Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement

Author: Debbie Jackson – Feb 2016 Page 2 of 10

What does an engaged employee look like?

Someone who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work. Engaged employees are

attracted to, and inspired by, their work. They are emotionally committed to the success of what

they’re doing, and they care about the future of the company they work for.

What do employees want the most from their job?

1. Appreciation and respect for work done and to feel valued.

2. Involvement, feeling connected with what’s going on, and a belief in the purpose of the business.

3. Approachable leadership role models and line managers who listen and understand.

4. Sympathetic help with personal issues and flexibility when needed.

5. Job security.

6. Good wages and benefits.

7. Interesting and challenging work.

8. An employer who invests in their professional growth and / or promotion.

9. A great team with supportive co-workers.

10. Good working conditions.

How do you achieve employee engagement?

Understand what they want and find a way to give that to them.

Ideas

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to employee engagement and what works for one business may

be totally inappropriate at another.

Following research, past experiences and including some personal thoughts, below are some ideas of

what you may consider when looking to improve employee engagement within your business.

1. Appreciation and respect for work done and to feel valued.

Celebrate achievements

Big or small, they are the solid proof that the work people are putting in has meaning. No one can

work non-stop without eventually burning out. Refill their energy tanks with some recognition and

celebrate their hard work – announce it for all to see. This is also a great way to glue teams together.

Empower your employees and build more trust

Nothing creates a greater sense of responsibility and ownership like having the power to make

decisions. Stop your line managers micro-managing and respect your employees’ abilities - trust them

to accomplish the work you give them without constantly checking up on them.

Employee Engagement


Show respect

This should be the cornerstone for every office and workplace interaction, especially when it comes to

people in different hierarchies.

Celebrate your team and milestones they reach

Make your employees feel special on their birthdays, work anniversaries, their first day of work,

promotions, retirement etc. If at all possible, business leaders – write a hand written note to your

employees for these celebrations (they go a long way).

Assign company values – Employee of the Month

Get your employees to vote each month on who they think has best represented one of your company

values. The person with the most votes will then be rewarded and publicly acknowledged.

2. Involvement, feeling connected with what’s going on, and a belief in the purpose of the

business.

Align your company with a purpose

It’s important to align your company with an overall purpose. Don’t focus on what you do, but why you

do it. This is especially important to millennials.

Show employees how their job advances the company’s vision

Your company has undoubtedly recorded its vision and goals for the year. Show employees exactly

how their jobs advance this vision – where they fit in. This will boost each employee’s investment in

the success of the company instead of just feeling like a cog in the wheel.

Give your employees “inside” information

Keep your employees involved and committed by keeping them up to date with “inside” information.

These are things like the direction of the company and the challenges that the Leadership Team is

facing. This is an important part of an employee engagement strategy.

The one true fact in all workplaces is your people want to be in the know, they want to be in the circle

of trust. Find ways to make this happen and let your people know that it’s “inside” information.

Trusting your employees to handle this information raises engagement.

Show your employees the “people” results of their work

If you send out info on company progress to your employees, don’t just tell them your customers are

happy, show them. Add in a glowing testimonial from your customer base or clients so your

employees can see how their work impacts real people.

Start a newsletter

But instead of having the senior management, or H.R. send it, form a team of employees who want to

co-ordinate it. The volunteers will love the chance to share what they find important and the readers

will love getting company news from their peers.

Have problem-solving meetings

Everyone takes a different approach to problem-solving. Schedule meetings where you reveal a big

problem facing the company with complete transparency. Let employees take a crack at explaining

how they would solve it. Employees will feel more engaged in company outcomes and they might just

solve a few problems while they’re at it.

Employee Engagement


3. Approachable leadership role models and line managers who listen and understand.

Open consistent lines of communication

Ask your line managers to set up weekly briefings to see where their direct reports need resources,

discuss any new ideas they have, and how things are going in their role. You’ll find that both

managers and direct reports will look forward to these meetings and use them like a strategy session

to improve their department on a weekly basis.

Hold an ‘Open Hour’ for employees to talk to senior management

Holding an ‘Open Hour’ is a great way to make senior management more approachable to the entire

company. Allow employees to come in and give feedback, talk about concerns, and explore new

ideas.

Set ground rules for emotional intelligence

It’s not just company policies that make people disengaged at work, it might also be close-minded co-

workers that shut down their ideas. Create a culture where everyone’s ideas are met with open

minds, and not negativity.

Believe in the power of explanation

When you reject an employee’s work or request a re-do, make sure those requests come along with a

detailed explanation. Employees who frequently see their worked rejected will become frustrated and

disengaged. Explaining the changes helps them understand your thought process and increases their

desire to improve.

Find out what your employees are passionate about

Are they into mountain biking? Do they write a personal blog? Do they want to backpack around

Southeast Asia next summer?

Know what your team is passionate about. It’ll help you connect with them and show them that you

actually care about their interests.

4. Sympathetic help with personal issues and flexibility when needed.

Emphasize work-life balance

Work-life balance often seems like an impossible struggle. It’s difficult to find the right balance

between work and personal life and to feel that both areas are receiving enough attention.

