As organizations are working to return to some sort of normalcy (while also prepping for a potential second wave), many are seeing that their employee population is emotionally wiped out. Many have worked long hours and have added stress because of home and family struggles.  

Hay Group Insight’s work force opinion surveys demonstrate that highly engaged employees can improve business performance by up to 30% and that fully engaged employees are 2.5x more likely to exceed performance expectations than their ‘disengaged’ colleagues. 

When employees are truly engaged, they care, give extraordinary effort and go the extra mile.  

Here are four ways to engage employees in these very different times: 

• Continue to Build Trust: consistently provide clear and open communication  
• Listen to Your Employees: allow time for questions and feedback, ask what you can do for them, and listen to what they are struggling with both in and outside the workplace 
• Offer Support: provide resources for your employees to help them navigate these new waters (financial education, anxiety- and stress-reducing activities, and team-building activities both remote and in person, when allowed) 
• Be Flexible: many families are working from unique office spaces, so be understanding if your employees need to adjust their schedules to accommodate school, sports and even pet needs 

Improving engagement can have a tremendous effect on your team and organization. At Talent Plus, we have found that we are able to significantly impact engagement during the selection process when partners use our behavioral pre-hire assessments. Over a five-year period, a large organization with 19,000 employees used Talent Plus’ Talent Online ® Assessments to focus on identifying applicants aligned with their culture, increasing their employee engagement scores by 20 percentile points.  

When working to rehire employees or selecting new candidates, consider using an assessment to ensure a perfect fit, thus increasing your engagement. Want to learn how? Click here to connect with someone from Talent Plus.