There is no doubt that an engaged workforce sits at the centre of any company’s success. As leaders we aspire to have a fully engaged team but the journey to get there can be complex. To improve staff engagement, start with their well-being. It is crucial to show your employees you care about their well being by providing resources, communication, and encouragement.This emphasis on well-being needs to be authentic and consistent; rather than something that organisations tick off as complete before moving on to the next thing.If organisations can do this, then it can impact positively the extent to which people will feel engaged and connected to their employer
Any strategy needs to pay consideration to how we measure the success of it. We need to be clear about the outcomes we want to achieve. How might we measure such strategies?
As a starting point measure their willingness and their ability to contribute to the success of the organisation. Put differently, what is their discretionary effort, and with what frequency do we see it applied? Discretionary effort translates directly in to higher quality work and a greater degree of team and company engagement.
We also need to consider some of the expectations that new employees have when they onboard with an employer. They have expectations relating to their career, their competence, and their care.
Career
An employee feels engaged when they receive support from management in building their careers.
Competence
Skill building, training sessions must be a key ingredient into your strategy to help employees acquire higher levels of skills and competency.
Care
Leaders need to be empathetic and sensitive towards people and understand their personal or professional circumstances
The other point to note is that there is not “one best way”. Whatever engagement strategy you employ needs to operate in tandem with, and be sympathetic to the nuances of how your organisation operates and is structured.
Some of the most effective and best initiatives:
Encourage Knowledge Sharing
Ensure teams are not working in isolation and are across what the rest of the team and organisation is working on. This creates connection between teams and breakdowns silos. Teams will learn much more rapidly sharing knowledge.
Building Open and Transparent Communication
Organisations do go through various changes. As your employees are one of the first ambassadors of your company brand, make sure they are updated with goals and values. Leaders should make timely efforts to help employees at various layers feel connected and help them contribute to the organisations results.
Create Individual Growth Path
Help employees in identifying their key strengths and support building their career path within the organization. Create a mentorship model wherein managers should spend reasonable time with their teams in coaching and mentoring them.
Managers can understand and help align employees’ aspirations with the organization’s vision and development.
Create A Culture of Social Responsibility
Encourage involvement and participation in social and charity initiatives. Giving back to society for causes creates a positive mentality and fosters pride and loyalty within the employees.
Initiate Wellness Programs
Making employee wellbeing one of your top priorities is more important now than ever before.
To put ‘wellbeing’ simply: it’s how we’re doing. It encompasses all the factors that affect us and the experiences we face. It’s often talked about in three parts which make up wellbeing as a whole – physical, mental/emotional, and financial wellbeing.
With burnout and stress continuing to rise, it’s becoming clear that organisations must commit time and energy to make sure they’re doing everything they can to help their people stay happy and healthy.
Encourage Employee Learning Initiatives
Workplace training sessions are an active part of working life and a great way to engage employees. Understand what nature and method of training are preferred and design a course module for the same. You can conduct both online or classroom training depending on the topic and audience.
Also forming small group learning sessions wherein, the whole team is actively involved allows.
Rewards and Recognition System
Employee Reward and Recognition system is a key driver in promoting positive work culture. Build monthly or quarterly reward systems and recognize employees on various parameters.
Work-Life Balance
Gone are the days of strict 9-5 office culture, everyone looks for flexibility and work-life balance. Many companies build initiatives around options like work from home, to help employees attend to outside of work responsibilities and hence feel engaged.
Get employees connected to the core values of the company.
Belongingness is a feeling of security and support from acceptance, inclusion, and identity.
This happens when the employees know and align themselves with the company's core values. Have the values explained, presented, communicated, and imbibed in the work culture.
Provide a Good Onboarding Experience
Onboarding is a pivotal moment for making employees feel included from day one.
It sets the tone at your company, laying the foundation for their knowledge of and experience working for your company.
Therefore, building an inclusive onboarding experience is so important to creating a great company culture and building Engagement.
Regular Employee Surveys and Feedback
Make it a periodic practice to conduct employee feedback and surveys to know the real issues they are facing and helping them solve it. The more the teams are asked their opinions, the more they will feel empowered, trusted, and valued – and the more engaged they’ll be.
Employee engagement and engagement strategies is not an isolated HR process for it to deliver, it needs to be an organisational commitment and involvement to implement efficient initiatives.
Employee engagement is attracting a great deal of interest from employers across all sectors.
Employee engagement shows the energy and commitment that employees bring to their jobs and is an important indicator of involvement and dedication to the organization. Engaged employees are content, more productive and most likely to be loyal to the organisation.
