Employee morale is undoubtedly a topic that peaks intense interest across a number of stakeholders: employees, HR professionals, management and potential recruits. Attracting and retaining top talent offers a clear competitive advantage in the marketplace; not to mention that it makes the work day all the more efficient, enjoyable and satisfying – no matter if your workplace is a factory, a warehouse, an office or your front sitting room.
Ensuring the morale of each of the individual employees within a firm is no mean feat. This is why it is important to place a key focus on ensuring that HR and, specifically, employee engagement is a core part of our strategy.
For anyone responsible for ensuring excellence in the workplace, it’s imperative to establish a meaningful employee engagement initiative to drive a business forward. But making sure that you get employee buy-in is essential when it comes to implementing these strategies. For any employee to engage with, rather than simply understand your company ethos a crucial next step is to hand responsibility back to your employees – empowering them to consider how they can carry code of conduct through their work.
Engaging team members with a multi-layered approach should involve communication and input that forms a two way street. It is a priority to inform, reinforce and reward actions that ensure every customer experience is outstanding. For any company this means viewing colleagues as valued customers who are deserving of the highest calibre of service. Certainly, our employees embrace the mantra – “People-Service-Profit” which is a philosophy designed to work as a continuous cycle. Each link upholds the next and is in turn supported by previous. Treat your people well and a better service will ensue. Consequently profit will follow and so the cycle continues. These three points are all integral to a company’s smooth running and will help define commercial aims – it has certainly played a part in our success.
Gaining employee feedback is also important, and by allowing team members to offer their suggestions as to how we can improve our customers experiences not only helps engage employees, but also improves the company service. All suggestions should be reviewed and assessed and is why we ensure that the dialogue between the assessor and the individual always remains open and visible. It’s important to offer multiple and diverse ways for any employee to engage with your business and allows them to make the most of their strengths and skill sets and make their mark on the company’s strategic direction.
Employers need to understand that team members hold a wide range of interests that extend beyond their job duties. Creating communities, both virtual and physical, enables teams to collaborate and share those interests with others in the organisation. This is especially important in a large company as it enables employees to build strong colleague relationships, which in turn enhances their job satisfaction – key for ensuring excellence in their day-to-day job.
Importantly, any channel, forum, training session, committee grouping and volunteer activity that become part of any HR and Employee Engagement plan must present team members with meaningful opportunities to expand their skill set, talent and passion.
Regardless of the size of a business, it’s vital that each and every employee feels valued and empowered to make positive contributions to the workplace and corporate culture remains at the very bedrock of a company’s success – shielding it from risks, elevating it to new levels of innovation and success and bolstering a productive workforce well aligned to achieving corporate excellence.
In short, employee productivity, skills, and attitude can make or break a company. If you hire the right employees, train them well, listen to what they have to say, good service will follow. By rewarding their productivity, your company will be on the way to building a successful business, and a more motivated one at that. ‘People-Service-Profit – that is what we all must remember.
About the Author
William Martin
Managing Director – UK and Ireland Operations
Appointed as Managing Director at FedEx Express in 2007, William has served in a number of different management roles since joining FedEx in 1988. With over 17 years’ management experience, William is responsible for maintaining the highest possible levels of service for clients and customers.
Receiving an award for outstanding leadership, William has also gained the Five Star Award, one of the Highest Awards for Individual Accomplishment at FedEx Express.
A keen supporter of Environmental initiatives, William makes time to work with a number of charities including Action for Children, KidsOut and BRAKE.
