How to Engage Employees – A Complete Guide for Managers
One of the key factors to running a successful business is knowing how to engage employees. If the leaders of a business or organization understand the level of passion their workforce has for the job, they are a step ahead of the competition.
As a manager, you want your employees to have pride in what they do and in the company they work for. Those who work with purpose put forth their best efforts; a practice that can only benefit the goal of your organization. It’s important to look at every aspect of why people do the work they do and what drives them to do it.
If you are operating in a managerial position, getting to know your employees will be a key part to a successful evaluation of how engaged your staff is. From their backgrounds to their hobbies, skill sets, family life, all the aspects of your employees will end up becoming part of your workplace environment. Arming yourself with the knowledge on how to blend that into a productive, positive environment is an important skill to have as a manager.
Ask yourself, just how much do my employees genuinely care what happens to the company’s future? Are they dedicated to helping it expand and be successful? If you aren’t sure of the answers yet, it’s okay. There are ways to determine the level of employee engagement among your staff, as well as learn how to engage employees.
Employee engagement is more than just knowing whether someone likes their job or not. Measuring employee engagement lets you know how committed they are to the business and its success. It tells you how motivated they are and how emotionally invested they are in the work they are doing.
For an employee to be engaged, they are motivated to work hard towards a common goal that is in line with the company’s vision. They will be committed to the values their organization represents. Engaged employees will have a clear view and understanding of the objectives of the work they are doing.
Understanding the level of engagement is the first step in utilizing this knowledge to your benefit. The next step is working on improving employee engagement within the organization or business. As a manager, creating a workforce that is not just happy, but engaged and motivated to produce, will clear one hurdle on the path to success.
Going beyond the basic employee engagement definition, managers should know that there are two primary focuses of this practice. Not only should you understand their level of engagement with the company, but also with the managers. The latter is a look at how these employees feel about their direct superiors and whether they feel they are treated fairly.
Employees with higher levels of engagement with their managers tend to feel they are getting direction on the work they do, and feedback on their performance. These employees will have a mutual feeling of respect with their managers, which also lends to the sense of being a valued part of the company.
Organizations that implement an employee engagement strategy can most likely say that their workforce has faith in their leadership and they believe the company acts in a fair and respectful manner. When high levels of employee engagement with the business itself are partnered with observant and caring managers, all facets of your business increase. It allows for an increase in production, elevated customer satisfaction, and worker competency to be at an all-time high.
A few factors to consider in this area are the company and its leadership. You can’t expect your staff to become engaged if there is no clear and decisive message for them to embrace. Before you can start to measure their level of engagement ask yourself the following:
When all these components are in place, you can begin to look closer at how well engaged your employees are. Taking a close look at the business and its leadership first can also help you further develop employee engagement strategies and practices.
The idea of just having satisfied employees may be enough for some managers, but maintaining high levels of employee engagement is important for many reasons. When your employees are engaged, the workplace environment becomes a place of positive attitudes.
When employees are engaged, the office atmosphere improves, their actions are dependable and internal disputes are minimal, if not non-existent. Workers who are engaged feel like part of the team and in turn, work together to help lead your business to successful outcomes.
Several research studies have data that proves employee engagement is more than just liking a job and wanting to do well. These studies provide a more intricate look at why employee engagement is a vital part of your business model. They show the importance of this practice and how its results go beyond just increased productivity. For example:
The numbers are in, and they clearly point to the benefits of implementing engagement practices among employees. However, if you need a little more information on why employee engagement is critical, let’s take a closer look at what’s accomplished when employees are doing work they feel good doing for a company they enjoy working for.
The idea behind maintaining or improving the number of engaged employees is based on research and studies that have been created to show just how beneficial it can be. Before discussing how you can achieve these results, look at some of the benefits.
Engaged employees are likely to help increase profit revenues every year. A study by the Workplace Research Foundation has found that by investing in your employee engagement by merely 10%, profits can increase by more than $2000 per employee. The same study also found that employees who are highly engaged are more likely to increase their productivity, often as much as almost 40%.
The benefits of engaged employees have a trickle-down effect throughout the entire company. Those who are showing up with feelings of pride and motivation to work provide a higher quality service to your customers. When customer satisfaction is high, profits tend to rise. In turn, shareholders received a better return on their investments.
