their experience with that particular shift.

Shift feedback tools that are embedded in your company’s tech stack facilitate the feedback process, particularly for remote workers. They allow for a standardized and efficient way to provide and receive feedback at all levels. 

This two-way feedback process is important for employee engagement as it shows employees that their feedback and their experience matter. Receiving feedback on a shift-by-shift basis will also help employees learn more about how they can perform better. It is also a great opportunity to show employee recognition in cases of a job well done. 

4. Use a performance-values matrix

The performance-values matrix is a great way to evaluate employee performance and how their behavior aligns with the overall company values. 

The matrix x-axis shows the company values, while the y-axis represents employee performance.

A Quadrant Graphic Showing the Performance-Values MatrixPerformance is measured as the work an employee carries out for the company. Values are then measured as an aggregate of how well employee is aligned with organizational standards. 

To measure individual value alignment, most companies use a matrix specifically designed just for value assessment. A system like this allows you to score employees in things like honesty and accountability so you can identify where people meet company standards and where they fall short. 

You can then apply these ratings to the performance-values matrix.

Each employee is placed along the matrix, helping you understand which ones are producing good work and which are contributing to company culture. Employees who exemplify both are found in the top right-hand quadrant – this is ideally where you want all your employees to fit. 

Employees in the lower-left quadrant are low performers and have low-scoring behavioral attributes. These employees are probably not a great fit for your company. 

The other two quadrants consist of employees who are high performers but have low values match (top, left) and those who have great behavior but aren’t performing very well (bottom, right). These are the employees who you might want to invest some time in to help them move into that high-performance, high-values match position. 

5. Offer more flexibility with shifts

More workers are seeking greater flexibility at work. Research shows that flexible work arrangements lead to higher productivity and more connectedness to workplace culture and reduce employee absenteeism. It helps workers balance their work responsibilities with their personal lives. 

For frontline and shift-based employees, flexibility can be achieved through shift bids or shift swap systems. In shift bid situations, managers publish available shifts, allowing employees to bid for the ones they want. Shift swapping is when employees can request to exchange shifts with their co-workers, subject to managerial approval. 

Employee scheduling software streamlines shift flexibility in what would otherwise be a chaotic undertaking for HR professionals and managers.  

6. Maximize employee self-service

Giving employees the autonomy to carry out HR-related tasks without needing intervention from HR cuts out admin time and improves efficiency at all levels. Mobile tools for employees do things like request time off, swap shifts, clock in, review timesheets, and update their personal information all in one place.

Using employee self-service tools also takes significant pressure off of your HR team, allowing them to focus more on developing strategies to reduce turnover and increase engagement rather than having to fix errors and update information constantly. 

7. Prioritize and facilitate employee professional development

Employees who feel stagnant in their career paths are more likely to feel disengaged at work. Having milestones to reach and goals to attain, on the other hand, gives employees a sense of purpose and accomplishment, leading to higher engagement. 

There are a number of employee engagement activities related to professional development that an employer can consider. At a basic level, management should work with employees to develop career goals and milestones to be included in their regular performance evaluations. 

There are also a number of initiatives and perks that employers can offer their employees:

  • Training and development activities
  • Mentorship programs
  • Attendance to conferences
  • Paid course tuition

If your organization is a place where your employees feel they can grow, they are more likely to be engaged at work and stick around longer.

Check out our webinar on How to Drive Engagement for Hourly Employees

If you’d like to find out more about how to increase engagement among your workforce, check out our webinar below:

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement

Laura Timbrook, NBC-HWC, CHC, AADP certified coach and podcaster, takes us through some quick, actionable solutions to combat issues surrounding high absenteeism and high turnover rates.

Interested in more than a webinar? I wouldn’t blame you. Hop on a call with us today to find out what tools you should be using to boost your employee engagement.

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5 benefits of job rotation + tips to do it right

Summary

  • Job rotation can be a vital part of training and development programs and can help companies upskill employees without incurring high costs. 

  • While job rotation is beneficial for employee engagement and reducing turnover, it can disrupt operations if not implemented correctly. 

  • WFM technology can help managers stay on top of job rotations and ensure employees get the most out of the program.

Job rotation is a business practice that allows employees to temporarily move between job roles. It’s a strategy that, at its core, seeks to develop employee skills and interests in new areas of the organization. 

It is a practice that is vital to many different aspects of workforce management — from employee engagement to succession planning. Here are five key benefits of job rotation and why you should consider implementing a system for it. 

Key advantages of job rotation

1. Boosting employee engagement

Communicating a person’s value to the team is at the core of employee engagement. While the proverbial pat on the back and consistent encouragement are useful, exposing employees to other job roles is a much more concrete way of communicating to an employee the value they bring to the entire organization.

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement

2. Promoting lateral movements and internal promotions

Job rotation can pave the way for employees to upskill. Through this experience, employees can gain the knowledge and technical skills needed for a higher position or role. In addition, hiring or promoting from within the organization can boost employee retention and keep recruitment and training costs low.

3. Training and skills development

Job rotation can be vital to an organization’s training and development program. While employee courses and company-sponsored seminars are great opportunities, job rotation enables employees to learn from first-hand experience. It promotes learning by doing and allows employees to try their hand at all kinds of new skills they otherwise would never have a chance to practice. While job rotation may introduce new technical skills to an employee’s repertoire, it can also hone soft skills they might already possess like teamwork, communication, self-direction. 

4. Succession planning and workforce flexibility

When you conduct job rotation, you get to assess your talent base. You can determine which employees have the potential for specific roles or discover certain gaps needing to be filled. With this insight, you can make your succession planning more effective, especially when a core team member in the organization leaves. 

