Tip #444: 8 Tips for Employee Engagement

   

As simple as this sounds, actively engaged employees exhibit certain tendencies - tendencies that will make any business much more productive. 

According to a Towers Perrin study of 90,000 employees in 18 countries conducted in 2007-2008, "companies with the most engaged employees had:

• A 19% increase in operating income during the previous year;
• While those with the lowest levels had a 32% decline."

Overall, employees are happy when they enjoy their work and they see their part in the organization's progress. What can you do to actively engage your employees?

8 Tips For Proactive Employee Engagement.

Tip #1: Create Activities Outside Of The Office - Employees enjoy socializing outside of the workplace. Once per season, create an activity outside of the office, such as a scavenger hunt, bowling outing or picnic.

Tip #2: Eat Lunch With Your Personnel - While understanding each person's job function is important, you should also be aware of your employees' feelings about processes and procedures. Host an informal lunch on a Friday afternoon to encourage general chat and to assess your level of employee engagement.

Tip #3: Encourage Experimentation - Innovation and productivity happens when employees are encouraged to have some time and space to come up with new ideas. Create a workspace that encourages brainstorming.

Tip #4: Establish Weekly One-On-One Meetings - A short, 5 to 15 minute weekly status meeting can really help you connect with each employee and monitor progress. These meetings also give your employees a chance to discuss any concerns.

Tip #5: Interact With Your Employees - Walk around and talk to your employees every now and then. Check in and observe their progress. This also keeps you involved in each aspect of the operation of your business.

Tip #6: Provide A Sense Of Completion - Most employees crave change, especially if their job duties are repetitive. Once a project or major task is complete, encourage the sense of completion that comes along with it. Allowing this to happen will increase employee retention and the general feeling of accomplishment in your corporate culture.

 Tip #7: Reward Positive Behavior - Always praise positive behavior and reward success with your employee engagement goal in mind. Provide incentives for helpful ideas that can increase sales or productivity.

Tip #8: Survey Your Employees - Employee engagement is measurable. You can judge your level of employee engagement and obtain metrics by creating and distributing a simple employee engagement survey. Be sure to include some extra space for additional comments or ideas. To measure your success, distribute this survey quarterly or semi-annually. You also might want to provide a gift certificate to the best suggestion to improve the company.   

Executive Summary: Employee engagement involves an investment of time (and very little money). Once you do invest more time with your employees, it will result in new ideas, higher productivity, lower turnover and a better work environment for everyone; therefore, investing in meeting your employees' intrinsic and extrinsic needs will provide you a huge competitive advantage in today's competitive economy.

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