Employee engagement is an important topic to think about within organisations. Most of the time employee engagement isn’t formed by itself, therefore some effort has to be done to keep employees motivated and happy with their work. This guide shows some steps that can be considered to keep employees engaged.
What is employee engagement?
Employee engagement consists of more parts then people normally think. It is not only about the fact if employees are satisfied with the job they do. Whenever an employee is happy with what they do they can be satisfied, employee engagement is about development, involvement and the feeling employees have with the organisation. An employer can make a lot of difference in the process of employee engagement and this guide is made to support process.
Advantages of engaged employees
Having satisfied and engaged employees within an organisation is a major concern and therefore it has many advantages. To start off, employees are more productive and motivated when they are highly engaged, the drive to achieve something with a team or the organisation leads to better results. The second major advantage is that engaged employees dare to take more initiative and are more willing to give their opinion about how things are done and should be done. Next to more productive and independent employees the workplace will be a lot more fun when the whole team is motivated to achieve something and meet targets together.
Discover your goals
To start off you first need to make clear for yourself what you want to achieve as an organisation and show this to the employees. Don’t think about “making high profits” or “efficient production” but a deeper goal that makes clear why everybody comes to work every day. By giving a clear reason to come to work every they you give the employees a direction which they can work to as an individual an as a team. Think about reasons such as what problems you want to solve as an organisation, what you can offer to the customers or what the organisation stand for. This goal is known as a mission statement, by communicating the mission statement towards the employees they know what they are working for and that motivates them to achieve this together.
Communication
As well inside as outside an organisations, communication is the key to successful teamwork. Considering the fact that organisations can’t function well without proper communication this also affects the employee engagement. As an organisation you should therefore make sure you always show open and clear communication towards employees. By being open towards employees they feel appreciated. Next to communication between organisation and employees you should also pay attention to communication between employees themselves. Open communication between employees leads to trust between them and causes more satisfaction about the job. Good communication doesn’t happen by itself, a clear communication plan can help employees to use the right communication methods supported by communication tools. Some points to take in account when making a communication plan is that communication needs to be going in two ways, not only downwards but also upwards communication. Secondly, the core of communication towards employees should always be the same so it doesn’t lead to confusion between people. And the last point is to think about the amount of communication, to less will lead to uncertainty and too much will lead to a overload that will cause employees to miss important information.
Health en fitness
Health and fitness of employees is an important aspect of managing staff, costs due to absence and illness of staff can lead to unnecessarily high costs. To contribute to the health of the staff as an organisation leads to a win-win situation for the company and employees. Research by Gallup shows that the engagement of employees affects their state of health. 62 percent of the people that consider themselves as engaged employees says that this has a positive effect on their health. Compared to that, of the non-engaged employees just 22 percent thinks work has a positive effect on health and even 54 percent it has a negative effect on their health. For the employees as well as for the employer it will be useful to give employees the opportunity for healthcare and a healthy working environment.
Perfect workspot
Since employees spend a lot of time at the office, the facilities at the spot will have an effect on their work satisfaction. Based on the work that is being done and the job that is fulfilled there should be ideal workplaces available for the staff. This is not the same for everyone, for one department an open space with a lot of colour and happiness is the right place. For other departments closed workspaces where they can concentrate can be more satisfying. Give employees the chance to create their own working place. Furthermore the surroundings of the workplace have an influence, think about a place where everyone can find some time from work such as a nice coffee place or a small game area. When creating a workplace make sure that the style that is used fits the style and the aims of the organisation, this way you take the goals that we discussed in the beginning of the blog to the workplace as well.
Well defined roles
Often organisations have a clear view on what they want to achieve and how they want to do that. What is often less clear is the total view of the organisation and who has what kind of role in that. To let employees feel engaged it is important that they know what their role is and what the purpose is of the work they are doing. By clarifying the roles of people they will understand how their daily business affects the greater picture known as the mission statement. If this is not the case employees might lose the feeling that their work has an effect on the company which leads to demotivation. Therefore they need to know what roles they have and what they have to do to make the difference.
Support friendships
Friendship brings a lot of joy, also in the workplace. Multiple researches show that friendships with colleagues increase engagement and productivity. Research by Gallup shows that employee happiness rises by fifty percent and there is a bigger chance of highly engaged staff when colleagues go along together well. So it might be an idea to give the staff the opportunities to spend some free time during work or getting them together on parties and trips from the company.
Recognition
People do not only get motivated by the money or salary they earn, that is what researcher Maslow tells in his pyramid of needs. There are more motivators and one of them is recognition of the work you do. People get satisfied when they receive compliments or recognition for what they did, this recognition doesn’t only lead to motivation but also engagement. Recognition can be given in multiple ways, by offering bonusses on top of the salary, offering chances for personal and professional development, a simple compliment and many more ways.
Right managers
Most employees have a manager or leader that are supposed to lead their department or team. The manager has a lot of influence on the happiness and satisfaction of employees under their supervision. It is important to have the right managers on the right departments where they are accepted by the members of the team. According to HRM site SHRM are employees that trust their manager more motivated and engaged to the company and the chance they will quit their job decreases.
Personal development
Most employees want to make steps in their career, to achieve this they should personally develop. For an organisation it is good to help those employees and give them the chances to train them since they are the future of the company. Personal and professional development is mutual beneficial for the employee and the organisation. The employee brings more know-how into the company while on the other hand the employee will appreciate the chances the organisations offers him or her. It is therefore important for organisations to offer the chances to employees to develop on a professional and individual level.
Work to do!
There are many ways to increase employee engagement and in the end it will lead to positive results for the organisation and the employees. A useful tool to support these steps is the feedback tool from TruQu. This tool can help to continuously develop the employees by giving and receiving feedback and it leads to an ongoing dialogue between managers and employees. If you want to know how TruQu can help your organisation to reach this you can visit the site for more information.
