Engagement & Motivation

Employee motivation is an incredibly powerful driver of performance in any organization. Whether you’re focused on improving productivity, boosting performance, or increasing retention, employee motivation will no doubt be central to your considerations. And yet, it’s tough to effectively manage and most days can feel equal parts art and science.

Management training usually provides helpful frameworks for areas such as effective communication, performance management, and how to manage different types of people. But all too often, the actions and behaviors that deflate employees the most result from simple oversight or a lack of consideration.

With that in mind, here are 6 mistakes that can kill your employees’ motivation:

Unrealistic goal setting

Do you work in a high-pressure environment that promotes tough goal setting? If so, it can be tempting to set unrealistically difficult goals for employees. While goals should be challenging to achieve, employees won’t buy into them if they’re not realistic. If left unchecked, a lack of buy-in can easily transform into demotivation and active disengagement. Similarly, this type of goal setting can impact a person’s physical and emotional health causing deeper issues within your team long term.

Tolerating poor performance

There's nothing more demotivating for your hard-working staff than to see the poor performance of someone else being tolerated. In fact, poor performance often has a double whammy for managers. When one team member doesn’t pull his weight, other team members often have to step up and do more than their share. This causes resentment but can equally leave those stronger contributors questioning their manager’s competence. A bad situation, no doubt about it.

Letting accomplishments go unrecognized

Recognition is a powerful motivational tool. And yet, it’s an unfortunate reality that so many employee achievements and contributions go unrecognized. All too often, the fast-paced nature of our work has us forget to communicate our appreciation to a team member or a co-worker for a job well done. This can leave employees feeling under-appreciated and taken for granted. This is a horrible feeling and a very powerful demotivator for those affected by it.

Lack of trust

Trust is built over time. But generally, when a new employee joins the team that period is the first 3 to 6 months on the job. As trust is built between the new employee and her manager and teammates, she should be given progressively more responsibility.

In theory, at least.

Sometimes a mistake occurs that puts that trust into question, and sometimes the manager is simply overbearing and not willing to delegate tasks that the employee is clearly ready to handle. Either way, a lack of trust is a very visible signal to the employee that her manager is not comfortable giving her more responsibility. This can be incredibly frustrating and deflating for individuals in this position. Moreover, if the manager handles tasks that should be done by the employee, then additional tension is created and serious demotivation ensues.

No team bonding or workplace fun

While a lack of workplace fun is not considered an egregious managerial oversight in our books, we feel strongly that opportunities for team bonding should be encouraged.

Not only does team building bring people together outside of their regular work context, but it also opens the door for better communication and collaboration. Organizations that rigidly ignore these practices often have siloed structures where poor communication and a lack of collaboration stifle innovation. Not very motivating.

Micromanaging

Micromanaging is a symptom of a lack of trust. The manager is simply not comfortable letting the employee execute the task himself and involves herself overwhelmingly in the process to ensure it’s completed to her satisfaction. The short-term result may be a higher-quality deliverable, but longer-term, the employee won’t feel trusted and valued. As with any lack of trust, tension can also build between the employee and his manager leading to a deteriorating relationship and disastrously poor motivation.

While some of these motivation-killers can be due to a lack of managerial training, often it’s more of a question of open communication between managers and their employees.

Actively communicating with staff and inviting their feedback is a great place to start. Most direct reports won’t be shy to let you know if something’s bothering them. By openly and actively listening to them, you’ll learn what steps may be required to address the situation and stave off a larger motivational issue.

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Don't let these 6 common mistakes kill your employee motivation: book a demo of Qarrot to see how we can help you engage and motivate your workforce to go “above and beyond”!

Motivate employees to do their best work has benefits for both the company and its workforce. For the organization the benefits are obvious, higher revenue, lower turnover, improved product quality, and so on. For the employee, the benefits are less quantifiable but we know that motivated employees feel valued, and employees who feel valued are more engaged with their work.

What motivates an employee to go the "extra mile?"

That seems to be a question that often perplexes business owners, management and stakeholders. A survey conducted on key trends impacting the workplace asked that very question. “What motivates you to excel and go the extra mile at your organization?” The survey involved over 200,000 employees in more than 500 organizations.

What did they determine to be the top motivators? Camaraderie, peer motivation, inherent desire to do a good job, and feeling encouraged and recognized. While, of course, money and benefits are important, this suggests that working in a particular environment has greater impact.

So what can we do that can make a huge impact on motivating your employees?

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Reduce workplace stress

Stress on the job and unhealthy work environments are not conducive to anybody’s desire to do a better job. It is essential for employers to recognize the connection between employee well-being and overall organizational performance. You can lower stress in your workplace a number of ways, including setting clear goals and roles, encouraging a culture of wellbeing, and through clear, candid communication.

