There is no doubt that the future of work is remote. Organizations had been contemplating a shift to a virtual workforce, this pandemic has been an accelerator to promote the same. While organizations have been able to procure and deploy the right material resources, digital tools and practices to promote remote work, employee skills have not come up the curve as yet. Undoubtedly, each role requires different skills and competencies. However, there are a few skills that organizations need to promote and nurture in each employee to make their virtual workforce effective and efficient. ‍

Developing employee skills for remote work

Numerous business leaders and managers question the need to invest in employee reskilling and upskilling in the face of transition to remote work. While the nature of technical skills is location agnostic, communication and other soft skills and abilities need to be encouraged in a remote setting. Here are a few employee skills and competencies that count for an effective virtual workforce and how to develop them:

1. Ability to work independently‍

Undoubtedly, employees cannot run to their managers for every minor inconvenience which is common in a conventional setting. Therefore, employee skills focusing on independence of work and taking ownership need a boost. There needs to be a move away from micro management where managers give employees greater responsibility. Organizations should experiment with behavioural change agents which can nudge employees to develop independence. 

2. Self motivation‍

In a conventional setting, there are multiple ways to keep employees motivated and engaged. However, in remote work, self motivation and the ability to engage oneself become important employee skills. One of the most effective ways to nurture self motivation is to ensure role suitability. This means instead of simply allocating work, try to map employee expectations and delegate responsibilities based on a career growth map. When employees see their professional growth, their self motivation will be on the rise. 

3. Communication‍

Communication, both oral as well as written is the key to effective remote work. One of the challenges of remote work is that the person on the other side isn’t able to gauge your body movements and expressions effectively. These generally convey your level of comfort, understanding of responsibilities, any inconvenience, etc. However, strong communication in employee skills can make a difference. Organizations can invest in digital training to boost employee communication skills, especially for remote work. Additionally, investing in team collaboration tools can facilitate better communication. 

4. Digital knowledge‍

One of the key employee skills to excel in remote work is to ensure that employees understand and know how to use the tools and platforms that the organization invests in. Be it productivity tools, or progress mapping software, investment in employee training to effectively use them is equally important. Additionally, each employee will be at a different level of understanding and expertise. Therefore, learning and development must have comprehensive and personalized modules, instead of standard LMS based training. 

5. Discipline and consistency‍

Not being able to stick to deadlines and work not being upto the mark are some apprehensions that managers have with remote work. While more often than not these are baseless, in a rare case when it happens, organizations can promote discipline. Focus on deliverables and not the hours that employees put in. Additionally, it is very important to set clear expectations and monitor regular progress. Finally, managers must offer comprehensive feedback to ensure quality work, within the stipulated time. 

Remote work is here to stay

Organizations have been investing in learning and development of their employees for a long time to make them more adept at their roles. With remote work becoming the norm, it is equally important to nurture employee skills which can boost greater commitment whilst working remotely. Additionally, there should be a focus on developing mindfulness in employees to  ensure mental wellbeing. 

Suggested reading:

Employee Experience in remote work

Measuring Employee Productivity for a Remote Workforce

Like what you read? Now see it in action in your team, book a free demo with our experts today!

First impressions drive last impressions! 

Working with the generation of job hoppers — the millennials — how you onboard your employees decides their future in your company. A Gallup survey states that 6 out of 10 millennials are open to new job opportunities at any given time. 21% of them have changed jobs in the last 12 months. 

Millennials have become the consumers of the workplace. For leaders of a growing company, the challenge is not only to attract potential talent, but also to retain them for the long run. While the entire employee lifecycle is crucial to turn employees into brand ambassadors, employee onboarding i.e. the first 90 days sets the stage for success, or failure!

Companies that have an active onboarding program tend to retain 91% of their hires after the first year of joining. 

In this article we will cover everything you need to know about onboarding employees the right way.

What is onboarding?

Employee onboarding is more than just a formal introduction. To be effective, the onboarding process needs to cover all technical, social, cultural, and procedural aspects of hiring a new member.

A great onboarding process ensures that the employee fits in with the company brand image, workplace culture, mission, and meets the skill requirements for the chosen role.

It also sets out the tone for future interactions that happen between the employer and the employee. When employees are boarded well from day one, it tends to create a seamless integration into the existing workforce. In the long run, it increases the employee's productivity and supports employee retention.

Before we dive deeper into the onboarding process, let us first look at the cost of poor employee onboarding on an organization.

What are the consequences of poor onboarding?

Often the results of poor onboarding are not evident at the start of employment. The most visible result of poor onboarding is high employee churn or attrition. 

In a fast-growing company, time is money and bandwidth is low. Therefore, a high voluntary attrition rate not only increases the financial cost of employee acquisition, but also ends up wasting other people’s time and effort that could be used for high value activities. A culture of attrition also leads to poor morale at the workplace.

Here’s what happens when employees are not onboarded properly — 

Low productivity

UrbanBound found that of all the employees who did not meet their performance goals in the first year, 50% did not receive a formal onboarding. With new employees that are not started with the right tools tend to take more time to familiarize themselves with the new work environments. This could mean that a substantial time of the hiring is spent learning things that could have been tackled at the onboarding plan. Something as simple as operating a coffee machine needs to be part of any onboarding efforts. Small steps like these do show the employee that people care and make them feel comfortable. 

Chance of failure

‍When the hirings' expectations are not in sync with the work settings, it could lead to frustrations and lack of interest in the work assigned. The chances of such employees seeking other avenues cannot be ruled out, which could lead to workers' failures.

Churn

‍It has been noticed that firms that have a good onboarding process tend to have less churn of employees. Thus, the cost incurred in having an effective onboarding program would be offset by the savings accrued in reducing the hiring of new employees. In addition, studies have indicated that 20% of new hiring churn occurs during the first 45 days, and having an effective onboarding plan reduces this significantly.

Low morale

‍Often, the reason for low confidence of the employee is feeling isolated and unsupported. A lack of understanding of the new employee’s expectations from the employer and the job (such as career development opportunities) leads to low employee engagement due to low morale. This eventually leads to employees looking for other job opportunities soon.

Branding

‍A high attrition rate of new employees creates a poor image of the company they are working in. Today, 84% of employees say that they may leave their jobs if they receive an offer from a company with an excellent employer reputation. 

For fast growing companies, a poor employee brand image is quickly propagated across the industry, making further hiring hard to do or more expensive to achieve.

On the other hand, taking the time or care to onboard employees can lead these amazing benefits.

The advantages of an effective onboarding program

1. Increased Retention

According to research, about 86% of employees decide whether they want to stay with the company in the long run or not in the first 6 months. An effective onboarding would mean that employees have lesser chances of leaving in the first year at work. This significantly cuts down on employee costs and leads to better productivity at the office. 69% employees are more likely to stay with an organization for 3 years, if they experience great onboarding. A great first impression definitely goes a long way!!

