The Difference Between Reward and Recognition 

In order for your employees to feel fully satisfied in their jobs, they will need much more than just a pay check. While offering competitive pay is critical to recruiting the top talent in your industry, it is important to have a program that covers both rewards and recognition if you wish to attract and actually retain high performance employees.  However, many professionals fall into the trap of assuming these two terms are interchangeable. In order to glean the best results from your organization’s employee reward and recognition program, it is important to first de-couple these two terms, and identify their key distinctions.  

What is the Difference Between Reward and Recognition? 

As you develop your reward and recognition program, aim to first thoughtfully consider and understand the key differences between these two areas of employee incentives. Once you have a clear picture of how they differ, both in nature and in practice, you will be able to accurately assess where and when the deployment of each is most appropriate. 

Listed below are the 10 key distinctions you should draw between reward and recognition: 

Creating an Employee Reward and Recognition Program 

Once you have gained a thorough understanding of how rewards and recognition differ in their nature, you can begin crafting an employee reward and recognition program that ensures your response to employee achievements and results is always appropriately directed. The first step is to understand just how the distinctions we have laid out will interact when put into action: 

• Tangible vs. Intangible – an individual can be recognized without being given a reward, but a reward should never be doled out without being coupled with recognition. 
• Transactional vs. Relational – rewards are useful for attracting top talent to your organization, and recognition is mandatory for retaining that talent.  
• Consumed vs. Experienced – carefully balancing how often you reward vs. recognize an employee ensures that the way in which the employee receives compensation for their achievements is appropriate and measured. 
• Transferrable vs. Non-Transferrable – aiming to focus on recognition, and teaming it with reward where appropriate, will help your employees feel valued for their individual contributions. 
• Conditional vs. Unconditional – blending rigidity in rewards, with the flexibility in recognition, and applying them either on their own or in combination over time at your discretion is critical. 
• Expected vs. Unexpected – an individual should never be let down by being deprived of a well-earned reward, but you should also be spontaneous enough in your attitude to be able to celebrate and appreciate your employees each day. 
• Economical vs. Emotional – performance and fixed outcomes of success are important to keeping employees motivated, but it is feelings (that is, satisfaction in being recognized) that rule the retention aspect of the employee experience. 
• Fixed vs. Free-Flowing – fixed rewards allow for employees to have a clear picture of the expected behaviours they should be working towards, but a free-flowing culture of recognition will help keep them on their toes and productive on the everyday level. 
• Impersonal vs. Personal – the impersonal nature of rewards can be remedied by always combining the dealing out of rewards with personal recognition for the employee. 

Now that you have a clear sense of the key differences between the concepts of reward and recognition, and how they may interact when put into action in your program, it is important to understand some general tips for creating and implementing an employee reward and recognition program. Listed below are some of the key best practices you should follow when utilizing your program: 

1. Identify What to Recognize

Outline and map out all of the behaviors and actions you will be looking for from your employees, and ensure everyone in the company has equal opportunities to receive recognition. 

2. Make It Timely

To ensure the effectiveness of the reward or recognition you deal out, you need to act immediately when success is identified. Providing recognition or a simple reward as soon as you notice behavior you want to see repeated helps employees pinpoint what exactly you are looking for, and how they can go about receiving recognition themselves. 

3. Do It Often

Employees crave recognition, so seeking out small and unique ways to regularly recognize their efforts and achievements keeps them satisfied. 

 4. Make it Genuine

Don’t stick to e-mail templates or automated responses when your employees are performing well. A sincere thank you, or a personalized recognition coupled with a reward, will go further. 

 5. Personalize It

As we have already mentioned, personalizing how you go about giving rewards or recognition to your employees is critical. If you are recognizing their achievements, praise them in a way you know the employee will be comfortable with. If the employee is shy and uncomfortable with loud, public recognition, be genuinely thankful and demonstrate your appreciation in a one-on-one discussion. If you are giving out a reward, select something that you know will be meaningful or impactful to that specific employee.  

6. Aim for Collaboration

Including everyone in your employee recognition and reward program incentivizes them to keep up the good work even when you are not looking. Employees love being recognized, but they also enjoy recognizing the work of their peers. Encourage your team to praise one another often, and consider implementing a peer-nomination system into your rewards program. 

7. Make It A Habit

By setting yourself a standard of regular recognition, it is much more likely to get ingrained into the company culture as a whole, and will transform into something every employee wants to be a part of. 

8. Be Transparent

Doling out recognition and rewards is a great tool for demonstrating the type of behaviors you want all employees to exhibit.  

9. Be Fair

Don’t just reward the same rotating roster of your top performers. Keep an eye out for the underdogs of your team, whose work is of high quality but may not be quite as obvious. In addition, never create company rewards that are only achievable by a certain group of employees or certain departments. 

10. Include Remote Workers

Your employees working remotely are just as important as your in-office team members, but they can often feel disconnected from the office. Providing recognition and rewards to them as often as you do your in-person employees, and encouraging employees to engage in recognition with their remote peers, helps to keep them engaged with the wider team. 

11. Be Creative

Your rewards and recognition program does not have to be boring and dry. Have fun with your ideas, finding ways to recognize and reward different groups, departments, and employees in unique ways that apply to their specific accomplishments, wants, and needs. 

12. Separate Recognition and Criticism

Constructive criticism is essential, but when it comes to your reward and recognition program, avoid the “compliment sandwich”. Do not leverage recognition just to soften the blow of harsher criticisms. Feedback is integral, but you should have those discussions separately from your recognition process. 

In Summary 

The term ‘Rewards and Recognition’ are often used interchangeably by professionals, but recognizing their key differences is one of the most important steps to ensuring your employee program keeps your employees feeling satisfied and engaged with their work.  You do not need to be excessive with rewards to keep your employees feeling appreciated. When giving out meaningful recognition, and coupling it with tangible, earned rewards where appropriate, your employees will feel their individual contributions will never go unnoticed by you. 

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The Pros and Cons of a 4-Day Work Week

The pandemic has ushered in a host of significant changes, influencing every area of life, including how we work. Employees around the world have been forced to adjust to their new work-life within the confines of their homes, and companies not deemed essential have modified their physical environments and/or shifted almost entirely to remote work. As a result of the increased stress and tension these rapid changes have placed on the shoulders of workers, organizations are beginning to adopt policies and practices that they may have resisted in the past. One of the more prevalent, modern approaches to work that has gained momentum in the past few months is the idea of a 4-day work week.  

What Does a 4-Day Work Week Look Like? 

While flexible schedules have been a topic of interest for some time, primarily leveraged by companies looking to modernize their functions, the idea of a shorter work week has rapidly become a focal point of business debate. In a time of such uncertainty, no organization has all the answers to how to best support their employees, and many have turned to a 4-day work week as a solution for the toll the pandemic has taken on their workers’ mental health. But, what does the 4-day work week look like in action? 

In truth, there is no one best answer to this question, and no one definition or description of a four-day work week. Shortened work weeks come in many different forms, depending on the objectives of the adoption of the practice in the first place. Some organizations envisage a shorter work week as a production of the same output, with the work time being condensed into fewer hours. Other companies may plan to implement longer working hours, spread out over fewer days than usual. Some models of a four-day week mean a three-day weekend, while others are set up for a day off midweek. Simply put, it just depends on the type of organization you run, and how you want to go about responding to this international period of disruption. And, the first step to identifying whether a shortened work week practice is right for your company and your employees, is to weigh out the potential advantages and disadvantages it may introduce. 

The Benefits of a 4-Day Work Week 

The idea of a shortened working week is no doubt appealing to many employees. With an extended weekend, or an additional day off, to work towards, many will likely access a newfound point of motivation, and produce better work as a result. According to a Harris poll conducted in May, when the notion of a 4-day work week began circulating quicker than ever, over 82% of US employees stated they would prefer a shorter workweek. Organizations that have already implemented it as a practice have also contributed to the debate. Perpetual Guardian’s CEO Andrew Barnes stated that his implementation of a four-day workweek in 2018 gleaned lower stress levels, higher creativity, and a major boost in team cohesion for his employees. 

