Angela R. Howard is an organizational psychologist working to build & transform human-centric workplaces alongside growth-minded leaders. With 15+ years of applied and demonstrated leadership in transformational change management, diversity & culture, talent management and employee experience, she’s leveraged her experience working with businesses and teams to help them grow and become more profitable by investing in their people.
Her mission is to re-invent the role of “HR” and create more human-centric workplaces that enrich the lives of a diverse workforce and inspire them to do good for the world.
Technology has transformed the job market and the work environment as we know it. Now more than ever it is necessary to put people first and encourage a Human-centric workplace where people can have positive relationships and a healthy work environment that helps employees to be happy at work.
A human-centric workplace ensures that its workers are engaged in their work and not just satisfied. While “engaged employees” are satisfied with their job, “satisfied employees” are not necessarily committed to it, says Angela, it is important to understand the differences between the two terms.
The Engagement or Commitment of the Employee is something that happens when the workers commit and imply in helping the company for which they work, to achieve all its objectives. Engaged employees are motivated to show up for work every day and do everything in their power to help their businesses succeed.
Employee Satisfaction is the state of a worker who enjoys their job but is not necessarily committed to it. Imagine an employee arriving early for work and leaving late but not contributing much or breaking a sweat.
While satisfied employees can handle their job responsibilities decently, they will never go beyond expectations. This is the key difference between engaged employees and satisfied employees.
When employees are engaged, not only they are happy to have their jobs, but they are always thinking about how their company can be better. This could involve ideas on streamlining business processes, new product or service ideas, or not hesitating to go the extra mile to help a co-worker or client, when needed.
For those reasons, while companies should be interested in making sure their employees are satisfied with the work they do, they should be more concerned with measuring and improving employee engagement.
By changing the way an organization works and thinking of it as a human-centered workplace, you could increase the chances that your workers will be engaged and thus strengthen the foundation of the company, which translates into a happier, healthier workforce, and in the long term a more profitable and sustainable company. With that in mind, here are five simple tips you can use:
– Listen and receive feedback from your employees
– Recognize Acknowledge the work of your employees
– Invest in your workforce´s professional development
– Let employees pursue alternative projects of their choice.
– Supports remote work and flexible hours.
What having a human-centric workplace means is providing a human experience to them. Employers must redefine meaning back into work: guaranteeing a human experience in the workplace, focusing on making work more collaborative, showing employees how their team tasks transform the world. Make them feel like they are doing purposeful work!
Angela Howard | Founder & Organizational Culture Strategist at Angela R. Howard Consulting
