Employee engagement drives innovation, productivity, and motivation. It’s the key to employee retention, and in today’s increasingly tight jobs market, this should be a key consideration for every employer.
While there are no quick fixes for poor employee engagement, there are significant steps every employer can take to help make sure they have a committed workforce.
Focus on Onboarding.
Meaningful and intentional employee onboarding is critical for creating a positive culture and a team full of engaged employees.
Onboarding is a great opportunity for employers to improve employee engagement. Positive onboarding reduces the number of employees who leave in the first year of employment. It also makes sure that those who stay are given everything they need to contribute to the organisation. Companies looking to improve employee engagement through the onboarding process should focus on establishing culture-building behaviours and setting strong expectations during the process.
Working remotely has made positive onboarding more challenging. For advice on how to onboard remote employees, read our blog here.
Monitor management.
The role of the Line Manager has a heavy impact on the experiences of your employees. Organisations wishing to create a culture of engagement have to keep a close eye on the performance of their management teams.
According to organisational research, high-performing managers create high levels of employee engagement. These managers give clear, reasonable goals and adopt a coaching approach to their leadership.
By encouraging and training managers to practice these approaches, organisations can significantly impact the overall culture of employee engagement.
A clear mission.
Lots of companies rely on the employees themselves to bring their own motivation to the role. However, employees need an organisation they can engage with. This goes beyond salary and benefits.
Research has shown that 9 out of 10 employees value meaningful work above anything else. It’s up to the company to make that connection for its team.
Reminding your employees why they chose you, means communicating and living the mission. To do this, your team need regular touchpoints of interaction. You may like to do this through regularly bringing meaning, value and mission back into the internal conversation.
Internal newsletters, regular meetings and quarterly updates make it clear how your employees are contributing to an improvement in the world or their workplace.
Every organisation relies on an engaged workforce to succeed. Those with low levels of engagement must work to raise it. If you have it, you need to maintain it. Whichever camp you land in, there’s long-term, multi-departmental work to be done. More than anything, it requires the buy-in of everyone in the organisation.
