Your employees seem happy with their pay and your annual turnover rate remains low. But why don’t managers seem willing to take on additional responsibility? And how can you encourage newer employees to want to advance their careers within your organization? Chances are, most of your employees may be satisfied with their day-to-day roles, but they might not be engaged.
Unlike employee satisfaction, employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals. Organizations that are successful at building or maintaining employee engagement put a significant effort into building a culture that is supported by executives, cascading down through their management teams.
In order to keep employees engaged, many franchises are taking proactive steps to ensure their teams are inspired—and aligned with the company mission.
Dustin Hansen, CEO of InXpress Americas, said that his company feels that it can never spend enough time talking about its culture and programs. They also stress showing public recognition for a job well done, whether it’s formal or informal.
“A small thank you in front of a group goes a long way,” said Hansen. We strive at every meeting, presentation, or gathering to thank at least one employee for their contributions.”
In today’s digital age and with the disruptions of COVID-19 in the workplace, interpersonal communication can suffer, thanks to our increasing reliance on texts, instant messages, and social media updates. However, there are several low-cost ways you can meaningfully connect and move the engagement needle.
Administering the right workplace survey can be a great way to measure employee engagement across the organization and better understand the different perceptions and experiences of employees at various levels. The results of these surveys can identify where you need to focus more attention and which engagement initiatives are achieving desired goals.
In late 2018, Franchise Business Review conducted the first Franchising@WORK Employee Engagement & Compensation study in partnership with the International Franchise Association (IFA) and invited franchise employees to take part.
More 2,500 employees representing more than 250 franchise brands shared their opinions and feedback. Participants were asked 24 core benchmark questions related to job satisfaction, engagement, management, brand leadership, and culture, as well as detailed personal questions about their position, compensation, benefits, and demographics.
Some key findings:
Michele Kemplay, director of human resources for Jason’s Deli – a healthy sandwich franchise with locations in 28 states – partners with Franchise Business Review to administer the survey. The company digs into the results, analyzes the data, and acts, she said.
“We encourage (managers) to celebrate the wins and create a plan of action for opportunities,” Kemplay said. “Our expectation is to see improvement over the last survey. Our turnover is far less than the industry average both on the hourly employee side, as well as management side. We partly attribute that to being a listening company, especially (related) to the feedback we receive on the surveys.”
High employee satisfaction and engagement go hand-in-hand. Boosting both will result in positive results. While the costs associated with improving satisfaction, engagement, and culture are minimal, only the very best organizations dedicate the time and consistency that is required to make gains in these areas.
Franchise Business Review’s Franchising@WORK survey provides data to individual franchise companies to help them understand the risks and opportunities within their organizations and benchmark their employee engagement and compensation against other franchise companies.
All companies that participate receive a benchmark scorecard report, but you also have the opportunity to purchase the detailed data (and add your own questions) in order to quantify employee engagement levels and obtain business intelligence on where to make system improvements and measure success.
With that data in hand you’ll know exactly where to make changes in order to:
The detailed data also gives you access to:
Franchises that score highest also qualify for the Franchising@WORK Awards, which recognize the franchise companies with the best company cultures.
Find out how your organization stacks up! All you have to do is fill out a simple registration form to participate in the benchmark research and awards. You send us your employee contact list and FBR does the rest! There’s no fee to enter for franchise owners. Read our FAQs to learn more.
If you still have questions, you can download our Franchising@WORK Awards Entry Kit or reach out to us at info@franchisebusinessreview.com.
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