Furthermore, job rotation equips your staff to be more flexible. In unexpected changes or shifts in the organization, your employees can rise up to the occasion and be more comfortable dealing with these changes — all thanks to the exposure and crosstraining they gained during job rotation periods.

5. Increased collaboration

Job rotation helps break silos between departments by allowing employees to work outside of their traditional teams. This promotes better communication and rapport and helps employees ease into the idea of working on cross-departmental projects or tasks. In addition, it fosters better relationships and a stronger sense of belonging across the organization.

Industry-specific benefits of job rotation

Job rotation generally benefits all kinds of organizations, but it has critical benefits specific to business size or industry. 

Small businesses

Due to their limited talent pool, small businesses must ensure that staff are flexible and multi-faceted, ready to adapt to any situation where they are needed to fill in. Doing this saves on wage costs in the long run, as investing in recruitment and training is not a luxury small businesses typically have. 

Enterprises

Job rotations in large organizations primarily helps professional development and succession planning. Rotating employees allows staff to enrich their network within the company, equipping them with more knowledge and capacity to participate in cross-functional projects or even qualify for lateral movement. 

Service-oriented organizations

Hospitality businesses, retail stores, and restaurants can use job rotation to equip their employees with the skills necessary for better customer service. Aside from that, allowing them to rotate to different roles in the company can improve their agility when facing shorthanded situations. 

Manufacturing and industrial businesses

Job rotation provides employees with a deeper understanding of what happens at every step of the production line. This can broaden their skills, equip them to be more flexible, and provide opportunities for them to suggest how to make things more efficient. 

Best practices for conducting job rotations

While job rotation has advantages, it can also be detrimental if not done right. It can disrupt operations, reduce productivity, and increase training costs. There are also cases when employees tend to resist going on job rotations. So these are factors you must consider as you devise a plan for your organization. 

To make job rotation effective for you, here are some best practices to keep in mind. 

Set specific goals and timelines

Employees perform best when there is clarity. Rotating them in between different roles is no exception. Clearly state why they will be temporarily assigned to a different position and what’s expected of them after training. 

For instance, if you want to move an employee from marketing to support, set a clear goal and objective after job rotation. Is it how quickly and accurately they respond to product-related queries? Or is it the number of content types and topics the marketing team could do based on actual customer questions? 

It’s also essential to set a specific timeframe. For example, job rotation can last a few weeks to even a few years. Regardless of the duration that makes the most sense for your organization, it’s best to determine and specify this right off the bat to manage expectations.

Devise a preparation plan for employees who will go on job rotation

Transferring to another team and doing a new set of tasks can be daunting to employees. That’s why you must allow them to prepare before they go on job rotation. While the goal is to equip them by experiencing the job first-hand, that doesn’t mean that you just allow them to go in blind. It would be beneficial to schedule orientation sessions with the supervisor they will work with. Providing learning materials to help them have a basic knowledge of the job will also help. 

Time job rotations accordingly

Identify if there are periods within a year where there’s not much activity, and consider scheduling job rotations during this period. Then, because it’s not too busy, you have more room for adjustments and coaching. For instance, if you’re in hospitality, you can schedule job rotations during off-peak seasons. 

Gather feedback 

Remember to gather feedback after each job rotation finishes. Doing so will give you insight into your job rotation program’s effectiveness. Make sure to act on employee feedback and improve whenever necessary. 

Develop job rotation policies according to career path

Identify what career paths employees want to take. Some employees are more interested in technical advancement, which means it’s more focused on a particular function or being an individual contributor. Meanwhile, some workers are more inclined to go on a managerial track, where they would be more involved in leadership and managing teams. 

Whatever it is, make sure that you curate a job rotation program according to employees’ preferred track. Employees are more likely to be receptive to the program when it’s aligned with their career goals. 

Managing job rotations with technology

Using the right technology helps you implement and stay on top of job rotations. Workforce.com has the tools for ensuring that staff is scheduled correctly, job rotations are timed at the most appropriate time, and that communication is seamless during this period. 

Scheduling for job rotations

Creating shifts for employees on job rotations is as simple as creating regular schedules. Select the location and department they’re assigned to work in and add necessary notes or reminders before you send out the schedule. 

Workforce.com also gives you an oversight on potential gaps and areas you need to fill once job rotation starts. This enables you to quickly find another team member who’s qualified to work any vacant shift. 

Identifying the right time to implement job rotations

We talked about how crucial it is to time job rotations during slow work periods. Workforce.com’s reporting and analytics give you an insight into these things by looking at your historical data to identify less busy seasons. 

Communication and gathering feedback

Get immediate and regular feedback from your employee during job rotation. Within the Workforce.com app, staff are prompted to rate their shift and can easily share feedback on how it went while on the program. With this, you can address concerns promptly and ensure that employees on job rotation are achieving their goals and objectives. 

 

Workforce.com is a robust workforce management platform designed to streamline performance, skills management, scheduling, and employee engagement for mid-market businesses to enterprises. It’s built with tools to ensure you’re never over or understaffed, regardless of the season.

If you plan to implement job rotation schedules within your organization, Workforce.com can help ensure that your operations are running smoothly, even with staff temporarily assigned to other roles. 

To know more, book a call with us today.

