Culture Over Coffee
Culture Over Coffee
Why Are Employees Less Engaged Than a Year Ago? with Kate Rehling
In this episode, we’re continuing our exploration of ENGAGE 2024: The Company Culture Report by asking the question: “Why are employees less engaged than they were a year ago?”
It’s here that we’ll break down exactly how you can go about stoking the flames of your company campfire to ensure that it’s burning brighter than ever.
And helping this episode shine brighter is Kate Rehling, Talent Analyst/Engagement Specialist here at Up Your Culture.
Kate brings some great insights to light, like:
- How disengaged employees can create a higher risk of burnout for their surrounding employees.
- Why the seeds of many engagement issues are planted during a less-than-ideal onboarding experience
- And, lastly, why conducting an annual culture and engagement survey is crucial to uncovering the actionable insights you need to ensure your company campfire is roaring.
LINKS:
ENGAGE 2024: The Company Culture Report
Kate Rehling
Beth Sunshine
Up Your Culture
Hello and welcome to Culture Over Coffee, a podcast focused on improving company culture and fostering employee engagement. Every week, we chat with experts and thought leaders about the latest information and proven practices you can use to reduce regrettable turnover, increase productivity on your team and retain key customers. So pour a cup of your favorite brew and join us. I'm your host, beth Sunshine, svp at Up your Culture and the Center for Sales Strategy. In this episode, we're continuing our exploration of ENGAGE 2024: The Company Culture Report, by asking the question, "why are employees less engaged than they were a year ago? We'll break down exactly how you can go about stoking the flames of your company campfire to ensure that it's burning brighter than ever.
Beth Sunshine:And helping this episode shine brighter is Kate Rehling, talent analyst and engagement specialist here at Up your Culture. Kate brings some great insights to light, like how disengaged employees can create a higher risk of burnout for those around them, why the seeds of many engagement issues are planted during a less than ideal onboarding experience. And, lastly, why conducting an annual culture and engagement survey is crucial to uncovering the actionable insights you need to ensure your company campfire is roaring. Hey, kate, thank you for joining me today for Culture Over Coffee. This season we're going to dig into the ENGAGE 2024 Culture Report, which I know you know a lot about, and we're going to discuss into the Engage 2024 Culture Report, which I know you know a lot about, and we're going to discuss all the stories we learned. I've been especially looking forward to today's topic because it's big and broad and sort of the key to everything. We're going to talk about engagement and we're going to talk about the trends that we're seeing in the workplace, about the trends that we're seeing in the workplace. So thank you for joining.
Kate Rehling:Yeah, I'm happy to be here. I had my hands on the ENGAGE report from top to bottom, beginning to end. I'm excited to dive into the first section today.
Beth Sunshine:Yeah, yeah, you really. You were knee deep in that data, so this is a cool place to go with you. It's not all good news from this year's survey, but there was a lot to learn, is still a lot to learn, so I'm excited to break it down. I'm ready to jump in. If you are, yeah, let's do it. Okay, good, so first question as you know, we saw a significant drop in engagement levels and that concerned me. I remember hearing from you that it concerned you. It's a critical concern for really any organization out there. In your opinion, what are the contributing factors to this noticeable decrease we're seeing in employee engagement?
Kate Rehling:So last year in our Engage report we learned that 77% of respondents reported feeling engaged at work, but this year that number dropped to 55%. So nearly half are not feeling engaged at work and that's really concerning and I think there's a couple of reasons for that. First of all, we learned in our survey, but we just know people are being pulled back into the office and if they're being pulled back into the office they may not understand why they are and they may not be fully bought in. I mean, I work from home, so it's easy for me to say that I love working from home. I see the benefits in it and I couldn't imagine being pulled working from home back into the office without truly understanding the why behind it. So that could be part of the decrease in disengagement.
Kate Rehling:Just honestly too, we're living in a difficult and expensive economy right now and people probably feel like they've gotten a reduction in pay. Some employees we know haven't gotten a raise since COVID, so it's really tough to kind of be masked behind that. I mean, previously if you're feeling disengaged but you were getting paid really well, that's okay. I can go home, I can vent. It might suck, but I'm going to hang on for that paycheck right. But with all of these tough economic trends it's really not allowing that disengagement to be masked as much anymore.
Beth Sunshine:Very interesting, so pulling people back to the office, and also the fact that their paychecks feel smaller, and so engagement is even more crucial. Very interesting takeaways. So how crucial is it for companies to now reverse that trend? And if they don't, or if they take too long to really jump on this, what could be the long-term effect of this low employee engagement?
