Running a successful business takes the right group of people. Unfortunately, even a group of talented individuals can lose sight of the goal if they are not properly engaged. Therefore, improving employee engagement has to be one of the more important focus areas that every company should have because it directly influences performance. Likewise, employees that are properly engaged will be more productive and see more value from their work. And strong drivers of employee engagement can dramatically improve the performance of the team, which is why every company needs their own.
Many companies do run employee engagement surveys, but often the submission rate is low as the focus is more on “what’s in it for the company” rather than the employee.
In this article, we will discuss how to improve employee engagement in any company or organisation.
5 Simple Techniques to Improve Employee Engagement
1. Understand and Measure the Employee Engagement Drivers
Before determining where you want to go, you first have to understand where you are.
Employee engagement surveys are a great way to learn more about your team and their connection to the company and its core values.
These simple questionnaires can open up many doors and help you gain better insights into your employees.
As long as you use employee engagement surveys in a positive way to understand how to improve employee engagement based on the feedback, you will be successful.
The best employee engagement surveys are continuously reused year on year in order to ensure that your company is on the right path.
With time, you want these surveys to help you to learn more about your team and their needs.
Regularly handing them out can be incredibly eye-opening for leadership.
2. Develop a People-Focused Culture
Employees know when you are ignoring them, or when you make decisions without considering them.
If you truly want to improve employee engagement, you need to listen when they speak.
Creating a culture that encourages employee engagement requires you to focus on the key drivers of employee engagement. However, you won’t receive employee buy-in if they feel their voices are falling on deaf ears.
A shocking study revealed that 55% of employees feel like their bosses don’t care about their opinions—and this is a huge problem for morale.
We help employees speak up, and share their thoughts and ideas when we show that their opinions do really matter.
This also encourages them to share more in the future.
It is this type of people-focused culture that really drives employee contribution in the long term and makes your company attractive to the best new hire candidates.
3. Give Your Employees a Voice and Purpose
The best way to grow employee engagement is to make it easy for your employees to share ideas.
Something like an idea suggestion box, or any other process that encourages employees to speak up, can really help you to provide that engagement.
These kinds of options encourage employees to collaborate, and it also helps you establish stronger relationships among your team.
Every company needs teams that work together and brainstorm together.
By providing a space for this kind of dialogue, you can significantly improve your employee engagement.
Some drivers of employee engagement can drive themselves, and this is one of them.
People like to share their ideas and see them implemented and feel they are making a difference.
Give your employees a voice and a channel to share their ideas
Our flexible idea management software empowers employees to share ideas from the front-line, not the backroom.
Interested?
Talk to us. We will show you how.
4. Reward and Recognition
Studies show employees are more engaged when reward and recognition practices are included.
While most of us would assume that monetary incentives matter the most, the truth is a little different.
Recognition from one’s peers is a must for employees to improve their engagement, and it can encourage others to speak up too. In fact, 69% of employees admitted that they would work harder if they received more appreciation.
To improve employee engagement, you can’t just focus on one individual.
The goal is to encourage engagement among entire teams.
With a good reward and recognition program in place, it becomes easier to help everyone feel valued.
This makes it possible for employees to feel encouraged by you, as well as their team.
A change like this can dramatically improve the overall culture of a team, with each employee encouraging their peers to succeed.
5. Take the Employee on the Company Journey
An employee that doesn’t have a strong connection to business objectives will always feel disconnected and disenchanted with work.
One of the best ways to improve employee engagement is to involve employees in the company goals.
Teaching an employee what the business objectives are and how their work helps to meet them can instil a lot of value for them.
It is easy for employees to get stuck going through the motions at work.
If they don’t see the value in their actions, it can be difficult to improve employee engagement.
For this reason, showing an employee how they contribute can really help.
Teach your employees how they are contributing to the overall strategy and watch how your engagement rises.
Take your employees on the company journey and help them buy into its core values.
Conclusion
Before you can support employee engagement, you first need to understand the drivers that motivate them.
Ask them how you can improve the company culture to encourage engagement and idea sharing.
Your team will appreciate knowing that their voices are being heard, and with time, your company culture will begin to flourish.
Engaged employees feel better connected to the company and have the confidence to speak up and contribute!
