Employee Engagement in the Workplace

Proven Methods to Increase Employee Engagement in the Workplace

Increasing your employee engagement in the workplace can be a tricky situation. As an employer, you need to ensure that your employees are passionate about their jobs, and that they come to the office everyday eager and enthusiastic to start their work.

Of course, there will be the odds one (or two) days that some of your employees who suffer the blues but it should not create a major impact when it comes to contributing to the company’s goals. However, you would want to constantly take note of the engagement level of your team in order to keep the energy at the workplace going. Do take note that a disengaged employee can have a significant negative effect on the productivity of the workplace.

As an employer, you would need to find ways to improve employee engagement in the workplace. These methods found must be tailored to the unique needs and motivations of each individual employee. To help you increase employee engagement, we decided to share a couple of our secrets on how to increase employee engagement at the workplace.

Encourage flexibility

One of the secrets on how to increase employee engagement in the workplace is by giving flexibility to your employees. This gives your employees the freedom to adjust their work schedules or location to better suit their needs.

Not many employers trust their employees in getting the work done without their managers’ watchful eyes but you would be surprise. When given the flexible hours instead of the rigid 8 – 5 timings, people tend to be more productive, happier and more engaged at the workplace.

Volunteer as a team

No one ever feels bad or terrible after helping an old lady crosses the road – No one! When you lend a helping hand, you generally feel good about yourself because you managed to make someone’s day better than before.

Employers should support charitable organisation and get involved with the community. Encourage your employees to take part in volunteer projects as a team. Working together to help others demonstrates that the company is not just about making money, but about making a difference in the community.

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Always be authentic

Always remember that a sincere relationship between employees and the management motivates trust and builds teamwork. As an employer, try your best not to falsify relationships and develop a trusting workplace environment.

When employees realise that the workplace is an open concept with no sugar-coating, they will then feel as though they do not need to hide things from their peers or colleagues and will always be honest.

Promote taking breaks

You can also encourage (and remind!) your employees to take a short 5 minutes break from their desk and stretch. Allow them to spend 5 minutes on a nice coffee or on Solitaire Bliss where they can play online games like Solitaire, Freecell, and many more. It is a great way to take your mind off work for a while after focusing on a stressful proposal or documentation that requires your full attention.

There are a couple of applications that you can set on your computers, which reminds you to take breaks and rest your eyes from the computers. When employees see that you care for their well being instead of just getting the sales, using proposal software or preparing paperwork, they tend to work harder for you or the company.

Asking for feedback

Another secret on how to increase employee engagement in the workplace is by asking for feedback. Employers are often the one giving feedback to employees, about their working styles, office environment, workload and others. However, this time around try asking for some of your employees’ input on a certain proposal or a design concept.

By asking your employees for feedback, it makes them feel that their opinion matters and it plays an important part in the company.

Hold regular social gatherings

Weekly gathering with colleagues and peers are a great way to get to know each other on a personal level. Having fun together not only breaks up the routine but also encourages creativity and collaboration.

You do not have to plan an extensive event every week, but a weekly BYO lunches or end of the work week session at the local tavern helps with the winding down from a busy work week easily.

Clarify goals

Every employee has a set of goals and responsibilities they need to focus or work on. There are times when employees simply get mixed up or confused with what their role is in the organisation, which is very common. Clarifying goals and responsibilities is vital if you intend to increase employee engagement within your organisation.

There are also times when employees feel mentally exhausted when trying to achieve the goal that they were assigned to. This may be due to lack of leadership and support or simply because they feel that they are not good enough or just not confident at the work they have completed.

A great leader is one who is there to help their employees setting goals and assist them when problems arise. We agree that management cannot be there all the time when it comes to guiding employees in their work or the problems they are facing.

However, if you want to improve engagement levels in your organisation, you need to show your employees that you are there to help. Moreover, management plays significant role in the spheres with customer engagement. Restaurant management requires even more effort to keep the employees engaged and contributes to high-level of service provided to customers.

