Research conducted by Gallup found that just 15 percent of employees worldwide are engaged in their jobs. Engaged employees can have a significant positive impact on the performance of businesses, including increased productivity, employee retention and increased profitability, to name but a few. Gemma Chadwick HR Manager – Penguins Events.
Organisations often perceive achieving a higher rate of employee engagement as a huge challenge, but with the right methods, it can be simple. Here are three methods to help engage your employees:
Events
An engaged employee is characterised as an individual who wants to do their best for the company every day, they live and breathe the values and goals of the company. With this in mind, events are a great opportunity to communicate and confirm the values and goals of your organisation. The benefit of live events is that it creates a personal interaction between different business functions and seniorities.
Events help to break down barriers and encourage communication and knowledge share at all levels. Employee centred events demonstrate a commitment from your organisation and its leadership to develop and grow the company and its employees.
Training
A poll by Gallup found that 87 percent of millennials (and 69 percent of non-millennials) view development as important in their jobs. Engaged employees are the ones that are regularly developed and have the opportunity of further training. Without access to development and growth, employees can grow bored and therefore unproductive, causing potential damage to the customer/employee relationship. To avoid employee animosity, it’s important to invest in training. Training establishes a relationship between employer and employee that demonstrates the employer’s commitment to employee advancement and personal growth. When engaging your employees it’s important to ensure that there are sufficient training and development resources available – training doesn’t have to cost the world and can include internal training such as cross departmental education.
Reward and Recognition
Companies that use strategic recognition are 48 percent more likely to experience high employee engagement rates. Rewarding and recognising your employees does not have to be a difficult task, a simple ‘well done’ or ‘thank you’ will often suffice. However, there are grander gestures that organisations can offer such an incentive travel, monetary rewards, extra days leave and much more! It is important to be creative. Recognising employees for their hard work and good attitude increases both employee retention and engagement; studies revealed that 79 percent of people who quit their jobs cite ‘lack of appreciation’ as their reason for leaving.
To get the most out of employees, it’s imperative that they are engaged. Engaged employees are an asset to an organisation, contributing heavily towards company goals and beliefs. Going above and beyond for a company, whilst also having a good work-life balance. Employee wellbeing should always be a point of investment.