Give them time off

Giving employees extra time off is a small gesture that goes a long way. According to Entrepreneur, it is the secret to increased productivity. Why? Good employees will simply “run out of juice” and require a little R&R from time to time. Giving them the time they need to recharge their batteries will have them operating at their best in no time.

Give them feedback

Most employees want to be recognized, to achieve this recognition they need feedback. Effective feedback motivates the employee to improve their job performance. It’s suggested to offer feedback regularly and not just at annual performance reviews. Annual conversations about past activities are not sufficient enough to motivate future productivity.

Host a company event

A corporate event is one way you can motivate employees. Company events are much more than just a chance for employees to gather. They are a great way to show them you appreciate their hard work. Whether you have an awards ceremony, a dinner, a summer picnic, or a holiday party, it doesn’t matter. Your corporate event can improve company culture, boost company morale and award your employees for a job well done.

Celebrate milestones and recognize achievements

Celebrating Milestones, such as work anniversaries and birthdays, and recognizing achievements help employees feel appreciated. Whether with cupcakes, balloons and banners or a more formalized rewards program, recognizing employees on milestone dates or for their achievements strengthens workplace culture helping to make your business a better place to work.

If you’re a business owner, manager or supervisor, you know how important it is to have a workforce that is motivated. Research shows that motivated employees tend to be far more productive than those who are not.

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At Qarrot, we understand Motivation

Motivate your team, company, or department to perform with full-circle employee recognition. With the help of our software, we can assist you in building a culture of thank you, improve morale, bring employees together and strengthen workplace culture.

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If you want to learn more about how Qarrot can work for you, book a demo! We’ll show you how to engage and motivate your workforce to go “above and beyond".

Engaged and motivated employees help customers, take pride in your organization, and improve sales as a result. They are connected to your overall business goals, embody the culture you encourage and become excellent ambassadors for the future success of your company.

So, what makes an employee motivated and engaged? Hiring the right employees is a great start, but once you’ve got people working on your team you’ll need to make the right efforts to create a positive motivating environment for them to work in. To do this you have to understand what motivates employees, and what employee engagement really is.

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Here are the top workplace motivators according to the Harvard Business Review

Role design

Every company is different, and there is no set formula for determining the appropriate design for your organization. Better designed roles help employers make the best use of top talent but also clarifies responsibilities to workers. Less confusion leads to higher performance.

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Organizational identity

This is all about your company culture and business objectives. A full-time employee working 40 hours a week will spend about 30% of their waking hours at work. Who wants to spend that amount of time at a place that is tiresome, or worse, toxic?

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Career ladders

We’re not surprised that opportunities for advancement made it so high on the list. As noted previously, why would an employee want to spend so much time at a job that had no opportunity for promotion?

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Community

Even without redesigning business processes, managers can help the overall motivation of their employees by encouraging better peer-to-peer, and manager-to-employee relationships.  Building trust amongst employees, providing opportunities for feedback, explaining the “why” behind the work of employees, are all ways in which community can grow.

When these top workplace motivators are working together, you’re much more likely to have a highly engaged and performant workforce.

According to a Gallup study, the businesses with engaged employees were 17% more productive and 21% more profitable than the businesses in the study with disengaged employees.

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How recognition can further turbo-charge employee engagement

In a recent survey conducted by Interac and their 1000+ employees, it was discovered that their number one complaint, regarding motivation, came down to a lack of appreciation from their managers. Not the job, or the hours they worked, not even the pay that they received for their performance, but the simple lack of recognition for a job well done discouraged them from doing their best work. The same study goes on to show that when managers recognized employees’ contributions, their engagement level increases by 60%.

Employee recognition programs have forever been on the radar of large corporations as a tool to foster employee engagement, but what about small businesses? Can they benefit from recognition programs and encourage motivation and engagement to increase productivity and profitability as well?

Of course, they can!

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Here are 3 way in which a small business can use recognition to motivate and engage their workforce

Character Awards

My son’s school uses monthly character awards to reward children who embody character traits of value in the school’s code of conduct. Small businesses can adopt this concept by choosing character traits that promote behaviors that foster a better company culture. This is similar to the Employee of the Month concept, but goes one step further. Not only will you encourage better behavior through recognition of positive behavioral traits, but if you include a peer voting system you could promote better business relationships as well.  Taking the opportunity to reinforce your company’s core values by tying a monthly recognition award is a win-win for everybody.

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Gamification

This concept sounds way more complicated than it is. Gamification of business processes, specifically routine tasks, can help motivate through friendly competition and boost the idea of community amongst your employees. Think of this as a real-life game where people receive rewards for hitting milestones. The milestones people achieve, as well as the rewards themselves, can be anything you want. Consider awarding badges (buttons, metals, stickers) for hitting sales quotas that employees can turn in at the end of the month for a prize! Or award trophies to top performers at the end of each week who are recognized at a luncheon or ceremony at the end of the month. The sky’s the limit here, but understanding the core motivators above can help you design games that will not only motivate and engage but also encourage performance.

