By Naomi Simson
Employee engagement is critical to success in tough times, the more we enjoy what we do, the more productive we are. It's about creating an environment where people are naturally passionate, understanding strengths is pivotal in achieving this.
Strengths can be tied to commercial return – having people doing what they love will make them more productive. The Gallup Strengths finder highlights what these strengths are and is used to work out what will appeal to people and how best to lead them. At RedBalloon we constantly look at 'what percentage of the day was spent using our strengths (doing what we are good at), which makes us more efficient.
The key to creating a team of focused and committed employees, all aligned with the same purpose is to harness the uniqueness of each individual and use this for the good of the whole organisation. Instead of saying people are our greatest asset it's worth saying our people's strengths are our greatest asset.
The customer service team at RedBalloon is not the average call centre. This is our Pleasure Relations Team – simply because they are responsible for ensuring customers have a good time on their experiences purchased through RedBalloon.
We also mix up their week, finding out what they are interested in and how it can add to the business. Our Pleasure Relations consultants are assigned project time every week allowing them to add value in other ways and to take a break from the high-pressure environment of answering calls 37.5 hours a week
Some of the team for example: Brendan and Cindy both take on organising events and team building days for RedBalloon clients. Mitch works in IT support team for a few hours each day. Ben is a father of a young child who works part time and uses his expertise as a Dad to assist design gifts for men. Emma and Olivia work with the marketing team conducting competitor research while they complete their communications degrees at University.
One RedBallooner, Arielle has been able to draw from her background in television and film production as well as staff training, to edit video RedBalloon website. Like her fellow colleagues Arielle is well aware of her strengths (communication, responsibility, woo, relator and activator) and the value she adds to the business.
"I look forward to project time because I then contribute to other parts of the business, I can nurture my strengths and creativity and get out of the office. Which means when I'm with the customer I am more generous with my time and have the energy to be as empathetic as I can."
RedBalloon's current engagement level (97% as awarded by Hewitt Associates) is employees using their strengths in the majority of the work they do. Also that they know the game they are playing every day, to change gifting in Australia so that two million people will have experienced a RedBalloon day by 2015 and they go home feeling like they are another step closer to achieving this.
As leaders, our role is to become students of excellence, to focus on what is right, to focus on the good things and make more of it. By recognising positive behaviours it reinforces how people can best add value to an organisation, and we all like to know we're making a contribution.
Acknowledgement for a job well done and personalised rewards are proven ways to motivate people to perform and lift their discretionary effort. A recent study by White Water Strategies found acknowledging staff achievements – praising employees – had the same impact on job satisfaction as a 1% increase in pay, which was calculated to equal 5.2billion pounds for UK businesses alone.
According to the Gallup Institute we forget seven days after we were recognised, this is why formal reward programs force management to watch, look for and celebrate positive behaviour within their business.
The current economic situation is affecting all businesses in one way or another. Recruitment is low and redundancies are common. It is important that our employees are engaged and productive as possible during this period to ensure businesses can continue growing with fewer resources.
Simply noticing people's contribution and their strengths will make a huge difference. Everyone likes to feel they are doing a good job and that what they are contributing is making a difference. Dr Anthony Grant, Director of Coaching Psychology, University of Sydney, says high performing teams have five times the number of positive interactions than low performing teams. "This includes positive reinforcement and meaningful complements, saying thanks and 'good job'."
There are many ways to say thanks, experience based rewards, and especially shared experiences tend to increase in value over time because they provide us with memory capital over the years. Whereas, material possessions and 'stuff' lose value rapidly and often add to piles of clutter residing in storage.
It does not have to cost a lot to be effective. In fact much of employee engagement is simply about making sure that people know what they are there to do in the day, that they have the tools to get the job done, that they are noticed for what they contribute and they go home feeling like a winner.
If you do that you will be on a winning formula and that will greatly enhance your competitive edge.
Having worked with over 1400 companies including half of the BRW Top 100 RedBalloon practice what they preach Happy People = Happy Profits.
corporate.redballoondays.com.au
Naomi Simson is the founder and CEO of RedBalloon Days
www.redballoondays.com.au
