Introduction

Are your employees truly engaged, or are they just going through the motions? Have you ever wondered why some teams thrive while others struggle with low morale and high turnover?

If you’re a CEO, HR representative, or aspiring corporate wellness director, understanding the intricacies of employee engagement is crucial.

In this article, we’ll explore the reasons behind disengaged employees and provide actionable strategies to create a motivated, productive, and happy workforce.

Dive in to discover how you can transform your workplace culture and drive your team towards success.

Here is a critical topic for every business: employee engagement. This post is based on research, data, and real-life experiences, aimed at helping you understand why your employees might not be fully engaged and what actionable steps you can take to improve the situation.

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Understanding Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is more than just job satisfaction. It involves employees' emotional commitment to their organization and its goals. Engaged employees are enthusiastic about their work, dedicated to their role, and motivated to contribute to the company's success.

Unfortunately, only 32% of U.S. employees are engaged at work, according to a study by Together Mentoring Software. This low engagement rate has significant implications for productivity 📈, customer service 💬, and overall business performance 🏢.

The Impact of Leadership on Engagement

One major factor influencing employee engagement is leadership 👨‍💼👩‍💼. Have you ever had a bad boss? Many of us have. A bad boss can demoralize employees, creating a toxic work environment that stifles productivity and innovation. For example, I worked for my husband in a blue-collar business, and despite our healthy relationship, he was the worst boss I ever had. His harsh management style led to high stress and low morale among employees.

On the other hand, good leadership fosters a positive work environment where employees feel valued and motivated. My sons, both graduates from Texas Christian University, initially worked for their father in his business. However, the stress and poor management led them to seek better opportunities. They eventually found rewarding careers with companies that prioritized employee well-being and provided supportive work environments. This stark contrast highlights the importance of effective leadership in driving employee engagement.

Creating a Positive Organizational Culture

A strong, positive organizational culture is crucial for employee engagement. Culture audits can help identify gaps and areas for improvement. Defining and communicating core values is essential. These values should be more than just words on paper; they must be lived and breathed by everyone in the organization. Leadership training can also play a significant role in fostering a positive culture.

In my experience as a wellness director, I've seen firsthand how a positive culture can transform a workplace 🌟. The company I worked for was recognized as a top workplace 🏆, and while the wellness program played a significant role, the overall culture and team engagement were the real driving forces behind this achievement.

Managing Change Effectively

Change is inevitable in any organization, but how it is managed can greatly affect employee engagement. Frequent, poorly managed changes can create uncertainty and anxiety among employees. Developing a change management plan, involving employees in the process, and providing ongoing support and training are key strategies for effective change management.

In one instance, a company I worked with underwent a major firing 🔥. The sudden change created a lot of anxiety and distrust among the remaining employees. By involving the team in understanding why the changes were necessary and providing continuous support, we were able to rebuild trust and improve morale.

Enhancing Communication and Feedback Mechanisms

Effective communication is the cornerstone of employee engagement. Regular check-ins, 360-degree feedback tools, and anonymous feedback channels are essential. When employees feel heard and valued, their engagement levels increase 📊.

For example, as a wellness director, I often acted as an "undercover boss," gathering feedback from employees during personal training sessions. This approach allowed me to connect the dots between employee concerns and management decisions, helping to improve communication and trust within the organization.

Prioritizing Employee Well-Being

Employee well-being is directly linked to engagement. Organizations that prioritize well-being see a 21% increase in productivity 📈 and a 41% reduction in absenteeism 📉, according to Gallup. Developing comprehensive wellness programs, offering flexible work arrangements, and providing regular health assessments are effective ways to support employee well-being.

For instance, during wellness days, we offered a variety of health assessments and screenings. One young employee discovered she had high blood pressure 💓, which led her to make lifestyle changes that improved her health. Such initiatives not only benefit individual employees but also enhance overall organizational productivity and morale.

Recognizing and Rewarding Employees

Recognition is a powerful tool for boosting employee engagement 🏅. Lack of recognition is the third most common reason people leave their jobs 🚪. Implementing personalized recognition programs, providing frequent and timely recognition, and incorporating peer recognition can significantly reduce voluntary turnover and frustration levels.

Celebrating employee achievements, whether through digital rewards or public acknowledgment, helps build a positive work environment 🎉. For example, we used to celebrate employees' anniversaries on a board in the break room, encouraging peer recognition and fostering a sense of community.

