The bottom-line impact of creating a positive employee experience

The bottom-line impact of creating a positive employee experience

Creating – and then maintaining – a positive employee experience is no simple task, but it is achievable if you focus on building an entire culture around it. What’s harder to quantify is whether it will improve the business’s bottom line. The short answer: it absolutely will. But how?

Happy staff = greater profits

There’s no doubt that unhappy employees are more disengaged, which can have a negative effect on profits – in Australia, disengaged employees cost businesses approximately $70 billion every year.

But the opposite is also true: happy staff are more engaged, and high engagement leads to greater profits. That’s why smart companies invest in retaining their staff. It’s no wonder, especially because compared to investing a modest amount into an employee-retention strategy, the cost of replacing an employee can skyrocket to 150% of their salary.

Here are some facts about engaging your team for a positive impact on the bottom line:

• 83% of employees who are challenged regularly and given more opportunities to grow are more likely to stay with the company.
• Employee engagement programs can boost an organisation’s profits by $2,400 per employee per year.
• Employees who say their voices are heard in the workplace are 4.6 times more empowered to perform their best work.

Build a work environment that makes your employees want to stay

This feeds into the idea of creating a complete ‘culture’ around the employee experience, and it relates to both employees and the management team.

The foundations of success must be structured, which is why it’s important to provide clear expectations to employees. Outline the company’s vision, goals, values and expected behaviours, and make sure all policies and communication expectations (email, phone, report formats, etc.) are easy to understand and accessible.

Once the foundation is set, you can focus on what employees want most from their managers: recognition and support. What’s crucial at this stage is showing your team that you – and the business as a whole – care about their wellbeing and their future. Being proud of your people and committing to developing their skills is a sure-fire way to keep the best employees around long-term.

Consolidation frees up funds

Some people believe attrition and turnover rates are the same thing, but they are actually quite different. There are also good and bad forms attrition – with losing a star employee due to poor management considered ‘bad’ attrition.

Attrition simply means a reduction in your team due to people retiring or the business consolidating certain roles. A healthy business is one that keeps its best people happy and always looks to eliminate waste. So low attrition means less money spent on hiring and training, and more on investing in the business and its team.

Long-term employees provide more value than you may think

It’s a common misconception that long-term employees must be (a) costing the company money because their salary has continued to rise over the years, and (b) disengaged because they have been doing the same tasks for years. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Long-term employees have proven their loyalty by sticking with the business through its highs and lows. More than that, they understand the market better than most, and they have built strong business relationships over the years – tapping into this knowledge base can do wonders for the company’s bottom line.

Rather than pushing long-term employees out, the most successful businesses focus on retaining them. They are knowledgeable, capable and have seen how the company has evolved over the years – such a valuable commodity is worth far more than cheap new labour.

It’s all about communication

Above all else, a positive employee experience is defined within a work environment that communicates well. To be engaged in their work, you must first engage with your team. That means in-person dialogue with ongoing feedback. It also means creating an engaging routine built on a system of short-term and long-term goals. Recognition and rewards software can see employees challenge themselves on a daily basis, improving productivity, wellbeing and engagement levels in the process.

‘Communication’ can mean many things – but when it comes to improving the company’s bottom line, the best communication involves listening, observing, evaluating, trusting and appreciating every member of your team.

Redii provides recognition and rewards programs to facilitate communication with your employees and promote a positive employee experience. Request a demo today!

Sources

https://portal.engineersaustralia.org.au/news/what-employee-disengagement-costing-you
https://www.roberthalf.com.au/management-advice/team/employee-retention
https://www.saplinghr.com/blog/8-stats-employee-experience
https://www.salesforce.com/contents/impact-of-equality/
http://www.business.vic.gov.au/hiring-and-managing-staff/staff-management/engage-staff-and-reduce-turnover
https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/retention-rate-vs-attrition-rate-24414.html
https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/the-value-of-retaining-long-term-employees-during-radical-corporate-change/
https://hiring.monster.ca/hr/hr-best-practices/workforce-management/employee-retention-strategies/staff-retention-saves-time-money.aspx
https://www.hhr.com.au/costs-of-employee-turnover/

Productivity and performance: The employee experience

Productivity and performance: The employee experience

Employee engagement is only one part of the equation when it comes to a complete employee experience. There are several factors you need to consider and strategise for when determining how to boost your team’s productivity and performance. Here’s why a positive employee experience can deliver both.

Positive employee experiences come in all shapes and sizes

Creating a positive employee experience for your team doesn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. While you can build a solid strategy around improving engagement and generating a better workplace culture, how that strategy is delivered depends on a number of factors including your people, branding, reputation and more.

With happy employees being up to 20% more productive at work, and a better employee experience translating to fewer sick days and increased profits for the business, it’s well worth investing in.

Lower turnover and better ROI

The term ‘job withdrawal’ can refer to employee turnover, burnout and even retaliation against the company itself. But happy and satisfied workers have been shown to demonstrate exactly the opposite of that. Instead, the Langley Group found a happy team is “more likely to go beyond their job requirements, spread goodwill, help others, make constructive contributions and commit to developing themselves within the organisation”.

If you’re unsure where to begin when it comes to making employees happier, start with recognition. For several years now, Google has implemented a recognition and rewards program for its staff. The result? 86% of Google employees say they have “high job satisfaction”.

This satisfaction – derived from employees feeling recognised – can actually generate a return on investment for your business. By creating a cycle of success within your team, productivity and performance will skyrocket. And with highly engaged workforces outperforming their peers by 147% in earnings per share, the ROI is obvious.

Employee wellness impacts your brand’s reputation

Making sure your employees are happy and healthy is no doubt imperative for modern companies to thrive, but at the end of the day the only thing the C-suite wants to know is if the business is profitable.

