Several elements compose a successful business, but what sets apart a good workplace from a phenomenal workplace is one essential factor: employee engagement. The single most important thing you can do for your company is to fill it with people who are happy and engaged in their work. And in the United States, only 36% of employees are engaged with their places of work and their jobs, according to Gallup. This statistic is discouraging, but it shouldn’t be for companies that want to put in the effort to improve employee engagement.
Over the course of our lifetimes, the average American spends about one-third of their life at work. That’s a lot of time to spend in a place where you’re not happy or in a job that doesn’t keep you feeling engaged.
Employee engagement directly impacts the success of your company too. Engaged employees increase your profitability by 21%, but that’s not the only positive side effect of good employee engagement. Below, we’ll go over how employee engagement can positively impact your business and provide our top ten employee engagement strategies.
Why Is Employee Engagement Important?
As we shared above, the profitability of your company is directly tied to how engaged your employees are with their jobs: When employees are engaged, they’re 17% more productive, they’re less distractable, and they extend their levels of engagement to the customers who frequent your business, resulting in a 10% higher customer experience rating. There’s an average of 59% less turnover for companies that use employee engagement strategies and a 20% uptick in sales.
Top 10 Employee Engagement Strategies
Keeping employee engagement high is essential for the success of your business, and you can implement some tried-and-true strategies to keep your employees happy in your company. Here are our top 10 tactics for solidifying employee enthusiasm and dedication to their work:
1. Set Clear Expectations
When people know and understand what is expected from them, they’re more engaged and they perform better. Set clear expectations for them by clearly defining their roles and responsibilities, who their direct supervisor is and what their responsibilities are, and their team members as well. Let them know which departments to contact when they need help in certain areas. Setting clear expectations also includes providing adequate employee training.
2. Keep Open Communication
Include employees in your state-of-the-business updates, and let them know of any upcoming changes or events that affect their day-to-day roles. Open communication goes very far when it comes to employee engagement because when your employees feel included in important conversations, they become more invested in the success of your company.
3. Provide Employees With Resources
Give them the resources that they need to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Check in with them regularly to make sure that they have everything they need to do their jobs.
4. Organize Team Activities
Employee engagement activities can include a group outing, a group celebration, and team get-togethers. These activities provide everyone a great opportunity to get to know one another better, which builds a greater sense of community and boosts engagement and connection.
5. Encourage Personal and Professional Growth and Development
Allow your employees to grow within the company, and encourage them to continue their education professionally and personally. Help them reach their personal and professional goals by providing them with support, resources, and encouragement.
6. Recognize Their Accomplishments
A little recognition goes a long way. Recognize and reward your employees for reaching goals, hitting milestones, or notching business other wins. Employee engagement strengthens when people feel like their hard work is recognized.
7. Promote Autonomy
Enabling autonomy allows your employees to feel a sense of ownership in their work, which means they become more invested in the outcome. To do this, avoid micromanagement, and provide them the support they need to self-direct as much as possible.
8. Encourage Teamwork
When you encourage teamwork, employees can see how their roles — and their peers’ roles — directly impact the big picture. That connects them more closely with the company’s broader mission.
9. Ask for Feedback
Solicit feedback from your employees, and then use that feedback to improve. Give out employee engagement surveys and ask people how you can be better and what they need to succeed, and then listen and make changes.
10. Be Flexible
Allow your employees to use their PTO. Give them flexibility in their schedules. Let them take a longer lunch so they can attend their favorite fitness class. They become more invested in your company when they feel valued, and offering a flexible schedule helps this.
Happy employees are engaged employees. By following these 10 employee engagement strategies, as detailed in our articles, you can improve the success of your company while letting your employees know just how important they are to you. To learn more about the importance of employee engagement or to chat with a member of our team about the products and services we offer, contact us today!