Resources

What's Your Interest?




Rewarding your employees is critical for not only recognizing the efforts of your team but also helping retain them. Praise is more than recognizing exceptional work; it’s also about valuing daily achievements that help the company reach its goals. Each team member can be recognized for something like their performance, loyalty, or contributions to the company. By appreciating a person’s work daily, you show them what they do matters. And more importantly, you are demonstrating that their work has value. Here are four tips for engaging and retaining employees through recognition.

Encourage Input and Communication

One way to ensure your employees feel appreciated is to encourage their input in meetings or individually. Encouraging your team to speak up will strengthen their ties to the company and lead to a more positive experience. Every employee has bright ideas: it’s up to you to create an environment that fosters the sharing of ideas and feedback with the team. The more your team feels incorporated in the decision-making processes, the more invested they will be in the overall goals set by the company.

Provide Mentorship Opportunities

Leaders have a great opportunity to build a mentor/mentee relationship with their employees. Forming this type of relationship will help your team accelerate their development, improve their work quality, and stay with the company longer. There are several ways to implement a mentorship opportunity; one way could be pairing mentees with mentors based on departments or industry specialty. This allows both parties to learn new things from each other and helps expand the company’s knowledge-based overall.

Provide Opportunities for Growth

Creating opportunities for your workforce is the key to retaining top talent. When employees are given ownership, they feel respected and more enthusiastic about their work. Empowering your team members will help them develop a sense of loyalty to the company.

Create new opportunities for your employees to take on new challenges and responsibilities. As their leader, give them opportunities to work on projects outside their areas of expertise. This will expand their knowledge, give them the chance to learn something new, and stretch them to grow professionally. If a member from a different department seems genuinely interested in the projects of another department, let them take on some of the responsibilities of the projects and see how it goes. This might spark some promising opportunities to advance new ideas.

Providing opportunities for growth and development doesn’t always have to tie directly with your employee’s role – you can also invite guest speakers to teach your team something new or encourage them to watch an online course or attend a seminar that would be beneficial to them. There are plenty of free or cost-friendly options available if your company doesn’t have the budget specifically dedicated to professional development. Providing growth opportunities is a great way to boost your employee’s
motivation and engagement, which leads to more long-term retention of your top talent.

How to Recognize Your Employees

The whole goal of employee recognition is to make your team feel appreciated for the ways they contribute to your organization. When you consistently praise, promote, and show appreciation towards your team, they will know the work they do matters.

While bonuses or pay raises are great to recognize and retain your employees, recognition can be more than a monetary incentive. Companies can publically recognize their employees by highlighting individuals on your company’s social media profiles, spotlighting a team member in a meeting, or using a rewards recognition tool like Bonusly. Acknowledging your team’s accomplishments will show your employees they are valued which will increase their productivity, loyalty, engagement, and morale.

Recognition in the workplace is crucial for employee retention. Be sure to encourage input and dialogue from your team, provide opportunities to be a mentor to your employees, and create growth and development opportunities for your top performers. When your team does step up, be sure to reward that with recognition. Whether it’s monetary, public praises, or a tangible reward, having a consistent, intentional, and authentic recognition program will keep your top talent engaged and retained.

About EG Workforce Solutions

We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.

But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.




For any business, leadership skills and core values play a significant role in its success. However, leadership is more than just skill-building; it’s practical experience and aligning the correct values. It’s something your leadership team will grow into over time. Your employees will follow people they can trust, which will lead to more success for your organization. Make these three leadership skills a priority to get the most out of your team for success.

Lead with Empathy

Being a leader might seem fairly straightforward. You define the mission, set the goals, and you motivate those that work for you. However, there’s more to being a great leader than just those things; the best have strong empathetic tendencies. Being empathetic as a boss means you can understand and share another person’s feelings — just not acknowledging their words. To do this, you need to understand the inner purpose that drives individuals and align that with the organization’s goals. This can be done by clearly stating why you ask your employees to do certain things and listening to their responses.

The more you understand your employees’ thoughts, feelings, and needs, the more you give them what they need to be productive and happy at work. When leaders show empathy for their employees, it promotes a culture of openness and communication, allowing you to understand and resolve problems.