Posted on

Work-life balance statistics you need to know to build a happier workforce

Husky Astronaut balancing on a narrow beam

Summary

  • US workers are working longer hours and spending less time on themselves than their OECD counterparts. – More

  • Health and well-being have become more of a priority for workers since the COVID-19 pandemic. – More

  • Employee burnout has increased since the pandemic and is wreaking havoc on work-life balance. – More

  • Low engagement and work-life imbalance mean that over 50% of US workers are quiet quitting. – More

  • Workers in labor-intensive industries (particularly restaurants) are unhappy at work. – More

  • Trials across the world have shown that a four-day workweek might work wonders in improving work-life balance. – More

Having a better work-life balance is about much more than just having more time away from the office. A good work-life balance means satisfaction and fulfillment during the workday as well as in other areas of your life. It includes engagement at work and enough time and energy for personal and family life. 

The World Health Organization argues that work can either be protective or disruptive to a person’s mental health. A healthy and well-compensated work environment makes people feel accomplished and confident and is a great way for people with psychosocial disabilities to integrate into society. An environment that creates a poor work-life balance can negatively affect someone’s mental health and well-being. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s attitudes and approaches to work have been shifting. Employees are demanding more flexibility, prioritizing their well-being and personal time while also wanting more from their professional lives. Human resources executives must create the conditions to help their colleagues achieve the best work-life balance possible if they want a happier, more engaged workforce.      

American workers work more and play less than their OECD counterparts

According to work-life balance statistics presented by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States ranks 29th for work-life balance out of the 41 member countries. Italy, Denmark, and Norway top the list.

Ten percent of American employees are working long hours compared to the OECD average. The Netherlands is the country with the lowest number of employees taking on long working hours at just 0.3%. 

US workers typically dedicate 61% of their day to personal care and leisure activities, which amounts to 14.6 hours per day. This is lower than the OECD average of 15 hours per day. Italy is the OECD member country with the most time devoted to personal care and leisure, with 69% of their day or 16.5 hours. 

For the United States to increase its work-life balance ranking, the OECD suggests improving the lives of working families through policy. The US is the only OECD country that does not have a national paid parental leave program. They suggest that paid leave programs will result in a number of benefits, including better child well-being and more new mothers returning to work. 

More employees are prioritizing their health and well-being 

According to Microsoft, the COVID-19 pandemic caused people to re-prioritize how they approach work. More workers now consider how their jobs affect their health and well-being as a major part of the “worth it equation” — in other words, what people want from work and what they’re willing to give in return.

The research shows that 53% of respondents are more likely to prioritize health and well-being – especially parents (55%) and women (56%). Forty-seven percent of workers are now more likely to prioritize their family and personal life ahead of work.

Employees are now valuing the importance of work-life balance, and their employers need to understand and embrace this shift. This could include extending healthcare benefits to include family members as well as making work schedules and time off more flexible. 

Workforce.com offers a flexible scheduling solution that makes it easier for employees to take time off and swap shifts. Flexible scheduling is particularly useful for caregivers or those with chronic health conditions who might need to take unexpected personal days or want to utilize vacation time to spend time with loved ones. 

Increased burnout is a “career killer”

The level of burnout experienced amongst US workers has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. In a nationwide survey by Indeed, 67% of US workers claimed that burnout worsened during the pandemic.  

In a pre-COVID survey, 43% of respondents were experiencing burnout. In 2021, that percentage increased to 52%. Millennials continue to experience the most burnout, with 59% of respondents feeling burnt out – a 6% increase since COVID. More baby boomers are experiencing burnout — a 7% increase from 24% to 31%. Gen Z and Gen X respondents showed the highest increase in burnout, with 11% and 14%, respectively.  

Gallup has conducted extensive research on employee burnout and the effect it has on employees as well as their companies. Burnt-out employees are significantly more likely to take sick days, require medical care, and search for new jobs. 

Employers can help their teams reduce stress levels and burnout by:

  • Collecting regular feedback about concerns and addressing them through feedback tools and communication apps.
  • Actively caring for employee well-being by organizing health and wellness activities or providing employees with stipends to cover expenses like therapy, health, wellness, and sports activities.
  • Encouraging employees to take regular breaks by incorporating break time into scheduling.
  • Offering hybrid and remote work when possible to employees who want it. 
  • Avoiding stressful understaffing situations by using labor forecasting. 

 

Webinar: How to Forecast Based on Demand

Many unhappy employees are “quiet quitting”

Your employees who are experiencing a work-life imbalance might be quiet quitting. Quiet quitting refers to how people are doing just enough to meet their job responsibilities and not get fired. This is not just bad for employee well-being but also for your organization’s productivity. 

In one study, Gallup estimates that over half of US workers are quiet quitters. By the beginning of the summer of 2022, “the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees was 1.8 to 1”. This is the lowest engagement reported in nearly a decade.  

Companies looking to increase employee engagement to eliminate quiet quitting need to tackle poor management practices. 

Focus on training your managers and helping them adapt to new, hybrid ways of working. If their work-life balance is off, the rest of the team will feel the impact. But if they can model what engagement and satisfaction at both home and work look like in this new work format, employees will likely follow. 

Together, managers and employees should find ways to minimize burnout and prioritize mental health. They should have at least one meaningful one-to-one conversation per week. These conversations could uncover the initiatives and changes management needs to make to create more satisfying work environments. It is also an opportunity for employees to talk about any struggles they may be experiencing outside of work that can be impacting performance. 

 

Webinar: How to Identify Employee Flight Risk

 

Workers in labor-intensive industries are less satisfied at work

Employees in some industries are more prone to worse work-life balance than others, particularly labor-intensive industries with low Net Promoter Scores and high turnover rates.

Statista found that restaurants have the lowest Net Promoter Score among employees, at 14%. The commerce industry (20%) and the public service sector (22%) followed the service industry at the bottom of the table. In August 2021, 971,000 employees quit their jobs in leisure and hospitality – the highest number of resignations recorded.

