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Over the years, businesses have been using new and innovative ways to keep employees engaged in the workplace. Organizations use fun and motivating activities such as trips to theme parks or internal quizzes to make workplaces enjoyable.
Not only are these activities fun, but they also help boost morale and boost productivity.
Let’s look at how different employee engagement strategies make a difference to workplaces.
Employee Engagement In The Workplace
Employee engagement is the level of emotional or mental commitment that employees have to their job position and organization. Engaged employees help drive organizational success because they treat the organization’s goals with as much importance as they treat their individual growth in the company.
Good remuneration packages and perks are a few ways of providing short-term employee satisfaction but can they keep employees motivated in the long-run? In 1990, Professor William A. Kahn, a professor of organizational behavior, found that there are three core components for an employee to feel engaged:
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The feeling of making a difference and doing meaningful work
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Feeling valued, respected and trusted
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Feeling confident and secure
How To Increase Employee Engagement
The more you invest in your employees, the more empowered, motivated and innovative are they likely to become. Here are some common employee engagement strategies to help you master employee engagement:
1. Think Bottom-Up
An important aspect of employee engagement in the workplace is to ensure that employees don’t feel like they are mere cogs in a wheel. In other words, make important decisions by engaging and consulting your teams. If the decision is going to affect everybody in the organization, inform every employee and get feedback wherever possible. After all, employees are the building blocks of an organization. The more you involve them, the more engaged they’ll be.
2. Show Them You Listen
If an employee brings an issue to your attention, show them that you’ve listened to them. Make it evident that you’ve addressed the issue. This helps to build trust and creates a safe space for people to feel vulnerable. For example, if multiple people raise an issue about an unhealthy work-life balance, then you could look at expanding the team by hiring more people. This will lead to better workload management, giving people a much-needed break from work.
3. Celebrate Their Wins
Behavioral psychology often talks about positive reinforcement i.e., rewarding someone for a task so that they do it more often. This holds true for workplaces as well. For improving employee engagement, you can celebrate employee achievements, no matter how big or small they are. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to give gifts. A simple announcement or acknowledgment at a weekly meeting can make a meaningful difference.
4. Explain The Organization’s Goals
Employees will never be able to contribute to an organization’s goals unless they understand the motivations behind those goals. Everyone should be aware and clear about why their roles matter to the organization. By setting expectations, people will get a sense of direction and feel motivated to work towards targets more rigorously.
5. Empower Your Managers
Managers play an important role in improving employee engagement. They’re at the forefront of all employee-related matters. They have the capacity to empower employees and feel good about their contributions. Managers should be encouraged to advise, coach and nurture employee-growth instead of simply managing them. Engaged managers lead the way for engaged employees.
6. Understanding Learning Styles
One of the best ways to promote employee engagement in the workplace is to understand everyone’s learning styles. Some people may prefer to work independently, while others may prefer to work collaboratively. If you understand how your employees learn and work, you can assign projects accordingly. For example, employees who like to collaborate can be put in teams and they can work towards fulfilling common group-targets.
Harappa Education’s Managing Teamwork course is designed to teach you effective ways to collaborate and communicate as a team. The Skill-Will Matrix framework will help you learn different ways to assess your teams’ skills and willingness to do tasks. Understand how to improve employee engagement by identifying different learning styles.
Conclusion
The concept of employee engagement in the workplace isn’t new. For years, businesses have tried and tested different employment engagement strategies to boost workplace productivity. It’s time you create a holistic sense of belonging for your teams. Adopt effective employee engagement strategies today!
Explore topics such as Employee Engagement, Group Formation Stages & Rapport Building from our Harappa Diaries section and build trust-rich relationships.
