Engage. Engaged. Engagement. Right now, this word seems to be very popular among many organizations. How to engage employees? How to keep employees engaged? How to manage the engagement of employees?
For most businesses engagement is defined as “an emotional connection an employee feels toward his or her employment organization, which tends to influence his or her behaviors and level of effort in work related activities. The more engaged an employee is with his or her company, the more effort they put forth. Employee engagement also involves the nature of the job itself – if the employee feels mentally stimulated; the trust and communication between employees and management; ability of an employee to see how their own work contributes to the overall company performance; the opportunity of growth within the organization; and the level of pride an employee has about working or being associated with the company.” Whew! What a definition, but it couldn’t have been said any better.
I recently came upon the diagram below, as included in Forbes.com contributor Kevin Kruse’s article entitled Why Employee Engagement?.
In summary, it describes the importance of employee engagement. “An employee’s discretionary effort results in the Engagement-Profit chain. Because they care more, they are more productive, give better service, and even stay in their jobs longer. All of that leads to happier customers, who buy more and refer more often, which drives sales and profits higher, finally resulting in an increase in stock price.” Kruse references 28 research studies that show a correlation between employee engagement and various aspects of business.
One important way to improve employee engagement is to make sure your company culture reflects a culture of recognition and loyalty. As stated in previous blog posts, it is important that your employees feel that their actions and years with the company are recognized. Make sure that you find ways to show that you’ve noticed their 100 days accident free, 15 years with the company, or 10% sales increase over the last year. It is also important that not only you as leader recognize your employees, but that there is a strong culture of peer to peer recognition. By doing these two things, you are building your company on two strong pillars of recognition and loyalty.
Contact us here or at 800.621.9745 to find out more about positive employee engagement strategies.
