Why is employee engagement important and how to improve it with a hybrid workforce

You may have heard of employee engagement previously and brushed it off but why is it important? And even more so post-pandemic?

Why do your employees come to work? At the core, you need to figure out what motivates your employees to give it their all and what their commitment is to the business’s vision and values.

High employee engagement can increase productivity, increase retention, improve company culture, increase customer satisfaction, and increase sales and profits. Low employee engagement will do the exact opposite.

How often have you heard someone complain about a terrible experience with an employee at a fast-food restaurant then ended with “they looked like they hated their life!”? This is an example of an employee with low engagement in their role and the consequences go beyond poor customer experience. On the other hand, benefits of high employee engagement can do more than fast track your business’s success.

Benefits include, and are not limited to:

• Higher productivity
• Improved quality of work
• Increased customer loyalty
• Increased revenue and profit
• Improved employee commitment and motivation
• Increased retention
• Improved organisational culture
• Increases managers’ self-efficacy

Why you should pay attention to employee engagement post pandemic

Post-pandemic, employee and job seeker priorities have shifted towards self-care. This includes having work or a career that they enjoy and is meaningful to them.

How true is this?

According to the Australian Government’s Labour Market Insights, in March 2022, 65% of recruitment occurred due to turnover alone. Meanwhile, recent surveys by Employment Hero found that, post-pandemic:

• 48% of those surveyed stated they planned to look for a new role within the next year due to discontent within their role
• 41% of people who were looking for a new role prioritised finding one they enjoyed
• 36% of people stated that COVID-19 had decreased the importance they placed on their career

How engaged your employees are will heavily influence your retention rate, and their engagement is very closely related to their priorities. Keeping that in mind, it is a good idea to understand what your employees care about and what they say will increase their engagement at work. You might appreciate our insights here .

Increasing employee engagement and increasing retention will save you from competing in a tight market

If you can’t retain your employees by boosting their engagement, you’ll end up losing them and struggle to replace them.

You’ll be competing for talent with more businesses expecting to hire than before the pandemic. For one, Australia’s talent pool of those unemployed is very small with the unemployment rate at a record low of 3.9%. Although Applications per job ad on SEEK dropped for the third month in a row while job ads listed on the site continued to rise.

In addition to that, according to the Australian Government’s Labour Market Insights, over the next three months, 36 per cent of employers are expected to increase their staffing levels. This is the second highest the rate has been since April 2020. Meanwhile, only 3 per cent of employers expect to decrease their workforce.

Employment Hero’s survey also found that 55% of managers and senior executives were more likely to seek a new role within the next year. The government’s latest Recruitment Insights Report stated that employers found it more difficult to recruit for Higher Skilled positions than Lower Skilled positions.

How can you improve employee engagement and increase retention with a hybrid workforce?

With most businesses adopting a hybrid work model, it is important to consider factors that increase employee engagement with remote employees in mind.

The first thing to do is to consider what matters to your employees most and then evaluate your current offerings to determine what initiatives you need to implement, change, or even remove. Remember, employee engagement constantly changes as it is dependent on so many factors. Below are some examples of common factors that can dramatically influence and increase employee engagement.

Keep promises made during the recruitment process

When outlining certain benefits in your job ad or during interviews, be careful to not embellish the truth. When an employee starts a new job, it won’t be long before they realise whether they receive what they signed up for. That is a sure-fire way of losing a new employee, wasting your recruitment efforts, and damaging your employer brand.

Provide professional development and career support opportunities

Of those looking for a new role, 31% said it was due to lack of career opportunities in their current organisation, according to Employment Hero.

Ways to offer professional development and career support include:

• Providing access to training and development courses
• Conducting regular one-on-one meetings to discuss performance. For remote employees, it may be beneficial to schedule even more regular one-on-ones or catch ups
• Create measurable and challenging yet achievable KPIs – KPIs that are too easy can lead to low engagement
• Providing a clear guide of next steps to progress their career
• Having open and accessible communication lines between managers and employees

Recognise and reward your employees for their work

The same Employment Hero survey found that 26% wanted to leave their role due to lack of appreciation or recognition.

Showing your employees that they’re performing well is especially important for those who work remotely. These employees rarely get casual banter from their co-workers and managers when they achieve something great.

Recognition and rewards do not have to be extravagant or have monetary value. Even simple feedback for good work can boost morale, motivation, and commitment.

Give employees the freedom to make work interesting and form an environment that makes work engaging

Providing employees with autonomy to perform tasks the way they want to can improve engagement and allow employees to learn on their own. Afterall, we all know that employees, including ourselves, despise micromanagement.

Allow employees to customise or choose a working environment that keeps them engaged. For some it may mean having a space that is quiet while others may like the energy they get from a busy environment. Some people might like to decorate their space with plants and others may find themselves more productive with more or less computer screens.

Create and develop great organisational culture

Having a collaborative environment can improve relationships between employees. Improving relationships between your employees is proven to reduce absenteeism and reduces complaining against each other. Employees are also more committed to not letting each other down. Here are some ways to develop employee relationships:

• Implement group activities where possible. Creating crossover between your remote and non-remote employees will reduce the feeling of isolation amongst remote workers
• Have an open plan office space rather than one with closed off cubicles
• Celebrate employee and team wins openly
• Have team building events or other social events outside of work where employees can interact in a more casual setting

Show commitment to your employee’s wellness

Employment Hero’s 2022 Wellness at Work Report found that employees were 63% more loyal when they positively rated their business’ commitment to wellness.

Whether it be offering flexible work so that employees can work in time to exercise or providing gym memberships, consider what your employees would like most. Some employees may prefer to focus on their mental rather than physical health. In this case, you could implement an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), like we do here at Fuse where employees have free access to confidential counselling for work or personal related matters.

Measure and communicate employee engagement

While measuring employee engagement might not directly influence it, it can give you an idea of how well you are keeping your employees engaged and help you to identify what areas you are doing well in or need to improve.

At Fuse, we use Culture Amp’s employee engagement survey platform to measure our employee engagement. The survey collects anonymous input from our employees and identifies areas we are doing well to engage our employees as well as areas where we need to pay attention to. We can also see how well we are engaging our employees compared to other businesses in our industry.

Communicating our score shows our employees that we are committed to their work satisfaction, so they know they are being heard.

For more ways to increase employee retention, read our blog about EVPs here .