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In last weeks blog, I encouraged you to give some thought to two things;
<ol>
<li>Your business goals for 2021</li>
<li>What you need from your team in order to achieve these goals</li>
</ol>
You can find it&nbsp;<a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(219, 62, 98);" href="https://www.spacehr.co.uk/blogs/5-steps-to-a-highly-engaged-team" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a> if you want to recap.
Hopefully you've had time to reflect and give some thought to this.
This week we're going to be looking at two critical pillars of Employee Engagement - Connection and Leadership. Each pillar offers the ability to help you achieve your goals by building a highly engaged team for the future.
&nbsp;
<h3>Connection</h3>
Connection is about aligning your employees to your business and it's goals. It's about having a sense of purpose (like a mission or vision) and ensuring your people are bought into it. It's about two way communication with employees having a voice and being able to contribute to the business's future. On a practical level it's also about being informed and updated.&nbsp;
If your people understand the part they play in the future of the company they can make a great contribution!
Thinking about your own business;
<ul>
<li>Do you have a mission or vision that's clear and meaningful?</li>
<li>Do your team know what it is and know how they can contribute?</li>
<li>Do you have company values and are they brought to life in your business?</li>
<li>Are your people processes well aligned to this? For example, do you recruit with your mission in mind?</li>
<li>Do you have a mechanism by which your team can give feedback / ideas / ask questions / contribute? Do you allow your employees to influence what happens in your business?</li>
<li>How good is your communication about what's happening in your business? Are your team well informed and updated? Is it engaging? Topical? In the moment?</li>
</ul>
Task 2: What are you not doing from the above list?&nbsp;Add them to your notes from the week one exercise. Your engagement plan is starting to take shape!
&nbsp;
<h3>Leadership</h3>
The saying goes that people join a business and leave a manager. We've found this to be very true. Without great leadership, you are always filling a leaky bucket when it comes to employee engagement.
Leadership is about how confident employees feel about their leaders and managers, how inspired they are by them, how much trust there is there and what the relationship is like.
Thinking about your own business;
<ul>
<li>Do the leaders in your business bring out the best in your teams?</li>
<li>Have you got a high performing team? If not, are you working towards it?</li>
<li>Are your teams well recognised by leaders? Does it inspire your teams to do more?</li>
<li>Do your leaders create great working environments for their teams? Are they good at bringing teams together and build their strengths?</li>
<li>Is poor performance well managed? Is there a sense of fairness in your business?</li>
<li>Is trust high amongst your leaders and their teams?</li>
</ul>
Thinking about yourself;
<ul>
<li>What kind of leader are you?</li>
<li>Where do your strengths lie</li>
<li>What are your weaknesses?</li>
<li>Where do you need to focus personally?</li>
</ul>
Task 3: Reflecting on this list above, what can you improve about your business and yourself.&nbsp;Add them to your notes from the week one exercise. Your engagement plan is starting to take shape!
&nbsp;
<h3>Identifying solutions</h3>
If you've identified some gaps, you can work on solutions by thinking about the following things:
<ul>
<li>What feedback have my team given me that has indicated what solutions, improvements or changes they'd like to see?</li>
<li>Who can I ask / how can I ask them to know where I can make an impact?</li>
<li>Do I know people or businesses who are doing this well that I can get ideas from?</li>
<li>Do I need some expertise to help me?</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
If anything in here has struck a cord and you'd like to create your plan with the support of Ten Space, you can contact <a style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent;" href="mailto:victoria@spacehr.co.uk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">victoria@tenspace.co.uk</a>

