Here’s How You Can Increase Employee Engagement Five-fold!

With retention and productivity strategies becoming a key consideration for organisations everywhere, employee engagement is high on the agenda for business leaders today.

However, creating truly effective engagement strategies is no easy feat. For employee engagement initiatives to be successful, they must be tailored to the unique needs and motivations of each individual. Employee recognition is essential for motivating, retaining and fully engaging employees.

Thanks to the ever-developing age of digitisation, we are accustomed to real-time interactions in our daily lives. Given that ‘millennials’ make up a major chunk of the workforce, employees expect – and respond – to the same approach when it comes to recognizing their contributions to the workplace.

This means the days of annual appraisals and salary as the sole driver for employees are behind us. Newer demographics in the workplace want continual coaching, conversations and communication – they need agile performance management and instantaneous feedback. Engaged employees voluntarily invest extra time, effort and initiative to contribute to business success. They feel a sense of purpose within their role, and bring enthusiasm, passion and energy to the work they do.

As well as being more motivated, committed and loyal, engaged workers are typically better performers and produce better results for both the customer and the company. The following factors can help increase employee engagement in your organisation.

Increase Employee Engagement Radically By Incorporating These Factors!

By incorporating the following, you are sure to increase employee engagement at your workplace by 5 times!

1. Don’t Have a BOSS!

Competent, passionate and hands-on leadership is critical to employee engagement and not Bosses. Showing a genuine interest in your employees and investing time in understanding their needs and aspirations will help send the message that their contribution is valued, creating goodwill and a desire to succeed – both as an individual and as part of a team.

Check in on them regularly to find out how their experience in the workplace can be improved. This can be done informally, by participating in a casual conversation or via occasional non-work activities. Find out what motivates them by instigating more formal employee surveys and avenues for feedback. Make a point of finding out how your employees define success so you can create a rewarding environment in which they can thrive.

“Walking the walk” is the single most effective employee engagement strategy any company can deploy. Employees must see the leadership demonstrating the characteristics and behaviours everyone else is being asked to display. In companies where leaders model the desired behaviour, employees are 55 percent more engaged, 53 percent more focused and more likely to stay at the company.

2. Growth Opportunities

A guaranteed way to disengage staff is to let them feel underused. Engaged employees are those who are given the opportunity to adequately use their skills, and are encouraged to stretch those skills in order to progress.

Talk to your employees about their career plan. Does their current role make full use of their strengths and abilities? If not, come up with a plan to expand the role description. Is their career moving in the direction they desire? Try and map out a path within your organisation and agree on targets for promotion. Are there new or interesting projects they can work on to expand their skill set? Perhaps a transfer to a different department or location will give them the variety they need to maintain engagement.

Discuss the training and development opportunities that can help them advance within the company, and provide clear and consistent feedback on how they can improve their performance. Ultimately, showing that you care about helping employees maintain job satisfaction will reap rewards.

3. Employee Ownership

Engaged employees believe that the work they are doing is important and has value. They feel they are contributing to something meaningful and take pride in the results of their efforts.

As a manager, it is crucial to frequently reinforce the importance of your employees’ roles to the organisation as a whole. Help them to see the direct connection between their activities and company success, and the ways in which even the smallest tasks can contribute.

Set goals and challenge your employees to meet them to promote a sense of purpose. Grant them the autonomy to improve the way things are done to help them feel trusted and respected, and involve them in decisions that provide a sense of ownership over the direction of the company.

Management transparency has a direct 94 percent correlation with employee happiness. Trusting employees with sensitive information gives them a sense of deeper investment in the company and helps to create a more cooperative team atmosphere, as opposed to an “us versus them” perception of the management-employee relationship.

4. Flexibility

Companies are made up of people, not products, machines or property. Genuine relationships between employees and their supervisors and management inspire trust and build camaraderie.

Give employees the freedom to adjust their work schedules or location to better suit their needs. Many employers don’t trust employees to get work done if they work from home or set their own hours, but statistically, workers with flexible hours and locations are more productive, happier and more engaged than 8-to-5 cubicle jockeys.

5. Celebrate Personal Milestones

Celebrate the personal milestones of your employees. In fact, a study found that managers who showed their human side were rated 59 points higher on critical skills among employees.

6. Rewards And Recognition

For employees to be motivated to give their best, they need to know their efforts will be recognised and rewarded. Regularly thanking them for their efforts demonstrates your awareness of their hard work and provides encouragement for them to boost their performance.

Make the time to celebrate accomplishments, rewarding and recognising employees in ways that are meaningful to them. The celebrations don’t have to be lavish to be meaningful – ordering in a team lunch, sharing wins with the wider business or presenting someone with a small gift or a unique trophy/plaque for achieving a milestone goes a long way to making people feel recognised and rewarded.

While competitive pay and good benefits are key motivating factors in accepting a job, providing incentives for higher performance gives employees something extra to strive for and helps them stay engaged for a longer period. Employees with supportive supervisors are 1.3 times more likely to stay with the company and are 67 percent more engaged.

7. Fun At Work

Having fun together not only breaks up the routine but also encourages creativity and collaboration. Sponsor a company softball tournament or host a monthly "dress-up day," where employees can wear their ugliest sweater or sport a crazy hair colour. Of course, management must also get in on the action, which further contributes to authenticity, visibility and communication.

At the heart of all employee engagement initiatives is communication. Good leaders should take time to find out what motivates their team and what their career goals are. Apply this knowledge to create opportunities for development and reinforce the value of an employee's contribution. Provide challenges and rewards to stimulate your team and foster a supportive environment where the staff wants to succeed – a company's best asset is an engaged workforce.