What Perks And Benefits Does Your Staff Desire?

Beyond understanding your staff and their needs, it’s also vital to have a keen eye on what perks and benefits can be available. As an employer, it’s imperative that you first have a firm grasp on standard voluntary benefits such as Health Insurance, Life Insurance, and 401k Plans, amongst others. What about those other gray areas such as auto insurance, wellness programs, fitness centers, or pet insurance?  It’s worth noting there’s no one right plan to offer employees but you can begin to discover the best options by researching what they need.

Health, Disability And Life Insurance Basics

One of the most valued and standard benefits for employees is health insurance. BizJournal.com reports: “Health care insurance is offered at nearly all companies; however, there are a number of different techniques employers use to adjust the overall cost, which on average is more than $7,000 yearly per employee.” This can be a hefty cost for any organization, especially smaller companies. By learning more about your team’s needs you’ll be able to determine what they are looking for in their health plan. If you have a younger staff, a higher deductible may work just fine whereas individuals with families most likely seek out a plan with more of a service focus. 

Disability and Life Insurance are two other notable benefits, especially for those staff members with families at home to support. Daily HR Solutions reports that “for the most part the premiums tend to be low for both these options, and employees tend to check the box due to their ‘why not?’ reflex.” However, most employees choose these options, then find later the coverage isn’t quite as expansive as they first believed. If you choose to offer either of these insurances, make sure you are upfront with your staff so they know upon electing these benefits what is and isn’t covered by these policies.  

Everyone hopes to retire at some point in their life, and many individuals are more than willing to work hard now to make that dream a reality. One survey shows that as many 89% of employees consider a 401K or similar plan a “very important” piece of a benefit plan. While it may seem like a high cost, these plans are usually far more affordable than most employers realize (as low as $300 a month for a quality plan!) and can help you retain employees as well as attract quality new hires. 

Find The Right Perks And Benefits Mix For Your Team

Some companies have found that employees are becoming increasingly interested in unique benefits such as automobile insurance, perks programs, and even pet insurance. While there is no concrete answer for any organization, this goes back to engaging your staff to educate your HR team on which perks and benefits are most desired. Do your team members value auto insurance options over a decked out health care plan? Would they prefer flex time in exchange for extra vacation days? Only time and research will help you make the best choice. 

Even as the economy begins to pick up, most of today’s workers are still looking for ways to save money. Perks and discount programs such as Abenity can be a great investment for your team members as they will have easy access to discounts on products and services they use daily. These savings add up significantly over time and can almost feel like a getting a raise to your team members. Even more so, Abenity offers discounts on those “extras” in life everyone appreciates – vacation packages, computers and software, and even household appliances and furniture. 

The bottom line: there’s no one universal solution for every company. The key to creating the best perks and benefits package for your staff comes with time, asking questions, and getting to know each individual’s needs. This is a great way to open up communication lines between team members and the HR office while building the ever-important employee loyalty and engagement.

Do You Have Abenity? Abenity provides organizations and employers with a complete and customizable member perks & discount program. Want to learn how you can offer thousands of exclusive perks to your members with an Abenity Discount Program? Download Our Overview Browse Our Discounts Request A Demo

 

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1) Flexible Work Hours

This is a highly valued reward that won’t cost you a dime! Offer your hard-working and star team members flexible work hours. 9-to-5 is becoming a schedule of the past with many jobs often requiring far more than 40 hours of work each week. Make the days more bearable allowing the team to assist in determining their schedule as long as the privilege is not abused. As pointed out by HR World, flex time is a perk that is one of the most valued by employees and the easiest to award by employers. 

2) Create A Welcoming Atmosphere

Many of today’s employees find themselves spending more time in their office or cubicle than they do in their own home. The working environment should be one that sparks creativity and encourages productivity, but the brutal truth is stale cubicle walls and florescent lighting tend to stifle this. Make those office “unavoidables” easier to bare with office gatherings, pizza parties, and an inviting lunch/break room. These incentives cost little but their effect goes a long way.

3) Free Abenity Concierge Membership

Let’s be honest… everyone enjoys a little pampering and an extra hand with those pesky daily tasks. Reward your all-star employees with a free Abenity Concierge membership! This unique service for Abenity clients provides members with daily personal assistance with all the little details of life, saving time and money. Your employees will be able to locate babysitters, make dinner reservations, plan a vacation, find a mechanic, and anything else they may need!