5 Steps to a Highly Engaged Team - Part 2

Taking the time to plan in January is an excellent way to make sure you don't drift as the year goes on.
I'm going to assume a few things first...
&nbsp;
1. You had a great Christmas break
2. You took some real time off from work
3. You rested or had a good change in pace (because as they say, a change is as good as a rest)
&nbsp;
If not please do consider a break first, because starting a year burnt out from last year is never a good idea!
Like me, you're probably wondering what the year has in store. Could it be a record year of revenue growth? Maybe you're launching a new product? Maybe you're going for investment? Or could it be the year that you sell your business and cash out?
I don't want to curse any of your plans at this early stage, but how did 2020 feel when you left it behind? Maybe some people handed their notice in and left at the end of last year. Maybe you're going to walk back in to a flurry of people handing their notice in. Or, maybe the mood became quite low at the end of last year and you know it's going to be a challenge to raise spirits and re-engage your team?
One thing is for sure, if you've got huge ambitions for 2021 you're going to need a rock solid team that's firing on all cylinders to help you get there.
&nbsp;
Here at Ten Space, we've thought about this for you. We've put together a 5 week plan to help you put your team first in helping you to achieve your goals.
&nbsp;
<h4>Over the next 5 weeks we'll cover;</h4>
Week 1 - How will a more engaged team help you achieve more?
Week 2 - Engagement Pillars - Connection &amp; Leadership
Week 3 - Engagement Pillars - Fulfilment &amp; Wellbeing
Week 4 - Turning your plan into action
Week 5 - Measuring success
If you lose track of our posts at any time, you can find all our blogs on www.spacehr.co.uk.
&nbsp;
<h3>STEP 1 - How will a more engaged team help you achieve more?</h3>
Employee engagement touches everything you do in your business. It's in the colour of the walls, it's in the type of coffee you provide, it's in each payslip and every word that comes out of your mouth.
It isn't a project, an initiative, or a short term fix. Great employee engagement doesn't have a deadline and it's never finished or completed. High engagement today doesn't guarantee you high engagement tomorrow. You need to work at it every day and in every corner of your business.
&nbsp;
<h4>Your Engagement Bank</h4>
Think of employee engagement as a bank account. You opened it on day one of your business and since then you've been adding to the balance. The currency in your account has a value and it can help buy the business great things such as increased revenue, higher profitability, better talent, higher employee retention and increased creativity.
Every day in your business you are making deposits or withdrawals from your account. Making more deposits increases the level of employee engagement you have and gives you the opportunity to buy more. Similarly, you'll naturally make withdrawals. These are unavoidable as an employer, but they matter less if the balance in your account is kept high. You simply need to put more in than you take out.
&nbsp;
<h4>Your 2021 Goals</h4>
Most businesses start the year setting out goals they'd like to achieve. There might be some specific goals such as entering new markets, building new products, offering new services or smashing higher sales targets. Whatever they are, it's likely that some withdrawals will need to be made from The Engagement Bank along the way to meet these goals.
Some examples could include;
&bull; Goal 1: Work with bigger clients - So requiring your team to up-skill
&bull; Goal 2: Ensure profitability - So communicating that pay-rises might not happen this year
&bull; Goal 3: Increase revenue - So sales targets need be increased
&bull; Goal 4: Streamline processes - Requires introducing a new piece of tech and re-training
&nbsp;
<h4>Your Task</h4>
1. Document the goals for your business in 2021
2. Consider what you will need from your team in order to achieve these goals. Have you got enough currency in Your Engagement Bank? What withdrawals are you likely to need to make to ensure this year is a great success?
&nbsp;
Writing these things down, gives you a good foundation for your engagement plan. If you'd like to use the Ten Space Engagement Planner to create your plan, email victoria@tenspace.co.uk and we'll send it to you.
Ten Space's model of engagement provides focus and direction to create impact.
&nbsp;
Over the coming weeks, we'll be looking at engagement in 4 key areas:
<ul>
<li>Connection</li>
<li>Leadership</li>
<li>Fulfilment</li>
<li>Wellbeing</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
Want to do it faster? No problem! We can send you the next 4 weeks content now! Or we can help create your plan with you: victoria@tenspace.co.uk.