Leadership Development and Employee Growth

Investing in leadership development and employee growth is crucial for long-term engagement. Offering leadership coaching, enhancing manager skills, and providing continuous learning opportunities can help employees at all levels grow and succeed within the organization 📚.

One resource I highly recommend is the book "The Ultimate Sales Machine" by Chet Holmes. It's packed with valuable insights that go beyond sales, offering practical advice on employee development and growth 📖.

Building a Supportive Environment

Creating a supportive environment involves establishing mentorship programs, forming support groups, and utilizing employee resource groups. During health fairs, inviting representatives from insurance companies and other health resources can provide employees with valuable information and support they might not have been aware of.

Consistency is Key

Just like anything else in life, consistency is crucial in all these efforts. Whether it's communication, recognition, or support programs, being consistent helps build trust and reliability within the organization. Inconsistent efforts can undermine the best intentions and enable poor leadership practices to persist.

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Conclusion

In summary, employee engagement is vital for organizational success. By focusing on effective leadership, positive culture, change management, communication, well-being, recognition, and growth, you can create an environment where employees are motivated, productive, and committed to their roles. Investing in employee engagement not only enhances individual well-being but also drives broader business goals, ultimately leading to a more successful and resilient organization.

If you found this post helpful and would like to learn more, please visit us at KathieOwen.com/corporate-wellness. Share this information with others who might benefit from it, and let's work together to create more engaged and productive workplaces. Treanscript from the episode posted below!

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Transcript

  📍 Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are. Today, I'm going to present my very first workshop on employee engagement and what we're missing. This is research based, backed with data and statistics. This is why your employees are not engaged and exactly what to do about it.

Have you ever had a bad boss? Raise your hand. I have had a bad boss. In fact, . I worked for my husband for several years. And even in a healthy relationship, this is not easy. Granted, his business was a blue collar business. It was like a car garage. But he was the worst boss I have ever had in my life. So I know the difference between a good boss and a bad boss, but he was so mean.

He would just And the reason I have a Christmas tree on this screen is because the day after Christmas, he fired 90 percent of his staff because he just felt like it. I don't know. He's just Done this all of his life. In fact, fast forward 30 years later, my two sons go to work for him straight out of college, straight out of Texas Christian university with degrees in political science and logistics.

They go to work for their father. Yes, the money was good, but the boss was not. The stress was there. In fact, he didn't fire them, but he just cut up their credit cards, had a temper tantrum, blew out of control. And so for three months, my boys were unemployed. Fast forward those three months later, they got awesome jobs.

And here is what the difference was.

They both went to work for consulting companies. They both went to work for companies where, yes, it's white collar business, but the bosses care about them. They care about their team and their staff. In fact, they My youngest son, who is a Gen Z, has a great job with a lot of people the same age as him, and they have benefits and amenities for their team that is just great.

He's like, they have free soda. They have a stipend for coffee per day in their coffee shop. And it just makes the work so much better. The team so much happier and productive. The difference between the bad boss. The good boss and the good boss is the bad boss has a tie to his employees where he's forcing them to have to work for him.

They can't go elsewhere. This is a blue collar working garage type business and the people that work for him are dependent upon him. Whereas when you come over here and you have a company that's run efficiently, run properly. run kindly. You have a team where they want to work for you. They want to produce for you.

They want to give to you and instead the business is run a whole lot better, a whole lot more efficient and a lot happier.

So who am I? My name is Kathie Owen. I have been a certified personal trainer since 2002 and as a personal trainer, I was hired by a CEO. 10 years after I became certified to run a gym for their employees. However, that was in 2013, 2012. And at that time, all I did was run a gym. But over time, as it evolved, I evolved my job and this company as a wellness director and I changed the the impact of the team.

If you see in this video, I have a big arrow pointing to Top Workplace. This company that I've worked for has been Top Workplace this is a phenomenal thing I wouldn't just attribute it to the wellness program. However, it is a big impact and I've made a difference with this company, with my wellness initiatives, but it's the culture, it's the impact and the way.

the team engages. Let's discuss.

The importance of employee engagement and morale is something you're going to learn today. There are challenges faced by CEOs, HR representatives, and corporate wellness professionals. Today's goals in this workshop is to understand these pain points. Clearly and explore the data and discover actionable solutions that you can apply today.

