It is difficult for company managers and CEOs to find top talent and hold on to that talent. Believe it or not, employee engagement is now harder to achieve than ever before. This is happening because many companies focus on quality and very few on quality. A recent survey that included business leaders from 106 countries and 3,300 HR centered its attention on finding the main issue for this lack of employee engagement. Believe it or not, 87% of business leaders struggle with keeping their best employees.
Lack of employee engagement weakens a company’s productivity
From a statistical perspective, company owners have only recently started to value engagement. In 2014, only 26% of business leaders thought it was important to retain employees; now in 2015, 50% of businesses believe that it is vital to find a way to keep your best talents. Sadly, even if CEOs admit that engagement matters, 60% of them don’t have a program to improve and measure this engagement.
Should we fear that the power is shifting from the leader to the worker?
In some ways, yes; but this is not something CEOs should fear. Considering that the demand for top talent in the business environment is increasing, the power balance is somehow shifting from the leader (manager) to the worker. Furthermore, employees are now a lot more contingent, mobile, and autonomous, which is why they’re more difficult to keep engaged. In today’s new work environment, companies must re-think the way they handle people. For an employee to work at his best potential, companies must re-think the way they handle people.
To live up to the competition, they must constantly come up with ingenious ideas to make themselves noticed. Some other key factors a company must have in mind when trying to boost revenue and preserve its employees are:
- Deal with leadership gaps – this is a critical issue. Today’s leaders don’t know how to lead their teams. For a company to thrive, it must have an competent leader who can understand, appreciate and lead employees
- Improving leadership skills – for an employee to work at his best potential, he must feel motivated. A leader with sound skills is a role model, whereas someone who only shouts and screams around the office, only creates panic and resentment.
- Incentives are important – whether we’re referring to financial or non-financial incentives, these matter a lot; a valuable worker must be compensated accordingly. However, an attractive salary is not enough to keep him engaged. It’s equally important to make him feel valued and appreciated.
Decreasing stress at the workplace may boost engagement
Many companies today are trying to make the workplace feel pleasant. A first step was taken when they decided to ditch the classic cubicle and create an open office space for employees; CEOs have finally understood that it is important for an employee to feel comfortable in order for him to express ingenious ideas and do his job with great pleasure and motivation. An overwhelming percentage of leaders believe that workers should be treated like equals. Because this way they have a role model who’s offering directions, and not a bossy manager instilling fear and terror.
Altering expectations
In today’s global workplace significant shifts occur. This compels businesses to manage their staff in a more effective way. Leaving aside the changing expectations of the workers, the skills required for a certain job change at an incredibly fast pace too. Many companies are falling behind because they don’t know how to help their workers improve their skills. There’s an urgent requirement for companies to re-think their training programs; leadership development must be regarded as a long-term investment and not as optional training used only when necessary.
Lack of employee engagement may ruin a company’s productivity. Sadly, many leaders still can’t keep their workers motivated. This happens when people don’t communicate; lack of communication triggers dissatisfaction. Employees won’t work for pleasure anymore, and eventually they will quit. Have you ever thought of paying more attention to staff surveys? These questionnaires are meant to help HR departments find issues inside a company, and solve them to preserve productivity and employee satisfaction. Don’t ignore minor issues and always communicate with your people. The more you know about them, the better chances you have to give them what they want, thus boost engagement.
