Establishing a Culture of Effective Employee Engagement to Accelerate Next

There is no doubt that Employee Engagement has been the secret sauce for improving employee productivity and loyalty in workplaces. According to the Gallup study, business units filled with engaged employees are 22% more profitable than those who aren’t.

That is why organizations must create an employee engagement strategy that can scoop in positive corporate culture allowing employees to feel fully involved, enthusiastic, and more willing to contribute to the company’s success. Yet on the flip side, if employees are not engaged, it can result in negative repercussions on issues such as customer experience.

In recent times, the pandemic has forced organizations to place a robust employee engagement strategy as working from home became the new normal for employees and keeping them motivated to work hard. In trying times, employees might struggle with feelings of uncertainty, isolation, and demotivation, etc., while remuneration is always a good incentive to engage workers, as it isn’t always the Be-all and End-all for driving all employee engagement initiatives.

Before moving ahead, let us first understand the different pulse types of employees in terms of engagement:

• Highly Engaged Employees: These employees are always at the top of their works, self-motivated, passionate about the company’s goals and vale. They will go beyond their limits to make the company’s name stand out from the crowd.
• Almost Engaged Employees: These kinds of employees require huge attention and focus because they easily get driven away with little distractions like tempting offers, work-pressure, etc. These are employees who love their work but have not achieved their full potential yet.
• Disengaged Employees: The employees who are not too keen on their work fall into this category. They are only working for money but are seldom involved with the company’s vision. Though they can easily be retained by increased paychecks, they lack passion and motivation in them.

Let us see what various employee engagement research organizations have defined an engaged employee as –

• Gallup distinguishes between employees who are “Actively engaged” (loyal and productive), “Not engaged” (average performers) and “Actively disengaged” (ROAD warriors, or “Retired On Active Duty”).
• Sibson Consulting differentiates “engaged” employees (those who know what to do and want to do it) from “disengaged” employees (those who don’t know what to do and don’t want to do it), “enthusiasts” (those who want to do the work but don’t know how to do it) and “renegades” (those who know what to do but do not want to do it).

The Behavioural characteristics of engaged and disengaged employees are:

A Business Strategy to Adopt

If you’re ready to rethink your employee engagement strategy, then this is the spot-on track to address it. Because an unengaged employee can never contribute in a meaningful way.

So, how can you drive employee engagement in these challenging times? Let’s dive in!

1. Promote Transparency and Open Employee Communication An untold story and invisible path can always lead to uncertainty and can drag down morale in the workplace. Organizations should treat their employees as stakeholders and hatch an open communication atmosphere where employees can share their goals, expectations with leaders, in turn helping them in reaching their career objectives.This type of environment can lead to motivated and engaged employees which can accelerate your business growth, better performance, and higher customer loyalty
2. Keep your Expectation Clear
   It is better to set your expectations right from the beginning. If your employee knows the process, expected targets and organization goals, then they will be able to deliver and perform their best. This means focusing on the key concrete performance management activities, such as clarifying work expectations, getting people what they need to do their work, providing development, and promoting positive coworker relationships.
3. Help Employees Develop to Their Full Potential
   One of the most essential elements of drafting your employee engagement strategy, is to make sure in is in line with potential development. Employees that are assigned to do meaningful work that suit their interest and experience are more productive. The best way to find out your employee’s expectations, is to use the performance appraisal process. It helps in identifying areas where an employee needs development and helps you formulate a plan to provide them with the necessary training, classes, or on the job experience to help gain the needed skills.By creating this environment, you will be providing a culture of ownership and will enable the front-line teams helping your organization in its transformation journey.
   At Maveric, we run various programs to have help employees grow in their career. A few notable initiatives are–Career Lattice:
   Instead of the conventional Career Ladder progression and Linear paths, at Maveric we encourage Career pathways for growth and development. Career lattice enables employees with an ongoing mechanism to enhance their employee’s skills and knowledge that leads to upskilling and steady swimming into other streams. Implementing career paths can also impact the organization by improving productivity, morale, career satisfaction and reduce turnover.

   Career Conversations:
   “Employees used to expect to work for a project or boss. Now, they’re looking for a coach,” says a recent study by Gallup. “Because they don’t want to be satisfied with just their roles or their jobs. Your employees want personal and professional development, for the immediate and for the future.”

   The Career Conversation initiative at Maveric was devised to understand an employee’s growth trajectory. It’s important to have career conversations, as you get to know each of your direct reporters better, learn what their aspirations are, and plan how to align individual aspiration to Organization goals”.

4. Celebrate victories and recognize your employees
   Your employees are always putting their best foot forward, especially in these times of uncertainty, so it becomes vital to recognize it. The best way is to celebrate victories irrespective of their size are – making announcements of the target achieved, organic traffic exceeding expectations, etc.These recognitions and employees’ praises can accelerate the overall organization performance, better quality, and becomes a guaranteed reputation for success. Moreover, recognition of small wins and efforts goes a long way in driving employee engagement in every setting.At Maveric, we recognize and appreciate in a timely manner, enabling talents to clearly understand the expectation and make it a conducive environment to deliver their bests in. It enhances delivery impact and sways in a positive reinforcement of behavior as we value the acts on Impact, Customer Intimacy, Creativity and Experimentation.

To wrap it up
The values that you will be embedding in your Employee engagement culture will lead a long way. The strategies shared above are most needed when a new normal becomes the daily norm. It is your workforce that can make a difference in how your business gets through to it.

So, it’s important to look for ways to engage your employees even when your organization is going through a rough patch. Because an unmotivated employee can make or break a business. If you think and treat your employees as 9-to-5 robots, they’ll start behaving like it. Instead, find the things that make them tick: their hobbies, interests, family, etc… and try to consider each one of them while creating your employee engaging culture.