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How to reward wellness at work: consider this
Breaking a habit is one of the hardest things to do, nevermind establishing a new one. According to a recent study done at the University College London, it takes an average of 66 days to create a basic habit, and 21 days to break an old one. Combined, that’s a little under 3 months. A habit is a behavior, and one of the most difficult traits to change, especially when it comes to wellness, and therefore the most critical part of wellness. Behavior changes can be challenging to implement and sustain over the long-term and should be at the core of any effective wellness program.
Like other employee engagement initiatives, rewards and recognition can play a role in motivating your employees to adopt the behaviors necessary to put them on the path to making wellness a regular habit. When evaluating how to motivate employees to adopt wellness-related behaviors, consider these different ways of structuring your rewards initiative:
Participation
This is the most inclusive approach, as anyone who participates will earn rewards.
Progress
Keep your employees on the right path by rewarding pivotal steps or milestones along the way. These are given to employees who have actively been participating and pursuing their goals.
Outcome
Reward employees who achieve specific goals. Although this can be the least inclusive, it provides a strong incentive for participants who are striving to achieve long-term goals.
Will implementing a wellness program really succeed in making a difference?
The success of your wellness initiative is all about how you design and execute it.
Ask
Communicate with your staff and ask them what elements of wellness they consider to be important and they would like to see implemented. What do your employees need? Does this match the company’s goals? This way you’ll get a clear idea of what personal goals exist for your employees, making it easier to implement rewards.
Consider company culture
Using employee survey data, create a plan that combines physical activity with wellness education and incorporates core elements of the company’s culture. Continuous support and change comes from wellness being a core value of the company.The culture should be supportive of all aspects of health including financial, emotional, social, and physical well-being.
Strong communication
Create a comprehensive communication plan to keep employees aware of how to get involved, new challenges, workshops, rewards, and changes. For better results, communicating across multiple channels, with regular frequency (particularly at the start), and providing relevant content is recommended.
Budget
If employees can earn rewards or additional benefits for participating in your wellness program, then you’ll want to plan your annual budget. Studies have shown that rewards valued over 100$ correlate to higher rates of participation than rewards valued at less. However, this doesn’t mean your program needs to have a huge price tag. Other valuable reward options can include creative alternatives such as parking spaces or half days off from work, which are desired by most employees.
Administration
Using rewards and recognition software can be a great way to help alleviate the administrative effort associated with tracking employee participation and the rewards earned for their wellness achievements. It also encourages employee participation since they’ll experience less “friction” related to earning recognition and cashing in their rewards.
Measuring impact
While doing your homework upfront helps avoid unnecessary trial and error, it’s important to check-in frequently to see how things are going and allow for adjustments that suit your employees’ needs. 30% participation is the benchmark for success when it comes to wellness programs. Therefore, once you implement wellness rewards, a participation increase of 20% should be seen as a great improvement. More than just participation, measuring the beneficial impact on both employees and the company is highly recommended. For example, as a result of your company’s wellness program are you aiming to achieve higher employee engagement and productivity or lower health plan insurance premiums? If so, it’s important to have baseline comparisons established before launching the program in order to effectively measure changes thereafter.
Legalities
Employers are also always wise to consider their potential legal responsibilities relating to privacy and workplace liability. A wellness program opens the door to becoming more involved in employees’ lives by tracking personal health and activity-related information. Consider legal waivers to protect the company against the unlikely case of injury lawsuits that result from program participation. Above all, it is important to remember that all programs must be voluntary. If an incentive is offered, employees should never feel any sense of obligation to participate.
Wellness programs can be implemented to help employees adopt healthier behaviors from simple daily adjustments to longer-term accomplishments. Gamifying behavioral health goals can keep your team motivated to succeed. Things like walking to work, packing a healthy lunch, or drinking more water, are easily rewardable and trackable. Prizes like gift cards for athletic wear or restaurants, and reusable water bottles make for great incentives. Challenges including long-term goals such as smoking cessation, 5-km runs, or weight loss can be harder to stick to, but with milestone-based incentives, as well as a larger achievement rewards, you’re sure to keep your employees motivated. What’s more, Qarrot is here to help! Our software is easy to use, allowing employees to directly enter results towards a given goal. Employees can easily track their improvement and feel inspired to continue on the wellness path.
