Whatever the business, it’s supported and operated by the people. So, employees’ involvement and dedication to work are crucial to the business’s success and thriving.
At the same time, people often fail to perform as you expect them to. That happens primarily due to their disliking or feeling disengaged at work.
While employee engagement should be maintained at every level of the organization, these are the leaders who should drive their workers. A good leader is one who can not simply guide employees toward the company’s goal achievement but rather inspire them to do that.
In this article, we’ll look into what leaders should do to enhance employee dedication and nurture an engaging working atmosphere in the team and across the company.
Why Is Employee Engagement Important?
Superficially, employee engagement refers to whether a worker is satisfied with his or her job. However, it has a much deeper meaning. It’s the extent to which people contribute their energy in achieving organizational short-term objectives and bigger goals.
An engaged employee
- Is involved and interested in the work;
- Is capable of aligning business goals with his or her own aspirations and aims;
- Understands their role and how their skill and knowledge relate to it;
- Is eager to learn and develop;
- Is clearly aware of the work objective and moves toward it with diligence.
Why is people’s involvement in work so important? Satisfied workers might be enough for the managers, yet, not for the company. When employees are engaged:
- The workplace environment is built on a positive and friendly attitude creating a healthier and more inspiring atmosphere;
- They work harder and with discretionary effort;
- They are more focused on results and are more productive;
- They consider themselves a part of a team and easily synchronize with other workers to hit the desired outcomes.
In a word, engaged employees will lead your venture to success and increase profit revenues. That’s why engagement is an essential part of a business model, and you shouldn’t disregard it.
How to Measure Employee Engagement?
Before you dig into working out the strategy for boosting employee engagement, you should understand your starting point i.e., you should somehow measure the level of employee dedication you currently have in your company.
While relying on publicly available annual statistics data is an option, doing your own assessment is a much better choice if you seek to be objective.
Obviously enough, employee performance results are indicative of their engagement level. However, they don’t provide an entire picture, and there are more metrics to consider, such as:
- Feedback: Is the feedback they get helpful? Are they ready to share ideas with the organization?
- Recognition: Do they regularly receive recognition? Does it mean something to them?
- Satisfaction: Are they satisfied with their work? How do they feel about it?
- Relationships with colleagues: What is the level of communication inside the team? Do fellow workers interact in a collaborative manner?
- Individual growth: Do they feel motivated and challenged? Do they see opportunities for growth at work?
- Alignment: Can they connect their strengths to achieving the company objectives? Do they feel responsible for the teamwork results?
- Comfort: Do they asses their workload as adequate? How do they feel at the workplace and within a team?
Just make a questionnaire covering the above-mentioned aspects and do your own internal survey that will help you detect the areas for further improvement.
How to Improve Employee Engagement?
Actually, the stated measurement data are the areas you need to tackle to get your employees engaged and consistently keep involvement and commitment levels high.
It might appear that you stand strong in some areas and lag behind in others. So, you might need to pay more attention to the pitfalls or apply a complex approach if the overall engagement level in your organization gravitates to lower scores.
Whatever the case, we’ll provide tips on the key aspects that will let you noticeably increase employee dedication. And it’s up to your to decide which of them is primary for you at the moment.
1. Share Company’s Vision
Each organization has its own business formula and the vision of how to realize it. Since the implementation process largely depends on employees, they should be clear about the goals, perspectives, plans, and strategies of the company and be allowed to make decisions on their part of the work.
Likewise, though, people should be aware of the business struggles, concerns, and challenges to understand how their work and its results impact the company’s operation and overall performance.
Knowing the mission, aims, target points, and issues of the organization, employees will have a sense of purpose and see their roles in a bigger process.
To keep employees updated on the company’s goals and strategies, leaders should hold regular (weekly, monthly, or quarterly) meetings.
2. Outline Your Expectations
Once clear about the general business vision, employees should be also clear about their operational goals and what you expect from them. They will never deliver as you plan unless they know their duties and areas of responsibility.
With that, a leader should not only describe the job to each employee in detail but also explain how it relates to business goals and how intermediate objectives affect the final outcomes.
While an initial discussion of employee tasks and obligations occurs when a new worker joins a company, further discussions on this matter should be held during performance assessment meetings.
Note, though, that for people to stay focused on their tasks, your goals and expectations should be feasible and attainable. Otherwise, they won’t give their best to work.
3. Know Your Employees
Creating strong interpersonal links is one of the easiest ways for a leader to build reliable work ties with their team members and set up relations of trust. So, take your time to know your employees better, not only as professionals but also as individuals.
Learn about their hobbies, families, backgrounds, personal goals, or even dreams. Learn what they are made of and how they live. Show your interest on a daily basis by simply saying hello or asking how they are doing. These humble things will demonstrate they you do care for them and make them feel necessary and valued.
4. Communicate
Modern working environments rather rely on communicative and collaborative approaches than strict hierarchical principles. Hence, you should be accessible to your employees and open to discussion of whatever concerns, problems, questions, or suggestions they have.
A good leader should encourage employees to speak about their fears and any difficulties they have in performing the tasks. They should know you are there to help and support them.
While appreciating their feedback, you should give your feedback on their work, achievements, or failures to demonstrate your care and engagement and make sure you move in the same direction.
By staying in touch with your team members on a regular basis, you will be able to:
- Get more trust from them;
- Detect internal conflicts;
- Avert more serious problems by timely addressing minor issues or misunderstandings.
5. Evaluate Employee Performance and Give Recognition
You can’t expect employees to engage in work in earnest unless you recognize their achievements and contributions. To see how well your team works, it’s crucial to assess its performance from time to time.
Common practice is to evaluate performance once per year against annual results. However, it’s advisable that you do performance appraisals more often to estimate intermediate results as well as to identify the point of improvement and make changes to the general plan if necessary.
Regular assessments will also enable you to schedule training and coaching sessions in a more effective manner and get better outcomes in the end since you’ll be able to detect the employee knowledge gaps that need to be addressed.
Besides, you’ll be able to appreciate the work of high-performers and reward them with some incentives or bonuses to keep people motivated and involved.
6. Be an Organizer
A lot has been said about the importance of nurturing corporate culture and cultivating an engaging working environment. The favorable and comfortable climate at the workplace:
- Naturally promotes engagement;
- Knits employees together;
- Stimulates them to be more proactive;
- Boosts productivity;
- Syncs employee efforts and make the whole team work like a charm.
And it’s a leader’s responsibility to set a general tone by:
- Demonstrating commitment and dedication with their own example;
- Distributing the roles and explaining the functions;
- Putting the required operational processes in place;
- Welcoming initiatives, creativity, and innovation;
- Fostering trust and mutual help inside the team;
- Motivating employees and helping them to grow;
- Aligning employee professional needs and goals with company strategies.
Conclusion
Managers and leaders (whatever their position in the company) should understand that employee engagement is not something that arises from nowhere. It’s a practice and approach that requires attention and diligence.
Employee engagement could be attained and further maintained through direct leadership guidance and attention to it. Direct dependence of the business profitability and growth on employee commitment to their work should stimulate leaders to stay on top of their teams.