Kate Rehling:Yeah, it's really scary. I mean, low employee engagement affects everything it affects productivity, it affects revenue, it affects innovation and probably one of the worst things, honestly, is that those employees who are engaged, they're rolling up their sleeves, they're all in. Being around employees who are disengaged makes them at a higher risk for burnout. And when we think about that employee engagement, I mean your workplace culture has a direct effect on employee engagement. So I kind of think about it as like a time when you've decided you need to lose weight and maybe you've never felt that way. If you haven't ever felt that way, congratulations, but I know I felt that way a lot of times, right Several times in my life, and committing to losing weight is like committing to increasing that employee engagement.
Kate Rehling:So making the commitment is one thing, but getting to the root cause of the problem is another. So to lose weight, you might need to exercise, you might need to change your diet, maybe you need to drink more water. There's so many factors that go into it. And the same can be said for engagement. Increasing it involves identifying the areas in your culture that you need to improve and then really being consistent about improving that, because, just like weight loss, it takes time. It's not going to happen overnight. It takes 18 to 24 months to really make a difference and move the needle. So it's important to hone in on the why before some of those scary things start really happening with the decreased productivity and decreased revenue and increased burnout.
Beth Sunshine:That makes a lot of sense and it's an interesting comparison to like your overall body health, an individual's physical health, and then the health of the workplace through engagement. I think that analogy will stick with me. Thank you for sharing it. New hires is particularly intriguing to me. The assessment confirmed, I think, that the onboarding process, those initial months in a company, are really pivotal for an employee to feel long-term engagement. So I wanted to talk a little bit about those new hires and ask you first what do you think are the reasons behind the disengagement we're seeing among those who are, you know, have been working with their organization?
Kate Rehling:for less than six months. Yeah, I think it all comes down to onboarding, and onboarding isn't just from day one, there's also a pre-boarding process involved. So an employee really should feel connected to their workplace and should feel part of the team before they start on day one. So what does that really look like? I mean, at first it looks like getting all the logistics out of the way right, making sure they have an employee ID number they can log in, they have all of that paperwork out of the way. But also it looks like connecting them with their future coworkers, right. Maybe their coworkers send them a video a different coworker every day leading up to their first day on the job. Maybe it's partnering them with a workplace buddy, somebody who they can go to for questions.
Kate Rehling:It's really being purposeful about making sure that that new employee feels like they're part of the team before day one. Because it's scary. Starting a new job is scary, and imagine going in and not having all of your questions answered, not knowing who to go to. The manager's busy in a meeting, what do you do? That starts to lead towards that feeling of disengagement already on day one.
Beth Sunshine:It's that feeling of disengagement already on day one? Yeah, it does, and I agree that new employee is just raw potential and if you can capture their heart and mind before they even show up on the first day of the job, they just show up in such a different mindset. They're already excited to contribute and belong. I love the way you outline that pre-boarding is so important to that. That's a strategy into itself and you gave two great examples. But any other strategies that you might recommend that hiring managers use to boost engagement among those new employees as they onboard them and just transition them into the organization?
Kate Rehling:Yeah, we use a tool called the growth guide and I'm a little biased, but in my opinion it's the best relationship building tool out there. So it's a conversation that helps you understand how someone likes to be recognized, how do they like to receive feedback, even simply how do they prefer to have conversations day to day. So it allows a manager to learn those things about an employee, and it's typically a conversation that an employee has never had a manager sit down and take time to have with them before. So if you really want to get that boost in engagement right away from your new employee and that onboarding process, I recommend incorporating the growth guide into it process.
Beth Sunshine:I recommend incorporating the growth guide into it so we know how contagious disengagement can be and also how quickly it can spread from employee to employee. For an employee who finds themselves surrounded by disengagement people who are burnt out, using your terminology what guidance would you provide to that unique individual to maintain their level of engagement? Any advice you'd give?
Kate Rehling:That's such a tough situation to be in. I would hope no one would be in that situation but, as it was clear from the survey data, a lot of people are. I think it's just really important to put your own oxygen mask on first right, like they tell you in the airplane. Make sure you're okay. You want to make sure that you still maintain your level of engagement, so check in on that with yourself. I also think avoid, avoid those people Maybe don't go to lunch with them and make sure that when you're partnering with others, when you're collaborating, that you are making an effort to partner with those who are engaged with you, so that you're all with others.
