A record 4.5 million workers quit their job in the United States in November 2021. It's a trend that employers know all too well and one that continues to this day. More and more of today's employees are resigning voluntarily.
While some argue that this issue started well over a decade ago, it’s hard to argue with the current trend; employees aren’t happy and won’t hesitate to leave.
It’s not a question of salary or total compensation. It’s not a question of work-life balance or career advancement opportunities. It’s a question of engagement and motivation.
As early as 2017, a study showed that low employee engagement and motivation costs businesses between $450 to $550 billion annually. Taking employee engagement seriously is critical moving forward, and the tool that can increase that engagement - while building strong internal networks and connections - is employee directory software.
A Shift in Workplace Trends
Think about how work has changed over the years. Think about how COVID ushered in a new age of the work-from-home employee and flexible working hours. Think about how important mental health has become to today’s employees and how important they view having a solid work-life balance.
Today’s employees place greater emphasis on safety, diversity, working together, and learning new skills. They want an employer who provides all these benefits while empowering them to make their own choices.
These workplace trends are here to stay. If anything, they will become more prevalent and commonplace moving forward. Companies must adjust to today’s new workplace environment. They must use software that increases communication, increases collaboration, and improves how employees interact and work together, whether at the office, on the road, or working from home.
Enterprise directory software is designed with today’s workplace trends in mind. Its focus is to build strong internal networks by empowering employees and managers to communicate no matter where they are or what they’re doing.
Today’s Companies have a Motivation Problem
Employee motivation is at a premium nowadays; only 36% of U.S. workers are engaged and motivated to perform their best. The rest are either completely disengaged or actively looking for other employment. Most companies understand the costs of low employee motivation. They know the consequences of low employee morale and low motivation are measured by high turnover and absenteeism.
Unfortunately, far too many companies take a heavy-handed approach to dealing with the problem. They try to strong-arm the employee to be at work and achieve results. Instead of deep diving into the root cause of the problem, they use the same old outdated and antiquated approaches, ones that push employees further away and ones that lead to a more disengaged workforce.
Managers Must Empower Employees
So, what’s the number one reason employees are leaving in such historical numbers? Most people immediately think it’s salary, but it isn’t. It isn’t work-life balance, vacation time, insufficient pay, or anything related to total compensation. No, the main culprit is toxic company culture. Still not convinced? Another study found that a staggering 63% of workers have left their jobs - or will leave in the near future - because of a bad manager or bad relationship with management.
It's not enough to say that managers need to motivate employees. That’s been heard and repeated ad nauseam. Instead, the focus must be on providing managers with the tools they need to empower their employees. Enterprise directory software is one such tool. It allows employees to drive their own communication through an all-inclusive software platform. Managers themselves can drive an "all-in-this-together" team mindset through a platform all employees will use.
Collaboration Doesn’t Look Like it Used To
COVID didn't just provide us with the work-from-home employee; virtual learning and virtual meetings have become a mainstay of today’s workplace environment.
Gone are the days when collaboration was nothing more than multiple employees reading and responding to a long, redundant email chain. It’s no longer a static process. Collaboration in today’s workplace is fluid and constantly changing. Employees now have the flexibility to contact their manager instantly and value that flexibility. The right software will provide that flexibility while making communication a simpler process.
Where an Enterprise Directory Comes In
Enterprise directory software is a great solution for the challenges facing today’s enterprises. It drives communication amongst employees and managers. It’s the single point of contact for the entire enterprise. Employees will be able to search for coworkers who have the skills and knowledge to help with a given problem or issue. That’s what empowerment means; employees who can find their own solutions and make their own decisions always feel empowered to perform their best.
How an Enterprise Directory Operates at Scale
Enterprise directory software all but eliminates siloing. These "silos" are detrimental to communication. They occur when managers, employees, and departments operate alone. A single communication platform eliminates this issue entirely by ensuring your entire organization is plugged in as one. Once they log into the software, they'll come face-to-face with a repository of employee-driven information that spans all levels of your organization.
A Dynamic People Directory Showcases Your True Talent
How large is your talent gap? Better yet, do you need to upgrade your talent or already have the talent you need and don’t know it? If you’re unsure of your answer, don’t despair. Companies often have a hard time defining their talent gap. Instead of defining their talent gap and whether they can fill it internally, they take the shortest route and pursue outside hires.
