Employee engagement is achieved when employees really care for and feel a sense of ownership of their company. A sense of purpose, good health, personal relationships, well-defined roles and communication channels are just some of the other elements that contribute towards an environment where employees are truly engaged. The ten strategies are:
1. Defining your organisation’s values
A well-defined set of company values can be one of the best employee engagement strategies. A good way to define the values of your organisation is to answer what purpose or belief defines your identity. When employees across different levels buy into the core company values, they have a sense of shared purpose.
2. Setting a shared purpose
Engaged employees feel a sense of ownership about their role and believe in a clear organisational purpose. The best way to define this purpose is with a mission statement. While many companies have their own unwritten mission statement, putting this into writing can be a great way to bring teams closer and promote engagement.
3. Clearly defining roles
Having a clear set of core values and a well-defined business mission will create clarity at the organisational level. But that’s not enough. Clarity at the individual level is just as crucial. It’s nearly impossible to have a truly engaged employee if they aren’t sure about what role they’re playing in the grand scheme of things and how they are contributing to the success of the company.
4. Nurturing relationships
Organisations such as Gallup have found that having friends at work makes people more engaged at the workplace. Among other things, Gallup found that women who have a best friend at work are “more than twice as likely to be engaged (63%) compared with the women who say otherwise (29%).” When it comes to promoting employee engagement, giving people regular opportunities to mingle in a social environment could be a great quick win.
5. Setting clear communication channels
When you think of internal communications, many organisations often suffer from a communications blackhole, where communication from the top doesn’t correctly percolate down to lower tiers. This could lead to employees receiving the wrong messaging or, worse still, having no idea of the strategic plan they’re supposedly a part of.
6. Invest in creating leaders
Front-line managers have the biggest (and most direct) impact on employees’ productivity, efficiency, job satisfaction and overall engagement levels. Expecting managers to inherently know how to deal with conflicts or personnel motivation issues is a tad unrealistic. This is where creating sound training and development infrastructure for managers comes into the picture.
7. A positive work environment
According to Gallup, disengaged workers have high absenteeism rates, lower job growth and lower productivity. With this in mind any efforts put into modelling a happy, positive and respectful workplace culture can go a long way.
8. Motivating employees (monetary and non-monetary motivation)
Trust and contentment at the workplace can be the biggest motivators for employees – ranking even higher than money. With this in mind instituting new ways to acknowledge good work and providing incentives for a job well done have direct implications on employee engagement.
9. Caring for employee health and well-being (both physical and mental)
Showing that your organisation really cares for employees’ health can be a powerful way to reduce employee disengagement by emotionalising the employer-employee relationship. But to really harness the potential of this employee engagement strategy, it’s vital to stop thinking employee wellness as merely an additional cost to the company. The Harvard Business Review reports that an employer was able to gain $6 in health care savings for every dollar invested.
10. Personal development (training and coaching)
In an ever-changing work environment, constant personal development and upskilling is what will give your employees and organisation an edge. Encourage a culture that celebrates lifelong learning as both formal and informal training can promote continuous development. Giving employees new opportunities to continuously learn and develop can dramatically improve retention rates, especially for top talent.
For further advice & support contact EAP Assist.