Exploring employee engagement – its definition, measurement, and enhancement – has captured significant interest in the last two decades. This attention has surged alongside the entry of fresh generations into the job market, all in pursuit of novel prospects and career progression. Despite an ongoing lack of precise illustration, a unanimous agreement exists that employee engagement fundamentally merges an individual's emotional affinity with their tasks and dedication to fulfilling their role.

Executives are often deeply concerned with the issue of employee engagement, which has become a crucial focus for every organization due to its clear advantages. Despite its significance, numerous organizations face challenges in effectively addressing this aspect.

• Loyalty is on the decline: A significant 43% of employees express willingness to depart from their current organizations in exchange for a mere 10% salary increase.
• Employees are being deprived of the acknowledgment they merit: Merely one-third of individuals received commendation during their instances of going the extra mile at work, and merely a quarter perceive a strong sense of value within their workplace.
• A majority of workplace cultures are uninspiring: With less than one-third of workers expressing confidence in their company's robust culture, there's much room for improvement.

These findings might trigger concerns and apprehensions. It's incumbent on managers to not only oversee our employees' productivity but also to safeguard their emotional well-being.

The moment has arrived to prioritize employee engagement and well-being. Whether you're a manager searching for motivation or an individual contributor grappling to maintain inspiration, presented below are twelve potent methods to foster and uphold employee engagement.

Innovative Strategies for Sustained Employee Engagement 

• Create Positive Employee Experiences

  Generating favorable employee experiences involves:

  • Ensuring that the tasks they perform hold personal significance.
  • Fostering a sense of confidence between the workforce and the management.
  • Establishing effective channels of communication.
  • Incorporating social incentive systems.

  By taking these steps, organizations can cultivate sustained employee commitment and a profound emotional engagement with the enterprise.

• Keep staff emotionally connected to the mission

  The most effective approach to upholding strong morale involves establishing a distinct mission that resonates with employees on an emotional level. Additionally, it is significant to consistently highlight how their collective efforts contribute to this mission, as evidenced by the successful narratives they craft for customers. This emotional resonance facilitates intrinsic motivation, enabling employees to persevere during demanding tasks or when confronted with company-wide challenges.

• Recognize employees' contributions and accomplishments

  To maintain high spirits and active participation, promptly acknowledging staff members' efforts and achievements is crucial. Implementing ongoing acknowledgment through consistent feedback and performance-related incentives provides workers with a transparent grasp of their career advancement. This approach also instils a sense of appreciation for their dedication and output, fostering sustained motivation and a year-round commitment to objectives.

• Check on the well-being of your staff regularly

  Employee engagement can be maintained straightforwardly without requiring excessive effort. Recognize the most significant gaps in the well-being of your employees and address them appropriately. If you are still determining the initial steps, interpret it as a cue to re-establish connections. Evaluate workloads, fundamental human requirements, both physical and psychological security, and the overall health of your team. Initiate the process from there and prioritize actions that hold significance for them rather than focusing solely on your preferences.

• Invest in employees' personal and professional growth

  Leaders must back the personal and professional advancement of their staff. This can be achieved by providing opportunities for accessing courses, participating in workshops, and receiving mentorship. This approach fosters a sense of appreciation and drive among employees, ultimately resulting in heightened engagement and contentment. Investing in employee growth contributes significantly to cultivating a favorable workplace atmosphere.

• Invest in leadership development programs

  Leadership development initiatives have a dual focus: not solely centered on professional growth, they also extend their support to individuals' personal and career-related ambitions. Demonstrating your commitment to their overall advancement and welfare will result in heightened employee involvement and gratitude.

• Offer flexibility in a 'new-normal' reality

  Sustaining employee involvement within the "new normal" framework necessitates primarily adopting flexibility as long as their responsibilities are being fulfilled. People may be open to trading a certain degree of compensation for the ability to spend time with their family in the afternoon. You will cultivate a committed and loyal workforce by offering adaptability alongside opportunities for personal growth and professional advancement.

Also read our latest blog: Navigating the Future: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Staffing Services

• Allow employees to design their schedules and workspaces

  The adaptable work strategy within your organization maintains elevated levels of morale and involvement. Enabling each individual to personalize their work environment and timetable in manners that foster success consistently leads to individuals presenting their optimal professional capacities.

• Offer ample PTO for a good work-life balance

  The swiftest route to employee disengagement and diminished morale arises from excessive workload and absence of acknowledgment. Initially, organizations ought to provide generous paid time off (PTO) to guarantee a harmonious equilibrium between work and personal life, enabling employees to rejuvenate themselves. Secondly, supervisors must accentuate the accomplishments of exceptional contributors, acknowledging their triumphs and affording colleagues the opportunity to commemorate them during team gatherings.

• Utilize active leadership to engage employees

  Utilize proactive leadership techniques to involve staff members and enhance their enthusiasm consistently. By doing so, you will gain an understanding of the requirements of your employees while establishing accessible channels for discussions and information-sharing regarding regulations and advantages that contribute to improved welfare, team spirit, and work effectiveness. Applying active leadership alongside all-encompassing well-being choices demonstrates your genuine concern for your workforce, leading to increased employee engagement and elevated morale levels.

• Organize monthly events and bi-weekly all-hands meetings

  The all-hands gatherings encompass updates about the company and acknowledgment of outstanding achievers who receive monetary incentives and are acknowledged in front of the entire organization. Some events may include activities like Skribbl, yoga, and rotational events, such as a stepping challenge, wellness bingo, literary groups, cooking contests, and more.

• Celebrate anniversaries and host employee appreciation days

  Consistently acknowledging the achievements of team members is essential for maintaining elevated morale and robust engagement. It is recommended that leaders, at minimum every quarter, identify a notable contribution made by each team member and bring it to the forefront. Additionally, commemorating milestones such as work anniversaries and dedicated days for appreciating employees can also be beneficial.