2. Increased productivity

Companies that tend to have a good onboarding schedule tend to report up to 50% better new hire productivity at the workplace with happier and fulfilled employees most of the time. When expectations are clear, goals are set, resources are distributed well, it leads to higher productivity. 

The cost incurred in new employee onboarding is often offset by a better return on investment. Most clients report having a satisfying experience while interacting with the companies having an effective onboarding program.

3. Better revenue

Naturally, happier customers equals higher revenue. When employees are happy and engaged, they go the extra mile in their roles to improve the company's profitability. This could mean increased revenue of up to 60%. There seems to be a greater focus on the new hiring than places without an onboarding process.

4. Better relationship with the team and managers

The top driver of a high performance team is psychological trust. Gallup research says that 75% of employees leave due to poor relationships with their bosses.

Taking the time to build a comfort zone for new hires in the workplace builds relationships beyond mechanical workplace transactions. Frequent check-ins, 1:1s, all hands in the initial days reduces initial isolation and creates a sense of belonging which further results in high employee engagement.

5. Seamless integration to company culture

62% companies say that the primary objective of employee onboarding is to integrate them into the organizational culture. Because ultimately, a company culture is what drives employee performance, engagement, and overall experience.

Especially, in hyper growth companies, integrating new employees into the culture soon and well minimizes the risk of quick attrition. Thus saving time and resources on rehiring.

Now let’s look into what a standard employee onboarding process looks like in a hyper growth company.

Employee onboarding in fast growing companies

For fast growing companies recruiting and retaining top talent is a challenge in itself. Today new employees want a customized onboarding experience to feel connected to their new place of work. With more companies opting for a remote or hybrid workplace model since the pandemic, onboarding has become more challenging. 

While fast-growing companies or scaling start-ups may not be able to provide the high brand value or bigger financial rewards to the new joinees, hypergrowth companies can indeed offer them the excitement of being part of a bigger purpose that the big companies often fail to provide. Make sure to capitalize on this when onboarding a new employee.

Being a fast-growing company, your onboarding program must include the following — 

• Sell your company culture. Let the new employees know the story behind the company and the brand.
• Share your bigger visions and goals that you want to accomplish as an organization. 
• Introduce the employee to the new co-workers and partners that he is going to work with. Focus on building camaraderie between team members.
• Set out expectations for employee performance and evaluation clearly. Use OKRs for better alignment of goals with purpose.
• Ensure that the employee complies with company policies and procedures.
  

Employee onboarding best practices 

Integrating a fresh joinee to the existing company culture usually takes about 3 months and introduction to resources, company handbook, and people they need to have access to for doing their job well.

1. Mapping the onboarding process

The onboarding process must be clearly laid out to the employee to the best extent possible. It is essential to have a timeline — from the time a person is hired to when he is joining the organization. It is useful to break the onboarding journey into the first 30-60-90 days and set clear objectives for each period. Every employee is unique and has their own unique needs and expectations. Engage people ahead of time to customize the onboarding process for them when they join.

2. Using introductory videos

All it takes is a smartphone and a video clip about the people with whom the new employee will be working on setting the tone for the first few weeks at the new workspace. It really doesn't cost much and can significantly impact the employee than a series of lectures or PowerPoint presentations. If you are working remotely, using Zoom, Google Meet for video conferencing, 1:1s, or weekly all hands, or recording instructions in Loom goes a long way to eliminate the feeling of alienation. Guided 1:1s are extremely crucial to troubleshoot any problem new hires are facing and build a feedback culture.

3. Getting feedback on the onboarding process

The best place to start charting out onboarding process steps is with the employees already with an organization. By seeking out feedback on their experience and integrating the views and thoughts of the employees go towards making a good onboarding program. Also, ask for continuous feedback from the new joinee, especially during the first 90 days, to understand the pain points and solve accordingly before they snowball into bigger problems that lead to untimely resignation.

4. Set clear expectations

It is important for the new hiring to understand what the management expects from him more so in fast growing organizations where roles might often overlap. In return, the worker must be given an idea as to what to expect from the employer. Let them know how the performance metrics they will be measured against. The matching of expectations properly can lead to a more satisfied group of employees and a smoother employee-employer relationship. 

5. Look into the small details.

An effective onboarding plan is often set apart by the attention to the fine details rather than the big points. For instance, most new employees would know all about the product portfolio of the new company and if an effort is made to manage the daily commute to the place of work, it would go a long way towards making their stay at the workplace comfortable and stress-free.

6. Communicate more

The onboarding process must not be a single flow of information but a closer interaction between the new employee and the management. This would set the tone for future cooperation between the two and puts just the proper perspective on each other. 

7. The vision & culture

Most fast moving companies today tend to have a mission and vision statement. This would be meaningless unless it is conveyed effectively to the new employees. It helps new joiners interact with the existing employees to understand how the promoters' vision is being put to actually work.

Employee Onboarding Checklist

1. Goals and Vision

• Clarify the role and how the employee fits into the organization. 
• Review of the company and its products or services.
• Targets that the company is seeking to achieve by quarter and annual.
• Specify performance metrics, KPIs, and OKRs clearly

2. How The Firm Operates

• Let the new hire know work-rules (working hours, meetings, daily operations)
• Set out company values and guiding principles.
• Share the company policies regarding various activities.
• Inform of the perks and benefits that can be expected from the company.

3. Tools

• Introduce to the employee the various tools that would be required to do the work.
• Collaboration and communication tools. (e.g., Slack, Asana, etc.)
• HR and payroll systems
• Physical Setup (laptop, mobile, WFH Setup, etc.)

4. Access to resources

• Provide relevant reading materials.
• Organize one-on-one coaching sessions to accelerate learning.
• Give access to important websites, tools, software needed for work.

5. Access to people

• Introduce new workers to the office and specifically to the individuals that he would be interacting with.
• Get the hiring to know his immediate supervisors and seniors.

6. Setting expectations

• Set the short-term goals first.
• Give out plans and targets for the 30-, 60-, and 90-day time periods.
• Schedule frequent one-on-one with an immediate supervisor.

7. Social inclusion

• Provide a sense of belonging with the rest of the company.
• Assign an onboarding partner or work buddy.
• Introduce the new employee to the rest of the company.
• One-on-ones with people that the hiring would be interacting closely.
• Access to company social channels and group events.
• Update the company website with the new employee details.
  

Conclusion

As has been laid down in the book, “The Alliance”, by  Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh, “The importance of onboarding is significantly increased these days since the average turnover at work is less than four years and lifetime employment strategies are out of date.”

Onboarding new employees, especially in a remote set-up, is challenging. Using specialized software for this purpose often streamlines the process. However, you must remember that onboarding is about building connections with the new member, making them a part of the team, and eliminating the initial feelings of isolation. Tools can help with the systematic processes, but how you treat them is what ultimately determines the success of onboarding.

