CU Management Feature | HR Answers: Can Technology Save Your Managers From Burnout?
Tools that foster engagement and consistent feedback can help boost productivity and employee retention.
More than half of American workers are actively burned out, according to a survey conducted by Indeed this spring. Between blurred work-life boundaries, global uncertainty, and social isolation in the pandemic, employees are at risk—resulting in poor performance and higher quit rates.
Your managers are feeling the pinch. Managers experience the same challenging conditions as their direct reports, with the added pressure of leading their teams through these challenges. They’re tasked with cultivating culture and engagement, while maintaining productivity and service levels, often at a distance.
Sound familiar? If so, you’ve got a problem on your hands.
Why Manager Burnout Matters
When burnout pushes managers into a state of crisis, it kicks off a vicious cycle for team engagement levels: Employees with burned-out managers are 73% more likely to say that they are themselves burned out.
In short, your workforce is challenged. So, what are the top challenges managers are facing today, and how can we as leaders and HR professionals help provide relief from burnout?
A simple solution? Turn to tech to help automate the process and give managers opportunities to connect with their teams. Here are three challenges tech can solve:
Challenge 1: Effectively Communicating Impact and Purpose
72% of employees say knowing their work matters enables them to deliver a high-quality customer experience.
In-office, employees are reminded of the credit union purpose and mission via daily face-to-face interactions with each other and members. In isolation, however, employees can feel they’re spinning their wheels—and overburdened managers may not know how to close the gap.
Solution: A clear goals process.
Look for a technology solution that documents, tracks and makes goals visible credit-union wide. This tool should clearly connect each employee’s personal goals to greater team and organization as a whole. It’s also important that goals can be adapted to meet the needs of our ever-changing business environments.
The benefits? No matter where they’re working, employees gain visibility into how their day-to-day work furthers the mission of your CU. And with real-time data and tools like an insights dashboard, managers can effortlessly keep track of who’s contributing, who’s on target and who needs support.
Challenge 2: Driving Team Morale
The top reason people leave jobs is limited recognition and praise. On the flip side, 81% of employees are motivated to work harder when their boss shows appreciation.
A hybrid or fully remote environment makes it hard for managers to share those smiles and pats on the back that keep member services workers going. In isolation, morale can plummet.
Solution: Social recognition and custom rewards.
Lift the load from managers by instituting a social recognition feed. This tool allows employees of all levels to send real-time recognition and high-fives that are visible organization-wide.
And it works. $14 billion First Tech Federal Credit Union, San Jose, California, saw significant results after implementing a social recognition feed: Employees who recognized others were 2 times less likely to quit than those receiving recognition. And those who received recognition were 2.5 times less likely to leave the CU than those who were never recognized.
Personalization matters, too. Customized rewards are 7 times more likely to motivateemployees than generic certificates or gift cards.
Challenge 3: Providing Feedback
Real-time feedback, both positive and constructive, helps employees understand how they’re performing and where they stand; 40% of workers feel disengaged when they receive little to no feedback.
Delivering feedback can be challenging no matter where it’s given. Before the pandemic, 42% of managers admitted they didn’t give enough feedback.
Solution: Check-ins, 1-on-1s and a feedback platform.
Pair a feedback tool with easy-to-schedule 1-on-1 conversations. Feedback tools make it easier for managers by allowing employees to request feedback and by providing managers with templates and guiding questions. Bonus: With this tool, manager prep for year-end performance reviews includes a years’ worth of performance discussions, so employees feel seen for everything they’ve contributed.
Technology can create a consistent experience and provide analytics to measure success. However, strong alignment with the credit union’s mission, vision, values and goals is key. Employees can sense when there’s a clear connection between what management says is important and what’s modeled. Providing technology and encouraging leaders and employees to come together increases the opportunity to celebrate the impact of everyone's work, strengthens connection, and reinforces a culture of belonging.
WEBINAR RECAP – Ignite Employee Engagement: A New Framework for Bringing Out the Best in Your People
Chary recently presented — Ignite Employee Engagement - A New Framework for Bringing Out the Best in Your People — a webinar hosted by Workhuman and Worldatwork. Get the recap and attendee Q&A below!
“People are more than just your employees,” observed Chary Krout, co-owner and partner at Cultivate, in her opening remarks during “Ignite Employee Engagement” – a webinar hosted by Workhuman® and WorldatWork. “Understanding their full lives is key. How often are we connecting employees to our mission’s vision and values? How are we helping them understand that they are doing meaningful work?”
