Employee engagement reflects the magnitude of eagerness and connection employees have with their company.
It’s a measure of how motivated and inspired people are to put in extra effort for their organization, and a sign of how committed they are to staying there.
Employee engagement is an outcome, one that is affected by the actions of an organization, particularly the actions driven by leadership, managers, and people teams.
People who are highly engaged at work apart from providing greater value to the organization they experience a better quality of life at work.
How to engage employees
Employees want to have confidence in their leaders and they want to be inspired and engaged by them. They also want their leaders to recognize the importance of people in the journey.
The main things the company should focus to engage their team.
Improving team open communication
Bringing company value to life
Alignment of employees' values with the company's
Development-enhance employee engagement
New Employee Onboarding And Training
1. Improving team open communication.
What is open communication? It is different from effective communication.
Effective communication - occurs when the receiver understands the message as intended by the sender.
Open communication - occurs when the sender and receiver share all the necessary information for both of them to complete their assigned tasks. There are no hidden agenda or misrepresentation of information. Open communication is facilitated by effective communication.
This, in our opinion, is one of the acute problems in the company.
In growing organizations, employees often do not know what is happening in other departments. They also do not receive feedback from senior executives about what is happening in the company.
Frequently new ideas are discussed during meetings, various recommendations are expressed by the team, but ultimately, team doesn't get any feedback on what stage all the discussed ideas are afterward.
If the team does not receive any feedback consistently, they are not engaged in the further development of the company. Additionally, when important operational information is not transmitted on time between employees, this absence of communication will reduce productivity and ultimately hinder company's growth.
2. Bringing company values to life
Values should be more than writing on the wall.
This scenario may be all too familiar for many companies – values at risk of becoming nothing but words on the wall.
Apart from leadership, commitment to values is the strongest driver of engagement.
It's a win-win for bringing company values to life even during the onboarding of new employees. It is important to introduce the company values and figure out do new hires understand the true meaning and relevance of those values.
Everyone needs to feel that they are committed to company values and to see them in action.
The executive has to start looking for a way to get everyone at the company to understand what living these values meant and what difference they made in the company's day-to-day actions.
However, it is easy to say: 'find out what your values mean to employees’ and then ‘make them real', but it's not so easy to implement this though.
Company leaders should design a good approach to bring it to life.
The storytelling is good way how to start bringing company values to life. Humans are fond of telling stories and also love to listen when others tell them.
And when we talk about values, we kind of describe the world we want to live in.
When you look at a value it should tell you two things – what can you expect from the company and what the company expects from you. Individuals may be acting in a way that is aligned with your values, but if they don’t receive the right support from those around them, they will never stick.
To bring values in action the storytelling should be meant for the purpose of :
• What do current values mean to employees?
It’s hard to get excited about something if you don’t understand what it means for you.
• Why is this value important to our company?
It's fundamental for people to understand why the values exist. What are the benefits if we stick to these values.
Strengthen core values.
Value-Based Management creates the framework for today's leaders and managers.
Employees of the companies where are implemented such an engagement culture admit that we have a more productive and fulfilling workplace, which in turn is driving improved customer satisfaction and the resulting return for owners.
That’s why we focus on employee engagement to help business leaders overcome the challenges in terms of employees' productivity.
3. Alignment of employees' values with the company's
Real and sustainable business transformation can only happen when leaders and employees feel engaged at the core and are aligned with a higher sense of purpose and meaning.
Specifically, leaders and employees must see and experience the following alignment and connections:
The organization’s strategy and goals are aligned with their own personal purpose and goals;
The culture of the business is aligned with the strategy (actions speak louder than words);
The way leadership conducts business is in alignment with their personal values and the expressed values of the organization;
That people at all levels (and particularly those in management) are going to be held accountable for performing at the highest level of excellence.
Many employees, at all levels of organizations, don’t see or feel this connection or accountability, which is why only part of employees feel actively engaged in their company and in their jobs.
When you’re building engagement at your organization, it might make things more clear to think of it as alignment.
Alignment means everyone is pulling in the same direction.
Employee core values and goals line up with company values, mission, and vision.
Each person’s effort combines with others across the organization, as everyone moves the same path. Once people feel that their work is aligned with that of the organization, it boosts their engagement.
HAVE A CLEAR MISSION
An excellent tool for creating alignment: your company mission, vision, and values.
