definite guide employee engagement using smartphones by drona mobile

DEFINITIVE

GUIDE

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

USING

SMARTPHONES

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

USING SMARTPHONE

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“Proven strategies to take full advantage of mobile’s growing influence”

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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT USING SMARTPHONE

Copyrights 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission

in writing of the publishers.

Published by Drona Mobile in association with Deltecs InfoTech Pvt. Ltd.

Design, layout and production by Drona Mobile.

ABSTRACT

Employee engagement has become one of the most talked about scenarios in small,

medium and large organizations. Engaging employees using Smartphone is definitely

the next step in the evolution of workforce retention. This guide is an extensive study

of engagement and employee service world over that helps to identify the

“transactional” and “emotional” factors that drive employee satisfaction. It clearly

focuses on the practical aspects of deploying Smartphone in existing organizational

culture.

A substantial and growing body of theoretical and field experience is able to provide

reliable guidance on the operational experience with these miniature handheld

resources within the guide.

Employee Engagement using Smartphone


CONTENTS

SUMMARY............................................................................................................................ 4

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 4

INDUSTRY STANDARDS .................................................................................................. 5

DO I NEED EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT? ...................................................................... 5

Ask these questions to gauge the need of better engagement techniques in your organization ..... 5

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE EMPLOYEES ................................................................ 5

9 Best Employee Engagement Approaches ...................................................................................... 6

PROBLEM SOLVING USING SMARTPHONES ............................................................ 8

1. Vision – Iterate Company Values and Work Ethics ................................................................... 8

2. Analyze Performance- Scorecards and Surveys ........................................................................ 8

3. Talent and Skill- utilization of resources on the Move .............................................................. 9

4. Constant Training and Development ........................................................................................ 9

5. Opportunity and Flexibility .................................................................................................... 10

6. Socialize with Employees ....................................................................................................... 10

7. Rewards and Incentives ......................................................................................................... 11

8. Personal Engagement ............................................................................................................ 11

LAST MINUTE TRICKS THROUGH SMARTPHONES ............................................. 12

LAST PIECE OF ADVICE!................................................................................................ 13


SUMMARY An Employee Engagement is not just about maximizing productivity; it is also about creating a psychological association with the organization so that employees feel that what they do is ‘more than just a job’. This guide is an overview of using the latest emerging technologies for engaging the employees. Some selected headings from the paper are:

Factors that influence each employee Problems solved using Smartphone Engagement tricks using Smartphone

INTRODUCTION People are the most complex & least understood drivers of success. To divide your

organization workforce based on merit and then allocate each one a task and pay them

according to the performance metrics sounds easy but in reality it’s just a dream.

Engagement is the energy, passion that employees have for their employer or, more

specifically, with what their employer is trying to achieve in the market.

3 key behaviours observed in employees that indicate high levels of employee

engagement.

They have an intense desire to be members of the organization, thus saving

money by eliminating costly turnover.

They are passionate advocates for their workplace and business. They refer

potential employees and customers, thus reducing cost of hire and sale.

They go beyond what is minimally required to produce extraordinary services

and results for customers and colleagues, thus creating competitive advantage

for the company.

The latest technology can help enterprises achieve high levels of engagement.



INDUSTRY STANDARDS Hewitt Associates’ research suggests that while one out of every two employees is

engaged at work, engagement levels vary enormously across organizations - from

highs of nearly 100% to lows in the teens. The average engagement score among

Indian companies is 67% (read on an average 67% employees are engaged or

committed to their organizations), whereas at Best Employers, average engagement is

88%.

DO I NEED EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT? Entrepreneurs, management, and business heads, managers must make it a priority to

get to know their employees well, this helps the leaders keep their workforce fully

engaged in what they do.

ASK THESE QUESTIONS TO GAUGE THE NEED OF BETTER ENGAGEMENT

TECHNIQUES IN YOUR ORGANIZATION

Is each one of your employees happy at all times while working on your

tasks?

Is the work dreadful and overtiring your employee?

Have you given your employee a little freedom of expression?

Does your employee suggest and ask you for small favors on and off?

Is the dedication that he shows initially on the job role still persisting?

What have you done to retain such talent?

Think about it, is your answer a win for everybody in the organization?

Ask yourself the question: ‘What makes our very best mangers so good at what

they do?’ The answer will provide you with a large part of the secret recipe to

create a high performing and highly engaged workforce.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE EMPLOYEES Employee engagement activities along with the four management functions:

planning, organizing, motivating and controlling help you stem attrition and

control all organization chaos to balance creative energy that leads to efficiency

in performance and work culture. Simply put, sustaining high business

performance is a product of strategic alignment. Strategic alignment can be

achieved only when all teams across the organization communicate and work

closely together.


9 BEST EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT APPROACHES

V ISION – Reaching the heart: Provide clear and compelling future direction of

the organization and create excitement about being a part of it.

PERS ONAL ENGA GEM ENT – Leaders & Managers should show an interest in

their well being, when appropriate, enable them to feel more fulfilled and better

balanced. Maintain a high level of personal engagement with all team members.