As companies begin to reopen their offices, shifting from remote work to a reformed workweek system leads to many companies as the right way to go. With companies left and right testing the idea, and achieving promising results from it, employees and employers alike may stand to benefit greatly from a wider adoption of this new concept. Some specific benefits that a 4-day work week gleans for organizations include: 

• Increase in Productivity – it is well-known that an overworked employee is much less productive than an employee working a reasonable number of hours each week. Perpetual Guardian’s introduction of the 4-day work week policy saw a decrease in employee stress levels from 45% to 38%. Similarly, the countries that yield the highest productivity statistics, including Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, average around 27 hours a week, not the traditional 40 seen in five-day week structures.   
• Equal Workplace – the introduction of a decreased workweek would provide employees the opportunity to better balance their work and life commitments. One of the largest contributors to the widened gap between employed female and male workers is the lack of flexible policies surrounding childcare. Most employees who take leave of absences are women needing time off for childcare. A 4-day work week would eliminate this gendered gap in available working hours, providing a more equitable approach to accommodating the familial needs of employees.  
• Increase in Engagement – a shortened work week has the potential to boost employee satisfaction, morale, commitment, and overall engagement. While a happy workforce may seem like a far-off notion in the current times, providing flexibility in scheduling will do wonders for relieving employee stress levels that may be higher than usual right now. A 4-day work week also means employees are less likely to need stress or sick leave, since they have more time off that they can use to rest and recover. Resultingly, they can return to work ready to take on new challenges, even in times of disruption.  

The Drawbacks of a 4-Day Work Week 

While the arguments for a 4-day work week seem to keep rising, so too do the arguments against it. Many companies are avid in the belief that condensing the work done over five days into four will yield significantly more negative results for your organization than positive ones. While flexibility in how you go about structing a shortened work week is critical, and it can be adapted and adjusted to the needs and demands of your business, there will always be potential drawbacks to adopting a new, unfamiliar management practice. Some of the key arguments against the idea of a 4-day work week include: 

• Good Statistics Indicate Poor Management – the shortened work week has picked up so much steam largely because of the benefits it has yielded for the companies who dove head-first into the new model of work. However, if a company is reporting significant changes in their waste and efficiency statistics and are closing gaps only because they condensed their week, it could be argued this speaks negatively to their existing management system itself. If the firms were properly managed from the beginning, some common-sense adjustments should not have produced such radical improvements in the company’s efficiency. It points to the potential of existing flaws, meaning the miraculous statistical changes circulating online in favour of the 4-day work week are not necessarily reliable. 
• Skipping Workdays Benefits Your Competition – regardless of whether you see massive increases in employee satisfaction, the very possibility that an entire workday is now cut out from your schedule will seem extremely appealing to your competition. If they do not follow the trend themselves, they now have an entire day that they can dedicate to outperforming your organization. They may choose to contact your key clients and customers on a day where they won’t be able to get in touch with your employees.  

• Shorter Workweeks are Industry-Specific – while it may seem like the entire world is exploring new workweek options, there are certain industries and jobs that will need to remain operational within their current workweek structure. A bus driver for example, cannot work extra to be able to take next Friday off, just as a hotel maid cannot condense five days of cleaning rooms into four. Because of their job design and industry, there are some jobs that simply cannot be condensed into four days, meaning a rapid adoption of a four-day work week can only be leveraged by certain industries.  

Above All Else, Your Employees Want Flexibility 

The newfound trend of a shortened workweek has kicked up a storm of debates in the business world, and for good reason. Any new, seemingly radical idea of how to manage a company will cause some disruption, but when placed into a context of global uncertainty and unfamiliarity, the pros and cons are dissected under the world’s microscope. While a 4-day work week may seem like a radical change to introduce in such times, it may be useful to examine how well it would suit your organization. The arguments for and against shorter work weeks are abundant, but as a leader, it is up to you to have the final say in what approach will truly benefit your employees and company in the long-term.  

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20 Employee Engagement Survey Questions You Should Ask

Building a better, more productive work environment begins with a strong employee engagement survey. This can only be accomplished when you begin to measure what matters most to your employees.  

What is Employee Engagement? 

Employee engagement is defined as the extent to which a workforce, and all individual employees, feel valued and involved in their everyday work efforts. The dimensions that make up employee engagement are widely debated, but at its core, it boils down to whether an employee truly feels invested in their company’s mission and success. 

Even if you are making efforts to implement employee engagement activities it is still important to be able to measure those levels of engagement. Conducting an employee engagement survey aims at more than just measuring how happy your employees are – it identifies how well aligned their dedication is to the mission and outcome of your organization. Thus, measuring employee engagement is one of the most crucial points of maintaining the health of your business, since it streamlines the process of indicating the spots that need improvement.  

Why Are Employee Engagement Surveys Important? 

When employees are engaged with their work, they feel more fulfilled in what they are accomplishing and are more motivated to continue to achieve success. That ultimately leads to higher productivity. In a study conducted by Harvard Business Review, organizations with a high level of engagement report up to 22% higher productivity company-wide.

In addition, strong employee engagement introduces a variety of positive outcomes that are beneficial both to employees and customers. Highly engaged organizations have double the rate of success of lower engaged organizations, and turnover rates drop dramatically. Higher-turnover organizations report 25% lower turnover when employee engagement is put front and centre, and lower-turnover organizations report up to 65% lower turnover rates.  

An engaged workforce can produce better results, put forward more consistent and successful work efforts, a more integrated company culture, and a more profitable organization. A study by Gallup even pointed to the outperformance potential of highly engaged workforces, with companies that prioritize employee engagement outperforming their competitors by up to 147% in earnings per share. 

The numbers do not lie. Instead, they go to show that not only should businesses always aim to measure employee engagement, sometimes, they can’t afford not to.  

20 Strong Employee Engagement Survey Questions You Should Ask in Your Next Survey 

Employee engagement represents the level of enthusiasm and connection employees have with their organization. It is a measure of the level of motivation that exists in every employee, and the degree to which they are ready and willing to put in extra effort for their organization. Evidently, this can be difficult to measure. Employee engagement depends largely on the actions of the organization, particularly those driven by leadership, managers, and people teams. This is why it is important to cultivate employee engagement survey questions that best suit your company specifically, and are best equipped to draw out useful responses that you can put into action to improve your organization’s overall employee engagement levels.  

Engagement Index Questions 

The Engagement Index section of your survey is the introductory section that aims to uncover the key outcomes of employee engagement. Understanding employee engagement takes more than one question, so providing a range of questions to start off your survey and measure an employee’s immediate thought process when it comes to examining their own satisfaction is critical. 

1. “I am proud to work for [company].” 

Also called the “barbecue test” – would an employee be proud to tell someone where they worked if asked at a barbecue? – this question gets an employee’s pride in the place they work. The scores on this question reflect levels of brand and mission affiliation and can provide a great insight into how your company’s external brand is viewed by people internally.  

2. “I would recommend [company] as a great place to work.” 

This is a common employee engagement question, but on its own, it does not provide a robust measure. Sometimes, people may recommend your company but be planning to leave or be unsatisfied in their specific role but would still recommend it because of pay or perks. Including this question amongst several other employee index questions is key, since it eliminates that risk of inapplicable responses. 

3. “I rarely think about looking for a job at another company.” 

This is a great example of an accompanying question to the one above. This gets straight at the present, existing commitment of an employee to your company. It can be a nice reality check for organizations that achieve a negative response to this question, when they have high scores on other engagement index questions. Employees who are truly engaged in their work often report that looking for a job elsewhere rarely crosses their mind, while on the flip side, employees who are less engaged will find it easy to answer negatively to this question. 

4. “I see myself working at [company] in two years’ time.” 

Like the previous question, this aims to analyze employee commitment, but with a specific time frame. Employees that aren’t actively looking for a job elsewhere still may not intend to stick around for another two years. These two questions give an overview of both present and future commitment, so you can then calculate an overall retention index. 

5. “[Company] motivates me to go beyond what I would do in a similar role elsewhere.” 

This discretionary effort question targets whether your organization is motivating people to their very best. In industries where long-term employment is low, such as a seasonal workforce, this question is even more important.  

L.E.A.D Questions 

There are four main factors that influence employee engagement: Leadership, Enablement, Alignment, and Development (LEAD). If you think of your employee engagement survey as an essay, these areas make up the body of the text. With a handful of questions in each field, you can measure your employee engagement levels based on a business-oriented hierarchy of needs.  

Leadership 

6. “The leaders at [company] keep people informed about what is happening.” 

For anyone to feel any level of engagement with their work, there needs to be a strong sense of communication. Keeping employees informed about what is happening builds a foundation of communication from leadership at the most basic level. 

7. “My manager is a great role model for employees.” 

Rather than targeting the specific relationship between the manager and the reporting employee, this question gears itself towards how employees see their manager within the broader context of the company.  

