EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND LIFE-WORK BALANCE
Following the Gallup’s ‘State of the global workforce’ report, 2022, I ran a small LinkedIn poll to get an insight into where my network felt the UK ranked for Employee Engagement, compared to other European Countries. The vast majority of the respondents voted for the UK ranking between 30th-38th (out of 38!), and sadly they were correct as according to the report, the UK currently sits at number 33.
It was also found that only 9% of UK workers surveyed felt enthusiastic about their work and workplace, which falls below the average of 14% across the other European countries.
Why is Employee Engagement Important?
It is no secret that an engaged, happy and motivated team helps sustain business success, and according to Gallop’s CEO John Clifton, “business units with engaged workers have 23% higher profit than those with workers who felt “miserable”.”
He also added teams who have a thriving culture and workforce see less sickness absence, lower staff turnover and less accidents at work. Therefore, noting that wellbeing positively impacts both the business and the employee agendas.
How can businesses improve employee engagement?
Pay Well
It may seem an obvious one, but ensuring your business pays employees a fair or competitive wage will help with retaining top talent. With the current cost of living skyrocketing in the UK presently, pay incentives are a really crucial way of securing the best employees within the business.
Pay increases may not be an option for many companies as employers are also feeling the pinch of the rise in costs.
Review Workplace Benefits
Generous benefit packages play a really key part in keeping employees motivated and engaged, which ultimately ensures your retain the very best of your workforce.
Benefits that could be enhanced to create meaningful rewards are: Maternity/Paternity/Parental pay, Company sick pay, Unlimited holiday, Company shares, Pension schemes or Bonuses.
Implement Flexible Working
Thanks to the Covid19 pandemic, we have seen how successful flexible and remote/hybrid working can be. Many job seekers have placed the ability to work flexibly at the top of their requirements when searching for a role. Flexible working is now seen as a standard practice instead of a niche and trendy perk.
It is evident (how to retain staff without paying them more ) that allowing staff to have more autonomy over their day to day, and creating a flexible and trusting business culture, builds a great sense of fulfilment for employees and a better work-life balance, which boosts levels of engagement.
A recent poll of 1000 UK employees carried out by CIPHR found 70% of women and 65% of men see work-life balance as being more important than their pay and employee benefits combined.
Create an Inclusive Culture
Inclusive cultures don’t just benefit employees from minority groups – they benefit everyone. If everyone feels valued and heard, they’re less likely to look elsewhere for employment.
To create a truly inclusive culture within a business, there must be significant and genuine buy-in from all levels across the business, reviewing and adjusting of hiring practices, formation of an inclusion committee (or different groups if that is appropriate), listening to employees and celebrating differences.
Creating an inclusive and diverse workforce opens up far more opportunities for creativity, innovation and higher performance, and is increasingly becoming something that employees look for when seeking employment.
Appreciate your Employees
It may sound simple, but it goes a long way – acknowledging successes no matter how small. Whether they are individual or whole business achievements, a genuine thank you can sometimes be just the right amount of motivation to move onto the next project with enthusiasm.
Help to Create better Life-Work Balance
“Life-Work Balance” is an evolving term which is increasingly being used to change the way we juggle our personal lives, and “put life first”. Global hiring specialists, Remote ranked the UK 27th out of 30 in its 2022 European Life-Work Index. This ranking was based on scoring on factors such as maternity pay, annual leave, sick pay and wages.
Changes to working practices such as flexible/hybrid working, implementing “The 4 day week”, or legislative changes to allow for the right to “disconnect from work”, can protect employees from some of the negative impacts of work.
If employees are able to get more enjoyment out of their lives by working in conditions and for businesses that foster a more inclusive life-work balance, we will see vast improvements in the overall happiness and health of employees. This in turn inevitably benefits businesses by means of better employee engagement, retention of talent and increased productivity.
Check out Europe’s best countries for work/life balance.
For support and guidance, please get in touch with our expert HR team via hr@stellamar.co.uk.