4) Extra Vacation Days

No matter how engaged a team member is in their work, sometimes a break is necessary, and no one has ever turned down a few extra vacation days. This can be especially valuable for the staff member who consistently puts in the extra hours, answers the weekend calls, and ensures the ball doesn’t drop on any given project. Engage your employees in a new way by creating a friendly competition each quarter or month to earn additional days off. You’ll increase both productivity and team morale! 

5) Gift Card Rewards

Gift cards are a great way to offer a simple reward without breaking your budget. Inc.com recommends these easy incentives because you can remain in your budget as well as offer a reward that is specific to the individual. Keep gift cards to popular locations on hand to give an extra “thanks” to that employee who helped out a new staff member, went the extra mile with a customer, or spearheaded that difficult project no one wanted to manage. 

6) Employee Led Events

Empower your team members by allowing them to lead an upcoming meeting, seminar, or other corporate event. By doing so, you’ll allow your team members to feel more connected to the overall goal of the organization as well as give them the opportunity to be the “expert” in their field and share fresh, new ideas with the team. 

7) Make A Note

We may live in a digital world, but nothing beats a good, old-fashioned letter. Express gratitude to an all-star employee by hand-writing a note expressing your gratitude for their hard work and outlining some of their accomplishments, explaining why their work matters. This is a simple (and free!) gesture for you but the sentiment behind the message will resonate with your employee and build engagement.

8) Appreciation & Recognition

Here’s another great reward that is absolutely free to you! Individuals who work hard and are truly engaged in your company’s work rarely do it for the recognition but that pat on the back will lift anyones spirits. Did a certain individual put in extra hours on a project to ensure it was a success? Mention it in your next staff meeting expressing your gratitude. Say “thanks” to team members simply for doing their job well. Individuals like to know how they are doing at their job, good or bad. So make it known next time you see them!

For Abenity clients, we offer a Recognition Email service that allows you to share your gratitude directly to employees with custom designed email templates.

9) Pick & Choose

It’s easy to get caught in a routine and find yourself on autopilot. Don’t let this happen to your team! “Giving your best employees a chance to pick their own projects or trade tasks with a colleague empowers and rewards them at the same time,” says says Dan Tynan of HR World. Not only that, you’ll help your team stay sharp and on their toes while growing their skill set. 

10) Priority Parking

Most companies reserve the priority parking spots for the CEO and upper management. HR World offers this tip to reward star employees and motivate the rest of the team to keep up the good work: “Reserve the best parking spot for employees who’ve done something truly worthwhile. And if it’s next to the CEO’s Lexus so the employee can chat him or her up on the way into work, so much the better.”

This is just a list to get you started. Take some time to get to know your employees as well as their wants and needs to create the best rewards and recognition program for your team! By doing so you’ll build team morale, encourage productivity, and works towards solid engagement.

Do You Have Abenity? Abenity provides organizations and employers with a complete and customizable member perks & discount program. Want to learn how you can offer thousands of exclusive perks to your members with an Abenity Discount Program? Download Our Overview Browse Our Discounts Request A Demo

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There are also an abundance of reasons why employees leave their current positions or move on to another career option. And with the slowly growing economy, thousands of employees across the nation are looking to make their exit in pursuit of better opportunities. A recent survey from the Corporate Leadership Council shows that 25% of “high potential” employees in 2012 planned to leave their jobs within a year (read more). Additionally, 21% of the same employees considered themselves “highly disengaged” in their work. Regardless of what resources or benefits your company may offer, keeping your employees engaged in the work they are doing will help ensure they are both valued and challenged.

Increase Employee Retention with Communication

One of the greatest mistakes you can make as a leader is under-communicating with your team. Employees usually need interaction with managers who respect and recognize their work while challenging them to learn and move forward in their careers. It doesn’t stop there. Communicate new initiatives, personnel changes, the financial state of your organization, and everything in between. Notice an employee doing exceptionally amazing work? Make it known. Encourage feedback from everyone. Opening the door for professional and legitimate concerns or ideas is one of the best ways to keep your team invested in their work. 