8. “The leaders at [company] have communicated a vision that motivates me.” 

If you want your employees to be able to answer positively to this question, they need to feel adequately informed about what is happening, as mentioned before. Boosting motivation, or a sense of connection to something bigger than day-to-day work, is critical to increasing employee engagement.  

Enablement 

9. “I have access to the things I need to do my job well.” 

This question assesses whether employees have all day-to-day things they need to do their jobs well and develop in the company. This is a critical ‘hygiene factor’ for any organization, meaning that without this, you cannot move forward. The modern workplace is not always necessarily focused around resources or tools, so this question can apply to any sort of ‘thing’ utilized by employees to get their work done.  

10. “I have access to the learning and development I need to do my job well.” 

This is a deeper look into the prior question, targeting the specifics of learning and development opportunities for employees. This can include training and information sessions, coaching quality, and even intellectual and emotional support from the organization. Learning and development is a proven driver of employee engagement across all industries, so a positive response to this question should be the goal. 

11. “Most of the systems and processes here support us in getting our work done effectively.” 

Avoiding the absolute ‘all’, measuring whether the majority of systems and processes in place helps employees complete their tasks is essential. No company is immune to flaws in their systems and processes, so reorienting the ideal of perfection to instead shift employee thinking to the overall picture helps achieve a more accurate gauge of how well your systems support your workers. The company-wide infrastructure has a tremendous impact on how well employees get their work done, and how effective the learning and development opportunities are at keeping employees engaged, so refining this area is essential. 

Alignment 

12. “I know what I need to do to be successful in my role.” 

In order to be in alignment with the company’s goals overall, an individual needs a thorough understanding of what they need to do to be personally successful. Otherwise, progress is impossible. This basic level of understanding must exist for employees to develop their alignment with the organization.  

13. “I receive appropriate recognition when I do good work.” 

Once an individual knows what it is, they must do to be successful, they should be appropriately recognized for their achievements. If people don’t receive any recognition when they are making progress or when they accomplish something for the greater good of the company, it is difficult for them to stay motivated. 

14. “Day-to-day decisions here demonstrate that quality and improvement are top priorities.” 

This is the most important area of needs when it comes to alignment. It is not uncommon for specific teams and fields of practice to have values around doing work that they’re proud of, and a company needs to align itself with those values and demonstrate a commitment to that kind of work as well.  

Development 

15. “My manager has shown a genuine interest in my career aspirations.” 

One-on-one level interactions with managers, or someone in management, help build the foundation for employees feeling that they can develop at their company down the line. When managers have technical competence and can teach those skills to their team, it can be useful. However, development should be focused more on its importance for employee success. Managers should aim to discuss employee development in one-on-one meetings if they hope to encourage engagement.  

16. “I believe there are good career opportunities for me at this company.” 

If results to this question are on the lower end of the scale, this signifies to the company that employee’s perceptions of career opportunities are low. While they may be present, they are not always apparent, making transparency and communication of development opportunities just as important as their very existence. 

17. “This is a great company for me to make a contribution to my development.” 

This question is geared towards the idea of a company making a contribution to the employee’s development in their craft or industry. This type of development extends beyond the parameters of the organization, so it does not have to relate to the bottom line or the organizational goals and values. 

Free Text Questions 

Free text questions aim at soliciting open-ended feedback and give employees a chance to provide general comments. Usually placed at the end of surveys, it gives employees the opportunity to address areas they felt were not covered in the scale-based sections. Responses to these questions tend to focus on more tangible aspects of employee engagement, such as workplace environment, but they can also be useful in receiving feedback on leadership and development. Some examples of great free text employee engagement survey questions include: 

18. “Are there some things we are doing great here?”  

19. “Are there some things we are not doing so great here?” 

20. “Is there something else you think we should have asked you in this survey?” 

Free text questions provide qualitative data in addition to the quantitative data you received from the previous sections, making your results more thorough and your analysis more multi-faceted. 

Start Crafting Your Employee Engagement Survey 

Collecting employee feedback is the best way to start shaping your company’s culture, making it conducive to engagement and overall motivation. Listen to the voices of your employees, then share with them what you have learned, and how you plan on moving forward together. Employee engagement surveys are a key tool in covering that cornerstone of modern business management.  

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8 Ways to Increase Meeting Productivity 

Meeting Productivity or Lack Thereof 

Meeting productivity is often given far too little consideration. Bad meetings – those that lack a clear agenda, focus too much on irrelevant topics, conclude without any clear decisions being made, and only help those managers who consistently fail to follow up with action items – are an unfortunately notorious fact of the business world. 

Inefficient meetings are more than just a boring experience for your employees – they can also result in massive expenses for your organization. Opportunity costs that result from unproductive meetings arise through salaries and office-related costs, and indirect costs include loss of employee work time, and lower employee satisfaction, which in turn leads to higher employee turnover. Meetings today are almost exclusively virtual, meaning many employees and leaders alike are navigating a way of attending and holding meetings that may be unfamiliar and daunting, which can make productivity even more challenging. 

Meeting Productivity by the Numbers 

The metrics and statistics pointing to the real-world costs associated with unproductive meetings are all there. In a survey of 182 senior managers conducted by the Harvard Business Review, 65% of participants said that meetings keep them from completing their own work. 71% claimed that their meetings were unproductive and inefficient, 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking, and 62% said meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together.  

We all know that meetings are essential for enabling collaboration, creativity, and innovation. They provide the opportunity to foster relationships and ensure proper information exchange. These are real benefits but can only actually be achieved when your organization values meeting productivity. 

Minimizing unproductive meetings should be a primary aim of your organization. Here are 8 of our best tips to increase meeting productivity, lowering your meeting costs and reducing the time spent on meetings to make them more enjoyable for everyone involved.  

1. Time is Not the Real Issue 

Increasing your meeting productivity is as much about maximizing energy levels as it is about maximizing time being spent. Many employees are under the stress of not having enough time to complete their assigned tasks, complaining that meetings can rob them of this precious commodity. 

To minimize this negative connotation with meetings, consider employee energy levels when deciding the time and duration of your meeting. If you are planning a longer team meeting, work in breaks so that productivity levels are kept at their maximum. While virtual meetings may seem to carry less of an energy toll on your employees, scheduling meetings at the right time remains just as important as if you were to hold them in-person. Work patterns and schedules should remain the same for your employees, and so too should your meeting patterns. 

2. Keep Meetings as Short and Concise as Possible 

Parkinson’s Law dictates that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” This holds true for your company meetings. If you schedule an hour-long meeting, your team is likely to fill up this time simply, so they meet the scheduled parameters. 

This should be a clear sign that you are not using your meeting time productively. Instead of working to fill up meeting time, aim to keep your meetings as short as concise as possible. This ensures your agenda is kept focused and clear of clutter and filler.  

Setting a time limit of 10 or 15 minutes per meeting can really help. Research shows that our attention span only lasts between 10 to 18 minutes. Some organizations even opt for time-tracking activities such as a timer or an incentive to finish on time. Aim to never schedule a meeting that takes up more than 30 minutes. Should you have to, work in a short pause halfway through to keep your staff members’ full attention throughout the meeting. If you find you have run out of time before the clock runs up, do not stretch your babble to fill up space. Rather, ensure all attendees have absorbed all the necessary information, and allow them to return to their individual work. 

3. Plan Meetings Only When Needed 

Most organizations have a set time and day for meetings. Although consistent and regular check-ins are important to keep your business on track, this runs the risk of slowing productivity altogether. Employees may feel that valuable time is being wasted on mandatory meetings, especially when not many new developments have occurred since the last one, and the meeting is more filler than anything else. 

It is much more effective to set up meetings when things need to get done, decisions need to be made, and action points need to be finalized. This reduces the chances of employees feeling they are losing valuable time, and overall increases your organization’s meeting productivity. Weekly, 15-minute meetings are a good rule-of-thumb for many businesses with a lot of moving parts, but if you find your organization stays stagnant in its developments for longer periods of time, try minimizing the frequency of those check-in meetings. 

4. Prepare an Agenda 

A strong meeting agenda is arguably the most important part of a productive meeting. In fact, most of the time you spend on a meeting should be spent before you even enter the board room or online meeting call.  

To develop a good meeting agenda, start by defining why you want to hold the meeting in the first place (establish objectives). Is the meeting even necessary? Or can you communicate your message through other, less time-consuming means, like a simple telephone conference call? While some meetings may benefit from being summarized in an email, there are some outcomes that require a meeting in order to be met. This can include seeking input from coworkers, asking for approval, or passing on vital information.  

