Moving into 2023, employees want more and are getting more than ever before: with technologies advancing, more jobs being added to the market, and open communication bringing new employee benefit rhetoric. To maintain positive relationships, employers need to leverage their resources to address employee satisfaction and engagement.
Effectively addressing satisfaction and engagement can feel like a financial burden for employers already feeling strapped from the pandemic and a struggling economy. So, what is the next step?
Looking at cost-effective solutions.
Here are five solutions to keep your employees satisfied and engaged.
1. Communication tactics
Building healthy communication within your organization creates a sense of belonging and an atmosphere of innovation and collaboration. And it's completely free. Building employee engagement and allowing your team to develop better relationships with coworkers can connect them to the company and improve morale.
Allow employees to find their communication styles by opening more channels for interaction. Make time for one-on-one meetings, especially when working remotely, and allow your team to stray away from work-only conversations so people can connect and talk about more than work-related topics. These tactics strengthen trust, dependency, and team dynamics.
2. Equip your managers
Poor managerial tactics can reduce job satisfaction and cause retention rates to plummet. To resist this downward slide, ensure your managers are well-equipped with tactics for positive management practices.
For employees to stay at your company, they must feel heard and respected. Take time to teach your managers the value of learning about their employees, ways to shift their methods to accommodate different learning styles, and break away from harsh, degrading language. Using positive people management, your managers can continuously contribute to retention.
3. Employee relationships (prioritize culture and connection)
For many, the reason they stay at a company isn't just because of the compensation and benefits available but for the relationships they build.
The more comfortable employees feel among their peers, the more interactive and engaged they are in their work and their team's success. After all, no one wants to work on a team full of strangers! Cultivating friendships increases engagement at work, leading to the prioritization of a better work-life balance.
Take the time to carve out spaces for employees to develop strong relationships with one another. This can lead to improved team accountability, support, and emotional benefits, and profoundly affect their health and wellbeing.
4. Provide opportunities for growth
Rather than always looking to add new roles, push your team's potential and reward them for their success by honing their skillsets and using them to your advantage. Whether this is learning a new task, achieving a certification/designation, or mentoring and building their confidence, the recognition and support you provide to developing your employee's skills not only demonstrates how much you value them but garners mutual commitment to one another's success.
5. Provide flexibility (hybrid, remote work)
Maintaining sustainable work-life balance is far more complex than it sounds. Your employees have their own lives with family to care for, personal matters to manage, and goals and dreams to achieve. Rather than disciplining them for missed days or slow work, show how much you care by providing flexibility regarding their personal needs. Support them with paid time off, mental health days, or dependent care solutions, and provide a sustainable environment that garners trust and loyalty.
Take a constructive approach
Losing an employee can have a significant impact on your business. With the loss of institutional knowledge, impacted team morale, and the cost of replacement, it's a much better strategy to approach retention proactively. Ask your employees what social solutions could be implemented to increase satisfaction and engagement. Conversations about how to improve the overall employee experience is a great way to uncover effective solutions together.
Content provided by Q4intelligence
Photo by lacheev
