Every company wants their employees to give their best to the organisation

As a CEO, you of course want your employees to give their best to the organisation. Your business grows faster and better without any hiccups when all your employees engage with full dedication. This is where the notion of employee engagement comes into the picture. Before we move any further, it is important for you to understand what employee engagement is. Perhaps, you kept confusing employee engagement with job satisfaction all this while. Further, this misunderstanding of employee engagement constrains the scope of growth for your business. So, let us try to comprehend this concept better.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is a much broader term than job satisfaction or employee motivation. We can define employee engagement as the extent to which an employee invests himself in his work and organisational goals. Further, it also covers the degree of motivation of an employee and how passionate he is towards his work. So, as you can see, it can be difficult at times to maintain a consistent degree of engagement in your employees. But nonetheless, as an ambitious entrepreneur, you need to give a lot of importance to employee engagement. You need to find ways to positively engage your virtual workforce as well as the in house staff, to bring out the best in them. So, here are some strategies you can apply to build an engaging atmosphere within your organisation.

Successful employee engagement strategies

1. Let core values be at the centre stage

You had thought of some core values for sure that you have put into building your empire. Communicate these core values to everyone right from day one. It is important to create engagement that you uphold your core values. Further, you need to express these fundamental values of the organisation to every employee. You should share information with your staff irrespective of designations. The core values of the organisation help employees understand what matters most to the organisation. Also, it conveys to them what the organisation expects from them as a team. Besides, it gives them a uniform set of values to align their ambitions with company core values. To cite an example, there are some companies which conduct core value training sessions for freshers. This enables employers to introduce the core values to new joiners at an early stage. So, this is one of the effective ways to boost employee engagement in your organisation.

2. Build transparency

Transparency in the functioning of an organisation is vital to give workers a sense of belongingness. When employees feel their bosses share important information with them, they value it and engage better. So, all that has been behind the scenes so far, you can bring it to the forefront for all the employees to know. Employee engagement includes the passion and motivation of the workers. A transparent working culture inspires these attributes in employees. Further, it helps build mutual trust between the employer and the workers. So, are you planning to be more transparent with your team in the future?

To give a small example, let us say you are the CEO of XYZ firm which manufactures bicycles for all age groups. Now to create better employee engagement you should create a workplace culture as transparent as possible. This transparency can include information about the suppliers of bicycle parts. Also, you can discuss the marketing budget with all departments. Further, you can share with your team the information about quarterly profits and future expansion plans. When you do this as a leader, you gear up for the highest engagement from your employees.

3. Provide growth opportunities

Who would not give his best if there is a growth opportunity for the taking? Providing ample opportunities to grow is an important strategy for creating employee engagement. Moreover, appreciation, incentives, and growth prospects link to employee encouragement. Workers tend to work with the highest dedication when they know this hard work can incentivize them. On the other hand, if the scope of growth in an organisation is bleak, employee engagement is low. Also, appreciation is a massive driving factor in improving dedication among employees. As the head of the organisation, you must create a culture filled with appreciation. You should appreciate your team members for every achievement that they attain for the company. Sometimes, even a word of appreciation can make a lot of difference to an employee’s commitment. Even if you like to receive appreciation from your employees, similarly they love to hear it from you.

So, an atmosphere of mutual respect and appreciation can give everyone a sense that they belong to the organisation. For example, let us say you are the president of an insurance firm that provides life and health insurance to people. So, every time your sales executives meet their targets, you can appreciate them in front of the entire staff. This can do wonders for their morale and make them want to perform even better the next time. Hence, it is vital to recognize the top performers that add more value to your business. Also, prospects of growth can encourage better time management skills in your employees. They are going to set goals for their growth and strive to manage their time more productively. Eventually, their increased productivity benefits the organisation.

4. Incorporate a feedback-driven culture

Do you ever take feedback from your team members on how they feel about your style of leading? Or do you ever ask them if they want any changes in the work environment? Now, if you are keen on enhancing employee engagement in the organisation, you need to start listening to your workers. You need to understand the importance of feedback and promote it among your workers. The simplest way to do so is to take their feedback at regular intervals. Next, when you take feedback from them, the second step is to act on that feedback. So, just taking the feedback is not enough as you also need to act on that feedback. When you create such a work culture, employees can feel happy and participate better. They start valuing the fact that the firm is listening to them. Furthermore, they start feeling more comfortable in sharing their ideas and thoughts with the managers and employers. This confidence you inspire in them can make them want to engage better and with enthusiasm. Moreover, the feedback should flow in both directions. Even the employees ought to get constant feedback from their managers. This way, workers can identify their mistakes and improve to suit the organisation. So, you can initiate a trend of quarterly or bi-monthly feedback from your employees. Further based on the results you can modify the feedback patterns.

5. Ensure accountability at all levels

Accountability is a crucial aspect of any business or working environment. But this accountability must radiate on all levels and should not only exist for a few. So, even you as the head and all the managers should be accountable to the organisation like other employees. The workers should not feel that rules and norms only exist for some and the bosses find a way around them. Moreover, in such a selective setup of accountability employees cannot find enough reasons to respect the organisation. This can hit employee engagement which can further affect your business. The workplace should offer employees a fair social culture. Hence, from the intern to the CEO, all must be accountable for their actions, decisions, and conduct. The better the sense of accountability and equality you create, the better is the employee engagement.

So, these were some easy yet effective strategies for creating better employee engagement. You can use these ideas to boost the morals and determination of your employees. As you saw, it goes much beyond the feeling of job satisfaction in workers. Furthermore, transparency, accountability, and feedback are vital elements of enhanced engagement. Also, you need to lead with an example and make your employees feel valued and appreciated. You must inspire in them the belief that they form an integral part of the organisation. At last, the effects of globalisation have led to a trend of multicultural workforces. You have to make sure that there is no discrimination between employees on the basis of culture or language.