A dull/inactive workplace is part of the recipe for low productivity and–even worse–failure. While this may not be clear from the onset, people are social beings, and their poor/lack of engagement could hurt your business. Therefore, you need to find ways to keep your employees engaged and, in turn, have your business soaring new heights. Besides productivity, employee engagement directly impacts workers' morale and their desire to continue working for your organization.
But how do you keep your workers (or even your juniors) engaged? There are hundreds of factors that influence how you achieve employee engagement. Knowing which of these to pull out and when is critical to maintaining a low employee turnover and subsequently high performance. Here are some ideas you can implement to improve the workplace experience and get ideas flowing.
Maintaining employee engagement: 5 pointers
The open leadership mindset
Company or organization leadership has the greatest role in keeping the conversations going regardless of the situation. However, many organizational leaders may not achieve this because they tend to separate themselves from junior workers. In turn, they are disconnected from the workforce and only come through when giving instructions.
However, this is not the route to go if you are looking to increase the workplace's engagements. A good leader integrates with the workforce to learn the challenges employees are facing employees in the execution of daily duties. Furthermore, leaders have a better chance of starting productive engagements with juniors.
Open leadership requires that you maintain constant communication regarding any issues brought forward by workers. In general, your employees will be motivated by the knowledge that you care about them.
Recognize and award efforts
Recognition raises the spirits of the workers to unprecedented levels. I turn, recognized employees raise their gear to get higher rewards. Do you know what that means for your business? More innovation and higher productivity.
You do not have to start an expensive award scheme. No. Simple recognition efforts and awards can work a miracle in small to medium organizations. For instance, you can set daily goals for the employees and award small tokens to all who hit 7-days goals without missing.
We cannot stress the fact that people are social beings enough. The implication, concerning recognition and awards, is that people prefer to be recognized in front of others. An annual/monthly gathering would be a nice event for awarding challenge coins and other gifts.
The workplace environment
How does your workplace look? Do you have an open office or an enclosed office layout? These may be minor factors inhibiting employee engagement without your knowledge. Perhaps, involving your employees in the workplace design and arrangements can help raise morale and boost engagements. Further, letting employees own their workspaces gives them responsibility and wholeness. While open offices are suitable for senior management, they may not work for the general staff. Therefore, you need to find the right mix and maximize workspace arrangements that encourage interactions. For best results, employees in the same department should sit close to each other and perhaps, positioning the departmental manager's office near them would make communication easier.
The communication flow
Of all other factors, communication flow plays one of the most significant roles in growing employee engagement. In fact, employee engagement is in itself part of communication. So, how do you communicate with your juniors? Through phone calls, one-on-one chat, or through a secretary? Interactive communication remains the most productive for business enterprises. One-on-one live chats, whether physical or through digital means is therefore encouraged. Unlike in this pandemic era, where face to face communication has become almost impossible, you should always encourage face to face discussions. However, for the sake of safety in the COVID-19 pandemic, video-based calls and meetings are encouraged.
Is it all about salary?
What do employees get in return for working for you? A paycheck at the end of the month? Managers of the modern era will tell you that you need to work for your employee while they work for you. Sounds complex, huh? In other words, you should work to improve the life of your employees either through personal or career development programs. Securing mentorship programs for new employees would be an excellent way to start.
Further, promoting their physical and mental health may see productivity rise to unprecedented levels. You may also consider including a flexible schedule for some or all days of the week.
The bottom line
Working for a business entity or organization should be fun. However, some organizational leaders fall short when trying to engage their juniors. However, with the right mindset, a manager can use the strategies we have discussed to achieve better communication flow and efficient collaboration.
Employee recognition and awards remain on the top things you should concentrate on. Perhaps getting a custom challenge coin designed for your entity is all you need. Consider reading how to use corporate challenge coins to get a better understanding. You can also visit our online store to view and buy the various challenge coins and police memorabilia. Police Brand remains committed to giving you the best products and insights.
