What are the tell-tale signs that your workers are disengaging from their job and the company?, asks Dawn Smedley, Head of Culture at WorkBuzz, Typically, they’ll be less communicative, distancing themselves from their managers, peers and the company as a whole. Their output will probably reduce, and they won’t be forthcoming with offering help or advice. The business impacts of a disengaged workforce are considerable – poor talent attraction and retention, a lack of innovation and low productivity.
So how do you nurture an engaged workforce? The key is to create a culture that workers actively want to be a part of, and this starts with finding out what your employees think, how they feel and what they want. When your people are deskless logistics workers, you can start with asking for feedback in face-to-face meetings, although this isn’t always practical. It’s also questionable whether you’d get honest feedback from employees when you ask them in-person. The key is to use anonymised digital surveys that ask some quick and simple questions.
The surveys should ideally take place a few times a year with each focusing on a key area you want to drill into. This could be learning and development opportunities or inclusivity/belonging, for instance. The surveys can also be used to seek feedback on a particular initiative the company has planned. But the questions must be tailored for a neuro-diverse workforce and the underlying technology mobile-enabled so the surveys can be completed on mobile phones, tablets and ‘kiosks’ in offices/depots.
The answers can then be easily collated and analysed, and the insights used to guide the company’s direction.
So, what will you gain from finding out your workers’ opinions and needs? Firstly, you’ll learn which elements of your business are ‘red flags’, requiring immediate attention. This might be poor managers, inadequate career progression opportunities and/or employee wellbeing. It should also be possible to drill-down further into each element to determine why employees feel the way they do. For instance, some workers may feel they’re poorly managed due to a lack of recognition for their achievements and not feeling empowered to make decisions. Similarly, some employees may be suffering with stress and anxiety due to a sudden increase in workload or because they’re teammates are unsupportive and exclusionary.
The survey findings will also reveal which elements of your business aren’t an immediate risk but nonetheless need improving, as well as those which are working well and so could be replicated across departments and teams.
Obtaining honest employee feedback on plans/initiatives – such as proposed changes to working arrangements or reporting structures – will also help leaders to decide whether the initiative will be welcomed or met with disapproval. If the latter is the case, then the plan might be refined or altered altogether.
With a treasure trove of employee insights to hand, leaders have a clear understanding about employee sentiment as well as what is and isn’t working. They can then put together organisation-wide plans as well as more specific department and manager-focused plans in order to nurture a positive and thriving organisational culture. Such a culture naturally leads to higher levels of employee engagement.
The very act of asking employees what they think and then acting on the feedback also improves employee engagement in itself. Workers feel listened to, considered and empowered to bring about change.
And so, when it comes to improving employee engagement levels, leaders must nurture a workplace culture that’s attractive to both new and existing talent. And by listening to employees to find out how this can be best achieved, leaders are far more likely to deliver the right kind of changes – ones that are truly transformational!
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