If you determine the meeting to be necessary, you should then begin to outline what it is you hope to achieve with it. Central to any productive meeting is a clear purpose. In a few words, try to describe the overarching goal of the meeting. Sticking to this throughout the planning process helps eliminate any clutter and time-wasting tangents from occurring. 

Next, you need to plan the meeting. To maximize your meeting productivity, it is important to develop an extremely focused and actionable agenda. This means little to no wiggle-room – the meeting will only focus on the items on your agenda, and nothing else. Too much lenience in points of discussion runs the risk of taking the meeting’s intent off track. 

Facilitate the meeting!  Aim to be specific about the items you are including, avoiding vague topics, and instead of making statements specific to the projects in your organization, asking questions where necessary. It can also be useful to list out the things you don’t want to discuss during the meeting, to ensure everyone is clear about the specific purpose of the meeting. 

Before the meeting, send the agenda to all attendees. Clearly explain the purpose of the meeting, details of where it will be held, and what results you hope to achieve from holding the meeting.  

5. Create a Smartphone Free Zone 

The use of smartphones or tablets during meetings are a nuisance both to meeting leaders and attendees alike. Many agree that it shows not only a lack of respect for the speaker and for their colleagues, but it also displays that full participations are patchy or absent, which can discourage others from being fully present and attentive during meetings.  

Making your meeting areas a smartphone free zone, encouraging people to leave phones outside in a basket or at their desks, can help eliminate the potential distractions they cause, ensuring you have full attention from all attendees. 

In today’s business world, almost all meetings are being done virtually. While this rule may seem counterintuitive given the reliance upon technology inherent in your meetings today, it still applies. Remote work can be an even more distraction-inducing working style for some employees, and this is only worsened by a lack of control over when they can use their smartphones for non-work-related purposes. Keeping meetings to a smartphone-free time for all team members, even when using technology to hold the meeting still looks to optimize overall productivity. 

6. Limit Attendees 

One less common tactic employed by companies to boost meeting productivity is limiting the number of attendees invited. Google, one of the most successful companies in the world, is famous for allowing no more than 10 people at a meeting at once.

By limiting attendees and inviting only key people, you are ensuring your meeting stays structured and geared towards the specific outcome you’re after. When you invite too many people, you run the risk of having most of your audience not having clear input and who could be working more productively on their regular tasks. 

Limiting attendees is also a strong way to keep your meetings cost-effective. Every employee has an hourly salary – calculating all the hourly salaries of attendees together gives a general hourly price for a meeting. Keeping the number of staff members in a meeting down ultimately lowers your direct costs for running the meeting in the first place. 

It is very likely that there are people in your organization who don’t necessarily need to be present at the meeting, but still need to stay in the loop about its outcome. Keeping them updated before and after the meeting is an effective way to keep everyone on the same page without wasting valuable time and resources. On the flip side, it is also likely that there are people who should attend the meeting, but don’t need to be present for the decision making. You should allow these attendees to leave after they’ve presented their points and their presence is no longer required. Looping in additional members may seem easier when holding virtual meetings, but this does diminish the potential it has to hinder the productivity of the meeting overall. 

7. Stick to Your Agenda 

Meeting productivity hinges upon your ability to, essentially, run the meeting like clockwork. You have your agenda, now you must consistently ensure people follow it when the time comes. To prevent any distractions from cropping up, check with your coworkers beforehand to see if there are any other items that should be discussed during the meeting and include these in your agenda. If topics are proposed that are outside the scope of what you want to accomplish with the meeting, ask them to send a separate memo to the attendees, or propose they schedule a separate meeting with its own agenda. 

Productive meetings need to be planned, so your colleagues should have the opportunity to prepare their input before the meeting begins. Making your agenda digitally available to all attendees can help. You can also ask meeting attendees to send short summaries of their contributions to you, so you can have a complete overview of your meeting before it even begins. 

To ensure no distractions crop up during the meeting, allot a certain amount of time for each agenda item and/or attendee, clarifying these time limits in the agenda so people can make their contributions as concise as possible.  

8. End Your Meeting with Action Items 

The final few minutes of any productive meeting should always be allocated to giving a recap of what has been discussed. Aim to ask the following questions at the end of your meetings: 

• What are the next steps? 
• Who is responsible for them? 
• What is the timeframe? 

Adjust the timeframe for this reflection period according to the size of your audience. As a rule of thumb, try to use 30 seconds per meeting attendee, to ensure everyone present has a clear answer to these three questions. When a meeting concludes, everyone should have a clear understanding of their responsibilities, and are accountable to other meeting attendees. 

Once the meeting is complete, send out a summary of the minutes, along with specific action items you discussed at the end of the meeting. Tag each of these action points to the DRI (Directly Responsible Individual). This way, you ensure that the meeting outcome is achieved.  

Start Increasing Your Meeting Productivity Today 

Meeting productivity is central to any organization’s overall success. Inefficient meetings run the risk not only of costing your company valuable time and money, but of also decreasing overall morale in the workplace. Productive meetings work to reduce these risks, maximizing the benefits of meetings, and encouraging organization-wide collaboration, creativity, and innovation. 

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12 Team Meeting Ideas to Engage Your Employees

Team meetings are a necessary part of any successful organization, particularly now. However, many organizations still use team meeting ideas that fail to keep their employees engaged, making them a boring and formulaic check-in rather than an exciting and productive experience. Even with the online meeting tool options that so many of us are utilizing today, there are several ways to lift engagement and ultimately, camaraderie and contribution. 

Believe it or not, there is room for creativity in your team meetings and it can be the catalyst that pushes attendees to get more out of team meetings. Organizations can draw on several different techniques to spice up their internal company meetings, holding them on a regular or as-need basis.  

Creative team meeting ideas can help team members to get together and pitch, brainstorm, or check in on certain pertinent developments within the company. Internal meetings exist in order to give all team members an opportunity to touch base with members of the same organization on issues big and small.  

Most staff members, regardless of position, don’t tend to associate team meetings with enjoyment or fulfillment. There is a connotation of boredom and mundanity attached, often resulting from repetitive and ineffectual practices. Keeping employees engaged during these regular, or intermittent, check-in periods is an absolute necessity if you are to encourage and maintain motivation and commitment from your staff. 

In a hurry? Take our infographic to go!

12 Team Meeting Ideas to Make Your Meetings Fun and Effective 

Here are some great examples of creative, tried-and-true team meeting ideas (and yes, even the online ones) that can help keep your employees engaged:

1. Start Every Team Meeting with a Win

In order to start a team meeting positively, you must start with a win. Beginning a meeting by announcing some recent accomplishment or presenting accolades to a top performer in the office, sets the tone for the rest of the meeting. When a meeting kicks off with a forward-thinking, positive narrative, people will immediately feel more positive about the meeting itself and more motivated to participate. 

The win itself can be big or small. Was a project a success? Did a certain staff member perform exceptionally well the last few weeks? Is there a milestone you can celebrate? Any type of win should be shared with the team. Alternatively, you can ask everyone at the meeting to share a win themselves. Either way, you are setting your meeting up for success. 

2. Internally Score Your Team Meetings

While the influence of external rewards is undeniable, many employees feel equally motivated by improving their own performance within an organization. Together with your team, try scoring each team meeting to make sure they’re being continuously improved upon. This can involve asking each staff member to score the meeting once it’s completed, then calculating the median score.  

Keeping track of whether meetings end on time, whether follow-up items get done, whether there are tangible results to your meetings, and whether participants are engaged and participate during meetings, can also be useful to track. 

3. Take Turns in Leading Your Team Meetings

This team meeting idea helps you to reduce the possibility that employees feel too monitored and assessed, giving ownership of meetings to the participants as much as to the leader.  

People are much more engaged when they are expected to directly contribute vs. a single designate. Draw on this by implementing a rotating system where you take turns in leading your meetings. This keeps employees engaged by switching up the presentation and leadership style, making them feel like they’re truly a part of their team meetings, rather than just a spectator. In order to keep consistency, use meeting guidelines to map out what meetings should look like to make sure they stay as productive and effective as possible. 

4. Stand Up During Your Team Meetings

During stand-up meetings, people are much more likely to participate. They stretch their legs, keep their blood flowing, and they feel much more actionable than they would sitting down. This is especially true for offices with only sit-down desks. Meetings held standing up keeps team sessions feeling much more hands-on and productive. Plan this on in advance so people can prop up their laptop cameras or video equipment. 