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Express Gratitude

A simple thank you can go a long way to motivating people to do their best work. When we focusing on “why” in gratitude we can also help connect employees’ achievements to the overall organizational success. For example, after a good sales month, a company may host a gratitude meeting where management, not only thanks the workforce for their job well done, but includes the reason why they are thankful. It’s possible that by increasing sales that month they were able to meet a higher objective, or expand opportunities. By expressing gratitude to the employees, and linking their achievement to the goals achieved, it allows the employees to understand the value that their performance brought to the company as a whole. Everybody wants to feel that what they are doing offers value. Gratitude is the quickest, and simplest way to show that.

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In conclusion

When you understand how to motivate your employees and the reasons why recognition is so important for better employee engagement you have the tools necessary to make real decisions on the design of your rewards and recognition programs moving forward. Use these ideas provided, or come up with your own! Rewards and recognition are as unique as your business is, and the people in it.

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Let us help you promote a culture of thank you, a culture of appreciation, and encourage company success through gamification with our recognition software.  Motivate your team to perform with Qarrot. Book your demo today.

Recruiting, onboarding and training is an expensive endeavor for all those involved. Some studies predict that the cost of employee turnover can be as high as twice the annual salary of the employee, depending on their role. When you lose an employee, you lose their knowledge and talent, plus your organizations' productivity can suffer from the loss. So how do you reduce turnover? By developing and implementing an employee retention strategy.

Building A Retention Strategy

An employee retention strategy will never entirely stop employees from leaving your company as a certain percentage of turnover should always be expected. What an employee retention strategy can do is prevent, or control, employees from leaving in an untimely manor due to disengagement, monotony, or out of sheer frustration.

A good retention strategy includes all aspects of your hiring process, your compensation plan, and your engagement strategy which includes your employee recognition programs and encouraging better manager-employee relationships.

Here are a few areas to look at when building your retention strategy:

Recruiting

Many companies treat their retention strategy as an afterthought to recruiting, but thoughtful hiring will prevent resentments about the job from starting in the first place. Qualifying candidates on more than job experience alone can better ensure the right candidate is hired. Career paths and development for long-term growth with the company is also a factor. Many candidates will leave a position once they realize there are no options for advancement.

Compensation‍

It's true that compensation is a factor in retention, but it is also important to note that it is not the most important one. A good compensation strategy includes everything your company offers as payment in a total rewards package: benefits, bonuses, rewards, career advancement, and training opportunities. Being paid in line with what is competitive with your industry standard is also an important influence in employee retention.

Engagement

‍Ultimately employees stay at a job they enjoy. Work environment contributes to this, but so does company culture. Consider cultivating a culture of inclusiveness, transparency, and offering opportunities to build relationships amongst employees. Good onboarding and training practices can also encourage engagement. Employees who don't have a good understanding of their responsibilities, or job expectations, can easily become frustrated and confused and will ultimately disengage with their duties and leave.

Recognition

‍Recognition programs are more important than ever. The millennial workforce is particularly sensitive to feeling invisible. Build a culture of “Thank You” and appreciation for your workforce while giving considerate thought to providing ongoing feedback. Show employees how to contribute to the overall goals of your organization and communicate that they are part of a bigger whole. This big-picture perspective can increase retention of your employees when they realize the value their part has on company success.

Management‍

Management plays a big role in retention. Managers should emphasize acknowledgement, and offer rewards to employees for a job well done. This too aligns with a good recognition strategy, but more importantly, it’s about ensuring managers are well within reach of your workforce. Balance between visibility and mentorship opportunities will ensure good manager-employee relationships are developed. Steer clear of micromanagement. Telling employees what to do and when prevents them from engaging with their role. This often breeds contention and can lower overall workplace morale.

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Promoting Your Retention Strategy

It’s important to disclose your intentions to your management team and employees. Successfully rolling out any new employee retention initiative takes good communication as to why the program is being implemented and what employees can do to participate. Awareness campaigns and training can spread the word of your new strategy. Employees need to be aware of the benefits for it to make the biggest impact.

Internal marketing can only go so far, it’s just as important to measure the impact these strategies are having on your company. Disclosing these statistics to your employees to reinforce the importance of these strategies and can become the catalyst for a good reputation. Never underestimate the value word-of-mouth has on recruiting and retention. Simply giving an employee something to boast about can be the very reason qualified candidates want to work with you, or good employees want to stay.

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Qarrot to the rescue!

A good rewards and recognition program should work with your retention strategy aligning company culture and workplace engagement. With Qarrot, reward points can be earned for a completion of tasks, meeting goals or simply be awarded for a job well done. These points can be redeemed for gift cards incentivizing employees with the promise of additional compensation.