But ‘profitable’ isn’t just about hard figures. In fact, brand reputation has a significant sway on the profitability of a company. And employees can make or break a brand’s reputation depending on their wellbeing. Experts say the reputation of a company is moulded and conveyed by employees and their behaviours, so focusing on the happiness and performance of your team will ultimately deliver positive results for the profitability of your business.

Positive employee experience = better productivity and performance

It’s worth recognising that productivity and performance are not the same. Productivity can be measured in hard numbers, while performance is about completing assigned tasks up to the expectations of the business. So if a team member completes 20 tasks in a day, that’s their productivity. The quality of those completed tasks is their performance. This distinction is important because while both are connected, they need to be managed separately. A high performer can be unproductive, finishing five tasks to a high standard but missing other deadlines. On the other hand, a super-productive employee may be exceeding their targets but not delivering quality work.

As a manager, it is your responsibility to recognise the difference and apply appropriate feedback techniques to ensure both are up to standard. Creating a positive culture can improve the employee experience, and therefore automatically boost productivity and performance levels.

Motivation starts from the top – by recognising and rewarding your team, a positive employee experience is much easier to attain.

Redii provides recognition and rewards programs to keep your business productive and performing at its best. Request a demo.

Sources

https://www.saplinghr.com/blog/8-stats-employee-experience
http://blog.langleygroup.com.au/happiness-at-work-the-return-on-investment/
https://www.businessinsider.com/payscale-best-companies-to-work-for-in-america-2016-4//?r=AU&IR=T#1-google-50
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236927/employee-engagement-drives-growth.aspx
https://www.hrzone.com/engage/employees/engagement-and-corporate-brand-reputation-whats-the-link
https://www.healthbydesign.com.au/productivity-performance/

3 signs your culture is creating a negative employee experience

3 signs your culture is creating a negative employee experience

To understand how to create – and deliver – a positive employee experience, you first need to recognise that work culture encompasses more than just the attitudes of your employees. It involves beliefs, thought processes, company ideologies, principles, and more.

For your team to get the most out of their employee experience, you need to stay on top of toxic work cultures that could be feeding into a negative overall experience. Here are three common signs of negative work culture – and how to fix them.

1. Excessive overtime and workloads are considered ‘normal’

A recent report on overtime in Australia found that across all forms of employment, Aussies work an average of 5.1 hours of unpaid overtime every week. That represents a total value of overtime in the national economy of more than $130 billion – and the figure is only rising each year.

Overtime is a fact of life in some industries, and taking on extra workloads is sometimes a necessity. But if excessive overtime and workloads are more often the rule rather than the exception, alarms should be ringing.

Thankfully, as with most business issues, you can tackle productivity and performance issues with communication. Speak to your staff about why they feel overtime and extra workloads are normalised in the workplace. From there, you can define strategies to overcome them. One option may be hiring extra staff, while hitting targets despite being down a co-worker could be rewarded through a workplace recognition system.

2. Problem behaviours are more common than not

‘Problem’ behaviours can very easily transform into ‘toxic’ habits if not monitored – and addressed – from the beginning. No matter a person’s skills or aptitude to juggle various tasks, it is ultimately their behaviour at work that will determine whether they are a good long-term fit.

A few common behaviours that crop up in businesses with a negative work culture include:

• Excessive absenteeism: Sure, if an employee is sick or needs to take leave for a personal matter then that is completely acceptable. But if patterns start to emerge where one or more employees regularly takes leave, especially during busy periods or times when group meetings are booked, then it could be cause for concern.
• Employee cliques: Team camaraderie is fantastic for generating wellbeing and creating a positive work environment. But when that camaraderie deviates into small-group ‘cliques’, issues can crop up. Whether they intend to or not, workplace cliques can make others feel left out, and if left unaddressed can even feed into bullying behaviours.
• Managerial favouritism: Favouritism can rear its head in even the friendliest workplaces. So be cautious of spending too much time with one or more of your employees. Nothing destroys productivity faster than people who don’t feel they are treated equally by their superiors.

3. Employees have a negative attitude towards management

You want your best people to stick around, and that starts with being an attentive manager. Don’t confuse autonomy with letting staff run free. Even your smartest employees want to have a positive working relationship with their manager.

A common mistake is managers who fail to find a balance in their management style. At one end of the spectrum is micromanagement, where you nit-pick over every part of a person’s job to the point of actually doing their job for them. This disrespects your employee’s ability to perform even basic tasks and can quickly spiral out of control. On the other end, not enough management can have a negative impact on the entire business – if you aren’t monitoring your team’s output, how can you be sure everyone is striving towards the same goals?

How can you create a positive work culture?

It won’t happen overnight, but turning a negative workplace into a positive one is possible:

• Keep the manager’s door open.
• Make your vision statement easily accessible.
• Appreciate your employees. A reward and recognition system could be the ideal solution.
• Seek positive attributes in new hires.
• Get employees involved in the company’s daily operations.
• Review your workplace’s culture – at least monthly – with interactive brainstorming sessions.

Redii provides recognition and rewards programs to engage your employees. Request a demo!

Sources

https://www.futurework.org.au/unpaid_overtime_diverts_130_billion_per_year
https://www.smh.com.au/public-service/all-work-no-play-regulating-our-outofcontrol-overtime-20161201-gt1fe2.html
https://www.fastcompany.com/3023318/how-to-overcome-the-6-most-toxic-employee-behaviors
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/employees/how-to-manage-a-negative-employee/
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/lack-communication-cause-conflict-workplace-10470.html
http://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/blog/7-ways-to-help-fix-poor-communication-in-the-workplace
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/create-positive-work-culture-10587.html