Just Fearless employs this practice in a creative way, keeping meetings efficient in the process. Whenever meetings run long, chairs are removed, and everyone is forced to stand until it ends. One of the biggest challenges of internal meetings is remaining focused and on topic. Having the looming pressure of potentially losing your chair puts things in perspective, motivating all participants to stay on track and finish the meeting on time.  

5. Use an Egg Clock and Make Long-Winded Employees Pay Up

Team meetings that run on for too long are a constant challenge in any organization. Implementing tactics to eliminate running past the clock can help your organization in reducing wasted meeting time, keeping meetings focused and employees on-track.  

Using an egg clock is a simple way to make sure meetings don’t take up too much time. Once the egg clock rings, then the time is up, and the meeting must end. This gives meetings a necessary sense of urgency to keep things moving at the pace they should be, rather than wasting time getting off-track. Time limits can vary depending on the size of your team, and on the regularity of the meetings themselves. If your team meetings are weekly, 15-30 minutes should be sufficient. If they are bi-weekly, 30-45 should work. Regardless of how you adjust your allotted meeting time, the general rule of thumb is that the less time you can use, the better. 

Tripping has a creative and fun method that keeps employees from running past the clock. At the start of every meeting, they set a stopwatch for 30 minutes. If the meeting extends beyond this allotted time, whoever called the meeting is responsible for putting $5 into their team beer jar. Fun rewards mixed with friendly competition can help make a productive internal team meeting atmosphere.  

6. Give Everyone Time to Speak

Many team meetings fall short in engaging every employee, with some participants talking over while others keep silent. To fix this, aim to schedule a few minutes of speaking time for everyone at the meeting. By default, every participant must speak up. 

To keep meetings aligned with your goals of productivity, make sure you let meeting participants know they should come prepared with useful insights for the meeting. You can do this by sharing your agenda beforehand, that way participants have a chance to prepare relevant information, keeping the meeting on-track and effective.  

7. Use Different Meeting Themes

In order to see tangible outcomes for every team meeting you hold, try using different themes every time. Themes could shift with respect to what you are hoping your staff will learn that week, or you could incorporate broader themes relating to team culture, such as wellbeing. 

By using themes this way, you are ensuring your team meetings don’t feel stagnant or become too repetitive in their proceedings. Changing the scope of what you are focusing, or the lens through which you are opening dialogue, encourages creativity and innovativeness in your staff.  

The actual way you incorporate themes into your team meetings can vary. You can choose to go all in, gearing your activities to relate to the theme and promote its principle ideas. Or, you could choose to allocate a portion of your meeting to discuss the theme. Some examples of themes could include better teamwork, a healthier workplace, work-life balance, motivation, or productivity. 

8. Create a Unique Ritual

A specific team meeting idea or activity that is unique to your organization can help your team meetings feel much more fun, and in turn, very effective. Poll Everywhere has a unique ritual that they employ at the start or end of every internal team meeting called a “moment of Zen”. During this period of the meeting, they take time, as a group, to learn something new or reflect on their day. Oftentimes, this involves meeting leaders or participants sharing an inspiring quote or a fun news tidbit. It can also involve team members drawing attention to interesting notes from the work of their colleagues during the week.  

Open discussion should be the basis for any meeting but incorporating a less rigid ritual that promotes positive thinking helps employees take a step back from their own immediate business, allowing them to bond over bigger picture ideas. Ultimately, a small activity that encourages positive, rotating communication and the sharing of accomplishments or productive insights will help your staff build stronger collaboration over time. 

9. Keep Employees on Topic

Many company meetings often run the risk of repetitive ideas, spinning off topic, and long-winded tangents that fail to move the conversation forward. Remedying this issue should be a goal for any team meeting leader, but one company has a particularly successful method to keep their employees on topic.  

Brivo has a meeting policy where whenever someone begins to rehash a point that has already been made, another team member can hold up a ping pong paddle reading “No Rehash”. This helps employees feel empowered to bring greater energy to meetings, focusing more intently on discussions and moving the conversation forward, while also helping each other to break their bad habits.  

10. Get Personal

To avoid team meetings from being a mundane, dry experience for employees, aim to incorporate some activity that engages them on a personal level. In their internal team meetings, LivePerson adds in a human aspect to their proceedings, beginning by asking a specific question in a topic chosen to help break down walls and promote deep, meaningful conversations between staff. 

While it is important to keep meeting discussions on track with the organization’s plans, you should aim to include some element or technique that helps employees’ bond. Staff members who feel recognized on both and a personal and professional level are much more likely to think collaboratively, seeing things from one another’s perspective and working cohesively as a team. 

11. Change Locations Once in a While

Creative team meeting ideas are not limited to the content of the meetings itself. In the same sense that you aren’t limited to one certain way to encourage participation, you’re also not limited to holding your meetings in a specific location.  

Changing the location of where you are broadcasting from every now and then can help you organize better team meetings. After all, if participants always hold their meetings from the same location, they might not produce anything new. Some examples of a location change you can use include taking a walk around the house, setting up in a different room and playing with the backgrounds that are in view; e.g.; Zoom lets you drop in a jungle scene or a backdrop to the San Francisco Bridge!  The point is, have fun and engage your teammates. 

12. Ask for Feedback

The best way to keep improving your meetings is to ask your employees themselves. Ask participants what you can do better, adapting your methods to optimize the efficiency and productivity of your meetings. Feedback should be asked for regularly. This can be done at the end of every meeting, or more thoroughly every quarter or so. HR solutions like Sprigg’s Continuous Feedback Tool can help encourage continuous feedback, and resultingly, continuous growth and improvement for your team meeting ideas. 

Take our 12 Team Meeting Ideas infographic with you!

Key Takeaways: Team Meeting Ideas 

Team meetings are an excellent opportunity to utilize your planning skills in new and creative ways. As a meeting leader, your principle goal should always be to optimize the effectiveness of your meeting sessions. This can only be done when all employees are engaged, and employees are only engaged when they are excited by what they are learning. 

Consider the team meeting ideas listed above, using them as a starting point for developing practices that suit your business and its goals. No matter the method you choose to go with, meetings are a great way to bring team members together and push them towards their highest potential together, even when we’re all apart for now. 

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The Benefits of Peer to Peer learning 

When there is a required need for specific skill development and/or knowledge transfer within any organization, the usual solution is to hire a subject matter expert who will ultimately serve as a consultant and/or trainer. However, there is another effective approach to impart knowledge: peer to peer learning. 

What is peer to peer learning?

Peer to peer learning is exactly what it sounds like – that is, employees teaching other employees certain skills, or passing on knowledge pertaining to a specific subject. While it can take on many different forms, the common factor in peer to peer learning situations is that the information isn’t shared by an instructor, or anyone else in a position of authority. Peer to peer learning is coworkers – that is, employees on the same hierarchical level –  teaching each other what they know. This can take place in a group setting, or one-on-one. For example: 

• Two customer service representatives work for a company that recently switched their class-enrollment system to a brand new one. One of the CSRs picks up the process of creating new student accounts very quickly, and becomes an expert at it. The second CSR was on vacation when the new system rolled out, and are a little behind on the training videos. The two CSRs are scheduled on a shift together, and the first one takes some time to teach the second CSR how to efficiently create a new student account. This is a great example of one-on-one peer to peer learning. 

• Suppose then that the same CSRs have a group chat, and it becomes evident that almost no one understands how to properly print receipts for customers. One person (possibly CSR 1 from the above example) takes initiative and outlines a step-by-step process, and sends it to the whole group to learn. This is group peer to peer learning. 

There are many examples of peer to peer learning – these are just two examples of relatively informal interactions. Peer to peer learning is flexible and can be as formal or informal as you want. Regardless of how you run it, the benefits of peer to peer learning are undeniable. 

What are the benefits of peer to peer learning?

Think of it this way: if an issue crops up that your team needs help to handle, would you rather be trained by an external consultant who has very little understanding or perhaps even empathy of your work challenges or a peer who has had to deal with and resolve the same or similar problem you’re currently facing? 

Not only is peer to peer learning an effective way to transfer knowledge among coworkers, but it will also serve as a cost-containing exercise in not having to hire external experts each time there is a knowledge gap in your organization. Additional benefits: 

• Common experiences: since the person teaching and the person learning are peers working at a similar level, they will have shared experiences that can make learning easier 
• Practice makes perfect: employees who have to deal with an issue on a consistent basis will be better able to explain more readily 
• Sharing is caring: when coworkers teach/learn from each other, they build more of a bond. This helps build trust and respect moving forward and increased camaraderie 
• Employee comfort: employees will be much more at ease with peer to peer learning vs an external resource. It allows them to build strong connections with each other based on the collective sharing of knowledge. 

