Employee engagement trends 2022
In a recent report by Achievers, 52% of employees surveyed said that they plan to job hunt in 2022.
This is up from 35% in 2020. While the main reason, as always, was better compensation and benefits (35%), other factors were stated.
With many employers planning employee retention and attraction strategies to gear up for the world economy moving towards normality, the top reasons for staying in a current role are work life balance (23%) and recognition (21%).
Employee engagement is critical for retention. Employees who feel passionate and engaged are far less likely to leave.
66% of employees would be more passionate and engaged at work if their managers improved company culture, while 52% would be more engaged if the company improved its diversity and inclusion.
20% of employees feel that their managers do not recognise their contribution, and positive feedback is poor. Greater recognition would improve if recognition was given in a timely and appropriate manner.
Building a culture of appreciation that allows employees to give real time positive feedback that can be viewed by everyone in the organisation is a powerful motivator in the fight to maintain and improve corporate culture, productivity, and wellness across the entire workforce.
Everyone wants to feel appreciated, valued and respected. If you don’t recognise your employees contribution with positive feedback your competitors will cherry pick your top talent, making your challenge even greater.
We know from many studies that implementing a Culture of Appreciation that recognises employee contributions by giving real time positive feedback has an impact on employee engagement and corporate performance.
However, in a recent survey, only 16% of employees questioned said their manager appreciated their contribution through positive feedback while 20% claimed that feeling undervalued was hindering their engagement at work.
In organisations with low recognition and positive feedback there is a proven correlation between infrequent or low levels of recognition and high employee turnover, and many employees claim they left the main reason for leaving their employer was because their manger did not recognise their contribution.
Implementing a Culture of Appreciation with positive feedback is not difficult, but it needs to be thoroughly thought through, and should contain the following 5 features to maximise investment.
They are:
- Recognition and positive feedback needs to be given regularly
- Recognition should be shared with everyone in the organisation.
- Recognition should occur as close to the time a behaviour was observed for maximum impact. The longer you leave it the less it will be valued.
- Recognition should clearly relate to the behaviour observed
- Values based or tied to key behaviours. Recognition should be related to activities that are in line with the corporate values and vision.
Today more than ever, employees want to feel appreciated, respected and valued, whether they are office based, work from home, or in a hybrid situation.
Almost 80% of employees admit that recognition would motivate them to put more effort in at work.
Around half of people would leave their current employer for one that recognises their efforts on a regular basis.
Your people are your only competitive advantage. Everything else – products, pricing, marketing, location, etc. can be copied.
Your employees are truly unique so what are you doing to stop your top people from walking away and joining your competition?
With prestigious consulting organisations such as Mercer estimating that it can cost up to 150% of a staff members salary to replace them, how much is your business throwing away each year?
Recognising staff contribution and discretionary effort doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.
But it DOES make your people feel valued, appreciated and part of your overall vision.
When positive feedback is part of your corporate culture and is given in a timely and sincere manner it will help build connected, empowered workplaces. This should be your ultimate aim and a strategic part of your transition towards the future of work and creating passion in the workplace.
With engaged, motivated, and passionate staff, you will benefit from lower employee turnover, increased productivity, cost saving and innovation ideas, fewer sick days and improved customer loyalty and retention, to mention just a few benefits.
Disengaged employees can have a devastating and toxic impact on your business.
This should be a no brainer, especially today when hybrid workers and the challenge for inclusion, as well as need to protect the health and wellbeing of employees are strategic issues which impact corporate performance.
Engagement and passion is NOT an HR issue, it is a BUSINESS issue, and if not addressed from the top down it will simply not work.
Simply put, Engaged Staff = Improved Brand Value = Increased Corporate Performance = happy stakeholders.
So what is stopping you from making a change?