Employee engagement is encouraged with performance and opportunities for meeting objectives, aligning your company goal strategy with tangible milestones employees can readily meet.

Managers play a huge role in rewarding employees as well as offering feedback to their employees over our social feed. Coworkers can instantly see these acknowledgements and offer additional encouragement.

Qarrot is fun, easy to implement and cost-effective for companies to use. Plus, it’ll give your employees something special to talk about! So what are you waiting for?

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To learn more about Qarrot and how it can work with your overall employee retention strategy, book a demo!

I was recently speaking with an HR director exploring ways she could better equip her managers with tools to motivate her company’s staff. Her focus on managers was interesting. She understood what a growing number of HR professionals have come to realize: The importance managers play in attracting, motivating, and retaining talent within organizations.

According to Gallup, companies stand to increase revenue per employee by as much as 59% by employing four key human capital strategies. Having a great manager accounts for nearly 50% of this potential revenue increase. Great managers have the ability to develop employees’ strengths and get the best out of each person.Speaking with Marina Byezhavova, a human resources professional in our hometown of Montreal, only reinforced this perspective further:

“I conduct culture audits of companies and I see that most hiring managers and HR professionals who are interested in a happier workforce focus a lot on work conditions, social atmosphere and team building. However, studies show that 80% of employees leave because of their managers! Happiness is important but a long-term strategy ensuring employees are loyal and content should focus on leadership training instead of the bells and whistles.”

Marina’s comments ring true for me, not only because of the various conversations I’ve had with other HR professionals and business owners alike on employee motivation, but because I’ve managed people for years. And, I have to say I think she’s right.

With that in mind, here are 3 three strategies to help your managers develop their abilities and to improve their employees’ motivation.

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Train your managers to be better leaders

As Marina puts it, “bells and whistles” are nice but on their own aren’t substantial enough to develop long-term employee engagement. Rather, companies should focus on leadership training. Developing your managers’ leadership skills provides your organization with a much more robust basis for attracting, motivating, and retaining talent.

When I was first promoted to a managerial position (many years ago), I got a hearty congratulations, some coaching, and then a nasty trial by fire.

Thankfully, I soon was able to get formal leadership training. So, it wasn’t too long before I began learning about performance reviews, setting goals for my employees, managing conflict, removing barriers for my staff, leading team discussions, how to listen and resolve issues, and so much more…

I also began to learn about creating a sense of urgency and rallying my team behind a vision. But it certainly didn’t come by magic. I was coached by a mentor and participated in as much leadership development training as I could.

And while many individuals are “naturally gifted” managers, the majority of people promoted into management or leadership positions (even those ‘naturals’) would benefit from formalized training to help them understand the ins and outs of managing others.

Key areas to consider include: communication, performance management, and managing conflict.

If your organization doesn’t have formal leadership training, consider informal or formal mentoring programs where more experienced leaders can help newly minted managers navigate their first year or so in their position.

Encourage managers to use SMART goals

When I was first introduced to “S.M.A.R.T.” goals, I remember thinking the acronym sounded too clever to actually be of any use.

As it turned out, the SMART methodology for goal-setting is critical for effective performance management and a key tool for managers of all stripes. Whether the acronym itself is explicitly mentioned isn’t relevant. Employees are more motivated when the goals they are working to achieve have the following “SMART” components to them:

Specific‍

The SMART approach encourages managers to set goals with their staff that include a specific target or destination.

Measurable

‍For a goal to be SMART, it must be measurable in that it can be tracked and quantified.

‍Attainable

‍The SMART methodology also requires that the goal be realistically attainable within the timeframe given to the employee.

‍Relevant

‍Of particular interest to me (and my personal experience), is goal-relevancy. To me, this is about linking the goal to the broader mission and vision of the organization. It helps employees understand how they’re contributing to the bigger picture.

‍Time-bound

‍Finally, SMART goals always have a defined timeframe for their achievement.

No manager should be without this approach or, at least, a good understanding of it.

Empower managers to recognize their staff

Recognition done well can be the secret weapon of an all-star manager. Often, however, it is left to managers to figure out how to effectively use this incredibly powerful tool.

Recognition plays into performance management, feedback, employee development, and much more. And, I think organizations are increasingly aware of the power of recognition to improve employee morale, motivation, and performance.

According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, giving your employees feedback about their “performance improvement opportunities” is fraught with the potential for error and puts people in a negative state of mind not ideal for learning and improvement.

Instead, catching an employee doing something well and taking a moment to constructively praise their accomplishment is a much more effective alternative. Instead of shoving your opinion about what they need to improve down their throat, you’re shining the spotlight on a strength they can build on and further develop.

This helps employees better understand what they did well and to build on those strengths and repeat them in the future. In this way, recognition not only serves as a powerful tool for boosting morale, but also for employee development.

