5 Simple Steps to Superb Employee Engagement

Reduced staff turnover. Improved productivity. Fewer sick days. These are just some of the advantages employee engagement brings to businesses.  
Improving your people’s engagement levels doesn’t need to become a mammoth task. There are lots of straightforward ways to enhance engagement and gain all those lovely business benefits. Here are our top five simple steps to help you achieve superb employee engagement. 

#1 – Listen and Change 

When employees dread coming into work, you can guarantee your engagement levels are on the floor. To prevent colleagues experiencing that heart-sinking feeling, it’s time to find out what’s holding your people back so you can take action.   
I often suggest setting up set up face-to-face discussion groups to explore the challenges impacting employees. Ensure people know that there won’t be any repercussions for expressing their views. After all, the more honest they can be, the better for your organisation. 
Prevent sessions from turning into moan-fests by asking people to suggest the kinds of change they’d like to see. By involving employees in the solution, you’ll get them on side and enthusiastic about change. 
Then create a plan of action, delegate tasks and report back on the impact to employees. By taking their views seriously and demonstrating that change is happening, you’ll turn attitudes around, boost engagement and make your business more productive too. 

#2 – Share Good Practice Between Teams 

Recognition comes in many forms and holding up examples of fantastic work methods is one. Identify which individuals, teams or departments are excelling in what they do and ask them to share their practices. 
Not only is this a great way for employees to see their ideas and methods being praised but it will raise the performance of other teams too. This kind of peer-to-peer learning makes a refreshing change from more formal styles of training and it also fosters engagement and creates or strengthens links between your employees. 

#3 – Meet Different Demographic Needs 

With five generations in the workplace, employers must grasp the different focuses and tendencies between the generations in order to keep everyone satisfied. By understanding the way that each cohort thinks, you’ll have a good grasp of how to change your organisation to meet employee needs. 
This could mean expanding your employee benefit offering to cater to people in different age brackets. Or placing a greater focus on green and ethical issues or providing flexible working options. 
That said, it’s important not to shoehorn everyone in a demographic bracket into the same pigeonhole. After all, a millennial with a family and one without will have very different priorities. Which leads us on to the next point. 

#4 – Treat People Like Individuals 

The days of one-size-fits-all is well and truly over when it comes to people management. Yes, processes and policy still need to be in place to ensure you’re treating people legally, fairly and equitably. But the rise of individualism in society at large has spilled over into the workplace. Which means you need to treat each individual as, well, an individual. 
One way to better understand your employees is to ask each team member to complete a free online personality test. Based on tried and trusted psychological principles, 16 Personalities provides valuable insight into individuals, their preferences and approaches to relationships and work. 
Get each team member to take the test and present the most informative aspects of their personality to the rest of the team. It’s a great way to be more open about what individuals need and will help managers better engage with their staff too. 

#5 – Get Social 

Personal relationships are a key ingredient in employee engagement. Like any team, people who understand and care about each will pull together and go the extra mile to support one another. And by doing so they’ll also support your business. 
A simple way to generate closer bonds is to sponsor a range of social events like: 

•  Giving managers a budget so they can take their team out for lunch or dinner 
• Hold a party 
• Get employees involved in fundraising events 
• Launch volunteering days where your team gets to work together away from the workplace 
• Celebrate every employees birthday 
• Hold sporting events or start a lunchtime walking club 

 The options are pretty much endless and you can ask a colleague to take charge so the initiatives are employee-centred rather than a top-down idea. 
Employee engagement doesn’t need to be difficult. By gaining a better understanding of your people, their needs and preferences, you’ll help everyone better connect with their colleagues and their work. As a result, commitment will soar making engagement a win-win for your employees and your business. 
For a helping hand with your employee engagement, talk to Olga at Tercus HR on 0330 555 1139 or at hello@tercushr.co.uk.