SUCCESSFUL EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Implementing employee engagement strategies plays a crucial role in company growth. If your employees are attentive and responsive, your company’s ceiling will be exponentially higher when compared to a company with apathetic employees. Indeed, the benefits of employee engagement are endless. For example, high levels of engagement lead to higher profits, increased customer loyalty, and lower turnover rates. If you want to boost employee engagement, here are a few employee engagement strategies to try:
Conduct an Employee Engagement Survey
The first, and arguably most important, way to boost engagement is to start with an employee engagement survey. Implementing successful employee engagement strategies could prove difficult if you don’t have a baseline. Furthermore, analyzing your company’s current state as it relates to employee engagement will help identify what’s working and what could be improved.
PeopleWorks International created an Employee Engagement Survey that reveals your company’s culture and how your employees feel about it. Among other things, the survey measures a major factor in employee engagement: do your employees feel important, informed and connected? As part of the survey, we also provide customized recommendations for developing and sustaining employee engagement.
“Keep your employees informed by telling them what you found from the survey and your strategy for improvement.”
After conducting the survey, it’s critically important that you thank your people for their feedback. But, communications should go beyond a simple thank you. Keep your employees informed by telling them what you found from the survey and your strategy for improvement. This leads us into the next employee engagement strategy: communication.
Develop a Communications Plan
One of the most successful employee engagement strategies is also one of the simplest: communicate better. A 2017 study conducted by Employee Channel found that employees ranked “communicates frequently and effectively with employees” among the top behaviors that generate positive experiences in the workplace. Whether it’s a dedicated HR person or upper management in general, make sure there is a plan in place for maintaining a steady stream of communication between your company’s leaders and its workforce. Keep your employees informed about what’s going on at work. In addition, give them a safe outlet for expressing concerns or suggesting ideas.
“The key to enhancing engagement with communication is to make your employees feel like their contributions are valued.”
The key to enhancing engagement with communication is to make your employees feel like their contributions are valued. Giving your employees a chance to express their concerns does more harm than good if nothing changes after the conversation. Therefore, ensure that the communications plan includes how upper management will handle next steps for the issues or suggestions highlighted by your employees.
While communication plays a key role in enhancing employee engagement overall, it also plays a key role in the actual engagement strategy itself. Let’s revisit the first strategy we discussed: conducting an employee engagement survey.
Prioritize Recognition
Acknowledging when your employees are doing great can go a long way in developing high-performing employees. If you consistently ignore successes in the workplace—big or small—your employees may start to notice that their level of performance has no effect on their employer. Let’s put it this way: if your employees feel as if doing the bare minimum and going above and beyond do not yield different responses from their employer, then they might struggle to find the motivation to go above and beyond.
“Recognizing your top performers will show them that you are invested in their efforts which, in turn, enhances employee engagement.”
On the other hand, making your employees feel that the work they do is valuable and appreciated will incentivize them to perform at their highest potential. Regularly recognizing your top performers will show them that you are invested in their efforts. In turn, this enhances employee engagement.
Final Thoughts: Implementing Sustainable and Successful Employee Engagement Strategies
While there are many successful employee engagement strategies you could implement, the three strategies above are simple and effective starting points. When your employees feel heard, recognized and valued, it fosters an environment of dedication to your company’s success. Before you launch a new strategy, consider the key phases of implementing an employee engagement strategy:
1. Measure where you’re at as a company by conducting an employee engagement survey. Identify strengths and opportunities for improvement.
2. Use the results from the survey to develop strategies and define goals that address your company’s specific engagement challenges. Focus on addressing the top two or three priorities first, and revisit the less pressing items later.
3. Execute your vital two or three strategies and continually evaluate success. Keep a pulse on employee engagement during execution and conduct periodical surveys down the road to determine if the strategies are working. In addition, communication is critical during the execution phase. After you execute your strategy, report back to your workforce about progress made and results.
“Keep a pulse on employee engagement during execution and conduct periodical surveys down the road to determine if the strategies are working.”
PeopleWorks International partners with companies to assess and improve employee engagement. We’re with you every step of the way, from conducting the first employee engagement survey, to developing and implementing goal-oriented strategies, to evaluating strategy effectiveness. If you’re ready to cultivate an effective workforce through successful employee engagement strategies, contact us today.