Are individual engagement plans what your business needs?

Finding new and innovative ways to keep employees engaged is important for any business, not least because happy workers are generally more productive and loyal than their colleagues.

However, going back to basics could be just what organisations need to stay ahead of the competition, which means taking an individual approach to engagement.

Adecco recently released a whitepaper exploring the specifics of employee engagement and suggested organisational plans should be sidelined in favour of personalised ones.

This gives managers the chance to determine what motivates certain employees, rather than simply assuming everyone has the same end goal in his or her career.

As Adecco points out, there are various psychological obstacles that stand in the way of engagement, primarily because people don’t fully understand what they want out of life.

In this instance, most people will move to the default option of wanting more money, giving managers very little to work with as they come up with a constructive plan.

If your organisation is looking for ways to optimise its employees’ performance, you might want to think about investing in HRMS software.

You can personalise the software so it takes people’s individual objectives into account, giving them something to work towards while also improving engagement.

Earlier this month, Towers Watson released survey findings showing that workplace stress is often a considerable barrier to productivity, which can ultimately lead to disengagement.

The Global Benefits Attitudes Survey highlighted how 57 per cent of workers experiencing high levels of stress did not feel engaged in the workplace. This compared to just 10 per cent of those with low stress levels.

Rebekah Haymes, senior consultant and wellbeing specialist at Towers Watson, said: “Companies could take more responsibility for educating employees about the benefits of better sleep, physical activity, good nutrition and a work life balance in order to keep employees healthy, happy and productive.”