Conclusion 

In today's business landscape, where employee engagement fuels organizational success, these innovative strategies emerge as beacons of inspiration. By intertwining purpose with performance and fostering a culture of continuous growth, organizations can pave the way for sustained employee engagement.

Remember, the journey towards a more engaged workforce is not a destination but a voyage of constant adaptation, fuelled by these strategies that empower employees and the organization to thrive harmoniously. Embrace these approaches, tailor them to your unique context, and witness their transformational power in creating a workplace where engagement knows no bounds. Exela HR Solutions stays at the forefront when it comes to employee satisfaction. With our all-inclusive services and support, your organization can achieve the desired level of employee engagement and satisfaction that will foster productivity at the workplace. Speak with our experts at Exela HR Solutions today!

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

As we mark the third year since the emergence of COVID-19, its impact on employee behavior patterns and the future of work continues to be felt. Despite the unprecedented challenges organizations face, such as an exhausted workforce, a competitive talent landscape, and pressure to control costs, employees appear to have achieved some of their desired outcomes. Currently, 51% of knowledge workers in the U.S. are working in a hybrid work mode, while 20% are still working remotely.

However, employees have also expressed a desire for more meaningful feedback to increase their engagement with their work. This is where companies need to revamp their strategies. To meet the needs of employees for better performance and feedback, organizations need to evolve their performance management strategies to retain and engage employees in the current year.

As we move into 2023, HR trends indicate a continued focus on employee experience and well-being in response to high levels of burnout, turnover, and low engagement. As a result, it has become crucial to measure and analyze the effectiveness of your performance management strategies. A data-driven, employee-first approach to performance management can help organizations prepare employees for their future with the company and stay competitive as an employer. In this article, we will take a closer look at the performance management trends likely to be followed in 2023.

Top four performance management trends in 2023

Effective performance management is a crucial factor in any organization's success. It involves managing employee performance and development through various methods, such as goal setting, feedback, and coaching. Given the constantly evolving business landscape, performance management trends are continuously changing. In this article, we will explore the top performance management trends likely to be followed in 2023 and reshaping the HR industry.

From employee analytics and artificial intelligence to automation and continuous feedback, these trends are poised to revolutionize performance management practices in the coming years. So, let's delve into these compelling trends that will drive the future of performance management!

1. Market Shift and Growth

   81% of HR leaders are transforming their performance management systems.

   Market shifts and growth are driving HR leaders to transform their performance management systems, as evidenced by 81% of them taking action in this area. However, less than a fifth of these leaders feel that their current performance management systems are thriving. This suggests that a fundamental shift in performance management is imminent. Companies have realized that their current processes are outdated and ineffective, but they are unsure of what their next steps should be. As a result, experimentation is likely to be a major performance management trend.

2. Adios, annual review!

   Annual performance reviews are a critical component of performance management in several organizations. These reviews enable managers to provide feedback to their employees on their performance over the past year, to set goals for the coming year, and to discuss career development opportunities.

   However, one of the main issues with traditional annual performance reviews is that they can be incomplete and unfair, potentially harming company culture and employee experience. In fact, 85% of employees have stated they would consider quitting their job after an unfair review. Consequently, more companies are moving towards different ways to evaluate performance, adding perspective, frequency, and context to their assessments. Here are a few ways organizations are managing employee performance outside of the annual review:

   • Organizations include feedback from peers and other stakeholders through 360-degree assessments to promote fairness and harmony in employee reviews.
   • Project-based appraisals enable timely recognition and rewards.
   • Regular one-on-one meetings between employees and their managers on a weekly basis provide continuous feedback and support for growth.
   • Setting clear goals that align with organizational objectives to help clarify expectations and encourage employees to perform at their best.

   HR leaders are transforming the system by replacing the annual review with ongoing 360-degree feedback and coaching, allowing employees to keep track of their review journey and stay motivated.

Also Read: Performance Management System: Basics and Benefits

3. Crucial conversations? You aren't in a shtook!

   It's hard to accept, but many of us still avoid having crucial conversations. However, these conversations are not as daunting as they sound, certainly not as daunting as annual reviews. Nevertheless, if you are avoiding difficult conversations at work, you are not alone.

   Research shows that 80% of employees procrastinate on necessary yet difficult discussions, while 40% put them off for six months. Additionally, 40% of employees say their manager fails to engage in honest and crucial conversations about work, which leads to disengagement.

   Good communication can solve half the battle straight away. Here is a guide to six crucial conversations that HR managers can have with employees to provide constructive feedback and facilitate growth in the company.

   • Performance Planning Conversation:

     This conversation is held at the beginning of the performance cycle to establish clear performance expectations and goals. The manager and employee discuss the employee's role, responsibilities, and performance expectations. Moreover, it covers key performance indicators and how progress toward specified goals will be measured.

   • Check-in Conversation:

     It is held regularly throughout the performance cycle to provide feedback on progress toward goals, discuss any challenges, and adjust plans as necessary. This conversation focuses on identifying any obstacles and providing support or resources to address them. The check-in conversation helps employees stay on track with their goals and enables managers to offer timely feedback and support to improve performance.

   • Feedback Conversation:

     It is held to provide feedback on specific behaviors or outcomes related to performance. The conversation is focused on constructive feedback that is clear, timely, and actionable. The purpose of the discussion is to help the employee improve their performance.

   • Performance Evaluation Conversation:

     This conversation is held at the end of the performance cycle to review the employee's performance over the past year. The manager and employee discuss strengths, areas for improvement, and any goals achieved or missed. The conversation also covers the employee's development plan for the next performance cycle.

