How to Increase Employee Engagement Today

Employee engagement is a company’s biggest asset.  Engaged employees are more productive, produce engaged customers, therefore increasing profits.  Engagement is not synonymous with satisfaction.  While an engaged employee can also be satisfied.  A satisfied employee is not always engaged.

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Gary

Employees that are willing to go above and beyond their job description are engaged.  They are the ones who come in early and stay late to make certain a project is completed on time.  Satisfied employees are simply content with their work, environment and benefits.  They will consistently meet expectations, but do not exhibit passion for their work.  Transforming the satisfied to engaged can have a HUGE effect on retention. 

There are many factors that increase both satisfaction and engagement.  The most obvious is salary.  While a pay raise may increase satisfaction and possibly engagement.  Any boosts seen in productivity or attitude are temporary. 

There are two BIG ways to increase engagement without pay raises.  According to a 2013 Bless White study, 25 percent of employees felt that they would be more satisfied with their position if they had a better relationship with their manager.  Communication with team members is the most important factor to engagement.  Through frequent communication both with the team as a whole and individually, one can learn what motivates and fulfills their staff at work.

In the same study, five percent would also feel more engaged if they had more development and training opportunities.  Investing in the development of the team is really a reinvestment in the business.  These opportunities will allow staff to learn new skills, improve upon skills already learned and perhaps rekindle passions that have been lost in the day-to-day tasks.  New passions may also emerge.

Development does not always have to be in a classroom or conference setting.  Allowing for collaboration between team members or teams from different departments can be even more beneficial.  Collaboration allow for cross training, sharing of resources and serendipitous learning.

Development opportunities are wasted if the team member is not able to put those skills to use.  A newly engaged or re-engaged employee will quickly lose momentum if they are not able to utilize the new skills learned or implement new ideas.  It is important to keep lines of communication open, especially after training.  Checking in with the team after training will allow for an open discussion about the learning and possibly reshape the individual or team goals.

To convert the satisfied to engaged or keep the engaged from losing their spark, it is important to have continuous communication and allow for development both in and out of structured settings.  We will conclude this series by focusing on retention through re-recruiting.

Gary Vice is sought out by leaders in Software and Services who recognize the need to attract the industry’s best talent.  Through Strategic Recruiting Partners’ extensive network of relationships, they are able to identify high level opportunities for well qualified candidates.  To discover how this process can benefit your job search, simply reply to this email or call Gary at 469.402.4008.