How To Engage Your Employees
Job satisfaction is about more than a pay cheque, and keeping your staff engaged and motivated can play an important part in the ongoing success of your company. Our Business Solutions team have put together the following employee engagement ideas to help you motivate your staff in the workplace.
1. Develop strong employer-employee communications
Be open about where the company is heading. Sharing your business’ successes and aspirations allows employees to feel they’re playing a meaningful part in achieving those goals. On the flip side, sharing anything that hasn’t worked out so well is also an important part of understanding the journey that the company is on, and provides an opportunity for employees to have an input into ideas for future development.
2. Empower your staff with responsibility and trust
If you micromanage staff, you aren’t allowing their full potential to shine through. Give your employees a task or project that they are responsible for, then give them space to complete it. This will show that you trust in their knowledge and skills and help them build confidence in their abilities.
3. Listen and respond to employee feedback
Listening to what your employees have to say about their working environment is important. Not only does it let them know that their voice is being heard, but it can help you identify areas which require improvement. Conducting a survey or having regular internal meetings to talk about any issues are both good options, but only if you act on the feedback you receive. Let staff know that you’re taking an active interest in them and their wellbeing.
4. Strengthen bonds with employee engagement activities
Employee engagement events are a great way to promote teamwork and develop a bond between everyone, especially if there are teams who wouldn’t normally work together on a day to day basis. Why not go on an away day, celebrate an anniversary or host a party to celebrate your employees?
At Guinness World Records, we offer customised employee engagement activities to businesses, brands and charities, where the whole team can unite behind a common cause to try and break a world record. When the Lenovo BT/IT team was holding a conference in Beijing, China with the theme ‘Joining Together and Going Forward’, the 1,300 attendees successfully attempted the Most laptops toppled in a domino fashion.
Now that’s an event to remember!
5. Create a positive working environment
Making your office an enjoyable place to work is key to maintaining employee engagement. There are a few simple ways you can help to promote a positive working environment. Take the time to get to know people, organise team socials now and again. Having a dedicated break space also allows people to get away from the desks for a while and return more refreshed.
6. Recognise hard work
Everybody appreciates it when their hard work is acknowledged. This could be anything from a simple thank you, to creating an employee of the month award. Let your employees know why you are rewarding them and keep motivation levels high.
7. Motivate and inspire
New ideas and fresh perspectives are a great source of motivation, and one way to offer this to your team is by bringing in outside speakers. Find motivational speakers or industry influencers to come in and share their stories and experiences.
8. Purpose, not just profit
Many people get a great deal of satisfaction from giving back to the community, so think about how your business could support a worthwhile cause and give your team the opportunity to get involved.
Builders’ merchant Jewson injected some festive goodwill into its annual staff conference last December, with 876 participants breaking the record for the Most Christmas presents wrapped simultaneously. The gifts were then donated to the local community in partnership with Barnardo’s, as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility policy.