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Engaging Employees During the Great Disconnect<\/h2>\nEngaging Employees During the Great Disconnect<\/h2>\nEmployee engagement is the commitment an employee has to an organization and its\u2019 goals. Employee engagement is crucial for an organization to perform at peak productivity and keep employees satisfied. Prioritizing employee engagement can help employers facilitate organizational growth and meet workers\u2019 ever-changing desires to attract and retain employees. However, in 2023, there is a noticeable gap in the perception of employees\u2019 wants and needs, which prevents employee satisfaction.<\/p>\n
Namely, most employers want to return to in-person work, whereas employees want more flexibility in where and when they work. Employees feel they\u2019re most productive at home; their employers disagree. In fact, according to a recent Microsoft survey<\/a>, 87 percent of employees feel they\u2019re just as efficient at home as in the office, while only 12 percent of employers feel confident that their employees are being productive at home. This newfound gap has been labeled the \u201cGreat Disconnect.\u201d<\/p>\n Engaging employees is vital to combat the Great Disconnect; however, methods employers will use to do this will vary, as every workplace is different. For example, some organizations may primarily have remote employees, and others may have on-site employees. Many workplaces are navigating some format of a hybrid arrangement, so each workplace will need to approach engaging its employees differently.<\/p>\n This article explores ways for employers to engage employees during the Great Disconnect.<\/p>\n Many employers feel that having employees at the office more often can help increase connectedness and work productivity. With that, it\u2019s important to keep employees\u2019 needs and interests in mind to avoid creating a disconnect between employees and employers. Here are some ways to engage on-site employees and keep them happy:<\/p>\n Providing some form of flexibility with work schedules, such as occasional hybrid workdays, could provide employees with a compromise to coming into the office. For example, schedules could allow even on-site employees to shift their hours around to attend to caretaking needs.<\/p>\n To find out what works best for an organization, employers should have open conversations about employee needs to see if there is a middle ground between employees and employers.<\/p>\n Engaging remote employees may look different from engaging on-site or hybrid employees. Remote employees have refocused their extra time, using it to perform other tasks, work other jobs, and allow time for more self-care. With this in mind, it\u2019s crucial to engage remote employees intentionally to avoid a disconnect.<\/p>\n All employers can consider the following suggestions for engaging employees, but these tips are particularly impactful for those with remote employees:<\/p>\n These meetings should be for employees to catch up with co-workers. This is a great time to learn about employees virtually or in person after work hours.<\/p>\n To engage remote workers, it can be helpful to encourage flexibility with boundaries. For example, employers could require employees to be logged on during a specific period during the day and attend all meetings but allow them to work around that structure during the other part of their workday.<\/p>\n Transparency is critical when communicating with employees. It\u2019s important to be transparent in expectations about work, personal development, and significant changes in the organization. Such practices can help create a transparent work culture, which helps employees feel cared for, connected, and respected.<\/p>\n Managers are the sounding board between employees and employers. Employers are able to train managers to help them evolve in their roles to become coaches so they\u2019re able to measure performance-based outcomes versus activity. This means it\u2019s important managers are on the same page with expectations, especially in a remote environment. When changes happen, managers should feel ready to communicate and help other employees through them.<\/p>\n Employees are more likely to connect and be more productive when working on-office. If employers are looking to encourage employees to come into the workplace more often while simultaneously engaging them, the following strategies can be considered:<\/p>\n Employees are more likely to come to the workplace if there\u2019s additional socialization to participate in. Catered lunches or events can incentivize employees with a midday socialization break.<\/p>\n Workshops can be a great way to get employees into the office by encouraging personal growth and development. Consider specialized workshops for employees on a biweekly or monthly basis.<\/p>\n Amping up the days spent in the office can be difficult for employees after a remote routine is developed. Therefore, it\u2019s important to offer flexibility from week to week as the days spent working in the office increase. This can include flexible start times or four-day work weeks, for example. Allowing employees to meet their work environment needs will help increase work satisfaction and productivity.<\/p>\n Engaging employees during the Great Disconnect can be difficult, but in 2023, it can improve workplace efficiency and productivity for both employees and employers. Employers should start by assessing their organizations\u2019 needs, and then consider strategies to increase employee engagement.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2023 Zywave, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n Employees want tools that help them stay connected, share ideas, seek help, and collaborate. Employers want to improve productivity, find, retain, and develop top talent, and reward innovation and success. Share & Perform from isolved, GTM’s payroll and HR platform, delivers a better work life by doing all of that and more, providing a personalized dashboard, lively feed wall, and tools for idea and knowledge sharing. Learn more<\/a> then request a free quote<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This article explores ways for employers to improve employee engagement, no matter where their employees are located.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[154,167,101],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-13733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gtm-biz-blog-isolved","tag-employee-engagement","tag-remote-employees","tag-retention"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13733"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13746,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13733\/revisions\/13746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13733"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=13733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Engaging On-site Employees<\/h3>\n
Provide some form of workplace flexibility<\/h4>\n
Discuss needs and wants<\/h4>\n
Engaging Remote Employees<\/h3>\n
Encourage weekly get-togethers<\/h4>\n
Embrace structured flexibility<\/h4>\n
Be transparent<\/h4>\n
Properly equip managers to help employees<\/h4>\n
Incentivizing Employees to Work In-office<\/h3>\n
Schedule weekly lunches<\/h4>\n
Host in-person workshops<\/h4>\n
Allow flexibility<\/h4>\n
Summary<\/h3>\n
Employee Engagement Tools From GTM<\/h2>\n