Did you know only 32 percent of U. S. employees are engaged at work? Organizations using culture and values saw 70 percent engagement This is from Together Mentoring Software. That's where the statistic comes from. And this one really gets me. And the reason why I have 76 percent on the screen. 76 percent of the people who were interviewed agree that culture affects productivity.

74 percent say it affects customer service. Culture affects productivity and customer service. Just think about that for a minute.

So what are some solutions for organizational culture? Consistently conduct culture audits. Define and communicate core values. What are your core values and define them and live them and breathe them and offer leadership training on fostering a positive culture.

So let's discuss these, these three things. First of all, when you conduct culture audits, you find where there are cracks in the culture. For example, if you conducted a culture audit with the company that might. My ex-husband runs, you would find a huge crack that could fall through, and his core values are not even defined.

There's no core value because there's what he values is the dollar. This is not helpful at all, especially if you want your team to perform and be cohesive. And then leadership training. We're going to discuss a lot about leadership in just a minute. So I will hold that off for right now.

Change management. What is change? You know, if you have too many frequent changes, it creates uncertainty and anxiety in your team, and 68 percent of workers did not fully utilize the Well being resources.

So the well being resources that you offer can help with change management. And effective change management is crucial for morale and engagement.

So here are some solutions for change management. Develop a change management plan. Involve the team in the change process. And provide ongoing support and training. Again, consistency is key. For example, one company I worked with had this huge firing that took place. When you fire a bunch of people, There is change going on inside the company. You want to let the team in on why this happened, what is going on inside the company so that you do not lose their trust. Trust is key, especially when a lot of change is taking place.

So what feedback mechanisms do you have in place? for your team to tell you what's going on inside their heads because you just cannot guess this. 63 percent of workers cited poor communication as a reason to quit.

And valued workers and recognized employees are significantly more engaged.

So what are some solutions for your feedback mechanism? Implement regular check ins. Check in with your team consistently. Again, consistently. Use 360 degree feedback tools. So that means you're asking your team to take a whole look around the entire company.

Everything that they do. And give you feedback on what they're thinking. And then provide anonymous feedback channels. So one thing that I have done with the company that I work for is I am a personal trainer and I run personal training sessions and I'm almost like what's considered an undercover boss.

And if you're not utilizing your wellness director to this extent, you are missing out on valuable feedback. Because what happens is without betraying trust and I can coach you how to do this. You don't betray trust of your team members and you don't betray trust of your CEO. You connect the dots. You help them connect the dots.

For example, when that big firing took place, I heard people complaining about this and this and this. And I would tell them how, hey, this needed to change, and this person didn't do this, and that's why they got fired. And it was more understandable and more relatable. However, that led to other ways where we could start communicating better.

Communication is key. Is key. And then the anonymous feedback tools are powerful. Powerful.

So what's your employee's temperature? What is their temperature? Prioritizing well being leads to 21 percent increase in productivity and 41 percent reduction in absenteeism. And that is from the Gallup poll. High well being scores link to 45 percent lower turnover rates. Higher well being. So think, how are you helping your employees with their well being?

Bottom line, just think about that for a minute.

Solutions for employee well being are develop comprehensive wellness programs, offer flexible work arrangements, provide regular health assessments and screenings. This is crucial and I can give you countless Examples of how each of these help. For example, when you develop comprehensive wellness programs, which is not just running a gym, if you develop things where you have wellness days, or you have health fairs, you provide a diverse array of Of stimulus to your team.

You have somebody over here who doesn't want to work out, but maybe they want to learn more about nutrition. Oh, have a nutritionist at your health fair. Have a nutritionist at your wellness day. Offer flexible work arrangements. Both of my boys, one's a millennial, one's Gen Z, they both now have flexible work arrangements.

This makes them more productive, but then part of them has a little bit of anxiety because their dad was like watching the clock like a hawk. Where are you? What are you doing? Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. Micromanaging them. Micromanaging leadership. There we go back to that. We're fixing to discuss leadership in just a second.

But when you offer flexible work arrangements, like now there are companies where, oh, we're, you're off this Friday. It's a holiday. On Thursday, you're off on Friday or they get off on Fridays early all the time. In fact, my youngest son was off last Friday. He's off this Friday. He works four days a week and he's on salary.