   • Career Development Conversation:

     This conversation is held to discuss the employee's career aspirations, interests, and goals. The manager and employee explore opportunities for development and growth within the organization. Moreover, this conversation may include discussions about job rotations, mentoring, training, and other development opportunities.

   • Coaching Conversation:

     It supports the team members in achieving their goals and improving their performance. The manager and employee work together to identify areas for improvement and create an action plan for development. The conversation is focused on providing support and guidance to help employees achieve their full potential.

4. People Analytics - obligatory!

   In recent years, organizations have increasingly turned to data analytics for making crucial business decisions, and this trend has now extended to the field of human resources. As a result, people analytics, or data and analytics to better understand and manage employees, has become an essential tool for HR professionals.

   One area where people analytics has a significant impact is performance management. By using data and analytics to measure and improve employee performance, organizations can better align individual goals with company objectives, identify areas for improvement, and develop targeted interventions to support employee development. Additionally, people analytics helps understand employee behavior, including what went wrong, the reasons behind it, what could be done to avoid similar situations, and best practices to achieve expected goals.

   Analytics enables HR teams to make more informed, data-driven decisions and empowers team members to reach their full potential. For instance, if your performance analytics exhibit discrepancies, you can investigate to determine the following:

   • Is there any specific reviewer who is giving low ratings?
   • If yes, then why are they doing so?
   • Are the employees lacking somewhere? Do they need additional support or resources to perform the concerned task?
   • Are your managers well-equipped and authorized to manage and evaluate the workforce?

   All these shenanigans are just to ensure nothing but a bias-free performance review based on people analytics.

Conclusion

Performance management is an ever-changing field that adapts to the evolving needs of organizations and their employees. As we look forward to 2023, several key trends are expected to shape the future of performance management. These trends include a greater emphasis on continuous feedback and coaching, the use of data analytics to drive insights and decision-making, and the adoption of more flexible and personalized performance management approaches. By embracing these trends and remaining attentive to the needs of their employees, organizations can create more effective performance management systems that drive engagement, productivity, and growth.

If you are still striving to align your employees and managers and establish a bias-free performance management system, you may benefit from an HR outsourcing solution. Exela HR Solutions is a market leader in HR outsourcing and can assist in establishing a sound performance management system for your organization. Get in touch with Exela HR Solutions today for all your HR needs!

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

The primary function of any business is to generate revenue and profits. Human capital is crucial for revenue generation, and customer satisfaction depends on the value an organization provides to them. Therefore, employees play a vital role in achieving these goals.

Given the importance of employees, it is essential to ensure that they feel valued, happy, and satisfied. One way to do this is by giving them clear directions on how to grow and develop within the company. First, however, let's take a broader look at this concept.

To succeed in a company, employees need to perform well. This makes it essential for organizations to provide them with the necessary training and coaching. Performance management plays a critical role in the structure of an organization, as it enables companies to give employees precise feedback, communicate performance expectations, and measure performance metrics. A well-designed, organized, and relevant performance management system is at the core of a successful process for channeling employee engagement, focus, and value.

Therefore, organizations must have an effective performance management system in place. With it, companies can provide accurate employee feedback and set clear performance expectations. Here's a brief breakdown of the basics and benefits of a performance management system.

What is a performance management system?

The performance management system, a systematic approach to measuring employee performance, enables organizations to align their goals, mission, and objectives with available resources, strategies, and set priorities. The execution administration framework performs the necessary procedure that characterizes and conveys the activity parts, duties, goals, execution desires, and setting requirements between the administrator and employees. In addition, it includes the shared objectives and targets between the office, association, and representatives that are lined up with assets and frameworks. In a nutshell, it acts as a channel for clarifying goals and enhancing business processes through different mechanisms and methods.

Purpose of Implementing Performance Management System

The primary objective of establishing a systematic performance management system in an organization is to manage employee performance effectively. Here are six primary purposes that a performance management system serves:

• Strategic Alignment

  A performance management system should align with the organization's overall, individual, and departmental goals. This helps ensure that every employee's activities are linked to the organization's strategic objectives.

• Administrative Support

  The performance management system is a deciding factor for administrative tasks such as employee promotion, demotion, transfer, salary increment, and terminations. It helps identify the organization's best performers, underperformers, or non-performers, as well as the competency and skill levels of employees. This information supports management decisions.

• Communication

  The performance management system provides an effective communication channel to inform employees about their job responsibilities, goals, performance standards, and key deliverables. It also indicates areas for improvement and provides a platform for learning and training new skills to improve employee performance and results.

• Development

  The performance management system provides a structured method for communicating positive feedback, development plans, and improvement areas. In addition, managers can use coaching, mentoring, training, and other methods to help team members perform exceptionally.

• Organizational Maintenance

  The performance management system helps measure organizational, employee, and departmental achievements and evaluate performance gaps using different techniques and tools. This helps maintain a healthy environment and performance standards in the organization.

• Documentation

  The organizations must document and maintain the feedback, reviews, forms, and assessment sheets. These documents help businesses clearly understand what worked best and what went wrong, set new targets, design training and learning programs, and determine developmental needs.

Also Read: 10 Critical HR Metrics to Measure in 2023

Building a Successful Performance Management System

Continuous feedback is a significant cornerstone in performance management. Yet many organizations fail to develop a successful performance management system.

Only 2% of organizations feel their performance management approach furnishes excellent value.

That's a lot of room for improvement for the other organizations. Thus, here are a few key elements that will allow you to improve the quality of your performance management systems.

• Accuracy and Fairness

  The system must be accurate and fair. It is difficult for managers to gauge employee performance accurately or comprehensively. Measuring an individual's performance needs multiple perspectives since various job roles require different skills and capabilities. Thus, having a standard process won't always help - you need to employ accurate and fair approaches to gauge employee performance.

