An innovative technology solution platform, Leena AI conducted a survey ‘Employee Engagement & The Hybrid Workplace Report 2022’.
The survey revealed that 23 percent of employees in India are not actively engaged in the workplace. India is on the brink of its Great Resignation phase.
The organizations can benefit by:
- Revisiting their employee engagement policies
- Creating a more inclusive work environment
- Predicting attrition, and so on
To retail talent organizations across different industries are finding ways to know what employee engagement can do for them. In the hybrid work setting rewards and recognition remain one of the most popular and high-impact strategies.
The survey showed the following points:
- The challenges organisations face in terms of employee engagement like unclear definitions and goals for employee engagement strategy.
- Lack of knowledge of which tool to use.
- Lack of resources to devote time to employee engagement.
- Lack of knowledge of how to measure the ROI of employee engagement.
Adit Jain, Co-Founder & CEO, Leena AI said, “While the pandemic brought about some uncertainties, it also facilitated in shifting our focus to the core of every organisation, i.e., its employees.”
“It is interesting to observe whether organisations manage to engage their employees regularly and actively. For a while now, employee engagement has been considered a secondary activity conducted on a need-only basis,” Adit Jain, Co-Founder & CEO, Leena AI said.
Adit further said, “However, in the post-pandemic world, employee engagement’s importance has skyrocketed with the changing needs of both employers and employees. Today, organisations must implement an effective HR strategy to build a positive work environment and retain valuable talent.”
Technology: a distant dream
- More than 50% of the respondents admitted the usage of simple surveys and feedback forms to gauge employee engagement, while 25% claimed to rely solely on manual methods.
- A significant 30% of organizations also acknowledged the need for technological tools to discern employees’ wants and needs, i.e., possible areas of improvement in their respective organizations, actions that their workplace could take to promote inclusivity and mental well-being, and so on.
- In addition, 25% of organizations also expressed an interest in wanting to understand the trend of engagement scores over a specific period.
The increased frequency of employee engagement surveys has imposed the need for advanced tools and technological practices in the workplace.
Annual surveys: still the norm!
The organizations have commonly used annual employee engagement surveys:
- 50% of the report suggested a growing frequency of such surveys.
- 25% of organizations stated that they had implemented quarterly employee engagement surveys
- While only 8% executed them monthly.
In a hybrid work model where employees are often interspersed, continuous listening has proven to be paramount.
Rewards and recognition = Employee engagement?
- Almost 50% of the respondents admitted to relying on this method to engage their respective employees.
- Only 10% saw merit in including employees in primary decision-making processes as an engagement method.
- Only 20% of organizations have implemented a detailed onboarding process designed to align new employees to the organization’s mission and vision in a hybrid work setting.
Employee engagement to attract talent
- About 51% of IT and Software companies use employee engagement to attract talent, followed on close heels at 50% by the Media and Entertainment industry.
- About half (50%) of the media and entertainment industry also use employee engagement to create an employer brand.
- 42% of IT and Software sector organizations also use employee engagement to improve employee experience in a hybrid work model.
HR: owner of employee engagement initiatives?
- 70% of organizations said that the HR team owns employee engagement initiatives.
- While only 8% of organizations concurred with the involvement of mid-level managers.
While the HR department is indispensable in shaping an organization’s culture, it alone can not be held accountable for employee engagement.
Since remote working has become the norm, employee engagement efforts are siloed in most organizations.
It has been observed that organizations’ CXOs lay the groundwork for creating a more positive work environment and tend to witness increased employee productivity.
- Close to 75% of organizations said that their employees were not engaged in the workplace.
- Almost 30% of organizations are looking at improving employee experience in the hybrid workplace through employee engagement initiatives.
- 43% of organizations undertake employee engagement to attract and retain talent.
- 61% of small enterprises feel employee engagement is an ad hoc initiative, while 60% of medium enterprises treat employee engagement as a business strategy.
The company has surveyed employee engagement across 250 enterprises globally, including in India and the US.
