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Recap: The Hidden Risks of Neglecting Employee Engagement

Our webinar dove into the value of gamification, the importance of feedback, and why not investing in employee engagement is a bad idea.

By: Andrea Meyer, Content Manager

Centrical was pleased to host “The Hidden Risks of Neglecting Employee Engagement,” a webinar featuring expert insights from professor, keynote speaker, and author Karl Kapp and Brit Morenus, award-winning, game-based training leader at Microsoft. During this webcast, our speakers touched on several critically important elements of employee engagement. Below are a few excerpts from the session.  

The Employee Engagement Winter 

“Some organizations are predicting that IT companies and [other] organizations are going to decrease their employee engagement efforts, which is actually a really bad idea.” 

“Finding and engaging employees is becoming more and more important, and we cannot take employees for granted.” 

“We found that…during slow times, an organization will decide not to invest as much into employees and employee engagement…when the economy starts to get better, then they’re like, okay, we’ll invest in our employees. But by then, the employees are so disengaged…They’re looking for another job because the economy has gotten better. So, invest in continuous investment in employee experience and employee engagement. It is so important.” 

The Importance of Feedback  

“I’m hearing an overwhelming response from this lack of constructive feedback and also not giving that safe space to do so. It’s a real disadvantage when employees start to feel like their feedback isn’t even going matter or that it doesn’t hold value.” 

“Feedback is an essential point or element of…organizational improvement. And if there’s no feedback, people don’t know what they’re doing well, [or] what they’re not doing well. There’s no focus on finding out the right way to do something, and it can become a disaster when there’s no feedback.” 

Employee Disengagement 

“In the healthcare field, we can see that patient safety falls when employees are not engaged. So, it is something that actually has tangible, and sometimes very dangerous results, of not engaging your employees.” 

“In the day-to-day, it’s often, ‘I’m a manager, I’m really busy. I don’t have time to drill into things. I’m just [going to] move forward’ and that causes the sense of disengagement.” 

AI and Employee Engagement 

“We use AI for engagement, but AI is not [going to] run your entire business.” 

“I read another article predicting the winter of AI as people go, wait a minute, it doesn’t do everything I thought it was going to do.” 

“The employees that you have are more valuable…or making a bigger impact than ever [and] are interacting with your customers more than ever, so it’s really important to think about how you can positively impact employee engagement, not just for now, but for the future.” 

The Value of Gamification 

“It’s research-based that gamification adds elements to employee connection and engagement, [which] add to the value of the organization.” 

“I’ve seen [gamification] work, and when it works, [it] is amazing. It makes a difference [not] just to the organization but sometimes to people’s lives.” 

“You don’t want gamification metrics – you want business metrics. What you measure must be business metrics.” 

“I am giving my learners their own authority over the learning process through gamification.” 

“[Gamification] is…not just leaderboards and points. It literally is having authority over your upskilling process, which [is] powerful.” 

The Case for Investing in Engagement 

“Employees feeling good about their jobs leads to customers feeling good about the organization.” 

“I go back so many times to the phrase, you know what if we train our employees and they leave? Well, what if you don’t train them, and they stay?” 

“Look at the power of positive employee engagement. You’ve got more increased customer loyalty…more productivity…better sales productivity…more profitability… wellbeing of your employees. I mean, the numbers back up the idea of employee engagement.” 

“There’s really no reason not to focus on higher levels of employee job satisfaction.” 

Thank you to Karl Kapp and Brit Morenus for their time and for sharing some incredibly valuable insights! We also wish to thank your host, Centrical VP of Customer Success, Americas Madeline Friend, and everyone who joined us for the broadcast. If you missed the live broadcast or wish to have another watch, the session is now available on demand. We also invite you to download the related whitepaper, authored by Karl Kapp.

For over a decade, Centrical has partnered with organizations across industries and the globe to build engaged, motivated, and high-performing online workforces. To learn more about us, visit our website, watch the Centrical platform in action with a quick preview, and request your personalized overview today.  

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