Workplaces thrive when they adopt Qarrot - learn more by booking your free demo today!
Further reading
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6 reasons why you should incorporate workplace wellness
A corporate wellness program focuses on creating an initiative to improve the health and well-being of employees. Wellness programs can be implemented in multiple ways, such as:
- On-site fitness centers
- Smoking cessation programs
- Transit options
- Paramedical services
- Drop-in classes such as yoga, social dance, pilates, or Zumba
- Healthy lunch and snack options
- Siesta and recovery areas
- Employee assistance programs
- Outside-of-the-office adventures
- Health challenges
But what are the real reasons to invest in corporate wellness?
Ultimately this investment is going to save your business money on multiple levels, and increase the health, happiness, and loyalty of your employees. What else could you ask for?
Lower health costs
Corporations are the largest influencers in disease prevention, just simply by fluke. Companies would rather be focused on selling their products, but the outcome of a wellness program for their employees is too great to be ignored. Wellness programs change the behavior of your employees and the bottom line of health is behaviour. Bad eating habits, a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and drinking are all habits of choice that raise the risk for high blood pressure, cholesterol, and depression. A wellness program changes those patterns and innately prevents disease. Less disease and health risk means lower health care costs for the company, ultimately providing both hard and soft benefits for the company.
Positive ROI (return on investment)
Your company is going to save much more by implementing a wellness program than the cost of starting one. In fact, the average savings from wellness programs reviewed in 22 studies conducted over a span of 2 years was $3.27 for every $1.00 spent.
Improved productivity
According to a recent study, presenteeism (working while not in optimal health) is more commonly found in people with poor lifestyle choices, such as bad diet habits, a lack of exercise, and poor sleeping patterns. Many links have also been proven between exercise and cognitive increase in memory and focus. A study from 2013 showed that those who participated in their company wellness programs saved 10.3 hrs and an average of $353 in productivity costs per person, annually.
Decreased absenteeism
Absenteeism is a sure way for a business to lose money, so any way to decrease this issue is a plus. It is said that 60% of absences are due to stress. Physical activity can decrease stress, increase energy, and allow for better sleep patterns. Recognizing that healthy employees are happier and more productive is the key to success.
Employee recruitment and retention
Wellness programs started out as an employee perk, but have now become commonplace for medium to larger-sized corporations. The better the wellness program, the more likely you are to attract the employees you’re looking for. Top companies such as Google and Microsoft offer extremely generous wellness packages, and other tech companies quickly followed suit. In the end, they are all fighting to recruit and maintain the best of the best, and what better way to do so than with top-notch wellness packages.
Heightened employee morale
Healthy employees are happier employees, and after all, employee morale is the make or break of any business.
Can wellness be incorporated into an employee recognition program?
Of course!
Show support and encouragement to those employees involved in a marathon, team, or simply dedicated to their fitness. Set your recognition program up in a way that allows for time and activity benefits like gym sessions, meditation moments, or vouchers for massage. Get creative and show your team you value their well-being. Foster a ‘wellness culture’ by having employees recognize each other’s wellness achievements. And of course, if budget allows, award your employees for reaching big goals. If an employee has a weight loss goal or is in training for a competition, reward those efforts with points that can be redeemed for rewards of their choice. Recognition will strengthen your wellness culture and provide additional motivation to your employees to stay on track with their health goals.
Incorporating wellness into your business doesn’t have to be costly or time-consuming, but it can be immensely beneficial to your organization. Whether you choose to implement a wellness program or to simply add wellness options to your existing recognition program, you will show your employees you support their well-being, all the while benefiting from higher productivity, retention, engagement, and positive employee morale.
Qarrot has the tools you need to drive better performance and engagement - book your demo to learn more!
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6 motivational holiday office ideas
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.
Motivate improved performance with objective-driven campaigns - book your free demo with Qarrot today!
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How to incentivize creativity, innovation, and out-of-the-box thinking
Innovation starts, at its very basic level, as a disruption of the old. It can be implemented in processes, services, products, and strategies. Creativity can be a powerful ingredient for better problem-solving and innovation and has become an asset in every field. Once employees begin to think creatively, they can unlock the ability to dramatically improve a product, position, or company for the better. Most employees have interests outside of work and possess varied backgrounds. They may have acquired skills in previous fields that they don’t even realize can be applied to their current position. Bringing those skills to a job that doesn’t explicitly require them can create innovative ways of getting ahead. Take the example of someone with computer programming skills now working in a managerial role. What if she wrote a short program to shorten the amount of time spent analyzing data in order to spend more time on other managerial tasks? This employee’s efficient use of skills saves company funds and resources and allows for employee and company growth.