However, what if you don’t have a talent gap, or it isn’t as large as you think it is? What if it’s simply because you haven’t given your employees any reason to showcase their talent? Enterprise directory software can remove this as a going concern.
Think of employee directory software as your company’s own job board. Each employee’s career experiences, education, skills, competencies, knowledge, know-how, and unique abilities are available.
With an employee directory, your managers, supervisors, and employees can list all their career accomplishments. More importantly, they’ll be able to outline each of the projects they’ve completed or milestones they’ve achieved while employed by your company. With employee directory software, employees will want to showcase their abilities. They’ll see their co-workers doing the same. The more they share, the more other employees will emulate them and share their own successes.
This drive to share will help grow your internal networks and make matching your talent to the appropriate opportunities easier.
A Simple Tool That Creates Instant Connections
Employee recognition is critical. In fact, employee recognition and motivation go hand-in-hand. You simply cannot have one without the other. A recent study found that 55% of employees resigned because of a lack of recognition. More importantly, the same study showed that 69% of employees would have stayed with their employer if they had been recognized more for their hard work.
With employee directory software, your managers will receive reminders of their employees’ work anniversaries, birthdays, and any special career milestones they’ve attained or projects they’ve successfully completed. This puts the power of employee recognition in the hands of your managers.
For most employees, a simple gesture is all that’s needed. With the right software, those simple gestures will become automatic. All employees will have access to the same information. This means employees will immediately see when something special needs to be celebrated and will be more than willing to congratulate their co-workers.
The Ultimate Time Saver for Management
Think about how much pressure managers are under to achieve results in today’s economy. Think about how little time they have. It’s not that management doesn’t care. They care, and they want their employees to succeed. The problem is time.
We are connected and mobile like never before, which means managers are readily available at a moment’s notice. Their responsibilities don’t end at 5:00 pm. They sometimes continue long into the weekend. The more companies ask of their managers, and the more time managers devote to new responsibilities, the further the communication gap is between those managers and their employees.
The right software will make engagement between manager and employee seamless. It will improve cohesiveness between managers and department heads as they communicate and brainstorm through one platform. It will empower managers to pool resources together by making it easier to identify individuals with the follow-through capabilities to get the job done.
This will drive collaboration between departments and make it easier to use teams to solve company-wide problems. The right software is integrated into Microsoft Teams which makes collaboration all the easier.
With the right software, managers will spend less time vetting outside candidates, less time on interviews and research, and more time improving the skillset and competencies of their own employees. This reduces the high costs associated with outside hires while dramatically reducing the onboarding times for new positions.
What is Employee Directory Software?
Unlike a people directory that only lists an employee’s position within the company and their education, an employee directory software - or enterprise directory - goes a step further. Its purpose is to serve your company’s day-to-day operations. It’s a solution-focused software devoted entirely to your business and the employees and management working so hard to get your company results.
Employee directory software provides invaluable insight into an employee’s work history, education, skillset, competencies, expertise, know-how, and any relevant work experience or company projects, recognitions, and rewards they’ve achieved. In essence, it’s your own LinkedIn, but it’s only focused on your company, employees, and management.
Everything you want to know about your management and employees’ true capabilities is right at your fingertips. The best software comes with a search field, narrowing down exactly what you’re looking for. Much like you would search online, keyword-focused descriptions allow you to identify the hidden expertise within your enterprise.
Document sharing is made more accessible, and internal communication becomes seamless. Employees can gain invaluable insight by messaging management directly or accessing critical information and insight through the software’s intranet forum. It’s the pinnacle of intranet functionality and a vital tool for getting everyone on the same page.
Bring Your Team Together
It’s time to do away with the outdated and antiquated approaches of the past. Today’s employees deserve more. They deserve to be recognized, rewarded, and viewed as valuable contributors. The right software can make this happen. It can immediately improve communication and collaboration. Your internal networks need to grow organically, and the right software can make this happen.
Structural Solutions That Make a Difference
Our talent marketplace software is used by multiple companies in multiple markets and industries. Our customer-focused approach means we work with customers to improve their relationships with their employees while helping management fill much-needed internal opportunities. To see how our software can help improve communication and build long-lasting internal networks, contact us now.