I’m a big believer in these three strategies for empowering managers, especially as it relates to attracting, motivating, and retaining talent.

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Uncover more ways your organization can benefit from a recognition process - book a demo with Qarrot today!

The holidays can be an extremely stressful time for everyone. With the stress of buying the right gifts, balancing home and office life, as well as staying focused with all the decorations, music, and events going on, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Of course, the “Holiday Bonus” is the easiest and most immediately satisfying way to reward employees over the holiday season, but for smaller companies, this can be a great, and unaffordable expense. The hard truth is that most people just want money. They want a raise or a bonus and unfortunately, a bonus is only a present if it’s not connected to performance. Thankfully, there are other ways to reward and motivate your staff, while also keeping their attention at work. Using the holidays to your advantage can really help incentivize your employees' tasks, and spike sales around this time of year.

Choose the Right Rewards

When choosing rewards, ensure the rewards allow for some flexibility to suit everyone. Gift cards and vouchers offer choice, and implementing a rewards program allows for various options and prizes. Consider the “Four Gift Rule” when choosing prizes; “something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read.”

Incentivize Achievable Goals

When planning holiday goals, they should be easy to measure, clear and specific, and just challenging enough to get done in time. Create a rewards program that carries over into the New Year to help combat the January blues. The easiest way to implement this is by creating a company rewards site where the employees can track their points, exchange them for rewards, or enter contests. Take care to communicate clearly so that the rewards program is office-wide and everyone gets a chance to participate!

‍Point vouchers: Vouchers can be varied, this way employees can choose to keep saving their points for a big item or trade them in early for several smaller prizes. Not only does it feel good to be rewarded for your efforts, but employees also have the option to give prizes as gifts and save on holiday costs, if they so choose.‍

Online scratch card codes: Once a certain level of points is attained, employees get a code to “scratch” on a company site for a chance to win prizes. Again these can be anything like gift cards, wine crates, or gadgets.

‍Trip incentive: This option allows employees to accumulate daily points throughout the holiday season to claim a holiday trip. These could range from local to international, including ski trips, spa weekends, or Christmas shopping sprees!

‍Grand prize draw: When reaching a certain level of points, employees get a code to enter a ballot into the grand prize draw. This can be “the Twelve Days of Christmas” or once a week in December. The more goals they reach, the more ballots they can enter, and the higher their chances for winning top prizes.

Reward Publicly

Beyond a rewards or point system, it’s important to thank and reward specifically high achieving employees publicly. Whether this is with an announcement in a meeting, a wall of recognition, or a luncheon, showing your gratitude in front of other employees is good for morale and gives a boost to employees who deserve a little extra recognition. In addition, say thank you to the employee’s family by sending flowers, or gift cards for a night out to a restaurant, movie night, or spa.

Flexible Work Hours

On the same note, allow for family days like a sick or vacation day. Give the option to work from home to parents who request it. A bit of flexibility helps to relieve stress in a season where there is a lot going on not only in the office, but personally as well. Some extra or flexible family time may be just what your staff needs to stay motivated and loyal into the New Year. Additionally, encourage employees to slow down, taking one task at a time. Distractions like social media, coupled with a massive to-do list and deadlines, produce unfocused work and more time away from loved ones.

Decorate the Office

With so many DIY decoration tutorials available on YouTube and Pinterest, it’s easy to get the staff involved in the process. Take an afternoon for team building and make a rewards game out of decorating. Perhaps let the winning team choose the office Christmas party location, or offer the option to split the budget by department. Remember that management leads the Holiday spirit. If you’re grouchy, then your staff will feel it and motivation will plummet. That being said, be respectful of people’s choices around the Holidays. Whether for personal or religious reasons, some people may not observe the festivities. Don’t pressure people for not taking part.

Practice Giving

After all, this is the season! Your employees also want to know they’re a part of something bigger; that the company is actually making positive changes in the world. This doesn’t have to be a grandiose gesture, but even looking up some local charitable activities like a food bank or clothing drive can get the office giving.

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Motivate improved performance with objective-driven campaigns - book your free demo with Qarrot today!

Sources

• ‍Medium - How to motivate your employees during the holidays
• ‍WhenIWork.com - Employee Incentive Ideas

It cannot be denied that a lack of employee engagement causes many areas of financial downfall. The latest 2017 Gallup report showed that employee engagement has only gone up by 3% since 2016, and unfortunately these disengaged employees are causing losses in the U.S. alone of between 450$ and 550$ billion annually.

The recent Gallup report also shows that managers are a key factor in employee engagement and the main reason 50% of employees will quit their jobs, but yet nearly the same percentage of managers are as disengaged as their employees. Only 35% of managers are engaged at work, causing only 30% of their employees to be engaged. Good leaders promote engagement -- the best leaders get to know their employees personally, recognize their strengths, and remember that they are people first. They relate to their issues and make business decisions that suit company needs, while also considering the employee’s needs. After all, what is a company without its employees? The less engaged or incentivized a worker is, the less they will be invested in doing any more than just the bare minimum, eating into profit margins.

