Introduction
Every business has one nightmare in common: turnover. It’s a waste of resources, time, and profits. And in some industries, it can be as high as 14.6%.
There are too many causes for turnover to list in this article. It’s safe to say that employees quit when they don’t feel appreciated, well-compensated, or respected. But one element some employers may fail to consider is if there is enough employee engagement.
What does employee engagement look like? It might be easy to mistake company culture and pizza parties as the best way to promote it. But if you want truly engaged employees, you will have to go deeper.
Keep reading as we discuss how you can make employee engagement go from theory to practice.
What Does Employee Engagement Look Like?
Let’s define our terms first. Engagement is not the same as adhering to company policies or doing the bare minimum. An engaged employee is not just one who fulfills all their responsibilities.
Engagement means that an employee feels that they are one with the company’s goals and philosophy. They seek to do more than just clock in and clock out. They feel a sense of purpose when they go to work, and don’t spend all week fantasizing about the weekend.
To be more specific, let’s identify a few key characteristics of healthy employee engagement and a happy employee experience.
1. Stellar Attitude
Science suggests that happiness depends in great part on your attitude. But it’s not as simple as throwing a smile on your face when you don’t feel it. Cultivating a good attitude is a tricky thing, especially in the workplace.
You’ll know that you have engaged employees when they demonstrate a good attitude about everything concerning their work. There is no grumbling, no dragging their feet to run down the clock. They emanate positivity and infect others with their optimism.
Employees with good attitudes inspire those around them. They serve as an example of what others can be if they get the right mindset.
2. Alignment with Core Values
Most employees are just on the job to collect a paycheck. That’s understandable if they are working at a McDonald’s. But at your company, you have a vision that you want your employees to take part in.
An engaged employee is one who feels that their values align with your values. They don’t feel that they are at odds with you when they put on the uniform. This not only means that they can work more effectively, but they are willing to do the job right for their sake as much as yours.
3. Willingness to Go Above and Beyond
We all know how difficult it is to motivate employees just to handle their regular duties. Expecting them to go the extra mile beyond those may seem like a lost cause.
In many cases, that willingness to do a bit more can be vital to your organization’s success. Projects may require people to stay later or push just a bit harder to get things done on time.
This is good for employees in the end. It puts them in the perfect position for promotion and pay raises. It’s a win-win for you and them.
4. Excellent Collaboration
Getting people to cooperate is a chore in everyday life, let alone in the workplace. Conflicts will inevitably arise. Team dynamics will affect how quickly and well a team can get the job done.
The best teams are those that know to overcome their differences for their common goal. That’s why a sign of successful engagement is people who work well no matter which team they are on. They put aside petty differences and recognize that those conflicts are not worth grinding production to a halt.
5. Reliability and Responsibility
There’s only one reason you install a camera in the break room: you often cannot trust your employees to behave when they are out of your sight. Employees who don’t feel any engagement are more likely to take longer breaks, or waste time on the job. You can think of this as the quiet quitting crowd.
In theory, employers should be able to trust their employees. You shouldn’t have to worry about things falling to pieces once you leave the premises. There should be some assurance that the work will get done in a satisfactory way.
Engaged employees won’t make you wonder what they’re doing while you are elsewhere. They’re the sort of person that knows what needs to be done and does it without question. When you arrive back on the scene, everything has gone according to plan as if you had never left.
6. Easy to Work With
Every business has had that one employee that makes every little thing a much bigger deal than it should be. They know how to skirt the line that would get them fired. They may last for weeks, months, or even years in this liminal zone of doing the bare minimum.
Employers and managers often invest a lot of time and energy in these specific problem employees. It makes a headache not just for you, but for their coworkers as well.
Productive employees who feel a sense of employee engagement are just plain easy to work with. They don’t test your patience and find every way possible to shirk their duties.
How to Inspire Better Employee Engagement
It’s all well and good to talk about what model, engaged employees look like. But getting your current employees to that level is something else.
While there is no proven, scientifically-backed method of achieving better employee engagement, we can give you things that have worked for most others.
1. Incentivize Your Employees to Work Hard
It’s quite challenging to inspire people to work passionately for minimum wage, but far too many companies do exactly that. They expect five-star work but do nothing to improve employee morale.
There are practically infinite ways that you can incentivize employees to work harder. You can increase their pay, give them additional vacation days, or the promise of bonuses at the end of the year.
At the end of the day, your relationship with your employees is a contractual obligation. Paying them well is essential to treating them with respect. When they feel that you respect them, their engagement will skyrocket.
2. Build Better Company Culture
Which one would you prefer: employees who show up to work just because they have to, or employees who look forward to work because they have a social incentive to do so? At Woliba, we’d be shocked if it was anything but the latter.
Company culture is vital in this day and age. Your office is where a person spends most of their day. If they look forward to this as a chance to socialize with their work friends, that works to your benefit!
Creating company culture can happen in a number of ways. You can have wellness challenges, competitions, and after-hours parties. Poll employees about what they would like to see in the office, and you will likely get some great ideas.
3. Keep on Top of Employee Well-Being
Your employee may want to engage further with your company, but cannot for reasons beyond their control. Work-life balance has become a popular topic in recent years, and for good reason. Humans are not machines, they require breaks and time to wind down.
Consider instituting better breaks for your employees. Give them opportunities to voice their feelings to management. Promote a culture of being honest, rather than hiding problems to avoid making waves.
If your employees are good mentally, then they will do better work for you. They will be more emotionally available. And best of all, they will do all of their work with a smile on their face.
4. Institute Corporate Wellness Programs
These days, corporate wellness programs are all the rage. But if your wellness program amounts to some dinky pizza parties and the occasional free water bottle, you’re doing it wrong. Finding the perfect corporate wellness plan for your organization will work wonders.
Think of a corporate wellness program as a jumpstarter for improved work culture and work-life balance. If you’ve never implemented something like this, or don’t know where to begin, we can help. Woliba specializes in crafting motivated employees that have the necessary engagement for the job.
Build Employee Engagement With Woliba
What does employee engagement look like? It’s about employees who love your company, identify with your goals, and do everything in their power to achieve them. But unless you’re willing to create the sort of workplace people want to be engaged in, you will be unlikely to achieve that.
Woliba specializes in inspiring people in workplaces of all kinds. Your journey with Woliba may just be what your company needs to get out of a rut of poor attendance and lackluster work. Visit our website and request a demo to see the magic in action.