• System efficiency

  The system must be efficient. Inefficient processes can take excessive time and end up detracting from performance instead of elevating it. The performance management system should be more than just a flurry of paperwork to help managers make more sound decisions.

• Performance improvement

  The traditional performance management system ensures that employees meet the minimum performance requirements. However, it's time to look at the potential upper limits. An effective system links employee performance to the organization's strategic objectives and current initiatives. In addition, the system should focus on integrating a culture of taking responsibility and making the foreseen change happen.

• Compensation decisions

  Compensation decisions are indirectly linked to performance management. Giving raises, cutting down on bonuses, or providing additional rewards should solely rely on the performance analysis. If your organization isn't providing competitive pay, the performance management system is of no use. In order to make your performance management lead the path of success and advancement, align compensation decisions with it.

• Multiple sources of data

  Having a single data source can drive the results only in one direction. To have an all-inclusive view of your employee performance, extricate data from different sources. You can take the help of multi-rater feedback. Empower managers to get bias-free opinions and collect accurate data, allowing the system to evaluate accurate performance.

• Coaching and development

  The system should incorporate formal coaching and development skills, allowing employees room for improvement. Recently implemented performance management systems with great results have one common element - frequent coaching conversations. However, providing feedback and coaching doesn't come naturally to everyone - managers need to acquire these skills through certain methods such as:

  • Having a clear understanding of outcomes pursued from coaching conversations.
  • Understanding the required action steps.
  • Observing other’s coaching correctly.
  • Practicing the coaching and development skills until you gain confidence and competence in using them in real scenarios.

How can a performance management system benefit your organization?

Here's how a performance management system can benefit your organization:

• Improves employee performance by giving them a clear understanding of their KRAs and goals.
• Empowers organizations to overcome their skill gaps by highlighting the essential skills that employees possess and where they are lacking.
• It makes the process employee-centric by giving them the leverage to provide feedback and subsidizing rewards and recognition.
• Enables human resource managers to make bias-free and fair performance decisions by giving them the leverage to analyze different aspects of employee performance.
• Relieves HR professionals from the administrative burden of running performance reviews and takes the burden off executive teams by automating the entire process.

Conclusion

The performance management system needs remodeling to serve the organizations better. It should incorporate new processes that take advantage of feedback to emphasize the future instead of crying over the mistakes in the past. The system must explore the upper boundaries of performance rather than measuring against the minimum. To have exceptional results, remodeling the system must preserve the positive elements of past approaches to achieve performance management goals.

If you are still unsure of how to gauge employee performance correctly, take the help of a good HR outsourcing solution. Exela HR Solutions is a market leader in HR outsourcing that helps with your all-inclusive HR processes to meet desired organizational goals and thrive in the modern business world. Speak with our experts at Exela HR Solutions today!

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

Long gone is the era when employees would land a job and stay there forever – from hire to retire. The modern business world has brought about a shift in employee behavior – new-age employees prioritize job satisfaction and engagement with their company and work culture. Employee engagement has gathered a lot of hype in recent years due to unforeseen work scenarios. Wasn’t employee engagement critical before the COVID era? It was! But the term wasn’t widely recognized across organizations. However, organizations have started considering employee engagement as a vital factor as it is directly related to overall productivity and, thus, profitability.

Disengaged employees are more likely to make mistakes 60% more often than engaged ones.

We all can agree that employee engagement and retention are at the top of HR managers’ priority lists. They are increasingly finding ways to keep both in-house and remote employees engaged, not with standing the proximity. Now, if you hear that employee engagement starts with payroll, what would your views be? Try to put yourself in your employees’ shoes – would you be willing to work wholeheartedly if you knew there could be compensation glitches at the end of the month? Or, your salary could get delayed, or there could be mistakes in payroll calculations. Ironically, everyone works for money, whether or not you agree. If you get your monthly wages credited on time without any errors, you will likely be more enthusiastic about working the next day. Thus, we can say payroll directly impacts employee productivity, the revenue of the company, and organizational reputation. Like it is well-communicated, employee engagement starts with payroll. However, is payroll just about wages? No, it’s not. It incorporates additional perks and benefits, competitive pay, insurance and tax assistance, employee empowerment, and more. Here is how payroll can impact employee engagement:

How can payroll impact employee engagement?

• Payroll Errors

  Good payroll management incorporates accurate salary calculations considering leaves, overtime pay, additional benefits, and taxes. Any error calculating these numbers can lead to late or inaccurate payments, eventually frustrating the employees. In addition, no organization should face a situation where employees can question their administrative caliber or doubt their intentions.

  Accurate categorization of employees is also crucial for accurate salary cycles. An erroneous payroll creates distrust and may even make the employees resign early, directly impacting the company’s revenue.

• Non-compliance with laws

  Nowadays, businesses deal with cross-country operations more than ever. Moreover, the remote and hybrid work cultures have allowed remote employees to work from their comfort zone. However, while doing so, employers must follow the payroll rules and laws applicable to different countries or states. Non-compliance with such laws or rules may result in hefty penalties or legal actions against the company.

  Employers must also pay gratuities and provident funds to employees as per government laws. Failing to do so can also lead to penalties or, even worse, cost an organization its reputation. Employees often choose to switch jobs in such situations, and hiring for the vacant positions can turn out to be costly.

According to a survey, the cost of hiring an employee for a vacant position is around $4000.

• Lack of Transparency

  Employees today look for workplaces that provide a transparent and healthy work environment. They want a thorough understanding of payroll management, including their wages, taxes, deductions, etc. For instance, if an employee has doubts about the received salary or wants to know the payroll particulars, he/she would have to approach the concerned person and request a thorough discussion of deductions. The concerned person will then have to explain the unpaid taxes, absences, insurance, etc. The overall process will devastate not only the employee but also the overworked accounting person. Such confrontations will ultimately demotivate employees and waste time – all this can be avoided by automating payroll processing.

