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In today&rsquo;s fast-paced business world, organisations are under constant pressure to evolve, grow and expand. Revenue and profit will always be the most tracked measures of success in any profit-making organisation.
This need for growth and the focus on the bottom line, can often appear to come into conflict with other critical objectives, such as improving the employee experience. Occasionally this can even raise its head in the relationship between Operations and Human Resources (HR). HR &amp; People teams are responsible for ensuring that employees are happy, motivated, and engaged in their work, delivering at their best. Shaping up the EVP to make the organisation an attractive place to join and an even better place to stay. This involves providing a positive work environment, opportunities for development and growth, and shaping compensation and benefits. HR&rsquo;s ultimate goal is to create a workforce that is not only productive and high-performing, but also engaged, satisfied and fulfilled. Operations often have the same outcomes around productivity and high performance, but come at the challenge from a different angle, with different key performance indicators attached to their success. Operational teams are often focused on streamlining processes, reducing costs, and increasing efficiency. With time, cost and quality measures always in clear view.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">A Win-Win</h3>
Whilst the time and money spent on employee experience can sometimes feel at odds with the revenue protection of Operations teams - the focus on employee engagement is actually a win-win for all.&nbsp;
Consider, Operations pushing for longer working hours or increased productivity from each employee. HR teams may use data and insight to be able to explore the true impact and make a more informed decision. Using data such as employee feedback insight, coupled with sickness statistics can create a solution which achieves both aims. Protecting the business from longer-term hidden costs of employee burnout or turnover. Similarly, HR advocating for policies such as flexible working hours may open up new opportunities for resourcing and talent pipeline to fuel operational efficiency.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">The Ghost of HR Past</h3>
HR departments have often struggled to prove their Return on Investment (ROI) to the rest of the organisation. This was largely due to the lack of available data and insights that could demonstrate the impact of HR initiatives on the bottom line.&nbsp;
One area where HR teams have historically struggled to demonstrate ROI is in employee experience. Advances in technology and data analytics have enabled HR teams to access the tools and data needed to demonstrate the ROI of these initiatives more effectively.&nbsp;
For example, employee engagement surveys can provide HR teams with valuable insights into employee satisfaction and help identify areas for improvement. This data can then be used to develop targeted interventions that address specific concerns, risks and improve employee satisfaction, ultimately leading to increased productivity and profitability.
Similarly, leadership development programmes and training and development initiatives can now be evaluated more effectively using insights such as engagement levels, employee retention rates, promotion rates, and performance data.
By leveraging data and aligning with Operations teams on common goals, HR departments can demonstrate their value as strategic partners in driving business success. Together, these teams can make a compelling case for the time and money spent on initiatives that improve the employee experience and drive productivity.
&nbsp;
HR Partnering Operations If you feel you have more work to do to add proactive value into your operational teams, here&rsquo;s where to start:&nbsp;
<ol>
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
<h4 dir="ltr" role="presentation">Communication</h4>
</li>
</ol>
Establish clear communication channels between the teams and encourage collaboration. This can help identify areas of overlap and enable both departments to work towards common goals. The HR business partner model was designed for this purpose, to ensure that HR remains close to those they impact.&nbsp;
Teams who communicate effectively in the workplace may see as much as a <a href="https://pumble.com/learn/communication/communication-statistics/">25% increase</a> in their productivity.
&nbsp;
<ol start="2">
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
<h4 dir="ltr" role="presentation">Collaboration</h4>
</li>
</ol>
Focus on engagement strategy to ensure employees are motivated and engaged, to support in supercharging the team, improving productivity and driving growth. Operations can help HR by providing the resources and support necessary to implement policies and initiatives that improve employee experience.
&nbsp;
<ol start="3">
<li dir="ltr" aria-level="1">
<h4 dir="ltr" role="presentation">Clarity</h4>
</li>
</ol>
Create a culture of transparency and accountability, where both Operations and HR are held responsible for achieving their respective objectives and there is clarity on the common end goal. This can help ensure that decisions are made with the best interests of the organisation in mind and that gaps in priorities are resolved in a constructive manner.
A strong culture is crucial to attracting and retaining high-performing people in today's competitive business environment. This is especially true during times of economic uncertainty, where organisations may face pressure to reduce costs and cut back on resources.
<a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-core-beliefs-and-culture.pdf">88% of employees</a> believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success.
It&rsquo;s important to create a culture that fosters employee engagement and provides opportunities for career development and growth. By investing in employee development and creating a positive work environment, organisations can retain their top talent and maintain business continuity.
By actively listening to employees and incorporating their feedback into decision-making processes, organisations can create a culture of trust and transparency. This, in turn, can lead to higher levels of engagement and increased productivity. HR teams can use tools such as employee engagement surveys and pulse checks to gain continual insights into employee sentiment and identify areas for improvement.
&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Employee Feedback</h3>
By establishing clear communication channels, encouraging collaboration, and promoting a culture of transparency and accountability, organisations can find a way to combine the priorities of Operational and HR teams to achieve long-term success.
Employee engagement surveys can be a really powerful tool to support both teams with data and insight. With reliable employee feedback, organisations can get to the root of what&rsquo;s holding them back and solve the problem before it progresses.
With the Ten Space platform, you can target specific problems by segmenting data into teams, creating bespoke question sets and sending the survey out at the best possible time via the most accessible channel.&nbsp;
For more on how our surveys can help your organisation, visit: <a href="https://www.tenspace.co.uk/solutions/employee-engagement/">https://www.tenspace.co.uk/solutions/employee-engagement/</a>
<h3 dir="ltr">&nbsp;</h3>
<h3 dir="ltr">Our guide to &lsquo;Next Level Employee Engagement&rsquo;:</h3>
We have put together a more detailed guide with hints and tips for taking your employee engagement to the next level.
<a href="https://info.tenspace.co.uk/next-level-employee-engagement">Click here to access the full guide</a>.
At Ten Space we work with our clients to amplify employee engagement, retention and performance.
Taking it to the next level, we can help you explore your employee&rsquo;s journeys to ensure you&rsquo;re optimising every part of the employee experience. Protecting the time and money you spend in areas such as onboarding, leadership development, rewards and benefits; helping you demonstrate ROI for the HR team on the activities you deliver.
&nbsp;
Contact us to help your teams deliver the future of your business: enquiries@tenspace.co.uk

The goals of HR and operations teams can sometimes feel at odds, but creating a “win-win” around common goals supports superior business success

The HR & Operations “win-win”