Now that we know what peer to peer learning is, as well as how it is beneficial to a company, what are the best ways to facilitate it in your workplace? 

How to effectively facilitate peer to peer learning

One of the most effective ways to use peer to peer learning in your company is to encourage social learning. This essentially means learning by watching your peers, interacting with them, and following their lead when performing tasks. This is a highly effective form of learning as it is relatively informal, while being low pressure and levels of high-engagement.  

It’s also important to let employees drive their own learning whenever possible. This doesn’t mean not having structures in place, but peer to peer learning is a great opportunity to give employees control over what they’re learning, and how. This will empower them to make the most of their training, and will also help keep them more engaged.  

As we mentioned above, there are many ways to employ peer to peer learning. Here are a few common examples. 

Mentoring

Mentors are great at helping newer employees solve problems, as they’ve likely come across them before. They also aren’t an expert focused on one specific area – they will have a general working knowledge of everything the job requires, and as such, will be able to help with most issues. Strong and present mentors are a huge benefit for workplaces, as they not only help solve work-related problems more effectively, but build solid internal relationships. 

Lunch n’ Learn 

This is a relatively simple and fairly common approach.  Periodically (weekly, monthly, even quarterly) schedule a hosted lunch that depending on the topic, looks to invite employees from a specific team. One person will provide a presentation and / or facilitate a discussion on the topic provided, ideally transferring knowledge or information.  

Learning Management Systems 

Setting up a training platform that gives employees access to required learning materials can be an extensive and sometimes costly undertaking. Depending upon the direction taken, whether it be repository-driven or interactive e-learning module-based, a well-designed LMS can house presentations, documents, processes materials, etc. providing immediate access for employees in an on-demand format.  

Final thoughts

While your first thought may be that experts hired externally are the best way to impart knowledge, consider peer to peer learning. It offers many benefits, from easier learning, to monetary savings, and is easily implemented in your company, whatever the size. 

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10 Internal Communications Best Practices 

The Case for Internal Communications Best Practices

In the modern digital workplace, strong internal communications (IC) is the foundation for success. How a message gets communicated is as important as the message itself. As outlined here, IC is an essential component of an organization’s effort to maintain employee engagement and keep everyone, at all levels, focused on what really matters. 

An organization’s culture consists of the company’s goals, values, and practices, and in today’s modern market, company culture can work to give any organization a major strategic advantage. However, that advantage is lost if the organizations fails to effectively transmit these components of their culture. If employees are going to understand and act upon the overarching goals and values of the business, there first must be a strong system of internal communications according to best practices. In short, it’s essential to focus not just on what you’re communicating, but also how it’s being communicated.  

Here are 10 new internal communications best practices that can improve your organization’s internal communications strategy, connect your team, and keep everyone engaged and motivated.

1. Envision, Strategize, and Plan Communications 

When constructing your internal communications plan, one of the best practices is to first understand the specific communication needs of your organization. Asking yourself the following questions can help guide you towards the best communications strategy: 

• What do you want internal communications to do for your team and your organization? 
• How will you get there? 
• Where does it stand right now? What is working, and what needs improvement? 
• How soon would you like to reach your goals?  

A well-formulated internal communications strategy can be as simple or elaborate, as general or specific, as is best suited for your organization. The aim should always be to keep the business on track, making the company more efficient in reaching internal communications success. 

2. Ensure Consistency in Communication 

The absence of a strategic and effective internal communications system is what causes a business to fail in ensuring consistency between external and internal messages.  

Especially in larger, decentralized companies, information does not always flow consistently through all departments and levels. This is largely due to the risk of individual managers sharing information at their own discretion also hinges upon their ability to communicate well in the first place. 

Aim to continuously provide all employees, at all levels, with a “core story” that frames the organization’s strategy in terms of its overarching mission and values. Maintaining optimal and consistent internal communication relies just as much on the expectations of employees as on the potential effects of the organization. By communicating frequently, consistently, and fairly, you can work to build both trust and buy-in from employees and internal stakeholders alike.  

3. Include Metrics Whenever Possible 

Regularly measuring an organization’s performance is an effective way to gain insight into the team’s actual work ethic. Using metrics to track progress can be beneficial for employees, making them aware of the specific approaches that communicators use to demonstrate the ROI for their internal communications initiatives. 

When involving intermediaries, such as departmental managers, in communicating with staff members, evaluations should include both intermediary engagement and the end-user engagement.  

To achieve competitive sustainability in a job market increasingly dependent on technology, businesses can make use of internal communications software to share metrics more conveniently. 

4. Provide Channels for Feedback and Ideas 

Consistent, two-way feedback is an essential component of any strong internal communications program. Diverse methods and channels are available to organizations, including online software aimed at encouraging open conversation between all members of an organization. Channels for feedback can also be useful when discussing ideas regarding the workplace, products, working procedures, etc., not always limited logistical conversations to in-person meetings and keeping the conversation flowing. 

Regularly receiving and sending feedback and ideas in an organization can help an organization to remain aligned to its goals, develop new strategies, create good products and services, improve interpersonal relationships, and much more.  

5. Encourage Cross-Departmental Communication and Collaboration 

Cross-departmental communication is essential if an organization wants its employees to be able to learn from one another. Holding Q&A sessions or special gatherings between different departments to communicate, collaborate, and share insights is an effective way of achieving this. 

As an example, regular inter-departmental Q&A meeting sessions can work to encourage the sharing of knowledge across departments, enhancing overall employee engagement. Additionally, consistent cross-departmental collaboration prevents employees from feeling isolated from one another, making it one of the strongest internal communications practices.  

6. Maintain Transparency 

Transparency is more than just a business policy; it is an organization mindset. Transparency is a crucial internal communications practice, promoting trust, accountability, and open dialogue within any organization. When employees feel left in the dark on certain matters, this may discourage them from asking clarifying questions and sharing their thoughts and concerns on the matter. 

Evidently, not all information can be made available to everyone at all times. However, maintaining some transparency on what is directly influencing an employee’s work efforts can have tremendous effects on the harmony and rapport within the organization.  

7. Avoid Communication Overload 

Especially for larger and faster-growing companies, many internal communications practices run the risk of causing communication overload.  While regular and consistent communication is essential, aim to keep messages simple, brief, and to the point. If larger chunks of information are needed to be sent out, communicate with relatively less frequency. Balancing communicating what is necessary with what your employees can handle at once can help you to cut down on communication overload.  

In short, the aim to be to always send the right information, to the right people, at the right time.  

8. Share Industry News, Trends, and Insights 

Employees are valid contributors to the industry itself. All staff members, regardless of ranking, should be consistently updated on the latest industry news. To accomplish this, you can encourage your employees to share and discuss industry news, the latest market trends, and any other industry-related blurbs. 

By keeping employees engaged in the bigger picture, it effectively reminds them that their efforts are part of something larger than their purview. This can be an excellent motivator. 

9. Use Internal Communications to Recognize and Praise Success 

The importance of employee recognition can never be understated. Consistent acknowledgment and rewards for employees performing well makes all staff members feel that their contributions are valued and appreciated. Recognizing employees’ efforts and contributions through internal communications software can not only boost employee morale, but also maximize the organization’s overall productivity and growth.  

10. Promote Employee Resources and Training 

Any strong internal communications program should be consistently relaying the benefits and resources that are available to employees. This could include information on a variety of things, from health insurance and dental coverage, to company-sponsored seminars, off-site training opportunities, and career-building workshops. 

By using a combination of emails, chats, internal blogs and postings, and in-person team meetings to spread the word, regularly promoting resources ultimately encourages employees to invest in their own personal and professional development through the organization itself.  

Internal Communications Best Practices Offer a Competitive Edge 

In the modern business world, communication professionals are increasingly challenged to prove the direct impacts of the organization’s mission, vision, objectives, and practices. By improving employee communications, an organization can also improve overall employee performance, which lends itself to outside credibility as well as internal success. 

The amount of direct contact that employees have both with their peers and their supervisors plays a crucial role in how they stay motivated, notified, and engaged in what they do. In this digital transformative era of hyper-modern businesses, competitiveness hinges upon the ability to enact change. Especially for larger, more widely distributed workforces, keeping pace with rapid innovation requires strong internal communications best practices that consistently keeps all employees fully aware and informed.  

