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Attracting top talent can be difficult, especially in a candidate-driven market. But retaining that talent once they accept an offer is significantly more difficult.
So how do you make sure an employee stays motivated and present in their position with you? This is where employee engagement comes in.
What is Employee Engagement?
Once the excitement and promise of a new beginning wears off, an employee is sometimes left feeling stagnant in their position. This is especially true if upward mobility seems unclear or far-off. Once this happens, the employee can start to disengage. And that’s when their search for another position will begin.
This is why employee engagement is becoming an important topic. Employee engagement is the level of motivation, commitment, and enthusiasm an employee brings to their job, combined with the conditions the employer provides to create those feelings. Simply put, this is a two-way street that results in a satisfied, effective employee.
What is Management’s Role?
Yes, it is true that an employee’s attitude is integral to employee engagement. More important, however, is the employer’s actions which elicit that response from their team.
Create an open environment, where your staff feels motivated to bring their best to work each day. Employees need to feel like they have room to dissent or agree, or else they’ll stop putting in effort and disengage.
Collaboration is truly the key to employee engagement. Include your team in strategy meetings. Listen to their opinions and pull from their knowledge and experience. If they feel they’re being heard, they’ll speak up and be more enthusiastic about their work.
Share your own mission and goals with your team, and make sure they’re on the same page. If they don’t respond positively, ask why. See if you can find solutions that you both agree with and are excited about.
More Than Just Engagement
Ensuring that your team is present at work is the tip of the iceberg. To reach an even deeper, more meaningful and effective level of employee engagement, your team has to be passionate about what they do.
There are a lot of factors that can contribute to employee work passion. Resources and procedures should be perceived as “fair.” There needs to be clear performance expectations and the opportunity for growth put in place. Tasks need to be various and balanced, with no one being overworked or bored. The work should be meaningful in the eyes of the employee, and they should feel they have autonomy in their position. The should feel connected to colleagues and management. Finally, they should have constructive feedback and the opportunity to collaborate.
These are just some conditions that create a passionate employee, and yes, it can be a challenge to achieve all of them. However, at the end of the day, employee engagement needs to be a priority, or top talent will look elsewhere.