Be warm. Be kind. Be supportive.

Suggested reading:

Dashboard and Onboarding Basics for Admins

8 Ways to Improve Employee Engagement

Like what you read? Now see it in action in your team, book a free demo with our experts today!

Employee life cycle processes are constantly being pushed to the forefront of HR leaders and managers as each year goes by. Human resources professionals believe that lowering employee churn and extending the employment lifetime as much as feasible are two important goals.

Organizations often struggle to get the best candidates to be a part of their organization. Recruiting the  best applicants is however not unachievable. Improving your employee experience by understanding the employee life cycle and knowing how to engage with individuals at each step can prove to be extremely helpful for your organization. 

If you’re looking to learn all about the employee lifecycle and how to go about managing it, you’re at the right place. This article will be helpful in case you wish to know about the seven stages when it comes to employee lifecycle management. 

To make your life a little more stress-free we will even go over a few pointers that you would want to keep in mind during the various stages of the cycle.You should always focus on philosophy within your organisation that creates and encourages your employee experience, which in turn leads to longevity, success, and much higher rates of employee engagement.

What is an employee lifecycle?

Employee life cycle, also called employee lifecycle, is an HR model that defines the various stages that a worker progresses through in an organisation, as well as the role that HR plays in maximising that advancement. 

In simple words, it simply refers to an employee's path within the organisation. The employee life cycle encompasses an employee's complete connection with the company for which they work. This starts with the initial sages wherein your employee finds your organization a perfect match to work for, when individuals are still learning about the company, and even continues until they leave and become alumni.

Why is employee lifecycle management important?

The employee lifecycle management comprises a cycle that encompasses the way the organization presents itself, the way it interacts with candidates, how it welcomes people into the business and manages their personal and professional development within the company.

Keeping track of an organization's employee lifecycle along with managing it is crucial because it provides employees with a consistent set of processes to follow throughout their career with the company, as well as allowing employers the ability to evaluate data. In a nutshell, employee lifecycle management helps to determine each employee's path within the organisation.

Stages of Employee Lifecycle

If you understand how to engage with people throughout the employee life cycle, you'll be able to recruit the best candidates and, as a result, improve your employee and customer – experience. 

Throughout these stages, HR plays a critical role in building a meaningful employee journey that maintains a high level of productivity. We'll go over each one individually and provide important feedback. We'll take inspiration from what cutting-edge firms are doing to keep the employee life cycle going along at the proper speed and producing the desired outcomes.

The employee lifecycle (ELC) is a tried-and-true paradigm for visualizing your employees and how they interact with you. While some models focus on five or six life cycle stages, we'll look at 11 stages in the employee life cycle, with a particular emphasis on how to monitor and improve the employee experience along the way:

1. The Stage of Attraction

Before you even have an open position, you tend to go through the attraction stage. 

Employee attraction is the initial stage of the employee lifecycle that is most likely to make it or break it for you. 

It is a given that companies that fail to recruit and keep outstanding people, no matter how good their product or service is, will fail over time, not just one time but every single time. Which is mainly why attracting the proper staff is critical to any company's long-term success.

2. Recruitment

Recruitment is the second phase of the employee life cycle. 

Keep things quick and uncomplicated when it comes to the recruitment procedure. For example, don't make folks fill out lengthy forms, especially if they're applying via smartphone. 

While well-known national companies, notable local firms, and industry-leading organisations may have an easier time attracting talent, you can't hire anyone until they've heard of your company, this can be via a job posting or elsewhere.

3. Onboarding

Once a new hire starts, this is the stage in which they become familiar with the tools, systems, and processes as well as the role's requirements. After the recruits have been onboarded, HR must run an induction programme for them. 

New employees must receive proper training in order to become acquainted with the corporate culture. Educating employees on disciplinary policies and procedures. From the start, new employees should feel like they're a member of the team.

4. Development

Career development programmes are an effective approach to retain top employees. It's critical to discuss career aspirations during the initial interviewing process to ensure that the candidate's goals coincide with your company's objectives. 

Regular performance reviews can keep employees informed about how they're performing and allow them to understand how they're progressing toward their objectives. 

Employee turnover can have a significant influence on your business, affecting things like productivity, employee morale, and revenue. Have a strong understanding of why your employees are departing and how to enhance the stages of the employee life cycle that are lacking in order to improve employee happiness.

5. Performance management

Performance management should work hand-in-hand with an organization's training and development efforts. Employees can see their growth and position in the company by using performance appraisals and assessments. This not only helps to retain the employee, but it also ensures that they continue to grow. 

Employee happiness and engagement are improved by evaluating and acknowledging them.

This monitoring aids in identifying personnel for promotion as well as any training gaps.

6. Offboarding

An offboarding period serves two purposes: on the one hand, it is intended to assist the organisation in becoming more knowledgeable about its hiring efforts and employee experience; on the other hand, it is intended to assist the organisation in becoming more knowledgeable about its hiring efforts and employee experience.

On the other hand, it is utilised to form employees' critical last impressions of the organisation – as well as the image they project to the rest of the world. Your goal here is to have Happy Leavers among your departing staff.

However, it is important to keep in mind that the employee life cycle will eventually come to an end. Employees may quit a company for a variety of reasons, including retirement, better prospects, or other personal reasons. 

The Employee Life Cycle Process also includes tasks such as completing exit paperwork and performing exit interviews. However, after completing the Exit formality, the most important activity is to analyse the Exit Interview responses in order to uncover anomalies in organisational procedures.

Advantages of Implementing an Employee Life Cycle Strategy

Your organization  will surely see two key benefits from mapping out the employee journey in the same manner you map out the consumer experience: higher talent retention and improved reputation. The capacity to properly allocate resources and efforts to decrease turnover concerns reduces the amount of time and money wasted by turnover expenses. A higher reputation, on the other hand, boosts the prospects of hiring more new talent, resulting in a more engaged and motivated team.

• A good Employee Life Cycle Strategy aids in the alignment of your employee and their corporate performance. Individuals who are engaged are enthusiastic about their job and help other employees through the transition.
  

• Allows organizations to recognize their employees on a regular basis and acknowledge their peers experience a better level of engagement. In this approach, an employee's personal goals can be realised while the business's demands are addressed.
  

• Makes individuals think outside the box and come up with new ideas, which can be advantageous to the company's long-term growth and survival.
  

How to Measure and Improve the Employee Lifecycle Journey

Know that it is high time to find tools in order to help you better support your workers once you've identified areas for improvement. Superbeings is one such excellent tool for managing and improving processes at each level of the employee lifecycle. 

You can analyse workforce KPIs and chart your success as you improve with reporting tools and powerful dashboards to help you recruit, pay, and develop your personnel.

