How To Re-Engage Dissatisfied Employees?

Re-Engage Dissatisfied Employees

What is going to be your first move when your best employee knocks on your door to inform you that they are resigning? Of course, the traditional wisdom makes you think that heavier paychecks and more perks are the only way to your employee’s heart. However, what if after a few months you hear another knock followed by similar news of your employee bidding adieu to your organization?

Re-Engage Dissatisfied Employees

It is no secret that during the past few years employees have been quitting their jobs in flocks. Employees didn’t resist quitting their jobs even when they didn’t have another job lined up for them. The number is particularly the most concerning amongst the mid-career employees. The average resignation rate for these employees was 20% more in 2021 as compared to the previous years. However, the problem is in no way just confined to this particular age group as it was found that worker dissatisfaction initiated as early as the age of 25 years old. This is why if you want to prevent your employees from leaving, making their paychecks heavier will only have the same effect as band-aids on bullet wounds. Enhancing their employee experience is! So what do these employees actually want? The workforce now craves work that inspires them and produces harmony between who they are and what they are responsible for doing. This in turn increases their engagement, make them more productive, and ensures that they stick around for longer. They want to be felt that they are contributing to something larger than themselves. For this, they need to develop a clear understanding of how their day-to-day role makes it happen – with the autonomy to mold their role in it all. Consider fostering such an employee experience culture, where employees feel valued and hence are able to thrive. 

1. Engage them in the recruiting process 

For the majority of the employees, recruiting appears to be something that is happening to them and their team, but not with them. This results in leaving them to feel less involved, less relevant, and less impactful. It is not vital for the recruiting process to be just a way to get fresh talent onboard. Rather it can be a medium to engage your current workforce and thereby, re-spark their excitement. This will enable you to enhance the employee experience of your organization to another level altogether. For instance, rather than just copy-pasting the old job description for a certain position, the talent acquisition team can have a discussion with the manager to ensure whether the job description is still relevant. If not, ask for their assistance to improvise it. 

2. Link their work to the ultimate organizational objective

It is often found that many employees have little to no clue about how their work correlates with the larger and strategic organizational imperatives. Employees tend to do better when they have an understanding of how the quality of their work weights in the bigger picture. So, make sure that instead of simply passing along the larger organizational objectives, how can you connect the dots for the employees that think about how are they affected by these objectives? Help them in developing a clear understanding of how their daily, weekly, and monthly work is aligned with the long-term objectives of the organization. This will allow you to establish an ideal employee experience culture where employees have an understanding of the importance of their work. 

3. Reshape their job around what drives them

Organizations have to prioritize an employee experience culture where employees and their leaders share a great bond. It is quite obvious as employees obviously want to work for leaders who inspire them and pushes them to grow and develop both professionally and personally. Investing in your bond with your employees is one of the most effective ways to unlock the motivation and productivity of your employees. In order to comprehend what drives your employees, ask them open-ended questions such as what brought them to this role, team, paycheck, and organization. Continue asking them if all this still enlivens them or not. Make sure you are quite open to their answers as what you hear from them might end up exciting, surprising, or even confusing you. Rest assured, it will definitely help you in understanding your employees and teams better. This is exactly what you need to enhance the employee experience in your organization. 

4. Have work-life alignment as a part of employee experience culture

In such a fast-paced work, employees are dealing with the fastest trajectory of their lives while also dealing with a rapid expansion of their responsibilities on a personal level. Naturally, it is quite difficult to attain the ideal work-life balance when employees are handling so many different responsibilities in their personal life. So, instead of aiming to have a work-life balance, these employees are in need of work-life alignment. It is not solely about the time they devote to work, but about how this work affects them when they are away from it. Have a conversation with your employees about how the work they do enables them to advance in their respective careers. In addition to this, ask them about how their work assists them in nurturing their families and manifesting their values so that you can help in areas where it doesn’t. 

Therefore, by enhancing your employee experience through giving your workforce more agency, re-inspiring them, and re-engaging them you can establish an employee experience culture where employees find the best version of themselves – both personally and professionally. If you need more assistance in developing your organizational culture, just reach out to us today! 

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Gaurav Sabharwal

CEO of JOP

Gaurav is the CEO of JOP (Joy of Performing), an OKR and high-performance enabling platform. With almost two decades of experience in building businesses, he knows what it takes to enable high performance within a team and engage them in the business. He supports organizations globally by becoming their growth partner and helping them build high-performing teams by tackling issues like lack of focus, unclear goals, unaligned teams, lack of funding, no continuous improvement framework, etc. He is a Certified OKR Coach and loves to share helpful resources and address common organizational challenges to help drive team performance. Read More

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