At some point or another, most of us have had that boss that is nearly impossible to please, fails to communicate, or is an all around difficult person to work alongside. Not surprisingly, employees leave their jobs because of their direct supervisor more than any other reason, according to a CMOE survey posted by leadership guru Michael Hyatt (read more). One group of individuals surveyed reported that 31% of those had been given the silent treatment by their boss in the past year. If you want to build a committed team, not speaking to those who work for you won’t do the trick. Reach out to your employees – get to know their goals, achievements, and potential areas of growth.

Increase Employee Retention by Challenging & Engaging

High achievers need to be challenged and motivated to excel. It’s not enough to simply delegate tasks. Hyatt encourages managers to empower your team to take responsibility and make decisions without routing everything through the management team (read more). Employees want to know that their supervisor trusts their decisions and skills. Start with small projects or initiatives and build up from there. This will keep your most valuable players both challenged and excited as they take on a new task that requires more from them than simply checking the boxes.

As Russell White, President of Pinnacle Solutions says, “Top talent wants to work with top talent” (read more). One of the most valuable things you can do for high achievers is give them your time and attention. Help those that are striving for excellence and trying to climb the corporate ladder achieve their goals. Share what you’ve learned along your journey, become a mentor to those team members, and encourage them in a way that pushes them towards their full potential. You are building the future of your company with these individuals, so wisely invest in them before they become disinterested and move on.

Increase Employee Retention by Eliminating Office Politics

One of the most frustrating elements of office life has nothing to do with the task at hand but rather the environment employees are expected to work and grow in. Politics and gossip are draining and do absolutely nothing to create a strong work environment. Foster a healthy community by speaking well of others and respecting the work of one another. Directly approach those that may be causing an issue. Leaders don’t lead by stating their power, but rather they lead by example. Set the bar high for your team by your actions and you’ll see the same done in return.

Increase Employee Retention by Offering Flexibility

Most young but promising professionals look for flexibility in their job. Work-life balance can feel impossible to achieve these days with long hours, the ever-present smart phones, and a constant flow of emails. As the up-and-coming workforce seek to advance their careers, jobs in middle management hold little allure. The distrust in management paired with the lack of upper-management incentives make the middle ground a less than desirable place for many. According to a survey published by USA Today, 36% of employees in middle management are searching for a new career while only 13% at executive level are pursuing other jobs (read more). This presents a huge opportunity for companies to step up to make these roles both attractive and worth-while to their high achieving team members. Flexible office hours and the option to work off-site can be incredibly attractive to many young professionals and even beneficial to your company.

Flexibility shouldn’t be limited to office hours or working location but also in how the position grows. Each new hire brings their own valuable skill set that could be the next great asset to your company. Find out what that is and learn what your team is passionate about. It’s imperative that you allow the position to grow with the employee. Find ways to encourage flexibility in the various roles which will allow for team members and the company to get the most out of each day.

Increase Employee Retention with Incentives, Perks and Benefits

It’s a good idea to annually review your incentives, perks and benefits packages and also out what your competitors are offering. One idea is to build a pay structure and bonus program that rewards high achieving employees for their work and dedication. Incentives don’t necessarily need to include a traditional benefits package and a set number of days off each year. Providing employees with the products they promote, allowing flexible working hours, or even an in-office gym can be great incentives for employees to enjoy coming to the office! What other offers are enticing to your team members? It can never hurt to start asking your team what interests them and begin finding ways you can deliver.

As an example, Abenity has built an entire perks and benefits platform from the ground up that rewards employees through thousands of national perks and discounts, concierge services, and cash back comparison shopping. We’ve also given human resources teams the tools they need to reward and recognize their employees through our Back Office administration program. Hundreds of companies look to us as a way to provide those all-important employee perks and leverage us to help increase the total compensation plan for their employees.

Increase Employee Retention with Career Development

The job landscape is rapidly changing and developing. Many career options available now were unheard of five or ten years ago, making it difficult for today’s young professionals to determine a long-term career path. According to a report by Forbes, less than 5% of people asked could tell you what they would be doing job-wise in the next five years (read more). This doesn’t mean that employees don’t want to talk about their future. In fact, the opposite is true.  Since so many supervisors don’t talk with their employees about their career goals, you have an incredible advantage by bringing it up and looking deeper at their goals and dreams. Don’t wait until the annual review to start talking — begin the conversation now. People tend to bloom where they are planted. When you show interest in their growth professionally, you are building a strong future in keeping your top talent within your company.