There&rsquo;s a lot of noise on social media about whether businesses should advertise salaries on job adverts.
There&rsquo;s a growing fatigue amongst job seekers, weariness of spending time applying for roles, sharing details about themselves and not getting much in return.
Evidence suggests that businesses who put salaries, or salary ranges, on an advert will receive high volumes and better quality applications.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-acquisition/job-description-heatmap" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">61% of job seekers</a> state that salary was the most important part of the job description for them.&nbsp;
Often the reason provided by organisations for not adding salaries to adverts is &lsquo;we want to see who is in the market and we don&rsquo;t want to put off more experienced candidates&rsquo;. However, it is often more likely that organisations just aren&rsquo;t in good enough shape to be completely transparent with salaries externally.&nbsp;
If you want to start advertising salaries openly, proceed with caution. If you have inequalities in your pay, advertising externally is likely to shine a light on them. Inequalities of pay get to the heart of what employees consider to be &ldquo;fair&rdquo; in an organisation. Even the best written organisational values can start to unravel if employee&rsquo;s don&rsquo;t believe their basic needs, such as fair remuneration are being met.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Draw on data&nbsp;</h3>
Collate a list of salaries and look at how you are paying people across the group. This exercise is about identifying trends in the data to reveal biases or inequality.
With the data, ask yourself;
<ul>
<li>Are you clear on what a fair salary is for each role internally?</li>
<li>Are you clear on what a fair salary is for each role externally?</li>
<li>Is anyone overpaid? How did that happen?&nbsp;</li>
<li>Who is underpaid? How did that happen?&nbsp;</li>
<li>If you need additional budget to address inequalities, where can that come from?</li>
<li>Are you at risk of any claims? How can you mitigate this?</li>
<li>Are you at risk of losing great talent,&nbsp;</li>
<li>Are you at risk of failing to recruit the talent you need?</li>
<li>Can you afford to do this?</li>
<li>Can you afford NOT to do this?</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<h3>Implement a grading / salary framework</h3>
Many larger organisations have a job grading / salary framework. Some just provide general guidance. Others provide very precise guidance of what salary is attached to each role.
The advantage of a framework, or some structure like this is that once you have placed everyone in the framework, you can use this to ensure that there is no future drift.&nbsp;
It is possible to introduce a framework like this without a formal job grading methodology behind it. Although it&rsquo;s likely that this kind of methodology will become more appropriate in a larger organisation where it can help to strip a role back to its component parts to be able to compare it.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Supporting your leaders and managers to have conversations about reward&nbsp;</h3>
If you&rsquo;re going to advertise salaries externally, it is likely that leaders and managers will get asked questions. For their own credibility, they need to be able to tackle these conversations confidently.
Talking about salary, reward and careers is a skill. It may be that you need to invest in upskilling your people managers in this area to support their conversations. Inexperienced line managers can get themselves into all kinds of hot water by being underprepared for these conversations!&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Is it worth it?&nbsp;</h3>
Advertising a salary is likely to have an instant impact on the volume and quality of applications you receive for vacancies you advertise. If advertised on social media your adverts, without salaries attached, can attract a lot of negative attention too.
But doing the groundwork to be confident to advertise salaries externally, it will also have an impact on your existing team. It&rsquo;s been reported that when there is a pay gap perceived amongst employees (whether there actually is a gap or not) it results in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/new-report-pay-transparency-may-be-key-to-keeping-your-employees-in-2021.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">16% decrease</a> in their intent to stay in an organisation. This makes for a pretty compelling argument for pay transparency in your organisation.&nbsp;
Taking this action will shift your culture and engagement. But if you get it right, it&rsquo;ll be hugely positive for any organisation and likely contribute to finding and retaining the best talent.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
If you&rsquo;d like to talk to Ten Space, about how we can support you during this cultural change, get in touch! www.tenspace.co.uk.&nbsp;

What do you need to do to be transparent with salaries internally and externally?

The groundwork to advertising salaries on job adverts

There is a lots chatter on social media from recruiters and talent managers about the risk and challenges of mass resignations. They&rsquo;re referencing employees who have waited out the pandemic and are now looking to make a career move.&nbsp;
But there is also an equal amount of chatter about the lack of candidates in the market place and how difficult it is to find talent at the moment.&nbsp;
So which is it? We take a look at whether the &ldquo;great resignation&rdquo; is actually happening, how you can take advantage and how you can prevent it happening in your organisation.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>What is Driving the Great Resignation?</h3>
A recent&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://hr.personio.de/hubfs/EN_Downloads/202104_HRStudy_UKI.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">survey by Personio</a>&nbsp;found that 38% of respondents planned to quit their job in the next six months to a year. This shift is largely due to the pandemic making people question their priorities. Right now, more and more people are setting off to pursue their dream jobs, or are quitting working life altogether to spend more time with their families. In fact, a whopping&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.hrdive.com/news/most-employees-would-grade-their-jobs-a-b-/553087/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">50%</a> of employees say that they&rsquo;d sacrifice their salary for a job they enjoyed better. Times truly are a-changing!
<h4>But why now?&nbsp;</h4>
Many people have, up until this point, felt under-valued and unheard &ndash; a key reason for&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/toxic-culture" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">toxic work culture</a>&nbsp;and employee stress. And while this feeling isn&rsquo;t anything new, the pandemic has pushed many of those who were already stressed and under pressure over the edge.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Does The Great Resignation Present an Opportunity?</h3>
While &lsquo;The Great Resignation&rsquo; of 2021 may seem like a looming threat to all UK businesses, it may in fact have its own silver lining. Just as what comes up must come down, most of those who leave a workplace will eventually have to return to employment. But does that mean there&rsquo;s a pool of hot talent out there ripe for the taking? Well, yes. The only catch is that they may not want to work with you, or at least with you on a full-time, in-office basis.&nbsp;
Because many workers are now favouring remote or hybrid roles over in-person jobs, this presents companies with, depending on how you look at it, an opportunity or a predicament. On the one hand, there&rsquo;s a lot of hot talent out there willing to work on a remote or contractual basis for businesses. This allows the company in question to save on overheads and potentially employment costs. On the other hand, businesses that aren&rsquo;t willing to adapt to changing times may struggle to source the employees they need in-house, and stall as a result.&nbsp;
And it&rsquo;s not just about the office, either. Many employees have gotten so used to working from home that they realise how much they dislike their workplace in general. Office politics, bullying managers, and a lack of recognition are all factors that can play a role in an employee wanting to leave. So before you go thinking that The Great Resignation presents an opportunity, you need to make sure you&rsquo;re creating a great place to work.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>How Likely Are You to Lose Out?&nbsp;</h3>
This is an employer&rsquo;s biggest fear right now, and rightly so. While there&rsquo;s no way to accurately project how many of your employees will hand in their notice, there&rsquo;s one key indicator &ndash;&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/how-can-employee-feedback-change-your-business" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">employee engagement.</a>&nbsp;
Because The Great Resignation all boils down to employee satisfaction (or dissatisfaction), any business with a&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/what-is-enps" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">low eNPS score</a> is at risk of losing a large chunk of their workforce. Employees will simply choose to work somewhere better.
&nbsp;
<h3>How Can You Take Advantage of The Great Resignation?</h3>
There are two ways you can take advantage of The Great Resignation:
<ol>
<li>Hire hot new talent</li>
<li>Give your existing workplace a much-needed shakeup and retain your current talent</li>
</ol>
In either case, it&rsquo;s imperative that your workplace lives up to&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://hbr.org/2021/05/what-your-future-employees-want-most" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the standards that a 2021 employee wants</a> to see. Because although &lsquo;The Great Resignation&rsquo; is an unprecedented event, there&rsquo;s likely been a complete shift in the mindset of the modern worker. This means that things probably won&rsquo;t go back to the way they were. Employees now want their workplaces to tick most of their boxes, and they won&rsquo;t be afraid to leave swiftly if otherwise!&nbsp;
Whether you choose option 1 or 2 from this list, one thing remains constant: great employee satisfaction rates are key to a thriving business in the modern age. Try as you might to hire that hot new talent floating around, if you&rsquo;re refusing to adapt to changing expectations, they&rsquo;ll be gone before you know it.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>How Can You Increase Employee Engagement Rates?&nbsp;</h3>
There&rsquo;s no straightforward answer to this question, because every business is different, with unique strengths and challenges that only the employees can tell you. From micro-managing leaders, to&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/toxic-culture" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">toxic workplace cultures</a>&nbsp;and lack of adequate&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/duty-of-care" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Duty of Care</a>, the list of things that can negatively impact how it feels to work in an organisation is significant. But don&rsquo;t let that scare you away from inviting your employees to share feedback. In fact, this is the most important thing you can do to boost employee engagement, and is the first step to creating a better working environment.&nbsp;
Using an anonymous employee engagement tool such as&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Space HR</a>&nbsp;can give you extremely valuable insights into how your workers are feeling. You&rsquo;ll receive honest feedback presented in a quantifiable&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/what-is-enps" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">eNPS score</a>, so that you can begin to understand exactly which areas need attention.&nbsp;
While we could talk all day about what you can do to increase employee engagement, here&rsquo;s a non-exhaustive list of the things you&nbsp;shouldn&rsquo;t&nbsp;do:&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>What NOT to Do:</h3>
DO NOT Throw More Salary at the Situation
We hear the phrase &lsquo;money can&rsquo;t buy happiness&rsquo; probably a lot more than we&rsquo;d like, but there&rsquo;s an awful lot of truth within it. If you&rsquo;re&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/how-stress-impacts-on-creativity-in-the-workplace" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">overworking your employee</a>, or not giving enough back, you might assume that &lsquo;overpaying&rsquo; them will balance everything out, but&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/the-impact-of-salary-on-employee-engagement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">higher salary doesn&rsquo;t positively correlate with higher employee satisfaction rates.</a>&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s because an &lsquo;overworked&rsquo; employee is likely to be&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/how-stress-impacts-on-creativity-in-the-workplace" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feeling stressed</a>&nbsp;out with deadlines, undervalued for their hard work, or simply in need of a better work-life balance. That&rsquo;s what being &lsquo;overworked&rsquo; really means. Anyway, the best way to cure an overworked employee is to get to the bottom of&nbsp;why&nbsp;they&rsquo;re feeling overworked i.e. employee feedback.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
DO NOT Focus On New Things You Can Introduce, Rather Than Fixing Existing Problems
Another common conclusion that business owners jump to in order to solve low workplace engagement is to spend additional money and budget on treats and rewards. And while this sort of thing might just boost employee engagement rates in an already happy workplace, it&rsquo;s not a cure for most common causes of employee discontent.&nbsp;
Bad leadership is one of the most common issues that lead workers to resign, accounting for at least&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/182792/managers-account-variance-employee-engagement.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">70% of variance in employee engagement scores</a>. This is why it&rsquo;s imperative to&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/want-to-become-a-fantastic-leader" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">train your managers to be great leaders</a>, rather than focusing on a superficial or aesthetic area of your business. Again, anonymous feedback really is the only way of accessing the insights you need to make positive changes within your management team.
&nbsp;
DO NOT Take For Granted The Team You Already Have&nbsp;
You need to be especially sure that you are doing enough to make your existing team stay. Things like having great recognition schemes in place, long term career paths and that all important focus on wellbeing will all ensure that when opportunity calls, your team don&rsquo;t answer.&nbsp;
If you aren&rsquo;t sure if you have people thinking of leaving, that&rsquo;s when an engagement survey can help once again. Low engagement in particular teams might be a good indication that you need to pay more attention and tackle issues before they turn into resignations.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Summary</h3>
The Great Resignation poses a major threat to businesses who for years have allowed issues to lay under the radar. Now they face an &lsquo;adapt or die&rsquo; situation, which will force them to change their workforce for the better by actually listening to how their employees feel.&nbsp;
Whether you&rsquo;re confident that your employees will stay, or you fear a pile-up of resignation letters on your desk, now is the time to act. Find out how your employees are feeling, make the changes you need to encourage them to stay, and attract hot new talent with your newly improved workplace.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Get in touch with us</a>&nbsp;to see how we can help you take full advantage of The Great Resignation.&nbsp;