Also Read: A Business Case for Modernizing your Payroll Process

Ways payroll can ensure employee engagement

• Error-free salary and tax calculations

  When you care for someone’s needs, they will always put you first. The same goes with an organizational structure – the more you keep your employees happy and satisfied, the more they will be dedicated to their work. With countless discussions happening around payroll management, organizations have finally started to recognize the importance of accuracy if they want to retain the best talent and earn their loyalty or commitment. One of the best ways to keep employees satisfied is by paying the monthly wages on time with accurate calculations. This can only happen with an automated payroll management service. Integrating automation into the payroll processing help streamlines the workflow with error-free salary and tax calculations.

• Integration with time and attendance recording systems

  Manual data entry into the time sheets is probably the last thing employees would prefer doing. Moreover, there are countless possibilities of data getting altered or lost while manually handling the time sheets. On the other hand, automated payroll management services provide accurate time and attendance records and offer employees more clarity on their shifts and overtime payments. Furthermore, this helpsemployees gain more confidence about their expected pay and saves countless hours of payroll management teams spent on manually tracking and reconciling hours.

• Accurate leave record management

  A good payroll management service ensures that the leave structures and policies are clearly defined and executed. Leaves management is the most common factor causing a rift in the relationship between an employee and an HR manager. Apart from the work schedules, employees also wish their time to be respected and handled carefully. An automated payroll management system eliminates these leave disputes. The software enables employees to clearly understand their leave status in real time, allowing them to plan their time effortlessly and efficiently. This makes employees feel valued, directly impacting employee engagement and productivity.

• Self-service options

  Are you keeping your employees from their employment data? Don’t. Allowing your employees access to the employment details such as salary structures, policies, tax deductions, benefits, insurance policies, timesheets, time-off data, and more enhances their contentment level. They feel job security and satisfaction, which in turn increases productivity. In addition, some payroll management service providers offer mobile apps to have greater accessibility, enabling employees to access the data from anywhere, anytime.

How does an outsourced payroll service increase employee engagement?

We saw how payroll affects employee engagement and productivity and the ways payroll can enhance employee engagement. But not all companies can afford the automation costs. This is where outsourcing comes to the rescue. Payroll outsourcing gives wings to your employee engagement initiative. The payroll service provider takes care of every integral part of the payroll process, including monthly wages, employee categorization, tax calculations, leaves deductions, additional benefits, and more. You don’t have to worry about the specific payroll or tax laws that you must adhere to, nor will you need to supervise the taxes paid and other data.

Payroll outsourcing ensures that you are delegating the responsibility to a team of experts, and you can expect accuracy and punctuality in your payroll processing. Employees will have access to a self-service portal where they can easily access the data related to their leaves, overtime, tax variations, and more. In addition, an error-free payroll with automated leave management and attendance system enhances the employee experience.

Conclusion

Exela HR Solutions has a team of experts that can help enhance your payroll processing and make sure your employees’ payroll expectations are met. Our team recognizes your business requirements and provides the best-in-class payroll processing that will boost your employee engagement and productivity. Our aim is to ease your payroll processes so that you can focus on business strategy and revenue growth and provide your employees with error-free and smooth payroll processing.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

The advent of COVID-19, its adverse effects, shutting down doors for physical work, and the new era of hybrid and remote work – we’re all quite familiar with these terms and scenarios. Perhaps, we have learned to live with the new reality. But is it the same for HR teams? HR’s career revolves around employees – their needs and requirements. Casting our minds back to 2019, no one would have imagined that we’d be living in a world where working from anywhere would be the new norm.

Back in the day, we happily seemed to be going about with our 9-to-5 work life, content in our physical workplaces. Nevertheless, according to a survey, 99% of respondents desired to work remotely – if not permanently, at least for a shorter tenure, throughout their career. Coming back to the era we are living in, the dream of many has come true – now, 83% of employees prefer remote work over working from the office. While some organizations are returning to the offices, others are opting for a permanent work-from-home model or hybrid work arrangements. That being said, managing teams remotely comes with its own set of challenges. Establishing a positive organizational culture and a unified team is challenging from afar but imperative for business growth. To manage teams better, retain talent, and drive business growth, organizations must bring unique attributes to the table to simplify the job for their HR teams.

Here’s how HR can effectively manage larger teams situated across the globe with ease using smart technologies and intelligent features that come with HR Outsourcing and Management platforms like Exela’s EHRS:

HR software for remote team management – 5 must-have features

Employees and business owners worldwide have been navigating a new, remote reality for the last two years. The hybrid and remote work models are building new discussions around the best practices to manage remote teams, retain worthy talent, and grow business. One might find the right candidate for the available positions, but how can one ensure they blend in easily? How does one onboard several employees at the same time? Would they be able to engage with the brand without in-person interactions or face-to-face assessments? The first step to virtually hiring employees is to elevate your online presence and brand image. Does online presence only count in social activities? Of course not! It is a great medium to communicate your organizational values, goals, and culture. HR management software has made it a lot easier to handle daily activities with grace. They offer multiple features to make the processes hassle-free.

Here are 5 must-have features for HR management software to make remote team management efficient and effective.