Lead with a Plan

Planning helps leaders to stay on task and helps employees understand their role in the process. It also gives people a sense of confidence that the organization is working towards achieving its goals. First, leaders need to define a strategy. What is it exactly that needs to be accomplished? They must also define their goals and benchmarks; what are the minimum expectations for success? By clearly defining what you want to do and how you want to proceed, you build confidence in your team members to achieve the goal.

Encourage Collaboration

A culture of collaboration is a happy and successful one. The more employees feel supported and valued, the more productive and innovative they will be. As a leader, you can encourage collaboration in your workplace in a couple of different ways. For example, you don’t want an employee who sits at their desk all day sending emails back and forth without truly interacting with their coworkers. Make sure there are opportunities outside of meetings to encourage ideas from other departments. Another way to promote collaboration is by creating an environment of open communication. Employees should feel like they can bring up new ideas or offer feedback without the fear of being judged. This environment that fosters interaction and open communication will lead to better collaboration across not only your team but the company overall.

About EG Workforce Solutions

We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.

But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.




With more than half of workers looking for new jobs in the wake of the pandemic, staffing professionals are scrambling to keep and retain top talent. It’s not easy. Prospective and current employees have been through a lot. They’ve endured quarantines, schooling their kids at home, and the mental impact of an international health crisis. They’ve had plenty of time and reasons to reflect on their work lives. And it’s not surprising they’re considering all their options.

Here are some tips on how to make sure you keep your company continues to hire and keep the highly skilled people you need in the post-Covid world.

Take a Good Hard Look at Your Process

Now is the time to do some housecleaning. Consider all facets of your recruitment efforts and decide what needs to go, what can stay, and what could use a bit of sprucing up. Ask your staff what’s working and what isn’t. Reevaluate everything. For example, update your interview feedback forms and partner tools, and then explore new integrations to augment the evaluation process. Identify potential bottlenecks and biases in your teams and processes. Above all, take the time to decide what changes need to be made. And make them.

Clean Up Your Act

Look back at all the records and resumes you’ve accumulated during peak hiring seasons, and then practice some good data hygiene. Archive candidates who simply won’t be good hires at the moment, if ever. Take a long hard look at prospects who have not yet received a message from your team. Use a tool that sorts contact information by last interaction. Then, if you want, you can send emails to evaluate the current status.

Get Everyone in The Pool

Despite today’s challenges, there’s a lot of talent entering the workforce. And you likely have a backlog of applicants in your database (hence the need for good data hygiene). To ensure you can find the right people when you need them, create pools of talent now. Get a pool of new prospects by launching campaigns to engage candidates on a personal level, then introduce these active prospects to you and your company, and communicate with each of them in a way that feels personal, down-to-earth, and human. Another pool could include prospects who previously lacked experience; they may have gotten that experience in the time since you last talked with them. And a third pool could include candidates who didn’t respond to previous communications or withdrew from consideration. In any case, this is a great time to follow up.

Rewrite Your Playbook

A recruitment playbook captures the steps your team will take in delivering all of your recruitment services. It sets expectations with your hiring teams and managers, fosters greater hiring team engagement, drives consistency, and leads to more predictable hiring.

Now that we’ve been through a globe-altering event, this would be the ideal moment to refresh and revise your playbook. And if you don’t have one, it’s time to write one. To do so, ask your recruiters to document their individual processes. Spotlight similarities and differences from recruiter to recruiter. Make sure you distill your own best practices for all roles. Create a strong, easy-to-read playbook that sums up the details of all your services. It should serve as a foundation for new recruiter onboarding and help you drive consistency when recruiters are working across departments and role types.

Make The Candidate Experience World-Class

In today’s recruitment marketplace, the candidate experience is a critical component of your organization’s ability to attract and hire top people. Commit the time and resources now to analyze every inch of a candidate’s journey through your organization. This is vital to differentiate yourself from competing companies. Start with a storyboard that offers a clear view of the candidate journey. Collect feedback from new hires or candidates who were not hired, even if that means talking to them on the phone or by video call. Look at the experience from the candidate’s view. Then develop a recruiting culture that connects the company more intimately to each new hire.

About EG Workforce Solutions

We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.

But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.