Co-presenter Derek Irvine, SVP of strategy and consulting at Workhuman, echoed those same sentiments as he noted “It’s from true human connection that everything flows. If we get human connection right, then we can get employee engagement right. If we get human connection right, we get trust right. And if we get those two things right – trust and engagement – it becomes a doorway that opens to all the other good things that organizations want.”
“People are more than just your employees”
Key takeaways
That set the stage for a lively and engaging exploration of what Derek described as “a new framework for igniting or reigniting employee engagement” based on the three foundational words: Thank, Talk, Celebrate. Here are some of the compelling themes they discussed during the program:
Employee engagement cannot be commanded – People become engaged because the organization inspires their commitment. Therefore, the need to build a positive, inclusive, more human workplace – one where people feel a sense of belonging – has never been more important.
“Thank” is a rich, deep expression of appreciation – True recognition goes beyond a simple “thank you.” It’s seeing the skills and connections a person brings. As Derek noted, “It says ‘I saw you, and I appreciate you for what you did.’” It makes people “understand how they fit in and that they matter,” added Chary.
“The data shows that frequent recognition moments continue to boost people’s productivity, their output, their engagement.”
Givers matter – We often talk about recognition from the perspective of the receiver. But someone who has given recognition in the past two months is more likely to love their job, recommend your company, identify as highly engaged, and have a positive work experience.
Giving recognition drives business results – As Chary observed: “Giving recognition and thanks is the right thing to do; building connections is the right thing to do. But it’s also driving business results. The data shows that frequent recognition moments continue to boost people’s productivity, their output, their engagement.”
“Talk” is the key to growing and encouraging each other toward common goals – Frequent check-ins are key. As Chary noted, “If culture is owned by all, then we should be recognizing that in every interaction that we’re having – even in one-on-one conversations.”
“If culture is owned by all, then we should be recognizing that in every interaction that we’re having – even in one-on-one conversations.”
“Celebrate” is about sharing our humanity and common purpose – To build a culture of togetherness, we need to celebrate milestones, life events, and the community. “These are golden moments to create connection between each other that reinforce trust, and reinforce a sense of engagement with each other,” noted Derek.
The data says it all – Capturing human moments reveals turnover risks, uncovers hidden talent, and delivers insights into diversity awareness. The data can also reveal how work gets done, who are high performers, communities of people that work together, and the impact recognition has had across different business units.
And now, on to your questions
Following the presentation, the panelists answered questions submitted by the audience during the event. While they couldn’t answer them all, here is a representative sampling:
Q: What are your recommendations for keeping a pulse on how employees are feeling, especially for those transitioning back to work?
Chary: I think it’s making sure your managers are connecting. You can do that a couple different ways. A poll survey can be key. You can also just ask the questions of how they’re feeling, how can you support them. And then, engage employees and find solutions. I think we are often surprised that even in problem solving, we don’t always engage our people as much as we should to help find the outcome that’s going to be good for the overall organization.
Derek: I fully agree with that and it’s something I probably should have mentioned on the outset. At the beginning of COVID-19, we launched a completely free survey tool called Moodtracker™, because we agree with that point – that we need to be listening to our employees. So we offer a tool anybody can download and use right now. And it’s going be completely free, forever.
Q: What are your recommendations for giving constructive feedback – while keeping employees engaged in a remote environment?
Chary: It’s about building trust first. When you do that, constructive feedback comes with the appropriate intention behind it. I don’t know how many times in my career I’ve had a conversation with a leader who has ‘saved up’ feedback that they feel their employee needs – and is then uncomfortable having the dialogue. I think if you’re having regular check-ins, you’re building trust. You’re listening as much as you’re talking, which is really hard for most leaders.
They think they’re supposed to lead the one-on-one conversation, when actually they should be facilitating it. Then, giving constructive feedback just becomes part of those dialogues. When I think about the times I’ve had an annual review and I haven’t gotten any feedback, I feel disappointed.
“High achievers want to hear ways they can do better. But we have to build trust so that those messages can be heard and acted upon.”
Derek: I would just reiterate that with the word, “thanks.” It doesn’t have to be complicated. Managers are struggling with, ‘What’s the framework? What are the questions?’ Thanking somebody genuinely can be the golden key that leads to a positive conversation – one that builds trust and allows the relationship to grow.
Q: It is all about wanting to be vulnerable, and I don’t see a lot of the leaders who want to take that path of vulnerability. What would you say to that?
Derek: I think there’s a fundamental shift in terms of management styles. We’re now in an era where we need to be able to bring our whole selves to work, because our human emotions, our empathy – they’re what drive creativity. They’re what drive innovation. They’re what drive relationships between your company and your customers.
So we need to be able to bring our whole selves to work. It’s imperative in this era that we live in. Companies that fail to do that will themselves fail.
