Observing the dynamics of the modern talent landscape, one can easily see how time and technology have ushered employees to the center stage where the spotlight remains. Modern employees are acutely aware of their worth these days and are not hesitant to refuse if there is so much as a hint of unfair workplace treatment or practices directed at them. With the trend of employees leaving jobs more rapidly than finding new ones picking up pace, it has become crucial for HR leaders and recruiting professionals to prioritize talent engagement both during recruitment and within the workplace. By doing so, companies can reduce attrition and boost productivity, ensuring a more stable and motivated workforce.
Talent is the most important asset for an organization’s growth and success. There is no denying that. According to Forbes, the most successful organizations are the ones that place employee engagement at the core of their business strategies. Gallup’s findings support this claim, showing a 23% increase in profitability owing to the contributions of highly engaged teams within the organizations. Hence, leaders must make genuine efforts to craft strategies that favor talent engagement and employee wellness.
Before we analyze the engagement aspects in detail, here is a quick introduction to what talent engagement means.
Defining Talent Engagement
Talent engagement is nothing but the enthusiasm and commitment the talent, be it candidates or employees, feel toward their profession and organization, showing how emotionally invested they are in every aspect of their career/profession. Talent engagement can be interpreted in two ways – candidate engagement and employee engagement.
Candidate Engagement: This engagement spectrum starts from the moment an application is submitted to the day when a candidate officially onboards. Candidates who are engaged throughout their recruitment journey are more likely to be eager to accept the offer, stay productive, stick around, and spread the good word about the organization to their peers.
Employee Engagement: This type of engagement is tied to the employee life cycle. Engaged employees are more committed, driven, and excited about their work and toward their colleagues and organization. They show a genuine passion to improve their potential and drive innovation for their companies continuously.
Since the employee journey is longer and more impactful, let’s get into the nuances of employee engagement for a while.
The Significance of Employee Engagement
Employees are the pillars of an organization’s growth, and their dedication to individual contributions, company vision, and overall performance is crucial because their commitment is what often distinguishes exceptional organizations from mediocre ones. Let’s analyze the top advantages of fostering a workplace that prioritizes employee engagement.
#1 Increased Productivity
Employees are unstoppable when they put their heart and mind into what they do. Employees who are engaged in their workplaces exhibit a zeal that keeps them highly productive. They would be often willing to go the extra mile by working beyond working hours even when the deadlines are far away, solely because of their commitment to work.
#2 Employee Retention
Unsatisfied and disengaged employees tend to switch companies more often than the others. In an organization where employee engagement is intact, employees would naturally develop a sense of purpose and connection, which urges them to stay with the company for the long haul and not even consider other options passively. Unquestionably, high employee retention would lead to low turnover.
#3 Cost Efficiency
According to the new benchmarking data from SHRM, the average hiring cost per person is approximately $4,700 and many employers find it to be three or four times the job position’s salary. Imagine the company’s financial loss when there are frequent resignations that call for frequent recruitment. Employee engagement plays a significant role in cutting down the hiring costs or more importantly, the need for hiring.
#4 Customer Satisfaction
Engaged employees, who tend to be happy, positive, and enthusiastic, won’t think twice about going above and beyond to fulfill the needs of customers, even if it is outside their scope. For them, customers are as important as they are to the organization. This results in fruitful employee-customer interactions and subsequently high customer satisfaction.
#5 Corporate Culture
A workplace with high employee engagement fosters a culture of commitment and motivation, where employees are well-aligned with the company’s goals and values. This alignment enables seamless collaboration and effective conflict management. With employee morale built on mutual respect and open communication, collaboration and innovation will become more prominent, resulting in a thriving corporate culture with high ethical standards.
Innovative strategies to foster talent engagement
The first step toward nurturing talent engagement is to identify the current trends or best practices and implement strategies that align with them. With an effective employee engagement strategy on the play, you’re not only building a high-spirited workforce but also addressing many underlying business challenges that keep you from accomplishing major goals. Based on the top modern trends, we’ve come up with some of the best strategies to take your talent engagement to the next level.
#1 Employee Onboarding Experience
The saying, ‘first impression is the best impression’, couldn’t be more true when it comes to talent engagement. Ideally, the engagement should begin from the very first interaction they have with you. LinkedIn reports that 69% of employees are likely to stay with their organization for more than three years if they have great onboarding experience. The best way to ensure this is to keep the engagement intact with candidates through proper communication, follow-ups, guidance, and support. With a curated onboarding experience, you are ensuring employee retention as well as robust employer branding.
#2 Empower Employees with New Technologies
Employees never intentionally plan to be disengaged. Then why do they lose the enthusiasm they had at the beginning of their job? Because most of the time, they are forced to spend a substantial amount of time doing tedious activities that are neither satisfying nor creative. Eventually, they become utterly disengaged and may develop stress due to burnout. From the CareerBuilder survey, Forbes has observed that 31% of employees report extreme stress levels at work. There is no need to mention how this pulls down employee engagement and productivity. New technologies such as AI and automation can take up a majority of these mundane tasks. This way, employees can focus more on value-added tasks, and cherish their creativity and problem-solving abilities to drive innovation.
See how we can help recruiters through Advanced Automation functionalities.
#3 Prioritize Employee Wellness
Employers and HR leaders must keep track of the holistic well-being of every employee to ensure overall organizational performance. There has to be initiatives and relentless efforts to understand their condition and provide appropriate mental, physical, and emotional support. Healthy employees are more engaged and productive; they can deliver tasks with increased efficiency and nurture excellent customer satisfaction. Studies and surveys have found that employees who receive support and recognition through wellness initiatives are 4.6 times more likely to perform better, 89% of them will recommend their company to others, and 61% make healthier lifestyle choices. Here, we have listed some key trends to improve employee engagement.
- Flexible work arrangements
Hybrid and remote working models have gained so much traction after the pandemic. By providing such flexible options, employees can enjoy a better work-life balance, cut short traveling time, manage stress, and actively engage in productive tasks.
- DEI-driven talent acquisition
Inculcating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) values in recruitment and the workplace can drastically enhance employee engagement as this will help them appreciate differences among customers and colleagues, leading to better relationships.
Open communication is essential for identifying and resolving issues before they escalate. Conduct regular surveys to gather employee feedback on all critical aspects of the workplace and organization. Use this feedback to take necessary actions and ensure employee well-being.
Integrate Hyreo for Effective Talent Engagement
As we have discussed earlier, employee engagement doesn’t begin in the workplace; it starts way before when the candidates express their interest in your company by submitting their application. So, every interaction with them during their recruitment journey must be enriched with engaging interactions and activities, ensuring their impression on your company remains elated after onboarding and beyond.
The new version of Hyreo comes with advanced functionalities to address talent engagement concerns during the candidate journey. We employ Gen AI-powered Prescreening, Personalized Chatbot interactions, and Candidate Issue Management to keep talents consistently engaged, informed, and supported. Our Candidate Activity Profiling feature is one of a kind; it provides profound candidate insights based on their activity and behavior, helping you immensely in crafting data-driven talent engagement strategies.
Conclusion
Achieving each of your goals requires employees to work together with excitement and passion, which is only possible with strong talent engagement. Every effort you make toward strengthening your engagement system will be reflected in their actions in the form of better productivity, ROI, customer satisfaction, collaboration, and work environment.
If innovation is your aim, begin crafting effective talent engagement strategies with Hyreo today.
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