A report by One Fair Wage shed some light on why restaurant work, in particular, exhibited low job satisfaction statistics and high employee turnover rates. Low wages and tips cause 76% of restaurant workers to quit their jobs.

Many others were leaving due to hostility and harassment at work. Thirty-nine percent of restaurant workers had concerns about hostility and harassment from customers and 26% from their co-workers and/or management.

Restaurant owners and HR staff need to have frequent conversations with employees about working conditions and employee well-being in order to harness better conditions for work-life balance. Regular team and one-to-one meetings need to be scheduled. Anonymous feedback forms should also be available in order to find out more about employees’ concerns.

The four-day workweek could be key to addressing employee work-life imbalance

Many companies around the world have been experimenting with four-day workweeks to address work-life balance issues and to increase employee engagement and retention. 

Between 2015 and 2017, the Reykjavík City Council and the Icelandic National Government carried out two trials of four-day workweeks. The experiment, which involved over 1% of Iceland’s working population, increased employee work-life balance as well as productivity. Microsoft Japan also trialed a four-day workweek and enjoyed a 40% increase in productivity. 

US companies looking to introduce a four-day workweek should start by enhancing their workforce management processes. To do this, they should:

  1. Keep labor costs under control. Scheduling and time-tracking processes need to be fine-tuned to keep overtime under control and mitigate time theft.
  2. Reduce administrative work through automation. Workforce management solutions can automate tedious, time-consuming administrative tasks and save employee time and labor costs. Such solutions include automatic scheduling and payroll integrations. 
  3. Use labor forecasting to schedule shifts in a way that avoids under or overstaffing and increases productivity. 

 

Webinar: How to Rollout a 4-Day Workweek

A well-managed workforce is a happy workforce

There are a number of ways you can help your employees achieve a more harmonious work-life balance, from ensuring they have enough time and energy outside of work to enjoy their personal lives to investing in their physical and mental health. 

An important element of a healthy work-life balance is an environment that reduces workplace stress and brings out the best in people. With Workforce.com, you can create better scheduling and communication processes that foster such an environment. 

Get in touch with us and see how Workforce.com can help you build a happier workforce.

Posted on

Human capital management: Considerations to better engage employees and promote diversity

Summary

  • Great employees are your most vital resource — human capital management helps you attract, support, promote, and retain them.

  • Your strategy should include everything from a strong recruitment and onboarding experience to an enticing benefits package that’s compliant with regulations. 

  • HCM systems help you optimize your strategy by automating tasks, tracking employee performance, and reporting on key insights for visibility. – More

Think about all the resources it takes to successfully manage your organization. Which of these resources is in the shortest supply? Time is certainly one of them — once you’ve lost a day, you can’t get it back. Financial capital is another tempting answer — but is it really that hard to apply for a loan or build a strategy toward growth when all is said and done?

No, the Harvard Business Review writes. Financial capital is not your most limited resource. “Today’s scarcest resource is your human capital, as measured by the time, talent and energy of your workforce,” it says. 

It’s significantly more difficult to continuously find high-performing employees who can deliver quality work for your organization. While an asset like time or money is generally fixed, the same isn’t true of human capital. One dollar or one hour is functionally the same from one to the next, but employees are unique. Once you lose a good employee, you can’t automatically swap in an employee who will continue performing at the same level.

According to Gallup, it typically takes new employees an entire year to reach their full potential after training and onboarding. And it’s costlier to replace workers than it is to retain them. On average, companies spend about half to two times an employee’s annual salary to completely replace them.

But your employees aren’t just your scarcest resource. They’re also your organization’s most valuable and influential resource. And the best way to retain that resource is through a human capital management plan that helps your employees feel supported and fulfilled when they come to work.

The essential components of a human capital management plan

Human capital management (HCM), as its name suggests, is an area of business management that ensures a holistic experience for an organization’s most important resource — its people. There are five main areas for HR professionals to focus on: 

1. Recruitment

Recruitment is the core foundation of building an organization’s human capital. It is involved in identifying the needs of the company and the particular roles that can fill those needs through talent acquisition. Attracting, screening, and onboarding candidates are all part of the recruitment process. The goal of the recruitment process is to successfully find candidates whose skills, values, and motivations are aligned with the organization’s goals and culture.

2. Compensation and benefits administration

Compensation and benefits refer to what the company gives its employees in exchange for their work or service, and they include monetary and non-monetary components. A company’s compensation and benefits package includes an employee’s salary and government-mandated benefits. Other perks and incentives can be part of the deal, such as insurance coverage, gym membership, housing allowance, and company-sponsored trips and events. 

3. Labor law compliance

Running an organization is governed by employment laws. HR teams create company policies and administrative functions that comply with labor regulations, such as accurate time tracking and paid sick leave. Labor law regulations vary by region, and they can change from time to time. That being said, a crucial part of human resource management is staying on pace with these changes and ensuring that company policies remain compliant. 

4. Training and development

Training and career development focus on nurturing your workforce’s potential, especially new employees who are still onboarding. Training refers to programs that are geared toward improving skills or learning new technical knowledge that’s needed to perform certain tasks. Meanwhile, development is focused more on programs that enrich an employee’s overall growth in soft skills like leadership, communication, and adapting to certain situations. 

5. Retention and engagement

Human resource management (HRM) is also involved in creating strategies to keep employee turnover to a minimum. Retention and engagement programs are proactive steps to ensure that employees are motivated to perform their best, not just for a paycheck but because they have a clear alignment of values with the organization. All of these parts should move cohesively to ensure the best experience possible for staff at every stage of the employee lifecycle. 

