WHO IS AN EMPLOYEE?
An Employee is an individual that is hired to work for a person or company and receives a wage or salary in return.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
A GALLUP STUDY states that “the behaviors of highly engaged business units results in 21% greater profitability, which means organizations that prioritize engagement are more likely to attract and retain talents.
Employee engagement is also the level of enthusiasm a team member feels toward the job. A fully engaged team member will take positive action to further the organization’s reputation and interest.
The engaged members will:
▪ Know their position as well as how important it is to the organization and want to be at their best.
▪ Express loyalty toward the company.
▪ Produce an excellent product for the sake of the company.
A fully engaged workforce results in lower absenteeism and turnover. By fostering higher satisfaction and productivity levels, you conserve company resources and bolster the bottom line. Considering that many employee engagement ideas are free or low-cost, these activities are in an organization’s best interest to invest in.
ANNE MULCAHY quotes that- Employees who believe that engagement is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, and more fulfilled.
Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT?
The weight of planning engagement activities and executing them is no longer on Human Resources. Human Resources play an active role in implementing employee engagement strategies but the planning and execution require involvement from leaders and managers.
WHEN DOES EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT BEGIN?
Engagement begins at the beginning of the employee lifecycle, from the CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE to the RECRUITMENT PROCESS, continuing through ONBOARDING, CAREER PLANNING, LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT, LEADER AND SUCCESSION, AND RETIREMENT or EXIT from the organization.
WAYS TO BOOST EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
The main key point to boosting employee engagement is COMMUNICATION.
COMMUNICATION: It is essential to building a strong relationship and achieving higher employee productivity, especially those teams that work remotely or are always in the field.
Communication builds trust, improves relationships between team members, supervisors, and management; helps employees align with the organization’s goals and mission. The best way to practice effective communication includes:
▪ Providing regular feedback
▪ Ensuring the team’s ideas are heard and respected
▪ Making and discussing career advancement opportunities
Other ways to boost employee engagement include;
▪ Recognition of employees
▪ Promote team activities
▪ Conduct employee engagement surveys
▪ Promote team activities
▪ Conduct employee engagement surveys
▪ Promote healthy work habits
▪ Promote team activities
▪ Focus on onboarding
▪ Live the organization’s mission and values
▪ Train and encourage employees to succeed in their roles and beyond.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT DRIVERS
A) FLEXIBILITY: The arrival of the gig economy and the increasing demand for workplace flexibility has made it one of the most crucial drivers of employee engagement collaboration tools like slack and skype to enable seamless conversations not only within the organization but also across remote teams.
B)POSITIVE WORK CULTURE: This is a broad term but specific factors contribute to keeping employees engaged, examples are;
▪ Respectful treatment
▪ Openness
▪ Diligently
▪ Flexibility
C) ACCESS TO TIME MANAGEMENT TOOLS: Tools that enable employee engagement include time management and collaboration tools such as Slack, Wonder list, and Trello to break down and time deadline-oriented tasks. Even with frequent interruptions to some extent, these tools can improve employee output.
D) LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES: In a generation that is on the go, this learning is mainly delivered through learning experience platforms via mobile learning and microlearning. Gamifying the learning process can get even less engaged employees to participate and open up greater opportunities for themselves.
Schedule your team for Productivity and Team Engagement Training: https://theleadershipchannel.org/moel-leadership-programs/