This bad management is causing people to walk, and the real killer that disengagement provokes is turnover. Unfortunately, the higher paid and more specialized the job, the greater the cost of turnover. Depending on position, salary, and specialization, employee turnover can range anywhere from 40-400% of an employee’s annual salary to replace.

The losses companies incur from turnover result from a variety of factors, including a dip in employee productivity after giving notice, investing in recruiting, onboarding and training costs, a decrease in revenue while transitioning, or experiencing a gap in replacement. But the worst nightmare is when an expert employee leaves unexpectedly. Not only are there “hard” financial losses like administrative and replacement costs, but there are many “soft” costs that are often overlooked when turnover is involved.

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The Specialist

Lost expertise can be especially difficult to replace. Some positions require a highly skilled specialty, which not only takes years of training but also specified hands-on skills within the position itself. Bringing someone up to par with a long-term employee could take years, additional training, all the while costing the company.

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The Ripple effect

Disruption of workflow and missed deadlines are only natural until the replacement employee is comfortably settled. Duties fall by the wayside, are forgotten, or are handed-off to other employees. Employees taking on additional responsibilities may feel stressed, causing higher absenteeism or even shine a light on the idea of leaving too.

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The Aftermath

Decreased office morale is the ultimate result. Once the employees feel it, the customers suffer. Employees naturally exude how they feel about a company or product, it is very easy to see they’re faking it. Employees are more likely to slack off and make errors, resulting in customer complaints. If these complaints occur too often, you’ve got yourself a real problem. Too many customer complaints will lead to a loss of reputation, forcing the company to spend on PR and rebuild its reputation.

It is possible to calculate the approximate cost of turnover for your company. Create a spreadsheet with employee replacement costs. A major factor, of course, is the employee salary. A Zen Workplace study showed that an average income takes 40% the salary to replace, whereas a higher paid income can take up to 150% to replace, on average. This can be difficult to calculate exactly, as many turnover costs are qualitative, but the quantitative ones are often enough to show the impact on your company’s finances.

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‍Check out these resources and comprehensive examples of turnover calculators to help you get started:

• Canada Human Resources Centre Turnover Calculator
• Drake International Turnover Calculator
• ERE Recruiting Intelligence Turnover Calculations

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Sometimes, turnover can be a positive thing. Recognizing the value in “good” turnover allows you an opportunity to work with it, rather than letting it catch you by surprise. A disengaged employee can often affect your business equally to that of turnover loss. Assess where the money is better spent by using an employee disengagement calculator like this one from GroHawk.

Slacking employees with outdated skills, too much seniority with no fresh ideas, and long-term employees accumulating benefits and bonuses may actually cost less if offered an exit package. This also requires strategic decision making, as it is a delicate subject and a fine balance to create and maintain a company with mixed skills and experience levels. For example, Zappos tried implementing exit incentives and it backfired. Instead of choosing specifically where they wanted a change, they offered a severance package to all their employees. As a result, 14% of their most skilled employees took the deal and left the company spending even more money trying to replace them. The key to strategic turnover is to truly assess who stays and who leaves: too much turnover results in considerable financial loss.

To resolve these issues, view employee engagement as a business strategy. Start by conducting an assessment of your employees’ level of engagement. And consider investing in employee recognition, with platforms like Qarrot. Through your recognition program, you can foster a stronger culture and improve employee morale. For example, with peer-to-peer recognition, your staff build stronger relationships and are motivated to improve performance. With goal-based motivation and awards campaigns, goals can be incrementally achieved, while promoting employee drive. Not only will your employees feel recognized, celebrated, and rewarded, but your investment will pay off in lower turnover costs.

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Employee engagement is an investment, not an expense - learn more by booking your free demo with Qarrot!

Turnover Reconstruction Begins with Employee Appreciation

It’s no mystery that a valued employee is more productive in their workplace. People don’t stick around and make plans for their future that involve major levels of stress. Employee turnover saw an all-time high in 2015 and has only remained a persistent issue today, according to an SHRM/Globoforce survey. Technology and social media are inescapable factors of society that have influenced immediate gratification, heightened expectation, and quick replacement. With access to endless information, training, and networking, most employees aren’t just looking for whatever 9 to 5 they can find - they’re looking for something that is an extension of their “personal brand”. But the main reason people are walking out the door? Lack of recognition from their managers, peers, and employers. People want to be noticed and know that their work makes a difference and according to a TINYpulse study done on over 4,500 employees, 79% of employees feel undervalued.

