Sam Caucci
If there’s one key to success in the future of work, it’s got to be securing employee engagement. Finding talented people is only your first step. When you can get them genuinely engaged with the work you’re doing, that’s when your business is going to go from being successful to truly exceptional.
There’s plenty of good advice out there on how to increase employee engagement, as well as tons of great online games for employee engagement. But do you actually know how to tell if these methods are working? Or what does it look like when engagement levels are slipping at your workplace?
We’ll list some of the most common signs that engagement among your employees is starting to drop off. If you spot even a few of these warning signs at your business, you might need to re-examine your strategies to deal with employee engagement.
Let’s start with a metric that’s pretty easy to check. Are employees constantly leaving your business? Is it hard to get any employees to remain for very long? A high turnover rate can indicate that your employees don’t feel connected to your workplace or business culture.
Difficulty finding new employees could also be a sign engagement is slipping. How does this work if these new hires haven’t given your business a shot yet? The truth is, referrals from current employees are often a major deciding factor in getting new hires to jump on board. And these employees are going to be much less likely to recommend a workplace when they don’t feel engaged with the business themselves.
Another critical sign of a lack of employee engagement is higher levels of employee absenteeism. If you see a spike in sick days or unexplained absences, there’s a good chance engagement is dropping at your workplace. Another version of this can be tardiness or leaving earlier.
If you notice that the total productivity levels at your workplace are slipping, this is another clear sign of a lack of employee engagement. Employees can put in the same amount of time on projects but produce less. Even if they’re working overtime, the drive that really gets the creative and determined parts of their brain will be missing entirely.
Even if you can’t detect an apparent decline in real productivity, you can be sure your clients and customers will notice when your employees aren’t engaged. If customer satisfaction starts to dip and you get more negative feedback from clients, start looking for ways to increase employee engagement.
Are you preparing fun office games for employees, and no one is biting? Are your fun activity sessions filled with empty seats? Are your physical workers as unseen as your remote workers when not doing vital tasks? Are training sessions ghost towns? If employees don’t feel engaged, they’re not going to go the extra mile.
Simply surveying your employees for engagement levels won’t always work. After all, employees will be worried they might jeopardize their careers if they admit to not enjoying themselves at work. However, sometimes the easiest way is to ask or listen to your employees. And if employees are complaining directly to you, there’s probably an issue.
Think your business has some of these warning signs? Looking for methods on how to increase employee engagement? Feel like your training sessions are boring employees to death? Then make sure to check out 1Huddle’s solutions to engagement and get your business back to its best self.
Sam Caucci, Founder & CEO at 1Huddle
"1Huddle is a great tool to drive knowledge retention and make it sticky, make it fun, and also serves as a huge analytics tool for us to understand the quality of the stuff we’re rolling out.” —James Webb, Global People Development & Engagement
Increase in knowledge acquisition
Annual savings per location (312+)
“All of a sudden, people are playing the game multiple times a day to rack up points to get to the top of the leaderboard.” —Lauren Constable, VP of Operations
Faster opening new locations
Annual savings opening 5 new locations
“This thing is amazing. I’m awestruck with the power of this tool. 1Huddle makes running and operating restaurants fun and greatly increases our employees’ knowledge.” —Tony Daddabbo, Director of Training
Reduction in training time
Annual savings across 60 locations