We love talking about having a happy workforce. Here’s why...
We want to create a better life for millions of people by improving their work lives. That’s our purpose. We want to see happy employees, happy customers, and happy businesses. We want to see companies who rely on flexible frontline workers putting the employee experience first to create incredible customer service and a profitable business.
That’s why we’ve built the Engagement feature that aims to give employees a voice, make sure they’re heard, and help them be recognized for the work they do. And that's why we’re focussing on helping businesses in service industries develop a mindset where employee engagement and happiness become a priority.
Sometimes, it’s easier said than done. But tiny changes can make big differences. If you want to have a happier workforce, here are some tips to get you started:
1. Say thank you and recognize good work
On average, people are thanked for doing a good job once every four and a half months - which works out about three times a year. Imagine that for a second - you only get thanked three times every year for doing your job. It’s hardly a great incentive for wanting to be better at the job, deliver better service, or provide a knock-out customer experience.
This makes even less sense when recognition consistently ranks as one of the highest influences on employee happiness - far more than salary. As business leaders, we need to start thanking our employees more often, be better at doing it and improve how we recognize work done well.
It doesn’t have to be complicated either. The Quinyx Engagement module features Quinyx Recognition - a fun feature that gives your employees the ability to recognize and reward their peers with virtual badges including Super Colleague, Problem Solver, and Always on Time.
2. Know your purpose and build a culture where employees can thrive
Having a strong foundation in place with a clear purpose and a strong culture makes the job of creating a happy workforce a much easier one. Employees form the groundswell of support that will define how successful corporate culture is. This means they have to be involved in creating it as well as owning it. To do this, you need to listen to their wants, their needs and give them a voice.
Defining your purpose also defines your values and beliefs. And, as a recent study showed, two-thirds of customers are more willing to spend money on brands whose values align with theirs.
3. Health & well-being are the secrets to success
More than 75% of employees believe ‘workplace wellbeing’ is the secret to employee happiness. Whether you encourage employees to practice mindfulness and get regular exercise or simply have an open door policy where employees know they have someone to talk to if times are tough, they will all help improve wellbeing at work.
While Baby Boomers and Gen X were consumed with climbing the ladder, Millennials have other priorities, with the quality of their work-life being top among them. So much so that many would rather take a pay cut if it meant they were more fulfilled in their role. Autonomy, empowerment, and giving them control are all ways to help give them a better work-life balance.
4. Make your communication exceptional
According to research we carried out in 2018, 84% of Millennials believe an open communication policy is more important than perks in choosing a job but only 15% of employees believe their employer is good at communicating.
There’s a huge disparity here but with the technology we have at our fingertips, there’s no reason for employers to be poor at communicating with employees. It’s here technology (see the next point) can have a huge impact.
It’s one of the reasons we’ve developed the Quinyx Engagement module. Alongside the Recognition feature, there is Quinyx Pulse which allows you to quickly survey your workforce on any topic you choose, such as asking them how they’re feeling, what they think about a new policy, what theme they’d like the next team building to take - the list goes on. This gives you live feedback from your workforce and helps drive engagement across your organization.
Research shows measuring satisfaction, understanding key improvement areas, and acting upon them have a positive effect on the level of employee engagement. This leads to higher productivity, reduced employee turnover, increased customer satisfaction, and loyalty increased profitability.
5. Start using technology more effectively
Technology is your friend! There are any number of tools out there (not just workforce management solutions) designed to make your life - and the lives of your employees - easier.
On the workforce management front, using technology to offer greater flexibility or help staff navigate unsocial hours can be easy-to-implement and cost-effective. Manual and elementary workforces can often be large and disparate, meaning that traditional methods of staff engagement – face-to-face team meetings, training sessions, or socials – can be difficult to execute.
The good news is that the employer survey we undertook last year uncovered some smart uses of technology that can make up the miles when it comes to engaging and retaining these workers. Some options include using online training modules to help staff upskill from afar or using apps/online platforms to communicate faster and more effectively.
Your employees want to know when they are working, they want to be paid on time, they want to be able to swap shifts if they need to, and they want simple ways to communicate. Whether it’s a fully integrated workforce management solution or just an automated scheduling solution, there are tools out there to help empower your workers to be more productive and efficient.
Cloud-native and mobile-first workforce management solutions are part of the technology that can help – and the same survey found nearly a third of workers believe technologies that allow business schedules to be viewed, shared, and managed from an app could help their businesses increase flexibility - and, as a result, employee happiness.
Download the Ultimate Guide to Attracting, Retaining & Engaging Employees to discover more about the commercial advantages of a happy workforce and the role workforce management software plays in helping you achieve it.
