How to Increase Employee Engagement? 3 Effective Ways to Use Today
Employee engagement has never been as important as in times of prescribed remote working. Many companies have increased their effort to keep employees engaged. Unfortunately, the resources made available to achieve such an important objective coupled with action steps have often little effect.
The cause may be a misunderstanding of the term employee engagement which is according to a Forbes article by Kevin Kruse “… the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.”
Letting this definition settle for a few moments before answering the following questions: Can you truly force a person to emotionally commit?
Probably not.
Employee engagement is rather a result of the way employees experience their every day at work. To make that a more satisfying experience, here are 3 ideas to create a great workplace:
1. Deliver on Promises
When people deliver on their promises, trust increases. It also reduces frustration as people have a level of certainty of what is going to happen. A promise doesn’t always need to be complex or based on an end result. It simply could be a commitment to give an update on the progress at a certain date. Also, it is important, if for some reason a promise cannot be delivered, to let others know as soon as this becomes clear.
2. Clarify Expectations
When people are clear of what is expected from them they are much more likely to deliver the desired result straight away. This promotes progress and with it the feeling of achievement and completion of tasks. It also reduces frustration by cutting off numerous rounds of back and forth to get to the actual requested outcome. Everyone should be encouraged to clarify expectations before a task is started and leaders can act as role models by giving for example clear instructions and timelines and making sure that their team has fully understood what they have to do.
3. Widen the perspective
For an organization to function, there are a number of mind-numbing and repetitive tasks necessary. Helping people to understand what impact such a task has on the company’s customers, employees or even its future can help employees to feel more motivated to do a good job.
These are just 3 ideas that everyone in an organization can do to build greater employee engagement. Needless to say that all starts with the senior leadership team that has to lead by example.
Written By Sandy Seeber-Quayle.