5 Steps to a Highly Engaged Team - Part 1

The traditional working week of 9-5, 5 days a week seems to be hard wired into our society. Most workers build their days, weeks and years around this working pattern. But for many people, it just doesn't align with their life outside of work.
Many are juggling a near impossible balance of work and life outside of work, which makes it incredible difficult to be fully engaged in their job.&nbsp;
Caring responsibilities play a large part in this juggling act:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/familiesandthelabourmarketengland/2019">5 million people</a>&nbsp;in the UK are juggling caring responsibilities with work - that's 1 in 7 of the workforce.</li>
<li>Almost 3 in 10 mothers (28.5%) with a child aged 14 years and under said they had reduced their working hours due childcare reasons.</li>
<li>The proportion of parents who faced an obstacle fulfilling responsibilities decreased as the age of the child increased; from&nbsp;34.9%&nbsp;of parents whose youngest child was aged between 0 and 4 years to&nbsp;20.4%&nbsp;of parents with a child aged 11 to 14 years.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
Reviewing mental health statistics makes it really clear where employees are struggling and where the engagement gaps may be.
A recent Mental Health Foundation survey found:
<ul>
<li>One third&nbsp;of respondents feel unhappy or very unhappy about the time they devote to work</li>
<li>More than&nbsp;40%&nbsp;of employees are neglecting other aspects of their life because of work, which may increase their vulnerability to mental health problems&nbsp;</li>
<li>When working long hours more than a quarter of employees feel depressed (27%), one third feel anxious (34%), and more than half feel irritable (58%)</li>
<li>The more hours you spend at work, the more hours outside of work you are likely to spend thinking or worrying about it</li>
<li>As a person's weekly hours increase, so do their feelings of unhappiness</li>
<li>Many more women report unhappiness than men (42% of women&nbsp;compared with&nbsp;29% of men), which is probably a consequence of competing life roles and more pressure to 'juggle'</li>
<li>Nearly&nbsp;two thirds&nbsp;of employees have experienced a negative effect on their personal life, including lack of personal development, physical and mental health problems, and poor relationships and poor home life.</li>
</ul>
These findings make for pretty depressing reading. So what can you do as a business to change things for the better?
&nbsp;
If your business can accommodate it, moving away from the traditional working week and offering more flexible ways of working can offer solutions to the challenges above. In return, you'll build long lasting employee engagement and create competitive advantage.
Offering flexible working options opens up new, often more diverse talent pools too as well as giving employees a greater reason to stay in your business.
If your business can accommodate it, we recommend that you build flexible working into your processes when creating or replacing roles.
Try and consider;
<ul>
<li>Can this role be part time?</li>
<li>Can this role be a job share?</li>
<li>Does this role need to be 9-5?</li>
<li>Does this job need to be 5 days per week?</li>
<li>Can it be compressed hours?</li>
<li>Can it be term time only?</li>
<li>Can it be remote?</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
The principals and the benefits of a flexible working approach, reach across all of the 4 pillars of the Ten Space engagement model. If you'd like to talk some more about our model, approach and how flexible working could offer you competitive advantage, you can email our founder: Victoria@tenspace.co.uk&nbsp;

Shunning the 9-5 can create competitive advantage

Can flexible working improve engagement?

