How to Understand Employment Engagement & Make Improvements

The employee experience is the idea that your staff are more than just workers earning a paycheck, a mere statistic within a company that you have no connection with. In the same way your customers need to be looked after, your employees also need care and attention whether your team is hundreds or thousands of people deep, or a more modest headcount.

In a contact center environment, the former may apply with multiple teams all working hard for the common goal of customer satisfaction and company success. So, how should the modern workplace approach employee engagement and where can improvements be made? Many companies are getting their EX right and helping staff be more engaged, more productive, and more loyal. As none of these things can be guaranteed, a strategy around the employee experience is needed. Here’s why it’s important to understand employee engagement and start improving it.

Does Employee Engagement really make a Difference?

The engagement of your employees becomes very noticeable to customers, and it should be even more so for line managers and team leaders. If someone is engaged in their work, it shines through whilst doing their day-to-day tasks. They will seem happier, more productive, and will perform better. It’s no surprise that employees that build a rapport with customers are also the most engaged. According to research by Gallup, engaged employees perform better with 18% higher productivity, 23% higher profitability, and 10% increased customer loyalty and engagement than disengaged employees, clearly showing the benefits of an engaged workforce.

With 85% of employees worldwide not being engaged in the workplace, this is a huge amount of people that are either frustrated with their current role or the overall employee experience. This can lead to those disengaged to either actively look for other jobs, meaning higher employee churn for companies, or stay but not work to the best of their ability. So, why do employees become disengaged?

Since the pandemic, a reported 53% of employees feel more emotionally exhausted and 57% are feeling greater anxiety which in turn affects their work. This could be related to staffing issues, meaning employees have higher workloads and more expectations placed on them. According to Deloitte, recognition at work is highly correlated with improving employee engagement, with engagement, productivity, and performance 14% higher than in businesses with no recognition programme. This indicates a lack of communication internally when things go well for many businesses. There is a myriad of reasons that could affect any one employee, so finding a balance with a strategic approach can work out best.

Why Improving Employee Engagement is so Important

Not being able to understand employee engagement factors can start to impact many parts of a company. It can impact CX and brand loyalty and can affect revenues. As many as 80% of executives rate EX as important for their company. Having engaged employees is more than just gauging their happiness, after all, some may tell you what you want to hear rather than be honest about the situation, so finding ways to understand employee engagement may take some trial and error.

For an employee to feel engaged they need to feel like their work is meaningful and that they ar e making a difference when looking at the bigger picture. This is where communication is key and will help them feel valued as well as trusted. Helping employees feel confident in their ability and their part within the company is crucial. Companies can’t expect their workers to feel happy just because they are working and being paid – it’s all about company culture.

How to Improve Employee Engagement

• Improve communication – communicating with your employees, especially with hybrid or remote teams is vital. Help them feel a part of the company’s vision and success by keeping them updated with regular communication. Also, improved internal communication between teams will ensure employees understand tasks and avoid miscommunication, ensuring less frustration. Interaction between your employees should be encouraged rather than frowned upon, helping to build a strong bond in your teams.

• Focus on employee wellbeing – ensuring your employees feel supported is vital, so checking in with them regularly will have a huge effect on their engagement. Introducing an employee wellness initiative is a great way to do so, as it shows you care as a company about their wellbeing. This can be as simple as holding open forums to providing time within their work schedule to practise mindfulness.

• Share company values – companies with defined brand values show their employees, and their customers, who they are and what they are about. This helps to align employees with their own core values to create a connection that shows you are in it together, working towards the same vision for the company and the wider world. This goes hand in hand with improving company culture.

• Encourage feedback – actively seeking and encouraging feedback shows your employees that you are an open company that wants to improve processes and create a best place to work. Employees need assurance their opinions matter and that your company actively listens to them to help drive the company forward.

• Align company culture – all employees should be aligned with your company culture, helping create consistency and awareness of what everyone is working towards. This shared vision will also help to make work a more enjoyable place to be and a better working environment. Companies that regularly top engagement surveys or best place to work schemes generally have a great company culture.

There are no quick fixes when it comes to employee engagement, and those that succeed in having engaged employees put a lot of work into building this. Finding what works for your company all starts with speaking to your employees and collecting their valuable feedback. This provides a stepping stone to work from and will enhance employee engagement effectively.

Having an engaged workforce and aligned company culture is behind our own success here at Ventrica. As customer experience specialists, we know that to deliver consistently excellent customer service and CX, we need the support of an engaged team, and we are fortunate to have our hard-working Ventricans share in our vision.

To discover how we can help improve your customer experiences with BPO services, contact us today to learn more.