• Employee Onboarding

  For employee or any recruiter, onboarding is one the most significant tasks. What does it take to onboard a new employee? Is it just shooting out an email with the subject line “Welcome Aboard?” Signing the legal paperwork for employment? It is far more than we can imagine. The very first time an employee interacts with the organization is through the onboarding process – so there shouldn’t be any room for errors. Recruiters must ensure the new joiners get all the information they need about the organization – its values, culture, technologies, vision, and goals to help them fulfill the expected performance requirements. A smooth, delightful experience can help reduce employees’ time-to-productivity, enhance engagement, boost morale, and increase loyalty. Exela’s HR solutions have it all to fulfill all your recruitment needs – from finding the right talent, hiring, and rolling out offer letters and recruitment papers to onboarding; you can outsource everything under one roof.

• Employee Self-Service

  Nowadays, everyone desires transparent communication and operations, as do employees. As a result, employees seek on-demand access to their required employment lifecycle information on portals. To gain employees’ loyalty toward the organization, it is crucial to give them access to information such as employment data, tax documents, leave balances, shared company documents, holiday lists, employee benefits, and more. This helps employees check the status of their benefits and leaves, request time offs, and regularize attendance, saving HR departments countless hours. Organizations can make this happen through HR software that allows access irrespective of the geographic location, with the only requirement being an internet connection and the employee self-service feature.

• Payroll Processing

  Calculating salaries with fair consideration of leaves and tax deductions such as PF, PT, and TDS, rolling out salaries to each employee, and providing payslips – seem like tedious and multifaceted tasks to do. Along with other HR tasks, paying salaries on time and managing documentation amidst the chaos of remote work scenarios can be challenging. Earlier, HRs used to take around 3-14 days to complete the payroll processing – this is something that is hard to imagine in today’s era, where everyone is working remotely from different locations and time zones. This is why good human resource management software is a necessity. It gives HRs the leverage to automate HR processes with less manual intervention and minimized errors. Payroll processing via an online HR solution would reduce weeks’ worth of work to just a few hours! In addition, HR software that provides payroll processing features allows you to integrate attendance and time modules with the payroll function to help you get accurate numbers.

Also Read: New HR trend: HR entrepreneurs

• Analytics and Reporting

  Data is only as good as you can use it – there isn’t any value in tracking the HR information when you can’t use it to your advantage. You can draw enormous benefits by analyzing employee information and data – their requirements, interests, and disinclinations. In addition, this data will further help you plan training and development sessions, add to the list of benefits, tweak processes, incorporate new tools or technologies, and increase employee productivity and loyalty. Specifically, in the era of remote work, it is imperative to understand your employees and acknowledge their needs in order to retain worthy talent. Good human resource software must come with analytics and reporting features, making it easier to analyze, comprehend, and plan accordingly. Customizable dashboards, real-time reporting, automated data gathering, access controls, and financial analysis are a few of the analytical functions in human resource management software that enable you to make data-backed, informed decisions and enhance overall performance.

• Workflow Automation

  From communication and coordination to document sharing, scheduling meetings, integrating security standards, and task management – HRs deal with dozens of complex tasks on a daily basis. Furthermore, with the emergence of new challenges due to the remote work culture, it has become way more complex than it previously was. Most commonly, repetitive tasks tend to drag down efficiency and productivity. This is where automation comes into the picture. As we already know, automation makes work easy, secure, and efficient. The same applies to HRs – while shuffling through countless tasks and working hours, automation can bring a sigh of relief for HRs handling remote teams. For instance, you might automate the weekly or monthly reminders for any pending tasks, disseminate emails to keep everyone on the same page and spend more time planning activities to increase employee engagement instead. Your HR management software must allow you to automate mundane, time-consuming, repetitive tasks, allowing you time to focus on more priority work instead.

Wrapping up!

When you get just about every HR service under one umbrella, it marks the end of most of your HR challenges. Exela’s state-of-the-art HR Solutions can help HR departments save countless hours spent on repetitive administrative tasks, allowing time to focus on business strategy, employee development, and employee engagement. It provides a one-stop solution for all HR needs, such as recruiting, onboarding, payroll processing, compensation and benefits management, HR business and partner services, and a lot more. Try Exela’s HR solutions today!

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

If you want to know one of the most effective ways to motivate your employees, give them a sense that you value their input by setting up an employee suggestion box. Employees who feel they are part of a company are naturally less likely to leave than those who are unhappy and feel isolated.

Setting up an employee suggestion box can be a great idea. An employee suggestion box helps obtain employee input to improve internal processes, allowing employees to participate in workplace decision-making. As a result, your people feel more empowered and take greater responsibility for their job.

Employee suggestion boxes are the foundation of successful employee guidance programs.

“Great things are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs

What is the Purpose of An Employee Suggestion Box in the Workplace?

An employee suggestion box can be invaluable for businesses looking to improve employee engagement, especially if employees are permitted to retain anonymity. For example, employees can offer their input regarding work requirements, processes, HR, benefits, etc. They can also provide suggestions that can help their organization enhance profitability.

Here are some more benefits of having a suggestion box in the workplace:

Encouraging Innovation

Gathering innovative ideas from everyone in the workplace can help build a more creative atmosphere. Management teams and HR departments may quickly get multiple perspectives by allowing everyone to offer suggestions or feedback. This will introduce them to a unique set of strategies and ideas, encouraging a modern, evolving workplace.

Increasing Morale

People often feel better about their employment when they have a platform through which they can discuss their ideas about work. Hearing out employees' thoughts and considering their suggestions conveys that the manager and human resource department value their contributions. This encourages a culture of mutual respect and has the potential to increase productivity.

Addressing Workplace Hazards

Having a suggestion box in the workplace helps raise employee awareness of workplace challenges. A suggestion box, especially an anonymous one, allows users to easily express concerns that they’re probably not comfortable expressing publicly. As a result, your HR Department can identify workplace concerns and resolve them early on, preventing more critical issues from arising.