Communicate your mission consistently and frequently to employees so they understand it and live it through. Train managers to boost alignment by drawing connections between people’s tasks and the company’s mission. Encourage managers to reference the mission anytime when talking about company plans and results. All of these actions will help reinforce the importance of the mission — and the importance of following it.
BE GRATEFUL
Employees want to feel worthwhile and meaningful.
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, but the best leaders always appreciate work and behaviors, no matter big or small they are.
The methods of approach are up to every organization's discretion.
Someone can make gratitude cards to praise employees.
Someone has monthly corporate awards.
Recognize good work and highlight what people are working on and how it’s helping the organization deliver on its mission and work toward its vision.
Consider the fact the bonus systems are great tools to show that employees cope well with assignments but apart from this, a simple individual daily compliment from executives, managers, supervisors gives tremendous results to an employee to feel worthwhile and, furthermore, you don't have to plan an extra budget to show your appreciation.
4. Development-enhance employee engagement
Development is a critical driver of employee engagement. Employees want to know they have access to opportunities, both formal and informal, to develop themselves. Especially those who are eager to realize their personal goals and mission. Leaders and managers should invest in personnel professional development. You as a leader have to contribute to realizing employees' dreams. If they are just performing tasks the company assigns and they don't have time or other recourses to implement their personal dreams it's just a matter of time employees become disengaged and likely leaves.
Here are three development initiatives to drive employee engagement:
Personal coaching and mentoring
The employee selects their coach or mentor for either personal or professional development. There is an allocated budget and set a number of sessions covered by the company. Despite this, the content of the assistance remains between the mentor and the employee.
Interviews (ask right questions)
Employees are encouraged to discuss their development needs as well as any blockers to their long term success at the organization.
At the team level, managers or executives can schedule personal interviews with employees.
For instance, announce all teams that on Wednesdays from 10 am to 2 pm employees have the possibility for a private 30-minute conversation with the company chief executive. This meeting should be scheduled in advance.
During the conversation, there is an opportunity to ask good questions to the employee, which are:
• What do you want to be doing that you aren’t currently doing?
• What are the three most important things you would like to accomplish right now?
• What do you need that’s preventing you from reaching those goals?
• How can I best support you to achieve those goals?
More about employee individual interview read our article Ask the right questions.
Employee-led teaching programs
Encourage employees to learn from each other.
We have a culture of open feedback and communication in our company, where once a week a team meets in an informal atmosphere and shares ideas, successes, knowledge and personal growth experiences with each other. It enhances synergy in team.
Besides sharing the experience of personal growth the company can organize learning and development programs for professional skills who are taught by employees. They teach colleagues new skills that are essential to their roles.
These communication methods foster collaboration in a team. Employees become also more friendly and this is the key to creating a great place to work.
5. Onboarding and training-enhance employee engagement
Onboarding is not just a pile of papers the new employee is supposed to sign.
Onboarding spans from the minute you make an offer to the time the employee starts genuinely producing in a role.
Every process that falls within that time period including the orientation program, the training plan, setting up performance metrics and a feedback loop is segmented under the definition of onboarding.
To an employee becomes a productive contributor to the organization there is needed a strategic onboarding plan for new hires.
Why efficient employee onboarding matters?
Employee onboarding is the first interaction an employee has with the organization right after the lengthy interview process.
If the experience fails to live up to expectations, then your employee might regret their decision to accept the job offer.
The negative impression left by a poor onboarding process might affect their perceptions, give them prejudiced notions about the organization, and ultimately cause them to quit early.
A solid employee onboarding process is necessary to help your new hires settle down in their jobs, get to know the organization, obtain clarity on their job objectives, and build a good relationship with other employees.
An excellent onboarding experience makes employees feel welcomed to the existing organizational family faster.
From a business perspective, a successful onboarding allows the new employee to become highly productive in the shortest time and remain loyal to the company in the long term.
Employees who can master their workload have a better shot at taking pride in what they do. Workers who are eager to meet their goals are engaged with the company.
Onboarding and training new hires are some of the most important steps you should take to ensure employees have a good environment to be engaged at work.
For most employees, onboarding and training is also the time when they bond with colleagues and develop a connection to the company.
Studies have shown that the more friends employees have at work, the more engaged they are.
CONCLUSION
Unfortunately, all the new skills in the world will not help organizations to achieve their full potential if there is an absence of mindset and culture that empowers people to take responsibility for changing themselves first before they start to try to acquire new skills and processes.
But, no amount of skill training or personal growth coaching will work out if the company leaders are not engaged with an attitude of the right mindset.
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