Kate Rehling:When you're collaborating, that you are making an effort to partner with those who are engaged with you, so that you're all putting in that concerted effort and then really focus on your why, go back to your purpose. What are you doing? How are you making a difference? How are you making an impact? Why is it that you are getting out of bed every morning? I think that could really help make sure that you are maintaining your current level of engagement as well. But again, a situation that's not fun to be in.
Beth Sunshine:No, not at all. But that's great advice. Great advice to separate yourself from anything that would bring you down but also just focus on your why. I'm glad you mentioned that. So let's say we don't get to it in time. Disengagement begins to spread within an organization. Then what measures would you recommend on a larger scale, to maybe the company leadership or to the people managers, to stop that spread, to reverse the trend?
Kate Rehling:Yeah, first of all. I mean you can't ignore it. We've worked with so many organizations where they've kind of brushed it under the rug and then all of a sudden it's a gigantic issue and it's so tough to reverse. So you really have to look at yourself in the mirror, lean in, have the conversation about what's happening, really recognize that it is an issue.
Kate Rehling:At Up your Culture, we reference the four engagement elevators a lot shared mission people, development, valued voice and earned trust and we know that those four things really help organizations increase their culture and boost employee engagement. So my best recommendation would be to begin with that shared mission elevator we talked about that If you're feeling like you're surrounded by disengaged coworkers, but really making sure that you have a strong reason for being as a company, a strong why, something that's pulling people in, something that's getting them out of bed in the morning, and that you have really not only identified but define your core values as an organization. So what do you live by, what are the rules of the game, what is it okay to do, what's it not okay to do and what are you holding people accountable to? I think that's a really, really big first step in addressing some of that disengagement.
Beth Sunshine:Yeah, good stuff. And when you do that, I know that retention increases. We see that correlation between strong engagement and strong employee retention, which means that retention also goes the other way. When there's disengagement, you're going to see that drop and we know it has to be addressed quickly. So I want to make sure we do talk just a moment about retention where we do talk just a moment about retention In general. Retention, I believe, needs to be woven into a company's strategic plan. It can't just be something you hope for, you wish for. So much time and money goes into recruiting top talent and you've got to have a plan, once they arrive, to engage them and to retain them. So I want to hear from you, since you are an expert on this how can organizations ensure that this is a core priority, them and to retain them? So I want to hear from you, since you are an expert on this.
Kate Rehling:How can organizations ensure that this is a core priority among everything else? That is a priority. Yeah, it's all about the future, right, making sure that you have those core people in place, that you're retaining them, that they're engaged because being engaged is a key piece of that retention and my best advice would be to just always have a pulse on what's happening, and the best way to do that is to conduct an annual employee engagement survey, a culture and engagement survey, so that you understand what's happening. Everybody feels like their voices are valued, they have input, they've given their feedback and then, more importantly than just conducting the survey, is taking action on that survey. So, as a team, as a leadership team, identifying one area of focus that you're really going to lean into. And when you identify an area of focus, of course, naturally you're going to want to go to oh, what was my lowest score on the survey?
Beth Sunshine:right.
Kate Rehling:That's what I want to make sure that we're working to improve. But that's not necessarily the best area of focus. When you look at something that you want to focus on but you want to improve, you want to make sure that it's something that has a high or very high impact on your employee engagement level, because that's really how you're going to move the needle and then making sure that that area of focus, everybody's aware of it and everybody's aware of what you're doing to help improve that. We work with a lot of companies. We have a two-year Elevate program. We meet with people every month and the first month of the program we set an area of focus from their employee engagement survey. Every single month we spend time touching base with those leaders and asking them specifically what they're doing to improve in that area of focus and holding them accountable, because it takes that consistency.
Beth Sunshine:Yeah, and the group effort. It's not enough that some are focused on it and some aren't. So I love that regular check-in and accountability. So you're meeting most likely with managers and the work they're doing is impacting how employees are feeling. So I want to break that down a little bit too, because I know the survey showed an interesting discrepancy between how employees are feeling frontline employees as compared to how the people they report to or their managers are feeling. It seems to me there are some underlying issues that need to be addressed. We know that managers in general play a big role in creating the culture on any team. So if the manager is not all in that, that right there puts their team at a deficit. As a coach, how would you guide a manager who's struggling with company culture? Um, they, they know they need to make positive change. They know their people aren't terribly engaged. They need to improve, but they also kind of feel a bit uninspired, disengaged, burnt out themselves. Let's start with that. What would you do?
