4 effective ways to increase your employee engagement
Amanda McCall is director of Gifts International, a retailer specialising in the sale and delivery of fine luxury gifts for special occasions. In this article she discusses five ways to effectively increase your employee engagement, leading to an all-round more enthusiastic work environment.
In the workplace, an employee that is happy and motivated is more productive. This is a fact that has been proven by numerous studies, such as this one from University of Warwick, which showed that job satisfaction led to a 12% increase in productivity. Unfortunately, as Talk Business reported just last year, another survey found that over half of UK office workers lacked motivation, which in turn can be detrimental to the overall atmosphere and efficiency of a business.
To avoid this happening to your company, it is important that you put in place some measures that can boost employee engagement to keep your staff invested in their work and willing to go the extra mile to get results. Below are five ways that you can make this happen, as well as an explanation of why each of them is so effective.
Be an inspiring leader
Behind most successful companies, there is usually an inspiring leader that has overseen its period of prosperity. Think Elon Musk at SpaceX and Tesla, Richard Branson at Virgin, or Arianna Huffington at the Huffington Post. Sure, you shouldn’t expect to transform yourself into the next mogul overnight, but there is a reason why these people’s ventures have succeeded where others have failed.
If you want your employees to show some passion for the company, you have to be able to show a bit of passion yourself. Take the time to get to know them and what their goals are — that way you will understand how to motivate them and what they want from their role. When they see you making the effort to build an environment that suits everyone, they will be more willing to meet you halfway with increased enthusiasm and engagement.
Provide opportunities for growth
You can motivate your staff by ensuring they have the chance to feel progression in their job role. By listening to their aspirations, you will have a chance to offer them training or responsibilities that match, giving them room to grow and a goal to work towards. By harnessing the strengths of your employees, you can build a positive future for the business.
You can also offer promotions to staff that show real promise. When you give someone who has demonstrated a high level of enthusiasm for the job a chance to step up, their attitude as a manager or team leader is more likely to rub off on the rest of the team. In the same way that you can inspire, the infectious outlook of a department head can increase productivity within their branch of the company.
Give your staff the rewards they deserve
If your employees know that they have something nice to work towards, they will be more willing to put in the effort to achieve it. This can be a number of things, such as the prospect of a pay-rise or bonus, extra holidays, or a prize for great work. While providing plenty of job perks and paying well can attract enthusiastic staff and create a positive atmosphere, rewarding them with something extra will encourage them to go above and beyond to hit company targets.
Create a workplace that cares
It is important to recognise that people are the most important asset of a company, and if you take care of them, they will be more likely to care for your business. As the boss, it’s your job to know what can help your team to prosper, so you should consider offering benefits like flexible working hours or a chance for staff to earn qualifications — two things that can make life easier in both the short- and long-term for your employees.
You should also encourage your team to get on both in and out of working hours, which can be a key factor in improving engagement and productivity. Promoting the idea of social occasions taking place and being flexible enough with work demands to make them easy to arrange will help to foster a sense of camaraderie and will do wonders for workplace communication.
Take these considerations on board and you will be a few steps closer to improving the employee engagement in your business. Be a good leader, provide opportunities, reward hard work, and foster greater closeness in the workplace, and you will be able to reap the benefits in the future.
