Often mistaken for job satisfaction, employee engagement is more than employee happiness. It is the degree to which an employee is connected to the organization, their motivation, and their passion for their work.
But why is this concept important? The answer is simple, engaged employees lead to higher service, quality, and productivity, leading to higher customer satisfaction, increased sales, and higher profit levels.
So, if you wonder how to motivate your employees, look no further than these six employee engagement strategies that make a real impact in the workplace.
#1 Show Employee Appreciation
Employees are engaged when they feel their work is valuable and helps the company achieve its long-term goals. For this reason, regularly showing employee appreciation to each member of your team and their work will mean that you recognize and respect their efforts. Moreover, showing that you value them has the power to keep productivity, office morale, and employee retention rates high.
You can, for example, reward top performers for their achievements with a monetary prize, a wellness gift card, or days off. In addition, consider giving your team a platform to recognize one another. Feeling respected and appreciated by your peers and colleagues will help increase social bonding between them and make employees more engaged.
#2 Build a Two-Way Communication Culture
?Building two-way communication is a great way to increase trust in leadership and strengthen the emotional connection employees feel to your company.
To engage employees, you must be open, honest, transparent, and communicate often. For example, when sharing negative news, soften the impact by providing context and letting employees know your plan to ensure the event does not occur again. Also, follow through on your word to build trust in leadership, which leads to employee engagement.
In addition, seek out your employees' ideas, opinions, and concerns and engage them in a two-way dialogue. Also, acknowledge the feedback you hear from them. Employees want to be spoken with and heard.
#3 Uphold Your Company Values
Your company's core values guide your organization's interactions and relationships with customers, employees, and the environment. They must be at the heart of your company culture and clearly explained to and known by every employee from their first day in the office.
Your core values help you create a purpose, improve team cohesion, and create a sense of commitment in the workplace. In addition, they help your team establish a sense of belonging to your company and, as a result, become truly engaged. Remember, your company core values describe what truly matters to you and your team and the ideals you strive to uphold as your business expands.
#4 Provide Growth Avenues
Providing employees opportunities to grow their know-how and skillset keeps them engaged and motivated. So, if you want your employees to be engaged in their growth and strive for success, you need to make sure you provide them with opportunities and show them where that growth can lead them.
Moreover, team members value a transparent career growth plan, so you need to make sure everyone has a clear pathway mapped out in front of them. Importantly, by developing learning and growth initiatives in your company, you demonstrate that you choose to continually invest in them rather than replace them with candidates with the skills you desire, therefore showing that you value your employees as individuals.
#5 Hold Employees (and Yourself) Accountable
Another great way to improve employee engagement is by setting and upholding accountability goals in the workplace, from your managers to your newest employees.
Ensure every employee knows their duties and what is expected from them. Engaged employees are willing to go the extra mile for their company, but that does not mean you should expect them to work for everyone in the team. Keep in mind that relying exclusively on the efforts of your most engaged members will likely lead to burnout.
Create a space where everyone can share their accountability goals and ensure everyone is on track. Doing this will encourage a culture of accountability that will transgress into employees' day-to-day work.
#6 Prioritize Health and Wellness
We all had a tough couple of years, but you do not know what your employees are going through behind closed doors. So, the least your company can do is support health and wellness as best as possible. So, for example, create an employee wellness program, promote preventive care, encourage exercise and movement, emphasize mental health and redesign the workplace.
Conclusion
Many studies point out that employee engagement directly impacts a company's productivity and profitability. So, deploying the strategies above is key to getting employee engagement right. The result is a greater financial return, surpassing competitors and climbing to the top of the "the favorite places to work" list.