What Are You Doing to Increase Employee Retention?

What are some ways you can minimize your turnover rate and keep your employees satisfied as well as challenged? Analyze recent personnel changes, office culture, and your employee benefits and incentives programs. Are there changes you can make? Do you need to communicate with your team more frequently? Are there common denominators in recent employee departures?

Start pinpointing the reasons employees leave and begin building out a plan to keep your top talent engaged, challenged, and satisfied in the work they are doing!

Do You Have Abenity? Abenity provides organizations and employers with a complete and customizable member perks & discount program. Want to learn how you can offer thousands of exclusive perks to your members with an Abenity Discount Program? Download Our Overview Browse Our Discounts Request A Demo

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What better way to communicate employee perks information than meeting them right where they are, with social media? Contrary to popular belief, using social media to communicate company initiatives, events, and benefits is possible and doesn’t mean risking privacy nor does it require a major HR office overhaul. By ignoring social media for the purpose of company communication you are missing out on great resources that are easy to use and generally free. Now before you go reviving that old MySpace page from 2005, we have some helpful tips here to make the most of your resources and time.

Leverage The Corporate Blog

One of the most simple but effective ways to communicate employee perks & benefits to your team is by starting a company blog. This will allow you to create your own content and self-publish that content at your own pace. You’ll be able to provide extensive updates, post memos from the leadership team, introduce initiatives, share employee accomplishments, and much more with ease and as frequently as you need. Employees can even subscribe to the blog to get updates as they are posted and add comments to start a conversation, bridging the gap between the team and the HR office. With a blog is you aren’t limited to just text content; learn to embed videos and upload photos to make the employee perks updates more engaging and keep employees involved.

Create Podcasts And Videocasts

Speaking of multimedia, other great methods to communicate employee perks to your team include podcasts and videocasts. These content pieces have so many uses and can be easily captured. Videos are engaging and easily accessible for employees of all ages and comfort levels with technology. You don’t need a fancy camera and a video editing team to create these since most cell phones are equipped with a video camera, as are many computers. Record memos, updates, and plans, then upload them to your blog or post them on video sharing sites like YouTube or Vimeo. Videos can be a great way to assist with employee benefits orientation, and you can also use them to present special clips about benefits or upcoming company functions. Don’t be afraid to get creative! Build a contest around employees uploading their own videos or share videos from other sources explaining HR benefits and new ideas.

Go Online with Social Networks

While we are speaking of social media, don’t forget to make use of social networks as a way to announce employee perks. Whether it be a Facebook event page to remind employees of the next seminar, a Twitter announcement linking to a blog, or a LinkedIn group just for employees, there are countless ways to engage your employees on social networks. Facebook is the largest social networking site today with more than 250 million active users with the fastest growing group of users people older than 35, which means that it is more than likely that the vast majority of your team is already congregating on the social network. With so much activity taking place at destinations like Facebook and Twitter, it’s essential that your company optimizes these easy-to-use and free resources that are available to everyone. Not to mention, the influence and support of peers can increase engagement and help your company communicate new benefits, announcements, and initiatives. At Abenity, we use Facebook as another means to communicate new perks & discounts as they are debuted to our members.

Four Key Social Media Questions

There are four key questions to ask yourself as you come up with a plan to communicate employee perks & benefits via social media: What are your longtime objectives? Who are your employees? What is going to have long-term ROI? What is efficient to monitor and maintain? Make sure you have an end-goal in mind that allocates your resources properly and communicates efficiently. A little planning and willingness to try a new form of communication could take your HR initiatives to the next level.

Let’s hear from you! What are some fun and creative ways your organization is using social media to communicate employee perks & benefits?

Do You Have Abenity? Abenity provides organizations and employers with a complete and customizable member perks & discount program. Want to learn how you can offer thousands of exclusive perks to your members with an Abenity Discount Program? Download Our Overview Browse Our Discounts Request A Demo

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At Abenity we provide engagement solutions through employee perks and discount programs. As we’ve worked with dozens of companies across the U.S. there’s one key thing we’ve learned: Merely having a fancy system in place isn’t enough to engage your employees; engagement only truly happens when communication is both personal and intentional.

