There is not only a pandemic sweeping across the European continent. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way businesses are operated. Lots of people that work in the service industry are now working from home, with complete offices being closed. The result? A completely different dynamic of what a company means.
People find it harder to identify themselves with a company, as the concept of it is changing. How can we understand what is happening? One way to measure this is by looking at employee engagement.
Understand employee engagement
The concept of employee engagement looks at how the employees of an organisation look at their work. Do they get empowered from what they do? Do they feel valued for what they deliver? Are they aligned with the core values of the organisation? All these elements have an effect on the engagement of employees. In turn, the engagement is typically known to boost productivity and to give a feel of unity. This also means that you will have a lower employee turnover rate.
Measuring the engagement
Although the concept might seem straightforward, its measurement is not. It is not that easy to go into the brains of your employees, is it? There are multiple methods to understand how employees feel about their organisation. A good way to start the discussion is having dedicated meetings in small teams. In these meetings, employees can express how they are feeling and what their concerns are. The meeting by itself can already boost engagement, as employees feel themselves heard. Besides that, it creates a common understanding of what everyone is going through and how to improve the situation.
Having a statistical approach
Smaller team settings can help you get an initial idea about the feelings of your employees. However, if you want to turn to a more large scale setting a survey would make more sense. These surveys are based on statistical methods and allow you to compare the outcomes of different teams. Hereby you can compare and see what is the possible effect of a lack of engagement.
Technology comes to the rescue, again
Just like the scientific technology that is currently helping us produce a vaccine, technology can help get insights into the engagement as well. There are many companies out there that provide standardised surveys and handy mobile-friendly solutions, such as www.effectory.com. This company not only provides the survey, but also provides interesting analytical tools to understand the outcomes. Of course, it also makes sense to compare to your peers. This is tackled by providing insights through benchmarking tools. These tools also include improvement points and lessons learned from other companies in the industry. This allows you to actively follow-up on the engagement and improve it along the way. Using this approach, you will see engagement increasing and so will the productivity.
