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Even after assembling a team of qualified employees, a company cannot start coasting. In fact, keeping those employees interested in their work is just as important for the long-term success of any company as making consistent sales and gaining new customers. Since disengaged employees cost the U.S. an approximate $450 billion to $550 billion in lost productivity each year, neither large nor small businesses can afford to neglect employee engagement.
Fortunately, there are countless methods for keeping employees engaged from day one to twenty years down the line. Many businesses find that staff management software offers a convenient, one-stop-shop service for collecting these solutions in a centralized system.
What is Employee Engagement?
It would be easy to assume that employee engagement is the same as employee satisfaction, but there are a few distinctions to be made. Employee satisfaction measures only how content an employee is with their job conditions, while engagement measures employees’ enthusiasm for and commitment to the work itself.
Engaged employees are more likely to go the extra mile and become top performers, spending more “discretionary effort” — effort above and beyond the bare minimum — to move the company forward.
Providing a Strong Framework
Staff management software provides a strong framework for the fundamental elements of any job – offering sophisticated tools for scheduling, payroll management, automated workflows, and more. Having a transparent system in place for these employment basics helps employees feel both supported and autonomous.
When employees can perform simple tasks like requesting leaves or schedule shifts themselves and can easily access salary and benefits information, they are more likely to feel independent, not micromanaged.
Most staff management software is also designed to help with onboarding. With approximately one-third of hires quitting within six months of starting a job, the onboarding process is critical for setting clear objectives, delivering necessary training, and helping new hires form meaningful relationships with the rest of the team. Using software to streamline this process delivers a crucial early step in making employees feel engaged right from the start.
Communicating Feedback and Goals
Employers must maintain consistently strong communication with employees concerning their professional goals and performance expectations. Research suggests, in fact, that many employees feel recognition from team leaders would help improve their productivity. Millennials, in particular, benefit from immediate recognition, not just yearly reviews.
Fortunately, staff management software offers multiple ways for supervisors to provide timely and encouraging feedback, from tracking employees’ individual progress and distributing performance appraisals to allowing employees themselves to request feedback. Employees who feel recognized for their positive work will feel more fulfilled in their position, and thus, more engaged overall.
Offering Career Development
From on-the-job training to promotions, offering paths to professional advancement is one of the most important ways to keep employees interested. Even overall job satisfaction may not be enough to retain employees who feel underutilized, bored, or stifled in their current role.
While not every job can offer monetary promotions with each milestone, staff management software allows for career opportunities and rewards to take many enticing forms.
Showing appreciation in any form keeps employees committed to their work, helps prevent burnout, and promotes an overall culture of employee engagement.
