Developing and Employee Engagement Strategy
Often confused for job satisfaction, employee engagement is actually a lot more to do with an employees connection to their organisation. Employee engagement is defined as the degree to which an employee is motivated and passionate about their work.
Engaging employees is a highly effective business strategy. Having perks such as free coffee or gym memberships will raise job satisfaction but may not lead to employee engagement. When an organisation has a highly engaged workforce, productivity and profitability will likely increase, and employee turnover will decrease. A well thought out employee engagement strategy is crucial for long term success. Here are four ways to improve employee engagement.
Be realistic. Rome wasn’t built in a day. You might miss some strategies here and there, just remember to set SMART goals for your team and try to hit them consistently.
Be clear about responsibilities. Delegate responsibilities to the right individuals and keep track of their progress. To get your strategy off the ground, involve key people, including HR representatives, middle managers, executives and long-term employees from the start.
Be flexible. Make sure you’re regularly measuring employee engagement and looking at the data to find out what works for your unique organisation. Be open to suggestions and change your strategy as needed.
Here are four ways to improve employee engagement.
Promote the organisation’s core values and beliefs
Core values and beliefs are the deeply ingrained principles that guide all of a organisations actions. They serve as its cultural cornerstones. Collins and Porras succinctly define core values as being inherent and sacrosanct; they can never be compromised, either for convenience or short-term economic gain. They should be at the heart of your company culture and clearly explained to every employee from day one. Core values and beliefs should explain what truly matters to your team and the ideals that you try to strive for and expand. Employees need to establish a sense of belonging to your organisation to become truly engaged. Having a code of core values will help them to do this. By consistently promoting your core values to the entire team, you’ll create a positive and collaborative work culture, and encourage employees to form an emotional connection to the organisation.
Provide career opportunities, growth and development
A 2018 LinkedIn Learning Report found that 94% of employees say that they’d stay at their job longer if they felt the organisation truly invested in their career. Providing employees opportunities to grow their skill set keeps them engaged, and having something to work toward keeps them motivated. Learning and development programmes demonstrate that you value your employees as individuals, and you choose to continually invest in them. Rather than replacing employees with other skilled candidates, by training and developing you current staff, there will be a greater sense of employee engagement, trust and belonging.
PROTRAINING are an award winning training and development company. We have a wide variety of training and development to get the best out of your workforce and to up-skill your employees. At our corporate training centre in Dubai, we offer corporate team building activities. Our award-winning simulations and business games are highly effective for leadership development, team building and sales training. We can equip your team with the skills required to tackle future changes and challenges within your organisation and we can also facilitate virtual and hybrid training for your team.
Recognise your best performers
Employees are engaged when they feel their work is valuable to the company and helps the organisation achieve its long-term goals. Regularly showing employees that you recognise and appreciate their efforts is a simple gesture that goes a long way in making them feel valued. You could reward top performers for their achievements with prizes, days off, company dinners, extra perks or whatever aligns with your businesses core values. In addition, you could give employees a platform to acknowledge their peers. Feeling respected and appreciated by their team members will help employees become more engaged and a positive feedback loop could be achieved.
Promote Transparency
Transparency in business is the basis for trust between a organisation and its investors, customers, partners, and employees. Being transparent means being honest and open when communicating with stakeholders about matters related to the business. Bringing employees into the fold as frequently as possible is a highly effective employee engagement strategy. If your team doesn’t know what’s happening behind the scenes, they can’t fully invest themselves and their energies into the company. If they get the sense that they’re intentionally being left out of the loop, they may start to distrust management and lose confidence in leadership. It’s well within your rights to be discreet as situations unfold or priorities change, but you should aim to inform team members about decisions that directly affect them as soon as you are able.
Deciding to elevate your employee engagement strategy is a huge win for your company. By following these tips, you’ll soon see the positive impact a highly engaged workforce can have on your business. If you need more help, then please visit our team building page to see our range of virtual and face to face programmes.
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