Proven Employee Engagement Ideas to Boost Business Profitability.

Use of innovative employee engagement ideas by redefining employee engagement beyond an ‘annual HR measure’ is one of the biggest competitive differentiators in business. Not-engaged employees perhaps offer the greatest untapped opportunity for the companies to improve their performance and profitability. How leaders deal with their employees can significantly affect engagement levels in the workplace and make the employees readily go the extra mile, work with dedication, and feel a deep relationship with their company which in turn improves performance and company’s bottom line.

The economic cost of disengagement is staggering. According to a recent study conducted by Gallup (as per its State of The American Workplace Report) lower productivity due to disengaged workers leads to more than $450 billion in lost profits in the U.S. annually. However, on the brighter side, there was 12% higher customer satisfaction, 18% higher productivity and about 12% higher profitability due to engaged workforce in case of organisations that ranked high in employee engagement. Ironically, while employee engagement is a major consideration at most companies, such engagement is actually seen missing for majority workers in their workplace. It is reported in an article in the New York Daily News that the majority of Americans feel disengaged on the job. It is an indicator that the Managers are having difficulty finding ways to create environments to stimulate engagement with today’s workforce which is much more diverse and younger than ever before. Anyway, let us now look into what is actually ‘employee engagement’?

The economic cost of disengagement is staggering. According to a recent study conducted by Gallup (as per its State of The American Workplace Report) lower productivity due to disengaged workers leads to more than $450 billion in lost profits in the U.S. annually. However, on the brighter side, there was 12% higher customer satisfaction, 18% higher productivity and about 12% higher profitability due to engaged workforce in case of organisations that ranked high in employee engagement. Ironically, while employee engagement is a major consideration at most companies, such engagement is actually seen missing for majority workers in their workplace. It is reported in an article in the New York Daily News that the majority of Americans feel disengaged on the job. It is an indicator that the Managers are having difficulty finding ways to create environments to stimulate engagement with today’s workforce which is much more diverse and younger than ever before. Anyway, let us now look into what is actually ‘employee engagement’?

We need to rethink the concept of ‘employee engagement.’ Employee engagement does not merely mean making employees happy and satisfied at work. It doesn’t necessarily mean that happy employees would work hard and productively on behalf of the company. By definition ‘employee engagement’ is the emotional allegiance the employee has towards the organization and its objectives. Such emotive commitment means employees don’t work just for money or for their career promotion. They actually care about their work so as to fulfil their organization’s goals. If your workforce loves their work and the environment you have created by using novel employee engagement ideas, they will treat customers better and work productively, which will ultimately lead to better business outcomes. Here are seven employee engagement ideas managers can use to help build their team of engaged and motivated employees. These are fundamental tips, which if implemented properly, will significantly stimulate employee engagement that’s been missing in most companies.

1. Make work meaningful for the employees

Meaningful work for the employees is the most important driving factor for employee engagement, and retention. Normally employees have strong motivation to look for meaning in their work. They want to feel valuable and useful to the company and as though they make a difference. Meaningfulness of work to the employees is influenced by several factors like whether the work is challenging, whether it allows for creativity, learning and autonomy, whether employees can fully integrate themselves into their work etc. Although it may be apparent that meaningful work is an individual issue, there are many things that managers can do to encourage it. Managers can try to learn about their employees’ goals and determine their roles that would enable them to express themselves best, give them autonomy to solve their work related problems themselves using their creativity, acquaint them about the organization’s policy, objectives, values and how it works. The more employees call into play their true selves to perform their roles, the better their performances and the more satisfied they are with their work roles.

2. Criticize constructively

One of the toughest challenges for a manager is to offer constructive criticism to his employees without hurting their feelings, their esteem, or dampening their motivation. Be subtle with constructive criticism with the intent of helping them to recognize their strengths and to improve their job performance by putting their potential to best use.

3. Give your employees autonomy and trust

Give your employees space to enable them to use their creativity and be innovative. Employees are most engaged when they are allowed to use their natural skills and to make decisions pertaining to their work and they don’t feel confined to an atmosphere of restrictions and constraints. When employees are given autonomy and trust, with accountability it allows them to improve in efficiency, quality of work as well as to enjoy a real sense of personal accomplishment, which greatly stimulates engagement.

4. Give Recognition and Praise

A managing style of instilling negativity stifles productivity. Stop being overly critical of what your employees are not doing right and focus on those areas your employees enjoy contributing to the most and utilize their potential to create the results you desire. Rather than focusing on employees’ weaknesses, focus on their strengths and positive capabilities, and praise them whenever they deserve it. Making employees feel they are contributing to something meaningful and take pride in the results of their efforts will boost employee engagement.

5. Encourage Employees’ Opinions and Ideas

Employees want to feel trusted and valued for the independent decisions they can make and the impact they can create. Encouraging employees to develop their natural talents and to come up with new ideas for improvement, help boost individual commitments. If you micromanage employees too much, they will disengage and it just won’t get you results. Allow them the autonomy to improve the way things are done, and involve them in decision making process to help them to have a feeling of ownership over the direction of the company. This will make your employees feel truly respected as an essential part of shaping the success and future of your organization.

6. Celebrate success

Celebrating team’s success is the perfect way to increase your team’s confidence. It reinforces to your employees that everyone’s collaborative works is deeply appreciated and truly worth it. This allows the whole team to come together and recognize the hard work that everyone is putting in to achieve goals. A team that works together and celebrates together also performs together.

7. Be open and honest

It’s a simple idea but perhaps one of the most difficult part of communication in the workplace especially when conflict occurs. However, when you are consistently open and honest with your communication (no matter what is the situation) you will gain respect, credibility and most importantly, employee trust.

Every company wants to have a motivated and engaged workforce, but this aim often proves elusive. Employees are thoroughly conversant with the company's system, processes, products and customers. Being experts on themselves and their teams it is quite reasonable that they will have the best employee engagement ideas to maximize these elements and deliver improved performance and better workplace experiences. Therefore, managers should work with employees to single out the barriers to employee engagement and to look for opportunities to effect positive changes.

Article on related subject; Motivation in the workplace