How employee engagement is key to a successful business.

How employee engagement is key to a successful business.

Before endeavouring to improve employee engagement within business, we first need to understand what employee engagement is. 

Employee engagement refers to the degree to which employees feel connected to their work, colleagues and the wider business. It’s the full picture – the strength of the mental and emotional connection they feel, how motivated they are, how closely they relate to the company values and their willingness to collaborate with colleagues. 

So why is it so important to make sure employees are happy within their job?

Well engaged employees care about their work and the performance of the company, they feel like their efforts make a difference. An engaged employee not only considers their pay check but also their well-being, and thus playing a strong part to the success of any company.  

Gallup reports that highly engaged workplaces see 20% higher sales, 21% higher overall profitability, 10% higher customer ratings and up to 67% lower turnover. Clearly, focusing on engagement can increase retention in meaningful ways.

5 Ways to keep employees engaged and motivated within the workplace.

Firstly, we need to consider that the workforce is composed of unique individuals who may respond more effectively to certain employee engagement methods than others. Communication also plays an important part in finding out how employees feel, how they want to be recognised and their values and passions. The aim is to develop an employee engagement strategy that’s tailored to your team and its unique needs. 

Jones and Kober (2019) explained some strategies related to how to achieve superior employee engagement in difficult times and higher business results. 

1. Stay centred on your core values—it encourages employee engagement in difficult times.

2. Explicitly support your employee—so they remain motivated during tough times.

3. Solicit employee feedback—ask employees to freely share information, both frustrations and ideas for developments in a productive way.

4. Communicate upfront with employees—leaders should communicate openly and honestly, so employees perform more effectively.

5. Commit to your employee’s employment—so employees should be committed to your organisation. 

Keep in mind that engagement levels will shift as your business changes, therefore its key to implement an employee engagement survey to observe progress and monitor your employee’s engagement levels. If levels decline you may need to consider changing your strategy to meet your team’s new needs and values. 

Conclusion 

There are many ways that companies can improve employee engagement. Managers have an important part to play in fostering transparency, cohesion and equality within their teams giving them opportunities to grow, encouraging development and making them feel like a part of the team. Remember that putting people first lowers turnover, increases profits and performance of a company.

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