common HR mistakes causing low employee engagement

Employee engagement seems like a concept that only affects your turnover rate, but when you look at it from the big window, it can be the reason for many results, including your income and profitability.

If HR leaders do not take proper steps to create a positive atmosphere, it can lead to a decrease in motivation and energy from their staff.

To avoid this, it is important to be aware of the actions which may have an adverse effect on employee engagement. These could include inadequate communication, unclear expectations, or unfair treatment of individuals. By actively taking steps to prevent these situations from arising and creating an atmosphere of support and understanding, HR leaders can help foster greater engagement amongst their workforces.

Let's take a look at the reasons that prevent you from improving employee engagement;

an unclear onboarding process

The first contact with your employee does not start on the first day of work, but with the first communication during the recruitment process. In the first contact, all your communication will be a reflection of your company culture, a signal about how you treat your employees, and a depiction of working in your organization.

Therefore, first, consider your hiring process to understand how you stand with your employee engagement;

What’s communication like? Are they getting notifications with feedback and next steps? Do you comply with the timeline you specified regarding the recruitment process?

How are you behaving during the interview stage? Are you smiling? Are you getting to know them as a person?

What’s the process like with the candidates who didn’t get the job?

When the hiring process is over, the company’s responsibility is not finished. We can also ask similar questions for the onboarding process;

Do you have an onboarding plan that will allow your employee to adapt to the company and the job?

Has the computer or all the equipment they will need for work reached them on time?

Have they been informed about who to contact in which situation?

not balancing intrinsic & extrinsic motivation

People's motivations affect their productivity. And the correct balancing of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations is important at this point.

Intrinsic motivation is an internal desire to pursue certain goals. This behavior originates from the individual. Gaining expertise in your work, feeling that your work has a purpose or value, and choosing to work spontaneously on things that you find interesting are related with this type of motivation.

Extrinsic motivation drives employees to pursue certain goals based on external rewards such as salaries, bonuses, gift cards, vacation days etc.

HR should determine the sources of motivation in the company and take action if there is an imbalance here.

Internal motivation can be solved by improving the employee experience and creating open communication channels. If there are problems due to external motivation, it will be necessary to work on the salaries and benefits.

using fear as a tactic

Employees need to feel safe at work. If they don't, they won’t come to you with suggestions on how the organization can improve to become a better place to work. Employees who are afraid of HR's reactions avoid giving their feedback and refuse to contribute to the organization until the day they leave work.

For this reason, you should develop a free thought and open communication environment where they will not be afraid to express their thoughts.

distributing non-strategic surveys

Although surveys are applied in good faith, they are wasted practices if a good preparation and action plan are not made beforehand. It may not only be wasted but may even cause your employees to lose their trust and close their communication channels completely.

So, make sure your surveys strategic and be ready to have action plans regarding any feedback. Otherwise, surprise survey results may turn into hard processes that you try to persuade the management.