I absolutely accept and understand managers who have grown up and are comfortable in the old management style. But they need to make the shift. I think it’s about opening up. It’s about authenticity. Nobody has all of the solutions. But the shift is required and that’s where these three really powerful words come in. It doesn’t have to be any more difficult or scientific than just thanking people more. Try to have more authentic chats, talks, and celebrations. There’s a ton of these moments happening all the time. If you focus on those three things, it can be the secret key that opens up the door.
Q: The activities you shared are all easy to do and have been shown to be effective. Why do you think so few companies do them? Why aren’t they seen as priorities?
Derek: That’s been my mission for the last 20 years – making sure we capture these stories of companies that are doing this successfully. Because there are a surprising amount of companies that are succeeding and in the book, “Making Work Human,” we’ve case studied them.
We’re talking about LinkedIn, Procter & Gamble, UnitedHealthcare, Intuit, Symantec – both large international companies and smaller companies. Companies in the healthcare sector – Baystate Health – that are succeeding and doing these things.
And in the book, you’ll find data that proves these initiatives really do work. I think what we have successfully done is taken something that seems ’soft’ and created hard business evidence that shows it works. And we should all be doing it much more, for exactly that reason.
Q: In 2021, what would you start, stop, and continue in the context of making work more human?
Derek: I’ll give you some very quick ones. If you think about thanking, I would stop the annual award ceremony that just thanks the top 5% of your people, and I would start a continuous program that is recognizing 80%, 90% of your people throughout the year. I would stop the annual performance review and start more of a continuous performance development conversation. Those would be two top-of-mind things.
“Annual (review) events are done.”
Chary: Absolutely. Annual events are done. I mean, we can’t even do goal setting at beginning of the year and have it be relevant by the end of first quarter. So I totally concur with that. What I would continue doing is find the times that you can connect your people, connect your managers to their people, connect your people to people. And I would put those front and center more times than not.
EVENT: Ignite Employee Engagement
New Framework for Bringing Out the Best in Your People
Chary and Derek Irvine, senior vice president of strategy and consulting at Workhuman, will discuss a simple conceptual framework that can serve as a guiding light for your HR strategy in 2021 and beyond. Your organization needs a better way, right now. This framework will help you create more genuine moments of human connection and develop a high-trust culture that fuels engagement.
You will learn:
How empowering everyone to give recognition with a tangible reward promotes a sense of belonging and cohesion – and creates a well-rounded, crowdsourced picture of employee performance
Why traditional performance management is being replaced by a continuous stream of check-ins, team feedback, and agile goal setting
Ways to reinforce community in the new world of work by celebrating important milestones, such as an anniversary, marriage, birth of a child, or graduation
Hosted by:
Fast Company Feature: How measuring gratitude can help entire companies work better
Last week, Chary was featured in Fast Company’s how measuring gratitude can help companies work better.
Check it out here: https://www.fastcompany.com/90436587/how-measuring-gratitude-can-help-entire-companies-work-better
ATD Magazine Feature: Building a Culture of Recognition
Check out more here! https://www.td.org/magazines/td-magazine/building-a-culture-of-social-recognition
CU Times Feature: Recognition Improves Employee Relations
The $12.6 billion First Tech Federal Credit Union in San Jose, Calif., had a problem – the company’s employee recognition tool wasn’t working. The previous tool was outdated, it wasn’t social and its reward amounts weren’t meaningful. In addition, the former program’s budget was parsed out to leaders and the amounts were small; because of this, it didn’t encourage employee participation or cross-team participation, explained Chary Krout, former SVP, human resources at First Tech and current founder/co-owner of Cultivate.
Employees were ultimately unsatisfied with this. They wanted more clarity and communication on performance. They felt their managers just talked at them, and that they didn’t really see the work they were doing and understand the areas where they needed development and support. The company’s leadership also recognized a need for change – they wanted a solution that would help them transition away from annual reviews, and ultimately empower employees to adapt with agility and update their priorities as the goals of the business changed, as well as reinforce a culture of shared accountability, according to a First Tech Case Study.
“Recognition is important to our people and culture. Traditional annual bonus programs are a one-time shot in the arm and key contributions are often forgotten by the time we get to the annual performance review,” Krout said.
She’s right – once-a-year recognition is great, but generally only great for that one day and maybe a short time after. Employees often need more regular engagement and recognition to feel satisfied at work.
Not only is recognition important for employees at First Tech, it seems to be important for employees across the country. However, many companies aren’t meeting the mark, and recognition may be one of the best ways to decrease turnover, and improve employee engagement and satisfaction.