5 human resource management challenges impacting your HCM strategy

Human resource management involves a lot of moving parts, and these can come with their own sets of challenges. Here are common challenges in human resource management and ways to solve them. 

1. Difficulty attracting the right talent.

Delays in hiring can be costly, but an unfit hire can also be detrimental to an organization. So how do you know a candidate is fit for the role? While skills and experience are important for assessing whether an applicant is qualified or not, it’s also essential to find out if they’ll fit into your company culture, so you can be sure your workplace is the right fit. Otherwise, you won’t be able to retain them for very long.

Another common challenge is convincing candidates who are highly skilled and qualified yet more deliberative in their job search. These candidates are most likely in touch with a lot of recruiters and are considering more than one job offer. You’ll have to build a truly impressive candidate experience — and a great employer brand — in order to stand out and attract top talent.

How to solve:

  • Create a job posting that highlights what you’re looking for. Include the skills and competencies you’re looking for and what’s in it for a qualified candidate when they get in. Provide information about the working style and culture that you have at your company. This will attract people who have both the required skills and similar values as you. At the same time, this can also filter out candidates who have different working styles and cultural preferences.
  • Invest in employer branding: Boosting your brand as an employer can also help increase your chances of attracting the right talent. According to research from Glassdoor, 75% of active job seekers are likely to apply for a job posting if the company actively maintains its employer brand.
  • Prioritize strong communication throughout the hiring process: Make sure that all details and instructions are clear at every stage of the process. Timely feedback and responses are also crucial. Take a look at your current process and see how it’s affecting the candidate experience and employer brand. CareerPlug found that 84% of job seekers rate “hiring process transparency” as an important or very important factor in their decision to join a company.

2. Dealing with too much paperwork.

Human resource management deals with a lot of information — from employee details to company policies and other essential business documents. And too much paperwork can be a burden, especially when done manually. It can take time away from more valuable tasks, like strategizing and optimizing programs and processes. 

How to solve:

There are digital solutions that can remove the tedious task of processing paperwork. For instance, digital employee onboarding solutions help eliminate the long forms that new hires need to fill out. They enable new staff to log in with their information and upload important documents online. This ensures better accuracy of information, improves the employee experience during onboarding, and allows for a better way for new hires to spend their first day at work. 

3. Understanding and applying labor laws.

Staying compliant with labor laws is a must. However, understanding regulations, applying them in policies, and staying on pace with labor law changes can be very challenging. 

How to solve:

Implement a compliance strategy to avoid any potential financial and reputational repercussions of failing to comply. A compliance strategy is a set of programs and processes that’s geared toward ensuring regular updates and audits of policies and communicating any changes with staff promptly. Given the ever-evolving nature of regulations, it’s best to build a strategy and assign a working group to focus on compliance. 

Technology is also helpful in staying on pace with changes. For instance, some solutions automate labor law updates and ensure that these are reflected in the payroll computation. 

4. Retaining employees.

Talent management goes beyond just attracting the right people for the right roles. The other part of the battle is retaining them and keeping them satisfied with their role, especially those who are performing above and beyond. 

Webinar: How to Stop Employee Turnover

How to solve:

It’s all about consistent growth and learning. Employees are more likely to stay the course when they are given opportunities to grow and are recognized as a vital part of the organization’s success. 

Training and development programs are essential for retaining employees. But creating these programs is not a one-time thing. That’s why it’s important to have regular alignment meetings with your staff. Regular check-ins can help you get a pulse on their current sentiment about working at the organization, their satisfaction with their roles, and the challenges or gaps they’re facing. From there, you can customize programs or identify next steps that can help them stay engaged. 

One of the things to keep employees happy and help them feel valued is to provide not just what they need to get their job done but also offer other incentives that will motivate them to perform better and stay aligned with the values of the organization. Your benefits administration can show employees you care about more than just their performance, for instance. Succession planning is a great way to engage employees who are growing in their current roles while preparing for employees who may eventually move on.

5. Keeping talent engaged at every stage of the employee lifecycle.

Human resource management plays an important part in employee engagement, and it is a continuous process throughout every stage of the employee lifecycle, from onboarding up until the time an employee leaves an organization. All of these stages affect culture, staff morale, and the success of the company.

Webinar: How to Drive Employee Engagement

An organization is only as good as its employees. It’s imperative to nurture and cultivate staff no matter where they are in their tenure with the organization. Doing this takes time. That’s why it’s important for human resources to have the right technology in place so that they can reduce time spent on administrative tasks and focus more of their energy on engaging employees.

How to solve:

An effective onboarding process can help you engage employees who are new to the organization and need to get up to speed — without overwhelming them. Ongoing training sessions, team events, perks, and upskilling opportunities are all great ways to help your workforce stay connected at work while growing in their careers. 

Ultimately, you should look at your employee data, like plan enrollment and activity engagement, to see what HR processes and initiatives are having the biggest impact on employee retention and where engagement can still be improved. Then you’ll know which programs to add and continue to invest in.

Use a human capital management system to serve employees with ease

Manually keeping track of the key HR processes to support your human capital management strategy is bound to cause headaches — for your team and your workforce. Many companies implement HCM software in order to manage employee engagement programs, track performance and productivity, and provide things like onboarding and benefits to employees.

Workforce.com is a workforce management software that provides visibility into your scheduling and shift data, so you can better manage your hourly workers. You can accurately forecast demand, optimize labor costs, and build the best schedule for your team based on real metrics. And our solution integrates directly with other human resource information systems (HRIS) to streamline human capital management.

