The importance of employee engagement cannot be overstated in the 21st-century workplace. According to Forbes employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals. This emotional commitment means engaged employees actually care about their work and their company. Recruitment strategies over the past decade have improved from not just hiring the best hands for your business but also developing the best strategies to retain these individuals.
The threats of high employee turnover are real for employers hence the need for developing ways and strategies to reduce employee turnover and maximise retention and a better-engaged workforce. Here are smart ways to increase your employee engagement.
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Always Say Thank You
We all agree people love to be appreciated, a simple verbal praise, a note from management or a certificate for good performance on a simple task would go a long way in making someone’s day and spurring them to do more and be innovative. Most smart employers ensure to make this a monthly, quarterly or bi-annual event to reward best achievers based solely on performance.
Get smart and always say thank you. This could be the strategy to having healthy competition and a more committed workforce.
Offer Opportunity for Career Growth and Development
It’s important to note that an employer’s ability to retain employees would be dependent on how they communicate clear career growth opportunities and development for employees. A popular story is told of an argument that ensued between a CFO and his CEO: CFO: What happens if we train them and leave? CEO: What happens if we don’t and they stay? Richard Branson once said train people well enough so that they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t.
Offering career growth opportunities and development will further ensure better performance, more commitment and your organisation will likely thrive.
Bonuses and Promotions for Employee Engagement
Studies at Harvard Medical School show that bonuses, perks and promotions are smart ways to keep your employees engaged as these have psychological effects on employees. This will spur them to feel appreciated and such employees show signs of commitment to staying longer with the organisation.
This would serve to complement those verbal appreciation and help maintain productivity.
Communication and Work Autonomy
As an employer how effective is your communication strategy? Do you take the “Bottom Up”, not “Top Down” approach or is it the other way round? Having an ecosystem in the workplace where employees make input is vital to sustaining a healthy work culture.
Your strategy should be to seek out and ensure “open door” policies, while things like performance reviews can be top up. You should also encourage a system where team leads, supervisors and managers are also reviewed by their colleagues and team members.
Allow work autonomy and avoid micro-management of employees, lead people in your workforce to love their tasks and job, allow them to get the job done their way but ensure best professional standards are adhered to.
In conclusion, you can personalise these strategies and bring them further to life to suit your organisation but be global in approach. Strategies like work-life balance, the flexibility of work hours and location and other benefits can also be adapted to stay ahead of the ever-changing place. Technology and digital skills continue to empower employees and provide employers opportunities to think smart. Always seek time-proven and world-class employee engagement strategies for better retention and further reduce employee churn rates. Maintain a happy workplace
