9 Ways to Enable Employee Success in Your Organization

Employee success is becoming a focus of many employers and HR professionals. As the current world situation challenges organizations to give their employees the best experience, many new ways to encourage employee success were invented and implemented. 

📘 In this article, you will find out how professionals define employee success and what are the ways to facilitate employee success in your organization. But first, get these questions that employees use to evaluate their employers. These can help you optimize employee experience in your company. 

Employee Success Defined 

Employee success is still a somewhat elusive phrase. On one hand, there are professionals who compare it to customer success and emphasize the importance of enabling the best employee experience in all the stages of employee lifecycle. On the other hand, employee success is perceived as a group of actions and initiatives that enable employees to do their jobs the best they can. 

To summarize, employee success is proactive enablement of the best employee experience throughout the employee lifecycle. It includes strategic planning on how to support employees in a way that allows them to do their best work and facilitate a high level of productivity and engagement. 

9 Ways to Enable Employees for Success  

There are many ways to enable employee success in your company. Here we will present the 9 ways that you can use even during the times all your employees work physically apart. 

The main guiding line of all the advice we will list is to keep in contact as much as you can. Ask, answer and encourage others to do so: communication is essential for setting the stage for employee success.  

📘 Also, check out these best employee communication practices. 

1. Listen to your employees’ needs and concerns 

You regularly need to check your employee’s pulse. Listening to your employees’ needs and concerns will help you better understand how your employees feel and how you can enable them to do their best possible work, which employee success is all about. 

The best way to check your employee’s current state and feel is with employee surveys. Some of the most common employee surveys entail those about engagement, experience and satisfaction.  

📘 Also, check out these surveys for HR, managers and leaders to check your employees’ pulse during crisis. 

2. Make HR your strategic business partner 

Now might be the right moment to make HR your strategic business partner. Why? Because HR professionals will help you respond to many present-day workplace challenges and tell you what actions you need to take in order to ensure your employees’ success. 

Remember, when you enable your employees’ success and ensure they have a positive employee experience, your business will be at its best too. Therefore, consult with your HR Business Partners who will build strategy, and create specific programs and incentives to encourage best business results driven by internal changes in employee management. 

3. Keep your workplace informed 

By not communicating timely and effectively, you can negatively impact your employees’ experience. This is especially true during crisis, when the proper communication becomes the number one priority for employers across the world. For example, we have seen many updates from local authorities, changes to working policies and safety tips communicated to employees during the pandemic. 

Note that you should provide enough information to minimize your employees’ level of uncertainty, but still not overcrowd your employees’ inboxes. For the best approach, consult with your team and devise an internal communications strategy. 

📘 With the right internal communications solution, it is easier for employers to keep their workplace informed and supported. With an employee communications software such as Nurture, managers, leaders, HR and other professionals are can ensure the right flow of information in the workplace.  

4. Make work more meaningful and rewarding 

Recognizing your employee’s work is a huge factor in your employees’ experience. You can significantly influence your employees’ productivity and morale by appreciating their hard work. For example, use these appreciation email templates to show your employees support and gratitude. 

Proper employee recognition is the factor that can make your employees feel valued in the organization, and it often not only prevents them from leaving, but sets them on the right path of unleashing innovation, professional self-confidence and overall workplace success. 

📘  Get our employee appreciation letter templates and employee appreciation quotes to recognize your employees’ work. Also, check out our Recognition and Rewards Platform JobPts. 

5. Enable teams to collaborate efficiently 

One of the best ways you can encourage employee success while working remote is enabling efficient collaboration. By providing a software that allows easy tracking of each other’s interdependent work, you allow employees to stay productive and minimize their feeling of distance from other coworkers. 

Furthermore, you can use collaboration tools such as Kanban-style BoardFlo to organize your new hires’ onboarding. Such solutions can not only help teams to better manage their collaborative projects, but individuals can also use it to better plan their days and stay organized and productive.  

6. Get your senior leadership on board 

We already explained why communication is crucial for encouraging employee success. When senior leadership is included in employee communication, there are numerous benefits related to employee trust in organization. In other words – employees need to know that they are being led by knowledgeable, smart leaders that know how to play their market and mitigate the consequences of a potential crisis.  

