Employee engagement on your mind? Ditch the survey. Think better.

Stop thinking about your people as  a workforce, and start thinking of them as a consumer base. Understand and improve your employee experience, and keep your talent. 

While it’s easy to consider your team in terms of what employees can do for your organisation, transforming your thinking is the key to building a better, more engaged team. With a fresh approach, you can do better, paying closer attention to talent and preparing to make a team effort in pursuit of your goals. 

Gone are the days when it was okay to treat your team like a well-oiled machine, going through the motions of doing a ‘job’. Our relationship with work has changed. Now more than ever before, your employees are the consumers of your organisation’s culture and employee value proposition. This shift is a big part of what drove the ‘great resignation,’ which saw 2.6 million Australians leave their jobs in 2022. 

People want more from their job and employer. They want better. A leader’s job is to make every interaction count!

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement focuses on connections that ensure your organisation is a collaborative environment, where people feel valued and motivated to work towards a common goal. 

Looking beyond employee satisfaction, employee engagement has the power to take your organisation to the next level. When your team is engaged, you can count on having invested, enthusiastic team players who care about your purpose and the impact they can make, not just their next paycheck.  

Why it matters

We are in the era of talent.

In 2022, employees took control of their relationship with work, choosing flexibility, a positive work culture, and organisations where they can learn and grow every day. That trend is set to continue.

By understanding and taking action on employee engagement, you can intentionally design and create a better employee experience. You can recognise the value each team member brings while also understanding and showcasing the value you offer in return. 

According to the latest Gallup data, 70 percent of decisions are based on emotion. Never underestimate how critical it is to build emotional connections in your team and in your organisation. It’s the key to retaining happy and motivated employees who want to play their part in helping your organisation reach its full potential.

Remember, your employees aren’t simply a workforce. They are consumers of your employee value proposition. If you want to engage, attract and retain great people, you need to understand, define, and ‘sell’ your value as an employer. This is employer brand. It’s how people experience your organisation - and how you make them feel. It’s this value that makes your organisation a product worth buying into. 

What organisations get wrong

The stats are in, but that doesn’t mean that every organisation is willing to take them into account. The result? 

Gallup reports that only 32 percent of employees are engaged at work, with only 2 in 10 employees strongly agreeing that their workplace motivates them to deliver outstanding professional results. 

By failing to recognise each job or role as a ‘product,’ brought to life through your EVP, and something you want employees to fall in love with, many employers end up with a skilled but disengaged or unmotivated team, not connected with your organisation and limited in their ability to deliver (and enjoy!) meaningful work with impact.

How you can do better

Doing better for your people doesn’t have to be super complicated or challenging. All you need to do is:

• listen to your employees, asking for feedback and listening for insights (hint: this is not a survey-only exercise)

• understand and action the insights you gain from listening, curating an employee experience that works for your people 

• use these insights to define your EVP and proactively manage your employer brand, telling your employer narrative through your team’s eyes

Be different. Stand out.

Put  employee engagement at the heart of your organisation, from hiring to engagement and retention.

A focus on employee engagement means you’re always recruiting (aka engaging), even when you’re not hiring. 

When you are hiring, you’ll be equipped to communicate authentically about the opportunity and its challenges. You’ll be able to represent your goals, the employee offer, and the things that your people say make your organisation a great place to work.

When you’re working on retention, keep seeking regular feedback, and listen to what your team needs from its leaders. 

When it’s time to make changes or reshuffle your workforce, search for ways to provide career growth opportunities that give your employees a chance to take the next step without leaving your organisation.

Employee surveys aren’t the only answer to help you understand how people experience your organisation and the way they feel about work. Instead, give your people a real, human opportunity to communicate their feedback and feelings.

A word of warning, though: this uber-authentic, transparent way of measuring employee engagement and really understanding employee experience isn’t for the faint of heart. For this approach to be effective, your leadership team needs to be truly willing to listen, adapt, and commit to the employer-employee relationship as a two-way street.

Through this authentic and vulnerable approach to feedback and engagement, you can be an employer brand that connects, inside and out.

Where should you get started?

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the prospect of this all-in approach to employee engagement, don’t be surprised. 

Our relationship with work has changed. The new world of work requires a new approach to how employers engage, attract and retain people. ‘New’ is rarely easy.

Maybe you just did an employee survey. Or you’re busy with other people's initiatives. Perhaps this style of employee research feels a little too challenging or outside the comfort zone (which is where, as we know, the magic can happen).

You don’t have to work alone. At Heart Talent, we offer employer brand support to help you engage, retain, attract, and delight top talent. Contact us to find out more about what we can do for your organisation.