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5 Steps to

Enhance Employee Engagement

Organizations need the commitment, energy, and engagement of their employees to survive in today’s economy and industry.

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Intro

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace, only 15% of employees are truly engaged and committed to their jobs. These employees are emotionally invested in adding value to their organization’s initiatives. Moreover, according to their research, lack of employee engagement costs the United States around $550 billion in lost productivity.

That’s why employee engagement is a serious problem that most organizations face with today’s workforce. Employees are the most important asset in a company, but this is only true when the majority of your employees are fully engaged and committed to their work.

3 Types of Employees

Highly Engaged

These types of employees are committed to investing their time, energy, and effort in the organization. Their roles help them excel and grow. Usually, these employees also take on responsibilities that are beyond their job description. Generally, they have the potential to become leaders and stay in the organization longer compared to disengaged employees.

Moderately Engaged

Employees that are not engaged are difficult to identify because they are often satisfied with their roles in the organization. They may appear happy and engaged, but in reality, they do the bare minimum and are not really invested in the organization’s values, vision, goals, and mission. There is something about their roles or organization that holds them back. However, with a proper approach, these employees have great potential and can be transformed into engaged employees.

Barely Engaged

Barely engaged employees often feel left out or indifferent in the workplace. They lack motivation and drive to do better. Their performance is a bare minimum or sometimes even worse. Most often, these employees are trying to find other better jobs and are a high turnover risk.

Disengaged

Each organization has this type of employee. They create a toxic environment and have negative opinions about everything in the workplace. They are unhappy with their roles or the company in general, and they are vocal about it. The worst part is, these employees are often subject matter experts that are well-respected in their skillset. Because of this, they have a significant influence on other employees. That being said, they can easily spread toxicity and can rarely be transformed into engaged and committed employees.

It is important to fully understand how to handle these employees so that their negative perceptions won't impact the productivity of other employees.

We already know that employee engagement is important and has an impact on profitability and productivity. However, many leaders and managers still struggle to improve employee engagement because they are not aware of their roles in improving engagement.

The Leader’s Role

Leaders should communicate and define the mission of the company. The leaders usually hire managers that are invested in the company’s vision, mission, and goals. They usually support and empower the managers and give them access to resources to help them build good teams.

The Manager’s Role

A good manager will make sure they develop great talents and relationships. Managers prioritize and promote engagement to keep the team aligned and invested in the company’s mission and goals.

The HR's Role

The HR department takes ownership of employee engagement initiatives. Most of the time, they make sure that everything goes according to plan. They are expected to:

Choose a suitable employee engagement partner
Implement processes and tools
Support managers

The Employee's Role

Your employees are on the front line of your employee engagement strategy. Employees are expected to:

Provide honest and actionable feedback
Own their development and performance
Engage in building relationships with team members and managers
Share creative solutions to address their concerns

5 Steps to Enhance Employee Engagement

How will you know that your employees are truly engaged? If your employees are able to state the following confidently, then you’re doing a great job:

“I have access to the resources and training I need to thrive in my role.”
“I always feel appreciated by receiving praise, constructive criticism, and recognition.”
“I have opportunities to grow professionally and personally.”

Here are five steps for enhancing employee engagement:

Step 1: Put Employees in the Right Place

Your employees deal with back-and-forth communication on a daily basis. Having an instant messaging tool makes one-on-one conversations easier.

One of the most popular instant messaging tools is Slack. But, not everyone is related to Slack because you need to subscribe to their premium plan for unlimited search functionality. Another thing, Slack doesn’t offer a self-hosted solution which leaves you unable to gain more control over your team’s communication.

Nowadays, remote employees are becoming mainstream and organisations are looking for affordable instant messaging tools to meet their needs.

Step 2: Provide Proper Training

To be able to build a culture of trust and improve engagement, you need to set the team up for success. This means providing the proper training to help them grow while removing obstacles along the way.

Step 3: Give Meaningful Work

An engaged employee has a clear career path and an understanding of how they are contributing to the organization’s vision, mission, and goals. This is the reason why employees need to have roles that fit their skill set. Without meaningful work, don’t expect your employees to stay.

Step 4: Recognize Employees

Gone are the days when employees are relying on mid-year reviews about their performances. Nowadays, employees expect and demand regular feedback. Which is a good thing because this will reduce mistakes and makes correction faster. You can use informal and formal feedback strategies.

Step 5: Discuss Engagement

Managers should be transparent in their approach to improving engagement in the workplace. Talking about employee engagement and engaging everyone in the discussion will keep your team in the loop.

Article by Maria Gabrielle