Read more about how Workforce.com optimizes how you manage your human capital by checking out our HCM software buyer’s guide below:

Best HCM Software

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12 practical employee appreciation ideas for better engagement and retention

raccoon holding a lightbulb of ideas

Summary

  • Showing appreciation to your employees improves engagement and retention.

  • There are 12 practical ways to recognize and appreciate your team members.

  • Start by asking your employees how they like to be shown gratitude.

A healthy relationship between employer and employee should go beyond the simple exchange of money for effort. Managers and HR teams should strive to build a company culture where employees come together and actively work toward common goals. Your employees could choose to turn up to work and do the bare minimum, take their paycheck, and go home — so going beyond that should be encouraged, recognized, and rewarded.

Research shows that employee engagement is 2.7 times higher when workers feel like their hard work will be recognized. A survey by SHRM found that 68% of HR professionals agreed that implementing employee recognition activities increases retention. Fifty-six percent said that employee recognition programs are beneficial to recruitment activities.   

In light of this, we have put together 12 employee appreciation ideas HR professionals can use to show their team members that they are valued for their contributions to the organization. These ideas are applicable to both in-person offices and remote employees.

1. Give valuable feedback

raccoon getting feedback

Giving employees feedback is a vital way to show appreciation to your employees for the work they’re doing. A work culture built around feedback creates a stronger sense of teamwork and reinforces positive behavior. It creates an opportunity to tackle issues like unproductive work habits or problematic behaviors early before they have a chance to cause any real damage. 

In an organization, feedback needs to be constant and needs to happen at all levels. This includes managers to employees, employees back to their managers, and peer to peer. Research shows that 89% of HR professionals feel that ongoing peer feedback has a positive impact on their organization.

Technology can play a big role in facilitating feedback across a company, especially for remote workers. Certain apps like Workforce.com’s Shift Feedback tool allow for a standardized and efficient way to provide and receive feedback at all levels.   

2. Encourage public shout-outs

raccoon speaking into a microphone

It’s always nice to receive praise from a manager or a colleague, but when it is done publicly, it can make an employee feel even more appreciated. When praise is visible company-wide, it doubles up as a visible recommendation that can be seen at all levels of the organization. It also shows the sort of work and attitude that is appreciated by all employees.

Employee recognition software like Lattice makes it easier for companies to “cultivate a culture of praise.” With Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations, it makes manager-to-employee and peer-to-peer recognition even more visible.

3. Grant the gift of time

raccoon sitting at a table next to a clock

As much as you hope that your employees enjoy their time at work, giving them the opportunity to take some extra time off outside of the office to reward a job well done is a sure way to put a smile on their faces. 

Say an employee — or even an entire team — has reached a certain milestone or delivered their targets earlier than expected. Why not reward them with the rest of the day off? You could even consider adding an extra vacation day or two to be taken whenever it is suitable for them. 

Another great option is to consider something like a company-wide shortened workday or even shorter workweeks during the summer. Interestingly enough, fewer weekly work hours have been linked to higher productivity and better employee well-being. 

4. Harness their professional development

raccoon in a business suit

You may find that many of your employees would like to cross-train in other areas to expand their knowledge base and make themselves more helpful in case of short staffing issues. A great way to reward employees and show that you care is to give them the opportunity to develop new skills on the job.

Offer to enroll them in a mentoring program, let them work a shift they don’t normally work, reimburse their course tuition, or send them to conferences on topics that are of interest to them. 

5. Write them a recommendation on social media

raccoon holding an iphone

Why not show public appreciation outside of the workplace? Write your employees a rave review on LinkedIn highlighting their value to the company and the great work they do. The high visibility of a LinkedIn recommendation also helps your employee with their career development. When they eventually seek roles with other companies, prospective employers will likely give a lot of weight to your endorsement.

6. Organize something fun for the team

raccoons at the beach

Show your staff members that you appreciate the work they do as a unit by organizing team-building events and activities. This could be anything from a retreat to the countryside, hikes, or a day of hands-on volunteering with a local charity.

7. Acknowledge and celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries

raccoon birthday party

There are certain dates that need to be celebrated. Work anniversaries represent a job well done to both employer and employee. The employer has evidently created a work environment that harnesses retention, and the employee has given another year of effort to the company. 

Birthdays are special occasions on an individual level. Friends and families celebrate each other’s birthdays, and colleagues should do the same. 

Consider celebrating with employee appreciation gifts. Company swag items like branded t-shirts for work anniversaries or gift cards for birthdays are just some gift ideas you can consider. 

With remote work, things get a bit more complicated. This is where online events and activities over Zoom or Slack may come in handy. You can host a happy hour on a Zoom call, have casual chats in virtual break rooms, or organize talent shows on dedicated Slack channels.  

If your remote workers are located in the same few areas or cities, you can even host a series of in-person events grouped by location.

There are a number of software solutions you can use to stay aware of all significant dates. Systems like Workforce.com or Slack’s BirthdayBot are great for keeping the entire company up to date on upcoming birthdays and anniversaries.

8. Celebrate your employees for what they achieve outside of the office

raccoon holding a trophy

Take the time to learn about what your employees are interested in and what big events are happening in their lives and celebrate these things with them. Highlighting and recognizing the importance of these things helps to encourage a healthy work-life balance amongst your staff.

This way, you recognize employees for who they are as people beyond their work deliverables. It is important to learn about and highlight out-of-office events on a regular basis. Celebrate when employees:

  • Get married, have children, adopt a dog
  • Move into a new house
  • Finish their thesis
  • Launch an album with their band
  • … Or anything they may wish to share with their colleagues

9. Look out for your employees’ mental health and wellness

raccoon with rain cloud above its head

Tackling stress and burnout and looking after your employees’ well-being is more of a duty than a form of staff appreciation. Nonetheless, going the extra mile and offering your staff perks linked to their health and wellness enhances the employee experience. 

