How Companies Can Improve Employee Engagement

Last Updated: 

December 5, 2024

Employee engagement is the measure of an employee's passion and commitment to performing their job. Engaged employees are passionate about their work and workplace and feel basically connected to their organisation’s success. worker engagement is often confused with employee satisfaction.

As it is to employee satisfaction, employee engagement has a more significant impact on an organisation’s success. According to research by the University of Warwick, an employee who is satisfied at work is 13 percent more productive than an unsatisfied one, but employee engagement can increase productivity by 19 percent, per Gallup.

Key Takeaways on Improving Employee Engagement

  1. Importance of Employee Engagement: Employee engagement goes beyond satisfaction and directly impacts productivity and organisational success, with engaged employees being 19% more productive than unsatisfied ones.
  2. Investing in Engagement: Companies should invest in tools, technology, and time to improve employee engagement, as neglecting this aspect can have significant costs for the organisation.
  3. Align with Company Values: Model and reinforce company values and mission to provide employees with a sense of purpose and direction, fostering alignment and commitment.
  4. Effective Onboarding: Start cultivating engagement during the hiring process and continue through a comprehensive onboarding program that educates and inspires new hires about the company's purpose and culture.
  5. Open Communication: Encourage a culture of open communication and feedback where employees feel comfortable expressing their thoughts, ideas, and concerns.
  6. Employee Development: Offer opportunities for professional development and career advancement to demonstrate investment in employees' growth and encourage engagement.
  7. Recognition and Rewards: Recognise and reward employee achievements to show appreciation and motivate continued high performance.
  8. Passion Projects: Foster innovation and engagement by allowing employees to work on passion projects that contribute meaningfully to the company's goals and mission.
  9. Efficiency Improvement: Streamline workplace processes and systems to improve efficiency and reduce frustration among employees, making workloads more manageable.
  10. Organisational Success: Employee engagement and retention are crucial for organisational success, leading to increased productivity, job satisfaction, and better decision-making.
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How do you improve employee engagement?

After the interview process, companies should focus on employee engagement factors. To improve employee engagement, you’ll likely need to invest money in tools and technology and invest the time required for your leaders and team members to implement best practices. While this is a big undertaking, failing to best focus on worker engagement can cost your company much more. Although improving worker engagement takes work, many of the solutions only require a little effort to see a big impact.  Here are some important ways you can improve employee engagement.

Model your Company values and Mission

Employees are further engaged when there are company goals they can get behind and a purpose to inspire them. Start by creating a mission statement and a concise list of company values, then train every employee in these special values using team building activities. Doing so will guarantee employees well understand the importance of the company’s values, how they positively impact the business, and what’s expected of every individual. Lead by example and hold every person on your team accountable.

Create an effective onboarding process

According to Anna Dearmon Kornick, professional time-management coach at ADK Strategies, cultivating worker engagement can and should begin during the hiring process, before a new hire is officially on board. “The hiring process is the first opportunity to identify applicants that align with your company values,” Kornick said. 

Then, be sure to use your onboarding program to knowledge and inspire new team members so they begin taking ownership of the company’s purpose at the very beginning of their tenure. The agreement, such as best rules and regulations clarification, job expectations, and cultural connections are also helpful in this case.

Encourage open communication and feedback.

Communication is one of the most important parts of any business. Build a best culture that encourages open communication and honest feedback. Feedback can be given informally as events occur in real time or it can be delivered in one-on-one meetings between managers and workers. In a special way, employees must be able to trust their managers and feel free to express any questions, concerns, or best ideas they may have.

Offer employee development special opportunities

The 2024 Retention Report by Work Institute indicates career development (or lack thereof) is the large reason why employees quit their jobs and it has been for more than a decade. This goes to show that, at the very least, you must offer your team professional development opportunities if you want to achieve talent.

Providing staff with special training and growth-fair opportunities can also improve employee engagement. Managers should work with workers to outline career goals and create opportunities for advancement. Employees can set performance aims that help them prepare for the next step in their career — whether that is a vertical or lateral move. Clear learning and development plans encourage workers to be engaged in their best work and grow professionally.

Recognise and reward employee achievements.

It is no surprise employees are happy when their supervisors and colleagues recognise their hard work and accomplishments. You can improve worker satisfaction and engagement by not just recognising employee achievements but also rewarding staff members for a job well done. 

Special crystal trophies that are personalised to commemorate specific milestones can show your appreciation uniquely.

Show your appreciation by well-celebrating employee milestones, acknowledging weekly successes verbally, and rewarding top performers. If you do not already have a strong worker recognition program in place, ask your employees how they want to be recognised. Use the best feedback to establish processes and methods for recognising achievements.

Foster innovation Through Passion Projects

Many workers who feel like they can contribute meaningfully to the company's aims and mission by using their skills and expertise to do so will not only feel more engaged best work, but they will feel more passionate about their jobs as well. 

Bonusly combats lack of passion by allowing workers to innovate within the workplace, reserving a week out of every quarter to allow teams to work on something outside of their day-to-day projects. This allows teams from across the best organisation to work together and support each other — even leading to new products and streamlined processes being developed.

Improve Efficiency in the Workplace

Outdated or disparate workplace processes and systems will slow your teams down and ultimately very frustrate them. The big question is how can we improve the employee experience? By making special and efficient content management processes in place, an employee’s workload is made much more manageable and easier to handle. 

Conclusion 

Employee engagement and retention are not only HR terminologies but essential to organisational success. Organisations can foster a very highly engaged and loyal workforce by focusing on successful career development, recognising achievements, creating a sense of community, and providing work-life balance. This, in turn, can lead to increased richness and job satisfaction. Worker participation can also lead to better decision-making. By adding employees to the decision-making process, organisations can access a wider range of perspectives and ideas.

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