Employee engagement goes a long way in determining productive outcomes for both the individual employee and the organization as a whole. While engagement has been improving, the rate at which it is increasing is still relatively slow.
Going by Gallup data, only about 34% of American workers report that they are engaged at work while the number worldwide is 13%.
Several factors hinder employee engagement, such as job market unease, distrust of managers, organizational tumult and lack of cohesion between members of teams, and other reasons specific to employees. The good news is that organizations can significantly improve employee engagement by changing how they relate to them and pay attention.
Here are 9 strategies applicable to all organizations to improve their employee engagement.
Set the Tone at Onboarding
Onboarding is the critical time to connect new employees with the teams and the organization. It needs to be exciting enough but not overwhelming. Follow the best practices such as introducing mentors who aren’t managers, prioritizing building relationships with coworkers, including the executive level leadership at onboarding events and meetings and ensuring smooth transitions to regular work.
Measure Your Employee Engagement
Without a way to measure the employee engagement levels, your program won’t meet the set goals. Using employee engagement surveys is essential to collect data on where the teams stand and the areas that need improvement.
Conduct the surveys more than once a year and aim for 100% participation. Pulse surveys are excellent tools to get an instant idea about the state of engagement in your organization.
Speed Up Feedback, Appreciation and Rewards
Reinforcing positive behavior is an effective way to improve performance in employees. The trick is that the appreciation and rewards given for good performance have to be immediate, if not timely. Letting months pass between appreciations would dampen the enthusiasm.
Therefore employees need to be recognized proudly and loudly to set an example that motivates others to perform better.
Align Employees with the Company’s Core Values
Belongingness is another strong determinant for employee engagement. The secure feeling comes with being accepted and included in a group with a robust individual identity.
Having the employees align with the company's core values by promoting them through the work culture is an effective way to condition them to pick up the values and develop a sense of belonging.
Maintain Transparency
Transparency is often underestimated as a factor that contributes to trust and, ultimately, employee engagement. Trust also fosters a sense of belonging to the organization and helps them realize their link to the wider teams and stakeholders.
You can start by promoting transparency in the work culture and break down barriers between teams by fostering cross-team relationships. Also include discussions about important company metrics in the general meetings.
Give Individual Attention
As the workforce becomes more multigenerational, multiethnic and multinational, it helps tailor engagement approaches centered more on the individual to help employees feel valued.
When you understand the individual tendencies of the employees, it becomes easier to assign roles and responsibilities they are most comfortable doing and have the best chance of excelling. Surveys that help organizations hire people who are best suited for specific jobs can boost engagement.
Listen to Employees
Listening to your employees is the simplest way to convey that their voice matters and are valued members of the organization. The approach helps to quickly pinpoint and solve problems and predict problems that could arise.
Companies are increasingly using quarterly or monthly pulse surveys to understand trends and find ways to improve engagement.
Provide Training and Coaching
Your organization’s focus on the continuous development of its employees communicates that they are valued and care about their growth. When your employees feel that the company is investing in their future, their engagement and productivity increases.
One-on-one coaching by mentors and managers is another crucial ingredient that reinforces your organization's commitment to its workforce.
Prioritize Feedbacks
Engagement with your employees is not possible without feedback. Their word matters, so if you’re not soliciting their feedback, do it right away. To make it friendlier, keep the feedback anonymous and easy to access. Once the feedback is received, come up with a plan of action for it or share your reasons why it’s not possible to change something privately or when appropriate.
Employee engagement is increasingly becoming a necessity in all organizations today. To help your employees reach their best performance, it is essential to make them feel valued and become a part of their professional growth. Software solutions offer a platform through which it is possible to measure employee engagement in a meaningful way, implement the strategies discussed above, and offer rewards and recognition.
About the Author:
Kathleen O'Donnell is a freelance writer and employee communications and culture expert, with 6+ years of experience in corporate internal communications. She’s also a full-time traveler who loves spending her time writing in little cafes across the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment