Cloud-based HR revolutionizes employee engagement
Originally posted January 27, 2014 by Henry Albrecht on https://ebn.benefitnews.com
It’s undeniable – cloud-based technologies have fundamentally changed how businesses operate. As employers transition from on- to off-premise for HRIS, they are seeing increased productivity and profitability in the obvious ways: lower up-front costs, faster innovation, easier integration, and no nasty upgrade hassles. It’s quite possible, however, that a less-obvious HR cloud revolution may prove to be even more meaningful – one that is more about people and culture.
This revolution, led by firms who bring a consumer-like experience and an understanding of the value of social connections at work, is helping build employer brands, improve engagement, and increase productivity and profits. It is ushering collaboration, innovation, and transparency in new ways. Here are three ways this revolution can change company culture:
1. The cloud allows for employee-driven collaboration and innovation at a new scale. This is particularly powerful with new tools like Brainstorm, created by financial software company Intuit. Brainstorm fosters employee innovation by allowing employees around the world to collaborate on new ideas, from small changes in process to large-scale, innovative business ideas. First created to spark innovation and cross-team collaboration, the tool helped Intuit generate a 1,000% increase in documented new ideas and a 500% increase in innovation in only a few short years. Within this new frontier for employee engagement and innovation, HR teams can also now easily identify the most innovative employees and support their growth.
Since its development a few years ago, the tool has expanded as a way for Intuit to foster inter-company collaboration, such as solving shared problems between themselves and the Red Cross. And after a partner asked Intuit to license Brainstorm, the company realized how valuable the software could be for other enterprises. Now, companies like General Electric and Lockheed Martin are using the tool with great success.
2. The cloud increases executive visibility of employee happiness.Historically, layers of reporting and infrastructure hindered executive visibility of everything from finances, operations, and even employee satisfaction. While financial and operational reporting does exists, (albeit expensive and often on-premise due to security) gauging employee morale at regular and consistent intervals has proven to be much more difficult.
Cloud-based technologies now allow for a new layer of instant visibility and transparency. TINYhr, a Seattle-based company, createdTINYpulse to collect employee feedback in one-question (i.e., “tiny”) weekly surveys. The instant feedback gives company leaders a constant pulse on employee happiness, so they can quickly (and cost-effectively) identify major issues along with superstar employees who can lead morale.
3. The cloud elevates the social power of community. Traditional employee wellness programs have been limited to one-time biometric screenings, sporadic events, or one-to-one or one-to-many communications.Cloud-based solutions open the door for many-to-many connections, fostering broad, social employee engagement versus individual task completion. Gamification, points systems, and both individual and team challenges energize the experience while still addressing compliance-based elements. By tracking goals, issuing challenges, and aligning engagement, health, performance, culture, and talent strategies, cloud-based products and technologies help HR departments think bigger, build internal brands faster and reach new engagement heights.
As the cloud-based revolution unfolds and newer technologies come to market, it’s imperative for HR and executive teams to adopt tools that align with business goals and will actually be used. And while these tools allow for a new layer of transparency, they will shine a light in the darkest corners of your company. So be ready to act on what you learn. Democracy is floating on a cloud.
Co-worker relationships more important for employee engagement
Originally posted December 12, 2013 by Amanda McGrory-Dixon on https://ebn.benefitnews.com
When it comes to having an engaged workforce, who your employees work with — rather than who they report to — is an increasingly important factor, according to a recent survey.
The survey from TINYpulse reveals that relationships among co-workers are more responsible for their happiness than their managerial relationships by 23.3%. This finding is supported by a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Professionals, which shows that 79% of respondents in 2012 regarded their relationships with co-workers as important, up from 76% in 2011. The same SHRM survey also shows that the importance of their relationships with direct supervisors dropped from 73% in 2011 to 71% in 2012.
Among the most desirable traits of co-workers are team play and collaboration, 44.3% of respondents say. Meanwhile, knowledge, skills and talent are considered the top traits of co-workers by only 26.4% of respondents.
"This shows that who you work with is becoming more important than who you work for,” says David Niu, founder and CEO of TINYpulse, which conducted the survey. “We often think of employee happiness and satisfaction as being manager-driven, but now as the workplace becomes more cross-matrixed, collaborative and ‘bottom-up,’ the importance of co-worker relationships continues to grow."
But the leading driver of employee engagement is management transparency, according to the survey.
"Not only are capital markets demanding transparency, employees want the same from their leadership,” says Niu. “The cost of improving transparency is almost zero, and we are seeing an increasing number of companies using transparency as an advantage when attracting and retaining top talent."
The survey findings suggest that organizations must focus on management transparency and recruiting more collaborative employees if they expect to keep employees engaged. Many respondents, however, are already practicing transparency as 82% say their managers have openly communicated their roles and responsibilities. Still, just 42% of respondents report knowing their organizations’ visions, missions and values.
The survey included more than 40,000 responses from 300 organizations.
Just Over Half of Employers Using Social Media Tools for Internal Communication
Original article towerswatson.com
Flash survey reveals little consensus on effectiveness
NEW YORK, May 23, 2013 — Despite the explosion of social media in the personal lives of many people, a new survey by global professional services company Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW) shows that just over half of employers are using social media tools to communicate and build community with employees. Further, among those employers that have embraced social media technology, there is little consensus as to which ones are most effective.
The 2013 Towers Watson Change and Communication ROI Survey found that 56% of the employers surveyed currently use various social media tools as part of their internal communication initiatives to build community — creating a sense that employees and leaders are in it together, and sharing both the challenges and rewards of work. However, when asked how they would rate the effectiveness of social media tools, only 30% to 40% of respondents rated most of the tools as highly effective. And only four in 10 (40%) rated the use of social media technology as cost effective.
EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS
|
% THAT USE |
% OF THOSE THAT USE AND FIND IT EFFECTIVE |
|
|
Instant messaging |
73% |
48% |
|
Streaming audio or video |
61% |
48% |
|
HR or other function journal or blog |
55% |
35% |
|
Enhanced online employee profiles |
54% |
37% |
|
Social networks |
53% |
29% |
|
Employee journals or blogs |
52% |
37% |
|
SMS messaging |
51% |
39% |
|
Leadership journal or blog |
48% |
36% |
|
Collaboration sites |
45% |
33% |
|
Video-sharing site |
44% |
36% |
|
Apps or other mobile approaches |
44% |
39% |
"We believe that social media can be a great tool for communicating with employees in the workplace," said Kathryn Yates, global leader of communication consulting at Towers Watson. "By its nature, social media is designed to build community and could help engage employees on key topics such as performance, collaboration, culture and values. As the need for global collaboration increases, we expect more companies will join those already leveraging social media to creatively communicate those messages."
The Towers Watson survey also found that while four in 10 employers (41%) say they are effective at building a shared experience with their employees as a whole, the percentage drops by roughly half (to 23%) when it comes to building community with remote workers.
"As today's workforce evolves, we know from our research that the growing number of remote workers are looking for clear communication, to be treated with integrity, and want coaching and support from afar. For employers to effectively engage and retain remote workers, they will need to connect them with their leaders, managers and colleagues. We think social media tools can be a real help in making this connection," said Yates.
ABOUT THE SURVEY
The 2013 Towers Watson Change and Communication ROI Survey was conducted in April 2013. A total of 290 large and midsize organizations from across North America, Europe and Asia participated in the survey.
Study reveals 10-point jump in employee engagement
Source: https://eba.benefitnews.com
By Tristan Lejeune
Employee engagement has risen in the past year, according to Temkin Group research announced Wednesday, and those companies with highly engaged employees are reaping meaningful rewards in terms of personnel and profit.
Temkin researchers say engaged employees are three times as likely to suggest improvements to a firm than those who aren’t engaged and twice as likely to do something positive for the company, even if it’s not expected of them. They are also twice as likely to stay late at work to get something done or help a coworker without being asked; a highly engaged worker is reportedly more than six times as likely to recommend a friend or relative apply for a job.
The study indicates that three-quarters of employees with companies with markedly above-average financial performance are at least moderately engaged. For employers with subpar financial results, it’s less than half.
The best news: engagement is up. After tabulating results from surveys of approximately 2,400 full-time U.S. employees from August of last year compared to August 2011, Temkin reports that 57% are moderately or highly engaged, up from 47%.
“It may not show up on any balance sheet, but a highly engaged workforce is one of the most valuable assets that an organization can possess,” says Bruce Temkin, a customer experience expert and managing partner of Temkin Group.
Small businesses fare better in the research than the very large — 60% of the populations at companies with 100 or fewer workers are engaged, versus 46% at companies with 10,000 or more employees. Travel and retail firms have the lowest engagement levels; professional services firms and construction companies have the highest.
Temkin says the most engaged employees trend toward older, male, college-educated and African-American. Forty-six percent of individual contributors are moderately or highly engaged, as are 75% of senior executives.
Leadership and Employee Engagement
By: Peter Freska
I recently climbed Mount Everest! Well, in actuality it was a simulation put together in partnership with Harvard Business School Publishing that I completed with a team. As the outline reads:
“You and four other team members will attempt to summit Mount Everest in this collaborative multi-player simulation. There are five camps or checkpoints along the route to the Summit (top) of Mt. Everest. At each camp, team members analyze information on weather, health conditions, supplies, goals, or hiking speed, and determine how much of that information to communicate to their teammates.”
Now, it is not likely that most of us will ever climb Mount Everest - but that is one of the compelling pieces to this simulation. How many of us will be put into a situation where the decisions of those around us could have life or death consequences? Or more importantly, how many of us might be put in a leadership position with life or death consequences. From squad leader to general, our military leaders understand this position and so does someone that has led a Mount Everest summit. But what about the rest of us? How do we learn to be great leaders? What are the qualities of a great leader?
There are so many questions and so many people with answers. Several years ago I attended a luncheon with keynote speaker, the late-great General Norman Schwarzkopf (Ret.). He explained that with all his military career achievements, he cannot pinpoint the one characteristic that makes a great leader. However, he did say that, “When in charge, take charge.”
In today’s work environment, we have unprecedented opportunity that comes with responsibility. We grew up with our parents and grandparents telling us that we need to carve out our piece of the world. What they didn’t tell us is that we need to know when to change course. Peter Drucker wrote in his article, Managing Oneself (Harvard Business Review, Best of HBR 1999), that, “Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves – their strengths, their values and how best they perform.” Drucker also outlined the following questions to be answered of oneself:
1. “What are my strengths?”
2. “How do I work?”
3. “What are my values?”
4. “Where do I belong?”
5. “What can I contribute?”
So, what does all of this have to do with employee benefits? PPACA, HIPAA, ERISA and a host of other acronyms flood the over stimulated world we live in. But what are the things that really matter? Credibility of a leader starts with being honest, forward-looking, inspiring, competent, and intelligent (Credibility, Kouzes and Posner, 2011). These are the things that matter. And unless these characteristics are established at the leadership level, employees will not be engaged. My partner, Holly Parsons, wrote in a previous blog that many employees do not feel connected and a recent study found that “only 29% of employees are fully engaged.” How does this affect productivity? To be direct, lack of engagement ruins productivity. This holds true with employee benefits. If they do not see the value, then there is no benefit. If the leadership team views benefits as a necessary evil, or as purely an expense – well, then I would refer them back to the five questions that Peter Drucker asked. I would also direct them to Kouzes and Posner’s book, Credibility. It starts at the top, and in today’s world it also starts with each of us – for leadership is a lifelong process.
As for my Mount Everest experience, it was great! We learned about ourselves, our communication styles and team dynamics. And yes, my Team was the only team that made it to the summit - all together as a “real team.”
Value of Employee Communication Sessions
By Jay Delahousay, Demand Media
Source: https://smallbusiness.chron.com
Despite the many ways to pass information in the workplace -- email, social media, phone, text or via the company intranet -- inadequate communication between managers and employees exists. Employees need guidance from their supervisors, and management needs input from the entire team in order for the company to succeed. To help foster an open and honest culture, many companies host communication sessions that can provide measurable benefits to all employees.
