Steps To Improve Employee Engagement in 2022

Since the beginning of the industry and organized work, businesses relied on employees’ energy, commitment and engagement to stand out from the competition and make a profit. One of the only ways for your business to stay afloat and dominate the field is through employee engagement, yet according to research, only about 15% of employees are engaged in the workplace. Here’s another takeaway: engaged employees are 17% more productive and report 41% lower absenteeism. So how do you create better engagement and reap the benefits?

Define your purpose

Your business needs to have a vision and a purpose that’s clear and defined, but also ‘lived’ by its management and owners. With senior leader engagement, employees will start to believe in their mission and understand how their actions align with your goals. To improve engagement through purpose, it’s first important to talk to senior leaders and ask them to examine their mission. Is it still valid in the 21^st century? Or has the business moved on? Does your mission need to change and how?

Next, it’s important to reconsider HR policies and behaviours and see whether they work? Are new hires helping your organization’s goals? Should you reward your employees? How do your overall practices align with your goals?

Communicate with the employees

The bigger the organization, the weaker the ties between coworkers. Faster than the blink of an eye, departments and teams are isolated and workers are completely disconnected from each other and their bosses. It’s a great idea to create a team that will tackle internal communication, but if your business is too small for that, the HR department should look into company communications. There are many simple steps you can take to improve communication like encouraging the use of intranet, putting up posters in shared spaces to keep everyone informed of company happenings, etc. Employees love to be informed about changing policies, news about clients or even each other’s birthdays.

Encourage interaction between colleagues

Of course, it’s important to have workers dedicated to working, but offices don’t always have to be focused on work. In reality, allowing employees to build relationships outside of a professional environment is a great way to boost communication and engagement. It’s easy to create events in the workplace where people can bond and create relationships that can be very beneficial in the future. There are many different hubs that allow teams to communicate and collaborate and share interests. These allow instant connection and communication with just the right people, even in the time of COVID-19.

Recognize and reward best workers

For best engagement, your organization should publicly, willingly and regularly recognize excellence and reward commitment from its employees. Even if managers and leaders thank their employees for their loyalty and dedication, there’s much more they can do. Most employees react well to rewards that consider their safety and security, so you can pay off someone’s comprehensive insurance and show them how much you care about their wellbeing. Insurance is a great way to make sure people will stay healthy and protected and therefore ready to give their time and effort to your company. You can also invest in digital channels that allow staff to thank each other for help. Any sort of reward and recognition will cultivate better engagement. An investment you should totally make is office equipment. Newer equipment tends to be a lot more efficient than older equipment. So, if you’re looking to boost efficiency within the office, an upgrade might be a good idea. You should try computer software, kitchen supplies, furniture and ergonomic chairs.

Invest in wellbeing

Engagement and wellbeing are closely connected in employees’ minds. Workplaces with high engagement yet low focus on wellbeing usually suffer from burnout. Similarly, high well-being yet low engagement often results in staff that is satisfied yet disconnected from the purposes of their business. It’s important to focus on the balance between wellbeing and engagement to create a truly healthy workplace. To achieve that balance, experts can introduce workers to assistance programs, training, mental health first aid and promoting healthy eating, physical activity and rest.

Empower your employees

Many leaders tend to micromanage, especially in times of crisis or when they notice that teams and employees are not competent enough to tackle tasks or respect deadlines. Micromanaging is not all bad, but if it turns into a business norm, it can ruin employee engagement. Constant nagging, corrections and criticism can drown workers’ creativity and dedication. Your workflow will also suffer because staff will often come to a roadblock that’s impossible to overcome. With micromanagement, your recruitment and retention will suffer. To fix that issue, it’s important to empower your employees, support their ideas and trust them to work on their own. And of course, they can always come to you for help if they need it.

Ask for feedback

Employees need to have their voice and know that their views are respected and valued by managers and leaders. Thanks to technology, employees and employers can seek feedback either through interviews or anonymous online surveys. It’s important to keep in mind that feedback tools only work when leaders give merit to workers’ opinions and respond to their ideas and views. This might require you to change the company culture and adopt a new way of doing things, so consider carefully how to create effective feedback platforms and channels.

So let’s get to work. Implement these ideas and feel the positive effect of employee engagement. If conducted professionally, the tips above can make your business bloom!