Unfortunately, not all employees are going to take on such initiatives on their own. Sometimes an incentive or reward can do the trick, but according to a study in a Harvard Business Review article, these incentives are best reserved for a job done well and are not as effective as a general motivational tool. Offering a financial reward only to accepted ideas that were implemented into action motivated fewer, but higher quality proposals that were more likely to succeed. On the same note, some research shows that financial incentives for innovation can actually stifle creativity completely. So what is the real key to incentivizing creativity? Getting your employees to care, feel connected, and challenged, which requires more than simply offering a reward.
How to boost innovation:
Create a strong team
Create a strong team that will help turn their creative ideas into reality. If you want your team to be innovative, start at the beginning: think outside-the-box when you’re hiring. Someone who doesn’t necessarily fit the psychological profile of the office will add different ways of thinking to create fresh ideas. This diversity should be applied to leaders as well, ensuring they have been assigned to the right role. A creative employee’s eccentricities are often what help them to be innovative; they question the norm and push boundaries for results. Involve your employees early, this will help them feel invested and more likely to implement innovative ideas from start to finish. Use techniques for brainstorming such as mind-mapping and lateral thinking, and emphasize the importance of homework vs. teamwork. Brainstorming should be done individually and in a group, this way employees all have innovative ideas to contribute and bounce off of one another to create stronger thought patterns. If your team is lacking in new ideas, work with your existing team by jostling their way of thinking. Prioritize trust and learning by getting to know your employees personally and recognizing their specific skills. This will help you assess what creative assignments to put them forward for, who to ask for ideas, and when. This will also help assign a project outside of their norm, use incentive deadlines, balance tasks with rewards, and raise the stakes just enough to create a challenging and exciting motivation for creativity. This will automatically trigger a new way of thinking and perhaps sprout new innovative solutions.
Implement an innovative culture
Implement an innovative culture by encouraging a growth mindset in the workplace. This requires openness to ideas, change, and failure. Make employees feel comfortable offering any innovative ideas they may have, even if they’re not the right fit. Encourage them to let you know their ideas through an email, a message board, an idea box, or any means that will be regularly checked and acknowledged by management. This way if the employee is enthusiastic about an idea, they know it will be heard either immediately or in a timely fashion. If it is not an opportune moment to acknowledge their efforts, hold back from brushing them off. Assure them you’re interested and will check it out soon. This way, employees from all levels within the company can feel free to implement ideas, because you never know where a fresh change could come from. Additionally, try the simplest perspective trick to encourage positive results. Using the words “Yes, and” rather than “Yes, but” creates an environment of encouragement. It recognizes the obstacles in the idea and promotes the employee to continue digging deeper.
Start solving internally
Start solving internally by encouraging employees to bring forward job or company problems as well as their solutions. This will help the employees air their frustrations and be heard, and in turn, help them feel more in control of their tasks. Keep track of an efficient employee’s shortcuts, even if they were unauthorized. Sometimes these loopholes are created by the employee to get through the mundane and bureaucratic tasks quickly and are actually very innovative ideas that shouldn’t be overlooked. If the ideas ultimately don’t fit, and the merits and downfalls have been considered, let the employee know why they won’t work.
Then get out of the office
Then get out of the office, literally and figuratively. Experiment with open concepts, designated rooms with creative atmosphere, or spending some time with the team outdoors. Look for ideas in other industries to study how they encounter and solve complications, for a different way of thinking. Allot a specific time for employees to work on ideas away from their daily duties, hold creative workshops, or monthly meetings outside of the office. Not only will this change be an incentive, but employees will look forward to this time and be motivated to innovate. The change of environment will change the mindset of your employees to think out-of-the-box, as they will literally be out-of-the-box!
