3 strategies to improve employee engagement in your organization

Faced with needing to improve employee engagement, and not sure what to do first?

You've tried to make it work, but:

Employees' Sunday evening feelings of positivity or dread, before work on Monday, are reflective of the organizational culture your company has built.

Bourgault & Goforth (2021) define culture as the manner in which employees and leadership think and behave in an organization.

That employees feel valued and respected is key to building a positive workplace culture. How that value is delivered can be unique.

This can be in the form of:

The most productive and engaged teams that I've been around have been learning-focused. They're not content to remain the same.

Typically, they're looking to:

Not only is there benefit for employees, yet the company gains, as well.

Financial performance is elevated in companies that develop frameworks for generating, distributing, and utilizing knowledge (How to Increase Employee Engagement: Impact of Psychological Empowerment and Other Key Factors, 2021).

How many employee benefits have you seen go unused? Either employees don't know they exist, they don't know how to access them, or there's no model of success and recognition for them to follow.

If you're going to invest in providing professional and career development opportunities:

1. Communicate clearly about when they'll be available, where to access them, and how they align with personal, professional, and organizational objectives.
2. Ensure that senior leaders and managers are participants in the program and that their participation is visible to front-line employees.
3. Recognize and reward employees for participation, and do so in the manner desired by individual employees, whether in public announcement or celebration or privately in 1:1 conversation.

How does it feel to be part of an organization and never to be asked for your perspective?

It's the emotionally intelligent, empathetic, and innovative leader that understands this and creates consistent opportunities for employees to provide feedback.

How deflating is it when you're asked for your insight and it's ignored?

There's excitement when a company encourages employee feedback. Maybe it's in town hall format, 1:1 manager and employee conversations, or through anonymous form submissions on the company intranet. However it occurs, it feels great at first. It lets you say, "my opinion and ideas matter."

That is until employees realize that their ideas are being collected, yet rarely considered, and never implemented.

How can leaders address this effectively?

So that this well of ideas doesn't run dry, and to improve employee engagement, leaders must show employees that their contributions are valued.

Invite employees to expand upon their ideas in presentation to decision-making groups. Better yet, after selection of the most-promising projects, "give the ball to the employees." Have them determine the vision and strategy. Have them create the playbook and run the plays.

The result?

They'll be more invested in the project steps and outcome, and you'll have a fantastic view of your future leaders in action.

Improving employee engagement isn't a single event. It's an ongoing process, the results of which are decided by the decisions and actions of leaders, and the employee responses to these, on a daily basis.

Focusing on workplace culture, encouraging employee growth, and accepting and applying feedback, can make a marked difference on how your employees show up to work, the quality of the deliverables produced, and your company's financials.

Be careful not to over-complicate these areas. You don't need a year-long process, or extensive board or leadership meetings, to make it okay to begin talking to and listening to your employees more closely and more often starting today.