Employee satisfaction reigns supreme as one of the key factors for managing turnover in every organization. And much of this starts with employee and employer expectations.

At the top of Gallup’s list of Core Elements for Workplace Satisfaction is the phrase, “Do I know what is expected of me at work?”. In order for employees to feel confident in answering yes, the question has to be flipped onto the employer. “Do I know what my employees expect from me?” 

There are many ways to prepare your employees for their first day of work. During orientation, consider setting and reinforcing expectations around the following:

Culture – How do you expect employees to behave at work? What are the cornerstones of your company’s culture? What kind of behavior should they NOT expect (and report to HR)?

Attire and appearance – What should an employee look like upon arrival at work? What kind of clothing or uniform is required? What happens when an employee doesn’t meet these expectations?

Quality and safety – What procedures, rules, and practices must be followed to keep employees safe and ensure quality in your workplace? What can employees expect if they violate safety/quality parameters?

Pay and benefits – When will a new hire receive his/her first paycheck? When is benefits enrollment and what is required in order to be eligible?

Future opportunities – How can new hires grow and earn more money at your company? What kind of programs are in place to help with career advancement and learning new skills?

You may be able to verbally review all of this in your new hire orientation, but with limited attention spans, retention will be minimal. Plan to reinforce all of these expectations in various ways over time.

Now that the new employee is aware of their expectations, make sure to take time and review their expectations of you. According to Employee Turnover Ratio: 10 Reasons Why Good Employees Quit Their Jobs, The number one reason employees leave their job is “lack of manager’s empathy”, this means that managers play the biggest role in employee turnover. To mitigate employees leaving prematurely, be sure to align on what they expect from you. Every employee will expect different things, which is why it’s a good idea to review during the onboarding process. If you can’t review these during the onboarding process, consider doing it through a mobile communications platform. 

If you’re using Red e App as a mobile communication platform for your workforce, there are many ways that you can set and reinforce expectations with your employees as well as receive feedback on their expectations. Here are a few ideas you may want to consider:

• Save important policies and procedures in Resources for quick reference.
• Create a “FAQs” resource to document common questions about expectations.
• Enable SMART Messages to send out company-wide surveys.
• Empower the quality/safety manager to distribute tips on a weekly basis to reinforce procedures.
• Establish permission-based folders for each department to store job-specific expectations and protocols.
• Send a video message to all employees when a new expectation has been set or when a policy needs to be brought to the forefront due to recent events.

Your employees want and need to know what is expected of them at work, even before their first day on the job. Even more importantly, you should know what employees expect from you.  They cannot meet expectations if they don’t know that they exist, and an ever-changing list of expectations leads to frustration, confusion, and a disengaged workforce.