The way individuals perceive and carry themselves greatly affects the way others react to them, and when a co-worker feels valued, their peers are more likely to treat them accordingly. Being valued reaffirms the psychological human need for purpose. Contrary to the typical idea of “competition”, employees actually want to see one another succeed. If a manager never stops to recognize their employees, an obvious separation is created between ranks. Negative energy spreads from under-appreciation, and you can bet people will start quitting left, right, and center. That being said, there is a fine line between recognition and becoming a pushover. At the end of the day, it is a job. What we’re going for is the old Golden Rule: “treat others as you would like to be treated” - it’s common human decency.

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The Benefits of Recognition and Why Employee Retention is Important

The most obvious and immediate reason to emphasize employee retention is saving company money. Training takes managers away from their regular tasks, advertising drains funds, and employee’s special skills leave with them. On average, a company will spend approximately 20% of the original employee salary to replace them. Good staff morale is based on employee relationships and, unfortunately, meaningful relationships aren’t possible when longevity is lacking. The longer an employee is around, the better they become at their job, and the more productivity spikes. Companies that maintain a reputation of good morale and low turnover tend to appeal to star talent, which leaves more options for recruiting the employees you want.Here are some results HR professionals have seen with values-based recognition programs:

• 68% saw a positive impact
• 86% found an increase in happiness in their employees
• 84% saw improved workplace relationships
• 90% saw a boost in employee engagement

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What are Some Retention Strategies That Can Be Implemented to Minimize Employee Turnover?

Salary, compensation, and benefits

Turnover is rarely about salary, but it’s a no-brainer that the pay you are offering should be competitive. Show your appreciation with bonuses and follow through with compensation promises. If you are a smaller company that is unable to invest a competitive salary in employees with specific and highly experienced skills, try compensating in other ways. Make offers that help increase work/life balance for the employee, or offer help to reduce busy work.

Hire smart

Hire the right person from the start and avoid misrepresenting the position. If someone is overqualified but looking to move up, consider them a great asset and one that will likely stick around. Unfortunately, many employees are enticed into positions by receiving the sugar-coated version of the job. In cases like this, once the initial excitement wears off, the result will very likely be a short stay. Long term employees become brand ambassadors for referrals and avoid job description confusion. This will innately recruit the right people for your company and build a team that feels equally invested in the brand you are cultivating.

Training

Training should be a major priority and orientation should cover more than just the basics. Introduce the employee to the company history and culture to help them thrive and see the opportunities for growth. Organize an onboarding period ranging between a few weeks to a few months so the employee has time to get settled. Thorough training will ensure the employee understands the clear requirements of their position.

Mentoring, coaching, and feedback

A mentoring program can help employees develop special skills, and a one-on-one with a more experienced employee offers a safe environment to build confidence for growth. In turn, this will open opportunities within the company for the employee and motivate them to move forward.

Positive culture

Respect, trust, honesty, teamwork, and striving for excellence, are among the key values to a successful work environment. Encourage employees to remain curious. By asking questions about procedures and problem solving, they are taking ownership and involving themselves in the larger picture. This is not meant to encourage criticism, but instead to find the best way to get things done. They should be equally encouraged to embrace failure, as failing is the only true way to grow. This helps employees to input their ideas or take charge, and if it doesn’t work; pivot and redirect. Conversely, employees should be encouraged to show appreciation amongst colleagues when an accomplishment is achieved. Employees should feel welcome to acknowledge each other's successes informally or through a recognition program. This helps to foster strong morale and a positive workplace culture through a meaningful connection.

Strong communication

The employee needs to know their employer is really listening to their questions, concerns, or input. Passing information along through too many levels may make your employees feel like their ideas have been lost in a deep, dark hole of protocol. Ensuring timely and thorough communication maintains credibility, eases tension within the ranks, and increases access to shared information from everyone within the company.

Work-life balance

Overwork, stress, and burnout are all things you want to avoid. Pay attention to your employees and cater to their specific needs. An employee with children will have different needs than an employee who never clocks out. Use trust to blend personal life with business life. If it’s possible to let an employee work from home, where they are more productive, focused, and engaged, why not let them? Same goes for compressed work weeks or non-conventional hours. Carefully consider if they are the type to hit the deadlines, and make a decision that benefits both the employee and the company. A good employer encourages having a life outside of work.Working is such a large portion of our lives we have become desensitized to many aspects of it. Since you have to make an income anyway, why not do it somewhere that makes you feel valued?

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Improve retention by strengthening workplace culture with positive interactions - book your free trial with Qarrot!

