What Is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement is a concept that describes the level of dedication and enthusiasm an employee feels towards their job. Engaged employees care more about their work, increasing their performance and boosting the company’s overall performance. Additionally, engaged employees feel that their efforts make a difference. Being engaged and satisfied with your work is instrumental to a company’s success.

Employee engagement is essential to company success, given its connection to employee morale and job satisfaction. Communication is integral to creating and maintaining employee engagement, as engaged employees are more likely to be productive and perform better. As a strategy, it also displays a bigger commitment to the company’s values and goals.

Employers encourage employee engagement in multiple ways, such as offering perks, rewards and promotions and keeping employees informed about their performance by providing feedback. Other strategies include making efforts to help employees feel respected and valued and show them their ideas are being heard and understood. Engaged employees believe their work is meaningful and feel they are appreciated and backed by their supervisors.

Why It’s Important

The importance of employee engagement is most clearly seen as a method to increase job satisfaction. Employees want to be involved in what they do and feel enthusiastic about their workplace by having a sense of belonging. The feeling of belonging is one of the top key indicators of employee engagement, and up to 79% of survey respondents said that fostering a sense of belonging is vital to the company’s overall success.

Employee engagement has become a strategic business objective because engaging employees leads to higher employee retention rates, better employee performance and improved quality of work.

How to Develop an Employee Engagement Strategy

Setting achievable goals is the basis for a successful employee engagement strategy, which can be achieved by determining realistic objectives and focusing on key performance indicators that can positively challenge your team and allow people to feel like they can easily excel in their roles.

It is essential to take the time to help people understand their tasks and how they can benefit the entire organisation and benchmark their progress. Setting tangible goals with clear instructions will allow employees to stay on track and boost their potential since the commitment from both parties creates an environment where motivated employees can reach new goals.

Successful employee engagement strategies require constant evaluation to ensure that it benefits everyone within a workplace. Additionally, having in-depth conversations with employees to hear their opinions and concerns is a great way to gain insight into challenges affecting morale or motivation.

Top 10 Engagement Strategies for Employee Engagement

Employee engagement strategies are used to keep employees engaged as they are more likely to feel motivated and enthusiastic about their job. This leads to improved performance and productivity and can make employees feel supported and positive about their roles and work.

Employee Surveys

Before implementing any strategy, it is essential to look at where your company is at the moment and measure employee engagement. One of the most efficient ways to do that is by creating an employee engagement survey. Surveys are easily distributed to every team member, providing a better understanding of the entire team’s engagement. The responses help you keep a pulse on employee engagement as the business grows and the company evolves.

Coach Leaders

Make sure that managers, executives and everyone in a leadership position are leading by example. In order to do that, leaders may need coaching to help them develop new skills. If employees do not feel like the rules apply to everyone, they won’t trust the management team, leading to a negative work culture.

The management team should enrol in training programs to become strong leaders, provide clear goals, and contribute to a safer work environment with feedback that is easily tracked. Managers should also learn to keep each other on track to maintain an open and healthy work environment.

Effective Onboarding Process

The onboarding process helps new hires feel included and welcomed, so having an effective onboarding process is a starting point towards increasing engagement from new team members. The onboarding process needs to be thorough and help people to learn about new roles. This usually includes a tour of the workplace, an introduction to other colleagues and introducing the company’s vision and mission.

Additionally, managers can boost engagement by creating a mentoring programme which pairs new hires with experienced colleagues, fostering a supportive work environment.

Uphold Your Company’s Core Values

Your company’s core values should be at the heart of the company culture. Core values define what truly matters to team members and help teams work towards fulfilling the vision and mission of the company. Employees must feel like they belong in the workplace and become genuinely engaged in the company’s mission.

Recognise Your Employee’s

Employees feel more engaged when they feel their work is valuable to the company and that they are helping the organisation achieve goals. Showing employees you recognise and appreciate their efforts is part of employee engagement.

Rewarding top performers for their achievements is also a way to show employee appreciation and recognition, and providing employees with a platform to feel respected and appreciated, such as employee of the month, boosts their engagement and motivation.

Be Transparent

Keeping your team informed about what’s happening behind the scenes promotes a sense of security, allowing them to fully invest their energies in the company. Failure to do so may cause distrust, leading to a loss of confidence in leadership.

You should always inform your team members about new decisions that can directly affect them, which is essential towards building a transparent work culture and allowing people to give honest feedback.

Focus on Feedback

Receiving and giving feedback are the two best ways to learn what you can improve in your organisation. Creating a platform that enables employees to share their opinions and ask questions is key towards building a positive work culture and is an essential part of an employee engagement strategy.

Using your team’s feedback helps make organisational changes, and it also lets employees know they are essential and their voices are heard. Feedback is the central part of a positive company culture, and many companies focus on having regular one-to-one meetings and check-ins with their employees to learn more about what improvements can be made and focus towards long-term goals.

Opportunities For Career Advancement And Professional Growth

Opportunities for growth and career development help employees feel engaged and loyal. Understanding employees’ short-term and long-term goals means the company can help them cultivate the skills they need to progress in their careers. Providing educational opportunities and training allows employees to excel in their careers and contributes towards meaningful employee development.

Be Innovative

Innovation can mean using the latest technology and methods to help with improving employee engagement, using simple tactics and finding the right ways that will work for your company. This could be ensuring employees use new technologies to make work more effective.

Innovative solutions and problem-solving are essential in finding new ways to increase employee engagement and help employees feel their work is significant and crucial.

Provide Extra Employee Perks And Privileges

Offering employee perks, wellness checks, and education programs shows employees you are invested in their professional and personal success. Providing perks is known to improve employee engagement and is frequently used in employee engagement strategies due to its effectiveness.

Also, you can learn about what your employees need during the workdays, such as good coffee, snacks or allowing pets in the office to make them more comfortable.

How Do You Measure Employee Engagement

Employee engagement needs measuring to understand whether your strategy is working and whether it needs improvement. Surveys are one way to measure employee engagement, but there are other tools and processes available, such as:

  • One-to-one meetings
  • Exit interviews
  • Employee Net Promoter Score
  • Employee turnover rate

Olive Recruit is Partnering with Companies to Boost Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is an essential strategy which increases productivity and reduces turnover rates, resulting in a better brand image.

Our team at Olive Recruit understands the importance of engaging in meaningful interactions and fosters a creative, collaborative environment where people can thrive and succeed.

To learn more about our staffing solutions, contact us today.