With the world continuing to fight the pandemic over the last two years we have experienced:
- Multiple lockdowns
- Forced separation from friends and family overseas
- Changes to the way we live our everyday lives with masks, social distancing and sanitising
Oh… and our world of work has forever changed.
It's no surprise that it is leaving everyone, including employees, exhausted.
We are experiencing pandemic fatigue.
Never has employee engagement been so important. Many businesses have suffered financially with the lockdowns.
We know that employee engagement can have a direct impact on your bottom line by 21%!
Having an engaged and productive team post lockdown is critical to your business success.
Employee Engagement Post Lockdown
We have taken the V-5 model and ‘Sproutified’ it to make it relevant for New Zealand businesses.
Vision - Ensure you and your employees are clear on the direction of the business, what you are trying to achieve as a business. Ensure the employees feel connected to it - how their individual role contributes to this vision.
Values - Ensure your organisational values are alive in the business, keep talking about them. Again ensure your team feels connected to the values, using them in daily examples to inspire and motivate your team.
Vitality - Health and wellness need to be at the forefront right now, both mental and physical. Lockdowns enhance stress and anxiety, be aware of this in your team, recognise the signs and provide the support where needed. At Sprout we have recently introduced two health days a year, this is a day you can take for any health related appointments you might need to go to, doctor, Ostea, Physio, Chiro, Optometrist, or even vaccines.
Voice - Everyone needs to feel they can voice their feelings, opinions, ideas, and challenges. Create a culture where voice matters and your engagement will go up. There are various ways of doing this, through online surveys, stay interviews, one on one's, even the good old suggestion box works, as long as you truly listen and take on board the feedback.
Victory - Celebrate the wins, no matter how small. Those pats on the back, the simple thank you go a long way. Sprout has conducted over 300 Sprout Conversations, when asked the question - "how do you like to be recognised or rewarded for your hard work?" over 90% said just acknowledgement with a thank you was enough for them.
Take the time to appreciate and recognise your team and you will get more out of them.
This may sound like common sense, but the reality is during a time of stress, particularly in a pandemic, it is easy to forget some of the basics.
You need your staff to keep your business going, it is not easy finding new employees, this will set you back, so focus on retaining and engaging your team and you won't have to worry about that aspect of your business.
Angela Waddell is co-founder at Sprout and is passionate about supporting Kiwi businesses in creating a clear vision and genuine values that help set the tone for employee engagement. Angela can be reached on angela@sproutnz.com