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10 Trust Building Activities to Try with Your Team 

Many employees at any given company spend between 30 – 50 hours (sometimes more!) per week working. Much of this time will be spent interacting with the same coworkers over and over. For this reason, trust among employees is not only something NICE to have, but something you NEED to have. Enter: 

Trust Building Activities 

Quite simply put, the more trust employees have in one another, the stronger the team will be. It’s much easier to work with someone if you know they will do their fair share and pull their weight. Also, knowing a coworker has their back makes employees much more inclined to lend a hand or cover for someone, trusting that the favor will be returned when needed. 

Trust isn’t something that is necessarily easy to come by, however. No matter how smart or skilled employees are, it takes time to form resilient bonds – it’s not just something you can tell people to have. Trust building activities are a great way to help teams form high levels of trust, which will also lead to them being more productive.  

Despite working together so often, employees will rarely have a chance to bond on a personal level. For this reason, time and resources should be allotted to trust building activities semi-regularly – monthly, even quarterly, depending on the scale of the activities.  

So how does one go about preparing trust building activities for the team? 

Preparing before trust building activities

• Let your team know in advance: it’s important to give your team a heads up if you’re planning on running some trust building activities. This will give more time to employees who may be a bit more nervous about the idea, to prepare. If you’re thinking of including any activities that include personal questions, it may be a good idea to include them as well. 
• Organize food: you don’t want your team attempting to build trust on an empty stomach. Getting food catered, or even having the food prep be part of the trust building activities (see below!) is a good way to start your training session off. 
• Give bosses a heads up: let upper management know of the trust building activities ahead of time, and tell them what it entails. This way, if they want to participate in any fashion – actually participating, or even just giving an inspirational speech, etc. – they’ll be aptly prepared. 

10 Trust Building Activities

Now that we know why trust building activities are important, and how to prepare for them, let’s take a look at some good activities to have your team take part in. 

1. Icebreaker questions

Icebreakers are the classic trust building activity. They can range from just a single, silly question (i.e. if you could live in any fictional world, what would it be?) to a series of questions about the employee’s personal life. Other options include asking about pet projects (activities employees do outside of work), pest projects (areas they would like to improve in), and nostalgic questions. 

Icebreakers help build trust because it allows coworkers to learn about each other on a personal level. It can also explore employee’s vulnerabilities, depending on which questions are asked, which builds trust among the team. They are relatively ‘safe’ as well particularly if shared in advance. 

2. Eye contact

Speaking of vulnerability, another great trust building activity is to simply make eye contact. Many people are uncomfortable doing this for extended periods of time – have employees make eye contact for up to 60 seconds, and see how they make connections.  

3. Trust fall

This is another well-known trust building activity. Have someone stand in the middle of a circle of their coworkers and close their eyes. They then announce that they are ready to fall, and the circle will respond that they are ready to catch them. When the person in the middle falls, the circle will keep them upright/catch them. This builds trust for your coworkers literally and metaphorically having your back. 

4. Food prep

Eating together not only ensures that the team won’t be hangry, but also builds trust. Consider an alternative to having meetings catered – have the trust building activity be centered around a cooking class. Don’t forget to consider dietary restrictions!  

5. Blind trail

Assemble an obstacle course in a large, open space. Have teams of five or six all holding onto a rope while blindfolded. They must navigate the course together – they are allowed to talk and communicate, so they will be able to build trust with each other. 

6. Partner obstacle course

Have employees pair up, one person in each pair wearing a blindfold. Set up an obstacle course and have the employee who can see verbally navigate the blindfolded employee through it. 

7. Blind snake

As you may have noticed, many trust building activities rely on blindfolds. In blind snake, have a team of five or six line up one in front of the other. Place various objects around the large, open space that the team will need to pick up. Only the back person in line is able to see – they cannot speak, but can direct the line by tapping the shoulder of the person in front of them. That person taps the next one, and so on. When they successfully get an item, the person at the front goes to the back. 

8. Human knot

Another classic trust building activity. Have employees form a circle. They then will reach out and connect right hands with someone on the opposite side. Next, they will connect left hands with someone else. Have them try to unravel the knot without breaking any contact. This will build communication and team thinking. 

9. Flip over

Have teams stand on pieces of plastic, or tarp, or paper that are similar sizes. Simply ask them to flip it over, without anyone breaking contact with it. 

10. Frostbite

One person on the team is the leader, who has frostbite – meaning they can’t move. The other team members have snow-blindness, meaning – you guessed it – they are blindfolded. With verbal direction from the leader, they must complete a task, such as assembling a tent or something similar. 

Final thoughts

Trust building activities are crucial to ensuring your team is as close as they can be. The more trusting a team is of each other, the more productive they’ll be, and the more your company benefits. Make sure you set aside time and resources semi-regularly to engage in trust building activities. 

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10 Crucial People Management Skills 

Effective people management is a necessary skillset for current and aspiring leaders who hope to achieve a workplace built on strong communication and clear pathways to employee success. People management skills can make all the difference between negative, mediocre, positive, and great employee experiences and therefore, engagement. 

Though work environments are constantly changing as new upgrades and developments are made in the industry, a pivotal aim for your business should always be to manage people in a way that creates a motivated team as high performing and engaged, as you are. After all, speed of the leader equals speed of the pack. 

All too often leaders are placed in a position to manage a team of people because they are subject matter experts of a given skill or knowledge base.  Leading people is very different than leading a process. 

What is People Management? 

People management refers to the set of practices that encompasses the training, motivating, and directing of employees in order to optimize workplace productivity and promote professional growth. It outlines the end-to-end processes of talent acquisition, talent optimization, and talent retention, while also providing continued support for the organization and guidance for its employees.  

People management is a key sub-set of any human resources department. It deals with every aspect of how employees work, behave, contribute, and grow at work. The strategies employed by an organization to manage its people affects the overall workings of the organization itself, and thus need to be clearly outlined in individual pieces while also working cohesively towards the bigger picture.  

When are People Management Skills Important? 

Leaders in the workplace use people management skills to oversee employee workflow and boost performance on a regular basis. However, strong people management skills can be useful in all kinds of workplace situations, including: 

• Handling Interpersonal Conflicts. Leaders play an important role when it comes to resolving conflicts in the workplace. Effective people management can help to mediate conflicts in a way that encourages collaboration and mutual respect. 
• Leading Employee Training. As a leader, you are likely to be responsible for the onboarding processes for new employees, and the coaching of current employees on updated processes. Providing constructive and useful feedback, and mentoring employees in such a way that enables them to succeed in their positions is a critical skillset to ensure a proper transition for the new employee but also for long-term retention. 
• Managing Deadlines. Overseeing employee duties includes the delegation of tasks and the establishment of achievable goals. A solid understanding of managing people is the baseline when evaluating your organization’s resources and when setting deadlines that encourage progress and motivation within the team. 
• Building Company Culture. Any good leader knows how to positively influence their work environment, and people management skills are an integral element to this. By drawing on your people management responsibilities, you can build a healthy rapport with employees, ask your team for constructive feedback, and then use that feedback to make actionable changes in your company culture that promotes employee growth and success. 

Crucial People Management Skills 

People management requires a core set of skills that can adapt to the demands and needs of both your employees and your organizational goals. By implementing these skills into your strategy, you open the door to honest and transparent communication, improved employee experience and performance, and a healthier rapport between you and your employees. 

Here are 10 essential people management skills to incorporate into your workplace: 

1. Empowerment of Employees 
2. Active Listening 
3. Conflict-Resolution 
4. Flexibility 
5. Patience 
6. Clear Communication 
7. Trust-Building 
8. Organization 
9. Appreciation 
10. Knowledge-Seeking 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these people management skills. 

1. Empowerment of Employees 

Making efforts to empower your employees enables them to develop new skills and be more productive in the long-run. This involves training new employees well, giving them the knowledge and resources required to perform their assigned tasks successfully, and being a consistent resource for support in their continuous learning process. 

The aspects involved in empowering employees include: 

• Being available for questions and additional training when needed. 
• Encouraging employees to take on additional skill-building courses or learning opportunities. 
• Allowing employees to adjust their workflow processes if it improves their productivity and success. 
• Offering real-time, constructive feedback to encourage skill-building. 
• Supporting employees during challenging projects. 

