Your Staff Engagement Is 23%
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
You know that the staff know what to do at work, because you showed them, gave them the SOP’s, and since then have reminded them and showed them again, remaining very polite and patient the whole time. But you keep finding things that aren’t done the way they’re supposed to be and you go from confused to disappointed to upset to angry in a heartbeat. You can’t get angry however because that’s not productive or even allowed. But if you do nothing, then you’re paying for and putting up with a sub-standard performance - and if you open the gate to allowing that, the whole operation could slide down into disarray. Shit situation; been there.
What this is, in my opinion, is not a training problem but an engagement problem. I’m reading through this website at the moment and the information is nothing short of mind blowing, because it resonates so much with something I think we’ve all struggled with; staff engagement.
THESE ARE SOME OF THE MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS ASKED OF OVER 2.7 MILLION EMPLOYEES AT OVER 100,000 COMPANIES WORLDWIDE
How satisfied are you with your company as a place to work?
I know what is expected of me at work.
I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
There is someone at work who encourages my development.
At work, my opinions seem to count.
The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
I have a best friend at work.
In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.
23% of Employees Worldwide Regard Themselves as Engaged at Work
The figure for Australia and New Zealand this year (2023) is also 23%. That means 77% of your team are not engaged at work!! Even worse, 43% are reportedly “watching for or actively seeking a new job”. Wow!
Link to the full survey here.
What does that actually mean though? What happens because they’re unengaged. Well, depending where they are on the spectrum, it could be showing up (late) and giving bare minimum during the shift - resulting in poor-quality produce that’s handled lazily and doesn’t present, eat or drink as it should. It could be poor service from inattentive staff - eventuating in the ripple effect of negative reviews, dwindling sales and bookings. The same apathy also means poor ordering, stock management, housekeeping, bookkeeping, rostering, marketing, management and so on. And don’t forget all the costly injuries and workplace accidents which happen because they’re not paying attention. Further along the spectrum they could be complaining about work to friends and family or worse, complaining at work with other employees; fostering a culture of negativity and subordination. Then comes disregard for the procedures and hierarchy in the company. Then there’s self-entitlements which range from maximising sick days and any accrued time off, intentionally not performing their duties while at work, choosing instead to be constantly on the phone or web browsing etc. And the more extreme examples involve deliberately sabotaging the business through theft and/or pranks and resigning without required notice or deliberately during an inconvenient period out of resentment.
If any of that rings true, it’s a staff engagement problem. Consider too, what those ex-staff members say about the business once they’ve left. True or not, it’s reputational damage you could do without.
How To Attract and Keep Good Staff
The answer is the other side of the same coin; staff engagement.
Too often companies assume that the staff will relinquish their own ambitions and passions and replace them with the company ones as they walk in the door. Ironically, a better result will almost always come from doing it the other way around. If you engage with your staff about their own passions, they’ll be much more likely to engage with yours and your business vision in return.
Here are some free things that you can do to help improve these statistics in your own workplace:
Take an interest in your staff. They often have hobbies or skillsets that you probably know nothing about that could very likely help the business. In most cases, they’d probably love the opportunity to include what they’re passionate about at work and you’ll get more engagement from them because they’ll feel seen and valued. The real win is the spike in energy and positivity they’ll bring to work during that period, rather than any specific deliverable from them. That energy (a.k.a. engagement) will touch the customers and the other staff and that’s actual value for you, both in morale and dollar terms.
Encourage collaborative efforts rather than individual ones to achieve results. Find something in the business that needs a refresh and then invite all the relevant staff to participate in the process. Hold a brainstorming session about it and give the staff a deadline to make a submission. Then review the best ideas, get the team together again and rather than a winner, say that you’ll use parts of multiple ideas because they all had great things to offer. Explain the logistics of how the implementation will rollout and how they can all help. Watch the difference in a process like that, vs just telling the team there’s a change coming and they need to learn it or accept it; it’ll be night and day.
Consider a different approach to employment. Instead of resourcing externally when there’s a vacancy for a senior role, consider making it the company culture to offer that role internally first and interview (earnestly) anyone that applies. If there’s someone who’s a reasonably good fit, the amount of training to upskill them into that role will often be considerably less because they already know a lot about the company. Get the person leaving the role to do most of the training for the incoming person - with your oversight to make sure it’s done enthusiastically. Then, try to fill the promoted person’s role internally as well. What you’ll hopefully end up with is a few things: First, you’ll only need to employ a more basic role after that re-shuffle, which is infinitely easier to find. Second, an improved company culture where people can see that there are genuine career opportunities. Third, a better staff retention rate because of that. Fourth, a constant internal revision of the training procedures by people who have been in multiple roles within the company structure. They can examine, revise and help implement the training content thoroughly, because they’ll have been in all the roles beneath them on the way to where they are now.
As they say, ‘it takes two to tango’. If you want staff engagement then you have to engage with the staff.
See you in the next one!
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Happy Hour
WELCOME TO HAPPY HOUR
A chance to pour a glass and unwind with some rants about stuff you’re probably thinking about too.