3 Steps to Improve Employee Engagement

A recent Deloitte study found that 79% of businesses are seriously worried about employee engagement and retention (ranking #2 in issues of concern). It’s not news that if your employees love their work and the environment you have created, they will treat customers better, innovate, and continuously improve your business.

So how do you create or maintain a meaningful, fulfilling work environment for your employees?

1. Hold managers accountable for employee engagement

You can feel a good culture when you walk into a room. The same goes for when there’s a culture problem. Managers should be able to feel it, and leaders need to hold managers accountable for addressing the problems.

Managers need to teach and communicate. They need to take ownership of how their people feel and be accountable and responsive to negative feelings or general apathy. When managers build healthy, collaborative relationships with staff, they create the transparency and authenticity that employees crave.

2. Implement and monitor employee engagement results

Employee engagement happens on a day-to-day basis. It is not a quarterly touchpoint that is only addressed in a formal review process.

Great companies have managers who look at engagement as a real-time metric. Great managers are aware of their employees’ behaviours, reactions, and concerns.

3. Build a brand that people can believe in

We default to Simon Sinek here, “Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them. People are either motivated or they are not. Unless you give motivated people something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate themselves to find a new job and you’ll be stuck with whoever’s left.”

This is what a brand is. It’s not the product, it’s the lifestyle you can have if you buy into the product. Apple is a great example of this line of thinking. When your employees believe in what you do, when they buy into your brand, their passion, their attitude, their work ethic and engagement can bolster your brand significantly. Passion is a great motivator.

It’s important to remember that healthy, happy, focused people are not only happier, but they also make better decisions, become better leaders, and drive greater value for their organizations.

*adapted from a panel discussion hosted by Tom Gimbel of LaSalle Network