4 Ways to Boost Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a lot like trust. With both, you have to earn it in order to see results. Failing to invest in your employees damages more than company culture. It can risk high employee turnover rates, loss of clients, and decreases in revenue. 

With so much depending on employee engagement, companies should make investing in their employees a top priority. Employees will put back into their work the same effort you put into making their work-life satisfactory. In order to help you motivate your workforce, we’ve compiled a list of four ways you can boost employee engagement in your company.

Strengthen Your Onboarding Process

An employee’s experience starts when they accept a job offer. Before they have experience in the job, they’ve yet to establish employee buy-in. Employee buy-in is the trust an employee instills in their employer through connecting with their position, the company’s mission, and organizational leadership. An employee’s level of buy-in starts to formulate during their onboarding process, making their initial days in a new position crucial for their contributions to their role.

A strong onboarding process is a reflection of how the company operates on a day-to-day basis. When you take time to plan how a new employee will get acclimated and start learning their assigned role, you’re creating examples of a healthy work environment that will help them engage in the company culture. Forbes recommended a list of initiatives every onboarding process should possess, which includes: 

• Designate a Point of Contact - New employees should have a designated contact, whether coworker or manager, that they can go to with questions without feeling like they’re interrupting the daily workplace flow. 
• Have an Itinerary - Nothing prevents buy-in like a confusing or non-existent schedule. New hires want to feel like they’re progressing in their training, and having a set timeline of tasks helps them learn the role and feel like they’re contributing.
• Schedule One-On-Ones - Be sure that an HR representative (like you!) is checking in with new hires. HR is a great resource for new and existing employees to sort out confusion or problems that a new hire might not feel comfortable bringing up to those they work with day-to-day. 

Invest in Your Management

Managers are the backbone of employee engagement. When managers aren’t supported, turnover rates spike. According to LinkedIn, 75% of people quit their job in order to “get away” from their manager as opposed to leaving their position for different work. 

Empowered managers empower employees. Management needs to be equipped with the proper tools to create an environment that drives employee engagement. Investing in your managers doesn’t necessarily mean upping their departmental budget. It’s about supporting them in their role and listening to their needs as their needs are often a reflection of their department’s needs. 

Strong managers feel connected to their work. Help managers see how the tasks they delegate play a part in the overall operation. When they see success, recognize their efforts and have them reiterate that praise to their team. 

Connect Employees to Your Mission

An excellent definition of the ideal engaged employee is a person who understands the meaning of their work and connects it back to the company’s mission, purpose, and goals. In short, employees that feel like their work is meaningful will have greater employee buy-in.

Like all elements of company culture, connecting employees to the mission starts with the onboarding process. They should have a basic understanding of your company’s principles based on the interview process, so their initial time on the job should be focused on connecting their role to the greater mission and company objectives. 

You can accomplish connecting mission to employee roles by outlining how an employee’s tasks will help achieve the company’s goals. When positioned as a team effort, people gain a sense of comradery working alongside teammates. They’ll also gain confidence in their autonomy based on how their efforts have directly contributed to the overall initiatives. 

Open Yourself Up to Feedback

No one likes hearing how they’ve done a bad job, but growth starts when problems are identified and discussed. Driving employee engagement is a strategy that isn’t always accomplished perfectly the first time. In order to progress, you must allow room for constructive feedback. 

Giving your employees the chance to share their experience with your company works to build trust. They’ll feel like their concerns are being listened to and addressed without worrying about if their feedback will cause backlash. Additionally, you’ll learn ways that you can become a better leader for your employees. 

SHRM suggests a list of ways you can foster communication and honesty in employee engagement conversations:

• Utilize anonymous surveys to ask for feedback
• Create a social media platform to gather engagement suggestions and poll ideas
• Send recurring employee newsletters with updates on policies and initiatives 
• Create a platform for employees to highlight their teammates' successes 

In Conclusion

Employee engagement is essential in order to have a thriving business. When you invest in your people, they’ll feed that positivity back into their work. In today’s talent market, a thriving company culture is what sets you apart from your competitors. Help your new hires and existing employees foster buy-in through boosting employee engagement.