Imagine if you had the opportunity to voice your opinion about your workplace on a regular basis. You would enhance employee engagement and be able to provide useful suggestions for better working environments, your workload, employee communications initiatives, even company benefits!
Major corporations like Amazon and JPMorgan Chase are taking advantage of tools and apps like Connections and Workday to regularly review employee feedback and make the proper changes for an ideal work life. This process has received some mixed reviews but the idea of genuinely listening to your staff and their needs (not just during their annual review) may be the golden ticket to long-term employment.
Mobile apps have become a major staple in technology, especially for millennials. We rely on these programs to keep us organized, informed, to track health/fitness, and much more! When a job introduces a progressive method that relates directly to the younger generations – millennials’ ears tend to perk up. Apps are convenient and fun, making regular, mundane work processes much more bearable.
According to Forbes, Millennials are already making up 50% of the workforce and set to make up nearly 75% by 2025. Therefore, we need to cater this real-time feedback to the younger generations to continuously improve employee engagement.
How can businesses take advantage of these features while keeping it professional? Internal communicators are always looking for tools and apps that will improve employee engagement, but when it comes to daily feedback, what are the important questions you need to ask to gain valuable answers? Let’s ask the millennial in the room (a.k.a. me):
- Does your workplace allow you to be productive? If not, why?
- Do you take advantage of our benefits and employee perks? Are they worth it to you?
- Would you benefit from a more flexible work schedule (e.g. Work from home/remote working)
- Do you feel that you are valued at this job?
- Would you refer a friend for a position at this company?
- Do you feel you have a voice/opinion in the projects you are currently working on?
- Do you feel fulfilled with your work duties?
- Do you feel that you have a mentor in this company that you go to for advice?
- If you had an exit interview, would you be able to provide positive feedback about your experience?
- Besides your personal workspace, how do you feel about the office location/setting/décor? Is it convenient? Does it motivate you to get work done efficiently?
According to NBCnews.com, “…millennials are more likely than both Gen Xers and baby boomers to say a job that accelerates their professional or career development is “very important” to them. It seems they are not only looking for a job they are passionate about, but one that fits into the bigger picture of their career path.” With this being said, real-time feedback is going to allow us to mold our careers and the environment we work in on a daily basis. These employee communications improvements will allow millennials to take pride in their opinions and promote change. When you allow us to be involved in decision making that ultimately affects us – we are more than willing to help. Our strong beliefs on work/life balance along with our passion for the job will help us provide honest and helpful answers that are bound to make the workplace better overall.