A secure job, fair pay and good working conditions?
That would have been the most common answer some time ago. Today it is way more complex. While these may still hold true for some employees, in this changed environment there are now a variety of considerations.
Top of the list is what the employee experience within your organisation is like for each individual employee.
Does your Company satisfy the workplace needs of each and every one of your employees? Do you explore with your employees to find out what these are?
Whatever their individual workplace needs may be, the solution to satisfying these needs and therefore promoting high motivation, lies in aligning employee experience with engagement and the organisational environment in which they work.
Enhance the employee experience
From the moment a potential employee casts their eye over the job advertisement the employee experience begins. When they go through the application process, receive communication about the role, the interview, the remuneration and conditions negotiation, the offer or the regret letter, the discussion about the start date, the on-boarding process and the induction, and then the day-to-day working, the employee experience is being established and burned in for that employee. It will also establish your true employment brand and indicate to an employee if working for your business truly gives them what they want.
Lift engagement
Engagement is one of the key priorities for any employer to focus on. Not only is it about providing meaningful work that is understood and enjoyed by every employee, but it also embraces the whole culture of your organisation and how it feels to be part of it.
Creating an environment where employees WANT to be involved and committed is the key to high motivation. This responsibility rests with you – the employer. What can you do?
- Find out what your employees want from their workplace
- Find out what they think and feel about working for you
Do this through a combination of short sharp engagement surveys and discussion groups.
- Put in place some fixes that address any of their concerns
- Embrace their suggestions and improvements
- Measure their thoughts and feelings again
In these ways you will gain some understanding of how engaged your whole team is with your business. And then you will be able to take steps to enhance their engagement.
Promote a great culture
Review all your systems, processes and people initiatives to see if they truly do enhance the employee experience. You may have to introduce new or fine-tune current systems. You may have to make some big changes.
Ideally you would tie all this together as part of your People Strategy driven by a practical HR Plan.
In order to implement a program that enhances the employee experience and lifts morale and motivation, draw up an HR Plan. This sets out what you have decided to do to improve your organisational culture in a straight-forward and practical way. It gives you targets, deadlines and a way of measuring your progress.
Here at Positive People we have been assisting businesses optimize their people contribution for over 25 years.
Call us on 09-445 1077 or email us at info@positivepeople.co.nz to talk about how we can help.