Voluntary benefits, such as employee discount programs, can aid in our quest towards quality employee engagement. However, these 3 simple mistakes can often get in our way and prevent engagement from happening:

Mistake #1: Failure To Focus On The Positive

In the wake of the economic downturn of the last few years many companies struggled to maintain consistent positive interaction with their staff. In the midst of layoffs, pay cuts, and cutbacks, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of good news emerging from the HR department. However, your voluntary benefit programs can provide that positive conversation topic with which to begin re-engaging employees. Naturally employee engagement cannot happen solely through perks and benefits, but it’s a good and safe place to begin, especially if you’re starting from scratch. If you fail to engage on this level you’re missing out one of the best opportunities to provide positive communication with employees.

Mistake #2: Leaving Employees Confused About Their Options

The complexities of everything from life insurance to retirement plan investing leaves many employees confused, and too many companies fail to effectively educate on these subjects. But one of the most practical ways to increase employee satisfaction and loyalty is through purposeful communication around your benefit opportunities. When your staff understands their choices they will be able to make more informed decisions and, as a result, appreciate the value of the benefits being offered.

Something we emphasize to Abenity Discount Program clients is that membership affords employees over $4,500 in available savings from thousands of retailers both locally and nationally. Employees must understand that in addition to their salary and health benefits they also have access to $4,500 in consumer savings through their employer. That’s an amazing statistic for an employer’s total compensation report as well as a powerful employee motivator! Determine a total compensation number by tallying up your entire benefits package to underscore the value of being employed at your organization.

Mistake #3: Missing Out On Communication Opportunities

In the past a simple leaflet passed out during an employee’s introduction program was thought to be a sufficient communication of employee benefits. However as technology has developed and grown, the landscape of benefit communication has changed drastically. It’s important to leverage all of your available resources, through printed flyers in the break-room, handouts, accessible intranet links, important email updates and when possible social media updates. And, don’t be afraid to look to your vendors to provide help in effectively communicating benefits. For example, for our clients, Abenity sends out weekly and monthly newsletters to employees to make sure they’re aware of new discount offers, and we’re always happy to create personalized marketing efforts for our clients in the name of increased engagement.

Employee Engagement – Share The News

Human Resources sits in the unique position as being the cheerleader for the employee. While motivation can come from many different avenues, the use of voluntary benefits is too often overlooked as an engagement tool. So take this opportunity to share some great news with your employees about their benefits program. As a result, your value as an employer can only increase!

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What can you provide that is truly remarkable to your organization?

At Abenity we manage discount programs for over 100 companies nationally. We’re not the only company out there that provides this service, but we believe we do it the best, and our aim towards exclusivity has a lot to do with it. We offer 100,000 local and national discounts to the clients we serve, and they are hidden behind the walled garden of username and password protection (among numerous other security protections). You have to be a member to access them, and you have to be an employee of one of our clients to be a member.

Why? Because our clients are offering Abenity as a benefit to their employees and they are doing so with the intention of building loyalty and being absolutely remarkable. With that being the case, our discount program can’t be big free-for-all coupon and affiliate marketing website like the bargain bin at the local discount superstore.

Your benefits and perks strategy is of greatest legitimacy to your employees when you operate them within a closed system. You can accomplish this in two ways:

Ensure the Benefits You Implement are Competitive, Varied and Unique

Most companies will start with the “standard” benefits package, including health insurance, life insurance and 401k plans. Go for the most competitive rates you can find and be gutsy with the costs you are willing to cover on behalf on the employee. Shop often and apprise your workers when changes are made to ensure them that you are pursuing the best possible options on their behalf.

Consider additional benefits such as tele-commuting, child care subsidies along with health and wellness programs to add to your repertoire of features that will set you apart as an unique employer. You are in the process of building a toolkit towards engagement, and within that toolbox are the items – large and small – you wield to successfully build loyalty. The adequate toolbox requires more than just a hammer to build a house; strive for diversity and select a full range of tools to accomplish the task.

