What the Research Says…….
Research has shown it is best for a company to move beyond a traditional employee training and/or professional development curriculum to an employee engagement strategy that is more comprehensive and fully responsive, and that spans across its diverse workforce pools (i.e., millennials, Generation Xs, Generation Zs, and pre-retirement employees).
It is established that employees are not engaged if they are bored, do not feel like they are contributing to a larger mission, or are not adapting to changes, within and beyond the workplace. This has a negative impact on productivity, customer satisfaction, and financial outcomes. Engagement is therefore the key to a successful, sustainable business.
It is Time to Improve the Employee’s Experience!
“…it’s likely that companies pursuing millennial-specific employee engagement strategies are wasting time, focus, and money. They would be far better served to focus on factors that lead all employees to join, stay, and perform at their best” (Source: Society of Human Resource Managers 2015 Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report)
“Generation X employees were more likely to report paid training as a contributor to their job satisfaction compared with Baby Boomers….Education benefits are vital for any organization looking to attract and retain a great workforce” (Source: Society of Human Resource Managers 2015 Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report)
What Organizations Can Do to Enhance their Employees’ Experience……
The right degree of employee engagement yields an optimal corporate experience! The ultimate outcomes are to achieve employee retention, productivity, and loyalty; customer satisfaction; favorable company reputation; and overall stakeholder value. Today’s Perspectives can help companies adopt the following employee engagement strategies to realize these outcomes.
Go Above and Beyond: To stay competitive with recruiting and encourage retention, benefits must go beyond traditional paid time off and health insurance. Paid continuing education as a benefit promotes greater employee engagement which directly contributes to productivity, motivation,and job satisfaction. And unique benefits make companies more attractive to recruits in today’s competitive hiring environment.
Unconventional Engagement Strategies: Employers should provide opportunities and other unique benefits that not only promote employee inclusion, innovation, and information-sharing, but should also promote continual employee engagement, personal growth and corporate well-being. Investing in employees’ personal growth and knowledge of social and cultural issues, results in a more intellectual, globally and socially aware workforce that views its employer as caring about them and valuing their development – a significant positive for all employees.
On-site Employee Engagement Activities: Employers should provide avenues for on-site employee engagement activities because it is costly (in terms of price per employee and productivity lost due to transit) to conduct off-site activities. In addition, unless an employee is notably motivated, oftentimes education for the sake of personal development is pushed off due to difficulty scheduling, time away from the office, and limited access to desired content. While theoretically more affordable, webinars deliver less value due to lower engagement and attendance rates.