This is a story about a people manager that works in your business. Let's call this person "Alex" for the purposes of this story.
Alex (delete as appropriate):
a)&nbsp;has worked in your business forever
b)&nbsp;is a close friend of your partner
c)&nbsp;is the key contact for your biggest client
d)&nbsp;knows where the bodies are buried
e)&nbsp;started in a lower role, showed promise and drifted in new roles as the company grew
&nbsp;
Once upon a time Alex was doing well, so you gave them a team. They didn&rsquo;t get off to a great start, but you were busy at the time, and didn&rsquo;t have the time to deal with it. Before you knew it, many years had passed. If you're being honest, Alex probably gets worse each year now.
Because Alex doesn't model great behaviour they don't have a great recruitment success rate. This leads to a high number of people leaving or being made to leave in probation. It wastes a lot of time and is costs the business a lot of money. But not everyone is great at recruitment, so no action needed.
There are no real shining stars in the team, no one manages to make it out of Alex's team once they are in it. Alex has no idea how to create a great environment for working and for talent to thrive, they just seem to muddle along.&nbsp;Sickness levels do seem to be a bit higher in that team too, but it isn&rsquo;t that much worse than other teams, so no action needed.
&nbsp;
Alex likes banter.&nbsp;You&rsquo;ve heard a couple of things second hand, but again you&rsquo;re too busy to do anything about it, they aren&rsquo;t a screaming problem at the moment. No grievance received, so no action needed.
Alex's customer stats are ok. The clients Alex manages are stable, but Alex doesn't really achieve any up-sell or create any new opportunities from their client base. But they haven&rsquo;t lost any clients, so no action needed.
Alex's name has come up a couple of times in exit interviews, but you&rsquo;ve never had a grievance about them from leavers and not everyone can get along, so no action needed.
Others in the leadership team are visibility frustrated working with Alex.&nbsp;There&rsquo;s tension but that&rsquo;s normal in a senior team under pressure right? Sadly one of your highest potential leaders has decided to leave. You don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s a link though, so no action needed.
&nbsp;
<h4>But now its crunch time - the business is growing up.</h4>
Now you&rsquo;re having to make some different and difficult decisions about the future of the business. You need your leadership team on board to help push this change through. But Alex messed up the message and now you&rsquo;ve had a load of emails directly from employees to deal with. Classic Alex cock up, but not the end of the world, so no action needed.
&nbsp;
<h4>Remember, Alex (delete as appropriate):</h4>
a)&nbsp;has worked in your business for 1 million years
b)&nbsp;has been there since the beginning
c)&nbsp;is a close friend of your partner
d)&nbsp;is the key contact for your biggest client
e)&nbsp;knows where the bodies are buried (delete as appropriate)
f)&nbsp;started in a lower role, showed promise and got promoted a few times
... so it isn&rsquo;t that bad. Deal with it later.
How does this make you feel as the owner of a business, or as an effective leader in the business?
The impact of a poor leader in your business can be really damaging. Other employees may see Alex's mediocrity or poor approach being acceptable in your business. If you settle for this level of mediocrity, you&rsquo;ll have to settle for mediocre outcomes.
&nbsp;
<h3>So what should you do?</h3>
You need to confront this head on. And you need to do it now. There are to many amber warnings going on here and ultimately your business might not be suffering, but it probably isn't realising its true potential either.
Here&rsquo;s some ideas of how to get this started:
<ul>
<li>Firstly you need to make it clear to Alex that it isn&rsquo;t acceptable anymore</li>
<li>Gather your facts and prepare for a challenging conversation</li>
<li>Invite Alex to your meeting, do it properly, so they know it&rsquo;s not just a quick catch up</li>
<li>Have an exploratory conversation with them. What&rsquo;s going on? How can you support? How can you turn it around? What do they need?</li>
<li>Put in place your agreed support actions - do not forget or skip this part</li>
<li>Set clear expectations and timescales for review. Be fair, be supportive, be clear.</li>
<li>Be brave about moving from informal to formal processes if you aren&rsquo;t seeing the change you need. Don&rsquo;t cruise at this stage either</li>
<li>Make great notes &amp; keep great records</li>
</ul>
Here&rsquo;s that line again, in case you still need convincing, if you settle for mediocre leadership, you&rsquo;ll have to settle for mediocre outcomes.
Take this out of the &ldquo;too hard&rdquo; box and demonstrate that you&rsquo;re also a great leader by tackling this and not accepting this level of mediocrity.
&nbsp;
If you need help raising the game of your leadership team,Ten Space can help. <a style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(219, 62, 98);" href="mailto:victoria@spacehr.co.uk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">victoria@tenspace.co.uk</a>

A story about "Alex" - A manager in your business?

Does one bad manager matter?