In today’s world where the sky is the limit, there are many people who put a great deal of effort into advancing their career as far as possible through education, workshops and other enrichment courses.

Encourage employees to attend workshops and conferences or even invite guest speakers relating to your industry to give your team a talk. This not only increases the productivity level among your employees but also it boosts the morale of the team.

Provide a nice environment

Heading to work every day can be a tiresome experience after a while, especially if the environment at the workplace is not completely comforting. Employers should try to do whatever they can to create a workplace environment that is unique, comfortable and that reflects branding of your company.

Start fixing that dark spots in the office or that air condition that is not working in summer, or even that weird smell in the office. Making the workplace environment conducive is definitely a quick way to increase employee engagement.

Develop a people-focused culture

It is time to start encouraging your employees to practice a balanced lifestyle between work and their personal life. All work and no play make Jack (or Jane! ) a dull employee. Find out the responsibilities of your employees and consider initiatives that enable them to balance work and home life more easily.

Create a workplace environment that makes people feel valued, heard and a sense of camaraderie is important to employee engagement.

Mentor your employees

One of the secrets on how to increase employee engagement in the workplace is by being a mentor to your employees. There are some managers who do not bother about helping their staff because they are either too busy with their current workload or they are not bothered in helping out.

Increasing your employee engagement also means aiding as a role model for those employees who are facing issues, regardless of how busy you may be. Offer your help if you happened to see them struggling or if you know the task given to them requires extra help.

Encourage collaboration

Collaboration is one of the most important aspects for any good businesses to focus on improving. This is because when collaborating on work or projects can help to develop better ideas and even improve employee engagement by encouraging teamwork. The most effective organisations make clever use of employee collaboration effort to reduce company costs and improve efficiency among the team.

Collaboration work not only creates a happier workplace, it is often signified as an educated one. This is because it naturally motivates a sense of team bonding within your organisation. This could also become one of your corporate cultures.

Do take note that in any collaboration work, employees get to learn from their colleagues, peers and even their bosses!

Show gratitude regularly

Finally, the secret on how to increase employee engagement in the workplace is by simply saying ‘Thank You’ to your employees. It is time you appreciate all their effort and hard work that they have put into in making your company more profitable. It is indeed such a simple thing, but it is often overlooked, especially if you are in a large organisation.

Another factor to take note when nailing employee engagement is appreciating your employees. Your management team should take the time to show gratitude for their employees in the office not just because it is a nice thing to do but because it would make everyone happier and can also boost the company’s productivity.

Everyone wants to feel appreciated and they value a simple thank you. However, this does not happen enough in many workplaces. Showing simple forms of appreciation can really go a long way in motivating employees to work harder and be more productive.

An acknowledgement by management and among peers is the fastest way to build trust, restore a strained relationship and motivate the employees at the workplace. You can also read our post on the great ways to say thank you to your employees.

Build authentic relationships

Another great way to employee engagement in the workplace is to focus on fostering authentic, caring relationships with your colleagues. All of us are built differently and there are no two people who are exactly the same when it comes to work ethics, customer service or even their flair with their colleagues.

This is where as management, you need to understand your own employees and how to get them engaged. There are some managers who would say that it is not the management’s issue when it comes to getting their employees to work.

However, when you build a positive relationship with your employees, they would generally be more productive because they know that management does care for them as an individual.

Promote honesty

Honesty is not only the best policy especially at the workplace; it is the only policy in building a successful business. The last aspect in nailing employee engagement is having honest communication among your team.

When employees understand that telling the truth comes with no major consequences, small problems that occur can be identified early and could be solved before it blows out of proportion.

It may sound like basic common sense when it comes to being honest and admitting to faults, employees generally are afraid of losing their jobs. Management must adopt an environment where respectful and honest communication is highly valued and employees are encouraged to take ownership of their failures as well as their successes.

In Summary

The “secret” to increasing employee engagement in the workplace is that there is no secret. You can simply ask your employees using online survey software on what needs improvement or the changes needed to be made in order to make their time at work more productive and fruitful. You might be surprised by how simple the solution may be.

Good luck!