You can even manage each step of the employee lifecycle with a single all-in-one tool instead of managing workforce operations across numerous separate platforms. Importance of Employment Lifecycle Management

Employee Lifecycle Management is one of the most effective ways to envision and prepare for each stage employee interactions with your firm, giving you the information you need to make each stage as successful as possible. If your goal is to attract and retain a wonderful team, then all you would need to do is focus on doing your best at each stage.

Suggested reading:

How to Manage Employee Performance with Goals, Reviews and Ratings

Team Management Practices

Like what you read? Now see it in action in your team, book a free demo with our experts today!

The sense of belonging in employees is important, more so when working remotely— employees with good ties and relationships with each other and the organization are more likely to be satisfied at work, to trust their organization, and to remain in it for a longer time. More importantly, they are also much more engaged with their work.

Employee Experience is the vision or the perception that an employee has about an organization. It is influenced by the company's physical workspace, the work-life balance the company provides, and technology that enables productivity. but ensuring this when everyone is working remotely is easier said than done. 

Working remotely has been a booming trend that has been gaining momentum over the last decade using the advancement in technology. Its popularity and efficiency are highlighted by facts like 68% of UK businesses offer a flexible workspace policy, whilst 99% of employees want the option to work remotely.

With such high demand for remote work in the current scenario, it becomes even more important for us to discuss ways to ensure that the employee experience stays intact even when employees are working remotely.

Here are some tips you can consider to improve Employee Experience for your organization that is working remotely:

Build Trust

‍Have constant communication with the employees and make the expectations from your side clear for them to comprehend and work accordingly. Give a personal touch in every interaction that you have with your employees to assess who requires more assistance than others. This personal touch can be ensured through having a two-way communication between the employee and employer or by facilitating the employees with relevant tools. 

Recognition and Reward

‍Recognition of work becomes even more important when the employees are not working in a physical setup. Do not forget to reward your employees from time to time when they achieve their daily targets or encourage them to work harder if they lag behind.

Promote Creativity

‍Give a scope of creative development by motivating your employees to take up additional projects while working remotely, and indulge in new hobbies that may enhance their existing skillset.

Embrace flexible schedules and operations

‍Be flexible with schedules and respect the personal commitments of the employees at home. Draft and tweak the schedule accordingly so that it is comfortable for you as well as for the employee to work in the said time frame.

Assist in Career Development from Home

‍Encourage upskilling for your employees by sharing resources and encouraging them to opt for online courses pertaining to their expertise to enhance their skills.

Build a remote-accessible workplace

‍Implement tools or applications that ensure communication without drops or lag and provide an optimized experience. 

To summarize, it is a challenge to maintain a cordial experience for the employees when they are working remotely but with the right strategy and tools you can enable this transition to be seamless. There are countless factors that influence how this experience is maintained. When we do this right, employees will have a better time at work and contribute more to the organization.

Suggested reading:

The New Normal

Employee Skills for Remote Work

To learn more about how you could create a great employee experience while working remotely, reach out us for a demo!

With the transition to remote work, employee engagement is increasingly becoming a priority for most organizations. While most organizations have been able to create a decent plan around the engagement initiatives to embark on, measuring their efficacy is next in the pipeline. Towards this, most organizations have been exploring and experimenting with different forms of employee engagement surveys. However, the struggle for most lies in conducting an employee engagement survey in a way that is most effective and efficient. The challenge lies in the fact that if a survey is not conducted in a process driven manner, it could yield unfair results and in the course also rub off employees, defeating the whole purpose. Therefore, it is very important to follow a foolproof approach based on best practices to conduct a survey which can offer actionable insights to drive change and progress.

5 steps for conducting an employee engagement survey

Undoubtedly, the exact approach to conducting an employee engagement survey will differ from organization to organization depending on business objectives. However, the following 5 steps have been well received by most forward looking organizations to conduct their surveys: 

1. Goals & objectives

The first step to conduct an employee engagement survey is to define what it seeks to achieve. A survey can have multiple goals and objectives. For instance, some organizations wish to gauge the engagement quotient of their employees, while others wish to get a comprehensive understanding of what practices are working and identify the gap. Therefore, clearly defining the objectives is very important as it will lay the foundation for all the next steps to come. There is often an opinion that a single survey can solve for multiple objectives. However, while it may work at times, in general, it is likely to be a source of confusion for the employees. 

2. Type of survey

Once the goals and objectives of the survey are determined, it is vital to decide the type and format of the survey. This has various parameters which need to be answered. Firstly, organizations need to agree on the frequency of the survey. The frequency can range from annual surveys which are conducted once a year to pulse surveys which can happen every day. Secondly, depending on the frequency, the length and depth of the survey needs to be finalized. For surveys that occur more frequently, a shorter length is preferred, with as low as one question. Surveys at stretched intervals should have more questions to ensure each parameter of engagement is measured. Most organizations today are moving towards pulse surveys as they are quicker and crisper with higher rate of completion and employee participation. 

3. Designing the survey

The goals and the type of survey are crucial in designing the survey. The survey questions must reflect its objectives and not be a collection of random engagement questions available over the internet. Getting external help or collaborating with platforms like SuperBeings can be an effective way to ensure that the right questions which can gauge employee pulse are a part of the survey. The survey should be a mix of objective and subjective questions to yield quantitative and qualitative results. The questions should be direct and easy to comprehend for all employees. Having very high level questions will drive down the completion rate. 

4. Share the survey & communicate its importance

An important part of conducting an employee engagement survey is to share it with the employees and drive participation. There are various layers to this step. Firstly, employees must be made aware about the importance of their participation and opinion. Communicate to them how the responses from the survey intend to create an impact on the organizational culture and ultimately the environment they work in. Create a case as to how their responses have the potential to nurture a positive impact. Secondly, it is best to have timelines for the survey. When there is a due date, surveys have a better chance of completion. If left open forever, employees will procrastinate and the response rate will be low. 

5. Share results & next steps

Conducting an employee engagement survey does not end with collecting responses from the employees. It goes beyond to analyze and interpret results to drive change with action items. The results of the survey along with the proposed next steps must be shared with the employees to build credibility that their efforts are bearing fruit. No follow up or inability to show impact will lead to a drop out in participation in subsequent surveys. Therefore, sharing results and action steps to improve the areas of weakness is very important.

Getting started with conducting an employee engagement survey

Conducting an employee engagement survey can be a tedious process. Thus, many organizations collaborate with external partners who carry the expertise to hit the nail on the head and drive engagement surveys seamlessly. Such platforms not only help in effectively conducting the surveys, but also offer data driven insights in real-time for managers and other stakeholders to take action and transform the engagement quotient of the organization for the better. SuperBeings is one such new age employee engagement platform that could help you automate the entire employee engagement process. 

Suggested reading:

How to use custom pulse surveys

Complete guide to employee pulse surveys

Take your employee experience to new heights with our customizable employee engagement module. Book a free demo today!