Is It Really Happening? How Can You Protect Your Organisation?

The Great Resignation

Brewdog. The artisan beer that grew into a global brewery and bar chain. The success story of scale and investment. The &lsquo;Punk&rsquo; brand that defied tradition with a &lsquo;growth at all costs&rsquo; mentality.
But what will June 10th 2021 mean for Brewdog? Yesterday&rsquo;s open letter from 50 staff about the &lsquo;culture of fear&rsquo; in the business has cast huge doubt over the brand, the culture and the leadership.
But if you were diligent enough to cut through the social media hype you could see the warning signs were there for a long time at Brewdog. Articles such as&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/24/the-aggressive-outrageous-infuriating-and-ingenious-rise-of-brewdog" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this</a> from 2016, which describes their entire brand as marketing spin.
Or maybe the 3.1 out of 5 score on Glassdoor - with only a 50% approval rating of the CEO. An eye catching&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/BrewDog-Reviews-E1014146.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">review&nbsp;</a>headed "soulless, self righteous liars".&nbsp;
From the outside looking in, I can see how they might have got here. You start up a cool brand, position yourself as &lsquo;disruptors&rsquo; in the marketplace and wage war on those that challenge your vision and creative thinking.
You're loving the attention, it's working! Great, let's do some attention catching stunts. Sorry employees if this makes you feel uncomfortable, we're the cool kids, you just mustn't be cool enough. &lsquo;It&rsquo;s not us, it&rsquo;s you&rsquo;&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Then a rumour spins that legal letters were sent out to those who challenged their actions. You fight dirty. &lsquo;Either back us, or you're out&rsquo;.
Your revenue is still growing, so let's recruit some more people. They join and get the gist pretty quickly &lsquo;it's FIFO round here&rsquo; (Fit in, or F off). Any feedback you give will be ignored now, it&rsquo;s gone too far. Sadly, this will also be the case for new ideas, creativity and innovation - if the cool kids didn&rsquo;t think of it, it&rsquo;s unlikely to be a winner.&nbsp;
I suspect the internal feedback will have been there. The signs that things weren't right. Maybe at one time, it was there to see in the employee engagement surveys. But maybe nothing happened with any of the feedback anyone gave. So people stopped bothering. The feedback dried up, maybe the response rates dropped too.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
The evolution is complete. You're a fully paid up fear culture. You've surrounded yourself with people who like to say yes, or who are too scared to say no. The great thing now is, they&rsquo;ll do the gate keeping on the feedback for you. Those closest to you will be too worried about their jobs to say anything. So as a leader, you now don&rsquo;t even need to worry about the feedback, you have probably stopped hearing it - but it isn&rsquo;t because you&rsquo;ve created an awesome culture. It&rsquo;s quite the opposite.&nbsp;
Before you know it, your talent pool has dried up and you&rsquo;re moaning about skills shortages. You&rsquo;re wondering why no one in your business has any good ideas other than you. Wondering why your inbox is full of people asking for your approval on things.&nbsp;
If you let it get really bad, some ex-employees will take the time to collaborate and make a website on just how bad things are. You&rsquo;ll make the&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57428258" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">news</a> and be the talk of social media.&nbsp;
Maybe now your IPO isn&rsquo;t looking quite as rosey. Your subscriptions, monthly recurring revenue in the bag, have dropped and people have started to question the quality of your products. Maybe it all starts to unravel&hellip;.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>So what next?</h3>
What is unravelling right now for Brewdog is more than a PR disaster. Your people are a critical part of your brand and when they turn on you, it clearly demonstrates that your vision and values don&rsquo;t run as deeply through your business as you might have thought.&nbsp;
Building an amazing company culture is incredibly difficult, but it is completely achievable. If you do the work, put the correct processes in place early and take it seriously.&nbsp;
Here&rsquo;s a few things to think about;
1. Care about your people more than your brand -&nbsp;Products don&rsquo;t just magically appear. Behind every product is a team of real people with real ideas, real passion and real situations. They made your brand. They are your army of brand ambassadors and they can make or break it. It pays to care about your team more than your branding.&nbsp;
2. Get ready to listen -&nbsp;If you need to engage a coach, or a counsellor - someone who can help you see some clarity - do it. You have a lot of personal work to do first before you can go and change a whole culture.&nbsp;
3. Actively listen - What is your engagement survey telling you? What is your exit interview telling you? What feedback have the team given you directly that you&rsquo;ve ignored? You need to dig deep on this stuff. You need to get personal. You need to be courageous in asking for this feedback.&nbsp;
4. Be prepared for this to take time - if you&rsquo;ve asked for feedback and shown you&rsquo;ve listened, maybe next time you ask, the feedback will be a bit braver, go a bit deeper. Now we&rsquo;re really getting to the heart of things - we&rsquo;re really getting to the heart of what is impacting on the engagement of your team and what&rsquo;s really going on.&nbsp;
5. Consider who in your immediate circle, you haven&rsquo;t disagreed with for a while. We all disagree and share different opinions as part of growing and being creative. If there are people you haven&rsquo;t done this with in a while, these might be your &ldquo;yes&rdquo; people.&nbsp;
6. Trust your team - in fear cultures, trust vanishes. Be bold, extend the trust back out. Ask your immediate team for feedback, show them you trust them to be honest and that there will be no repercussions for their honesty.&nbsp;
7. Make commitments and then go and get them done - if you are truly listening, then there will be things you now want to change. Make commitments to the wider team, tell them what you intend to fix. Don&rsquo;t make another stunt out of it. Then go and get it done.&nbsp;
This next point is REALLY important - if you make commitments and then don&rsquo;t deliver, this is going to get SO much worse for you.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Transformation can be achieved. You can turn it around, but you have to listen.&nbsp;</h3>
If you haven&rsquo;t already got an anonymous employee engagement survey in place, get one quickly. In advance, make the commitment that you are going to take action, no matter what the feedback is and how uncomfortable.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
If you want help to turn around your culture, check that you&rsquo;re not leading with fear or just want to avoid getting anywhere close to it - Ten Space can help. <a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;" href="http://www.tenspace.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.tenspace.co.uk</a>.&nbsp;

