factors contributing to employee engagementfactors contributing to employee engagement

10 Factors Contributing to Employee Engagement

Over the years, employee engagement has been the subject of numerous research studies, which includes employee turnover rate, absenteeism, dedication at work and more.

However, it all goes back to getting the employee interested in working with you and for you. The main benefit of an engaged pool of employees is easily reflected in their performance and productivity at the workplace. This also includes the low employee turnover and their commitment to the company and its values and their willingness to help out colleagues.

To help you understand your employees better, we have compiled the 10 main factors contributing to employee engagement at the workplace.

Career Development Opportunities

Career development opportunities are one of the factors contributing to employee engagement at the workplace.  When employers continuously invest both time and money in their employees’ development at the workplace, employees will realise that the company is also interested in the progress in their career.

Start providing employees not only with formal learning programs, but also with the opportunity to practice their newly acquired skills and knowledge on the job.

Flexible

Another factor contributing to employee engagement is the flexibility of employee’s hours at work. Employees are given the flexibility to either work around the regular office hours or work away from the office.

Other choices include starting work at a later time and finishing off later or vice verse. This option is useful especially for working parents who have to drop their children off to school or having to pick them up.

Fair Pay Structure

While salary is a sensitive issue to talk about, it is something that nobody can avoid. Explain to your employees how your company’s pay structure works and what they look for when a certain employee deserve a promotion. By being transparent and educating your employees about this sensitive issue, employees will understand better and even work harder to prove to you that they deserve that promotion.

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With that being said when the time comes to promote someone, you would have to be careful and explain to him or her, on why they are not ready for that promotion just yet and show them what they could do to be better next time around.

Adopt a Learning Culture

One of the factors contributing to employee engagement is by creating a company culture that encourages your employees to keep on learning and acquiring new knowledge all the time. The company can also increase the information sharing by encouraging the development of a knowledge base available for all its employees.

An employee who understands that their employer is not only interested in making profits and sales, but also in improving and educating all of their staff, will soon learn to appreciate the company’s learning culture and will get engage in the company’s goals.

Photo: Mauro, Flickr

Photo: Mauro, Flickr

Cultural Diversity

We are currently in the generation full of multicultural people and each with different ethnicity, thus cultural diversity is rather important in a company.

Cultural diversity is when companies are open to hiring employees from all sorts of different backgrounds; regardless of ethnicity, religion and culture. When companies recruit and retain a diverse pool of people, it brings about different benefits to the company as well as its employees.

Find out more about the benefits of cultural diversity in the workplace.

Transparency and Honesty

Nobody likes gossips and beating about the bush.

One of the contributing factors to employee engagement is having a transparent and honest work environment, where employees are able to walk up to you and have a serious discussion that has been bothering them for a while. This is one of the factors contributing to employee engagement.

Autonomy

No one likes to work with their managers breathing down their neck or always having to check with their supervisors for approval for every solutions to a problem, especially if it is the tiny ones.

Give employees the freedom to make their own decisions and just get back to them to find out the solution they decide on.

Inspiration

Regardless of the industry that you are in, people will always need the inspiration at work. Inspiration does not necessary mean having creativity, it just means being motivated at the workplace. It doesn’t matter if you work with earthmoving parts and equipment, or with food and beverages, the same inspiration needs to exist.

When your employees have the motivation or inspiration at work, they will instinctively find ways to solve a problem on a project or even create a faster way to achieve a task.

Communication

Communication is another factor that contributes to employee engagement. When there is miscommunication among you or your employees, there will always be problems either in the project or within the company. Try to prioritise a regular team meeting as a critical part of company’s communication, and employees should be abler to offer their views on how to improve communications both within their departments and in the company.

You can also include the ways of communicating in inductions process for new employees so that the newbies are aware and does not appear lost in translation.

Photo: VFS Digital Design, Flickr

Photo: Vancouver Film School, Flickr

 

Employee Recognition

Great companies know that the employees are the heart of the business. Satisfied and engaged employees would bring in not only positive energy to the workplace but also increase the company’s profit and sales.

Employees who feel they have a positive personal rapport with their management are more likely to be engaged. Not only that, employees would feel appreciated when they or their work gets noticed and this encourages constructive employee engagement.

Bonus Factor: Manager Working Relationship

This factor is a bonus and the most important contributing factor to employee engagement is the managers they are working form or under. Good management is critical to the success of retaining and engaging employees. Gone were the days where employees would stay with the company just because of the pay.

Everyone needs money to survive, but people would rather wake up happy to go to work than dragging their feet and counting down to the time they can head home. Bad management is often cited as the reasons why employees leave their job.

In Summary

Employee engagement is about all about valuing your employees. While the factors listed are a good start, there is still much more to look into when it comes to perfecting your company’s employee engagement. Remember that an engaged employee is productive, active and disciplined. It is about time to invest in engagement as an integral part of the workplace.

Good luck in improving your employee engagement at the workplace.