Encourage Your Employees to Bring Their Souls to Work
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowEmployees can be one of the most valuable assets for a company to acquire new foot traffic and keep current customers coming back. That’s why it’s so important for business leaders to constantly find ways to engage their employees so they are happy in their workplace.
The 2017 State of the American Workplace report by Gallup found that only 33 percent of U.S. employees say they are engaged at work. This lack of employee engagement can lead to a loss of up to $605 billion by U.S. companies!
To start off the New Year with confidence that you won’t have uncommitted employees and therefore, employee turnover, try this new proven method of revitalizing your company culture: encourage your employees to bring their souls to work.
As the CEO of Carmel-based Round Room, the nation’s largest Verizon Authorized Retailer, I’ve had experience in ensuring that over 2,000 employees in 41 states across the nation are passionate about their jobs. It has been a wild ride with some incredible learning lessons, but by implementing the following strategies, our company has been able to inspire employees, ignite positive change in the world, and impact our bottom line.
Recognize employee achievement: At the end of each summer, more than 1,200 of Round Room’s top performing TCC sales associates and store managers are flown into Indianapolis for TCC’s annual Manager’s Sales Rally. TCC employees are invited to participate in breakout sessions aimed at further developing the skills needed to be successful, attend speeches from the leadership team and other leaders in the wireless industry, and collaborate with their peers to find additional ways to give back to their communities. Awards are distributed for top performing TCC stores, and a celebration is thrown in the evening to recognize TCC’s annual achievements. By giving employees in the field the opportunity to visit the home base of TCC and honor their accomplishments, employees know their voices are heard and they matter.
Build a rewarding cultural movement: Rather than going to work and dreading the 9 hours of simply carrying out the motions needed to get your job done, most employees want to have a purpose in their careers. After all, who wants work to actually feel like work? We’ve come up with a cultural movement that encourages our employees to bring their souls to work. By giving back to each community in which we operate, TCC employees are motivated to make the world a better place. Through our four annual Culture of Good events in which TCC employees get involved personally by donating items to deserving individuals in their communities, employees see the first-hand benefits of giving back. For instance, over 500 TCC stores donated 3,000 care kits to senior living communities for National Nursing Home Week in May. Making those donations personally to senior citizens who sometimes don’t get visitors at all really hit home for employees.
By creating a culture that is revolved around doing good for local communities, rather than a one-and-done donation for a national organization, employees find value in what they do in their every-day jobs.
Get involved in giving back as soon as possible: When a new TCC store location is opened, they are immediately included in TCC’s cultural movement. Store employees are asked to select three nonprofits within their area to receive donations and become an ongoing TCC partner. TCC enables the local community members to get involved by encouraging them to vote for a charity to be selected as the winner. By the time of the grand opening celebration, each nonprofit receives a donation from TCC, and one lucky charity with the most community votes receives the largest check and is chosen to be TCC’s partner nonprofit, where they will benefit from TCC cultural initiatives throughout the year.
Implementing a giving-back mentality as soon as possible, rather than delaying the process, is another successful way of a company finding its soul and therefore, engaging its employees.
It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day tactics of building a company and lose sight of what really matters: culture. By creating genuine social initiatives and fostering a sense of involvement throughout all levels of an organization, a company can create a social conscience in their workplace, which will encourage their employees to bring their souls to work.
Scott Moorehead is chief executive officer of Carmel-based TCC.