If possible offer home-working and flexible hours so employees with dependants or adults with

hobbies are allowed the freedom to enjoy life to the fullest, but still get their work done.

Talk to them about their schedules

Your employees might seem distracted or disengaged, but maybe it has nothing to do with work. Your

line managers need to be able to communicate well and relate to each member of their team. Find

out what outside events might be keeping your employees distracted and work with them to adjust

their schedules to accommodate their busy lives.

Employee Engagement


5. Job security.

Honesty is the best policy

Open communication with your employees is key to making them feel secure. No news is not good

news in this scenario. Be honest at all times and keep your employees informed about how the

business is faring.

Shout out if things are going well, but don’t shield your employees from disappointments, they are

adults and if they are ‘engaged’ they should strive to work together and improve things when times are

hard.

6. Good wages and benefits.

Pay as much as you can, and give as much as you can

Performance related pay is the norm, along with a measurable and achievable bonus scheme if

possible.

7. Interesting and challenging work.

Incentivize goals

Create some healthy competition and reward excellent performance with incentives for successful

goal achievement. Tickets to a match or dinner for two are inexpensive ideas that can help people

feel more invested in their work.

Give your employees more responsibility, not just more tasks to do

Ask your line managers to delegate where appropriate. When employees have a goal that they

recognise as being important to the success of the company they feel more purposeful and generally

find a way to get it done.

Get employees involved in long-term projects

Organize employees from different departments into teams to tackle long-term projects that involve

responsibilities outside of their typical scope of work. Not only will they get to know people they don’t

work with on a day-to-day basis, they’ll pick up skills from one another as they work on important

projects.

8. An employer who invests in their professional growth and / or promotion.

Provide ongoing coaching and training

Coaching and mentoring shouldn’t stop after an employee’s initial on-boarding process. Some

employees will proactively seek mentors and training, while others will need it to come directly from

their manager. Offer an optional weekly coaching session to discuss strategies and tactics that can

help each member of the department improve in their role.

Create a roadmap to achieve professional goals

Find out what your employees’ professional goals are and make sure they’re on a track to achieve

those goals. Line managers should sit down with their direct reports and plan the roadmap to get

them to that next promotion or discuss how to acquire the skills they desire.

Employee Engagement


Allow employees to move sideways

There are times when employees (especially the younger ones) are still figuring out their career paths.

If an employee finds something else at your company that they’re passionate about and want to

pursue, create a path to get them there. This will help retain young talent when they might have

otherwise abandoned ship.

9. A great team with supportive co-workers.

Know your company culture and hire by it

If you know your company culture and hire by it, you’ll continue to bring people on board who want to

work with the person next to them. A positive work culture starts with the relationships between co-

workers, leading on to line management and ending with the top levels – and all these people should

display consistent messages about company values and behaviours.

Make sure new hires get to know the whole team

We all get to know our bosses and direct reports pretty well, but it’s also important for new employees

to build relationships with the rest of the team. You could invite the whole team to a games night

whenever someone new joins the company, free beer, pool, ping-pong and darts for example.

Assign a buddy/mentor for every newcomer

An important part of the on-boarding process is having someone answer some really important

questions. Questions that someone would be hesitant to simply ask a manager. Building a

trustworthy relationship with someone with more experience in that company can help guide the

newcomer. This way he or she can better adapt and grow as part of the team.

10. Good working conditions.

Make sure that people have all the resources they need

Make sure you have the basics covered before you move onto other ideas - equip your employees

with the tools and systems that will make their job easier. This way, you’ll get them to invest their

energy into doing great work, instead of wasting precious time.

Re-design your office space

While it might seem superficial at first glance, giving your employees a chance to be more invested in

what they look at everyday could do wonders for engagement. Let your employees take some

ownership in the place they work and find out what they want.

Offer healthier options at your workplace

Offering your employees access to a healthy cafeteria or healthy vending options at work is a great

way to help boost productivity, increase performance, and lower healthcare costs.

Get your health and wellbeing program in order

There have been multiple scientific studies proving that health and wellbeing efforts not only yield

higher productivity and engagement in the workplace but will also help reduce turnover as job stress is

one of the top reasons people quit.

Employee Engagement


Other employee engagement ideas.

Send out an employee survey to get honest feedback

Sometimes it’s a lot easier for employees to say how they really feel in an anonymous survey.

Actually, it’s always easier when it’s anonymous. Surveys are one of the few ways to actually

measure and track engagement, so this needs to be part of an employee engagement strategy.

Questions need to include things like:

How are you feeling?

What’s the morale you see around you?

What one thing will make the biggest improvement in your job, your team or the company?

How satisfied are you with your opportunities for professional growth?

Do you have a good working relationship with your manager?

Are you satisfied with your overall pay and benefits?

Always act on feedback

Following a survey, you must take action. While some of your employees’ desires and wishes might

be difficult to act on, send them updates explaining the progress you’ve made towards addressing

their concerns, even if it’s just scheduling a meeting with the MD. Not acting on employees’ valuable

feedback will kill employee engagement.