Definition
An employee communication session is a give-and-take opportunity where employees can air their concerns and where management can share what's happening in the company. Hewlett Packard, for example, holds upward of 22 communication sessions with more than 10,000 employees in attendance at sites around the world. Many companies also encourage employees to complete surveys to voice their concerns regarding management or the company in general.
Facilitates Dialogue
When a company is multifaceted, one department might not be aware of the strategic goals of another part of the business, -- or information trickles upward, but not downward. Companies such as Flextronics and Emerson Process Management use employee communication sessions. These scheduled meetings positively reinforce the objectives between management and employees, according to Alan Miu, managing director of TNT Express Worldwide. When an employee can communicate with management at its highest levels, it improves the transparency and openness in employee dialogue.
Inspires Involvement and Loyalty
Employee communications programs help give the employees the perception that they are greatly involved in the company's objectives and goals. A 2001 study by the Hay Group revealed that employees who are engaged in the direction and decisions of the organization are more productive and will stay with the company longer. The employee communication session tells the employee at all levels: "You and your opinion matters to us." When employees take this message to heart, they tend to feel more inspired and are motivated to support company goals, according to a 2008 study published in the journal of the Public Relations Society of America.
Builds Trusting Relationships
Employee communication programs can be a tool to build a trust level that encourages employees to speak freely about their work, according to Evan Reineking of HR Tools.com. When an employee feels heard and is kept well-informed, he feels respected by his employer. While a company might not be able to disclose all the details about management decisions, keeping employees in the loop with accurate and complete information makes them more likely to trust what is shared.
Minimizes Gossip
Gossip is prevalent in many workplaces, especially where communication is nonexistent and where employees are left to speculate about conditions or the company's health. When employees don't receive necessary details from their supervisors, rumors are likely to be spread, which can damage morale and cause uncertainty among employees, according to Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. Keeping employees abreast of the current climate in the workplace can alleviate the need to speculate.
Hiring rises while employee engagement falls
Source: https://www.benefitspro.com
Although employers are hiring more workers, employee engagement is down, according to Mercer’s 2012 Attraction and Retention Survey.
In fact, more than 40 percent of respondents report that they are bringing in more employees in 2012 as opposed to 27 percent in 2010, and 16 percent of respondents are cutting staff compared to 25 percent in 2010. Still, 24 percent of respondents say they are seeing lower levels of employee engagements, a jump from 13 percent in 2010.
“Employee loyalty has been eroding the past few years due to companies’ responses to the economic downturn,” says Loree Griffith, principal with Mercer’s rewards consulting business. “Actions like layoffs, pay freezes and limited training opportunities have created an evolving employment deal for employees due to uncertainty about what is expected and how employees will be rewarded. Meanwhile, firms are still aggressively managing people costs while finding ways to re-energize and re-motivate engaged employees.”
Turnover is a major contributor to the attention employers are giving employee engagement as nearly 60 percent of respondents expect to see higher voluntary turnover with the job market and economy improving. Certain jobs are in higher demand than others because of skills shortages and market demand. Among these positions are information technology, research and development and scientific engineering, and executive level and top management.
“Employees with the ‘right’ skill sets are in demand,” says Griffith. “Despite the increase in hiring, many firms are experiencing talent shortages due to critical gaps between skills employees possess and skills businesses need. Now more than ever, firms need to engage and develop their high-potential employees and critical work force segments.”
Both cash and noncash rewards remain an important part in strengthening employee engagement and retention, and this is especially true as many employers are cutting base pay increases and offering smaller bonuses, the survey finds. Merit increases are particularly popular as 95 percent of respondents providing some form of increase for 2012.
Of the noncash reward programs implemented by organizations over the past 18 months, are communicating total reward value to employees at 25 percent, use of social media to boost the employee work experience at 25 percent, formalized career paths at 22 percent, internal and external training at 22 percent and special recognition at 22 percent. These responses are similar to those from 2010, although more respondents are relying on social media and team building.
