Employee engagement is key to great performance

Employee engagement plays a significant role in optimizing business success, according to Kronos.

As manufacturers strive to retain highly skilled labour in today’s tough economic climate, increasing employee compensation is not always an option. A more feasible yet highly effective retention strategy focuses on increasing employee engagement.

Kronos Canada has been helping workplaces across the country to manage their workforces effectively for more than 30 years. Manufacturers continue to turn to this technology company for its wealth of expertise in this field.

Kronos knows employee engagement and its role in optimizing business performance. A recent white paper from the company offers valuable insight on how to maximize worker motivation and productivity through workforce-management technology.

Linked to the bottom line

Employee engagement, or a worker’s emotional connection to the organization, is an often overlooked ingredient in a business’ success, one that can affect the bottom line. Recent polls show that three-fifths of American workers are disappointed with their career paths; 30 per cent of these respondents cite lack of advancement opportunities, while nearly one-third claim that they dreamed of something different.

According to Kronos’ research, the most common elements of employee engagement include trust and integrity, career opportunities, relationships with colleagues and managers, pride in associating with the company, and the nature of the job. Among the solutions that Kronos recommends to drive these elements are:

• Creating connections through self-service. Empowering employees to use online technology to access their own information, control their payroll data, choose their own benefits, and more can create deeper connections between workers and management.
• Accommodating for work-life balance. Allowing flexibility for workers to manage their own shifts through an automated scheduling system – whether to spend more time with family or to work around other life events – will improve their morale and result in higher productivity.
• Helping ensure their safety. Workers want to know that they are not scheduled for work for which they are not qualified or certified and that they are working on shifts with colleagues who are. Automated scheduling helps factor certifications into shift teams.
• Encouraging ownership of performance. With labour-tracking capabilities, employees can take an active role in determining the cost in money and time of their tasks; knowing the direct value of their work can motivate them to work harder and smarter.
• Fostering professional growth. Workforce management systems can help employees upgrade their skills and prepare for new challenges.

Faced with growing global competition and economic pressures, today’s manufacturers are looking for new ways to achieve differentiation and protect profit margins. Workforce management technology can help manufacturing organizations increase employee engagement with the long-term benefits translating to the bottom line.

To learn more, contact Kronos.

• Tweet