Do your team members enjoy coming to work? If they don’t, you’re missing out on an opportunity to increase team member engagement and reduce turnover; two key leadership concerns that can directly affect the quality of service you deliver to your customers and vendors.
According to the 2014 survey conducted by Deloitte, Global Human Capital Trends, over 79% of employers are desperate to improve their rates for engagement and retention. Research by Gallup backs up these findings, as nearly 87% of workers around the world are either disengaged or actively disengaged.
Disengaged team members not only eventually leave the company which increases your training costs, their disengagement spills over to affect the attitudes and effort of other workers, and can lead to negative workplace outcomes such as poor customer service, or lapses in safety procedure and other areas of judgment. One way that leaders can turn things around is by creating an irresistible organisation where team members are excited to work.
The Five Components of an Irresistible Organisation
Would you like to create a work place where your team members show up excited to spend their time giving their best efforts and ideas to your company? While change is always a challenge, it’s a good idea to update the following five areas in your workplace if you want to create a healthier and more positive work environment to improve team member engagement and lower turnover.
Work That Has Meaning
When we give our people meaningful work to do, and empower them with the authority, tools and resources that they need to do it, and also pay them fairly to do the job, we give our team members a stake in their own success as well as the success of the company. If you want to improve team member morale, give them a sense of purpose. Let them know that their work matters.
Receptive, Empathetic Coaching and Development
Leadership should have two purposes; to convey and implement company policy and to guide team members to achieve attainable goals. No one enjoys feeling as though they are being “micro-managed,” or “bossed about.” It’s important that leaders show empathy and genuine concern for team members on a personal level and to provide coaching, encouragement, direction and guidance rather than punishment.
The relationship between leader and team should be one of trust and respect rather than fear, and leaders should be open to receiving feedback, ideas and suggestions from their team members at every level in the organisation.
Opportunity to Excel and Grow
If your organisation wants to keep its best and brightest talent, it’s most experienced team members, it’s important to provide opportunities for learning and development, public recognition of excellent performance, and opportunities to move up, or even to move across into other departments. Lack of mobility and recognition is a key reason why team members become dissatisfied with their workplace and look for opportunities elsewhere.
Fun Workplace Environment That’s Flexible and Diverse
To put forth their best efforts on a regular basis, team members need regular breaks away from their work. They need flexibility in scheduling. Installing fun ways for team members to take a moment to slack off for a bit before returning to their work is great for morale and allows team members to distress and go back to their tasks feeling renewed and refreshed.
The perks that you might offer your team members are really only limited by your imagination. For example, if many of your team members enjoy board games or even computer games, you might consider setting up a gaming station in your break room. Special events, such as group picnics, potlucks, company teams for area amateur sports and other little entitlements encourage bonding and team building and improve the morale of everyone.
Inspiring Leaders
It’s easier for team members to feel good about coming to work when they are working for a company that has a mission that they believe in. Achieving this level of inspiration requires more than just an exciting and altruistic mission statement. The leadership actions must live up to those words.
Leaders should build trust with team members at every level, and they should foster innovation by encouraging everyone to not be afraid to try new ideas and new ways of doing things. Leaders can show that creating healthy, happy team members and a healthy workplace are values that they truly honor when they lead by example in these areas.
Investing in your people by building an irresistible organisation can help you to create a firm foundation upon which to build a strong and profitable company that will have an edge over many of its competitors.
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