Healthy and stress-free employees are also good for business. The WHO found that depression and anxiety in the workplace cost the global economy $1 trillion a year.

As an employer, you can offer health and wellness stipends to cover things like gym memberships, sports activities, therapy, or subscriptions to meditation apps.

10. Give monetary incentives

raccoon holding money

While this might seem obvious and unoriginal, bestowing the occasional bonus as a token of appreciation can work wonders for employee morale. Consider giving cash rewards for reaching certain milestones. Or, think about offering staff additional compensation for claiming vacant shifts last minute. Alternatively, you can implement a performance-based profit-share plan throughout the company, to be given out once or twice a year.

11. Level up your virtual team’s “office” space

raccoon sitting at computer

Many companies go the extra mile to make their office spaces comfortable and functional for employees. Consider doing the same for your remote employees too. Some people might not have gotten around to investing in their home workspaces. 

This is particularly true for employees who had to suddenly adapt to remote work at the start of the pandemic and who might not have invested the time, energy, or money to upgrade their workspaces.

Show gratitude to your team members by offering reimbursements or gift cards at certain stores where they can purchase things like desks, proper office chairs, and monitors. 

12. Make sure they have the right tools to get the job done

raccoon wearing a hardhat

Have your employees got access to the best tools to get their job done? If you’re expecting your sales teams to get results without a good CMS or your HR team to organize rosters without the right scheduling software — you’re making their lives unnecessarily complicated. It’s also important to ensure that the technology staff use to clock in and apply for time off is accurate and simple to use. User-friendly software goes a long way in keeping employees happy and feeling appreciated. 

But before implementing any tool, start by speaking to your employees and understanding what their roadblocks to success are. Do research on what solutions are out there to help them overcome these roadblocks and identify the best fit for your employees’ needs. 

Show meaningful gratitude beyond employee appreciation day 

Waiting for the 3rd of March every year to show your employees that you value the hard work they do is not enough. You need to create a culture of appreciation across the whole team and give them the tools to be able to do so easily. 

The employee recognition ideas we presented here are just some suggestions that have worked for other companies. A good first step to building your own employee appreciation program is to actually ask your people how they like to be shown gratitude. 

You should also be looking beyond appreciation tactics if solving a deeper issue, like employee turnover, is your main goal. If so, check out our free webinar on how to better retain hourly workers. 

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7 statistics on employee turnover every HR manager should be aware of

Summary

  • July 2022 saw 5.9 million total separations – More

  • Replacing a full-time employee can cost up to 2x the amount of that employee’s annual salary — More

  • Only 28% of workers say they have received a raise higher than the current 8.5% inflation rate — More

  • 48% of people are leaving their current job and moving to an entirely new industry — More

  • 16% of workers would consider quitting if asked to work on-site full time — More

  • 40% of workers quit their jobs within the first year of employment — More

  • Millennials are twice as likely as boomers to quit their jobs — More

The Great Resignation, the Great Attrition, the Big Quit, or the Great Reshuffle. Since 2021, HR professionals have been dealing with high employee turnover rates and resignations as people started to return to work following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a year on, the Great Resignation shows no sign of abatement. The number of new job openings vastly outweighs the number of potential new employees willing to fill those roles.

Webinar: How to Retain Hourly Employees

In this article, we’ll provide you with seven eye-opening employee turnover statistics obtained from the latest studies that shed light on the current high turnover rates. We will discuss what HR professionals can do to create a company culture that fosters employee retention. 

1. The average turnover rate remains much higher than pre-pandemic levels

According to the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), July 2022 saw 5.9 million total separations. Total separations refer to quits, layoffs, discharges, other involuntary turnover, and other separations. In December 2019, quits were registered at 3.5 million. In July 2022, the number of employees who quit their jobs was 4.2 million. That means that this is still 20% higher than the annual turnover rate at pre-pandemic levels. 

According to the senior director of research at Gartner, Piers Hudson:

New employee expectations, and the availability of hybrid arrangements, will continue to fuel the rise in attrition. An individual organization with a turnover rate of 20% before the pandemic could face a turnover rate as high as 24% in 2022 and the years to come. For example, a workforce of 25,000 employees would need to prepare for an additional 1,000 voluntary departures.

Sectors like transportation, warehousing, and utilities saw an increase in quits of 39,000. Other sectors saw decreases, like healthcare and social assistance (-73,000) and state and local government education (-21,000). 

2. The cost of employee turnover is high

According to Gallup, replacing a full-time employee can cost anywhere between half to two times the amount of that employee’s annual salary. These financial and organizational costs include:

  • The cost of recruitment and the onboarding process
  • The cost of training new employees
  • Operational inefficiencies
  • Under-resourcing and operational delays
  • Negative impact on employee morale and burnout
  • Loss of organizational knowledge 
  • Loss of innovative thinkers and leaders (This is considered to be an opportunity cost.)
  • Negative impact on the customer experience due to organizational inefficiencies

3. Inflation and the fear of recession is a growing concern amongst workers

Another factor contributing to higher turnover rates is the current mismatch between wages and the cost of living, as well as a pervasive fear of an upcoming recession. A reported 41% of job seekers have received pay raises to combat inflation in 2022, but only 28% of respondents say that they received a raise higher than the current 8.5% inflation rate. In light of this, 78% are looking to switch jobs in order to make more money.

As fuel prices have more than doubled, 86% of respondents who drive to work sometimes and 68% who do so all of the time are feeling the hit; 59% say that these gas prices are having a “high” or “very high” financial impact on their lives.