The Dangers Of Ignoring Feedback

Employee engagement is where employee happiness and alignment to your business goals meet.&nbsp;
Focusing on employee engagement can supercharge the performance of your business and deliver tangible results.
But what about the reverse? Does low employee engagement increase costs in your business? Let&rsquo;s take a look at some of the costs of low engagement. Some that you can easily calculate and others that are hidden.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Your business at 100 employees</h3>
Here are just&nbsp;some of the headline costs of low employee engagement we&rsquo;ve calculated for a business with 100 employees:
Replacement of Talent : &pound;7,500
Temps or Contractors : &pound;19,300
Sickness / Absence Payments : &pound;14,732
Under Performance: &pound;386,000
<h4>TOTAL PER ANNUM: &pound;427,523</h4>
&nbsp;
I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;ll agree, this is a HUGE sum, particularly when you consider that a business of this size may only have revenues of &pound;5m.
Below, we&rsquo;ll talk through how we&rsquo;ve calculated these figures. There&rsquo;s some maths we&rsquo;re going to use, that will help to bring these costs to life. Time to get your calculator out!&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Your wage bill</h3>
The average UK salary in 2020 for full time employees was<a style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">&nbsp;&pound;38,600.&nbsp;</a>Sticking with 100 staff, let&rsquo;s assume an annual wage bill of &pound;3,860,000.&nbsp;
Without taking into account national insurance, pension, benefits costs etc. - that&rsquo;s nearly &pound;4,000,000 invested in people.
Now think of this as a figure to be defended. If you were paying &pound;4m to an agency, you&rsquo;d be wanting to extract every ounce of value from your spend. It&rsquo;s the same with employee engagement. An engaged team will provide a much higher amount of value for your &pound;4m investment.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Replacement of Talent&nbsp;</h3>
A disengaged employee will leave (or even worse they could stay!).&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s hard to accurately measure the cost of an open vacancy, but there are certainly opportunity costs of a vacancy and the impact it has on other members of the team. These impacts often more than off-set the salary saved whilst you&rsquo;re recruiting.&nbsp;
For our calculations, maybe you are replacing some of the vacancies temporarily with temps, or paying contractors to pick up the slack. Let&rsquo;s modestly add in the cost of 50% of one of your team here in temporary resource across the year: &pound;19,300.
The average employee turnover rate in the UK is&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.monster.co.uk/advertise-a-job/hr-resources/workforce-management-and-planning/staff-retention/what-is-the-ideal-employee-turnover-rate/#:~:text=The%20UK%20average%20employee%20turnover,this%20varies%20drastically%20between%20industries.&amp;text=Industries%20with%20traditionally%20low%20turnover,accept%20them%20as%20the%20norm." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">15%</a>. So in our company of 100, 15 employees are likely to leave each year.&nbsp;
Maybe you replace them all via an employee referral fee that you pay to your team, say &pound;500 per role. That&rsquo;s &pound;7,500 per annum to replace your 15 roles.&nbsp;
Maybe you use a recruitment agency to help you to recruit. With a very modest fee of 10% salary for each role - &pound;3,860 x 15, that comes in at &pound;57,900 to replace your team via agency per year.&nbsp;
Or maybe you have an internal resource to help you with recruitment - say &pound;35,000 per year?&nbsp;
Other costs include un-budgeted salary increases, often incurred whilst trying to rescue a dis-engaged team member and convince them to stay. Evidence suggests that these rescue plans don&rsquo;t last long term, you&rsquo;re unlikely to see a return on investment for this spend.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Sickness / Absence&nbsp;</h3>
Not all sickness/absence in a business is down to disengagement of course, but high engagement can make a big difference.
The average number of annual sickness/absence days in the UK is 6.4. Reducing this by 1 per person (to 5.4) would save &pound;147. Across the business that&rsquo;s a total saving of &pound;14,732 in company sick pay.
&nbsp;
<h3>Under Performance&nbsp;</h3>
Whilst underperformance is difficult to measure, we can put some numbers against it.
What if every employee was operating at 10% below their maximum potential? Maybe they&rsquo;re making poor decisions, or not pushing hard enough for that critical client deadline. Maybe they&rsquo;re doing a whole bunch of personal things at work. Maybe they&rsquo;re taking twice as long to do a task than they should. Based on your wage bill, that&rsquo;s &pound;386,000 in lost performance.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Lost Sales / Lost Customers&nbsp;</h3>
What if your sales team isn't highly engaged? Or if your customer churn is high because the team is not servicing accounts well?
What is the value of a lost sale in your business, or the annual value of a lost customer?
&nbsp;
<h3>Reputation&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
Could you measure the cost of your employer and customer reputation being lower than you&rsquo;d like? Maybe you are missing out on clients, or on employees who don&rsquo;t want to work with you as they know it&rsquo;s not a great place to be?&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Shareholder Value /&nbsp;Company Value&nbsp;</h3>
Highly engaged teams are also valuable teams. High value and performance translates to shareholder value and dividends. A demonstration of a highly engaged team can be a real selling point when it comes to securing investment for your business. Don&rsquo;t think the investors can&rsquo;t tell if your team isn&rsquo;t engaged as they walk through to your boardroom.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Wellbeing and Happiness</h3>
This is the ultimate &ldquo;unmeasurable&rdquo;. What is the happiness and wellbeing of your team worth to your business? What&rsquo;s it worth to the employee?&nbsp;&nbsp;
We can&rsquo;t put a price on our happiness, or on our health - but our employees are entrusting their businesses and leaders with it every day that they come to work. It&rsquo;s this last point that really gets to the heart of why employee engagement matters.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Conclusion&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
So my calculation of the cost of low engagement to a business of 100 staff was&nbsp;&pound;427,523.
Some might say this seems high, others a little low, but I hope I've helped justify my argument a little here.&nbsp;
Whilst using an employee feedback platform as the basis for an engagement action plan, won&rsquo;t save you the full &pound;427,523, it&rsquo;s very likely to save you a huge amount more than you pay for it. For a business of 100 staff, the annual cost of using our platform is less than 2% of this figure.
Hopefully, this should provide a solid business case for putting employee engagement at the top of your agenda and spending list!

