That notwithstanding, a bigger percentage of the organizations are struggling with finding the right ways to get their employees engaged especially in the post-COVID-19 world.
There are different ways through which such organizations can implement employee engagement, but how is it measured?
Finding Out How Engaged Employees are Currently
Organizations need to find ways of measuring their employee engagement for them to know their levels of engagement and come up with solutions to help them improve them.
To start with, they can invest in measuring employee engagement through a survey. After that, they can share the results with their employees and then act on them. The main purpose should be turning data into information and then insight. This will help improve employee engagement.
Things to Know and Do To Improve Employee Engagement Post-COVID-19
Work-Life Harmony and People-First Culture
The COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations to find ways of elevating their work culture. They have been left with no option but to build a harmonious culture centered around their employees.
This is important when it comes to improving their employees’ engagement because they have to consider their employees as people before anything else. It also helps in developing a feeling of respect and care among all employees in the organization.
In addition, organizations need to find flexibility in the way their employees work for them to improve their work-life balance. This shows that they (organizations) care about the other activities that their employees engage in, something that is important in improving employee engagement.
Recognition and Rewards
Employees expectations from their organizations have been changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though things such as paid leaves, salary raises, and health insurance were among the most important things to employees, they are no longer as important today.
Even though monetary factors are still effective when motivating employees, other things such as recognition and rewards are playing an important role in improving employee engagement.
The modern workforce does not just look for good pay. They also want to be rewarded or recognized at the workplace especially when they meet targets or do something for the benefit of the organization. Doing this shows that organizations are focusing on the needs of their employees.
Career Growth and Development
Today, employees want to work in organizations that provide them with a clear path for the growth and development of their careers. This does not just mean that they get promotions from time to time, but also professional and personal development of their careers.
The modern workforce will have no problem in leaving an organization that does not offer them any form of growth or development. It, therefore, means that business leaders need to ensure that they have put measures in place for continuous development and learning for their employees.
Organizations should always provide new skills, identify skill gaps, and offer their employees an opportunity to learn new things that will improve their performance and contribute to the success of the organization.
Adoption of Modern Technology
Technology advancement has reshaped the modern workplace. In addition, most tasks in organizations are handled by millennials, something that has made modern technology quite important when it comes to employee engagement.
Todays workforce has grown up in a world where they use different technological tools to run their tasks. Similarly, they want to employ such or similar tools even in the workforce, meaning that organizations need to invest in them to keep the employees engaged.
Organizations also stand to benefit because apart from technology helping them keep their employees engaged, it also improves their efficiency. For instance, the use of AI platforms and Cloud services has improved performance and collaboration, especially during remote working due to COVID-19.
Conclusion
COVID-19 has played a key role in changing expectations when it comes to employees and their organizations. Initially, most employees looked at things such as recognition, better pay, and promotions when it came to their employee engagement.
Today, health insurance, working from home or remote working, flexibility at work, as well as rewards and recognition, have become more important.
For organizations to be successful and to meet their expectations, they need to understand their employees and provide them with everything that they need to improve their engagement and meet their expectations.