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Sources

• ‍Huffington Post - 3 Ways that Recognition Reduces Employee Turnover
• ‍Forbes - New Management Research Analyzes How Recognition Affects Retention
• ‍Brandspaycheck.com - 4 Reasons Why Employee Retention Is Important?
• ‍hr.blr.com - Strategies for Retaining Employees and Minimizing Turnover
• ‍Fastcompany.com - Four Employee Retention Strategies for the Modern Workplace

It’s pretty safe to say that happy people function better. Therefore, having happy employees means more productive and motivated employees. Many people think they’re multitasking to maximize their efficiency in a workday. In reality, what is perceived as “multitasking” is actually redirecting focus extremely quickly, causing the inevitable; lack of motivation and eventual exhaustion. Motivation is neuroscience, and dopamine plays the largest part in the most “important reward pathway in the brain.” Not only is dopamine commonly associated with pleasure, but it is actually spiked when motivation and reward are involved. Scientifically speaking, your brain can only focus on one task at a time, and coincidentally, the easiest way to attain this productivity spike is by setting incremental goals. Gamification is an easy solution to simplify tasks, in turn creating efficiency and productivity in the workplace.

Why games?

What is it about Pokemon Go, Overwatch, and Call of Duty that is so addicting? Extremely successful video games are created by having obstacles that are just challenging enough for the player to keep coming back for more, but not so challenging that they eventually give up. What is every gamer chasing? A reward. Games connect to the top three psychological aspects for motivation: recognition, competition, and reward. Companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Treehouse, amongst many others, have all used gamification to increase business productivity through employee engagement. Gamification is about using the psychology of gaming to motivate your employees.‍

This is not meant to turn a work task into a game, but instead create a reward-based system that encourages healthy competition. Most employees want to be recognized for their contributions and know that what they do within the company really does matter. Using the many gamification tools such as badges, leaderboards, challenges, levels, and point systems, employees become motivated to gain recognition for their work. This gives the employee a sense of control as the cued micro-tasks help them to perceive their capability. This encourages the inherent competitive drive, that is within us all, to be brought forward, leading to the overall employee and company growth.

Does it really work, or is it simply a trend?

It is possible that gamification is both - a trend that actually works. Besides employee engagement, gamification promotes many positive outcomes:

• Real-time feedback, allowing the employee to see where they are doing well and track smaller or forgotten tasks.
• Elimination of the fear of favoritism by showing the employee where they are excelling or falling short in comparison to others.
• Objectivity
• Reduced staff turnover
• Improved productivity, which in turn improves business outcomes.
• Happier employees, happier customers. Gamification can simply make work just a little more fun!

90 % of employees are more productive when gamification is implemented. But how do you get started?

• Identify what goals need to be achieved within your business and why. How can you get there? Work backward to ensure you don’t miss any steps.
• Determine what changes need to be made in employee behavior and skill to make this happen? What are your employees expected to achieve when using this app?
• Clarify, do your employees understand the purpose of gamification and how it can help? This will ensure that the application will be used once it’s implemented.
• Design, take time to create an application around the users/employees experiences - and make sure it’s fun! Need a little boost? Book a demo with us for some fun, easy, and effective employee engagement tips.
• Personalize the game to your employees and their workflow - make changes according to their needs and involve them in the creation process.

That being said, gamification can present some major limitations if not implemented appropriately. Many careers do not have quantifiable performance tasks, which are trickier to track in the gamification world. A gamification application can easily fail if it is designed poorly or fails to possess meaning to the employee. Even if you have the perfect app, if an employee isn’t a good fit or a negative office culture looms in the air, gamification may just make the employees even more unhappy, viewing it as one more task to live up to. Finding the right balance is crucial for employees to avoid feeling constantly “on” and competitive, especially with the transparency of the stats available to everyone in the office. In the wrong context, this can leave your employees feeling violated, controlled, and eventually burned out from the stress of staying ahead.

If you really take the time to design your app to meet your employee needs, there are endless possibilities for its use in engagement. Whether your employee is working in-office or remotely, the mobility of gamification can be easily applied to jobs with trackable tasks like measuring sales made, clients acquired, and complaints cleared. But everyone can take a training tip from the gamification app that SAP tech enterprise created. They created a virtual world called Roadwarrior, in which the employees can interact with simulated clients and close sales. They gain points and badges for correct answers and successful deals. Not only did this virtual leaderboard provide them with higher levels to unlock, as well as in-office recognition, but it also made their real-world interactions much more efficient and successful. Knowing your employees can help you keep them happy - and what a better way than to have a little fun!

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Discover how your organization can benefit from peer-to-peer recognition - book a demo with Qarrot today!

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Sources

• ‍Idonethis.com - The Science of Motivation
• ‍NPR.org - Think You're Multi-Tasking? Think Again
• ‍Psychguides.com - Video Game Addiction Symptoms Causes & Effects
• ‍Raccoongang.com - Examples of Gamification in the Workplace
• ‍Forbes.com - How to Drive Employee Engagement with Workplace Gamification
• ‍Medium.com - How Gamification in the Workplace Impacts Employee Productivity
• ‍Vimeo.com - Roadwarrior