Employee engagement is a significant factor in productivity and profitability. What’s more, it is the responsibility of the CEO and HR to understand why employee engagement is low and develop strategies to improve it.
Employee engagement is a measure of employees’ motivation and satisfaction with their current job, commitment to their company, hope for the future, and trust in their supervisor. If you want your employees to be productive and happy, then you should know what’s killing employee engagement.
This blog highlights three of the leading causes that are making employees disengaged with their company. We’ll also discuss common pitfalls of a points reward system for employees, and how to improve the way you recognize and incentivize employees to give their best performances.
1) Poor Work-Life Balance
The first cause killing employee engagement is a poor work-life balance. This explains why some employees who have gotten into management roles are finding it hard to maintain a healthy balance between their work and home life. Work-life balance and mental health are a function of the amount of support an employee gets from his or her spouse, significant other, and family.
2) Lack of Recognition
The second cause killing employee engagement is a lack of recognition. When employees feel like they are not being adequately recognized, they will either become frustrated or quit.
Employees who are acknowledged receive a positive shift in energy and an increase in their productivity. At the same time, even if employees are not recognized, it does not mean that they will not perform well or will not contribute to the team.
Recognizing employees for their performance can actually boost engagement by virtue of the fact that employees feel valued and appreciated.
3) The Impact of Unclear Goals and Objectives
Finally, the third cause killing employee engagement is the impact of unclear goals and objectives. If your objectives are unclear, employees will struggle to feel engaged and will begin to disengage.
The problem is that employees cannot understand why they are doing what they are doing. This is because management needs to take a step back and provide guidance. It is then the responsibility of management to determine what employees’ goals and objectives should be.
Some of the best ways to track goals are through their actions and behavior. One way to accomplish this is by tracking performance goals against KPIs such as revenue, profits, customer satisfaction, and so on. The key is to clarify what employees want and how you can help them reach it.
How to Address Common Problems With Employee Rewards Systems
1) Purely system-based is too impersonal
The key to employee rewards is that they need to be personable and customized. A system that simply tracks metrics and automatically dispenses rewards makes employees feel like they’re up against a computer system, rather than being valued and honestly recognized by a human employer.
It is also important to note that employees need to feel as if they matter to the company and that they matter to you. If you simply rank your employees and give them participation awards, they are unlikely to feel valued or fulfilled.
2) Recognition poorly communicated
When you reward employees, make sure you’re communicating clearly to them why the rewards are being given. A performance bonus for closing sales or for finishing a project may be appropriate, but there’s also an opportunity present for praising and providing constructive feedback to your employees.
3) Unattractive incentives
A rewards system is only as attractive as the rewards it gives. A system that is too centered on quantity (i.e., offering numerous awards and bonuses) may give employees the impression that they are expected to be superhuman. There should be a balance in the types of rewards that are given.
In the same vein, what constitutes the motivation behind the rewards should also be carefully considered. Is it to show a sense of pride in the work or to motivate employees to improve their sales results? By linking rewards with the performance goals that you have defined, you are better able to integrate incentives into the work process and address any flaws in the system.