It's fair to say that the 2020 hasn't been the year that most people expected. Covid 19 has turned people's work and personal lives upside down.
Entire industries have been decimated, hundreds of thousands of people have been made redundant and many more jobs are being propped up by the furlough schemes.
It's not all bad news though. Many industries are thriving and many new companies have emerged, started by determined entrepreneurs backed into the corner but ready to come out fighting.
From a social perspective, one of the most significant shifts is the amount of people now working from home.
The <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/coronavirusandhomeworkingintheuk/april2020">Office for National Statistics</a> recently published the following;
<ul>
<li>In April 2020,&nbsp;46.6%&nbsp;of people in employment did some work at home.</li>
<li>Of those who did some work from home,&nbsp;86.0%&nbsp;did so as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.</li>
<li>Of those who did some work from home, around one-third worked fewer hours than usual (34.4%), and around one-third worked more hours than usual (30.3%).</li>
<li>Women were slightly more likely to do some work at home than men,&nbsp;47.5%&nbsp;and&nbsp;45.7%&nbsp;respectively.</li>
<li>People aged 16 to 24 years were less likely to do some work from home than those in older age groups.</li>
<li>Occupations requiring higher qualifications and more experience were more likely to provide home-working opportunities than elementary and manual occupations.</li>
</ul>
These figures make pretty interesting reading. To see that&nbsp;86%&nbsp;of people working from home were doing so because of COVID -19 shows what a huge impact this pandemic has had on working society. We don't know if or when society might return to normal or even what normal is anymore.
&nbsp;
12 months ago I'd regularly get a train to London from Manchester for meetings, but now this doesn't seem so necessary. What else will change?
The thoughts of business leaders towards home working have shifted significantly too. I repeatedly hear things like;
"we no longer require an office if our people can work remotely"
"we can work more flexibly, with jobs being part home, part office based"
"we find our teams are getting a better work life balance at home"
"we've found that our people are just as productive working from home as they were from the office"
These statements might be true, or just the opinions of the most vocal. But are these leaders really talking to their employees to measure how they're feeling?
&nbsp;
The Ten Space engagement model has 4 pillars for engagement - Connection, Fulfilment, Leadership and Wellbeing.
In brief, we examine;
<ul>
<li>Connection -&nbsp;Do employees have a voice, feel informed, buy into your mission?</li>
<li>Fulfilment -&nbsp;Do employees feel proud to work for you, get rewarded and feel challenged?</li>
<li>Leadership -&nbsp;Are you bringing out the best in your teams and helping them to thrive?</li>
<li>Wellbeing -&nbsp;Do employees feel safe, secure, and supported, both emotionally and physically?</li>
</ul>
For some employees, working from home can have an extremely negative impact across all 4 pillars. They might lose their connection with the business because they don't have the exposure to the leaders like they did before. They my feel less fulfilled with their work and disengaged with the leadership team which could affect productivity.
Finally they might start to feel less safe and secure in their role and start to welcome conversations about other opportunities.
&nbsp;
If you let your people work from home its vital that you put the correct framework in place to make sure they remain engaged. Working from home is solitary by nature so its really easy for people to become disengaged, unhappy and unproductive. Business leaders need to work harder and find new, more innovative ways to engage with their employees.
Our top tips for keeping your employees engaged when working from home are;
<ul>
<li>Get really clear on what success looks like, set great goals, objectives, outcomes and timeframes and let your team get on with it.</li>
<li>Create time in your day / week to connect with your team. On a one to one basis, this is a great opportunity to check in on wellbeing, address any personal concerns they have, offer them support and continue any career conversation you've been having</li>
<li>On a team basis, it's an opportunity to keep the collaboration and team working vibe going and to provide them with updates on business performance and any changes that they may need to know</li>
<li>Don't forget about recognition, a little can go a long way. Recognising the heroics, the sacrifices or even just the reliability and consistency will be really valued by teams who are being challenged</li>
<li>Role model great behaviour for working from home and setting a balance; e.g. set your own working hours and stick to them - this will signal to your team you don't expect them to always be "on"</li>
<li>Keep embracing their families and their personal lives, their cats, their dogs, their goldfish and their kids. This personal connection is what great working relationships are made of and will really help to keep engagement high</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
For help and support with your employee engagement strategy, contact Victoria Bond at Ten Space - victoria@tenspace.co.uk

