Five Ways to Know You’re Ready for an Employee Engagement Program

If employee turnover, engagement, and succession planning are major concerns for your organization, you are not alone. According to a recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) study, these are the top three challenges HR professionals are facing today.

These issues are closely connected. A disengaged workforce negatively impacts both employee retention and succession planning. How can you plan for the future if a high turnover rate demands your constant attention?

Companies are turning to a variety of resources to encourage engagement, and advances in technology have made it easier to combine multiple employee programs — such as recognition, global rewards, well-being, and learning — into a user-friendly engagement platform.

But technology is only as effective as the people and processes behind it. Using insights from employee surveys, rethinking processes, and promoting the new platform are additional steps that contribute to the success of your engagement initiatives.

To make the most of an engagement platform, consider whether or not your organization as a whole is truly prepared to support and sustain it, and if it will appeal to your employees. Here are five indicators that the time is right:

1. You recognize engagement as a business-level issue.

Engagement isn’t just an HR issue; it’s a business issue, too. Engagement is an enormous factor in the trajectory of an organization. Gallup research tells us that highly engaged organizations are rewarded with 18% higher productivity and 23% higher profitability. In organizations where engagement is already a top priority, CEOs are supporting more strategic engagement initiatives. Others may need to create buy-in from top leaders before they advance toward an engagement platform. Regardless, this vital first step is just the beginning.

2. Your company’s leadership understands its ability to improve engagement.

Let’s say your leaders understand the business value of a highly engaged workforce. But they also must acknowledge their responsibility to encourage engagement. Aon Hewitt's research shows that leadership can improve engagement by 70%. Companies ready to take that first step can start by looking at ways to promote engagement across their entire organization. Positive shifts in the workforce start at the top with new processes and practices that require ongoing evaluation as they take hold throughout all levels of the organization.

3. Your organization has (or plans to acquire) technology and solutions that provide positive employee experiences and have a favorable impact on engagement.

You probably already utilize tools that help engage your employees, such as rewards and recognition programs, learning technology and well-being initiatives. Technology is an integral component of employee engagement, but only if it’s designed with the end user in mind. Effective technology solutions lead to regular recognition and support from supervisors, which can result in as much as 67% higher employee engagement, according to The Energy Project. If your company hasn’t already done so, it may be the time to start investigating some of the innovative engagement technology solutions available, and how they can enhance your culture.

4. Your organization is struggling to reconcile multiple engagement initiatives.

While a variety of initiatives is necessary to maximize employee engagement, these technologies are often spread across different areas of the organization — for example, rewards and recognition might be under compensation, well-being under benefits administration, and so on. This disjointed approach makes it less likely that each initiative will be strategically applied to its optimal objective, and more likely that employees will be left disengaged. We believe the answer is a streamlined, cohesive platform designed to be empathetic to the needs of employees. Accenture reports that 72% of executives expect to see the adoption of platforms that integrate data seamlessly in the next few years.

5. Your organization is open to a fresh approach to employee engagement.

Guiding an engagement strategy that gets results is no easy task. According to research from Edelman, just over half of organizations have an explicit employee engagement strategy. A well-designed platform that brings together your various engagement initiatives and technologies can be the foundation for a successful strategy that results in increased performance across the organization.

Clearly, when you consider the impact of engagement on your people, your processes, and your business, it’s worth making a top priority. Inspirus offers the industry’s first comprehensive engagement platform to help you focus on your employees and your strategy to achieve desired results. If you are ready to learn more about the impact of your technologies working together, simplifying the experience for the end user, and engaging your employees better than you ever thought possible, contact Inspirus today.