Increasing Participation

Employees may feel more engaged and responsible in their job if management implements suggestions from a suggestion box. They can feel happy that their contribution resulted in a positive change in the workplace, inspiring them to be more proactive and seek more opportunities to progress in their role. When other employees observe that one individual has made a difference in the workplace, it may inspire them to take greater responsibility for improving their environment.

Increasing Self-Assurance

An employee suggestion box can provide a secure environment for the staff to express their ideas and boost their confidence in their professional contributions. Some employees may feel shy or nervous about expressing their views with co-workers during meetings. Being able to write and offer suggestions might be a low-stress approach to cooperating with the HR team.

“Turn ideas into reality”.

How to Encourage More Suggestions from Employees?

Any organization's HR department needs to understand that employees most likely have something to say even if they are quiet at weekly or monthly meetings.

To encourage the use of an employee suggestion box, management should first ensure that employees know their ideas will be respected and not be judged and criticized.

So, how can you encourage your employees to give their suggestions?

Here are 5 tips that are guaranteed to work:

Listen

An excellent way to encourage your employees is to listen to them when they eventually speak up. Allow them to put across their points clearly and thoroughly, and ensure you do not misinterpret their comments.

When your employees are assured that you care about their opinion, you are encouraging them to communicate openly.

Be Approachable

Your staff will feel free to convey their thoughts or challenges to you only if they feel comfortable approaching you. Be more approachable at work; avoid blocks, and be more accessible. Doing this can yield a positive impact on the growth of the company.

Incentive Ideas

You can encourage your people to convey more at work by executing a non-punishable culture for speaking up.

Develop an atmosphere that rewards employees for sharing their ideas or bringing innovations. Employees are more likely to come up with good ideas for the organization if they know there’s a reward attached. Also, this promotes inclusion because brainstorming is not limited to the senior management.

Implement their Concepts

If you motivate your employees to speak up but fail to execute or implement any of their ideas, it may discourage them from sharing their suggestions. It would help if you used the feedback shared with you. This will make your employees feel like their ideas are worthwhile and valuable.

Is An Employee Suggestion Box Right for Your Business?

Having an employee suggestion box allows your employees to share exemplary ideas for workplace changes. In addition, it may create a happy and open working environment when done correctly.

However, before you commit to a formal employee suggestion box, there are a few things to consider:

• Transparency: For an employee suggestion box to work effectively, you must commit to transparency between employees and management.
• Monitoring: The finest employee suggestion box necessitates tight monitoring, including the time and resources required to follow up on exceptional ideas. You can assign ownership of the management and action to a team of HR employees.
• Preparedness: Suggestion boxes may lead to discovering some fantastic ideas; however, they can also reveal some unpleasant things. If you are managing a suggestion box, you must be receptive to any suggestion that comes your way.

Modern Methods for a Workplace Suggestion Box:

The first vision that comes to mind when we hear the word "suggestion box" is a wooden box with a slot at the front for employees to slip in their suggestions on a piece of paper and a small door at the side for the HR to access the same.

However, in this digital age, people are accustomed to sharing their thoughts via social media applications, emails, and only comments rendering physical suggestion boxes impractical. As a result, virtual suggestion boxes have become highly relevant in today's organizations to encourage corporate innovation and increase employee engagement. You may make an intelligent workplace suggestion box by:

• Using your workplace portal
• Encouraging anonymous emails
• Conducting pulse surveys
• Having an online form

How are Virtual Suggestion Boxes Better than Traditional Ones?

A well-constructed suggestion box can improve a business significantly. It can take an organization from point zero to a unicorn level.

Offering employees a way to voice their suggestions and concerns is critical to maintaining a healthy, productive workplace. While the traditional suggestion box has served this purpose for many years, it is a relic of the past. It's slow, cumbersome, and outdated. But with the advent of modern technology, suggestion boxes can now be virtual and tailored to your specific needs.

Virtual suggestion boxes are quicker and easier to use than traditional suggestion boxes and can also be customized to fit your company's specific needs. Additionally, virtual suggestion boxes are more secure and confidential than traditional ones. They can be password-protected and only accessible by authorized employees.

There are several reasons to virtualize your office suggestion box:

• Accessibility: Virtualizing a company's suggestion box is beneficial in a remote work setting. Employees may live or work in a different region or time zone. With an online suggestion box, they can submit input anywhere and anytime easily.
• Paper savage: There are several ways to go green in the office, and one of them is to use a virtual suggestion box to save paper. Employees submit suggestions, ideas, or complaints online using a form or email, so no paper is wasted in distributing or filing suggestions. In addition, employees can see the status of their submissions online, encouraging transparency and accountability.
• Anonymity: Anonymity is essential when collecting feedback. This is because responders need to feel safe and positive that their data will be confidential. Anonymous online suggestion boxes are necessary for building this trust. They also help remove biases, making the process fairer for everyone involved.
• Fast delivery: Virtual suggestion boxes are a great way to collect employee suggestions. They're faster than traditional suggestion boxes and can be set up to notify specific personnel in real-time when a new suggestion has been received.
• Qualitative and quantitative feedback: The data collected by online boxes can help the organization rebrand itself and improve while saving costs.

Finally, it is up to you to develop an employee suggestion box. However, remember that some of the best ideas come from unexpected places! Choose a small panel of judges, and if possible, rotate the members regularly to read recommendations every week or two. Give everyone feedback on why their ideas were picked or not picked, and begin to put suggestions, big or small, into action. Who knows where their ideas will take you if you get everyone motivated and follow through with results.

Using the proper tool goes a long way in inspiring your employees to give suggestions. However, some employees won’t provide any suggestions unless they are sure they can do so anonymously.

