4Cs Blog: Happy Employees = Happy Customers

In a survey of 1000 people conducted by ColdEeze.com, the majority of employees think their colleagues are lying or faking being sick when they call in to report they won’t be coming to work that day. The study claimed that a ‘whopping 80 percent admitted that sometimes they don’t think their colleagues are telling the truth’. We all have off days or days when we need downtime but lying is not what you would expect from an engaged employee who is committed to their organization and cares about their work. You might expect to see this from disengaged workers, however, who have lost or maybe never had a close connection to their place of work. Calling in sick might be a red flag that an employee is just not that into you and here are some signs they might not be telling the truth.

Considering the cost and environmental impact, no wonder many of us are making a greater effort to shop and buy local foods in season.
Many of us look for ways to do our part to help reduce global warming in our homes but how many of us work for organizations that don’t seem to care? And how many of us wish we could put a stop to the waste we see at work every day? What does this have to do with employee engagement? It turns out it has a lot to do with it and a good example of this is the hospitality industry.

Employees who work in a recognition-focused company are five times more likely to feel valued and eleven times more likely to feel committed to their jobs and organization's mission, according to best-selling author Bob Nelson. But if you think there’s not a budget for recognition programs and incentives, think again. Cash actually does little to motivate employees to work harder.

 A Harvard Business Review article looked at the research on employee incentives and discovered a promise for a gift-wrapped water bottle actually increased worker productivity by 25 percent. Meanwhile, an offer for an attractive cash bonus did nothing to speed-up productivity or efficiency in another group.

 Recognition programs do more than just motivate employees. They can also help retain top talent and create a more dedicated workplace. Taking cash out of the employee incentive equation can actually generate more buzz about your perks and energize your workplace. Get creative with your offerings and regularly solicit feedback from your employees to figure out what works best. Here are some ideas to get started.

Humor Help is Here!

Engaging employees does not have to be hard work. Nothing makes us feel better than a good laugh so why not inject a little fun while you ponder your next employee feedback survey.
We all know that when situations become too serious the best medicine is humor. Humor not only makes us feel good it also enhances creativity and reduces stress at work. Engaged employees not only go above and beyond, ideally they should be enjoying themselves along the way.

Studies show that humor in the workplace can boost employee productivity, and even enhance performance. Laughter is also one of the best stress management tools. As the Mayo Clinic reports, more giggles are just what the doctor ordered because laughter increases the release of feel-good chemicals, reduces tension and helps us connect with others.

Humor also does many positive things to our bodies. It's responsible for elevating our mood, breaking up boredom and fatigue and giving us more resilience. It also boosts our immune system, reduces stress, relaxes muscles and lowers our blood pressure. The degree of humor contained in your personal health has repercussions at work. People with a healthy sense of humor are less overwhelmed in tough situations, more cheerful and easy going. They can use laughter to diffuse hostility, and are more likely to encourage cooperation when working in a team. They make work more fun; people who laugh well together work well together.

One Employee At A Time

One thing an employee survey will not do is fix the culture of an organization. Our surveys don’t improve anything because they are just a diagnostic. They become a critical diagnostic because they start the conversations that lead to change.

Employee surveys are all data driven analytic platforms that enable companies to track employee morale. They also gauge employees’ emotional commitment to their companies. Motivated managers need these results to help them hone in on areas of concern, which leads to suggestions and action plans to improve their problems. Our goal is to pinpoint issues that are eroding employee morale, so that management can address and resolve them before they become a major crisis.

Once the decision is made to conduct a survey, the next critical step is convincing employees to take it.

Employee Surveys: Do-It-Yourself vs. Using An Outside Firm

Well, yes. We are in the survey business. So you probably think we’re going to say you should use an outside firm. And we are, mostly, going to say just that. But we have our reasons and we think that you may enjoy, and even benefit, from hearing a few of them.

Not Every Project Is a Do-It-Yourself Project and Not Everyone Is a Do-It-Yourselfer

Employee surveys look pretty easy. After all, you know your own organization and you know the questions you want to ask (at least in theory). And there’s tools like Survey Monkey that are practically free (unless you want to use the cool/advanced features) to help you set up, run and analyze your survey. So why not tackle it in-house and put the bucks you save by not hiring a research company toward some other worthy organizational objective such as installing a hot tub in the break room?

Well, before you start inspecting the choices at the Spas-R-Us website, ask yourself a few questions.

1. Do I (or whoever else is assigned the survey job) have the time to do it? Survey writing, data collection, data analysis and write-up are more time-consuming than you might think. Make a realistic assessment of the staff hours involved in all these steps and you might find that using an outside firm is very cost competitive. We guarantee that it is cheaper to use us in the first place than to try it yourself, give up in exhaustion and then hire us anyway to fix it (we get new clients this way at least several times per year).
2. Do I/we have the skill? You may think it’s is easy to write effective survey questions. Apparently it is not, because we have a vast collection of examples from surveys we have seen – some DIY efforts and some by supposed pros – that fail in various amusing or horrific ways. Not everyone is a skilled data analyst, either, judging by some of the misused statistics, odd interpretations and illogical conclusions we have seen. Be honest with yourself – if you are not good at these things, or simply don’t like doing them – hire a pro.

About

Recent Posts

Favorite Links