We all know that it’s your people that are the key to organizational success and growth — especially in the pandemic era! Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) indicate the need to engage their workforce for business survival.
Sam Palazzolo, Principal Officer @ The Javelin Institute
The year 2020 started similar to other years for HR departments at organizations all across the globe. If we went back to Q1 2020, we would find plans for new technology, innovation in recruiting techniques, and suggestions on improving employee engagement. These were alongside the standard hiring, evaluation, and annual employee review planning processes. Who in their right minds could have foreseen the monkey-wrench in the works that was COVID-19 and the pandemic fueled recession that presented itself?
An aspect that has come into sharp focus as a result is employee engagement. Part of a CHROs efforts toward employee engagement is the workforce’s wellbeing. It is especially critical, given the rising stress levels as employee concerns about the pandemic and its lasting effects. Some workforces had little to no choice — They were willing to work longer hours in sometimes toxic atmospheres to their health, all while attempting to create a dicey balance between work and home responsibilities.
What is Employee Engagement?
Basically, employee engagement connotes how attached with and dedicated to the company an employee is. Critical to securing and sustaining a competitive advantage, employee engagement promotes significance for stakeholders, growth, and employee retention for organizations, and dedication to their customers.
The Way Employee Engagement Helps?
- Greater productivity, better functionality, and 21% more elevation
- Increased morale
- 41% reduced absenteeism
- Increased customer support
- Reduced prices — estimated at $4,129USD to hire and $986USD to on-board a brand new employee — by way of employee exit studies
Gallup’s Employee Engagement Study
Gallup info for US workers Indicates a more Detailed picture:
- 33% are engaged by work
- 52% claim to be “just showing up”
- 17% say that they have been”actively disengaged
Lately, decreases in employee engagement have been severe for CHROs in consideration to other employee types. The prior place the tone to engaging the latter, affecting 70% of team involvement variance, and play the most active part within this field. September 2020 saw 41% of employees giving the thumbs-up to CHRO efforts; this, though, came at the expense of higher burnout for managers across organizations.
SUMMARY
Normal is not ordinary any more, and the effect won’t go away anytime soon. New behaviors must be put in place, fresh lessons need learning, and much more needs to be achieved in order to engage the workforce if organizations are to recover and grow out of the pandemic-recession. More than most other steps, the number one focus for CHROs is employee engagement.
Sam Palazzolo