The New Year has the potential to bring incredible opportunity to businesses across the globe. Over the past month, I've read many predictions about what the new year will hold, and one common thread is the thought that our complex world can be made simple. Many talk about technology and automation, software integrations, cloud computing, and simplifying complex processes.
Simple sounds good, right? But when it comes to engaging employees, simple is not the word that may come to mind. Most of us, if asked, could come up with a list of behaviors we would like to see from our employees, and a list of behaviors we do not want to see. Engaging our teams begins with understanding that what we wish for is really just simple behavior change. After all, to us, it's not rocket science; Am I right?
We want our employees to show up every day, be productive, be safe at work, take care of their own well-being, be mindful and present at work, and to measurably move the needle for us.
Research tell us that in order to consistently see these types of behaviors in our workplaces, we need to have a culture of engagement. Look at what is possible when you have an engaged team. A 2013 Gallup study found that companies in the top quartile of employee engagement compared with those in the bottom quartile exhibited:
The dramatic increase in profitability and productivity alone has the power to transform companies into high-performance mode. And the KPIs measured in the Gallup study indicate that we have the potential to catalyze behavior change … and it's really not that hard.
To help you understand what it takes to see these kinds of changes within your organization, we've written The 7 NEW Rules of Employee Engagement. As you can see below, it all begins with creating a culture of engagement through recognition.
Here at C.A. Short Company, our prediction for the New Year is that engaged teams will emerge and carry their companies to be among top performers. Easy? Not necessarily. Worth it? In spades. That's why we've built an innovative recognition platform that we're bringing to the market, based on the 7 New Rules of Employee Engagement.
Let us know your thoughts - we'd love to hear your ideas about additional ways to engage employees in order to create high-performance teams.
This is the first in a series of blogs about The 7 New Rules of Employee Engagement. In our next seven blogs, we'll dive into each of the seven New rules.