Despite the higher use of noncash rewards, respondents expect the top rewards that drive employee engagement and retention in 2012 to be base pay increases at 50 percent, vertical career progression at 47 percent and leadership development at 46 percent. Rewards that are expected to have a moderate impact on employee engagement and retention are variable pay, health care benefits, work-life programs, performance management, time-off programs and training.
“While noncash programs, like work-life initiatives and formal career paths, are important for employee engagement all the time, employers must revisit pay in light of the changing business environment to stay competitive, retain their top-performing employees and ultimately buy or build required skills for the future,” says Jeanie Adkins, partner and segment co-leader of Mercer’s rewards consulting business.
Enhancing employee engagement
By Beth Taylor
Source: https://eba.benefitnews.com
Actively disengaged employees cost more than $300 billion per year in lost productivity alone. That statistic from global consultant Gallup pinpoints the key to long-term success in a corporate wellness program - employee engagement. It is also the most challenging. Short-term success frequently plateaus until engagement slows or stops. The same employees participate in your clients' wellness initiatives, often resulting in missed opportunities to engage employees with the greatest health risks. A rising trend in wellness is to target employee engagement. The following presents three steps for helping clients improve their long-term engagement results.
Incorporate wellness in business
Business strategy that incorporates wellness initiatives sends a clear message throughout the organization that there is value in a healthy workplace. Like any area of performance, your clients should develop metrics that align with company goals, communicate objectives, and obtain feedback. Wellness strategy should focus on total health, including physical, emotional and social health. Measurable business outcomes in areas such as absenteeism, productivity, and safety incidents help refine goals.
Manufacturer Lincoln Industries has received national recognition as a case study in blending wellness initiatives with business strategy. Lincoln provided its employees with the tools for success, control over their results, and recognition through an awards program. By focusing on total health and integrating wellness, safety, and health benefits, this 500-employee company experienced more than 90% employee participation in wellness initiatives, decreased absenteeism and turnover, and lower workers' comp and health care costs.
Incorporating wellness in business strategy is the first step in engaging employees in the process. The message starts with your clients' managers.
Hold management accountable
It is common practice for businesses to hold management accountable for their unit's performance. Successful organizations recognize the link between employee engagement and performance by adding that area to management evaluations.
Management is the front line for implementing your clients' business strategy, which should include wellness initiatives. To create the right environment for a culture of wellness, managers' key performance indicators should include measurements for employee engagement. Some companies go as far as integrating bonuses for their managers for measurable successes.
Visible signs of management accountability have a huge impact on results. For example, some companies post leader boards that share wellness activities results by units, departments or teams. If your clients have a point system for recognition, they can hold managers to two levels of accountability. The first measures the timely posting of results by managers. The second measurement reflects the earned points from the managers' direct reports.
Engage employee champions
Sponsor a company event and inevitably, certain employees emerge as champions. They are the first to volunteer and are quick to lend their support. Every wellness program needs employee champions. Grassroots efforts engage employees; however, you do not want to overlook other potential champions.
Engaging the same employees for every event discourages others from participating. That pattern contributes to wellness programs launching with a bang, and then fizzling away over time.
Making assumptions about employee populations kills even the best strategy. For every organization characterized as entrepreneurial or competitive, you will find employees who don't fit that mold. The quiet "steady Eddy" at your client's fast-paced workplace may be the perfect candidate for tracking award points or providing structure for meetings.
Help your clients recognize the hidden champions or the outside-the-mold employee and understand what motivates the them. For every champion your client engages, it increases the likelihood a buddy will come along for the ride. Another way to encourage the buddy system is by rewarding points to employees when a friend accompanies them to a wellness event.
By learning the motivational push buttons for employees, your client is able to customize wellness communications and activities for better engagement. Creating a winning solution for your clients' wellness programs, like a winning sports team, requires every member of the team be engaged in the same pursuit of success.
Challenging employees boosts engagement
BY AMANDA MCGRORY
Source: https://www.benefitspro.com
Most employees don’t want to sit at their desks bored, mindlessly sift through their work and punch out when it’s time to go home. Especially in today’s competitive work environment, employees are looking for positions that are challenging, and when that need is not met, employees often become disengaged, says Sheryl Kovach, president and CEO of Kandor Group, a human resources consulting firm in Houston. Not only can this hurt retention levelsbut it can also impact the corporate culture as a whole.