SET C ORR ECT G OALS – Setting aggressive yet achievable goals and address

issues of poor performance by being actively involved.

HONEST & CONS ISTENT : Leaders should be consistent & align organization’s

mission and vision with employees’ interests.

TRAI N FOR RIGHT SK I LL S : Train employee on constant basis to help them

achieve their goals. Soft skills (problem solving and conflict resolution) training

being equally important.

OPEN A ND ACTI V E FEEDBACKS : Request a feedback from your employees and

be sure to accept it gracefully and express appreciation. At the same time, offer

regular feedback to employees.

REWA RDS & INC ENT IV ES : Offer financial and non-financial rewards. Remember

to celebrate both accomplishments and efforts.

NOT A SH ORT-T ERM I NITIATI VE : Don’t start an engagement initiative and then

drop it, your efforts will backfire, creating employee estrangement. The leaders

should be actively involved and excited, making the engagement activity a

priority.

OPP ORTU NITY & FL EXIBILITY : Employees look for answers to “Are there

opportunities to grow and develop?” Be flexible to give equal opportunity to

each one to develop required skills and achieve their aspirations. Or flexibility

in time so people don’t feel they are being a slave to the organization.



Smartphone can possibly aid in achieving most of the engagement activities.

Think about daily commutes, coffee breaks, waiting for someone the list is

endless when people talk, think, and socialize about their work, there are

multiple chances to grab the attention of your employees who are ‘micro bored’

while they are on the move.

Data that reinforces the strength of the Smartphone (though limited to the USA)

from a mobile analytics firm, Flurry, suggests that mobile application usage is

not only increasing over time, but is also actually ahead of the traditional web

consumption.

Combining the two trends above the most ubiquitous, available, and

connected engaging medium is the screen of a smart-phone.


PROBLEM SOLVING USING SMARTPHONE The next big question that might be your problem is how can we use the Smartphone

to engage our employees? Let’s take a problem solving platform like DronaMobile for

example and try to resolve several engagement issues using this platform.

1. VISION – ITERATE COMPANY VALUES AND WORK ETHICS

SITUATION Fragmented Organization Efforts: Interdepartmental turf wars between rival

managers lead to the emergence of silos, which results in communication gaps

and non-alignment of vision. Management silos almost always result in

fragmented and duplicated budgets and projects, thus wasting valuable

company investments.

ANALYSIS Iterating the company values and vision, help is quick and right decision

making. Top leadership team should send video messages, pod casts or related

casts on employee Smartphone where they try to imbibe company values and

work ethics in the organization, thereby creating a healthy competition scenario

between different teams. Drona Mobile instant push, offers best video

experience.

2. ANALYZE PERFORMANCE- SCORECARDS AND SURVEYS

SITUATION

Only Talk No Action: Plans are heavy on talk but light on action. In a political

corporate culture, image management becomes far more important than

promises.

ANALYSIS

The top team must ensure use of adequate scorecards and open employee-

feedback surveys to assess the health and performance of the management

team and their employees, to identify performance roadblocks. The surveys

must be anonymous and conducted by independent consultants on a bi-

quarterly basis via smartphones using Drona Mobile.



3. TALENT AND SKILL- UTILIZATION OF RESOU RCES ON THE MOVE

SITUATION

Ineffective Meetings: Cross-divisions meetings sharing responsibility and

collaborating to solve the problem are unable to be fixed in the nick of time due

to employees being on the move. Talent and skill utilization is another

environmental factor your key employees seek in your workplace.

ANALYSIS

Smartphones ease the nature of such geographically dispersed employee

meetings as the content that needs to be discussed can be sent via the mobile

platform and the response can be traced and analyzed real-time. Business

applications have offered ease of access of information via Smartphone. Be it

emails, CRM, Salesforce, Learning, webex; employees are no more stuck to their

desks for constant involvement. Product collateral resources on Smartphone

can be used by sales reps on the move, to update and also showcase to

prospects.

4. CONSTANT TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

SITUATION

Low Productivity: Critical projects fall behind on deadlines, budgets and

performance targets (e.g. sales, market share, quality and other operational

targets). Poorly skilled resources become a major factor low productivity.

ANALYSIS

Right training and development help employees achieve their aggressive goals

and personal aspirations.

Constant training and development can happen on the move when the

employees are in their ‘micro boredom’ moods. A new 10 min training module,

at 8:00 am every alternate day directly on the Smartphone has more impact

than a monthly 1 hour training session. These modules can be scheduled and

pushed directly using Drona Mobile.


5. OPPORTUNITY AND FLEXIBILITY

SITUATION

As an example, in a small company, a manager pursued a new marketing plan

and logo with the help of external consultants. An internal sales rep, with seven

years of ad agency and logo development experience, repeatedly offered to

help. His offer was ignored and he cited Morale Deterioration as one reason

why he quit his job. In fact, the recognition that the company didn't want to take

advantage of his knowledge and capabilities helped precipitate his job search.