What does that mean? That means that the manager trusts them, that gives them a sense of trust and it supports their, What? Their wellbeing. And provide regular health screenings and assessments. So on my wellness days, we started offering health assessments. We have an on site pharmacy and they provide assessments like blood pressure screenings.

And a young girl in her early 30s, she may be even in her late 20s, Discovered she had high blood pressure. So when she went to her doctor with these, this understanding that she had high blood pressure, she was realizing the things that were causing the high blood pressure. This would not have happened if they hadn't have had a regular health assessment. A health assessment on campus. What does this do? This promotes employee well being.

Recognition and rewards. When you're not recognizing your team, you are missing a big piece of the picture. Lack of recognition is the number three reason people leave jobs. The number three, and you know me, I went and researched what were the other two reasons because I already know number one is a bad boss, poor management.

And number two is lack of career and development opportunities. Oh, hold on. Guess what a corporate wellness director can do for your company? They can provide career development and other opportunities through their services. And then recognition programs lead to 31 percent lower voluntary turnover and 28% Lower frustration level.

So when you have a recognition program in place, you are less likely to lose those employees. But a recognition program is not like just giving them a ticket and telling them, put it in a bag and here you go, you win a prize because guess what? That happened with a company I worked with. It's happened with several companies I work with.

No, we need digital rewards. We need rewards weekly. We need rewards often. You hear me say this all the time. Celebrate your wins. Because what happens when you celebrate your wins, you build upon them. They make you feel better, and better, and better. And when you do that, Things start going the what? The way you want to run your business, not the way your employees are telling you to run your business.

So here are some solutions for recognition and rewards. Number one, personalized recognition programs, frequent and timely. Recognition and incorporate peer recognition. So recognition personalized could be, Hey, you've had your anniversary. We're going to recognize this. We're going to put it not just in the newsletter, but let's have a board in our break room where we go, Hey, look, this employee made this many years.

So congratulate them, go congratulate them. Because let me tell you something. Inter office email communication is not the way to recognize people. Why? Because probably only 5 percent of your team is going to read that newsletter or read that email. How do I know this? Because as the Corporate Wellness Director, I would send out emails all the time and Crickets.

Crickets. Crickets. Crickets. But when somebody with power sent it out, it was different. They read all the words that came out of there. So when you're HR, when you're a corporate wellness person, when you're their fitness person, they're not going to look at it because they're like, uh, it's probably bad news.

I don't even have time to look at this. But when you are obviously recognize them when you have celebration parties, when you recognize the team for what they're doing individually, it makes them feel better and you want frequent and timely recognition. When I said a minute ago, you want it once a week is awesome because if somebody's hearing from you once a week, they know they're doing what they're supposed to be doing and they feel better about it and celebrating wins is a big deal.

It produces more success and then when you incorporate peer recognition, you have other employees go, Hey, look. Kathie's up on the board. She's been here 12 years. Look at that. That's pretty awesome. Let me go congratulate her Let me go talk to her and see what happened because then that leads to mentorship that leads to other things that come with peer recognition

So I'm going to provide some additional solutions across all areas that will engage your team members and attract and retain top talent.

Leadership development. Remember that career and mentorship and leadership that I've been talking about? When you offer leadership coaching, it helps. When you enhance manager skills and driving engagement, it helps. And the big word of the day Stay consistent. I can't tell you how many times I have seen them go, Oh, this is a great idea.

I'm going to go do this. And then they do it once or twice and then it's done. This is not effective. And in fact, you, what you're doing is you're enabling the bad leaders to keep doing what they're doing. I promise you, I've seen it across the board. When you're inconsistent, you enable bad leaders to keep doing what they're doing.

What happens with that is it trickles down to the team and they keep doing what they're doing. And that's why, what? Change management is not working. So you want to offer leadership coaching. You want to enhance manager skills and driving engagement with the team.

And you want to stay consistent.

Employee development and growth. You also want to create the same thing for your team. You want to create personalized career development plans from the little guy at the bottom to the big guy on top. You want to create personalized career development plans. You want to provide continuous learning opportunities for your entire team.

  📍 Here's one book I highly recommend all CEOs read and everybody inside your company be aware of, and it's called the ultimate sales machine. I invite you to go check that book out. It's by Chet Holmes. It's packed full of value and it's not just about sales. It actually changed my life when I found that book and I was like, where's this book been all my life?

