Take the Pulse with Worker Engagement Platforms

In today’s world of talent management, organizations and HR leaders are facing increasing challenges as they try to build a connected workforce that is more engaged, productive, and innovative. In particular, the intense competition for talent while trying to retain staff, as a shrinking workforce emerges in the marketplace primarily due to baby boomers retiring in mass, and a declining birth rate yielding a record-low in the labour force of workers aged 25 to 54 years.

As a result, it is essential that organizations and HR Leaders have access to employee analytics, data, and insights to better gauge their working environments continuously to identify situations that could negatively impact employee sentiment and the culture before they are out of control and damage the business.

To this end, there have been tremendous advancements in the field of business and HR technology recently, and this has led to the emergence of Work Engagement Platforms. So, what is a Worker Engagement Platform and why is it important?

Definition and roles

A Worker Engagement Platform is a centralized home for all employees to access everything they need to know to make working at your organization amazing, all in one location. They are designed to boost employee engagement by providing positive experiences at work. They span the interactions workers have across the entire organization. Functions may include communication & collaboration, rewards & recognition, training/learning, wellness, flexible work environment, and feedback. The more advanced platforms include automated metrics and AI tools. With the right focus and set of circumstances, you can use AI and machine learning to take the pulse on employee sentiment. Furthermore, it can help in the identification of factors that have the biggest positive and negative impacts on your organization.

Collecting this data with such tools can empower organizations with insights to adjust and update their policies to create a more engaged workforce. Hence, a single tool that can help unify workforces is essential for organizations in today’s marketplace to easily boost their employee’s morale and work culture. In fact, it is the best way to instill the importance of employee engagement.

Why is Employee Engagement Important?

People at various levels of an organization are looking for a workplace that fits their unique needs. A place that supports and inspires them to bring out their best work. Therefore, companies must focus on creating a culture that appeals to a diverse and multi-generational workforce. This can establish a culture and drive meaningful engagement that attracts and retains the best talent.

An article posted in Gallup states that, across the globe, around 71% of employees are not yet fully engaged. This in turn leads to a loss of around $11 billion in employee turnover. On the other hand, companies with engaged employees outperform their counterparts by 202%.

Benefits of an Employee Engagement Platform

1. Improved Employee Productivity and Organizational Performance

An employee engagement program helps to improve the engagement of employees in the organization. An engaged employee is a productive employee. When people know their value and how their work impacts the organization, they are more likely to contribute at a higher level and push themselves beyond the minimum requirements of their position. Employees will feel more invested in their responsibilities, and they will drive more growth and success for the business.

2. Helps Talent Acquisition

As Worker Engagement platforms improve engagement and culture in the organization, it helps to establish a great culture and work environment which in turn helps to attract new talent. People want to work in a great work environment where employees have a voice, are recognized and respected, and feel they can make an impact.

3. Reduces Staff Attrition

Generally, when employees leave an organization, most of the reasons for leaving have little to do with salary, free coffee, or even health insurance. People leave because they lack recognition for job performance, they have poor relationships at work, or they can’t contribute to business goals with their skills.

Through employee engagement software, employees can find more ways to connect with their team and their leader consistently, receiving the feedback and recognition they crave. This process will also help employees see how their individual role fits into the broader goals of the company, which helps to reduce staff attrition.

4. Lowers Absenteeism

An employee who doesn’t feel motivated to commit to both their job and their company is more likely to miss work or incur more injuries, depending on the industry and type of work. When they miss work often, their performance is bound to suffer, as they would have lost time on projects, training, and updates – all of which can lead to low morale in the work environment. Additionally, with declining performance comes reduced productivity in quantity and quality of work.

Unnecessary absences don’t just affect those who are taking time off; they have a huge impact on people left in the office. The stress and responsibility of taking on someone else’s workload can overwhelm employees, leading to them becoming equally disheartened and disengaged.

Therefore, having an engaged workforce is of the utmost importance. Organizations with high staff engagement suffer 37% fewer cases of absenteeism than those with a less invested workforce, outperforming competitors by up to 202%. For companies to thrive in the current environment, employee engagement needs to be treated like more than an HR metric; it must become a mission for all business leaders.

5. Supports Broader Change Management Initiatives

An employee engagement program allows employees to have a voice in change management initiatives. People don’t mind change once they get used to the idea and have had the opportunity to provide input on the direction of the change. Even asking an employee’s opinion and then later choosing another direction is significantly better than never giving the employee a voice in the change.

What employees do mind is being told of the change. Having no voice in a change that will affect their job or workflow is treating your adult employees like children. They resent it, and you have created something for them to push back against. It doesn’t provide good support when you need buy-in from your employees on these initiatives.

6. Increasing Connectivity with Remote Workers

A Worker Engagement platform is also a good way to stay connected with your in-office & remote workers to ensure they are supported, have the right tools, and feel part of the decision-making.

An engagement platform can also help keep each employee on-track, at all times, with real-time visibility on their personal performance KPIs, instant feedback, and guidance. Automatically update employee goals based on their performance, and activities or organizational need. Keep line-managers efficient and focused on coaching with AI-driven insights, prompts, and easy-to- apply suggested actions.

7. Ensures emotional well-being of the entire organization

When your employees are mentally and emotionally healthy, they are able to deliver better, faster results. An employee engagement software lets you check the pulse of your organization on a regular basis. You can do it efficiently with the pulse survey as an example.

8. Gives Employees a Casual Voice

A Worker Engagement platform allows you to collect relevant data about how your employees feel about certain initiatives or changes. You can carry it out with the help of company-wide surveys and polls.

Giving a voice to your employees on various initiatives helps in avoiding the “monkey effect” and provides opportunities for thoughtful discussions about decisions for the company.

Furthermore, it helps you understand the importance of employee engagement in the workplace.

9. Recognizes Employee Efforts

Research by IBM’s Smarter Workforce Institute found that employee engagement levels are almost three times higher for recognized employees than for those who don’t receive recognition. In today’s environment, where a good portion of employees are working remotely, recognition for remote employees may not come as naturally as for employees who are more often physically present. Remote employees are likely working hard in achieving results, but they may suffer from being “out of sight, out of mind,” and therefore may not be fully visible to managers in the company.

Engagement software obtains insightful feedback from peers, subordinates, and cross-functional collaborators, helping remote employees get on the radar of leaders beyond their immediate team. By emphasizing remote “top workers” who receive positive feedback from peers and subordinates, employee engagement platforms help management see and recognize those employees for their contributions.

10. Strengthens Awareness of Company Purpose, Mission, and Values

An employee engagement platform gauges the understanding and awareness of corporate mission and values. It can make it easier for your leaders to communicate ‘What it means to work here’ or ‘What we value in you’ to your new (and existing!) employees. It can also help reinforce good attitudes and behaviours, and really make your employees feel valued.

11. Helps Improve the On-boarding Experience

It can be overwhelming and intimidating for a new employee to join an organization. Adjusting to a new work environment, culture, and seeing new faces can be equally as intimidating.

An employee engagement platform helps management streamline the on-boarding process. They can design the on-boarding process in such a way that the new employee feels comfortable, assimilates easier, and feels supported. Capturing this employee experience data is crucial to improving retention and establishing a positive on-boarding experience, which can set the tone for how long an employee will stay with an organization.

Conclusion

In closing, as organizations and HR leaders adjust to new challenges, technology will only play a bigger role in improving and maintaining employee engagement and addressing challenges. Implementing an employee engagement platform can be the first step towards informing, connecting, and strengthening the culture of an increasingly hybrid workforce. To learn more about our employee engagement solutions and how we can help your business, please get in touch with us.