Employees play an important role in every successful business. But how well are you keeping your employees engaged? How highly motivated are your employees?
Nowadays, many corporate leaders want their employees to be more engaged. However, the fact is that very few of them actually know what to do to get there.
First of all, what’s employee engagement at work and how does it affect your business? Employee engagement simply means developing a sense of purpose at work that creates productivity and profitability through extra energy and commitment.
In simple terms, engaged employees are well-connected, happy, and feel appreciated in their workplaces. Therefore, your first step towards developing an engaged workforce is investing in their well-being – their emotional, financial, physical, and psychological well-being.
Keeping Your Employees Engaged
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To say that being productive at work is one of the main goals of every business owner is not an overstatement. This is why employee engagement plays an important role in productivity and the general output of the business.
However, as a business owner, it’s crucial to show your employees that you care about their well-being through proper communication.
Also, you will have to provide the right resources, encouragement, reinforcement, and support. So how can you achieve all this? Below are some of the best ways to get you started…
#1]. Start With Communication
Corporate leaders who have been in the industry for many years, Ralph Thurman, can tell you that communication is what ties and binds workers together. When departments are working in isolation, staff become disconnected from their colleagues.
Also, your HR will have the extra task of passing information with the help of your marketing team. In essence, a lively company should have clear channels of communications where every news reaches every employee at the same time as frequently as possible.
This is why you have to engage in clear communication both physically and digitally. At times, your employees may need to speak to you in person privately.
However, if you’re never there, how will they ever get the chance? You can also have different platforms for your employees to chat and have light moments away from work. Encourage such communications and let your employees connect in different ways.
#2]. Create a safe working environment
Creating a diverse, friendly, and safe working environment is essential in today’s world of business management. This is because if your workplace seems toxic, the well-being of your employees is massively affected.
You have to work on making sure that every employee is treated fairly irrespective of their positions in the company. It’s also important to check on your employees from time to time, especially if you notice slight changes in productivity.
Always remember that your employees may have their own personal lives that could be affecting their performance at work. So, you have to make sure that you always reach out and offer to help where possible.
Also, you can create a healthy workplace by introducing employee assistance programs to promote healthy eating, exercising, and proper mental health. Look at your organization’s culture and behavior and make changes to improve performance.
Check whether employees are working long hours and staying up late to cope with workloads or if employees are reporting to work sick, or whether employees are mistreating other employees without their knowledge and take action before it’s too late.
If there is no clear vision and purpose, what will your employees be working to achieve? This is why sharing your organization’s purpose and vision with your employees is one of the best ways to create value for your employees and improve motivation.
Your organization’s vision should be clear to your employees. This will help everyone to know why projects and actions must align with the company’s overall goals. Also, you can invite your employees to contribute ideas.
Employees can also offer great ideas to challenge the company’s policies and behaviours. Make sure everyone is on board, and no one feels things should be done in another way so that when you start working on different projects, everyone knows the expectations.
#4]. Empower your employees
You have to avoid micromanagement whether your employees are working remotely or in the office. Even if you’re dealing with critical projects or lack enough people for the task ahead, micromanaging your teams ultimately kills engagement.
Workers’ creativity and enthusiasm drop due to constant correction or negative feedback. No one wants to feel as if they are not doing enough when in reality, they’re putting in all their efforts to get things right.
Instead, trust and empower your people to work autonomously and get back to you when done or in need of guidance.
#5]. Recognize and appreciate good work
Rewards are probably the most powerful tool any business can use to keep employees engaged. Businesses are already using rewards as a means to incentivise customers to buy or patronize them. So, why not do the same for your employees?
As a matter of fact, when employees do well, make sure you show some appreciation. This is arguably one of the best ways to incentivize people to do more.
In short, rewarding and recognizing good work is a great way to induce extrinsic motivation where some employees will work hard to get rewarded. A simple “Thank you” or “good job” keeps your employees happy and engaged.