Encourage failure and risk
Encourage failure and risk, and in turn, stifle fear. The enemy of creativity is fear, and failure is one of the main engines of anxiety in creativity. There is an element of vulnerability to creation that if stopped by fear, will be extinguished. Realistically, not every idea will be the best one, but by encouraging employees to take a risk, you will establish trust by allowing an employee to feel that they can fail and try again. Let the employee know where their idea is lacking and encourage them to keep trying.
Execute employee ideas and reward successful innovation
Employees feel motivated and empowered when their creative ideas are chosen and implemented. Initiate a strategy to execute innovative ideas and embrace change. If ideas are never taken to action, employees will view their efforts to be useless and lose motivation to bring ideas forward. Create an idea management system that clarifies where and who started the innovative idea. Keeping track of this will help motivate innovation at any level and keep the company growing. Once a successful idea is chosen, then reward the employee. This can come in the form of financial compensation, flexible work hours, remote assignments; something that suits the specific employee’s needs and keeps them happy and motivated to create more innovative ideas.
Creativity is a tricky thing - you can’t force it. As much as you try to motivate it, it will equally disappear. Creativity and innovation come when there is an environment of trust, patience, freedom, and purpose.
Crafting the perfect incentive program can be tricky, but we can help - book your free trial with Qarrot today!
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The cost of poor employee engagement
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Employee engagement is an investment, not an expense - learn more by booking your free demo with Qarrot!
Key Considerations for Improving Employee Retention
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.
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
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?
Improve retention by strengthening workplace culture with positive interactions - book your free trial with Qarrot!
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Can gamification motivate your employees?
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!
Discover how your organization can benefit from peer-to-peer recognition - book a demo with Qarrot today!
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
Open office design: do or don't?
Businesses around the world are reshaping their office culture - literally. Open office spaces are featured in big name companies like Google and Facebook, but are the benefits really worth overhauling your workplace?
We can’t deny it, there are certainly some major benefits to having an open office space.
Boost interaction and collaboration
First and foremost, collaboration and communication between departments and staff are reportedly guaranteed to improve. With little to no barriers between you and the person next to you, it would seem easier than ever to stay in touch with the projects of coworkers and throw ideas back and forth.
Managers also found that by stationing their desks in high-traffic areas, staff felt more comfortable informally stopping to speak with their superiors. This is a two-handed win: management have more insight into their staff’s progress and problems and employees feel more invested in their projects, the company’s overall culture, and mission. The lack of perceived boundaries has been reported by psychologist Matthew Davis to giving employees a more new-age, collaborative perception of the company, inspiring creativity and innovation. ¹
On the other hand, a concern of these open spaces is whether they negatively impact overall productivity - all that talking perhaps equals not enough work? A survey report by The Office Group (TOG) revealed that about 80% of employees feel more productive in co-working spaces than in isolated offices. Further statistics from the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine state that workers are significantly less stressed and more active in open space offices than their cubicle-locked counterparts.
Millennial-dominated companies can often be found operating within open office plans, but this has more to do with the company values than growing up in a hyper-connected world.² Now, an estimated 70% of U.S. offices have open space layouts.³ If teamwork and communication are areas you are looking to improve or are ideals the company values, it may be something to give a shot!
Increased stress and interruptions
Before we put the official stamp of approval on open office plans, there is some incriminating evidence to note.
Studies on open office plans are relatively new, but there are enough contradicting outcomes that it is important to consider the potential downsides. Harvard researchers actually found that people who work in open offices are less likely than cubicle dwellers to collaborate or interact with their colleagues.
Another point raised recognizes the individual work rhythms of employees: When one employee takes their break and wants to socialize, another employee may be in the midst of their most productive time of the day. Noise is an incredibly potent influencer on productivity, and there is proof that as little of three hours of open-office noise can increase adrenaline levels, raising stress levels in employees.
With conflicting evidence, deciding whether an open or closed office space becomes a bit more difficult. Perhaps the deciding factor comes down to the company persona. The physical arrangement of your office projects a certain vibe: what do you want the tone of your business and its offices to be?
Workplace plays a major role in setting the right tone for guests in your office as well as employees, who have their own perception of the brand reinforced by the environment they operate in. Open concept offices are known for feeling inclusive, more informal, and let in more light, which—as a bonus—contributes to general well-being. If your company image is fun, approachable, and ‘young,’ open offices certainly portray that persona.
When in doubt, test it out!