ANALYSIS

Active feedback sessions, personal engagement model and aligning personal

aspirations with companies could help avoid above situation. Dronamobile

announcements can be used to broadcast a new opportunity in the company

and feedback module can help gain a quick feedback on regular basis. Tracking

the training activities and interests can enable the manager to understand the

employee interests and offer flexibility & opportunity to the team.

6. SOCIALIZE WITH EMPLOYEES

SITUATION

Stressed Workplace: High rate of absenteeism and employee turnover rate

happen, when it’s all about work, in an organization. Employees who do not find

freedom to express, mingle, emotionalize and socialize around the work floor

(not on the work station) usually end up finding another job role soon.

Workaholics though are a complete exception in here!

ANALYSIS

Using Smartphone interaction employees can be poked, invited for events,

invited to join discussion clubs, offer feedback, answer product survey,

participate in organization development and several other ‘work is fun’

initiatives could be pushed without disturbing a huge lot of other dedicated

workaholics!



7. REWARDS AND INCENTIVES

SITUATION

At end of long, stressed project, employees efforts not appropriately recognized

and rewarded, leading to ignored and non-valued feeling among the team.

ANALYSIS

Success stories should be propagated across the organization motivating others

and providing due recognition to heros. Drona Mobile Newsletters lets manager

send in success stories, with employee picture or video and rewards received.

8. PERSONAL ENGAGEMENT

SITUATION

A vice president for customer service at Progress Energy, for example, insists

that his managers really get to know the individuals on their teams as people,

not just employees. He wants to know about their aspirations, interests, and

families. The recognition of the “whole person” sends a powerful message to

employees that the organization understands and appreciates that they have a

life outside work.

ANALYSIS

Every week a video is sent across the team on their Smartphone, featuring one

member his role, professional interests, strengths, weak areas, dreams,

personal interests and what he likes about the organization. This generates a

positive energy and not just the manager but whole team is well-versed with

their team mates and bond well.


LAST MINUTE TRICKS THROUGH SMARTPHONES Get your employees to use their Smartphone to help you get the best for them

and your organization!

Additionally, a corporate directory accessible by Smartphone provides the

ability to view, search, and contact employees listed in it, and a company news

section allows employees to read updates posted by management. Providing

connectivity to the entire workforce management suite through the mobile

devices you use on a daily basis. The core deal is to improve the productivity of

mobile workers, by engaging them emotionally, pragmatically, socially and

workaholically!

Quality employee retention is critical to the long term health and success of any

business. Managers readily agree that retaining their best employees ensures

customer satisfaction, product sales, satisfied coworkers and reporting staff,

effective succession planning and deeply imbedded company objectives can be

achieved. Then why wait if your employee Smartphone can help you achieve the

desired fall in attrition rates?

Excellent Research statistics provided by Aberdeen Group concludes that the

best-performing organizations “take full advantage of the capabilities that

mobility offers,” and because of it, they’re reaping the inevitable benefits. And

the associated report Mobility in ERP 2011 (partially underwritten by Sage and

SAP) labels organizations whose attention to the integration of mobile

technology with ERP-based HR systems has resulted in their workforce

spending far less time trying to access information as best-in-class

organizations.

Additionally, more of these organizations’ employees turn in complete and on-

time delivery. In 2011, the organizations themselves reported a 30 percent

year-over-year improvement in time-to-decision, better inventory accuracy,

and a low 2.2 days average cycle between service completion and invoicing.

This last number stands in stark contrast to the 10-day average for all other

organizations participating in Aberdeen’s study. Lots more information both in

words and numbers is available on the 3W’s to enhance your knowledge about

employee engagement.



LAST PIECE OF ADVICE! Leverage executive-training programs through Smartphone and devise an action-

learning team to solve problems and develop strategies.

Employees’ learning together helps them to work collectively on tasks assigned.

Use collaboration tools (Information and communication technologies) between

geographically dispersed business units and teams.

Make better use of employees' previous work experience and knowledge.

Drona Mobile gives widely scattered employees a new way to collaborate and also

encourages innovation. Overcome barriers to communication, such as location and

position within the organization.

Understand that employees are a competitive edge for the business and

employee’s ability to make more decisions and take part in the organization

strategy formulation will be added advantage for the organization to innovate and

survive in the highly competitive world.

Wisdom of Crowds- employees who have left the organization connect with them

too via Smartphone

Encourage employee participation and motivate them to strive even more for

organizational growth and ultimately recruit the best talent!

ABOUT DRONA MOBILE Drona Mobile (www.dronamobile.com) is a leading mobile solution provider,

core focus being mobile learning and mobile engagement platform for

businesses. It associates itself with some of the fortune 500 list Corporations. It

is committed to help its clients achieve their ‘Engagement’ needs to excel and

believes in the behavioral context of Mobile interaction! Drona Mobile is an end

to end ‘Platform’ to leverage the benefits of technology without bearing cost of

tech skills or IT infrastructure.

For any Enterprise Mobility Needs write to us at [email protected] or get

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