Put staff first - happy customers will follow

KEEPING employees engaged is a constant challenge that has been exacerbated by the pandemic and the resulting mass shift to remote work. This has shown businesses how critical employee engagement can be to an organisation's success, due to its impact on productivity, loyalty and customer satisfaction. The continued preference for remote work in Singapore following lockdown orders have signalled potentially permanent changes in how work is done, and how employee engagement is maintained in a distributed workforce. With the gap between the physical and digital workspace narrowing, businesses are looking more closely at how technology can help employees perform their jobs more effectively.

Studies have shown the correlation between engaged employees and satisfied customers - which can also contribute to higher customer satisfaction, loyalty and, ultimately, sales. A recent Harvard Business Review report commissioned by Freshworks found that more than half of global respondents (54 per cent) believe that better employee engagement results in happy customers, while 53 per cent noted that the quality of the products or services are better when employees are happier.

WHAT MAKES EMPLOYEES HAPPY?

Organisations have seen that creating people-centric work environments where employees have more flexibility to create their own work-life balance is an important feature of businesses that retain happy employees. Rewards and recognition for jobs well done and opportunities for career growth are also important focus areas for companies to look at when improving employee satisfaction and engagement.

Technology also plays a significant role in boosting employee engagement. It has paved the way for employees to perform their jobs effectively, through workplace tools that increase access to internal systems as well as improve collaboration and productivity. In fact, 77 per cent of respondents to the Harvard Business Review report said that good employees will look for a new job if their current employer does not provide the tools, technology or information they need to do their job well.

Tools to aid in performance management can also help employers provide regular feedback on performance. Simply selecting the right technologies is only part of the solution, as it is also important to give employees a voice during the selection process. Without employee buy-in, the technology will not be utilised to its fullest potential and engagement levels may start to drop. Workplace technology plays an integral role in employee engagement, and the choice of tools and technology has to be democratised.

Before long, low levels of internal engagement can impact customer experiences with potentially irreversible effects. While overall customer satisfaction with brands in Singapore has improved steadily, customer experiences have fundamentally changed with the pandemic. Companies need to be prepared to adapt to new behaviours from customers and employees. Accenture notes that such behaviours are due to an erosion of trust, shift to virtual activities, deepening concerns about health, people staying at home more, and a possible re-invention of authority following the pandemic.

Ultimately, strong customer relationships will drive customer loyalty and profitability, but organisations need to remain focused on improving experiences for both employees and customers, with the help of technology, to be successful in the current environment.