A look at the additional costs that low engagement may create

The Cost of Low Employee Engagement £££

The book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" had such a huge influence on me. I got introduced to it at a point in my career where I really needed it. It brought me so much clarity and renewed energy in my career and leadership style and it's continued to shape so much of my thinking from that point on.
I revisit it often, I think I'm up to 3 copies of it now! I'll often share parts of it when I'm mentoring or coaching, directing people to read parts of the book, or watch videos and lectures online.
The original version was published in 1989. But don't let that put you off, the key messages are as relevant today as they ever have been.
The book is about personal effectiveness. But it's hard to separate that from great leadership. From there, it's then hard to separate that from leading in an engaging way. I've found that the lessons that I learned in that book have naturally migrated into my work on employee engagement.
So having taken it down from my shelf to have a look through for the 1001 time, I thought I'd share just a little of what I see in the book about employee engagement. There is way too much to include in one blog, so I've gone killer content only!
I give you...&nbsp;The 7 Habits of Highly Engaging Leaders!
&nbsp;
<h3>Habit One - Be proactive</h3>
Let's start with the habit of making and keeping commitments.. So much of engagement is wrapped up in the trust and confidence employees hold about their leaders. Employees join a business and leave a manager and I've seen that playing out time and time again in my career.
This habit is just doing what you say you are going to do - every. single. time.
Are you about to change your mind, pivot or let someone down? It happens. Be proactive about telling them. Protect the trust they have in you - it'll protect their engagement too.
&nbsp;
<h3>Habit Two - Begin with the end in mind</h3>
I did a 3 day course on the 7 Habits, I remember sitting in a training room and them playing a video. The video asks you to imagine yourself on your 80th birthday and what you'd like people to say about you, how you lived your life, the kind of person you were. I found myself crying!
If you're interested, you can check out the video here - tissues at the ready! (OK, maybe it's just me!).
<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(17, 85, 204);" href="https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits__trashed/habit-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits__trashed/habit-2/</a>
At Ten Space, we talk about the impact of being an inspirational leader. Someone who brings out the best in their team. Who draws the outlines and lets their teams colour in the picture how they want.
I'm not sure "be inspirational" is a particularly helpful piece of advice for me to give out as a habit! But I'd encourage you to consider if you are a consistent leader, are you true to your values and do your team see the best of you? We can really see great habits on this topic play out in engagement scores and feedback.
&nbsp;
<h3>Habit Three - Put first things first</h3>
Quadrant planning was a game changer for me. It made me realise that my measure of success to others wasn't on how many emails I'd sent (their urgent) - it was on the pro-active value I add (my important). It was the moment that made me get out of my inbox and start creating strategies and delivering great change instead!
I see "inbox dwelling" happening all the time in the written feedback we get from our surveys. It's the pleas for more one-to-ones, more career management, more time spent on proactive communication.
Building team engagement is about doing more than fixing issues as they come up. that's the basics. Building engagement is about doing the things that are not urgent, but are important to that employee.
So don't make a habit of cancelling one-to-ones. They might not matter to you, but they do to your employees.
&nbsp;
<h3>Habit Four - Think win/win</h3>
This habit is about a mentality of abundance. "There is enough to go round". "For me to win, that doesn't mean someone else has to lose".
So how does this play out into engagement? For me, this habit is about teams. It's about great habits of collaboration, of valuing everyone's contributions. Of recognition that stretches across the entire team. Of not playing favourites with team members. I come to realise how damaging the concept of "Top Talent" is on employee engagement - but I'll save that for another blog!
&nbsp;
<h3>Habit Five - Seek first to understand, then to be understood</h3>
There's another great video for this!&nbsp;<a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 233); background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits__trashed/habit-5/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits__trashed/habit-5/</a>
The habit we're trying to create here is listening to your team. Like really listening! It&rsquo;s one of the things I'm so passionate about with our employee survey platform. The anonymity of it allows you to surface feedback that employees might not share in another way. Once you know what's happening, you can take action. Once you've taken action, you've delivered on a promise. You've built trust and you've built engagement. Hurrah!
&nbsp;
<h3>Habit Six - Synergise</h3>
The sum of the parts is greater than the whole. The habit here is about being mindfully inclusive. Of recognising the contribution that all of your team can make and bringing out the best in them.
It's about operating in a really inclusive way, that allows your team to really shine. The habit of putting your ego on hold!
&nbsp;
<h3>Habit Seven - Sharpen the saw</h3>
Last but not least, &lsquo;sharpen the saw&rsquo; is creating a habit of wellbeing and self-investment. There is no end of content about this online already, this again isn't the place for my thoughts on creating great personal wellbeing habits (but I'm happy to share them if you want to DM me!).
The habit here, which really builds engagement, is about leading by example when it comes to sharpening the saw. Your team seeing you investing in your personal development, or creating healthy work boundaries is a powerful example of what your values are as a leader. Wellbeing of the team is key to engagement, but it can get lost in translation if your words and music don't match!
&nbsp;
Franklin Covey, if you're reading this and need my bank details for a commission payment, give me a shout! Does that count as a win-win?! 🙂

7 great habits to engage your team and lead with success

The 7 Habits of Highly Engaging Leaders

The Impact Recognition has on Employee Engagement

Ten Space 'Feedback 500' (Mar'22) - Topic: Recognition & Employee Engagement

Fashion, football, factories, festivals, and arguably the best music scene in the world - just some of the many things Manchester is famous for. Once dubbed &lsquo;Cottonopolis&rsquo; and &lsquo;England&rsquo;s Second City&rsquo;, this incredible place has been a beacon for British businesses throughout modern history.
Of course, a lot has changed since the industrial revolution, and yet Manchester has effortlessly evolved with the times. It&rsquo;s now the&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://technation.io/news/tech-nation-report-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">fastest growing tech city in Europe</a>, and we couldn&rsquo;t be prouder to be here.&nbsp;
Here are some of the top reasons why we think Manchester is such an awesome city for businesses, freelancers, and workers in the digital space.
&nbsp;
<h3>New Opportunities Are Created Every Day</h3>
From the textile boom to the tech boom, Manchester has been a thriving hub for new businesses for the past 300 years. The city employs over&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://technation.io/bright-tech-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">100,000 workers in the digital economy</a>, with new jobs created every single day. Even in its mid-pandemic state, the digital sector continues to thrive. A surge in demand for remote working tools, video conferencing, e-commerce functionality has put tech at the forefront of the entire economy&rsquo;s bounce back effort.&nbsp;
While a lot of companies had to make cuts and stall recruitment over 2020, many are now planning to hire new staff this year. Manchester Digital has reported that over&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://businessmanchester.co.uk/2021/04/30/north-west-business-confidence-highest-in-the-uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">71% of respondents</a>&nbsp;to its survey said they would onboard in 2021, with 70% planning to introduce brand new roles. See? We told you we were excellent at evolving!&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>It&rsquo;s an Optimistic Haven</h3>
It would be a lie to say that everything&rsquo;s always rosey in Manchester. After all, it does rain here 140 days a year on average! And although the pandemic has indeed brought forth a lot of suffering, Manchester&rsquo;s wider community has never lost its &lsquo;glass half full&rsquo; spirit.&nbsp;
A recent survey by the Business Barometer found that&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://businessmanchester.co.uk/2021/04/30/north-west-business-confidence-highest-in-the-uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">business confidence in the North West and Manchester rose to 29%</a>&nbsp;- the highest reading since 2018, and the highest figure in the UK! The feeling is so tangible that you can practically smell the optimism in the air - or is that just our favourite restaurant opening back up?&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>It&rsquo;s Amazingly Accommodating</h3>
No matter what sort of thing you&rsquo;re into, Manchester can accommodate. It offers some of the hottest nightlife, music venues, cafes, history and culture hotspots in the whole of the UK - all accessible by fantastic transport links. The city&rsquo;s frequent tram services allow you to forget all about timetables - which is great news for those whose zoom meetings frequently run over!&nbsp;
Manchester is also home to a student population of&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://www.investinmanchester.com/why-manchester/talent/universities" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">over 100,000</a> - one of the largest in Europe. This makes it the perfect place to establish symbiotic relationships between fresh talent and startups ready to grow.&nbsp;
To put it simply, we absolutely love Manchester, and we couldn&rsquo;t be more excited to contribute to its digital sector with cutting-edge technology that helps businesses improve employee engagement and thrive.&nbsp;
If you&rsquo;re a fellow digital business interested in collaborating to celebrate this sensational city,&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(16, 60, 192);" href="https://spacehr.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">get in touch with us</a>!&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Photo by&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(219, 62, 98);" href="https://unsplash.com/@mrwilliamo?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">William McCue</a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(219, 62, 98);" href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/manchester?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Unsplash</a>