As we have talked about it before, employee engagement defines the level of commitment of the workforce to the organization and ultimately translates to performance and impact. You must already be aware of the many reasons that make employee engagement a top priority, including, higher productivity, reduced absenteeism, inclusive culture, customer satisfaction, etc. 

While the focus is turning towards increasing employee experience with greater engagement, you might still be struggling about the best way to measure the engagement quotient. Here, an employee engagement survey with the right questions can help you ramp up the efforts in the right direction.

What is an employee engagement survey?

An employee engagement survey seeks to gauge the pulse and opinion of the workforce to determine their dedication and commitment to the organization. You can get a quantitative and qualitative analysis of employee perspectives and level of belongingness to the workplace. Measuring some key drivers of engagement can help you understand the degree of engagement or disengagement among employees, which has a direct impact on the organizational bottom line. The following sections will uncover all important aspects of an employee engagement survey, highlighting its importance, important attributes, top employee engagement survey questions and best ways to get started. 

‍

Why is employee engagement survey important?

On the face of it, conducting an employee engagement survey is to gauge deep insights on the engagement landscape in an organization. However, there are several other factors that contribute to answering why employee engagement surveys are important. 

1. Employee Voice

One of the top reasons for having an employee engagement survey is to give your employees a voice and encourage them to share their perspectives. It enables team members to share their feedback on what is working for them and what needs improvement. Additionally, it is a source of empowerment for employees who feel their opinion also matters to the organization.

2. Employer Branding

Employee engagement quotient is very important if you are competing for the top talent in the market. Naturally, the best minds and resources tend to choose organizations that have a greater regard for their employees and focus on creating a positive experience. Gauging and showcasing employee engagement can, thus, help you in two ways. Firstly, it can help you to map your engagement performance with industry benchmarks and get an understanding of where you stand. Secondly, it can enable you to attract the best talent with a reputation for being the employer of choice.

3. Tracking Performance

Finally, an employee engagement survey enables you  to map the performance of the engagement efforts at regular intervals. Like any other KPI or key performance indicator, employee engagement surveys help track whether or not the investments, practices and initiatives are bearing fruit. This is important to formulate a robust employee engagement strategy and ensure smooth implementation. 

What does an employee engagement survey measure?

Like any other survey, the efficacy of an employee engagement survey lies in the relevance and strength of its questions. Before we jump onto what employee engagement survey questions should you put in your survey, you must understand what an employee engagement survey should measure. Naturally, an employee engagement survey must measure different attributes of engagement which promote a pleasant experience for employees. Here are the top factors that you must take into account while putting together the questions to gauge engagement.

1. Motivation

Any employee engagement survey should be able to measure how motivated an employee is about their work and the workplace as a whole. When employees are highly engaged, their level of motivation to forge meaningful relationships with all stakeholders as well as give in their 100% is on the higher side. According to a research by Gallup, employees work 20% better when motivated. At the same time, motivated employees are 87% less likely to resign, says a study by Inc Magazine. Thus, measuring motivation as an offshoot of engagement is important to attract, nurture and retain the best talent. 

2. Belongingness

The next parameter that an engagement survey ought to measure revolves around belongingness. By definition, belongingness is a feeling of safety and security which comes from a high level of engagement when a person feels accepted as a part of an inclusive culture as its own. According to a study, high belonging was linked to a whopping 56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days. Thus, you must be able to gauge whether employees feel they belong there or not with your employee engagement survey. 

3. Value

Employee engagement survey questions should also be crafted in a way so as to gauge whether employees are able to perceive the value they create for the organization or not. Each employee adds unique value and contributes to the overall success of the organization. An engaged workforce is one which is time and again reminded of the value it is creating and recognized and appreciated for the same. Your survey must explicitly highlight whether or not employees are aware about the value they create. 

4. Satisfaction

Finally, an employee engagement survey must intend to capture the overall satisfaction of employees. You must take into account their happiness, wellbeing, etc. running across all aspects of their experience. Measuring this is very important because a satisfied employee seldom looks out for other opportunities, reducing attrition. Research shows that when there is employee satisfaction, employee productivity increases by 40% which in turn increases the customer satisfaction by 18% and there is a drop in employee turnover by 14%.

How to conduct an employee engagement survey?

Contrary to popular belief, conducting an employee engagement survey is not simply collecting questions over the internet and emailing them to employees. While many organizations implement this approach, however, the success rate of such a process is feeble. To ensure impact, you must follow a well thought through and strategic approach. 

1. Set the goal

The first step to conducting an employee engagement survey effectively is to set a goal i.e. what do you wish to achieve out of it. If you caught yourself saying, Obviously, we want to measure engagement levels, you are not wrong, but there is still a long way to go. Setting a goal must start with understanding where you currently stand on different engagement parameters. Next, it is important to identify the one that is on top priority and take that as a goal to be achieved after the whole exercise. The goals will largely depend on your current landscape and the biggest obstacle you seek to address. Some of the common goals could look like:

• Understanding employee engagement across different verticals and creating a uniform experience
• Facilitating better avenues for collaboration and communication
• Boosting motivation, satisfaction and retention
• Identifying reasons contributing to an unpleasant work culture

2. Decide the employee engagement survey type

Once you have a goal set, the next step is to decide on the employee engagement survey type that you align best with. There are several parameters which can help you create the right survey, including:

a. Frequency‍

Surveys can be conducted on an annual, biannual, quarterly, monthly or even daily basis. How often you want to gauge employee pulse generally determines the ideal frequency. While annual surveys were the norm for a long time, organizations are now moving towards more frequent ones. The latter approach can help you with regular updates on the progress of engagement quotient and room to implement corrective measures on the go, rather than wait for the year end.

b. Length

The next decision must be on the length of the survey in terms of the number of questions. More often than not, length will depend on the frequency of the survey. Generally, the greater the frequency, the lesser the number of questions. Most organizations today are moving towards adopting pulse surveys which are short and conducted at regular intervals. Some are even experimenting with one question daily kind of measurement which are proving to be extremely effective and are delivering great insights.

c. Anonymity

Surveys can either be anonymous or might require a proof of identity. Both types have their own merits and demerits. Anonymous surveys encourage employees to share their honest opinion without the fear of any backlash. Surveys that require identity can help organizations go deep into the responses and pinpoint exact problems. Deeping on the employee's expectations and organizational needs, you can make the right decision.

d. Type of questions

Finally, what type of questions you want to make a part of the survey is an important decision. Open-ended survey questions are important for a qualitative purpose. At the same time, ratings and other objective questions give a foundation for comparison and quantitative analysis. Having a fair mix of both as well as aligning which parameters of engagement to measure in which form is important.

3. Formulate the employee engagement survey questions

Once the decision on employee engagement survey type has been reached, the next step is to actually formulate the questions. Make sure that the employee engagement survey questions align with the format and type decided above. At the same time, each question should be a step towards achieving the goal the survey had set out to achieve. It is important to identify key parameters of engagement that the survey intends to measure and all questions should be categorized under the same for a seamless experience. Questions shouldn’t be too long and must be easy to comprehend. Any question that takes more than a few seconds to read and understand will seldom yield any fruitful responses.

