CEO & Employee Engagement: 5 Mistakes to Avoid

Start-up founders, first-time bosses and CEOs that have been in the corporate world for a long time have already witnessed that they have a huge role to play in Employee Engagement. The direct managers have learned the importance and are constantly in search of ways to increase it, HR leaders are taking more initiatives than before and senior management is changing their approach as they are well aware of the benefits it brings to the organization.  

 

HR is not solely responsible for the success and failure of employee engagement anymore. 

 We now see CEOs taking an interest in the engagement but still fail to be an active part of it. The question is why? Where are they going wrong? Where are they lacking? Perhaps a good starting point might be to first understand what impact do CEOs have on employee engagement?  

 

Why CEOs must take a closer look at the workplace culture? 

 According to McKinsey & Company, around 67% of new CEOs stated, wish they had moved faster to change the culture at their workplace. But they were still unclear on what to change as they were new to this position. Also, it is difficult to identify the cultural elements that are affecting their best talents.  

 Having said that, they also know that the best idea is to take constant action to fix the work culture before it impacts and spoils the employee relations; and therefore the overall employee engagement. 

 

How the CEO can play an important role in Employee Engagement 

 It is given that CEOs main focus has been on financials and high-level strategy and they tend to leave the employee engagement in the capable hands of HR and senior management. However, this often results in poor knowledge about the on-ground people related challenges and oftentimes leads to loss of trust and confidence in the higher management. All the initiatives and hard work put in by HR gets unrecognized as what is missing is the inspiration factor. It has been observed that CEOs who inspire their workforce displays these three qualities: 

1. Establish a personal connection with employees
2. Listen to employees intently 
3. Communicate the goals and vision of the organization with ease and clarity

 

Let’s take a look at how CEOs can avoid these 5 mistakes and turn their engagement game: 

1. Communication is the key

 Communication has always been an important factor that can make or break a relation whether personal or professional. It is observed that the message from management has been communicated via HR or the line managers to the employees, but they need to come directly from the CEO. Maybe not every time but once in a month or some of the important announcements or messages can be recorded and shared with everyone. This not only builds up a trust factor but also boosts employee morale.  

 Problem: One biggest mistake made by CEOs when communicating any message is that they focus more on numbers and statistics. The role of a CEO or any leader is to communicate a story that motivates and inspires their people to achieve the goal.  

 Action required from CEO: Cast a vision and start influencing. 

 

2. The power of leadership recognition

 Remember the saying- What gets recognized, gets repeated.  

 CEOs are constantly juggling to dictate their work culture, so they find it easier to delegate employee recognition to HR. However, it’s easier to promote the culture by performing or showcasing that culture in your day-to-day behavior.  

 Recognition is one such behavior that can be cascaded amongst your employees simply by appreciating people for their efforts either by walking up to their desk and putting a thank you card on their desk and appreciating how happy you are to have them in your organization or if your organization has a modern tool like social recognition platform then you can write a message on the platform for everyone to see and engage with it.  

According to a recent study, when employees were asked how organizations can better support them through the Covid-19 pandemic, 35% of employees said they were looking for more recognition. Every CEO could have taken this situation as an opportunity to thank and recognize their employees who managed work even during this difficult time.  

When recognition is done right and given on time, it is nothing less than a leadership superpower.  

 Problem: Often, CEOs do not give out recognitions directly and appear to be making a passive participation in motivating and appreciating their employees.  

 Action required from CEO: Ensure to stay in the loop about those employees who have gone the extra mile and appreciate them personally. This will motivate the non-achievers to achieve more.   

 

3. Encourage employee voice

 The workforce wants to be heard- are you there to listen to their feedback and take active action to bring positive results? If the HR and CEOs neglect this, they are damaging their entire organization. Around 10% of employees do not care much about it but 90% of employees are likely to move if their voice is not heard.   

 Having a forum and platforms alone won’t help if you are not taking any action on it.  

 Problem: HR ask employee through surveys but there are not constant follow up or action is taken. 

 Solution: CEOs can pick up some interesting opinions, suggestions or complaints and talk about it openly and assure the employees you will personally ensure that it is solved.  

 

4. Individualize employee rewards and make them instant

 Employee rewards system should reflect your organization’s culture. Having a reward system in place that is aligned and rewards that are valued by your employees should be of utmost importance. Deloitte found out that 23% of respondents reported that they didn’t know what kind of rewards their employees value. 

 The CEO must understand what motivates their employee and accordingly plan out their reward system. Another important factor after the value is distribution. A reward delayed is a reward denied. Do not let your employees wait for too long as it will take away the motivation and happiness.  

 Problem: CEOs do not pay much attention to the reward system and are only concerned about the presence of rewards in the workplace. 

 Solution: CEOs can introduce a point-based reward system that is transparent and also, give an option to employees to select a reward of their choice. With digital rewards, employees can receive their rewards instantly.  

 

5. Work towards the well-being of workers

 Every business is established to earn profits. Some are also aiming to change lives. Being the change-maker by doing something great for the environment, community, or even for the employees is a great initiative. 

 Problem: CEOs focus majorly on making profits and forget to take care of their people. 

 Solution: Focus on keeping your employee happy.  

 

Being a CEO makes you responsible for everything. 

Building a workplace that is motivated doesn’t happen overnight. It is the job of the CEO to ensure that their employees are engaged and motivated. If you take the responsibility for the errors and actively participate in encouraging your people it will add as an example and make your employees build trust and confidence in you and your company. The above mistakes have been repeated by almost every CEO and it has led to the failure of engagement and weaken workplace culture as well as even resulted in the failure of the business as a whole.  

 We recommend every CEO to take active participation in employee engagement either alone or by teaming up with the HR leaders and drive a motivated workforce.  

 If you wish to address the purpose of employee engagement then connect with our expert team at Buzzz.