Given the current landscape, fears of a recession seem to be widespread amongst US employees — 80% expect the US to enter a recession within the next year.

4. Many workers are switching industries

According to a study by McKinsey, nearly half (48%) of people are leaving their current job and moving to an entirely new industry. Worldwide, only 35% who quit in the last two years took on a new role in the same sector. 

This has affected different industries differently. Sixty-five percent of employees who quit the finance and insurance sector changed industries altogether. This percentage was higher for the public and social sector, which lost 72% of workers who quit to go to other industries. 

It would appear that many employees feel more confident to take the leap in their career development toward something different. People are looking for jobs that offer more flexible work arrangements, remote work opportunities, and generally greater job satisfaction. 

5. Flexibility is key when seeking better work-life balance

A 2022 Gartner survey found that many employees are seeking work environments that offer higher levels of flexibility. Flexibility could refer to the physical location where work takes place, the number of working hours, and the days worked.

Results show that 52% of respondents said levels of flexibility would impact whether or not they stick with their current employer. 16% would consider quitting if asked to work on-site full time. Eight percent would also quit even if asked to work on-site partially.

6. Most new hires quit in the first year

The Work Institute’s 2020 Retention Report found that nearly 40% of the respondents who quit their jobs did so within the first year of their employment. Two-thirds of these employees left in the first six months. 

It is important to note that these are pre-pandemic and pre-Great Resignation statistics. These rates are likely to be even higher now.

7. Younger people are more likely to leave their jobs

A study by EY found that age influences attrition rate. Boomers and those with over 10 years of tenure are most likely to stay in their current roles. This is particularly true of employees working in government or education roles.

Millennials, on the other hand, are twice as likely as boomers to quit their jobs. 

How to increase employee engagement and your retention rate

For business owners and human resource professionals, employee retention is a top priority. It not only costs less but also ensures more stability and consistent quality within the organization. There are a number of things that can be done to boost your employee engagement strategy to lower turnover rates and hold on to your top talent.

Understand why employees leave

Understanding the reasons you’re losing good employees will help you make necessary changes to provide a better employee experience, which will ultimately help you hold on to more of your people. 

Webinar: How to Predict Employee Flight Risk

According to a study by McKinsey, the top reasons employees quit are:

  • A lack of career development opportunities and room for career growth – 41% 
  • Inadequate total compensation – 36% 
  • Uncaring and uninspiring leaders – 34% 
  • Lack of meaningful work – 31% 

Conducting exit interviews helps you understand the reasons why your people are leaving and puts you in a better position to do something about it. If you’re finding that a lack of professional development is commonly cited, you might want to implement learning and development opportunities to boost your employee retention rate.

Create opportunities to attract nontraditional workers

It can be argued that the current system is geared toward attracting and retaining traditional workers. These are career-oriented people who are happy to make sacrifices in exchange for a good salary, perks, title, and career advancement. Unfortunately, these workers are not large enough in number to fill the ever-growing demand for work. 

Employers should look to nontraditional workers. McKinsey classifies them as:

  • Do-it-yourselfers – These workers value flexibility, meaningful work, and adequate compensation. They are typically between 25 and 45 years old and can be found to be self-employed, in full-time traditional roles, or doing gig and part-time work. 
  • Idealists – This group tends to be younger — aged between 18 to 24. Many are students or part-time workers who are not tied down by things like mortgages or dependents. They value flexibility, career development, meaningful work, and community. Compensation is not as high on their list of priorities.
  • Caregivers and others – These are people who have largely stayed home since the pandemic. They are predominantly women, aged between 18 and 44, and are responsible for the care of their children or other dependents. They value good compensation for their work but need flexibility and support from their employers in order to continue their care.

Generally speaking, non-traditionalists value:

  • Flexibility
  • Adequate compensation
  • Meaningful work
  • Support for health and well-being
  • Having reliable and supportive people in the workplace

For employers to attract these personas, it is important to remove barriers to employment that might stop them from being hired in the first place. This could include educational qualifications that might not be prevalent amongst these groups and are also not really necessary for the job upon re-examination.

Attracting such employees could also require HR teams to reach out beyond traditional recruitment platforms. Nontraditional workers might not be so prevalent on online job boards or might not spend so much of their time on LinkedIn. Companies might want to consider bolstering their referral programs or exploring other social media platforms.  

Focus on creating work environments that foster employee retention

Employees are looking for more than just a high salary. Companies need to work on developing a culture at the workplace that makes people want to stay. HR teams can do this by:

  • Listening to and addressing the needs of their employees 
  • Prioritizing psychological safety
  • Working toward building a strong sense of community at work
  • Beyond exit interviews, frequently asking for feedback and asking questions about what will make employees stick around
  • Offering well-being bonuses or perks
  • Funding career development programs

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the key to employee retention and greater job satisfaction depends on these five factors:

  1. Respectful treatment of all employees at all levels
  2. Compensation/pay
  3. Trust between employees and senior management
  4. Job security
  5. Opportunities to use their skills and abilities at work

Equip HR to better manage and prevent turnover

In light of today’s tight labor market, it is essential that HR teams prioritize employee retention and reduce turnover. Executive Advisor and CEO of Status Flow Chris M. King dives into some strategies to stop employee turnover in a recent webinar with Workforce.com, which you can access below:

Webinar: How to Stop Employee Turnover

With the right strategies and the right tools, turnover can be mitigated and sometimes even prevented. Utilizing workforce management software combined with the right strategic initiatives makes this possible. Get in touch to learn more about how Workforce.com can help keep the cost of your employee turnover low.