Employee engagement leads to improved levels of staff satisfaction and performance. An engaged workplace is centered on an environment that values self-growth, proactive involvement and a strong belief in organisational values. Additionally, employers should be trained to identify and develop the key strengths of workers to maximise their potential.
Engagement also relates to how perceptive workers are towards their immediate environment. This affects participation rates, work quality and teamwork among other workplace metrics.
A more engaged workplace consists of workers who are willing to go the extra mile for the company – often as a result of aligning personal goals with the mission and principles of the organisation.
Structuring the Purpose of Your Workplace
A well-structured vision and mission for your organization will improve the involvement and dedication of employees. Staff loyalty levels are dwindling according to reports. 43% of millennials expect to leave their jobs within 2 years. The top reasons for this staff behaviour trend consists of the need for inclusivity, respect, and acceptance of varying thought processes.
Systematic breakdown enables employers to plan and optimise each team and department by assigning the right people to the best jobs.
Employers can optimise employee contributions by aligning the strengths of their employees with the most suitable goals and roles within the organisation. And employees can use various engagement tools such as the CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder) tool to find out what their employees are naturally good at.
Recognising Outstanding Achievements
Psychology reports show that recognition and achievements may confer actual psychological benefits as what is part of the psychology of a good life. Employee recognition is something that employers might wish to prioritise at the workplace to foster greater engagement.
According to the Harvard Business Review, a study involving 980 respondents from various companies had provided a strong correlation between employee recognition and job satisfaction. Only 39% of the responders shared that they would remain satisfied with their jobs without the need of their employer’s appreciation.
Gallup studies show that half of the workforce consider employee recognition as the most important factor for a job.
A positive and affirmative workplace culture builds an engaged environment that encourages superior performance and high levels in worker satisfaction.
Create an Engaged Workplace with Variety
Long-term employment may cause workers to lose interest in their jobs. As a result, they will start to gravitate towards new opportunities beyond the workplace.
Psychology studies have shown that workplace boredom has a compounding effect. The level of boredom experienced by workers is likely to compromise their performance and contributions at the workplace. This leads to the gradual formation of negative workplace attitudes and reduced motivation.
As such, workers are likely to seek new employment with fresh challenges and opportunities for further development. In fact, only 5% of employees remain highly engaged after 1o years of employment in their organisation.
Employers can improve engagement levels by offering varied job postings within their organization.
Offer your workers timely job transfers as an opportunity to maintain healthy work morale through new learning opportunities and challenges. Sometimes, workers may lose track of organisational goals, which causes listlessness and a lack of direction. In such cases, it might be beneficial to provide a refresher onboarding process that reconnects workers with the ethos and objectives of the company.
Offering Personalised Learning Opportunities
Each individual views the world in a different way. Employees within the modern day work environment are constantly seeking opportunities for self-development and progression.
However, learning rates and styles differ vastly alongside innate talent, making it challenging for employers to seek the best training arrangement that is “one size fits all”.
Fortunately, educators are changing the way we perceive learning. The Center for Curriculum Redesign (CCR) believes that the character is an integral component of the 21st century learner, in what is being defined as meta-learning – or how people reflect and adapt to challenges in life.
The meta-learning concept might explain the varied learning rates among individuals. With advanced learning techniques held by industry experts, employers can develop a highly engaging workplace that customises the best working experience for everyone.
Noteworthy Leaders who Engage
The hallmark of a successful leader lies in the ability to engage followers. This could occur within the workforce, in social groups or even communities at large.
Some leaders are well-known to engage others through various methods. It can be said that natural leadership abilities transcend the workplace environment and serve as an integral part of a person’s words, ideas and actions.
Bill Gates
Microsoft’s founder and once the richest man in the world is no stranger to engagement.
He recognises that an engaged workplace is more than just having an office full of hardworking staff. He understands that as the generation gets younger, so does the demand for workplace benefits, and traditional brick-and-motar companies will be challenged to recruit and retain the best talent available.
He advocates for flexitime arrangements for employees to create an engaged workplace.
Arianna Huffington
The founder of news site HuffPost, was just like any ordinary go-getter, spending hours slogging away at her management role. Things took a drastic change in 2007 when Huffington collapsed from exhaustion. Immediately, she decided to change her approach to focus on work-life balance and a culture that engages workers on a familial level.
HuffPost remains one of the most popular online news sites in America while Huffington continues to raise awareness on the importance of integrity, generosity and workplace morale.
Huffington once shared, “Treat people like family, and they will be loyal and give their all.”
Pony Ma
China tech firm Tencent’s deeply private founder is a strong advocate of employee engagement. Ma has personal experience on the wonders of talent engagement having created a massively successful digital platform from scratch alongside Tencent’s co-founders.
According to analysts, up to 1.4 billion members of the Chinese population are using Tencent. Ma has established an extremely engaging workplace where employees are given the freedom to act, invent, rectify problems and impress. Additionally, Ma promotes the use of open-source software, enabling employees to freely share ideas, codes and insights to advance the organization as a whole.
Successful Companies with Engaged Workplaces
Salesforce is one of the most engaged companies in the world with high staff retention rates. The cloud-based software company implements innovative ways of recognising the contributions of employees. Popular initiatives include 56 hours of paid time that employees can spend on a cause of their choice within the local community. The company even proceeds to match a dollar for each contribution up to an estimated $5600.
NTUC First Campus recently won the prestigious HR Asia award for being one of the best companies to work for in Asia. The early childhood organisation is known for its strong emphasis on staff development and preserving a culture that gives each employee a strong sense of purpose.
Applying Engagement Strategies to Workplace Management
Shockingly, despite all the positive evidences of an engaged workplace, only 15% of the global workforce is fully engaged.
Through an engaged workplace, workers will feel less expendable and more driven towards a purposeful and pleasant experience within the organisation.
At an engaged workplace, every employee plays a vital role in the advancement of the company.
There are some tools out there to help you kick start applying engagement strategies at work. For example, you may use our Engagement Box model to quickly assess where you or your employees are at in the engagement scale we’ve created. This can help you decide what’s the most immediate and urgent step to take to, to bring your employee engagement up at work.
StrengthsAsia Copyright: Engagement Box
The Gallup CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder) tool is all about identifying the natural strengths and talent themes of workers and optimising them. By working closely with the natural strong suits of individuals, you’ll most likely face less resistance and greater receptivity in manpower development.
The Soundwave tool is all about building skillful dialogue and creating more effective communication at the workplace.
StrengthsAsia has helped many individual and corporate clients all throughout the region in identifying and maximizing their talents, in driving engagement and increasing motivation in their work and life.
Sign up for our upcoming StrengthsAsia Showcase Workshop to enjoy a world-class facilitated experience to learn how you can optimise performance with Cliftonstrengths engagement strategies.
A devotee at the altar of language and a celebrant of expression. Laurenzo has written for various SMEs, MNCs, startups and international brands over the last three years. He specializes in topics of psychology, lifestyle, employee management, and digital trends.