Why Manchester Is Such an Awesome City for Digital Businesses

Tech in the North West

Engagement in the workplace has often been thought of as a top-down approach. Leaders need to motivate their team to be more engaged in their roles and achieve the company goal.&nbsp;
This is true. But what can you, as a team member, do to increase your own engagement?
<a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">52% of employees</a>&nbsp;reported not being engaged at work. 12% were "actively disengaged" to the point of misery.&nbsp;<a href="https://insync.com.au/insights/impact-of-employee-engagement-on-profitability/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Research</a> shows that teams can do great things when they engage. So, what if we worked from a bottom-up approach? Engaged employees would be drawn to learn how to take responsibility for their own path. To find new and more productive ways to ask for the things they need at work.&nbsp;
Here&rsquo;s some things to keep in mind when looking to increase your own engagement:
&nbsp;
<h4>Wellbeing - Do you have a physically &amp; psychologically safe workplace?</h4>
<a href="https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google</a> has found that the highest-performing teams have one thing in common: psychologically safe workplaces. Psychologically safe workplaces promote healthier, more productive and more inclusive workforces. They also provide the environment in which innovation can thrive and people can perform at their best.
Are you surrounding yourself with people who will encourage you to do better? To work hard and think smart? Are you taking the steps to create a community of people you trust in work?&nbsp;
In the case of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3979855" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ethnic and cultural diversity</a>, research shows that inclusive teams perform up to 30% better in high-diversity environments. Create a diverse environment. You will be able to listen to the opinions / views of people from different backgrounds.
Are you taking the time to look after your mental health? Burnout is more common than you might think.&nbsp;<a href="https://metro.co.uk/2022/04/07/brits-are-more-exhausted-than-ever-a-third-on-the-brink-of-burnout-16421027/#:~:text=As%20work%20and%20social%20lives,olds%20bearing%20the%20biggest%20brunt." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Over a third (36%)</a> of Brits have said they think they might be headed for burnout. 53% believe the start of 2022 has left them feeling more tired than previous years.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s easy to get lost in the work. To ensure you can be fully engaged in the workplace, you need to make the effort to look after your mental health. Here are a few tips for preventing burnout:
<ul>
<li>Take control -&nbsp;You can avoid or overcome burnout by finding ways to create more autonomy in your role. Talk with your boss to see if they're willing to let you have more control over your tasks, projects, or deadlines.</li>
<li>Learn to manage stress -&nbsp;There are several strategies that you can use to cope with stress. You could keep a stress diary to document what routinely causes you stress. Practise deep breathing, meditation, and other relaxation techniques. This can help you calm down when you're experiencing stress.</li>
<li>&ldquo;Give&rdquo; to others -&nbsp;One quick and easy way to add meaning to your career is to give to others, or to help them in small ways. When you do this, it makes you feel good. Even the smallest act of kindness can re-energize you and help you find meaning in your work.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<h4>Fulfilment - Do you enjoy the challenge of your role and feel proud of the work you do?</h4>
Finding meaningful and fulfilling employment has become one of life&rsquo;s greatest pursuits. Those who find it tend to lead happier lives and are more committed to their jobs.
Fulfilment can mean many things. But at its heart, it&rsquo;s about connecting work to a sense of meaning and purpose. Most often it&rsquo;s small, such as building connections with people, having fun, or being challenged.
What steps are you taking to enhance your professional development?&nbsp;
According to&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.clearcompany.com/5-surprising-employee-development-statistics-you-dont-know" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">research</a>, 74% of employees say that a lack of professional development is preventing them from reaching their full potential. Invest in your own development. It allows you to enhance skills and gain opportunities to move up that career ladder. Here are a few ways that you can take charge of your professional development:
<ul>
<li>Enrol in an online course -&nbsp;Online courses are a simple way of increasing your knowledge of your chosen field. Most online courses are offered on a flexible basis, allowing you to work your continuing education into your busy life. There&rsquo;s nearly an endless array of resources online.</li>
<li>Expand your scope -&nbsp;Instead of waiting for your boss to challenge you to grow, ask him or her for a new challenge. Take on a project outside your standard load. Think aspirationally. Grab every resource you can. Do whatever you have to do to learn and grow into your expanded role.</li>
<li>Find a mentor -&nbsp;Find someone you admire, either in your organisation or outside of it. Choose a leader who embodies the professional qualities you hold dear. With the help of a mentor, you'll learn more than you ever could by simply reading a book or taking a course.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<h4>Leadership - Do you feel inspired by your leader?</h4>
<a href="https://blog.clearcompany.com/5-surprising-employee-development-statistics-you-dont-know" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">38% of employees</a> don&rsquo;t feel their manager knows them well enough to understand their full potential. This lack of understanding goes far beyond leadership and management. It can have a huge impact on productivity and engagement.
When we speak about leadership, it&rsquo;s not unusual to discuss the role of a leader in supporting others. But how often do we think about how we can support our leaders? Success comes from partnership, collaboration and cooperation. Why should support be a one-way street? Maybe it&rsquo;s time to start thinking about how you can support your boss, your manager, or your leader.
Do they know what inspires you? It&rsquo;s a leader&rsquo;s role to inspire their team but often this can lead to a guessing game or a &lsquo;one type fits all&rsquo; scenario. Is there a certain skill you have that&rsquo;s useful for the team? Do you learn a certain way or take inspiration from different strategies? Be sure to speak up. It not only helps your leader, but you as well. It can be the difference between a fulfilling and an unfulfilling role.
Here are a few other ways you can help your leader:
<ul>
<li>Offer solutions -&nbsp;When things break down, focus on solutions instead of problems. Help brainstorm ideas and analyse available options. Find out what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again.</li>
<li>Keep them in the loop -&nbsp;Whatever your leader&rsquo;s style of communication, it&rsquo;s always best to establish and maintain an open line. Keep them involved and informed to protect them from being blindsided. Summarise complex issues and your leader will thank you.</li>
<li>Take initiative -&nbsp;There are always numerous ways of going above and beyond at work. Look for challenges that stretch you and increase your skill set. Try to anticipate what your leader might require or request and prepare it in advance.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<h4>Connection - Do you feel connected to the organisation?</h4>
We asked our research panel which factors they thought had the highest impact when it came to the engagement of high performing teams.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/space-hr-feedback-500-jan22---topic-high-performing-teams" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">32% said connection</a> &amp; the communication of goals, vision, mission and values was the most important factor.
Having the same values doesn&rsquo;t always mean having the same personalities or attitudes. It helps in building great working relationships. These people carry the same goals, intentions, and passion.
Do you know what the values / goals of your organisation are? If not, where can you find them? When increasing your fulfilment, take into consideration if it is a company you want to work for.&nbsp;
Now that you've established you share the same values as the company, think about how you will demonstrate those values in a day-to-day style. While your company sets the house rules and office policies, you set your own strategy according to your priorities and own values. It&rsquo;s how you get the job done.
Here are a few things to put into practice that will help align your values:
<ul>
<li>Start a conversation -&nbsp;The company's values are no secret, so put them out into the open. Talk with your leader and your team members about the values. Discuss how you connect with them and what you think needs changing.</li>
<li>Tie personal goals into professional goals -&nbsp;Take a look into how your goals can be accomplished within the framework of your company. Take advantage of coaching sessions, 1-2-1&rsquo;s and team meetings to understand the connections between your goals and those of the company.</li>
<li>Create an action plan -&nbsp;Think about how you can exercise your core values in a constructive way. Is there a position / department in the organisation where your core value alignment would be an even stronger asset?</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
By focusing on these 4 pillars of engagement, your productivity will increase. Your personal and professional achievements will also be easier to obtain. Overall this is likely to lead to an increase in your personal happiness.&nbsp;
One way to let your leader know how you feel is through regular feedback. 1-2-1 meetings are amazing for creating personal action plans and career development strategies. Another great feedback method is through engagement surveys, you can provide honest, reliable feedback which allows your leader to work closely on the problems affecting your engagement. We&rsquo;d always encourage you take part in feedback surveys, to ensure that you can share your voice and ideas with your leaders - don&rsquo;t miss out on a great opportunity!&nbsp;
To learn more about engagement in the workplace, check out our blog on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/whats-the-link-between-engagement-and-performance" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the link between engagement and performance</a>.
&nbsp;
To see how we can help you stay engaged, check out our website:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.spacehr.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.spacehr.co.uk</a>.