Charity fun-runs or other Charity events

Get involved with a charity that your employees choose and take part in charity fun runs (or other

events) with the company matching money raised (or similar).

Encourage volunteering

Show your commitment to your community and social responsibility by giving your employees a couple

of hours each month to get out of the office and participate in community service.

Ban emails for a day

Pick one day every month to ban emailing. If someone has a question, they’ll have to go talk to their

co-workers in person. Even if they only talk for a few seconds, that face-to-face interaction with co-

workers makes priceless employee engagement moments.

Social and fun, bonding sessions and team-building.

Have more fun

Take a half day Friday to do something fun together. Arrange a treasure hunt, play sports outdoors,

go paintballing or bowling. These social events help people bond with others on the team who they

don’t interact with on a daily basis and builds a better sense of community within the company.

Have a weekly food day

Pick a day of the week where one employee brings in treats to share with the team. Eventually,

looking forward to food day will be a major bonding moment for the whole team. Not to mention some

employees will even love the chance to show off their baking prowess.

Employee Engagement


Take weekly song requests

It’s Friday afternoon and your whole office is united by one thought: going home. Reinvigorate the

team by taking song requests to blast over the PA system in the final hour of the workweek.

Employees will love sharing their favourite songs to boost morale.

Give them ownership of event planning

Who has a better handle on the events your employees will love than your employees themselves?

Instead of trying to think of company outings that your whole team will love, get your team involved in

the planning process. Ask for event ideas and seek out volunteers who want to co-ordinate regular

outings.

Have team photos

Have photos of your team on a wall, or frame them around the office. Group photos, funny photos,

events photos or random photos snapped when people weren’t watching. It’s a cultural element that

can encourage and foster work relationships and employee engagement.

Get external help.

Bring in an in-office motivational speaker

To shake up the workday, or start Monday off with some inspiration, you could hire a motivational

speaker to come into the office. Maybe your employees would benefit from a creativity workshop or

team-building seminar to improve in-office relationships. Employees will be grateful for the opportunity

to grow and learn from experts and will come out of these experiences more energized and focused.

Understanding the demographics of your workforce (ages current in 2016).

Baby boomers People born during the demographic post–World War II

baby boom, between 1946 and 1964 (approx). 52-70 years old

Description

This group has seen a lot of changes over the years and understands the

need to work longer and harder than ever before to achieve goals.

Since the abolishment of the default retirement age this group could well be

working for you into their 70’s.

Logical suggestions

This group may have dependants (elderly parents, or grandchildren) so may

appreciate flexible working arrangements such as reduced hours or days.

They probably have fewer outgoings than other age groups; their mortgage

may be paid off etc., so this group may appreciate an extra day’s holiday, or

the reward of an early finish one Friday, or other non-financial rewards.

Another way to keep this group engaged would be for them to act as a mentor

to other employees – use their vast experience to nurture, train and educate

the next generation.

Employee Engagement


Generation X

Commonly abbreviated to Gen X. Most demographers

use birth dates ranging from the early 1960s to the early

1980s.

35-52 years old

Description This group may be in a stable relationship, perhaps with children either at

school or in further education. They may be in middle management.

Logical suggestions

This group would probably appreciate financial rewards and recognition for

jobs well done. It’s probably important to them that they feel valued at work

and understand their position/standing within the company. Recognition from

senior management would be well-received.

Millennials

A.K.A. the Millennial Generation 1 or Generation Y.

There are no precise dates when the generation starts and

ends; most researchers use birth years ranging from the

early 1980s to the early 2000s.

16-35 years’ old

Description

This group have seen and embraced the technological revolution over the last

20-25 years.

They may have young children, they may be a single-parent family, they may

not have their own home. They are probably very competitive and realise that

jobs are not easy to come by and that hard work and merit are what counts in

today’s world.

They are more interested than others in the purpose and values of their

employer – what they stand for and how they operate.

Logical suggestions

They would probably appreciate any sort of reward, but may be more health-

conscious than others. They will be more collaborative so would probably

place more importance on being involved/included in company business and

growth and communicating openly with the senior management team.

Generation Z

A.K.A. iGen, Post-Millennials, or Plurals.

This generation is generally defined with birth years

ranging from the late 1990s through the 2010s or from the

early 2000s to around 2025.

Under 16’s

Description

A significant aspect of this generation is its widespread usage of the internet

from a young age. Members of Generation Z are typically thought of as being

comfortable with technology, and interacting on social media websites

accounts for a significant portion of their socializing. Some researchers have

suggested that growing up through the Recession has given them a feeling of

unsettlement and insecurity.

Logical suggestions

This up and coming group may well end up as Apprentices or doing Graduate

Work Placements within your business.

Being in-tune with technology they would probably appreciate facilities such

as free Wi-Fi, and (if feasible) an area for using a P.C. for personal use, or

even a company games console and gaming area.

This generation have grown up with gaming and are used to seeing fast

results and using compelling, absorbing online entertainment. Therefore, they

may appreciate rewards that are more instant.

Daily interaction with their line managers is a must to retain focus and

commitment to their job.

Employee Engagement


Recruiting & HR

Employee Engagement