Employee Engagement: An essential step on the ladder of success

What makes us feel good about our work? Is it just about getting a pay-check at the end of the month? Or is it about ownership, identity, and the pride we take in completing our tasks? If you picked the latter, you can probably call yourself a satisfied employee.

Why is employee engagement important?

Employee engagement is a measure of the personal investment one has in completing their work. It is the dedication, and the sense of ownership one has towards achieving their business goals. Most companies consider their detailed performance parameters as a metric of growth, but decision makers neglect the correlation between performance and higher employee engagement. Gallup employee engagement statistics indicate that an engaged organization can lead to up to 18% higher revenue per employee. Organizations with high employee engagement can sustain an economic downturn, and when the economy circles back to normal, they are one step ahead of their competitors. Engaged employees also reduce the cost of hiring new ones. Thus, employee engagement can be termed as a big mover of fundamental metrics like retention, and revenue.

Let us understand the strategies for employee engagement to create a better workplace.

• Employee Recognition: This is one of the first things one can do to set the tone for a highly engaged workforce. The most successful recognition is one that is highly personal, a reward chosen keeping the employee in mind, can be a great motivator to keep them going during low morale.
• Work culture: Another way of doing it is by creating the right culture, wherein organizations exhibit positive attitude towards their employees from the first day at work.
• Right Survey Techniques: It is very important for every employer to learn what matters to employees, and this can be achieved by surveying them. Take small and frequent surveys, which would help managers gather thoughtful and timely information. The engagement does not end there. The management team should go ahead and facilitate transparent conversations with employees and follow up with a strong action plan. Only listening and doing nothing could lead to apathy on the employees’ part, which could also become the reason behind disengagement.
• In-house activities: How about a popular RJ conducting games for all employees? Or a well known classical dancer performing at an annual event? Organizations need to understand the cohesive nature of such an environment, which will benefit not only the employer but also keep employees motivated to work harder. Organizations can opt for various such activities like:
  • Wellness programs which might include yoga, marathon at organizational level, health check-up camps, etc.
  • Introduction of CSR activities associated with employee ideas.
  • Lunch with HR can help understand the pulse of organization.
  • Friday fun like flash mob, game zone, outing etc.

Employee engagement requires continuous efforts, which cannot be integrated into the process overnight. It is the positive experience gained by the employees along with the productivity and commitment. When employees perform not only to benefit themselves but the organization as well, they fuel in a positive relationship, and build a culture at the same time. This culture development certainly has an impact on employee engagement, and leads the organization on the ladder of success.