For any business seeking to prosper and increase their performance and profitability, there is need to increase the employee engagement at work, since employees are the driving work force of a business.
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Employee engagement could easily be confused to mean employee happiness or employee satisfaction. A satisfied employee might show up at work at 9:30am instead of 8:00am. The happiness and satisfaction of an employee does not mean that they are engaged in their work. In this regard, employee engagement could therefore be defined as the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals. A research conducted by Gallup, only 15% of employees worldwide are engaged at work, with the majority of the global workforce head to work, lacking energy and passion for their jobs.
For any business seeking to prosper and increase their performance and profitability, there is need to increase the employee engagement at work, since employees are the driving work force of a business. The following are 5 ways that can be used to increase employee engagement.
1. Encourage and support career growth.
As a company culture, emphasis should be put on employees’ career growth, as this would reflect positively on their engagement. This can be achieved through building up their personal network, training and giving them an opportunity to share ideas amongst themselves. Employers should start recognizing and rewarding good work, through introducing incentive based or scheme awards program.
2. Look outside your field for inspiration.
Harvard business review article once noted that people in distant but analogous fields were likely to come up with better solutions for industry problems than people who actually work in the industry. In order to build an innovative forward-thinking organization, leaders need to look at what other successful businesses are doing, to emulate and borrow ideas that would help in boosting the employee’s engagement.
3. Invest in the wellbeing
There is a close link between engagement and wellbeing. HR magazine in 2014, asserted that where there is high engagement but low wellbeing, there is a risk of burnout over time, and where there is high wellbeing but low engagement, employees may be feeling generally satisfied and well, but are disconnected from the organizational purpose. Employers should therefore take the necessary steps to bridge the gap between employee’s engagement and wellbeing. For instance, they can introduce employee assistance program, mental health training, promote healthy eating and exercise, to improve their wellbeing.
4. Provide engaging feedback.
To effectively provide engaging feedback, employees need to communicate deliberately and regularly, by defining your organization’s purpose and share it. This acts as the buying point of the employees into the company’s goals. Providing regular feedback allows employees to grow and develop, which gives them the confidence to perform challenging tasks. While giving feedback, one needs to be sincere and consider the timing of the feedback.
5. Put everyone in the right role.
When hiring employees, it is vital to put everyone in their right role. Roles should be given to the employees based on their area of expertise. This will not only boost their confidence at work, but also provide an opportunity to use their abilities and talents to perform the tasks. Even so, there is need to task meaningful work that is aligned with the company’s strategic goals, to enable the employees have a clear understanding of how they contribute to the company.
