3 Tips For Organizational Leaders Who Want To Boost Engagement
Employee voice, a critical element of organizational success
Posted on 12-31-2020, Read Time: Min
Share:
As we enter 2021, many organizational leaders are realizing that they will need to operate in a fundamentally different way, particularly in essential industries such as healthcare. We believe that the key to success will be granting a higher level of prominence to Employee Voice.
New research from Waggl indicates that there is a groundswell of interest already underway. Hundreds of HR professionals at organizations of all sizes were asked to share their thoughts on the importance of Employee Voice. Of those who responded, 91% said that they believed employee feedback is crucial to company success. When asked about the value of collecting input from employees more frequently and/or transparently:
- 80% of the respondents that they believe it will drive more engagement, as employees will feel more involved in solving problems
- 66% said that it improved company culture
- 63% said that employees feel that they are listened to when action has been taken
- 62% said that it built more trust with employees
- 61% said that it surfaced important problems not identified by management.
Responses were consistent across role and company size, with minor variations.
These findings have enormous ramifications for HR Leaders as they face a host of significant macro-challenges in 2021 that will continue to increase the volatility of the business and social climate. As this research indicates, HR professionals already understand the value of Employee Voice, and are ready to utilize it as a tool for boosting engagement. With many organizations still operating remotely, engagement is becoming even more critical to achieving ongoing success.
Here are 3 recommendations for organizational leaders who want to boost engagement in the coming year:
1. Embrace Organizational Agility
The game has changed for leaders, as the traditional hierarchical leadership of the past has been replaced by the need for organizational agility. Leaders need to move away from bureaucratic command-and-control models that focus on efficiency and productivity toward harder-to-measure skills like innovation. This demands that the function of decision-making expand from one individual to almost all of the people who comprise the organization. In order to win, leaders need to embrace less bureaucratic systems in favor of a more inclusive model that enables them to take new strategic input and quickly put it into action.
2. Unblock the Flow of Information Across the Entire Organization
In the coming year, we will undoubtedly continue to encounter some circumstances that are beyond our control. But perhaps even more than these macro issues, organizational leaders are hampered by the kinds of internal issues that commonly stem from having a blocked flow of information within the organization – cultural problems, outdated processes, operational inefficiency, and a general lack of employee engagement. In fact, 70% of all change initiatives fail due to employee resistance.
3. Proactively Adopt New Tools to Facilitate Employee Feedback
In 2021 and beyond, this will become inevitable. Waggl’s research indicated that 67% of HR professionals believe that gathering feedback from employees more frequently than 1-2 times annually will become common in the next 1-3 years. Respondents cited the following corporate initiatives as scenarios that create a desire or need to share employee feedback across the organization:
- Improve employee culture (75%)
- Change management driven by, for example, a new initiative, policy or acquisition (70%)
- Improve employee communication (65%)
- Create a sense of belonging (63%)
An agile Employee Voice platform can help organizations measure and improve engagement through simple data visualizations and meaningful crowdsourced dialogue between managers, leaders and teams.
Over the past six years, Waggl has evolved its platform from a lightweight, consumer-driven app to a robust Enterprise Platform capable of supporting organizations with many thousands of employees. If you are ready to start listening to the voice of your people, visit https://www.waggl.com/ to learn more.
Author Bio
| Michael Papay is on a mission to give every employee a voice to make their workplace better. A proven HR technology pioneer with over 20 years of experience building and leading technology businesses focused on Human Capital Management, Michael currently serves as CEO & Co-founder of Waggl, an Employee Voice platform that helps organizations measure and improve engagement through simple data visualizations and meaningful crowdsourced dialogue between managers, leaders and teams. In 2019, Michael Papay was named as a recipient of the “2019 Founders to Watch” award by The Startup Weekly, a leading independent source of news and insights for business builders. Connect Michael Papay |
Error: No such template "/CustomCode/topleader/category"!