4. Roll of the survey

With the questions in place, your employee engagement survey is ready to go. However, to ensure that employees actually take time out to fill the survey, there needs to be some incentives and conscious push from the management and leadership. To promote the completion rate of the survey, encourage employees to block some time specifically to fill the same. Instead of expecting them to complete this in between all other tasks (as an added burden), give them some time just for this purpose when they can put their mind to it properly. Finally, it would be good to keep some incentives for those who finish the survey in a given time.

5. Action the feedback

Conducting an employee engagement survey doesn’t end with collecting the responses. It goes beyond to actually create an impact. Once the responses are received, it is important to analyze them to understand the gaps and challenges and navigate a plan of action to bridge the same. At the same time, it is extremely important to share the results, even the gaps with the employees and share the course of action to work on the areas of improvement. It might also be a good idea to crowdsource some solutions and gauge employee opinion and voice on how these problems can be addressed. This will enable collective decision making and action. It will also encourage employees to further participate in such surveys in the future as they realize their voice is making a difference.

Validated employee engagement survey questions 

If you are clear on the rationale and process for employee engagement surveys, you should move to understanding the validated employee engagement survey questions that must be considered. It is best to club questions together under specific categories to make them easier to comprehend. Additionally, clubbing questions is important from an analysis perspective as well.

1. Employee engagement index

• On a scale of 1-5 how happy are you at work?
• Do you feel motivated every morning to come to work?
• Do you feel proud to be a part of this organization?
• How likely are you to recommend our organization to your friends?
• How would you rate your overall experience working at the company?

2. Communication

• Are you comfortable in sharing your ideas and perspectives with others in the company?
• Do you feel your ideas are given due importance and are listened to?
• Are the expectations and goals of the project/ task you are working on communicated clearly?
• Do you get a chance to give feedback to your coworkers and managers?
• Are you able to confidently communicate with your coworkers and managers?

3. Work culture

• Do you believe that the company has an inclusive work culture?
• Would you agree that the work environment is positive?
• On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the work-life balance?
• Are you stressed about the deadlines and targets very often?
• How frequently do you work over the weekends or on holidays?
• Would you agree that the company culture is transparent?
• Do you feel that there is mutual respect at all levels in the company?

4. Wellbeing

• Would you agree that the company cares about your physical and mental wellbeing?
• Are you satisfied with the health and wellness policies offered by the company?
• Do you think the company has sufficient wellness events and activities?
• Do you think the company values the wellbeing of its employees over the bottom line?
• On a scale of 1-10, how easy is it to get a day off when you are not feeling well?

5. Compensation and benefits

• Does the company offer competitive pay compared to others in the industry?
• Excluding the salary, are you satisfied with the other perks and benefits offered by the company?
• Are you clear on the compensation and benefits policy offered by the company?
• What are some other benefits that you think should be added to the current structure?

6. Recognition

• Do you receive enough and frequent recognition at work?
• Are you satisfied with the way you are appreciated for your performance?
• Do you believe that you are fairly recognized for your contribution to the team?
• Do you feel valued to be a part of the company?
• Do you receive some appreciation on specific milestones like work anniversary, birthday, etc.?
• When was the last time you received recognition for your work?

7. Opportunities for development

• Do you believe that there are enough opportunities for your personal and professional development?
• Would you agree that your team takes real interest in your career growth?
• Do you see enough opportunities to grow and thrive professionally as a part of the company?
• How often do you connect with your manager to discuss your career plans?
• Have you been able to leverage any development opportunities provided by the company?
• What are some development programs that you would like to see in the next few years?

8. Management team

• Does your manager clearly set the expectations and the way to achieve the same?
• Does your manager make an effort to facilitate your career growth?
• Does your manager take your feedback seriously?
• Are you satisfied with the feedback you receive from your manager?
• On a scale of 1-10, how well does your manager guide you to achieve success?

9. Retention

• Do you see yourself as a part of this company 10 years from now?
• If given a chance, would you join this company again?
• Do you believe you will be able to unlock your full potential here?
• How often do you consider looking out for other opportunities?

Employee engagement survey: Next Steps

To effectively curate, conduct and act on employee engagement surveys, you must take a proactive approach. It is ideal to partner with platforms like SuperBeings which offer services to gauge employee pulse and make sense out of the responses captured. On a mission to unlock the potential of all super beings at work, this platform provides pulse surveys, curated for individual organizational needs. Based on the insights collected from the responses as well as industry benchmarks, you can leverage data-backed action steps to improve employee engagement and create a positive experience.

Suggested reading:

Complete guide to employee pulse surveys

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Take your employee experience to new heights with our customizable employee engagement module. Book a free demo today!

Whenever an organization is expanding and looking at onboarding new talent, one question generally revolves around, “Who will be responsible for employee engagement”? If you are honestto yourself, the first instinct is to blurt out, the HR, obviously. Well, that might have been the case when employee engagement strategy was merely a tick in the box. Fortunately, today, organizations understand the value of having a comprehensive employee engagement strategy and execution plan. As organizations acknowledge the importance of employee engagement, clarity on a collective responsibility is coming to the forefront. 

Employee engagement strategy: All in it together

Undoubtedly, the trend of employee engagement strategy is towards a collective responsibility. While this was in the making for a few years, the uncertainty and ambiguity accompanying the sudden shift to remote work have accelerated the process. There are four major stakeholders across different organizational levels that contribute towards building an effective employee engagement strategy.

1. Leaders set the tone

It is the senior leaders of the organization, especially CEO and the like, who can set the precedence for an effective employee engagement strategy. As decision makers, they can influence the whole organizational culture and establish the need for employee engagement. At the same time, as they understand the organizational goals and values the most, they are best suited to craft long term employee engagement strategy with a clear vision. Seniors leaders must seek to promote greater transparency in the organization with open communication, large scale updates and a genuine concern towards employee wellbeing, especially in unprecedented circumstances like what we are facing now.

2. People officers build the ground

While senior leaders can kickstart and give direct to the employee engagement strategy, it would be unfair to expect them to execute each and every action item on the list. This is where people officers, more commonly known as HR professionals step in. They are more or less responsible to facilitate and execute the strategy in place via appreciation and recognition initiatives, team bonding activities, among others. It is on them to gauge the employee's pulse and understand what different teams need. They are like a link between the employees and senior leadership. On the one hand, they create a skeletal structure for an effective employee engagement strategy by collating employee expectations for leaders to work on. On the other, they implement the strategy once it's ready by ideating and executing different initiatives to achieve the strategy goals. 