Maintaining engagement from the home office

Remote working in the covid era

If you&rsquo;re worrying about engaging your millennial workers, I&rsquo;m afraid you&rsquo;re way behind!
The oldest millennials (1980-1994) are now 40 and well into their careers. They're likely managing a team or even running their own businesses. Either way they're likely to be worrying about how to keep their Gen Z team-mates and employees engaged.&nbsp;
'Gen Z' is the newest generation to be named. Born in the mid-90's and the oldest are now in their 20's. They're highly digitally aware, having been born and raised with the internet and social media... and they're playing a more prominent role in today's workforce.
As with each&nbsp;generation before, they bring a fresh wave of engagement challenges.&nbsp;Here we look at why engagement of your Gen Z's is so important and what they might be expecting from their employers to keep them engaged.
&nbsp;
<h3>A Tough Start</h3>
Gen Z have had a tough start to their careers - the odds are not in their favour. Some of the circumstances impacting this generation include;
<ol>
<li>Covid&nbsp;19 -&nbsp;The world stopped and global economies crashed. The full impact is yet to be understood, but the job loss statistics seem to suggest that young people are being disproportionately impacted by job losses. Their educations have also been severely disrupted.</li>
<li>Brexit&nbsp;-&nbsp;Political upheaval and uncertainty since 2016 making decisions about future career choices much harder</li>
<li>University&nbsp;fee cap&nbsp;-&nbsp;This increased in 2016 to &pound;9,000 per year, making university financially inaccessible for many students. This has forced alternative career choices from the point of leaving full time education</li>
<li>Apprenticeship Framework failure -&nbsp;Launched by the government in 2014, it was unfinished and created confusion. Even in 2020, employers are still catching up and working out the best way to use the scheme. The number of apprenticeship places offered by employers dropped dramatically, reducing options for Gen Zs entering the workforce.</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
<h3>Getting It Right</h3>
But regardless of the challenges this generation faces, they are the future potential of your organisation. And if nurtured correctly they will be key to your future innovation, growth and success.&nbsp;
As &ldquo;digital natives&rdquo;, they don&rsquo;t remember a time before the internet existed. They are connected via social media like no other generation before them and lockdowns have made this more intense.&nbsp;
If you can engage this generation and get it right for them, they&rsquo;ll tell their friends. Get it wrong, they&rsquo;ll tell their friends and all of social media!&nbsp;
So how do you get it right for them? What is it that Gen Z is looking for from an incredible workplace experience? Drawing on McKinsey&rsquo;s work on Gen Zs;
<ol>
<li>Great Tech -&nbsp;Old or out of date technology will turn them off sharpish. They like to be connected, mobile, social and well informed.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Authentic Values -&nbsp;Integrity&nbsp;is key for this group, their search for the truth extends to all corners of their lives, they want to be themselves and they want businesses to have the same level of transparency and authenticity.</li>
<li>Sense of purpose -&nbsp;They&nbsp;care deeply about what it is your business does, what your mission and vision is. They want leadership they can get behind.</li>
<li>Diversity &amp; Inclusivity -&nbsp;Gen&nbsp;Z's are naturally diverse and inclusive and will be immediately turned off in an environment that doesn&rsquo;t support that ethos.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Safety &amp; Stability -&nbsp;With&nbsp;so much uncertainty early in their careers, this should come as no surprise! Whilst the temptation of freelancing might be appealing to millennials, Gen Z value a stable income and employer more and they&rsquo;ve come to realise that as a rarer thing than the generation before them.</li>
</ol>
So get out of your comfort zone and build a generation of talented Gen Z'ers into your business.&nbsp;This generation have so much yet to offer to the workplace and the future of our economy so make sure that your business is bringing out the best in them - they deserve it!&nbsp;
&nbsp;
For engagement strategy and support with the Gen Z , contact Victoria Bond at Ten Space - victoria@tenspace.co.uk