When an employee is struggling, especially one who shows a lot of promise, what do you do? A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) may be the best way to reverse course and get your employee back on track. When an organization is committed to a PIP, it shows a genuine interest in the employee’s career and strengths, highlighting ways to help them grow, and provides a specific action plan to improve performance. In addition to supporting an employee on a PIP to meet their performance goals will help the organization understand what’s holding them back and give them a chance to overcome these issues.

Although a performance improvement plan can be perceived as a punishment, these tips will help navigate an employee through the process with minimum conflict so all involved can benefit from the experience.

Be Specific and Objective

While difficult conversations are unavoidable if your employee’s performance is slipping, it’s essential to talk about performance issues as soon as possible. That way, the person is aware of the situation before being placed on a Performance Improvement Plan. Lead the conversation by giving them examples of how their work isn’t up to the expected standards, explaining why their performance is slipping. Be open to questions and listen to any outside factors that might be negatively affecting their performance will assure the employee that you are on their side – it’s in the best interest of the company to have the employee improve. It’s crucial to end a PIP conversation on a positive but professional note.

Align Plans and Goals

Make sure you discuss in detail what is expected of your employee’s job performance and behavior during the PIP. Once you specifically communicate what the expectations for success in the role are, you will ensure that your employee knows exactly what correcting their performance looks like. You need to make sure you both agree on what the specific and measurable objectives that are achievable, relevant, and time-bound (also known as SMART goals) outcomes will be.

The duration of a PIP differs depending upon the complexity of the issue and how quickly it takes for the corrective action to show signs of improvement. During this period, direct supports should share with the employee the resources and training they will need to get back on track. It’s also vital to provide feedback and communicate the entire time your employee is on a PIP to discuss progress and assist them in areas they’re struggling with.

Example: During this 90-day performance evaluation, John Smith must have perfect attendance, apart from approved medical or family absences. This means that he must clock in and be ready for work by the start of each scheduled shift, return from all scheduled breaks on time, and remain at work for his entire shift.

Acknowledge All Potential Outcomes

Acknowledging potential outcomes represents one of the best ways to increase the motivation of the employee on a performance improvement plan. Before the employee begins the PIP, specifically communicate what the consequences are if the employee fails to fulfill the performance plan objectives – will they be fired? Will they lose their bonus? Will this affect their contract? Clearly stating exactly what your employee risks losing if they do not effectively complete their PIP ensures everyone is on the same page when it comes to outcomes.

To keep your employee from becoming totally defeated by being placed on a PIP, it’s important to also share what the employee has done well and the goals they have accomplished. This shows them you do value them and care that they come out of the PIP successfully. It shows the path your employee can use to improve their performance and that their efforts are valued.

Follow Up Regularly

Regularly checking in on an employee on the performance improvement plan to monitor progress and discuss what’s working and what’s not shows your employee that you’re still on their side and care about their future at the company. This might be a daily check-in, weekly meetings, or bi-weekly progress reports – the key is staying in a cadence of communication. These follow-ups should take place in a comfortable and private setting best since your employee is likely embarrassed about being on a PIP
and may want to keep their status discreet.

While these meetings should be a two-way street of communication, encourage your employee to lead these meetings. Having them self-report on how they feel they are doing also helps identify realizations they may have made. This will lead to natural growth and make it more likely the outcome of the PIP will be positive.

Document the Conversations and Progress

It’s easy to forget what was discussed and when. Keeping detailed records of your conversations with the employee can help you ensure that, if termination is the final result, there are no mixed messages about why the decision was made. Since performance growth is vital when an employee is on the PIP, keeping track of progress in both strengths and weaknesses and saving a copy for both parties to review will be extremely beneficial to all involved. Your employee will be able to see exactly where you thought
improvements were or weren’t made and compare it with how they feel they’re doing. If there’s a disconnect here, you’ll both have specific examples to point to and work from going forward. You want your employee to succeed, so keeping track of feedback is critical.

Putting an underperforming employee on a PIP can be difficult, but it’s the right move. While it may make them upset at the moment, it shows them you care about their success and future with the company. To help your employee successfully make it through a PIP, it’s crucial to be specific about expectations and objectives, align their goals for success, acknowledge all possible outcomes, and document the progress with examples.

About EG Workforce Solutions

We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.

But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.

Subscribe to our Knowledge Center.

Loading

Subscribe to our blog.

Loading

Subscribe to our blog.

Loading