3. Managers facilitate the way

Next in line are the managers and their responsibility towards the employee engagement strategy. It is managers who are in constant touch with their teams and employees. Regular meetings, steady interactions, among others, make managers well suited to advocate employee engagement. While HR professionals might use tools and other methods to gauge employee pulse, managers have direct access to such information as they are in routine communication. According to a study by Gallup, managers account for 70% of variance in engagement across business units. To promote employee engagement, managers should start with building strong relationships with each employee. At the same time, motivating and inspiring employees alongside appreciating and recognizing deserving performances can go a long way.  

4. Employees take the leap

Finally, it is employees themselves who need to actively participate in employee engagement practices to make them really work. This has multiple facets to it. Firstly, employees need to be a part of the activities and initiatives put forward by the organization. Without their participation, these activities make no sense. Secondly, employees must as recipients communicate to the above three stakeholders on what is working and what is not, in the form of constant feedback. Thirdly, employees must be vocal about their personal and professional goals and what kind of practices they value. They can collaborate with all the other stakeholders to translate their expectations into an effective employee engagement strategy.

Changing nature of work: Reinventing responsibilities

It is no surprise that the nature of work has undergone a complete transformation in the face of Covid-19. While organizations are taking various steps to embrace the new normal in terms of business continuity, it is very important to adopt a collaborative approach and assume collective responsibility for employee engagement. Managers, who were conventionally, out of this engagement strategy loop, need to step up their efforts as they are the main point of contact today. In fact, effective engagement today heavily depends on managers' efforts and inputs and how well they are able to motivate, inspire, persuade and influence their teams. 

Leaders give the necessary direction to employee engagement which then comes into an actionable structure with the efforts of HR professionals. Finally, it is the line managers who actually become responsible for smooth execution and the onus of active participation falls on the employees. Thus, every part of the organization needs to come together to work like a well oiled machine and translate engagement into performance and productivity.

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The onset of Covid-19 has unleashed ambiguity and panic all across India Inc. It is true that the world has undergone several periods of uncertainty in the past few decades. However, the scale and scope that we are witnessing currently is something beyond anyone’s imagination. As each aspect of business is undergoing tremendous transformation, it is the employee that is facing the brunt of it all. The conventional approach to deal with uncertainty is to keep employee morale high with numerous employee engagement activities. 

However, with the workforce becoming completely remote, employee engagement is itself undergoing transformation. We can no longer huddle around for a quick boost of motivation, or go out for a team lunch. Thus, organizations are reinventing the employee engagement playbook to take a fresh attempt at meaningfully engaging their workforce that has recently gone remote.

SUPER TIP: Learn from this Superbeing's playbook on how to effectively conduct 1:1 meeting with your team mates!

Engagement in Times of Uncertainty: A Prerequisite for Performance

Employee engagement is an important tool even under normal circumstances to reduce attrition and boost morale and productivity. However, its instrumentality has increased exponentially with the onset of these unprecedented times. As employees are working from home, their levels of stress, anxiety and a loss in sense of direction is on the rise due to ambiguity in job security, salary cuts among others. Therefore, the only possible tool for India Inc to deal with such a situation is to double down on its focus on employee engagement. It is very important that employees routinely get a sense of reassurance to keep their spirits high. Additionally, employee engagement can also boost team collaboration, which is a challenge with a remote workforce. The more engaged the workforce is, the easier and seamless will be the collaboration across verticals, leading to higher productivity. 

1. Challenges to Remote Employee Engagement

There is no doubt about the fact that employee engagement for the remote workforce is an organizational imperative under current circumstances. However, there are numerous challenges that prevent its seamless integration into the normal business course. To begin with, more than half of India Inc found itself unprepared when the lockdown struck. Therefore, organizations did not have time to actually strategize their approach to remote employee engagement. Under normal circumstances, it is relatively easy to judge the pulse of employee morale by interacting with them and reading their expressions and level of motivation. However, when the workforce is remote, it becomes quite difficult to understand the pulse of motivation, which comes in the way of effective planning. Despite challenges along the way, organizations are effectively spearheading remote employee engagement. The subsequent section will illustrate some of the best practices.

2. Remote Employee Engagement: Best Practices

Focus on remote employee engagement is the only way to ensure employee productivity, well-being and most importantly, employee happiness. Definitely, most organizations need to give their employee engagement strategy a fresh eye to address the fresh challenges. Here are a few strategies that can be a robust starting point. 

3. Remote social interaction

One of the top reasons to promote employee engagement is to boost interaction between employees whose worlds won’t collide in the general business line. Under remote circumstances, this poses a peculiar challenge. Nevertheless, organizations are promoting remote social interaction to mitigate the same. Be it virtual coffee breaks or video conferencing with team members you don’t directly work with, there are several ways to achieve the same. The objective is to encourage employees to interact with one another beyond simple work discussions to ensure a social connect. This also allows employees to share their concerns and worries about the mounting ambiguity with another human who may be going through something similar. 

4. Virtual team building activities

While remote interaction is good for 1-o-1 engagement or for smaller groups, virtual team building activities can accelerate large group engagement. For instance, group games like pictionary, or ludo or quizzes can be an effective way to get your employees to relax and loosen up a bit. At the same time, virtual celebrations and recognition can also create impact. The way organizations have cake cutting and other celebrations, the same can go digital. You have a quick video call to wish the employee together and maybe send in a gift card or a simple birthday greeting in the mail. This will keep the spirits up and definitely boost employee mood.  

5. Understand the psychological wants 

Next in line to boost remote employee engagement is to adopt technological tools that can undertake psychological assessments for employees. The mental well-being and psychological status of each employee in an uncertain situation is different. This also calls for customized employee engagement practices. It is, therefore, important for organizations to understand the pulse of each employee and undertake activities accordingly. Having a blanket approach might work in the conventional setting. However, the recent times, and especially the shift to a remote work culture, prompts the need for understanding individual engagement expectations. A blind adoption of best practices for remote employee engagement will yield half baked results. In fact, this would be an ideal time for organizations to incorporate psychological assessment as a part of their employee engagement strategy, even for the normal course of business. 

6. Keep your communication game strong

Finally, it is very important to keep all channels of communication open for your employees. While communication within specific teams is important, it is also vital that employees apprised of the latest developments across the organization. This will boost employee belief and trust in the leadership and management. Constant communication through calls, regular circulation of newsletters, etc. will serve as a reassurance to the employees and keep their morale high. 

Conclusion

As we draw this discussion to a close, one point that stands out is the importance of remote employee engagement in times of uncertainty. Organizations need to take cognizance of the fact that since employees and not together in person, engagement will play an even bigger role to keep the spirits up. Unless organizations reinvent their approach, they stand at the risk of losing productivity as well as high employee turnover. In the face of rising uncertainty, and lack of reassurance, employees are bound to look out elsewhere. Therefore, remote employee engagement is the only way for organizations to retain their productive workforce and fuel in solidarity and team strength.  

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Performance management has been one of the key priorities for organizations striving to unlock unprecedented growth. If you look closely, performance management focuses on measuring and improving employee performance to facilitate organizational success. 