What can you do to increase your own engagement? Here are some of our tips & tricks...

Taking charge of your own engagement

How BEAM Fieldwork increased their survey completion rate to 94% by creating action plans using feedback  gathered by Ten Space

Case Study

Following a successful HR career, Victoria saw the opportunity to build a pragmatic product for HR teams to fall in love with. Her mission to ‘create incredible workplaces through highly engaged teams’, is underpinned by the technology and service delivered by the Ten Space team. 

CEO / Founder

Ten Space is a team of experts in employee engagement, experience and technology. Our powerful survey platform and service helps HR teams build winning businesses.

<div>Right from the start our goal was always very clear. We wanted to help businesses be the best versions of themselves.So we combined technology, support and resources for HR professionals and business leaders to gain incredible insight.We’ve built a product that’s really easy to build into your current framework and delivers feedback from day one.</div>

Our platform is designed to help you understand the real problems in your business - fast!

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See how B-Secur used their 81% completion rate to inform engagement policies and strategies through Ten Space.

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Take our platform for a test drive and see what it can do for you and your business. Our team are here to answer all your questions.

Employee engagement is crucial for accountancy firms as it directly impacts productivity, client satisfaction and firm reputation. Engaged employees are more likely to go the extra mile to understand client needs, provide tailored solutions and build long-term relationships. High levels of engagement reduce turnover rates, saving recruitment costs and preserving institutional knowledge.
                

Measure employee engagement in accountancy firms through regular surveys assessing factors like job satisfaction, work-life balance and alignment with firm values. Include questions on communication effectiveness, career development opportunities and recognition. Analyse survey results to identify areas for improvement and gauge overall engagement levels.

 A great employee engagement platform will give you the data, insight and feedback you need to enact real change in your organisation. Using a third-party platform adds an extra layer of trust. By segmenting the data from engagement surveys, you can uncover valuable insights specific to different employee groups. You can find where your problems are coming from and create targeted actions.

How it works

<div><h3 class="heading pb-4">What is Employee Engagement?</h3>To put it in its simplest form: Employee engagement is the level of commitment, enthusiasm and dedication employees have towards their work and the organisation. Enhanced employee engagement reveals itself in employees reaching their full potential and delivering exceptional performance at work.</div>

Measuring employee engagement in your legal firm can be achieved through regular employee surveys. This first step is critical in gathering data that will help you make decisions. Ideally you should be surveying your business every month so you can quickly observe any drops in engagement and affect a plan quickly to resolve issues. Regular surveys provide the data you need to build a strategic engagement plan based on real information, not gut feeling.


Using an ‘engagement specific’ survey platform will help you gather data faster, more securely and more accurately. The right platform will also make it easier for people to submit their responses in a way that’s easy for them. You’ll be able to compare results over time to analyse trends. By segmenting the data from engagement surveys, you can uncover valuable insights specific to different employee groups. You can find where your problems are coming from and create targeted actions.

Once you’ve done your first survey, things will become instantly clearer. You’ll start to see the hotpots in your company by a variety of segmentation criteria such as team, location, gender, role and tenure. Open-ended feedback will often help provide a solution to the challenges you’re seeing. We’re always amazed how much insight a first survey provides to our customers from a high level right into the detail. Measuring consistent data-points over time will help gain a deep understanding of how to build your strategic plan.


Build your employee engagement strategy

<div><h3 class="heading pb-4">High engagement means higher performance</h3>Employee engagement is a critical activity for professional services firms. Retaining your high performing people will help you build a high performing legal practice. 

But if you don’t have a way to measure engagement and understand when engagement is dropping, you run the risk of losing your top performers and a potential domino effect of top talent.</div>

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learn more about employee experience &amp; retention

An easy-to-use platform to helps you capture employee feedback simply, safely and securely.

Survey using Email, WhatsApp and SMS. Easily reach your deskless mobile and remote workers with surveys so everyone can share their ideas and feedback.

Reporting that delivers instant actionable insights, whilst offering rich detailed analysis.

The insights you need to prioritise, make decisions and track your impact. The data you need to help your team thrive.

<h5 class="heading mt-4 aos-init" data-aos="fade-down" data-aos-delay="40"> Take employee feedback to the next level</h5>If you're already gathering employee feedback but want to do more, we can show you how.

<div>The Ten Space survey platform does the hard work for you, reducing months of data collection and analysis into minutes.</div>

<div>Our survey platform delivers feedback surveys to gather responses back quickly for super-quick analysis and faster action.</div>

<div>Employee surveys, that allow you, your HR team and your leaders to focus on what they do best - building engagement and creating change.</div>

Search our Knowledge for answers to the things you need to know.                

Choose the plan that suits you

<ul><li>Access for up to 250 team members</li><li>Bi-monthly engagement surveys</li><li>Industry specific questions</li><li>Real-time results and analytics</li><li>Result segmentation, tracking &amp; comparisons</li><li>Suggested actions from experts</li><li><a href="/employee-engagement-model/">The Ten Space employee engagement model</a></li></ul>

<div class="text-center"><a>Find out more about advantage</a></div>

Fast and powerful engagement surveys

advantage

<ul><li>For all sizes of organisation</li><li>Advanced AI analytics</li><li>Build your own surveys</li><li>Distribution via email, WhatsApp &amp; SMS</li><li>Customisable data segmentation</li><li>Targeted surveys based on segmentation</li><li>Customised dashboards</li><li>Track key parts of the employee journey</li><li>Permissions based reports</li><li>Dedicated engagement managers to help you get the best results</li></ul>

For larger teams with dedicated requirements

enterprise

Build question sets unique to your business to get to the heart of the problem.

Set surveys to deliver when you want, to whoever you want, where you want.

Your business is comprised of lots of different teams that work in different ways.

Our platform is customisable to fit the needs of every part of your organisation.

Backed by artificial intelligence, our real-time dashboards give you the data you need to make informed decisions and take action quickly.

Simple, clear, easy to understand dashboards for faster desicion making.

Tag and segment data easily to identify areas of concern.

Get ahead by viewing results as they come in.

Confidently identify hidden meanings and discover trends.

Agile businesses need a flexible and inclusive approach.Ten Space gathers employee feedback via Whatsapp, SMS &amp; Email surveys so your people can respond on their terms.This leads to higher participation and a more inclusive experience, capturing the data from all your people, easily.

The Ten Space survey platform provides a data-driven approach for HR professionals to easily design, gather and analyse high-quality feedback. 

Listen to HR Director's Cut - insight into your dilemmas, conundrums and questions

Engage your team to deliver the future of your business today. From only £3 per employee per month. Whether you're starting your employee engagement journey or taking your people strategy to the next level, we can help.

Capture and utilise diversity data to enhance your culture. Capture diversity data in an efficient and safe way. Explore diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in your organisation. Ten Space supports your DEIB strategy. We can help you capture diversity data from your team in an efficent way to enhance your people data.

Elevate engagement. Retain talent. Supercharge performance. An engaged workforce helps businesses achieve so much more. The Ten Space survey platform captures the insights you need to understand employee engagement &amp; culture across your organisation. Take action &amp; drive change.

Create exceptional employee experiences. Optimise engagement. Supercharge your EVP. Let us take you on a journey.... Explore the experiences of your employees. Ten Space can help you to explore the journeys your employees take as they join your organisation, all the way through to when they leave.

Accelerate the performance of your teams to drive business performance. Explore what is driving, or holding back, your teams from delivering high-performance. We can help you explore high-performance in your organisation. Using our performance-focused surveys, we can help you uncover what is holding a team back from achieving their full potential.

Our monthly subscription fee includes our intuitive survey platform and wrap around service.

Ten Space fully supports your Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) strategy in the workplace. We offer comprehensive solutions to help you efficiently capture diversity data from your team, thereby enriching your people data. Additionally, our platform enables you to explore the topics of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within your workplace culture, providing valuable data and insights to inform and enhance your DEIB strategy.

