6 Ways Your Business Can Win At Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is so important for a business because it influences employee productivity, boosts your bottom line, and increases a sense of well-being among workers, with brings with it the added bonus of overall lower healthcare costs. It’s a win-win for everyone.

What does employee engagement look like and how is it fostered? A common misconception is that engagement means happiness. This isn’t necessarily true. While happy employees are often also engaged in their work, true engagement looks more like like high performance than happiness. When employees are happy and engaged, it shows in their work performance. They are engaged in what they do daily and in how their contribution impacts the bottom line of your business.

A recent Gallup study revealed that nearly 85% of employees are not engaged in their work, citing lack of personal fulfillment and opportunities to learn and grow. It is estimated that disengaged employees cost companies upwards of 500 billion in lost productivity every year. This is HUGE. With the unemployment rate hovering right about 4% in April 2018, retaining employees should be one of the top priorities for hiring managers and leaders. In this tight talent market, you definitely don’t want to lose a top player. How do you deal though, when 85% of your workforce is actively disengaged in their job?

1. Focus on Communication | Communication with and among colleagues should be frequent and consistent. Good communication  doesn’t happen overnight, instead it is developed over time when communications are two-way, consistent with the company’s brand and culture, and across various channels.
2. Clearly Define Employee Roles | clearly defining roles for employees begins with a clear and accurate job ad and description that outlines the tenets of the position. This allows employees to keep track of the main functions of the job and allows them to plan and strategize on the execution of these functions. Likewise, identifying and outlining performance objectives is a good way to prevent miscommunication and pitfalls of poor performance.
3. Emphasize Employee Wellness | Employee wellness covers a lot of bases. Not only physical health, but mental as well. It might not be practical for every company to have a gym on site, but small measures to address these issues matter too. Creating an environment that fosters wellness, like a weekly exercise meeting, group breaks, games, or even bringing in a massage therapist once a month can go a long way to improve employee well-being, combat stress, and increase engagement.
4. Top-Tier Management | An often overlooked component to employee engagement is observed no further than the offices of your management team. We’ve all heard the adage “employees leave managers, not jobs” right? Well, according to an article entitled “Engagement @ Harvard,” the Corporate Leadership Council recommends a handful of activities important for leaders to engage in to ensure that they have a handle on employee engagement. These activities include things like providing employees resources and an environment conducive to progress on tasks, setting clear expectations, connecting an employee’s contribution to the organization, give and ask for feedback, recognize strengths, reward performance, be open to innovation and ideas, be inclusive, and be a coach by utilizing open-ended dialogues to help employees along in their development.
5. Personal Growth | Employees who feel like their role provides them personal fulfillment and growth are often the highest achievers and the most highly engaged. If work doesn’t seem fulfilling and is offering little personal development or learning opportunity, the chances of disengagement are higher. Several ways to address this aspect of engagement lies in offering continued education and training, encouraging passion projects that aren’t always in the scope of a typical work day, and emphasizing employees take their vacation time off.
6. Recognition and Incentives | You don’t have to go overboard with incentives but congratulations for a job well done is in order. Also, consistent feedback and positive encouragement go a long way when employees are on the right track.

For help implementing a purpose-driven employee engagement plan, or anything else having to do with hiring and workforce management for that matter, feel free to contact us!