We can all agree with experts that employee engagement matters. Yet how can we start? Perhaps a solution could be an employee engagement checklist. This article explains.
Recent studies indicate that companies which have greater levels of engagement with their employees were 21% more profitable than those without any such solution in place. Aside from boosting the morale of your workforce, studies show that employee engagement reduces absenteeism by an astounding 41%!
Before we delve deeper into the topic, let’s first understand what employee engagement is all about or rather how it could be defined.
The solution to the aforementioned dilemma of employees leaving companies prematurely lies in finding ways to convince them to stay. Enter an investment plan that involves making your employees feel emotionally committed to the company.
When an employee is engaged enough to care about the growth of an organisation, they do their best in seeing the goal to its fruition. Also, check this post on proven methods to improve employee engagement.
Now let’s look at some of the key aspects of a successful employee engagement checklist.
Are the career goals of employees being realised?
One of the biggest reasons why employees end up leaving their job after about two years of working at an organisation is because they don’t feel like their career goals are being fulfilled.
Employees don’t join a workforce after a lot of planning and strategising, only to be sidelined or to be given tasks that are monotonous and ones that involve minimal growth in terms of gaining skill and experience.
In essence, HR personnel and managers would have to make sure employees aren’t feeling discontented or discouraged regarding the progress of their career.
Checking up on them from time to time regarding the same would certainly help matters and even convince them that you’ll always be there to encourage their growth should an opportunity arise.
Appreciation and recognition are rewarding feelings
A rewards and recognition program will go a long way in building a relationship and smooth rapport between managers, business owners, and their employees.
If an employee doesn’t feel appreciated enough or isn’t acknowledged enough for all the blood and sweat they pour into your company, they are completely entitled to leave the organisation or become disinterested in its eventual growth.
Once employees are given credit where it is due and compensated for their exceptional work ethics, hitting a certain record, accomplishing a difficult task, or completing a major project, they would naturally gravitate towards work with a positive mindset.
As such, creating a work environment that is filled with appreciation wherein recognition is afforded to employees in a personable and fun manner is crucial to employee engagement.
Ensure your leadership skills are not lacking
As a manager or a one-up to an employee, being mindful of the suggestions, criticisms, and requests being made by everyone working under you is crucial to the success of employee engagement programs.
Whether you’re allocating tasks to employees, instructing them regarding a certain task, or are reviewing new ideas suggested by them, it is vital to remember that you assimilate company objectives and goals. You can manage the entire process of allocating work to employees using tools such as Breakout or Process.st.
Otherwise, you might end up with employees who are resentful of you, essentially making them weary of company policies, all because you weren’t able to articulate the vision of your workspace accurately.
Many employees look at their higher-ups as a source of inspiration, whether it is to do with the way managers and CEOs spearhead teams, handle tense situations (with clients, other team members), problem-solve, and so on.
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Evaluate how you run your company
One of the main reasons why employees become disinterested or decide to leave a company after a year or two is due to the way things are run there.
If your brand’s organisational structure is flawless or even competent at best, you can bet on the fact that employee engagement would increase. If the company is future-oriented and focused on the needs of its customers, you’re already well on your way to winning the approval of your employees.
Major put-offs include an inability to cultivate a culture of growth, stability, and flexibility. Often, these factors cause employees to fall back on the level of interest shown towards the betterment of the organisation.
Overseeing the personal development of employees
The employees who feel like their time at an organisation has caused them to grow in terms of their personal development skills are more likely to be engaged with the brand.
Even if their career progression isn’t always an upward slope, knowing that one’s interpersonal, communication, organisation, and adaptability skills have seen much improvement gives employees confidence and patience when it comes to their future prospects at a company.
Making sure that the people who work under you are given due notice in this regard, either by talking to them on a one-on-one basis (in order to make things plain to them, so they understand that you care about their prospects) or by assessing said skills through other means would go a long way in building your relationship with your employees.
Does your workplace have a work-life balance?
As mentioned previously, plenty of employees look up to their superiors and consider them as role models. In such a work environment, if a manager or team leads do not set boundaries regarding work timing (whether it is to do with working too little or for too long) and expects the same work ethics from their subordinates, it could lead to employee dissatisfaction in the long run.
There is also the fact that many employees live to work. If left unchecked, this might result in major burnout, following which employees would later on feel like they were being used or treated unfairly, which could (again) lead to a disinterest in the organisation.
Responsibility trumps tasks
There’s a fine line between being given more responsibility and more tasks to do. When employees see that you trust them enough to assign important projects to them or allow them to take ownership of crucial company ventures, it keeps them engaged.
This, of course, is opposed to piling them up with more and more tedious, monotonous tasks that do nothing for their personal development and career growth.
Keep your employees abreast of company developments
No matter who you’re dealing with, feeling included, valued, and worthy of trust boosts confidence and, in this case, engagement.
If you share inside information that you might otherwise choose not to disclose regarding roadblocks the company’s facing in terms of its direction, the challenges you encounter as a team lead, and so on, you’ll surely get on your employee’s good side.
Take steps to improve employee morale
According to recent reports, 70% of HR personnel have stated that their biggest challenge when dealing with employees is keeping employee morale high.
Especially with the pandemic and the lockdown that followed, the transition from working at one’s office space to creating an entire work environment at home has been difficult for most. As such, keeping the working culture pleasant, fun, and positive would be ideal.
One of the many ways through which managers can boost morale would be by doing away with ‘Sunday Scaries’. A phrase used to describe a certain level of anxiety and anxiousness attached to going to work on a Monday.
Introducing concepts like a ‘weekly trivia quiz’ or other fun tasks that employees can complete on a Monday just before getting onto serious work would allow them to get rid of Monday blues.
Another thing companies could do that would most certainly result in boosting employee morale would be to award bonuses on a more or less regular basis.
In Summary
There are a myriad of ways through which your organisation can get listed on its employee engagement checklist.
But what matters is that as an employer, business owner, or manager, you are able to take the time out, put in the effort, and make the decision to invest in programs, solutions and ideas to make it happen.
Your next step would involve going through the checklist carefully, understanding what works for your company, and how relevant each of these ideas would be to your employee engagement. You can build simple employee surveys to gather information & insights about your employees.
About the Author
Jugal Anchalia is Co-founder of Breakout, a highly customizable workflow automation platform for SMEs. When he’s not helping companies to adopt automation in their day-to-day operations, you can find him curled up in a corner reading a book or playing catch with his dog. Follow him on Twitter.