And it will change your business and it will change how you do employee development and growth.

  📍 Communication. We all know communication is key. So you want to hold regular meetings. I would rather call them Open forums and town halls and ensure transparent communication. One key that I have found that helps with communication, if you're even slightly struggling with this, is to start hosting lunch and learns.

Because the lunch and learns, what we do is we invite 10 people from around campus. A diverse array of people in diverse departments. And we hold these Lunch and Learns with one of the executive team members. The executive tells what's going on inside the company in a relaxed, comforting environment.

Then we go around the table and everybody introduces themselves. What happens is this person over here is sitting there seeing Oh, I've been in the company for two years. And so has this person over here, but this person over here is now a team leader with such and such department. And they can connect or at the very least, you're going to have people go, Oh, I see she's working over there.

Maybe there's, maybe there's place for me over there. I'm going to start looking over there. I'm going to start looking at the job postings that we're having on site. And I'm going to start trying to better myself and move forward. Uh, that's what you want. What happens, another thing that happens is it's transparent communication.

And it was a very valuable resource and it opened up communication. Build a supportive environment. Establish mentorship programs, create support groups of employees, and also, utilize the employee resource groups. One thing I have done whenever we have a health fair is I make sure that I have resources that we use.

One big benefit that I do inside my health fairs is I invite our insurance company. Cigna is our current insurance company, and I invite our They call them the broker of that service and what they do is they come out and they bring out all these resources that we didn't even know we had. But when you're at the health fair and you see, Oh, we have this mental health resource that I never even thought of using.

And I tried it and I was like, Oh, okay, this is cool. That's what the employee does. Another thing, like I mentioned in the Lunch and Learns, you establish a mentorship program where you can go have the team leads hold a mentorship program and have their own Lunch and Learn,   📍 their own workshop, like taught by Chet Holmes and The ultimate sales machine.

  📍 And what happens is these employees can find somebody where they can move up in the company. They can understand what's going on inside the company.

And then you want to monitor and evaluate. You want to conduct regular, consistent, Employee surveys and assessments, and use that data for informed decisions and adjustments.

And celebrating success, you know, you already heard me say this, but organize company wide celebrations and events and feature employee spotlights. Celebrate, celebrate their success and do this consistently on a regular basis.

Implement performance based incentive programs. You could do this inside your rewards program and incentivize your team members to be more productive. To be more of a leader. And offer wellness initiatives. Easily incorporate these inside challenges. And even during the summer, what I do is once the kids are out of school, I have early morning circuit training classes.

that I teach and what's happened is you have team members from all over campus and they come in and take these classes and they work out together and it's a bonus for them socially as well as a bonus for their wellness.

So let's recap the reasons for lack of engagement, which are a disorganized culture, change management, there's none of it, there's no feedback mechanisms, . And you want to start recognizing and rewarding your team. Hopefully today you realize the importance of investing employee well being and achieving broader business goals through enhanced engagement and morale. Bottom line.

I am offering a, for a very limited time and a very limited space, a workshop on how to host a health fair, not just a plain health fair, but one where your employees are engaged, they're happy, how to have the right vendors there. There's so many nuances that go on in setting up a really valuable resource of a health fair that I want to coach you on.

I want to teach you on how to do that to improve your team, to improve your wellness. Maybe you want to send your HR representative to this. Maybe you want to send your corporate wellness director to this, or maybe you are a corporate wellness director and you're thinking to yourself, well, I already have a health fair, but nobody really came to it.

Nobody really attended. Let's change that. Let's change that starting now and I have bonus resources on biohacking, which is the new thing nowadays, which is being proactive in our health and wellness and living longer, healthier, better, and happier. And just imagine what that will do for your team.

All right, so that was my episode for today or my workshop. I trust that you found it helpful. If you'd like more information, you're more than welcome to come visit us at www.kathieowen.com / corporate-wellness

links will be in the show notes and description below. But what I most hope you learn today is that employee engagement will make a massive impact on your business. All right, that's my episode for today. I trust that you found it helpful. If you know someone who can benefit from this, please share it with them. And until next time, I will see you next time. Okay, I'll see you in the next episode or the next workshop. Have a great day. Peace out and Namaste.