NEWS

How To Improve Employee Engagement

Improve Employee Engagement

Fact: the more engaged employees you have the more successful your business will be.

Employee engagement can be used to gauge the culture of a workplace and how likely your business is to retain its staff. It can be defined as:

“Employee engagement represents the levels of enthusiasm and connection employees have with their organization. It’s a measure of how motivated people are to put in extra effort for their organization, and a sign of how committed they are to staying there.” (source)

Employee engagement has little to do with money. It is about how valued a person feels, how secure they feel in their role and whether they feel their work is meaningful. 

Why Is Employee Engagement Important?

A workplace report conducted by Gallup in 2017 found that only 14% of employees in Australia and New Zealand were actively engaged in their jobs. More concerning is that 71% of employees reported they were not engaged and a further 15% said they were completely disengaged. 

These figures should be concerning for all employers, even if they think they are doing well on the workplace wellbeing front. 

Engaged employees are more productive and more efficient. Your turnover will be lower and your customers will be happier. And that applies to almost every industry.

By the same token, people who are miserable at work tend to get sick more often, take longer to recover and they take more leave. This is especially true for people with pre-existing mental health conditions. 

So, what can employers do to create psychologically safe workplaces? 

Employee Engagement Strategies

Establishing a culture of employee engagement requires investment. And it has to start from the top.

  • Implement a thorough training program – The onboarding process should be welcoming and it should be thorough. You want to give your employees the right knowledge and the right resources so they can do their jobs effectively. When employees are thrown in the deep end they feel confused and frustrated which can quickly lead to disengagement. 
  • Build relationships – This doesn’t necessarily mean socialising out of work hours or knowing what their favourite food is. Get to know your employees personal goals, their career development aspirations and encourage them to grow in their position.
  • Don’t micromanage  – watching your employees every minute of the day, constantly following up about every little piece of work and not allowing them to implement their own ideas can make them feel like robots. Encourage your employees to work independently and bring new ideas to the table. You may even find that some of them are good ones!  

 

People are at the heart of every workplace. If you are looking to hire new staff, reach out to On Line Recruitment. We can help you find the right people to fit your organisation and help build a successful workplace culture.