What Can You Really Do To Improve Employee Engagement?

There’s lots of talk about employee engagement and how important it is in creating a positive and impactful company culture. The consensus is employee engagement is critical to the success of your employees and survival of your company.

We couldn’t agree more.

However, there is a disconnect that occurs with many people. How do you increase meaningful engagement? What are some actual steps you can take? How do you define it for your company? How do you know when your employee’s desires and work ethic are in line with your company’s mission, vision, and values?

First, here are some tips for improving engagement.

Have A Regular Social Hour

Periodically, host a meeting with your employees and get a feel for how things are going. Historically, it occurred when the ‘boss’ brought in coffee and donuts and sat down with the staff to ask questions.

However, times and diets have changed. It doesn’t have to be coffee and donuts, it could be whatever foods or activities you want. However, whatever you choose, it should be something that gives you a platform to interact with, and listen to, your employees.

Conduct A Survey

Create an engagement survey and send it to your staff. Make responses anonymous so you get candid answers. You could ask people for their feelings about the company, their job, what they like and don’t like.

Don’t ask for anonymous assessments of particular people. Explain you are looking for overall attitudes and seeking ideas on how to make the company better. Ask people to make their observations and suggestions as detailed as possible.

Recognition Teams

Create specialized recognition teams for each department. When somebody does a good job, have a protocol for instant (or near instant) recognition of the employee and their work. Including a gift of some kind can elevate the impact.

What makes recognition gifts even more meaningful is if they align with a hobby or interest of the receiving employees.

For example, if an employee likes to go fishing, present her with something fishing related. If the person is into cooking then give classes at a gourmet cooking store.

Steps like this require that managers have an above-average knowledge of their staff, but this knowledge can pay off when you are giving a gift that is truly meaningful, it shows thought and consideration.

Make learning an employee’s hobbies and interests part of the onboarding process.

How do you define employee engagement for your company?

The definition for employee engagement varies from company to company, and even from manager to manager.

Create your own definition, a quantifiable measurement, of what you consider to be good employee engagement. It could encompass any number of metrics, including:

  • Days at work

  • Quality of work as determined by a team of managers

  • Peer evaluations

  • Interviews, both formal and informal with employees

  • Increases or decreases in production

  • Participation in meetings, task forces, and special committees

Developing a system to rate employee engagement isn’t easy and it takes time. However, the payoff will be worth it. It’s also a good idea to get an outside appraisal of your efforts because evaluating employees and your business operations requires an objective view.

Equal Parts offers the opportunity for companies to get honest appraisals of their operations. We have helped numerous businesses in the Southern California improve their operations and competitiveness by helping them improve their engagement and strengthen their company culture.

If you would like to learn how we can help your company, please call us for further information.