Want some more pro HR tips or guidance? Want to give your HR functions the edge to take on today’s competitive marketplace? Trust Exela HR Solutions to help your HR team focus on enhancing experiences for your employees. Exela HR Solutions is a global leader with decades of experience in providing holistic human resource solutions, right from payroll and recruitment to C&B, T&E, and HRBP services. Get in touch with our experts today to learn more about our offerings.

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area

There has been a lot of discussion, online as well as offline, related to perks and pay – whether it should be kept the same or is a much-needed revision due any time now. “Right” is a subjective term where the meaning depends on the context in which it is placed. What was “right” before the pandemic might not necessarily be right after so many fundamentals of working have changed ever since. Employees, on the other hand, have been extremely flexible in adapting to the new normal, with some liking it more than others. For example, remote working for working mothers who might have toddlers at home to care for, came like a blessing in disguise. It made their work-life balance perfect. Whereas some traveling salesmen, who might’ve been used to performing at their peak while sitting with their clients in-person across a table, might not have liked the remote working situation very much. What may seem right to one employee may not seem right to the other, which is why, today, we will be looking at various aspects of compensation and benefits – why it matters, should it be changed, and what happens if we change or don’t change the current system.

IMPORTANT DIFFERENTIATIONS

Let us first start by differentiating between compensation and benefits. Compensation is everything that is given to an employee in exchange for their work. Benefits are a part of compensation and are strictly non-financial in nature, while compensation can be both financial and non-financial. Compensation is generally used to attract top talent from the market into the company, while benefits are generally used to motivate existing employees in the company. Compensation is a direct form of payment that is taxable, while benefits are more indirect in nature which can be fully tax-exempted. These are important differentiations to keep in mind if you are an employer or a business owner, especially a new one.

CHANGE IN THOUGHT

Every industry has seen significant growth in the past decade. Naturally, this has an effect on employees. Continuous positive growth automatically attracts top talent and, with it, high expectations. According to a recent SHRM Online survey, 88% of all current employees reported being fairly satisfied with their jobs – a record high since 2006. When asked further about their reasons for job satisfaction, most of them reported these three reasons to be the main drivers of their positive experience:

• Respectful treatment of all employees
• Compensation
• Benefits

Humans are the single most important asset of any company. It doesn’t matter how much automation a company has implemented, nor does it matter how much it will implement in the future. If the humans are not cared for, everything else crumbles with time. Employees will always be the final deterministic cause of any company’s success or failure.

Flexibility was an important factor that was tested during the pandemic. People started working remotely, which improved their work-life balance while keeping their productivity constant. In some cases, people found themselves pushing their productivity beyond what was previously possible. People could easily switch between work and chores without hampering efficiency. Since this was never tested at such a massive scale before the pandemic, employers tended to shy away from remote working ideologies in fear of it affecting productivity. However, since the pandemic, employers have become more welcoming of remote work, and if you scout recent job postings, employers have even started offering remote work as a perk – making it an inclusive part of the overall compensation and benefits strategy of most organizations. Other perks such as improved health insurance, food/shopping vouchers, flexible work schedules, free access to professional development platforms, mind and body fitness subsidies, unlimited vacation, etc., have started making way into the overall payout package of employees across all industries. After all, attracting top talent and retaining them over several years is one of the primary objectives of organizations across the world. Offering such perks gives more credibility to the employer, improves reputation in the market, and most importantly, makes potential hires choose you instead of your competition.

Like benefits, when it comes to compensation, employers must be aware of what they are offering versus what the market is offering for a particular job role. It is imperative to offer competitive pay for every job role that you must pay. One of the more common mistakes that you may notice employers make is offering good perks but below-average pay. Such a strategy may push employees to accept your offer, but then it becomes a challenge to keep employees motivated in the long run, causing them to lose motivation and start looking for newer opportunities in the market. A recent tweet by Naval Ravikant, an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor, read, “Pay double and insist on ten times the quality,” to which Ankur Warikoo, an Indian entrepreneur, replied, “Works best for trust. Do double (without being asked to). Earn ten times the trust”.

Also Read: Will HR Outsourcing Be Feasible After Pandemic Ends?

Some of the best business owners and managers understand the importance of showing value to employees in the form of direct monetary benefits. It is one of the easiest methods to improve trust, productivity, and efficiency. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Netflix understand this very well, which is why they don’t hesitate to pay their best employees 5 to 6 times more than the average market rate. These employees, in turn, perform at their highest level, making the company grow at ludicrous rates. That being said, it is fairly evident that not every business in the industry will have the financial liberty to 5x their employee pay overnight, but the best part is that it doesn’t have to be that high. This Caribbean food chain in Florida, USA, managed to end labor shortage for their business by making small changes directed towards their employees. The US restaurant industry currently faces an acute labor shortage after lockdowns were lifted a few months ago. This food chain managed to fight the shortage effortlessly by making these small changes in their compensation and benefits packages:

• Higher wages for staff
• Weekend-working bonus
• Bigger sign-on bonus
• Bigger referral bonus
• Childcare leave
• Free education programs
• Cheaper medical plans

Conclusion:

This change in thought across multiple industries has allowed businesses to thrive in challenging environments such as the one we currently live in – the post-pandemic world. On the contrary, the general workforce, especially the Gen-Z workforce that is entering fresh in the market, is entering with a lot of expectations that have to be met by employers because if not, this new workforce is ready to hop from one job to another until they are comfortable. This is the reality today.

Imagine an employee receiving two job offers offering the same pay, but one of them is offering way more benefits than the other. Which one will he/she choose?

Exela HR Solutions is a world leader in providing end-to-end HR solutions to businesses of all sizes worldwide. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our payroll and compensation and benefits offerings.

Sources: google.com | en.wikipedia.org | betterup.com | shrm.org | theguardian.com | twitter.com | reddit.com | businessinsider.in

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.