Ensure the Perks You Provide are Not Available to the General Public

We run into the challenge of non-exclusivity in our business often. Many competitors in the discount space operate in an open arena, essentially letting anyone in. When looking for providers to fulfill the various needs of your engagement strategy look for services that are truly going to respect your need to offer exclusive means for engagement with your employees. Sadly many business-to-business services in the human resources sector are content with affiliate marketing and referrals as a means to stay in business, while ignoring the larger need of providing true strategies for engagement to the employer.

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The walled garden has become an analogy in the context of modern technology for a platform or service that relies on its closed nature to restrict access from the general public. For instance, a mobile operator like Verizon operates a wireless network which cannot be accessed by non-Verizon phones. Facebook is a walled garden that stores massive archives of content, messages and media hidden behind password protected login screens. But the walled garden of technology has both positive and negative connotations. Apple took considerable heat for several years for not allowing music to be downloaded and played on any service except iTunes and proprietary devices like the iPod.

Employers, too, are walled gardens.

Software developers and programmers across the globe clamor to work at Google. Why? Well sure, it’s the world’s number one search engine and most popular site on the Internet. But among other reasons, they have one of the most comprehensive and elaborate employee benefits programs in the world that promotes loyalty. Beyond the standard health & wellness programs, 401k offerings and vacation days is a long list of perks that reads more like the selling points for an exclusive country club membership: first-class dining facilities, gyms, laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, carwashes, dry cleaning, commuting buses, child care, bike repairs, on-site oil changes and the list goes on.

The goal is to strip away everything that gets in our employees’ way. We provide a standard package of fringe benefits, but on top of that is... just about anything a hardworking employee might want. Let’s face it: programmers want to program, they don’t want to do their laundry. So we make it easy for them to do both. - Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google

As an employer, Google has created an effective walled garden with a world class employee loyalty and engagement strategy. The remarkable nature of being a Google employee is transmitted in the way their employee benefits package is presented. It’s rare. It’s exclusive. It says to the employee, “You are our greatest asset, and without you we cannot be Google”.

If your employees are your greatest asset, are you building an effective walled garden that will help them thrive as an employee? Are your inspiring a sense of loyalty that will make them think twice about jumping ship?

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Why is our attention captured when we watch a superior, world class athlete dominate the competition event after event at the Olympic games?

One word: Rarity.

We are captivated by the hard-to-get, the unattainable and the just-out-of-reach. Exclusivity makes us feel special, draws us in and snaps us to attention. When something is rare it piques our interest in a way the common and ordinary does not.

A McDonald’s hamburger, tasty as it may be, doesn’t really inspire rarity. Billions served is what their sign says. They’ve given up on counting patties. Perhaps they ran out of room for digits on their sign, but the McDonald’s hamburger is so common it has become ubiquitous. There’s value in ubiquity, but ubiquity (in and of itself) doesn’t inspired loyalty. If McDonald’s is closed, or the line is too long, I’m just as happy going down the street to the nearest Burger King or Hardee’s to satisfy my craving for grilled meat.

Personally, I’m happier still finding a Chick-Fil-A where I know I’m going to be greeted with a smile and a “It was my pleasure serving you today”.

Rarity inspires loyalty.

Seth Godin the renowned marketeer talks at length in his book Purple Cow about the need for companies and services to strive towards being remarkable. In a market saturated with needs that are already met and products that have already been purchased, one must be remarkable – different, unique, rare – to stand out. In a herd of brown cows the purple cow stands out.

As an employer, and as a company leader, you are caught in the constant battle to become remarkable in the eyes of your employees. To be less than remarkable results in turnover and a stagnant workforce. Each dissatisfied employee is, in fact, one successful job interview away from leaving you.

How rare are you as an employer? And what are you doing to be the best place to work in your business?

If your goal is strong loyalty and engagement, and as an employer it should be, then you need to be the best. Much of this is accomplished through a comprehensive employee engagement strategy. Everything you do in the name of employee retention, from benefits to casual Fridays, is a step towards achieving loyalty through emotional investment.

Do You Have Abenity? Abenity provides organizations and employers with a complete and customizable member perks & discount program. Want to learn how you can offer thousands of exclusive perks to your members with an Abenity Discount Program? Download Our Overview Browse Our Discounts Request A Demo

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We’ve been talking to clients recently about the need for a good foundation – a good root system – to incorporate effective employee engagement strategies into organizations. Every HR team wants to have a loyal workforce, but how do you get there? We’ve documented seven strategies that influence the root system of effective employee engagement and we’re going to take a look at all of them in coming weeks.

