Improving Employee Engagement in the Workplace:
It is possible that as few as 13% of your company’s employees may be engaged at work, according to the results of Gallup’s global survey. Some studies that focus only on the US show a slightly improved number that hovers around 30%, but even that figure means that your company likely has room for improvement.
Employees are commonly divided into three buckets when it comes to engagement: engaged, not engaged and actively disengaged. An engaged employee is one who comes into work with a passion for their position, they feel connected to the company and are willing to help pitch in and do what they can to help their peers and the company succeed. Employees who are not-engaged are ones who may be mentally checked out of their work, they may show up and put in their eight hours a day but their energy and passion isn’t coming into work with them. If you want some additional tips on how to motivate and manage employees who are middle-performers read my previous article on the subject here. Actively disengaged employees aren’t just checked-out and unhappy; they want everyone to know it. The actively disengaged employees may act out and be actively trying to undermine the company and their peers.
Employee engagement isn’t just a concern for leaders, it impacts the whole organization. Here are three tips that you can use to help improve your company’s employee engagement in the workplace and productivity levels.
- Hold managers accountable for employee engagement
Managers are one of the biggest factors impacting employee engagement, which puts them in a great position to help positively influence engagement. When discussing employee engagement as an issue concerning your company make sure that managers are involved in the discussion and know that your organization is committed to measuring and improving employee engagement. To help make managers accountable and to make it worth investing their time include employee engagement outcomes into performance reviews for all people-managers.
- Onboard and train employees
It is hard for a new employee to be engaged if they don’t know much about their new employer. Employees need to have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and how they fit into the bigger picture of the organization. If you want an employee to have purpose in their job you should take the time to explain the purpose of their position and the organization. Make onboarding and training a standard part of getting hired in and all employees, regardless of position, need to participate.
- Set company and personal goals
It is hard to feel like you’re accomplished and successful in a position if you don’t know what success looks like for yourself or the company. Goals should be set for the company and each employee, even departments or divisions can have their own goals. Don’t set an overwhelming list of goals that would be impossible to accomplish, having a stretch goal can be motivating but it should be something that is within the realm of possibility. Having goals and rewards when you achieve goals helps encourage engagement within a position and the company.