Young professionals looking for jobs aren’t necessarily seeking out only positions that pay well. Since they’re just starting to shape their career paths, they want to work in a challenging but pleasant work environment. While many firms provide PR and HR services, employee engagement is just beginning to emerge as a significant discipline being sought by CEOs and managers who know that motivated employees produce help their company deliver better results. This trend is expected to continue, so internal communications opportunities are increasing, especially for those who enjoy writing and finding solutions to employee issues.
Internal communications professionals can persuade employees to work better. They can motivate them to do their job better, and they’re excellent at fostering confidence and reassurance. Research shows that companies who hired internal communications in the last five years have proven four times more efficient than those that don’t consider communication that important at the workplace. Employee engagement matters a lot in any type of business, and when internal communications problems emerge, productivity stops.
Young people with little work experience need internal communications professionals to motivate them and convince them that hard work leads to results, and that great results lead to a greater career path.
A better understanding of the “employee engagement” concept
There’s misdirection and confusion as to the exact meaning of employee engagement. First of all, engagement is not motivation at the workplace. Motivated employees are compelled by specific things (usually financial incentives) to stay with a company; engaged employees do it because it’s interesting and appealing, and they’re not bound by financial incentives. Young people struggling to build a career want to work in a place that is attractive, alluring, and challenging. They’re not after the money because their goal is to advance, build connections, and climb up the ladder.
What would you choose between: a job at Amazon, an $800 monthly wage, nice colleagues, and a pleasant workspace and a bogus company, a stressful environment, and a monthly wage of $1,300? A smart new grad would choose the first job offer. Amazon can open new doors for youngsters with little experience in public relations, management, advertising, and HR. You never know what to expect from a bogus company, so if you’re inexperienced you can’t really afford to take that risk.
Fairness at work and employees engagement
Modern PR companies are finally realizing that the key to making their business thrive is winning the hearts of employees. Engagement at the office is vital. When people like what they do they’re willing to go to extreme lengths to achieve something even better, and make supervisors proud. This behavior applies mostly to young people, new grads, and inexperienced workers who want to make themselves noticed.
Measuring employee engagement
Employee engagement has to assessed and measured by HR departments through the use of surveys. They are extremely common and most corporations use them regularly to improve productivity, solve issues and keep employees satisfied. Surveys yield valuable information about employee behavior and attitude. However, when the data is misinterpreted or misunderstood, the result of the survey is a complete waste of time and money.
Most employee satisfaction surveys focus on questions that concern different employee attitudes. Some have a great effect on work performance and turnover; others have absolutely no impact on behavior. HR departments responsible for interpreting the data should be able to measure the information through the evaluation of both causes and consequences of employee commitment, motivation, satisfaction, and involvement. Otherwise, the results of the surveys won’t help the company boost productivity, solve pending issues, and create a more pleasant workspace for employees.
Happy employees are productive employees
There have been many studies performed on this matter. Happy employees are engaged employees, and engagement increases productivity. Young people with little work experience have different expectations, and since they’re okay with receiving modest financial incentives, companies should at least do something to make them feel good at work. Here are some valuable ideas to consider:
- Be open and consistent in communication
- Let employees make important decisions
- Offer employees opportunities for future career development
- Ask for employee feedback
- Share long-term strategies and plans with employees
- Allow employees to take risks
- Allow employees to make mistakes
- Be a good teacher and trainer
Companies should give employees reasons to stay engaged. Young people are not after the money and they’re not after paid vacations either. They want to learn and they can only do that if your company has what it takes to motivate them. Employee engagement is not something a company can achieve with a bi-annual survey packed with random questions. It has to be properly structured, it should be anonymous, and it must not contain more than 15 questions. Choose to pay attention to the needs of your people, communicate with them regularly, provide constructive criticism, and they will be willing to go the extra mile for help your company thrive.
Thanks to Steve Brown and PeopleInsight.co.uk for writing this guest post for Culpwrit.