2. Active Listening 

This refers to the practice of listening to the speaker in order to fully understand their perspective, question, or concern before choosing the right way to respond. Active listening involves removing potential distractions, maintaining eye contact with the speaker, and offering verbal or non-verbal cues that indicate your engagement with the conversation. 

If an employee comes to you with a question or concern, they want to have addressed, be sure to use nonverbal cues such as nodding to demonstrate your engagement and understanding while they’re speaking. Be sure to respond thoughtfully, repeating a brief summary of their message to show you were engaged. If your understanding of their concern is correct, ask follow-up questions to get a better sense of what they need. You can also express your empathy with their experience, which will assure them that you understand and respect them.  

3. Conflict-Resolution 

Addressing interpersonal challenges is an integral part of people management. Solid conflict/dispute-resolution skills are essential to leading people and can circumvent the possibility for employees to feel their concerns haven’t been understood.  

In conflict-resolution cases, you can start by analyzing the situation and then identify what the possible causes of the conflict might be. If the situation involves a miscommunication or opposing opinions, try mediating between the differing parties and guiding them towards a compromise or a collective understanding. After mediation, be sure to regularly monitor the situation to make sure the conflict remains fully resolved, and to prevent it from occurring again. Keep in mind that each party has a responsibility to own and manage their part of the resolution process. 

4. Flexibility 

Effective people management involves knowing when to be flexible and when to be firm in your direction of employees. Demonstrating flexibility in your people management style could involve the accommodation of individual employee needs. For example, adjustable schedules, remote work options, and allowing employees the autonomy to adjust their individual workflow to maximize their productivity. Be sure to assess the results of their processes to ensure its efficiency and be ready to help them revise the process if it can be optimized. 

5. Patience 

As a people management skill, patience encompasses the use of kindness, respect, and empathy while helping others overcome obstacles. Patience is valuable when training new employees, teaching new processes, handling conflicts, or solving interpersonal problems. Employees who trust that their managers are patient are much more likely to ask for clarification, ensuring they understand your directions and resultingly increasing their quality of work. 

6. Clear Communication 

Communication is an essential people management skill that allows team members to collaborate in solving problems, brainstorming new ideas, and adapting to changes. Your value as a team member and as an effective leader hinges upon your ability to clearly communicate with your coworkers. 

Practicing effective communication can be as easy as using clear and simple language, ensuring every recipient understands your message. It can also involve a revision of the way you communicate that avoids barriers, such as information overload or inaccessible terms and diction. Allow your employees the opportunity to ask clarifying questions and be sure to directly confirm that each employee understands the information to prevent miscommunication.  

7. Trust-Building 

Trust in the workplace means believing you can rely on a coworkers’ abilities, assistance, or advice when you need it most. Employing trust-building as one of your people management skills helps your team to work together more efficiently and productively. Team members should all be able to trust that their leader supports them and believes in their efforts, and in turn, leaders should be able to trust that their team can complete their tasks correctly and efficiently.  

To build trust in your team, you should consistently perform your tasks and demonstrate technical skills when employees come to you for help. You can also encourage trust during constructive feedback sessions, helping team members improve their skills and quality of work. 

8. Organization 

As a leader, part of your duties will always involve managing several different ongoing tasks simultaneously. Organization is a crucial skill to develop in order to stay on top of each moving piece in your team, tracking and maintaining their productivity. Components of effective organization include: 

• Properly assigning tasks to team members. 
• Conducting meetings that discuss information in a productive and efficient manner. 
• Being prompt in your response time to emails, approval requests, and questions. 
• Keeping a calendar to actively track deadlines and progress. 

9. Appreciation 

Being able to appreciate your employees and their efforts is a people management skill that should be mastered if you are to be an effective leader. An important aspect of guiding a team is praising and rewarding them for a job well done. This impacts how every individual perceives their work and the value of their efforts, and positively influences how the organization measures and reacts to individual successes. Including a process of appreciation that goes beyond monetary bonuses helps to create a culture of gratitude in the workplace, one that will evidently improve employee experience and satisfaction. 

10. Knowledge-Seeking 

As a people manager, having access to the right data and information is as crucial as what you choose to do with it. Your effectiveness as a leader depends largely on the way you choose to apply the data you have access to, building a knowledge and information base that aids company decisions, provides insights into company proceedings and goals, and enables a deeper understanding of people and processes. 

Become the Leader Your Team Deserves 

The responsibility of managing a team does not come with a handbook, which is why many leaders spend a significant amount of time investing in the development of skills that can adapt to the needs of their company. Remember: leading people is very different than leading a process and just because you’re a subject matter expert in one field, does not equate to instantly being able to lead and manage people effectively.  

By incorporating the above-mentioned skills into your people management strategy, you can strengthen your current performance and become a stronger candidate for future leadership roles.  The application of these skills not only benefits you but will inevitably encourage a company culture that promotes employee engagement, success, and satisfaction.  

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Responsibility vs Accountability – What’s the difference?

Responsibility and accountability are two terms that are often considered synonymous and are used interchangeably. However, they actually have very distinct meanings. It is important to understand the differences between responsibility vs accountability in order to assess who fits where in the office structure and / or when clarifying assignment to a given project. 

What is responsibility in the workplace?

What are some aspects of responsibility in the workplace? 

• Responsibility is essentially the duty to respond to and complete tasks.  
• It can be shared among a team – multiple people can be responsible for achieving a specific outcome by working on the same task, or have different tasks they are responsible for that lead to the same goal. 
• Responsibility cannot technically be assigned to someone. A person must choose to take responsibility for something themselves. 
• It is specifically task-focused – it can include: who has what role, what that entails, and what must be done in order to be successful. 

What is accountability in the workplace?

How is accountability in the workplace defined? 

• Accountability is literally the ability and/or duty to report (or give account of) on events, tasks, and experiences. 
• Accountability for a specific task, process, service, etc. should be assigned to just one person 
• If more than one person is accountable for the result of a task, there is a much higher risk that each person will think the others are taking charge, leading to no one taking accountability. 
• Tasks should be assigned based on an individual’s skills and competencies. 
• Whereas responsibility is an ongoing duty to complete the task at hand, accountability is what happens after a situation occurs. 
• It is how a person responds and takes ownership of the results of a task. 
• Being accountable often means that the person is liable to face consequences from some authority if the task isn’t completed successfully 
• However, not always – sometimes the accountability can also be at play when the “accountable” person communicates the objective isn’t being reached. 

Key Differences of Responsibility vs Accountability

Now that we have defined both responsibility and accountability, let’s summarize the key differences. 

Download our infographic to help explain the differences between responsibility and accountability in your organization!

Responsibility vs Accountability – 3 examples

We’ve defined responsibility and accountability in the workplace and specified some key differences. Now, let’s take a look at some examples that further illustrate those key differences. 

1. Doing chores 

We can feel responsible for doing household chores without having accountability. If someone who lives alone has the responsibility to do their laundry, but fail to do so, they have no one to answer to but themselves. They will be responsible, but they won’t face any consequences from an authority. 

However, a parent could make their child accountable for the laundry getting done. In this case, if the laundry doesn’t get finished, the child would have to explain (give an account of) why the task hadn’t been completed to their parent (the authority) and could face potential consequences. 

2. Customer service 

Suppose your company has an online help portal where customers can ask questions, and get responses in real time from customer service representatives (CSRs). It is the responsibility of the CSRs to respond to these questions – that is their task, working toward a goal of, for example, a response time of three minutes or less per question. 

In this example, accountability shouldn’t lie with the multiple CSRs all doing the same task with the same goal in mind – instead, it should be assigned to one person (perhaps a supervisor or manager) who would be accountable for the response time. In this case, they wouldn’t necessarily face consequences if the goal wasn’t met – accountability for this situation could be to inform a higher authority (their boss) that the goal wasn’t being achieved.  

3. Stockperson

In some cases, someone can both have responsibility for something, and also be held accountable for it. Consider this example: an employee is responsible for keeping the storage room stocked with computer paper. They are aware that this is their job, and will continue to bring more paper to the room before it runs out. As this is an ongoing task, they are merely responsible for it – they will not be held accountable until the task is completed. In this example, that could be if the employee fails to stock the room and has to face consequences for it.
 

Final Thoughts on Responsibility vs Accountability

While they seem to be very similar terms, there are key distinctions when comparing responsibility vs accountability in the workplace. It’s important to know the differences in order to ensure that the right people (and number of people) are assigned to specific tasks, and also to know who is responsible for what, and who will be held accountable for certain outcomes. 

Remember: you can take responsibility, and you can hold someone accountable. 

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