4 Ways To Heighten Employee Engagement

How can leaders heighten employee engagement? First things first, we need to define what “employee engagement” is. “Employee engagement” is the level of passion, loyalty, and commitment an individual has toward his or her work and organisation. Needless to say, the more engaged an employee is, the more he or she looks forward to buckling down and getting to work—which is very good news for any business.

Every company that is aiming for success needs employees who are engaged every step of the way. Why? Because employees who are engaged in their work not only increase the company’s chance of success but also boosts customer satisfaction as well as lowering turnover.

However, employee engagement cannot be forced by a company on an individual; rather, it has to start from the employees themselves. And this can be achieved if the company, at the outset, has made steps in order to ingrain employee engagement into the individuals themselves.

Fortunately, there are ways that companies can get employees highly engaged. Here are 4 ways leaders can heighten employee engagement.

Set goals at the outset

It goes without saying that in order to run a successful company, you need a well thought out business plan that includes a list of goals that you want your organisation to accomplish. But I lot of managers forget to include the input of their team when setting goals. In order to engage your company’s employees, you need to make them feel that they are also a big factor in reaching the organisation’s business goals. In addition to setting individual goals for each employee, team members need to know how their skills and talent will fit in the organisation.

Don't underestimate employee onboarding

A newly hired individual for a company must know what his or her responsibilities are. This is where onboarding comes in. It’s simple, really: how can individuals become engaged employees, when their responsibilities are not laid out well at the outset? On the other hand, if employees are confused about what their responsibilities and goals are, they might never be engaged in their work.

Individuals who are properly trained in what their jobs and responsibilities entail have the opportunity to become fully engaged in what they do and take pride in their jobs. Employees who are happy to meet their goals are highly engaged with the organisation. This can be ensured by proper onboarding and training of new hires.

So, with successful training, orientation, and onboarding, workers will not only learn how to effectively do their job, they will be fully engaged as well.

Acknowledge employees for a job well done

A caveat: individuals will not immediately or automatically become engaged when they are acknowledged or given praise. However, if workers don’t feel that they are appreciated, the opposite will tend to happen—they will become disengaged in no time. So the short answer is, never make your employees feel invisible.

Engaged individuals will, more often than not, have a sense of comfortability and camaraderie with your organisation. So, it’s imperative for workers to know their coworkers at a more personal level and develop friendships with them. However, it’s also equally important (or even more important) for employees to develop a relationship built on mutual respect between their employer or bosses.

Give employees autonomy

It’s no surprise that if employees are given the freedom to do what they are hired to do, they will be more engaged. The opposite is true if they are told exactly what to do and how to do it: they will not be motivated or engaged at work. Every company or organisation wants to hire professionals that think for themselves, not mindless robots. Workers will never be engaged if they do not have the freedom to do their jobs.

Another way of saying this is that employees should never be micromanaged. Micromanaging can be disastrous for any organisation, and demoralising to employees. It can even lead to decreased productivity.

Instead of micromanaging and always looking at the small details, why not look at the big picture instead? This is what good managers do. Leave the details to the professionals you hired, put your trust in them that they will do a great job, and the company will have happy and engaged employees that will work toward a common goal—which will surely mean success for the organisation in the long run.

Want to find out how engaged your employees are? Contact me to find out more about Employee Engagement Surveys.