Ten Space equips companies with the necessary resources, tools, knowledge and information to create the ultimate diverse and inclusive workforce. Our platform offers analytics and insights that enable organisations to develop and implement effective DEIB programs. From setting goals on equality to attracting diverse candidates during the hiring process, we provide solutions that address gender, race, ethnicity, and other dimensions of diversity.

Leveraging our data capture platform, we ensure that the process of collecting DEIB data is efficient, safe, and secure. Our platform is designed to capture data in a clean and organised manner, ready for your analysis and utilisation.

With our DEIB focused surveys, we enable you to capture the essential data and gain insights that support your DEIB strategy. We can explore general engagement across different demographics, or we can specifically focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging as central themes, allowing you to delve deeper into this critical area of culture.

As a trusted third-party platform that captures feedback anonymously, we provide a safe space for your employees to share their experiences and provide valuable feedback. This anonymity fosters an environment of authenticity and trust, enabling you to build an accurate and comprehensive picture of the insights you need to drive your DEIB initiatives.

We understand that your DEIB strategy is an ongoing journey, not a one-time event. That's why we help you regularly capture feedback and insights, allowing you to track your progress over time. By monitoring and analysing this data, you can demonstrate the impact and return on investment of your DEIB efforts, ensuring continuous improvement and advancement.

An engaged workforce helps organisations achieve their goals. Ten Space captures the valuable insights you need to build a positive culture through high employee engagement. Your people managers and leaders can easily identify and address those critical issues preventing high engagement and build a culture that everyone buys into.

Ten Space empowers organisations to unlock the full potential of their employee engagement strategy. By utilising our platform, people managers and leaders can leverage their knowledge, experience and approach to drive positive change throughout the workplace. Effective communication, addressing challenges and fostering a supportive culture are integral aspects of our platform, enabling you to build a thriving organisation that values its employees. With Ten Space, you have the necessary insights and data to prove the impact of your employee engagement strategy and continuously improve the employee experience.

"Ten Space help HR teams identify and resolve retention hotspots quickly. The data helps you improve every stage of the employee journey including hiring, onboarding, probation, reviews and exit interviews to continuously improve the employee experience and reduce retention risks"

<div><h3 class="heading pb-4">What is the Employee Engagement model?</h3>Some believe engagement is solely about having happy employees, but engagement goes beyond this. Enhanced employee engagement reveals itself when your employees reach their full potential and deliver exceptional performance at work.At Ten Space we use a simple model. It helps you explore engagement in your organisation. It shows you where you already excel and where you need to focus to improve.</div>

When your employees feel connected to the mission of the company, their engagement improves significantly. They find meaning and purpose in their work, knowing that their efforts contribute to something larger than themselves. They become more invested in the success of your organisation, leading to higher productivity, increased job satisfaction and a stronger sense of belonging within the team.

A great leader inspires and motivates their team members, earning their trust and respect. They provide clear direction, guidance, and support, allowing employees to perform their best and reach their full potential. A great leader creates a sense of empowerment, job satisfaction and loyalty among the team, leading to enhanced employee engagement and overall success.

 Employee engagement improves when your employees feel fulfilled in their role. When individuals find their work meaningful and aligned with their values, they are motivated to invest their time and energy into their work, going above and beyond to achieve goals. This positive mindset and attitude contribute to increased productivity, stronger teamwork and a happier work environment, ultimately enhancing overall employee engagement.

The highest-performing teams have one thing in common: psychologically safe workplaces. Psychologically safe workplaces promote healthier, more productive and more inclusive workforces. They also provide the environment in which innovation can thrive and people can perform at their best.

Ten Space is the platform to gather regular employee feedback. Every month, your employees are able to offer the feedback and insight you need to create positive change throughout your organisation.

The Ten Space engagement model underpins the data. It ensures a consistent approach to capturing feedback that can be measured over time. Our platform helps you build the perfect question set to understand the real issues preventing high engagement. 

 Ten Space does all the hard work, saving you days of admin. Questions are sent via email, WhatsApp or SMS and responses are gathered back in the platform. No matter where your employees are or how they work, there is always an easy way for them to provide their feedback. 

See responses as they're being submitted. Our dashboards display real-time information for you and your managers to access valuable insights at any time. This allows you to spend less time collating data and more time taking the actions that matter to build higher engagement.  

The Ten Space way

Retaining your best people is all about understanding the individual and collective journeys they're on. Ten Space allows you to predict retention issues before they occur and prevent your top talent from leaving.  

The Ten Space survey platform allows leaders to seamlessly follow their employees' journeys within the organisation, gaining invaluable insights into their professional growth and development. The platform provides a unique ability to monitor employee sentiment through live data streams from surveys, enabling leaders to make informed decisions to enhance workplace satisfaction.

All of your employees are on a journey. Even before they work for you, they're building an impression of your organisation through the hiring process. Common experiences for all employees may include hiring, onboarding, probation, promotion and exit. Ten Space allows you to unpack the employee experience at each stage of the journey, helping you improve the experience for future employees. 

Ten Space provides a highly customised in-depth feedback loop to understand which parts of your HR initiatives and processes could be causing retention issues. Our platform sends our feedback surveys at critical times to gather sentiment and understand feeling. At every step, you'll gain a true understanding of how employees really feel and what retention risks exist.

Ten Space makes the process of collecting feedback really easy. Our platform allows you to build and launch custom feedback loops that can analyse specific journeys being experienced in all parts of the organisation. You can customise your questions to gain a deep understanding of employee experiences. And our AI summaries make it easy to analyse retention hotspots at all times.

At any time, your HR team can log into Ten Space and view our feedback dashboards. Our customer success team will hold regular reviews and insights sessions with you, so you feel fully supported. We'll help you to get the most out of the insights you've captured and support you in taking the next steps to further enhance employee satisfaction. 

The Ten Space way

Ten Space assists you in exploring high-performance within your organisation. Leveraging our performance-focused surveys, we enable you to achieve your goals and unlock the full potential of your teams. Our platform helps you identify the unique qualities that make a team exceptional, empowering you to replicate and build upon their success. Analysing performance culture team by team in organisations where performance matters.

Ten Space equips you with everything you need to drive team performance and achieve success. By leveraging our platform, you can assess and enhance the culture, communication, management, individual commitment, projects and processes that contribute to team effectiveness. Through comprehensive performance evaluation metrics and insights, you gain a deeper understanding of your teams and can make informed decisions to drive improvement and productivity.

Utilising our performance-based question sets we’ll help you understand how to assess performance in organisation. We guide you by asking the right questions to extract the necessary insights on performance evaluation for teams. Whether your team operates in creative, technical, administrative, or sales-focused areas, we tailor the process to fit your team's specific requirements.

We assist you in segmenting your team data, enabling you to gain in-depth performance insights and understand the trends that impact team effectiveness. Our intuitive dashboard helps you quickly identify key insights from your results, allowing you to focus on actionable steps and next moves.

Harnessing the power of Ten Space as a trusted third-party anonymous platform, we provide a safe space for employees to share any challenges, barriers, or catalysts that affect their performance. This way, we foster a climate of openness, encouraging individuals to provide candid feedback that can uncover valuable insights.

We can help you integrate communication and training needs analysis into your surveys, allowing you to gather ideas and solutions directly from your team members. By capturing this information, you gain a clear understanding of work expectations and where your team would like you to focus your efforts to improve performance culture. There are no limitations or holding back when it comes to taking action.

Capture and utilise diversity data to enhance your culture.

Insights to understand the engagement and culture across your organisation

Identify and resolve retention hotspots in your organisation

Capture and utilise diversity data in an efficient and safe way to enhance your culture.  

Capture the insights you need to understand employee engagement &amp; culture across your organisation.

Create exceptional employee experiences. Optimise engagement. Supercharge your EVP.

Accelerate the performance of your teams to drive business performance

Build a high performing business powered by high performing teams

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