But to start, what’s the most important first step? Planting the seeds of engagement with honesty.

Making An Honest Assessment:

Whether you’re about to make significant overhauls to the way you engage your employees, or if your system is just in need of some small tweaks, taking an honest look at your methodology is a good place to start. Going back to a roots and tree analogy, you want to plant with honesty. Honesty is the soil in which you cultivate true employee loyalty.

Hokey analogies aside, you need to take a good deep look at what it is you’re really trying to accomplish, and what your goals are for employee engagement.

Do you hope to cut costs or increase your bottom line? Do you simply have a love for your employees? Are there personal reasons you want to tackle this challenge, or is this an objective that has been handed down to you?

Is engaging your employees simply the right thing to do?

These are all reasons that shape your motivations for putting more focus on employee engagement strategies.

The Purpose Of An Honest Assessment:

The purpose behind this honest assessment is that you need to make employee engagement more than just a buzzword in your department. It’s easy to toss around phrases like “engagement” and “loyalty” without having a true understanding of your intentions – they just happen to sound good in HR culture. Only you can drill down to the important question of why in the context of your own company.

We can tell you that an engaged workforce is a more effective workforce. A loyal team increases your bottom line and protects you from dangerous external influences. And a positive work environment is an environment that lends well towards success, on both a corporate and individual level.

Your goal here is to define your motivations, as recognizing your motivations helps you move forward with genuine sincerity. Of all the areas of responsibility for Human Resources, the activities of employee engagement are at the greatest risk of appearing insincere. Perceived insincerity defeats the whole objective.

But when you have defined and know your reasons for pursuing an engaged employee base, your attitude changes immediately. You are propelled forward with a level of genuine focus that makes your pursuit of employee loyalty both defined and effective.

Action For Today:

Stop for a moment and make an honest assessment about your employee engagement goals. Write them down, analyze them, discuss them with your team and create a strategy that stays true to these intentions.

Do You Have Abenity? Abenity provides organizations and employers with a complete and customizable member perks & discount program. Want to learn how you can offer thousands of exclusive perks to your members with an Abenity Discount Program? Download Our Overview Browse Our Discounts Request A Demo

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So here are three cornerstones to think about in your pursuit of increasing employee loyalty:

1. COMMUNICATE

Your employees rely on executive leadership and human resources to set the vision from the top down. You are a road-map to organizational success, but unless it’s communicated it will not be understood and acted upon. Financial goals, strategic objectives and corporate milestones mean nothing unless they make it out of the boardroom, and HR is equipped to be the propellant to make sure this happens effectively.

But even more important than goals and strategies is a company mission that can be easily embraced. Few college graduates entering the workforce arrive their first day on the job hoping to “Increase profit margin by 30% in Q3″. But too often these are the types of success measurements we give them. The mission therefore gives context and is the emotional connection between lives changed and dollars earned.

Your employees want to be part of something bigger than themselves – communicate that vision to them in a way that compels them to be on board.

2. DEFINE

Do your employees understand their sphere of influence and levels of responsibility in their career? Or do they feel unguided in ill-defined jobs? Employees need a strong balance of guidance and autonomy. Clear definition needs to be given around roles, responsibilities and expectations so that “success” isn’t a murky, unachievable buzzword. But every employee, according to their strengths, will go about executing on roles and responsibilities in different ways that are natural to them. Meaning, don’t give so much definition that an employee feels handcuffed and forced to do their job in a way that’s uncomfortable or unnatural to them.

Highly motivated employees will want to manage their career as if it were their own business, achieving and even over-achieving company goals in their own way. Finding that comfortable balance between guidance and autonomy will free your workforce to truly succeed.

3. SUPPORT

The powerful psychology of being rewarded and recognized for a job well done cannot be underestimated and sets a foundation for continued success and development. Whether the rewards are financial or emotional, it’s important to place as much emphasis on recognizing the accomplishment as you have the struggle towards the objective.

Pursue Employee Loyalty For the Long Term

Think long term about an employee’s tenure at your organization, and invest in their future. Through ongoing training, personal development, and requests for feedback you are planting seeds for the future. Your investment in them in turn invests them in you.

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