Six Employee Engagement Ideas to Help Re-engage Your Employees After An Economic Crisis

A lot of what you hear today from HR executives and consultants is the issue of employee engagement. Are your employees engaged or does it just seem that way? Do you feel your employees get what the company strategy is and are they helping to really achieve it? 

This is a re-post but I still believe that we are all facing uncertainty within our workforce. I feel as though we are seeing things improve (slowly) but many of our employees are still not sure of their future. If you are looking for a few ideas to re-engage your employees, read the list below to see how you can make a difference.

For your employees, for your leaders as we optimistically look for a more solid recovery from this economic crisis:

1. Increase employee communications

· Bad news is better than no news

· Build trust - be open and forthcoming with information

· Seek feedback from direct reports

· Be innovative – design new methods for employees to communicate with management

· Be a good listener - allow employees to vent and express their concerns

2. Understand and plan for future staffing needs today

· Continuously assess employee workloads

· Downsizing or ‘rightsizing’ causes stress

· Job consolidation causes stress

· Stress impacts quality and productivity

3. Continuously coach employees and managers who have not worked during an economic crisis

· Purpose is to maximize core strengths and minimize weakness

· Teach active listening skills

· Offer group sessions to talk through different economic issues impacting the business

4. Emphasize training & development

· Identify and better utilize the strengths of existing staff

· Focus on developing existing talent through ongoing training

· Assess those who may have skills that may be needed elsewhere in the company

· Shift your highly flexible and cross-trained workforce to other functions as needed

5. Strategically add and/or upgrade your staff

· This activity will strengthen your company when the economic recovery begins

· This kind of thinking enables competitive advantage

· Place an emphasis deploying a more highly skilled workforce

6. Focus on retention efforts to deflect the higher turnover rates expected as the economic recovery takes hold

· As more jobs become available, turnover risks increase

· Focus on your top talent to ensure that they stay with your company as outside opportunities increase

What are your thoughts on this and are you making headway in getting your employees really engaged? 

Posted by Lisa Wojtkowiak, SPHR

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Identify Your Managerial Style - Who Are You?

Since there have been numerous articles on retention of employees every HR executive should be asking 2 very important and mission critical questions as a strategic partner with your CEO: (1)what kind of manager am I?, and (2) what kind of managers do I have in my organization? (this includes your CEO too). As we all know, the biggest untapped opportunity within your organization is how managers and you as a manager shape the way people work together to deliver results. So, what kind of manager are you?a micro-manager (you know what this is), an arms length manager (macro-manager), a cloistered manager,  a secret manager (never tell the staff anything even the need to know stuff), a good people manager, a task master, an on and on. Well, I extend the challenge to each of you to look inside yourself and ask those 2 very important questions. Then you should reflect to see if your style is getting the best results from each individual, department, group, and business. If the answer is yes then you win the lottery and you have tapped the greatest opportunity in business by unleashing the energy, creativity, and knowledge of your workforce. If the answer is no then you really need to reassess how you manage, as well as your managers so you get the best results, return on your investment, employees that are engaged, and limit your turnover.


You should ask yourself these two questions every year because as we all know we change and when upper level management changes, so do we and how we operate. 


Your comments and opinions on this post are welcome to wgstevens2@gmail.com

You As A Manager

How many times have you asked yourself how am I as a manager? I can tell you that I asked that question to myself at least once a week for 30 years in business. I am sure you are like me, you want to constantly improve as a person and as a manager so that the people that work for you respect you and not fear you. I also asked my subordinates how I was as a manager once a month in our staff meeting to make sure that we were(1) on the same page in tasks and timetables,(2) that we were moving in the same direction on projects and people issues,(3) we were aware of each others issues so we did not bump into each other or do double work. 


I always made sure that I was a boss first and friend second. I really do not have to go into the details of how you do that or discuss why you may think it should be reversed. And with that here are the challenges you may face :

• co-worker issues
• motivating team members
• performance reviews
• providing enough resources for workers to succeed
• career pathing where your co-workers feel they are moving in a positive direction at a speed they are comfortable with based on their skills
• no being a good listener
• providing positive or negative feedback
• following through on promises 

I think you have to let your co-workers be in the forefront and let them shine and be recognized for their work. Stretch their comfort zone so they grow and feel comfortable in that growth mode. Complement them in public and any negative feedback in private. Does this all sound familiar, what do you think or add to this blog post? 

Happy 4th of July America

Why Do Employees Hate Change?

Suppose your supervisor offered you a 50% increase in pay, and 2 weeks of additional vacation just because she thought you were a great employee.  Would you accept the changes?  How likely are you to dig in your heels and refuse them because you don’t like change?

For many years, William Gould and I as well attributed organizational resistance to change to the fact that people simply hate change.  I no longer think that is true.  It’s not that employees hate change, but rather we don’t like the personal aspects of change that will adversely impact us, and our jobs.  The most basic question we often ask ourselves upon hearing of change is, “What is the worst possible way this will affect me?”  When there are losses (either real or perceived) associated with change, we are more likely to resist. 

Why do you think employees resist organizational change?

Credit by: William Gould of HRSoot.com