Engaging your future superstars

No matter how engaged your team is, you can be sure that occasionally people will leave. But just as you wouldn't employ a person without interviewing them, its probably not a good idea to let a person leave your business without interviewing them either. Why? Lets give this some thought...
Everyone that came to work for you did so for a reason. Maybe for the money, for the job, for the brand or for the leadership team. When you hired them both parties felt good about the decision, but over time the employee started to think differently and made a decision to move on.
So what changed? When did it change? Why did it change? How can you get these answers?
&nbsp;
<h3>The Exit Interview</h3>
Most businesses don't put enough value on the exit interview. They decide that the employee wasn&rsquo;t a good fit anymore and dismiss feedback in favour of recruitment. But understanding an employee's motivation for leaving could unlock some really good insight on how to improve your business and/or engage better with your employees. It could also stop you wasting a lot of time and money on expensive recruitment exercises.
Ask yourself the following;
<ol>
<li>Do you conduct exist interviews in your business? If yes, what value do you place on the information you get back? If no, why not? The person is leaving anyway. You might just learn something!</li>
<li>What questions do you ask? Are they helpful in extracting the information you want from the existing employee?</li>
<li>What do you do with the information afterwards? Do you feed the trends and learnings from your leaver process into your employee engagement plans and activity?</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
<h3>Lasting impressions&nbsp;</h3>
Exit interviews conducted at the time of leaving tend to be polarised. Typically those willing to participate have some intense opinions they want to share, or they just want to get it over with as quickly as possible. Either way, you&rsquo;re probably not going to get the quality insight and information you are hoping for.&nbsp;
But once the employee have been out of the organisation for a few months they form their lasting impressions. These are the real opinions and insights that have stayed with them - the ones they are likely to share with others, good or bad. This is the contribution they&rsquo;ll be making to your employer brand if anyone asks their opinion on your business.&nbsp;
So wouldn&rsquo;t you like to know what they are saying? Positive feedback could help you recruit. Negative can add to your engagement plan to address and improve retention.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Benchmarking</h3>
3 months in and your leaver is likely to be established in their new job. They are making comparisons, forming opinions and making recommendations. This can be really powerful information about what are they are really loving about their new employer.&nbsp;
But, now they have a benchmark what do they miss about working in your business? What is the new company getting right that you didn&rsquo;t? Do they have any recommendations for you to help you improve?&nbsp;
3 months after they&rsquo;ve left and the answers to these questions now have additional useful context for your business.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h3>Maintaining relationships&nbsp;</h3>
Getting back in touch with an employee after they&rsquo;ve left to make them feel heard, valued and respected one more time can help to establish a positive ongoing relationship. You create a highly valuable brand ambassador for your business!
This person will promote your company and help smooth the path for new colleagues to find you. If they regret their decision, it could keep the door open for a return in the future too!
&nbsp;
<h3>How to do it</h3>
We suggest you ask permission to contact the employee again as part of the leaver process. Explain why you&rsquo;d like to and get an email address to send an online survey too. Then send out a survey at the 3 month mark. Make sure it's short and won't put them off.
For this kind of survey, you may find that allowing them to write their own responses (qualitative data), rather than rating you on a scale (quantitive data), is more useful and effective. Don&rsquo;t be concerned if you don&rsquo;t get a response, some people leave and never look back, but those that do could help you be better leaders in the future and prevent the same mistakes happening again.
And as with any data you receive, don&rsquo;t waste it! You&rsquo;ve gone to the effort of collecting it, so make sure it has the impact it deserves.&nbsp;
So double-down on collecting insight from your leavers by enhancing and extending your exit interview process. Collecting data and insight 3 months after an employee has left your business, offers a clearer picture of what went wrong, what went right and where improvements can be made.&nbsp;
The feedback you obtain could be vital in helping you attract and retain better employees and put a better Employee Engagement framework in place. It could prevent the next good person leaving and help you build an outstanding company culture.
&nbsp;
For help and support with your exit interview framework, contact Victoria Bond at Ten Space - victoria@tenspace.co.uk

Exit Interviews... Is ignorance bliss?