“When employees don’t feel challenged, they tend to get bored, and when employees get bored, generally, their motivation levels decrease,” Kovach says. “Their degree of overall commitment toward the organization begins to suffer. Symptoms of boredom are decreased motivation and commitment, an increase in errors, lack of an optimistic attitude, increased absenteeism and even increased turnover. When these types of symptoms are manifested in an organization, they’re contagious. Others start to see and feel the effect of that attitude.”
The top performers at a company are especially prone to feeling unchallenged in their roles, Kovach says. Generally, top performers excel quickly and have go-getter attitudes. With that kind of motivation, high performers have to be stimulated constantly in order to operate at such efficient levels.
To prevent employees from becoming unchallenged in their roles, managers must open communication lines, Kovach says. On a regular basis, managers should discuss career goals, how success is defined and workplace challenges with employees. Managers should also take the time to find out from employees what they need from a managerial level to develop within their roles. While many employers offer career development programs, they are often underused.
“A lot of times companies have career development programs, but none of the employees participate in them,” Kovach says. “The main reasons I see for this is the employees either don’t know they exist, and the managers in charge of driving career development in their employees are not promoting them. The managers need to be educated on how these programs work, so they can help encourage further development.”
Many successful development programs allow employees to test and apply their knowledge, skills and abilities that they may not be able to fully apply in their current roles, Kovach says. This might include tasking an employee with a project that includes heightened responsibilities on a larger scope.
Performance reviews can also help keep employees from becoming unchallenged in the workplace, Kovach says. With performance reviews, a manager can measure how an employee has been performing relative to the goals and expectations of the position while identifying any gaps in knowledge or skills. This helps a manager determine whether the employee is ready for new challenges and development opportunities.
“Performance reviews can help shed light on whether employees have really mastered their positions,” Kovach says. “If they’re hitting that level of mastery, in order to keep them engaged and retain them, we have to keep them challenged.”
Are You Listening to the Right Employees?
Source: www.weknownext.com
By Jason Lauritsen
Employee engagement surveys are a pretty big deal in a lot companies. It makes sense that leaders want to understand how engaged their employees are with their business. After all, who wouldn’t want employees who are switched on and putting in extra effort in their jobs? It also makes sense that an all employee survey is the most efficient way to gather this kind of information.
Then, it’s time to make some changes—presumably changes that will increase our employee engagement level and then our company results.
But, before you go and invest too much time and money in making changes based on your engagement survey results, ask yourself this one, really important question:
How do you know if you are listening to the right employees?
Not all employees are created equal. All leaders know that. There are employees who are driving our business results and those, at the other end of the spectrum, who are hanging around waiting to see if we’ll ever get up the guts to fire them. And certainly, the opinions of different employees like these shouldn’t be treated as equal when it comes to how to manage the business.
The opinions of highly accountable, emotionally inexpensive employees who exhibit a high degree of commitment to results and who seek continuous improvement are highly credible. These employees take responsibility for results even when they miss the mark. They also mitigate the risks of a plan and make great team members. They raise the bar for those around them. These are great employees. And the exciting news is that they are probably pretty engaged in your business by nature of their high personal accountability. They aren’t getting wrapped up in unnecessary drama and distraction at work because they are too busy making things happen. So, when these employees speak, you should listen intently to what they say. When they ask for something, it’s likely to be a resource that will help them create more value for you and your customers. These employees have highly credible opinions about how to make your organization not only more engaging, but more productive.
On the other hand, the opinions of employees who exhibit signs of an entitled or victim mindset are simply not credible. These employees focus on what they haven’t got, they wait for things to happen instead of making them happen, and they find excuses and blame others when things don’t go as planned. Their primary focused is on being comfortable, not being productive. And they are full of opinions, bordering on being noisy, about how you could make their working environment work better for them. And as a reward for you, if you give them what they want, they will immediately focus on what else they don’t have. These employees drag down your environment, acting like a parking brake that tries to hold you in place.
So, whose opinion are you looking for in your engagement survey?