Fostering a workplace environment where the employees feel supported and conduct their responsibilities within a team-focused atmosphere is good for the entire company. A business that has employee engagement strategies tends to have less sick days to account for. Companies with engaged employees can expect to see a reduction in the number of days of work missed by an average of four days per employee per year.
Those who come to work every day, do so because they believe in what they are doing. They feel as though they have the backing of the company they are doing it for and want to show up and work hard. They don’t arrive every day just to collect a paycheck. They have an emotional commitment to the work, which drives them to help the company reach its goals.
This concept measures engagement through an employee survey that works a lot like a personality assessment in that they both rely on benchmark data to interpret scores. Questions or statements such as, “I feel my needs are a priority in this company” or “my workplace is safe” will be rated by the employee on a scale of 1-5 on how strongly they agree or disagree with the statement. When the answers are received, they are compared to the benchmark data.
If you are unsure exactly how to measure employee engagement, start with a survey backed with benchmark data to receive an accurate assessment. An extensive style questionnaire with around 50-80 questions will allow you to have a well-rounded understand of many different areas related to employee engagement.
Now you have your survey and the results, what do you do with them? Interpreting the results is another matter entirely. Results will come to you in raw scores and T-Scores. The raw scores will give you the average of all the responses to the survey. Unfortunately, these results don’t allow you to draw any conclusions or tell you if employees are engaged or not. In times like this, having the benchmark data comes in handy.
If you can compare your data to that of other companies who have completed the same survey, it gives you a better determination whether the scores are low or high. T-Scores are one method of representing benchmark scores and tell you how your scores compare to other places. Upon evaluation of the survey and results using the above methods, employers can find out which percentile their employees fall when considering the different areas where engagement is measured.
Now that you have completed your survey and interpreted your data, you need to know how to increase employee engagement. Once you have determined the areas that need reinforcement, there are many strategies you can implement to help drive your team to success.
-Michael Solomon, 10x Management Co-Founder
Now that you know why employee engagement is so important to your business, you can begin to look at the strategies to increase these levels. Let’s say you have conducted your survey, gathered the results, and discovered what areas need modification.
Maybe you’ve made a checklist on how to improve employee engagement, but now you’re not sure how to go about implementing these changes. A common mistake those in managerial positions tend to make is believing that these decisions need to come from the highest position of the hierarchy. The best way to carry on these strategies is starting with the employees, right up to the chain of command, to the bosses themselves.
Use and share the information from the employee engagement survey with all the department managers, empower them so they can take that knowledge back to their individual teams. When the employees are made aware of the results, you can then talk to them about their ideas for improvement. When they are part of the solution, they are less likely to be the cause of the problems.
As a manager, it is your responsibility to help lead the employees to be a successful, cohesive team. That starts with the collaboration of ideas to help rectify any issues that crop up through the survey.
Conclusion
Why is employee engagement important? The simple answer: because it motivates your employees to be productive and call in sick less often. A more detailed explanation is that a strong foundation to every business lies within the goals and values of that organization. From the founder of the company, down to the individuals who answer the phones, every single employee wants to feel heard, valued and trusted. They want to believe that the work they are doing has a purpose and that their time is appreciated.
Making your employees feel as though they are part of a team and that their presence in the workplace is necessary is a key factor in maintaining higher levels of engagement. Engaged employees mean productivity will increase, profit and shareholder margins increase and the results in customer satisfaction can skyrocket, leaving your company with a reputation that some only dream of having.
Finding a survey with aptly worded employee engagement questions, that is also backed up with benchmark data will be of utmost importance to begin answering the question of how engaged your employees truly are. If you understand how to measure employee engagement and find a solution to maintain the levels, your business can grow and rise to the top of the list among the competition.
By listening to your employees and hearing their questions and concerns, engaging them in personal conversations, and mentoring and coaching them to put forth their best efforts, you will be helping engagement levels rise. When the company can mirror the best efforts and reliability of their employees, it culminates in a successful business model where everyone is successful, passionate and engaged. In other words, employee engagement is a necessary part of the blueprints that will produce a workplace free of fear, one flush with ideas and a sense of camaraderie among everyone within its walls.
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How to Engage Employees – A Complete Guide for Managers
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