4Cs Blog: Happy Employees = Happy Customers

The importance of trust

In recent months, trust has surfaced as a key determining factor in employee engagement. For the people who work for you, it's your trust that matters most to them. You're the one having everyday impact on their work life and the trusting relationship you build is not only a requirement for employee engagement, it has to be nurtured constantly and maintained by many small actions over time. Trust is also built by telling the truth even when it is difficult to do.

But how can people trust you when you have to deliver bad news, or worse, fire someone? Our research shows that no more than six-in-ten employees feel their senior managers are telling them the truth and providing them with information that is clear and complete. Depending on how you communicate bad news, however, you could turn this into an opportunity to build trust instead of risking or eroding it.

You need to learn to relax.

Whatever you are working on is not as important as you think. Our research shows 7 out of 10 Americans describe their work as stressful. Although some stress can be positive, this may be an indication that many of us are not faring well at work. Stress costs companies money, but even more importantly, stress over time can do physical and mental damage to your body. The truth is, as technology advances, and job security becomes more fragile, managing stress is getting harder and harder.

One of the biggest obstacles to achieving work-life balance is the internet and our mobile devices because they can keep us attached to our work 24/7. Yet it is vitally important to our physical and mental health that we disconnect, and come back the next day feeling refreshed.

Satisfaction with Training and Development

Using our own normative data, Insightlink has found that only four-in-ten employees are extremely or very satisfied with the amount of ongoing training and development they receive. Organizations that ‘get’ the importance of training and education stand the greatest chance of building engagement and developing a culture where employees are motivated to succeed, excel and achieve their career goals. Yet this statistic suggests that the majority of organizations aren’t ‘getting’ it and are ignoring this valuable opportunity.

There is never a dull moment in the employment cycle. A current example shows that in the U.S., unemployment rates are declining while turnover rates are escalating. Some researchers are actually predicting turnover rates are going to ‘spike’ in the U.S. this year, as more people are back to work and feeling more confident about their futures and job prospects. Consulting firm Accelir surveyed human resource professionals and corporate leaders in the summer of 2013 and published a paper titled “Rewards and Recognition: 2014 Trends Report”. 

The report cites government statistics showing that job tenure in the United States is less than five years. Other research has shown that most Millennial workers expect to stay at a job no more than three years. Turnover is expensive and while sometimes it cannot be avoided, you should be doing the right things for your employees to minimize its impact.

If you are like most Americans, you work too hard. Most of us think working crazy hours is what it takes to prove we are passionate, productive team players. Some of us are so driven we choose overtime over vacation to prove how dedicated we really are. We mistakenly believe if we work harder and longer we will be more productive and more successful despite the evidence that the secret to being an effective worker is not working too hard.

Time away from work is a key ingredient to work life balance. Vacations have been proven over and over again to give us a better life perspective. Taking a break renews our spirit, rests our souls and refuels us so that when we return to work we are more energized and motivated to work hard. Our research at Insightlink shows that, while we may be cognizant of these facts, we largely ignore them as less than 7 in 10 of us think we are able to find a good balance between our free time and our career obligations.

 A recent Sunday New York Times featured an article titled ‘Why You Hate Work’. You might have been offended by this assumption because the article claimed that you aren’t excited about your job, don’t like what you do, don’t feel appreciated and find it hard to complete important tasks. Maybe this doesn’t describe you exactly but there are sufficient statistics that prove people who love their jobs may be in the minority. According to a recent Insightlink normative study, just over half of employees across America are actively engaged at work. Many employees say they have no sense of community, no sense of positive overall energy and no idea how to be successful at work.

The skeptics amongst us must wonder if this is really true and if there really are that many unhappy people going to work every day.

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