An analysis by Gallup found only one in three workers in the U.S. strongly agree that they received recognition or praise for doing good work in the past week. “At any given company, it’s not uncommon for employees to feel that their best efforts are routinely ignored. Further, employees who don’t feel adequately recognized are twice as likely to say they’ll quit in the next year,” according to the Gallup analysis.
The risk for turnover is even higher for high-performing employees. “Highly talented employees who are not engaged were among those who had the highest turnover in each organization – on par with low talent, disengaged employees. In other words, when your best employees are not engaged, they are as likely to leave your organization as your employees who tend to have performance issues and are unhappy,” a Gallup article stated.
A Psychology Today article confirmed similar sentiments regarding the link between turnover and lack of employee recognition.
The article noted a study funded by Make Their Day, an employee motivation firm, and Badgeville, a gamification company, which surveyed 1,200 U.S. employees from a broad cross-section of industries. It highlighted the following results:
83% of respondents said recognition for contributions was more fulfilling than any rewards or gifts;
76% found peer praise very or extremely motivating;
88% found praise from managers very or extremely motivating; and
90% said a “fun work environment” was very or extremely motivating.
First Tech’s leaders understood the importance of a robust recognition program. They wanted to create an experience that allowed employees to not only recognize peers on their own team, but also recognize colleagues on any team within the credit union.
The credit union partnered with Workhuman to design and implement an application that connects employees to their business and coworkers, and drives measurable business results. The application is composed of two programs: Conversations and Recognize. The Conversations pilot program enables managers to frequently check in with employees to provide feedback, and set goals and priorities. The Recognition tool enables people to express gratitude for work being done. “The functionality of the tool is simple and easy to use. You can ‘Recognize’ co-workers, ‘Redeem’ awards, scroll the Recognition Feed and comment/like on awards given,” Krout explained.
Krout said the Recognize tool provides a microphone-type effect that is commonly experienced when interacting on a social media feed. Together, the two tools provide a platform for users to effectively tell the complete story of an employee’s impact and journey at First Tech.
Results for the past year are positive: 100% of employees received a Recognize award within the first year and more than 3,400 check-ins occurred during the Conversations pilot group. Initial data also showed employees who give recognition are two times less likely to leave the credit union than those who just receive recognition. Employees who receive recognition are more than two and a half times less likely to leave First Tech, according to the First Tech case study.
The Recognize tool has been especially beneficial to contact center employees, who often encounter challenging member interactions. Leaders are using the Recognize tool to motivate the call center team, lift engagement and remind employees of everything they’re doing right, Krout said. “We believe that when you are able to retain employees, you’re able to deliver better results. When retention levels remain strong, it helps ensure projects are delivered [in a] timely [manner], [that there is] minimal business interruption of daily transactions, and future planning processes continue,” Krout explained.
These results fall in line with the goals of Workhuman’s Social Recognition tool, which was created as a response to the insight that frequently sharing positive stories of gratitude and respect, in alignment with company values, motivates and inspires people to do great work, and result in measurable benefits for the organization. Here are some stats on the tool:
Employees who receive more than five rewards per year are significantly more likely to also increase their year over year performance rating.
Employees with 1.5 to two awards per quarter feel more appreciated for their work, and as a result, are significantly more engaged.
On average, a rate of seven to 10 recognition moments per year is correlated to a two times lower chance of voluntary turnover.
Krout explained that other credit unions are moving forward with the concept of recognition as a way to further engage employees in their work and demonstrate how their values show up every day. “These progressive credit unions and leaders see recognition and continuous feedback is a key component in connecting their employees to their mission, vision and values, and most importantly, connecting them to their work, each other and members,” she said.
EVENT: Join us in Minneapolis for A Taste of Workhuman Live!
We’re teaming up with Workhuman to bring you an exciting event!
Join us in Minneapolis for A Taste of Workhuman Live, an interactive, invitation-only program designed to help you live the core tenets of “working human” and take them back home to your community.
This experience will give you a sneak peek into what you can expect at Workhuman Live 2020 – and everyone who attends will receive SHRM credits, a discount code, and be eligible to win two complimentary tickets.
The night will kick off with friendly conversation among your peers, followed by "The Gratitude Effect” presentation and conversation on how the most admired global companies are increasing employee performance and ROI. Then enjoy dinner on us!
Mingle, eat, drink, create connections, share experiences, and bring back actionable strategies to your team.
Details
October 3, 2019 | 6:00 - 10:00 pm | Butcher & the Boar
Agenda
Arrivals, Introductions, Cocktails and Appetizers
“The Gratitude Effect” Presentation & Discussion
Dinner
Networking
