In my previous post, I explained why employee relations are important. In this one, I’ll explain how to build and improve them.
Employee engagement is an important part of employee relations. Gallup has found that employees who are engaged are more productive and less likely to leave their jobs:
The top quartile of companies in terms of engagement had 23% higher profitability than the bottom quartile.
Employees at low-turnover organizations were 51% less likely to leave their jobs.
Workers at high-productivity organizations were 14% more productive.
Neglecting employee relations opens the door to legal exposure, higher turnover, and declining morale.
Proactive management can boost employee engagement and productivity.
But while these benefits are clear, there’s also a big gap between where most companies stand and where they should be. Gallup recently reported that only 33% of U.S. employees are currently “engaged” at work, while another 16% are actively disengaged:
These numbers show that improving employee relations is not just something that some companies need to do — it’s something that all companies need to do. But even if you want to do it, it’s not always obvious how to go about it. That’s because employee engagement is often confused with other things that people think will make employees happy. For example, many companies give out free food or annual retreats hoping that those will make employees feel better. These things might help a little, but they’re definitely not what drives long-term engagement.
What drives long-term engagement
So what does drive long-term engagement? The answer lies in a combination of two kinds of factors: structural conditions (like role clarity, access to development opportunities, and the quality of your management) and relational conditions (like feeling seen, valued, and connected to the larger purpose of the company). While both types of condition matter, the second type tends to be easier to change, since they’re largely driven by the behavior of managers and coworkers. In fact, Gallup has found that up to 70% of the variance in employee engagement is attributable to the manager. So if you want to improve engagement, you have to focus on management behavior.
There are many ways to improve management behavior, but here are four that research shows tend to be especially effective:
Have regular meaningful conversations with your direct reports. Gallup recommends having one meaningful conversation per week with each direct report, as short as 15 minutes. A meaningful conversation includes recognizing recent work, offering collaboration, clarifying goals and priorities, and keeping sessions brief and regular. Strong co-worker relationships mean that employees are more likely to stay longer at their jobs and recommend their company to others.
Encourage open two-way communication. Communication is a core engagement and relations strategy. It clarifies what employees are working toward and signals that leadership cares about their input. This means regular check-ins, encouraging feedback, and anonymous surveys to gauge sentiment. Employees who feel valued and heard are more engaged and productive. One thing to watch out for, though, is the number of meetings you hold. According to Gallup, 70% of meetings keep employees from completing productive work, so the format and frequency of your meetings really matters.
Create clear policies and consistently enforce them. Clear policies are a foundational requirement for good employee relations. Everyone needs to understand what the rules are, and everyone needs to know that they will be enforced consistently. Policies should be simple and easy to follow, using shared vocabulary and clear processes for every team member. You should also create compelling company values, and clearly articulate your vision and mission statements so that employees feel good about the work they’re doing.
Handle common issues like pay disputes proactively. Pay disputes are very common, but they don’t usually come out of nowhere. Most of the time, they’re the result of a deeper issue, such as poor communication about compensation structures, or systemic problems within the organization. If you’re proactive about handling pay disputes, you’ll be able to resolve the underlying root cause before it escalates into a bigger problem.