Business owners and managers have a lot on their plate, often more than anyone realizes. In addition to making sure everything is running smoothly and the customers are getting what they need, they also need to make sure that their employees are happy. Having engaged employees helps to increase loyalty, and even improve their performance. Of course, taking steps to keep employees happy is also just a great thing to do to boost moral and increase efficiency. In many cases, employees really do become a 'second family' to managers and business owners, so anything that can be done to improve their engagement is beneficial.
Technology has been used sporadically in workplaces to improve employee engagement. However, many of the tools aren’t effective at truly engaging the employees for maximum benefit. For several decades employers have used various software tools to help track employee years of service programs. However, these tools didn’t provide the full suite of engagement tools that are needed in today’s modern workplace. In order to boost employee engagement, we have added several key engagement modules and have seen exceptional results.
Customized Recognition Programs
One of the most important things that an employer can do to boost employee engagement is to recognize when employees perform well and to celebrate their personal milestones such as years of service, birthdays, employee of the month, sales achievement and much more . Everyone likes to be appreciated, and especially likes to be rewarded for a job well done. Implementing a recognition program will help to boost employee satisfaction while also provide direct guidance on the type of performance that employers expect. Customized recognition programs allow for multiple types of recognition, including:
- Peer-to-Peer Recognition – Letting employees recognize that each other’s performance is essential and appreciated. Using the Transcend peer-to-peer points module allows managers to give out points to his/her employees for positive accomplishments. This module allows employees to earn points and the ability to save them or use them to purchase a gift reward from the online store.
- Sale's Achievement – Tracking and recognizing both individual and team sales achievements is vital. This type of recognition can motivate sales staff to go the extra mile and take ownership to hit their sales goals. Once achieved, the sales team can be granted an online award/gift in recognition of a job well done.
- Years of Service – This employee recognition program goes far beyond just rewarding productivity. Celebrating employees for their dedication to a company creates a family culture where employees feel appreciated and engaged.
- Safety Tracking – In many industries, workplace safety is a key aspect of operations. Keeping employees safe is also critical to keep them engaged. Using an online recognition program makes it easy to identify positive safety accomplishments for the entire company.
- Much More – The Transcend recognition module is a comprehensive recognition program that is turn-key, easy to access, monitor, and manage.
Communication Portal
As companies continue to grow, communicating with employees becomes a challenge. Implementing an employee communication portal can help to ensure that all employees have access to their companies information such as company news, employee birthdays, employee anniversaries, and quick links to benefits and HR information. Each employee has access to the communication portal, and it is very customizable to the specific employee based on his/her position, department and or work location.
Survey Tools
One of the biggest challenges employers often have is making sure they truly understood what employees actually need and want. Many managers or business owners will often agree, the desires of employees are often quite unexpected. To help address this challenge, Transcend offers an employee engagement survey tool. This system can be used to ask employees specific questions, solicit feedback, and to learn what type of employee engagement efforts are most effective. These surveys along with other information gathering tools can be completed anonymously to help ensure that employers are getting unrestricted information from our employees. The survey tool also comes equipped with an advanced reporting module, which allows companies the ability to dive into the analytics of the survey responses.
Continuous Performance Management
Employees need clear and direct feedback in order to perform to the best of their abilities. In many cases this is done with annual reviews. Tracking the performance of each employee on a regular and ongoing basis is critical to a company.
Transcend's online performance management system allows managers to provide continuous updates to employees and provides employees with clear feedback. Having everything available to both managers and employees makes the entire performance management process easier and more effective. This also helps to ensure managers don’t forget to have regularly scheduled check-ins where they can provide feedback, ask how things are going, and generally communicate with their staff. Included in this system is an employee development system, which has been an invaluable resource in developing talented employees for advancement in the company.
Using Technology to Boost Employee Engagement
All of these tools are managed and made available using modern technology-driven solutions. Of course, there are no replacements for face-to-face time between management and employees. The best employee engagement technologies are used to compliment the human aspects of managing employees. Having online engagement tools available makes all employee engagement efforts easier, and more effective, for both employers and employees.