Moreover, improving trust in your organization significantly influences employee success and experience. By showing employees that they themselves are one of employers’ main priority, leaders can build more positive workplace culture. Additionally, this is an opportunity for employers to strengthen their employer brand by showing social and corporate responsibility. 

7. Enable managers to drive employee success 

The intermediate higher-ups or team leaders are the ones that are on the first line of communication with your employees. While working remote, managers may need your guidance on how to manage their teams better. 

Many managers are not equipped enough to lead. In fact, 58% of managers do not receive proper training. Therefore, provide training to your managers and emphasize the importance of employee recognition, employee surveys and proper communication while working remote and in office.  

More importantly, managers need to have a way to give fast and meaningful feedback to their people. As employee feedback is one of the main drivers for employee success, many employers are now implementing both top-down and peer-to-peer feedback within their organizations.   

Enable your managers to proactively and individually use the proper software to encourage their team’s best work. 

8. Encourage employee wellbeing 

Employee wellbeing has gotten a deeper meaning in 2020 when employees were suffering from higher stress levels than usual. Putting emphasis on your employees’ health and wellbeing will ensure your employees that you care about their safety.  

In the end, your company’s response will definitely be something your employees will remember in the long run – so make sure it’s a positive one and reap all the benefits of great employee experience. 

Moreover, one of the most popular employee benefits on the market are those related to wellbeing. Health insurance and flexible work options that allow for a better work-life balance are becoming part of the norm. Naturally, providing your employees health security with these benefits adds to your employee success efforts. 

9. Ensure employees’ development and growth 

74% of employees believe they are not reaching their full potential. On the other hand, Millennials and Gen Z put bigger emphasis on learning and growth in the workplace than other generations. 

Giving your employees opportunities to grow and step into new roles is crucial for ensuring employee success. Employee development also improves retention rate and stimulates employee innovation.  

📘 Learn more about how employee development is beneficial for both your employees and your company. 

Benefits of Ensuring Employee Success 

Although a majority of employers know that enabling employee success in their organization translates to improved business results in the long run, some might still need to be convinced. A clear sign of contemporary trends in empowering and investing in employees is the growing spend on corporate training. In 2016, US companies spent $70 billion on training, and $90 billion in 2017 according to research. 

Therefore, let’s see what some specific benefits of investing in employee success are.  

Staying competitive 

Companies around the world are investing in making their employees successful – and they are doing it because they know it pays off. As mentioned before, companies are spending more than ever on employee training, and they invest more in technology that will enable them to give employees a better experience. Namely, in 2018 Deloitte’s study found that 57% of companies spent more on tech than the previous year. 

Preventing talent shortage 

It’s a competitive market out there – and highly qualified workers have more choice than ever before. According to 75% of HR Professionals, there is a growing skill shortage among candidates for job openings. In other words – your employees are now more valuable to your business than ever. This is a clear indication that your business success depends on your employee success. 

Increasing collaboration and innovation 

Cross-departmental collaboration is important for transfer of knowledge inside the company. It also allows employees to break traditional barriers and innovate more. With more collaboration and innovation, the company’s end-product is of higher quality. Therefore, ensuring employees successfully collaborate, you will be improving the overall achievements of your company. 

Improving employee turnover rate 

Many companies advertise their employer brand, so employees are very often exposed to other companies’ employee success efforts. In other words, it is harder than ever to keep your employee turnover rate low. 

There is myriad of evidence showing how investing in employee success positively impacts employee retention. Enabling employee development, recognizing employees and giving regular employee feedback contribute to decreasing employee turnover. 

Boosting employer brand 

Recruiters know all about the importance of employer branding. However, many will also argue that shiny advertising efforts must be backed up by real employee success stories and strong employee advocacy programs. Therefore, investing in your employees’ success will amplify the message of your company’s excellence as an employer. 

Increasing employee motivation 

When you invest in your employees’ success, they notice! Employee motivation is directly influenced by the amount of time, resources and effort you put in your own workforce. Naturally, employee productivity also improves when employees are motivated, and their morale is boosted. 

📘 As we finish on a note of increasing employee motivation – take a peek at our Employee Recognition Playbook. Employee recognition is a powerful tool with which you can motivate your employees and show them how much their work matters to your company. In this playbook, you can find detailed guidelines on building successful employee recognition programs and explanation of their benefits.