As a human resources Professional, you’re often tasked with making sure that employees are actively participating in the jobs they were hired for. After all, an engaged employee can make a major difference in the success of the company in both major and minor ways. However, engagement is a surprisingly challenging thing to develop among employees. According to Gallup, only 13 percent of workers around the world could be described as “engaged.” Even here in America, the number is only 32.9 percent. With such low numbers, you obviously need to do more to make sure that everyone on staff has as much a stake in the company as you want them to. Engaging employees with their work is a valuable HR skill and one that can help you advance your own career. Here are a few ways you can do that.
1. Get the right managers to lead employees
If there is one thing that can truly help employees become better at what they do, it’s great leadership. However, that doesn’t mean you have to hire top-level executives that are committed to employee needs. It’s more that you should hire high-quality managers or promote people within the organization that are fit to lead, as Gallup suggests. When these bosses are leading others effectively, people will feel compelled to work harder. This sort of interaction spawns innovation.
2. Create goals for engagement and hold people accountable
Making employee engagement plausible means setting milestones or applying metrics to improve the level of engagement. That involves creating guidelines that are built not just on the company mission or policy, but also on what a typical day at the office can be as well as employees’ personal experiences. Developing these goals will help employees fit in with the company culture and feel a part of something more. When they’re created, they should be put in place at different levels of operations, including one-on-one sessions, daily/weekly meetings and other events that require a greater level of interaction between employees. These guidelines can communicate where people stand and what they can do to improve performance.
“Managers that engage with employees raise their stature together.”
3. Have managers connect and contribute
Because, as an HR professional you’re merely overseeing employee engagement, it’s up to managers to create that for their subordinates. You should be able to coach these supervisors on how to effectively engage if they’re not familiar with some of the basics. For example, they should at the very least connect with the people that work under them, as noted by HR Success Guide. It can mean learning to empathize with people, make them feel that they’re doing something important. Managers should also be able to contribute to their staffers’ success, joining together in boosting their success.
4. Look at the big and small pictures
Employee engagement isn’t just something that is limited to an individual level. You have to look at the team and organizational levels as well. Some groups tend to work really well together and feel like they’re doing something important, while others really don’t like each other. Considering how employees interact with their co-workers, it’s a good idea to make adjustments to where people fit in the organization.
