Employees form the heart of an organization. Engaging people meaningfully forms the basis of all human relationships. Employee engagement ideas are all about connecting, listening, understanding and motivating people to help them perform better and achieve higher goals in life. It is about giving them space and platform to express, to suggest and feel valuable.
This does not come easy and there are statistics to back this. The latest survey by Gallup has revealed that approximately 900 million workers are not satisfied with their jobs and feel disengaged at work while only a minuscule value of 13% of employees feel connected to their current jobs due to effective employee engagement strategies. Another study proved that around 60 per cent of employees rest their decision of accepting a job on the basis of perks and benefits.
It is not that one needs deep pockets always to keep their employees engaged. Employees may consider higher perks to a certain extent, but strong and meaningful relations with the management and other colleagues go way ahead in employee satisfaction.
Looking at it from another perspective, even the managers who put in their efforts in building sincere relationships with their employees often experience enhanced loyalty and efficiency at work. This does not mean that employees do not value realistic incentives but adding a human touch makes a lot of difference.
5 Impactful Employee Engagement Strategies
- Create Values and Purpose: It all starts with “Why”. It has been seen that humans feel drawn to be part of experiences which are bigger than themselves. Successful employee engagement programs create a sense of involvement. It is thus important for your company to recognize this sense of purpose and is able to boil down to the particular “Why”. It is this purpose which the company has to imbibe in the company culture as a whole. In order to identify why one can identify what is the underlying purpose of the business and why is it in a particular niche of operation. What is it that will push the employees out of bed every morning to come to the office?
- Create Leaders from Within: Companies have the power to create great leaders through directed guidance and mentorship. Employees who usually have control over big decisions in offices daily are the ones which produce quality results as they have their names linked to it. Thus, leaders are often made by companies by proper guidance, resources, support, opportunities and even clarity of purpose. They should have a clear idea of the scope of growth, of the bigger picture of what this all will lead to. It is the role of the manager to career map the journey of the employee through the company. Career mapping is effective when it is backed by measurable and actionable milestones. It has been seen that employees who have a set goal to work towards often remain engaged as they work towards achieving the same. Managers can thus, help shape leaders by the development of employees and giving them a chance to excel in their position.
- Celebrate Team Victories: Every human being likes appreciation. Improvement in employee satisfaction comes when the management acknowledges even the minor details. Many studies have proven that employees who constantly get praise and recognition regularly often perform well. Companies often have access to many free tools and resources which cater to such rewards as these have a great impact on the mindset of the employees. It highly boosts morale and spread workplace happiness. One can even consider conducting town halls to give employees a chance to interact with the senior management, know about the happenings in and around the company and also voice their comments and concerns. This often leads to building a sense of community.
- Seek Feedback: Companies who have satisfied employees are often the ones which have open lines of communication and sound feedback systems. They act as a great medium for employees to express their opinions and also be heard. Such kind of freedom adds a sense of value and keeps them engaged for long. Any human when he or she realizes that his or her opinion matters to the other person, get a sense of belongingness and confidence. It is this confidence which shows up in the form of efficiency at work.
- Workspace/ Environment: It is simple. All companies expect the employees to spend the majority of their time at work and also at times expect them to stretch beyond their routine work hours. Imagine! If such an expectation is backed by efforts to make the work a place where the employees actually look forward to coming. One can expect double the productivity of the workplace will match the culture and business. Offices should be so-designed that people are able to come together for a free flow of thoughts and ideas. There should be no barriers or restrictions on discussions. Such workplaces often thrive and lead to new inventions. These are places where creativity lives and new innovations take birth. Thus, everything matters, from culture, attitudes, work-life balance, office designs, colours, etc. All details have to be well handled by the management.
Mentioned above are the five strategies which will give a new lifeline to the employee engagement strategies in your company. Management should listen, understand and act on every little piece of communication made by employees. Creation of employee discussion forums where they can come together for candid chats often gives useful insights about the employee sentiment.
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