Transitional changes in management and company culture can result in employee uncertainty and lead to employee engagement concerns. It’s essential to consider strategies to keep employees well-informed and engaged in any transition plan to reassure employees. 

 

Even for companies not experiencing transitions, employee engagement is vitally important to business success. The benefits of high employee engagement are numerous. Employees that are highly engaged are more likely to show up to work and are 17% more productive. Not only that, but research has found that companies with high employee engagement are 22% more profitable and experience 24% less employee turnover, so implementing employee engagement initiatives can result in better performance and productivity while helping companies retain talent. Employee engagement efforts start at the top. For engagement initiatives to work, all members of the leadership team must be aligned in prioritizing engagement as a competitive, strategic point of differentiation

 

To enhance employee engagement over the long-term, here are a few actions that can be taken.

Enhancing Employee Engagement

 

Core Values Modeling and Accentuate Your Mission

If your company doesn’t already have a company mission, it’s time to create one. Establishing a company mission and core values is essential to company culture. Notably, these two features are critical facets in building a culture where the employees are fully engaged. Your employees will be more engaged when company goals align with their values and motivations in working for the company. 

 

Once a business has established a company purpose and crafted its guiding values, employees should be trained on incorporating the mission and those values into their daily tasks. Doing so helps employees see how the mission and core values set your company apart from other companies in the industry. Employees who understand and can easily explain how these values positively impact the company culture and the community are assets. 

 

Remember that it’s vital for company leadership to lead by example since acting otherwise will confuse employees and lead to ineffective and weak company culture. 

 

Encourage Open Communication and Incorporate Feedback 

Transparency with employees goes a long way. Encouraging open and effective communication with employees plays a critical role in company operations. 

 

Ensuring team members feel comfortable contributing ideas and providing feedback on matters affecting them is a large part of establishing a positive company culture. When companies consider such input in the decision-making process and incorporate employee ideas, it shows employees that their work is valued.

 

Employees who feel valued and appreciated are exponentially more engaged. When workers feel they contribute to the decisions being made, it creates a sense of ownership, so they are far more likely to be engaged and committed to continuous improvement.  

 

Give Priority to Physical and Mental Health

An employee’s overall well-being is the answer to having a productive team. It would be great to focus on areas that foster employees’ well-being as an organization, like workout classes and outings. Encouraging employees to use vacation time to rest and re-energize also contributes to their overall well-being. 

 

Employee Collaboration

Another factor in employee engagement is encouraging collaboration. Building a workflow that allows employees to easily work together as a team often leads to greater productivity and better results. In a recent study, ADP Research Institute found that teams are “the single most significant driver of engagement.” And, in it’s The State of Remote Work 2020 report, Buffer noted that workers who identified as being on a team were 2.3 times more likely to describe themselves as “fully engaged.”  

 

When employees are given the opportunity for meaningful collaboration, not just within teams but across departments, everyone benefits. A Harvard survey found that 67% of respondents claimed that silos/a lack of collaboration across departments was the primary barrier to success in their organization. Such lack of collaboration and departmental silos can lead to inefficiencies, duplicated work, and misaligned priorities.

 

In the end, companies with high employee engagement and retention are more productive and more profitable. The ROI on such efforts far outweighs the costs involved in implementing employee engagement efforts.