What transforms an office into an official place of work? Is it the professional desks, office printers, or the dress code? The answer is none of those. The people working in the office are the ones who determine the state of the workplace and ultimately, the future of the company.
Since your human capital is your company’s most prized asset, it’s better for the business that the employees are highly involved. Poor employee engagement can hamper company productivity and its ability to achieve its goals.
But a highly engaged workforce will be dedicated to their work and will always try and take on new challenges to drive the company forward.
Here’s a list of employee engagement strategies that HR managers should consider.
1. Recognize Their Individual Efforts
Recognizing and rewarding the workforce is a key tool in creating a conducive work environment and fostering high engagement levels.
But a shoutout in front of the team or a congratulatory card just isn’t enough. There’s always more to be done regardless of the rank of the employee and their role in the organization.
And you don’t have to only reward them for their technical competence.
You can also reward them on behavioral aspects such as their punctuality or being an all-around team player. It may seem like a menial, meaningless gesture but it can go a long way towards showing the workforce that what they do matters and their efforts are well-recognized.
2. Initiate a Mentorship Program
Empowering the management team to coach or outsourcing mentoring experts such as leadership coaches is a great way of boosting your employee’s performance levels.
For managers, embracing a mentoring culture can have a strong impact on their subordinates’ performance levels. Many of them see themselves as supervisors and not leaders.
The positive attitude of an involved manager will rub off on the rest of the workforce and inspire them to take charge of their careers at the organization.
3. Involve Employees in Company Decisions
Letting the employees know what’s happening behind the scenes is an excellent employee engagement strategy. This way, they can fully invest themselves, their energies, or potential into the organization.
If they get the sense that they are being left out, a sense of mistrust may develop, causing them to lose confidence in the organization’s leadership.
Note that an employee engagement program goes both ways. You also need to create a channel for employees to ask questions and share feedback.
However, note that nothing will disengage your employees more than if they feel they shared their thoughts and were ignored.
The Bottom Line
Engaging your employees can be highly effective, but it’s not that straightforward. It needs organizational involvement and commitment to realize the goals of any employee engagement program.
How much you engage them dictates their willingness and ability to work towards the success of the business. The more engaged your employees are, the better they will be at producing tangible results for the organization.