If all that stands in your way is rearranging some furniture, a trial period to monitor productivity and employee happiness may be a huge payoff for only a little work.
Keep your team connected and engaged with Qarrot - book your free demo now!
Resources
Is a 4 day work week the secret to productivity
For 5 days of the week, many of us push our attention spans and cognitive functioning to the limit. We hold on by a thread, driving through our work hours until the weekend brings us a chance to briefly recover.
This lifestyle has not coined the name, “The 9-5 Grind” for no reason: Employees feel the imbalance. For some, work can be a haven, and putting in extra hours on top of a full-time schedule is actually energizing. But, for those who need 8 hours of sleep and derive their relaxation from non-work related activities, the hustle takes a toll.
Regular overworking builds up stress, which can bring about a myriad of health concerns including restless sleep, depression, heavy drinking, diabetes, impaired memory, and heart disease. These consequences are obviously unpleasant for anyone, but the businesses employing depleted employees will see overwork manifested as absenteeism, high turnover rates, rising health insurance costs and a negatively impacted bottom line.
Wait, there is more.
Jobs which require interpersonal communication, judgment calls and the ability to manage one’s own emotional reactions are particularly impacted by overworking.¹ Unfortunately, those skills are all fundamental in most workplaces today. What happens when we work ourselves to exhaustion? Studies indicate that when we’re low on energy, we are prone to negatively interpret those around us and react in a combative manner. This means that beyond individual health and company ROI, overworking disturbs workplace relationships and culture.
North American businesses, in particular, should concern themselves with the recent studies done on five-day work weeks; With 49% of US staff working over 40 hours a week, Americans work more than any other developed country (an average 47 hours a week) with Canada not far behind them.²Although heavily ingrained in work culture, the five-day work week is finally being questioned. Since its inception, the 9-5 has been socially accepted, but as technology allows employees to work in new ways, employers are adapting to fit the individual needs of their staff.³ The big question: Is it possible to be just as productive with less time in the office?
Improved Work-Life Balance
Rapid advancements in technology have altered the work field; employees are only ever a click away from their office emails and chat platforms, meaning work follows everywhere cell reception can be found. It is harder than ever to disengage from work and work-life balance is suffering as a result. Our brains are not programmed to work efficiently when stress and exhaustion press down.
In a trial at the University of Auckland, researchers found that stress levels decreased from 45 percent to 38 percent in a four-day week while work-life balance improved by 24 percent.⁴ These kinds of results are not only seen in tests: Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp, implements four-day work weeks for half of the year, noting that, “Better work gets done in four days than in five.” ⁵
When employees feel their non-stop laboring is a choice rather than an expectation, they are more likely to be engaged and passionate about their work.⁶ Four-day weeks enable employees to disengage, reset, and ultimately find their work more stimulating upon return to the office.
Improved Engagement
A study conducted by a New Zealand business confirmed a 4-day work week is actually more productive than a 5-day work week. During the course of the trial, not only was full-time job performance across the company maintained in a four-day work week, but some teams even saw an increase. Engagement levels across areas such as leadership, commitment, stimulation, and empowerment were reportedly higher across the company, as team members needed to identify areas where time was being wasted and work smarter.⁷
Again, in a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the same relationship between overworking and productivity was found; Those who worked 55 hours per week performed more poorly on some mental tasks than those who worked 40 hours per week.
When one first sets out as a professional, working evenings and weekends demonstrates commitment and sets you apart from the herd; but this is unsustainable! The social acceptability of overworking is the result of ingrained behaviours, which unfortunately detract from productivity.
Advice from businesses that have acted on these findings may help guide you in establishing a work-week structure that fits your company. Research from the Australian National University (ANU) shows the work limit for a healthy life should be set at 39 hours a week instead of the 48-hour limit set internationally- 80 years ago. With technology, telecommuting, and automation, the tools to develop new work systems are more accessible than ever.
Executive Director of The Workforce Institute at Kronos, Joyce Maroney suggests that the answer is not in a longer work week, but rather, "Organizations must help their people eliminate distractions, inefficiencies and administrative work to enable them to work at full capacity." Perhaps the answer really is to end 40 hour work weeks and analyze internal obstacles which can be as “productivity-killing as smoking pot or losing sleep.”
Replace administrative clutter with streamline automation - learn how Qarrot can benefit your team!
