Employee Engagement

Why is Voice of Employee (VoE) Important?

Do you remember the good old days when you were bossed around by your parents, teachers and even siblings who think they are know-it-alls? As kids growing up, we had all sorts of rules and regulations, right? Do your homework, be at the dinner table when you are told, don’t eat too much of chocolates, do your chores…the list goes on. Similarly, we have guidelines at our workplaces (advanced versions obviously). Guidelines such as getting to meetings on time, making sure we meet our work deadlines and so on. As your good, mediocre or bad working days go by, I am sure you wonder if you can have a better say in things that happen at the workplace. Are you able to voice out (or even croak) how you really feel about a certain situation? Are you entitled to make decisions that could possibly influence your job or work environment? Or, do you just hold back and keep your opinions to yourself? As an employee, most of us want to be heard (for obvious reasons). I certainly do. I want my employer to hear me out when I come up with a solution to an existing problem or figure out an improvised technique to finish up a task at hand. I want to be able to tell my manager how I feel about something – good or bad – and not be judged for it. Sadly, this isn’t a reality for some of us. Because, for some of us, our voices are restrained – and we are forced to keep our mouths shut and simply go with the flow (sigh). If you encourage a culture that enforces this, your employees will take 10 steps behind, never feel comfortable about voicing how they feel, and will leave your company behind. I […]

What are the Critical Drivers of Employee Engagement?

The concept of understanding that employee engagement is the key to drive productivity, reduce employee turnover and boost innovation is arguably one of the critical challenges most organizations face today. A study conducted by MSW Research and Dale Carnegie Training explored key drivers of employee engagement out of which they found out that only 29% of employees are fully engaged while 26% employees remain disengaged. In addition, the study discovered that there are three key drivers that affect employee engagement amidst other factors. 1. Relationship with Supervisor/Manager: As you might be familiar with the statement, ‘People don’t leave jobs, they leave their managers’. And, it is indeed a true saying. Something I can relate to myself. People grow wiser as their working years roll by. The study revealed that a “caring” manager is one of the key elements that drive employee engagement. Employees want a manager who will nurture a good relationship, get to know them, care about their personal lives and support their health and well-being. If a manager can build strong relationships with employees, create the right foundation for dedicated team interaction and lead in a human-centric manner – it creates an engaging environment where employees feel special and can perform at the highest level possible. 2. Belief in Leadership Practice what you preach: Leaders set the tone and define goals for the organization. These behaviors and goals need to be clearly defined, realistic for employees to achieve and communicated throughout the organization. This will create a sense of shared sense of responsibility for the organization’s success. Value who work by you and work for you: If you cannot appreciate what your employees do for you, and value their work for the organization, it’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a leader. According to the […]

Implementing a Voice of Employee (VoE) Program

Founder of the Virgin family of corporations, Sir Richard Branson has been quoted as saying, “The best way to take care of your customers is to take care of the employees who take care of your customers.” As per Branson happy employees will result in good customer service, this will help companies thrive in business. Employee retention and training is a key part of successful business. Low employee retention will result in loss of corporate memory, cost in training a new employee and reducing work efficiency. Training a new employee will cost three times as much as retaining an employee. That is why it is so important to understand the “Voice of the Employee” (VoE). VoE Program is? A VoE program is designed to increase employee engagement and identify the areas to improve. Also, this will help you identify root causes for existing issues that matter to your employees and possible solution for the problems. Collection of information like this makes it easier to increase employee engagement, develop better performance reward programs, identify areas to improve, reduce attrition and gage overall satisfaction of the employees. As per the latest studies, benefiting employees in their daily life is the key, which means that the employees care more about the benefits that they see on a daily basis and the employee voice is been heard over their size their paycheck. Benefits of a VoE Program? Higher retention rates Lower development cost Feeling appreciated Feeling understood Happy and engaged staff Higher employee morale and fewer complaints Higher ROI How to Start a Voice of the Employee System 1. Start at the Top The value of the employee engagement program should be understood by the CXO level, especially the chief people officer of the organization. This would be the primary step towards implementing a […]