With market competition continually on the rise, organisations are now looking inwards to identify key drivers of employee engagement – but, what does that even mean? Employee engagement reflects how motivated and invested employees are when it comes to both, their work and the organisation they work for. Experts in the field estimate that employee engagement boosts productivity by over 70%, leading to better profits and higher morale. With this, the large-scale focus on employee engagement on the whole shouldn’t come as a surprise.
If you are looking to boost engagement within your organisation, you must work on the following key drivers of employee engagement:
Organisational Efforts
Nothing impacts an employee’s connection with their work and the company they work for than the organisation itself. Offering work that aligns with your organisational values and goals can lead to an 80% boost in overall engagement, with employees believing that they are involved in meaningful work. Along with that, organisations that offer learning opportunities to their employees in an effort to help them grow their skills also see higher retention and engagement. Finally, creating an environment that facilitates work-life balance (as opposed to only talking about the same) also goes a long way in boosting the overall engagement levels.
As an organization, you must ensure that your leadership takes firm steps to establish a healthy work culture that reflects organizational values. By offering regular recognition and glass trophy award for hardwork, a transparent hierarchy and rules, and, quite importantly, an aesthetically pleasing, well-lit environment, you’ll not only attract top talent, but also retain it.
HR Engagement Drivers
Human resources are arguably one of the most important teams in your organisation as it directly influences employee perception of the company, along with important for moderating conflict, establishing a positive work culture, and ensuring transparency. Thus, HR plays a huge rule in driving employee engagement. By conducting regular surveys on work culture and engagement itself, HR can ensure that employees feel more engaged by implementing suggestions mentioned in the survey. HR can also establish engagement committees led by employees to ensure that everyone feels as though their voices are heard, along with other great engagement programs like creating great perks and benefits, ensuring inclusion, and creating hiring and onboarding programs that make new employees aware of organisational values as well as the skills needed to success.
Senior Leadership Engagement Drivers
While there’s no doubt about the fact that leadership styles impact the way your organisation grows, it pays to know that different leadership styles have a direct impact on employee engagement and motivation too. In order to ensure better engagement, organisations can establish programs to bridge the gap between managers and employees. Create a formal recognition and rewards system in place that requires managers to take the time out to appreciate their team members on a regular basis. This itself is a huge driver of not only engagement, but motivation and productivity too. In fact, if you’re not sold on how important such programs are, consider this – 22% employees admit that they’ll leave their jobs if not recognised for their work.
Apart from ensuring that managers offer timely recognition, organisations can also establish mentorship programs to improve growth and development, and help bridge any communication issues between managers and their teams. Creating a two-way system that allows feedback from employees as well as managers is a great way to facilitate the same. Encourage managers to foster innovation and creativity, and you’ll find yourself with teams of employees that are not only willing to push the boundaries, but also highly committed to their work.
If this sounds too daunting, that’s because facilitating engagement isn’t a walk in the park. It takes constant effort and innovation to ensure your workforce is always ready to work well. Speaking to employee engagement professionals can help you identify and implement efficient programs that help your organisation grow.
