Using our ‘common sense’ leads to effective employee engagement, unfortunately, common sense is commonly ignored!

Employee engagement is essential for a successful, profitable and thriving business. For an employee to be engaged, there needs to be a few core things that are taken care of.

Employees need to feel like they’re respected, that they’re part of the team, and that their ideas matter. Once that’s taken care of, they’ll be more likely to go above and beyond for their company and provide amazing service, come up with innovative ideas, and help the company grow.

To create a people centric culture, where employee engagement thrives, you need to consider the following ‘common sense’ tips

  1. Recognition
    According to the book ‘How Full Is Your Bucket’, the number one reason people leave their jobs is that they don’t feel appreciated. How grateful are you as a business to your employees and the work that they do? Recognising employees for a job well done is one of the easiest (and least expensive) ways to motivate them.
  2. Feedback
    35% of employees have to wait more than 3 months to get feedback from their manager. Monthly one-2-ones, weekly planning sessions, daily check-in meetings are ways that you can give more regular feedback. Create A Feedback Culture… It’s not only managers that should be giving feedback. It should come from all around you.
  3. Happiness
    Not many people are happy at work. Happiness outside of work is important to look at too. Without getting too personal, showing an interest in how an employee is doing outside of work is a nice thing to do. How happy are you at work?
  4. Wellbeing
    60% of employees notice that their job is taking a toll on their personal life. There is a serious crisis going on in terms of employee wellness. Employees are stressed, overworked, and don’t have a good work-life balance. We continuously ask employees about their sleeping habits:
    – 42% of employees are either constantly sleep-deprived or tend to lack some sleep.
    – 48% of people consider themselves stressed at work
    Employees Are Overworked!
    There’s no point in overworking your employees. Short term, you might get a few more hours of productivity out of an employee, but long term, overworking someone doesn’t help their productivity, and worst case can lead to burnout. Work-life balance is an incredibly important part of being a healthy, happy, and productive worker.
  5. Personal Development
    While companies are starting to understand the importance of autonomy, mastery, and purpose, there is still clearly a lot of work to do.
    Employees feel like they don’t have enough autonomy, they’re not mastering their skills, and they don’t fully feel a sense of purpose.
    You need to trust your employees enough to let them run with projects. Employees are motivated by a sense of purpose and feeling like they are part of something bigger than themselves. 53% of employees say they haven’t improved their skills significantly in the past year.
  6. Satisfaction
    15% of employees don’t see themselves working at their company one year from now. Employees need to feel like they’re being fairly compensated for the work they do, otherwise they’ll be disengaged. Onboarding is one of the best opportunities for managers to get their employees integrated into the team and get them productive quickly.
    According to the book ‘The First 90 Days’, it takes three months before an employee starts adding value. There needs to be more emphasis on team building, learning, and training for a longer period of time. Employees Need Clear Goals – A lack of clarity brings confusion, which leads to stress, which leads to disengagement.
  7. Relationship with managers
    35% of employees wish their manager communicated more frequently with them. 42% of employees say they don’t feel close with their manager. The relationship between an employee and their manager has a huge effect on employee engagement. Employees Want Transparency! 1 out of 5 employees feel like their manager isn’t transparent with them. 68% of employees say they’d like to spend more time with their manager.
  8. Relationship with peers
    37% of employees don’t think they have enough social interaction with their colleagues. Having a friend at work is one of the most important parts of being engaged and satisfied with your career. But sometimes when we’re stressed or tired, we might be mean to our peers without even realising it. Workplace bullying can be a huge problem. 62% of employees eat alone at their desk working! It’s important that you encourage your team to get to know each other.
  9. Champions
    59% of employees wouldn’t recommend their organisation as a good place to work. People are more likely to recommend their company’s products than the actual culture itself. Who are your champions within the business and how do you nurture them and the ethos of your business?
  10. Company alignment
    38% of employees don’t believe their company’s core values align with their personal values. A perfect culture fit happens when an employee’s personal core values align well with the organisation’s core values. Companies need to be doing a better job of communicating the mission and core values of the organisation. Employees need to be constantly reminded of why they do what they do. Remember, there is no such thing as too much communication.

Let us work with you to develop a bespoke strategy that engages your people thus creating a trustworthy, hard working, happy, proud, connected and optimistic work force. contact us now.

(Data source: Real-Time State of Employee Engagement 2016/officevibe)