Keeping Employees Engaged
Why is keeping employees engaged so important? Engaged employees work harder, perform better and this contributes to a better bottom-line for an organisation, and of course less turnover which is costly.
The employees of today need to know that their leaders value them and their unique perspective. If employees feel that their ideas and suggestions don’t matter, it’s very hard for them to feel engaged. Employees need to feel seen, heard, valued and encouraged.
So how can you improve employee engagement? Here are some suggestions, which are by no means exhaustive:
1.????? Conduct an anonymous employee engagement survey. Questions in an employee engagement survey should address the everyday experiences of employees, how they interact with the management and leadership team. It’s important that employees be able to respond anonymously so they provide honest feedback.?Once you have complied and analysed the results you can start working on areas that are of concern for your employees.
2.????? Boost engagement by better work/life balance. Work/life balance is vital to preventing burnout. Flexibility, the ability to work from home, paid parental leave, extra annual leave are all ways to help employees manage the demands of work and their personal lives.
3.????? Recognise employees for a job well done. Positive feedback and recognition of an employee’s contribution shouldn’t happen at the yearly review. Employees need to be recognised in real time for their achievements, both personally and publicly.
4.????? Provide incentives and perks to keep employees engaged. For example, yearly flu shots and skin checks, gym memberships, annual wellness day, birthday leave, financial assistance for further studies, anniversary gifts, quarterly team lunches.
5.????? Foster workplace autonomy. This means that employees have some decision-making power. Every employee is unique, and they have their own work style to perform at their best. Therefore, they should have some autonomy in how to get a project/task completed.
6.????? Set up mentor programmes. These programmes facilitate the transmission of valuable expertise and foster growth and development among employees. They also foster a sense of camaraderie among colleagues.
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7.????? Involve employees in an organisation’s decision-making process. One way to foster an employee’s connection to their employer is to involve them company decisions, especially where the decision impacts them directly. For example, decisions about annual budgets, KPIs etc.
8.????? Conduct Stay Interviews. Stay interviews provide valuable insights regarding employee retention. These interviews allow employers to gather feedback, enabling them to enhance both employee satisfaction and engagement.
9.????? Adopt a career lattice approach. Traditionally, career paths have only been vertical but the ‘career lattice approach’ is gaining more popularity, especially with Generation Z who would enjoy and are stimulated by having different roles at an organisation. In short, the career lattice approach enables employees to pursue vertical, horizontal and diagonal moves within their organisation.
10.? Adopt agile performance management. Agile performance management is a continuous and collaborative way of evaluating employees and supporting their growth. This framework involves frequent check-ins (and not just an annual performance review) and a focus on the employee’s continuous learning and their growth. Agile performance management helps individual employees and teams perform better, develop their skills, and achieve their goals.
No employee wants to be treated like a cog in a wheel. Employees want to feel valued and what their organisation to not just be a workplace but a community. A work environment that fosters collaboration, is supportive, inspires will be a successful workplace with dedicated employees.
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