3 Ways to Better Engage with your Employees
As any business owner will tell you, employees are an organization’s most valuable asset. Employees develop new ideas, drive the organization forward and most importantly: get work done.
This is why it’s especially important for a business owner to ensure that his/her employees are safe, comfortable and happy at their place of work. Given that turnover and talent acquisition are often at the back of any HR professional’s mind, it’s clear that employee engagement is no mean feat.
To the uninitiated, employee engagement can simply be defined as an effort/initiative to better understand the relationship between employer and employee. Engaged employees are typically more productive and better motivated as they have a positive attitude towards their organizations.
On the other hand, disengaged employees tend to be frustrated and much less positive at the workplace. An employee who is disengaged will likely perform the bare minimum of his/her duties at best. At worst, disengaged employees can become toxic and may even act against their organization’s best interests.
This is why it’s especially important that employees remain engaged and positive at the workplace. Over the years, attitudes towards employee engagement have changed with employers taking a more active role.
Here we take a look at 5 ways all organizations can boost employee engagement.
- Take an active role in employee development
Employees resign for a variety of reasons and better job prospects is one of the main reasons why. This is especially common for ambitious or top performing employees looking to scale the corporate ladder.
Business owners need to understand the needs of individual employees when developing career paths for their employees. For example, top-performing individual contributors may not necessarily be attracted to management or leadership roles.
Hence, they may search for better opportunities elsewhere if their existing organization is not able to support their desired growth path.
Besides career growth, employees also have a desire to remain competitive through professional development. Offering opportunities for further education and training allows employees to develop new skills that can benefit the organization whilst allowing employees to upskill themselves.
- Have an open-door policy
From movie studios to churches, the #MeToo movement has shone a spotlight on how endemic sexual harassment truly. In the murky world of corporate office politics, organizations routinely covered up allegations of sexual harassment in order to protect perpetrators and the company.
Such unethical behavior has made employees distrustful of both management and their organization’s as a whole. On the long-term, this can result in increased employee turnover, falling productivity and a breakdown of communication; all of which can be disastrous.
All too often, even the leaders can become disconnected from the actual situation on the ground, something which often leads to employee griping about how “management doesn’t know what they’re doing.”
While relatively simple, having an open-door policy which encourages two-way communication between both employer and employee can work wonders. It’s usually easier to respect a manager who treats an employee as an equal and respects his/her intelligence.
- Do not tolerate office politics
Office politics can be a real killer of productivity. Instead of having employees working together for the common good of the organizations, office politics encourages backstabbing, gossiping and other toxic behavior.
Supervisors, managers and business leaders all have a role in combating this problem. Unfortunately, more than one manager has been found guilty of encouraging politicking amongst their subordinates.
Besides being frustrating to deal with, such a toxic work environment can in fact discourage high-performing individuals from staying on with a company for fear of getting bogged down by politics. Just like a horse underperforming in the Kentucky Derby for lacking motivation and energy.
As a business leader, office politics in any form should not be tolerated. For example, some employees may attempt to pass on “information” about their colleagues to their superiors as a means of currying favor.
In such a situation, the employee in question should be sternly warned that such behavior is not acceptable and will only be detrimental to the business as a whole. Setting a clear example for employees discourages backstabbing reduces the prevalence of politicking.
Whether you’re a small business owner, a manager of a department or the CEO of a multinational conglomerate, employee engagement is and will always be an essential aspect of business management.