However, as organizations are moving towards becoming people-centric, focusing on the growth and wellbeing of their employees, the understanding of performance management is expanding. The focus is now on a more holistic and comprehensive idea of employee development. Performance management is being increasingly viewed with a more end-to-end vision and a continuous process, highlighting the need to foster a culture of development opportunities for employees. 

The move to expand the meaning and scope of performance management towards employee development is critical for fast growing organizations as employees are the greatest asset which they can nurture, develop and ultimately who will contribute to success. 

Through the course of this blog we will explore 5 major steps that can enable organizations to go from performance management to employee development. We will also highlight some of the best practices and essential guidance for fast growing organizations that will help them in early years of their growth journey. 

1. Focus on the big picture

Often, when it comes to performance management, organizational leaders and managers focus on the immediate and short-term goals to gauge if things are working out or not. However, to adopt the broader framework of employee development, it is important to expand the scope and focus on the big picture.

Performance and development of the employee needs to be gauged in relation with the long-term goals and vision, while the short-term goals should be used as milestones in the longer journey. The focus should be on how the employee can develop and grow in the entire journey towards the goal, rather than how well he/she has been able to perform so far. 

To expand performance management to employee development, organizations need to adopt a futuristic lens and gauge what can be rather than simply measuring what is. 

The idea is to broaden the perspective and focus on areas that take into account the employee lens, rather than simply highlighting the impact of the performance on the organizational bottom line. 

2. Align employee and organizational goals

It is a fact that performance management in its conventional sense revolves around organizational goals. However, most fast growing companies believe in expanding this myopic focus. That’s how they move from performance management to employee development. 

Here, it is important to create an alignment between employee and organizational goals. In the absence of such an alignment, employee development will not take place, irrespective of any number of efforts towards achieving organizational goals. 

To put it simply, when employee and organizational goals align, there are streamlined and strategic efforts that go towards their achievement. Since the end goal is the same, every effort and improvement towards organizational goals directly leads to employee development as it takes employees one step closer to their career goals. Also, 58% of employees (62% of Millennials and GenX) say that having professional development opportunities increases their job satisfaction and is a major driver of long term retention.

Therefore, organizations must focus on communicating organizational goals to their team members and also help them in charting out what they seek to achieve in the longer run. Based on the two mind maps, leaders and managers can help identify areas of convergence and transform performance management for organizational goals into employee development for career progression. 

3. Promote collective brainstorming

While alignment of employee and organizational goals is important, it is equally important to facilitate collective brainstorming to identify the path to those goals. 

When the focus is solely on performance management, the leadership generally creates the goals along with roadmaps towards achieving the set goals. Since the focus is on organizational success, it is considered that the leadership knows best. However, to expand performance management to employee development, it is important to have the employee voice too. 

This brings the notion of collective brainstorming to the forefront. The process asks employees to be active participants in the setting goals, and creating plans to monitor and improve their performance with incorporation of indicators that align with their priorities too. 

4. Reinvent the feedback cycle

Generally, in performance management, feedback is limited to an annual or biannual event. However, to reinvent the idea and expand the scope, employee development must focus on continuous feedback. There are multiple facets to the idea of continuous and holistic feedback. 

First, feedback should be a regular affair. It should take place at least once every month to identify and address challenges in the beginning itself. To continuously understand the employee pulse and overall organizational sentiment, you must develop a daily feedback culture. 

Second, for employee development, feedback should come in from different sources. Since employee development is about more factors than just how productive the employee has been, the feedback should reflect the same with self reflection, feedback from managers and peer feedback, to start with. 

Third, the feedback cycle should be transformed into a two way street. While the myopic vision of performance management may focus on a top-down approach for feedback, employee development requires feedback all across. 

This suggests that employees must be given the opportunity and space to share what they feel has been the progress like from an organizational and individual standpoint and how the same can be improved. Employee development requires facilitating employee participation in gauging and identifying what is going well and what requires work, on a regular basis. 

5. Create new metrics for evaluation

There are some standard metrics for performance management, based on specific roles, including the number of deals closed, productivity, etc. Often, these metrics focus on organizational goals and hence, do not seek to gauge the progress made on the professional level for employees. 

To transition to employee development, organizations need to widen the scope and create and implement new metrics which have a more expansive focus. 

From an employee development lens, metric should focus on the learning and development curve for employees. Additionally, attention should be given to transforming the standard metrics to make them more meaningful to gauge how they ultimately contribute to employee development. 

The bottom line here is that the standard metrics for performance management should not be discarded. Rather, new ones should be added that focus entirely on employee development and the existing ones can be delved into deeper to make a case for employee development. 

Employee development for fast growing companies

What we discussed so far is a comprehensive approach for fast growing startups to move from performance management to continuous employee development.

In addition, based on our work with many fast growing organizations, we have created a list of a few best practices to facilitate employee development that supports overall growth:

1. Invest in the team: 

Since the team is one of the biggest assets for fast growing companies, investing in learning and training sessions for them is extremely important. Customized learning modules based on the future trends and industry requirements can help hypergrowth organizations expand performance management to facilitate employee development. Here a learning-first work culture makes a lot of sense. 

2. Create a culture of coaching and mentoring: 

Most professionals who join fast growing companies come with a growth mindset and are willing to take risks to make an impact and leave behind a legacy. Therefore, providing coaching and mentorship support can truly add value for employee development.

3. Expand the scope of work: 

Fast growing companies have a benefit over established organizations in terms of flexibility of roles and tasks. They can encourage team members to explore and experiment with different kinds of roles and tasks, to achieve a steep learning curve, which is integral to employee development.  

4. Help create a career path

For many employees, working in fast growing organizations is the first step towards crafting and fast tracking their career. Here, such organizations can encourage their leadership team to help employees create their career plans and a roadmap to achieve the same. Employee development can thus lead to better career outcomes for the employees. It also helps with increasing talent retention rate — as 87% millennial employees prioritize professional and career development opportunities over other benefits.

5. Facilitate collaboration

Growth and development occurs at an unprecedented rate when professionals work together and learn from each other. Fast growing companies have the opportunity to enable their team members to collaborate with each other, with fluid boundaries of business verticals. Collective work and diverse ideas can lead to employee development and go a step beyond performance management. 

Final thoughts

Whether you are a start-up or a scale-up or the industry leader, there’s no substitute for having a highly engaged, skilled workforce. There’s no substitute for investing in knowing and developing your employees. When you focus on mentoring, coaching, and developing your employees, they return the favor by going the extra mile in their respective roles. 

As you grow as an organization, make sure to develop a culture that doesn’t stop at simple managing and improving immediate performance, but rather leads to continuous growth. Make sure to learn about the needs and pain-points of your employees through continuous feedback, let them know they are valued through 1:1 personalized coaching sessions, and set goals for them that help them grow too.

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