#lockdown2uk will undoubtedly impact employee engagement and wellbeing. A hard lockdown followed by a long period of home-working has hurt many businesses.
So as we head into a second lockdown how can you make sure your team remains connected, fulfilled and inspired to uphold the mission and values of your business?
Here's our top tips to set you and your team up for success...
&nbsp;
<h4>1.Learn from last time</h4>
This time round, we&rsquo;re more prepared. Speak to your leaders, reflect what worked and what didn't work and prepare you plan accordingly.
&nbsp;
<h4>2. Address concerns early</h4>
Make it clear how you will be responding to lockdown. Communicate what it means to your business and the impact it may have. Sometimes, saying&nbsp;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know right now&rdquo; is an opportunity to demonstrate transparency and build trust.
&nbsp;
<h4>3. Connect and listen</h4>
Informally speak to your team and find out what they are worried about regarding a second lockdown. Is there anything you can solve before it becomes a problem? Is there advice you can give, or signpost them towards?&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h4>4. Address work-life balance</h4>
What responsibilities and life admin do your team have? Can you accommodate it? Can you make things easier to relieve some of the pressure and acknowledge their life outside of work?&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h4>5. Check your tech&nbsp;</h4>
Have you and your team got what you need to be a productive remote team? Can&nbsp;everyone remember their log ins?! Is everyone&rsquo;s equipment still fit for purpose. Not having the basics can be really frustrating and disengaging.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h4>6. Set personal boundaries</h4>
What hours will you work? Can people contact you always? Will you not take calls after a certain time? Set a great example for&nbsp;your team and role model good practice so your team can follow suit.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h4>7. Connecting as a team</h4>
Agree how and when you&rsquo;ll come together as a team - agree on what you&rsquo;ll use the time for&nbsp;so that it is focused and productive -&nbsp;get the dates and times in diaries in&nbsp;advance&nbsp;and demonstrate how important it is to you.
&nbsp;
<h4>8. Goal setting</h4>
Set short term goals, ensure you and the team are focused on what&nbsp;you need to deliver over the coming weeks - set some clear deliverables and deadlines if you need to, to keep everyone on track and engaged.
&nbsp;
<h4>9. One-to-ones</h4>
Plan one to ones and team updates in your diary, make them non-movables, these are important times to check in on the wellbeing and engagement of your team, don&rsquo;t let them slip - put them in your diary now!&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h4>10. Wellbeing warnings</h4>
Refresh your memory on wellbeing in the workplace, so that you have resources to draw on if you see any of your team struggling.
<a href="https://www.mind.org.uk/media-a/4662/resource3_howtopromotewellbeingfinal.pdf">This is a good resource.</a>
Of course, these are all things you really should be doing anyway, so why not use #lockdown2uk as an excuse to put a better Employee Engagement framework in place. The benefits will be felt far beyond #lockdown2uk as productivity and performance increases and your retention of great people guarantees an outstanding company culture.
&nbsp;
For help and support with your employee engagement strategy, contact Victoria Bond at Ten Space - victoria@tenspace.co.uk

Remain engaged in lockdown2uk 

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

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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!

Insightful articles, hints &amp; tips and company news

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Take our survey platform for a test drive and see what it can do for you and your business.

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.

Access your feedback as your surveys are happening. Clear results and insights.

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

Educational content - book now or watch on-demand

Employee Engagement

Employee Retention

Team Performance

Blogs

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Resources

Podcasts

Employee Engagement

5 Steps to a Highly Engaged Team - Part 2

5 Steps to a Highly Engaged Team - Part 1

Can flexible working improve engagement?

Does one bad manager matter?

Remote working in the covid era

Engaging your future superstars

Exit Interviews... Is ignorance bliss?

Remain engaged in lockdown2uk

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