After an extended period out of the office, more and more workers re-evaluate their priorities and quit their jobs. Countries worldwide have begun to face what’s been dubbed the Great Resignation.
A significant departure presents a potential crisis for businesses already struggling to get back on their feet after multiple lockdowns and boosting morale is a topic in many business leaders’ minds. If managed effectively, employers can turn the Great Resignation into a revival for their companies while creating a more engaged, productive, cohesive and loyal team.
Six Tips for Boosting Morale Remotely
Here are five tips business leaders can take to turn the Great Resignation into a “Great Reengagement” for their companies:
1. Recognition
Employees are more engaged when they feel like their contribution has been recognised. Although remuneration, benefits and rewards are common ways to show your employee that you value their input, you might not be financially stable enough to give these rewards post-covid. So what do you do?
Fortunately, many employees value recognition above any rewards or gifts. As long as your employees feel like you appreciate their work, they will be more actively engaged.
The type of recognition that you give your staff also matters. Over two-thirds of people believe recognition as an individual is more motivating than recognition as a team. Almost 90% of people find praise from their managers to be very or extremely motivational. And three quarters said the same thing about praise from their peers.
Recognising your employees and praising them for their contributions doesn’t cost you time or money.
2. Stay interviews
According to CNBC Make It, instead of asking why an employee is quitting, a stay interview focuses on what motivates the employee to stick around, what could be better about their work experience and how they envision the next stage of their career within the organisation.
A stay interview is a conversation with the high-performing employee to discover what they like about their role and what they would like to change. Stay interviews are an opportunity to uncover what motivates that employee and build trust with them as a manager.
Incorporating stay interviews into your retention and employee engagement strategy can help you learn what matters to your team members and what they’d like to see improve — long before they decide to find another opportunity.
3. Employee Development
Employees are more engaged if they feel like there is the potential to grow and develop their careers within your organisation. The majority of people listed opportunities for growth as a more motivating reason to stay at a company than receiving a pay rise.
Professional development is worth the investment. Giving employees the option to take online courses, enrol in an external study program, or listen to a seminar featuring an expert in the industry demonstrates that your company is invested in their long-term success. Of course, these opportunities should be something employees are excited about rather than a burden on top of their usual duties. To ensure you provide employees with opportunities they value, collect and act on their feedback regarding your training initiatives, and adapt those initiatives to changes in your organisation and industry.
4. Organisational culture
Refresh your employment value proposition and communicate why your company is a great place to work.
One of the cornerstones of an attractive workplace is organisational culture. A dysfunctional culture can make even the most self-motivated workers uninterested. When employees feel like outsiders at their own company, disengagement and turnover are never far away. From the CEO to the most junior employee, everyone should understand and believe in why and how your organisation does what it does.
Culture change doesn’t happen overnight, but it is achievable. Define your vision clearly, make discrete changes to advance toward the culture you want to see, and adjust your approach as needed based on employee feedback. Continue to prioritise the foundations of a great culture like trust, recognition, and diversity, and your organisation will be well on its way to creating a truly exceptional company culture.
5. Work-life balance
In short, work-life balance is the state of equilibrium where a person equally prioritises the demands of one’s career and one’s personal life. In addition to employee recognition, work-life balance is a huge retention factor. When companies provide their employees with a healthy work-life balance, they’re 25 per cent more likely to retain their employees.
Burnout is an engagement killer and avoiding it should be a top priority. Preserve employees’ work-life balance, so they have the time to recharge and handle other responsibilities, from social commitments to taking care of their children. Flexible schedules, additional time off, and responsibilities delegated equally throughout the organisation are critical parts of preserving work-life balance. And developing employee wellness initiatives helps team members stay emotionally and physically healthy both on and off the job.
It’s time to embrace the great re-engagement by revisiting your company recognition strategy, conducting stay interviews, focusing on employee development, paying attention to your company culture, and avoiding employee burnout by preserving the right work-life balance.
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