7 Ways To Foster Team Member Engagement

Team Member Engagement Directly Impacts The Success Of Your Business.

Businesses with engaged employees benefit from having fewer absences, excellent customer service (acknowledged by their clients), stronger internal communication and employees who are generally more enthusiastic about their jobs and, thus, more productive. To help you create the sort of dynamic work environment that team member engagement generates, we put together the seven tips below.

7 Ways To Foster Team Member Engagement:

#1. Talk To Your Team: Communication is a two-way street, but someone has to put the keys in the ignition and get the car started, and that someone has to be a leader. If you want your team members actively communicating with one another, you need to lead by example. Throughout the day, talk to them about what is happening in the business, about work in the team and about their personal interests.

#2. Get To Know Your Team: Developing a rapport with your employees works in tandem with talking to them. By genuinely getting to know your team members -- their likes, their dislikes, their passions, their goals -- you will gain a better understanding of what makes them tick, and in the process help them feel like unique individuals as opposed to human-shaped representations of their job function.

#3. Make Time For Your Team: As a leader at your business, it is important that you are available to the members of your team when they need you. If you come off as unavailable or detached from the main body of your team, you will create a barrier between them and you. This will lead to a serious disconnect and inevitable breakdown in communication, directly affecting your business' success.

#4. Promote Fun At Work: "Fun" in this instance has less to do with fun in the sense of "fun and games" and more to do with employees being enthusiastic about their jobs. When employees are having fun at the workplace, they are considerably more productive and contribute to a positive energy that influences the success of your business.

#5. Actively Support Your Team: Feeling supported by the rest of the team and the leaders at a business is an important aspect of team member engagement. Said leaders need to look for ways to help their employees grow and attain their business goals in order to combat complacency and prevent employees from growing disheartened with their job and their role in the company.

#6. Provide The Tools They Need: If you want your team members to perform at the top of their game and deliver the very best they can produce, you need to supply them with the right tools for their respective jobs. Expecting employees to make due with what they have in essence cripples them, and can leave employees feeling that their job is far more of a struggle than it ought to be.

#7. Be Flexible: Ruling with an iron-fisted "my way or the highway" mentality stifles growth and development and creates a static, unchanging, complacent work environment -- the antithesis of innovation and design (read: success). Strong leaders know when to admit their weakness and when to concede to employees who may know more about something than they do, in the process engaging the employee by acknowledging their experience and relative expertise.

Executive Summary: Team member engagement, for any business -- no matter what you do or what your size -- is absolutely crucial. As a leader at your business, it falls on your shoulders to take the first steps towards engaging your team members. It may take a bit of effort, but in the end, the payoff is immeasurable. Engagement motivates employees, creates a work atmosphere charged with excitement and energy, better communication and so much more. Bottom line: Team member engagement improves your business in every way.