Kate Rehling:Yeah, that's a tough situation to be in. I mean, we know that an engaged manager is three times more likely to have employees who are engaged. They have that big of an impact, and then 70% of an employee's engagement variance alone comes down to the manager. So it all starts with the leader. So, if you're feeling like you're not all in, get to the source of your own disengagement. I mean, look in the mirror and take some time to reflect.
Kate Rehling:Think back to those factors we talked about. Are you not receiving enough recognition? Think back to those factors we talked about. Are you not receiving enough recognition? Do you feel like you're not receiving feedback? Are you seeing things that aren't aligning with the core values of your organization and that's leading to your disengagement? What really is it that's happening? And I think, talking to your manager about it, being open and being honest and being transparent. Don't keep it bottled up inside. Open and being honest and being transparent, don't keep it bottled up inside. Make sure that you're having that conversation so that you can brainstorm some action steps together, and, of course, nobody wants this to happen. I would hope this wouldn't happen, but at some point you may need to ask yourself is this the best place for me to be right now? Am I really serving my people? Am I serving my organization if I'm feeling disengaged?
Beth Sunshine:Yeah, well said, we kind of put this conversation into the context of health earlier, so I'm going to stick with that. In talking about a more formal culture initiative, something that an entire company takes on when they know they want to improve their culture, they want to boost employee engagement, they essentially are wanting to make a positive impact on the organization's health and on employee engagement. When that's done, well, I've seen amazing transformations happen, and I know you've been a part of organizations transforming in that way. So I'd love to hear from you Can you outline just the key components of a successful culture initiative, because they could look different from place to place, organization to organization. But what are the key components and maybe tell us how these elements contribute to the positive?
Kate Rehling:Yeah, I mean, that's why I get out of bed every morning. That's my purpose is to watch companies grow and improve in that way. But I think the biggest piece, first of all, is that it's a company wide, structured focus where every single leader is on board. It can't be just the middle managers, just the frontline managers, it has to be from the CEO on down so that everybody is bought in. And it has to measure that engagement level. So it needs to begin with a survey and go through that process that I outlined previously, where you go through the survey, identify an area of focus and really work to improve in that area of focus and at Up your Culture.
Kate Rehling:I mentioned we have four engagement elevators and we have a two-year program because we know again that it takes a long time to boost your culture and increase engagement and our two-year program focuses on shared mission initially, making sure that you have a clear reason for being, clear core values. You're rallying everyone together. Everyone feels that sense of purpose and that sense of belonging. Then people development, which really has managers leaning into their people. I mentioned the growth guide conversation earlier. People development involves growth guide conversations, managers understanding where their direct reports want to go, how they want to grow, how they want to be recognized, really opening that relationship up which then directly leads into valued voice.
Kate Rehling:The third elevator, valued voice, is all about that open and honest two-way communication. For me, it so beautifully comes from that people development, right After managers are spending time with their direct reports, and then their direct reports feel like their voices matter, they can share, they can push back, they can make mistakes, and it's okay. And then, finally, the fourth engagement elevator is earn trust. And it's all about that loop, making sure that, from top to bottom, people trust each other. When you make commitments, you know that those commitments will be followed up on and followed through on. And then again it's important to measure your culture and engagement levels through a second survey. Hone in on that area of focus, share the survey results back and identify yet another area of focus. Share the survey results back and identify yet another area of focus that you can work on to move the needle on engagement.
Beth Sunshine:I could talk about this all day. You have such a good understanding of this and just hearing the journey from that strong shared mission all the way to the earned trust where you can really count on your company and your leaders, it's powerful stuff. I appreciate you coming and spending time with me today talking about Culture Over Coffee. You've shared a ton of great information and ideas. I know our leaders, our leaders, I know our listeners will find this very valuable. So, for those listening, I'm going to drop Kate's LinkedIn information in the show notes, so feel free to connect with her. I know she'd love it.
Beth Sunshine:If you're interested, I'm also going to add a link to the Engage 2024 company culture report so you can dig into the details. See it for yourself. Thank you, kate, for all of your expertise. And, as we wrap up, for everyone listening, remember that a strong company culture, it begins with you. So thank you, kate, for all of your expertise. And, as we wrap up for everyone listening, remember that a strong company culture, it begins with you. So thank you everyone. Thanks so much for spending time with us on Culture Over Coffee. If you've enjoyed the conversation, be sure to subscribe and join us for every episode For more helpful information on the topics of company culture and employee engagement, visit us at upyourculturecom.
