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Tips for Improving Employee Engagement
August 15, 2019
Tips for Improving Employee Engagement. It’s no secret that keeping employees engaged in the workplace helps the entire organization thrive. In fact, research shows that engaged employees could help boost profitability by up to 21%. When managers use leadership skills to help keep team members passionate about their jobs and their careers, everyone wins.
The good news? It doesn’t take much for leaders to help employees feel invested. Start with these tips, many of which won’t cost much — if anything at all.
Get to Know Your Employees
It’s pretty simple. Take the time each day to communicate with your team on a more personal level. Learn about their families, personal and professional goals, and even the challenges they may face in and out of work. Build a rapport that makes them feel acknowledged and valued and highlights the important roles they play in keeping business running as usual.
Set Your People Up For Success
There’s no doubt that your manager’s plate is full, but that shouldn’t mean you skip training employees to perform the specific functions their job requires. Along with education during onboarding, current employees should also have opportunities to grow their existing skills. This gives everyone the autonomy and confidence to handle small issues that could otherwise turn into serious productivity busters, keeping workers motivated and connected to the business.
Keep Your Employees Up To Date
Good, bad, or ugly, transparency is key. Employees are your company’s best asset, and your bottom line is heavily dependent on how productive and engaged they are. Share successes, setbacks, and other challenges your business faces so they can intuitively connect their engagement with overall business performance. By offering this information you’re also allowing them to find their own ways to boost productivity or offer ideas for improvement.
Conduct Regular Evaluations
If they don’t know how you think they are doing, they will fill in the gaps themselves. Employees want to know where they stand and what they need to work on to improve. But they have to be told. Make sure you provide balance, honest feedback. You trusted your employees enough to fill the job role when you hired them, so why would it be worth your time as a leader to hover and micromanage? Reduce their stress and improve their connection with their position (and the company) by offering encouragement and appreciation without nit-picky intervening. If you do have a difference of opinion, find constructive ways to deliver feedback that makes them want to keep trying instead of giving up.
Don’t Undermine Your Management Team
With organizations that have various tiers of management, there’s a clear chain of command when it comes to reporting on the job. Every employee on every level will eventually face a tough situation on work that requires managers to mediate or even referee. Support a culture of engagement by supporting the hierarchy of authority granted to employees in question.
It’s intrinsically human to feel a sense of pride for a job well done. This was as true in grade school as it is in the workplace, and rewards that work for your staff and business helps build positive attitudes and a healthier culture. Something as simple as a “good job” or even employee recognition “holidays” can offer a push forward to employees who may feel stuck or stagnant — and definitely not engaged.
Remember the last time your sports team won a big game? Wasn’t the air of success contagious? The same concept can be applied to the workplace. There is a reason that people flock to team sports. Facing the same wins (and losses) as a collaborative, cohesive team boosts morale, interpersonal connections, and ultimately, employee engagement.
Employee Recognition Is Rewarding
Your organization would take customer feedback seriously, so why wouldn’t the same be true for what your employees are saying? Touch base with your team regularly to hear what they’re facing on a daily basis and use what they say to improve workplace culture and engagement. Lead by example; when you care about them, they care about their jobs.
Let employees know you’re present and available for conversations about improving workplace culture, even the tough ones. Fear of speaking up can leave workers stressed and detached from their role, unwilling to take risks that could help move the company forward. Keep a positive approach and don’t punish them for mistakes if you want to keep employee engagement up.
Oftentimes, executive leaders and managers can be so wrapped up in daily business processes that they miss out on the signs showing engagement is down. When that happens, it’s important to bring in outside help that can find these opportunities to help capitalize on your organization’s best asset — your employees.
It’s time to start taking action. We will help you determine what steps you need to take to build employee engagement and show you how to take those steps to the next level of success in your life and business.
